Page 129 of Goodbye Note

while you carved your name into MY HEART

only to medusa merger and collide too soon

and i’ll never

never escape the wreckage

* * *

Every minute we weren’t onstage from that point on, we were naked. It wasn’t always easy, but we took advantage of every place we could be alone. Including rest stop showers, which I’m not really proud of, but I was addicted to him.

We got more tattoos and avoided calls from our parents.

I tried to keep his mind off the stress, but he slept less and less. Getting off seemed to be the only thing that would make him pass out.

“Can you two talk?” Kiernan was flanked by John, which wasn’t good. We didn’t need those two talking.

“Yep,” Arik said, turning to Serafin. “I’ll catch up.”

Ser frowned but didn’t say anything since they had been on the way to sound check.

“Let’s go inside.” Kiernan held the door for John.

Arik and I exchanged a look before following them in.

“I thought we told you both to lie low,” John started when we sat down.

“We have been.” Arik was already defensive. Not the way to deal with anyone with authority.

“Then why are there whole Tumblr blogs and conspiracy TikToks dedicated to your ship? It’s everywhere. Varick was trending when the ghost shirts went on sale?—”

“I modeled for him. So did Val and Serafin,” I cut in.

“But the first night, you two wore them,” John said.

“Again, that was to create buzz. It worked. Should we not have good business ideas?” Now I was getting annoyed.

“Why are there pictures of Arik wearing your clothes?” John asked, taking a different approach.

I should have seen that one coming. “My clothes? He’s wearing a Dopamine-Fiend tee. He’s a fan and supportive.”

John opened his phone and flipped through an unhinged page, showing things he was wearing of mine. There were tons of photos of us with the items circled.

“Who doesn’t borrow each other’s clothes on tour? He showered and stole a shirt and a pair of shorts. It’s not a big deal.”

“The fans seem to think it is.”

“Did you get more coordinating tattoos?”

We didn’t even have to answer.My poker face sucks.

“They are saying this is you coming out,” Kiernan said to Arik and then read one of his journal posts. “‘A dopamine shot straight to the brain keeps me coming back for more. Sunrise isn’t so bad when you have your best friend to watch it with you. Pink purple and blue splashed across the sky gives new meaning to life.’”

“What about that is coming out?” Arik said through his teeth.

“Those are the bisexual flag colors, I’m told.”

“They are just taking the piss.” I scrubbed a hand over my face.

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