After the shower, he plastered on his happy face, walked into the kitchen and found Blayne engrossed in his phone. They’d joked about Blayne’s newfound celebrity and had tossed out a few sexual innuendos, but Ethan turned serious for just a second.
“People often think they’re ready for the spotlight, ready for celebrity, but no one is. Well, no one sane is,” Ethan said. “Just don’t become one of those people who craves it. If you ever desire a camera shoved in your face, step back. Reevaluate who you are and what you want to be.”
Blayne looked at him, his laughter fading as he took in Ethan’s words.Did I just cross a line?The silence felt heavy.
“Ethan…” Blayne began, his phone abandoned on the table as he rose, walked over to Ethan and wrapped him in his arms again. “I appreciate your concern. Really, I do.” Blayne stared into Ethan’s eyes, and his voice softened. “But you don’t have to worry about me. I don’t want fame. I have no desire to be in the limelight. And if a few people want to snap a photo of me for the next week, let them. I will not let this change me. My goal in life hasn’t changed. I want to finish my doctorate and find a nice teaching job somewhere. If, by some miracle, I use whatever this is to help me do that, great. If I become a nobody tomorrow, that’s great, too. I’myoursomeone to fall back on.”
A wave of relief swept over Ethan. He held Blayne’s gaze, the corners of his mouth tugging upward into a small smile. “Promise me, Blayne,” he implored in a low and steady voice. “Promise me you’ll remember who you are and what truly matters, no matter how crazy this gets.”
“I promise, Ethan.” Blayne’s smile was genuine, comforting. “We’ll be a front-page story for maybe two days. Then, something else will happen, and all this will blow over—because we’re not that interesting.”
Ethan looked at Blayne, assured that no matter how chaotic things might get, they would tackle it together. They were in this together. And, for the first time in a long time, Ethan didn’t feel the urge to run.
* * * *
Blayne
The walk to campus had been a bit more eventful than Blayne had expected. Sure enough, there were paparazzi outside the apartment. The Dream Bean was surrounded by paparazzi. Blayne felt like he had more photographs taken on his way to school that morning than his mother had taken of him on the first day of kindergarten—and that women had documented everything. Once they got to campus, the paparazzi at least seemed to stay back. When Blayne led Ethan to the Felix Tijerina Student Union Building, he was glad not to have a camera pointed at his back. He let out an audible breath as the door closed behind them.
“Is it always like this?” Blayne asked.
“And you wonder why I wear oversized clothes, a baseball cap and sunglasses that cover half my face.”
Blayne looked around the student union and noticed pockets of students were doing their best not to stare. Ethan reached out and grabbed Blayne’s hand.
“Thanks,” Blayne said. “I’m not used to being the center of attention. Well, outside of my classroom.”
“Yeah, it’s weird. You won’t get used to it. You learn to live with it. Most people are just curious.”
“I hadn’t fully realized this is your everyday life,” Blayne said.
“I’ve done my best to shield you from most of this over the past month.”
“Well, you spent most of your time rehearsing or at my place. We weren’t exactly hanging out in public that often,” Blayne said as he started walking through the building toward Dr. Secada’s office.
“True, but when we went out in public, people weren’t looking for us, either. And no offense, big boy,” Ethan said, “but you’re not exactly inconspicuous.”
“Would hunching help?” Blayne tried to hunch over and shorten his stride.
Ethan laughed. “Please, don’t. That makes it worse.”
They got to the door of the counseling center and knocked. The secretary let them into the office a moment later and told them Dr. Secada was wrapping up a meeting and was on her way. The secretary did her best not to stare at them. Finally, she looked at them and said, “I know this is so inappropriate, but can I take a quick selfie with you? My grandson is gay and fourteen. He’s a huge fan,” she said to Ethan, then turned to Blayne. “And after what you did yesterday…saving all those lives. It’s incredible that he has role models like you.” The woman teared up.
Blayne was about to say something when Ethan gently squeezed his hand. “Quick, we better do this before Dr. Secada gets here,” Ethan said with a sly smile. The woman came out from behind her desk, and Blayne and Ethan stood. Blayne crouched as much as he could to get in the picture. “Say cheese,” the woman said as she snapped the picture. “Thank you. You don’t know how much this will mean to him. He’s always been bullied. And we tell him it gets better, but it’s hard for him to believe that at his age.”
Blayne smiled, not sure what to say. He wanted to have some piece of wisdom to impart to the woman, but all he could do was smile politely. The woman pulled a tissue from a box on her desk and dabbed at it. Blayne had seen the woman several times over the past month but had never really talked to her.
“Well, he’s already texted me back,” she said. She turned the phone to see a teenager waving at the phone with a giant smile. “You totally just made his day.”
“Who made whose day?” Secada said as she walked into the office.
“We’re here to make your day,” Ethan said quickly as the woman put away her phone. Secada knew Ethan was lying, but she said, “Why don’t you two come on back?”
Blayne and Ethan stood and followed Dr. Secada through the hall and into her office. She opened the door and pointed to the couch. “Take a seat. Just give me a second.” Blayne slipped out of his jacket and laid it over the back of the couch. Ethan did the same thing before sitting down. Secada hung her coat and scarf behind the door before setting her briefcase beside her desk. She grabbed a yellow legal pad and pen and came and sat down in the chair opposite the couch. She crossed her legs, put the legal pad in her lap and readied her pen before asking, “So, what’s been going on in your lives?”
Blayne glanced at Ethan as a laugh bubbled up with him, leading to a string of giggles that shook his entire frame. He could barely keep himself upright. His body convulsed with the force of his laughter. From the corner of Blayne’s eye, Ethan stared at him in shock before a deep, hearty laugh escaped Ethan. Their laughter echoed around them. They tried to stop, but that led to another round of laughter. Gradually, they gasped in gulps of much-needed air, the laughter dying down.
“That good?” Dr. Secada said.
