Aren't you happy for me?

9) That's enough, I'm leaving

Dec noticed two things over the next weeks. Ant became more withdrawn and Stephen became more agitated. He didn't have an explanation for both of their behaviour. But it made him sad.

Since that evening with Ant after his birthday things had somehow changed and he didn't know why. This evening had felt like the old times and Dec had laughed with Ant like he hadn't done in quite a while and he had thought that everything would go back to normal eventually, but in fact Ant had turned him down quite a lot over the last weeks, saying he was tired or busy. And that wasn't like Ant at all.

"I might call Ant, ask him if he wants to join us" Dec said when Stephen and he got ready to go shopping for dinner.

"Dec, you ask him every time and every time he turns you down. Why do you still ask him?" Stephen said.

"Because he is my best friend" Dec said stubbornly and played with the keychain on his keyring. Memories of them together came to his mind and he was determined to remain best friends with Ant, although they didn't see each other as much anymore.

He knew Stephen didn't mind, maybe he was jealous after all? Dec remained stubborn though, and he knew Stephen didn't like this keychain Ant gave him for his birthday. And Dec knew it was just because he adored it. And of course he could understand Stephen, he didn't want to share him. But Ant had always been a big part of him and Stephen knew that and Dec wouldn't give up on his best friend, not that quickly.

"Fine" Stephen sighed and Dec quickly put the key in his pocket. "Call him."

"Oh, I don't know, Decky" Ant said once he had reached him.

"Please, Ant" Dec sighed. "We haven't seen each other yet this week and Stephen wants to make a roast and I know you love a good roast" he begged and so hoped that Ant would agree. He missed seeing him often and he knew Ant had a stressful job but he really feared they would drift apart.

"Okay" Ant sighed.

"Okay?" Dec exclaimed.

"Yeah, okay" Ant said and chuckled. "I'll be over at around 7pm, okay?"

"Yeah, see you then" Dec smiled.

Ant put down the phone and sighed. He knew he shouldn't do this, but Dec had sounded like he really wanted to see him and he couldn't say no to Dec, especially when he was like that. So he decided to torture himself once again. For Declan.

When he arrived, Dec pulled him into a huge hug and Ant sighed contentedly. He loved hugging Dec, of course he did. He greeted Stephen afterwards and they sat down to eat.

Everything was fine there and in fact, Ant was even glad he came. They just chatted normally and it was quite nice. But when they switched to the sofa afterwards Ant was annoyed because Stephen was all over Dec.

Ant knew he was exaggerating, after all Stephen just had his arm around Dec and kissed his cheek from time to time, making the smaller lad giggle.

But Ant immediately felt uncomfortable again. It was always like that and he didn't like it. Still. He just couldn't get used to it although it had been almost 4 months now that they were going out.

They were chatting like before, it was actually a quite nice conversation, but Ant couldn't help but be bothered about the way they behaved in front of him. Although they weren't acting any differently than all those other times they had spent time together. But somehow Ant couldn't take it anymore.

But of course he didn't want to show, so he took a deep breath and smiled at them. He had learned to fake this smile over the months and even Dec seemed to buy it. But then again Ant was a good actor, always had been.

"So, how is work?" Stephen suddenly asked, pulling Ant out of his thoughts.

"Stressful at the moment" Ant sighed. "We have this huge project and we are in the final phase of-" He cut himself off because he noticed that they weren't even listening.

This was so not like Dec, he always listened to him, no matter how boring he thought it was he was telling, but Stephen was whispering something in his ear right now and it made Dec giggle and blush at the same time. Ant could only imagine what it was and something inside of him snapped.

"Okay, that's enough. I'm leaving" Ant said and he had wanted to say it in a funny way, but he knew Dec understood. Stephen chuckled, but Dec knew Ant was dead serious. He followed him to the door and grabbed his arm.

"Please, stay Ant" Dec sighed. "I'm sorry if you felt uncomfortable. I know you would like to have someone as well. I'm sorry if I was being insensitive."

"It's not that, Decky" Ant sighed and put on his coat. "Listen, have a nice evening, alright? I'm tired."

Ant quickly hugged Dec and made his way to his car, entering it and driving away before Dec could even say something. He just had to get out of there, it was too much.