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“Again,” Reki said firmly. “You have to get your turns down, unless you want to bail every time you have to go left.”
Langa sighed. He stared up at the redhead from his place on the ground. His back throbbed. The sun had gotten to that point in the sky where it was way too hot and they’d been at this since morning. He covered his eyes and groaned. “Can we take a break?”
Reki sighed. “Sure, man. But just try one more time for me? Then I’ll spring for lunch. How’s that sound?”
Langa peeked between his fingers, blue eyes skeptical but interested. “Really?”
“Really. Last one.”
Langa huffed as he dragged himself to his feet. He kicked the board back onto its wheels from where it had landed perfectly on its side. There was no art to it, not like the smooth, almost poetic way Reki could turn a board. He just kicked it and it clattered back to the wheels. Once it settled he got on, always a little shaky at first.
“Now really concentrate when you switch direction. But don’t, you know, overthink it.”
Langa narrowed his eyes, put the fury of frost into his friend. Reki swore he got chills. “Don’t those things contradict each other?”
“You know what I mean. Relax,” Reki said.
At his word, Langa started to push, to manage his little glides along the pavement. They felt brisk and nice, but he was nervous. Ready to wipe out the moment he took the edge. He tried to picture a slope, the smooth glide, a sharp pivot. Concentrate, but don’t overthink.
He heard Reki’s voice cry out in a cheer. The vision of snow melted away and Langa blinked as he stumbled to a stop. He looked back. He’d done it.
“I...did it,” he said, gazing down at the board in awe. Then he looked back at Reki who was cheerfully bounding toward him. Langa triumphantly threw his hands into the air. “I did it!”
“You did it!” Reki ran up and jumped, slapped their hands together in a double high-five. The contact felt like pure euphoria. Victory.
Chili fries felt good too, but more in the way of the warm, delicious variety. Langa munched down merrily as he listened to Reki prattle on about upcoming events they had to watch together. Langa nodded along. He was only half-listening. He knew Reki would remind him a million times more. The other half of him was pondering. Wondering when exactly his feelings had changed so abruptly. Listening to Reki had been so tedious at first, and the guy could still get carried away, but there was something soothing about it now.
Langa took a sip of his soda and felt the bubbles slide down his throat to join the ones in his stomach. He’d been feeling them a lot lately. Strange, fizzing, popping bubbles of pleasure that made him almost dizzy with contentment. When he looked at Reki for too long, watched energy ooze off the redhead like he made his own supply, Langa couldn’t help but feel it. It was nice, the endless brigade of words. They felt reliable, comfortable. They were really friends.
Langa had never been so close with someone before. Especially not so quickly.
“Hey, I asked if you’re free Saturday?”
Langa nodded. “Sorry, I was thinking. I promised my mom I’d clean the house, but besides that, yes. Why?”
Reki shrugged. “Nothing special. Thought you could come over, we could watch a movie or something?”
“Another tournament dvd?”
Reki laughed, his shoulders shook and Langa felt the bubbles multiply. “I mean, we could. But I was thinking a hero flick or something.”
“Yeah, sounds good.” Langa reached for another fry and at the same moment Reki did too and their knuckles bumped. It felt like electricity suddenly bolted through Langa’s body. It was sharp, but warm and exciting.
“Ah, sorry, go ahead,” Reki chuckled.
Langa swallowed. “Thanks.”
The movie was one they’d both already seen, but that didn’t stop them. They playfully bumped shoulders as they debated which heroes would win in a fight. They curled up on the couch and shared a bowl of popcorn. It was the second they’d made since the first had been taken as a toll by Reki’s sisters in exchange for use of the living room uninterrupted.
They popped kernels and laughed at cheesy jokes. Then, innocuously, their hands met inside the bowl. Reki’s landed firmly atop Langa’s and for a moment they both just hovered there.
Langa felt his chest begin to ache. His heart thudded. What is this? he wondered. Why does it feel so strange?
They made contact all the time. Shoulders, hips, and hell, their legs were touching at that very moment. Hands too, sometimes would meet, but this felt different. This wasn’t bandages or pulling each other from the ground or victory claps. It was so soft, fleeting and strangely intimate in the situation. They were just there, together, close and connected by choice, and their bodies connected here by accident.
A collision. A stroke of fate. Like when they’d met.
Reki yanked his hand away quickly once his senses seemed to register the skin below his own. “Ha! Sorry.”
“No, it’s fine. It doesn’t bother me,” Langa said and offered up the bowl. He’d meant for his reply to sound casual, but however it had come out made Reki look at him with a strange, unreadable expression.
“Okay,” Reki said, unusually breathless. Almost as if he’d just finished a run. “Cool.”
Everything was mostly normal after that, if a bit less rowdy. They quietly watched, neither speaking. Langa felt a little tense, but ignored it. It wasn’t until toward the end of the film that something else happened.
All of a sudden, Reki let his arm slide down between them on the couch and allowed his hand to brush against Langa’s. A shudder ran through Langa. He felt embarrassed by how keenly he noticed it. He still wasn’t sure what this feeling was exactly but it melted the anxiety right off his nerves and made him sink into the cushions of the couch.
Then Reki’s pinky began to move. To gently stroke against the protrusion of bone just at the junction of Langa’s wrist. It tingled. It was soft and inviting and thrilling in a way that Langa couldn’t express. His eyes darted to the side, covertly peeking. Reki wasn’t looking away from the screen, but he was smiling softly.
That made Langa smile too. He didn’t know what this was, not yet, but he hoped it would only keep getting better.