Slippery When Wet

Many Fish

For a solid week Weston was followed by two thoughts. His brain twirled the idea of him possibly having a chance with his dream man. But does he still want him? Well of course he does, but does he want only him. In hopes of sorting out his uncertain emotions, he met up with his comfort crowd at Chrissy K's Diner.

Every year since sixth grade, the group had the same outing whenever they were in a pickle. The four of them would all share a booth and get four plates of Chrissy K's famous mac n' cheese. It became trickier when Bella was diagnosed with celiac disease, but seeing as Chrissy K was Grice's mom, she fixed up a special gluten free recipe that tasted like heaven. The booth by the window in the back was their safe space. They would drop everything to be there, comfortable, loved, and frozen in time.

Weston was the first to arrive, followed by Bella, Emma, and lastly Grice. Weston picked at the skin on his thumb to distract himself from his twisted thoughts. His simpleminded focus was broken by the husky voice of a male waiter.

     "Wes! Good to see ya. What'll you and these fine pals be having to drink?" CORYAWESOMERUSSO said loudly as the table eagerly got ready to place their orders.

     "I- I um we'll have- well I think I'll have..."

      "We'll have two strawberry lemonades, two chocolate milks, and four plates of Chrissy K's mac and cheese. Oh and some tater tots as a starter," Bella said so strategically almost as if it had been rehearsed for weeks in preparation. Wes was grateful she had saved him from his mess of stuttering. Why was it suddenly so hard for him?

     "Cut the shit Weston, what's up?" Bella sternly questioned.

      Emma agreed silently before asking, "Yeah why did you call us here? You only call a meeting when it's something big."

     With only one thought pounding his brain, he questioned, "Grice, since when did CORYAWESOMERUSSO work here?"

      "Oh I don't know," they said, stacking the little jams at the end of the table, "Probably around two weeks ago."

      "And you didn't tell me?" Wes sternly expressed.

      "It slipped my mind! Not all of us have been obsessed with him since 7th grade," Grice giggled. Emma, Bella, and Wes all joined along in Grice's laughter. Eventually, they all went silent as Emma gave Weston the small look that said, "We're ready to listen."

"You guys remember when I disappeared at the party?" Weston asked.

"Vaguely, yes. We don't remember much from that night," Grice replied.

"Well as I was away, I slipped into what I thought was an empty bedroom to distract myself from my disgusting foot missing its shoe."

The group leaned in closer as if it would some how help Weston find his words faster. They anxiously twitched hoping Weston would just spit it out already.

"There was this guy. He was laying on the bed, and I didn't notice him at first. But once I did notice him, I noticed something quite peculiar. He had left these sweat marks on the bed. The same type of sweat marks I would leave except his were left under his elbows! We talked for what felt like decades after that. The amount of stories we traded makes me feel like I could write a novel about him."

"That's awesome Weston, but this can't be what's been eating at you," Bella said, trying to force Weston to get to the point.

"My interaction with him made me think. I've been chasing after CORYAWESOMERUSSO for around five years, but what if there's better options? What if it's time for me to move onto another, more probable, dream?" Weston explained, giving the friend group the answer they needed.

The group discussed and joked and laughed throughout the rest of the afternoon. The mac n' cheese was to die for as always. Weston felt free. He's been getting a lot of things of his chest lately, and it's appearing to be much easier than he thought. Although someone else was roaming through his mind, he found himself glancing at CORYAWESOMERUSSO anytime he passed. Something was different about him. He seemed slightly distraught.