Alfie let out a sigh. “Can we sit down please?”
“What happened, Alf? Ro’s been worried about you,” Axel said, as he opened the door to the bedroom Alfie assumed was the master. “I told him everything was fine. You were travelling and that’s why you haven’t called or messaged as often…” Axel’s voice trailed off, clearly expecting Alfie to reply.
Instead, Alfie walked over to the large bed and carefully got into it. He patted the space beside him. “Come sit with me, Ax.”
Axel got into bed beside his brother, his back against the headboard, and Alfie immediately lowered his head to his brother’s thigh and sighed.
Gosh, he’d missed his siblings. Alfie wanted to kick himself for even letting Rupert get in the way of the relationship he’d always had with them. They rarely lied to each other, and if they did, it wasn’t for long.
Usually he would have told them he wasn’t going anywhere and only let his mum believe he was on his gap year.
Alfie tried to think of what Rupert could have said to have made him stay away from his family, and he couldn’t quite figure it out. Looking back, it was a whirlwind romance and so exciting.
“You’re thinking mighty hard down there, baby bro,” Axel said, as he ran his hand through Alfie’s hair.
Alfie took a deep breath. Even though he knew his brother wouldn’t judge him, he still felt ashamed.
“You know you can talk to me, Fifi,” Axel said, stroking his hair.
He couldn’t help smiling when he heard his nickname from when he was younger.
“I wasn’t on a gap year.” He whispered all the words out without taking a breath.
“Huh?” Axel tried lifting his head. Alfie knew his brother wanted to look him in the eyes, but he dug in deeper and wouldn’t let him.
“I said I wasn’t actually on a gap year,” he repeated.
“Oh, that’s okay. Why, did you think we would be upset you stayed in school?” Axel sounded confused, and Alfie would bet his brother had that little crinkle in his brow and a smooshed nose like he’d smelled something bad.
“I wasn’t in school,” Alfie whispered in a lowered voice.
“Okay…” Axel said, “…so where were you?”
“Promise you won’t get mad,” Alfie said, his tone pleading.
“Why would I be mad, Alf? I don’t even know what’s going on… If you got a job instead of travelling, that’s fine. Did you get a job? Is that why you thought you had to hide? I know Ro, Wes, and I did the Uni thing, but doesn’t mean you have to…”
Every word his brother said made Alfie feel even worse. How embarrassing was it to leave school for a guy? None of them would have done it.
“I didn’t get a job, and technically I did travel to a lot of cool places, actually.” He knew he was stalling, but he couldn’t help himself.
“Okay, so you were on a gap year then,” Axel prompted, sounding more confused than ever.
“Not really,” Alfie hedged.
“For fuck’s sake, Alfie, spit it out already. You’re just taking the piss now!” Axel sighed, his annoyance clear as day.
“I was seeing this guy,” Alfie started.
“Oh fuck,” Axel groaned, “I should never have stopped Ro from checking up on you.”
Since Alfie didn’t know what to say to that, he simply carried on before he lost his courage.
“He was older, and he was nice at first. We met when I was up in London with some friends. It was proper cool, you know. He sent us some champers, sounded well posh too.”
He felt Axel draw in a breath like he was trying to stop himself from speaking. More like lecturing.
“Go on,” Axel ground out.
