𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐤𝐢𝐬𝐬

Chapter Seventeen.

    

     ROMEO USUALLY FINDS out about parties from Stevie, but this time, since the girl is sober now, he finds out from Missy, who drags him out with her and Sasha, to Harper and Darren's housewarming party. He mostly stood around with them and spoke to them until he saw Malakai was here, so he walked over, smiling. "Want a beer, mate?" He asked and Malakai just nods his head softly.

"Here." He handed one over and Malakai sighs, glancing around. "What am I doing here, man?" He asks. "I ask myself that everyday." Romeo merely replied with, shrugging as he glanced around. Just to find Spider staring right at them. He looks back at Malakai, "why are you considering Switzerland?" He asks quietly and Malakai sighs, looking down before bringing the beer up to take a sip.

"It'd be a better option than whatever all of this is... did you know Amerie and Rowan were kind of becoming a thing? She was asking him to the movies today." The Mitchell boy says and the Castillo boy sighs, tilting his head. "Shit, dude... that sucks." He frowns and then he reached over, patting his arm. "But hey, you have Missy and I. Keep that in mind, yeah? That girl would do anything for you, and so would I." He says and Malakai smiled.

"Thanks..." He says and Romeo smiles back. "I'm gonna go grab a drink." He tells the boy, shaking his beer can to emphasize that he needed a new drink. "Yeah, okay." Malakai nods as Romeo pointed. "You should go sign the art wall. It's a pretty cool idea." He says before he walked away, over to where all of the drinks, mixers and bottles of liqour are.

He pours some vodka into a cup, when Spider came up to stand to the right of him. He looked over and smiled at the blond who just smirks, glancing away. "You've been avoiding me." He says. "Nah. Just giving you a chance to miss me." The brunette replied. "It's working." The blond brings up his hand to his back and Romeo quickly turns away.

"What are you doing?" He asked and Spider looks away. "Oh. Um..." He said and Romeo just sighs. "Not here. Meet me downstairs later?" He suggested and Spider just nods, staring at him. "Aww, standing by the drinks to force girls to talk to you?" Sasha now walks up, grabbing one of the bottles of alcohol. "Ew." She said before she walked away. "Right?" Romeo scoffed then followed after the So girl.

Later on, Spider walks downstairs and spots Ant there, sitting on a couch. "What's wrong with you?" He asked, sitting onto the back of the couch next to his best friend. "Girl troubles. Whatever." Ant replied. "Yeah. I feel that." Spider says, looking away and rolling his eyes. He won't even admit it to his own best friend, how would he be able to admit it to Romeo.

"I've been trying to prove to... this girl, that I can be friends with her without wanting to hook up. At first, I didn't. It was sick having her as a mate. But now I can't say anything or she's gonna think I was trying to hook up with her this whole time." Ant explained. "Yeah. That's brutal." Spider replied with. "Guess it's like Voss says, can't let girls mess with our heads." He says and Spider shakes his head. "Yeah, but what if that's all bullshit though? Why don't we just lay it all on the line? Tell them how we feel?" He asks and Ant looks up.

"Like... with our words?"

"Yeah, that's right. Why not?"

"Why the fuck not?" Ant says, looking up. "Why don't we just come out and tell them what we want?" The come out being literally. "Shit, yeah, like radical honesty, bro." Ant said, sitting up. "Yes, dude. Like, radical honesty." Spider says, patting his arm. "Yeah, I'm gonna do it." Ant says after chugging his beer.

"Thanks, man." Ant walks off. "Proud of you." Spider tells him, then huffs as Romeo walks by, smiling at him. "Radical honesty, radical honesty." He repeatedly whispered, then got up to go after the Castillo, chugging the rest of his beer and tossing it to the side. "Romeo? Ro?" He whispers, walking around the covered up cars when the boy jumps out, yelling.

"Jesus Christ!" He exclaims as Romeo is just laughing at him. "Are you trying to make me shit myself?" Spider asked him and Romeo just steps closer. "Aw, sorry, did I scare baby Spence?" He asked, before pushing Spider against the vehicle and connecting their lips. They passionately kiss for a couple seconds then Romeo pulls away.

He reaches for Spider's belt, undoing it but then Spencer's hands stop him. "Wait, wait, wait, wait. Um... I wanna talk to you about something." He says and Romeo raised his head. "Yeah?" He says quietly and Spider just stared into his eyes. "I've been wanting to kiss you all night, and all day at school too." He admits and Romeo just blankly stared at him. "Okay." He says quietly and Spider goes on.

"I want to be able to do it whenever." He confesses and Romeo just furrows his brows. "Not just when we're alone. Not just when we have to hide it." He said and Romeo steps back. "Look, I know I can be a bit of a prick," Spider gently pulls him back, "and I know everyone thinks I'm just a probbo dickhead. But... I want to be better." He added on.

"You make me want to be better." He tells the Castillo who just stared up at him. The Romeo a couple of months ago, from last term, would have been a pile of mush over this, he would have been so happy to hear those words come from Spencer White. But the Romeo now feels like it's just too late. "What? You steal that from a movie or something?" He asked sassily and Spider just chuckles, looking down.

"Look, if I could be different or something..." He began and Romeo just shook his head. "You can't though. People can't just change who they are." He tells him, backing away again as Spencer now grabs his hand. "But if I could..." He says as he takes the boy's other hand into his. "Could you see yourself being with... someone like me?" He asks and Romeo just stared into the taller's eyes.

"If I'm being honest, I would have said yes, last term... but now? I--I don't know." He said and Spencer glanced away. "But that's not a definite no?" He asked and Romeo just sighs. "I'll believe it when I see it. Okay?" He says and Spider just smiles. "Good enough for me." He said before leaning in, one of his hands now cupping Romeo's face.

The two slowly move down to the floor, but they don't exactly go all the way tonight, just got each other off and then Spider just held Romeo in his arms, leaning against the wall. Romeo liked it this way, hiding it from everyone, especially since they were competing for school captain. It truly would have been different if this was happening the previous semester, he would've said yes right away.

He leans back, holding his hands on both of Spider's shoulders, "I better head out..." He says quietly and the blond nods, staring up at him. At home, Romeo laid in bed and scrolled through social media for a bit, before he found himself back in his recently deleted photos. He smiles, staring at Spencer in the photo.

He knows what that unreadable expression in Spider's eyes is now... And it scared the absolute shit out of him. Meanwhile, at home in his own room, Spider began to take down his posters from his walls, before standing there and staring at the now naked walls, smiling.

authors note
romeo "i prefer him the way he is and he doesn't have to change" castillo. 😭

+ sorry i didn't update for 4 days, i was busy enjoying my trip with my family <3