The Maloneys ordered their Chinese food from the same place David’s family did. David wasn’t sure how he hadn’t realized that when looking at the menu but he chalked it up to having a lot on his mind. Like Davi and the kiss. His lips still tingled a bit at the phantom sensation. Maybe he was allergic to something in Davi’s chapstick? That would make sense, who knew what the fuck was in that shit anyway? He was glad that the heavier conversation from earlier seemed to have strayed to more light-hearted topics. It was a bit weird to think about Davi as a small baby in the hospital when the guy had had his tongue down his throat like an hour earlier. Davi complained about his math teacher and in general the way public school operated. He kept assuring David he and the others made it all worth it. David squeezed his shoulder,

“It better be, I’ll be real mad if you worm your way into our lives just to drop out.”

“Oh you’re not getting rid of me that easily,” Davi leaned his head on David’s shoulder.

David felt that same warmth in his chest from earlier cropping up once again. He ignored it and just kind of let Davi keep his head there, it wasn’t like there was any harm in it. The Maloneys seemed like an affectionate family, they wouldn’t think anything of it, right? Davi knew he couldn’t tell his parents about their kiss, he wasn’t stupid. He was probably smarter than David for sure.

“What did you get?” David asked.

“The sweet and sour chicken,”

“Very fitting.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

David shrugged, “I mean, you’re a sweet guy but you’ve got a bit of bite to you?”

Davi glanced away, flustered again. David didn’t mean to, the guy was just so reactive to everything he said, “Shut up, you want to try it or not?”

“Sure.”

“Open up then,”

David half anticipated Davi to just toss the piece of chicken but he fed it to him like some fucking lady and the tramp type shit. He blushed and looked away as he chewed. He glanced at Nicolette, only vaguely remembering Davi’s parents were right there for that embarrassing little exchange,

“So David, do you have any plans for after graduation?” Nicolette asked.

“Oh uh, I have a short list of colleges but I’m probably going to do either a computer science or business thing.”

“Are you a tech kid?” Martin asked as he gesticulated with an eggroll.

David shrugged, “I mean, my dad is a tech CEO, sort of comes with the territory.”

“So you got into it at a young age? Baby David used to play with robots and tinker with them?” Davi asked, he sounded entirely too amused by the visual.

David felt his cheeks grow warm, “I mean uh, not exactly but I mean. There are no other kids to inherit the business so. I need to do right by my father’s vision and I feel like actually knowing how the machines we make work might be good,” He scratched the back of his neck.

“If that makes you happy.”

“It does,” David said perhaps a hair quicker than a normal person would have said it.

“Then that’s what’s important,” Martin said with a nod, “I had no idea what I wanted to be when I was your age, part of why I enlisted. Figured it gave me some time to figure myself out without other people judging me. Then again, there wasn’t a war when I first signed up.” He looked distant for a moment. David cleared his throat,

“I should probably get going if I want to get home before I fall asleep behind the wheel,” He felt a little melancholy about it. He liked spending time with the Maloneys, obviously Davi was his favorite but all of them were awesome even if Martin made him nervous sometimes.

“You can stay the night if you’d like,” Nicolette offered.

David looked at Davi, did he want him to stay over? Davi did his best to smile at him with a mouthful of rice. Okay, that might’ve been his mistake to look for a visual cue mid-meal.

“I’ll text my mom,” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and typed a quick message to Eunice,

“Hey can I stay at a friend’s place tonight?” He knew she liked Davi more than Dad did, but didn’t want to risk it more than he had to. Her response was quick.

“Do you have a lot of homework?”

“Not really, and he offered to help me with it anyway.” Not strictly true, but he didn’t think Davi was about to tell him to go fuck himself if he asked for some help with his chem homework. The guy was really good with chemicals from all his darkroom crap.

“Then have fun sweetie!”

David looked up at the Maloneys and gave a thumbs up, “We’re good to go.”

“Thnx love u” He put his phone away.

“Well since you’re going to be sticking around, we could play some video games.” Martin offered, “You like Mario Kart kid?”

“Yeah, sure,” David nodded.

“I’ll put the leftovers away, will you set up the Wii, Mama?” Davi asked as he started collecting the food containers that still had enough stuff in them to be worth saving.

“Of course, and grazie for taking care of the food,” She pinched his cheek as Davi walked by her.

David followed Nicolette and Martin into the living room. David sat on the floor, his elbows rested on the coffee table. Nicolette and Martin sat on opposite ends of the couch. There was more than enough space for both Davide and himself between them, but David liked sitting on the floor. David hadn’t anticipated Davi sitting next to him without a word. He didn’t have much time to ponder that as Martin picked Peach which really threw David for a loop and almost made him feel awkward about picking Mario. Davide picked Birdo, the girl Yoshi. Nicolette picked Bowser, which David also hadn’t seen coming.

“Isn’t he super heavy? Won’t that slow you down?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll still do laps around these two.” She winked and nodded towards Martin and then Davi.

Nicolette whooped everyone's asses right off the bat. David was more than a little impressed. Martin wasn’t bad per se, he and Davi had the same stoic expressions as they played though which David found slightly unnerving. Davi tried to do his little “lean into David to make him lose” tactic again but David just wrapped one arm around him and went back to holding the controller with both hands. Now Davi was stuck at a stupid forty-five-degree angle while David had a comfortable, if bony, armrest. He figured Davi would pull back or try and extract himself but he just stayed right where he was. His elbow was digging into David’s thigh a bit, David didn’t think about how close his arm was to his dick, not the time and not even the right part of the arm for anything. Also again, Davi was a guy, and he wasn’t into guys.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Damn David, clearly you’re not used to actual skill,” Davide snorted as the race ended, David placed solidly fifteenth out of sixteen.

“I beat you at the game at my place, so what’s that say about you?”

“That I own a Wii and not an Xbox?” Davi quirked an eyebrow at him.

“Minor details.”

They played a few more rounds, David even managed to come in a decent spot for a few of them. Nicolette was the reigning champion, and Davi and Martin’s reactions implied this was the norm for family game nights.

“Hey, I think my controller is dying,” He waved the Wiimote for emphasis.

“As if on cue, I think it’s time us old people headed to bed. You boys try and get some sleep okay?” Nicolette patted David on the shoulder and kissed Davi on the top of the head, “Ti voglio bene, mio capolavoro.”

“Anchio Mama,” Davi smiled at his mom and dad as they went down the hall. He looked at David, “You wanna let me out of this headlock now?”

“I didn’t hear you complaining earlier.”

“Because I was busy kicking your ass, obviously.”

“Awful bold for a guy one muscle twitch from me choking him out.”

“You wouldn’t, you like me too much,” Davi said with a smug grin.

“Debatable.”

Davi leaned over towards David, David leaned back to maintain distance, so much so that he somehow ended up flat on his back with Davi leaning over him, his body now cast in shadow from both Davide and the couch. They were completely obscured to everything but God.

“You good dude?”

David stared up at Davi, he took in the sight of his hazel and green eyes and the way his lips moved. They were still just a little bit shiny. Man, he kind of hoped Davi kissed him again. Not that he was gonna initiate it, no no. He was just a little vain and hoped David found him as hot as he thought Davi was at that moment. Like, objectively, speaking duh David wasn’t attracted to guys. He realized Davi had said something and he should probably reply to avoid looking like a crazy person or a homo,

“What? Yeah uh, don’t worry. I’m good,” David started to sit up, their faces practically met once more. Davi bit his lip and backed away,

“We should probably head to my room, less likely to wake them up that way,” Davi nodded toward his parents' room.

“Yeah that makes sense,” David nodded.

Davi pulled David to his feet. David looked at their clasped hands and slipped from Davi’s grasp. They walked down the short hallway in silence to Davi’s bedroom.

“Be there in a sec.” Davi opened the door to the bathroom.

David nodded and went into the bedroom, it wasn’t like he’d be waiting long anyway. He lounged on Davi’s bed, laid on his side, and tilted his head curiously at the other boy once he came in and sat down next to him,

“So, you still in the mood from earlier?” David asked.

Davi stared at him, mouth agape, “What, exactly do you mean?”

“I was gonna pull up some horror shit, you know, like the movie we saw earlier?”

“Oh! Yeah yeah, I can jive with that,” Davi nodded.

“Swag, wanna grab your laptop?” David jerked his head towards the laptop on the other side of the room. Davi grabbed it and brought it over to the bed. The two of them watched some YouTuber play crappy horror games for a few hours and recited creepypastas to each other trying to freak the other one out. David would never admit it, but Davi was pretty good at finding the ones that managed to get under David’s skin,

“I’m gonna head to sleep I think,” David started to get up but Davi caught him by the wrist,

“You know you can sleep in my bed, I’m fine on the couch,” Davi offered.

“Dude I’m not kicking you out of your bed.”

“Well, we don’t have a guest room so unless you plan on getting really cozy with me someone is gonna have to get their ass on the couch,” Davi rolled his eyes.

“I mean, you’re pretty skinny, I doubt it’ll be that bad,” He shrugged.

Davi blinked at him, “I sleep like half naked.”

“It’s your house man, do what you want,” He paused as he remembered something, “Though that does put a slight damper on me borrowing pajamas.”

“I have enough soft shirts you could borrow if you want?” Davi offered.

“Oh, that would be epic, thanks, man.”

Davi nodded with a smile, “No problem,”

Davide walked towards his dresser, pulled out a black t-shirt, and threw it at David. He decided to take a moment to look at the logo. “My Chemical Romance” David had heard of them vaguely but had never listened. Wait, this was the shirt Davi was wearing when they first met, he recognized the black and white faces with blood splatter! He smiled a bit to himself at the memory. He took off his shirt and put the other one on. He looked over at Davi, who had his back to him. The moonlight was coming through the blinds in shafts of soft light. It cast Davide’s back in a pale blue with an almost glowing effect. David could admit to himself he was staring but it wasn’t like he was perving on his friend. If anything he was paying far more attention to the slope of Davi’s back than he was to his ass. He was thin, and he had narrow shoulders but he still looked statuesque in his own way. He had two impressions in his lower back right above the waistband of his boxers. David wondered briefly if his back felt at all like his chest did, probably not. It was completely unmarked by the scars that littered his friend’s front. He belatedly realized it was probably still a bit much to be staring at someone while they were changing even if you weren’t being horny about it. He was a bit late to roll over as Davi cleared his throat,

“Did you like my strip tease?” He deadpanned as he yanked his jeans off his ankle. David had never understood how chicks, and he supposed Davide fit in those things. He theorized Davi was allergic to wearing pants that weren’t borderline painted on.

“Uh, sorry,” He didn’t have much else to say but in his defense, there was nothing else in the room to look at really.

Davi had a curious look on his face as he got into bed. Like he was searching for answers in David’s face.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Sure man, anything,” He couldn’t help but wonder if something was bothering Davi.

“Are you sure you’re not into guys?” He asked it so gently David couldn’t even find it in himself to be mad.

“Nah, I’m pretty sure I mean,” He checked out Davi briefly, “I think if I was we wouldn’t be sleeping right now you know what I’m saying?”

Davi went red, “Right, yeah. Makes sense. Goodnight,” He rolled over and shut off the light.

“Night man, sleep well.”

It was his own fault for putting the image in his mind but he couldn’t help but wonder what would be happening right now if he was into guys. If he just reached over and pulled Davide close and kissed him again. If they went even further than before, he got the impression Davi was more into the girly role which would be fine. He looked at Davi’s bare back in front of him, he was hardly more than a few inches away. It wouldn’t take much effort, just touch him. Come on, he said if you wanted to experiment more you could just say so. He reached out, he could feel the warmth radiating off of Davi’s skin like a space heater. He pulled his hand back. Why the fuck was he thinking about having gay sex with his best friend? He had meant what he said earlier, he liked girls. He liked Shirley. It didn’t matter if Davi was down to fuck him because he didn’t like guys! He rolled over so he was facing away from Davi. He was just really androgynous it was getting him all confused, obviously. He just needed to stop thinking about Davi, his face, the way his chest felt in his hands, and what his lips felt like against his.

Okay, brain that was like, totally the opposite of helping. He tried thinking about Shirley, a cocky smirk on her face after she won yet another impromptu race she somehow roped him and Marcus into even though there was no chance they would ever win. The rare times she let her hair down and it fell in her face. Her chest, wait, what the fuck. Shirley didn’t have scars. Ugh. He bit his lip, he really hoped he hadn’t just groaned out loud. The last thing he needed was poor Davi to think he was cranking one out in his bed, that was beyond rude. He risked glancing over his shoulder, Davi wasn’t moving. Hopefully, he was asleep, like David should’ve been. He closed his eyes and tried to push all visuals out and actually get some fucking sleep.