“You can do it tomorrow. I think she understands why this is hard for you.”
“I didn’t mean to take my frustrations out on either of you.” Skyler scooted himself farther up the bed until he could lie down with his head on a pillow. Then he made grabby hands for Trevor until he joined him, both of them rolling onto their sides to face each other. “How long are we going to let this go on though?”
“I don’t know,” Trevor said truthfully.
“It shouldn’t be this way. Jermaine and the other guys don’t have to pretend to date anyone.”
He brushed a stray curl behind Skyler’s ear. “No, but how long did it take before Noah was allowed to mention his girlfriend? Management’s controlling and manipulating their images too.”
Skyler bit his lip and wrapped his hand around the back of Trevor’s neck, using it to pull him closer. “Can you make me forget about all of it?” he asked. “Just for tonight. Please?”
And who was Trevor to deny him that?
Five days apart was too long.
Five days of pretending to be with someone else had made it even worse.
As he fucked Skyler, he did it with a determination to prove Skyler belonged to him. And Skyler kept moaning like he was trying to prove the same thing.
Even if Skyler planned on apologizing to Sierra later for the way he’d acted, Trevor suspected he was being as loud as possible right now with the full intention of being heard next door. He couldn’t say he minded, really.
Later, after Skyler had already fallen asleep, Trevor was reluctant to close his eyes. Almost afraid Maggie would swoop in while they were sleeping and steal Skyler away from him.
But eventually he needed to use the bathroom, so he had no choice but to disentangle himself from the long limbs Skyler had wrapped around him. He grabbed his phone on the way, because it’d gone off earlier when he’d been too occupied to answer.
He’d missed a call from his mom, and she’d left a voicemail, despite the many times he’d told her that nobody left voicemails anymore. He waited until he was in the bathroom to listen to it.
“Hey, hon. Just calling to check on you. I hate how much you’ve been struggling, but I know you’re strong, so you’ll be okay. And don’t forget you got that from me!”
He laughed quietly as he leaned against the sink.
“Try to remember you and Skyler are meant to be together, and that means nothing’s going to keep you apart. I’m your mom, I know these things, okay? So you go ahead and keep being who you are and doing what you love, and it’ll all work out the way it’s supposed to. Love you, kid.”
Smiling, Trevor set his phone down. Normally he deleted her voicemails after listening, because they usually just said something like, “Hey, miss you, call me back.” But he couldn’t delete this one.
He’d grown up quickly when the band was formed, going from living at home to living on his own, becoming financially independent, and traveling the world in the blink of an eye. But his mom still had this crazy ability to sense when he needed her. Whenever he started to lose faith in himself, when he was on the verge of giving up, she somehow managed to find the right things to say, and it was hard not to believe her.
It would all work out.
Nothing could keep him and Skyler apart.
His mom knew these things.
SKYLER
Skyler had thought hecould be mature about the whole Sierra thing. Hewantedto be mature about it. But it was eating at him more and more every day, while Trevor didn’t seem too bothered by it. Which made it worse.
He hated how she was always around. It’d only been a month, but he didn’t know how much longer he could take this.
Trevor had left with the driver earlier to drop Sierra off at the airport, and Skyler was waiting at their hotel for him to come back so that they could talk about things. He planned to calmly and rationally bring up the idea of them coming out again. That would end all the charades.
By the time Trevor walked into the room, though, Skyler was starving, and when he spotted the crumpled fast food bag in Trevor’s hand, the first thing out of his mouth was an accusing, “Did you get food?”
“Yeah, I had the driver stop on the way back,” Trevor said, stepping over to the small trash can to toss the bag.
“And you didn’t get anything for me?”
Trevor furrowed his brow. “It would’ve been cold. I figured you’d grab something here.”
