Connor's POV
The first thing I realize when I climb into my car to start driving back home is how much crap my passenger side has accumulated. I'm not usually a messy person. Oh well. Add that to the to-do list.
As I'm driving, I station-surf until I find a good song to jam out to. It's not a long drive to my house, so I only get through a couple songs until I pull up into the driveway.
I am so excited to have Kass move in. She's one of my closest friends outside of o2l. I remember so clearly coming home the day I met her.
I walk through the front door of the house.
"Dude, what the hell is wrong with you? You left this morning to get coffee and you're just coming home now at 6? Why weren't you answering your phone?" Ricky interrogates me. I move to the kitchen to get food. I don't answer his questions right away, which forces Ricky to say, "Connor!" to get my attention. He snaps his fingers in front of my face.
"Hey, calm down. I did go out to get coffee, but I met someone there and we got to talking. Sorry if I got you worried."
Ricky just stares at me, bewildered. "You mean to tell me that you actually got a girl?!"
When he sees the somewhat hurt expression on my face, he goes, "Nah, I'm just kidding. Congrats dude. What's her name?"
"First of all, even though she is a girl, Kassidy is just a friend. We just had a lot in common so we had a lot to talk about. I gave her my number..." I see Ricky go "ooooh", "to just hang out. She seemed really nice so I told her we should hang out soon. But not a date."
"Whatever, sure sounds like you like her though."
I'm the last of the three cars to get here, so I park the car and open the hatch up. Kass and the guys come out of the house and meet me at my car. I guess she wants to start moving in right away. This might be a problem, since the guys and I have a suprise party planned for later tonight. Its just gonna be us o2l guys that live here plus Trevor and Sam and Kian's girlfriend, but still, its a party.
I know Kass will do a room tour for her weekly video, but what do I want to do? Its Wednesday, I've got time to think about it.
JC, Kian, Ricky, and I are carrying box by box in. There's some small furniture, too. Our spare room will now be Kass's room. For now, we're just piling all the boxes into one corner of the room. There's a bed already here, so Kass sold her old one, along with a bunch of other furniture she wouldn't need.
As the last box is set down, I realize how hungry I am. All my mind is saying now is FOOD, FOOD, FOOD.
"We should get lunch somewhere," I say to everyone.
"Yeah, I'm starving," Ricky replies.
"Me too," JC adds.
"Only if I get to choose where," Kian pipes up.
"Sure, I'll meet you guys out at the car, I'm just gonna set up one little thing. It won't take long," Kass tells us, and we all head out the door besides her.
I pause and hold back for a second, while the guys head outside, arguing over where to eat.
"Hey, you might wanna hurry up and get your vote in on where we're eating or else they'll choose like Chinese or something," she makes a sour face and I laugh because of how much Kass hates Chinese food.
"Whatcha doing?" I ask her as she lifts something out of a box she told us to set aside from the rest. I notice the picture I saw earlier today on the nightstand already.
"I," she starts. "Am making sure my baby looks good on this desk."
She pulls out her "baby"-a vintage typewriter that I remember hearing a lot about. She sets it down very carefully on the desk that was already there, like the bed.
"I like it," I say. "Its a blend of modern and vintage. It looks nice."
"Thanks. This is a nice view I'll have when I'm writing, too," she points out the window the desk sits before. She's right, the view of LA is awesome from every side of the house.
"When you get it up and running again, let me know. I'd love to see more of your writing."
She blushes. I know she doesn't let a lot of people read what she writes. Actually, I think I might be the only one. When we first started talking, she showed me a short story she wrote about a couple in New York City. I thought it was really good, even though she assured me it was 'from a while back when she wasn't that great'.
We hear a car horn beep, so we both hurry outside to see Kian in the driver's seat, tapping his finger against his wrist to signify that we taking his precious time. To that I do: [min 5:16 of the video attached]. Kass and I squeeze into the backseat of the car with JC also in the back. Ricky is vlogging in the passenger seat so we all scream hey into his camera. Kian turns the music up super loud and we all try to sing (obnoxiously) even louder.
We pull into Panera and pile out of the cramped car. Poor Panera has no clue what's coming for them as we walk through the door.
Kass excuses herself to go to the bathroom while I take this as the perfect opportunity to ask, "Alright, what's the plan for tonight?"
"Becki said she'll pick up some pizzas on her way over," Kian says while staring at his phone, probably on twitter. Becki is Kian's girlfriend.
"Trevor and Sam are bringing streamers to hang up. You'll keep her in her room while we hang those up, which shouldn't be that hard for you to do, you know, distract her," Ricky taunts at me.
I must be blushing whens I call them morons, because they laugh it off just before Kass gets back. We order our food and talk at our table about random stuff. The car ride home is a repeat of driving to lunch.
My job, which is to keep Kass occupied in her room, starts now. I ask her if she wants to unpack and she answers sure. We walk to her room, her walking in front of me, and I look back at Ricky. We both nod in agreement that we both know what to do.
Kass looks at me as we stand before the pile of 12 boxes total, 4 suitcases of clothes, and another section of the floor designated for all her small furniture. "Are you ready to tackle this beast?" she asks.
"I'm ready, I'm ready, I'm ready," I say/sing mainly just to annoy Kass because Top 40 (especially that song) is not really her favorite kind of music.
She gives me a pissed off look, which I know she can never be at me, so I laugh, which makes her give an even more pissed look.
"Okay, stop. Let's start opening some boxes. Did you bring scissors with you?" she looks around and sees no scissors, so starts to walk toward the door to get some.
"Woah, woah, woah," I say, racing her to the door and blocking the exit. "Let me go get them, and you can start planning on where everything will be put."
She gives me another look-one that more says 'you weirdo', but I duck out of the room and grab two pairs of scissors. I come back to Kass's room and she's walking around, picturing in her mind where to move things to.
"Hey, so do you want me to just take a box and open it?" I ask.
"Um, sure," she nods. "Put whatever's in the boxes on the bed. I'll figure out where to put it from there."
I take down the top box and use the scissors to rip the tape off. Kass takes the second. This box is full of pictures. I take them out one by one and I recognize some of the other people in the pictures. A lot of them are pictures of her and her two sisters, Elizabeth and Kameryn. She's a middle child, like me. Some of them are high school friends. Some other family. But no college pictures. She spent 2 years at college, and there's no pictures to show for it? She was very involved in high school, I know that, and would assume for college, too. No extra-curriculars, no sorority, no friends at a party or even a boyfriend picture? Maybe they're in another box, or just on her phone. I realize how much I don' t know about why she dropped out of college.
"This is a great picture of you," I say, smirking obnoxiously, as I pull out a picture of her and a group of friends probably at least 5 years old.
"Hey, that was from freshman year, you can't hold me to anything I wore, said, or did with my friends," she retorts. "I mean, c'mon, think back 6 years. If you don't cringe then something's wrong with you. Freshman year was nobody's strong year."
I think back a while, and yeah, she's right. "Fair enough."
We unpack like this for almost 3 and a half hours and I can tell Kass is in her prime-putting one thing here but then moving it there and dedicing it looks better there. I don't find it boring one bit; I find it fascinating to watch the gears in her mind turning.
We are close to finished when Ricky comes to the door. "Hey, um, we're gonna order a pizza, why don't you guys come out and tell us what you want on it?"
I walk behind Kass, into the living room/ kitchen area, which is pitch black.
"What the hell?" Kass says.
The lights flip on and we all yell, "SURPRISE!!!"
Kass is on the verge of tears from happiness/shock. There's streamers and balloons everywhere, a banner that displays 'WELCOME HOME KASS" on it, and a cake on the kitchen counter.
"Oh my god, you guys. You didn't have to do this for just me," she's smiling.
"We didn't do it for just you. Because you're not just you to us. You're our super awesome best friend who we all love a lot," I say, noticing that she really is crying now. I pull her in for a hug, which lasts a few seconds longer than I think it should've, but it wasn't awkward. "Aw, don't cry, you don't wanna get tears on the cake!"
We all laugh, eat lots of cake (it's red velvet, which I know is her favorite), and talk about random stuff. All of us are scattered around the living room and kitchen now. Kian brings his girlfriend, Becki, over to Kass and I.
"Hey, I love the decorations! Who knew you guys had it in you?" Becki jokes around with Kian and I. "I'm Becki."
"Hi, I'm Kassidy, thanks so much for coming!"
"This might be a random question, but do you guys like running?" Becki asks to Kass and I.
"Yeah, I did cross country in high school," Kass says.
"So was I," I add.
"I was asking because Kian and I are planning to do a Color Me Rad run tomorrow morning. Its a 5k but it not focused on the running aspect as much as people throwing paint at you. It's gonna be a lot of fun and we were wondering if anyone else wanted to do it. Everyone else said either they were busy or 'ew, running'. Would you guys be interested?"
"I'd love to! I've always wanted to do one of those," Kass replies.
"I'm in too," I say.
"Great! Wear white and I'll see you in the morning!" she smiles and checks her phone for the time. "Aw, I should head home now, but it was great meeting you. I can't wait for tomorrow!"
After that, Kian drives Becki home and Trevor and Sam also leave. The rest of us drift our seperate ways as it gets later and I walk Kass to her new room.
"Well, I hope you had fun. I had fun all day, helping you move and stuff-"
"Con, I can't believe you did this for me. I've had parties in the past, for example, my graduation party. Full of proud, old relatives and friends who were just glad to be done with school and get far, far away from our town. But this party was different, yes it was for a different reason and it was smaller, it felt more real. I'm probably making no sense but it felt more genuine, maybe because a graduation party is tradition and expected-this wasn't expected. And sure my parents put work into my graduation party and they were proud of me, but this from my friends. You guys didn't have to do this but you did anyway. Thank you. I've never been so happy to know that I have friends I can rely on."
I hug her, tightly, and again, much longer than the standard best-friend hug. I know I will do anything to see the smile that I saw on her face tonight. She looks 'up' at me, only shorter by an inch and a half, and I notice how blue her eyes look, which reminds me of the first time we met. I tuck a piece of loose blonde hair behind her ear and say goodnight and that if she needs anything she knows where to find me.
I walk down the hall to my room and get ready for bed. I lay under my comforter and re-live the suprise in my mind. I see the expression on Kass' face, the streamers being thrown everywhere, and the happiness everyone felt in the room.
Today was probably one of the happiest days I've had in a long time. Now I can't stop re-living the past, and that is not a place I like to go.
Hey guys, it me. I posted the first chapter of this story 3 or 4 days before Connor's coming out video, so that explains the delay in Chapter 2. I was debating this story a lot in that time. I chose to continue it because I am still very excited to write this and I have a lot of ideas. I support Connor 100% because sexual preference should not affect the way you look at or think about someone. I still am in love with him, that hasn't changed. I can't stop it just as much as he can't stop being who he is. So, I am moving forward with this story with complete love and support for Connor.
On another note, I went to TYLER OAKLEY'S SLUMBER PARTY and it was unbelievable. Sadly, I didn't get to meet him but the show was hysterical.
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Attached in the media section:
The Internet Slang Challenge | Marcus Butler (5:16~Connor's middle finger 'trick')
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Btw this chapter was considerably long for me, they all most likely won't be this long.
If you read this far, comment "color me rad" and I will love you forever!
And with that, comment below, vote for this story, and queue Connor's outtro!