The last strands (#Tronnor)

Chapter 14: The mistake

-"I don't know, Connor."-Ricky said, as he lifted the stereo from the floor, with Connor doing the same from the other end-"This whole party idea is nice and all, but to me it just seems kind of random... remember about the storm I told you that would probably happen tonight?"

-"It's not random at all!"-Connor replied, as the two of them got the stereo on the table set near the entrance to the backyard-"I've told you ten million times already, Ricks; it's for Alfie and Zoey, because they are leaving in just a few days! And they haven't even seen many people!"

-"You mean for Zoey, Alfie and Troye?"

Connor faced away from Ricky, feeling his own gut choking him from the mention of Troye.

-"Yes."-he said coldly-"Sure."

Connor kept on ordering the rest of the living room and placing pieces of furniture around so that people wouldn't have to be standing around all day. It was past noon, and the two of them were already setting things up for the party they were hosting later that night, still in their pajamas. Every one of their LA friends had been invited. Kian and Jc, the Holy Trinity, the people of Joey's house, the girls from Lauren's place, Alexa and even Tyler had been included in the mix. Certainly not all of them would make it, but Connor made no expenses in asking them to come over anyway. Well except for Tyler. He had Ricky do that for him.

Connor never had people at his place before, other than Hannah and Ricky. He was pretty nervous because he wasn't sure if everything was going to go as smoothly as he wanted. He kept telling himself that he was just worried because he wanted everyone to have fun, but deep inside that wasn't what worried him most. In fact that barely worried him at all. All he actually worried about was making sure that Troye had fun. Everyone else could drop dead of boredom for all he cared.

Ricky placed both his hands on his hips, his eyes glued to the floor. Many thoughts raised on his mind, and he wasn't sure if he was in the right place with Connor to voice them. He had noticed things; behaviors of his, that had manifested lately at the sole mention of their friend Troye. To be honest, it was getting annoying how obvious it was. Yet Connor refused to acknowledge anything.

-"Connor..."-Ricky called out, trying his best to form the correct words.

-"Yes?"-Connor said, as he placed his one fancy table mat on the large dining room table.

-"... Is there something that you would like to talk about?"

-"... Eh... nope! Where does that come from?"

Ricky sighed deeply.

-"Forget it..."

Connor felt the tension in the air, and decided to do his best to ignore it. He went to the kitchen and turned on the oven.

-"The miniature pizzas I bought need pre heating..."-he said, mostly to himself-"I think it'll take about twenty minutes to defreeze them..."

He went through his pantry and moved stuff around, not quite certain of what he was searching for. He just needed an excuse to be distracted from his conversation with Ricky.

-"I think I need to get some booze... the few drinks I have won't do it..."

That gave Connor an idea for him to get distracted, so he turned around to address Ricky.

-"Hey Ricky do you mind coming with me to the sto---"

Ricky was standing by the shelf were he kept his books (the ones he actually read), the few movies he owned, and his music discs. In between his hands, he held My Head is an Animal, examining it down to the very detail.