Weighted

5

If anyone had told Harry months prior that Simon Minter would soon become one of his closest, most trusted friends, he would never have believed them.

Fate works in mysterious ways however, and the pair quickly found themselves nearly inseparable. Over time, Simon had picked up on Harry's quirks, the things that made him tick. He could read the boys mood with almost pinpoint accuracy, knew the best ways to indulge in his hyperfixations, and could even name every kind of fabric texture that made Harry's teeth hurt to touch -even if he couldn't really understand how that was possible.

Harry in turn learned to trust Simon fully and without fear, no longer reeling in, and just letting himself be his authentic, weird self. Long past were the days of holding back his jokes, his personality, out of fear of being deemed 'too much'.

Simon had fit into the group like a missing puzzle piece, deeply cherished and irreplaceable, a single entity clicking in to create something beautiful. It came to the point where a group outing or gathering without him didn't feel right at all.

All too soon for Harry, any day without seeing Simon's smile didn't feel like a good day at all, though he did his best not to read into that too hard. It was for his own good, he'd argue to himself whenever the thought would cross his mind.

Unfortunately enough for him though, blissful ignorance can only last so long.

***

Harry paced the living room, rolling his eyes at Josh as the latter read lines blandly from a creased script. Next to him, Vikk was lounging and playing on his phone, feet up on Josh's lap, seemingly ignoring everything that was happening in front of him.

"Bro you're terrible at this, where's the passion?" Harry sighed, frowning at the way Josh grinned back at him.

"It's not my assignment." Josh replied with a shrug, and a smirk on his face.

"Yeah but how can I get into the groove of the character if my co-star is boring!" Harry whined back, signalling Josh to start again.

Josh sighed, smacking Vikk's foot as he giggled from the end of the couch. He cleared his throat as he began to read. "Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like a thorn."

Puffing up his chest, Harry held his finger up dramatically. "If love be rough with you, be rough with love! Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down! Give me a case to-" He stopped, crossing his arms as his friends giggled immaturely at his lines. "You guys suck, did you know that?"

"Sorry, sorry, we're sorry!" Josh laughed, holding his hands up defensively.

"Fuck, you know what, if I fail this then I'm blaming it on you specifically."

Vikk swiped the script from Josh's hands and held it up in front of his face, as if to ponder it. "You know, maybe Simon might be better at helping you with this, you two seem to have good chemistry."

Harry blinked. "What are you on about?"

Josh swatted at Vikk. "Come on now, that was mean, Harold's not the only one here who can't pick up on a hint." He said pointedly, smirking at the way his boyfriend swung his feet off of his lap with feigned offence.

"I hope you know I'm only studying law so I can finalise our divorce one day." Vikk replied, rolling his eyes at the kissy faces Josh was giving him in response.

Harry crossed his arms in front of himself as he figured out the implication of Vikk's statement. "Wait, you've got it so wrong, we're just friends." He spoke hesitantly, the word 'friends' rolling weakly off his tongue and doing absolutely nothing to help his case.

Vikk put down his phone and looked up at Harry with a sympathetic look. "You are kidding right? Oh you sweet, sweet fool. Just when I thought Ethan was the most oblivious person in the group."

"Boys, I don't have a crush on Simon. He's really nice and we're super close but that's it!" Harry argued.

Vikk raised an eyebrow. "About a week ago you called him - and I quote- a sexy motherfucker and then told him his face was so pretty that you were convinced he was an angel."

Harry shrugged, cheeks flushing against his will at the memory. "Yeah but that's something friends say to each other all the time."

Both Vikk and Josh raised an eyebrow at Harry, who immediately did his best to avoid their gaze.

"Bro..." Josh shook his head.

Harry snatched the script out of Vikk's hands. "I'm just gonna get Cal to help me instead." He scowled, cheeks burning red with embarrassment.

The worst part, he thought, was the realisation that maybe Vikk and Josh were actually right.