The room was still recovering from the fact that Chase had a boyfriend. A very clingy boyfriend. A very clingy boyfriend who was currently half asleep on Chase's shoulder. Everyone kept glancing between them. Mostly because it was weird seeing Chase so relaxed. Then Adrean suddenly stood up. The room immediately went quiet. "Adrean?" Chase asked. Adrean looked frustrated. Very frustrated. Weeks of jealousy, confusion, and annoyance seemed to hit him all at once. "Seriously?!" Chase blinked. "What?" "You have a boyfriend?!" "Yeah?" "And you never told anyone?!" "I didn't think it mattered." "It mattered!" The room looked between them nervously. Nobody wanted to get involved. Especially not Nick. Because for once, someone else was doing the yelling. Adrean ran a hand through his hair. Then finally snapped. "Because I'm in love with you, you idiot!" The entire room froze. Complete silence. Nobody moved. Nobody breathed. One biker dropped a bag of chips. Another nearly fell off the couch. Nick looked absolutely stunned. Chase stared. "...What?" Adrean looked horrified. As if he had only just realized he had said it out loud. "Oh." The silence somehow got worse. "Oh no." Across the couch, Chase's boyfriend slowly lifted his head. "What." Nobody answered. "What." One of the bikers pointed at Adrean. "He just confessed." The boyfriend stared. Then looked at Chase. Then back at Adrean. Then back at Chase. His eye twitched. "Interesting." "Please don't start anything," Chase said immediately. "I'm being calm." "You never say that when you're calm." "I'm trying something new." Nobody believed him. The boyfriend scooted closer to Chase. Which nobody thought was possible. Then, completely randomly, he grabbed Chase's face and kissed him on the cheek. The room froze again. "Seriously?" Nick asked. The boyfriend ignored him. Then he rested his head on Chase's shoulder again. "Mine." Several people immediately groaned. One biker started laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes. Chase covered his face. "Oh my God." The boyfriend looked pleased with himself. Adrean looked like he wanted the floor to swallow him. Nick looked like he wanted to throw something. The bikers looked entertained. And Chase sat in the middle of the disaster wondering how his life had somehow become even more chaotic than usual.
Ten minutes later, the room was a disaster. Nobody knew what to say. Nobody knew what to do. The bikers had finally stopped laughing. Mostly. Nick was pacing. Several of the friends were whispering to each other. Chase's boyfriend was still attached to Chase. And Adrean was crying. Not quietly, either. The second everyone had calmed down enough to process what had happened, reality had apparently hit him. Hard. Now he was sitting on the far end of the couch with his face buried in his hands. His friends were trying to comfort him. It wasn't working. At all. Chase felt awful. Absolutely awful. The problem was that he had no idea what he was supposed to do. Every possible option felt wrong. So he just stood there awkwardly. Looking increasingly stressed. His boyfriend noticed immediately. "Stop making that face." "What face?" "The confused one." "I'm always confused." "Fair." One of the bikers snorted. Chase ignored him. Across the room, Adrean wiped at his eyes. That somehow made Chase feel even worse. "Oh God." Nick looked over. "Yeah, this is bad." "I know it's bad." "What are you gonna do?" "I don't know!" The answer came out much louder than Chase intended. The room immediately went quiet again. Chase rubbed his face. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do." Nobody really had an answer. Because there wasn't a good one. Adrean looked up. His eyes were red. Immediately Chase felt guilty again. "Adrean..." "I'm sorry." That surprised everyone. Including Chase. Adrean laughed weakly. "It doesn't matter." "It does." "No, it doesn't." "It does." The room watched nervously. Even the bikers looked uncomfortable now. Which was honestly impressive. Adrean shook his head. "You didn't do anything wrong." That somehow made Chase feel worse. His boyfriend immediately wrapped an arm around him. "Stop blaming yourself." "I'm not." "You literally are." "I'm thinking." "You're blaming yourself while thinking." Chase opened his mouth. Then closed it. Because unfortunately that was accurate. One biker pointed. "See? Boyfriend knows him." "Unfortunately," another biker agreed. For the first time all day, nobody laughed. The room was too tense. Chase looked between Adrean, his friends, Nick, and his boyfriend. Then immediately wished he hadn't. Because now he somehow felt responsible for everyone's emotions. Which was a terrible feeling. "I hate this." His boyfriend immediately answered. "I hate everyone in this room." "That's not helping." "It makes me feel better." Nick groaned. One biker covered his face. And despite everything happening, Chase finally let out a tired laugh. Which, for some reason, made the tension in the room ease just a little.
