Lessons On Kissing Guys (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 23

I mean, I'm not the sort of person to walk into a room and just know that something is wrong. I guess most people probably aren't. But now that I know - even though I have this ongoing chant of 'they'll be fine' inside my head - I can't ignore the tenseness of the air.

"Y'alright?" A girl, probably around my age, walks up to the till and snaps me out of my thoughts. She's not got anything to buy with her, so I wonder why she's at the till already.

"Yeah, can I help you with anything?"

She smiles. "I'm looking for Phil and Rian, the shop owners, right?" She doesn't wait for me to confirm or deny. " I'm here for a job interview." It clicks inside my head that this is the girl, and for some reason, I feel a sudden resentment towards her. She's the reason they were fighting this morning. Indirectly. 

I shake the thought from my head; she isn't a bad person just because she happened to get caught up in their fight. "Wait a mo." 

I pick up the phone and call upstairs, knowing that Rian is probably still up there. After a moment, he picks up the phone. "Rian, some girl's here for the interview."

He tells me to send her up, which I do, before putting the phone back down. It takes a few minutes of helping customers until I realise that I forgot to tell Phil to go up to. So, I stick my head into the back room and tell him that Rian and the girl are upstairs for the interview. He shakes his head in this sad kind of way and tells me to continue looking out for the store for a while, before making his way upstairs.

It's about ten minutes before the girl comes back down the stairs, hurrying out of the store before I get a chance to see how she looks. I'm assuming that she's not getting the job though, considering how fast she gets out of here. A part of me can't help but be delighted by this. I just have a bad feeling about that girl. 

After a few more minutes, Phil and Rian come down the stairs. Phil's still looking stressed (maybe even more so than before), but Rian seems to have calmed down since this morning, and is now reassuring Phil that everything's fine. 

With a smile, Rian tells me to have my lunch break, so I go upstairs to the flat, as I've been doing for a while now, and make myself some lunch.

After work, I decide that the stress of today deserves to be counteracted somehow. Immediately after walking through the door, I'm being attacked by Blair with kisses and hugs. I smile and laugh, and thankfully, I don't think I sound too stressed. Still though, Blair notices that I'm not at my best.

Instead of asking what's wrong, he picks up his coat. "Let's go." I'm too tired to ask where he wants us to go, so I just nod and follow him outside.

After a long, long walk, Blair and I enter a park. He doesn't stop walking though, and I follow him through the children's swings, and the field on the other side of it, until we reach a gate. "Gonna have to climb." He hands me a basket I hadn't even noticed he was holding. How had I not noticed? As a yawn escapes me, I remember how tired am and blame my forgetfulness on that.

I watch him climbing over the gate, and can't help but want to kiss him as the sun lights him up. Not that he needed the help. He's the brightest person I know. I swear his smile could light up a room so easily. It can definitely make me feel lighter.

He reaches over the gate and takes back the basket, kissing my cheek quickly. I feel the blood rushing to the area his lips brushed against, not bothering to try and hide it. He chuckles slightly before telling me to get over there with him.

Obligingly, I haul myself over the fence and take his hand as he helps me down. I know I could get down easily enough myself, but the feel of his hand wrapping around mine brings me a warmth I can't resist.