I'm Gay, He's Straight -SERIES- [boyxboy]

*Kiss Me Like You Did* IGHS Sequel {05} Slash

Taylor’s POV

When I woke up I was sweating.

Which only ever means one thing.

‘Ryan?’ I asked groggily without opening my eyes.

‘Shh,’ his voice came from beside me, near my right ear. Of course he was already awake. He was whatever I needed him to be.

‘What happened?’ I asked, squeezing my eyes tight shut, not wanting to open them. Whatever had happened that meant I’d needed to be made medically unconscious for the night, I didn’t want to see it if it was staring me in the face.

‘Do you want some water?’Ryan asked, well used to how I wake up with a scratchy dry throat after being tranquilized.

‘Yes please,’ I whispered. If he didn’t want to tell me then it must have been serious. I felt his weight shift off the bed and a few moments later the mattress sank again as he sat on the edge. Finally opening my eyes, I propped myself up a little and drank gratefully from the glass of water he’d handed me. ‘Please tell me,’ I whispered finally, handing him back the empty glass, which he went to put on the desk.

A slight groan came from across the room and I looked around, surprised. As soon as I took in the interior of the room, the events of yesterday came rushing back to me, more clearly than ever before.

‘Jake,’ I gasped, staring at the barely moving lump in the bed at the other side of the room, a mere fifteen feet from me. The duvet on the bed was rising and falling gently with his breathing, but every now and again it would twitch as he groaned.

I knew Jake like I knew my own heartbeat. He was in pain.

I scrambled out of bed and hurried across the room, waving at Ryan to be quiet when he called after me. When I reached Jake’s bed I hesitated, biting my lip. Before I could second guess myself too much and have another freak-out, Jake groaned again, and I climbed up on the bed on my knees, putting my hand out and resting it on his duvet-covered shoulder tentatively. I shook him gently, and whispered, ‘Jake.’

‘Hmm,’ Jake quietened and stopped twitching, his face relaxing. I gazed at him for a moment, transfixed. His cheekbones were sharper and his cheeks more hollow than I remembered. And his eyes were bigger... His eyes. He was awake.

I gasped in shock and tried to move backwards, misjudging the distance and ending up on the floor. Jake sat up, bewildered, and peered down at me. His face stretched into a grin, making his wasted, hollow appearance look beautiful again.

‘You’re okay,’ he said, sounding relieved. ‘That was almost as scary as when-’ he cut himself off, snapping his mouth shut, and I saw a flicker of pain pass through his eyes. I knew what he was thinking about; the time I’d been drugged in a gay club and he and Kelly, along with some others, had had to drive me home, terrified of what might have happened. The next morning, Jake and I told each other we...

‘Sorry,’ I mumbled, standing up. ‘What were you dreaming about?’

‘Huh?’ A shadow crossed over Jake’s face, replaced quickly by confused expression. Jake was always trying not to worry me.

‘You were having a nightmare,’ I said simply. ‘What was it about?’

‘Um. I don’t remember.’

I took a step forward and crawled back onto the bed, sitting beside him but facing him. ‘Liar.’

We sat there for a moment just staring at each other. I knew that despite everything I’d been through over the last fourteen months, I looked pretty much the same. Neither my illness nor my medication had rendered my appearance much, though I’m sure Jake noticed the little things, like how my eyes were duller or how the set of my mouth had changed. Things only the people who knew me before and loved me would notice.