Friends With Benefits: A Troyler Story

Chapter Ten: The Morning After

A/N: YOU. GUYS. Your comments on the last chapter actually made me tear up, they were so amazingly supportive. I always want to dedicate my chapters to someone but there are just SO MANY of you leaving AMAZING comments that I don't know how to single anyone out without ignoring so many others! Thank you so much, especially to those of you who take the time to be super detailed, it really helps me to make sure my writing is what I want it to be. You're amazing!

I really hope you enjoy this chapter! There is a smut warning for this one! As usual, don't forget to vote, comment, and follow!

- Tyler’s POV -

Even after getting less sleep than him the night before (you try sleeping when you’ve just had a life altering epiphany . . . and when there is a beautiful naked boy draped over top of you) I still woke up before Troye did.

I was momentarily disoriented when I woke to find myself squished over to one side of the big bed I normally lie sprawled across, another body pressed tightly beside me. Somehow in the night Troye and I had ended up cuddling. His back was pressed tightly against my chest and my arms were around him protectively. When I realized who it was I was wrapped around, my heart sped up and my face broke into a ridiculous smile which gradually fell when I remembered that this, this sleeping over and cuddling and acting all cute together was not in the fucking plan.

You know what else was DEFINITELY not in the plan? Falling in love with the perfect boy that I couldn’t have. 

When Troye had asked where he would be spending the night last night, interrupting the full blown panic attack that was silently going on in my head, I had cringed internally at the question. Of course I wanted him to stay. But I had sort of promised myself that we would tone down the whole cuddling aspect of this friends with benefits thing, and anything else that would really blur the lines between friends and boyfriends. It seemed like sleeping together would probably fall under that category. Literally, sleeping together, that is.

But his eyes had been so heavy and his face so content. I knew he wanted to stay. Of course he did. He had just lost his virginity and no one wanted to spend the night alone after that, even if they weren’t in a relationship with the person they lost it to. I sighed internally. I had already known I was going to give in to him and when those big blue eyes had peaked up at me I had lost the battle for whatever tiny bit of self-will I had left. It wasn’t a difficult battle to win when at least half of my brain was screaming at me to let him stay, to let myself hold him through the night.

Troye had fallen asleep pretty much instantly, turning into my side and resting his head on my chest while my mind raced to grapple with the unexpected realization that finally sleeping with him had forced to my consciousness. This was not what was supposed to happen. I was supposed to sleep with him a few times, have fun, enjoy that gorgeous body, and help out a friend. Most of all, I was supposed to get some perspective that would help me get over Troye. I had thought that spending a couple of weeks as friends with benefits would satisfy my curiosity and desire and that I’d be able to move on.

Instead I had lain there in the dark, listening to Troye’s soft breathing, and my heart had sunk as I finally admitted to myself what I knew that sleeping with him had made me realize. I let myself think the words I knew I would never say out loud.

I loved him.

Now, in the early light of day, I sighed into Troye’s shoulder as I anxiously remembered my realization and thought about all the consequences attached to it. The truth was I had probably been in love with Troye for a while now and sleeping with him, which was supposed to satisfy what I thought was an infatuation (albeit a pretty heavy one) and some natural sexual attraction had instead made me realize exactly how deep my feelings ran. I mean, the realization that I even liked Troye as anything more than a friend had hit me suddenly so why wouldn’t the realization that I was in love with him happen the same way? Apparently I practically needed to be hit over the head to even notice my own feelings.