My One Regret (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Nineteen: Apology Accepted

In an attempt to make myself not look so weak in front of Cody, I leaned against the rails with my hands crossed. He seemed to be at a loss for words, which was expected since he was just another dumb jock. I tapped my foot against the floorboards, waiting impatiently.

"Look man, I'm really bad at apologizing, but like.. The thing is.. Your friend's hot. Like, he's cute. I've never felt this way about a.. Boy.. Before. So, it's weird, you know? But before he can continue talking to me, he wants things to be okay between us first." Was that his idea of an apology? I mean, his little speech about Eric was kind of sweet, and made me think about how Eric deserved someone who would go to different lengths for him.. But my tormentor?

His little 'apology' had no mentions about how he was in the wrong, or about how I didn't deserve what I went through at all! "Your apology sucks! Make a better one and I'll consider forgiving you." Cody looked conflicted, and began to scratch the back of his neck, "Dude, you know I'm bad at these things. Hell, I couldn't even properly apologize to Blake." His voice was evidently lacking in confidence, and he was knitting his eyebrows together every few seconds in nervousness.

"Okay.. Look, what I did was really fucking messed up. I dunno why I did it. I guess my team and I wanted to relieve our stress on someone before the big game. We just kinda' thought you would be a good target because we thought Blake still didn't like you, and you know how Blake's our captain." He regained his posture and caught his breath before continuing.

"You were just kind of there. And you're not the only one we've done this too, so don't feel too badly about it. Yeah, I regret it a lot, because I didn't know how much Blake cared about you. He obviously.. Likes you a lot. The same way I like Eric. And I wanna get to know your friend better, and if he thinks this is the only way we can start talking, then I'll do it." Cody's attention diverted back to Eric, who was joking around with Blake at the table.

Immediately, his face flushed red upon the sight of Eric's smile. So he really did like Eric, huh. Well, I'm nothing if not an advocate for my best friend's love life, so with a begrudging sigh, I looked Cody dead in the eyes and said, "I don't like you. And I don't know if the two of us could ever be friends, but if you like Eric, and you're the one making him happy, then I only want what's best for him.. And if that's you.. Then I guess I just have to accept it. I may be forgiving you, but it's gonna take a while for me to forget what you did to me." I uncrossed my arms in defeat.

"I'm not asking for you to forgive and forget right away, but thank you, this probably means a lot to Eric. I dunno why though, but it just does." There he goes, back to his dumb jock dialect. I rolled my eyes, and the two of us walked back to the table. The sun had set, and the sky was slowly turning dark. "Should we hit the road?" Eric asked, standing up from his seat.

"Probably." Blake responded. He made his way over to me, and he intertwined his hands with mine. I felt sparks flying throughout my entire body at his touch. It felt so.. surreal. "So.. what did he want to talk to you about?" For some reason, Blake seemed nervous, like he had something to hide. "Um.. He just wanted to apologize.. Why?"

"No reason. Just wondering." Blake said, masking his nervousness. I raised an eyebrow in confusion. Cody eventually parted ways with Eric, and Eric watched as his new 'crush' sauntered back to his group of dumb jockeys. "You sure you wanna be involved with him, Eric?" Blake asked.

Eric looked at us, and nodded, "After spending so much time with him today, I realized that he's not the dumb jock I thought he was after all. Hey, I see your appeal for football players now, Theo." He joked, nudging me at my side. A small chuckle escaped my lips. Was crushing on footballers a disease now? Because it seemed to infect my best friend too.

The night air had me shivering, with my arms crossed in an attempt to warm myself up. Blake looked down at me, and seemed to notice that I was trembling. In an instant, he took off his varsity jacket and draped it over my shoulders. "Blake.. You don't have to." I said, talking about his act of kindness.

"I want to." He looked down at me, and smiled so sweetly, that I would have fainted right then and there. Everything this man did had me in a chokehold, and I could never escape. "Shut up, lovebirds. Get a room. Can we just get in the car already? It's cold as hell out here." Eric ran in front of us, hurrying to Blake's Chevrolet.

--

"I'll hang here for now until you're done Theo." Eric plopped himself on Blake's couch and sighed with a huge smile present on his face. "Blake and I entered his room and he immediately picked up my pajamas with a sly grin. "What're you smiling about?" I asked, and threw myself on Blake's bed in a starfish position.

"I didn't think much of these clothes for a while, but maybe I'll bring them back out when I think of you." Blake flirted casually and put the folded set of pajamas in a drawer. "Shut up." I giggled. It made me have even more butterflies knowing that everything he said to me was pure after our kiss on the pier.

My mom called earlier to tell me that we were having a family dinner that night at a local fancy restaurant—she even invited Blake! Eric tapped out though; the need to study overcame him, but I understood on a personal level. "I need to go back home to get ready, I'm pretty sure you don't have too many good clothes from middle school to wear out to a nice place." I teased and slowly inched closer to Blake, who was leaning on his dresser.

"Oh I dunno, I might have some tight trousers from my middle school days that would capture your ass perfectly-" He just always has to ruin the moment, doesn't he? Before he could finish off yet another one of his inappropriate comments, I cut him off, "Nope.. Come on, you're walking me back home." He sighed, irritated at my rejection of his proposal, and took his car keys out from his pocket.

–

"Wow. You look.." Blake seemed to be at a loss for words, but his eyes sure weren't. They were so pure of adoration, and genuine astonishment, that I couldn't help but race to stand next to him, wasting no time on linking my arm with his.

In truth, my outfit was normal at best compared to his. He had on a navy blue suit that complimented his slight tan, and his blue eyes perfectly. And as for me - I had on some black trousers with a white button-up.. What can I say, I don't own many suits, which you would be surprised to hear since I am the son of one of the richest families in our town.

With social charities and galas, you would have expected me to at least own a blazer.. My shoes, however, were a different story - I still had on my raggedy black converse, which were showing signs of evident deterioration. Why did I wear this? I should've just borrowed one of Chris's suits.. Maybe then I wouldn't feel so inferior compared to Blake, who was dressed like an extremely handsome bachelor.

"Woah, Theo. Already bringing me to meet the parents?" He joked, which caused a small scoff to escape my lips. "It's not like you haven't met them before." I retorted. "Not in the way I had in mind.." he shrugged, "until now." Reciprocating his flirtatious humor, I rolled my eyes playfully. "Wipe that grin off your face."

Blake and I stepped outside and saw my dad's white Tesla parked perfectly on the driveway. He had just come home with my mom. "You never told me this was our ride!" Blake whistled, then looked down at me, "But then again what was I expecting?" My parents greeted us kindly as we buckled ourselves into our seats. I hoped that neither of them would say anything negative about Blake's family, I wanted this to be a good experience for all of us.

The car ride was very quiet, but that awkwardness would fade soon enough. We lived really close and within five minutes we had arrived. "So, Blake, have you been here before?" My mom attempted to spark a brief conversation. Blake shook his head no and kept his eyes glued to the exterior of the restaurant. "This place is really nice, it's hard to get reservations for it though. Thank you for inviting me." My mom gave a warm smile towards his admiration and hopped out of the car.

Blake and I followed closely behind my parents, who interlocked their arms together as they entered the restaurant. In the corner of my eye I saw something reach out at me; it was Blake's arm. "Shall we?" He smiled. I returned the grin and slipped my arm through his, comfortably resting my other hand on his bicep. He pushed open the glass doors of the restaurant called 'Shoreline Grill' and we stepped in together.