Work Text:
so what do u think about making our relationship official (◕ω◕✿)
A text message on Hal's phone read, sent to him only mere minutes ago. He was in the bathroom, brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed, when he received a text from a girl in his class that he went on a few dates with.
Her name was Lily, and on paper she was a beautiful girl who was almost the perfect girl for Hal. Both of them were in the alt scene, listened to all the same bands, watched the same shows, and loved all the same food. She even took good care of her hygiene, just like he did, often having a pleasant smell to her like a flower she was named after. Any guy would be lucky to end up with a girl as perfect as Lily.
However, Hal had a slight issue with committing to a relationship with her. As he was brushing his teeth, he looked through ajar bathroom door at his bed, where Jonathan was tuning his guitar. The two men have been hooking up for a couple of months now, but their relationship never developed more than casual sex between two friends.
Jonathan didn’t want them to be anything more than Friends with Benefits, as he had made it clear that he has no interest in dating men. At first, Hal was fine with that, but as months have passed, and Hal has been seeing and hanging out with other people, he felt this pressure from the people he was seeing to commit and finally settle on a serious relationship with them. It made Hal feel tortured, as he was conflicted with what he should do to keep everyone, including himself, happy.
As the skater finished brushing his teeth, he let out a sigh. He wasn’t a confrontational type, but he knew he couldn’t keep avoiding the inevitable and had to talk to Jonathan about their situationship. Hal walked out of the bathroom.
Jonathan, noticing that Hal finished with his bathroom duties, placed his guitar to the side and greeted him with a smile “Hey there, buddy. Ready to hit the hay?”
As Hal sat down on the edge of the bed beside him, the cowboy leaned in closer to him. He wrapped his hands around Hal and started placing kisses along the curve of his neck.
“Bro, stop. I think we need to talk about something first.” The skater said, as he was shyly fidgeting with his fingers.
The cowboy quickly let go of Hal and moved back “What's the issue?”
The skater let out a sigh “I don’t think we can do it like this anymore, bro.”
“What are ya spoutin’ about?” Jonathan did not like where this was going.
“We’ve been casually hooking up for half a year now, you’ve been sneaking into my dorm room almost every night.” Hal explained “I think we should settle for a real relationship.”
As soon as the cowboy heard that, his face sank and the excitement in his face faded away. “Why? I don’t think dating men is for me.”
"But bro, aren't you already kinda dating me?" Hal asked
"This is different, we’re just riding the same trail for a little while."
"Are we?” Hal looked at Jonathan with his big eyes “Because you’ve slept over at my place almost every night for the past two weeks."
"That doesn't mean we're dating, it just means your bed’s got fewer lumps than mine." The cowboy was in complete denial. “We’re still seeing ladies on the side.”
“Really?” The skater was confused, the two spent almost every moment of the last two weeks besides one another “What girls are you seeing?”
Jonathan paused for a second, as he tried to think. He wasn’t sure if it was his substance abuse leaving gaps in his memory or were his partners just so uninteresting, but he couldn’t remember a single girl he laid with in the past month or so. It felt like every time he got horny, he ran to Hal for sex. “Now, wait a minute, I got something…”
“Bro, listen.” Hallen gently placed his hand over Jonathan’s “I know this is all new to you, and that you’re afraid what making us official would mean for you, but I have feelings for you, and I think you have them for me.” Hal looked to the side for a second as he paused for a second. He would lie if he said he didn’t rehearse this speech in his head for a couple of months now. The skater let out a breath, feeling the pressure of uncertainty pressing onto his chest. “I need to know if we have a future together, or if we should go our separate ways.”
The cowboy, scared of losing something special, hesitated to reply to Hal, but he knew he couldn’t just stare silently at him; Hal was waiting for a response. After a brief second that felt like an eternity, he replied. However, he tried to deflect instead “It's easy for you to say. I’m not a homosexual.”
“Bro, you don’t have to be gay to date a boy. Labels don’t matter if you’re happy with who you are.” Hal tried to comfort him. As a bisexual man, he did not agree with the idea that you have to be gay to date men. “Don’t I make you happy?”
“But-“
Before Jonathan could finish his thought, Hal interrupted him. It was a very uncharacteristic thing for him to do, but something inside him took over for a second, knowing otherwise they’d spend the entire night with Jonathan giving excuses. “Listen, bro. We can just try it, and if you don’t like it, we’ll break it off. But I’d like for us to at least try it if we already enjoy each other’s company. Does that sound alright to you?”
Jonathan stared off in the distance past Hal. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it with an engraved lighter. As he started smoking it, he thought about his cards. Obviously, the cowboy wanted to get up and storm out of the dorm room. He was not willing to commit to a serious relationship with a man, that was the only boundary he set when they started being friends with benefits. However, despite all of that, Jonathan could hear a faint voice inside of his head telling him to give it a chance. It wasn’t just the sex that he enjoyed about Hal, he liked his company; he liked him as a person. The skater was always nice to him, and loved to listen to him blabber about all kinds of nonsense, and is supportive of his lifestyle. Would Jonathan really want to cut someone like that out of his life?
“Fine.” Jonathan replied. Maybe, just maybe, Hal might be worth it.
Hal tried to keep himself from smiling, but he couldn’t. He was truly happy about hearing Jonathan agree to give the relationship a try.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Jonathan grabbed Hal’s head and pulled him in closer for a kiss. In a way, it felt like a first kiss all over again. “How are we fixin’ to celebrate this? Burgers? Beers?”
“I could go for a soda.”
“Great.” Jonathan got off the bed and walked towards the dorm room door. “I’ll be back in a bit…” He paused for a second “… darling.” He winked at the skater, before he left the room.
As soon as Jonathan was out of sight, Hal pulled out his phone. He stared at the message Lily sent him earlier before he started to reply:
No, I’m sorry.
We can still be friends though.