The Taste of Touching Glass

~Tony's POV~

Why are Austin and Alan here? I looked up at both of them as they swapped worried looks. That could only mean one thing. I'd forgotten Mike.

'What did I do this time?' I whispered, and their heads swivelled to stare at me. 'What did I do when I forgot Mike?'

'You were with Stephanie... on what seemed to be a date. You were kissing when Alan saw you.' My eyes widened as I took in this information.

'Where's Mike?' I asked, unlocking my phone.

'We don't know.' Alan replied, playing with the ends of his beanie. 'I'll be back.' He said, going out into my small backyard. Austin sat down next to me on the couch. He gave a deep sigh while I scrolled through my messages. Huh. Mike wasn't there. My latest text had been a few days ago to Jaime. I clicked out of my messages and went straight to contacts. Austin had started peering over my shoulder. I went straight to Fuentes. The only contact there was Vic. I searched "Mike" in the bar and it came up empty.

I turned and looked at Austin, who was already pulling his phone out of his pocket.

'What have I done?' I whispered. I had deleted Mike. All of our texts, out late night conversations, erased. I remembered clearly one that we had a few years ago just before tour. We were talking about what ice creams would taste nice with whiskey and other types of alcohol, when Mike had fallen asleep. I heard Vic on the other end arguing with Jaime, since Mike's phone had fallen out of his hand and what I presumed was his lap. He had woken up when their argument had moved into the lounge room. He had woken up and continued the conversation as if he hadn't been asleep for the past fifteen minutes.

Austin gave me the phone with Mike's number dialling. I held the phone to my ear.

'Hi Austin.' Mike said, answering his phone. I breathed a sigh of relief. 'Austin? Are you okay?'

'Um, yeah Austin's fine. It's me, Tony.' I said, settling back on the couch.

'Tony! Where have you been? Vic and I got back ages ago and you weren't answering your phone.'

'I'll tell you later okay, and before anything else happens, I just want to say I'm sorry.' I said quickly. 'Meet me at my place? Love you.' I said, blowing him a kiss. I cut him off by hanging up and passing the phone to Austin. He had my phone in my hands and was playing around with it.

'Here you go.' He said, handing me my phone. I had Mike's number back in there, and he had managed to retrieve some of the lost messages.

'Thanks,' I said, grateful. Alan walked back inside, smelling of cigarette smoke.

~Alan's POV because I am tired of Tony's POV and can't change it to Mikey's yet~

I walked over to Austin, who welcomed me with open arms. Sitting in his lap, I asked,

'So, what's going on between you and Mike?'

The tattooed guitarist looked down and started playing with his Jedi braid. 'I'm telling him about what happened with Stephanie as soon as he gets here.' He looked up and looked us in the eye.

'Can you guys help out? Fit in the puzzle pieces I forget?' Tony asked hopefully, still looping his braid through his plug.

I looked at Austin.

'Tony, we only caught the last part. Maybe you should call Stephanie?' My voice went higher, as if I was asking a question.

Tony's eyes snapped to mine. 'What?' He asked, his voice low.

'Y'know... and pretend that you don't remember...' I trailed off as his eyes narrowed.

'Thanks. That's actually a good idea.' He whipped his phone out and dialed Stephanie's number.

'Hi Steph... I'm good, thanks. You?... Yeah, I'm trying to brag about you to my friends, I can't remember all of our date though... Just the kiss... So there was coffee, a walk on the beach and ice cream?... Thanks...' Tony said, pauses as he listened to Stephanie's answer. We heard Mike come in through the front door.

'Yeah, that should be able to happen... I love you too, Stephanie.' He blew a kiss into the reciever and hung up. Mike was staring at him wide-eyed.

'You... love... her?' Mike whispered.

~Mike's POV~

I stared at Tony, my love. His mouth hung open and the two lovebirds on the couch were curled up together, watching us like a tennis match. Back, forth, back, forth.

'Mike,' He said, his hand reaching out towards me. I remembered back to when he did that exact same gesture, when he was chasing my car. 'It's not what it seems.' The spectators nodded away, they looked like life-size bobble-heads.

'I called Stephanie to find out exactly what happened. It was Alan's idea. I was just playing along.' He explained.

'And what did happen?' I demanded. 'Because when you forget me, you do love her.'

Tony looked at the ground, seemingly ashamed. 'We got coffee and took a walk on the beach. On the way back we got ice cream and according to Austin and Alan...' He trailed off, and looked at them, willing them to finish his sentence.

'You say it.' Whispered Alan, hitting Austin's chest.

'Oh um...' a flustered Austin began. 'Stephanie and Tony... ah, kissed... passionately against the car.' My mouth dropped open.

'What?' My eyes flicked to Tony. He was crying, tears rolling down his cheeks. On the left side, the tears were swerving crazily to avoid his dermal piercing.

'I'm sorry, Mikey.' He whispered, continuing to look at the floor. 'You needed to know what I did. I'm so, so sorry.' Tony started walking towards his bedroom. 'I understand if you're going to break up with me or whatever.'

'What do you mean? I'll never give up on you, Tone.' I said, pulling him towards my lanky body as he walked past.

'I love you and I'll do anything to help you to remember me. No matter what.' Tony wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me back. He rested his chin on my shoulder while Austin and Alan were trying -and failing- to look elsewhere.

'We're just going to...' Austin said, pulling Alan to his feet.

'Bye.' Alan said, rocketing out of the door, taking Austin's subtle hint.

'How do we know that I'll always remember you?' Tony asked, his voice soft. I led him to the couch. I sat down and he settled down next to me. I pulled out my phone and dialed the number I hoped I would never have to dial.

'Hi, this is Stacey. I can't get to the phone right now. Please leave a message.'

'Hi, this is Mike Fuentes. I was just wondering if we could catch up sometime soon. It's about Tony.' I said, snapping the phone shut.

'There we go. The professional will know.' I joked, smiling at my turtle. He gave me a rare smile and kissed me.

'I just want you to know that I love you. Even when I don't remember you.' He said.

'I love you too, Turtle. With all of my heart.' I kissed the top of his head and carried him bridal-style to his bedroom. We lay down on the bed and became tangled in the sheets, trying to get comfy. We started talking about anything and everything. What colour we wanted to dye our hair, new tattoos, our favourite songs from when we were younger. Our arms were around each other and our legs were twisted around each other. One of Tony's legs moved up to my hip as we continued talking. As our discussion progressed, we slowly became closer and closer, until our bodies were pressed together with no room between them. Tony pressed a kiss to my lips, and rested his head on my chest.

'Good night.' He murmured, trying to remove his shirt. I helped him and ran the tips of my fingers along his stomach and chest. He shivered and took off my shirt for me. He admired my tattoos and traced them, the exact same way I had traced his a few nights ago.

We finally fell asleep, entwined in each other's embrace, the sheets and blankets discarded on the floor next to us.

Notes