The Taste of Touching Glass

~Tony's POV~

I woke up in Mike's arms, his chest pressed against my back.

'Morning sunshine.' I mumbled, turning and kissing his cheek.

'Coffee.' Mike whispered back at me, snuggling deeper into the blankets cocooning us. I snorted.

'Lovely.' Mike commented. 'Now coffee.'

I got out of bed and opened the curtains, Mike yelled and squinted his eyes against the harsh light.

'Tony!' I chuckled and raced out of the room to make coffee. I stirred Mike's coffee and put it on the tray on which I had also placed a bowl of cereal. I took the tray to my room where Mike was still curled up under the blankets. This time with the addition of my pillow placed over his head.

'Sorry, sunshine.' I apologised, placing his breakfast in front of him and closing the curtains partway.

'It's ok. Thanks for the coffee.' Mike said, kissing me lightly on the lips. I slipped back under the covers, clutching my own coffee.

'Hey Tony, there's two spoons.' Mike stated, looking at the tray.

'I know.' I replied, picking one up and taking a spoonful of cereal. 'It's called sharing, Mike.' I looked at him sternly, him laughing at my expression. 'See? This is my part of the cereal,' I took a bite, chewed and swallowed, then picked up more and fed it to Mike. 'and this is yours.' We finished the meal, taking turns to feed each other cereal. We then drank our coffee, our legs entwined, listening to the birds. Unfortunately, Mike's phone rang, interrupting our blissfulness. The caller I.D. was Vic, so he put it on speaker phone so that we could both talk.

'Hey Vic.' He said, placing the phone in between our laps.

'Hi Mike. Tony, I'm assuming you're next to him?' Vic's voice came out distorted. He must have been in a bad reception area.

'Yup.' I confirmed, popping the 'p'. 'Hello Vic.'

'Tony, do you mind if I borrow my brother for the day?' He asked me.

'No, go right ahead. As long as he's mine again before nine.' I smiled at Mike, who was looking at me open-mouthed.

'Don't I get a say?' Mike asked.

'No.' Vic and I chorused.

'Now go get ready.' I shoved Mike out of the bed, while Vic laughed at the clunk he made.

'Bye Vic!'

'Bye Tony! I'll see you in a few minutes.' He hung up while Mike stood up and stretched.

'Get dressed.' I said, worming my way deeper into the blankets. Mike rolled his eyes and ripped the blankets off.

'Mike it's cold. Give me the blankets back.' I reached for my heat source but Mike chucked them on the floor, shaking his head. He slung me over his shoulder and carried me to the bathroom.

'Have a shower with me. It'll warm you up.' I could see the smile that was overcoming his features in my mind's eye. He slapped my butt and put me down, turning the shower on, testing the water. The room soon steamed up, and he said,

'It's really hot in here.'

'That's because you're in my presence.' I said, grinning, flipping the fan on. We both stripped and hopped in the shower, though I did get to check him out, to which he protested to because he couldn't see me.

'See? Sometimes it's good being the shorter one in the relationship.' I gave him a kiss and returned to washing my hair. We hopped out of the shower and heard a knock at the door. I wrapped my towel around my waist and answered it, revealing Vic.

'Hey Vic.' I said, letting him in.

'Just hopped out the shower I see.' Vic said, reaching up and playing with the ends of my wet hair. He looped my braid through my plug for me, and I thanked him. I suddenly realised that I was still in my towel and headed for my bedroom, my face flushing bright red. Mike came out, fully dressed, and looked at me weirdly.

'In case you're gone before I finish getting dressed and whatnot, see you.' I said, kissing him and wrapping my arms around his waist.

'See you too, Tone.' Mike replied, tracing a few of my lower back tattoos.

'Mike!' Vic yelled from the kitchen.

He walked down the hallway while I got dressed. I dried my hair and didn't bother putting any shoes on. I sat down on the couch and started plucking away at my guitar strings, hoping for inspiration to hit me across the face. I wrote a few simple melodies down in a notebook and tried putting matching drum beats to it. It didn't really work. I could only get the beat of the bass drum working for me. I didn't know where to put any fills or other fancy drummer things. I continued playing, when I passed out.

~ ~ ~

I woke up on a couch, unsure of how I had gotten here. A guitar was laying in my lap and some scribbles were in a notebook. I got up and searched for my phone. I unlocked it and found the number I was looking for after about a minute of scrolling through my call history. I had shared heaps of phone calls with a guy named Mike Fuentes. I have no idea why though. There it is! I tapped the name and the phone started ringing.

'Hello?' Said the voice on the other end.

'Hi, I was wondering if we could catch up sometime?'

'Sure. That sounds great. How about coffee in ten?'

'I'll see you there, babe.' I blew a few kisses into the receiver and hung up, walking out to my car and snatching my keys off the bench.

I drove to the nearest Starbucks and ordered our usual. I waited by the counter for it to be ready, then walked to a secluded booth. I sipped my coffee, putting it down quickly since it had burnt my mouth. I watched a few people pass by and finally, she arrived. She was wearing plain blue skinny jeans and a white v-neck that showed off more than enough cleavage.

'Tony!' She cried, running over in her three inch heels. I engulfed her in my arms and kissed her forehead.

'Hey Stephanie. It's good to see you too.'

We picked up our coffees and went for a walk on the beach, our hands linked. We talked about anything and everything, except for my job. My phone rang a third of the way into our walk, and the caller I.D. was Mike.

'Who's "Mike" and why does he keep on contacting me?' I asked Stephanie. She looked up at me, a look of worry on her face, but she calmly covered it up so fast, I couldn't be sure if she was worried or not.

'Honey, you can't go near Mike. Just trust me on this one.'

Around one, we started heading back, our coffees long gone.

'I guess I'll see you later.' I said, walking her to her car.

'Bye Tony,' she replied, giving me a kiss. 'Love you.'

'I love you too.' I replied, kissing the tip of her nose. She giggled and got into her car, reversing out of the space. I turned around and saw an unfamiliar ginger head staring at me, awestruck.

I looked at him oddly and tried to get him to move because he was standing in front of my car.

'Dude, are you serious?' He said. He had tattoos dotted everywhere and a beanie on over his scraggly shoulder length hair. 'Going out with Stephanie? Mike's gonna be furious!'

'Look, I don't know you or this Mike guy. All I know is that he won't leave me alone and that she is my wonderful girlfriend. Now why don't you just piss off so that I can get in my car?' I tried pushing past the guy but he held me back.

'You don't know me?' He said, his face falling. I shook my head. When I stopped shaking it, I felt dizzy and light headed, and I fell over, the ginger reaching out to catch me.

~Alan's POV~

Shitshitshitshitshitshit. Now what do I do?

I grabbed Tony as he started falling and felt around in his pockets for the keys to his car.

'AUSTIN!' I yelled to my boyfriend, who came jogging over. He took a quick glance at the situation, unlocked the car and hopped in the driver's seat, motioning for me to drag Tony into the back. I did, and started fanning his face. Austin quickly drove us back to Tony's apartment, where I found the keys and we carried Tony into the living room.

'Why did he pass out?' Austin asked, sitting on the floor next to Tony's head. He stroked his hair back from his face, and went to the kitchen to retrieve to glasses of water.

I shrugged. 'I don't know. He was sticking his tongue down that little bitch's throat and passed out.' Austin emptied one glass over Tony's head, effectively waking him up.

'Austin!' He complained. 'What are you two doing here?' He asked, looking at both of us.

'You were with Stephanie and you passed out, so we brought you here.' I said. His eyebrows knitted together. Something wasn't matching up.

'No I was here. Mike just left with Vic.' Tony said. I looked at Austin and our expressions were the same - confusion. What the hell was happening?

Notes