Chartreuse

Chartreuse

By

T.E. Ridener

Copyright ©T.E. Ridener, 2014

Author’s Note

These stories are works of
fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are either products of the
author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, or
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED.

 This
book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws
and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system without express written permission
from the author.

Dedications

For S, because I absolutely adore
you and I can never thank you enough for your inspiration behind this story.

For B & Z, your love is
immortalized forever now.

To Jasmine, for your
encouragement to give this story the attention it so greatly deserves. 

To my street team, because you
guys absolutely rock in every way possible.  You go with the flow when it comes
to my writing, and I can never thank you enough for being my cheerleaders.

To my Double J’s, because I love
you so much.  When you’re older, I hope you realize that love is beautiful and
should be treated with the greatest of respects.  I love you no matter what the
future holds.

To the great people of the
/r/boston community on Reddit, you really helped me out so much and I can’t
thank you enough!  Your descriptions of your beautiful city really helped paint
the picture from Rowan’s perspective.

To my fans, you’re still on this
journey with me so that must be a good sign!  Thank you so much for your
support and encouragement.  I do what I do because of you.

A
Message to the Reader

Perhaps you’re only looking for a
sweet romance to read, but if there’s a chance you’re here because you have a
void that needs filled, or you feel lonely and need a ray of hope, I just want
you to know that everything will get better one day.  This is a fight that
shouldn’t have to be fought anymore, but please know I am fighting for you.

You are not alone.

If you need to reach out to
someone, please contact The Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386.

You can learn more on their
website as well.

http://www.thetrevorproject.org/

Love is love is love. ♥

Chapter
One

      Acceptance;
it’s something that everyone should do for each other.  No matter what color
someone’s skin is, or how old they are, or even who they love.  The world would
be a much better place if everyone could just accept one another.  But most
importantly, a lesson all people have to learn during their time on this earth
is to accept themselves.

    
That was something Kasen Reed had finally learned after he moved out on his
own.  Or perhaps it was something that he’d discovered before he left his
mother’s.  That may have been the reason he left his mom behind to start over. 
But could it really be considered starting over?  Yes.  It could.  It wasn’t
that his mother was a horrible person; she could be quite nice when she wanted
to be.  Or when her mood actually allowed that to be possible; which was
rarely.

    
Kasen had grown immune to his mother’s mood swings.  As a younger child, he had
constantly worried that it was his fault when she was crying or when she was
yelling and throwing things against the wall.  Kasen could remember when he
would approach her as a boy, hugging his arms around her waist and repeatedly
saying sorry.  Even today, he would shake his head at the thought.  He’d never
had anything to be sorry for.  She had run his father off.  She had made life
so hard for the two of them.

     But
there was no use in living in the past.  As a matter of fact, Kasen refused to
do that.  He had to move forward.  So that’s what he was doing.   The last eight
months had been the best of his life.  He’d gotten his own apartment down town;
he had his dream job of being a radio personality.  He loved music.  He related
to it in so many ways. 

    
Music was good for the soul, or so he had heard.  He wouldn’t argue that fact. 
He’d been listening to everything he could get his hands on for years.   Technology
had made it easier to obtain music though, seeing as music became highly
accessible through the internet.  He hadn’t even gotten his first computer
until he was fifteen, and once he had that bad boy in his room, the rest was
history.  If it hadn’t been for his grandmother, he probably wouldn’t have even
gotten that.

     His
grandmother was the sensible one in the family.  He had no aunts or uncles,
just his mother and grandmother.  He couldn’t really recall ever having a male
figure in his life.   His father had only stayed around until he was three or
so, and by then, his mother had done a sufficient job of driving the man
insane.  Enough was enough, he supposed.  But why didn’t his dad take him with
him?

     These
were thoughts that were always going through Kasen’s mind.  Thoughts always ate
at him, making him miserable on the inside even though he tried to keep himself
relatively put together on the outside.  Maybe his problem was that he never
really talked about his issues with anyone.  He didn’t feel comfortable on
letting anyone in; and that was probably his biggest downfall.

     He
had once tried to open up to his mother about things.  It had been a silly
topic, really.  But he’d been having a lot of issues with his school work
during the tenth grade, and he decided he needed some extra tutoring. 

     “Don’t
come at me with your problems,” She’d said.  “I have enough to deal with
without adding your crap onto mine.”

     And
that had taught him never to try to talk to her again.  Or anyone, for that
matter.  If a guy couldn’t talk to the person who’d given him life, then who
the hell was he supposed to talk to?  And the craziest part about the ordeal
was the fact she was always trying to boss him around. Always
, always
. 

     It
seemed like he couldn’t do anything right.  It was one of the many reasons that
he moved out.  Even now, with him living several blocks away from her, she
still called every other hour.  Sometimes he answered, but most times he took
advantage of that beautiful ignore button.

     No
one could really blame him, could they?  She was a nightmare.  Kasen was glad
to be out of that mess.  Living on his own was definitely better.  In the short
amount of time he’d been living in his apartment, he’d felt an incredible
weight lifted off his shoulders.  Everything was finally going the way he’d
always wanted it to, but of course, something was missing.

    
Living in the tiny town of Chartreuse, Alabama, it was difficult for Kasen to
even hope that he’d ever find love.  The final reason he’d ultimately decided
to move out from under his mother’s roof, was because of her reaction to his
admittance of being gay.  It hadn’t settled well with her, and despite the fact
she hadn’t said much on the subject, Kasen could see the disappointment in her
eyes every time she looked at him.

    
It’s a gut wrenching feeling to know that your mother is disgusted with you. 
But he tried not to think about it too much.  Lots of people had issues with
their parents, right?  And he wasn’t even going to attempt to open the can of
worms with his father.  That was a lost cause entirely, in his mind.  Besides,
he didn’t even know how to get a hold of the guy.

     So
today, he was doing what he’d always done,  which included enjoying a bowl of
Cinnamon Toast Crunch while reading the newspaper, counting down the minutes
until it was time to head in to work; even though work didn’t start until eight
forty five at night.  He liked the fact he worked until around two in the
morning.  He didn’t have to work many hours, but still he made a decent
paycheck.  It paid for his apartment and the few other things in life that he
actually got pleasure from.

     For
instance, the internet.  He could browse videos for hours.  He also liked to
look up random facts and gain useless information.  He wasn’t entirely hard to
please.  His day would go as usual; he would finish eating his cereal and wash
the bowl, putting it back into the dish drain just to be used again tomorrow. 
Then he’d wander about until he found Houston, his five month old Weimeraner,
who was normally always cuddled up somewhere in the bedroom.

    
“Houston. C’mon, Boy,” he said, clapping his hands together.  The puppy lifted
his head lazily, glancing towards his master before putting his head back down
and closing his eyes.  He was always disinterested until Kasen pulled out the
leash, and then he was ready to go outside.

     The
morning air was chilly, and Kasen had to hug his denim jacket a little tighter
around himself as they walked down the sidewalk, nearing the park that the city
had previously put in a year before.  Too many dogs were getting hit by cars. 
Kasen thought it was a great idea, really.  He enjoyed the safety the park
provided.  He didn’t have to be paranoid about Houston getting away from him
and trying to chase him down in a panic.

     As
soon as he was inside the park, he shut the gate behind him and released
Houston from his temporary restraint. The puppy happily bounded off while Kasen
smiled, moving to sit down on a bench to take a breather.  And by breather, that
meant pulling out a pack of cigarettes to light one up.  As the flame danced
from the tip of the plastic blue contraption, Kasen’s eyes lifted upwards to
see a large brown dog that was curiously sniffing at Houston.

    
Kasen quickly stood up, but calmly approached the two pooches who were now very
interested in one another.  His brows furrowed slightly.  He wasn’t sure if the
other dog was very friendly or not.

    
“Don’t worry,” A deep, smooth voice said.  “He’s as gentle as a teddy bear.”

    
Kasen turned to see a man standing there, and though he honestly wished he
could say he noticed his height first, it was actually his eyes.  They were
almost the color of caramel.  They seemed warm. Kind.  Kasen smiled nervously.

     “I
wasn’t worried,” He replied sheepishly as he shoved a hand into his pocket,
pulling his cigarette from between his lips so he could actually talk.  It was
weird how he could talk to anyone while at work, though they were always on the
phone.  Being in person with someone was entirely different.  He became shy and
stammered; it was an all-around mess.

    
“Come here, Napoleon,” The man knelt down, snapping his fingers a few times
before his dog came back to him, wagging his tail.  Kasen watched him in
silence, chewing at his bottom lip as the man began to pet his dog, allowing
him to lick his cheek as he chuckled. 

    
Kasen was sure he’d never seen him around before.  Which was weird, because
with such a tiny town, he saw the same people at least twice a week if not
more. And it was just like that, he was certain the man was reading his mind as
he glanced up at him, catching Kasen staring at him.  Kasen’s entire face
heated up as he quickly looked down again.

    
“Well, I guess I should be heading out,” The man said, straightening up again. 
Kasen could feel his eyes on him, but he was afraid to look up.  He didn’t like
seeing the disappointment on people’s faces. 

    
“See you around then,” The man added after another few seconds of awkward
silence.  Kasen just nodded his head a bit, taking another drag of his
cigarette between tightly pursed lips as he watched the man disappear from his
peripheral vision.

    
Christ.  He was an idiot.  He couldn’t even achieve being normal around a
seemingly nice person.  Not to mention the fact he’d been all but drooling over
him.  “Come on, Houston,” He said, patting his thigh.  His days had started out
weirder before, hadn’t they?