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Evan frowned, escaping to the theater room of his shared house with his friends. There was a Mario Kart tournament going on in the living room and it was down to Brian, Tyler, Craig, Marcel and surprisingly Lui. The shorter male didn’t play racing games that often and was usually rotten at them but for some reason he’d gotten farther than even David had in their little tournament. Evan, naturally, was the first one to be knocked out of the race. Given that he didn’t spend much time on the Switch, he didn’t do too well in the race. Shortly after him, Luke was knocked out; not that he particularly cared too much. Delirious was out the next round after that. It took Luke, Tyler and Evan to pull him off of Brian who had triple shot him with red shells just before he crossed the finish line of the last lap. Brian, naturally, thought it was hysterical and found himself clutching his stomach as he rolled around on the floor even after they’d pulled Delirious off him. Luke had dragged his best friend outside to cool off. Next out of the game was Anthony. He put up a hell of a fight but the other players were just too good. Not long after him, it was Ohm. The happy-go-lucky man took it in stride and laughed off just how horribly he’d lost. Then he disappeared outside to find his boyfriend.
Brock likely fought the hardest to stay in the game but he was kicked out not long after Ohm. Delirious had reappeared about the same time that Brock lost, complaining about Luke and Ohm. He’d taken to consoling a rage-filled Brock in hopes that he wouldn’t have to witness his surrogate brother making out with his friend. Scotty was knocked out of the game right after Brock and John just after him. John shrugged, grateful that he’d made it that far. Scotty stormed off to the kitchen to get a beer, face red and fists clenched tightly as Marcel taunted him from the couch. Smitty lost next and carelessly turned his attention to John who was scrolling through his phone until he got a lap full of Canadian Mario Kart loser. The pair easily rolled into each other on the floor and proceeded to taunt the remaining players in between flirting with one another and throwing popcorn at Scotty.
David got knocked out of the game next and he ranted and raved for ten minutes before they told him to shut up and Tyler shoved a handful of popcorn down his shirt. He was pissed for a solid half hour after that and Evan was getting sick of his sulking so he excused himself from the room under the guise of going to the bathroom. Which led him to lounging on one of the unbelievably soft theater chairs, biding his time to keep from going back to his friends. He didn’t know what it was but he wasn’t really feeling it at the moment. There had been something bothering him and he kept putting off thinking about it because it wasn’t something he really wanted to deal with. Every time the thought would float into his head he would quickly push it away in favor of ignoring it for as long as he could.
It had been a good few weeks since the thought had first drifted through his mind. At the time Evan wasn’t sure what it really meant, if it was real or just a fleeting idea. But when the thought kept resurfacing, he started to worry about what it meant for him and his future. He kept hoping that the idea would fall away into the recesses of his head so that he wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore. It’s not that Evan thought it was something bad, inherently. But for him, in the current moment, it was the last thing he wanted to deal with.
Lately Evan’s mind had been lingering on the thought that he could, quite possibly, be in love with his best friend. Just the idea of it scared the shit out of him. The Canadian didn’t have that good of luck when it came to love. His last relationship had ended in complete disaster. He’d told her how he felt and she’d laughed in his face. When she realized he was being serious, she told him in no uncertain terms that she did not feel the same way. Then she consequently dropped him on his ass; kicked him, almost literally, to the curb. So the idea that he could be falling in love with his best friend, a guy no less, was freaking him the fuck out.
“What’s the matter with me,” Evan huffed to himself as his thoughts, yet again, drifted to his crazy best friend. “You'd think I’d have learned my lesson by now. If there was a prize for rotten judgement, I’d probably win that. No one’s worth the aggravation. She’s ancient history; been there, done that.”
“Who d’you think you’re kidding,” a sudden voice sounded behind him.
Evan shot up and looked around only to find the room empty, save for himself of course. His brow furrowed. He could have sworn he’d heard David’s voice singing behind him.
“He’s the Earth and Heaven to ya,” Brock’s voice sounded from a different part of the room but when Evan looked, he couldn’t find the man.
“Try to keep it hidden,” Marcel sang from right next to him, but, as was with Brock, no one was there.
“Honey, we can see right through ya,” Luke’s voice this time filled the room.
“Hello,” Evan asked the empty room and got no response.
“Bro you can’t conceal it,” Tyler’s voice seemed to echo around the room.
“We know how you’re feeling,” Ryan sang, Anthony joining him on the next line, “Who you’re thinkin’ of.”
“Not a chance,” the Canadian denied. “Nope. Not gonna say it”
“You swoon, you sigh,” Craig and Lui sang along. “Why deny it? Oh, oh.”
Evan crossed his arms over his chest defiantly. “It’s cliche! There’s no way I’m gonna say that I’m in love with him.”
It was quiet for a minute before a deep sadness set in. “I thought my heart learned it’s lesson with her. Starting out felt so good. Now my head’s screaming at me to get a grip or I’ll end up crying my heart out all over again.”
“Bro you can’t deny it,” John, Smitty and Scott sang to him in unison. “Who you are and how you’re feeling.”
“Buddy, we’re not buying,” all of his friends’ voices joined in together suddenly. "Dude, we saw you hit the ceiling.”
Evan scoffed at their words but he was careful to hide the redness slowly staining his face.
“Face it like a grown up,” they continued to sing. “When ya gonna own up that you got, got, got it bad?”
“No way,” Evan shot back. “I’m not gonna say it.” But he found that despite the fact that he was refusing to admit that he may possibly be in love with Delirious, he couldn’t help but smile at the mere thought of him.
“Give up. Give in,” his friends’ voices sang in a teasing manner. “Check the grin, you’re in love.”
Evan scoffed. “This scene you’re describing won’t play out the way you’re trying to say it will. I’m not in love with him!”
“You’re doing flips. Read our lips,” they sang around him. “You’re in love.”
“I can’t read your lips if you aren’t really here,” Evan shot back. “You’re way off base. I’m not in love. Get off my case!”
“Bro, don’t be proud,” his friends encouraged. “It’s okay. You’re in love!”
Evan finally gave in to the idea of being in love with Jonathan. A small, shy smile crossed his face as the daydreams started to flash behind his eyes. “At least out loud, I won’t say I’m in love,” he sang quietly to himself as he laid back into the chair he was lounging across and thought more about Delirious.
The door to the theater suddenly pushed open and Evan realized that the saying about ‘speaking of the devil will make him appear’ may actually be true because Delirious walked in. He wanted to throw himself out the nearest window but decided to sink lower into the chair.
“Evan? You in here,” he called.
Evan knew that he couldn’t lie, so he sighed, “Yeah, man. What’s up?
“You okay,” he asked, as he rounded the row of recliners.
“Yeah,” the Canadian shrugged him off. “Just needed a little bit of quiet for a while. All that yelling was giving me a headache.”
Jonathan watched Evan carefully as he rubbed a hand over his forehead and temples. The look on the American’s face was making Evan nervous.
“Okay, then,” he sighed, glancing at the seat next to Evan’s. He wasn’t one to press a subject that someone clearly didn’t want to talk about. “Mind if I join you? Could use a bit of quiet myself.”
“No, you’re fine,” Evan replied, sitting up a bit more in his chair.
“Thanks,” Delirious smiled as he took a seat in the bright red reclining chair and kicked a foot up on the arm opposite Evan.
The pair were quiet for a few heavy moments. The Canadian tried not to panic as his best friend lounged in the chair beside his, striking blue eyes closed and a serene smile on his handsome face. Evan felt rigid in his seat, unable to think of anything to say that would cause the awkward air around them to evaporate like rain water. His thoughts ran a mile a minute as he tried to work out a way to get out of this situation. He had just about decided to really excuse himself to the bathroom this time and hightail it to his bedroom afterwards when Jonathan opened his mouth and spoke. Still panicking but now frozen on his plans, Evan didn’t hear a word that was said to him.
“I’m sorry, what,” he asked, hoping his voice didn’t sound as breathless and panicked to Delirious as it did to him.
Laughing, Delirious repeated,” I said, I can hear your gears turning from here. What’s got you so on edge?”
“On edge,” the Canadian asked, mind completely drawing a blank.
“Yeah, man, on edge,” Delirious sighed, sitting up. “You’ve been acting weird for a few days now. What’s wrong? Is it a family thing? A group thing?”
“No,” Evan assured, enacting every bit of acting skills he'd worked up as a content creator. “Nothing’s wrong. What would make you say that?”
Jonathan scoffed at that. “I was under the impression that you didn’t lie to your friends, Evan.”
“I’m not lying,” he frowned, expression open.
Delirious looked at him for a long few moments before he dropped his defenses. “Look, I’m sorry, man. I wasn’t trying to call you a liar or anything but the way you’ve been acting…”
“I don’t know what you mean, Jon.”
The American let out a frustrated sigh as he dropped his head into his hands. “You’ve been kinda distant. From all of us. For weeks now.”
“I have?”
“Yeah, man. You mean you didn’t know?” Delirious looked at him like he had three heads.
“No, Jon, I didn’t,” Evan answered. “I mean, yeah, I’ve been in my head a bit more but it had nothing to do with anyone. It was just me.”
That seemed to pique Jonathan’s interest. “Anything I can help with?”
A sudden pang of affection rushed through the Canadian. “Nah. Just something I needed to figure out.”
“Did you?”
“Yeah,” Evan smiled, as a fondness he didn’t know he had filled him.
“Then can you help me work something out,” Jonathan asked.
“‘Course,” the shorter grinned.
At that moment, it seemed, it was Delirious’ turn to be quiet and reflective. Evan waited patiently. He knew that if Jon wanted to tell him something then he’d have to do it in his own way, in his own time. He let his friend find his words while he snuck glances at his enchanting eyes. When Evan finally pulled his eyes away long enough to take in the quiet that surrounded them, he missed his best friend turning to look at him fondly. Evan sighed softly as his eyes wandered around the near sound proof room.
“E-Evan,” Delirious started, regaining all of Evan’s attention. “Have you ever…”
“Ever what,” the Canadian questioned after a long pause from his friend.
The gamer huffed in frustration before blundering on blindly. “Have you ever found that you d-developed feelings for someone c-close to you?”
Confused, Evan sat up straighter and turned his body to face his taller friend. “Like a friend?”
“Y-yeah,” Delirious trailed off like it was more of a question than an answer.
“Delirious, what’s going on here,” the Canadian sighed, growing tired of his friend’s mysterious ways. “If this is about Luke and Ohm-”
“It’s not,” Jonathan cut him off. “Ugh! This is harder than I thought it was gonna be.”
Evan raised an eyebrow at the wording of his sentence. When the American met his eyes again, his face flushed a pretty red color.
“Th-that’s not what I meant,” he stuttered upon realizing his mistake. “I'm just gonna say it.”
“Then say it,” Evan pestered. It was something they did often; pestering each other when they were struggling to spit whatever they had to say out.
Delirious turned to face the screen of the theater room and squeezed his eyes shut. “Evan I like you. A lot and-”
The rest of his explanation faded into white noise as Evan’s scrambled thoughts struggled to wrap around the confession. It had to be a lie, a fake. There’s no way Jonathan could feel that way about him. He must have heard those crazy voices before he announced himself and was taking pity on him. But Delirious wouldn’t do something like that, would he? It was never like him to do something like this before but then again it could all just be one big joke. He must have figured out how Evan felt about him and was trying to taunt him about it. But Jonathan wasn’t like that. He was sweet and caring and thoughtful. And Evan should know better than that. He’d been lucky enough to see that sweet, caring thoughtful man up close for many years now. How could he possibly have read that wrong in the past? Then something his friend was saying faded back into focus.
“I know it’s kinda short notice,” Jon laughed. “But I was wondering, maybe, if you wanted to, if you felt the same that is, because that would be really weird if you didn’t because that would mean I read this all wrong but I don't think I did. But anyway, I was wondering if you’d wanna go on a date with me? Maybe this Saturday? We don’t have to do anything fancy. Pizza and a movie sounds perfect. We don’t even have to leave the house if we don’t wanna. We could watch the movie in my room; I have Nextlix set up on my tv in there. O-or, we could watch something on Disney+ if that’s what you’d prefer. So whaddya say,” he paused, looking to Evan for the first time since the confession had left his lips.
Evan blinked at him in shock, words temporarily failing him. Jonathan’s face fell at the lack of response he’d been given and nodded slowly to himself.
“O-or nevermind,” he murmured, voice barely above a whisper. “It looks like I jumped to the wrong conclusions again. I’m sorry if I just made this really awkward. I didn’t mean to. I-I guess I’ll just g-go then.” As he finished his sentence, he moved to stand up.
Evan, panicked but didn’t have the words yet to give him the answer he so hoped to hear. So he reached out quickly and grabbed Delirious’ wrist and yanked him back into his seat. The American hit his head off the back of the recliner and gasped in shock. Not letting go of Jonathan’s wrist, Evan pulled him closer, leaning over the armrests to pull his best friend into a long awaited kiss. The taller male gasped again surprised by the action but nevertheless returned the kiss eagerly. The pair were enraptured in each other for long moments before Evan tripped back away from chapped lips with imaginary hearts and stars dancing around the object of his affection.
“Delirious,” Evan said, breathlessly through heavy gasps of air. “I love you too.”
A light the Canadian had never seen before lit up his best friend's face before Delirious dove back in for another breathless, eager kiss.
“I love you, Evan.” The words were breathed through quick partings of the lips. “And I always will.”
Fin.