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“I think about that all the time,” he said. “I feel like you and me? We can help each other, you know? We understand us like no one else can. There’s no one else who gets me like you do, baby.”
“You came for me, Teek,” Hayes whispered.
“I’ll always come for you.”
TK checked his phone. “Car’s gonna be here in five. Come on.” He pulled Hayes up by his hand and led him toward the bathrooms. “It’s a long ride. Better pee.”
They reached the men’s room, Hayes swaying as TK locked the main bathroom door after making sure no one else was in there. Hayes steadied himself against the wall as TK grabbed a baggie from his pocket, dumped it onto the vanity, and racked two long lines for them. He bent down and cleaned one before pulling Hayes over to the sink.
“Hey. This’ll level you out, baby. Go ‘head.”
Hayes, like a robot, leaned down and cleaned the line, immediately regaining a sense of awareness. It was amazing how quickly cocaine could pull him off a downer every single time. “Shit. Fuck are we?” he asked, panicked and scanning his surroundings.
“CVS bathroom.”
“Teek? Why the fuck are we in a CVS bathroom?”
???
Hayes watched as TK pressed the button to raise the partition. “Jesus. Ridin’ in style, eh?”
TK flipped the switch for the reclining seat, stretched his arms over his head, and leaned back, getting comfy in the Mercedes-Maybach limo he’d arranged to pick them up via Uber Black. “It’s a long ride. Besides, we’re fuckin’ stars, baby.”
Hayes exhaled loudly, reclining his seat as well and rolling over to face his teammate. “I don’t know how I got here tonight, man. One minute I was on Osi’s couch, and the next I was starin’ down at the river. I don’t know what happened, but it was fuckin’ terrifying, man.”
TK rolled to face him as well. “It’s the ox. It fucks with you, starts making you think all kinds of weird thoughts. Plus the shit with Ryan, then what happened with us the other night…it makes sense.”
“Yeah, but like, I can’t be thinkin’ like that, man. I don’t…I mean, I didn’t wanna…I wasn’t really gonna…” He stopped for a moment, then continued. “Teek. Do you think we need help? I’m startin’ to feel like it’s…a little out of my control.”
TK sighed, reaching between the two captain’s chairs they were seated in and grabbing Hayes’s hand, both of them still a bit rambly and slightly twitchy from the lines they’d just ripped in the bathroom.
Hayes didn’t pull away.
Everything told him he should’ve, but he didn’t.
“What we need is each other,” TK told him. “We’re young, we’re rich, we’re outcasts, and we’ve been through a ton of shit in our lives, baby. So what if we like to let loose and party a little?”
“A little?”
“OK, a lot. But we can stop any time we want to, you know that. And we have each other’s backs. That’s huge. I see your pain, Ty Hayes. I know there’s a lot going on behind those beautiful green eyes, and guess what? I don’t give a shit about any of it. Whatever you did, whatever you’ve been through? I’m always gonna be here for you. You know that, right?”
Hayes nodded and, realizing he was still holding onto TK’s hand, let it go.
“And I know it sucks that Ryan left, but you two will be fine. You can travel to see each other, spend breaks together, meet up in cities when you’re near each other. You’ll make it work.” TK paused. “You really love him, don’t you?”
“Like, more than anything. Which is why…”
“Don’t,” TK interrupted him. “Nothing happened. I told you that.”
“Listen, you can keep sayin’ that, but we both know for a fact that somethin’ did fuckin’ happen, man.”
“Yeah? So, what are your options then?”
“I tell him.”
“And then what?”
“And then, most likely, he breaks up with me.”
