EPILOGUE
PATRICK STUFFEDthe last of his T-shirts into his bag and tugged the zipper closed.
“Is that everything?” Will lay sprawled out on the bed watching, propped up on his side.
“Yep.” Patrick hauled it onto the floor, next to his rucksack and laptop bag. The last few weeks had flown by, and Patrick couldn’t believe the summer was over.
University didn’t start back up for another week, but Patrick had promised his mum that he’d be home for a few days first. He’d put it off for as long as possible, but the days were running out fast. He wanted to see his parents since he’d been down in Bristol for nearly all of the summer. But that meant no more Will.
So, yeah, leaving sucked.
Patrick toed at the edge of his holdall, pushing it toward the door. “I’m gonna miss you.” He focused on the frayed edges of the strap, not wanting to see whatever look Will had on his face. If he looked half as shitty as Patrick felt, then he might embarrass himself and cry, and that was definitely not how he wanted Will to remember him.
He said as much when Will called his name and patted the bed next to him, making Will laugh.
“Jesus, Patrick. You’re going about an hour and a half down the road to uni, not marching off to war.” He rolled his eyes when Patrick glanced up to glare at him, and patted the bed again. “Now get over here.”
“It’s an hour and forty-four minutes, and you were the one who didn’t want a long-distance relationship, so you can fuck off.” Patrick didn’t know why he kept trying to pick a fight. They only had a couple of hours left together, and he was wasting them.
He crawled onto the bed, the tightness in his chest easing as Will pulled him close and wrapped an arm around him.
“Hey.” Will pressed a kiss to the top of Patrick’s head and began to stroke up and down his back. The slow, repetitive motion gradually relaxed him. “You know that’s not true anymore. We’ve had this talk more times than I care to think about. I’ve even had it with Ben, and that’s something I never want to repeat.”
Patrick grinned, his dark mood vanishing as he remembered. “Your face was a picture.” He nuzzled into Will’s neck, inhaling deeply at the warm, familiar scent. “I never knew Ben could look that serious.”
“It’s not funny.”
“Yeah, it is.” Patrick shifted onto his side to face Will, and scooted closer. “Can’t have been as bad as the time he told us not to fuck in the flat if he was at home, or in danger of being home any time soon.” Patrick blushed at the mere mention of it.
“God, no.” Will shuddered, and Patrick muffled his laughter in Will’s shoulder. “But, you do know that, right?” He nudged Patrick until he was forced to look up and meet Will’s gaze again. “That I’m not worried about the distance now. I trust you, and I believe we can do this.”
They’d come a long way since that day in the coffee shop. They’d dated, taken things slow, and despite a few hiccups, they were closer than Patrick had thought possible after so little time together. It sent a thrill down his spine whenever Will said it out loud.
“I know. It’s just….” Patrick reached down for Will’s hand, slotting their fingers together. “I’ve got used to this.” He gave Will’s hand a squeeze.
“Me too.” Will pulled him closer and kissed him. “But it’ll be okay.”
Patrick knew it was too soon in their relationship to start planning ahead, but he sort of did it anyway. He had one more year left at uni, nine more months and then he’d be done. If they could handle the time apart until then—and Patrick would do everything he could to make it work—well, maybe then they could start to plan for the future.
He hadn’t left yet, though.
“Enough talking, we’ve got better things to be doing.” He let go of Will’s hand and palmed the front of his jeans, rubbing his thumb along the outline of Will’s cock.
“Hey, you were the one who w—”
Patrick cut him off with a kiss and tried to forget about everything for the next ninety minutes.
WILL CARRIEDPatrick’s bags out to his car, leaving Patrick and Ben alone in the lounge.
“I think I’m actually going to miss you.” Ben pulled him into a tight hug.
He’d come back to see Patrick off, shouting loudly as he came through the front door that they’d better be decent. Patrick was going to miss him too.
“Sean will be easy to live with after putting up with you for two months,” he said instead, laughing when Ben punched him on the arm. “Thanks, though,” he added, nudging Ben and smiling. “For letting me stay, and… well, everything.”
“You mean letting you shack up with my best friend and not being a dick about it?”
“Yeah, that.” Patrick blushed and Ben grinned, at his obvious embarrassment. “Oh, fuck you.”
