Boy Next Door ✔

chapter thirty-two

C A L E B 

Even though five hours, if not more, had already passed since Mateo's arrival - he had ended up staying over at my place and even fell asleep on my bed, even after I tried to protest. Somewhere around half past midnight, I ended up waking up to take a piss and I decided to take my phone with me so I could confide in Dustin about my feelings. 

Which was how I ended up sitting on the closed toilet seat with my phone pressed against my ear, trying my hardest to keep my voice down. 

"What are you trying to say?" 

"I'm trying to say that I have feelings for him," I grumbled pitifully into the phone. 

"Nice. Feelings of sexual desire, feelings of hatred or feelings of murder?" he questioned playfully. "Come on, Caleb. I'm going to need you to be more specific."

"You idiot, you just want to embarrass me, don't you?" I huffed. "I'm saying I like him. I have a crush on him, if you will."

"No I won't."

"Huh? What do you- oh my God, Dustin. That's not what 'if you will' means," I groaned. "And please can you focus on the main issue here?"

"Right, I'm sorry. I'll stop playing around. Why don't you just tell him then?"

"To save myself the embarrassment of rejection," I confessed. "And that's not the worst part. Every little thing he does ends up driving me insane. I don't think I've ever felt this way about someone before. Not this strongly at least."

"Okay then just wait and see where time takes the both of you, I guess. I was totally expecting this, by the way. I knew you were going to fall for him sooner or later."

"How? Was it that obvious?"

"Just call it a best friend's intuition."

I was about to say something else when I heard Mateo let out a loud groan from the other side of the door. 

"Mateo, is that you?" I questioned in a state of panic. 

"Yeah, hurry up," he rasped. "I really need to take a shit."

"Geez, that's a little TMI," I huffed before checking my phone so I could hang up on Dustin when I realized that he had already beat me to it. Ignoring the stinging sensation of betrayal, I swung the door open and rushed past Mateo, not bothering to look him in the eye.

I quickly re-claimed my bed by plopping down onto it with a pleased sigh, already making figurative snow angels on the sheets. A few minutes prior to that, Mateo waddled out of the washroom and made his way over to my bed.

"Roll over," he insisted.

"No, take the spare bed."

"I don't want to take the spare bed, I wanna sleep on your bed," he whined like a toddler. "Please, roll over."

"Fine then," I said, beginning to sit up. "I'll take the spare bed."

That was when he rolled over onto the bed beside me and forced me to lay back down, drawing the sheets over the both of us. 

"Why? We can just sleep like this," he whispered, shutting his eyes and throwing his arm over me.

I swallowed nervously. 

Shit, he could definitely hear my heartbeat, right?

As much as I wanted to protest or push him over, I found myself rolling onto my side to face him, and like an idiot I spoke, "Can I hug you?"

Mateo's eyes slightly widened as if he hadn't expected me to say that - and in all honesty, I hadn't expected it either. It didn't take long for him to regain his composure and he spoke, "Come closer."

I obeyed and scooted a little closer. He secured his arm around my waist tightly and pulled me against him. I let out a soft sigh at the warmth radiating off his body, gradually enveloping me like a blanket. Then, still caught in a sleepy daze, I wrapped my arm around his figure as well and snuggled against his chest, figuring that I could just beat myself up over my stupid decisions in the morning. 

And instead of falling asleep to some Chase Atlantic song that night, I fell asleep to the erratic rhythm of Mateo's heartbeat.