Hayden's POV
I laid in my bed after just dropping off Blair.
I remembered last night and went across the hall to Payton's room.
"Hey bro?" I called as I walked in. He laid in his bed watching TV, but he seemed in a daze.
"Hey what's up?" I shrugged and sat on his bed. "Oh! Hey, I wanted to apologize to you. I can tell you love Blair, and that she loves you. I'm sorry for even being that way. I don't know what was wrong with me. It's not my place to tell you who you love anyway." I nodded.
"It's fine. Really, I'm over that. You know I can't stay mad at you long." He smiled and scooted over. I made my way into the bed and laid beside him. "Payton?"
"Yeah?"
"What're you going to do?" He sighed. I was talking about Nick and he knows it.
"He hates me." I frowned.
"How do you know?" He sighed.
"I uhh... I told him I didn't want anything to do with him anymore. I told him I was straight and that he wasn't important to me. He used to call all the time. I never answered." I was quiet for a bit before replying.
"Do you still-"
"I've always loved him. I've kept track of him. On social media. The problem is, right now he's dating some guy. He's pretty good looking too. He probably will be better for him than me."
"Payton we both know that isn't true. You could get him back..." He didn't say anything. "I'm going by there today if you want to come."
"I'll be fine here." I nodded.
"What're you going to do about Emma?" He bit the inside of his lip.
"Emma's a lesbian. I agreed to do stuff with her just to help her make sure she was. No sex or anything like that though." I nodded.
"And one more thing. The only guy you'll ever like is Nick right?" He nodded.
"Thought so..." I sat up and patted his stomach. "Well I'm gonna get dressed to go. I love you Pay."
"I love you too Hayden. Tell the family I said hi." I nodded. I know he wanted information about Nick. And that's what I would give him. "Hey." I stopped. "Thank you. I know we have our moments where we don't agree, but you're always my little sister. I'm always here."
"And you know I've always got your back." I winked at him and he nodded. I left the room and went downstairs. As I was going down, my phone began ringing.
"Hey Blair baby what's up?" I smirked as I said it. I could practically see her rolling her eyes.
"Bitch. Anyway, guess what?" I laughed and leaned on the wall by the staircase. She sounded excited.
"What?"
"Mom and I talked when I got home today. She doesn't exactly trust you yet, but she's going to give it an actual try. I know you're going by Ashley's parent's today for dinner, so maybe you can come by ours for dinner tomorrow? She won't target you this time, and I don't think you have anything to hide anyway."
"That's great! I'm so happy she's deciding to give me a chance. I don't have anything to hide, I promise. I'll be there for six, right?"
"That's exactly right. Thank you so much babe." I smiled, happy that things with her mom would improve.
"Of course."
"Well Mom and I are going shopping right now, we're going to try to mend our relationship up a little. I'll talk to you later, okay? I love you."
"Okay have fun, I love you too." I hung up and sighed happily before rounding the corner to go into the kitchen. Mom was there reading some mail and Dad reading newspaper. I kissed Mom's cheek and ruffled Dad's hair. "Blair's mom is finally going to give me a chance. I get to go to dinner tomorrow night. Isn't that great guys?"
"Oh! Honey that is amazing! She's finally in her right mind." Mom said happily. Dad smiled slightly. Better than it was at first I guess.
"That's good." He said and patted my back.
"I know right! I'm super excited for it! Anyway, I'm going over to Don and Sue's right now." Mom stood up.
"I'm going to walk you out, okay?" I nodded and waved to Dad. We got to the door and she went outside with me.
"What's up?" I asked her.
"You're going to help your brother out right?" I laughed and nodded.
"Of course I am Mom. While I'm there I'll try to get my brother his boyfriend back along with my best friend." I winked at her and she laughed.
"That's great. I'm glad you two are so close baby. Also, your father is getting used to Blair. Slowly but surely, you know. I know sometimes it doesn't seem that way, but he is." I looked away and nodded.
"Yeah, I know." She hugged me tightly and I sighed. "I love you Mom."
"And I love you honey. Go, have fun." I smiled and kissed her cheek.
"Will do."
I hopped in my truck and put the address in my GPS. Their house didn't seem too far away from Blair's. Actually around five minutes away.
I took a deep breath as I sat outside the house. I've seen her mom and dad already but... things are different.
I put my hand up to knock on the door, but it swung open. My breath was taken away as I looked into those same eyes that I saw so long ago. I hadn't seen them in years, and I missed them so much.
But... they weren't hers.
"I've been waiting for you to- Woah dude, you okay there?" Nick stood in front of me and I regained my composure and smiled. I pulled him into a tight hug. "It was the eyes wasn't it?" He mumbled to me.
"Yeah, I'm sorry." He patted my back.
"It's fine bro, really. I'm just super stoked to see you. You look great, really, I've missed you a lot." I grinned.
"And you, you look hot. But gosh I've missed you too." I hugged him again and he laughed. He was hot though. He'd gotten more muscle on him and he had a buzz cut. Payton would die if he saw him, I swear.
"Come in Haydy, we've been waiting for you to come over. Mom and Dad said you've got yourself a nice girlfriend."
"Yeah, she's great." I felt weird talking to him about that. "And you? As for guys?"
"I've got a cutie, but he isn't my boyfriend." I stayed quiet for a bit. "I know what you want, but your brother... he's too straight. You see, me, I don't strike many people as gay but on the other hand I definitely am. I left here going after your brother and he told me to stop calling because he was straight. He told me to leave him alone. I don't date straight guys anymore Haydy." I sighed.
"That was three years ago man." I said as I followed him to the kitchen. Don and Sue were cooking and they smiled widely when they saw me.
"Hey there Hayden. Nick's been excited for you to come since we told him last night." I hugged them and laughed.
"I've been trying to get here as soon as I could too." Nick winked at me.
"I'll end up taking her from her girlfriend." We all laughed.
"You guys can do whatever, we'll call you down when dinner's ready." Nick and I nodded. He got up and I followed him upstairs. I looked around the house and there were pictures of Ashley everywhere. I smiled to myself and kept behind Nick. We went into his room and I looked around. I sat on his computer chair and he sat on his bed.
"Oh yeah show me a picture of your girl." I tossed my phone to him. Blair was my lock screen. She said I have to always be on her mind so she has to be the first thing I see when I get on my phone. I laughed to myself thinking about it. "Ooo, she's pretty. I hope you don't feel bad about dating her. Ashley would definitely be okay with that." I sighed.
"Yeah I did at first, but I'm fine now. She's a great girl, really. I'd like for you to meet her one day soon."
"Sure thing. You love her?"
"Maybe... Do you still have feelings for my brother?" He grinned at me and shrugged.
"Maybe. Tell him I know he's keeping tabs on me. If he wants me he'll have to do more than that." I laughed at him and shook my head.
"So you'd try again with him?" He shrugged.
"I don't know for sure. I mean I've still got strong feels for the guy but... he could easily hurt me. And I'm not down for being hurt anymore. That easy going Nick is gone." I nodded.
"I totally understand that man. I won't push it on you like that, I was just wondering. I wouldn't want you getting hurt either. But I would definitely beat Payton's ass if he did hurt you like that again. I'm fairly sure he wouldn't though... he's different. He finally admitted to me that you were the only guy he ever liked." And I'm pretty sure Lewis liked him. I think they were actually a thing for a bit, but I guess he didn't like him back.
Nick stayed quiet, biting his lip. I sighed and sat on his bed with him.
"I didn't come over here for that. How've you been? Well, how'd you like Florida?" He grinned.
"Lots of hot guys. Lots of parties. Lots of fun." I grinned too. Nick and I used to have so much fun before he left.
"That sounds great. I'm glad you liked it there."
"What's there to do here like parties now?" I laughed.
"I used to be the one that could tell you all about that but I don't know now. I used to be a hardcore partier but Blair and I have both stopped as much." Mostly because I'm trying to prove to her mom I'm not messing her up. So I don't want her coming home drunk from a party, even if she did that before she was with me. But I really want to go to a party with Blair. I know for sure we'd have a great time.
"What? Why?"
"Well I was only drinking to forget about Ashley. Not to mention I got into a lot of trouble. So, Blair's mom thinks I'm this delinquent kid, which I was, so I'm trying to be better."
"How'd she even know about that?"
"Dad works with her and he blabbed about me and my endeavors." He whistled then laughed.
"Your dad's insane man." I laughed too.
"Oh yeah, I thought so too. We're good now though. But I could easily give you information on parties whenever." He nodded and sighed.
"I'd need that. Any attractive gay guys around here?"
"I only know one guy who's your type." I winked and he rolled his eyes with a small smile.
"I'm not going to try to make you get with my brother." He said trying to copy me. I laughed too.
"Okay, what's so bad about it? You're all he wants Nick." He bit his lip and shrugged.
"How am I supposed to trust that? Your brother's lied to me before. Plenty."
"That was three years ago, he was younger. Stupider." He looked away from me and sighed.
"You and I were best friends, but I hid a lot from you. Did you know that your brother took my virginity? And then dropped me like I was scum on the bottom of his shoe? Right after losing my sister and moving away. I needed him to comfort me, I needed him to help me. Like he did the few weeks before and after she died. But as soon as we left... it was like he was a different person. Yeah maybe it was because he was bitter that I was leaving him but, if you love someone you wouldn't care. You'd get through shit like that. Not go off and fuck some girl right after I leave." I was surprised at this. I didn't know they'd ever had sex. And I didn't know that Payton went off and fucked some girl right after. I decided to shut my mouth about Payton, because Nick was right. Payton needed to show that he really cares this time. Because Nick doesn't deserve to be hurt again.
"Fuck, I'm sorry man. You're right. I'll drop it, I promise this time." He smiled sadly at me.
"Yeah right. He's your brother. I understand why you'd want us together. Anyway, at this point Haydy, if you were a boy I'd definitely let you have me." He winked at me and I burst out laughing.
"Is that right Nicky?" I got up and walked over to his bed before pushing him down and straddling him. He winked then pushed me off, as we both exploded in laughter. As the laughter died down, I sighed. "God, I've missed this. Just hanging out with you. Hanging out with friends in general. After I stopped partying, I don't have nearly the amount of friends I used to." He laid his head on my shoulder.
"I did have good friends at first, but we were the weird crowd. Well not me. There were a bunch of guys at that school who wanted to experiment with a guy, and they chose me. So I was treated better than my friends... which made them start to hate me. So I hung out with the popular assholes. They treated me well. I just didn't quite fit. This is where I belong."
"You've always got a place here and you know it." He knew that I meant in my heart, as my best friend.
"There's my soft Haydy that I love." I laughed and rolled my eyes.
"Stop with the gay shit you dyke." He snorted at our old joke.
"Whatever faggot." I smiled.
"So let me see a picture of this guy you're talking to." He pulled his phone from his pocket and unlocked it. He went to his photos and showed me a picture. My mouth dropped. When Payton said Nick was talking to a guy, I didn't know he meant this guy. "Lewis?"
"You know Lewis?" He didn't seem surprised at all. I had a feeling he knew about Lewis and Payton.
"Oh, do I... Why?" He was quiet and I rolled my eyes.
"You won't be hiding shit from me this time Nicholas I swear."
"Okay, at first it was because Lewis is cute. Then Lewis talked about how he really liked this guy, but the guy loved someone else. A guy who he grew up with and left. He told me that he and Payton almost had sex, but Payton wasn't comfortable with having sex with anyone but that guy. Me. But Payton's known that I've been here since I got here last week and hasn't tried to talk to me. He obviously doesn't love me as much as he makes it seem." I was surprised. The both of them were still in love with the other, no matter how much Nick tried to deny it. It was obvious.
"Woah... I'd thought Payton had... hmm. That actually makes a lot of sense. But that's between the two of you. I won't be in it."
"Thank you. For actually understanding me and not pushing it on me. Because I know how close you and Payton are."
"Which means I know when he's wrong and needs to fix something himself. Not to mention, I have to protect my best friend." He looked up and smiled at me. "Anyway, when'd you start to get more muscle and lose the hair?" Nick used to be super skinny and had longer hair. He was cute then, but he's sexy now.
"I grew up. Realized what I wanted. I can be a top or a bottom now."
"Ooo versatile." We both laughed.
"Also because I'm enlisted to the Air Force."
"No way, me too!" He sat up surprised.
"Here I was thinking I'd be dropping a bombshell on you. We really are fucking best friends aren't we?"
"Duh we are." He laid back down on my shoulder. "Imagine if we could go together."
There was a knock at the door and Sue walked in. She smiled widely at us.
"Just like old times huh? I remember Ashley and Payton would get jealous of you two and pull you away..." I smiled, remembering that. Things change though, don't they? "Dinner's ready, come down." She left and Nick and I still sat there, kinda reminiscing.
"Things were great then, weren't they?"
"Yeah." I whispered before getting up. I didn't come here to get sad about that stuff again. I've moved on now and I have a wonderful girl who loves me. I'm happy again. I don't need to dwell on the past, and Ashley. She's gone. "Let's go eat."
"I'll beat you there." He pushed me and ran out of the room. I ran behind him with a huge grin on my face. We raced down the stairs, almost falling and pushing each other. Nick ran into the rail at the end of the stairs and I snorted as I dashed to the kitchen.
"First!" I yelled and he tackled me from behind just as I said it.
"Barely!" We got up and sat at the table as Sue and Don shook their heads at us.
"What're we going to do with you two?" Sue asked, laughing.
"Love us." Nick said smiling sweetly. I laughed and shrugged.
It was nice being back over there with them.