New Beginnings

Chapter 33

After a week away from home, Alexander and Marley were joyous to be finally greeted by the familiar surroundings they had walked through the doors to. They pushed their suitcases to the right side of the hallway and swiftly took off their shoes (with Alexander more determined to get them off in such a hurry). After placing them on the rack rather carelessly, the dark-haired man jumped onto the couch in the living room with his face colliding with the couch's cushions. He lay there in silence as he inhaled the comforting scent of Marley's home. Alexander heard muffled footsteps drawing nearer towards him by the second. Uneasy, the man shuffled himself around so he could glance over his shoulder, and doing so, he watched his lover sit on the edge of the couch beside his feet. 

His blue eyes held contact with the exhausted man lying down. He smirked slightly with a hint of concern obtrusively mingling on his lips. "Why are you so on edge?" Alexander's eyes darted to the right along with his head so he faced the back of the couch.  The golden-haired man heard a slight noise coming from his boyfriend's mouth, but he was unable to decipher what had been said. "What's that?" 

Alexander slowly spun around; he saw a glimmer of worry sparkling in his lover's eyes while they gazed at each other for what the dark-haired man regarded as an awkward amount of time. Glancing to his right, Alexander found a cushion that he playfully grabbed and smooshed in Marley's face, "Nothing," the man untruthfully told.

"Hey!" the red-haired man used his arms to block Alexander's weapon. Marley chuckled as he thought of a sly plan to defeat his partner. He swiftly weaved his arm around the pillow Alexander held, which resulted in Marley getting ahold of his glasses. "Haha!" he chimed victoriously before putting them on his face. 

The brunette laughed at Marley's child-like behaviour, "Idiot, I'm not completely blind without them, you know," he held the pillow on his lap.

Marley's face shifted emotions after seeing the joyous smile on his lover's face. Slowing taking off the glasses and putting them on their rightful owner, Marley's lips curled into a smile as he spoke, "Show me that expression more often, Alexander."

A black hole of thunder rumbled in the brunette's chest, swallowing him up from the inside. He had made a promise, and oh, how he knew the void would tear him apart like it had previously demonstrated. He didn't want to lie — he was sick of it, but Alexander constantly found himself living at the bottom of the pit that his parents had moulded for him. 

Something had changed the moment he stepped foot on the plan to fly home. When they were in Canada, everything was foreign to him; he knew no one, and no one knew him. Skating in the ice rink hand in hand with the golden-haired man in a place where no one would recognise him eased his nerves for the time being. Maybe it was the time of the night or a new exciting location that occupied his thoughts — or the way Marley smiled brightly as he looked into his eyes. Whatever it was, the brunette wished he could take back the words that had been digging into his brain ever since that night. "I think I want to start showing the world that you're my boyfriend."  There was not a chance he could tell Marley. Alexander knew that sentence meant everything to his lover, and he was afraid of disappointing his boyfriend by saying he wasn't ready yet. The dark-haired man's memory flashed back to the night of their date when they lay in bed side by side, and Marley's eyes glimmered in the moonlight as he described how they'd tell their friends and his family about their relationship. 

Alexander was immersed in the darkness.

———————

The sun hid behind the voluminous clouds on the following Monday morning. It wasn't something Alexander wanted to calm him down, but knowing he would be at work where his complex feelings could rest set a sense of ease in his body. His brown eyes failed to stay open as he looked at the glaring white screen. Whenever Alexander had something on his mind, he failed to get a blink of sleep — and unfortunately for him, overthinking is a common trait of the man.