I'm Gay, He's Straight -SERIES- [boyxboy]

*Kiss Me Like You Did* IGHS Sequel {06} Slash

Taylor was excited. I could tell. I still knew him so well, it was painful, but somehow it felt like no time at all had passed since we’d last walked side by side down a footpath. Only this time, the itching I felt to reach out and take his hand couldn’t be scratched. I couldn’t believe touching him wasn’t allowed anymore. Even before we’d gotten together, hugging him and tackling him and tickling him and touching him had all been okay.

Now I couldn’t even tap him on the shoulder without feeling like the desperate ex-boyfriend. Which I was, I guess. Taylor had moved on, that much was clear. He’d moved on and gotten himself some mysterious illness in the process. And a mysterious boyfriend.

Ethan, Jacob, Johnny, and Noah seemed to think Ryan was okay, and obviously Taylor trusted him, so I knew I should try to get along with him. I would have to live with him for the rest of the year, after all. I just wasn’t sure I could handle that. Having Taylor around and knowing he was there to see Ryan and not me. Having Taylor stay over, and sleep in Ryan’s bed rather than mine. Waking up to find Ryan hadn’t come home last night and knowing where he was and why.

‘There it is!’ Taylor exclaimed happily, pointing further up the street to a skate park. ‘I knew there was one around here somewhere. Come on!’ He grabbed my hand and started pulling me faster up the street, then stopped dead and dropped my hand. ‘Um. Sorry,’ he muttered, looking at the ground, a blush creeping across his cheeks. ‘I didn’t think...’ He bit his lip and started walking up the street again quickly without looking at me, and I quickened my pace to catch up with him.

Taylor and I always hung out in the skate park at home, before he moved. We used to climb on top of the skate ramp, just sitting and talking, annoying the actual skaters who couldn’t use the ramp without injuring us, or themselves, or both.

Shaking off the hand-grabbing incident, Taylor quickly scrambled up one of the unused ramps, sitting on top and swinging his legs as he waited for me to join him. I slid back down on my first attempt; I was weak now, my muscles wasting away over the last year through lack of exercise and a diet of fresh air and not much more.

‘Here,’ Taylor said gently, reaching out to catch my hand and pull me up beside him. Trying not to be embarrassed, I took his hand, forcing myself to ignore the electricity that flowed though my veins as he touched me. I sat next to him, getting my bearings and looking around the park. It was handy to have one close by; even after Taylor left I liked going to the park to feel close to him. It had become a habit. I liked that I wouldn’t have to give it up, just because I’d moved 3,000 miles away.

‘So,’ Taylor started, then stopped, and a sideways glance confirmed that he was biting his lip. ‘Fuck it,’ he mumbled, and wrapped his arms around me tightly. ‘It’s so good to see you. I’ve missed you so much.’

‘I’ve missed you too,’ I whispered, even as a tiny traitor voice in my head demanded, If you missed me so much, why did you stop talking to me? I hugged him back as tightly as he was hugging me, and we sat there for a few minutes, becoming a reacquainted with each other’s arms, bodies, smells. It was all exactly as I remembered. I’d preserved him perfectly in my head.

‘So what’s been going on with you?’ he asked eventually, pulling back to look at me critically, and I laughed, a little bitterly.

‘Me?’ I said incredulously. ‘What’s been going on with you? You’re the one who’s gotten yourself a-’ I cut myself off before I could blurt out “new boyfriend” and quickly amended it to, ‘mystery illness. What happened last night?’

Taylor looked away from me, glaring at the ground a little, before his expression cleared and he looked back up at me. ‘Don’t play that card with me,’ he said lightly, nudging me. ‘You’ve lost a shitload of weight Jakey, are you sick or something?’