Chapter 37
Call It What You Want
After our kiss, Dreamscape performed a few more songs, and I went back to my table, where Kellan and Josh filled me in on the details that had gotten us to the big moment.
Apparently, Grey had been so distraught at not being able to get ahold of me that Josh had taken pity on him and had met with him to hear him out.
Grey had explained the complications with Martin, and Josh had told him he was an idiot to think that Martin could legally deliver on such a threat—though from the sounds of it, proving that Martin dropped them for homophobic discrimination would be hard no matter how many witnesses had been there for the conversation.
So Grey and the band had hatched a plan.
They brought up the conversation with Martin during one of their recording sessions, getting him to aggressively reiterate the points he had gone over with us.
Dae’s lawyer mom said that since Martin was aware that a recording was in progress at the time of the conversation—even if he’d seemingly forgotten the fact once the topic changed—they would actually be able to use the recording in any lawsuit they decided file after the fact.
And with the recording in hand, they had Dae’s mom draw up a lawsuit for discrimination that the band promised to file should Martin go through with dropping them for anything not expressly outlined in the contract they’d signed.
I had to laugh at the thought of what Martin’s face must have looked like when they’d ambushed him with that information.
“Once that was settled, Grey reached out to us to coordinate where the big moment would be,” Kellan said. “It wasn’t hard to pick since this was where you met, and the owner loves having the band play, so he was happy to squeeze them in at the last second.”
I ran my hands over my face. “I can’t believe you managed to pull this off without me finding out.” I peered at Josh. “Especially you. You’re terrible at keeping secrets.”
“It helped that you weren’t leaving your room much except for class,” Josh said with a nervous laugh. “Otherwise, yeah, I don’t think I would’ve managed to keep it from you.”
Grey met me after finishing the surprise performance, which only lasted another four or five songs.
We hung out for a few hours with Kellan, Josh, and the band.
Everything felt perfect as everyone talked and laughed and drank.
Grey didn’t leave my side the rest of the night.
His fingertips brushed against my forearm whenever he could, sending shockwaves through my arm and down my spine.
I couldn’t stop smiling. At him, at my friends, at the damn drink in my hand.
Everything had a romantic glow after what had happened.
It felt like mere minutes had passed when last call sounded, and we left Charlie’s to go our separate ways.
Dae had made plans to stay at Lance’s place for the night, so Grey and I had their apartment to ourselves.
It seemed that everyone had all but rolled out the red carpet for us to get back together.
It would’ve been funny if I’d refused, given everything that people had done to ensure we would have a perfect night.
Though, if I was being honest with myself, I couldn’t have said no to Grey in a million years.
We said our goodbyes then went back to Grey’s apartment. We were barely inside when his lips found mine once more.
“I could kiss you forever,” he said, emphasizing his words by kissing me again.
It was such a sweet, innocent touch of the lips, but I melted into him. Somehow, it seemed that up until that moment, I’d still had some final walls in place. It wasn’t until I felt them dissolve that I even noticed their existence.
“I missed you.” Are those tears in my eyes again?
“I missed you too,” he said.
That was the last thing we said for quite some time. We stumbled into the bedroom. His touch felt like coming home as his hands ran down my back to my waist and below. Our clothes fell away, strewn haphazardly onto the floor, then we toppled onto bed, wrapped up in each other’s embrace.
We were inseparable for the next two days.
Martin was busy with plans for a Pacific Northwest tour for the band, and there were some hints that he had lined up a gig in Chicago for the tail end of the summer.
He hadn’t told anyone much about it so as not to jinx it until all the details came together, but he assured Grey that it would be huge.
Shockingly, despite his strong stance against Grey being in a public relationship with me, he didn’t act bothered at all by the stunt Dreamscape had pulled at Charlie’s.
Though I was certain it had less to do with any change in opinion on his part and more to do with the viral outpouring of support that had followed Dae posting Grey’s confession of love to me on all socials.
Whatever the case, Martin was busy, so Grey was not busy for a brief, shining moment. That meant we got to spend the weekend barely clothed, ordering takeout, and watching superhero movies. It was the type of weekend I’d been wishing for for months. Intimate, isolated, and entirely, perfectly ours.
Monday came all too soon. After a panicked morning of shoving all my shit into my luggage, I was standing at the curb, waiting for pickup with Josh and Kellan. Grey stood a few feet away saying goodbye to the band in a separate huddle.
“I can’t believe we only have one more year here,” I said, significantly more sentimental about the prospects of graduating than I had been forty-eight hours ago.
“Well, if you and Kellan can keep your grades up,” Josh teased.
“C’s get degrees, my friend,” Kellan said airily. “Plus, I’m sure I can rely on some good old-fashioned nepotism to get a job somewhere.”
Josh rolled his eyes. “God, I can’t believe I agreed to go with you this summer.”
“Wait, go with him where?” I asked. This was the first I was hearing about any summer plans.
To my surprise, Kellan grimaced. “He’s saving me from a summer alone with my family.”
“You make it sound like I’m throwing my body on a grenade or something,” Josh said dryly.
“Trust me, you won’t be so nonchalant once you meet them,” Kellan said.
Josh waved his comments away. “We’re going to London and Paris, and he’s paying for it all.”
I blinked. “That’s generous.”
“Eh, my parents are divorced and rich, and I’m not above pulling some heartstrings to get what I want.”
We laughed at that, then a car pulled up, driven by a severe-looking blond woman that I knew was Josh’s mom from seeing her in passing over the years.
She wore sunglasses and an expression that seemed as though she’d recently bitten something particularly sour.
She popped the trunk without stepping out of the car or so much as looking in our direction.
“Is everything all right there?” While I would never describe Josh’s mother as cheerful, I didn’t think I’d ever seen her so obviously pissed.
“Yeah, she’s not thrilled that I’m taking the summer off this year.” Josh shrugged. “She’ll get over it.” He loaded his luggage into the car with some help from me and Kellan. He then gave us quick one-armed hugs, and with a simple “See you later,” he was gone.
Kellan’s departure was much more subdued.
His ride was a nondescript black car driven by a bald man I didn’t recognize.
I’d never been super clear on what his parents did, but he hadn’t been lying about them being rich.
They always sent drivers to pick him up instead of coming themselves.
I didn’t even know which parent he spent most of his time with.
I made a mental note to ask more questions about my friends while the driver loaded Kellan’s luggage.
He gave me a big bear hug before getting in and leaving as well.
Grey finished up with his friends as Kellan’s car disappeared from view.
He approached me with a grin. “You know,” he said. “The guys reminded me that I hadn’t bugged you yet to come to a few of our shows over the summer.”
“I think I might be busy with things,” I said.
Grey narrowed his eyes at me. “I haven’t told you any dates yet.”
“Oh, well.” I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him in close. “I still think I’m busy.”
“There must be something I can do to convince you to clear your schedule.” Grey’s eyes simmered with desire that was decidedly not appropriate for our current setting.
Our faces were as close to touching as they could be without kissing. My eyes kept flicking down to his mouth, and my mind went blank, unable to focus on anything else at the moment.
“I might be able to come up with a thing or two,” I said, then I closed the short distance between us.
I released a soft whimper, suddenly hating the fact that we were on a crowded street with hundreds of people around us.
The weekend we’d had to ourselves hadn’t been enough. I needed Grey alone with me forever.
Someone pointedly cleared their throat, and I pulled away from Grey to see that my parents had arrived in their usual fashion—together and peeved with each other—and they’d gotten out of the car to greet me.
I hadn’t thought we’d been kissing for that long, but I realized the way my body draped over Grey’s was not appropriate for company.
Especially if that company consisted of my parents.
“Uh, hi, Mom, Dad,” I said, flustered as I peeled myself away from my boyfriend and straightened myself out. “This is Grey.”
“The boy you mentioned over Christmas break.” Mom’s look reminded me unnervingly of a cat about to devour its food.
“You mentioned me?” Grey asked, pulling away. He reached out to shake my parents’ hands. “It’s nice to meet you both.”
“Oh, trust me, the pleasure is all ours,” Dad said. “It seems you’ve turned our son into a bit of a romantic.”
“Yes, the poor boy wouldn’t so much as hold the hand of someone in front of us before,” Mom said. “He said we embarrassed him.”