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Adrian hadn’t thought about Troy much after the break up. At first, anyway. He’d been so busy with the movie and Justin that Troy had barely been a thought in his mind. But then the movie premiered, and everyone hated it. The words “pretentious” and “egotistical” had been used a lot. That was when his and Justin’s relationship really had started to deteriorate. If Adrian was honest with himself, he and Justin had really just been using each other to promote the new movie. While they had been insanely attracted to each other, there really wasn’t much more to their relationship than that. Despite that, they had stayed together. They knew how breaking up after the movie failure would look, so they smiled for the cameras, had sex sometimes, and didn’t really interact much more than that. Then, Justin had been caught cheating on him. Adrian hadn’t been surprised. Hell, Adrian had been seeing people behind Justin’s back too, but at least Adrian hadn’t gotten caught. So, Adrian dumped him. Now that everyone knew their relationship was shit, there was no reason to stay.
So, now he was alone. Thinking about Troy. God, Troy had adored Adrian, and Adrian had missed that. Justin had cared more about appearance and publicity than Adrian. But Troy…Troy had all but worshipped Adrian. Adrian wondered if Troy still thought about him. Adrian took a breath and opened Instagram. Troy had popped up in his recommended months ago, but Adrian had never actually clicked on his profile. Adrian had been shocked to see Troy had even made an Instagram, given how private he was, but Adrian had resisted the urge to look. But now, there was no reason not to. Adrian searched for Troy and quickly found his profile. He started reading the bio and was somewhat surprised to see, “I believe victims of sexual assault.” Even Adrian knew what that was referring to. The video of Troy calling Dallas Kent a “piece of shit rapist” had gone viral not long after their break up. Still, Adrian was surprised Troy was doubling down on that instead of backtracking. Adrian had honestly assumed it was just an easy insult thrown out in the heat of the moment.
But then, something else caught Adrian’s attention. Under those words was something much more interesting. The last part of Troy’s bio said, “Out and proud” with a bunch of rainbow emojis. Holy shit. Troy had come out. He closed out of Instagram and googled, “When did Troy Barrett come out?” The first result was a specific Instagram video from a year prior. Adrian clicked on it immediately and was redirected back to the Instagram app. He read the caption, “This is me” followed by a bunch of obvious pride emojis. Adrian watched the video and was hit with a wave of longing. Shit, Troy had really done it. Adrian started planning on how to reach out to Troy as he scrolled to the next post. Adrian’s heart sank. Troy was kissing a blonde, bearded man on the cheek. Shit. Did Troy have a boyfriend? Adrian read the caption, and yup. Troy had a fucking boyfriend.
Troy’s boyfriend, whose name was apparently Harris, was tagged in the post. Adrian clicked on the tag, and he was taken to Harris Drover’s profile. He scrolled through a bit, bewildered. Harris was so…ordinary. What did Troy see in him? Troy was a pro athlete in the prime of his life dating what appeared to be his team’s social media manager who had a thing for apples. Harris wasn’t even that hot. Sure, he was cute or whatever, but nowhere near Troy’s league, like Adrian was. But Troy had looked so damn happy in that picture of the two of them. Adrian had never seen Troy smile like that. That made Adrian jealous, but he still had hope. Surely, if Troy knew Adrian wanted him back, he’d dump Harris in a heartbeat. After all, how could someone like Harris compete with someone like Adrian? Adrian wasn’t sure what his next step should be though. He had deleted Troy’s number forever ago, but texting him would have looked desperate anyway. Adrian decided on something simple. He hit the follow button. Hopefully, Troy would see it and at least follow him back. It was a start at least.