Page 22 of Catch Me (Becoming Us #4)

Travis

I perched on a large rock like a lizard and hung my legs over the side.

Bringing the spoon to my mouth, I almost groaned at how good this ice cream was.

Back in my day, which was a disgusting thing to say, there weren’t this many ice cream flavors, at least not where I lived in Texas.

This place in the city made it in-house, and it was superb.

My favorite was the lemon bar flavor, and I could easily put down two pints if I gave into the urge. It was otherworldly.

Shit, I had my LIVE to do. It was supposed to start two minutes ago. Roman might’ve been onto something when he said I needed to hire someone to keep track of my shit.

This was poorly thought out. I had to hold my phone, but I also had to hold my ice cream. That left me without a free hand to eat my ice cream. After carefully pinning the pint between my thighs, I started the video.

I took a large bite and smiled for the people. I could do literally anything and they’d get weird on me.

How much can you stuff in your mouth?

I volunteer as tribut e

“Dear God,” I garbled around the mouthful. “You’re all ungovernable. Shame on you for objectifying me.”

You like it.

I rolled my eyes, even as I smiled. “My friend recently accused me of fishing for compliments, so maybe I do.” Reluctantly, I perched the spoon inside of the carton. “Alright, I know that you all love to see me, but I’m not here to talk today.”

Boo

We’ve been bamBOOzled

“Yeah, yeah. Remember my friends that I introduced you to the other day? Sen and Kai. Not the other ones. Well, they’re doing a LIVE video, and I have no idea what it’s for, but I love to support my friends, so I wanted to send you all in their direction.

They’re both tagged in my last post, so go follow them and hop on.

If you need me to remind you, they’re both dreamy. Now, go.”

I ended the LIVE and navigated to theirs. Sen looked nervous as hell and Kai was keeping his face tucked into his neck at an angle that allowed him to say things in his ear. It was adorable, and everyone in the comments agreed.

As Sen began to relay his story, I tried not to let that familiar feeling surface. The vast majority of it wasn’t about me. I was only in his life for a few weeks at Camp Dumont, but it did traumatize him since they lied and said that I’d killed myself. Fucking assholes.

When he got to that day, I took a deep breath. A lot of people in the feed were surprised that he was the guy I’d mentioned when I told my own side of things. I never gave them many details on him to make sure he was safe, even before we reconnected.

My eye caught on one of the comments, which was quickly getting buried. I scrolled up and screenshotted it. Navigating to the web, I looked up the URL they’d shared.

“Holy shit.”

It was clear the guys hadn’t caught it. I didn’t know if I should call Kai now or wait, but I decided to hold off until Sen was almost finished. It would be good for it to be mentioned in the video so that it would have more attention on it.

When Sen reached the part of the story he’d already told on my LIVE, I called Kai. He lifted his head and looked down at his phone, then at the screen. I silently urged him to answer instead of stare at the camera like I could talk to him through it .

He said something to Sen, then he stood. “Hey,” he answered softly.

“Someone in the chat shared a link. You need to see it.”

“Shit. Is it bad? Travis, I told him everything would be okay.”

“It’s . . . Just look.”

I texted it to him, and he sucked in a breath. “What the fuck? This isn’t...This isn’t real. Who did this?”

“I don’t know, but they just started one for Sen. They must have a following, because it’s already getting attention.”

He came into view of the camera again. The expression on his face was completely new to me. Kai was always composed and spirited, but he looked broken.

“Sen,” he said softly.

Sen looked up at him, obviously worried. Kai passed him the phone, and Sen’s mouth fell open. His hand came up to cover it, and I saw tears form in his eyes.

“Tell them,” I urged.

Kai just shook his head. He was crying, and this time, Sen was the one who pulled him against his chest to comfort him. People in the chat were demanding information, but both of them were obviously unable to say anything.

“Add me,” I told him.

He quickly did it, then a sob tore from his chest. Watching Kai fall apart was almost unreal. I understood it, though, and it would just make this become even bigger.

My face showed up on the video, and I was surprised that I looked a little shaken too. After clearing my throat, I leaned forward.

“Last time we were on a LIVE together, I brought up Kai’s family business. Someone followed him and saw a post about his dad. For everyone who doesn’t know, they found out he has early onset Alzheimer’s when Kai was two years old. Everyone says he’s the best person to ever grace this world.

“This person started a fundraising campaign for Kai’s family—for the business, for medical bills, and whatever they need.

Uh...” I sniffed, trying to avoid falling apart.

“Over a hundred thousand dollars have been donated so far, so you can understand Kai’s reaction just now.

His dad is everything to him, and I’ll be the first to tell you that he’s going to be just like him.

I haven’t had the pleasu re of meeting his dad, so I’ll say that Kai is the most incredible person I know.

“Another campaign was just started for Sen. They think that he deserves it after everything he went through and for being brave enough to come on here and tell you his story, to try making a difference. I’m going to post the links for both of these fundraisers so that you can check them out and donate if you’re able to. ”

I took a few deep breaths as something settled into my bones. It was the thing I’d been unable to say to him this whole time, and even though I knew he’d refute the way I felt, I needed to say it.

“Sen.” He looked up at me and nodded. “Ever since that day at Camp Dumont, I’ve felt guilty for leaving you there.”

“Travis—”

“Let me finish, please. I told my dad we couldn’t leave you, but obviously, we weren’t able to do anything.

If I could’ve kidnapped you and hid you from your family, I would have.

I feel guilty because I didn’t try to find you, and after a few years, it faded from my mind—the boy I kissed at camp, the one who gave me hope just through his smile.

And it’s fucked up because it was that kiss and my admission to the counselor that got me out of that place, but it was what condemned you to more pain.

At night, that memory from camp haunted me.

The sound of your dad hitting you... Anyway, I know that it’s not my fault, really, but it eats at me.

You never would have accepted anything from me, but now there’s a fundraiser and you don’t have a choice. ”

He shook his head. “Don’t.”

“I’m going to add one hundred and fifty thousand to your campaign.”

The chat exploded, and it was moving too fast for me to read anything, but there were a lot of capital letters and exclamation points. He dropped his face into his hands, and his shoulders shook. Kai looked up, and when he saw me smile, he shook his head.

“And I’m going to do the same for your family’s campaign, Kai.”

“Fuck,” he cried. “We didn’t...We didn’t ask for anything from all of you. We don’t deserve this. There are so many other people.”

“You do deserve it. So do those other people, but that doesn’t change it. Are you home now?”

“Yeah, I need to talk to my mom. I don’t think we can stay on here. God, thank you. Everyone. I can’t even...Thank you. ”

Sen wasn’t able to pull himself together, and none of us were upset about it. Kai said another brief thank you before their camera shut off. I didn’t want to add anything, so I ended my feed as well.

This had never been about them gaining something like this, and I hadn’t even thought to do it. I was overwhelmed and relieved in so many ways.

When my phone rang, I immediately answered it. “Hi, Seneca.”

“You’re an asshole,” he said through his tears.

“Like I said, you guys deserve it.”

“It’s three hundred thousand dollars! You can’t do that.”

“It’s a fraction of what I make in a year.”

“That doesn’t matter. I just . . . Travis.”

“That kiss earned me my freedom and it imprisoned you. We were opposite results of Camp Dumont, and I won’t apologize for giving you something that’ll help make the future easier after all the years you lost to your past.”

I heard a woman crying in the background, who I assumed was Kai’s mom. A man asked what was going on, and the way Kai responded to him was so full of warmth that it made me smile.

“Be happy, Sen. That was what I wanted for you from the moment I saw you on that dock. That’s not a goodbye, by the way. It kind of sounded like it.”

“Thank you. God, thank you, Travis.”

“Don’t thank me. You should visit soon. Both of you. I’d love to see you for more than a day or two.”

“Maybe spring break.”

“I’d love it. Hopefully, it’ll work with my schedule next season. We’ll figure it out.”

“Fuck, man. Is it weird if I say I love you?”

As I laughed, I stirred my ice cream. It was melty now, which in my opinion made it basically a milkshake.

“Love you too, Sen. You probably shouldn’t tell Kai this, but you were my first kiss, and it meant everything at the time. You’ll always have a piece of me, and I’m glad you found me again. You’d better stick around.”

“Can’t get rid of me. You’re gonna be the best man at my wedding, which means you’ll be walking with West, so I apologize in advance. ”

“It’s cool. For the love of God, get yourself out of that apartment, then buy your boyfriend a really nice ring with some of that money.”

“Feels kind of early.”

“Does it?”

“No, actually. When we kissed the first time, I felt myself break open so that I could let him in. Somehow, we both knew from that moment—it was going to be me and him. I’ve spent my life confused and doubting things, but I’ve never once felt lost with him or doubted us.

It’s kind of wild, and I just don’t care if I never really understand how we fit the way we do. ”

“Shit, you make it sound like a dream come true.”

“Not a dream. It’s so fucking real. You’ll find it too. I have a feeling.”

I chuckled. “I’m happy with how things are. But if it does come around, hopefully that whole kiss magic happens because I’m sort of an idiot. I’ll probably let it pass right by me.”

“Sounds like you need someone relentless and clingy.”

“Well, I’m a dog person, so that makes a lot of sense.”

“I should get going. Kai is still a mess and we’re probably gonna be crying all night. Thank you, Travis. Seriously, I can’t say it enough.”

“Stop saying it at all. It makes it weird. There are gonna be a lot of donations coming in. Think of it all as a ‘fuck you’ to your dad. Send him a hundred-dollar bill in the mail along with a picture of you and Kai when you get engaged.”

“It’s tempting.”

“Go take care of your man. We’ll talk later.”

“Alright. Later.”

After the call ended, I clutched the phone to my chest. I didn’t know if I’d ever felt this good. Even when I made it into the major leagues, it hadn’t been like this.

I drank my ice cream, then laid back on the rock. It was in the perfect spot so that the sun shone down on it, providing some heat to dull the chill air.

Nothing could top this.