"The Experiment" - Ianthony (Smosh)

Chapter 1 - The Experiment

*Anthony's POV*

As I opened the door to Ian's bedroom, I saw him lying on his bed, holding a book in his hands. I couldn't see the title on the front page - neither an image. "What are you reading?" I asked curiously, wanting to know the topic of the mysterious book.

Ian winced and shut the  used-looking book he was holding, hectically putting it in a drawer of his bedside table. "Knock the next time, you idiot! That scared me."

I shirked. "Okay." I pointed at the drawer he put the book in. "So, what were you reading?" Ian was just scratching his stubby beard without answering my question, so I decided to start talking about the topic for which I came in my friend's room.

"May I have a seat?" I asked, not wanting to have to stand the entire time.

"Erm.. Yeah,  sure!" Ian replied with a smile, moving a little bit and making space for me to sit on the bed. As I went to the bed and sat down, he pulled himself together and sat up, so that we were face-to-face.

"What is it?" he asked, looking not that sure if he should be serious or not.

I looked at him for a few seconds before I decided to talk. "It's about... you." I started. "Well, in fact, it's more about us. I have the feeling that you avoided me the last few days, could that be right?" I decided to not tell him that it really hurt me, though. Anyways, I was pretty sure that he was aware of it.

"I didn't.", Ian replied with a played cold, emotionless voice. "How did you come up with that anyways?"

I ignored his question, knowing that he was lying. "Is it about the kiss?" I asked carefully, looking away from my friend's gaze.

This will probably sound very weird for people who don't know what happened a few day ago, when we were shooting the friday-video for this week. I played my character Antoinette and had to 'accidentally' kiss Ian on the lips. That’s what was in the script, but instead I kissed him on the cheek. Nobody complained when I told them that I did this, because otherwise we could probably get bad comments. But in reality I didn't care about the comments at all. It was just so weird, having to kiss my best friend, while all the other people stare at us. And then having it in the video... I just couldn't stand the idea.

"So, is there something wrong about me, or what?" Ian suddenly asked. His voice was loud, but I heard that he was frightened of the answer. "Why didn’t you kiss me, like it was is the script? I remember you writing this part! Tell me." he added when I didn't reply.

I shirked from his look and twiddled my thumbs. "Why do you think that there is something wrong with you?" I asked him, honestly wanting to hear the answer. "I just thought it would be better this way."

"Well yeah... But you refused to kiss me, and that really... hurt." I heard him swallow after confessing this to me. "It’s not like this would've been our first kiss."

I felt my cheeks blush, when I remembered the few kisses we exchanged when we were younger. 'Nothing serious, just experimental. ' - at least that was what my mom said, when she saw us kissing in my bedroom. There was a strange feeling in my stomach, when I thought back to it. Was it really just 'fun'? A joke? It felt like so much more to me, but I always kept sure that Ian wouldn't find out my opinion. To be honest, I thought that my friend forgot those memories, or at least tried to delete them from his memory. The fact that he is still aware that we had some sort of relationship once made me nervous.