The Coast

A month later, they were on the road in Finn’s beat up pick up truck, two hours outside of the city. They had packed up the night before, all of their belongings they deemed necessary able to fit into two duffel bags and a couple backpacks that had been thrown into the back seat of the extended cab.

Finn sat in the driver’s seat, ecstatic. They were out of Salt Lake and halfway to the border shared with Nevada. He hadn’t stopped smiling since he had pulled Morgan into a hug in the parking lot of the apartment building earlier that morning.

It was mid morning and the pair had fallen into a comfortable silence after spending the first hour chattering about anything they wanted to do when they stopped in Vegas for the night. Finn had insisted they stay away from the casinos, but they were single guys in their late twenties with almost nothing to lose— Finn kept repeating how they couldn’t be expected to be in Vegas and not have a good time.

“What?” Finn asked, briefly glancing at Morgan before turning back to the road. Shit, he had been staring.

“Nothing. I’m just really happy you convinced me to get out of Salt Lake. I don’t think I realized how much I missed the coast until you brought up seeing it again.”

Finn smiled, reaching over and clapping Morgan on the chest. “It’s gonna be great.”

Morgan nodded, meeting Finn’s gaze, “I know it will.”

-

They pulled off of the highway at an oasis a half hour from the border to Nevada. Finn headed to the bathroom first while Morgan went to the food court at the center of the building. “McDonald's?” Finn asked, spooking Morgan when he came up behind him without warning. Morgan punched his arm, though there was no malice behind it and Finn only ended up laughing, pulling Morgan into the line.

Once they had sat down with their food, Morgan hesitated. He had been subconsciously avoiding hanging around Finn for extended periods of time to prevent his mouth from admitting everything that had been plaguing his mind the past few days. He had tried to ignore it, but the incident with the guys that left them both injured still bothered him, even months later. Especially since the guys didn’t leave it at that. A few weeks after the first incident, they had made it a point to stop into Finn’s work whenever Morgan was there too. Nothing had escalated to the physicality of the first encounter, but every time, the words took the place of the physical injuries.

It had started out as petty comments like Morgan’s well-worn clothes that he couldn’t afford to replace at that moment or the fact that all the pair did was hang out with each other, like they were too good for anyone else. Nothing they said seemed to bother Finn though. So Morgan let it be.

However, a week before they left Salt Lake, Ben got wind of the fact that Morgan had moved in with Finn.

Morgan had been at work when they found him and the smirk that Ben normally carried only widened when he saw him in the garage. “Hey, Morgs!” Morgan scowled. They had noticed, of course, Finn’s nickname, so their natural inclination was to use it against him.

He sighed and waved off the concerned looks of his co workers, moving to the entrance of the garage. “What? If you’re here to mock me—”

“We heard you moved in with our boy, Finn,” he said with a sneer.

Morgan paused, so one of the others spoke, “Needed more than what you already had of him, huh?” He bit back any response; he didn’t need to antagonize them any more. “Look,” he continued, jabbing Morgan in the chest with his finger, “Finn isn’t like you. He isn’t a fag, so how about we simply suggest you disappear and leave it at that?”

He didn’t say anything about how they would get what they wanted in a matter of days, only Finn would be disappearing too.

“Morgs?” Finn asked around a mouthful of his burger.

“Huh?”

“What’s the problem?” Morgan looked around at the cluster of tables in the center of the atrium where they sat. There were a few groups around but no one in the immediate vicinity. “Dude.”

“I’m gay.”

Finn’s brows knitted together as he swallowed. “Okay. Is there anything in particular that made you tell me that in a food court in the middle of nowhere?”

Morgan shook his head. “It’s been bothering me for a while that I never really told you. I was just thinking about Ben and some of the shit he’s said.”

“What has he said to you about that stuff?”

“Nothing, he’s gone now, it doesn’t matter,” Morgan said, ducking his head. “I’m not that hungry, I’m just gonna go take a walk while you finish. I’ll meet you back at the truck.”

Before Finn could respond, Morgan had shoved his garbage into the bag and sped away from the table.

Morgan perched himself on a bench near the entrance of the atrium, holding his head in his hands as he willed the tears away. “Morgs.” He snapped his head up and saw Finn approaching him cautiously. Instead of saying anything else, he dropped down onto the bench and pulled Morgan into his side. “I don’t know what Ben said to you, but I’m glad that you decided it was okay to tell me what you did, alright? It means a lot that you actually do trust me.”

“Of course I trust you,” Morgan responded, his voice muffled against the fabric of Finn’s sweatshirt.

“I know. I know.” Morgan was content to stay like that for hours, but Finn pulled away not long after. “Come on, check in is in three hours and I want time in Vegas tonight before we get to LA.”

-

“Of fucking course you had to pick the motel that sold out every room except the one with the broken AC,” Morgan quipped, poking Finn in the shoulder as they got to the door of the room.

“Shut up,” Finn replied though he turned and smiled at him when he opened the door. Once they got into the room, Morgan flopped down onto the far bed, sighing against the pillows. “This is so much better than your couch.”

“Morgs, no,” Finn whined, sitting on the end of the other bed. “No sleeping, we’re in Vegas.”

Morgan swatted away Finn’s comment. “Fight me, old man.”

“Three years, Morgs.” Rather than bring up another reason to go out, Finn scooted up the bed and reached for the remote, turning the TV on to some reality show that Morgan didn’t recognize. “Are you hungry?” Finn asked, looking over at Morgan when he stirred, moving to sit up. He shrugged. “You didn’t really eat anything for lunch is all.”

“Yes, Mom,” Morgan mocked. Finn threw a pillow at his head with a snort.

-

The pair walked back into the room after dinner at a diner down the street from the motel, bickering loudly about nonsense—Finn simply enjoyed arguing with Morgan to get a rise out of him.

They moved around each other easily in the room as they got ready for bed. This was normal routine for them, only in a new location. In the nights of the last month, they would be shoved together as they stood at the vanity in the bathroom of their apartment to brush their teeth, then have a shoving match through their laughter to get one of them out of the room so the other could shower. That night was the exact same way.

Once everything was done, they both settled on their own beds for the night. “Almost there,” Finn mumbled before falling asleep.

-

Morgan woke up early the next morning with something pressed against his back and the prickles he recognized as Finn’s beard rubbing at his shoulder. He attempted to turn around and see if he was right but was met with a disapproving noise. Definitely Finn. “Hey,” Morgan prodded, nudging the body behind him with his elbow. A similar noise was his response.

They were spooning this was not okay. None of this was fucking okay.

“You had a nightmare,” Finn spoke up, his voice still thick with sleep. “I came over here to try to wake you up, but you seemed fine as soon as I got over here so I stayed.” Finn wiggled for a moment and Morgan felt his arm settle across his own side over the blankets as he hooked his chin over Morgan’s shoulder. “What is this scar from?”

Morgan tensed and he was sure Finn could feel it because he shifted so their bodies weren’t pressed together though his arm stayed in place. “I told you a while back I had a skateboarding accident.”

“Bullshit. How the hell did you manage to fuck up that bad? I’ve seen you skateboarding, Morgs, you don’t make mistakes stupid enough to break your collarbone.”

“Did you not hear me just say it was a while back? I screwed it up and it needed surgery. I never bothered to do anything with the scar.”

“What about these?” Finn persisted, grabbing Morgan’s right hand that was under his own and pulling the three faded raised circles of skin into view. “Don’t pretend that I don’t notice this stuff. And I know there’s more. Please. What happened?”

Morgan sighed, turning himself over so he and Finn faced each other. “They’re from my dad.” Finn’s eyes darkened, his face settling into a scowl. “I came out to him when I was seventeen. He, uh, he didn’t take it well I guess is how you would put it.

“The burns are from his cigarettes. They went away the first time so he kept burning them back on until they stayed,” Finn ran his thumb across the neat little triangle on the side of Morgan’s wrist.

“And the scar?”

“I actually did fuck up my collarbone. One of the worse nights ended up with me needing surgery.” It was nothing more than a slightly raised, faded line of skin on his shoulder to him anymore but Finn looked at it like he was ready to kill his dad.

“God, Morgs.”

“Really, it’s fine, though. I’ve gotten over it. Shit, some of this stuff is almost ten years old.”

“That doesn’t make it okay.”

“I know it doesn’t, Finn. But I let him and my fear control me twice while he did this shit to me. I’m twenty fucking five years old, I’m not going to let it happen anymore.”

“Is he why you were so hesitant to come out to me?” Finn was quiet when he asked, barely above a whisper and he only met Morgan’s eyes after he asked the question.

Morgan ducked his head, “Besides you, I’ve only ever come out to two of my friends senior year. I don’t talk to either of them anymore, so it felt like something only my dad and I knew about. And based on his reaction, I wasn’t really set on telling everyone. But you deserved to know.”

“You know how much that means to me, right?” Finn insisted.

Morgan nodded. “I know.”

-

They got back on the road at noon, stopping an hour later for lunch. Morgan had spoken a total of twenty words since he had gotten up for the morning. Finn had been keeping track when he first noticed he had gone quiet.

He had made three attempts to get Morgan to talk in the time they had been in the truck, but he was always shot down with a basic one word answer. Once they returned to the highway, Finn noticed Morgan absently rubbing at his wrist while staring out the window. No matter how incessant Morgan had been when he said he was over what happened to him before he moved out permanently, it was obvious Finn had picked at a scab that hadn’t fully healed over no matter how long it had been.

The ride was only filled with the sound of the radio as they made their way through Nevada.

Finally, as the sign welcoming them to California came into view, some form of the Morgan Finn knew came back. Finn shoved at his friend in the passenger seat and he was rewarded with a smile that completely made up for the hour without any talking.

They pulled off into a rest stop an hour later and Finn practically sprinted for the bathroom while Morgan hung back, walking around the truck a few times to stretch out his legs. By the time Finn came back with a couple of water bottles and a bag of chips, Morgan was leaning against the front of the truck. Before Finn could say anything, Morgan pushed himself off the truck and pulled him into a tight hug. Finn didn’t question anything, just hugged him back.

“What was that?” he asked when Morgan pulled back.

“You’re the first person I’ve ever told about what happened with my dad and you’re still here.”

“It’s been you and me, Morgs. That’s not about to change any time soon.”

-

They got to the hotel at seven that night. Finn rushed through check in, urging that they had somewhere to be. Once they got everything upstairs, Finn shoved Morgan’s board into his chest with a wide smile, pulling him back down the hall to the stairs.

Morgan followed blindly as Finn raced down the side streets. Ten minutes later, they made it to the beach.

“Whoa,” Morgan breathed as he took in the sunset in front of them. Finn smiled again and lead him through the sand, kicking off his vans before dropping down on the ground. Morgan joined him without a second thought.

“Welcome to our new home, Morgs.”