Enemies with benefits

Chapter 11: Square 1

Colby had begged his mother to give him the day off school -just the thought of having to deal with shit from Sunday made him feel physically sick- but she insisted that he rip the bandage off and face it. So, there he was awkwardly standing by his locker wondering who the hell he was going to sit with at lunch and what he was going to do if he saw Ezra.

"Hey, man." Finley said. His fingers were playing with his bag strap as he wore a timid smile on his face. "How are you feeling?"

Colby strained a smile. He hated it here, he didn't want to be here anymore. He wanted to disappear to the opposite side of the world where nobody knew him and no one had a reason to laugh at him. "Not great."

"Listen, man. I know I fucked up not telling you about all the other stuff Joanna had done, I swear I didn't even know until I heard someone else whisper about it and by then you two had already broken up. I know that's not an excuse and I should've just told you, but... you hadn't come to school in over a month. All you did when I came to your house was sit around in different places. I missed you so much and I hated seeing you like that, I just wanted you to come back to school. So, when I heard that Joanna had always been a cheater, I didn't tell you because I didn't want her to hurt you more than she already had. I thought it was for the best. I'm so sorry, Colby." Finley sniffled as he finished his little speech and he dabbed his eyes with his palms.

"Are you crying?" Colby asked, absolutely shocked,

"No." A tear ran down Finley's face. "Fuck off. I've just got hay fever. Stop staring at me."

Aw, how could Colby stay mad at that? "Come on, bring it in."

"No, it's fine. I only wanted to apologise, not hug-" Colby squeezed the living daylights out of Finley. He nearly suffocated the guy with all his love and affection and really strong grip that Finley was not getting out of anytime soon, so he should really stop struggling.

"See, this is nice." Hugging Finley reminded Colby that there was a height gap between the two. Finley's chin barely reached Colby's shoulder.

Finley slapped Colby's back. "Okay. That's enough. Our bromance is mended, I get it."

"No, let's carry on for a little more."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"You afraid you'll like it?"

"Don't make this gay, man. You know I already disapprove of your lifestyle."

"What if I gave you a little kiss on the ear." Colby followed through with his threat.

"Never do that again. That's gay."

"You're gay."

"You have no evidence of that."

"If you're not gay, then tell me what you did with Brent at camp."

Finley cracked. A smile spread across his face from ear to ear. "Oh, you know, guy stuff. Just two guys doing manly stuff."

"Promise to tell me at some point."

Finley nodded. "So we're good?"

"Yeah, we are." Colby finally released Finley from his iron grip. "Plus what else was I going to do? Find someone else who puts up with my bullshit like you do? Impossible."