Runner-Up - 8. Chapter 8

David was disappointed with himself for not seeing earlier that Kyle had tried to reach him, telling him that he wanted to come with him after all. The worst part is that he didn't have any real excuse. On his phone, the notifications for the call and the text had been buried with other text notification from his friends confirming where they were meeting. He had simply not realized that he still had outstanding notification until now.

David tried to call back, but Kyle didn't answer. Even if it was getting late, he didn't want to leave it there until the morning.

"David, it's your turn. Leave your phone alone for a minute and play."

The voice of his friend Lucas made him remember that he was still at the Sharx, a pool and bowling place downtown.

"Yeah, I'm coming."

David left his cell on the counter next to his drink, took his stick and came back to his ongoing pool game.

"You know, you can always save us some time and give up? There's no chance you can catch up to Lucas." Mike, another friend, said.

Lucas came closer to him and whispered "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just missed a call that I should have taken."

Lucas accepted the answer.

"Okay, but you know, Mike's right, you have no chance win this one."

They might have been right, David had four balls to pocket whereas his friend only had two left, but he wasn't about to just give up.

David was able to pocket two balls easily. Setting up for his third shot proved to be more difficult as there was no obvious path. Yet, he managed to get the ball with an amazing shot that hit two of the sides before going away in the far corner. Unfortunately, he had really no shot for the eight. He instead chose to play defensively and made Lucas next shot next to impossible.

"You said something about giving up?"

David was certainly not ashamed to gloat a little.

"Did you talk a little too fast, Lucas?" Their friend Allison asked.

"Not at all, he didn't win yet. It just makes it interesting."

David went back to his stool. As he was taking his drink, Allison got closer to him.

"Why don't you go and see him?"

David wondered how could she possibly knew what was in his mind. Allison correctly read the puzzled look on his face.

"You miss the call of a cute guy that you were supposed to meet. You can't reach him back. Now you're wondering what to do." She explained her reasoning.

"How do you know that? And it's not what you're thinking, he's just a friend."

“Ya, right. Lucas told me that you had asked if you could maybe bring someone along.”

Lucas had finally missed his shot, giving him the perfect excuse to walk away from Allison without answering.

When Lucas missed his shot, the white ball immobilized itself in such of way that it was a child’s game for David to pocket the black ball and win it all.

“Who said that it’s not over until it’s over? And on that note, I’m off.”

David walked to Allison and handed her the stick for her to take his place. Then, he put on his coat.

“Leaving already?” Lucas commented.

“Ya, he’s a coward, doesn’t want to risk losing to me again.”

Mike’s comment, even if they were said in a playful way, gained him dirty looks from Allison and Lucas.

“Shut up Mike!” Allison snapped. “Good luck David.”

Lucas gave a look at Allison, wondering what he was missing there.

Before heading for the door, David said his goodbyes.

"Lucas, I'll text you tomorrow. Allison, I'll be alright, just make sure that he doesn't drink too much. Mike, I'll see you around."

Once he was outside, David walked to the nearest metro station. The entire ride, he kept wondering what the hell he was doing. He knew that by the time he'd get there, it will almost be midnight when he'll get to Kyle's place. That's not to mention that, once he gets there, he will probably hit a locked door, having no idea whether or not if Kyle will be awake or if he'll want to let him in.

He got out of the metro on the south shore and briskly crossed the street to get to the building where his friend was living. Luckily for him, he happened to follow a resident and was therefore able to get to the elevators without issues.

He got off on the seventh floor and walked to the right unit. Still unsure of himself, he gently knocked at the door.

As he had expected it, nothing happened, he was still staring at a closed door. Without thinking too much about it, David tried the handle to realize that it was unlocked. He decided to let himself in.

The condo was only lit by the light of the TV that had stayed on in the living room. David saw Kyle sleeping on the couch and got closer.

His heart sank a little as he noticed that his friend had changed clothes since he had left a couple of hours before. It was obvious to him that Kyle had only been waiting for him to call back and to tell him to come over.

David wondered for a moment what he was supposed to do now. Should he go back to his dorm or should he stay, that was his options.

David couldn’t resist to brush his hand through the sleeping boy’s hair and kiss his forehead.

As Kyle was slowly pulled away from his dream, he realized that he wasn't alone in his condo. It took a few seconds for him to recognize the shadow over him.

"David! How? What are you doing here?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, the door was unlocked, so I let myself in."

"Alright, but why did you come back?"

"When I tried to call back, you didn't answer, so I came over instead. I feel bad for not seeing your call and message before."

It might have been due to the fact that he was still very sleepy, but Kyle didn't know what to make of David's actions. Even if he really felt bad, why would he take a chance and drop by his place when David must have known he'd be most likely sleeping.

"Well you came, even if you didn't have to go that far. We can call it squared."

Kyle tried to repress a big yawn.

David started to regret coming this late as he saw just how sleepy his friend was. Dropping by first thing in the morning would have had the same effect.

"Now that I'm here, I should really bring you to bed before you fall asleep on the couch again."

"That's fine, but you're staying over. Take the guest bedroom if you must, I'm not letting you leave."

Kyle led the way to his bedroom where he rapidly pushed off some dirty clothes and did a minimum to make the bed. David stood there waiting for his friend to finish. As he did, David helped him to undress taking off his shirt. Kyle didn't complain and let himself get undressed.

Once his shirt was off, Kyle himself took off his pants and socks. In the meantime, David rapidly undressed, leaving the two boys standing in their undies.

"The TV is still on." Kyle thought out loud.

"Don't move, I'm gonna take care of that, and I'll lock the door too."

While David left the room, Kyle took off his undies and got under the covers in bed. He didn't have to wait too long before David was back in the bedroom and under the covers.

Once David was with him, Kyle reached the nightstand and turned off the lamp. As he turned back around and got closer to his friend, he realized that David had kept his underwear on.

Kyle was disappointed that his friend hadn't got naked like him, but didn't feel like pushing his luck. He let it be.

David rapidly fell asleep, by opposition, after what seemed like hours, Kyle was still awake. Having his friend there made him realize that he had really missed having someone to hold onto at night. It however made him remember that the last time David was there in his bed, he also had Ryan on his other side.

He slowly felt some tears coming up to his eyes. He tried to fight them, but he was just unable and what was watery eyes became cries.

It didn't take long for the soft cry and ensuing sniffing to pull David from his sleep. It wasn't hard for him to guess that Ryan was the cause of those cries. He hesitated at first, but decided that it was better for him to try and comfort Kyle rather than worrying about letting his friend know that he was crying in the middle of the night.

David slowly turned around to be face to face with Kyle. He then brought him closer, in his arm. There was no need to say anything. Kyle slowly started to regain his composure and they both fell asleep without a word being said.

Kyle was the first one to wake up as the morning came. Instead of getting up, leaving his friend alone in bed, he stayed there, looking over at him. David looked so peaceful, Kyle didn't want to wake him up. He simply caressed his body here and there. He took pleasure exploring every part of David’s body, or at least the one that he could see or touch.

Maybe it was because he unconsciously felt observed, but David soon started to wake up. As he opened his eyes, a smile appeared on his face, noticing that Kyle was watching him sleep.

Before Kyle could realize that his friend was now awake, David stole a quick kiss on his lips.

"Morning!" David said still smiling.

Still surprised by the kiss, it took a couple of second extra for Kyle to answer back.

"Hey, you're awake! Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, I did, but I should be the one asking you that."

David purposely avoided mentioning the crying episode of the night.

"Good enough, getting hungry though.”

David thought that it was Kyle’s way to suggest going out for breakfast. Since he was kinda hungry himself, he agreed.

“I’m sure there’s a restaurant that serves brunch around.”

“Who said about going out? I’m preparing pancakes.”

“Alright, what will I have to do?”

“Nothing, just come in the kitchen with me, keep me company.”

In the kitchen, Kyle took out all the ingredient he needed he left them on the counter while he went looking for a big enough bowl to prepare the mix. Once he found the bowl, he started to add the ingredients one at the time, under the supervision of David.

“Why do you need beer to make pancakes?”

"It's my special ingredient, it replace most of the milk."

Kyle saw his friend's face showing some doubt.

"Hey! Don't diss my pancakes before you at least try it out."

"I haven't said anything. Just never seen anyone add beer to their pancakes." David tried to defend himself.

It didn't take long before food got ready. Kyle prepared the breakfast bar with placemats, knives and forks while bacon strips was cooking in the microwave. He then prepared two glasses of milk before finally sitting down with David, who had already been waiting at his place.

"Umm, there's something missing."

Kyle got up and start rummaging through the cupboards. David didn't see at first what they could be needing that they didn't already have until he saw his friend come back with maple syrup and brown sugar.

"Better now?"

"Yes, think so."

"Then stay and eat with me before it gets cold."

David didn't mind getting pampered with a nice warm breakfast, but he was getting annoyed that Kyle didn't seem to stop and enjoy the pancakes and the bacon with him.

"Yup, now I will."

Food turned out to be very good. They both ate maybe a little too much, the two of them being completely full and barely able to move after.

"What do you have in mind for today?" Kyle asked as he was starting to clean up their places with his friend's help.

"Well, once we finish the dishes, I'll probably have to get going actually. I need to get back to my room before getting with some friends and study. I have an exam on Wednesday."

Kyle knew that at some point David would have to get back and do his thing. It didn't change the fact that he was hoping it would have been later.

"Same friends you were with last night?"

"Nah, I don't have them in any of my classes actually. No, they're not so much friends but more like a group of guys from my class."

"That's sounds alright. What about tonight or tomorrow?"

Kyle was trying to see if he could find a moment to hang out with him again. However David didn't seem to pick up on that.

"Not sure yet, I'm probably gonna get dragged to a party or something tonight. Tomorrow, I'll have all kind of exercises to do for my accounting class I'm taking."

Kyle didn't really like the answer he received, but he understood it. He himself had enough school work to keep him busy the whole weekend.

With David’s help, Kyle was able to wash the dishes and clean the kitchen in no time. When that was done, David didn't waste time, he went to get his bag, then put on his coat and shoes and was ready to get going.

After Kyle was left alone, he couldn’t help but feel a little let down. It bothered him that David hadn’t asked about him, what he’d be doing for the remaining of the weekend.

He felt like David didn’t care. Kyle knew it was stupid for him to think like that, as if David really didn’t care about him at that point, he wouldn’t have come back on a Friday night when he most likely was having fun with his friends, just to apologize, for lack of better word.

But then, Kyle started to think that David came back the previous night just because he felt really bad and was taking pity on him.

Kyle stopped that line of thought right away and reminded himself that David had shown in the past that he cared about him, and that he wasn’t just being selfish wanting to hang out only when it’s convenient for him.