The Price of Popularity (BoyxBoy)

{7}

Asher’s phone sat in that bag in the hallway all night and day. It beeped and buzzed and rang. Messages and photo’s flooded the object throughout the night. If Asher had the phone on him he would have been aware of the fact that Chad’s parents had gone out of town un-expectantly and that he decided that it was the perfect chance to have a party. He would have been told by Bethany that Chad had once again beat everyone at beer pong. He would have received photos of Leon doing a keg stand and of Bethany drunkenly dancing on a table. He would have received a few I Wish You Were Here!’s and a couple Miss you!’s.

He would have laughed at his friends crazy natures and he would have felt a tinge of guilt that he lied to the people who had never done anything but trusted him and been good to him. Then the guilt about lying would have overwhelmed him for a few moments until he pulled himself together.

However, the phone sat in the duffle bag, left lying in the hallway on the hardwood floors.

Asher couldn’t care in the slightest, he was with Danny, and the two of them were in their own little world all weekend. He had grabbed the bag in the late morning of the Saturday, grabbing some spare clothes out of it before throwing it back down on the ground where it would stay for the next few hours.

By the time Asher finally did go looking around for his phone the object was flat, almost as if it was unknowingly protecting Asher from the guilt that was sure to arise if he was to open the messages.

He and Danny spent the weekend in a bubble of them and nothing was going to snap Asher back to reality. He was happy with Danny, eating ice-cream from the tub and watching bad soap operas and just talking for hours.

‘It has to have a kitty door,’ Danny stated. He was lying on his bed, his head hanging off of the end and he was looking at Asher upside down.

Asher sat on the ground next to the bed, leaning his back against the dark frame.

‘Of course,’ Asher nodded, ‘and an entire room for cat toys, because we are going to have one spoilt cat.’

Danny smiled at Asher upside down, ‘And it has to be near the beach so that we can swim.’

‘And have a fire place so that we can roast marshmallows by the fire,’ Asher interjected.

‘Yes,’ Danny mumbled before going quiet, and Asher could almost see the images of their future passing across Danny’s eyes.

‘Dan?’ Asher asked and Danny slowly brought his body up, tuning on the bed so that he was resting against his elbows with his hands resting under his chin.

‘Yeah?’

‘Can our house be far away from here? Can it be on the other side of the world?’ Asher just wanted the lies to be over, and if they were all the way on the other side of the world then he wouldn’t have to worry, there would be no social ladder to climb, no one watching his every move, no one to impress. Just him and Danny.

‘Of course,’ Danny told him without even a second thought. 'As long as we are together, I don't mind where we are.'

They spent the rest of their Saturday talking futures and school and friends and everything in between. They stayed like that until the late afternoon when a knock on the door caused them to leave their little cocoon of blankets they had made in Danny’s room.

They reluctantly walked down the stairs and saw that Mr Clark had beat them to the door. He was smiling at whoever it was and then he stepped to the side and a dark haired boy stepped into the hallway.

‘Damien!’ Danny exclaimed, rushing past Danny to throw the boy into a hug.

Mr Clark walked past Asher and back towards the stairs.