See You In Boston (CU Hockey 5.50)

He’s beautiful and so sweet, and the silver lining of today is that now we don’t need to worry about hiding how we feel. I just need time to sulk first.

The whole time I pictured today, it was all happiness and excitement, and the day ended in a good, hard, celebratory fuck. I can’t stand it ending with a pity one instead.

So once we’ve done cake and people are cheering and I make sure all the attention is on Whitney, I sneak out.

I leave a note for reception saying I’m taking the rest of the afternoon sick. Then I run home with my tail between my legs and try not to feel utterly depressed when I walk into my shithole apartment and realize this is it. I’m almost unemployed.

And while I might hate this place, it was the cheapest I could find in Boston, and something is only just now occurring to me that I hadn’t factored in yet.

Sure, Rossi and I don’t have to hide anymore … but when I’m forced to move home to Rhode Island, there won’t be anything to hide.

After all the time we’ve wasted together, I refuse to torture myself by trying long distance. Sure, it’s only an hour, but Rossi will be too busy with school. I won’t have money for gas.

So, that leaves me … moving into my mother’s basement? I hear video games eat up a ton of time. Life goals.

I groan and fall face-first onto my couch, wanting this day to end.

Chapter 14

ROSSI

I try to keep an eye on Tyson throughout the party because I know he’s not okay. I also don’t know what this means for us. I plan to drag him away and hug him and reassure him that everything will be okay, even if it’s not guaranteed, but at some point, he made a strategic exit, and I didn’t even see it.

It was probably while Mitch pulled me aside to talk about school.

Tyson must have been keeping tabs on me too, because the minute I was distracted, he disappeared. And when I excuse myself from the party and can’t find him in any of the offices, I check the bathrooms to make sure he’s not wallowing in there.

He’s not.

I go to head back to the party, but the receptionist’s voice follows me.

“He went home.”

Shit. “Thank you.”

Mitch walks into the hallway with a giant piece of cake he’s spooning into his mouth. “Ready to get back to work?” he says around the food.

“Do you mind if I leave early? Tyson didn’t take the news well, and he left, so I want to make sure he’s okay.”

Mitch nods, but his brow furrows.

“Thanks. Tell Dad I’ll see him at home.” I stop by Mitch’s office to pick up my backpack and then hightail it to Tyson’s apartment.

When I knock, he doesn’t answer.

“I know you’re in there.” Okay, I don’t know for sure, but he doesn’t call me on my bluff.

“No, I’m not.” His voice is small and defeated.

“Please let me in?”

“How can I when I’m not home?”

“Ty …”

The door opens, and his eyes are red, his cheeks blotchy. “I’m not crying. I have allergies.”

“I’m allergic to rejection too, so please let me in before I break out in hives.”

He sighs and steps aside.

“There’ll be other jobs.” Probably. I assume.

Tyson throws himself on the couch next to his open laptop. “There aren’t. I’ve been looking.”

“Most jobs aren’t advertised. This internship wasn’t. I’m sure Dad would know of other firms you could cold-call.”

“Thanks, but I can’t think of anything worse than telling people I spent all summer interning at a huge firm and I couldn’t cut it.”

I move his laptop out of the way and sit next to him. “That’s not what they said at all. It was a hard choice. The way Dad has been talking about you, I thought for sure you had it in the bag. I think Lawrence just had more time with Whitney, so they went in that direction. That’s all it is.”

“I’ll probably accept that in a couple of days. Right now, I … I need to be sad for a bit. I was getting excited about moving to Boston permanently, getting a better place, having a future here. Now … Now I’m back to floundering.”

I throw my arm around his shoulder and pull him close. “You’re allowed to be sad, but you can still have that future. This isn’t over.”

“Why does it feel like it is?”

“Because you were hoping it would go the other way, but I’m not going to let you give up.”

“I don’t want to think about it.” Tyson snuggles into my side. “The more I think about my options, the more I want to crawl into a hole and hide.”

“I feel like there’s sexual innuendo in there somewhere.”

“I’m too depressed for sex.”

“Too … depressed for sex? Shit, this is bad. Like, you might need to go to the hospital bad.”