1995, Saturday, the day of gig
9:00 a.m.
It's the morning of the band's gig at the opening of the new club tonight. Luke, far too excited to think about anything else, has been awake since 8 a.m. full of energy. He tried to hold himself off for as long as he could before hopping on his bike and heading to Alex's house, but time was going by way too slowly. So, here he is at 9 in the morning stealthily tiptoeing across Alex's front lawn as he carries his bike over to the tree he's climbed once before to get to Alex's window.
He climbs up with much more ease now than he did the first time and looks in through the window at a still sleeping Alex. He hesitates to tap on Alex's window because he doesn't want to make so much noise that it gets the attention of Alex's parents, but he needs to wake up Alex somehow.
His first plan is to try and push the window up himself in hopes that it'll be open. Of course, locked. Luke sighs in defeat, then gently begins to quietly tap the glass, praying that the noise will irritate Alex enough into waking up. About a minute of tapping later, Alex finally opens his eyes, looks to the window, and jumps in fear from seeing a face looking back at him. Luke just smiles and waves nonchalantly.
Alex quickly gets out of bed and walks over to his window. He opens it and, while helping Luke get inside, says, "This can not become a habit." Once safely on his own two feet and with the window closed again, Luke says, "Well good morning to you, too." They stand there looking at each other and Alex can't resist the stupid smile on Luke's face. "Good morning," he says, pausing to give Luke a kiss before pulling away and saying, "lunatic." Luke's smile only gets wider.
Alex crosses his room to look in his mirror and runs his hands through his messy slept in hair to fix it, then goes over to his closet to put on a t-shirt.
"Hey, you don't have to put a shirt on on my account." Luke says, walking over and sitting on the edge of Alex's bed. Ignoring Luke's remark, Alex puts the shirt on before walking over, sitting next to Luke on the bed, and reminding him they need to be quiet because his parents are just downstairs making breakfast.
"What are you doing here climbing my tree and waking me up at..." he looks over at the clock on his desk, "God, 9:18 in the morning?" Alex asks, flopping his back down onto his bed.
"Sorry. It's just... we're meeting up with Reggie and Bobby at noon for lunch and then we're gonna be with them for the rest of the day." Luke says. He looks at Alex who is laying on his back on his bed with his arms out and his eyes closed. Luke scoots himself closer to Alex before laying down on his back with his head resting on Alex's arm. Alex feels Luke's body weight leaning more on him, opens his eyes, and turns his head so that they're looking at each other. Luke speaks just above a whisper and says, "I wanted some time to spend alone with you."
Alex smiles at Luke and rolls slightly onto his side, inching closer and closer to Luke to give him a kiss. Just as they are about to connect lips, Alex says, "Did you have to wake me up at 9 a.m. though?"
Luke rolls his eyes and pushes Alex's shoulder so that he is flat on his back again. As Alex laughs to himself over frustrating the boy, Luke sits back up and says, "And to think I climbed a tree for you! ... Ungrateful."
Alex sits himself back up and says, "Oh, I'M the drama queen." Luke sends Alex a pout in his direction in response. Alex grabs Luke's hand in his and says "I'm kidding. You know I'm grateful to spend any time I can alone with you." Luke brings Alex's hand up to his lips and places a small kiss on the back of it.
"And... I actually was hoping to get you at some point before we met up with the guys. I wanted to talk to you about something." Alex says in a tone that changes the energy in the room from playful to serious. Luke furrows his eyebrows and turns to face Alex directly as he sits on the bed. "Okay, now you're worrying me." Luke says.
Alex tries to calm some of the nerves he incited in Luke, saying, "Oh- no no no! It's- It's nothing bad. I mean, I don't think, anyway. Um... I've just... for the past couple days... I've been thinking, that, maybe, we should, uh..." he's stumbling over his words, afraid it'll seem like he's trying to force Luke to do something he isn't yet comfortable with, "...tell Reggie and Bobby about us? Like... tonight? After we play?"
The tension in Luke's shoulders release a little bit. He starts to chew his bottom lip, thinking about what Alex has said. It's a lot for Luke to think about considering he hasn't even come out to Reggie and Bobby about the fact that he likes guys yet.
Alex turns his body so that he is completely facing Luke and puts his hands on the boy's legs to get his attention. "Look, if you're not ready we don't have to, okay? It's just... I know that keeping this secret from them, especially from Reggie, has been crushing you because you feel like you're lying to him and you hate that. And, last night I kind of realized that sneaking around like this has really been getting to me, too, and if they knew then we wouldn't have to worry about it. I know this is a bit more to consider for you because you're not out to them yet, so, if you aren't ready to tell them everything yet that's fine. It's whatever you wanna do, completely your call. I just want you to know that I'm ready when you are."
Luke lets all of Alex's comforting words sink in, continuing to think it all over and chew at his bottom lip. Alex's heartbeat starts to race as he finds discomfort in the quiet. "Please say something." he says to Luke.
Luke looks at Alex, releases his bottom lip to let out a breath, and says, "You're right." Alex is a little surprised by this. "Really?" he questions. Luke stalls, but nods his head yes. "I mean, I can't say it isn't scary to think about, y'know? Letting them know everything tonight, but... I saw how they reacted to you coming out, like... they got up and hugged you before I did... so, I know they'll be accepting." Luke takes in a big deep breath before continuing, "And I know that getting it off my chest and not having to feel like I'm hiding from my best friends anymore will be a really good thing it's just... It's gonna be a lot coming at them at once."
Alex gets up from his bed and stands in front of Luke. He grabs the boy's hands and pulls him to stand up, then places Luke's arms around his waist before wrapping his own around Luke's shoulders and giving him a really tight hug. "You're sure? Like absolutely, 100% sure?" Alex whispers in Luke's ear.
Luke whispers back, "More like 97%, but, yea. I'm sure." They loosen the hug a bit to look at each other. Alex places a kiss on Luke's forehead and then Luke follows by going on his toes enough to kiss Alex's nose. They look into each other's eyes for another few seconds before connecting their lips. Right as they start to deepen the kiss, Alex hears footsteps coming up his stairs and pulls away, "Oh no." he whispers quickly.
Luke is confused at first but then tunes in to the sound and asks, "Is someone coming?"
"Yes!" Alex whisper-shouts. He pushes Luke to the side of his room and opens his closet door. "Quick get in." he says to Luke. "What!" Luke whisper-shouts back. Alex only pushes him harder and whispers, "Don't make a sound." before closing the closet door. Alex then jumps back into his bed and throws his covers over him to act like he's been asleep this whole time.
Not even a second later, Alex's mom opens his door. "Alex, wake up. Breakfast is ready downstairs."
Alex opens his eyes slowly and rubs them with his hands, pretending to have just been woken up. "Alright, thanks. I'm gonna, uh, get dressed and brush my teeth and be down in a bit." he says with a yawn to make the lie even more convincing. With that, his mom shuts his door again and Alex waits to hear her footstep going back down the stairs before getting out of bed.
He gets up and opens his closet door to see Luke who has placed a bunch of clothes in front of him just in case. Luke pushes the clothes on their hangers out of his way so that they're no longer covering him and, looking at his surroundings, he begins to laugh.
Alex, full of stress from what just happened, is confused as to why Luke is laughing. "What?" he says.
"Oh, come on." Luke begins, "You have to see the irony in this." he says, pointing to the fact that he is in the closet.
Alex gives him a look before saying, "That's not funny." Luke scoffs at Alex's seriousness and takes a big step out of the closet. "It's a little funny," he says.
Alex looks at him, then past him at the closet he just exited from, then back at him. "Okay, it's a little funny." he mumbles, relinquishing his tense demeanor. "Seriously, though, you have to go now. My parents are waiting for me to come downstairs."
"Fine." Luke says with a sigh. The two of them walk over to the window and Alex opens it for the boy. "Aww," Luke coos, "and they say chivalry is dead." Alex just rolls his eyes and groans, "yea, yea."
Luke climbs out the window and gets his footing sturdy in the tree before sitting on a branch and looking back at Alex. "Alright, I'll see you in a few hours with Reggie and Bobby for lunch."
"Yea, see you in a few hours." Alex says. Luke leans up and the two give each other a quick goodbye kiss. Before Luke starts his descent, Alex speaks up, "And, hey, please try not to worry too much about tonight, okay? I know that's a lot easier said than done, but, it'll all go over fine... I promise. For now, let's think about how we're gonna have an amazing day and perform an amazing show tonight that could really get us the attention the band needs."
Luke gives back a quick nod and replies, "Okay. I trust you." Alex gives Luke an endearing smile and says a quick bye before leaning up and shutting his window again.
Luke climbs down the tree and grabs his bike, quickly and quietly making his way across Alex's yard and around the corner so that he doesn't get caught. Even though Alex told him not to dwell on it too much, Luke spends his whole bike ride home thinking about how things could go tonight. Deep down he knows that everything is going to be alright, but that small feeling of doubt that is beginning to bubble in his chest is hard to ignore.
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xx Kate