Infatuated

VII [updated]

      "See you tomorrow." Ness waved Lucas off as Lucas simply nodded in reply, but Ness knew he meant well. He instantly missed the feeling of Lucas's hand in his, and clenched his fist. This was really, really, wrong. No one in Onett had liked another boy. Another girl didn't like another girl. What would the baseball team do if they found out? What would the school do? Hell, what would Lucas, Paula, or his mom do? Ness shook his head and pulled his cap down. It was dark, but it wouldn't hurt to go for a walk.

     The street lights illuminated off of metal benches, a slight halation forming on each one. It was just becoming spring, wasn't it? It felt a bit chilly, but it was enough to bring Ness back to his senses. He couldn't tell Lucas. That was it, that's what he had to decide, but something in him just told him that that was the wrong decision. He can't ruin this for Lucas, though — he was finally starting to stutter less around Ness and was gaining confidence in himself, if Ness made things awkward it was just going to reset all the progress they'd made and make both of them feel awful.

'But what if he felt the same, or at the very least accepted it?'

That thought kept repeating over and over in his mind, and maybe he was right because Lucas really wouldn't stop being friends with him over teenage feelings, but it was too much for Ness to accept. Maybe he should go out with Paula like everyone had been urging him to do. Sure, he had feelings for her back in middle school, and she does like him still, but that wouldn't be right to just lead her along like that. Ness's thoughts continued to race until he found that he had walked himself to the park. Sighing, he decided nothing could go wrong with practicing a few hits.

     Of course. His thoughts wouldn't automatically clear like that. His mind wandered to Lucas at his games, and how happy he looked. How excited he got when the team scored (or specifically, Ness scored a point for the team), and how he greeted Ness after a game. Ness grabbed another ball from his bag and hit it as hard as he could, smiling in satisfaction as he heard the crack of the bat. A few more hits and he was done, he shouldn't worry his mother anymore than she already was. He packed up his bag, and walked along the sidewalk again trying to clear his mind.

'It's really peaceful here at night, huh?' He thought to himself. He pet a stray dog and gave an old snack left in his bag to a crow flying by, laughing at the way it pecked at it so angrily. He opened the door slowly as he walked into his home, ready for a big talking to. But there was no yells of concern, but his mom watching a soap opera.

"Where were you?" She asked, no hints of anger in her voice.

"I took Lucas home. Then I went for a walk and hit a few balls at the park."

"Why'd you go to the park this late?" She still hadn't turned her gaze from the television.

"I needed to clear my head." His mom didn't reply, but only nodded as if in somewhat knowing.

     Ness sighed as he slid his bag off of his arms. It never hurt to carry it just in case the chance arose to practice, but now it felt like a burden on his shoulders. He plopped on his bed and stared at the ceiling, letting his thoughts wander again. He turned around and threw his head into his pillow, letting out a loud groan. This was just weird. Why'd it have to be Lucas? Sure, liking your best friend wasn't too unheard of (and to be honest it happened way too often for a lot of people), but why'd it have to be a boy? Why'd it have to be with someone who might not be able to handle knowing the fact that there's feelings there? Ness, who was someone that was normally easily composed and could make hard decisions just like that, was being pulled apart by the threads by stupid teenage romance.

     Ness woke up to his alarm screaming at him and his mom yelling at him to turn it off, the annoying beeping had found its way into his deep sleep and disturbed him greatly. He hit the button to turn it off and sat up. He was still in his normal clothes and wasn't even under the blanket. To be honest, he couldn't even remember when or how he fell asleep. His cap was even on the bed, just a bit to the side of where he had fallen asleep. He threw it on over messy hair and decided to just wear the same clothes as before and ran down the stairs to eat breakfast.

"Good morning sleepyhead," His mom greeted.

"Your alarm has been going off for at least ten minutes before me or Tracy heard it."

Tracy, obviously annoyed, was at the door to leave for school. "You've gotta get a less annoying alarm if you're going to sleep through it." She said as she exited the house.

"Sorry, I... I guess I was just exhausted last night. I didn't even change into my pajamas or bother to get under the covers."

Ness's mom let out a slight laugh in reply, "I guess that's your body telling you that sleeping at one a.m. and playing sports doesn't mix too well," She scolded as she handed Ness a plate of food. Ness sat down in his usual chair and ate slowly, staring at the TV that played a boring program as was the usual in the mornings.

"Oh, and Ness," His mom started, "Your dad says he'll be able to come for your birthday."

Ness instantly lit up. He hadn't seen him in person since he was in elementary school or so. He was always off on work trips, and his mom was the only one who got to see him every so often. "Really?" Ness's mom nodded. He had completely forgotten that his birthday was in the next few weeks — he was just so distracted and could honestly care less. But now he had a reason to care, and as he looked at the time he gasped and ran up the stairs to grab his bag and washed his plate.

"Bye mom!" He said excitedly as he ran out the door. He felt so stupid, he was a teenager but getting excited like a little kid over candy. But all he had were phone calls of support and encouragement over the past few years and maybe this would get his mind off of the recent events.

     Lucas turned towards Ness as soon as he entered the cafeteria. Today it'd be really hard to ignore him. With a smile plastered across his face, he bounced towards Lucas. Lucas tilted his head as Ness made his way towards their usual table, and slammed his hands down.

"Um... Yes?" Lucas questioned quietly.

"My dad's coming over for my birthday! God, I'm so excited- I..." Ness had to sit down to stop himself from making himself look like a fool from being all giddy.

Lucas had smiled softly to himself. "That's good to hear. I'm happy for you. Oh no, I'm sorry if that sounded sarcastic, I'm really, genuinely happy for you, I —"

Ness stopped him mid-sentence, "I know you didn't mean that sarcastically. You're not mean. Oh yeah," Ness said as his mind went back to his birthday, "What weekend are you free this month? I can have my birthday then."

Lucas had a confused look on his face, "Well, I'm free every weekend, as usual."

"Oh-" Ness was suddenly embarrassed by his blunder. He tried to laugh it off, "Haha, yeah. Why not next weekend?"

"Sounds good to me." Lucas was all he needed to invite to his birthday, honestly. But he knew he should at the least invite Porky, Paula, and Jeff. He scribbled some invites on notebook paper and decided to give it to them sometime that week. As they were called to class, Ness waited for Lucas, and Ness just hoped he wouldn't become one of those idiots who made it obvious about their crush. But he knew he'd already started to make it obvious, so what point was there in hoping to fix it?

Oh well, it couldn't hurt.

-

[ a/n i changed the time period to the late 90's - early 2000's. i originally set it in the late 2010's because it would make sense for lucas, but i think this time period makes the most sense for the story ^__^ i'm gonna make some tweaks to earlier chapters so it'll make more sense and the time period will flow together

also troye sivan and weezer got my inspiration flowing really well s/o to you troye, ily. go listen to bloom and pinkerton. at least if you want to, that's what i listened to while writing this chapter :')

it's really long so i'm not sure if it flows together pretty well, but i hope it does. ]