Progress, short stories & whatnot

Definitely nothing gay here...

Ok, here's a short story for two characters from "Evelyn", Gene and Grayson. If you don't know, I ruined Gene's life, so I thought I'd give him something nice, my friend suggested the idea of giving him a boyfriend, I didn't know I needed that in my life, but I do.
Small trigger warning: mention of alcohol abuse
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I sat on my couch watching whatever stupid show was playing on TLC. What? It's like almost 2am, what am I supposed to do? Sleep? No, I gotta watch this lady pick a dress, then watch another one, and another, how long does this go on for? I check to see what comes on for the next 4 hours, it's all say yes to the dress. Does this program not have any other shows?

I decided to pick a different channel, but to no one's surprise, there's nothing on. Maybe I can just pick something random to play on Netflix. I closed my eyes and moved my mouse around, after clicking on the side of the screen a couple times, I finally clicked on some horror movie, good thing I don't work tomorrow. Horror movies are always heads or tails, you either get something scary, or you get something that only a music shift makes you jump, not a good sign for your movie. So far this one isn't go straight into the spooky shit, it's setting the plot, giving you time to guess how the whole thing's gonna go down. I don't watch too many horror movies, so I couldn't tell you nothing.

As I zone out and have all sound that isn't the movie drowned out, gentle tapping on my door nearly makes me piss myself. I pause the movie, after I did a small "Grayson?" followed. I got up and opened the door. Gene was on the other side, I push the door open more and let him in. He looks cold and almost sick. I mean, it's cold outside, obviously he's cold, but is he sick from the cold? Or from not taking care of himself? He went over and sat on the couch, after shutting and locking the door, I joined him.

"Where'd you come from?" I knew where he came from, the bar probably, this is starting to become a problem.

"I was just around, what are you watching?". It isn't unusual for Gene to give a vague answer and change the subject, but I guess I'll play along for now.

"Just some horror movie", I sigh and hit play. I really need to bring up the problem, we can't keep avoiding it, we shouldn't only bring it up when he's drunk.

"Gene?" He hums in response. "This has to stop"

"I could stop crashing here if you want-"

"no it's not that" I take a breath, Gene can sometimes get violent when he's drunk, that's rare though, he's more of a sad drunk. "You going to bars to drink away your problems is what needs to stop".

He shot me a look. "It's not a problem, there's nothing wrong with going out and drinking".

I paused the movie. "yeah, there's nothing wrong with it when it's on occasion, but you go and get drunk every night"

"I'm not drunk". I study him for a second, if he was, he'd be a mess, and this argument would go differently.

"Maybe not tonight, but a good portion of the time you are. Maria and Miles say the same thing".

"Oh come on, it's not a big deal"

"yes it is! Gene you're just throwing yourself down a hole and we-"

"Grayson, You're making a big deal about this-"

"no I'm not! Addiction is serious! You have to-"

"I'm not addicted!"

"Gene! Can you just..listen to me .. please?". He stopped for a minute, looked me in the eyes, and breathed in "Ok".

He isn't drunk, but people get defensive. "You mightn't see the problem, but everyone else does. I know your life isn't easy, and I don't think I'll ever understand, but I do understand that you're just destroying yourself". I look at him, he doesn't say anything, so I keep going. "Too much of anything is bad for you, especially when that thing takes you away from us". My hand grabs his arm, probably from instinct since I do this to Mari.

"Make me a deal?"

"What?"

"The next time you want to drink, come to one of us instead. We'll do literally anything that isn't drinking". He stops to think for a moment, then his hand went over mine and squeezed it.

"I'll try". The touch made me feel warm, and I wanted him to hold me again- "good". I took my hand off his arm and I looked at him, he looked exhausted. I glanced at the clock "I should probably let you go to bed now"

"you don't have to go". My heart keeps racing, and my body feels warm, am I having a stroke? Well having stroke feels nice so I'm gonna stay here with Gene. We'd just talk a bit, and then there was silence till someone wanted to break it.

Have I always felt this way around Gene? Is this what Mari meant when she said I "acted different" around him? I mean, I do find myself tripping over myself around him, and I'd get really giddy. Am I...in love with him? He came from a very Christian family, does he support lgbt? Is he lgbt? I should test it first before I tell him how I feel.

"Hey, umm, I've been meaning to tell you something but I keep forgetting" just get it out on one go, "I'm gay". Silence after coming out? Always feels horrible. He finally looked over at me and said "that's ok, I'm not freakishly religious like my parents if that's what you were thinking"

"ok good, the silence freaked me out"

"do you have a boyfriend?"

"No, but I uh, I think I'm in love..with you". Ok, now my heart's racing and I hate it, the stroke no longer feels good, kinda wish I hadn't said that, but it was eating me up, I had to. He just stared, he looked surprised and flustered. Was it from anger or did he feel the same?

"I...don't know if I love you or not"

"then kiss me and find out".

Excuse me? What did I say? When did I think that? Oh fuck go back, press the unsay button, he's moving closer to me, oh um I'm not ready but at the same time I am. Is he even gonna do it? Fuck I'm sweaty.

He places his hand on my thigh and leans in. Ok ok ok ummm, body don't stop working now. His lips connect to mine. My body only stopped working for a second, then my hand was on his back and I was kissing him. I was kissing him, it felt nice, it makes me want him to feel the same way. I want to do this forever. When he pulled away, I opened my eyes and was met with his pale green ones. I smile, "so?".

As I longed for the answer, he moved his hand from my thigh to my chin, he tilts my head up, and kisses me again. This time my body didn't stop working, I kissed him again, and I put my hand on his back and pushed him closer. Since he wasn't expecting that, and I wasn't expecting the guy who probably hasn't ate a proper meal in about a year to be this heavy,  I fell back on the couch. We broke apart from this kiss just so he could laugh.

"So does this mean we're dating?"

"No Grayson, it means we went from friends to really good friends".

"Shut up"

I sat up and cuddled into him, he wrapped his arm around me.