'Tyler.'
I moaned and squeezed my eyes shut, squirming further down in the bed. Somebody was hissing at me and I wasn't pleased.
'Tyler.'
'Noooo.'
'Wake up.'
'I already answered that request,' I mumbled, rolling over to try and get away from Conor.
'You're already awake,' he said smugly.
'Oh, fuck off.' I stretched and yawned, then turned and blinked up at him. 'What time is it?'
'Seven.'
I paused to comprehend this. 'Neither option available is an acceptable time to wake up,' I whined eventually. 'Please tell me you're lying.'
'I'm not.' His eyes were shining with excitement. 'We're sneaking out.'
'Ah.'
The issue of KISS Magazine had become available to the general population the day after we'd arrived in Liverpool. We were in Nottingham now, with Conor and Arthur and their respective bands preparing to play Rock City that night, but heralding our arrival had been an unusual number of fans and paparazzi, it being the day after the magazine's release. The crowd hadn't been so big as to suggest that The Beatles had been reincarnated and come to town, but it was substantially bigger than the usual pack of die-hard fans. And all of them pretty much there solely to gawk at my boyfriend, who after a moment of bemusement scowled and stormed into the hotel, which was unlike him. Usually even if he was in a bad mood he could turn on the charm for his fans but not, it would seem, when they were shouting sex questions at him.
'I'm waiting until marriage,' he'd snapped, and disappeared inside, leaving Daniel, Philip, Tarquin, and Sally to field and apologise for him.
'So come on,' he said now, shaking me slightly. 'Get up.'
'Where are we going?'
'On a magical mystery adventure.'
'In Nottingham?'
'I Googled Nottingham. It's actually not so bad. It's a city and unitary authority area in the East Midlands of England,' he started reciting by rote. 'It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group. It's got theatres and galleries and museums and cinemas, a watersports centre, and it's twinned with seven other cities from all over the world.'
My boyfriend has an almost freakishly accurate memory.
'And Robin Hood was from here.'
'You realise if we were steal from the rich we'd have to steal from each other?'
'Now you're just being dramatic. Get up and get dressed.' He walked over to the window, which looked out onto the street and main entrance, and peered out. 'It's already light out and who know what time vultures wake up,' he finished darkly.
Resigning myself to my fate – I'm used to Conor's spontaneous, unusual ideas of dates. On our first "date" he dragged me all over the campus of Glenstal Abbey; from the swimming pool to the canteen to the roof of the music and arts building, where he told me all about his dad for the first time – I slid out of the warm cosy bed and padded over to my suitcase, rooting through it half-heartedly and putting on the first things my hands found.
'Shouldn't we at least let Sarah know we're going?' I whispered as Conor dragged me down the hallway – needlessly of course, several of the occupants were already up and nobody in their rooms would have heard me anyway.
'Sally knows all about it, she'll tell her if she asks.'
'How does Sally know?'
'I told her, obviously,' Conor rolled his eyes. 'I needed her help to plan this.'
I stopped walking and tugged on his hand. 'Hang on. Plan?' I narrowed my eyes. 'What are we doing, how big of a deal is this? What plan?'
Conor laughed. 'What, you think I randomly woke up and decided to sneak out to avoid attention? I've been planning this since Liverpool.'
'Huh.' We started walking again. 'How incredibly duplicitous of you. I feel quite betrayed.'
'Oh, shut up,' Conor groaned. 'We're going to a whole bunch of places you'll like.'
'Like where?'
Conor glanced at me sceptically. 'It's s surprise. Magical mystery adventure, remember?'
'You're really not gonna tell me?'
'Nope.'
I took advantage of our linked hands to twist his arm behind his back.
'Ow!' he groaned, laughing.
'Are you gonna tell me now?' I demanded, bringing my face close to his.
'No way. I'll die before I tell you my secrets.'
I pushed Conor up against the wall and ghosted my hand lightly across the front of his jeans. 'Oh, I don't think it will come to that.'
'Reduced to blackmail. I'm shocked at your behaviour, Tyler Lincoln.'
'It's not blackmail if you get something out of it too. I prefer, bribery.'
'I'll never break.'
I pressed my body against his and blinked up at him innocently. 'Oh really?'
'Really.'
I let my gaze flicker to his lips for a second and then brought my face close to his. 'Are you sure about that?'
'Completely.'
He was remaining stubbornly unperturbed by my advances, and I decided in that moment that that wouldn't do, letting my lips brush against his briefly and I slipped my hand slowly under his t-shirt and ran my fingers lightly over his skin.
I kissed him lightly a couple more times as my fingers explored his body.
'You're being very unfair,' Conor murmured against my lips.
'Oh you think so, huh?'
'Mmhm.'
'Well in that case I'm very, very sorry. Perhaps I should stop?'
'Wouldn't count on it,' he said in that low, sexy voice he does sometimes, lacing his fingers into my hair and pulling me closer to kiss me properly on the mouth and then he was leaning back against the wall and I was leaning against him and our lips were moving together and our tongues met in the middle and I was probing his mouth slowly and moving my body against his.
It wasn't the kind of kiss that was in any way acceptable to do in a public place, but it was early and there was nobody in the hall, and anyway even if there was we were both too far gone to stop now.
Besides which, if walls could talk, the ones of the pre-fab behind the science building at Glenstal Abbey could attest that Conor and I do most of our best work in public.
I slipped my hands around his waist and trailed them across the toned muscles of his back; Conor was stroking my hair in that way he knows drives me crazy. It was one of those situations that I find myself in so often when Conor touches or kisses me; I simply couldn't get enough of him and nothing or nobody could have dragged me away.
I kissed him more deeply, drinking him in as I felt a familiar tightening in my tummy letting me know I was seriously turned on and my knees went wobbly letting me know I was seriously in love.
'I know what you're trying to do,' Conor mumbled against my lips. He wasn't even out of breath.
'Huh?' My brain was short-circuiting; I didn't even know what I was doing anymore.
'It won't work. We're not going back to bed. We are going on an adventure.'
I glanced down at my crotch bemusedly. 'I'm not sure I can decently go anywhere.'
Conor laughed, pushing us away from the wall and linking our fingers. 'Liar. If it was hard I would have felt it. Now come on.'
——————————————
Anyone who knows me will attest quite readily that doing things isn't exactly my favourite pastime. Expending effort puts me in a bad mood unless it's something I already know I like, such as photography or making out. Sports, I hate. Conor likes swimming, but when I'm in the water I just lay on my back and float, perfectly content to stay that way for hours at a time even though it makes my hands and feet all wrinkly.
I wouldn't say I'm bookish, exactly, but I'm definitely more the type of guy who'd prefer to stay inside and read something than to go out and learn how to water-ski or climb a rock wall.
So I was pretty sceptical from the outset about this "magical mystery adventure" since the word "adventure" seemed to imply swinging from trees, running, being chased, etc. But Conor had assured me that we'd be doing a bunch of things I liked and so I tried to go into the whole thing with an open mind.
Since I'm quite into history (my naturally pessimistic disposition taking on a sort of perverted excitement at the bloodier depictions) we first went to Nottingham Castle, which isn't as boring as it sounds because it means you can visit this thing called Mortimer's Hole, which is a series of man-made caves stretching out beneath the city centre. So that was quite eerie and cool.
Then we wandered around the University of Nottingham campus which was quite busy even though it was the middle of summer and got mistaken for uni students, which I thought was hilarious as I'm still sixteen.
Afterwards we went into the city centre and savaged down some lunch, then onto the highlight of the day – the zoo.
Conor is fundamentally opposed to zoos, being all staunchly vegetarian and animal-rights-y and thinks that locking the animals up in cages is cruel and unusual punishment. But I like zoos and I don't think they treat the animals badly; they always seem quite happy to me.
I'm the first to admit that I'm dark and moody and sometimes not very pleasant to be around but I turn into a kid in a candy shop when I'm around such an overdose of cute. I squeal like a prepubescent girl at a Taylor Swift concert, I am not even kidding.
'Oh my god,' I whispered as I pressed my face up against the wire mesh around the tiger enclosure. There were two adults and three baby tigers roaming around in there and I could feel my brain turning to mush. 'I want one.'
'I'll get you one for your birthday,' Conor told me distractedly; he'd been messing about on his phone since we'd gotten here. Probably rallying some PETA group to come set all the animals free and torch the place or something.
'A tiger? Really?' I asked breathless and hopeful as I continued to stare at the cubs, my brain having a complete malfunction.
'Sure, why not? Oh my god!' Conor said suddenly and clutched my arm. 'Look over there!'
I turned my head in the direction he was pointing but before I could see what he was talking about a pair of hands slid over my eyes.
'Guess who?'
'Okay Conor, what am I, six?' I said, even as I registered that it wasn't his voice. 'No way!' I said loudly, when I realised whose it was. I turned around to come face to face with a grinning Josh.
'Yes way,' he told me, smirking, as I grabbed him and hugged him. He hugged me back, lifting me up and spinning me around.
'Get out of the way, it's my turn,' another voice I recognised butted in, and Josh was elbowed to the side so Rachel could jump and wrap her legs around my waist, squeezing me in a hug even tighter than Josh's.
'What the...?!' I asked when she finally let me go, looking from one to the other and back again in amazement. 'What are you doing here?!'
'We received a midnight summons,' Josh told me, nodding towards Conor.
'You!'
'Me.' Conor shrugged, but looked self-satisfied. 'I figured if you wouldn't go home, I'd bring some home to you.'
'I think I'm in love with you,' I told him seriously.
'I've suspected that for a while.'
'I can't believe you guys are here!' I turned back to Josh and Rachel, hugging them again. 'How long are you staying?!'
'Open-ended,' Josh told me. 'Until you get sick of us and kick us off the tour-bus, basically.'
I was hopping up and down a little in excitement, and couldn't wipe the grin off my face. 'This is the best present ever,' I told Conor, leaning against him so he wrapped an arm around me. 'Much better than the last present you got me.'
'What was the last present he got you?' Rachel asked.
I scrunched up my face. 'Plane ticket home.'
'That and a sex scandal,' Josh quipped.
'Shut up,' I told him absently. 'Hey, where are all of your things?'
Josh jerked a thumb towards the exit to the zoo. 'Taxi's waiting outside with it.'
I raised an eyebrow. 'You left all your stuff in a taxi? It's probably gone, dude.'
'Josh is just trying to sound middle class and normal. We hired a driver.'
I rolled my eyes. 'Of course you did. Come on, we may as well go back to the hotel so you can check in.'
'What's the name of the place you're playing tonight again?' Rachel asked Conor was we made our way back towards the car.
'Rock City. I know,' he interrupted before Josh could make a quip. 'It sounds stupid. But it's actually quite reputable, I'll have you know.'
Josh held up his hands in innocence but grinned broadly as he directed us towards the car and we all slid inside.
Conor told him the name of our hotel and soon we were pulling up outside. Rachel, Conor, and I went around to the back to start taking their luggage out of the trunk while Josh paid, then all four of us started dragging them inside.
We were about halfway across the lobby when the biggest surprise of the day hit us all square in the face.
'Conor?' somebody asked, and we all instinctively turned around. There was a man just standing up from couch across from the reception desk, looking at Conor quizzically.
'Um,' Conor said uncertainly. He was quite a bit older than Name Withheld's usual fanbase.
The man's face broke out in a weirdly recognisable smile. 'Conor,' he said warmly; then, when my boyfriend still appeared confused, he added more uncertainly, 'it's me. Dad.'