“No, idiot. You think you two are the only gay dudes I know?” Jesse asked plainly.
He was really bugging Taylor. As most little brothers do. Taylor definitely wasn’t prepared to have this conversation. “I mean, you don’t really tell me much, Jess. You haven’t reallyanswered any of my calls since I left,” Taylor bit back. If they weren’t walking out in public, he would’ve probably grabbed Fletcher’s hand to ground himself. He knew Fletcher was probably thinking the same thing.
Jesse looked at him and shrugged, basically telling him that there wasn’t much he could do about it now. “I was in my senior year of high school, Tay. I was busy. You were busy…”
“Not busy enough to call you. I mean, I’ve barely even heard from you in like a year. I’ve spoken to fucking Mandy more than I’ve spoken to you. You don’t think that’s a little concerning?”
Jesse shrugged again and kept giving him the same look. “Honestly, I didn’t have much to say,” he told him. Taylor really felt like Jesse was lying. Or hiding something. He’d never been the type to keep things from Taylor. It wasn’t like they were the closest of friends, but they were brothers and they had a mutual understanding about these kinds of things.
“Uhh, how about the fact that you got into Georgetown? Since when did you want to move to the East Coast? I thought you were dead set on UCLA.”
Jesse scoffed. “Sometimes people change their minds, Tay. I don’t understand why you’re picking a fight with me right now.”
“Oh my God, I’m literally not. You’re giving me fucking attitude because I’m trying to show a little concern. I mean, do you think I like waking up to a phone call from your school telling me you haven’t been seen in two weeks? Do you realize how much that fucking scared me?”
Taylor let out a frustrated huff.
“Do you really wanna be having this conversation right now?” Jesse barked out. “Because I think we both know the reason you were so concerned was because you felt guilty for leavingus with him.”
Right as Taylor was about to fire out a rebuttal, he spotted Sánchez walking up to the table. He had a pretty brunette girl with him who kind of resembled Briar.
“Hey man, it’s good to see you,” he said to Taylor as he came up to hug him.
“Armstrong? What the hell are you doing here, compa?” He sounded surprised but excited to see Fletcher.
Fletcher stood up from the table and gave Sánchez a hug. “It’s a long story,” he chuckled nervously.
“Look at how big you are!” Sánchez said to Jesse. “Wow you guys are literally twins.”
“Clearly I’m the better looking one,” Taylor scoffed. “And who’s your friend?” Taylor asked him.
“This is my older sister, Alejandra. She’s here visiting for the summer before she has to go back to school.”
“Nice to meet you,” Taylor smiled politely at her and shook her hand. “Where do you go to school?”
“I’ll be a sophomore at Georgetown,” she said softly.
Taylor raised his eyebrows. “Really? That’s so funny. My brother Jesse here,” he pointed towards his brother, “he’s starting in the fall.”
“No shit, really? Small world, I guess,” she laughed.
Sánchez pulled out a chair for her before sitting down in his own.
“So what have you guys been up to?” he asked them.
“I took Fletcher out to Folsom to go hiking,” Taylor told him. Not sounding suspicious at all.
“That’s nice, man. I didn’t know you guys were so close outside of hockey,” Sánchez said unsuspectingly.
“Yeah, I mean we hang out,” Taylor said nervously, lookingdown at the table.
“He’s coming with me to Florida to work at my family’s charity hockey camp,” Fletcher interjected. Taylor whipped his head over to Fletcher and gave him a surprised look. He was definitely not expecting Fletcher to come up with a convincing lie so quickly.
“Oh, that’s right. I remember reading about that somewhere.”
Fletcher nodded. “Taylor invited himself to dinner with my family while we were in Jacksonville. My dad practically begged him to come.”
“Sánchez raised an eyebrow. “Your dad? I thought you and him weren’t that close,” he said to Fletcher.
