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Link lay on his single bed in his matchbox sized dorm room staring at the bottom of the bunk bed above him. With a heavy sigh he sat up, cursing his mind for keeping him awake with anxiety fuelled thoughts.
“Rhett,” He whispered to his best friend in the bunk above him, “you awake?”
A weak voice that suggested Rhett had clearly been asleep answered “Yeah, what’s up brother?”
“Can’t sleep.” Link replied almost too quietly. Rhett pulled himself up and let his head hang over the bunk to look at his friend through barely open eyes. “You wanna talk about it?” He asked with genuine concern. Link shook his head before hesitating. He looked at his half asleep friend with watery eyes. “Can I come up?” His friend lazily nodded and rolled over to let Link have some room on the small single bed. Link lay down gingerly next to his best friend. “You sure you don’t want to talk about it?” Rhett asked putting an arm around the smaller boy. “I guess I’m just missing home a little.” Link shrugged letting his, suddenly heavy, eyelids close. Link was an only child who had spent most of his time at home and settling in at college was proving difficult for him. “You’ll get used to it here soon. Plus, I’m here. Just like home.” His voice was a familiar comfort to Link, who now had no difficulty falling asleep, tangled in his tall friend’s arms. Both boys knew that in the morning it would be as though this moment never even existed. They would pretend that their bare torsos had never touched, that Link wasn’t sent to sleep by Rhett’s steady breathing in his ear or that they shared a bed so small that there was no space between the bodies, no place where Rhett Began and Link ended. This was how they seemed to live their lives, fleeting moments of intimacy-of romance- that were lost in deep sections of their minds but it didn’t seem to bother the friends who were content with loving in secret.
Rhett awoke to an empty bed, which was to be expected. He hung his head over the railings of the bunk to search for his friend but the dark haired boy wasn’t there. Rhett checked his watch for the time, “Shit!” he exclaimed to his empty dorm room, noticing he had slept in way later than he meant to. He threw on the clothes of the day before, gathered his books and sprinted down the hall and out of the building. Luckily Rhett’s long legs could carry quickly him through the campus with long swift strides and soon he was caught up with the dark haired boy. “Hey!” Rhett wheezed “Why didn’t you wake me?” Link laughed and turned to face his best friend. “I tried dude! You were out cold!” He pointed to the blond boy’s shirt, causing him to look down. “It’s buttoned all wrong.” Looking round to see if anyone had noticed Rhett handed his books to his friend and quickly sorted the buttons “Yeah well I was in a hurry wasn’t I?” gesturing for Link to give him his books back. His friend obliged with a light laugh. “Thanks by the way.”
“What for?” Rhett asked, flicking through his books to make sure he’d picked up the right ones in his mad dash to class. Link bit his lip “For last night, for helping me sleep.” Rhett shook his head and with a dismissive wave of his hand replied “Whatever, I was only doing what any other friend would’ve done. It’s nothing seriously.” The dark haired boy let out a sigh “Yeah, whatever.” Rhett was taken aback by his condescending tone but thought nothing more of it. They walked the rest of the way to class in silence, which was usual for the two, after 12 years of friendship silences were comfortable and a normal occurrence. Except something about this silence was different than before, Link was on the edge of saying something and Rhett could sense it. “Just come out with it man. What’s up?” Link looked straight into his best friend’s eyes and shrugged. “Whatever. It’s nothing, seriously.”
After class Rhett and Link headed back to their dorm, an unsettling silence still hung in the air between them but any time Rhett asked what was wrong Link would shrug it off so Rhett stopped trying.
“Dude you wanna play?” Rhett asked his dark haired friend, holding out a PlayStation controller. Link gave his friend a sceptical look before a small smile appeared on his face. He nodded and took the controller, sitting with his legs crossed next to the taller boy, “You do realise I’m gonna totally destroy you right?” He said. Rhett laughed, glad that his friend was somewhat back to himself, “You keep tellin’ yourself that buddy, if you believe hard enough maybe one day it’ll come true!” Rhett taunted, playfully ruffling his friends fluffy dark hair. “Yeah well today’s the day my friend.” Link retorted his eyes locked on his on screen character.
Rhett loved watching his friend play video games. In fact Rhett loved watching his friend period. Not like in a creepy way but just admiring from a far, the way his eyes lit up when he smiled and the way his collar bones stuck out when his shirt was off and the way he looked at Rhett with those big blue eyes and … “Hah!” Rhett was brought out from his trance by the unmistakeable sound of Link Neal winning. “I told you I’d destroy you!” Rhett crossed his arms defensively, “Shut up I let you win.”
“Oh yeah, sure you did” Link said mockingly.
“I did so!”
“You did not! I beat you fair and square.” Link poked his friend in the stomach, “You’re just a sore loser that’s all.”
“That’s it!” Rhett stood up and made his way over to the dark haired boy and without warning he flopped down on top of him, trapping Link under his body weight. Link let out a breathless giggle and tried to push him off, “Rhett! Get off man!” But the taller boy didn’t budge. “I’m dead.” Link spoke through fits of giggles “Dude, move! Let me go!” but Rhett refused to stop “Can’t move man! I’m dead!”
“If you were so dang dead you wouldn’t talk either. Get off!” both boys were in fits of laughter, Rhett propped himself up on his elbows to look at his friend and lay there for what felt like ages just laughing and looking at each other, Link placed a hand gently on his friends chest. “Stop looking at me with those big doe eyes.” Rhett almost whispered to his friends.
“You want me to look at you with my other eyes?” Link asked, a cocky smirk drawn on his face.
Rhett let out a half-hearted laugh “Shut up.” He bent his head down and rested his forehead on Links and slowly closed the space between their lips. They both settled into the kiss which got deeper and more passionate with every second. Link moaned against his best friend’s lips before pulling back. He put more pressure on the hand resting on his friend’s chest in an attempt to push him away but Rhett didn’t move, magnetized by his sudden lust for the smaller boy. “Rhett.” Link said pleadingly attempting once again to push his friend away. The taller of the two took the hint, rolling over with an exasperated sigh. “What?” He asked unable to look directly at his friend.
“We shouldn’t.” Link said, knowing all too well that Rhett would understand what he was referring to.
“Why not? It’s not exactly the first time.” Rhett stated blankly, looking anywhere but Link.
“Exactly!” Link’s volume increased, “We can’t live our lives like this, we kiss and sleep together and in the morning you pretend like it never happened!”
“What do you want me to do link?” Rhett exclaimed, “Open the window and shout ‘My best friend and I kiss and sometimes we even sleep in the same bed!’”
Link looked at his friend with teary eyes “That’s not what I mean, you know it’s not!” he looked down at his hands “Does this mean nothing to you? Is it just another one of your ‘college experiments’?” Rhett took his friends hand and paused for a moment to put together what he wanted to say. “No. It means something to me; I’m just not sure what yet. I guess I just worry what people would say if we were … This isn’t exactly the most progressive town in the world is it?” Link gave a sarcastic laugh.
“You’re right I guess.” He said with a shaky sigh, “I just wanna know that I mean something to you.” He sighed giving his blonde friend a shy smile.
“Of course you mean something to me Link, you’re my best friend.” He gave his friend a gentle kiss on his forehead. “My beautiful best friend.” He playfully punched his friend on the arm “How’s about a rematch?”