Page 5 of Cross the Line

“I know what you want to say, Jason already told me it was hideous. In my defense my office is freezing. They really crank the air conditioner in the summer.”

“What’s your excuse now? It’s almost ninety degrees outside.”

What Theo doesn’t want to say is he’s gotten so used to wearing the sweaters he finds it hard to take them off, even when it gets warm. They’re comfortable, safe, and as Alec astutely and unexpectedly pointed out—he can hide in them. Not that he’s ever consciously thought about it, but now that Alec’s pointed it out he can’t deny what is unequivocally true.

“Anyways I didn’t say anything about it being hideous,” Alec continues, smoothing the sweater down over Theo’s belly. It quivers and Theo wonders if Alec can feel it through the knitted material. Probably not. “Maybe you’re built like a giraffe.”

“I’m not that tall,” Theo laughs, perpetually surprised by how easy it is to do it when Alec is around. He hadn’t realized how dull and quiet things had been the last couple of months until Alec stepped back into the picture in technicolor.

“Maybe you’re just Theo shaped,” Alec says softly.

For someone who never takes anything seriously, Alec has a way of throwing out statements that leave Theo feeling surprisingly exposed.

“Hey, would you mind if I put on the radio?” Alec asks, hands hovering over the dial. “Quiet makes me twitchy.”

“Sure,” Theo agrees, welcoming the distraction.

Alec plugs his phone into the adapter, flipping through his playlist until he finds what he wants. He puts on something loud with a fast beat that Theo would normally never listen to on his own. He finds he doesn’t mind, the bass beating in time with his pathetic heart as he steals glances at Alec, and wonders when exactly he turned into a man without Theo realizing.

“Hey, Alec.”

Alec’s fingers tap a mile a minute on his legs, his eyes turning to Theo when he speaks. “Yeah?”

“Happy Birthday.”

“Oh.” Alec’s expression shifts into one of surprise, his dimples showing up when he shoots a toothy grin Theo’s way. “Thanks.”

Something about the expression punches the air from Theo’s lungs. He’s looked at Alec smiling thousands of times, and yet somehow this feels like the first. His skin is tanned from weeks spent outside, his hair wind tousled and his body relaxed and there is something about him that is magnetic.

“Why did you pick me up?” Alec asks after several minutes of, well not silence with the radio blaring but lag in conversation at least.

“Jason was?—”

“Busy, yeah you said. What’s the real reason?”

“What makes you think that’s not the real reason?”

“Because mom left me a long voice mail apologizing for her and dad being out of town on my birthday weekend and promised Jason would pick me up and take me to dinner. She said it was already arranged.”

“Would you rather Jason had picked you up?”

“Nah, Jason won’t let me put my feet on the dash of his stupid baby. He also has shitty taste in music but that’s besides the point. You didn’t answer my question.”

“Speaking of questions, why are you home ten days early?” Theo counters, desperately trying to change the subject. Just because he is a good liar doesn’t mean he enjoys it.

To his surprise this makes Alec shift in his seat. There’s an air of something unfamiliar and Theo doesn’t like it.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Theo reminds him.

“I was homesick,” Alec admits, his voice quieter than Theo has ever heard it. “I’d planned on being home for a week in between training camp and Mexico but then Antonio changed his flight and begged me to change mine too and I couldn’t say no when he needed me you know? But then it meant I didn’t get to come home, and I’ve never been away for two months and—” Alec trails off in gust of breath, deflating against the seat like a balloon with a hole.

“You missed your family,” Theo finishes.

Alec plucks at the fabric of his sweats where it’s bunched around his knee. “That was part of it.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being homesick you know,” Theo says, eyes darting between the road and Alec. Judging by the look on Alec’s face there’s something else going on. “It could be a lot to be around someone newly engaged too.”

The lines of Alec’s face, normally relaxed and happy, knit together. It’s clear Theo hit close with his guess and equally clear Alec doesn’t want to talk about it.

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