Serendipity

I can't wait

When I said it had been a while since I last had pizza, I wasn't lying.

But it's been so long that I must've forgotten how good it tastes, even to someone like me who doesn't like eating.

Tim grins, lips shiny with grease, and swallows his mouthful.

"I know, right?" He gestures at the pizza. "These guys make the best pizza."

"It's really good," I marvel, taking another, bigger, bite. Even though a small voice inside my head protests, I find the strength to ignore it and focus on how delicious this pizza is.

"If I could," Tim says, pausing to take a sip of his sparkling water. "I would eat the whole thing."

"Why can't you?" I ask, licking my lips. He snorts.

"I'm lactose intolerant."

I cough. "What? Then why are you eating-"

"It's not bad enough for me to avoid pizza," He assures me, picking up a fallen pepperoni and tossing it into his mouth. "But it does...get inconvenient...if I eat too much. I'm pretty much toilet-bound if I have just a little over my limit."

"TMI," I wrinkle my nose.

"Tim," Danny taps her glass with her fingernail, balencing her pizza slice on three fingers. "Don't talk about gross things at the table. Not while we're eating."

"Sorry, Mom," He bows his head briefly, then lifts it again when a thought strikes him. I can actually see the moment the idea enters his mind. "Hey, Sydney..."

I swallow my bite and tilt my head. "Yes?"

"Will you be able to stay over? Like, for the night?"

I glance over at him, his face bright and genuinely curious, and know I won't be able to say no.

"I'll have to tell my parents..." I chew on the inside of my cheek.

Danny stays quiet, but I can tell she's excited for my answer. My potential yes. Does Tim never have friends over? I mean, I never do either, but that's because I don't really have friends. And Tai's parents don't like me.

"But yeah, sure."

Tim cheers, raising his third pizza slice in the air in celebration. Wait, he's already finished two other slices-?

"Just don't make too much noise," Danny says, grinning.

"Sydney," Tim starts to reach over to me, but stops short when he realizes he still has pizza grease and the pizza itself still on and in his hands. "I can't wait."

I feel my face heat up, but hide it behind my can of sparkling water. My mind tries to wander, exploring all the things that might happen, but I shut that thought process down before I can start getting my hopes up.

This is a friendly sleepover among friends.

And whatever happened right before we played his horror game means nothing.

My father keeps up with his promise to deal with Mom and allows me to stay over for the night, and before I know it Danny is upstairs setting up an air mattress while Tim and I hang out in the basement.

"Which movie?" Tim asks, finally finding and grabbing the remote. He flops down on the plush couch, his head resting on the pillow by my lap. Close, but not close enough to be significant.

"What do you have?" I squint at the tv, still not completely used to the darkness. Some light seeps in through the staircase we used to get down here, but not enough to have aided Tim in his search for the remote.

He told me that the light was burnt out, but also that he definitely didn't need any light to find the remote, which ended up taking him a solid three minutes to find. I teased him a bit, but he just smiled and laughed.

"Well..." Tim adjusts the pillow underneath him with a grunt. "Uh, here, you can just look through yourself."

He hands me the remote, which I promptly hand right back. He looks up at me with a bewildered expression.

"I don't want to pick," I tell him, sliding back into the couch cushion and leaning my head on the pillow so I'm looking up at the ceiling. "I picked the games, now you pick the movie."

"Oh," He blinks, fiddling with the remote as I watch him from my peripheral vision. "Don't blame me when I pick Moana or something, then."

"Moana?" I repeat, lifting my head. He grins and shrugs.

"Who knows," Tim raises his hands. "I don't trust me, either."

"You know what," I say, grabbing the remote from him. "Bet."

"Wait, what do you mean-?" Tim starts to sit up to try to take the remote back, but I reach over with one arm and hold him down. "You aren't actually-?"

"Yep," I nod, dead serious. "We're watching Moana."

"Wait, no-"

"You started this," I shake my head, holding back a laugh as I select Moana. Tim's struggles increase slightly, but he doesn't push free before I can press 'play'. "Now you must follow through."

"No!" He laughs as the title screen plays. "No! I didn't mean it!"

"It's too late to resist!" I tap his head with the remote, still holding him down by pressing my forearm against his chest. "Stop struggling!"

And, after a few minutes, he does.

But then I feel obligated to get off him, even though I was enjoying the contact. I start to pull away, but before I can fully sit up, he grabs my arm.

In another one of those Tim-must've-grown-wings-or-something moments, he sits up and pulls me close, so I'm actually in his lap.

"Tim?" I laugh nervously. From the tv, the babies around Moana all stare at the grandma with wide eyes.

"Shush," He laces his fingers and rests his hands in my lap, right below my stomach. "This part's funny."

"But-" I try again- I'm sure he just isn't paying attention. Why would he want the little gay boy in his lap? Surely he-

"I said shush," He rests his chin on my shoulder, and I suppress a shiver at the feeling of his warm breath on my skin. "You picked this movie, so let me watch."

I open my mouth to try to protest again, then smile. I relax, letting his warm arms hold me close.

"For the record," I turn my head slightly, so my lips are a hairsbreadth away from his ear, and whisper. "You picked this movie."

Then I turn back to the movie, where Moana gets swept away by her father, much to her dismay. But I'm only paying half of my attention to what's happening, and the rest of me is focused on the presence of Tim behind me. His slightly-faster-than-normal breathing, his racing heartbeat I can feel against my back. His hands.

At least it's too dark for him to see my blush.