Asher was attached to the house. He hadn’t realised it until he was packing it up. It wasn’t that the cream coloured walls of the hallway had some deep connection to him or that the broken wood on the top stair had found its way into his heart. It was the memories that came with them. He walked through the hallway as he juggled a big box in his hands and saw those cream coloured walls. When he saw them he remembered the way he pushed Danny up against them after many of their dates, unable to wait until they breached anymore of the house before their hands were on each other, desperate for skin.

The house was a constant reminder of times past, of endless nights and beautiful days spent inside its walls. To leave it felt like a loss of some kind. Danny, on the other hand, wasn’t in the same nostalgic mood as he was and that just made Asher feel silly. He didn’t even live in the house and yet he was the one brooding and staring at the walls as if waiting for something.

‘Are you coming?’ he heard Danny call out from outside.

Asher looked past the front door and out into the yard. The large moving truck was stationed in the driveway, half filled with the contents of Danny’s former home. Danny was standing next to it with a box in his arms, looking back at Asher somewhat expectantly. The emotion was only half portrayed in his features as it was contradicted by the giant smile that had graced his lips the entire day. If it had been any other person, Asher would have sworn that someone couldn’t be happy for such an extended amount of time, and yet it was Danny and there was no such thought in Asher’s mind that the smile wasn’t true, through and through.

‘I’m coming,’ Asher called out as he repositioned the box held haphazardly in his arms. He was sure it was going to hit the ground a couple of times as he walked but managed to catch it just in time. He reminded himself that just because he had muscles didn’t mean that he could manage a giant box filled with thick, hard cover books on his own. Those things were damn heavy.

‘Let me help you,’ Danny stepped towards him as Asher neared the moving truck, it’s steel door pulled up to reveal the contents it held.

Danny reached out and grabbed the other side of the box. Asher thought it was almost comical the way that the box was practically as big as Danny. Well not really, but it would definitely rival his weight.

Together, they managed to place the box in on top of a few others against the wall of the trucks side. It was a little hot inside the metal box they were standing in and Asher was happier when he jumped out the back of it, feeling the cool breeze and light sun against his skin. It was a clear day, the kind of day that was so perfect that it felt alike to a crime to let slip through your fingers. He imagined pulling a picnic blanket out of nowhere and pulling Danny down to the ground to eat sandwiches while they enjoyed the perfect day in each other’s company. Asher would reach over for Danny’s hand as the light breeze blew Danny’s hair around his face in a way that would make him look more alike a model than your average teenager.

Danny had other ideas to use the day, of which Asher wasn’t exactly going to oppose. They had spent the last five hours knee deep in moving boxes. It wasn’t exactly fun, but Danny was so pumped about his goodbye party that afternoon that he didn’t seem unhappy once throughout the day. Asher couldn’t help but be influenced by his boyfriend’s good mood and found himself having fun as he packed up dishes into boxes, occasionally stealing a kiss from Danny in the odd moment.

Danny stepped out of the truck behind Asher, looking back at the house. ‘I can’t believe that this is really happening,’ he murmured more to himself that to Asher. The next question was aimed at Asher, however. ‘How many times have we dreamt of living closer together?’

‘Countless,’ Asher admitted even though Danny surely knew the answer. It was true, they had spent countless hours in their bedrooms talking about what the future held for them. Living closer together, or even in the same apartment was usually the main topic of discussion. The hour distance between them wasn’t that big, Asher thought, considering what it would have been like if Danny had lived in another state or something. Yet, the small distance felt like hundreds of thousands of miles away when Asher was alone in his bed at night with only thoughts of Danny to keep him company.

Even though this was true, it wasn’t exactly what Asher had been thinking when they spoke of living closer. His idea of closer together was more like an apartment in Paris that was small but quaint where they could walk through the streets holding hands and admiring the culture. Even a little apartment downtown where they slept in the same bed and stayed up until three in the morning watching Netflix together just because it was a Tuesday. His dreams never looked like this.

‘And now it’s all coming true,’ Danny mused, resting his head on Asher’s shoulder.

Asher didn’t say anything to that.

‘How much more do we have to do?’ Danny asked.

‘Just your room,’ he told Danny. Danny’s father had decided that he and Alan would do one half of the house while Danny and Asher would do the other. Asher only wished that they had hired a moving crew about a hundred times. They were somehow allocated the biggest rooms in the house, with the most furniture, don’t forget. His arms and legs were tired, his muscles used to strain from football, but not for five hours straight. Danny’s room was all that was left which was a blessing as much as it was a curse.

‘That’s good,’ Danny told him. He wondered how Danny was still standing, he figured that the boy was probably running on pure happiness at this point.

‘I think we all know how long that’s going to take,’ Asher commented, looking back up at the house, his eyes focusing on the window which he knew protruded from Danny’s room. He imagined the window popping open due to the mass of random objects stored in that room. Danny didn’t have that much stuff, he would give him that, but the amount of unneeded things was extraordinary.

Danny giggled, ‘Hey, my room doesn’t have that much stuff.’

Liar, Asher thought playfully in his mind. He knew just as everyone else that Danny’s room held more junk than an actual junk yard. ‘Are you blind?’

Danny rolled his eyes, somehow sweetly, don’t ask how. Asher wondered if Danny could commit murder sweetly with that angel face of his. It was a strange thought and he shook it off.

A flash forced Asher’s focus to shift and he laughed as he saw that Danny’s father had his camera at the ready, snapping photos of them. Asher smiled obligatorily at the camera until Danny pulled his face down for a kiss just as the next click sounded. That put a real smile on Asher’s face. The soreness of his muscles was long forgotten when Danny’s lips touched his.

‘You two don’t look like you’re doing much work,’ Dale chastised playfully, looking down at his camera.

‘You can talk,’ Asher motioned towards the camera.

Dale shrugged, ‘Just capturing moments. Anyway, Alan and I have almost finished our last few rooms which means we are good to go after that. Where are you two up to?’

Danny replied, ‘We just have to do my room then we are done too.’

‘Okay,’ Dale nodded, turning off the camera. They walked back into the house together. Buddy was waiting patiently on the stairs when they walked in and the dog practically bounced down the stairs in excitement when he saw them.

‘You coming to clean Danny’s mess of a room, hey?’ Asher asked, giving the dog a few pats on the head.

‘Don’t listen to Ash, he’s just a meanie,’ Danny joked, kissing Asher on the cheek to make sure he didn’t take it to heart. ‘Come on Buddy, you can help us.’

They entered Danny’s room slowly. Asher was opening the door as if he was unsure what lay in wait on the other side. Danny groaned beside him, realising the joke Asher was making.

‘Ash,’ Danny groaned, ‘it’s really not that bad.’

Asher laughed and let them both into the room. Buddy was on their heels and ran in straight after them, his paws hitting the floors with an audible thump. The dog didn’t come upstairs too often and so this field trip was quite exciting to the dog who looked more like an excited puppy than a fully grown canine in that moment.

Buddy jumped around happily between them, happy to just watch them. Asher unfolded one of the flat boxes on the ground and handed one to Danny. Danny started filling it with clothes from his drawers and Asher looked over at the mess on top of Danny’s desk. ‘Are you sure that I can’t throw anything out while we are here?’

Danny shook his head so fast that Asher wondered if he was dizzy when he stopped. ‘Nope, don’t throw anything out.’

‘Okay,’ Asher told him and started shovelling clothes into one of the boxes on the floor.

They made it through his closet pretty fast. Danny got to work on stripping the sheets from his bed while Asher walked over to his desk, looking at the hefty task that awaited him. It was covered in things that had no use whatsoever.

Asher’s eye was drawn to the photo closest to him. He looked at it with a small smile on his face as he remembered the photo being taken on his birthday. Almost identical photos of the two of them were scattered around as well as a few of Danny and his father. He picked up the photo of them but when he lifted it another photo fell out from behind it.

In confusion, Asher took the photo in his hands, turning it over to see what it was. He didn’t smile when he saw what the photo was. It was very obviously a family portrait. Two dark haired people stood tall, he recognised them instantly as Danny’s parents. Asher had seen a few photos of the woman but every time he saw them he wondered what she was like. Her big blue eyes were a match to her son’s and Asher wondered if she had the same big heart that Danny possessed. His eye’s moved over the photo, now focusing between the two people where a little boy sat. His hair was darker than it was now but that gorgeous smile was almost identical. It might have been the last family photo that Danny had of his mother.

Why did he hide the photo? Asher wondered. He glanced over at Danny but he was attempting to stop Buddy from chewing on the side of one of the boxes and failing miserably. Asher knew that photo hadn’t been hidden there the last time he had picked up the frame there was nothing behind it. He wondered why Danny had thought to hide it. He didn’t endeavour to find out, he merely slipped the photo into the box, careful to tuck it safely under the other photo frame.  

‘Buddy,’ Asher called out and the dog ceased his attack on the edge of the box. He came running over to Asher with his tongue flopping out of his mouth. ‘Don’t eat boxes, Bud.’

The dog had no idea what was said but he inadvertently followed Asher’s directions and sat down at Asher’s feet, patiently watching his as he continued to pack.

Danny smiled over at them, ‘That dog understands you, I swear.’

Asher smiled back at him.

They spent the next hour packing up the room and eventually they were almost finished. Only one box remained in the room, fully packed and ready to go. Asher lifted up the box and looked over at Danny, ‘I’m going to take this to the truck,’ he told him. He had expected Danny to come down with him seeing as there wasn’t much left to do in the now empty room. Danny, however, seemed mesmerised by the blank walls and didn’t seem to have any inclination of joining him. He decided that a few minutes alone in the room wouldn’t be bad for him, he had been in a joyous mood from dawn and even Danny had to be feeling some melancholy at this point. ‘Meet me down there?’

Danny nodded absentmindedly.

Buddy followed Asher out of the room and ran ahead of him, making it downstairs much faster than Asher could with the heavy box balanced in his arms. The house looked so bare as Asher walked down the stairs, his eyes darting around him as he tried not to trip over his own feet seeing as the box was blocking most of his vision.

‘You two finished Danny’s room?’ Dale asked, appearing at the bottom of the stair case. Asher hadn’t seen him around the box.

Asher stopped at the last stair, ‘Yep, all done. This is the last box.’

‘Good job guys. What time does the party at Damien’s start?’ he asked, his hand reaching down to pet Buddy on the head. The dog’s tail wagged, hitting the edge of the staircase with its force.

‘Six-thirty,’ Asher replied with a steady voice but his mind was complaining about the fact that his very tired body now had to spend several hours at the house of a person he definitely didn’t count as a friend. He would do it for Danny though.

Asher’s eyes lifted to the open door and he could see the sun was just starting to set in the distance.

‘Okay. Are you going to wear that?’ Dale asked, brining Asher’s attention back down to him. His question wasn’t as judgmental as his choice of words made it seem.

Asher looked down at his outfit but the box interrupted his vision. He could see that the top of his green shirt was marked with dirt and sweat. Not exactly what he would voluntarily wear to the supermarket let alone a party.

‘Definitely not. Danny and I have a change of clothes in the car.’

‘Okay. Well you two have fun tonight,’ he told him. Dale then looked around them, a question on his lips. ‘Where’s Danny?’ he asked.

‘He’s up in the room, I think he might be a little sad that you guys are leaving,’ Asher told him. He had been a little taken aback when he saw the sudden change in Danny only a few minutes before.

Dale nodded understandably, ‘He’s lived here his whole life,’ he explained. ‘It’s not strange for him to feel a little sad. This was the house his mother and I raised him in.’

The pieces of the puzzle connected in Asher’s brain like one of those connect the dot drawings and he could suddenly understand why it was that Danny was truly upset. That photo of his mother that he had hidden was connected to them moving.

‘Can you put this in the moving truck for me?’ Asher asked, extending the box in his arms.

‘Sure,’ Danny’s father replied, moving to take the box from his hands.

Asher walked back up the stairs and opened the door to Danny’s room. His boyfriend was standing in the centre of the room with his back faced to the door. Asher walked up to him, standing close but not touching.

Standing in what used to be Danny’s room was a strange feeling now. It didn’t hold the warmth that Danny brought wherever he went, it just felt cold. The entire space was bare and all that was left was the memories the walls held. The two of them stood in the room quietly, empty floors meeting the empty walls around them.

‘It feels so empty,’ Danny said suddenly and in slight awe as his eyes moved around the room. Asher could imagine the movie of memories that were flooding to Danny’s mind in that moment.

‘That’s because it is,’ Asher told him.

The happy look on Danny’s face all day was now missing in action. ‘I’ve just lived here for so long. There’s so many memories here.’

The way that Danny said the word memories made it sound like there was no way that he could make memories somewhere else and yet Asher understood exactly what he meant. He knew by the look on Danny’s face that he didn’t want to talk about it, not really. He didn’t want to admit what they both knew, that Danny was terrified of losing whatever he had left of his mother. Asher knew it and so did Danny. It didn’t need to be said out loud.

Asher reached for Danny’s hand, taking Danny’s fingers between his own gently. He led Danny out of the room, shutting the door behind them.

He kept his grip on Danny’s hand when they reached the end of the staircase. ‘Do you want to get changed for the party now?’

That brought a small smile to Danny’s lips. ‘Yes.’

Asher ran out to the car and grabbed their bags, bringing them back inside. He passed their fathers on his way who were trying to fit all of the boxes into the extremely full moving truck. When Asher made it inside he handed Danny the blue jeans and button down shirt he had packed and Danny went into the downstairs bathroom. Asher knew that their fathers had their work cut out for them outside and so he just walked into the kitchen where he knew no one would see him.

He tugged out his black jeans and white shirt out of the duffle bag, quickly taking his messy clothes off and exchanging them for an outfit that was much more suited to the occasion. Once those clothes were on he pulled his famous leather jacket out of the bag as well, the one that screamed I wish I was born in a nineties movie, but he loved it none the less.

A comb through his unruly hair was the last step and then he felt a little more happy about the fact he was going to spend the rest of his night with strangers. He looked the part of the guy who had spent countless nights at random parties where no one knew his name as he walked through the door, but everyone did as he left. That was exactly what he was though. He wasn’t going to let a little worry slip into his mind, planting a seed of worry and dread into the crevasse. He wasn’t going to see them there. It wasn’t going to be like last time. They had probably been some plus two’s of some random guest who didn’t even know Danny’s name. Right? Right?

The panic ran out of him in a hurry when he walked back into the hallway to see Danny standing there. His boyfriend looked perfect, just like always. That beautiful smile was back on his face and it was the best remedy to fix Asher’s suddenly anxious thoughts.

‘Hey there beautiful, someone looks ready to party,’ Asher noted as he walked closer.

‘You look pretty handsome yourself,’ Danny tugged on the sides of Asher’s jacket.

They shared a gentle kiss but were interrupted by Asher’s father who was now standing in the doorway. ‘You two better get going, we are going to lock up now and drive up to Clifford Heights. Dale is going to drive the truck and I’ll follow, let’s hope we make it alive.’

Asher rolled his eyes, ‘You’ll be fine I’m sure. He does know how to drive that thing, right?’

‘I hope so. Anyway, what time will you two be home tomorrow?’  

‘Probably around eleven,’ Danny replied.

‘See you then,’ Asher smiled at his father but being reminded of the fact that they would be staying in Damien’s house put a little unhappy tinge to the edge of it.

The three of them left the house and Asher couldn’t help but notice the way that Danny turned to look back multiple times as they walked towards Asher’s car. Danny and his father’s cars were already outside their new homes so that Dale would be able to drive the truck over and Asher could drive them both home from the party the next day.

They slid into their seats, waving at their fathers as Asher started the car.

‘What’s the best memory that you have of your Mom?’ Asher asked.

The car was silent for a few seconds, save for the sound of the tires against the ground. Danny looked curiously at Asher but then his eyes seemed to light up as a memory hit the forefront of his mind and he was off. He spoke about his mother animatedly with a huge grin on his face.

Even though it wasn’t said aloud, they both knew what Asher was doing. He had reminded Danny that he wasn’t going to lose the memories of his mother just because he was leaving the house they had lived in together. He wasn’t going to forget her, and Asher was reminding him of that.

The smile on Danny’s lips didn’t stop and he had been so caught up in what he was saying that he didn’t even realise when they had pulled up right in front of Damien’s house. There were cars parked around the street already and Danny’s grin doubled when he looked out the window to see that Amanda and Damien were looking out at them through the window of the front room, huge smiles on their faces.

‘Let’s go,’ Danny motioned as he jumped from his seat and onto the pavement of the sidewalk.

Asher took a deep breath and followed his boyfriends lead.