Finding Home (18 page)

“Sure, where do you want to eat?” Dillon responded. “It’s my treat, since this is technically your birthday celebration!”

“Well, I was thinking we could go down and find somewhere to eat in the Old Market. It’s close to the concert venue.”

“I’m down. Let’s go!” Dillon walked over to the front door to put his new Converse on. He had been so fucking happy to be able to afford a nice pair of shoes that he felt a bit stupid. Shoes were just shoes, right? No, not to Dillon. It was a sign of how much things really had improved for him since he left Chicago. Best decision of his life.

*****

Dillon was riding high after the concert was over. There was no other way to explain the crazy things happening to his body. His head felt too light, and it was like he was actually floating instead of exerting the energy to walk. He was dazed, and if it hadn’t been for Adam’s hand anchoring him, he swore he could’ve floated away. He was walking into people, and it didn’t faze him at all. Adam couldn’t have been happier or more content if he’d tried. The seats were amazing, and he’d been able to give Dillon the best experience of his life, with a little help from his sister. He reminded himself that he needed to send her something as a thank you.

Once they reached the car, Dillon pressed Adam up against door. “Thank you,” he whispered before kissing him once. “I can’t believe I just saw Coldplay live.”

“I’m glad I could do this for you,” Adam replied softly, his voice full of emotion. “I’d do anything to see that smile on your face.”

Dillon nuzzled into Adam’s neck. “I’ve got pictures of Chris Martin on my phone. How did I get so lucky?”

“You’ve got the best boyfriend in the world?” Adam answered Dillon’s question with a question.

Dillon huffed out a laugh. “Are you kidding me? I’ve got the best boyfriend in the fucking universe!”

“GET A ROOM!” some asshole shouted as he drove by with his stereo blasting.

Dillon automatically stepped away from Adam, his face heating with embarrassment. Adam grabbed him before he could get too far away. “Hey, don’t let dumbasses like that make you feel bad about being with me. You are allowed to be happy in public. Fuck them if they don’t like it!”

“Will you take me home now?” Dillon asked softly.

“Of course…”

“Because there’s a room there, and I think you need to do salacious things to me to make me feel better.” Dillon looked up with a devilish gleam in his eyes and an evil grin on his face.
Oh yeah
, Adam thought.
He’s definitely getting it tonight.

Cody couldn’t stop laughing at work the next day as Dillon recounted every single minute of the concert. He was so animated, and Cody couldn’t help but think how fucking adorable it was to see him so happy. Dillon showed Cody every picture he took on his phone, all seventy-two of them, and then moved onto the videos.

“I’m glad you had fun, man,” Cody told him during their afternoon break. “Now how did it go after I left the other night?”

“It went pretty well.” Dillon told him about their conversation but intentionally left out the part where Adam’s tongue ended up in his ass. He was pretty sure Cody wouldn’t want to know about THAT part.

Cody clapped him on the shoulder. “That’s great, dude. You needed to stand up for yourself a little.”

“And he didn’t argue when I paid for dinner last night,” Dillon announced with triumph in his voice. “Which was awesome!”

Dillon’s phone rang at that moment, so he answered it. “Hey, Adam! I was just talking about you.”

“Oh, yeah?” he chuckled. “Good things I hope.”

Dillon smiled. “Yeah, always good things. What’s up?”

“Grams just called and her overnight can’t make it in tonight, so she needs me to cover. I won’t be home until about six-thirty or seven in the morning. I just wanted to let you know so if you wanted to make plans with Cody, you could, because I won’t be able to pick you up from work at eight. Plus, it’ll be good for you to hang out with him.”

Dillon was a little disappointed. He had been looking forward to spending the night with Adam since it was Adam’s day off, but he was glad that Adam was helping Grams out. “Okay, that’s cool,” he told Adam. “I’ll ask Cody now. Hold on.” He put his hand over the receiver. “Adam has to cover at the motel tonight, so he’s going to be gone all night. Do you want to hang out?”

“Sure,” Cody answered. “We’ll figure something out.”

Dillon smiled at him. “Hey, I’m back. Cody says we’ll figure something out. Thanks for letting me know!”

“No problem, babe. I love you.” Adam wouldn’t let even one conversation end without telling Dillon that.

“Love you, too,” Dillon responded, and Cody made a funny face with gagging sounds. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Bye, Dil.”

Dillon fake glared at Cody after he hung up the phone. “You’re not funny, asshole!”

“What?” Cody feigned innocence. “I think I’m fucking hilarious!”

“Well, aren’t you delusional?” Dillon teased him.

“I guess so! I’m friends with you, aren’t I?” Cody shot back.

They both busted out laughing as Marissa, their manager, came walking into the break room. “Are we having fun, boys?”

“Yeah, but our break’s almost over so the fun shall end shortly!” Cody winked at her.

“Well, best get all that fun out now before I give you the hard tasks for the day,” she threatened playfully.

Cody threw his hands up in the air. “Okay! We give up! No more fun!” Dillon just kept laughing. “C’mon Dillon, let’s get out of here before she tries to make us actually do something!”

They both jumped up out of their chairs and hurried toward the door, giggling like little girls. “Smartasses!” they heard Marissa call after them as they speed walked toward the back.

*****

Cody was waiting in his car for Dillon after his shift ended. They had decided that they would just order pizza and head over to Cody’s apartment to chill since Adam wouldn’t be home.

“Hey,” Dillon greeted him as he jumped in the front seat. “Do you mind if we stop by the house so I can let Parker out before we head to your place?”

“No problem,” Cody answered as he pulled out of the parking lot. “I ordered the pizza and it should be at the apartment in about thirty minutes, but we should have plenty of time to make it.”

“Cool, thanks!”

When they pulled up to Adam’s house, Dillon ran inside quickly and let Parker do his thing, then put him back in the house and made sure to lock up on his way back to the car. “I appreciate you dropping me by here,” Dillon told Cody. “I’m not sure when Adam left, and I wanted to make sure Parker was taken care of!”

“It’s no big deal,” Cody assured him. “You need to stop anywhere else?”

“Nope, I’m good.” Dillon smiled at Cody for being so awesome.

Cody didn’t actually live too far away from Adam’s. About and mile and a half later, they pulled off into a parking lot in front of a huge apartment complex. They drove past about seven buildings until they parked in a numbered spot. Dillon followed Cody as he led him toward a set of double doors. He pulled a key card out of his pocket and slid it through what looked like a credit card reader, then he heard a click and Cody pulled the door open. “Wow! It’s high security up in here, huh?” Dillon joked.

“Yeah, they don’t like unwanted people roaming the halls,” Cody explained. “I rather enjoy the security measures.”

They walked toward the elevator and took it up to the third floor. Once they got off, Dillon followed Cody down the hall and around the corner until they stopped in front of a door at the end of the hallway. “Here we are!” Cody announced as he used a regular key to get into his apartment.

“That had to be a bitch when you moved in,” Dillon teased as they walked into the apartment, which had an open floor plan. 

Cody rolled his eyes as he remembered the move in struggles. “You have no fucking idea.”

“You want the quick tour?” Cody asked.

“Sure.”

Cody pointed to the direct right. “That’s the kitchen, it’s small but it works for me.” Then he gestured to the open living room. “Living room. Dining room.” That was a small area to the left of the kitchen where a table sat. He then walked across the living room and pointed into a small hallway. “The door on the left is my bedroom, the door in front of us is a closet, and the door to the right is the bathroom.”

Dillon looked around. It was a nice little apartment. The carpets were a creamy beige color, and the walls were white. It wasn’t decorated very much, but there was a big flat screen television on a stand directly in front of the couch, which was black, and a dark wood coffee table. There was a love seat perpendicular to the couch which sectioned off the living room from the walkway into the little hallway. An annoying buzz made Dillon jump nearly out of his skin. Cody snickered at Dillon. “That must be the pizza.”

He walked over and buzzed the delivery person in. He was still laughing. Dillon couldn’t help but join in, which set Cody off more, and by the time the delivery man got to the door, they were both laughing hysterically. He gave them an annoyed look as Cody paid for the pizza and took it from him.

Cody set the box down on the dining room table and grabbed some paper plates from the cabinet above the fridge. “Dig in,” he ordered as he piled three slices on his plate. “Do you want beer or pop?”

“Pop, please,” Dillon answered. “I don’t drink.”

“Oh, right, I forgot you’re still underage.” Cody grabbed two cans of pop and headed toward the couch, so Dillon grabbed a couple slices and followed him. He thought about it, but then decided not to reveal the real reason why he didn’t drink. He didn’t want pity from his friend, who he was really enjoying being around. He loved how much he ended up laughing when he was with Cody.

“So, wanna play a game?” Cody asked.

Dillon’s forehead crinkled. “What kind of game?”

“A video game! Duh!” Cody snorted.

Dillon shrugged. “I’ve never played video games before, so I probably suck at them.”

“Great!” Cody replied. “It’ll be easier to beat you then!”

“Asshole!”

“You call me that a lot,” Cody told him. “I’m going to start to think you don’t like me or something.”

“Nah, of course I like you.” Dillon suddenly became serious. “You’re pretty much the only friend I’ve ever had, aside from Adam.”

“Really?” Cody asked. “Not even in school?”

Dillon cringed. “Nope, I tended to keep to myself. Tried to be the invisible kid, because then at least people wouldn’t pick on me. I always had crappy clothes and went to school dirty more times than not when I was a kid, because my parents didn’t bathe me. Then when I was finally old enough to start giving myself a bath, I did it as often as I could. People seemed to sense that there was something different about me, so they stayed away. It was just easier that way. It’s not like I would have been able to go out and do stuff with anyone, and I sure as hell wasn’t ever going to bring a friend over to my house.”

Cody didn’t flinch away or act disgusted with Dillon. “That’s rough, man. It sucks that you had to grow up like that.”

“Yeah, I left home the day I turned eighteen. I came here with no plan and not a lot of money, but I stumbled upon some good luck when I got here. Then as soon as I met Adam, he swooped in and saved me.”

Cody threw a wadded up napkin at Dillon. “That, my friend, is the definition of fate.”

“What are you talking about?” Dillon asked.

“You grew up with a shitty life, right?” Cody questioned. Dillon nodded emphatically. “But you had the courage to leave, and you had no idea why you picked Omaha, but you did, right?” Dillon nodded again. “Okay, so fate is something that’s meant to be. If you’d had a great life growing up, you probably wouldn’t have left, and that means you wouldn’t have met Adam. Instead, you dealt with the shit you were given, until the day that karma finally said, ‘This is it! It’s your time!’ and you met the person who made you feel whole.”

Dillon thought about it for a minute. “That makes sense, I guess.”

“It makes perfect sense. You wouldn’t have the life you have now if it weren’t for the life you left behind. Everything happens for a reason, as the cliché goes. It’s cliché for a reason, mostly because it’s usually true.” Cody took a bite of his pizza. “If you could do it differently, meaning you would have had a good life growing up but that meant you wouldn’t have met Adam now, would you change it?”

That last question really put things into perspective for Dillon. He’d always wished he had a different life. He’d wanted parents who loved him and nice house to live in growing up. He’d also wanted to have money to buy things and a brother or sister to play with. Now, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t change it for anything. He loved Adam too much and was content with his life for the first time.

“No, I wouldn’t change it. Adam means too much to me,” Dillon answered honestly. “I love him.”

“There you go. I guess you have to accept the past as what it is, the past. You are loved now, you have a friend now, and fucking best of all, you’re about to play video games for the first time! Let’s do this shit!” Cody exclaimed. Dillon smiled at the enthusiasm and the words of encouragement, and at Cody’s seamless transition from a semi-serious conversation into the world of video games.

Damn it, Dillon was ready to let that shit go. He just needed to man up and get over it, and fuck it! He was going to enjoy his damn video games!

Cody got up and turned the console on, then handed a controller to Dillon and sat back down on the couch next to him. He explained the buttons and how to play, and they spent the rest of the night vegging on the couch, killing some damn zombies.

It was after midnight before they put the controllers away. Dillon was exhausted and ready to pass out. He thought about crashing on Cody’s couch for a few minutes, but then he remembered his panic attacks. He wasn’t sure that was something he could control or if he was familiar enough with Cody’s apartment yet to deter it, and it was definitely something he didn’t want Cody to witness. “Is it too late for you to drive me home?” Dillon asked shyly, hating to be an inconvenience.

“No, but you’re welcome to crash on the couch if you want,” Cody offered. He looked about as dead as Dillon felt.