Something Real

by Nellie Christine

  “They’ve been asking for you,” Grayson answered. “Besides, the quicker you do that, the quicker we can parade you around the party to all of our guests and then I can sneak you off to one of these rooms and take your clothes off.”

  Elijah was very much on board with that. He began to walk off towards the red carpet area without further prompting, but Grayson reached out for him again.

  “You know what you’re doing, right? Just stop at each marker, smile at the cameras, and then you’re done. No silly faces, no angry faces, just, look like a new artist.”

  Elijah laughed. “Yes father. I won’t let you down. How’s this?”

  He stuck his tongue out and put up a rock n’ roll sign. Grayson couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Eli.”

  “Yes, Peanut?”

  “Go.”

  To Elijah’s surprise, these people really did know who he was. It was scary, yet cool at the same time.

  He stepped up to the second marker and stood there, hoping he didn’t look as awkward as he felt. Further down the backdrop, Zach Evans was posing like a fucking model. He had one hand in his pocket and the blue steel thing from Zoolander going on. Elijah focused on the cameras in front of him, trying not to squint at all of the flashing lights. After fifteen seconds, he moved down to the next marker.

  “Welcome to Millennium! Your song is incredible!”

  Elijah smiled at the woman. Her name badge said “Pat” and “Billboard Magazine.” So pretty much, these photos were going to go everywhere.

  He wouldn’t be able to walk around the city like a normal guy after this.

  Lord. Tony was probably shitting himself.

  “Thank you, Pat,” he answered.

  He spent the first hour of the party slowly drinking and meeting people from the label. So many people were here. Elijah was surprised with himself. He usually hated speaking to people. In fact, he got bored very easily. But tonight wasn’t so bad.

  Every once in a while, he’d glance up and see Grayson across the room, a drink in hand and a smirk on his face. Elijah continued to work the crowd, taking selfies here and thoroughly enjoying himself with his friends.

  Elijah could admit he wanted to fight Laura from The Pretty Committee for dancing with her boyfriend before he got the chance to, but to be fair, Laura didn’t know. Besides, Elijah had to acknowledge the fact that he got to do a lot more with Grayson, so it was fine.

  Peanut:

  You’re cute when you’re jealous.

  Elijah smirked.

  He did get a ten-minute conversation from Harvey Paul that he couldn’t even tell you the topic, but he did remember the mention of a potential THREE album deal in there.

  Oh, and the man made him get on stage and sing.

  Elijah went with ‘Oh, Holy Night,’ even though nothing about this night was going to be holy if he got Grayson alone. The applause was deafening, but a good deafening. He went right over to his manager after the song and smiled as Grayson whispered in his ear, sliding a room key in his pocket.

  “Room 1244. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  Elijah licked his lips. “I’ll go right now. Promise not to keep me waiting?”

  Grayson looked him in the eyes, and a smile spread across his face a moment later.

  “You have my word, Elijah.”

  ∞

  “So if this is going to work, you need to let me walk in first, and then you sneak in behind me, cool?”

  Stephen nodded at Fallon’s words. “That’s cool. Can you promise me that you’ll get me alone with Grayson? Are you really close with him? Because I need to talk to him one-on-one –”

  “Listen,” Fallon smiled as she took his hands. “Stephen. Trust that I’m going to get you to see Grayson. What happens after that is up to you. But I’m going to go and talk to him and then I’ll come find you, okay?”

  Stephen was hopeful. He tried reaching out to his ex-boyfriend on countless occasions, but since he broke Grayson’s heart, he wanted nothing to do with him. He had a feeling that if he could see him in person, everything would work out. Word on the street was that Grayson had been burying himself in his work and hadn’t been involved with anyone for a long time. He wanted to change that. Stephen wanted to mend the heart he broke all that time ago.

  “Okay,” he answered.

  Fallon walked into the party. It was in full motion at this point, and that was exactly why it helped to show up to things fashionably late. She fixed her dress and looked around the party for a familiar face, ecstatic when she saw Mark and Elijah talking by the bar.

  “Speak of the devil,” Mark said with a smile. “Look who decided to finally join us!”

  Elijah smiled at her, and it meant a lot that Fallon wasn’t getting the death glare she was getting earlier.

  “Welcome. You missed my performance… ” he trailed off, probably expecting an explanation.

  “I had to make a stop,” she lied. It was actually Stephen’s fault. He was chickening out, then he wanted to go to a florist, and it was all too much. “But I’m here now.”

  “And I’ll be back in an hour or so,” he said, smiling as he pulled out the room key. “If there’s a fire, I’ll be in room 1244,” he winked, downing what was left in his glass, and taking a few steps backwards.

  It was now that Fallon saw Stephen sneaking in and walking towards the opposite end of the room. She nodded, letting him know that was a good place to hang out.

  “Then again,” Elijah continued, “it’ll probably be me and my hot boyfriend starting the fire, but we can’t help that. Later!”

  Mark laughed and waved goodbye to him. “Those two are going to be something else.”

  She grinned. “You’re telling me. So introduce me to your Allison! Where is she?”

  “Oh, she and Eleanor – Grayson’s friend – went to the bathroom. You know how you ladies are. Going in groups.”

  “That’s not such a bad idea,” Fallon said. “I do need to powder my nose. Give me a minute and when I get back, drinks on me! We can look for famous people together.”

  Mark rolled his eyes. Drinks would be on her when it was an open bar. “Hurry up.”

  She went over to where she saw Stephen walking earlier, and luckily, he found himself a spot to sit where there wasn’t a lot of traffic. She sat down next to him and smiled.

  “Grayson will be waiting for you in room 1244. Go there and knock.”

  He looked at her as if he was unsure. Fallon put a hand on his knee.

  “Do you want him back?”

  “Of course,” he said without hesitation. “But why would he book a room for us to speak in? We could just go outside or something…”

  Fallon looked around the party. She could totally be getting hammered right now and grinding up on Zach Evans, yet she was babysitting her best friend’s boyfriend’s ex-boyfriend.

  She sighed. “Listen, sweetie. I’m giving you the in. You either take it, or you don’t. Your move.”

  Stephen sat quietly for a moment as he thought about what the best move would be. He nodded to himself. He wanted – no – he needed to see Grayson. They at least needed closure. Things ended so terribly and they never discussed any of it. For all Stephen knew, Grayson probably still thought that he was messing around with his best friend from childhood. That happened twice. That was it. They weren’t together like people told him they were.

  He had to do this.

  “Room 1244,” he repeated.

  She nodded.

  “Alright.”

  Chapter 20

  Elijah hadn’t undressed so quickly in his life. He was a little tipsy, so it was a blur of clothes flying everywhere, but boy was he ready.

  Part of him knew this was dangerous. He and his boyfriend who were supposed to not at all be together were about to fuck in a hotel room a few stories up from the huge company party being thrown. There were freaking media people crawling in that party. Someone could find out if they were sleazy enough to be foll
owing one of them.

  Part of him wanted to be outed.

  Okay, so maybe it would be dumb. Harvey would not approve him getting a contract extension. But then again, it had been a matter of hours and Elijah’s song was already trending on music blogs. Big Paul would be an idiot not to re-sign him to something official.

  He stared in the mirror at himself. This room wasn’t the biggest, but it wasn’t like they needed a suite for what they were about to do. Grayson rented the room for the night, but they only had an hour to waste before having to be back downstairs anyway. They’d give each other super hard and worth-it orgasms and then go back to the party like nothing had happened.

  Sneaking around wasn’t the worst thing they could be doing. This aspect of it was a bit fun.

  Elijah gripped himself through his boxers and bit his lip. It would feel even better with Grayson’s strong hands cupping him.

  It had been 11 minutes. Where was he, anyway?

  ∞

  Stephen stepped off the elevator and took a deep breath. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this nervous, but he hated the feeling. There was a hollow sensation at the pit of his stomach, yet he still felt like he could puke. Grayson was the one guy he loved, he just didn’t realize it until it was too late.

  He walked towards room 1244, and once he found the door, he stood there for what had to be an eternity. Grayson was waiting there on the other side for him. A year of trying to get back in touch with him brought him to this very moment.

  Stephen straightened his collar. He pulled at the hem of his blazer and took a deep breath, raising his fist up to knock on the door when he heard his voice.

  “S-Stephen?”

  He froze.

  Grayson couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He held the room key in his hand and stared at Stephen like he was a figment of his imagination.

  Stephen turned around and smiled softly.

  “Hey. Grayson. Wow… you are… absolutely stunning.”

  What. The. Fuck?

  Grayson shook his head and tried to make sense of all of this. “What the hell are you doing here? I definitely didn’t invite you…”

  He seemed confused, and Grayson wanted to know why he seemed confused. He took a step closer. Nothing seemed to make sense.

  “Why are you about to knock on my hotel door?”

  Stephen didn’t understand what was going on. “Fallon told me that you wanted me to meet you at room 1244, so I came.”

  Fallon? Elijah’s Fallon? Grayson had one too many glasses of wine for this. Did someone slip him something? “Stephen… what?”

  The door swung open. Elijah stood there in his boxers. At first, he stared at Stephen, and then over at Grayson, and then back at the other man. The look on his face was one of realization. In fact, Stephen had the same look on his face.

  “Elijah?” Stephen asked.

  Elijah stared at him. “Yes…?”

  Stephen looked at Grayson. “What is this?”

  “I kind of need someone to tell me the same thing…” Grayson answered.

  “Wait a minute,” Elijah looked at Stephen a little harder. “I know you. We had sex. Why are you here?”

  Grayson felt himself getting sick. He saw Stephen try to tell him to stop talking, but Elijah clearly wasn’t following.

  “Baby… Do you care to tell me what’s going on? I was hoping that it’d be just the two of us. I don’t know if you’re into that but I’m not sharing you,” Elijah said.

  Baby. Stephen put two-and-two together as the hope slowly fell from his face. Grayson didn’t come up here for him. He came up here for Elijah.

  “When did y-you two have sex?” Grayson asked.

  Elijah didn’t understand why that was important, or why this guy was even here, but he knew for sure that his dick was going completely soft. The other guy answered quickly.

  “That doesn’t matt –”

  “When was it, Stephen?”

  His ex-boyfriend only looked at him, hoping that Grayson would not be too upset. He hoped that all his mistakes would be left in the past when he got here and that he could show him just how much he’d grown.

  “He was…” he trailed off.

  Elijah only wanted to hold Grayson right now. He hated the look on his face. Suddenly, he was wishing that he hadn’t drunk as much as he did.

  “Stephen.”

  “He was the guy I cheated on you with before I had that fling with Drew,” Stephen said. “It was – I was drunk, and it was spring break, and I am so sorry, you know that –”

  Grayson turned around and stormed off. Elijah stood there as the pieces of the puzzle started to form.

  This was the Stephen he told him about.

  Grayson’s first love and the guy that helped Grayson realize that he was gay was right in front of him.

  Elijah had fucked that guy while he was still with Grayson. He was standing here in only his boxers while that guy chased after his boyfriend.

  That guy wanted his boyfriend back.

  Elijah felt his world crack just a little bit. Fuck. This was what he meant when he said his rulebook kept feelings from fucking things over. Now that he actually liked someone, he had to compete with a guy like Stephen – someone who was seriously Grayson’s type. Someone he had a history with.

  This was bullshit, but he probably deserved the tight feeling in his chest right now. He didn’t deserve to be happy after the things he’d done to guys in the past. Grayson didn’t deserve having to settle down with a loser like him.

  You’ve got to try, Elijah told himself. Try.

  ∞

  Oscar checked his watch. If his math was correct, Grayson and his little love bug were about 10 minutes into Room 1244 & Chill. It was probably just getting started knowing those two. The downside of that was the premiere of The Pretty Committee’s music video was about to begin and Grayson would miss it because he was getting busy.

  The server was passing out eggnog now. It sucked because Oscar loved eggnog, but if he wanted to enjoy this party to the point where he could remember what happened the next day, he’d have to stop drinking right now. He looked up at his girlfriend and smiled as she danced with their new friend Mark to the Felicity Miller song that was playing. Elijah’s friends seemed really cool so far.

  Allison walked over with a bowl of fruit salad and sat next to Oscar. She smiled at him, offering a piece of pineapple, and laughing when he patted his stomach like a pregnant woman.

  “I’m good. Enjoy.”

  Allison nodded. “Will do.”

  The pair were quiet for the next minute or so as the party resumed full swing. Oscar looked around for the Fallon chick who’d been pretty MIA since she arrived. He found her over by some of Minx the Rapper’s entourage and shook his head. Maybe she had it right. If you were going to go to a party this high end, at least meet some people.

  “Eleanor has glanced over here at least five times since I sat down,” Allison said, forking at the next fruit in her salad. “I’m sure I don’t have to say this, but the girl has nothing but love in her eyes when she looks at you.”

  Oscar felt himself blushing as he smiled. “You think so?”

  “Are you kidding?” Allison asked. She smiled back at him. “You both are adorable and she’s probably the sweetest person in this entire room. Mark is a close second, though.”

  Oscar laughed softly. That was true. She had to be sweet to put up with his antics, he reckoned. “I’m going to tell her I love her on Christmas. There may be a ring involved…”

  Allison turned to look at him. “If it isn’t an engagement ring, don’t bother. Promise rings are cute when you’re 14, and earrings are nice, but if you’re breaking out an ‘ILY’ then…”

  “I know. I know,” he chuckled, sitting back on the sofa and sighing. “I’ve been thinking about it. I just don’t know how she feels.”

  Allison smiled as Mark dipped Eleanor and the two almost fell over. “I think she feels the same way
you do, Oscar.”

  He looked at her with a smile. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see someone rushing through the party over to where Fallon was standing. The commotion caught his attention.

  Allison gave him a weird look before looking in that direction, too. Once Felicity Miller’s song ended, the party applauded and looked to the stage for what was up next.

  The Pretty Committee’s manager hopped on stage with X-Phile and began to do what Oscar assumed was introduce the debut of their music video. Oscar didn’t want to admit that he, a 25-year-old man, was excited for a girl group’s debut music video, but right now, something else had his attention.

  “That guy looks a lot like Grayson’s ex…”

  Allison stared, though she really didn’t know what she was looking for. “The guy with Fallon?”

  “Bingo.” He straightened out his sweater and excused himself. “I’ll be back.”

  Mark and Eleanor walked over to Allison and smiled, though Eleanor was curious as to where her boyfriend was going. Allison smiled at the kiss on the cheek Mark gave her before answering Eleanor.

  “Oscar thinks he saw Grayson’s ex here.”

  Eleanor’s confusion turned to aggravation. That was not good.

  ∞

  Fallon didn’t want to deal with this at all. She was hardcore flirting with one of the guys that worked with Minx the Rapper and wanted to focus on that. Instead, she had this Stephen guy complaining to her about everything that went wrong.

  “You neglected to mention the fact that he had a boyfriend, Fallon,” he whisper-shouted.

  She gestured to the server for an eggnog and smiled at the Mrs. Claus outfit she wore, accepting her drink. “So what?” she asked. “You were the guy’s first love. What’s a boyfriend got on you?”

  Stephen sighed in frustration. “Fallon. That would’ve been vital information.” Someone shushed him and he glanced back, apologizing. He spoke quieter, not wanting to distract from the people on stage. “I apparently had sex with the guy he’s seeing now. I cheated on Grayson with his current boyfriend. You set me back even more!”

  Fallon almost spit her eggnog out. So that’s how she knew this guy! Elijah had done him! Holy shit.