Skyler’s shoulders slumped as he offered her an unenthusiastic, but at least not hostile, “Hey.”
“Hi, I’m Sierra,” she said.
Skyler nodded. “I’m Skyler. Trevor’s boyfriend.”
Trevor rolled his eyes.Very subtle.
“I—I know that. Yeah. Nice to meet you.” Sierra looked mildly uncomfortable.
Trevor wanted to remind Skyler that none of this was her fault, but he’d wait to do it in private.
Skyler didn’t even bother to lie and tell her it was nice to meet her too. Instead, he said, “I’m sure you’ll be fine here alone, right? We’ll be inourroom. Feel free to order room service or whatever you want, it’s on us.”
Sierra’s eyes widened at his vaguely insulting tone, andokay, Trevor was officially annoyed. He understood Skyler was upset, but that didn’t make it all right for him to be a jerk to her. This wasn’t like him.
“Why don’t you go unlock the room,” he said, ushering Skyler back toward the main door, “and you can let me in through here so no one sees us going in together.”
Skyler scoffed at that before marching out, leaving Trevor alone with Sierra.
He grabbed his stuff, aware of her watching him. When he turned, he gave her a remorseful half-smile. He wanted to explain and apologize for Skyler’s behavior, but he didn’t know how. So he just encouraged her to use the room service if she was hungry, and to call him if she needed anything else.
When a sharp knock sounded on the door that connected to Skyler’s room, Trevor hurried over to unlock it, and let Skyler pull him through. Skyler’s mouth found his neck the moment the door closed. He sucked aggressively and dug his fingers almost painfully into Trevor’s sides. Trevor gave into him at first, but thenno.
“Hold on,” he said, attempting to push Skyler off him.
Skyler responded by holding on tighter and sucking harder. It wasn’t until Trevor said, “Stop,” loud and clear, that he listened. He stepped back, wiping his wet mouth, but he didn’t apologize. In fact, he looked ready for a fight again.
Trevor didn’t want to fight, but he also couldn’t let Skyler get away with his behavior toward Sierra. “We need to talk about this.”
“Okay,” Skyler said, crossing his arms. “Let’s talk about how excited I was to get here and be with you, and how I found you in bed with someone else!”
“You know I wasn’t in bed with her.”
“You might as well have been! She was in your bed looking likethat!”
He hated to dignify that nonsense with a response, so he grabbed his bag from where he’d dropped it on the floor and carried it over to a table. He could sense Skyler silently seething behind him, hating being ignored. So he finally turned and calmly told him, “It’s a hotel bed. I haven’t slept in it, so it’s not exactly mine. And she was wearing leggings and a baggy college sweatshirt. I’m sure you don’t mean what you’re saying.”
A storm brewed in Skyler’s eyes as he stomped over. “Don’t tell me what I mean! I have the right to be upset when you’re letting someone else invade our space!”
When Skyler pushed both his hands against Trevor’s chest, Trevor grabbed his wrists and deftly pinned them behind his back. Skyler’s body went pliant instantly, and it was unfair of Trevor to use this tactic, because he knew how much him taking control in bed turned Skyler on. And by the way Skyler reacted to it now, he knew that was where his mind was going. But they couldn’t use sex to fix everything, which was why he’d stopped Skyler from mauling him in the first place.
“Baby,” he said, releasing Skyler’s wrists and moving a hand up to run gently over his jaw. “I understand you’re upset, and you have the right to be, but I’d appreciate it if we could sit down and talk about this without yelling.”
Skyler stared at him a minute, face set like he was going to keep arguing. But then all of a sudden, his lip started to quiver, and tears welled up in his eyes. “You’re right,” he said, roughly pushing his fists under his eyes to catch anything spilling over. “I’m being a jerk.”
Trevor wrapped him in his arms and guided him over to the bed to sit. He kissed his forehead and ran a hand through his hair, regretting every single moment that had led to this sweet boy crying like this.
“You’re not being a jerk,” he said, even though Skyler kind of had been. But it was understandable. Trevor hated how their stupid management had putthem into this fucked up situation. And he hated himself for going along with it.
Eventually Skyler calmed down. They sat there in silence a bit longer, holding each other, until Trevor thought they were both ready to talk. He explained how Maggie had sprung this on him at the last minute, how she wanted Sierra to put in appearances with him during the tour. She wouldn’t be with them the whole time. They’d just fly her in occasionally to stay for a few days each time, traveling with them if need be.
But he also explained how Sierra knew that he and Skyler were together, and that she respected it and didn’t want to get in their way. How she was doing this partly as a favor to her parents who wanted to stay in her uncle’s good graces, and partly for the money to help pay for college.
He hoped Skyler could see Sierra as a person, rather than an object getting in their way, because it wasn’t in Skyler’s nature to be mean to anybody.
“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure you don’t feel uncomfortable with this,” he assured Skyler. “It’s not ideal, but I’m not sure we have any choice but to go along with it for now.”
Skyler sighed sadly and nuzzled his face into Trevor’s neck. “I should apologize to her.”
