One Night Stand with My Best Friend

He was breaking

“What? Really? How?” I asked, genuinely interested at that moment.

At this point we had reached the superstore and we were trudging up the drinks isle.

“Well, a few months ago, I found myself in a sticky situation. It was messy—I’ll just spare you the gory details. Anyway, so I’m laying half unconscious on the ground, at this point I’m ready to welcome death when I feel a weight being lifted off me.” He frowns at the branded alcohol in front of him, but I could tell he was frowning at the memory.

“I look up, and I see this kid, fighting my attackers, for a moment everything is hazy but I could tell by the way this kid was going, my attackers seemed to hesitate. It was after he beaten down one of them unconscious that they finally retreated and left…” He continued.

The usual Goosebumps appeared in the surface of my skin whenever I hear about Kyle’s uncanny habit. Stories of how deadly he was whenever provoked always found their way to my ears and every time a shudder would consume me. It was hard to believe that my best friend—the sweet boy who would hold me and compose me whenever one of those “Save a life” advert would come on TV and I’d almost broke down in tears—could be capable of being deadly whenever he fought. It was an incredulous notion but then again I’d never seen him in action.

I frown at the drinks in front of me too.

“…it was before I became unconscious and before the ambulance took me to the hospital, when I learned the kid’s identity,” James continued, he took a few bottles in the process.

“Kyle Reyes…I saw him again in the morning and we talked about the situation. He joked about it, made it seem it wasn’t a big deal that he practically saved me from death. He made me laugh and since then I vowed that whatever I could do to repay him for saving my life, I will gladly do it for him.” James stared at me for a moment, but I could tell that he was deep in his own thoughts.

Little did he know that I was deep in my own thoughts too.

Kyle saved James’s life? I was thinking. Typical of him.

A proud wave washed over me at the thought. That was Kyle for you, although I fully disapproved of his tendency to get involved in fights, I knew that whatever he did, it was for his own purpose. I’ve learned to live with it, part being ignorant of that side of Kyle.

“I’m not surprised,” I tell him. “It’s something that Kyle would do.”

He was blinking vivaciously at that moment as if remembering I was there and recalling where he was. He smiled at me, a small gentle smile that spoke volumes of how grateful he was of that day.

“Yeah,” He laughed, shaking his head as if remembering something. “He’s a genius too and damn, can he hold his drink. He’s sort of a walking legend amongst the parties I’ve invited him over to.”

I frowned at that. The thought of Kyle being friends with other people and not telling me about it sort of hurt. But then again he was friends with quite a lot of people so I needed not to know the list. However this was different. Here was James, whom he saved his life and he failed to tell me about it.

I shook my head at the thought and concentrated on filling the basket in my hands with drinks. When it was enough, James led the way to cashier.

“So is he coming?” James asked five minutes later whilst packing the drinks.

I stared at him confused by his question.

“Kyle?” he was hiding his amusement. “Is he coming to the party tomorrow?”

For that moment I wanted to comment on why he was asking me, since he mentioned that Kyle was a walking legend in the parties they attended. However, I figured since he now perceived Kyle and I as “Best Buds” he would assume I would invite him.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean I told him about it, but it’s not in my power in initiate the invite.”

James only chuckled, shaking his head. “I’ll ask him…unless you don’t want him there.” he hesitated as he said the last part.

I frowned. “Why would I not want him there?” I asked, trying to hide my vexed tone.

James looked at me warily as he brought out his cash to pay for the drinks. “Right-right.” He shook his head and a small smile was forming in his delicate but manly features again.

I was starting to think “Right-right” was his favourite phrase.

Taking the purchased goods in our hands, we then surged forward to the exit of the superstore where we started following the path to his car.

It was starting to get late and the time suggested that maybe everyone was back to the apartment with their own purchased goods.

When we got to the car, I could feel James’s eyes on me as I helped him pack the stuff in the backseat but I ignored his suggestive stares and got inside the passenger seat.

This time the journey was slightly silent, only the music blaring on the radio seemed to save the awkwardness. I couldn’t ignore that there was a thick tension lying between the air. It was obvious—to me—I found him attractive but like a great actress that I was not, I managed to conceal this attraction from him. He did not help, however, as he continued gazing at me back and forth throughout the ride.

But as I was assessing this situation with him, I couldn’t help but get lost in my own thoughts. I was digesting what he had revealed to me about Kyle and as much as I tried, I couldn’t help but compare the feelings I felt for my best friend and James.

Whilst my attraction to Kyle was sudden, unexpected and unwanted, considering our friendship. With James it felt kindled, soft and safe. It was the same feeling I had felt for my ex-boyfriend, Max. Although I tried not to rehash that relationship because of his infidelity, I couldn’t help it because Max had been part of my life. He was first ever boyfriend and while I did share my first make-out session with him, I hadn’t really love him. I was yet to experience true love.

I didn’t realise we already made it to the apartment until the car stopped, parking right behind my car.

“We possibly can’t get the drinks in all at once.” I commented as we both got out to open the boot of his car.

“I’ll call Ryland to tell them we’re outside and need all the hands to help us carry this shitload.” He smirked.

I shrugged and watched him as he proceeded into doing just that.

Five minutes later, Ryland and Sav stepped out of the apartment and headed over to us.

Nothing looked amiss, amongst them, no dishevelled appearance to indicate what they’ve been doing for the last hour but as Sav got closer. The look and grin on her face told me everything.

I narrowed my eyes at her as she approached me.

“Oh look at a w***e right here!” I hissed for her ears only.

“Oh, c’mon you’d have done the same too.” She grinned at me.

“No Sav, that’s where you’re wrong,” I told her, my disapproving stare still on my face.

She rolled her eyes. “Stop looking at me like that.”

“I really can’t believe you.” I folded my arms to my chest.

“Girls, less chat more lifting please.” Ryland commented in a grunt as he grabbed hold of some beer packs and sodas.

Sav moved to get some few bottles and I followed her with my unrelenting disapproval look.

“Keya! Stop it!” She hissed. “I hate to break that look on your face but nothing happened okay! We didn’t do what you thought we did.”

Taking some few packs and bottles, eight hands still wasn’t enough to carry everything but at this point, Sally and Sam were back, so Sam got the rest whilst Sally carried the easy plastic plates and cups.

I walked in step with Sav whilst the guys were in front of us.

“Explain.” I commanded her because I didn’t get what she meant.

“We didn’t have s*x contrary to what you thought we did.” She told me.

The relieved sigh I let out was evident.

“What did you do then?” I asked.

“Other things.” A blush surfaced upon her cheeks and I fought to gag at the dreamy look she gave to Ryland’s back.

“Ugh, that’s even worse.”

“For a virgin, Key, you sometime have a dirty mind. That’s not what I meant,” She laughed. “We simply just talked, made out here and there and talked some more.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “I am not dirty minded, your insinuations lead me to think the worse of you. Plus, I know you Sav, and quite frankly I’m finding it hard to believe you’ve been all innocent while we were gone.”

I knew she wasn’t going to elaborate more on the matter, I could tell by her secretive smile, so I let the issue slide away for that moment.

Once inside the apartment, all the purchased stuff where deposited in the kitchen. Whilst the rest of the crew assembled to the living area, Sav held me behind for a moment.

“Okay, you have to tell me what happened between you and James.” She inquired with curiosity.

I frowned. “Nothing happened. Why do you ask?”

“I’m not an i***t Key, why does he keep on staring at you? And why do you tense up whenever he approaches or talk, you weren’t like that before you left.”

I shrugged. I bit my lip as I contemplated whether to tell her I liked him. But knowing how she will react, I decided against it.

She frowned at my reaction. “Did he…” She hesitated. “Did he do somethi—?”

“No! God, no!” I cut her off because I knew where she was headed.

“Then, what?”

Sav was tenacious, that I knew of. She wasn’t going to rest until I told her.

“Nothing.” I insisted, because to tell Sav that I did find him attractive, she would not rest until she made sure advances towards him were made, whether inappropriate or embarrassing, it didn’t matter, unless in the end I got what I wanted or what she thought I wanted…a relationship with James.

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously and I could tell she was contemplating whether to let the issue go or keep questioning me, but, before she could open her mouth for her next sentence, I was saved from whatever it was she was going to inquire from me when my phone blasted beneath the pockets of my jeans.

The ringtone was familiar and I dug my phone out instantly, using the opportunity to get rid of Sav.

Kyle’s face popped up in my screen before I answered.

“Hey, what’s up?”

My greeting was followed by heavy breathing on the other line and from his next breathless word I could tell he’d been running.

“Keya?” Kyle answered me. It was that one breathless word that tore me up into shattering pieces. The tone itself was that I knew well. It was a voice of a broken record, sharp and tearing. The disparity and desperation was evident too. The voice wrought me to my sense. It beckoned me, it was seeking me, troubled as it was, I’ve heard that tone of voice from him before and like before I knew very well that I had to leave immediately. I knew I had to find him because he needed me.

Wherever he was, he was breaking.