Chapter Fifteen #2
“Yeah, I don’t have any vases or anything.”
“Shoot.” Dylan smacked his forehead. “I knew I forgot something important.”
“No worries at all,” Kaiden insisted, rushing off inside with both bouquets, determined to find the right glass to turn into a makeshift home for the evening. “We can grab something later.”
“Sorry, I should’ve thought about the vases.” Dylan grimaced. “I was trying to be nice and ended up making more work.”
“No,” Rus protested. “It was sweet.”
“I’m loving it,” Kaiden chimed in. “No one’s ever brought me flowers before.”
“Me either.”
“No one’s ever really gotten me anything just for the heck of it like this.” Kaiden sniffed the roses, lost in his thoughts, and Rus could see him slipping into the self-doubt he tried to keep tucked away.
“I’m glad you like them,” Dylan said with a soft smile, a leading smile meant to steal Kaiden from his mind. “I hope to get you many, many more silly little gifts to show you how special you are. Both of you.”
Rus’ heart fluttered at that comment, and he studied the tension in Kaiden ease as the smallest of smiles crept onto his face.
With that, the trio headed out for their unconventional first date. Rus found himself more and more eager, and the night had only just begun.
The date night had started off a bit tense in just the right kind of way. Dylan wanted to enjoy something explosive, while Kaiden wanted to watch some dreadful romcom, but Rus managed to sway Dylan’s vote by convincing him that horror was basically frightening action.
That was, in fact, not the case. Dylan spent the majority of the film with his head buried in Rus’ shoulder, complaining about the gore. Meanwhile, Kaiden sat on Rus’ other side and turned out to really sink his teeth into the blood fest.
“Oh, you stupid, dumb bitch.” Kaiden tsked. “He’s really going to check out the noise. This dumb motherfucker deserves…”
He spent the bulk of the film critiquing the characters and tricking Dylan into turning his head back to the scariest parts.
“No, no, no,” Kaiden said. “The music’s a clear indicator that the suspense is over. You can trust—”
“FUCK.” Dylan slapped a hand over his face right as a machete sliced through a guy’s chest.
After the movie ended, Rus stepped outside for a smoke, which he didn’t have to rush through since Dylan wanted to walk off a bit of his anxiety.
The boys looped the theater parking lot twice before Dylan’s appetite returned.
Though that might’ve had more to do with Kaiden mentioning the potential horrors hiding between the poorly lit vehicles.
Dylan kept close to the streetlights and hit the automatic locks on his car the second they all stepped inside.
They drove to a nearby restaurant that Rus and Dylan had previously discussed.
Kaiden made it clear that he was fine dining anywhere, but Rus knew Kaiden tracked his nutrition more closely than he or Dylan, so they picked a chain place that had all their nutritional facts on an easy-to-find website.
It also helped that this was a bit cheaper than other restaurants, and Rus didn’t know the etiquette for tonight’s date.
He wanted to be ready to pick up the check if need be.
The few times he’d hung out with a guy on a sort of date night, the check always leaned his way.
Rus didn’t know if that had to do with his bi status being equated with masculinity or his gruff attitude being deemed check worthy.
Rus nervously flipped through the menu. “I have to be real; I haven’t been on an actual date since high school.”
Maybe that wasn’t entirely true. Rus had casually hung out with people over dinner or coffee or private study sessions. Sometimes, the get-together turned into something fun but never anything serious. Rus hadn’t done anything serious since Lana.
Dylan muttered a bit to himself, counting off on his fingers.
“Yes,” Rus said with a light laugh. “It has been a long time. Four years give or take a few months.”
“Oh.” Dylan’s eyes widened. “I wasn’t… I was actually… Well, yeah, I guess that is a long time. Why the big gap?”
“My high school sweetheart was a pretty heavy romance,” Rus said, averting his gaze from Dylan and Kaiden. “Serious in a big surrender kind of way.”
“What happened?” Kaiden asked, soft yet inquisitive.
Rus put his hands in his lap, rubbing his thumb over the Valentine’s Day date tattoo on his wrist. “It just got complicated.”
“Fair enough.”
“Well,” Dylan cut in with enough cheer to drown out the somber silence, “I was actually trying to do my own countdown on last dates. Mine landed somewhere in high school, too, which has been a wee bit longer since you.”
Rus smirked. “True, old man.”
Dylan gasped, slapping a hand over his chest. “You wound me.”
“Old people are pretty delicate,” Kaiden added.
“And you have the audacity to join him?” Dylan feigned shock, letting his jaw fall slack. “The betrayal.”
Kaiden and Rus locked eyes, laughing together in this tiny, uncontrollable fit. It didn’t help that Dylan continued playing this offended old person role.
“Well, if anyone gets to be nervous about the date, it’s me,” Kaiden said, steering the conversation from laughter back to a bit of levity. “It has been a while for both of you. A bit longer for some…”
“Jerk,” Dylan whispered in a ridiculous hush.
“But this is my actual first date.”
“It’s all of our first dates,” Rus clarified, wanting to squash any concern Kaiden might’ve had over him and Dylan perhaps hanging out on a date night without him.
“No, I get that,” Kaiden said with a breathy sigh as he fumbled for words. “I mean, this is my actual first date.”
“Oh.” Rus didn’t know how to respond, suddenly feeling he’d dropped the ball on something so casual.
He shouldn’t have fought so hard for the horror film. He should’ve suggested something a bit fancier for their dinner afterward.
“Hey, it turns out patience is a virtue, or what the fuck ever.” Kaiden shrugged, then gave a big goofy grin. “As far as first dates go, landing two hotties is pretty, well, hot.”
And just like that, the tension at the table washed away.
They ordered food, made small talk, and fell into a comfortable rhythm.
Rus talked about his classes, venting a bit about his upcoming midterms. Dylan mostly shared anecdotes about things the teen residents had been doing around the house or at school in a very mother hen kind of way.
Kaiden went over his workout regimen, explaining all the complexities of transitioning between leaning down and then bulking up, all to maintain a healthy frame.
“So, what is a healthy body type?” Rus asked, taking a big bite of his greasy burger.
“Depends,” Kaiden said with an awkward chuckle. “Everyone’s built different. It took me a long time to realize I would never have a twink figure no matter how much I dieted.”
“That was not dieting,” Dylan interjected, blushed a bit, and turned his attention back to his sampler platter—because he wanted a little taste of everything tonight.
“No shade, it’s fine,” Kaiden said, poking around at his grilled chicken and veggies. “I was definitely on the starve-yourself diet when Dylan and I first met.”
“Oh.” Rus set down his burger; the tension had crept its way back into the conversation.
“But me, being the amazing person I am, helped Kaiden find a better plan,” Dylan added. “Well, mostly I just nagged him.”
“More like he slowly introduced me to people that Jasmine knew—because she knows everyone,” Kaiden clarified.
“She really does.” Dylan grinned. “If networking paid.”
“It does,” Kaiden said matter-of-factly, gesturing to nothing, but clearly pointing out how Jasmine’s whole career revolved around networking and raising funds for queer people in need.
“Well, yeah, I suppose,” Dylan said, picking up a southwest eggroll and drowning it in ranch. “But not officially or anything.”
Kaiden and Dylan started playfully bickering back and forth, and topics of lost days and old acquaintances came up.
Suddenly, Rus didn’t understand a word that came out of their mouths.
They spoke English, the words themselves registered in Rus’ head, yet no matter how hard he tried, the context eluded him entirely.
“I swear, extraverts have it so easy,” Kaiden said, eyeing Rus, and almost immediately noticing the tension.
Rus didn’t want to appear awkward, but he could feel it on his face, in his reserved pose.
“You all right?”
He enjoyed the conversation, enjoyed seeing more and more layers of Kaiden and Dylan every time they hung out, but with that also came the revelation that they knew each other so much more than he ever would.
“Just sometimes feels like I lose myself around your inside jokes,” Rus said, ignoring the pinch of guilt for being honest. “It’s a good thing you guys have. Clearly, you know everything about each other. I just have to catch up, you know?”
“There’s a million things Dylan doesn’t know about me,” Kaiden said. “Trust me.”
“Oh, yeah?” Rus asked. “Like what?”
Kaiden went to speak, then paused. Lost in his own mind, he couldn’t seem to muster an example.
“It’s not a big deal,” Rus said. “Really, it’s cute. And I don’t feel left out, just realizing it’s something I have to learn to go with the flow of.”
“Kaiden doesn’t know how or why I ended up at Dorothy’s Home,” Dylan blurted, then immediately rushed to down his soda.
“I mean, I figured things with your family weren’t great…” Kaiden said with a sheepish shrug.
“Yeah, something I think we both resonate with.” Dylan gave a coy smile, a bit forced, or so Rus thought. “My family was shit. My dad knew I was gay before I even understood what the word meant, and he tried like hell to beat it outta me.”
The table fell silent, creating this bizarre contrast with the noisy restaurant. Everyone and everything around them bustled, but they remained in this quiet bubble.
“That was probably not appropriate date talk stuff. Definitely not first date talk.” Dylan’s cheeks twitched as he fought to keep a smile.
It was something Rus had grown to learn since meeting the rather jovial guy.
Dylan rarely had a sour expression, but he rarely had a genuine smile either.
The real one often came when no one was looking, no pretense or expectations.
And almost always over something silly. Playing video games, sure.
Making a proper movie prediction, definitely.
Talking Rus out of picking a horror film, absa-fricken-lutely.
“I’d like to think we’re a bit past first date convos,” Rus said, clearing the air a bit. “And as far as inappropriate, that’s just people’s way of boxing up topics, and cutting out the truth.”
“I don’t think I fully understood that,” Dylan said with a light laugh. “But it sounded like support.”
Honestly, Rus didn’t fully grasp it either; his mouth moved faster than his brain pieced together his own thoughts. All that mattered was he hoped the words brought Dylan a bit of comfort.
“I was fourteen when I ran away. Almost sixteen before I stumbled onto Jasmine,” Dylan explained. “A lot of rough months.”
“You never really talk about this stuff,” Kaiden whispered.
“Hence why I picked it,” Dylan replied. “Gotta find something you didn’t know, prove Rus wrong.”
“You don’t have to,” Rus said with a nervous lump in his throat. “I didn’t mean to…”
“Nah, it’s good to air out old wounds, my therapist would be proud.”
“You go to therapy, too? Jeez.” Kaiden quirked a brow. “I didn’t know that either.”
Rus and Dylan shared a silent look and a soft smile.
“Not anymore, but off and on over the years when the ole mind needs a bit of a tune-up.” Dylan chuckled. “Things with my family sucked kind of like with yours.”
Dylan gestured to Kaiden, who nodded knowingly, and Rus had no way of relating.
His parents had always supported him and his siblings.
Any choice, any lifestyle, and belief. Even if it didn’t match their ideology.
They led with love and support, and Rus whispered a silent ‘thank you’ to his parents.
Sure, they wouldn’t hear him, but he’d be nicer to them the next time he visited, something to show he was grateful for how lucky he’d been.
“My dad was a piece of work—is, I suppose.” Dylan shrugged. “Not really sure if either of them is still alive or not. I assume, but you know…”
Dylan trailed off, lightly touching on how his father treated him, how his mother avoided making waves, and how his home was anything but a home.
Kaiden had turned his attention, staying quiet and simply letting Dylan speak.
It was another thing Rus had grown to learn.
While Kaiden didn’t always have the words for people, whether the topic veered into something serious and emotional, such as now, or simply something light and trivial, Kaiden did possess a communicative expression.
Rus always felt the sincerity in his gaze, the curiosity in his smile, the kindness in his soft nods.
Rus attempted to follow suit, and they both listened to Dylan pour a piece of his soul out over dinner in this light-hearted ‘let’s not make a big deal out of my trauma’ kind of way.
“I think the worst part is that as much as I don’t want them in my life, a small part of me still wishes they’d change their mind one day and decide to be a part of my life.
” Dylan shrugged, his shoulders far too stiff to convincingly act aloof.
“At least I don’t hate them anymore. Jasmine and about six different therapists helped me work through those issues. ”
Rus’ breathing hitched as Dylan recounted the barest of details. Nothing explicit, nothing to elaborate on the horrors of his home life, the hell of getting by on the streets, but his mood lightened when Jasmine came up, and his journey turned into something positive.
“Could’ve been a hell of a lot worse,” Dylan continued.
“There aren’t a lot of homes geared toward teens.
Not places that actually care. Even fewer that focus on queer youth.
And probably only one place in all the world with someone as stubborn as Jasmine.
She doesn’t give up on anyone, even when they don’t want the help. ”
It was hard to imagine Dylan being reluctant or inconsiderate or abrasive, but his conservation tiptoed around his less-than-appreciative teen attitude.
They sat and listened and chatted and fell into casual conversation all over again. Rus found himself entranced by the men who’d invited him into their lives and hoped to grow closer with them.