Chapter Text
The crushing silence of the empty apartment screamed at Trixie as he walked through the living room to get to the kitchen. The remaining hints of last night’s party seemed to be mocking him; reminding him that he now had to clean his entire apartment by himself. David had originally been planning on staying the night – the party had been hosted as a way for all of Trixie’s friends to properly meet him – but... that hadn’t exactly gone to plan.
Some sort of false rumour had ended up going around that it was a surprise party for Katya’s birthday, but other people were told it was a party to meet Trixie’s boyfriend and somehow people had merged the two events together. What ensued were awkward explanations for their excited friends who had thought that Katya and Trixie were in a relationship, Katya had thought it was actually a surprise party for him and had found it hard to hide his disappointment, and David had started an argument with Trixie after hearing one too many people exclaim that they were so happy ‘Trixya’ was finally happening.
Okay, Trixie did have to blame himself slightly, as he had laughed at the people who were saying that, rather than correcting them. But still, David had exaggerated, they didn’t need to have a fight about it, and he definitely hadn’t needed to leave, which had only led to more awkward questions.
Trixie sighed outwardly and pressed his temple hard – he was very hungover and was not looking forward to the task ahead. Both the kitchen and living room practically resembled a club after a wild Friday night; cups and glasses were scattered everywhere, chips had been accidentally trodden into the carpet, and Trixie was sure he saw about 20 items of clothing that didn’t belong to him. He also knew he had to call David and apologise for all the confusion and the fight, but that could wait until the apartment was clean.
First: water and coffee.
As Trixie sipped his coffee, sitting on the couch with his eyes closed, his phone started to ring. He clambered over it to where he’d left it in the kitchen and, although he was disappointed that it wasn’t David, was happy to see that it was ‘Barbara’ (what Katya was saved as in his contacts).
“Hi, how are ya, Tallulah?” Katya said loudly as Trixie took the call.
Trixie winced. “God, tone it down a notch, will you?” he begged, rubbing his head again, hoping that would get rid of his hangover.
“Hungover?” Katya asked with a loud laugh. Although it was a question, Katya didn’t give Trixie an opportunity to answer before he started spewing out some nonsense about how he was certain his upstairs neighbour was dead. Trixie let him talk, having learnt from their almost 3-year friendship that there was no stopping Katya’s tangents without being sucked into them.
And to be honest, Trixie liked his tangents. He loved how intense Katya could think about a subject that seemed so inane and pointless to everyone but him and somehow not care that no one else cared or even understood. It was also nice when Trixie didn’t feel like talking but didn’t want to be alone with his thoughts. At least when Katya was rambling about something very weird, Trixie could try and get invested.
“Well, how certain are you?” he asked. He had definitely just interrupted a stream of consciousness that Katya had been stuck on but that was the only way to get a word in most of the time.
“As certain as I was that time when I had a tumour on my dick, Miss Martel,” Katya said seriously, seemingly happy that Trixie had joined in.
“Didn’t that turn out to be herpes?” Trixie asked.
“Exactly!” Katya said. Trixie could imagine Katya’s exact expression – eyes wide and staring intently at whatever was in front of him, most likely with his arms moving around carelessly and too dramatically for this time in the morning. “I was 100%, without a doubt, ab-so-lute-ly sure that it was a tumour, just like I’m 100%, without a doubt, absolutely sure I have a dead upstairs neighbour. So, chances are, she’s just gone on holiday.”
At that, Trixie scream-laughed and was able to forget for a couple of seconds that he had had his first proper fight with David. That was the thing with Katya – Trixie could always rely on him to put him in a good mood, or at least make him forget why he was feeling bad in the first place. Most of the time, Katya didn’t even seem aware that he was doing it, it was just who Katya was, but Trixie appreciated it all the same. He knew he could call or text him whenever he needed to smile.
“So, last night was kinda intense,” Katya said, bringing Trixie back down to earth.
“Yeah,” he mumbled as he surveyed the damage once again. “My apartment looks like what I imagine Adore’s room is like – only ten times worse and with less weed.”
Katya laughed. “I meant with David, but yeah that sucks too.”
“Oh.” Trixie felt his stomach twist uncomfortably – he had forgotten that David had picked the argument when Katya and Trixie had been upstairs talking about filming Unhhhh on Monday. “Yeah, that... that wasn’t great,” he admitted. Trixie glanced at the clock – it was surprisingly early, only 10am, so David probably wasn’t awake yet.
“Have you talked to him?” Katya asked.
“No, I doubt he’s awake,” he said. He probably should send him a text saying he was sorry, but he didn’t want to yet – he still didn’t really think that he had done anything to warrant picking a fight.
“He’s not at your place? I thought he was staying the night?”
Trixie picked absently at a sticker from a beer bottle that someone had stuck on his coffee table. “He stormed out, remember?” he muttered.
“Shit, honey, I assumed he would come back grovelling after he cooled down,” Katya said. “Ooh, I hear someone walking around upstairs. Either my neighbour wasn’t dead or I’m about to become the first victim of a zombie apocalypse.”
“Wait, Kat – go back a second,” Trixie said, sitting up straight. “You think David is the one that should be grovelling?” It was nice that Trixie wasn’t alone in the thought that he wasn’t to blame, but Katya could just be saying that because he was friends with Trixie. “Like, you think he was in the wrong?”
“Oh, no,” Katya said. Trixie’s heart sank. “It was just a stupid janitor pacing the halls, not my zombie neighbour. But, yeah, duh. ‘If you want to be in a relationship with Brian just say the word and I’ll fuck off’ – what sort of tragic desperation is that, Barbara?”
Trixie frowned at Katya’s words; he didn’t remember that part of the argument. Actually, he didn’t remember specifics about the argument at all because he had obviously been a lot more drunk than he had first assumed. Trixie had just thought it had been an ordinary drunk-fight where David had been upset at Trixie’s lack of need to fix the assumption people had about Trixie and Katya’s relationship. “David said that?” Trixie asked.
“Yeah, Tracy – he was very drunk, but still. I wouldn’t say that’s on the list of things to say to your boyfriend at a party he arranged for you to meet all his friends,” he replied. “And he didn’t even ask me if I wanted to date you – he just left. That’s disrespect, honey.”
Trixie laughed half-heartedly at Katya’s attempt to cheer him up and looked at the clock again. “Look, Katya, I’ll call you back later, okay? I should talk to David, and I need to clean my apartment,” he said. He didn’t exactly want to end the call with Katya but he also didn’t feel much up to talking anymore. He knew he couldn’t avoid speaking to David now – he would clean, then pick up brunch on his way over to David’s, that way they could both talk everything over and put it behind them.
“Yeah, sure. Let me know how it goes. I’ll see you in the basement on Monday,” Katya replied. The pair of them always referred to their job filming for WOWPresents as ‘the basement’ because that’s where they always filmed.
“Let me know if your neighbour is a zombie or dead,” Trixie laughed.
“Of course, you’ll be the first to know because I’ll come and feast on your precious meats,” Katya said.
Trixie hung up as they said bye, still smiling as he remembered how much cleaning he had to do. He groaned and stood up. Cleaning could wait – he’d go to David’s apartment first. There was no way he could spend the next couple of hours anxiously cleaning if he didn’t talk to his boyfriend beforehand. Trixie wasn’t one for confrontation, but he hated anticipation more.