Frustration -SERIES- [Part 2] Headphones & Reveries [boyxboy]

Chapter Four

'I'm going to have a bath,' Rachel was saying, tipping her head back and closing her eyes. 'And a massage. And a nap.'

'There is nothing as gross as a long haul flight,' Sally agreed. 'I'll definitely join you for that massage.'

'If you join her for the bath that would be cool too,' Philip quipped, and then jumped back, laughing, as both girls lunged to hit him.

We were sitting in the back of a stretch limo on the way from LAX to our hotel, and Rachel wasn't the only one looking forward to cleaning up and laying down in an actual bed. First class is great for getting some shut eye on your flight, but it's still not the most comfortable way to sleep.

'You okay?' I asked Conor, who was staring at his phone and wearing a mildly shocked expression, his mouth open and eyes unblinking.

'Oh my god,' was all he managed to say.

The others all looked at him curiously as well.

'What's the matter?' Sally asked, leaning towards him to glance at the screen of his phone.

'Nothing,' he said, slightly incredulously, but locked the screen so she couldn't see. He turned to me and I could see he was trying to neutralise his expression. I felt anxiety bubble up in my tummy.

'Do you remember a couple of years ago when that white American lady got on a flight to South Africa and before she left she Tweeted about not getting AIDS because she was white?'

Completely thrown, I nodded slowly.

'And remember how it blew up and became a total media sensation but she was still on her flight and had no idea that the whole world was talking about her Tweet until she landed eleven hours later?'

I nodded again, starting to get an idea of where this might be going.

'I think you're more famous than me now,' he said, starting to grin and handing me his phone. In a panic I unlocked it to see he had been scrolling through his Twitter @mentions, and they were all... About me.

And they were pretty complimentary.

@Conor_ArchibaldNW Is that seriously @Tyler_Lincoln in the last photo?? Oh my GOD!

@Conor_ArchibaldNW When did ur bf get so hotttttttt

@Conor_ArchibaldNW tf i wanna sex @Tyler_Lincoln when did this happen

It went on. And on and on.

'Here,' Conor reached across and took his phone back, closing the app and opening his web browser. 'I Googled you as well. Look.'

Page after page of search results for me featuring the now seemingly infamous photo. I was being discussed on fashion pages, lifestyle blogs, and entertainment sites. The last time I'd given into curiosity and searched for my name online, it had mostly just been results about Conor, Name Withheld, and of course the half dozen websites dedicated to fan fiction about our sex life. Now it seemed like I was a celebrity all on my own.

Everyone else in the car now had their phones out and were doing the same thing as me; reading through my Twitter @mentions and Googling me.

'This is crazy,' Rachel said, shaking her head and laughing incredulously. 'You're like the new It Boy.'

'Everyone wants to fuck you,' Josh confirmed, scrolling animatedly through whichever article he was reading.

'Hey, look at this,' Jackson interjected, reaching across Sally and Conor to show me his phone. 'That expression you have on in that one photo of you by yourself, they came up with a name for it. They're calling it The Tyler. It has it's own hashtag on Twitter and Instagram. People are trying to replicate it, like with Kylie Jenner's mouth. You're like literally a brand.'