A/N: Hello there! [waves] I have been beyond lazy, this should have been out much sooner but you know, laziness has taken over my life lol and dude, just know I completely suck at first chapters so this won't be the best but eh it had to be done
Cory Matthews at the side ➛
Enjoy!
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*Chapter One* Carson's POV
You know those moments where you are beyond excited for your birthday, and everything adding up to that day just seems irrelevant? That feeling of only wanting, more than anything, is for that time to finally arrive, but it just seems centuries away. Like time was slowing itself down just to piss you off. Do you ever get that feeling? Well I do, except my birthday isn't coming up but something much more eventful. With each passing second, and my impatience growing, I couldn't help but drum my fingers against the steering wheel as I wait for the damn traffic to clear.
A car ride has never seemed this long in my entire life, though, that could have just the impatient side of me talking. Right now, everything seemed time consuming to me and nothing would change that until I finally reached the airport. The airport was just half an hour from where I lived, that is if you don't get caught in the traffic on the highway. It felt like a zillion light years away, when I have in fact I had been in this car for at least 10 minutes and 32 seconds. Not that I have been counting down the seconds until I get to see him again. No, that would be creepy and I'm not the creepy type.
Gosh, where are my manners? How rude of me, I have forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Carson, Carson Reyes to be exact. High school graduate, retired lacrosse player, and as of two weeks ago a Barkley accepted student. I am a deviously handsome male specimen- if I do say so myself- with my dark brown locks, caramel coloured eyes, and lean figure but it was nothing to brag about. I was only one of the hottest guys at my old high school, McKinley high.
Alright, so I'm not being entirely honest, but that description makes me seem much cooler than I really am. In reality, I'm just an average looking guy who cyber stalks the guy he has been hung over for the last year. I'm also not as popular as I make myself out to be, I may have been the co-captain of the lacrosse team but most of my popularity came from my best friend, Vincent Pezzementi. Now, he is incredibly attractive, and is quite popular with people, especially with the female population. Too bad for them he is gay.
He may have been one of the most attractive guys at McKinley high but most of the girls overlooked that and adored him because he was gay, or as he calls himself now, Brody-sexual. He says that because he claims to only be attracted to his boyfriend, Brody McCarthy. I have no doubt in my mind that that isn't true either, those two are like two peas on a pod, the perfect combination, and inseparable at the worst of times. They surely had their moments, but I couldn't say that all of them were good; they just made me miss him even more with all their cutesy moments.
Throughout the entire summer, I had to go through their constant lovey-dovey moments and to my misfortune their quarrels. That wasn't even the worst of it; I was also there for their most intimate moments after their little spats. Not the sex, but the... other stuff. I prefer to not have been there for that, but it's not my fault I had been stuck with the two of them for the entire summer.
Everything about this summer had been nothing but complete, total, and utter torture. Everyone, besides Brody and Vincent, I ever knew had left for the summer for a vacation, leaving me here as the constant third wheel. Let me tell you this, being third wheel sucks more than Vincent does.
Winks suggestively.
Hannah went back to California to spend the short few months with her family before school started back up; Meagan went to a summer camp, and every other person I was friends with just suddenly decided to lose contact with me. Then there was Him.
Cory Matthews; he left with his parents to the Bahamas for a family vacation.
The last three months of my life had been considerably lonely, especially since I had everything planned out for myself, but all that changed the moment Cory decided to tell me the news of his leaving and leaving me with a little parting gift.
[Flash back]
"Mom, I'm going up to my room. Call me if you need me; try not to need me," I called out to my mom before heading up to my bedroom and locking the door. I went over to my bed, marvelling in the last few months of my life. I always seemed to do this whenever I was alone with my thoughts. Everything turned out much different then I would have expected to have been; not only was I introduced to so many awesome people but I had grown to love each and everyone, some more than others.
It has been one hell of a ride, but it had all been worth it.
A knock at my door interrupted me from my previous train of thought, leaving me wondering who could have possibly been there. I highly doubted it was mom since she was probably reading one of those sappy romance books she always reads, and my dad was called into work for some emergency. Despite the time of day.
Curiously, I jumped out of bed and walked back towards my door, swinging it open to reveal none other than Cory.
"What are you doing here?" I asked surprise evident in my voice.
"Happy to see me, no?" If only he knew.
"Yeah, uh, come in," I said, opening the door wide enough for him to enter. My room was a cross from half messy, and half clean. There were clothes all over the floor of my room, some even under the bed, but it wasn't all that bad in my opinion. As long as the bed was in view then I had nothing to worry about, and Cory knew that by now, he has been here enough times.
"How was dinner with the 'rents and the rest of the family?" he asked, flopping down on my bed. Cory had been here a zillion times before so it didn't baffle me about how casual he was being right now.
"Brutal, half my cousins were being winy little brats and the other halves were just plain stuck up. I think I'm the only normal one that goes by the last name of 'Reyes'," I said causing the most carefree laugh to escape Cory's lips. Just the sound of his laugh had my smile brightening, and forgetting the wretched dinner I had with my relatives just an hour ago.
"That must suck," he said.
"It did, anyways what are you doing here at," I looked down at my watch. "11:56?"
I looked up at from my watch to see Cory looked a cross between of excited and distraught. "Oh about that," he muttered, "I just wanted to tell you something." The sound of his voice told me that I wasn't going to like the news very much, and that left me impatient of what it was.
"What is it?" I asked uneasily.
"It's just about the dinner I had with my parents, and the little surprise they gave me."
"Oh yeah," I said, making my way to the bed to sit along side Cory. "What was the surprise?"
The look of pure guilt and anxiety on Cory's face had me beyond worried, and I knew from then on what he was going to say wasn't of happy news. "They got plane tickets, for a vacation."
This news had me perking up, my frowning face turning up into a huge grin. What had he even been so scared to tell me for? This was amazing news. "Seriously? That's awesome man! When are they leaving?" I asked, excitement leaking from me. This news was great, Cory's parents weren't the most lenient, but with them out of the way he was to do as he liked. With me. For a whole three months.
"No, you're misunderstanding me. There are 3 plane tickets. One for me, one for my dad, and one for my mom," he explained, and my head whipped around to face him.
"What?"
"I'm so sorry! I know we had all these plans for the summer but the news was kind of dropped on me too. My parents want us to spend one last summer together before we go off to university and I couldn't refuse them that. I'm sorry," Cory rushed out.
A deep frown was permanently set on my face as I stared at Cory for a long amount of time. It was true we had made plans, plans to spend every waking moment of this summer doing adventurous, yet crazy thing over the summer before school started back up, but who am I to deny him the right to vacation with his family? No one, that's who.
I was just excited that he really would have time for me this time, since he finally broke things off with Sam- which wasn't the worst of break ups on my part.
"It's cool, I understand," I said, smiling reassuringly. Sure, I wanted nothing more for him to stay but what can I do? Kidnap him, lock him in the cold confines of my basement, and keep him all to myself for no one to find? I could, but eventually I'd get caught. Pretty boys like me don't do very well in jail either, it's a fact.
"Don't be so cool about it! I promised you first. Ugh, I'll just cancel on my parents or something," he said, slowly sliding off my bed.
I quickly grabbed him arm before he could get down even further and gave him a stern look. "You will do no such thing. They're your parents; they won't get to see you much after this summer. Spend the summer with them, I'll manage."
"Why are you so cool about this?" Cory asked, looking slightly defeated. I only gave him a shrug as a response as he got back onto the bed, relaxing more while we both leaned against the wall, shoulder to shoulder.
"So... when are you leaving?" I asked after a few minutes of silence overtook us.
"Uh, the day after tomorrow," he said, looking even more distraught but I only smiled.
"At least it's not tomorrow or something, we can spend tomorrow hanging out," I said, and then something occurred to me. "After we pack some of your clothes that is."
"Thanks man, you're freaking awesome. Well, I'm going to head out, my parents don't even know I left the house, I just sort of snuck out of the house," he chuckled out.
I couldn't feel slightly happier from the news, yeah he was leaving but he had snuck out, dismissing the fact his parents would basically kill him for doing so, just to talk to me about this when he could have just done it tomorrow. I know it's not something to get overly excited about considering how long we have been friends for, but it still gave me the little hope I needed.
"Alright then, I'll see you tomorrow," I said smiling as I got off the bed to see him out.
We both walked out of my room, me in the nothing but a pair of shorts and a wife beater. I never really got the chance to see what Cory was wearing exactly, but as I watched him make his way down the stairs I couldn't help but laugh. He was in a pair of Pokémon pyjama bottoms and a plain white t-shirt.
"What?" he asked, turning around and looking at me confusingly.
"Didn't know you were into Pokémon," I said, causing his cheeks to tint red. Being the good friend I am, I decided it was in my bed interest to point it out. "Are you blushing Cory?" I asked in a cocky manner.
"Shut up Carson," he mumbled, opening the front door. "Anyways," he tried to change the subject, which I let him do. "Be at my house at 11:30am sharp," he said as sternly as he could, then suddenly he grew serious. Cory and serious, never would have I thought I would be using the same words in the same sentence, but I was and it was shocking. The only time I had ever seen his face like this was when he was studying for school, but that's it. He was always goofy and outgoing around me, and our other friends, and this worried me.
"Sure. Hey, are you okay?" I asked.
"Hm, yeah I am," he hummed out, leaning forward in the process. Then, he did the most unexpected thing. He kissed me. It was nothing big, just a cheek kiss but it was still something. Before I could even get anything out, he was shouting a 'see you tomorrow' at me and running down the driveway to his car.
[End of flashback]
Ever since that faithful night, I couldn't seem to get him out of my mind. It confused me beyond belief. Especially since we didn't talk about it through the whole time I was helping him pack and hanging out, but I didn't question it all that much. Maybe he was just having a relapse of judgement and decided it was more of a goodbye kiss. Boys can have those too, right? Right. Besides, it's not like it's the first time we have done that. Granted, the last time we kissed was a dare and it was on the lips.
This wasn't anything major to even be thinking about, I was just over thinking things like I usually did when it had to do with Cory. Nothing more then I quick good night kiss, that's it. Yet, no matter how much I tried to convince myself of this, I couldn't help the slim chance of that kiss meaning something to Cory as it did to me.
A honking noise cleared me of my previous thoughts- not completely though- and I realized the light had turned green and the traffic was finally clearing. I thanked the high heavens as I sped down the road, making my way to the airport only 5 more minutes away. Five more minutes and I'll be that much closer to seeing him.
The plan wasn't regularly to pick Cory up from the airport, but when I got a message from him telling me of his parents plans of wanting to visit Jerusalem, we decided that it was in his best interest to come back home. To pack for university, instead of joining his parents for that short trip. That made me happy, that Cory would be coming home earlier then his parents had originally planned.
The summer had been considerably lonely without his lingering presence to consume all my time of day, but that was all about to change today because Cory was coming back. The entire time we kept in contact via Facebook and those occasional Skype calls. I couldn't really tell you all that much if he had changed through the last three months reason being the Skype calls always got fuzzy on his end.
Another honk blared from behind me and realized I was going under the speed limit. Honestly, I need to start paying more attention to the road ahead of me over the person I have been waiting to see since the moment he left. I could get into an accident if I kept this up.
In no time, I had my car parked in the airport parking lot and was in the terminal 1, awaiting Cory's arrival. Through all of that traffic I still managed to make it before Cory. A short few moments ago they announced his flight had landed, but it would take him a while to actually get out, but I was in no rush now. Mainly because the nerves started to kick in when I heard the announcement.
I was extremely nervous to see him. Why? Because... he might have changed. He could have gotten more attractive then he already was, if that's even possible. Or worse, I could have gotten uglier. Three months is a long time, and the mere thought of either of changing, for the worst, terrified me. I had prayed for everything between to still be the same, for him to still be the crazy, wild, carefree friend he was a short few months ago.
Would he even be recognizable when he walked through those terminal doors? I sure hope so.
"Carson?!" A voice exclaimed from a short distance, but I knew that unchanged voice from anywhere.
I turned my head to the side so I could see Cory for the first time, in person, for a long time and my voice caught in my throat just taking in his appearance. His voice had gone unchanged, and his attire still seemed the same, but there was that undeniable tan and the slight facial hair growing. There was also the fact he seemed more, I don't know, muscular. Like he had been working out, or spent the entire in the water, swimming. Whatever it was, I liked it. A lot.
"Cat got your tongue," Cory joked when he was close enough, referring to my speechless state.
"I-Uh-What? No," I replied lamely. God, why was I acting like this? Out of all greeting I could be giving him right now, I'm acting like this. Well, it's not my fault. It's his. If he hadn't gone to the freaking Bahamas and gotten hotter I would be acting normal, as normal gets whenever I'm around him anyways.
"I've missed you," he said, pulling me into one of those quick man hugs. In that short amount of time, I got a whiff of this unfamiliar smell that didn't seem all that much like him. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adored it, but it was different from what I was used to. Not that I was complaining, this smell seemed more... grown up. Like he was coming back a completely different person. A man ready for his first year of university it seemed.
"Same here. It's been forever, for me anyways," I said. "So how was the trip?" I asked, reaching for his luggage' to carry back to my car.
"I'm not going to lie, it was fun and all but I would have much rather preferred staying here for the summer," Cory replied as we walked down to the exit.
"Hm, why's that?" I asked, genuinely curious. I would have though he'd enjoy his time in the sun, ocean side and whatnot. It all seemed like the idle vacation to me.
"You weren't there," was all he said before jogging the rest of the way to my car as I lugged around his bags. I didn't expect less of him, leaving me with such a comment like that and running off. Cory always did that, leave me hanging, I've grown used to it. Still, that didn't stop the pounding in my chest.
"Damn, I'm tired," Cory stretched, as he did so his white t-shirt slightly lift up, revealing a chiselled out stomach. As I had suspected, my suspicions were right earlier, he had been doing something to workout his body. But why? It's not like it wasn't already perfect before.
I really didn't reply to his previous words, instead I loaded all of his things into the truck of my car, knowing he wouldn't be all that tired when we got to my house.
Cory's parents didn't want him to stay home alone while they were gone for the next two weeks, so I'm letting him stay over. Though, we would be going about to his house to pack his things for the starting of school in a week. This meant we had exactly one week together before the stress of school, homework, assignments, and exams kicked in, and I'm planning to make the most of it.
At my house awaited only Vincent, Brody, and Meagan since mostly everyone was either on vacation or busy with their own thing for school. This week is proved to be one of the busiest for everyone, but that wasn't going to stop me from having fun. This pasted summer had been a completely blow but I wasn't going to let this last week I have with Cory here blow either, and I told him that. Obviously, he was all for it.
The whole car ride home was full of mindless chatter of what had been going with us in our time away from he each other and Cory found it quite hilarious how I was stuck with Vincent and Brody. There was also the part where I told him about this one time I accidently walked in on the two of them about to get it on. The entire time he was laughing his head off, not that I minded, his laugh was contagious. There was also the stories he told me about meet a few exotic people, and how his parents thought one guy was trying to sell him some very suspicious things. His father completely blew up, leaving an embarrassed Cory when they found out the guy was only selling puppies.
In the middle of one of Cory's stories, we had arrived at my house but he hadn't seemed to take notice so I let him continue on.
"So she basically walked around the entire day with a period stain on her bikini bottom," he finished off, leaving me a laughing mess. To making a long story short, a girl tried flirting it up with Cory, and when he kindly declined her offer of handing out, she got all pissed of and kicked sand at him. When she started walking away, he saw a huge red stain on her white bikini bottom, which in my part is hilarious. Karma is cruel, but that's what she gets for kicking sand at him.
I didn't even have it in me to be jealous at the fact another girl was flirting with him since I found out he declined.
"I'll get your bags, go on inside the house. You look exhausted," I said doing a 180 around my car to get to the trunk.
"Are you sure?" he asked and I nodded my head in response. Needn't be told twice, Cory sprinted his way to the front door, which I made sure to tell my mom to leave unlocked, and went into the house.
I heard collective shouts of 'welcome home's from our friends and smiled to myself, I'm sure he wasn't expecting that one. This wasn't really a welcome home party or anything, but everyone did want to greet Cory today and I couldn't deny them that. They are his friends too.
I carried the only two luggage's Cory had with him to the house, making sure to securely locked my car, and headed into the house just as Cory did. Inside I was greeted with excited chatter from mostly Meagan. Brody and Vincent just stood there, offering the occasional side comments and chuckle, but they still looked as excited to see him as Meagan. Cory was just lovable like that, he made everything so much more lively when he was in the room. He was like the clown from all of us, but he could be the most serious when times called for it. I guess that's what even made me fall for him in the first place. Or maybe it was that he could get along with anyone, or that he could put anyone before himself.
I don't really know exactly when it was that I started feeling this way about him, but somewhere along the lines of just watching him and spending most of my days with him, I just fell. Fell deeper than I have for anyone in my entire life, and I'm not even sure he realized it yet.
It seemed almost impossible, but I tore my gaze away from Cory and noticed from the corner of my eye that Brody was staring at him. I turned my line of vision on him and saw him giving me a knowing look, like he knew exactly what I was thinking, which wasn't all that surprising since he knew of how I felt about Cory. Only he really knew, that I was aware of, and that's how I wanted to keep it until I was really ready to come out, completely.
Coming out, something I never thought I would have to do, but for Cory I would. After a year with him, I had gone through so much emotions it was hard to keep track of all of them. At one point it was just admiration, then that admiration turned into a crush, that crush turned into liking him, and right now, as stare at that happy-go-lucky figure before me, everything just seemed to be blossoming into that feeling of undeniable love.
As shocking as this may come to some of you guys, I, Carson Reyes, am in love with a supposed straight male that goes by the name of Cory Matthews.