A Slice of Life

I Want You to Meet my Friends

Rex came running at Aleksei the moment he turned the corner and walked into the park.

"Hey, Rex," Aleksei greeted the overly enthusiastic dog who was literally jumping in circles around him. He crouched down, patting his head.

Maybe he spent a bit longer than necessary with Rex, because Rex was the easy part. Sam on the other hand...

When he really could no longer put it off, Aleksei stood and shot Sam a shy, small smile.

"Hey," he greeted Sam quietly.

Beforehand, Aleksei had decided that he'd give Sam a hug when they met again. Now that the boy was actually standing in front of him, all that bravado went completely up in smoke. He couldn't just do that. But what else should he do then?

"Uh ... Hey," Aleksei repeated, reaching for Sam's hand before realising that was way too formal now. But he could hardly leave his hand randomly hanging in the air either, so, he ended up awkwardly rubbing Sam's arm.

Sam had no idea how to greet Aleksei either, but the arm rub made him chuckle. He had already glanced around to see if anyone was near them, and when he was sure nobody could hear him, he greeted Aleksei with a cheeky; "Hey handsome."

"Honestly, you're the handsome out of us," Aleksei replied genuinely.

"No, really, it's the other way around," Sam replied with a smile. "But let's not get into that discussion. We're here because you wanted to play Pokemon Go, and I needed to walk Rex. And I don't mind doing it together." Sam scratched his head and took out his phone. "Maybe you can tell me how the game works. I've never played before."

"Really?" Aleksei couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice as he took out his phone. "I mean, sure I'll show you. I just didn't think you were geeky enough for pokemon."

Sam kept smiling, while he started up the game on his phone.

"I thought it was adorable when I first saw you play. You know, I like it that you just do what you want, no matter what others do. Like playing a game most people stopped playing a while ago," he told Aleksei, trying to compliment him.

"Thanks," Aleksei murmured, trying to hide his tomato face by dipping his head down to look at his phone..

"What do you like to do?" he quickly changed the topic. "Aside from walking Rex and going to the gym." He smiled at his screen. "And Netflix and Chill."

Sam let out a laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. He hadn't expected Aleksei to make such a joke, but he liked it. "Well," he started, still laughing a bit. "Besides those things, I like to play videogames. I'm pretty decent at first person shooters, so it's fun to do every so often."

Sam realized that was pretty much everything he did in his free time. "Well, and hang out with friends," he added to sound less pathetic. "What about you? Do you have more exciting hobbies than I do?"

Exciting? Hardly. Aleksei mostly had dorky and 'serious' hobbies. But since Sam hadn't even judged pokemon go, Aleksei glanced up. "I play the piano," he admitted. "Mostly classical music."

Sam's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You didn't strike me as a guy who can play the piano," Sam told him before he shuffled a foot, and looked down.

"But I'm probably not the type of guy that knows how to play the cello either," Sam admitted with a shy smile.

Now it was Aleksei's turn to raise his brows in surprise. "Really?"

Sam smirked, shrugging a shoulder carelessly. "My parents made my sister and me take music classes. I picked cello because I liked the sound of it the most," he explained. "So, yeah, I play the cello. Or at least, used to. Guess I'm really not the type for it, huh?" Sam nudged Aleksei with an elbow, still smirking.