Back Then (An LGBT Story)

8. Seth's torment

A few days passed, to Seth, they passed extremely slowly. It wasn't long before he found himself trudging back and forth in his room on a Thursday afternoon. There was nothing much to think about, he'd finished most of the work he had set, but Seth still bought that he needed to keep his mind occupied by thinking of something...

Even if all he could think of was the word, something.

Things hadn't been too smooth between him and Phoebe either.

To: Seth
Way to call off a date. Don't get me wrong, you're cute and I thought I was starting to like you, but if you're just going to call off plans then I can't do it.

Phoebe had texted him. They had spoken the day after and Phoebe was definitely back to her more hostile ways, but it wasn't as bad as laughing at his pain.
Lilith had begun to worry about him once again, so Seth was forced to explain his argument with Phoebe to her. To which Lilith responded with one word; 'bitch'

So Seth had tried to stay as quiet as possible and even tried to avoid the two girls to get some space to calm down and recover from almost completely falling out with a new friend.

"What're you doing?" Seth hadn't noticed Taylor walk in, so he jumped slightly when he heard him speak.

"Pacing," he said back, "thought I'd keep my mind busy."

"Good idea. It might help." Taylor walked in and sat down on his bed.

"I thought so." Seth stopped and fell backwards onto his own bed, sighing.

"What's wrong?"

"You almost gave me a heart attack," he laughed, "and now I'm dizzy from walking round and round for ages."

Taylor let out a short laugh as Seth propped himself up on his elbows and laughed with him.

"It's good to see you happy." Taylor smiled at him.

"You too." Seth grinned back. He loved seeing Taylor happy. There was something about his smile. The rarity of it, no doubt.

Taylor smiled again.

"Hey." Taylor said.

"Yeah?"

"You've not got classes for the evening have you?"

"No I haven't."

"Neither have I," Taylor stood up, picking up a brown rucksack from the end of his bed and throwing in his wallet and mobile phone, "come on. We'll take my car into town. I promised you we'd hang out properly at some point and now, there's nothing to stop us."

"Sure." Seth picked up his own bag and packed the things that he thought necessary, "let's head out."

***

The two sat in a small coffee shop in town, in a silence that they high thought awkward. Seth nervously scratched the back of his neck and Taylor avoided all eye contact. Somehow being out with Seth made him nervous.

"So," Seth began, "how are your studies going?"

Taylor sighed, laughing slightly.

"Well, I guess they're going well but if that the conversation you want to be having right now?"

"What do you mean?" Seth smiled slightly, "I know your studies are important to you, so I thought you wouldn't mind."

"I don't, but you were the one that wanted this to not be so formal."

"Yeah, I guess. So is there anything you wanted to talk about specifically?"

"Other interests, maybe? What sorts of things do you like other than working?" Taylor smiled over to Seth, who gave him a smug grin.