Heartstrings by Riley Sierra

Author:Riley Sierra [Sierra, Riley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

23

Blake

Sitting up at the front of the bus, Blake obsessively refreshed the news feed on his phone. But for all his trying, not much changed in the world in thirty second intervals. The bus rumbled beneath him, encouraging his restlessness, if anything. It was quite the paradox: moving along at seventy miles per hour, yet feeling completely trapped.

He checked in with Jake and Lily, both of whom looked exhausted. Blake couldn’t blame them. The last couple of days had been unbearably trying. He supposed the one thing he had in his favor was that nobody else in the band seemed eager to take Rhett’s side.

Eventually, Blake decided to try for sleep. It was early afternoon, but he enjoyed napping as a practice. Napping served as a way to reboot his mental hard drive, so to speak. Unless he was feeling truly shitty, he never came back from a nap feeling worse.

Cal had the curtain drawn across his bunk, so Blake walked past it, despite the powerful urge he felt to peel it back. But he was mindful that someone might see. And while he was certainly an out and proud bisexual man in the eyes of his bandmates, fucking a coworker was another ballgame.

It wasn’t until he’d paced the length of the short hallway between the living area and the bunks three times that Blake realized he was doing it. He sucked on his teeth for a second, then clambered up into his bunk, a top one in the back.

Staring off into space, he tried to form a game-plan. He’d composed a mental to-do list of all the people he needed to call and email and stay in touch with to ensure the band didn’t fall apart within a few minutes.

That sure didn’t kill much time.

Bus life was the worst.

In spite of the negativity pressing in on him from all angles, the threats to his happiness and livelihood, Blake tried to focus on the upside. And there was a rather large upside to all this. Despite his somewhat reluctant behavior, Cal was back. And Cal was something Blake could hold onto. He thought he could even understand where Cal’s standoffishness was coming from.

In a lot of ways, Blake’s upbringing granted him the ability to view life through a different lens than Cal did. It was part of what he held responsible for his artistic streak. And why he was able to open up and articulate when things were bothering him.

Blake had enjoyed a solidly middle-class existence as a kid. Sure he got into some trouble in school, but it was mostly the “skipping class to make out and go drinking” kind, never anything serious. Unlike a lot of the kids who went to his high school, when he got summer jobs his wages were entirely his. His parents never needed help with the bills. His old Ford Transit was a gift, handed over to him with the understanding that it could be taken away, but unless he severely fucked up he wouldn’t have to pay for it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.