Something Real

by Nellie Christine

  “What the hell are you doing in my bedroom, Oscar?”

  Oscar stood up and crossed his arms. “Welcome home. Rumor has it you were out being a bad boy, Grayson Paul.”

  Grayson ran his hands through his hair in frustration. All he wanted to do was come home and get in the shower in peace. Why couldn’t this have been achieved like a normal person? He should’ve known better, though. Escaping Oscar that easily was much too good to be true.

  “Rumor has it that you’re in my room being a huge creep, Oscar. Who does this? Who just… sits in the dark waiting for someone like this?”

  “Are you really trying to distract from the fact that we sent you out on a date with one guy and you came home after having did someone else?” Oscar looked so happy as he asked it. He stepped a little closer and smiled. “I cannot say how ecstatic it made me when you answered in the middle of… everything. Come on. Take a seat. Tell Oscar everything.”

  Elijah:

  So when can I give you your bowtie back?

  Grayson read the message before pushing past Oscar and walking over to the bed. He shook his head as he mounted the cell phone to its charger. Part of him thought it might be a good idea to tell Oscar what he wanted to hear just to get this over with, but he didn’t think he’d be able to tolerate him long enough to do that. He needed a shower and he needed sleep.

  “Sonny…”

  “Tomorrow –”

  “I’m not letting you leave me in the dark,” Oscar said, ignoring the fact that he was just sitting in the dark like a weirdo for God knows how long. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this night?”

  Grayson rolled his eyes. “Look, man. I’ll give you the rundown, but then you need to get out of my bedroom. I’d probably let you stay if you were wearing pants, but you’re not.”

  Grayson:

  Home now & dealing with my roommate -_- I’ll text u in a bit

  Oscar looked down at himself in the white thermal shirt and orange boxer-briefs he was wearing.

  Elijah:

  Ok.

  “I got to Amo Pasta – the restaurant where Bryce and I were meeting. I was there for a couple minutes before Elijah, the guy that found my phone on Monday, showed up. Turns out he was the entertainment.”

  It was starting to click now. At least some of it. Oscar looked up and tried to figure out the whole boyfriend part, but he only nodded instead of asking questions. Sleepy-Grayson was very grumpy. “That’s crazy. But go on.”

  “We talked for a little while and I apologized for not texting him despite telling him I would.”

  “I told you to text him.”

  Grayson ignored him. “Elijah went to change and get ready to perform, and once he was gone, my date – or whatever the heck you want to call him, showed up. Turns out he’s someone who I also had a run-in with on Monday. Bryce and I had bumped into one another on the street.”

  Oscar rubbed at his chin. “Wow. You met two guys by coincidence and now this…”

  It was a lot to process, Grayson thought. He shrugged. “I don’t know. Anyway, I’m talking with Bryce, and while he’s attractive, that’s the only decent quality about him. His personality is terrible. He ordered my food for me and told me –”

  “He did what?” Oscar interrupted, looking slightly disgusted.

  “Yup. Chose my food for me. Then he said that I couldn’t listen to Elijah’s song because we were out together and ‘had to get to know each other.’ I just. I wasn’t having a good time.”

  “Eleanor feels really bad about that.”

  Grayson nodded obviously. “Well she should. I made you two go a week without making me sick and she repays me by sending me on a date with a controlling brat.”

  “Hey,” Oscar said. He stepped forward, and it was probably meant to be threatening, but he was there in his orange underwear. “She thought the guy was a decent person. Do you think she’d purposely make you go out with someone she thought would make you unhappy?”

  Grayson shook his head no. “Calm down, man. No, I don’t think that, but I’m a little upset with myself for agreeing to do it.”

  “Even though you got to spend time with Elijah?” Oscar asked.

  Grayson bit his lip and looked away. He started to gather his things for the shower. “My time with Elijah was a lot better than my time with Bryce. I haven’t actually enjoyed myself as much as I did with him in a while.”

  “That wouldn’t have happened if Eleanor didn’t hook you up with the sleaze ball. That’s something to think about.”

  He nodded.

  “So,” Oscar continued. “Tell me about how the date ended, and how it resulted in you meeting up with phone-boy.”

  “Well.” Grayson pulled off his tank top and tossed it over to his hamper. “Elijah told me that if I needed to be bailed out of the date, to give him a signal. The signal was this.”

  Grayson demonstrated by rubbing the nape of his neck. When he did so, Oscar’s beady eyes went wider than normal.

  “Nice hickeys,” he said.

  What?

  Grayson turned around and looked in the mirror on his wall, wincing when he saw the marks along his neck and collarbone. That must’ve happened in the stairwell on their way up to Elijah’s apartment. “Shit.”

  “Very 11th grade of the two of you, I must say.”

  “We got carried away.”

  Oscar nodded. “You don’t say.”

  “Where was I?” Grayson asked, rubbing at the bruised skin and turning around. He still hadn’t gotten used to Oscar being in his underwear, unfortunately.

  “He told you to give a signal.”

  Grayson nodded. “I gave the signal a bunch of times. After Elijah’s set – he was amazing by the way – after the set, he came over, caused this huge scene, and then he threw a drink in my face. Basically, he had Bryce and just about everyone in the restaurant convinced that I was a two-timing bastard.”

  Oscar gave him a confused but intrigued laugh. “This sounds great. Do you mind if I sit on your bed –”

  “You’re not sitting in my bed in your drawers, Oscar.”

  His friend waved him off. “I look sexy. Continue.”

  Grayson threw a towel over his shoulder. “The rest is pretty simple. I ran out of the restaurant. He convinced me to hang with him. We went to a bar. We went to the park. I tried to get him to sign to Millennium. He said no. He sang me a song. We went back to his place. Boned. I left. The end.”

  Oscar stood there with a blank face.

  “There you have it. You can leave my room now.”

  “That version was loaded, no doubt. But I feel like I’m missing something.”

  Grayson shook his head no and walked towards the door. “That’s all you’re getting tonight. When I’m not tipsy and when I’ve had some sleep, I’ll fill you in on the blanks.”

  “But I can’t tell Eleanor that version.” Oscar followed him out of the room. “She expected me to come back with the good stuff.”

  Grayson smiled as they walked down the hall. “We’ll go out tomorrow night. I’ll take you all to the diner, on me.” And then I’ll tell you about his rulebook and how he kissed me despite all of that, he thought.

  Oscar loved when Grayson paid. It meant he got to eat twice as much and even take food to-go. He nodded at the plan, wincing a bit when Grayson turned the light on in the halls. “And you’ll tell us everything then?”

  “I will. Now go away.”

  Oscar waved and started to make his way back towards his end of the penthouse. “Goodnight. Have fun washing the naughty off!”

  Grayson rolled his eyes and went into the bathroom.

  ∞

  Just as Elijah had finally fallen asleep, his alarm clock began to blare, alerting him that it was 8:00 AM.

  Elijah’s eyes opened and he stared straight above to his dingy white ceilings. He had half a mind to call his supervisor and tell her there was no way he’d be in that morning. He wanted some time to recover from the
night before – the shots, the sex, thinking about Grayson for three quarters of the night. He needed to recover from it all. The only problem with that was he needed to save his time for a road trip he and his friends were planning during spring break. Taking off from work wouldn’t be the smartest option.

  Elijah forced himself out of the bed and lazily reached over to the alarm to silence it. After rubbing his eyes and considering faking the flu yet again, he noticed that his phone screen was lit.

  It was lit because Grayson had actually texted him back. Only eight hours later.

  Better late than never, right?

  Peanut:

  Care to explain what this is?

  There was a picture attached to the message. When Elijah opened it, his eyes went wide.

  Did he do that? Impressive.

  The hickeys were some of his best work, honestly. It looked like he took his time with each mark. He didn’t remember getting that into the foreplay last night, but part of him was happy he left a stamp.

  Elijah:

  I’ll give you a proper response when you send me a picture of that gorgeous face first thing in the morning. It’ll be like I got to wake up next to you without breaking any of the ~rules~ you seem so strict on keeping up.

  He forced himself out of bed and stretched. Elijah shook his head as he caught his reflection in the full-length mirror of his tiny closet. He looked like shit.

  Peanut:

  Enjoy.

  The picture did include Grayson’s gorgeous face, but it also included him holding up the middle finger. Elijah smirked at it, but he hoped that he wasn’t that upset about the hickeys. His dress shirts would cover up most of the damage. Besides, who cared if people saw? Grayson was a grown man. He deserved to have a fun Wednesday night every once in a while.

  Peanut:

  Also. They are YOUR rules. You should be the one strict on keeping them up, Elijah. You made them for a reason.

  Elijah read the message as he walked to the bathroom. Yes, he made them for a reason. The reason was so that guys like Craig/Greg and Tony and John and Patrick wouldn’t get too attached and try to ‘break’ his ‘hard exterior’. He made the rules so that he could have a casual fuck with guys he barely knew on a first-name-basis and move on like it hadn’t even happened. All that they were doing was having a one-night stand. The rules were there to ensure that a one-night stand was the most it would become.

  He screwed up when he fell asleep before he made sure that Craig/Greg was out of his apartment. Elijah was considering taking him to small claims court for cooking and eating his food without permission. He also screwed up with Tony, but Elijah wasn’t letting himself mess up that badly again. The sex was okay, but that guy seemed to think he was the shit. That wasn’t the case at all.

  And boy, did he screw up big time with Grayson. He kissed him while they were fucking. They kissed. Elijah got so lost in what they were doing that he started sucking on Grayson’s tongue while he rode him. But the difference between what had happened with those other guys and what was going on with Grayson was obvious to Elijah.

  Elijah didn’t give a damn about those other guys besides what they were capable of doing in the bedroom. Yet, he wanted to know Grayson. He wanted Grayson to be happy, and to prosper at Millennium. He wanted Grayson to want him again.

  Those rules didn’t really apply to someone that Elijah couldn’t stop thinking about.

  He knew that while this was new for him, it didn’t take long for Elijah to get bored. That was just the way it was with him. He wanted a guy, he got the guy, the guy got him off, and then it was over.

  Elijah was infatuated with Grayson because he was different than his usual type. He was fascinated even though he couldn’t pinpoint the reason. But, Elijah had a feeling that after they repeated last night, Grayson’s effect on him would wear off. Maybe if he could do it one more time, he’d be cured of whatever the hell this was.

  He hoped.

  The effect needed to wear off and soon. Right now, he’d sobered up, and he was still having the same thoughts about Grayson that he was having last night while they were together. But Elijah didn’t do this. He didn’t text guys flirty messages, he didn’t spend all of his time wondering if they were thinking about him, too, and he definitely didn’t ask them to hook up again on the following day.

  It hadn’t even been 12 hours yet. Elijah felt pathetic.

  Peanut:

  Ignore me all you want but I want my bowtie back.

  Elijah pushed the door open to his bathroom and smiled down at the message.

  Elijah:

  I’m not ignoring you. I’m just mad the first selfie you sent me is a middle-finger selfie. And I asked you last night when I could give you the tie back and you said we’d talk later. It’s up to you…

  He peed and hopped in the shower. Hopefully it’d wake him up before he could get to his cup of coffee. In the shower, he could hear his phone go off. Elijah had to ask himself what he was doing. He had to make himself stop thinking about kissing Grayson the night before, and he had to stop imagining doing it again. Jerking off to thoughts of kissing a guy was definitely a NO in Elijah’s Rule Book.

  The corny part of his brain reminded him that rules were meant to be broken, and he ignored that. Rules needed to be established with a guy like this, too. Grayson may have been the best he ever had, and Elijah might have actually liked spending time with him outside of the sex, but there was no way Grayson would be interested in something besides sex with him. Also, Elijah knew the type of person he was. He knew that Grayson deserved more than that.

  He wrapped the towel around his waist and stepped out of the shower. He had a new message from both Grayson and his buddy Mark. Mark said that Fallon was kind of pissed off Elijah ditched them last night. Elijah sighed. He’d talk to her later.

  Peanut:

  Well you wanted to see my face and you saw my face. Don’t complain. If you can be at Symphony at 1:30ish today, I’ll get my bowtie back there. If not, we’ll work something out.

  Elijah looked for his shaving cream before replying to Grayson’s message. That sounded like it could’ve been a date. He wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

  Well. It excited him. But Elijah wasn’t sure how he felt about the fact that going to a coffee shop with a boy without sex being involved excited him.

  Elijah:

  Are you asking me out?

  The response was quick.

  Grayson:

  You aren’t exactly ask-out material, Casanova. Don’t distance yourself or get your panties in a bunch. I only want my bowtie back.

  He probably deserved that. Elijah replied that he’d see him at 1:30, and their texting had stopped for the morning. Grayson seeing him as a playboy made sense, but Elijah regretted painting himself that way.

  And things like this helped him to realize why he had rules in the first place. Feelings were never good for a person like Elijah. The Elijahs of the world didn’t end up happy with the guy. They continued their life void of any feeling other than how great it felt to get off. Elijah wanted that. It was better than cheating on a guy and breaking his heart.

  But now, Grayson was making him question if it was all worth it.

  ∞

  He was a mess at work. It was hard to focus, and it wasn’t even like his responsibilities were that hard. He received the mail and sorted it. He delivered it to its appropriate department, printed shipping labels, dropped things off at the post office. Nothing too difficult. But today, his mind was everywhere.

  The worst part about it was Fallon hadn’t come down to see him. The redhead always came down to visit before she left at noon, even if only for 10 minutes. Today, she was MIA.

  Elijah decided that after he delivered everything on the 13th floor, he’d stop over at her desk and give her a visit. It took longer than it usually did with him being so behind, and Mrs. Fannie, a collections attorney with Lehman, always stopping to talk his ear off. Elijah adored the older woman,
but it was an everyday thing. They could only discuss Donald Trump’s foolery but so much.

  Elijah parked his cart near the elevator before walking over to Fallon’s desk. She faced away from him, staring at her computer and actually working. He was equal parts shocked and impressed.

  “Good morning,” Elijah said with a smile. He picked up the stuffed giraffe near her phone and played with it in his hands.

  Fallon turned to look at him and gave a forced smile in return.

  Elijah knew that when Fallon pressed her thin lips together and smiled that it was fake. He leant against her cubicle and gave her a serious look.

  “Okay. You’re upset. What did I do?”

  Fallon shook her head in response.

  Elijah looked around the floor at people chattering and moving about. It didn’t look very busy up here. She could’ve stopped by when he got in. “So how was your get-together last night?”

  Fallon looked up at him. “You would know if you bothered to come, Eli. Or at least texted me back to say that you had no interest in seeing your friends because you were probably screwing someone.” She reached up and grabbed the stuffed toy from his hands and returned it to its place on her desk.

  Elijah didn’t say anything at first. He sighed after a moment and leant against the cubicle wall. “Fallon…”

  “I have work to finish before I leave for class.”

  He reached down and touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry I didn’t come. I got caught up after my show last night –”

  “With a guy,” she added.

  Elijah didn’t bother denying it. “It wasn’t just any guy, though. And you act like I never come over or that we never hang out –”

  “I’m just confused about why you couldn’t get back to me and let me know you wouldn’t make it, Eli.” Fallon turned in her chair to face him.

  Elijah looked off down the corridor, not wanting to see her upset like this.

  When there was no answer, Fallon continued. “I had an announcement to make and everyone else made it but the guy I call my best friend. And I know it was because you couldn’t put aside a sexcapade for one night to see me.”

  “That’s not true,” Elijah said. “I didn’t even know it was something big you had going on. I just thought we were going to drink and watch movies or something.”