Loud Like Love

Chapter Fifteen: A Million Little Pieces

Matt raised an eyebrow. 'You have too much money. It's a twelve-year-old Jura. Get over yourself. Oh!' He spotted someone else. 'Devon! Alan, wait, you have to meet Devon!'

Dave wondered if he was imagining things when Alan greeted the newcomer rather stiffly. Devon, however, wrung his hand with enthusiasm and hugged Matt tightly. 'Remember I told you about Devon, Alan?' Judging by Alan's facial expression, he did. 'Devon, Alan is my boyfriend! Exclusively so.'

Devon raised both his eyebrows. 'Monogamy? Perish the thought!' He smiled. 'It's nice to meet you, Alan.' Alan grunted in response.

'Okay, okay,' said Matt. 'Get that bottle to my room, please, Alan.' He kissed him messily on the mouth. 'I promise not to snog anyone else while you're gone.' As Alan left, Matt spotted someone else and promptly disappeared, leaving Dave alone with Devon.

Devon had messy ginger curls and green eyes, and was entirely freckly. He smiled at Dave and stretched out his hand. 'Hey, I didn't catch your name. I'm Devon.'

'Dave,' said Dave, and shook it. 'I'm Alan's best friend. You one of Matt's Birmingham pals?'

'Yeah.' Devon scratched his head, messing up his curls further. 'We were on and off fuck friends for a while, but seems he's finally settled down. That's good. I'm happy for him. Don't think he's ever had a proper long term boyfriend before.' He looked a little bit sad for a moment, but snapped back almost at once. Dave got the distinct impression that Devon would have quite liked to be Matt's boyfriend himself at some point. 'What about you? What's your story?'

'Oh, I'm from here. Went to school with Matt for the last year of secondary school. We played football together too.' Dave looked about the room. Devon was far from the only attractive person he'd never met before. 'Why do I get the feeling that Matt has either slept with or made out with at least half the people in here?' he wondered aloud.

Devon laughed. 'Because he probably has. You one of them?' he smirked.

'Nah. He kissed me once. I turned him down.'

'But you like guys, right?'

Dave looked away. He wasn't dense enough not to notice that Devon was flirting with him, and he had an almost unbearably adorable face. He wasn't sure if he ought to confirm or deny. He felt a confirmation might seem like he was flirting back, and he really wasn't in any position to do so at present. He had learned his lesson after Patrick. But he didn't want to lie either, so he said, 'Yeah.'

'Lucky me,' said Devon.

'Yeah, listen . . .'

'Got a boyfriend?'

'No, but still getting over one. So.'

'Ah, too bad. You're hot. Will you be offended if I flirt with you anyway?'

Dave laughed. 'Go ahead. Just don't expect anything to come of it.'

Devon's grin was infectious. 'All right! Let's get a drink, yeah?'

* * *

Nick took a sip of his wine. He had promised himself he wouldn't drink anything stronger tonight, and Stuart was watching him like a hawk. He wondered if asking him to make sure he didn't get too wasted had been a bad idea, as he was clearly taking the request extremely seriously, but then it was kind of nice to be worried about. Evan had told him that he needed to accept the concern of other people.

He saw Dave arrive, and watched him introduce himself to a redhead he'd never seen before. After that, he decided not to watch him too closely.

Matt came over and sat down next to him. 'You doing all right, Nick?'