“Same old shit. Don’t worry.” Noah waved a hand dismissively.
“Don’t worry?” Kaj frowned. “I’m gonna kill them.”
“I always knew you were the villain.” Noah chuckled.
“For you? Absolutely.”
“Well, you better not get caught burying someone in your dad’s backyard.” Noah flashed him a sly grin, trying to hide the frustration. But he didn’t fool Kaj. “If you go to jail, we won’t get that happily ever after all movies sell.”
“You wouldn’t wait for me?” Kaj smirked, cupping his boyfriend’s face with both hands and pecking his lips.
“I would, but depending on your jail sentence, I might be dead by the time you got out,” Noah said as they walked into the house. They weren’t rehearsing today. Kaj was just tuning with his drums before because it was his new obsession and he had nothing better to do while waiting for him.
“Nah, I would behave while in prison so they’d let me out earlier,” Kaj replied, following him up the stairs.
“Do you even know what the word ‘behave’ means?”
“We’re kind of sassy today, aren’t we?” Kaj said as he locked the door of his room.
“Am I?” Noah grinned as he sat on the bed.
Kaj smiled back. He made his way toward Noah, sliding a knee between his legs and pressing their mouths together as he laid on top of him.
How had something so wholesome transformed into the fucked-up relationship they had eight years ago? How did the purity of that first love become so tainted?
A metallic thud hauled Kaj back into the alley, snapping him out of the useless spiral of what-ifs swirling in his head. His third cigarette had consumed itself between his fingers, smoldering right down to the filter.
“They said you’d be here,” Noah mumbled as he zipped his coat. “I’m leaving. You can go back inside.”
Wind blew between them, whistling eerily as they looked at each other.
Kaj let the silence stretch for a few beats before he broke eye contact and tossed the stub to the ground. He crushed it beneath his boot, making the remains of snow crunch, as he held off the venom coiling in his stomach. But when he raised his head and saw Noah standing there, with something like pity edging his features, like Kaj was some stray dog left out in the cold, he couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
“Why did you come?” he asked, crossing his arms.
“Because they asked me to,” Noah replied while putting on some leather gloves.
“You could have said no.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because it’s my band.”
Noah let out a short, bitter chuckle, easing into a sigh as he rolled a black scarf around his neck. “I’m trying to make a name for myself in the industry, and ifyourband happens to give me that opportunity, so be it.”
“You already have a big community.”
“You’ve checked me out,” Noah noted.
Kaj rolled his eyes. “It’s part of my job.”
“Well, just so you have all the information, a community online is not enough. I want more.”
“Go somewhere else to find it.”
“What? You afraid they’ll see the real you if I stick around for too long?” Noah threw the question like a jab straight to his face.
Without giving it a second thought, Kaj invaded Noah’s personal space in a stoic yet menacing display of power. He’d never been one to step on the brakes and wasn’t going to start now. Not in front of this man, who seemed so keen on ruffling his feathers with that mask of fabricated calmness that only irritated him more.
