So This Is Love?

If you had told me that my best friend would be an English blonde who somehow happens to be the most competent and well-read man on the earth, I would have thought Nora was just setting me up to make a fool of myself. The first day we moved in together at school I was taken aback by how put together he seemed, certainly couldn't say the same for myself. Collections of Jane Austen and other literary classics filled his bookshelf in his room, and it just so happened that for an English class, I was taking he had the exact book. The worn cover of Pride and Prejudice shows how much love has been given to it. I open up to start reading and I see that in the margins are Henry's annotations. His handwriting is even perfect. It's infuriating. What is more infuriating however is how Henry is pacing around the room waiting for his date to come to the front.

"Would you quit pacing, Jesus the people downstairs are worried that the floor is going to fall through!" I say as Henry finally stops in his tracks.

"Alex could you please say something encouraging for once please," Henry says exacerbated.

Unfortunately, if I were to say something encouraging and nice I wouldn't be able to stop myself. It was unfortunate really, this crush that I was harboring for Henry. For all Henry knew I was straight, and that is a national travesty. I wasn't going to ruin our friendship for my feelings, that wouldn't be fair to him. I was truly excited for him, it was about time someone saw how great of a person he is.

"You look great Hen, really. Now would you just get your ass downstairs and have a good time."

He looks at me with those piercing blue eyes and a small smile before heading out of the door. As the door hatches closed I took the deep breath I'd been holding the whole time. Hen was the affectionate nickname I came up with for him, one day it just naturally slipped out, and as I started to ramble out an apology he interrupted me;

"Alex it's fine, I actually like it, don't worry."

Well, how was I supposed to recover from that? News flash I still haven't. From that moment on Henry and I fell into a rhythm as roommates. Some nights I would cook dinner, some nights Henry would bake, and some nights when we were just too bogged down with school work it was the perfect opportunity to order take-out. It was our own little world that we lived in. Just a couple of weeks ago I come in after a late Constitutional Law class to Henry's door being closed. Normally Henry's door was open as we spent many nights talking about our days and classes, but now it was closed off to the world. I set my stuff down quickly in my room and headed towards his door. Behind it, I heard muffled crying, and my heart broke.

"Hen?"

"It's fine Alex just go work on your homework." He says, his voice quivering from the tears.

"I'm really not busy, can I come in please?"

"Okay."

It's the faintest and I barely heard it through the door, but I turn the knob slowly and walk into his room. Everything in the room is the same, but as my eyes meet Henry's, it's clear he had been crying for a while before I got home. His eyes were red and puffy and the tears that were falling stained his cheeks. I sat down next to him, placing my hand on his back, and slowly started to trace circles along his spine. It's a couple of minutes of this until either of us speaks.

"What's going on?"

"If I tell you I don't think you'll see me the same." He says, just above a whisper.

In order to break the tension in the room I add a quick one-liner in there.

"Did you murder someone?" I ask, and I can see a slight smile form on his face, but it quickly fades.