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I step through the threshold into our apartment and immediately drop my bags and collapse into Ben’s arms. All I feel is that this is where I belong, in my best friend’s arms; at home.
When we break apart, I catch the first glimpse of what home looks like. I remember some things from when I was last in New York with Ben, but the apartment is a lot more lived in now, than when we took the first Instagram of it. I drop my bags in the only clean corner of our room. Ben’s clothes seem to strongly dislike the closet.
‘Oh well, more room for my clothes, I suppose,’ I thought to myself.
Exhausted from a long flight of crying babies, and listening to Sky laugh at whatever was playing through his headphones, I lay down on my side to be of the bed. Ben follows me in apologizing about the mess, but stops to plop on top of me, and kiss me.
The kiss is long and wonderful. Everything that we’re feeling about missing each other comes out without words in the sweet kiss. I only pull back after about 20 seconds because Ben caught me by surprise and I need to breathe.
Once I pull away, Ben rolls over so he is now lying sideways on my right side; his head in the crook of my shoulder. We cuddle for the longest time without any words exchanged, because they weren’t necessary. Eventually I get up; feeling gross from the flight, I hop in the shower. Shortly after, Ben joins me. He disrupts my relaxing shower with a hand job, and after I return the favor, taking my sweet time pumping his shaft up and down seductively until he sprays the tiled wall.
Once he’s done, I shoo him out, “Unlike you mister, I actually intended to shower. Now let me finish.”
I take a thirtyish minute shower; standing under the scalding hot water and letting it pour over me for longer than necessary. When I get out, I find Ben already asleep in bed. I find a pair of, I think, Ben’s clean boxers (mine are still packed) and plug both of our phones into their chargers.
I climb into bed and wrap my arms around Ben, spooning him. He instinctively pulls me closer and whispers, “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
The next morning, I well rested and with an uncharacteristic amount of motivation for the time, so I unpack my bags, and start laundry. When Ben finally drags his sorry ass out of bed, after the usual pestering from me, we walk down the street and grab coffees.
Since we had such a quiet night last night, I use this time to fill him in on the last couple days of tour. While we were apart we facetimed every couple days, so he was never completely out of the loop.
“And then, standing on stage in front of everyone who’s cheering and clapping, Chaz starts crying. And it was like the plague. By the end of everyone’s speeches we were all sobbing. Stage door was rough too. It’s like it punched us all in the chest. This was the end of two years of our lives, and that was the last show, and the last stage door.”
“Stop,” Ben cries aloud, “You’re going to make me cry!”
“I’m sorry, it was just like all of a sudden it was over. The two best years of my life were over in the time it took to blink.”
We grab our coffees off of the counter, and I grab a cozy for mine so I don’t burn my hand on the walk back.
“It’s not going to be over, Josh,” Ben replies optimistically, “You know how often I hung out with everyone else who also left? Like every week I’m catching up with someone. They’re our brothers, and that’s not going to end just because the show ended. It might actually make it easier, now that we’re all mostly back in the same city again; for the first time since the first year ended.”
We get back to the apartment, with just enough time for Ben to change before he had to rush off to dance class. I kiss him on his way out and say, “I’ll meet you at the theater later.”
I meet up with DeMarius for a late lunch and reconnect with him. It feels like it’s been forever since I’ve seen anyone who left even a little early. I mean it wasn’t that long in the grand scale of things, but we spent every day together for so long. I mean we were Debejo Becoco; still are I suppose. But yeah, it feels good to get the chance to see people that I haven’t seen in a while. I guess Ben was right this morning.
Later, I meet back up with Ben. We grab takeout Chinese and eat it in Ben’s dressing room. The first time I saw Tuck, it was relatively empty, but now, six months later, it’s filled with drawings and other little trinkets that fans have given him at stage door. I must add that the cutest photo on his mirror is one his dad took of him on my back.
We finish dinner and Ben shows me around and introduces me to everyone. My new favorite is Sarah Charles Lewis. She is super sweet and talented. I already knew this of course, so I was fangirling a little bit when I met her, but I was surprised when she got the first word in: “Oh my gosh! You’re Josh. I loved you so much in Newsies!”
I, of course, react in similar fashion: “But you’re Sarah Charles Lewis! You’re so incredible and inspirational. I wish I could’ve been as good as you are now when I was your age.”
“Why thank you. Seriously though, I am a massive fansie, but I didn’t dare say anything. Every night I get to work with the insanely talented Andrew.”
“I know how you feel. Some really crazy talented people worked in Newsies, or came and we met them afterwards. I was star struck the first time I met Allen Menken.”
“I know how you feel,” Sarah responds, “And just so you know… Ben talks about you, like, all the time. It gets really annoying sometimes.”
“Aw,” I coo, “that’s so cute.”
After the show, I wait for Ben to get done with stage door before we head home.
“So, how was it?” Ben asks.
“As amazing as ever. I was trying so hard not to watch you the entire time, but I think I missed some things. It would be a lot easier to watch the whole show and you at the same time if you were the lead.”
Ben open mouthed laughs at that. I love watching him laugh. He has so many different types, just like he has all sorts of different smiles. I could spend a whole day just watching him live, admiring how happy he always is, and I’d fall in love with him all over again.