Empty swimming pools ✓

17. Champagne supernova

He wonders what went wrong, he was happy with her and his life was normal before this. He thought normal is what he needed.

He hated his life before New York. In school he was a miserable teenager who hated his rich friends, rich school and everything about being his father's son. When he was twelve or so he was getting in the car, his dad's driver ready to drive him to school. But his shirt wasn't tucked in. It was one of the biggest fights they ever had. Things like appearance were very important to his father but it seemed like he never cared who he was on the inside. He was never allowed to do things that he truly enjoyed, like acting in school plays or going to the skate park with friends that aren't from his rich school. First time his father saw him come home drunk he slapped his face and grounded him for a week. After that William just started getting better at annoying his father by drinking more, smoking more, getting high more.

When he was eighteen he met Arthur in one of the rehearsals at the Royal academy of dramatic art which he attended, and the only reason his father allowed that school was because his mother asked him to on her deathbed.

He knew he liked Arthur the same way he liked his ex girlfriend. He wasn't denying it, he went for it. Wasn't ashamed when soon the whole school found out because he wasn't actually hiding - they made out in the hallways at occasions and had quickies in the toilets. Being with the same sex wasn't actually that strange in his school - the school was in London, where it was all normal and accepted but when his father found out, then it all went to hell. He made sure William regretted it -  by beating the life out of him. Also he made sure Arthur never stepped his foot in the same University which made William cry more than the bruises on his body. So when he moved to New York at the age of twenty three  and met Nina it finally seemed that his life was normal. Peaceful and without drama. Like it never was before, like he desperately needed it to be.

But then he meets Lennon, and his mind is on him. Every. Fucking. Minute.

He makes William lose control. Lennon shook his hardened exterior and made William want him. It shouldn't have happened; wasn't in his plans. Lennon wasn't in his fucking plans. And, yet, when he is alone, the only thing that consumes his thoughts is Lennon, so as soon as Nina left for Scotland he was quick to message him.

All he wants is to listen to the delicious noises he makes while he fucks him. To feel Lennon's flesh around his as he comes for him, over and over again.

That alone is worth attending a Radio One Annual Gala for. He could have said no, but something inside of him wanted to see Lennon in his natural surroundings, outside these four walls. If William was smart, he'd play sick and not go, but something darker inside of him wanted to see him around other people, in public. These feelings demanded to be explored, even as his mind warned him of the consequences. He considered the consequences, and, yes, they scared him. Lennon was pushing his boundaries, pushing his self-control.

"So Nina, I was thinking, I kind of changed my mind about that event. I know I said I don't want to come with you but it would be nice."

"Oh really? Not too tacky for you anymore?" Nina jokes on the phone, using William's words to describe the event that will most likely have all of the important and not so important celebrities of the British pop culture. When she told him cast from her show was invited and attending, William not so politely declined, calling it tacky wannabe celebrities shit show.

"I still think that. But you know.. It's free booze."

"Like you can't afford it? You  have a bottle of  Dom Perignon that's worth 8.000 pounds."

"8.600 actually. And it's in my father's house. I don't really want anything from that place." William says.

"You're unbelievable. But yeah, we'll go, I really wanted to. And I have this perfect gown for it. We'll have fun on our last night before going back home."