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He was crying…
Crying like a child.
Even though he had looked perfectly fine, just two hours ago, when they were at the “S”-skate track. In fact, he was even taunting him for being an idiot.
What happened?
He never cried.
“Cherry… Is everything alright?” The pink haired looked up now, his eyes blood shot, tears running down his face. His face was flushed, which was honestly something he nearly never saw on him.
“Cherry…”
He seemed to prop himself up a little and pushed some strands of hair out of his face. “What do you want here?” He slurred his words. “I come here often after skating. In fact, it’s me who should be asking you that question. You’re sitting here all drunk and crying like a kid. What is going on, Kaoru?” He almost snapped up and pulled him down by his hair, though he was a little bit wobbly on his feet. “Fuck you! I told you not to call me by my first name!” he shouted, though it was hardly convincing, since he slurred his words so much. He seemed to slip forward, making Joe startle a little, but catch him. “Geez, look at yourself. To think I’d ever see you in this state. Did your computer break or something?”
He winced, when he felt a small damp spot forming on his vest.
Did he strike a nerve there?
His computer did break?
“Why are you here, Kojiro… You stupid fucking gorilla bastard…”
For once his insults seemed to carry so much less weight than they usually did.
“T-there’s no need to cry… Uh… I’m just here to grab a drink, but now that you’re here, I gotta take care of you, right?”
He sounded like an idiot, but according to Cherry he always did, so there was probably nothing to worry about.
If Cherry were in his regular state of mind, he would quite possibly hit him.
Right now he only clenched his hands tight into his vest. It almost felt like he wanted to rip it off. Then, out of nowhere, he let go, completely. He slipped down along him and fell to the ground.
“Kaoru!”
A bit too concerned for his own liking, Joe grabbed onto his shoulders and picked him back up.
Geez, he was small…
But that wasn’t the point.
His friend was black out drunk.
It was quite scary to see.
Cherry was never not I’m control of nearly every aspect of his life.
They had known each other since school and there was never a time in which he ever even looked anything but perfect.
But now he looked like hell and he had even blacked out.
So what now?
His home was a little bit too far away for him to be driving him there.
“Gosh, you really owe me one, you arrogant asshole…” he mumbled more to himself as he pulled him up a little further and started carrying him.
Hopefully nobody would see him like this. Cherry was so small and delicate that people could definitely think he was going to abduct him.
He glanced to the side of the bar counter, where he had been sitting.
His board was there.
Well, at least it wasn’t broken. He might as well take it with him back home.
A bit uncontrolled he let Cherry slip into the passenger’s seat of his car. He leaned over him to fasten his seatbelt, when he felt a hand on his cheek. Startled, he looked at Cherry, who smiled. He laid his arms around him and pulled him closer, making him wince.
He seemed to press him closer. Then he kissed his neck, all the way up to his ear. “Please stay with me…”
Joe practically slammed his head into the car’s roof, when he drew away.
Cherry had seemingly fallen back asleep.
Did he just imagine that?
It sure didn’t feel that way. The dull pain on the back of his head also didn’t feel that way.
He had to get home as soon as possible and just get Cherry into bed, before anything worse could happen.
He practically stepped through the gas pedal, trying to get home as fast as he could.
All the while, Cherry was still sleeping in the passenger’s seat.
He must have been crazy before then, right?
Perhaps it was just getting late for him as well.
Cherry might have just been way more attractive for him than he had thought and now his suppressed desire for him, just ran loose and created images in his mind of the things he wanted him to do.
How awfully pathetic he was. Imagining his old friend and rival longing for him just as much, as he did for him, even though he knew that was impossible – that was nothing short of pathetic.
He stopped the car in front of his apartment complex.
Cautiously, he opened the passenger’s side door, but Cherry was still sleeping as peacefully as ever.
Joe unbuckled his seatbelt und lifted him out of the car. Then he closed the door back up, with his hips.
He groaned quietly.
If he were to wake up right now, he would probably punch him right in the face for carrying him bridal style.
He might have been small in frame, but he packed a punch greater than his own, if he just wanted to.
He winced, when he felt him snuggle up against his chest.
Stressed he exhaled deeply through his nostrils.
Even though, this might not be a figment of his imagination, like before, Cherry sure as hell wasn’t aware that he was snuggling up against Joe’s chest of all people.
If he knew, he might kill him.
A little fidgety he unlocked the door to his apartment, quite amazed that he didn’t let Cherry fall in the process.
He leaned against the door to close it and sighed. Slowly he slipped down the door and threw his head back. Once more, Cherry seemed to cuddle against his chest. He grabbed onto his vest as he did and exhaled quietly.
He seemed like he was properly sleeping now, instead of being nearly comatose like before.
Joe pressed him a little closer and looked down to him. “Geez, the things you put me through…” he mumbled as he drew his face a little bit closer.
Only centimeters before his face, he stopped and exhaled again. He placed a light kiss on his cheek, then withdrew again.
He held his hand in front of his mouth and laid his head onto the door.
“Fuck me… If you knew, you’d kill me for this…”
He sighed and propped himself back up, along with Cherry.
As quietly as he could, he carried him to his room and laid him in his bed, covering him with the blanket.
For tonight, he would be sleeping on the couch.
There was no way, he’d share the room with Cherry after all.
He took off his vest and let himself fall into the couch.
What a night… And it hadn’t even started for him yet. If it weren’t for this horribly confusing situation, he sure as hell would give Cherry tomorrow a piece of his mind. However, because of all of this, he knew he wasn’t going to do that.
He closed his eyes.
It was still quiet when he woke up. He felt like he hadn’t even slept. The entire night he felt like he was in so much turmoil, just because of him.
Quietly he got up and went into the kitchen, shortly glancing into the direction of his own room. The door was still closed and there seemed to be no noise coming from inside it. He slid into the kitchen as silently as he could, all the while feeling like an intruder in his own house.
Almost subconsciously he felt his neck, as he was starting to cook.
A silent sigh escaped him.
He should just forget it. It might not have even been real, after all. And if it was real, there was no chance he meant to give him those kisses. No chance; none at all. It was impossible for Cherry to see him that way after all.
He winced when the door opened.
Cherry was wearing his bathrobe. Though it was quite big on him, he somehow looked charming. But of course, he was always charming.
He leaned against the door frame and sighed.
“Kojiro…” he mumbled.
Joe turned back around to the food.
“Good morning, sleeping beauty. I hope you slept well.”
“Did I do something dumb yesterday night? Why am I here?”
Joe turned the stove off. For some reason he wasn’t quite sure how to answer that.
He surely didn’t do anything too dumb from his point of view, but who knows how he’d interpret the whole situation.
“I picked you up at a bar. You were crying and…” He sighed. “It seems like you’ve been drinking your feelings. You eventually blacked out, so I brought you to my place, just because it’s closer.”
Silence. Merely the sound of the kitchen door closing was audible.
Cherry sat down at the table, for a moment still not saying anything.
“So I did do something stupid. I’m sorry you had to take care of me again.”
Joe placed a plate in front of him.
„It’s okay. Happens to the best of us. How are you feeling now?”
No reply.
How very typical of him. Whenever he didn’t like a topic he just ignored it.
Joe sat down in front of him and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“I’m a bother to you, aren’t I?”
How wrong he was.
However, even if he were to tell him how he actually felt about him; that there was no way, he could be a bother for him, because he had liked him since they were in high school, there was no way Cherry was going to believe him.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course you’re not.”
He looked at the stove. He was anything but a bother. In fact, sometimes he sure felt like the closest person to him, the only one who would never be a bother.
Silence again.
Joe still looked at his stove, while Cherry ate the food, he had made him.
For some reason it was hard to be asking the question that had actually been on his mind, since yesterday night. Perhaps he was just afraid of the answer. But he also had to know.
He had said something about: “Don’t leave me.” Was he even talking to him at that time?
Why would he ever leave him of all people?
„Kaoru, why have you been crying in that bar yesterday night?”
At first he didn’t seem to answer. However when he placed his chopsticks on the plate, he finally spoke: “How would I know? I’ve been drinking so much. I can’t even tell you where you picked me up anymore.”
That was a lie.
Actually quite an obvious one even. Usually, he wasn’t that bad at lying.
“Why have you been drinking then?”
“No real reason.”
Another lie.
“So I’m assuming then that you don’t wanna tell me the truth,” Joe answered, effectively receiving a frown from him in return. “I just did.”
He got up and picked the plate up. “No, you didn’t, but it’s fine. I’m used to it. I know that I need to give you time sometimes. Just tell me when you’re ready to talk about it and I’ll figure something out to help you.”
He wasn’t quite sure what kind of reaction he expected from him after having said this. After all, he sounded like a parent. However, it wasn’t this. Cherry got up and violently grabbed him by his shirt. “What a load of crap, asshole! You won’t figure out shit to help me! You can’t help me, not like this. Not when you’re like this!”
He startled. Tears started dripping onto the floor, as Cherry let got of his shirt.
“You’ll never understand…” he almost whispered as he left the kitchen.
Joe blankly stared at the floor, where the teardrops steadily seemed to dry. He almost ran out of the kitchen to follow him. “Kaoru!” Cherry went past him, his board in hand. He pushed him back into the room, as he walked past the door to get into his sandals. “Don’t call me by my first name,” he said as he slammed the front door open, leaving as quickly as he could.
What was that?
What was any of that?
What had he done wrong?
He had left, just like that with nothing but Joe’s bathrobe on. He really had to have messed up, if he didn’t even bother getting properly dressed anymore, before storming out of his apartment.
He wasn’t mad at him like he usually would be. He seemed genuinely upset, but Joe couldn’t think of what he had done to him to receive his grudge.
Should he apologize?
How stupid. Of course, he should. But he didn’t know how or for what.
He winced when his phone buzzed. His alarm clock. It was time for him to get ready and to open up the restaurant.
Good grief… How was he going to get this day over with?
It felt like this horrible night had bled into the day to make it horrible as well.
Was this going to keep on?
He knew he had slept, but felt like he hadn’t at all, as he opened up the shop trying to keep a straight face with his costumers instead of only thinking of Cherry.
He had never seen him that mad, not even at Adam.
“Hello,” he heard an all too familiar voice, as the restaurant’s door opened.
He leaned over the bar to see Reki and Langa.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in school?”
Reki smiled. “It’s summer vacation, old man.”
Langa chuckled.
Even though that was a jab at him, he couldn’t help but smile a little at them. Seeing them felt so normal, so peaceful. Kind of like how he should have felt this morning when Cherry had gotten up. He had hoped for him to wake up and straight away tell him that there was nothing to worry about and that he also had his problems, but that it was going to be fine. But this morning wasn’t like that at all. It was anything but.
“I can assume you’d like the usual?” he asked the two.
Both nodded enthusiastically.
„Did you hear? Adam has announced some kind of firework tomorrow night at the skate track,” Langa said.
How very extra. Of course, that would be something he would do.
“Come to think of it, he hasn’t been there as often as he used to be, before you guys’ beef,” Reki answered.
“He’s been working a lot. Seems like he’s gotten promoted. I guess he doesn’t have as much time anymore,” Joe said as he served them.
“He does seem a lot softer every time he’s there nowadays, though,” Langa noted.
That was all because of him. Perhaps he wasn’t aware of it, though, but he did get him out of a very dark place.
It was actually quite bizarre to think about. Adam was the adult of the two, yet both Langa and Reki were already so much more mature than he ever was. Quite possibly only because of that Langa was able to get him out of there.
Langa now smiled and looked at the plate. “He seems like he’s having fun.”
Joe sighed and pat his head.
He might have been more mature than Adam, but he certainly was still quite dense to the world around him. He was too good of a kid to ever suspect anything bad from other people. Langa looked up at him in an asking manner.
“Doesn’t excuse how inappropriate he was being with you.”
He only received a smile as an answer. “With you guys around, I know nothing could have happened to me.”
Reki seemed to blush and look away, as Langa was starting to hold onto his arm.
Joe looked to the ground.
“Hey, kids, may I ask you a question?”
God, how very humiliated he already felt. He was about to ask two high schoolers whether they had any idea why his friend was so angry at him, just because he seemed to be too dense to figure it out himself. Both of them looked at him.
“Do you know, if I did anything to anger Kao… Cherry yesterday night?” Both looked a little bit lost at first.
“Isn’t he always angry at you?” Reki asked.
“Well, yes, but no! That’s not really… Not really in that way. I feel like I’ve really upset him.”
Langa snapped his fingers.
“Oh, that! Reki, he’s upset because of that.”
Somehow Reki seemed to immediately understand this frustratingly vague statement. His eyes lit up with understanding. “Oh yeah. Of course. He did seem really hurt yesterday night. No wonder.”
Was Joe the problem?
How come they both knew what was going on, but he didn’t?
“Guys, I don’t think I follow.”
They both looked almost a little disturbed.
“Well, Cherry wanted to confess to you yesterday,” Langa said. “But you were being friendly with that one girl the entire night,” Reki continued. “So, he got super upset.”
Joe scratched the back of his neck. “Confess? Confess to what? If it’s about the expensive vase he broke, when he was drunk in here, I already know that. He wasn’t very good at hiding it.”
Both of them started laughing. Slowly but surely, he felt like he was being made fun of.
Were they just too much in synch with their thoughts and feelings or was he actually the crazy one?
Reki raised his hands apologetically. Quite possibly, he started feeling bad for him, seeing as he quite obviously had no idea, what they meant. He wiped a laughing tear. “I’m sorry. We don’t mean it like that. We’re not laughing at you, but ‘confess’ as in confess his love to you,” he giggled.
He felt like his mind went blank for a second there.
Love?
That was impossible.
Cherry would never fall in love with someone like him. He had even stated that before, when they were still in school. In fact, back then he had a huge crush on Adam.
No way in hell would he love him.
“Kids, you probably mistook him. That is… It just can’t be. I’m sorry. Cherry and I, we’re just friends. He would never like me that way. He hardly likes me to begin with.”
Langa pointed his finger at him. “But that’s not true. He’s said that you guys have been on lots of trips together, sleeping in the same room and even in the same bed at times.”
Reki nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, and you came to his hospital room every night to help him around. Besides, we didn’t mistake him. He was on his way to confess to you, but then he just turned around and left.”
Well, he had never said that he didn’t have any feelings himself. Of course, he had been looking after him, when he was in the hospital, because he liked him; of course he had been so worried, because he liked him, but that didn’t mean Cherry liked him back.
How did these kids know so much about him and Cherry anyways?
Had he actually talked to them about it?
He started to feel kind of light headed from all the thinking of him.
He never thought that much of about him in that way.
Reki suddenly jumped in his seat. “Damn it. Koyomi…” He looked at Langa. “I gotta go. See you tonight.” With that he pulled him close… Into a kiss… Not a hugely passionate one by any means, just a small good-bye kiss, but nonetheless a kiss.
Then he paid and ran, almost as if he didn’t realize what he had done.
Joe looked at Langa, who seemed just as surprised as he was.
He looked towards the entrance of the restaurant, still as if he could see Reki. Hesitantly he placed his hand on his lips. Then he saw back to Joe, almost as if to ask, if that had actually just happened.
Slowly his shocked expression, turned into a soft, shy smile. His cheeks flushed red and he looked to the ground.
“That was the first time that he was the one to actually kiss me…” he stated.
Joe grabbed his shoulders. “You guys are a thing? When did that happen?!”
Langa looked confused. “Just before my beef with Adam, I believe. We made up and… Well maybe it was kinda afterwards…”
He ‘believed’. He said that as if he wasn’t sure himself.
Another smile formed on his face. “When I crossed the finish line and saw him… For a moment I didn’t really care about whether I had won or lost. Reki was there and that was all that really mattered. So, I jumped off my board in order to hug him and then I just happened to kiss him.”
He just happened to kiss him.
What a way to word it. He just happened to.
Sometimes, he wished he was that non-chalantly about things.
Was that why Reki had been that confused at that moment?
Langa almost slammed his hands onto the counter as he got up. “But that was the first time that Reki actually kissed me first!”
His smile was blindingly bright. It would have been adorable, if he himself hadn’t been in so much emotional turmoil.
Langa grabbed his hands now and pulled them close. “Joe, I’m so glad. I love him!” He smiled and looked down to his hands. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so happy around you, when you’re not feeling well yourself.”
He shouldn’t think that.
What kind of adult was he to make a kid think that way about his feelings?
Joe sighed and freed his hands from him. Then he laid one of them on his head. “I’m glad you’re happy. It’s fine. You should be able to let it all out. Don’t worry about me.”
Langa smiled. He still wasn’t able to contain his excitement, but he seemed to manage it a little now that he looked at Joe.
“You like Cherry, don’t you?”
“Huh?”
“I can tell! You look at him like that. You’re genuinely happy, when you see him. You call him by his first name. You even made his hair, when his arms were still broken, didn’t you? You don’t just feel friendship towards him, do you?”
Joe gulped.
He looked at him like what?
It was true that he had made his hair back then and it was true that he was always genuinely happy, when he was with him, but he had never expected himself to be that obvious about it; so obvious, even someone like Langa would be able to notice his feelings for Cherry. It was quite humiliating to think about how two kids, who hadn’t even known him and Cherry for a year yet, were able to understand and notice the feelings, he had so eagerly ignored the past years, since their high school graduation.
Usually, he had been quite good at avoiding thinking about his feelings towards Kaoru, by just going out with girls.
After all, usually, he was more than satisfied with the girls he was around. He liked girls…
“Langa, I think you…”
“I don’t have the wrong idea! I know it. I can tell, because that’s how I feel about Reki as well,” he interrupted him. „You feel so happy, when you see him. Even if he teases you, you don’t mind, because you know that he doesn’t mean it. Your eyes are glued to him and there’s no way to distract yourself from him. He makes your heart race, just by being there with you. And right now, you’re feeling horrible about yourself, because he’s mad at you, don’t you? You’re mad at yourself and you’re scared, because you think you’re going to lose him. Isn’t all that right, Joe?”
Joe took a step back.
There seemed to be no way to fool Langa. He couldn’t tell him he had the wrong idea, even though he had the absolute right idea, because he just knew he was right. He couldn’t even convince himself anymore, that Langa was wrong, because he was way beyond the phase of lying to himself.
It wasn’t exactly correct, but it was getting really close to how he felt.
His feelings towards Cherry weren’t quite as pure as that anymore.
Langa looked up at him. “I know it! Because that’s how I feel about Reki. I can tell you’re feeling the same.” Langa got up. He smiled ever so slightly. “You have to tell him.” He waved at him and almost stormed out of his restaurant, most likely to be going after Reki.
If it weren’t for the fact that both of them had just told him to do something he had never even dared to do back in high school, he would have probably felt much happier for them. However, there was no way he’d be able to tell Cherry how he felt about him. He should have done that back in school, but never brought himself to it due to him being such a coward. He didn’t have the right to tell Cherry now anymore. Sometimes he felt like he was one of the few people he actually trusted with his friendship. He didn’t have the right to destroy that friendship after all those years, just because he had been too cowardly back in school to tell him about his feelings.
But they were right in the fact that he had to go to “S” in order to at least apologize to him.
He felt his body tense up that night when he got onto his motorcycle.
He felt like Cherry was going to kick him as soon as he saw him.
There was no way he could tell him. What if he could never be friends with him again?
He sighed slightly when he arrived at “S”. Usually, he got excited to be talking to the girls, but right now he only dreaded everything about it.
He stepped on his board.
A sigh escaped his mouth when he entered the track. He heard the girls’ chants and screams but they seemed so distant.
Slowly he arrived at a tribune Adam had apparently put up. He looked up, but instead of excitement for his usual shenanigans, he felt nothing.
Slowly his gaze drifted further away. A shock of pink hair seemed to fly past him. He stood thunderstruck for a moment. Painstakingly slow he looked after the hair and sure enough it was Cherry that had just skated past him. Almost instinctively he stepped into his board and skated after him. He seemed to only be getting faster, as he approached, though.
„Cherry!”
No response, he didn’t even look back, but only sped up.
Joe grit his teeth, as they both drifted around a corner.
„Kaoru!” he shouted now, which seemed to startle him enough to at least become slower. For a second, he seemed to even turn his head. Joe sped up himself now and reached his hand out to him and grabbed the hem of his kimono. Now he was looking back clearly. He winced as he lost his footing. Joe pulled him with him for a while, until he also lost his footing, effectively falling off his board, Cherry still in his arms. He pressed him closer as they flew along the track, only stopping after he hit a rock with his back.
For a moment his head was spinning and there was a ringing in his ears that made him dizzy.
„You stupid fucking idiot gorilla!” was the next thing he heard, after a while of feeling a little bit out of it.
Cherry was leaning over him, looking more worried than he had ever seen him, but at the same time also even more angry than ever. „What are you doing? Are you fucking insane?! You could have died!”
He sat up a little bit and laughed. „I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Cherry seemed to startle for a while, cutting his tirade short. He crossed his arms in front of his chest. „Well, of course I’d be okay, if you shield me with your stupidly huge body.” He looked to the side. „I would have been even better, though, if you hadn’t pulled me off my board.”
“Well, you didn’t seem to want to listen to me, so I had to,” Joe answered half laughing, which seemed to calm Cherry somewhat down, though he was still quite tense. “Are you alright?” he mumbled.
Joe started laughing and hugged him. „I’m fine, I’m fine. It’s just a couple of scratches.” Cherry seemed to tense up for a bit, but then finally relaxed and hugged him back. „You’re bleeding.
How is that just a couple of scratches?”
For a moment Joe didn’t answer and merely held him in his arms, rocking from side to side with him.
„Cherry-sama! Joe!” He suddenly heard a female voice, followed by lots more. Cherry seemed to tense up in his arms and distanced himself from him.
A hoard of girls came running towards them. „Cherry-sama, are you hurt? That looked so dangerous,” one girl asked as she kneeled down to him. „What even happened? How did you two fall?” another one asked.
Cherry shortly looked to them, but then quickly returned his gaze to the ground. „I lost my footing. I tried out some new features and it seems like they didn’t work out. He just caught me. I’m lucky he was with me. Don’t worry nothing happened to me, because if him.”
He lied?
Why would he do that?
He winced when he felt a hand on his chest. „You’re so brave, Joe~ you’re hurt badly, though, aren’t you?” She let her hand run across his chest and came closer. Then she pulled him into a kiss.
He winced, feeling his body tense up. She pulled back after a while, but he didn’t seem to be able to push her away on his own.
The other girls started screaming and crowding around them, almost demanding a kiss from him as well.
Cherry didn’t seem to react at all. He merely got up and grabbed his board.
„Ah, Cherry, wai-” he winced when he felt his back sting. Cherry skated away, without another word.
„Joe!” he heard another familiar voice. Langa and Reki skated towards him and the girls. „Oh my god! What was that?! Is everything okay?”
Langa looked after Cherry for a while, but then also turned to Joe and the girls. Meanwhile Reki had already kneeled down in front of him. „Are you insane? You could have died!”
The girls came on crowding onto Reki now. „He saved Cherry-sama! Have some respect, you brat!”
Reki looked at them, then back to Joe. His look softened, but his demeanor remained serious.
Joe finally got up. „Girls, it’s fine, he’s just concerned.” He laughed a little as he pulled him with him.
„I saw exactly that you pulled him,” he now said quietly. Joe didn’t react. He merely pulled him further along, Langa now followed them. As soon as they got far enough away from them, he let go of Reki and sighed. „It was an accident… I didn’t expect him to lose his footing.”
Reki merely sighed in response, while Langa seemed to be looking around.
„Cherry is gone…”
He got up right after that girl started kissing him. He didn’t even have a chance to talk to him any further.
„Yeah… He left right away. He’s probably even more angry now that I pulled him off his board.”
Langa only tilted his head to the side. „Don’t you think it could be that he’s feeling hurt, because you kissed some girl?”
Reki laughed. „Yeah, he probably wanted to be the one to kiss you.”
Again, that nonsense. Joe sighed. „Guys, please stop it with the jokes.”
At this point, there was no way to reason with the two anymore. Cherry could probably try to bash in his skull with a sledgehammer and they’d still say it’s because he likes him so much. He wished that were true, but it seemed like it wasn’t.
Reki now sat down in front of him. „You still didn’t talk to him, did you now? C’mon, you have to get it together and properly talk to him. I can’t believe I’m the one telling you that!”
Langa chuckled, when he said that.
„How am I supposed to talk to him, when he avoids me like that? I didn’t even have a chance to talk to him right now. I really wanted to.”
“Perhaps find a place that’s a little less busy than the skating track,” Langa said. He turned around and looked at the sky. Then he started smiling. „This place is dear to you. You have to do it here, but be a little more private about it.”
Joe sighed.
He couldn’t believe he tried to take love advice from two teenagers. Either it didn’t work, or he was too stupid to correctly apply it, though, because right now, he hadn’t achieved anything. Cherry was still mad at him, in fact, possibly even more than before, he hadn’t told him about his feelings, he hadn’t found out about Cherry’s feelings and he was even injured now. All because he had never been able to tell him and it felt like he never would be able to.
The three of them skated back to the beginning of the track. There didn’t seem to be a trace of Cherry. Only another horde of girls came running towards him to make sure that he was fine. Usually, he enjoyed this kind of attention, but right now, he only felt empty receiving it.
It didn’t feel right to be fooling around like this, if Kaoru wasn’t there to tell him how disgusting he was for it.
He tried to laugh it off and escape from them, which only worked a little bit, until the lights at the stage started lighting up. Confetti was scattered around as a helicopter flew over it.
If it wasn’t Adam.
He jumped out of the helicopter, effectively landing on his board. „Good evening, everybody!” he shouted, as he stretched his hands out. „What a beautiful summer evening it is! I’m sure you have been enjoying our towns lovely festivals. Tonight, I have a special event for you in celebration of our summer vacation.”
Joe sighed, as he sat down, partially watching Adam and listening to his speech, partially not caring what he even had to say. Everybody knew he was going to start a firework soon, but since it was Adam, he had to make a huge spectacle out of it.”
His eyes drifted around, almost instinctively looking for Cherry, but without any luck.
At some point his eyes stopped focusing and he just blankly stared somewhere, he couldn’t even tell where.
What if Cherry hated him now?
It had always been his fear, back in school, that he would ruin their friendship, if he were to confess his feelings to him, but now that he was so angry at him even though he had never confessed, it felt even scarier than back in school.
Was he doomed to lose his best friend no matter what he did?
Was he even his friend anymore? At this point he had already fallen too deeply to call it friendship on his end. He had just always suppressed it. Now that Cherry was so distant, so cold, so angry even; now it seemed to all well back up. His chest started feeling tight and he grabbed onto it.
He startled, when the firework began. Sparkles of blue, red, pink, yellow and green lit up the sky. They started forming shapes, one of which was a heart. Joe gulped. His eyes drifted away from the bright colors to Langa and Reki, who are both standing rather distant from the other skaters, hugging tightly, kissing each other.
Right, that was usually what you’d do during a firework. He had never kissed Cherry, though. He never could.
„You look terrible. Got you heart broken?”
He winced and turned his head around. Adam walked up to him.
This was the one thing he really didn’t need right now.
“I don’t know why you would care.” A quiet chuckle was the only response as he sat down next to him.
„How very unusual. Usually, it is you that goes around breaking hearts.”
Joe remained silent, which didn’t seem to make him leave, though. Instead, he leaned back to look up at the sky. „I would have expected you to be going around kissing a bunch of girls tonight. After all, that is what you usually would do, right? Seems like I was wrong.”
Joe grit his teeth. „I know you don’t think very highly of me. At least I don’t go around harassing kids, though. Wouldn’t you say that’s an improvement from your character?”
„Is it Cherry?” Adam cut him short.
Again, he felt his chest tighten and his breathing stop for a second. Adam merely smirked as he saw his expression. “Bingo~” he chuckled. „You’re so obvious. You can go around screwing all the girls that you want, but you will always come back for him.” Again, he chuckled. “I mean, I can’t blame you, long hair, slender and pretty has always been your type, right?”
Joe grit his teeth again and clenched his fist.
“What do you want, Adam? Are you just here to taunt me? I really don’t need your bullshit right now.” He winced when Adam took off his mask.
He didn’t smirk stupidly at him, like he had expected. He only smiled. A genuine smile, the kind he used to smile often. “Joe, it’s been years. It’s time to shake off the fear and tell him. Don’t be stupid like me. Don’t go looking around for something that has actually been in front of you the entire time.”
He seemed to laugh right after he said that. Again, it wasn’t malicious, but genuine. “You look like you didn’t expect to hear that from me.”
Well, that hit the nail on the head pretty much. Adam hasn’t talked like that in years, after all.
Joe sighed, then laughed a little. „You’ve changed, Adam,” he said, as he got up. He got no reply. Adam just looked back at the ground. For only a second, Joe looked back at him. He still smiled, it still looked genuine. He somehow looked at peace with himself.
“By the way, Cherry was near the end of the track, before the hall, to look at the fireworks,” he now said.
Almost instinctively he grabbed his board. “Thanks, Adam,” he mumbled more to himself, as he started riding.
The lights of the fireworks bathed the track in a red, a yellow, a blue tint. He felt his heart race, even though he knew it so well.
It felt like a million things went through his head at once. Like what was he going to say? What if he just ran away again?
He broke pretty badly, when his eyes got a glimpse of Cherry’s hair. He practically fell from his board, only barely catching himself. Cherry looked at him, his eyebrows raised, as if he was worried. “Kojiro, you…” He winced and took a step back, as if he remembered that he wanted to be mad at him. He grabbed onto his board. No way was he going to leave again. Joe grabbed his hand and pulled him forward, effectively making Cherry stumble. “What the…”
“I’m sorry!” Cherry seemed to wince, as he said that. Slowly Joe let go. “For what?” Cherry replied almost annoyed.
He wasn’t quite sure, but he knew he had done something wrong. “F-for everything,” he stuttered just to say something. “For pulling you off your board and… For kissing that girl and for being too dumb to understand what you meant yesterday morning… And for being the reason that you were so sad you felt like you had to drink your feelings and… I don’t understand why, but I know it’s my fault, but you’re right, I’m just a stupid Gorilla that doesn’t understand what the one person he truly cares about needs, so…” He stopped, when Cherry grabbed his wrist. He looked to the ground, his face completely red. “Stop it. Please, just stop it…” His voice had gotten small. He seemed almost flustered, completely different than just a second before.
He pressed his free hand on his mouth. For a second they stood there like this, until Joe took a step closer, effectively making Cherry wince and try to take a step back. He grabbed his waist and pulled him closer into an embrace. Slowly his hand was let go of and Cherry laid his hands on his chest. “I hate you,” he said, though it wasn’t convincing at all.
“Yes, I know,” he answered, slowly starting to relax a little.
“You say these stupid things, but you don’t even understand how I’m feeling, you stupid asshole of a gorilla…”
“Yes, I know.”
Now he started sobbing, which only made Joe tighten his embrace. “You should help me, because I’m so stupid. Enlighten me on why you were in that bar drinking your feelings like that.”
For a while Cherry was silent, as he let his hands wander from his chest to his back.
“You’re so unfair. First you hurt me like that and don’t even get it and then you corner me, you stupid asshole…” he mumbled. He could tell his voice was cracking. Joe laid his hand on his head, slightly starting to rock him back and forth. “I know. I’m sorry I’m so stupid.” Cherry sobbed and pushed against his chest. “Stop agreeing with me! Why are you like this? Why are you so accepting of my insults, when…”
He winced when he looked at him. Joe couldn’t help but smile. “Would you want me to fire back like usual?” Cherry looked to the ground. “No, I…” He cut himself off. Joe sighed and laid his hand in his head. “You know, I had no idea what to tell you when I find you, so I was so anxious, but I’m glad to see that you also don’t know what to say to me, even though you’re so mad at me.”
Cherry grit his teeth and pulled him by his jacket. “Don’t lump me in with you. I know exactly what to say! You’re a stupid, cheating asshole gorilla, whose only goal in life is to screw as many girls as he can. Can’t you guess why I’ve been drinking like that?! It’s all because of you! I finally had the courage to tell you how I feel and I see you fooling around with that bitch! You’re disgusting. I…”
He winced as he realized what he said there. For a moment, even Joe had to process all of that. Was that a love confession? It sure was different from others he got.
He didn’t even have a line prepared for that one.
A million things went through his head at once. The kids had been right in telling him that Cherry actually liked him. This was his dream since high school.
Come to think of it, was this even real?
Cherry freed himself from his grip now and was about to run off again, but this time Joe managed to grab him by his hand, pulling him towards himself. He pulled him closer into a kiss. At first Cherry seemed completely tense. However, that slowly changed, as he let himself get drawn into the kiss more. He started to react little by little, eventually even laying his arms around him to pull him deeper.
The fireworks were going off behind them, just like they were going off in Joe’s mind.
Cherry was an incredibly good kisser. Though he had initiated the kiss, as soon as Cherry started replying, he couldn’t seem to process it anymore. All he could do was draw him closer and deepen it, as Cherry let his hands run down his back.
Slowly they broke the kiss, however still staying close to each other.
Cherry didn’t seem to look at him, but at least he didn’t want to run away anymore.
His face was flushing red and his hands were tensely grabbing onto his jacket. “I-I hate you…”
Joe giggled. He was hardly convincing.
“I love you, Kaoru,” he answered, as he let his hand run through his hair.
He felt him snuggle up against his chest. “Then don’t let them touch you again.”
Joe laughed quietly. “I won’t ever again.”