When Trevor reached around and slid a hand tantalizingly down Skyler’s stomach, an involuntary whine slipped from Skyer’s lips. He could feel Trevor smiling against his back now. And after Trevor curled his hand around his dick, Skyler found himself rutting forward into the grip and backward to press his ass into Trevor’s front.
By the time Trevor was buried inside him, all was forgiven. But as Skyler lay in bed after, trying to fall asleep, he worried this wasn’t how it should be. Whether on purpose or not, they shouldn’t be using sex to end a fight.
But for tonight, he supposed it was fine. He’d certainly enjoyed it. They just couldn’t let it become a habit.
On the night Trevorwent out with Sierra for their fake anniversary dinner, Skyler tried to keep his mind off it by hanging out in Jermaine’s room and having a few drinks. But it wasn’t long before a few had turned into more than a few, and the drunker he got, the angrier he became.
He didn’t realize his anger was so obvious until Jermaine said, “Can you please stop stomping around and come sit? We’re going to get a noise complaint.”
“I don’t understand why he’s still going along with this garbage,” he grumbled, taking a seat in the chair opposite Jermaine.
“Does he have any choice?”
Skyler grabbed another beer and cracked it open, ignoring his friend’s concerned look. “I don’t know. Maybe it seems like we don’t have any choice but to go along with whatever crap management wants us to do, because we signed contracts that apparently let them control us, but, like, what if we just didn’t?”
“What do you mean?” Jermaine asked.
He sighed. “I’m not even sure. But I’m tired of feeling like a puppet, dancing whenever someone pulls my strings.”
“I get it, bro. Trust me. I’ve been trying to grow my hair back out for years, but they keep cutting it. And every time I suggest us doing some songs with a little more of an R&B rhythm, I get shut down real fast.”
Skyler frowned. He hadn’t known Jermaine was struggling with this stuff. Jermaine wasn’t big on talking about things that upset him. Unlike Skyler. He wanted to ask more about the music issue, but Jermaine gave him a look and shrugged in a way that indicated it wasn’t up for discussion right now.
“So what are you going to do?” Jermaine asked.
He thought about it a few moments—considering all the alcohol in his system, he probably should have thought about it a lot longer—and then came to the conclusion that he needed to find Maggie immediately and have a serioustalk with her. “I’m going to tell that evil manipulative shrew that I’m done with this shit and I’m coming out publicly, whether she likes it or not.”
“Oh no, you’re not,” Jermaine said, grabbing Skyler’s arm as he rose from his seat and yanking him back down. “Not tonight, at least.”
As he fell into the chair, his elbow knocked over his open beer and a bit spilled onto the carpet before he could right it. He sulked, less over the loss of alcohol and more over being told once more what he could and couldn’t do. “Why not?”
Jermaine gave him a pointed look. “You’re wasted. And if you seriously want to do that, then you should probably talk it over with Trevor first and come up with a plan for how you’ll approach management about it.”
Skyler didn’t like that idea. The last tiny sober part of his brain told him Jermaine was right. But he wasn’t interested in listening to that part right now. He didn’t want to plan or wait. He was so fucking tired of waiting. And Trevor… He wasn’t sure where Trevor stood anymore on the whole coming out thing.
He loved Trevor so much, but just once, wasn’t he allowed to do whathewanted most without taking anyone else into consideration?
If he came out, it’d make everything better. It had to.
Jermaine was still watching him sternly, so he nodded to show he’d wait, though he didn’t intend to. And he agreed when Jermaine suggested he go back to his room and get some sleep, but he didn’t expect Jermaine to follow him there and make sure he got into bed. After Jermaine left, he waited a few minutes to be safe, and then scrambled out of bed and got dressed again.
Stumbling down the hall, he had time to rethink this. But he didn’t. He pounded on Christian’s door and demanded that Christian find Maggie for him immediately because it was an emergency. He ignored the look of horrified concern on Christian’s face and Christian’s attempts to calm him down.
It wasn’t until Skyler said he’d knock on every door of the hotel if he had to that Christian finally gave in and called Maggie, trying to explain the situation.
Before dropping him off at her door, Christian gave him one more warning. “Look, kid, you know I’m always here for you, and I think you should trust me on this one. Whatever it is you’re about to do, you probably shouldn’t. You’reupset and it’s obvious you’ve been drinking. If you waited until morning, you’d have a clearer head.”
“No, I’m good. I know what I’m doing,” he insisted.
But shit, he really didn’t.
The concert was startingin five minutes, and for the first time, as Skyler waited in position backstage, he was neither nervous nor excited.
No. He was hungover, and he was pissed, and he had to try his hardest not to show either of those things.
To say Maggie had been furious with him last night would be an understatement. Not only had she laid into him for being drunk, warning him there’d be severe consequences if he was too hungover to perform properly the next day, but when he said he was going to come out and she couldn’t stop him, she’d threatened to kick him out of the band. Said she’d make up a story so he’d look like the bad guy, ensuring no one in the music industry would ever want to work with him again.
Afterward, as he’d sat alone sulking in his room like a scolded child, the only thing that kept him together was the thought that Trevor would be there soon.
