Ten.
"I've got a five and a six to go on your two through four, so there." CJ laid down the cards triumphantly, then discarded one.
Richard raised an eyebrow. "Thanks, I needed that." He picked up the discarded card, laid down six of the seven in his hand, and discarded the seventh. "What do you know, I won another hand. Go me."
Chris pouted at him. "I'm sick," he whined. "You could at least let me win one or two."
"You're getting better, stop whining," Richard answered.
"But I coulda died!"
"Stop exaggerating, dear." Mrs. Ivanovitch began to count out the cards left in everyone's hands and update the tally they'd been keeping. Richard was winning, but only by forty; she and Alejandro were tied with 335 each, right behind him.
"I'm not exaggerating, if you hadn't shown up we wouldn't have gotten any rest and I'd have died."
"That's nice, dear."
"Mom!"
"Hey, you, shut it and let the cards do the talking," CJ declared. "Nick, it's your turn to deal."
"Yeah, yeah." Nick sighed.
"What're you so mopey about, anyway?" Alejandro asked.
"I think I missed a phone call earlier."
"…Yeah?"
"Uh, my family. Was gonna call. But if they did I missed it… And I miss my family. I mean, it's not like my mom flew out to visit."
"You want a mom, you can have mine," Richard mumbled.
"Now, that's not very nice," Mrs. Ivanovitch said.
"You've met her."
"I meant not very nice to Nick," she clarified.
"Chris, I can't get over this," CJ said. "Your mom is so… cool."
"Thank you, dear," she answered. "Stop bouncing, you're knocking the cards all over."
"Sorry," he apologized quickly, and did his best to sit still for a good thirty seconds. But the bouncing was actually problematic; Chris had yet to be released from bedrest, so they were all gathered around his bed, playing cards on the comforter. It was the kind of bonding that they talked about in interviews all the time, though it wasn't often they actually did it.
Nick finished dealing the hand and as everyone started to organize their cards, his phone rang. "I gotta take this—bye—CJ, don't look at my cards!"
He dashed out of the room as he dug his phone out of his pocket.
CJ glanced around at the other players, shrugged, and picked up Nick's hand.
"CJ, don't cheat," Alejandro sighed.
"What, he's talking to his family, he won't be back for this hand. Rich is gonna win it in, like, two minutes anyway."
"Yeah, how did you get to be so good at cards, Rich?" Chris asked.
Richard shrugged and mumbled something noncommittal.
"Well, whatever," Chris declared, and then coughed loudly for a minute. "It doesn't matter anyway 'cause I'm gonna win this hand. For once."
"Uh huh." Richard raised an eyebrow, and Chris pouted at him. The fact that Chris still looked quite sick, with bags under his eyes and far too gaunt, helped it look sad instead of irritating.
"Should we wait for Nick?" Alejandro asked.
"Nah, his cards are too good, don't bother. Anyway, you know how he is when he's on the phone with his folks. He's going to be gone forever."
They all looked over at Mrs. Ivanovitch, who shrugged. "Well, we might as well play the hand, at least for a little bit."
And so they kept playing, and it was an hour later that Nick resurfaced, and only a few minutes after that that Richard finally crossed the five hundred point mark, and the game ended. Which was just as well, Chris was getting more and more tired, and coughing again.
"Do you want to rest, Kristoff?" Mrs. Ivanovitch asked.
He nodded. "My throat huts. Mom, I don't know if I'll be able to sing…"
"You'll be fine, don't worry." She kissed his forehead and ushered everyone out of the room, but Alejandro hesitated.
"Do you want anything for your throat?" he asked.
Chris nodded, looking sickly.
Ten minutes later, Alejandro reappeared, carefully holding a steaming mug of tea. Chris was almost asleep when he let himself in, so he just smiled and set it down on the bedside table and was about to start out, when Chris stirred.
"Alejandro?"
"Yeah?"
"I just… I was thinking and it's really… I mean, I didn't get why you were so insistent about your name and stuff, when we had our first show. But I think I get it now."
"Uh… Really?"
"Yeah… It's cool. I mean… You're so you and you don't care about the stupid show biz stuff or anything, you just want to be who you are. I bet you'd even be out if we'd let you."
Alejandro shrugged.
"Anyway… I just… I mean, it's cool. That you want to be so real. 'Cause my name is Kristoff but no one but my mom ever calls me that. Kristoff Ivanovitch. No one knows my real name, even."
Alejandro swallowed. "I do, Chris. Now."
"I know you do now. I just…" He shrugged. "I never told anybody. 'Cause I wanted to fit the right image. It was my choice, even. But… I never met anyone like you, anyone real like you."
"Thanks, I guess."
"I'm sorry I called you Alex for so long, 'cause I know it's not what you like, and I'm still sorry about being a jerk at school…"
"Chris," Alejandro said, slightly embarrassed. "I think you're delirious. You should go to sleep."
Chris nodded. "I'm tired. But… G'night, Alejandro."
Alejandro smiled softly and let himself out of the room. He was very glad no one noticed he was also blushing.
The suite seemed oddly quiet, though, and then there was a burst of laughter mixed with groans from Nick's room. Alejandro let himself in to see that Nick, CJ and Richard were gathered around Nick's laptop at the desk.
"Uh… hey," Alejandro said. "What's up?"
"Hey, Alex," Nick said, and dissolved into a round of helpless giggles.
"Did I miss something?"
"Uh…" Nick glanced at CJ and Richard and started laughing, and so did CJ. Richard managed to stay composed for another few seconds, and tried to speak.
"We were, uh, doing google searches. For ourselves."
"Yeah?"
"And, um, CJ put in 'CJ-slash-Nick' to try and find either one of them… And it turned up some…" He shrugged. "Stories."
"Stories?"
"Apparently, the slash means we're having sex!" CJ added enthusiastically.
"To be fair, you were for awhile," Alejandro said evenly, still not sure what was going on.
"No, I mean the stories—fans—girls, we think—they write stories. About us. Having sex."
"Okay… weird."
"Not just us, all of us," Nick explained. "Lots of people really want to see Rich go down on Chris, turns out."
"Um…" Alejandro glanced back at the door. "I'll come back later."
"No, no, you haven't heard yours yet!"
"I don't want to."
"There was this one, where you got Chris really drunk—"
"Oh, god."
"And tied him down to a bedpost—"
"Oh, god."
"And let us just say, the things you were doing to him got us all…" Nick fanned himself.
"Great, well, this is very strange. Why are you… Why do people write this stuff?"
CJ shrugged. "I called my sister, she says it's popular online."
"Why?"
"I dunno, but she writes it. Apparently, she started the whole group of stories about me and Nick back when we were still—"
"You don't think that's creepy? That your sister is writing stories about you having sex?"
CJ stopped. "I hadn't thought of it like that."
Alejandro raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, here's one," Nick said. "You, Rich, and chocolate syrup—"
"Please, stop."
"Okay, what about you and me?" CJ said. "We found a few of those, but people write about me and Chris more often. That's weird."
"Yeah." Alejandro nodded. "Unlike writing about you and Nick, because that's perfectly normal."
"Come on," Richard said. "You don't want to read a story about you and Chris? Not even a little bit?"
Alejandro stared at him. "No," he said emphatically.
"Really? We found one—not much sex in it, very cute. About you and Chris getting together. It was just adorable. How he calls you a genius all the time and you deny it, but it's because he's got a real thing for you and eventually he comes out and just says it in an interview and all the press backlash but—"
"Richard, I do not want to read it," Alejandro said. "Um. You guys have fun with this. I'm going to go do something that doesn't involve reading someone else's fantasies about me."
"Spoilsport," Nick sulked. "You might like some of these, you know. It's not like people think they're real. Even the ones that are." He glanced at CJ, but CJ had found something else to read and was engrossed.
"At least people are thinking of us. And to be fair, we are all a little gay," Richard said. "It's not like they're wrong."
CJ continued to stare at the screen.
"Yeah, but what if—I mean, my sister uses google," Alejandro said. "She's eleven. I don't want her to accidentally read… anything by CJ's sister."
"Lighten up," Nick said. "Half of these are written by eleven year olds."
"You're kidding me."
"Well, you'd think from the writing," Nick said. "But seriously, it's kind of funny."
CJ was still staring at the screen.
"Okay, well… Yeah. You guys have fun. I'm going to go do something that isn't this now."
"You don't know what you're missing. That story about you and Chris was really—"
But Alejandro had left. Richard shrugged, and glanced over at CJ, who was still staring at the laptop intently.
"Nick!" he yelped abruptly. "Why didn't you ever actually do this?"
Nick glanced at the screen. "CJ, dear, that's fiction. Someone's fantasy."
"Mine, now."
"CJ."
"Nick, if you'd done that, we'd still be together."
"CJ, darling, shut up."
"CJ," Nick declared, after they finally finished reading various stories. "I was thinking about that one story."
"Which one, the elevator one? 'Cause that one's hot."
"No, the one about Alejandro."
"Alejandro and who?"
"Alejandro and Chris, you loser!"
"Well, how was I supposed to know? There were stories about Alejandro and everybody!"
Nick rolled his eyes. "CJ. Listen to me. Alejandro… Well, he's Chris's biggest fan, right?"
"Yeah… Nick, I don't think I like the look in your eyes."
"Oh, come on. They'd be so cute together!"
"I love Chris and all, but I wouldn't wish him on Alejandro. Or… Anyone. He'd be impossible."
"Pshah," Nick waved dismissively. "Alejandro's crush on him is just adorable, and he'd be so good for Chris. And Chris has… improved. Somewhat."
"I don't think this is a good idea."
"CJ, please. You know they'd be perfect together. You read the story."
"It's just a story, Nick. You're talking about trying to manipulate your friends' lives."
"To make them happier!"
"This is going to end so badly."
"Will you help me anyway?" Nick batted his eyelashes.
"Well, of course. I just want my reluctance noted."
"Noted! Let's get to work."
It was nearing the end of their three day rest, and Chris had finally been allowed out of bed. He was now able to wander around the suite in a daze, wrapped in a blanket that trailed onto the floor and collected dust. Even though he still needed (or wanted, at least) constant attention, Alejandro was slightly relieved. At least now he didn't need to peek into Chris's room every ten minutes to make sure that he was still alive.
Chris's mother had left that afternoon, giving Chris a big hug and making Alejandro promise to take care of him. Which he did anyway.
So now he was standing in the kitchen, washing out one of the mugs that Chris had used for his constant tea drinking. He was just setting the dripping mug aside to dry when he heard a fake cough behind him.
Alejandro used a soapy hand to push his hair out of his eyes and turned around to find Nick standing behind him.
About three inches behind him.
Alejandro yelped in surprise and jerked away. "Why did you sneak up on me?" he exclaimed.
"I didn't sneak up," Nick said with a look of wounded innocence on his face. "You just didn't hear me, that's all."
"Okay," Alejandro said slowly. "Is… everything all right?"
"Oh, sure, everything's fine. Just great."
"That's good."
"Right."
"So, uh, why were you standing right behind me?"
"Oh, that," Nick said, airily waving his hand. "It's really nothing important."
"Nothing important," Alejandro repeated.
"Exactly."
"So unimportant that we're standing here having a conversation about it?"
"Well, now that you mention it," Nick said, flourishing a small, flat package, "there is something."
Alejandro blinked. "Whatever it is, does it have to do with the package you're waving at me?"
"It might. Now, listen, Alejandro, I made a mix CD."
"Uh, good for you."
"It's full of Chris's favorite songs."
"Well, it was nice of you to make a mix CD for him, but I don't see what that's got to do with me."
"You know him best," Nick said, "so I was thinking that you could give it to him."
"I don't… I mean, you made it, you should give it to him," Alejandro replied, a trifle unsteadily. Did he know Chris the best? Really?
Nick shook his head emphatically. "No. I get weird about giving gifts to people. I mean, you don't need to make a huge production out of it. Just, you know, hand it to him and mention that it's got some of his favorites on it."
"Uh…" Alejandro had a feeling that Nick wasn't being entirely honest with him. "Nick, why'd you do this?"
"Oh, I was just feeling a little guilty. I mean, we've all been so hard on him, and then he got really sick, and didn't even get to hang out and have any fun while we were goofing around, and now his mom's gone – I just thought it would be a nice thing to do for a band mate."
"Oh. Okay, if you really want me to give it to him, just set it there on the counter and I'll take it to him when I'm finished here."
"Great! Thanks!"
Nick positively bounced away. Alejandro shook his head in bemusement and turned back to the sink.
Things were going swimmingly, Nick thought. At least, he thought so until Chris, still wrapped in a blanket, approached him with a slightly suspicious look on his face.
"Hey, Chris, what's up?" he asked mildly.
"I wanted to thank you for the CD," Chris replied. "It was nice of you to make it for me."
Nick gaped for a second. "Uh, no. You've got the wrong guy. I didn't make that. I think Alejandro did."
"Alejandro said… that you did." Now Chris looked downright bewildered. "I was, uh, a little confused, though. I mean it's a good mix, and all, but, uh, it's nothing but love songs."
"Oh," Nick said uncomfortably, forcing a laugh. "I, uh, wouldn't know. I didn't make it." As he spoke, he edged away until he was nearly out of the room. He turned around and yelled at the top of his lungs, "CJ!"
He stalked away dramatically, leaving a very confused Chris behind him.
Alejandro looked quizzically down at the flowers. They'd just been delivered, and he didn't quite have it in him to open the card—he had no idea who would send him a bouquet of roses, but a pretty good idea who it wasn't.
But still…
He slid the attached card out of the envelope and read it:
Great performance tonight!
Come by my room later?
Love,
ChrisHe sighed, and turned around, and Nick was hovering about three inches behind him. Again.
"Nick?" he asked.
"Someone sent you flowers!" Nick pinched his cheek. "That's so cute! Who was it?"
"Well," Alejandro said suspiciously. "The card says they're from Chris."
Nick squealed a little and clapped a hand over his mouth.
Alejandro raised an eyebrow. "On the other hand, someone made Chris a love CD last week, and it sure wasn't me. Odd, huh?"
Nick scowled. "CJ!" he shrieked, turned around, and stalked dramatically from the room.
Alejandro stared after him, then sighed. They were lovely roses…
He couldn't bring himself to drop them in the trash on the way out. But he did recycle the card. It was a fake, anyway.
The fact that the boys were still sharing a dressing room was a little odd; they were more than popular. But they did, and it had gotten past the point where it was awkward, they knew each other too well. And after a show they were all exhausted, and all anyone wanted to do was change out of the costumes, back into regular clothes, and unwind.
"Uh…" Alejandro paused. "I'm pretty sure I left my clothes here."
Richard glanced over at him. "Maybe you dropped them somewhere?"
"No, I folded them and left them on top of the dresser… Where are my—"
"Hey, guys?" Chris called from across the room. "Has anyone seen my pants? I can't find them anywhere! Or… my shirt."
Alejandro glanced over at him, and saw that Chris was standing around in a pair of boxers, arms wrapped around his stomach.
He looked down at where he was certain he'd left his clothes, and Richard finished dressing and started out of the room, CJ following. Nick was tiptoeing behind them.
"Nick," Alejandro said, and Nick froze.
"Hmm?" Nick answered innocently.
"Where are our clothes?"
"Why would I know?"
"Nick!" Chris yelped. "Where are my pants?"
"I don't know. Oh, look, they already took the costumes to be washed; I guess you two will just have to sit around in here until they turn up. Bye!"
"Nick, where are our clothes?" Alejandro repeated, grabbing Nick's arm.
"I don't… know?"
"Nick, damn it, I'm cold!" Chris whined. "I just want to go to bed, come on. This is stupid. What is it with you lately, anyway?"
"Nick, where are our pants?" Alejandro asked quietly.
Nick sighed. "You might try looking on top of those cupboards over there. I mean, I don't know. That seems like somewhere something could get lost."
Chris and Alejandro exchanged glances.
"Well, uh… Damn it," Nick mumbled. "CJ!" he added, as he hurried out of the room. "I told you this one wouldn't…"
The door shut out the rest of the sentence.
Alejandro sighed and glanced over at Chris, then looked away quickly.
"So, someone's lost his mind," Chris said.
"No kidding. Uh… I'll get our clothes."
"Thanks."
Alejandro hoisted himself up to find their clothes (and to his annoyance, his were no longer even folded) up on the very top shelf, and tossed them down to Chris.
"So why do you think…?"
"I don't know," Alejandro said. "He's probably just bored."
"Yeah. Well… Okay. Jeez, I'm freezing."
They dressed awkwardly and silently, and didn't talk to each other for the rest of the night. Though they did both make a point to glare at Nick.
Alejandro nervously walked into the kitchen of the hotel, holding a card. It was printed and not signed, though he was pretty sure he knew who it was from (both allegedly and in reality), and he wasn't quite sure what to expect.
One of the cooks pointed him over to a table, which had clearly been set up just for this. There was a single rose in a glass vase and a white tablecloth. He sighed.
"The guy who set this up—did he have a baby face? Kind of brownish skin?"
"He paid me not to say, that's for sure."
Alejandro groaned and slid into one of the chairs at the table, and tried not to watch the door, but sure enough, a few minutes later Chris walked in, looking confused.
"Alejandro?"
"This was not my idea."
Chris shrugged and slid into the seat opposite Alejandro. "I figured, yeah."
There was a brief moment of uncomfortable silence in which neither of them could seem to look the other in the eye. Alejandro cleared his throat.
"So," he started, "um. It would seem that Nick is trying to set us up."
"Yes," Chris responded, looking everywhere except at Alejandro, "that's my guess." They both fell silent as salads were placed in front of them. Chris laughed uneasily. "So, uh… Weird."
"Yeah."
"Where do you think he got this idea?"
Alejandro looked down at the table, feeling a dull warmth at the base of his neck. He knew exactly where Nick might have gotten this idea, and to be honest, he was somewhat surprised that Chris didn't know. After all, the other boys all seemed to be fully aware of the fact that he still had a hopeless crush on Chris.
But he wasn't about to tell all that to Chris, so his only response was, "I don't know."
"Do you… think we can get him to stop?" Chris asked.
"I'll talk to him," Alejandro said, silently resolving that he was going to give Nick the lecture of a lifetime. "I – I can do that right now, actually," he added, starting to rise to his feet, but he was stopped by Chris's hand on his arm.
"Wait," Chris said. "I mean… That is…" Looking almost guilty, he let go of Alejandro's arm and gestured. "We might as well have dinner."
"Huh?"
Chris grinned a little bit. "Well, it would make him sad if we didn't. And besides which, I'm hungry."
Alejandro smiled back, though he could feel a muscle twitching at the side of his mouth. "Sure, why not? It's not like we're not friends, right?"
"Exactly," Chris responded. "Friends have dinner all the time, right?"
"Yeah. Friends eat dinner together. Though, uh… Usually not with a rose on the table," Alejandro said as he gingerly sat back down.
"Oh!" Chris snatched the vase from the table and looked around for a moment before setting it gently on the ground next to the table. "There. Nice friendly dinner."
"So…"
"Um." Chris stared at the salad and grabbed his fork. "The food looks good, huh?"
Alejandro smiled and nodded, but inwardly he cringed. It was going to be a very long evening.
"I wonder what the main course is?" Chris added, as he stabbed his fork into the salad, maybe a little too hard. Alejandro tried not to read anything into that, though. Probably Chris just felt awkward, too.
"I… I don't know," Alejandro said.
Chris laughed. "It was a rhetorical question. Why would you know? It's not like you helped set this up with Nick…" He trailed off, and shrugged. "Did you?"
"No," Alejandro answered defensively. "Nick has been driving me crazy with this stuff."
"Me, too." Chris shook his head. "Last week, he spent an hour showing me magazine clippings of you, shirtless. That was kind of… Odd. I mean, not that you're not… Not that I didn't think…" He shrugged. "You know what I mean."
"Yeah," Alejandro nodded. "He and CJ started quoting love poems at me and asking if they made me think of anyone in particular."
"Did they?" Chris laughed.
Alejandro rolled his eyes. "They meant you."
"Well, obviously. But who did you actually think of? You know, when you think of love?"
Alejandro shrugged. "At that particular moment, I was entertaining fantasies of strangling Nick."
"Understandable. But you seem like… I don't know, you've never mentioned liking anyone. Or even thinking anyone was hot. Except for that date with… You know, except for that date you've never done anything romantic at all."
"I…" He trailed off. "What does it matter?"
"Just curious. Conversation. You know, since this is weird… I thought talking might be good." He cleared his throat. "I had a crush on every single girl who was on Game On! and half the boys. After I hit puberty, I mean."
Alejandro laughed. "It would be kind of odd if you had a lot of crushes when you were nine."
"Well, when I was eleven I had a huge crush on Alexis—do you remember her on the show?"
"Yeah," Alejandro said. "I guess she was cute. I dunno. I don't really… Get crushes on girls."
Chris laughed. "Well, who was the first boy you liked, then? What was he like?"
Alejandro groaned. "It doesn't matter."
"No, come on. I'll keep it a secret, just you and me."
"You? Keep a secret?"
"Hey, I can keep secrets, I just usually… choose not to."
"Chris, I don't really want to… It doesn't matter anyway. I was just a kid."
"How young?"
"Chris—"
"Come on, please? It'll be fun. You don't have to tell me his name, just what he looked like. Why you liked him."
"Uh… Okay. I was… I guess eleven, maybe twelve."
"And you already knew you were gay?"
"When I started daydreaming about a boy, I figured it out pretty quickly."
Chris laughed. "So, tell me more."
"You sound like Nick, you know that, right?"
"Well, it's fun. And unlike Nick, I'm not insane."
"Um…"
"Alejandro, I'm just trying to make conversation. We're buds. Is that what they say in real life? Buddies? Pals?"
Alejandro stared at him. "Friends?" he suggested.
"Or that. See, we're friends. Tell me. It's interesting, because it seems like it would take something major for you to really like someone, you're so… Level-headed. And I told you mine."
"Well, uh… it wasn't anyone I really knew. It was a guy on TV."
"Oh, anyone I'd have met?"
"I… I dunno." Alejandro took a long drink of water, wishing he didn't have to eventually put down the glass and talk again. He really wanted the conversation to just end.
"Well, what show was he on?"
"I don't remember, just some stupid show I watched sometimes."
"Wow, okay, jeez. You're sensitive."
Alejandro sighed. "He was on TV. He was a little bit younger than I was, but I just knew that he'd grow up to be… perfect."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah. Um… He was a pretty good actor, for a kid. Good at fake crying. But… funny, I mean, it was a comedy."
"Oh… yeah?" Chris said again, and Alejandro knew from his voice that he'd started to get suspicious, and he just wanted it to end. But Chris continued, "So what did he look like?"
"I… dunno… Kind of… little."
"You don't remember what show he was on or what he looked like, and he was your first big crush?"
"Yeah."
"Uh… Alejandro, you're a super genius, or did you forget that? I'm not stupid, here."
"I never said you were stupid."
"This boy… was he blond?"
"Chris—"
"Wore glasses?"
"Chris—"
"Maybe it was a variety show? There were a few of those."
"Chris, I really don't want to talk about this…"
"Alejandro, it's okay. I mean, it's kind of flattering."
"I never said it was you."
"Was it?"
Alejandro looked down at his salad. "Yeah," he said. "But that's not the point."
"Then what is the point?"
"Chris, I just… I don't know. You were funny and talented and… cute, and I was just some regular kid. I mean, I was just like all the fans you have now. I'd have done anything to meet you, but I didn't know you. I didn't even really want to. I just wanted…" He shrugged. "I wanted you to like me."
Chris swallowed. "Uh…" he said. "Alejandro…"
"Whatever, it doesn't matter. I was just a kid."
"Okay, but you know I do like you, right? I mean, as a friend."
"Of course. And I like you, too. As a friend. I mean, I do know you now, I'm not just some fan. It's different now."
"Yeah." He paused. "You realize you called me perfect?"
"Yeah, I thought you were perfect when I was twelve."
"Well, you are the super genius. Must have been a smart kid."
"Chris, shut up."
Nick was sitting on the couch watching TV when Alejandro got back to their suite. Chris had already headed for his room, and Nick didn't seem to have heard them come in.
He crept across the living room, stood directly behind him, crouched down so his mouth was right by Nick's ear, and announced quietly, "You are a dead man."
Nick yelped and jumped up, turned around, and gaped. "Oh my god, you just about gave me a heart attack!"
"Which would have saved me the trouble of killing you."
"Oh, come on." Nick grinned at him. "I'm trying to do you a favor, buddy."
"Don't call me that."
"Alejandro, come on. You and Chris would be perfect together, and you know that, I just wanted to wake him up—"
"Nick, listen to me. You don't get to decide anything about me and Chris. You don't know anything about me and Chris. And I don't like having my emotions played with, so knock it the hell off."
"You didn't have fun?"
"No, I didn't have fun! I sat there awkwardly for an hour and a half with the guy I had a crush on for years, who doesn't like me back, and we both knew that I liked him and he doesn't like me back, and what the hell do you say to someone like that?"
"I thought that if Chris realized you liked him, he'd—"
"He'd what, stop being Chris? He doesn't like me. He thinks of me as a… a pal. That was the word he used. That's the word you use when you're trying to nicely tell someone to get lost. So stay the hell out of my business from now on, pal."
Nick nodded. "Alejandro, I didn't mean—"
"Just stop."
"I will! I'll cancel the order of flowers… I mean, yes, I'll stop. I'm sorry. Alejandro, I really didn't mean it to be so bad… I just wanted to help. And make you happy."
Alejandro sighed. "I know. But it didn't work. So don't… just don't."
Nick nodded vehemently, and Alejandro trudged off to his room. He wanted to be
alone.
AN: Heeheehee. Popslash.