More (Boyxboy)

Chapter Thirteen

They were just a few days into their summer vacation and already Michael felt like a different person. While he kept trying to convince himself that it was only the absence of school that had made the difference, he knew that there were two people who deserved the same amount– if not more – credit than that.

The first was actually Daisy. They had only begun talking again two days ago, but she had filled those two days with constant texts and calls when they both had time. He wasn't sure if this thing was going to stick or not, but he was happy with it for the time being. It was nice having someone he could talk to about absolutely everything.

He couldn't even do that with James, since he had always felt bad discussing things that had to do with his sexuality with him because a) he had once had a crush on James, and while they had practically forgotten about that, it was hard not to remember that's where Michael's conformation of his sexuality came from, and b) it was still a secret from Kalen and he didn't like telling James he had to keep things from his boyfriend. This wasn't a concern with Daisy. The only thing that had the potential to make some of their conversations unconfortable was the fact that Michael had sex with her cousin or Daniel, and neither of those things really came up.

The second person who had helped with the improving of his mood lately was unsurprisingly Ian. After his talk with Daisy on Saturday he determined that it would be stupid to pretend what she had said was wrong, and he didn't stop hismelf from spending much of his time in Ian's company. He wasn't sure what that meant for him quite yet– did spending time with him while he knew his feelings would only grow mean that he was far more interested in having a relationship than he originally thought?– but he wasn't going to let himself dwell on it. For once, he was just going to have a good time without over thinking it.

"Hey," Ian said from his spot in front of the stove, drawing Michael's attention away from his thoughts and back into the present. Slowly, he blinked, realizing he was just staring at the black screen of his cellphone. He raised his gaze, eyes narrowed as he tried to think about what they had just been talking about. Ian seemed amused. "You totally just zoned out after looking at your cellphone. Is every thing okay?"

"Ah, yeah," Michael confirmed, putting his phone face down on the counter and smiling sheepishly as he recalled why he had drifted off. "Someone just texted me asking how break was going so far and I was thinking about how nice it's been being off school". The message had come from Tyler, and Michael had neglected to respond in all the time it had taken him to think of his answer. Still, he didn't pick his phone up to do so, knowing Tyler was probably just texting him because James had encouraged him to.

Michael liked Tyler a lot, and they got along quite well, but they had never really been friends outside of James, and he didn't see that changing any time soon, no matter how hard James pressed the issue. To Tyler, Michael would always be one of the Bradford triplets he had feared throughout highschool.

"Oh, good," Ian said, turning back to the pan on the stove. Michael had requested something french for lunch, and he wasn't quite sure what Ian had decided to make but it smelled delicious. "I thought you were worrying about your grades again or something equally stupid".

In response to this, Michael rolled his eyes but smiled a little. His final grades should be released at some point within the next week, and each day he worried more and more about the possibility that he had made tons of mistakes on his exams and would have to have a conversation with his father about not securing all A's. This was something he worried about at the end of every semester, and he usually discussed the concerns with his brothers, but since he was spending the majority of his time talking to Ian and Daisy, they were the two who ended up hearing about it most often.