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"Oliver."
"I don’t want to talk about it, Connor."
"Okay, but why?”
Oliver crosses his arms and walks to the other side of his dorm room, boxing up like he always does when he’s pissed at Connor. But Connor, for the life of him, has no idea what he did wrong this time.
"Look, Ollie. If you want to throw our friendship away, I should damn well know the reason why."
"Friendship?" Oliver asks, voice breaking on the word. He turns away from Connor and looks out the window.
Connor’s chest fills with lead. “That’s what we have, isn’t it?”
Oliver’s quiet for a while. But just as Connor thinks maybe he should leave, Oliver says, “Why didn’t you tell me about your… crush?”
"My…" Connor swallows down the lump rising in his throat. Blood pumps fast through his veins."You know about that?"
"I overheard you talking," Oliver says. He doesn’t sound happy. "I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to but I did."
Why isn’t he happy?
"I didn’t think it’d be a big deal." Connor doesn’t know what to do with his hands so he stuffs them in his pockets. "I didn’t think you’d react this way."
"How am I supposed to react, Connor?" Oliver turns around. He waves his arms out. "You have to know how I feel about you!"
Connor frowns. “I thought I did.” I thought we felt the same. He can’t say it. He’s too embarrassed. Apparently, he totally misread all of Oliver’s signals. Not only does Oliver not return his feelings, he is absolutely appalled at the idea.
It hurts. Everything hurts.
Connor never expected this from Oliver - sweet, kind Oliver, who once covered Connor with a blanket when he fell asleep on his couch. None of the secret blushes he cast Connor meant anything. Or the shy smiles.
It was all platonic.
Connor should have seen this coming. He never should have let himself fall in love.
This is Aiden all over again, but worse - because it’s Oliver.
"We can still be friends though… right?" Connor’s smirk is fragile and forced. It falls right off his face when he sees the devastation in Oliver’s eyes.
"I don’t see how," Oliver says. He shrugs but his shoulders slump immediately afterwards. "I can’t lie about how I feel. I won’t.”
"I’m not asking you to lie. I’m trying to give you what you want!"
Oliver blinks. His brow pulls together. “What do you mean?”
"You want to be just friends!" Connor says, maybe a little louder than he means to, but shit, why is everything falling apart when all he wanted was to openly love Oliver? “That’s what I’m trying to do!”
"No," Oliver says. He tilts his head, narrows his eyes, and looks at Connor like he’s trying to dissect him. "You want to be just friends.”
Connor presses his lips together. He opens his mouth to say something, but quickly closes it again. He waits a second or two before saying, “What?”
"I heard you saying that you had a crush on some guy. Some - hot, smart, funny, whatever - guy. Some not me guy.” Oliver shakes his head, then pushes his glasses back into place. “I’m sorry, but I can’t pretend I’m not… with you… I thought we had something.”
The weight lifts from Connor’s shoulders. He’s so light now he could probably float right up to the moon. Maybe he’s already there. Maybe that’s why he can’t stop laughing, even after Oliver crosses the room toward him with a worried look on his face.
"Connor?"
"It’s you," Connor says, though he can’t speak right quite yet - still laughing.
"What’s me? Connor?" Oliver places his hands on Connor’s shoulders, and Connor, slowly, stifles himself. "What’s me?"
"My crush, Ollie. It’s you."
"You mean…?"
"Yeah. One hell of a misunderstanding, right?"
Oliver blinks and the sadness is gone from his eyes. The confusion, too, although Connor isn’t very fond of the disbelief that replaces it.
Connor reaches up and takes Oliver’s face in his hands. “I’m going to kiss you now.”
"Okay," Oliver says in a shaky breath.
"And I’m going to kiss you now until you tell me to stop."
"Okay."
Connor moves slow, leaning in just enough for his lips to brush over Oliver’s. Oliver scared him there. For a minute, he’d thought he’d never get this - thought he might lose Oliver forever.
But now he knows.
They’re both too quick to assume.
Oliver opens his mouth in a silent invitation, one which Connor enthusiastically accepts.
When they break for air, Oliver says, panting, “Don’t stop. Don’t you dare stop.”
So Connor doesn’t.