Homecoming Hearts Series Collection

by HJ Welch

  “Mom, it’s just a stupid thing, don’t even worry about it,” said Elion hastily. He got up too, so Blake followed. The cameras moved around them like a choreographed ballet.

  Lucy was shaking though, tears in her eyes. “No, no,” she cried, jabbing her finger. “They’re threatening you, they want to hurt you.”

  “No one’s going to hurt me,” Elion tried to assure her. But she’d had several glasses of wine and probably wasn’t thinking rationally. Besides, Blake had to agree. That sounded horribly ominous.

  “I won’t let anyone hurt him, Lucy,” he said vehemently. “I promise.”

  Watson was grousing and began winding between his and Elion’s feet.

  Lucy was hugging her son and starting to cry though. “You have to protect him,” she snapped angrily at the crew. “This isn’t funny, this isn’t a game. Do you have any idea how wonderful he is? The kind of man he is?”

  Kala was standing with them now, her hands raised in the face of Lucy’s angry tears. “I promise you Mrs. Rodriguez, we’ll do everything we can. I didn’t know the letter was going to threaten him-”

  “But it has,” she snarled. She scrubbed her face and hiccuped. “He isn’t just some extra in your little show! Do you know what he did when he was just a boy? Do you know how amazing he is?”

  “Mom, please.” He tried to grab her hands and calm her down. But she was like a tiger, riled up and baring her teeth.

  “When his mother got cancer, when he was supposed to go and live his life and go to college and get out of this town,” she stammered. “He gave up everything we’d saved his whole life to help pay for my treatment. I’m still alive because of my boy, so don’t you dare, don’t you dare-”

  She became too upset to speak. Kala grabbed her by the shoulders and hugged her, then steered her from the room promising they would call the police right away. Half the crew followed them. The other half stayed with Elion and Blake.

  Blake turned as Elion slumped in his chair. He looked utterly miserable. Blake’s insides were churning.

  So that was why he’d taken a job at a small town coffee house, why someone so full of life and potential had chosen to stay here rather than go find his place in the world. Why he worked all hours and still lived at home.

  Blake felt wholly inadequate as he dropped into his own chair and took Elion’s hand. He didn’t even seem to notice him doing it. How could he think his life had ever been hard? He had been inundated with privilege and opportunity at every turn.

  Yet here Elion was. He’d chosen to give back all the money his mom had saved to send him to school so she could get the best treatment possible, and by the looks of it, beat her cancer. And still he faced each day with a laugh and a joke on his pretty lips, always seeing the best in everything.

  “You’re incredible,” Blake murmured. His heart was swelling with pride.

  Elion shook his head though and gently pulled his hand free so he could hug himself. “It’s what anyone would have done,” he said. Blake didn’t believe that, but he didn’t get a chance to say so. “Look, this stalker shit isn’t funny. I don’t care what your parents say. I want to go to the police, like Kala said.”

  Blake nodded. “Of course.”

  That’s what he’d wanted to do from the beginning. Especially if Seth was stupid enough to air this. Surely that would just encourage whoever was behind it all. Unfortunately, Blake knew by now the great entertainment outweighed compassion and morals.

  “I’m so sorry, I never wanted you involved in this.”

  Elion gave him a shrug and a half smile. “Look, I better go look after my mom. Maybe you should just head home?”

  Blake swallowed.

  Fuck. If Elion didn’t really care for him, if he’d just been doing this for a laugh and a bit of fame, then a cloaked death threat would surely be enough to push him away for good.

  Blake desperately wanted to assure him that this was all real. That he’d get this asshole arrested, whoever they were, and look after Elion and his mom to the absolute best of his means. That he loved Elion, no matter what.

  But this seemed like the worst time to try and confess how he felt. So instead he just nodded. “Of course,” he said again. “Come on, Watson.”

  Mercifully, Elion let him hug him, and he kissed his lips tenderly. There was no heat behind it, purely comfort. Blake was overcome with a roaring urge to protect Elion and his mom with everything he had.

  But that would have to wait. For now, he was forced to leave them behind while he and his dog stepped out into the cool night air. The cameras followed them to the sidewalk, but then he insisted he wanted to walk home, alone.

  He was grateful when they listened and went back to the house.

  He had a lot to think about.

  25

  Elion

  It took a while to calm his mom down. Once she’d drunk some water she managed to see sense. When she started to get embarrassed at her emotional reaction, Elion refused to hear it. “You had every right to get upset,” he assured her.

  He didn’t mind the cameras hanging around to get that on film, but after that he insisted they leave. Kala had wound his mom up with the wine and the letter, and they’d got their fucking drama for the show. Now everyone would know what a hellish time she’d been through, and what he’d had to do to get her through it.

  There was no scenario where he wouldn’t give up his every last cent to make sure his mom got the treatment she needed. It had been a shit couple of years, but the chemo had paid off and his mom had made it through without even having to get a mastectomy. Of course it hurt that he’d had to give up his dream of going to college, but he’d trade that in a heartbeat for keeping his mom with him.

  He’d just rather everyone didn’t know. He didn’t want people looking at them with pity, or treating him like he’d lost something. These were the cards he’d been dealt in life and he’d make the best hand he could with them.

  There had been times with Blake where he’d felt the difference keenly in their financial situation. Hanging around with someone who simply didn’t have to worry about money, who never had, set his teeth on edge at times.

  Blake had never once made him feel inferior. But now he knew. Now he understood that thanks to a crappy tumor his and his mom’s pennies had been pinched to the point where they’d almost had to turn off the lights and water because they couldn’t afford the bills.

  But they were still here god-damn it, and they were doing just fine. He didn’t need some rich popstar feeling sorry for him.

  Especially not one who he didn’t even know for sure wanted him to be his genuine boyfriend.

  It was so awkward with the cameras around all the time. Elion wanted to believe what Blake said that evening had been from the heart. But how could he tell? He had to play the part of the doting boyfriend, and the response to his speech at the awards had been so amazing there was no way he could ‘dump’ Elion anytime soon without coming across as an opportunistic liar.

  Was he hamming up his part now, so in a few months’ time he could swap Elion for someone a little more Caucasian? Was that why the crew had brought all that crap into their house?

  Elion was too tired to think about it anymore. He made them go pack it all up while he looked after his mom. She wasn’t used to drinking that much and was feeling pretty sick, so he got her more water and urged her to brush her teeth. He was also a big meanie and made her take off her makeup despite her protests.

  “We’ve got to keep you looking gorgeous, now, haven’t we?” She grumbled but he did manage to raise a smile out of her.

  By the time he put her to bed and returned to the kitchen, Kala and the crew had all gone. They’d even wrapped up the leftover food and put it in the fridge, which he did appreciate. That was probably going to be his lunch for the next couple of days and he would have been pissed off if it had spoiled.

  As he was washing up his phone dinged, so he dried his hands and pulled it from his pocket.
His heart clenched when he saw it was a text from Blake.

  ‘I’m so sorry that happened tonight. I feel like I’ve put you in so many awkward positions since you got dragged into the show. Do you want to meet tomorrow? We can sort this out, I promise.’

  Sort this out? Well that sounded like the fake-dumping of the fake-boyfriend was probably happening sooner rather later.

  Elion angrily fought back the tears that sprung in his eyes. What did he expect? Blake was getting threatened by a stalker if he didn’t ditch Elion. Poor, brown, uneducated Elion. It was hardly rocket science.

  ‘Sure, what time?’ he messaged back. As soon as they agreed on four o’clock, he shoved his phone back in his pocket and finished doing the dishes. He ignored his reflection in the darkened window of the tears breaking free and slipping down his face.

  He felt numb by the time he pulled into the parking lot the next day. He’d already worked a shift at Cool Beans with Devon calling him a zombie more times than he could count. He couldn’t shake his funk though. No matter how many times he told himself that this was always inevitable, he couldn’t seem to stop his heart from breaking.

  He’d gone home and changed so he looked his best when he got his ass handed to him for all the world to see. He fussed with his hair in the rear-view-mirror until he admitted he couldn’t put this off any longer.

  “It’s been real fun,” he muttered to himself and swung himself out into the parking lot. He passed a few parents and students milling around on his way in. If Blake had any mercy at all, he’d at least do this away from them. The cameras were probably unavoidable, but he didn’t want the kids to see him cry.

  The young protégée Karyn was standing outside on her phone. Presumably, she was waiting for a ride having after a class from the way her fashionably baggy t-shirt was dark with perspiration. When she saw him her face lit up. It was enough to startle him into stopping. Since that episode where she’d filmed the fake witnessing of him and Blake, she’d pretty much ignored him. She only ever seemed to want to dance and fight with Nessa.

  But now she ran over to him as he started walking again towards the front doors. “Elion,” she hissed, delight clear on her face. “Elion, guess what?”

  He stopped once more and raised his eyebrows. “Um, what?”

  “I got cast in Reyse Hickson’s new music video,” she whispered with such excitement she couldn’t seem to stop herself quivering. “This never would have happened without you and Blake!”

  He couldn’t really follow what she was saying. “It’s Blake’s show?” he said.

  She shook her head. “When you guys got together, that meant I could get a solo part in the very first episode.” She hugged him. “Thank you.”

  Pain lanced through Elion’s chest. She must know that they’d never really got together, and now they were going to be over for good. But he was happy for her and her success.

  “You got the music video all by yourself,” he said, giving her a smile. “Congratulations, kiddo. You deserve it.”

  She grinned at him, then spotted whoever was picking her up. “See you later,” she called over her shoulder.

  “I doubt it,” he muttered to himself. He wasn’t going to have a reason to hang around here any longer.

  As usual, a P.A. stopped him as soon as he walked in the building to wire him for sound. There was no point in fighting it, so Elion just stood and let it happen. Like a man walking to the gallows, he approached the main dance studio.

  He couldn’t remember what class was supposed to be going on. He thought maybe the elite group, which people often stuck around to watch as they were so good. Therefore, Elion was expecting Blake to be dancing when he pushed through the doors.

  What he was not expecting was to see him doing some sort of sexy Dirty Dancing with Nessa’s leg wrapped around his waist and her head draped back so her waterfall of hair cascaded behind her while she exposed her neck and breasts in all their glory for Blake to see.

  Elion felt like his heart stopped. “Well isn’t this just fucking perfect,” he said too loudly considering there were small children everywhere. But their parents were letting them watch this pornography, so he gave precisely zero fucks what they thought.

  He was getting out of here and never coming back.

  He spun on his heels and let the door slam behind him. He didn’t care that Kala and her cameras were on him. He was already trying to pull his mic off, but his hands were trembling too badly and he couldn’t get them to work. It didn’t help that his eyes were filling up with tears.

  “Elion!” he heard Blake call from behind him. “Elion wait, where are you going? What the hell’s the matter?”

  Elion stopped and turned, hastily wiping his face with both hands. “Nothing,” he spat, forcing a smile that was probably more of a grimace. “Nothing. I don’t have anything to be jealous of, do I?”

  Blake looked perplexed. And mouthwateringly good, of course. His damp clothes clung to his perfect body and reminded Elion of what he couldn’t have any more.

  “We were just dancing,” said Blake slowly. There were two cameras on them now and several people watching from a distance. “Why would you be jealous?”

  Elion shook his head. “No,” he ground out. “I shouldn’t be jealous because this whole thing was never real and you can hook up with whoever the hell you please.”

  Blake looked like he’d been smacked in the face. “You don’t think it’s real?”

  Elion couldn’t stop the tears now. “I don’t want to play around anymore, I can’t. I know I said no strings attached, but I lied. I can’t pretend, so if you don’t want me, I’ll just-”

  He probably would have carried on pouring his heart out if Blake hadn’t grabbed his face and kissed him fiercely. Elion barely registered what was happening before it was over.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but this hasn’t been an act since L.A. Probably before, if I’m honest. Unless you tell me differently, you’re my boyfriend and I fucking love you.”

  Elion felt the air rush out of his lungs. “W-what?”

  Blake hugged him close and murmured in his ear. The mics would still be able to hear them, but at least the growing crowd wouldn’t.

  “I love you,” he said again. “I’m so sorry this stupid show keeps getting in our way. This isn’t fake, I’m not doing it for the fans or the ratings or anything. I want to be with you because when I’m not with you it feels like half of me is missing.” When he pulled away, his eyes were glassy but he wasn’t crying just yet. Unlike Elion, who felt like a total mess. “If that’s not what you want,” he said slowly. “I’ll have to accept it. But if you want to be together, really together, then I’m in. One hundred percent.”

  Elion felt faint. He didn’t have the strength to speak. He just pulled Blake back against him and hugged him with all his might, nodding into his neck.

  “Oh thank God,” Blake breathed, hugging him just as tightly. “Don’t scare me like that.”

  “I’m sorry,” Elion half-laughed, half-cried.

  Blake shook his head. “I’m sorry. We should have cleared things up after L.A.”

  “It doesn’t matter now,” Elion said. He was so light with relief he thought he might float away. “Can we get out of here?”

  “Hell yes,” Blake growled.

  As soon as he stepped away he expertly removed both his and Elion’s mic packs in a flash. He handed them over to Kala, who, if Elion didn’t know any better, he would have sworn she had tears in her eyes too.

  “I take it you can edit something from that?” Blake asked as he handed the packs over.

  “I’ve got gold from that,” she said, grinning devilishly. “Now get out of here, and don’t come back until tomorrow.”

  Elion allowed Blake to seize his hand and drag him out of the center, not caring that a couple dozen people were watching them. Some were mute, trying to work out what was happening. Others called out to them, but Elion honestly didn’t hear
a single word they said. Blood was rushing in his ears and his legs felt as wobbly as a newborn foal’s.

  As they broke into the afternoon sunshine Elion swung him back around and cradled his face for a passionate kiss. “I love you too,” he whispered. “In case that wasn’t clear.”

  Blake sighed and kissed him back. “I hoped, but it’s still really nice to hear.” He laughed, that elusive dimple popping back into his cheek. “Oh Christ, come home with me. Please.”

  Heat flared through Elion’s body. All his doubt and fears were banished in the face of pure lust. “Do you have supplies?” he asked. He wasn’t holding back this time. He wanted Blake Jackson inside him and he wasn’t talking no for an answer.

  Adorably, Blake flushed pink. “I did some research, got some things. I hoped…”

  “You hoped, right, mister,” said Elion. He pulled him towards his car. “Is anyone home; do we need to be discreet?”

  They threw themselves inside the small car and Blake shook his head. “We should have the place to ourselves.”

  Elion wasn’t sure how he made the drive. The whole thing was essentially a blur. Before he knew it, they were parked in front of the Jackson’s enormous house, scrambling outside. He wasn’t even sure he locked the doors, but he didn’t care. No one was going to steal his banged-up piece of crap in a nice neighborhood like this.

  Watson met them with her usual enthusiasm when they entered, greeting them with a loud howl. But she seemed to pick up pretty quickly that they were busy, so thankfully scampered off as they headed up the stairs.

  Like Blake said, none of his family appeared to be at home. Elion sent up a quick prayer of thanks. He had a detailed plan on being very noisy for the next half an hour or so.

  Like he was going to last that long. His dick was already half-hard and his whole body burned with desire. Blake loved him. He was dragging him to his bedroom like a horny teenager. This wasn’t fake any more.