TWO
“Darien? Darien! This is Earth calling, Darien, are you there?”
Darien raised his head, realizing that he’d been totally spacing out, just as Ken had been so good as to point out to him. He met the other man’s eyes, which were a remarkable shade somewhere between blue and green and which were filled with mischief and amusement.
Belatedly, Darien raised his phone, like he had been occupied by it the whole time, but the truth was that Darien had been staring without truly seeing anything, just like he had been ever since he’d gotten that text from Noah.
This whole time, he’d been waiting for that text, but he had always assumed that it was never coming and that he’d burned his bridges with the man. Noah had said, after all, that he wouldn’t wait for Darien, and he’d probably moved on with his life.
Maybe he even had a new roommate, someone else to laugh with, to do homework with, to share crappy, terrible food with. The thought made Darien feel frozen all the way through to his bones, but he knew it was possible, maybe even likely.
“Man, you’ve been a space cadet for like a week now,” Ken told him, playfully punching his shoulder. Of the three men that Darien had been put together with for the last year, Ken was the one that he probably got along with the most, playful and cheerful and always full of energy.
“Sorry,” Darien said, glancing around and only just then realizing that they were probably supposed to be rehearsing. At least, the looks he was getting from the other members of the band would suggest that—Lance’s green eyes amused, and Aaron’s irritated.
“Don’t be sorry,” Aaron snapped, his voice quiet and deep, as always, but his face filled with annoyance. “Get up here. We have to learn this dance sequence.”
Reluctantly, Darien rose to his feet, wandering over to the middle of the floor with Ken trailing behind him. As the end of the year approached, Darien was finding it harder and harder to concentrate on his work.
His mind drifted back, whenever he let it or even stopped guarding against it for a few seconds, across the country, to Boston. To a certain young science major who had worked his way into Darien’s heart without Darien even fully realizing it. Not until it was too late.
He liked these guys, he really did. Even Aaron, who was a bit intimidating with his serious nature and his intense love of music, he was a good guy. And Ken and Lance were both a lot of fun to be around, Lance smooth and seductive and Ken sporty and energetic.
The four of them made a good team. No one, not even their manager Lester who had put them all together, could have imagined what a success they’d been. Sure, there had been a decent amount of money tossed at them, but sometimes, that didn’t ensure success.
No, the four of them had gelled, but that left Darien in a tough situation. Before he’d gotten that text from Noah, he’d sort of thought that he would sign another contract with them. Why not, when it didn’t seem like he had anything to go back to?
Now, it had all changed. Noah had reached out, all on his own, and suddenly, nothing seemed certain anymore.
He tried to lose himself in the music, in a moment that had nothing to do with Noah, but his mind kept going back to beautiful twilight eyes and softness, soft skin, soft lips, no matter how much he tried to focus on what his body was doing.
His heart was somewhere else, and where the heart was, the brain inevitably followed.
* * *
They were on a break, and Darien was covered in sweat as he flopped down on the floor, legs crossed, and reached for his phone. Aaron drove them all hard, but they were all the better for it, and even if Darien sometimes sort of hated the man, he couldn’t deny that it was good to have him around.
Reaching into the side pocket of his bag, Darien tugged out his phone once more, looking anxiously at the text message icon to see if he had anything new. He didn’t, and he bit his lower lip as he tapped on Noah’s name and then hesitated.
Had Noah felt this nervous when he’d sent the first message? If so, it was Darien’s turn to go through all that, and he waited at least a full sixty seconds before he even started to type.
I really miss you. All the time.
And then there was another full minute of just staring down at the words, wondering if they made him seem desperate. But he was, he really was, and he took a deep breath and then sent the message. Noah could ignore it if he wanted to, but for Darien’s own sanity he had to know that he had at least tried.
There was a pause during which Darien started desperately at his blank, unresponsive phone, willing Noah to say something. He hadn’t the last time Darien had admitted to that, and that had been the last message that he’d gotten from Noah, but at least he could say he’d put his cards out on the table for the other man to see.
I really miss you, too.
At first, when the message came up, Darien couldn’t believe that he was reading what he was reading. It had to be a figment of his imagination, he told himself frantically, his eyes scanning over the text right there in black and white on his screen.
“Darien!” Aaron’s voice, impatient and slightly demanding, pulled his gaze away from his phone, and he looked up at him. Aaron was ethereal in his prettiness, really too beautiful for a man, but that shouldn’t imply that he was soft or yielding, because he wasn’t. He was sharp, and prickly, and impossible to get close to.
In his hands, his phone chirped, and he glanced down to see another message from Noah pop up. He glanced down at the screen, and his skin prickled cold and then flushed warm.
Be at the airport at eleven thirty am on Friday, April 29.
Darien stared, to the point where Aaron had to call him again, and even laid-back Lance started to complain. Ken was already working on the dance moves, because when it came to physical things, Ken was in, probably more than any of the rest of them.
