Bromance

Ambiguous Advice

"Okay let me get this straight: he took you by the arm, flipped you on your back and now he's the one in hospital?" I laughed through the phone.

"Yes, I assuming he didn't warm up properly." Alistair replied.

"So you won by default?"

"Yes, unless he somehow heals from his back injury in two days." He sighed, "I have to say, it was an odd way to win, I feel bad for him-"

"Oh come on! He brought it upon himself; you have nothing to feel sorry for." I felt annoyed that he made himself feel guilty so easily for things he didn't even do.

"Okay, I guess you're right."

"Dude, I know I'm right." I said with confidence and listened to his comforting laugh.

"I'm flying out on Thursday and landing on Friday, should I go to school on Friday?" He asked softly.

"What? Ew no who does that?"

"Well, I would have already missed so much-"

"How about I collect all your work for the week, we meet up at the airport and I chill with you the whole day at your house?"

"Are you sure?"

"Trust me, it will be doing both of us a favour." I assured him.

"Alright...if you say so-" the ringing of the bell interrupted his sentence.

"Ah shit, break is over" I sighed, "I'll call you later, bye"

"Okay, talk later." He hung up and I switched off my phone before quietly stepping out of the toilet cubicle that Alistair sat in to read his books, and now I understand why he did it. It's like nobody knows this bathroom exists.

"Kyler!" Rita caught up with me on the way to science, "Where did you go off to?"

"I just wanted some time alone" I mumbled and stared at my shoes.

"Are you serious? I've been looking for you everywhere, why didn't you just tell me?" She sounded relieved and pissed off.

"I'm sorry."

"Are you still angry with Veranic? She feels bad and wants to apologise."

"I don't care about Veranic. Yes, she pissed me off but me wanting to be alone really had nothing to her okay?"

"Okay" She kept quiet and we walked in time with each other's steps.

"I was talking to Alistair." I said quickly before we entered the classroom so she would have no time to react.

---------------

"Do you like him?" Rita asked as soon as we walked out of our last lesson.

"Huh?" I said absent minded, trying to be remember whether my dad said he would be early or not.

"Alistair, do you like him?" She asked again as we stopped by my locker.

"Um-I" I began to feel flustered, "Why would you ask that?"

"Oh get over yourself, I mean as a friend" She sighed, obviously aware of where my mind was going.

"Oh! Yeah, he's cool and calm to talk to and stuff."

"Okay." She replied with a smirk on her face, as if she just figured out something nobody else knew.

"What?" I hissed, annoyed by her facial expression.

"Nothing" She shook her head, "I was just thinking about something. You spend a lot of time with him." She played with her long braids, twirling them around her finger,

"Yeah I do." I closed my locker and made my way to the gate.

"He likes you too, like he cares a lot about you."

"Okay why are you suddenly telling me this? Like I can kind of see for myself he likes me otherwise he wouldn't be trying to so hard to keep in contact with me even though he's got better things to do on the other side of the world." We reached the gate and sat by an empty bench.

"As long as you don't hurt him, because I know you can be cruel in relationships."

"I'm cruel?" I frowned.

"Yeah, you get bored so quickly with your relationships and then you just dump them in the worst way. So don't hurt him."

"What wait?" I didn't know if she was referring to Alistair as just a friend or more than a friend and this confused me, "Rita what are you saying? What do you mean I get bored of my relationships quickly?"

"Oh Kyler" She sighed with pity and crossed her left leg over her right one, indicating that shit just got serious, "How many relationships have you been since we become friends?"

"I don't know, maybe like 5" I shrugged.

"8" She corrected me, "Over the 3 years that we've been friends, you've had 8 girlfriends, excluding the girls you've had flings with."

"Okay...?" I could feel a lecture coming on.

"And what's the longest period you've had a girlfriend for?" She began twirling with her braids again.

" I don't know...a couple of months-"

"3" She corrected me again.

"Okay Rita that is creepy as fuck, how the hell would you know this?"

"Who's the first close friend you introduce them to when you think 'she's the one'?"

"You."

"Exactly." She answered, "Every 3 months you get a new girlfriend, if not you find flings for a week or so. How long have you known Alistair for?"

"I don't know...a couple of months-"

"3"

"Are you serious? You think I'm gonna stop being friends with him just because it's 3 months?"

"Shhh" She brought her index finger to my face, "How many girlfriends have you had since Alistair?"

"None?" I frowned at the question.

"How many flings?"

"Like 1? It only lasted an hour or so, when Alistair and I were fighting." I pursed my lips together and remembered the nasty bruise on his pale skin.

"He's changed you Kyler. Usually you act like a fish out of water if you don't have a girlfriend, but it's because you've got Alistair"

"Don't do that!" I began to feel flustered again, "Just because I haven't had a girlfriend doesn't mean I'm in a relationship with Alistair."

"Well you're  in just as much of a relationship with him as I am with you. Friendships are relationships, stop being so panicky." There was a glint in her eyes as she said it, as if the more I panicked the more it proved her something.

"Anyways the point is, I don't want you to just suddenly hurt him or leave him in his most vulnerable state just because you've ever been this way with a guy."

"Been what way with a guy?"

"Oh will you look at that? My mom is here to fetch me for once." She looked at her phone calmly as it rang, "Treat him right okay?" She kissed my cheek and got up to leave; and I sat there on the wooden bench trying to understand what the hell her conclusion was.