An Eternal Bachelor

Troy's album was actually really good. Jonah knew his cousin was an excellent songwriter, which was funny because he couldn't write an essay in school for the life of him, but this new stuff was better than anything he had showed off before.

"I would buy this even if we weren't related," he informed him.

That made Troy laugh. "High praise coming from you. Thanks."

"Seriously though, your songwriting has evolved a lot. I thought your old stuff was good but that has nothing on this."

His cousin seemed genuinely touched by the compliment. "Dude. Don't get all sentimental on me; it's weird. Anyway, I need to go get ready. We have a lot to set up and I need to eat something before I head out."

"There are lasagna leftovers in the fridge. Your mom brought them over earlier," Jonah suddenly remembered. "She was making one for a neighbor that had a baby and made an extra for us eternal bachelors."

"Sweet! Can you really call yourself an eternal bachelor while you're texting a cute girl though?" Troy asked with a wink. His remark was emphasized by his phone going off with another text from Eden.

"Yeah, yeah. Go get dressed."

He saluted before disappearing up the stairs and Jonah sighed. He wasn't going to be able to survive all of this teasing, was he? Not that there had ever been any other girls to tease him about before. He wasn't used to it.

After Troy left, he ended up spending the rest of the night texting Eden as he tried in vain to focus on a book. She was every bit as fun to talk to over text as she was in person. The main drawback was not being able to see her facial expressions.

They didn't stop texting until nearly 1:30 AM when she finally pleaded off because she had to wake up in time to get ready for brunch the next day. That had been the longest he had ever talked to a girl in his life. Or anyone outside of his family.

Jonah went to bed perfectly content. As he drifted off to sleep, he wondered if tomorrow would be too soon to text her again.

The next morning, he got up and found Troy passed out on the couch still in what he had worn to his gig last night. He must have gotten home even later than Jonah had been texting Eden since he hadn't heard him come in.

He very quietly crept into the kitchen and got himself a bowl of Cocoa Puffs so he wouldn't wake his cousin up. It was after nine but who knew what time he made it back this morning?

His efforts were in vain. Troy woke up anyway because of the light. "Ugh, what time is it?" he mumbled.

"9:23," Jonah informed him. "Welcome back to the land of the living. What time did you get home, anyway?"

"I dunno…almost four? We got invited to a party after the show and I met this super-hot chick. We made out for a while until her boyfriend showed up and I got punched in the face so that sucked. It wasn't like I knew she was dating anyone.

"She lied and suddenly I became the bad guy. This sort of thing happens to me more than you would think. Maybe I just have one of those faces that screams 'unfaithful.' Mom would never stand for that though so I don't mess around, you know that.

"Anyway, I ended up getting drunk and Phil dropped me off here before going home. His luck was better than mine last night but at least he thought to come looking for me once he was done."

This sort of thing had happened more than once. It was less about Troy having one of those faces than it was the fact that he was a total sucker when it came to girls. Gullible as they come. He trusted them instantly until they gave him reason not to.

Maybe girls that wanted to cheat could sense that about him and saw him as an easy target. Or he was right and he did have one of those faces. Who knew?

"Sorry that happened to you," Jonah said lamely. "You might have better luck meeting girls at places other than parties."

Troy let out a wry laugh. "Where else do I even go, dude? Bars. Clubs. Parties. That's the life of a musician. I've met a few decent ones that way…or at least I thought they were decent until I got to know them better.

"And it isn't like I can date anyone at Freddie's either. There are only two girls there now that Eden's gone and they both think I have a thing for her so they won't come near me with a ten-foot pole.

"Besides, it's not like the dog costume is very attractive. Eden must really like you to get past the fact that she was talking to a mascot the entire time. My mom may be destined to be grandchild-less after all. She's going to kill me. All of her friends have at least one by now."

They were in the same boat. It wasn't like Jonah was going to be giving her grandkids either. Not when he was literal female repellent.

"I would ask Eden if she had any single friends but somehow I don't see that going over well for either of us," he deadpanned.

Troy's laugh was more genuine this time. "That would be a terrible idea. We can't have two Troys running around. Heaven forbid. I'd get accused of cheating again and have no excuse this time without getting busted for identity fraud."

It really wasn't funny but the two of them started cracking up. How had their lives gotten this complicated? A one-time favor. That was all it was supposed to be. Now they were laughing about identity fraud as if it wasn't a serious potential problem they were facing.