Loving You (ManxMan)

Chapter One

Walking up the stairs that led to the place of his doom, the place he had hated, the place his heart had died. Alfie Allred wasn't feeling excited. He was nervous and scared plus he had half the mind to turn and run away. He can't though. He knows he can't. His father was counting on this and had been so happy when Alfie had finally told him he was going to the reunion. This school had been the same place he had found his first love, the six foot four boy with sparkling hazel eyes, the boy who had loved playing football and had actually made a career out of it. The boy who had broken his heart to tiny unmatchable pieces.

"Snap out of it!"

Alfie turns to his side to look at Arjun who had volunteered to follow him to this reunion. Alfie was dressed in a white shirt tucked into the dark blue pants and dark Chelsea boots. Arjun had on a black Armani suit with the Rolex watch, Alfie's father, Dan had given him. They actually look good.

"Thank you for coming with me." Alfie says as they march up the stairs leading to the huge doors.

"Any time. I want to see if I can get to punch someone in the nose today." Arjun says, folding his hands into fist and punching the air. Alfie giggled at that, a hand coming up to cover his lips as if trying to muffle his laughter.

"You're not punching anyone today. We'll go in, I'll show my favorite places while I was here and then we go home. Kapiche?"

"Fine but that is no fun!"

"How about we buy a couple of cookies and Ben and Jerry's before we go home? I'll watch Marvel's Inhumans, if you just do as I say."

Arjun stops at that. He looked at Alfie with wide eyes that were sparkling with excitement. Arjun had been trying to get Alfie to watch the show for months no to no avail. Alfie had claimed that the special effects were terrible and that he wasn't a fan of Medusa's hair.

"I promise you. You will love it!"

"We go in, walk around and go home. Are we in agreement?" Alfie asked, raising a brow.

"This is why you are my best friend! Let's go and shake our booties!"

The halls were lined with soft pink banners with reunion!! Let's have a kiki! The hallway was still the same way it had been, the lockers were still the same. The reunion was taking place at the indoor basketball court that hadn't really been used while Alfie was in school. The lights were soft and dim, there were multiple round table covered with white cloth and a pink bow, artfully arranged all around and people were walking and talking. A waiter passed with a tray filled with tall glasses of something bubbly and Alfie grabs two and downed them in one go. If he was going to do this, walk around with the people who had made his life miserable, he was going to do this prepared.

"No more. You know how you get when you drink." Arjun warns, giving Alfie what the curly haired man liked to call his Dan look. It was the same Look Alfie's father, Dan, has whenever he was warning or having an argument with him. His thick brows furrow and then three worry lines appear just above it and he squints just a little.

Alfie doesn't drink much. He doesn't like the taste of beer, vodka or any other thing but when he does drink. It's nothing more than five glasses otherwise he gets sad. Yes, Alfie was sad touchy-feely drunk and that's the last thing he wants to do today. He doesn't want to give these...monsters, another thing to mock him about.

"No more. I'll just drink the chapman instead." Alfie said, pointing at the drink stand positioned towards the other side of the room. Fear creeps up his body when he realized he had to walk all the way to the other side to get a drink and that means, everyone would see him. Oh no, no, no, no. he'd rather stay where he was, partially hiding behind a pink fabric banner with the words reunion = party. His second option was to stay there while Arjun goes to get the drinks but that meant he would be all alone and he remembered what had happened to him the last time he was. So that was a big NO.

"All your mental debates are giving me a headache. Can you stop it? Let's get the punch and you can show me the places you loved while you were here, okay?"

"Alright." Alfie says. "Hold my hand?"

Arjun crooks out his elbow without hesitation and Alfie hooks his hand in, he grips Arjun's bicep hard as they walk towards the table. A couple of head turn their way and half way there, Alfie and Arjun had everyone's attention. This wasn't what he had been going for. Fuck.

"Don't freak out."

Alfie has had this theory that Arjun had a secret mind reading ability, because for years, Arjun had been able to calm him down like he knew just what he was thinking. He could practically feel everyone's piercing gaze on him and he gulps. He shouldn't have come. This was a bad idea. He tries to let go of Arjun's bicep but the man immediately reached out and held Alfie's hand in his as tightly as he could, the slight pain grounding the curly haired man.

"Drinks and then we go."

"Have I told you, you're the best?"

Arjun's worried expression turned to a smug one as he stared at Alfie. "You don't need to tell me. I know."

Alfie laughed and shakes his head fondly at him. Alfie hasn't seen someone love themselves the way Arjun does. At a point, three years ago, Arjun had tried to come up with his own body anthem. Like a national anthem but for his body. Bongos were involved in the making of this, at a point too.

Alfie lets go of Arjun's hand and poured himself a drink, just as he raised it to his mouth, someone calls his name.

"Alfie Allred."

Alfie goes still. He tries to place the voice but he couldn't, he hasn't seen any of these people for years. He turns around to find Hayley Lester standing behind him. She still looked the same, her hair still blonde, and the mole above her left eyebrow still there. She had been the Co-captain of the BrentField Academy cheer squad and had been one of the people who had laughed at him. She had laughed and pointed.

"Hi, Hayley. How are you?"

"Good. Good. You on the other hand, you look amazing." She squealed while she pulled him into a hug. "You no longer look gangly and sad. Come say hi to Benjamin Bishop, he’s somewhere here." She says, waving her hand in the general direction of the room.

Alfie freezes in her arms. She doesn't have the right to call him sad, she had contributed to his sadness. She had made him cry alone in his room, she had made his world crash all around him. He pulls away from her sharply and moved closer to Arjun. "This is Hayley." The she's one of those people, were left hanging in the wind.

Arjun just looks at the woman in front him and scowls. Alfie would laughed if it had been in any other situation but sadly, this was a tense one. Arjun doesn't even blink at Hayley, he just pulled Alfie away from the woman, side stepping her in the process.

"They are all staring at you. Was it everyone here or was it just a certain group of people?" Arjun asked as he led Alfie away from the crowd and towards the entrance, they had walked in a few minutes ago.

"It was everyone here. It was our final year, so they had to do something big."

Arjun stops at that. He stared at Alfie with wide eyes. He hadn't known this, Alfie doesn't like talking about it, nor does he like going into detail. But hearing this was alarming. All he knew was that Alfie had a boyfriend who had done a number of him. So the important question was this.

"Is he here? The boy who broke you. Is he here?"

Alfie looks around, taking in the familiar faces he had once laughed with, shared classes with, had lunch with, helped with assignments or laughed at him but he doesn't see him. There was no sign of him anywhere. He was about to tell Arjun this when two people walked into the room, stopping a little bit in front of them. The first person he sees is Rachel McKeon in a tight red gown with bottle collar. She had on gold strap-on heels and her hair was pulled into a tight ponytail.

Standing beside her was the man who still took his breath away. He looked older now, a bit more mature. His body had filled out in more places than the last time Alfie had seen him. He had a five o'clock shadow, his brooding stare as Alfie had liked to call it had...for lack of better words, deepened. He looked better in real life than on television and in magazine.

"He's here." Alfie whispered. "Crisanto is behind you."