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“You gonna kiss me once the ball drops or what?” Jared asked, leaning into the couch more. Evan looked up at him in surprise, but the brunet pretended not to notice, keeping his gaze on the television in front of them.
The two were on the couch in Evan’s living room. Heidi was out working again, and Jared’s parents had gone off to some New Year’s party with coworkers. He wasn’t bitter. He was the one to encourage them to go since he didn’t want Evan to be alone. The Kleinman family usually spent a lot of time together on days off, anyways.
“I, uh--w-what?” Evan sputtered. This time, Jared looked over at him, raising a brow as if his question had been totally normal and this was a weird reaction. He tried to keep eye contact rather than sweeping his gaze over his friend’s cheeks, which were turning a brilliant shade of pink.
“You know. During New Year’s, you have to kiss someone? It’s a pretty common rule, Ev, duh.”
“A rule?”
“Did you not hear a word I just said?”
“Um.”
Jared sighed, scooting away from Evan slightly. They’d been sitting pretty damn close together, having to share a blanket and all. The blond’s expression seemed to fall slightly, but Jared resisted the urge to move towards him again. Instead, he left the blanket on Evan and turned to face him completely, sitting criss-cross-applesauce.
“When it turns midnight, you’re supposed to kiss someone. On the lips.” He spoke slowly, as if explaining it to a child. He was pretty glad Evan wasn't a child. That would be weird. Evan flushed deeper and looked away.
“No, I-I know that. Everyone knows that,” he said kind of defensively. Jared laughed softly, feeling free to look over his flustered face now that Evan wasn’t looking at him directly. “I meant, like, why are you asking me?”
He pushed up his glasses and looked behind Evan, totally serious.
“Hey, do you want to kiss me at midnight?”
Evan whipped around, but calmed once he realized no one was there. He turned around again to meet Jared’s smug expression.
“Ha ha,” Evan huffed quietly. The joke seemed to relieve some of the tension, though, which made Jared proud of himself.
“I’m asking you because there’s no one else here, asshole. Unless you want to get your laptop and click on ads for hot babes two miles away--”
“Jared!”
The blonde looked flustered all over again, drawing a louder laugh from Jared. He scooted closer again, so he could tug some of the blanket over himself. Evan rested a hand on his cheek, as if to will the blush away, then moved closer as well to share the warmth.
New Year’s wasn’t really his thing. There were crowds of people and tons of fireworks and lots of parties. His last therapy session, his therapist had said “see you next year!” which was really overused and terrible. He was glad Jared would be spending the night, so he wouldn’t be able to use that joke.
He was also glad for different reasons, but he didn’t want to think about them. Then he’d get caught up on how warm he was, or how cheery his laugh sounded, or how bright his smile looked. Evan really had no self-control.
Jared looked at the clock at the corner of the television screen, prompting Evan to do the same. They had just over five minutes until the ball was dropped, and the news person in Town Square was talking about how eager the crowd was or something.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” Jared said, looking at Evan again, who had relaxed again. “I could just, like, take a selfie and kiss myself. That way, I can tell everyone I kissed a total badass on New Year’s.”
Evan stayed silent and Jared felt some disappointment well up in his chest. He wasn’t too surprised, though, since he only expected to get some hilariously cute reactions from him. He just nodded to himself silently and kept watching the TV.
“I mean…” Evan trailed off almost immediately after he’d started and looked away so Jared wouldn’t see his face. What was he thinking?! No way he could agree to that, Jared probably meant it as a joke. He’d already dropped it, too, so now it would just be awkward.
Jared’s gaze snapped back to Evan so quickly, he nearly got whiplash. He was suddenly glad he was looking away, otherwise he’d definitely notice the blush spreading over Jared’s face. He cleared his throat slightly so he wouldn’t sound too eager when he replied.
“You mean…?” he prompted, leaning his head forward slightly and subtly fanning his face. He dropped his hand once Evan turned his head back to look at him again. Once they’d met gazes, though, they both looked away.
“I-I’ve never had a, um, New Year’s kiss before, so.” Evan tried to laugh softly to ease the sudden tension, but it sounded more like an awkward huff of air. Jared pursed his lips, pushing his glasses up some.
“Yeah. Me, neither,” Jared hummed, trying to be casual about it. He felt like his heart would beat right out of his chest, it was totally pounding.
The two were quiet for a few moments, eyeing the blanket, the timer, the windows. Anything to avoid looking at each other, really. The silence quickly became awkward and uncomfortable. Not an unusual occurrence between the two of them, but not a normal one, either.
When Jared noticed there was only two minutes left on the clock, he looked at Evan with false confidence. Fake it till you make it, right?
“I’ll kiss you if you’re not, like, weird about it,” he stated, trying not to tear his gaze away once Evan’s wide eyes looked over at him again. The blond glanced at the time, then looked back at Jared, nodding hesitantly. “Yeah? We’re doing this?”
“We’re doing this. I guess. I dunno. Yeah.” Evan shrugged slightly, unsure. The idea didn’t seem gross to him or anything. He definitely wouldn’t mind Jared being his first New Year’s kiss. He just didn’t know if Jared was as willing as he was.
“Okay. Okay, we’re going for it.” Jared nodded, shifting again and letting his legs swing down over the couch rather than having them take up a bunch of space. Evan fiddled with a corner of the blanket, tugging at some loose thread to busy his hands as Jared scooted closer again.
“So, um. Which way are we…?” Evan tilted his head to the right, then left. Jared smiled softly at that, finding it pretty cute. Then he forced the smile down into a more determined, business-only expression.
“The right,” he said after a moment, looking at the timer again. Evan followed the instruction diligently, tilting his head, then nodding. He looked over at the clock at well. One minute. “Yeah. I’m gonna take these off.”
They both straightened up, Jared taking one last glance at the television screen before setting his glasses in his lap. Evan psyched himself up for it, trying to convince himself not to be embarrassing and ruin it for the both of them.
“Okay,” he said once Jared had his glasses folded.
“Okay,” Jared echoed, running a hand through his hair. Evan knew he only did that when he was feeling nervous. He found that he didn’t really want Jared to be nervous around him.
They only had thirty seconds now. The people onscreen were getting a bit louder, more excited. The two teens, however, stayed silent, with Evan going over tips he’d read on the internet and Jared thanking a higher power for being near-sighted.
A countdown started from the crowd on TV. Jared took a silent breath in, then released it, leading Evan to do the same. Geez, this was nervewracking.
“Five,” Jared mumbled along with those on the screen.
“Four,” Evan joined in, just as quiet.
“Three.” They scooted closer, then leaned forward slightly when they realized their legs were already touching.
“Two.” Evan tilted his head first, slowly, as he kept glancing away, obviously shy. Jared moved his head as well, glancing from his friend’s lips to his eyes and back again.
“One.” Jared carefully raised a hand to rest on Evan’s cheek slightly, the touch warm and comforting on Evan’s skin. He leaned into Jared’s palm slightly.
“Happy New Year’s!” the crowd onscreen cheered when the ball dropped. As the clock struck midnight, the two teens moved forward, connecting their lips gently.
They weren’t too sure at first, but Evan (surprisingly) took the lead. He moved a bit closer, placing a hand over Jared’s to keep it on his cheek. Jared kissed back carefully, his confidence slowly growing.
Neither would have described it as “magical” or “full of fireworks”, but it was really good. Like, really good. Evan hoped he wasn’t being too eager. Jared hoped he didn’t fall flat of enthusiasm.
All too soon, they pulled away. The cheers from the TV suddenly came back to them, having faded to the background during the kiss. They couldn’t hide their flushed faces as their eyes fluttered open to look at each other.
After another few moments of “did that just happen?”, Jared pressed his forehead against Evan’s, a small smile on his lips. Evan huffed out a quiet laugh, feeling giddy.
“Happy New Year’s, Ev.”
“Happy New Year’s, Jared.”