Toxic [2gether]

Part 1

Eyes still searching, Sarawat brought his face close to the microphone stand, his top lip jutting out and slightly grazing the mike.

"Thank you," his low voice reverberated throughout the arena. "The next song is for you," he cast a meaningful glance at his fans, paired off with a lazy smirk and the crowd got wild, jostling Tine and Green in a sudden shove that propelled them forward when hundreds of people simultaneously tried to come closer to the stage.

"Thank you for supporting me through the good and the bad," Sarawat continued and looked down coyly at the instrument in his hands as he carefully started to strum unfamiliar cords on his guitar, his fingers moving sensuously over the strings.

Green squawked, draping himself all over Tine in excitement.

"Is that a new song?" He shouted, jumping up and down with the rising beat.

Tine however remained still among the alive crowd, a beacon of motionlessness. As the intro of the song bloomed into an explosion of devastating vocals and starlit music Tine felt his fingers go numb. He felt betrayed. A pang of unfamiliar feelings hit his chest hard and a breath lodged in his throat. Tine had to leave. Now.

Bowing his head, he ducked and wavered through the crowd until he reached the security barriers. The buff security guy let Tine slip out without sparing him a second glance. Just another fan out of many, having a panic attack from being star struck.

***

Tine was not sure when he fell asleep but it was the notifications that woke him up. He stared blearily at his phone, five missed calls and several messages from messaging aps and social media. He flopped back onto his back and stared at the grainy ceiling, cradling the piece of technology in his hand. Another notification went through and he felt the phone vibrate with a slight buzz. Tine pouted, ignoring it.

Seeing Sarawat had been both gratifying and maddening. He had seemed like a different person since the last time they saw each other, even playing unreleased new songs that no one had heard before, not even Tine. Asshole. Tine huffed and threw himself around on his big bed, burrowing his face into the fluffy pillow. He felt like crying. However chic guys did not cry over ex-friends, it was uncool, so he refrained.

A series of urgent knocks interrupted his sulking session. Tine rose sluggishly from the bed and ripped the door open, already exasperated at having to deal with his friends.

But instead, there he was, Mr. Asshole himself. Tine tried to slam the door in his face but a booted foot stopped him. Sarawat wore a leather jacket and a cap with sunglasses, his lips twisted. He had obviously slunk away from his manager in secret.

"Aren't you letting me in?" He asked in monotone and shouldered past the stunned Tine.

"Come on right in," Tine said as an afterthought and pivoted to face the other, feeling rather exposed in just a pair of pajama bottoms, shielding his pectorals. "Let me just put something on," he spluttered when Sarawat was still wearing his sunglasses inside and there was no telling which part of Tine he was looking at. A corner of Sarawat's lips ticked upward a millisecond before it dropped back into a twist.

Tine threw himself into his bedroom and hastily rooted through his closet after a random sweatshirt. He was not trying to find that one jersey that made him look all soft and huggable. Taking his time, he could already feel heavy energy building up in the next room. Tine frowned. What was that guy even doing here?

They had obviously parted on bad terms. Yeah, it sucked. And Tine was conflicted over it. On one side it had been good to get rid of that stoic source of criticism but at the same time his days started to feel empty and uneventful. Still, life went on. They had graduated and now a couple of years later Tine was working at a legal unit of a fairly known corporation while Sarawat was well on his way taking the world by storm with his cool gaze and deep music. He was still following Tine on Instagram with his old account, which perturbed and frustrated his fan base, that was mystified by the connection as there were no recent pictures floating on the deep webs of the net of them two together. Just those few pictures from the Scrubb showcase at their university way back. Besides, that account seemed to be long abandoned even if it did spark some turbulence now and then when a new fan wave managed to snoop it down.