Acceptance

“Dude, what the fuck is taking you so long to get here? You were supposed to be here hours ago,” I asked Remmy. He was supposed to meet me at Caleb’s house two hours ago.

“Sorry, my roommate kept asking me a bunch of questions about where I was going. He wanted me to go to a party tomorrow night with him,” Remmy explained and I felt a pang of guilt hit me.

“I’m sorry for ruining your plans,” I frowned.

“Nah, it’s alright. I don’t really like going to parties here,” he explained and I smiled a little. He had never been a huge fan of parties because of the drugs and the vomit from people drinking too much. “Listen, I’ll be there in like 45 minutes or so. In the meantime, go cuddle with your man till I get there,” he teased and I rolled my eyes.

“Whatever,” I chuckled, “drive safe, man,” I said and hung up. I walked back inside through the back door and put my phone back in my pocket. I sat next to Matt on the couch who had Atlas sitting in front of him on the floor working on his homework. Caleb was sitting in front of me and was playing a video game with Matt.

I took the hair tie out of his hair and startled playing with his hair. He told me he was considering cutting it some and I wanted to play with it while it was still this long.

Caleb and Matt yelled a couple times when their characters died, but besides that it was pretty quiet. 45 minutes passed and I heard a knock on the door. I got up, walked to the front door, and opened it.

“Hey, man!,” Remmy said and threw his arms around me in a tight hug.

I hugged him back and chuckled, “Hey, Remmy. Come on in.” I stepped aside and he walked inside. I guided him to the living room where the others were and I noticed the game was paused and they were each looking at us. Matt and Atlas stood and walked over to us. They introduced themselves to Remmy and I noticed Caleb standing behind them observing Remmy. He was looking him up and down and was watching him closely. I could see a small frown when Remmy put his arm around my shoulders and heard a small huff come from him. It was quiet enough that if you weren’t paying attention you wouldn’t hear it, so the others didn’t notice.

“I’m assuming the cutie behind everyone is the one you’ve been telling me about?,” Remmy whispered to me in a not so quiet way. His loud whispering earned him a glare from me.

“Shut up, asshole,” I said and shrugged his arm off. He laughed and approached Caleb when Atlas and Matt stepped aside.

“You must be Caleb,” Remmy held out his hand for Caleb to shake, “I’m Remmy.”

Caleb stayed silent and shook his hand after a moment.

“Nice to meet you,” he muttered loud enough for us to hear. He dropped his hand back down to his side as soon as Remmy loosened his hold on Caleb’s hand and I frowned.

“It’s nice meeting you as well. I’ve heard a lot about you, so it’s nice putting a face to a name. Elliot was right when he told me your a cutie,” Remmy said while grinning and I looked away to hide my blush.

I was gonna smack Remmy. Why was he telling Caleb all these things? Was he trying to embarrass me?

I stepped closer to Atlas and Matt and whispered to them, “I’m gonna kill Remmy for this.” I heard them chuckle and we continued to watch Remmy and Caleb’s interaction. Remmy began going into detail all the things I’ve told him about Caleb and I interrupted him before he could embarrass me further, “So Remmy, what did you have in mind for where I’m going to live now?”

“You could just stay here. My mom doesn’t mind,” Caleb said and sat back down on the floor. We went back to our original spots and Remmy sat between Matt and me. Instead of doing his homework, Atlas was watching Matt and Caleb play the game and listened to our conversation.

“I don’t want to be a bother,” I answered honestly and he sighed. I could tell from the frustration in the sigh that he had also rolled his eyes. I pulled on his hair a little while I continued playing with it and his breath hitched.

“Don’t roll your eyes at me, sweetheart,” I leaned down to say in his ear. I could feel Remmy’s eyes on me as he watched us but I ignored him.

“Well, anyways, my cousin lives in an apartment in town and I talked to him about you needing a place to stay. Don’t worry, I didn’t tell him what happened. He said you’re welcome to stay with him as long as you don’t be a slob and clean up after yourself. He has an extra room you could use, so you would have some privacy as well,” Remmy diverted the subject back to what we needed to discuss.

“Wait, which cousin? The weird one or...?,” I trailed off.

“Tommy,” he answered and I sighed in relief.

“Thank god! I don’t think I could live with Kendrick.”

“Why not? Kendrick likes you! He asks about you at family gatherings, you know,” Remmy laughed.

“Rem, Kendrick is a fucking creep. He’s obsessed with me! Last time I saw him was last summer at your family’s pool party. He tried touching my dick!,” I exclaimed and Remmy laughed. Matt and Atlas laughed as well, but Caleb stayed silent.

“Alright, alright. I believe you,” he patted me on the back, “So, what do you think about living with Tommy?”

Tommy was a cool guy. I’d never had any issues with him and we’ve always gotten along great.

“I’ll do it,” I answered, “I like Tommy, he’s cool.”

“Awesome! I’ll text him and let him know,” he got his phone out and began typing. “When do you want to move in?”

“Any time, I guess. I need to go back to school Monday though, so I should sometime this weekend for sure.”

“How about today? He works tonight, so he wouldn’t be able to help, but it would give you time to settle into the new place and we could hang out there for a bit,” Remmy offered and I nodded.

“Yeah, sounds good,” I smiled and Caleb stood up after muttering a quiet, “Excuse me for a moment.”

I could tell from how he sounded that something was wrong. I quickly stood and followed him. He went into the bathroom and locked the door behind him. I knocked on the door and frowned when I heard him taking deep breaths.

“Caleb, open the door and let me in.”

“I’m peeing, go away,” he grumbled and I sighed.

“No you aren’t, just open the door so we can talk.”

I heard him groan and grumble under his breath before he unlocked the door. I went inside and closed the door behind me. He was leaning against the sink and looking down. I saw the frown on his face and took a step closer to him.

“What’s wrong, Caleb?”

“Nothing. I’m fine,” he mumbled and I rolled my eyes at his obvious lie.

“Don’t lie to me. Talk to me, what’s wrong?”

He groaned and ran his fingers through his hair with frustration.

“Fine, just don’t... don’t judge me, okay?,” he glanced at me and I nodded.

“I won’t”

“Well, um, I guess I’m a bit jealous. Firstly, Remmy and you seem very close and I don’t like that he keeps touching you and sitting so close to you,” his eyes narrowed as be appeared to be glaring at the floor, “Also, you seem really eager to leave and I guess I’m just scared that this Tommy guy will take you away from me.” His answer was honest and left a sad look on his face.

I moved his face up to look at me and I caressed his cheek with my hand.

“Caleb,” butterflies fluttered in my stomach, “I only have eyes for you.”