Page 13 of Crown of Ash

He stared at it for a full ten seconds. Then the phone buzzed again, and a new thread opened on its own, already populated, already scrolled halfway up a conversation he'd never been part of.

JUDE: oh my god

JUDE: OKAY HI

JUDE: this is going to be a lot i'm so sorry in advance

SETH: it's not gonna be a lot. it's gonna be exactly enough.

TRIP: Welcome, Andre. I promise this group is more functional than it currently appears.

Andre set the whiskey down.

ANDRE: who is this? all of you? why am i in this chat?

JUDE: we're the partners. well some of us. it's a whole thing

JUDE: nate's my boyfriend. seth's with zain. trip's with ghost. jack's just… jack. he's with elijah. (it's new, but not new, be gentle)

JACK: i'm the emotional one. it's been decided.

SETH: it's true. council ruled on it.

Andre read that twice and still didn't have any idea what the fuck was going on. A support group. For the people dating men who ran Lakefront's actual operation, apparently. He hadn't known there was a club. He definitely hadn't known there'd be an opening. He refused to think about why he was now being included.

ANDRE: okay… but why me?

There was a pause long enough that Andre watched the little typing bubble appear and disappear twice before Jude actually sent anything.

JUDE: because marcus watches you like you're the only thing in the room and it's honestly kind of unbearable to witness secondhand

JUDE: he doesn't even know he does it

Andre's throat went tight and his breath caught.

SETH: also he hasn't dated anyone since you. not once. zain would know, zain's the one who'd have heard about it because he's a nosey bitch and mothers marcus even if he won't admit it.

JACK: can confirm. six years. nothing.

TRIP: For what it's worth, and I've watched him for not nearly as long, but long enough to know: he doesn't let people in. You were already in. That's a different thing from how he interacts with people.

JUDE: trip that was almost poetic. are you okay

TRIP: I contain multitudes.

Andre put the phone face-down on the counter and picked the whiskey back up. The long burn of good liquer didn't help.

He picked the phone back up thirty seconds later anyway.

The chat kept moving without him for a while, which was somehow worse than if it had stopped. Andre sat at his kitchen table with the phone face-up now, watching a conversation happen live between four men who loved each other loudly, without any of the careful distance most men kept.

SETH: opener's almost done. jude's up next. everbright is even more popular than when that douche was around. I love success as revenge. And jail. I fucking love that the ex who shall not be named is in jail.

JACK: Jude's gonna be so mad we're this close to the stage

TRIP: We're twelve feet back. It's not that close.

JACK: it's close enough that he'll see us and lose his train of thought and then be mad about THAT.