I'm Better With You

Chp. 8 Cooking? What's that?

NOTE: Small mention of suicide and death

Randy woke up to Oliver shaking him awake.

"Huh...?" Randy said as he was dazed from being so suddenly being woken up.

He looked up at the worried fez-man. Everything suddenly came back to Randy, remembering how he had tried to kiss Oliver. Oliver was probably here to come ask what the fuck he was doing and tell him off for being a creep.

Randy was thrown away from his thoughts as he felt Oliver pull him into a warm embrace. He heard the man sniffling, clearly trying not to cry.

"I'm so glad I found you, man! I-I was so worried!" Oliver held him closer.

"I-I thought I lost you-! I thought you had j-jumped I thought-"

"I-I'm so sorry, Oliver!" Randy interrupted, gripping Oliver's flannel shirt.

They held each other in a tight embrace in the dark, dirty alley way Randy had stumbled into. They both said nothing as they simply enjoyed the other's company, just happy to have the other one with them.

Oliver pulled away slightly to look Randy in the face, "Do you wanna work on the movie some more then head home?"

Randy thought about it for a little while. He did want to go home but acting for Oliver's movie some more couldn't hurt.

Randy nodded.

"Gnarly! I still have everything with me since I spent most of the night looking for you, heh," Oliver coughed awkwardly into his fist as Randy looked away guiltily.

"Anyways, wanna start headin' to the park?" Oliver asked as he stood up and dusted the dirt off his pants.

"O-oh, yeah sure," Randy agreed as he used the wall to stand. Who knew sleeping against an alley wall would be bad for your back?

They started making their way to the park after Randy regained his ability to stand after just waking up. Randy shyly reached for Oliver's hand, who firmly gripped his hand. Randy felt like his head would break open again as his heart pounded in his chest. Randy didn't realize how much he had missed Oliver after one night alone.

They talked about whatever came to mind, making jokes the entire walk there. Randy hoped they would never reach the park. But alas, they did. Randy helped Oliver set up everything before going to go change, Oliver going in after Randy finished. They were both wearing the same things as yesterday as Randy agreed to redo the scene they had done yesterday.

So they did. Oliver walked onto the scene, Randy siting on a bench. Oliver started with his lines, starting off smoothly with his seemingly endless confidence. Once it was Randy's turn he stumbled for his lines for a moment before speaking. He tried to have more emotion in his speech, in a way trying to pretend he was normally talking to Oliver.

It worked better than he thought it would. He still cringed as he rewatched it with Oliver after they had finished the scene, though.

"You're gettin' better at this, man! Groovy job!" Oliver said sincerely as he put an arm around Randy in reassurance.

"Th-thank you," Randy said as he looked away, trying to hide the growing red on his Nokia head.

Oliver chuckled a bit as he hears his stomach growling.

"Shit, man. I'm hella hungry, wanna go home and eat something there?" Oliver said as he left Randy's side to start picking up.

Randy nodded as he subconsciously started helping. Once they grabbed all the equipment they started for their apartment, not bothering to change. Randy smiled internally as he felt the fabric of the skirt hit his legs as he walked. He wanted to shame himself once more for liking something 'for girls' but feeling Oliver's soft hand in his made it all slip away. For once he just enjoyed the moment.

***

Randy and Oliver made it to their apartment, eventually, and walked into the kitchen. They both looked in the cabinets, fridge and pantry for something to cook, both agreeing they should try and get better at it.

They scrounged up all the edible food they could find and looked at it, wondering what the fuck they could make with it. Randy looked up recipes on his Nokia head, his screen buzzing as it lit up with recipes. He looked through them as Oliver continued to stare at everything they had.

After a lot of debating and searching they settled on making spaghetti, both agreeing it didn't seem too hard to make.

***

Randy hurriedly grabbed the fire extinguisher, sprinting back to the kitchen to out the fire they had started. How the fuck they had managed to burn noodles so badly it caught fire baffled both of them. Randy put out the fire and threw out the coal-colored noodles.

Oliver shook in the corner, hands on his cream-colored wall phone head, which were laid on his knees that hugged his chest. He was hyperventilating as he mumbled things Randy couldn't understand. Randy now rushed over to his boyfr- his friend and placed his arms around him.

"Hey, hey, i-its okay.." Randy said as softly as he could, trying to do what Oliver had done to him when he cried.

Oliver seemed to calm down a bit at Randy's touch but still refused to move.

"Y-you're okay now, you're here  and I-I'm here.." Randy spoke as he gently pulled Oliver closer to him and rubbed his back.

After Randy did his best to comfort his friend, Oliver pulled away, wiping the remaining tears that were making their way from his sensor.

"Th-thank you, Randy," Oliver said as he looked at the floor. "Sorry you had to see that.."

"It's f-fine.. P-plus it's only fair r-right?" Randy said as an attempt at a joke, which actually got a small chuckle out of Oliver. Randy beamed at this.

"Heh, yeah I guess so.."

It was quiet for awhile before Randy decided to speak up.

"Do y-you want to talk about it...?"

Oliver froze for a moment before sighing and nodding.

"It's nothing much, but I watched my parents die in a f-fire and I can't look at fires without being brought back to that time." Oliver awkwardly grabbed his left sleeve as he stared at the floor.

"I-I'm sorry that happened to you, Oliver..." Randy gently put his hand on Oliver's shoulder.

"It's all good, just hits harder sometimes than it does other times." Oliver finally looked at Randy with this.

Randy pulled Oliver into a hug as they continued to sit on the floor.

***

They ended up just ordering pizza instead. Neither of them wanted to try cooking again after almost burning their apartment down. After they ate they settled for going to bed early, both very tired from the day they had.

Randy laid down opposite of Oliver, but still facing him, on the bed they silently agreed they now shared. Just before Randy started drifting to sleep he felt Oliver move closer to Randy. He froze, and as he felt Oliver start move away he snuggled into Oliver's body. Oliver stopped moving, settling with putting his arm around Randy.

They both fell asleep listening to the other's heartbeat.