Platonic

What Are Best Friends For

"Hey" I say as Newt opens his front door to his small apartment Thursday after uni.
"Want a drink?"
"Sure" I say closing the door and following him to the kitchen/living area and lean up the side as he puts the kettle on.
"So, nervous about tomorrow?" Newt asks
"I have to stand in front of 6 drama classes, around 9 teachers with strangers marking my work, in my knickers! and kiss my best friend, yeah I'm a little nervous" I admit and look up to him after a few seconds of silence to see Newt smiling. It was a happy smile, teeth showing with a glint in his eyes.
"What?"
"Best friend?"
I smile and glance away for a second before looking back to Newt. He seemed really happy and slightly smug about it. I roll my eyes and cross my arms.
"I thought Minho was your best friend?"
"I can't have 2?"
"I didn't think it worked like that"
"Minho is my best friend and now I kinda think of you as a best friend" I shrug playing it casual. Why was he making a big deal out of this.
He finally puts his attention back to the tea and I take a breath and sit on his worn blue couch.
"So are you nervous?" I ask with a smile as Newt hands me my drink.
He sits besides me and shrugs
"Not really"
We look at each other and laugh
"Yeah but you don't have to stand there in your boxers" I state
"That is a good point!"
"I'll be alright, I heard Winston and Melissa are doing Aladdin so it could be worse"
Newt smiles "yeah, there outfits suck"
Again we're laughing and I smile at Newt.
"So, shall we get to work?" He asks
"After the tea!"

During dinner earlier that day at Uni Minho could see how stressed I was becoming about acting in front of the drama board in pants. Rat man hadn't stopped talking about the scenes we were doing tomorrow, about how people from drama schools and a director would be there to mark us. 20% of our grade comes from this and we couldn't fuck it up. Minho said I'm confident in front of him in my undies causing me to kick him. But Newt said I need confidence and that he will help me after class. Which leads to why I'm here.

"So" Newt speaks up when I finish my tea
"You and Minho, why don't you show affection around uni, do you not want people to know you're together?"
"We're not together!"
"Ok sure, come on, It's pretty obvious!" He states with a raised brow.
"We're not together!" I repeat with an amused smile and his eyebrows furrow
"You have half naked pictures of him on your phone, that day you kissed, it's clear you had done that a lot, Minho said you're confident enough to walk around his bedroom in your underwear, if you two aren't together I'm questioning what you think a best friend is"
I laugh and put my empty cup in his sink and lean up his unit, facing him as he sat on his sofa and I take a deep breath.
"Ok, were not a couple but were not exactly just friends either"
"You're not making this easy for me huh?" He says with a smile and I return it
"We have sex occasionally" I shrug and Newt sits up more. An eyebrow raised
"Huh, see I knew there was something going on"
I smile and walk back over to him, sitting back besides him.
"It's just meaningless sex" I shrug
"You not worried you're going to fall for him?"
"No and It doesn't worry me, We can talk about everything, he's actually waiting for me to fall in love, he says its inevitable, he's just delusional"
Newt laughs
"Yeah that sounds like Minho"
We share a smile
"So you haven't fallen for him yet and you're both ok with just being friends with benefits?" I nod
"So what happens if you or Minho fall for someone else?"
"Then we end it straight away and just be friends"
"Why?" I ask after a minute of silence
"We'll, that was not what I was expecting, you're obviously really close"
"Best friends!" I state with a smile
"You said I'm your best friend"
"You are, but I'm not sleeping with you!"
Newt snorts a laugh
"It started that way with me and Minho. The first day we met we ended up getting drunk and stumbling in to bed with each other, I'd never done that before but Minho was fun, exciting, made me feel good. He was teasing, saying ill fall in love with him and I was determined to prove him wrong, it started as a game but then it just got to be normal for us, we didn't sleep together a lot, we hung out and became best friends and sometimes we will have sex"
"So you're practically a couple!"
"Ugh" I punch him playfully in the arm and he gives me a playful smile
"We're friends, friends help each other, isn't that why I'm here?"
Newt sighs with a smile
"Ok come on" he says standing up, holding his hand out for me.