Sugarcane Chronicles Volume I: One and Lonely (ryden)

Pre-Wee Kiss

I logged on and clicked on Daniel's name and requested a chat. The nervous butterflies I always got in these moments waiting for him to accept came. I smiled as I thought of speaking to him and a familiarly unfamiliar face popped up on my screen. The small smile I had on my face fell and I tried to remember where I had seen the guy before.

"Daniel, is this right lad?" he yelled to someone out of camera shot.

"There's a picture of him in my wallet," Daniel yelled back. I smiled at the sound of his voice. "It's right next to you, Philip."

My face dropped, along with my heart when I remembered that Philip is Daniel's boyfriend. Philip grabbed Daniel's wallet and pulled out what I guessed was my picture and £20. He held the picture up and looked back and forth from the screen to the picture and back again.

"Yep, it's him," Philip said, putting the picture and wallet down.

"That's fantastic because I just finished making the tea," Daniel walked into the screen shot, holding two mugs. He sat down next to Philip, holding out one of the mugs.

"One for you," he said, putting one next to Philip. "And one for me." He sipped the other one that was in his hands.

"Hello, Kitty-Cat!" he smiled, looking at me.

Philip gave him a strange look and asked, "Kitty-Cat?"

"Uhm, yeah," Daniel said. "He dressed up as a kitty-cat for Halloween once and I haven't stopped calling him that since then."

"Alright," Philip said. "But his name's Riley, right?"

"Ryan," Daniel and I said at the same time.

"So you guys have tea?" I said after a little silence.

"Yeah," Daniel replied and they each took a sip of theirs in unison. "I would've made you some, but if you had tried to drink it, it would've ruined my laptop."

"It's alright," I said, picking up my phone. "I'll just call Jon and make him make me some." I dialed Jon's number and put it on speaker. After three rings, he picked up.

"Ryan, what do you need?" Jon said, sounding very annoyed.

"I just was wondering if you could make me some tea and" I paused "is that Lady Gaga I hear?"

"Yeah, the other guys are playing Rock Band," he said. "And why can't you make your own tea?"

"I'm still getting over my cold and mild bronchitis and I have a broken wrist," I said. "You make the goddamn tea."

"Fine," he sighed. "Patrick!"

The music stopped, then started again and Jon had a conversation with Patrick.

"Jon, what do you need?" Patrick asked.

"Could you make Ryan some tea and then bring it to him?" Jon asked.

"Yeah, sure," Patrick replied. The rest of what he said was drowned out by Lady Gaga.

"How many sugars do you take?" Jon asked.

"How many sugars do I take?" I repeated. I looked at Daniel with a panicked look on my face. He held up two fingers and mouthed 'two'. "Uh... two."

"Ok." The other line was quiet besides the faint music that had changed to some kind of old rock. "How about cream?"

I mouthed 'cream?' to Daniel and he nodded and whispered "Just do it."

"Uh, yes please," I said.

"Ok, Patrick will be up with that in a minute," Jon said. "Anything else, your highness?"

"No," I chuckled. "Thanks. Bye."