Fanboy (boyxboy)

Heartbreak Coverup

At first, Eli thought everything really would work out for the best. He found an apartment, fixed Maddox's schedule and got into a routine for his days. Every morning he picked up coffee for Maddox and went over his schedule with him. If Dax needed him for anything, and Maddox always seemed to, Eli stayed with him pretty much all day.

Then came the bad news - Maddox's doctor said he couldn't go to Brazil for his anniversary. And just like that, Maddox shut down again. He was worse than he'd been when Eli first got to L.A. He wouldn't talk, barely came out of his room for anything. Just when Eli started to think he'd finally found where he belonged in life, everything fell apart.

"I don't know, Eli," Justin shook his head as they were talking about it one day. "Maybe Dax is done with music."

"He has to get better though," Eli couldn't imagine Maddox just giving up. Not forever.

"He will, eventually, but it might not look like what we thought," Tim sighed. "God, I'm sorry I dragged you into this. You probably hate that you took this job."

"No, it's fine. We'll just be ready for whenever Maddox decides to work again," Eli felt the emotion in the room change.

"Eli, I don't know if he will," Tim looked at Justin.

"I mean...fuck, I don't know," Justin rubbed his face. "I can't tell if I want it so much I can't just admit it's not what he wants. I don't know."

"We'll find you something, don't worry," Tim promised.

"Am I fired?"

"No, no way," Justin seemed to recover. "This isn't over yet. And if it is, we'll take care of you. But until Dax says he's done we're just going to go on like he's not."

Eli cried himself to sleep that night. He hadn't felt homesick once in the month that he was gone but everything finally caught up with him. Seeing the broken shell of the boy who'd once been his whole world was too much. And on top of that, he'd moved across the country for a job that might end just as fast as it started? Maybe his dad was right after all. Maybe it was too good to be true.

The next morning, Eli didn't go to Maddox. He scrolled through the jobs posted on Craigslist and hoped something would jump out at him. But every job he looked at said he would have to speak Spanish and Eli definitely didn't.

It took a week before Eli found something he knew he was at least a little qualified to do. He'd passed by the go-go dancer ads at first, knowing he could never tell his family what he was doing. But if it was a choice between that and going home...at least he could learn to go-go dance. Maybe. Then again, it was Los Angeles so there was a chance he would be in way over his head. The website said the first step was just to send a picture.

Picture sent, Eli started looking for videos. He liked to dance but he had no idea if he was any good at it. Go-go dancing didn't look hard but he discovered after the first few videos it wasn't as easy as it looked.

Still, Eli practiced every day. Maddox and Brent's anniversary came and went, followed by some kind of fight. Eli wasn't around Maddox very much so he never could figure it out. All he knew was that he'd never seen Maddox so miserable and, for some reason, he was ignoring all of Brent's calls which didn't help.

Eli's phone rang one morning while he was in the middle of one of his practice sessions. He raced to answer it, guilt flooding him like he'd been caught doing something naughty. But the surprising part was that it was Maddox who was calling.

"Dax?"

"Hey, I can't find Tim," Maddox told him. "Can you find and send me everything I recorded before I got sick? The tracks we never finished from the last album?"