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“I could so go for another beer right now.”
“Nobody asked you, you drunk fucker.” Droid threw an empty beer can at Puffer’s head. It bounced off of him and hit the floor. He just rubbed his forehead in slight pain, glaring at Droid from across the room.
“Hah. Look at these idiots.” John giggled, his arms on top of the couch and leaning forward. Smitty sat on the couch just below him, snickering quietly. “They aren’t as close as us huh? We’d never fight.”
“Yesterday you two literally fought over the last hot pocket.” Grizzy deadpanned, setting a cold beer down in front of Pezzy who took it with a thankful nod. Grizzy sipped his own beer, sitting down and watching as Matt and Eli played Mario Kart together on the tv screen.
“John’s been eating them all week! That was the only one I grabbed!” Smitty defended, throwing his hands up yet making sure he didn’t accidentally hit John in the face.
“They were mine!” John retorted with an annoyed pout, staring at his best friend.
“You greedy ass manchild.” Smitty crossed his arms, looking up at John frowning.
“FUCK YEAH!”
Everyone in the room jumped except for Matt who shouted with excitement as he won the Mario Kart race.
“It’s not that big of an achievement.” Eli stated, sourly putting the green controller he had down. It was Droid’s, an old one he found in a box in his closet.
“It is because I beat you and all of those bots, loser.” Matt cheered, patting himself on the back. Pezzy gave him a fist bump and afterwards Matt walked over to the couch and high-fived Smitty. He sat back down on the coffee table shortly after and started up another race. Eli sighed, getting back to the game as well.
“All that’s missing right now is us driving.” Puffer sighed, swishing his new beer around in circular motions.
“DUI who?” Droid supported Puffer’s sentence, getting up before Grizzy shoved him back down onto his beanbag.
“Nope. It’s too early for y’all to go to jail. Despite me wanting to drink and drive as well.” He muttered the last part a bit disappointedly.
“So lame.” Smitty complained, throwing his head back onto John’s arms that still laid on the back of the couch.
“Right?” John nodded, rolling his eyes. “Where’s the fun in here? I came here for the promise of food and drunk driving.”
“So boring.” Smitty groaned.
“Then y’all can leave. And please do.” Puffer did a dismissing motion, taking a big gulp of his beer right after.
“Nah we’re good.” John answered, shaking his head with a smile.
“Oh shit.” Pezzy mumbled from his spot on the couch. Sly hopped onto the top and then down onto Pezzy’s lap, curling up and laying there.
“Did you leave your door open?” Grizzy asked curiously, looking over at the sleepy feline.
“I must’ve.” Pezzy pet his cat gently, listening to her purr.
“Ah well. New addition. She can watch us play Mario Kart.” Eli spoke up, gaze staying focused on the screen.
“True.” Puffer said, raising his beer up as if to toast to that.
“We should make a new addition if you know what I mean.” John whispered too loudly, snickering.
Smitty laughed at the impossible insinuation.
“I mean.. in 2024 it’s possible.” Pezzy shrugged, glancing every so often to the bright tv. Puffer couldn’t even look at the screen, complaining about his eyes burning from the upped brightness and colorful graphics.
“Then we should get to it,” John grinned, “Right, babe?” He joked, staring at the man sitting in front of him.
Smitty felt his blood rush to his cheeks at the pet name, turning away and giggling a bit to have an excuse for the redness.
John grabbed Smitty’s chin from behind the couch, tilting his head up slightly and to the side so that he could look at him closely.
“I uh well-“ Smitty blushed with a nervous smile on his face.
“Do I make you nervous, Smitty?” John teased with a brow raised, staring at him while looking almost genuinely curious.
Smitty gulped, anxiety twisting into a knot in his chest.
His crush wasn’t that obvious, right?
Him and John kept eye contact for a good minute, just staring silently.
Does he know? Was the horrifying thought that entered Smitty’s mind. He really didn’t want to be rejected.
“I’m just messing with you.” John punched his shoulder with a grin on his face, ending the awkward silence between them.
Smitty just chuckled with slightly wide eyes, watching John’s expressions intently. The latter pushed away from the couch and walked towards Matt who called him over to look at the screen, causing Smitty to instantly drop his smile as nerves caught up to him once the other man left. His heart raced in his chest relentlessly, stuck in that rapid movement. He couldn’t calm down.
They all stayed the night, since the four that owned the house had enough space for the idea to be possible.
Eventually, all of them dispersed. Going in a random area of the house doing who knows what.
John sat on the couch, watching season three of Dexter with Eli. Although, they occasionally switched the series to watch Breaking Bad instead, flipping between the two on and off.
John made comments every now and then about the shows, pointing at the screen when a certain scene popped up.
Smitty had watched the show for a short time before he got up, anxiety still lingering.
He hurried up the stairs and walked straight to Pezzy’s room, unsure if he was even in there. Right as he reached it, he opened the door and shut it so that Sly didn’t get out again like she did earlier, then fell face down onto Pezzy’s unmade bed.
“Yo, what’s wrong?” Pezzy asked, spinning around in his chair and taking his headset off of his head, leaving it around his neck instead. He stopped playing the game he was on instantly, taking his attention away from the monitor.
Luckily, he didn’t start his recording yet.
Smitty just groaned loudly into the sheet, just sheerly filled with too much embarrassment to talk about whatever happened.
Pezzy fully took his headset off from around his neck and left it on the table. As soon as he got up from his seat, Sly jumped onto it and laid down, taking advantage of the man’s abandoning of the chair to comfort his friend.
He sat on the bed next to Smitty’s side, turning to be able to see him clearly and slightly leaning down. “What’s wrong?” Pezzy tried again, slightly concerned.
“I thought he knew.” Smitty explained, not moving an inch despite not being able to breathe well from his face being smushed against the soft surface.
“John?” Pezzy asked, “What’d he say?” His tone was curious because he genuinely was. If it seemed to mess with Smitty this much than it had to be something that really freaked him out. These aren’t usual reactions the man has often. Rarely if ever, even.
“He asked if he makes me nervous.” Smitty sighed, every sound from him muffled by the bedsheet. “Scared the fuck out of me.”
Pezzy patted his back gently, focussed solely on the man that lay in front of him.
A knock on the door suddenly sounded, causing the two to look over when the door had opened. Pezzy turned to the door, seeing who intruded.
“What—“ Puffer started before Pezzy cut him off.
“Get out! We’re busy! Shoo!” He deterred, trying to get him out of the room. Puffer raised his hands up with an eye roll and closed the door, leaving the room. His retreating footsteps were heard going down the hall, possibly to Droid’s room instead to ask for whatever he had needed.
“Sorry, continue.” Pezzy assured with a light chuckle. He could see Smitty give a small smile to him, thankful for the needed privacy the other made sure he had.
“I don’t know what to do..” Smitty admitted, lifting his head up more from the mattress. He picked at some pieces of fuzz from the blanket that barely hung onto the bed after he spoke.
“..Do you want my advice?” Pezzy offered, providing eye contact to make sure the other knew he meant it.
“Sure.” Smitty responded, a worried glint noticeable in his eyes.
“I think you should tell him.” He tried, “Wait-“ He cut Smitty off before the other could interject. “-let me finish.” He held his finger up, straightening his posture when Smitty just plainly gave up trying to speak and leaned his head on his hand instead, staring at him. “If you tell him, you won’t feel so anxious anymore. I know you’re scared—“
“I’m not scared.” Smitty denied, pouting like a child throwing a tantrum.
“Right..” Pezzy gazed at him skeptically, “But, it’s better to find out what John would have said than to not find out at all. Yeah?” Smitty hesitantly nodded, causing Pezzy to continue. “If you don’t tell him, then you’ll never know if he would’ve rejected your feelings or not. You could go the rest of your life without doing whatever y’all would want to do in the future if he would’ve accepted your feelings. You’d just stay lonely.” Pezzy explained, determination on his face.
Smitty seemed to think about it, his brows furrowed and lightly biting his lip in contemplation. He looked back up at Pezzy who only nodded at him.
“Go for it, man.”
The next time everyone had met up to hangout, which was about two weeks from when Pezzy told him to go for it, Smitty went over to John and yanked on his sleeve to get the man’s attention.
“Yo, I need to talk to you.”
“Oo, spill.” John grinned deviously.
“In private.” Smitty muttered, John’s smile faltered, brows pinching in a mix of confusion and concern.
The two of them trailed away from the group, from the living room to the kitchen, for a moment after excusing themselves to talk.
“You alright?” John asked, eyeing him curiously.
“I-I well.. really—“ Smitty stopped, going straight-faced at the jumbled stuttering. John, on the other hand, laughed a bit at the man’s sudden nervousness.
“Yeah?” John snickered, looking him over.
Smitty huffed, face flushed from embarrassment. “Goddamnit!” Smitty muttered annoyed as he directed his face to the ground, shaking his head and looking up with a determined look all within a minute.
Just get it over with. His mind supplied for him.
“I genuinely wasn’t going to tell you but-“ He started off, scratching his neck awkwardly and avoiding all eye contact.
“I like you, John.” Smitty finally got out, able to get the words off of his tongue.
“I would hope so..?” John tilted his head at him.
“In more than a friend way.” Smitty sighed, a bit exasperated at that comment. He had thought about just nodding and walking away, calming the burning nervousness in his chest since John hadn’t got it at first. But he couldn’t stop his mouth from opening and speaking those words in time.
John stayed silent for a brief minute as his brows raised, a bit shocked at the sudden confession.
“Man, never would’ve been able to tell.” John said sarcastically, quickly putting his hands up in a ‘ Wait ’ gesture when Smitty looked up at him a bit horrified. “Smitty you knew damn well I wasn’t kidding every time I flirted with you, didn’t you? I assumed you weren’t kidding either..” John chuckled.
Smitty stared, hesitantly opening his mouth and snapping it shut before he finally closed his eyes and breathed a relieved breath towards the ground.
Of course. It was SO obvious. But then again he was too unsure of it since a lot of people and their best friends did all of that normally, right? Maybe not get as close to each other as they did but still..
John huffed a laugh before grabbing the other by his shoulders and pulling him close into a hug.
“I like you too, dumbass.” He said, making sure the other got that fact in his head, “I hoped I was hinting my own feelings well. Clearly.. not well enough.” He mumbled the last sentence.
“I’m just fucking stupid.” Smitty sighed shakily, breathing in the scent of the stupid gifted cologne he knows John’s uses often whenever he goes anywhere.
“Just a little bit.” John snickers, burying his face into Smitty’s hair. The latter could feel the man’s warm breath against his scalp, causing his head to become hot despite the cool air outside.
“You weren’t supposed to agree with me.” Smitty replied, a deadpanned expression on his face. It changed though to a light smile when he felt John press an almost feather-light kiss to the top of his head.
“What’s the fun in that if I can’t annoy my own boyfriend?” John laughed after he finished his sentence.
Boyfriend?
They didn’t talk about what they would label this yet. But honestly, the title feels relatively normal between them. And Smitty just knows it’s right.
So Smitty simply went with it, rolling his eyes and lifting his head to press a kiss to John’s cheek.
“Well, your boyfriend wants to be honest with himself in peace without any additional comments, thank you.” John just shakes his head with a chuckle, gently swaying them in the light breeze. They stood there until Pezzy suddenly called Smitty’s phone with the wonder of where they were inside the house.
The man on the other end of the phone received a whole rant from Smitty about what just happened while John just listened, his head resting on top of Smitty’s own.
Earlier that day, he sent Pezzy multiple thankful messages until the man told him to stop. Regardless of this, he texted him everyday for a LONG time before Pezzy eventually put him on silent. Of course, he did respond when it wasn’t Smitty thanking the man for encouraging him to go for it. The both of them found the whole thing amusing. Albeit, Pezzy a little less considering all of the spam messages.