Page 58 of Footlights and Forever

Me: Sure thing.

I texted Hailey, who said she had spoken to him earlier in the evening, and he was still at the party at that point, but I was as well. I knew he wouldn’t have gone to the office at this hour as his pass didn’t allow him unsanctioned afterhours access to the studios or the writers’ offices.

I wracked my brain thinking of all the places he could be, as well as all the different ditches he could be in. I considered calling the police for a crazy minute until I realized they wouldn’t even take a report for the first twenty-four hours. While I was deciding on grabbing a taxi back into the city to look for him at the cast party, a text message popped up on my cell.

Dylan: Hey Natalie called me and said that you were looking for me.

Dylan: Listen, I don’t want to fight, but I also don’t want to talk right now. I’ll be back first thing in the morning.

Dylan: If you’re home now, then go get some sleep. It’s been a long day for us both.

Dylan: I’m turning my phone off now, so I won’t be answering anyone’s calls.

Dylan: Goodnight.

I stared down at my phone in a state of confusion. What the hell had happened from the time he told me he would be okay by himself at the party While I talked with my colleagues and now? I tried his cell anyway, but sure enough, my calls just went to voicemail. Where the hell could he be? I threw my cell down on the bed in front of me.

My cell creaked in my hands. I looked down to see my hands gripping and twisting the plastic between my fingers. My knuckle stretched and white as my fingers gripped around the phone. Had I said something that had pissed him off and he was just too stubborn to tell me? Was he annoyed that tonight was all about me and there was some underlying jealousy there that he just couldn’t get over?

Well, obviously he was taking Natalie’s calls, or maybe she had lied before when she said she didn’t know where he was. Maybe he was with her right at that moment and they were having a good old laugh about me. I snatched my cell off the pillow and opened my contacts.

An hour later, I opened the front door. Kyle stood on the stoop, still looking sleep-rumpled and barely awake.

“I told you that you didn’t have to come all this way in the middle of the night,” I laughed, pulling him across the threshold.

“My boy’s having woman troubles. Of course I’m gonna be here,” he laughed, pulling me into a quick hug.

“I appreciate it.” I ruffle the top of his hair before nodding towards the kitchen. He pulled out a chair at the table and dropped unceremoniously onto the wooden seat, oofing as he landed hard against his ass.

“They’re called cushions, bro,” he said, reaching down to rub his butt. “Look into it.”

I chuckled as I pulled two beers out of the fridge, popping the tops off both. I handed one to Kyle.

“So, wanna fill me in?”

“I don’t think of you that way, man,” I said, winking at him across the table as I took a seat.

“I know, and it eats me up every day, “ he sighed. “But maybe tell me what happened tonight?”

So Kyle sat there and listened to me as I told him about opening night, the cast party after, and leaving to go meet with the executives. I had to temper down Kyle’s ecstatic enthusiasm after I told him about the show being picked up by the network, and the opportunities that were opening up for me.

After he’d finished giving me his congratulations and taking a series of selfies that he’d said I would appreciate in years to come to commemorate the day I’d made it, I looked at a picture of my smiling face next to Kyle’s cheesy grin and lamented on the fact that it should have been Dylan here with me celebrating, rather that throwing some type of hissy fit over something that I wasn’t even aware of.

“Penny for em?” Kyle prodded me with his foot.

“It’s all good man.” His raised eyebrows and gesture for me to go on had me rolling my eyes at him. “I’m bummed that I want to celebrate and all I can do is worry about what’s going on in my relationship. Only one of us seems to know what’s going on at any point, and it’s pretty stressful, you know?”

“This is one of the many reasons that I’m not in a relationship myself, Austin.” Kyle shrugged.

“That, and you are a certified man whore?” I threw him a wink which earned me a swift kick to my shin under the table. I reached down and rubbed the spot, chuckling as I did.

“Listen, you will not like what I have to say, but I’m going to say it anyway.” Kyle sat up straight in his chair, pushing his beer away from him. “You know that there have been issues in the past between myself and Dylan, but what I have to say isn’t anything to do with what’s gone on before.”

“What…”

“Let me finish. I think it was great that you had each other during high school. I think it was really positive that two gay kids who maybe felt a little alone in school for different reasons found each other, and were supportive of one another. I think when you guys got to college, there was a co-dependency there that didn’t really ever go away. I think there was a fear, for Dylan, about who would be there for him if he didn’t have you.”

“I don’t think…” I started.

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