In a Moment - 6. Chapter 6

A rush of air whistled through the doorway as Chris and Ian slid inside. Ian shivered slightly as he tried to warm up, the cool fall weather a tad unfamiliar to him. As he adjusted to being inside again, Ian was caught a little off guard by his surroundings. The space was large, but there wasn’t a lot of open air...the place was full of racks and racks of bikes.

“Wow...” Ian muttered as he looked around in awe.

“Nice huh? This is my home bike shop,” Chris said, holding out his arms in introduction.

“This is awesome...although suddenly I feel like a complete amateur...”

“Hehe, yeah don’t worry about it. The guys here are really nice and chill...speaking of which...” Chris trailed off as he stood on his tiptoes and peered around. After glancing in a few directions, he homed in on a target and waved. “Terry!” he called out into what appeared to be a nigh-endless row of bikes.

An arm poked up through the metal frames and waved back. Not long after, a figure immerged and greeted Chris with a handshake and a hug. “Chris! It’s been too long, buddy...where’ve you been?”

“Eh, school...always getting in the way,” Chris responded with a sarcastic smile. Ian stepped up a little to see Chris’s conversation partner. Terry was taller than Chris at around 5’11” and so towered over Ian. He also looked like he was a good person to talk to about anything athletic...Terry reminded Ian of Lance Armstrong, but buffer. A friendly smile capped Terry off nicely and a cheery air seemed to follow him.

“Yeah school does that,” Terry said before turning toward Ian. “So Chris, are you gonna be rude and not introduce us?”

Chris’s eyes lit up in realization. “Oh right, haha. Terry, this is Ian...Ian, Terry. Ian goes to school with me...and Terry here is my bike guru.”

“Nice to meet you, Ian,” Terry greeted with a firm handshake. “So Harvard huh? Enjoying it?”

Ian snickered. “If by enjoy you mean getting worked to death, then yeah, totally.”

“Haha, yeah I can imagine.” Terry turned to Chris for a moment. “So what brings you guys in here?”

Chris feigned hurt. “Oh what, I can’t just come and visit?”

“Awww...always the sweet talker,” Terry cooed as he wrapped an arm around Chris’s shoulders and lightly fussed his hair.

“But seriously, Ian here needs a ride and I wasn’t about to recommend him to anywhere else.”

Terry laughed and turned to Ian. “We don’t even need to advertise...Chris here just points everyone to us.”

Chris rolled his eyes. “Yeah...so that’s like, what...five people?”

“Haha. So Ian, what are you looking for?”

Ian shrugged. “I’m not really sure I guess. This all seems a bit more ‘professional’ than what I’m used to...”

“Ah, well...not to worry, let’s figure out what will be good for you.” Terry guided Ian further into the store before pausing to turn back to Chris. “Chris...I’m guessing you can keep yourself entertained.” Chris flashed a big toothy smile...a kid in a candy store kind of smile. “Yeah that’s what I thought...we’ll catch up to you in a bit.”

Once Terry and Ian were out of view, Chris’s expression changed drastically. The friendly and cheerful look faded to sullen and down. Chris just sighed, knowing all too well how visible his mood was at that moment. He glanced quickly over at a clock and turned to leave the store. As the door closed behind him, he pulled out his cell phone. It had already vibrated a few times while he was on the way to the store with Ian, but he hadn’t answered. Flipping it open, he saw three missed calls...all from Adam.

Closing his eyes, Chris let a quiet “fuck,” slip out of his mouth. He took a deep breath, swiftly unlocked his bike and sped away from the store into the parking lot. Chris began riding around in large circles at high speed...trying to wear down his feelings.

****

“Damn it,” Adam muttered as he shut his cell phone. He had been calling every 20 minutes or so since he noticed that Chris had left the room. Pulling his hair in frustration, Adam turned around in the room until his eyes fell upon his desk. His eyes immediately locked onto the slip of paper Sean had given him. Half of Adam wanted to take it and burn it....the other half was itching to call the number...the first half then promptly kicked Adam mentally.

“Why the fuck did you leave that out for Chris to see, you dumbshit,” Adam spat under his breath. He shut his eyes tightly. “Why’d you have to fuck this all up...”

****

The door to the room creaked open and closed despite Adam’s efforts to keep it quiet. He didn’t want to deal with anything right at that moment...it was still way too early and his mind was set on his bed. As he crept into the common room, Adam looked around for signs of life. Chris’s bedroom door was closed, so Adam, as covertly as possible, tried to open the door. Chris often kept the door closed, but only locked it when he was there...just in case Adam needed something. A slow attempt at turning the knob revealed that it was locked, so Chris was most likely asleep in the room. Dropping his hand away from the knob, Adam leaned his head on the door lightly, a quiet sigh slipping out. He lingered for a few precious heartbeats before moving toward his own room. By habit, the contents of Adam’s pockets spilled out onto his desk before he slipped into his bedroom and closed the door. Nothing would have seemed immediately out of the ordinary with the small pile of items...his wallet, cell phone, keys, ID holder...but something was out of the ordinary. A small white slip of paper lay on top of the stack, waiting to be seen.

****

A low hum of spinning wheels and gears was all that Chris could hear. He was doing his absolute best to just ignore everything else in the world...but despite not paying much attention to his surroundings, Chris’s mind was firmly set on something very worldly. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t push Adam out of his mind.

After finally wearing himself out, Chris pulled off of the parking lot and went back into the bike shop. He waved to someone behind the counter, who waved back as he grabbed some tools. He always felt very at home in there...he knew most of the people working there and always seemed to be tweaking his bike. More than once, he had considered just getting a job there...at least then he could make some money while “wasting time”. He never really pursued it since his mother disapproved...she always had work for Chris to do if he had the time since he was an intuitive searcher. She frequently needed to find some reference, research paper or something and Chris always managed to track things down. A couple of the other lawyers at her firm found out about this and Chris started receiving a steady stream of work to do in his spare time...plus it was decent money, so he had no objections there. Still, something about just goofing around in the bike shop for hours and hours always had an appeal.

“Hey Chris!” a voice called out. Chris looked up from his bike and saw Ian and Terry approaching with a new toy.

“Hey...so Ian, find something?” Chris inquired as he stepped over and started checking out the bike Terry had brought along.

Ian was smiling widely. “I think I’m in love.”

“Haha...Terry’s a good matchmaker. He introduced me to my ‘significant other’ here,” Chris joked, pointing to his own bike.

Terry just shook his head and laughed. “That was easy...it was love at first sight for you. Well, I was gonna take Ian outside so he can ride it around a little to see if it’s a good fit.”

Ian grinned nervously. “I have the distinct feeling I’m gonna make a fool out of myself with the two of you watching.” Chris looked away, embarrassed while Terry laughed aloud. “Did I miss something?”

Terry spoke up, “Oh nothing...just Chris here...when he got his bike, he fell over trying to ride it the first time.”

Chris groaned. “It was a lot lighter than I was used to, so I misgauged the balance and...yeah...let’s not talk about that anymore.”

“Well, I feel a little better now,” Ian joked as the three walked outside to the parking lot. Soon enough, Ian was riding in circles, trying to get a feel for his new toy while Terry and Chris looked on.

“So how’ve ya been man? We were starting to get worried around here,” Terry inquired as Chris hadn’t been around in a few weeks.

Chris put up what he thought was a convincing façade. “I’ve been good...no complaints.” Terry just leered at him. “Grr...why do all of my friends have to be perceptive?”

Terry shrugged. “Just lucky I guess. So anyway, what’s going on man?” He thought about it for a second or two. “Guy trouble?” Chris smiled a little. Terry knew Chris and Jase before they even knew each other as both were avid bikers and regulars at the shop...and Chris had introduced Adam to the place.

“Yeah kinda...”

“Hmm...well, if you need someone to talk to, you know you can always hit me up.”

“Thanks, Terry.”

“Anytime...oh, speaking of guys, how’s Jase?”

“He’s fine, I think...we haven’t been talking as much lately because of school. Our schedules kinda don’t fit.”

“That’s too bad. Well, you’ll see him when he comes home for break or whatever, right?”

“That’s the plan. He’s not especially crazy about staying at his house, so he’s probably gonna end up crashing at my place.”

Terry cocked an eyebrow. “So are you two gonna...”

“Haha...we’ll see what happens. Besides, he’ll probably be seeing someone by then anyway.”

“Oh? So you two talked about seeing other people and stuff?” Terry asked, slightly surprised.

“Well, we ‘broke up’,” Chris said with emphasis.

Terry’s surprise grew. “Man...how did I not know that?”

Chris thought for a moment. “Hmm...I guess I didn’t mention it before huh? Oops.”

“Heh...wow, I never thought you two would break up...I mean, it was friendly right?”

“Oh completely...we just didn’t want to do the long distance thing and end up ruining it.”

“Ah...I guess that makes sense.” Terry looked confused again. “So wait, are you seeing someone else then?”

Chris’s expression gave away the answer before he even spoke. “Nope.”

Terry cringed a tad, feeling that he had hit a sore spot. “Oh...sorry man. We should really catch up more often.”

“Definitely...I’ll make sure I come by a little more often. Oh and if you can, you should come up to Cambridge to hang out when you have time. You could even, dun dun dun...ride in the bike lanes!” Chris said as dramatically as possible.

“Pssh...bike lanes...what’s the fun in roading unless there’s the constant threat of being run over by some crazy fucker?”

“Well...you could end up running over stupid college students walking in the bike lanes.”

Terry threw up his arms and yelled, “BLIND PEDESTRIAN! TEN POINTS!” Chris laughed. Just then, they both looked toward the parking lot as they saw Ian ride up.

“So how is it?” Chris inquired.

“Perfect,” Ian said gleefully. “I’m so getting this.”

“Sweet,” Terry said, motioning toward the store. “Let’s get it adjusted and you can take her home...oh and I’ll give you Chris’s discount, haha.”

“Score!” Ian laughed. “But hey, you’re not gonna get in trouble for that or anything, right?”

Terry laughed. “Please...the owner gave Chris the discount, not me. Besides, we’d rather have regulars that we give discounts to than a bunch of one-time asswipes that we take special pleasure in gouging...” Terry cringed again. “Oops...you didn’t hear that last part.” Ian buckled over laughing as Chris shook his head.

“You’re lucky Pat didn’t hear you say that,” Chris said, chuckling.

Terry looked around cautiously. “No shit...”

As they walked up to the counter, Chris jumped...his pocket was vibrating again. Ian noticed that time, so Chris excused himself outside. Pulling out his phone, he saw the caller ID...Adam again. He took a long, deep breath.

“Guess I gotta talk to him sometime.”

Just as he thought that Adam was going to hang up, Chris opened the phone.

****

“God, why the fuck would I do that,” Adam said aloud, pulling fruitlessly at his short hair. He had been pacing back and forth in his room for a good 15 minutes, trying to get a hold of Chris. After his fifth failed attempt, Adam tossed his phone on his dresser and fell onto his bed. Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, he shuffled around until he was lying on his stomach and holding a pillow. He lay there trying to think things through, but his mind was chaotic at best and he felt utterly incapable of forming a steady stream of thought. Acquiescing, he stopped trying to make sense of what was going through his head and just dug his face into the warm softness of the pillow.

Things hadn’t gone according to plan that morning...that is, if Adam had a plan. The events of the previous night started playing out in his mind as he lay in the stillness of the empty room. His mind took him to when he had gone with Sean to his room. Adam unconsciously dug his face deeper into his pillow as the memory streamed through.

****

Sean had talent...there was no doubt about that in Adam’s mind. Adam had always felt a little awkward when being intimate...always a little unsure about how to act or what to do. Sean however had no such problems...or at least he didn’t show it. Following his initial prompting, Adam had let Sean take over the lead and let himself just flow along. A little hazy from the alcohol in his system, Adam felt like things were happening in slow motion, but was thoroughly enjoying every minute of it.

Sean just seemed to have everything down cold. With neither he nor Adam really noticing, Sean had maneuvered them to his bed, where they continued to make out passionately, opening his eyes periodically just to sneak peeks at Adam’s writhing form beneath him. Instinctively, Sean shifted around with a series of slow, fluid motions until he was squarely atop of Adam. Given his mental state, it took a few seconds for Adam to realize that Sean was slowly, but forcefully grinding into him. The sensual feelings started pouring into Adam’s head and forced him to come up for air. Sean pulled his face away and smiled upon seeing the expression from Adam.

“One would think I was doing something right,” Sean joked, eliciting a small laugh from Adam as he wriggled slightly at the sensations Sean was causing. “Well, I’ll take that as a yes...” Before Sean got too far, something clicked in Adam’s head and prompted him to try to sit up. Sean was slightly confused, but backed off as Adam rose.

Holding his face in his hands briefly, Adam looked up to face a confused Sean. “I...Sean...I just...” The words just wouldn’t come out properly.

Sean stared into Adam’s eyes...then looked down in realization. Holding Adam’s hands, Sean began, “Hey, it’s ok...this is probably too fast, right?”

Adam thought silently, “Among other things...” Sighing, he responded, “Sean...it’s just...I mean, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea...”

Sean cringed slightly and slowly let go of Adam’s hands. “Oh...sorry...I just...I guess I thought...”

Adam quickly cut him off, “No, no...it’s not that...Sean, I like you...a lot.”

A look of surprise and relief replaced Sean’s previous expression. “Oh...whew...so, what’s wrong then?”

“I’m in love with someone already,” a voice in Adam’s head volunteered. Physically shaking his head to clear that thought, Adam responded, “It’s just...I don’t...I’m not sure I’m ready for this.” Adam kicked himself mentally after saying that, thinking that he just blew off Sean completely. His eyes shut, Adam didn’t see, however, that Sean was smiling until he replaced his hands on Adam’s.

“Hey, it’s ok...like I said, this was a little fast, for both of us looks like.” Sean gave Adam’s hands a light squeeze. “But that doesn’t mean I’m gonna give up on it though.”

Adam’s head drooped. “I’m a mess,” he admitted.

“Aren’t we all? Besides,” Sean said, running his fingers through Adam’s hair. “I think this is one mess that I want to get to know a lot better.” Adam held his eyes shut as he brought his own hand up to where Sean running his fingers. “So...um...” Sean stammered for a moment, trying to figure out the proper words. “You can stay here tonight...y’know, if you want...I mean, we don’t have to...err...I mean you don’t have to...” He stopped short as he felt Adam squeeze his hand.

“I want to stay...for a while.”

Sean grinned. “Glad to hear it.”

Not long after, the two were tucked into the bed, Adam cradled comfortably in Sean’s arms. In the darkness, Adam’s thoughts drifted between the person holding him and the person he dreamt of holding. The feelings bounced around in his mind until they finally lost momentum, letting Adam drift away.

****

“Ace? I’m going ok?” Justin whispered into Chris’s ear as he climbed out of bed.

“Ghhremmm...ltterrr.” Chris’s response was unintelligible, but Justin got the gist of it. He gave Chris a light hug and crept out of the room.

Despite still being mostly asleep, Chris instantly felt the void left by Justin. He shivered slightly as his brain slowly started up. Cracking open his eyes, he barely made out that it was almost 11 in the morning from his alarm clock. Groaning, he forced himself to climb out from the warmth of his bed. His grogginess was evident as Chris stumbled out of his bedroom and into the common room. He made a b-line for the mini-frig, where he kept a stock of cold coffee for kick-starting the day. A large bottle of pitch black liquid emerged from the frig and Chris started chugging.

Standing for a few moments to catch his breath, Chris walked over and sat down at his desk. He rubbed his eyes and looked around the room idly before his eyes came to rest on Adam’s desk. He saw Adam’s things there and then glanced at the closed door.

“He must have been out late...he’s usually up by now,” Chris thought.

Turning back toward his own desk, Chris woke his computer to do his morning routine...checking e-mail, a quick glance at CNN.com to make sure the world hadn’t gone to hell the previous night and then the weather for the day. Just as the routine wrapped up, Chris heard some noise from behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to see Adam shuffling out of his room, looking scarcely conscious. Chris was still a little upset that Adam didn’t show up the night before, but it quickly faded...he always thought Adam was just adorable in the morning...hair fussed up, eyes barely open and dragging his feet along.

“Morning sunshine,” Chris jested.

“Huhhghh? Grmm...morning,” Adam grumbled out. Chris chuckled slightly before getting up and handing Adam a bottle of coffee, which Adam gladly accepted. “Thanks...”

“Hehe, no problem...so were you out late?”

“Huh? Oh...yeah, something like that.”

Adam’s nervousness about the subject was evident in his voice, so Chris decided not to push it. Adam excused himself shortly after to take a shower as Chris started to get his thoughts together for the day. He remembered that he had an appointment with Ian, but also felt that he should at least try to fix things up with Adam. Spending the day in the hometown seemed like an ideal way to reconcile things, so Chris sat himself down to wait on Adam. Slightly anxious, Chris began to look around the room to try and fill the dead time. In a bout of impatience and wanting to avoid any awkwardness with Adam, Chris decided to go find Ian and to just leave Adam a note. Chris scribbled a quick message for Adam to call once he was back to see if he wanted to go to Quincy. Walking over to Adam’s desk, Chris dropped the note on top of Adam’s things and quickly turned to leave. The note fell perfectly atop the slip of paper bearing Sean’s number, having narrowly evaded detection.

“Adam, I’m heading to Quincy with Ian. Give me a call when you get back if you want to go. –Chris”

Chris grabbed his bike and rushed out of the room, cell phone in hand to track down Ian. As he left, the gust from the door opening and closing blew through the room, rustling a few papers, the curtains...and blew a tiny slip of paper off of Adam’s desk to parts unknown...