Jesse's POV

I sluggishly open my car door and haul my exhausted body into the driver's seat. It took way longer than I expected for them to take my statement. I close my eyes and try to gather the energy to drive home.

The Other by Lauv invades my dreams. Shit! I fell asleep! I open my eyes, fumbling to answer Bryan. I set his ringtone to a Lauv song as soon as he gave me his number since that was the first thing we ever bonded over.

"Hey Vampy," I croak out with a slight smile on my lips. I cover the phone's microphone with one hand and clear my throat so I don't sound like I ate a bucket of gravel.

"Hello my beautiful tomato! I'm sorry, did I wake you?" Comes Bryan's melodic, velvety voice. I glance over to the clock in the car to see that I've been asleep for the past 45 minutes.

"I'm supposed to be up," I reply, suppressing a yawn and starting the car engine. I'm still a bit tired but definitely feel much more energized now.

Bryan chuckles lightly, "wait is that a car I heard starting? Did you sleep in your car?"

"Yes, I-" I get cut off by a yawn which is so wide it almost dislocates my jaw.

"Aww, you didn't tell me you were living in your car, come crash with me since you're homeless," he teases.

I roll my eyes and chuckle at his nonsense. "Well since I'm living in my car and all, what do I get if I come crash with you?"

"Lots of amazing sex," Bryan replies instantly. I chuckle. Seems like someone has a one track mind. But I can't blame him, we haven't actually seen each other in person since I jumped into his arms when we reunited. "Ooh I'll bake you a homemade Hawaiian pizza!"

I audibly gasp at that. "Wow, you must really like me," I joke. Bryan made his stance on pineapple pizza clear the first night we met when he scoffed and almost refused to buy it for me. Well that was until I brought out the big guns; yes my puppy dog eyes work wonders!

"I really do," he mutters.

"Oh my gosh, Vampy! I can hear you blushing through the phone!"

"Shut up, I'm not!" I laugh as I can literally imagine him pouting at me. "Why were you sleeping in your car anyways? Are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine. I had to go to the police station and I was tired so I took a nap."

"Are you ok to drive? I can come pick you up and drive you home," Bryan says, his voice laced with concern.

How is this man so sweet? "Nope, but thank you! I already left and I should be home in a few minutes."

"Ok, but I'll stay on the phone the whole time so you don't fall asleep." I can't help the wide smile that spreads across my face at his words or the tinge of red that appears on my cheeks. "Oh! I actually called to invite you and Chase over for a barbeque."

"You have a lot of those," I say jokingly. "When? And how many people will be there?"

"Tomorrow? I miss you," he replies sheepishly. I'm glad he can't see me right now because my cheeks look like Rudolf the red nosed reindeer's nose.

"And it will only be you, Chase, Dean, Shawn, Diego and I. I thought keeping it small and familiar would be good for Chase. He seems really shy. Plus he already knows everyone, or at least their faces in terms of Diego and I," Bryan continues.

Hmmm that actually isn't a bad offer. I can use it as an excuse to drag Chase out of the house. The only places he's been since that night were the hospital, the police station and his therapy sessions. I wonder how it went with the new therapist.

It's also a small group of people with whom Chase is mostly familiar and I get to see my boyfriend! Well kinda boyfriend because even though we joked about belonging to each other we still haven't explicitly put labels on it yet.

"That actually seems like it could be fun! I'll ask Chase and let you know!" I respond after a brief pause. I still have one concern. "So Diego?"

I've only had a brief interaction with Diego and he seems nice but he also does seem to have an interest in my brother and I need to make sure he's not an asshole.

Bryan laughs nervously, "Yeah so Diego might be interested in your brother and he wants to meet him."

"I'm assuming that you don't have terrible taste in friends so I don't mind his interest in Chase but Chase doesn't want a relationship right now."

"Noted. I'll tell Diego to forget about it," Bryan assures me.

I sigh. That's not exactly what I meant. "No I mean, oh my god how do I even, ok if I tell you this please don't tell Diego!"

Bryan gasps. "Oh my god! You have a crush on Diego!" He says trying to suppress a laugh.

This dumbass! I smirk, well if that's how he wants to play it. "I do, how did you know." I say, trying to muster as much seriousness as I could into my voice.

"Wait! What! Really?" The disappointment is clear in his voice.

Whoops guess my voice came out a little too serious. "No, idiot! I only have eyes for the super hot vampy that I'm currently talking to." I chuckle as I hear Bryan breathing a sigh of relief.

"What I meant to say is that Chase is also interested in Diego but I don't think he's ready for a relationship right now and I'm not sure when he will be." Or if he will be but I don't say that bit. "Maybe just let him know that if he's genuinely interested he needs to be patient with Chase and obviously he can't force a relationship onto Chase if he ends up not wanting one."

"So my takeaway is that I should tell Diego that Chase is super into him and wants a relationship immediately," Bryan teases.

"Asshole," I mutter and Bryan laughs.

We continue chatting until I pull up outside the house that Chase and I call home. I notice Shawn's car in the driveway and I smile. I'm glad Chase didn't sulk at home alone. Shawn really missed him so I'm sure he's happy to keep Chase's company.

"Hi Jesse," Chase greets me as I enter the living room while Shawn smiles and waves me over. They are sitting facing each other on the couch with half eaten tubs of ice cream in their laps and a giant foam finger on the ground. Why did they have a foam finger? Both of their eyes were red and puffy.

I drag the bean bag chair over to the couch and plop down on top of it.

"Chase told me," Shawn says quietly and I nod, not needing to ask about what.

"You look exhausted! Icecream?" Chase says, holding out his cookies and cream tub of icecream to me and I shove a spoonful of the cold sweetness into my mouth.

"We should have a camping sleepover! And we can set up a tent outside? Or not, never mind let's just watch TV." Chase's voice drops near the end and he looks around the room trying to avoid our eyes.

I don't really like camping, I'm more of a jump out of a plane type of guy, camping is too boring for me but Chase loves it. However, it's only fair that we do something that he loves because even though he is always hesitant, he has gone skydiving, paragliding and bungee jumping with me every time I asked.

I poke Chase in his side forcing him to look at me then I grin. "I think we have all the ingredients for s'mores! Let's go grab the sleeping bags!"

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