(310) 242-9781: what time are we supposed to be at practice?
(310) 726-1205: wait we have practice today?
(310) 307-3290: Yeah idiot
(310) 307-3290: Maybe show up to practice
(310) 726-1205: i had the flu dickhead
(310) 242-9781: wait no but seriously whens practice
(310) 810-844: wait we have practice?
"We have got to get Dave to fix the cloud," Simon grumbled to no one in particular. For the past half hour, his phone had been blowing up with Alvin's stupid group texts, because Dave messed up their iCloud account when he finally updated their phones.
(310) 726-1205: suck a dick larry
He really needed to talk to Alvin about getting new friends. These meatheads had probably used the word dick more times in the past conversation than he had in his entire 16 years of existence. Why did everything with jocks have to revolve around male genitalia?
(310) 242-9781: GUYS WHEN IS PRACTICE?
Okay, that was it. Simon picked up his phone and marched across the hall into Alvin's room. He saw his brother lying in bed with his laptop propped up on a pillow. A pair of red Beats rested atop of his head. At least that explained why Alvin wasn't answering his text messages.
Simon walked over and sat on the edge of Alvin's bed. Noticing the sudden shift in weight, Alvin finally peeled his eyes away from the YouTube video he had been engrossed in.
"Oh hey, what up?" Alvin propped himself up so he could better address his brother. He tapped the spacebar on his computer to pause the video before removing the large headphones.
"Can you please tell your stupid football team when practice is?"
Alvin glanced over at his phone sitting on the nightstand.
"Oh shoot, are you getting my text messages again?" Alvin grabbed his phone and quickly scrolled through them. He rolled his eyes at some of the messages before quickly typing out a reply. Simon looked down when he felt his phone vibrate.
Alvin Seville: 3:30-5:30. I told you guys to remove me from group chats until my phone gets fixed.
When they had first noticed they were receiving each other's text messages, they agreed they would ask their friends to remove them from group chats until they got it sorted out. To be fair, the agreement was more for Simon's sake than Alvin's since Simon's phone stayed relatively silent throughout the day. If there's one thing Simon learned about his brother, it was that he was way more social than he imagined. Within the first day of having their new phones, Alvin probably received over 200 text messages. God, he was glad he didn't have to keep up with a massive friend group.
"Sorry about that." Alvin apologized as he set his phone back down. "Hope they didn't scare that big brain of yours too much."
"Well, no one sent porn this time, so that's an improvement." Simon laughed awkwardly as graphic images of sex positions he didn't even know existed flashed through his mind again. He could feel a blush rising to his cheeks just thinking about it.
"You haven't even seen the worst of it." Alvin winked at his brother and couldn't help the laugh that escaped him. Teasing Simon for being a blushing virgin was all too fun.
"Okay, well, I'm going to go now."
"Just being honest!" Alvin smiled when he caught a glimpse of Simon cringing as he shut the door.
_page break_
Dave Seville: You boys' phones should be fixed now.
Simon smiled in relief when he received the text from Dave. Thank God the constant barrage of text messages for Alvin was finally over!
"What are you smiling at?"
Simon turned his attention to the voice behind him.
"Dave fixed our phones."
"Oh, thank god!" The other boy leaned down and placed a chaste kiss on top of Simon's head before sitting down next to him. He smiled at the pink blush that formed soon after.
"We're at school." Simon tried to busy himself with his lab notes, but he couldn't ignore the butterfly sensation in his stomach, or the pins and needles feeling in his fingers. Why did he have to get so nervous over something as small as a kiss? Besides, it's not like there was anyone around to see them. School had ended well over an hour ago, and the only people milling around on a Friday afternoon were janitors.
"I'm just happy we can finally text again." His partner rested his face on his hand and stared fondly at him. God even staring made him feel nervous.
"Me too." Simon let a smile graze his lips. Once he had realized Alvin could read his text messages, he had been all too panicked when he called his...
He glanced over at the boy sitting next to him.
'Boyfriend…'
God, he would have been mortified if Alvin had read one of their text messages, so to be on the safe side, he requested that the two remain "off-grid" until Dave sorted things out. Even though it had only been two weeks, he'd missed their late-night conversations and falling asleep to an "I love you" text message.
"We should work on our lab." He could still feel his partner gazing at him, and he bit his lip, which granted him a smile from the other boy.
"I'll text you tonight."
_page break_
(310) 829-2710: How do you feel about French kisses?
Simon Seville: I think they're kind of weird.
Simon Seville: I mean I don't know! God, how am I supposed to respond to that?
(310) 829-2710: Haha.
(310) 829-2710: So, you wouldn't French kiss me?
Simon Seville: Well no.
Simon Seville: I mean I would, but I'd probably be really uncomfortable.
Simon Seville: I don't know.
(310) 829-2710: I'll just have to make you comfortable with it then, won't I?
Simon Seville: Ugh. Next question.
Alvin knew that snooping was wrong, and he probably should have told Simon that Dave did not fix their phones and that he was still receiving text messages from his phone, but as soon as he realized his younger brother was getting some action, he knew that wasn't an option.
(310) 829-2710: How do you picture your wedding?
Simon Seville: Honestly, I just want to go to the courthouse and call it a day. The wedding industry is such a farce, and quite frankly, that's too much socialization for me.
That was news to him. He knew Simon was an introvert, but jeez. He really hoped Simon would make it clear to whatever girl he proposed to that she would not be receiving a lavish wedding.
(310) 829-2710: Wow and here I was hoping you'd take my last name.
Wait, why would Simon be taking her last name?
Simon Seville: Hate to break it to you, but I'll probably end up keeping my last name.
Simon Seville: But even still, I could still take your last name by going to a courthouse. A minister doesn't have to declare me "Mr. Simon Lee-Seville" to make it official.
'Holy shit.'
Unless Simon was dating an upperclassman, he had to be dating a boy since there was only one "Lees" in their grade.
"Oh my god!" Alvin quickly covered his mouth when he realized how much his voice carried. Oh god, he should have never been reading Simon's personal conversation. He couldn't just pretend he didn't just read that. How long had Simon been dating this guy, and when did he plan on telling him?
Alvin felt his heart drop when his phone suddenly lit up with a text message from Simon addressed to him.
Simon Seville: You're still getting my texts, aren't you?
Crap, crap, crap. Oh god, Simon was going to know he had been sitting there reading his text messages. It wasn't like he could pretend he "just so happened to see it" when the two of them had been texting for an hour straight. Simon was going to kill him.
Alvin Seville: Yeah.
_page break_
After avoiding him for the past three days, Alvin finally got fed up and approached Simon himself. Like it or not, they were going to talk about this.
"We need to talk." Alvin pushed aside the copious number of books off Simon's desk and made room for himself. The death glare Simon gave him did little to perturb him.
"There's nothing to talk about." Simon stood from and chair and open the door. He gestured for Alvin to leave, but he remained seated.
"Clearly there is because you've been avoiding me for the past few days."
"Well, then I don't want to talk about it with you, Alvin. Please leave."
"No."
"Alvin!" Simon walked over to his desk and tried to drag him towards the door, but it was a pathetic attempt. Alvin which much stronger thanks to all the football training.
"Are you done?" Alvin let out a fake yawn when Simon finally stopped tugging on his arm. He probably shouldn't act so smug when he was trying to get Simon to open up because he ended up receiving a pencil to the face.
"What's there to discuss? You clearly read my text messages, and you already know who he is, so I don't see what more you want to know." Simon tried to bite back a sob, but a warm tear was already making its way down his face.
"I'm sorry for reading your text messages—"
"Why didn't you tell me you were still getting them?" Simon tried to hide his face, for whatever good that would do. It's wasn't like Alvin couldn't see him in the middle of an emotional breakdown already.
"I don't know; maybe it's because you have a secret lover."
"Had." Simon correctly bitterly, and Alvin felt himself cringe.
"Simon, I'm really sorry, and I admit, I'm in the wrong, but I'm not going to just ignore this."
Simon shot him a glare.
"If it's because he's a guy then you can—"
"I can't ignore this because my little brother's finally in his first relationship." Alvin walked over to Simon and pulled him into an embrace. He felt Simon initially tense up, but his shoulders slowly relaxed the longer he held him. Simon gently returned the hug and buried his face into Alvin's shoulder. He let the last of his tears fall, before composing himself and pulling away.
"So, can we talk?"
Simon let out a sigh and walked over to sit down on his bed. He grabbed a pillow and hugged it against his body. This was a conversation he didn't think he'd be having until much later.
"What do you want to know?" He released the breath he didn't realize he was holding when Alvin smiled and sat down across him.
"So, you are gay?" Alvin asked mainly for confirmation.
"I mean, I think so. To be honest, I'm still not really sure, but there's definitely something there with boys that I don't have with girls." Simon kept his gaze anywhere but on Alvin. Admitting everything aloud made it feel all the more real, and part of that terrified him.
"You're experimenting around?"
"I guess. But, I really like him, and I haven't felt this way about someone since Jeanette and I broke things off." Both brothers shared a small smile. Simon and Jeanette had a brief fling freshman year, but ultimately broke things off for reasons unknown.
'I guess it's kind of oblivious now though.'
"Why him? And how long? How?" Alvin had so many questions rolling around in his head and was glad for the sudden mood shift. He noticed Simon seemed to brighten up when speaking about him. It was really sweet.
"Um… you're going to hate me. It's going to be six months—"
"What?!" Simon had kept this a secret for six months? How the hell did he not notice sooner? And how long were they going to have to be together before Simon did eventually say something?
Simon hunched more into the pillow at Alvin's sudden outburst. It was kind of ridiculous that it even took six months for him to tell Alvin, but in his defense, he hadn't felt ready. And he still wasn't sure he felt ready to tell Alvin everything, but here they were.
"I- I was going to tell you eventually," Simon replied meekly.
"What, after you got married?"
Simon let out an awkward breath before forcing himself to move on.
"Anyway...I mean…we've been friends since middle school. And, you know, he was there for me when I was going through my crisis after breaking up with Jeanette, and it just sort of…happened." Simon finally looked up to gage Alvin's reaction and was quickly taken back by the next question.
"Did he kiss you?" Alvin had a smirk on his face, and Simon felt a wave of embarrassment wash over him.
"I- I mean… well… we-" God, he could not get a coherent thought out.
"I'll take that as a yes." Alvin laughed, which only made Simon feel more uncomfortable. Why was he even discussing these silly details with Alvin in the first place?
"I think you've reached your question quota." Simon stood up and Alvin mirrored him. He knew Simon was at his limit for the day. He'd get more out of him later, anyway.
_page break_
