Chapter 3

The Traffic on Rose Street, and Finally Getting to Fang's Apartment

Iggy groaned and changed the channel on the car's radio. "Well, I didn't exactly expect traffic at four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon," he said quietly, not wanting to wake Fang. In the thirty-six hours he'd known Fang, he sure learned a lot about him, and they ended up making out more than once. Iggy was fully comfortable with being an open pansexual, and no one really made any snide comments about it, which was a plus.

On the other hand, he worried about Fang. The scars on the boy's wrists seemed to scream, "Please care about me!" He wondered what, or who, could possibly hurt Fang so bad that he would want to hurt himself like that.

In the seat next to him, Fang stirred and lifted his head. "How close are we to my place?"

"About ten minutes. You can go back to sleep, because the traffic here is horrid."

Fang looked over to the street around him. "Wow," he murmured, "It's never like this around here. I mean, unless something's going on. There shouldn't be, anyway."

"Maybe Obama's visiting? Or there's a zombie apocalypse? Dragons were discovered?" Iggy made random suggestions as to what was causing the traffic, and Fang giggled.

"If they discovered dragons, then they better hook me the fuck up with one," Fang laughed, plugging the aux cord into his phone.

"Oi, mate, whatcha doin?" Iggy asked in a playful tone, raising an eyebrow.

"We're using my phone for music, mate," Fang replied, changing the tuner on the radio. A few moments later, the opening chords of "American Idiot" by Green Day started pumping through the speakers. "This kinda makes me think of Donald Trump," he remarked.

Iggy snorted. "Yeah, well, he's not even an idiot. He's just an asshole."

"Truuuuue," Fang said and smiled, turning up the radio.

"Look, we're almost there! Finally!" both males cheered as Fang's apartment building was in their line of sight. "If I was Christian, I'd say God loves us, but I'm an atheist, so I guess science and real facts love us," Fang said.

"You're an atheist?" Iggy asked.

"Yeah," Fang shrugged, "I guess I forgot to add that to list of why my parents hate me."

Iggy smiled, "Well, I don't hate you. And I think you're really interesting, but like, in the good way."

"Aww, thank you," Fang said, returning Iggy's smile. "Oh, wait, turn here. Then you're on the road for my place."

"Swiggity swooty, dude. Uh, turn left here?"

"Yeah. Then you see a huge black and white sign that says, "Wall Rose Apartments Parking".

Iggy nodded and turned left, and then turned into the parking lot, which was fairly full. "Looks like everyone decided to stay home. Traffic's horrible anyway."

"No doubt," Iggy replied as they both got out of the car, Fang carrying his backpack.

As they walked into the apartment building, Iggy noticed that the lobby was pretty nice, and it smelled faintly like fruit. A girl with blonde hair came up to Fang and hugged him tightly, talking quickly.

"I'm so glad you're back! Where were you last night? Erwin was worried about you!" she said, finally releasing him.

Fang shrugged. "I was with him," he said and pointed to Iggy. Iggy gave a small smile and waved.

The blonde girl walked over to him and looked him over, almost as if she was inspecting him. She hummed and looked from Fang to Iggy. "Fang?" she called him.

"Hmm?"

"So this is the cute boy you were texting me about last night?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, he is cute," she said and turned back to Fang. "You did good on picking someone out this time."

Fang groaned and held his head in his hands. "You make it sound like I do it as a sport," he said through his hands.

"I don't think you date boys as a sport, if that makes you feel any better," Iggy said, walking over to Fang and picking up his backpack, taking Fang's hand, leading them both towards the elevator.

After recovering, Fang called over his shoulder, "Bye, Sammy!"

Fang lead Iggy to his apartment door and unlocked it. He walked in and almost threw himself on the couch, Iggy following him and setting it by the door, closing it behind him.

"You can help yourself to the fridge. I have plenty of food," Fang said, sitting up and checking his phone for the first time that day. "That's a lot of damn text messages, especially for him," he muttered to himself.

Iggy looked over to Fang and raised an eyebrow, but quickly dismissed whatever uncertain thoughts he had about Fang. Iggy had come to terms with his sexuality about a year ago, after he discovered he was pansexual. In fact, he often made jokes about just how gay (Well, pansexual) he was. Of course, it was all in good humor, and he didn't mind if one of his close friends made a nonoffensive joke about it.

"Hey, who is that Erwin dude that that girl was talking about?"

"Sammy is the girl's name. She's sweet once you get to know her," Fang replied and set his phone facedown on the coffee table in front of him. "And Erwin is the one who bought me this apartment. He pays the rent and everything."

"So, what about food and furniture and phone bills?" Iggy asked, walking over to the fridge and taking out a bottle of Sprite.

"He takes care of all that, too," Fang shrugged, flipping on the TV and opening Netflix.

"Oooh, looks like someone has a sugar daddy," he teased Fang in a singsong voice.

"No! He was a friend of my parents, so when they kicked me out, he offered for me to live next door to him. Anyway, Netflix and chill?" he asked playfully, turning to look at Iggy with a suggestive smirk.

"Sure. What do you wanna marathon?" he asked.

"Bob's Burgers, Supernatural, Noragami, all kinds of stuff," he shrugged, and then someone knocked on the door. Fang sighed and got up, opening it and quickly stepping outside.

A few minutes later, he came in and tossed three large Hot Topic bags into his room. He came back into the living room and huffed, plopping himself on the couch and snatching the remote up from the arm of the couch.

"Is… everything okay, Fang?" Iggy asked cautiously.

Fang grunted in response.

Iggy sighed, not liking that something was obviously bothering the dark boy beside him. He looked around the apartment whilst Fang was choosing something to watch. The wall behind them had a transgender pride flag and a bisexuality pride flag. Underneath the flags was a small bookshelf, packed with books. He recognized some of them, like Harry Potter and the Warriors series, but there were others he didn't recognize, like The Maze Runner and a few Japanese books.

He looked around the kitchen and noticed that it was fairly modern, with marble countertops and a stainless steel fridge. Next to the fridge were a few bottles of wine, obviously unopened. Iggy assumed they were just there for decoration.

Iggy's train of thought was interrupted by Fang leaning off the couch and pulling on an oversized hoodie that covered his hands. He smiled and then turned his attention back to the TV screen, watching Linda prance around Bob's restaurant, singing about Christmas.

A few minutes later, he started to doze off, but was quickly awakened by Fang climbing into his lap, pressing his back against the blond boy's stomach, leaning his head back on Iggy's shoulder.

"Sorry if I woke you up," he murmured and then clicked the play button, starting the next episode. Iggy hummed in response and wrapped his arms around the boy in his lap, a content smile on his face.