A Slice of Life

You're whipped

Sam found it hard to believe he coincidentally walked into Aleksei in the park. He had never really had a real crush on a stranger, and he had already shoved the idea of Aleksei aside as soon as Jordy had paid for their pizzas a couple of days ago. As soon as the door closed and Aleksei was out of sight, Sam had forced him out of his mind too.

Sure, Sam had his fair share of crushes on guys, but they were always guys he knew, and saw at least a couple of times a week. There had been time to develop a crush. He didn't believe in love at first sight, but he couldn't exactly explain what it was about Aleksei that caused him to think about the boy again—ever since they met in the park, thanks to Rex.

He cursed himself that evening. While Jordy was setting up things to watch Netflix, and maybe game a little, Sam had ordered pizza again. He couldn't help but stare at his phone screen, waiting for a name to pop-up, telling him who would deliver their pizzas, secretly hoping it would be Aleksei.

Aleksei cursed himself too when he immediately hit the accept button on an order from a certain ginormous house. Immediately after that, he slipped into the kitchen and sneaked out two slices of pineapple pizza without cheese for Rex.

Why? Why would he do any of this? He should've waited and left the pizzas to Aeng—the other boy would've definitely picked up this order. This was just plain old self-torture since he had no way of going home and fixing himself up to halfway decent. A mint, using his hands to fix up his flat helmet-hair, and some deodorant would have to do.

"Aleksei! The pizzas are finished!" the manager yelled from the kitchen.

Aleksei rolled his head back and groaned as he looked at the ceiling.

"Hey, you don't feel like taking these? I can take this one, and you can stay in and take the next," Aeng offered. "I'm dying for some fresh air."

"No!" Aleksei immediately replied, the words coming out much more snappy than he intended. He cleared his throat. "I mean: no, thanks."

This was rapidly getting worse and worse. Now he was even protective over Sam's pizza? He'd all but pressed the pizza to his chest and hissed.

Aleksei sighed deeply, hauling the bag holding the pizzas onto his back before taking off.

This was going to be a long, long night.

To Sam, there wasn't enough time that night. He instantly jumped up from the couch when Aleksei's name had appeared in the app, rushing upstairs. He couldn't possibly answer the door in his sweatpants again. Not to mention his hair, or his teeth.

He needed to brush his teeth.

And all the while dressing himself in a decent way, brushing his teeth, fixing his hair, Sam kept cursing himself. He shouldn't even feel bothered to try and impress a guy that was only coming to his house to deliver pizzas. Pizzas he ordered himself.

Aleksei wasn't coming over because of him, but simply because of the pizzas, and the fact that it was his job. So why did Sam put in that much effort to look as good as possible? There was something about the boy, he knew. But this was getting out of hand quickly.

And as soon as Sam got back downstairs, Jordy confirmed that Sam was making it too obvious that he was trying too hard to impress a pizza delivery guy. "You're so whipped," he commented, causing Sam's face to heat up.

"Shut up," Sam replied with a bit of annoyance. Though he mostly felt embarrassed because he was being too obvious. It was one thing for Jordy to know about his sexuality. But Sam didn't want to give him any ammo to tease him with a crush.

"Sam and Aleksei..." Jordy started with a sing-song voice and a mocking smirk on his face. "Sitting in a—"

DING DONG.

Sam silently thanked Aleksei for his perfect timing, granting him with a reason to get the hell away from Jordy. Well, that, and he was happy that he would see Aleksei again—maybe he could get him to smile tonight. He opened the door with his best smile to greet Aleksei.

"Hi there!"

Aleksei felt blood rushing to his face when a widely smiling Sam opened the door. "Hey, I brought you something," he said, cringing hard at how awkward that came out. He quickly occupied himself with taking the bag off of his shoulders and zipping it open.

"My pizza, I hope." Sam joked with an awkward chuckle right afterwards. He felt a bit disappointed that Aleksei seemed to do everything in his power not to look at him. Is this why he spent the last ten minutes 'getting ready'? He wasn't even sure Aleksei was into guys. Why was he trying this hard?

Aleksei's lips tugged up about half a centimeter—though it was partly an embarrassed smile, too. "Yes," he answered, handing Sam not two, but three pizza boxes while already questioning his decision to take the third box.

Was this too obviously going out of his way and gay?

"One of them is some... pineapple pizza for Rex," he explained.

Sam stared at the boxes, surprised. He did notice Aleksei almost smiled because of his joke, but he did not see that coming. "For Rex? That's, eh, nice." He answered with an awkward laugh. "Let me call him." Sam turned around and called out for Rex, who barked somewhere in the house, before he came running into the hallway.

Sam couldn't help but laugh a little when Rex immediately ran towards Aleksei, greeting him enthusiastically. "I think you have a new best friend," He told Aleksei with a smile. He didn't mind at all that Rex liked Aleksei. On the contrary, to him it was proof that Aleksei was a good guy. Always trust a dog's instinct. "You can feed him the pizza, if you want?" He offered Aleksei, holding out the box with Rex' pizza.

"Okay," Aleksei agreed, taking the box back. Feeding Rex wasn't necessary and he would've declined anywhere else. But here? He just... didn't want to leave yet. He would've taken any excuse to stay a little bit longer and watch Sam smile.

"Here you go," Aleksei told Rex, crouching down as he opened the box and let the enthusiastic dog eat its contents. He patted Rex's head after he was done eating.

When he stood up straight again, he was torn between wanting to start up another conversation and knowing he had to go to the next house to make it in time.

Sam had lost track of time, and the fact he was stalling to keep Aleksei from going caused him to slightly jump in surprise when Jordy showed up by his side. Jordy nudged him, seemingly a bit impatient. "Dude, if we want to finish the movie before your dad kicks me out, we have to start. Besides, pizza is getting cold, you know?"

Sam knew he was right, and he didn't want to keep Aleksei from doing his job. On the other hand, he really rather wanted to stay there, and watch Aleksei pet his dog, and maybe try a little harder to earn a smile from Aleksei. He already knew he would melt once Aleksei genuinely smiled.

"So, yeah..." Sam drawled awkwardly. "Jordy's right... I should get inside." He really didn't want to go, and a little more stalling couldn't hurt, right? "Thanks, for bringing Rex his own pizza." He told Aleksei, not wanting him to think Sam was a jerk that wouldn't thank him for the gesture. "That was swe—, eh, swell."

Swell? Aleksei thought to himself. Like, his cheek could swell after a beating? It was probably slang, and Aleksei did get the gist of what it meant. He would look that up later and for now pretend he totally got what Sam was talking about.

"No problem," he replied politely.

SWELL!? Sam internally screamed at himself. Swell? Really Sam? That's what you come up with?

"So, did you pay?" Jordy sheepishly asked Sam, taking the pizza boxes in hand to take them into the living room.

Sam felt his face heat up once again, and hurriedly took out his wallet to pay for the pizzas. "Oh, right. Here, keep the change."

"Thanks," Aleksei said, reaching out to take the money and allowing himself to let his fingers brush against Sam's briefly. Not too long. Not so long Sam would think anything of it, even if Aleksei felt his face grow even hotter. He could hardly believe his own boldness.

"Enjoy your pizza."

Sam stared towards his hand, mostly the place where Aleksei had touched him, stammering a goodbye before closing the door.

Jordy was right; he was whipped.