Runner-Up - 13. Chapter 13

Saturday morning, David was waiting for Lucas at the main entrance of the residence. Lucas had texted him earlier wanting to know if he wanted to get breakfast together.

David's friend arrived a couple of minutes after him.

"Hey David, sorry, I wanted to drop my bag upstairs. Hope you didn't wait too long!"

"Nah, it's alright."

They decided on going at the Eggspectation on Mainsonneuve and De La Montagne Street, a nice little restaurant that only makes breakfast and brunch at a reasonable pricing.

"So, tell me, what did you guys do last night?" David asked in the fifteen minutes walk to the restaurant.

"Not that much actually, I brought her to a nice restaurant, then we went to the movies."

"Oh, that sounds like a nice couple night out.”

“Yeah, it was. So, are you coming tonight or what?”

Even if he really wanted to come for Allison, David had already made up his mind. After all, he did made the promise.

“Nah, I can’t. It’s not that I don’t want to, I had already told Kyle that I’d spend the night at his place.”

Lucas didn’t see the problem.

“Why don’t you have him come to Mike’s? I mean, that way you do spend the night with him, but still get to come.”

David saw where it would resolve the issue and be a good compromise, but he still hesitated.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure if it would be the best time to have you guys all meet him.”

“C’mon, what are you waiting for? It’ll be fun.”

David started to think seriously about the option. He would just need to make sure that Kyle would be alright with the change in plans. Which he was fairly sure he would be.

“Who else is coming?”

"Her friend Rebecca will also be there, otherwise that's it. You, Mike and me."

"I can't promise anything, but I'll ask Kyle and we'll see."

Breakfast was good, the restaurant was a little busier than what they would have hoped for, but they didn't regret it.

"I don't want to go back and study." Lucas lamented softly after he paid the waitress.

"You're going back at Allison's to study?"

Lucas chuckled.

"She doesn't want me to come anywhere near her, nor to, and I quote, contact her in any form until the evening. Something about me preventing her to study."

David managed to hold in a laugh. He could certainly see Allison's point as he remembered getting bugged every few minutes when he had agreed to study with him for the midterms.

David saw his friend's pleading eyes.

"Don't look at me like that! I'm definitively not studying with you. I'm still amazed you were able to get a B-plus or better for all of your classes."

The two of them got up and left the restaurant.

"Alright, I'll ask Mike then."

"Can't you do it by yourself?"

"Oh, I can do plenty things alone, but it's always better if you're with someone."

Lucas couldn't help but to smile at the double entendre he made. Whereas David tried to ignored it this time.

"Oh, I'm not doubting you."

David left Lucas as they arrived at the residence. David wondered just how much studying his friend would actually get done.

Once David was back in his room, he sat in front of his book, at his desk, until he realized that he should talk to Kyle.

Normally he would have texted him, however, he wanted to get the unfiltered reaction of his friend. He simply initiated a FaceTime video call with him.

“Hey David!” Kyle said, waiving at the camera as the connection came up.

“How are you?”

“Not bad.”

“What time did you want me to come over?”

Kyle didn’t know what to answer. If it was up to him, he would have answered ‘right away’.

“Well that’s up to you; I’m not going anywhere this afternoon, so it’s whenever you’re ready.”

“Alright, I’ll come around five. Did you have anything planned for us to do?”

It was the moment of truth for David, and the slight delay in Kyle’s response was killing him.

“Not really, I thought about simply watching a movie or something like that. You have something in mind?”

“My friends are doing a get together for Allison’s birthday. If you want, we could maybe drop by after dinner?”

It meant that Kyle wouldn't have what he really wanted, a night alone with his friend. However, he was more than willing to let it pass as it meant he would be meeting David's friends. It was something Kyle felt should have happened months ago.

“Yeah! For sure! It could be fun. It will allow me to finally get to know Allison and Lucas a little."

"Alright, I'll tell them we'll be passing by later on."

Before Kyle let his friend end the conversation, he quickly asked.

"Do you have a preference on what will be for dinner?"

David thought for a moment.

"Nah, anything will be fine."

After the basic see-you-laters, Kyle ended the conversation. He preferred stopping it right away as opposed to let it drag since they'd be together in a few hours.

The afternoon was quite straight forward for Kyle. After having a noodle soup for lunch, he spent the day reviewing for his classes.

David arrived, as expected, a little after five. He managed to get in with other residents and came directly to Kyle's door.

They prepared dinner together, making homemade pizza, while talking about their week and about the cold winter slowly creeping up on them.

Twenty minutes later they were able to eat their creation in front of the TV while watching Gordon screaming and cursing in the kitchen.

After having watched another episode of Hell's Kitchen, it was time for them to get going.

"We're going by car?"

David asked when he saw his friend going for his car keys.

"Ya, it's gonna be faster this way."

For David, it wasn't making any difference, if anything, it was better this way as he wouldn't have to pay for the metro fare.

Kyle didn’t need the direction from David to Mike’s apartment he remembered where it was from when he and Ryan had looked it up. They arrived a little more than five minutes later.

He stood behind his friend on the front porch as David rang the bell. A few second later, Mike opened the door wearing sweatpants and a sleeveless t-shirt.

“Hey come in! You’re the first one to arrive. I just spoke to Lucas, they should arrive in about thirty minutes.”

As David came in, Mike realized that he wasn't by himself.

"Aren't you gonna present me?"

Kyle felt unease and somewhat intimidated as he got inside and as Mike closed the door behind him.

"Mike, this is my friend Kyle."

"Hey Kyle!"

It might have been only his imagination, but he got the impression, by looking at his host's expression, that Mike would have preferred to be alone with David

"If you don't mind, I'll just get changed. You can wait in the living room."

The TV was already on and set to the Habs game in the living room. Kyle got interested enough to look at the score, still zero all, but David couldn't have cared less at that time.

"You alright?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah, I just hoped that Allison and Lucas would be here by now. Anyhow, I should be the one asking you if you're alright!"

Kyle wasn't nervous at the moment, but he knew that would probably be different later on.

"I'm good, but I'll tell you how it went when we'll leave."

Suddenly, a cell left on the living room table started to ring. David came close to laugh out loud when the ringtone was the parody song 'This Boy Is A Bottom' and saw on the call display that it was Lucas.

"Mike, your phone's ringing!" David said so that his host could hear.

Immediately after, Mike was coming out of his bedroom and into the living room wearing nothing but grey underwear.

Kyle noticed that he wasn’t the only one admiring Mike's toned body.

It was as if Mike wanted to be admired; instead of going back to his room with his cell, he stood there finishing his conversation.

Kyle certainly didn't mind it. From what he understood of Mike's side of the conversation, Allison and Lucas were delayed, something about a call, but were now on their way.

After he hung up, Mike told them what Kyle had already guessed; Allison had to talk to her mom, but they were now on their way.

Mike lingered a little in the living room before going back in his room.

Kyle waited to be sure their host was out of earshot before passing his comment

"He might annoy you a little, but he sure has a great body."

"For that, he sure does, and he certainly doesn't seem to mind showing it off."

When Mike got back, they simply watched the game while having meaningless conversation to fill in the uncomfortable silence.

A good forty-five minutes later, the birthday girl and her boyfriend finally arrived with booze at hands.

"Took you guys long enough!" David discretely said to Lucas as Mike and Allison were walking in the living room.

Lucas answered him as he was taking off his shoes.

"One day you'll have to explain me what you have against Mike."

When the two if them joined the rest in the living room, Kyle was already getting to know Allison.

"Hey, you must must be Kyle! Glad to finally meet you."

Lucas got closer and shook Kyle's hand.

"I was telling him how I didn't know why David, here, was so hesitant in us meeting him." Allison said.

"You're right about that!"

Kyle felt bad for his friend, except for Mike, who showed no desire to get involved, everyone was ganging up on him and there wasn't anything he could honestly say in his defence.

"It just didn't happen!"

David started to stand up for himself, but Allison cut him off.

"David, you know we were teasing you, right?"

They all ended having a great time, they talked, drank more than enough, had a birthday cake and watched movies.

From time to time, Kyle did feel like an intruder in the group, but every time Allison noticed that he was getting quiet, she made sure to include him back into the conversation.

It was well past midnight when they all left Mike's place.

"Do you guys want me to drop you off back at your place?" Kyle asked the couple as they were outside.

"Nah, something tells me that David doesn't want to go back to his room. So, it wouldn't be on your way."

"Suits yourselves! I guess we'll see each other soon enough."

"For sure!" Allison answered while kissing him goodbye.

Lucas simply nodded and the two lovers started walking away.

Back in the car, Kyle navigated his way through the one ways and within minutes they were already on the bridge.

Kyle broke the silence first.

"It wasn't that bad! They were all nice."

"Ya, I guess so."

"Did you enjoy the evening at least?"

"Yeah, it was fun."

It annoyed Kyle a little that he wasn't able to get answers more than a few words. He was trying to get a conversation going.

Kyle figured out that his friends wasn't in the mood or, most likely, too tired to think too much.

That conclusion was confirmed as they arrived at his place a few minutes later. David didn't waste time to say he'd be taking a shower and get ready for bed.

It suited Kyle well as he too was tired and felt like his bed was calling him by the time David had got out of the bathroom, turned off the lights and prepared the bed. After his friend arrived in the bedroom, Kyle quickly left for his turn in the bathroom.

As Kyle came back, not long after, he found David playing on his cell on top of the bed.

"Bedtime or you had something else in mind?"

“Nah, bedtime it is. I was just waiting for you.” David said getting off the bed.

Kyle removed his underwear and got into bed without saying anything more, and so did his friend.

****

The following morning, David was the first one to wake up. After spending what seemed to be a lifetime awake in bed, just laying there, watching his friend sleeping soundly, David decided to get up.

After a quick stop in the bathroom, he got to the living room. He went through his bag and found what he was looking for, one of his notebooks. David was on his way back to the bedroom when he saw Kyle's laptop on the coffee table.

He decided that his friend wouldn't mind that he'd use the laptop and made the trade, his notebook for the macbook. David then went back and installed himself on the bed, computer on his lap.

Once open, David couldn't help but notice that there was a couple of interesting pictures of hot looking guys saved on the desktop. It made him wonder what else he could find if he took the time to go through the hard drive.

Even if he strongly thought about it, David had too much respect for personal privacy to go through Kyle's files.

Having himself a macbook pro, David had no difficulties finding the web browser and going onto Facebook. His friend's session was still open.

Here again, he completed the sign-off of his host's account before going onto his own page.

Almost an hour later, Kyle started to stir up. The clicking sound of the light keystroke eventually woke him up.

"What are you looking at?"

Kyle's voice was still sleepy.

"Hey! Morning! Not much, just reading the news back and chatting with friends back home. I took your laptop, I hope it's alright."

Still waking up, Kyle had trouble processing all the information that he was provided. He mainly just understood that David had taken his laptop and was on the net.

"Ya, of course it's alright. What time is it?"

“It’s still early enough.”

“What does 'early enough' mean to you?” Kyle wondered, still amazed by how good his friend was looking sitting next to him.

"It's not even nine."

Kyle grunted "So let me get this straight. You're in bed with a nice guy, naked I might add, and instead of snuggling up with him, you're on the laptop!"

"Yup!" David answered with a smirk plastered on his face.

"I'll remember that next time."

Kyle got closer and turned on his side to be able to get a hold on his friend.

"Did you have something planned for today?"

"Not really, I did all the work I wanted done yesterday before coming here. I know I should study some more, but I feel like doing nothing all day."

Kyle started to think about what he could suggest that would make his friend want to spend the day with him.

"We could always go shopping, or even better, we could go walk on mount St-Bruno. This time of the season, I'm sure it's quite nice."

"Yeah, I'm not sure if I really want to freeze my ass off outside all day."

"Then there's always going shopping or even staying home and watching movies all snuggled up."

"I don't know, we'll see."

David closed the laptop and set it on the nightstand, before he moved himself to rest his head on Kyle's shoulder.