Andrew and Chad

Andrew had barely started his bowl of beans and avocado when Chad walked into the kitchen.

‘You’ve been gone for four hours dude. Have you been out filming all this time?’ he said in a passive-aggressive manner that Chad had grown used to the past couple of days.

‘Aw, did daddy miss me?’ Said Chad in his coy, childish voice while reaching forward to prod Andrew’s shoulder. His face blew open into a wide grin of boyish humour. Andrew had recently grown to find comfort in that face in ways that he couldn’t yet understand.

Still laughing, Chad said ‘Have you been sat here all this time like a lost little puppy?’ Andrew was sat at the sad black table at the end of the kitchen. ‘You know you’re becoming more and more like a dad every day.’

‘What do you mean?’ Andrew asked self-consciously.

‘Like typical dad stuff. You know, always sitting in your favourite chair, brooding over your family and wondering what they’re doing’.

‘Why do you spend so much time with that girl from improv?’

The sudden change in subject caught Chad off guard. ‘She’s not from improv you weirdo. She’s from that sketch we did that YOU filmed! Is daddy losing his memory now?’ He pouted.

‘Oh you mean the one that kept laughing when you said But why did it come back to life though? Sorry if I can’t keep up with all the girls you hang out with now that you’re making money from the weddings. I guess you’ll be moving out soon, huh?’.

For the first time, Chad spoke in his normal voice. ‘So you’re the jealous one today huh?’ The low soothing drone was sweet to Andrew’s ears. Maybe he had been sat at the table waiting for Chad to return after all. He didn’t let Chad know that.

Chad looked away from the smoothie machine to see the camera on the table. ‘Are you filming this?’

‘No’.

He lowered his head as if inspecting Andrew from beneath a pair of glasses. ‘You said that so serious’ he giggled. His face blew open again. ‘Are you really mad at me for something?’ Met with silence, he resigned to drinking his smoothie. Andrew found himself looking at Chad’s throat as the liquid filled it and slid down into his lean body. ‘Do you want me to make it up to you daddy?’ said Chad back in his childish voice.

‘Meet me in the interview room later tonight’ he joked.

‘Oh damn! Daddy’s going to hurt me in a bad way. Should I say my goodbyes to Bonnie?’

They moved on to the living room with some chips and sat on the sofa together. Andrew turned the camera back on and decided to get some more footage for his vlog.

…

Some minutes later, they slowly stopped laughing at a joke one of them had said seconds earlier. ‘Ah, mom jokes will never get old’, said Chad. A silence followed between them. Chad tilted his head towards the camera that Andrew held in one hand. His eyes were intense. His nostrils flared lightly as he took in a long, deep breath and smoothly released it. ‘Filming’s so draining’ he moaned softly. Silence again. The air between them was now filled with his own scent. Andrew could smell the ripe sweetness from Chad’s smoothie. Slowly, both came to realise that they were looking at each other through the camera that Andrew was still holding up in one hand. How could Andrew not notice how beautiful Chad looked in this moment? ‘You sure like looking at me through that camera don’t you? Even when I’m not speaking you always point it on me’.

Feeling like a criminal caught red-handed, Andrew judged that he had nothing to lose. His finger reached up to Chad’s face. Unsure what to do with it after this point, he began to trace it along Chad’s cut jawline until the soft lobe of his ear. Chad flinched slightly and Andrew snapped his hand away. In a moment of quiet panic, he feared that he had been misreading the signs all along. Andrew prayed for Chad to break the unbearable silence. Instead, Chad looked at Andrew knowingly.

 Then he reached forward and turned off the camera.