One Hot Summer (boyxboy)

Chapter 25: The friend with benefits

"I guess I'm not good enough for you now."
☆

Zeke pulls away from Thomas who is laying on his back on a sleeping bag in their two person tent.

After a busy day of trekking in the mountains and some fishing, they had ended up here, snuggled in the small space. They had been making out but Zeke had felt that for some reason, Thomas wasn't as into it as usual. Zeke sits up, resting on his elbows, looking down at his friend who was laying in front of him, in body, but Thomas' mind was obviously somewhere else.

"Tom, what's up?" Zeke says in a groggy tone.

"Mmm?" Thomas looks at Zeke as if he's just remembered his presence.

Zeke rests his head on his upward palm, moving slightly to lean on his side to face his best friend. "You're usually all over this, but I can tell something's not right."

Thomas rolls his head to the side looking at Zeke who has a hint of concern on his face. He raises his hand, reaching over to cup Zeke's cheek. "I'm sorry Zeke." Thomas says no more, though Zeke knows him well enough to know there is more to it than meets the eye.

"I guess I'm not enough for you now." Zeke chuckles, placing his hand on top of Thomas' and moving his head to kiss Thomas' palm, before placing both their hands back down on the ground.

"Zeke you're my best friend. You know I love you. You are more than enough for me." Thomas smiles before again reverting back to his glazed expression.

Zeke suddenly sits up and straddles Thomas, grabbing his wrists and pushing them either side of Thomas' head. Thomas is taken by surprise. Looking at Zeke hovering over him. "Zeke! What are you doing?" Thomas tries to break free from Zeke's grip, but he is a lot stronger than Thomas, despite his shorter stature.

"Tell me what's up." Zeke says staring Thomas in the face.

Thomas looks up at his best friend with mild panic. Continuing to try to break free. "There's nothing wrong Zeke. Let me go!" Now thrashing his legs below his friend, but Zeke stays in place.

"Listen to me!" Zeke says in a firm voice. This causes Thomas to stop his writhing. "I will ask you 5 questions and all you have to say is yes, or no! Ok?"

"Is that one of your questions?" Thomas smirks.

"No!" Zeke says with a stern voice, tightening his grip on Thomas' wrists, causing a half hearted glare from Thomas.

Zeke clears his throat and begins. "Ok, have I done something wrong?" Zeke asks his first question.

"No," Thomas replies, smiling and causing a slight sigh of relief from Zeke.

"Has your grandpa upset you?" Zeke squints his eyes a little.

"No...well no more than usual!" Thomas chuckles.

"Has somebody else got under your skin?" Zeke waits for an answer but Thomas holds out a little, causing Zeke to apply pressure to Thomas' waist with his knees.

"Ahh...yes!" Thomas eventually gives in.

"Who has gotten under your skin?" Zeke asks.

"I don't have to answer that." Thomas says, smirking.

"Why?" Zeke says

"It's not a yes no question. Ha you've just wasted a question....aaah!" Thomas receives another squeeze to his ribs.

Zeke has one last chance to work it out. He spends a moment thinking about Thomas and what has changed recently for him. Who has entered his life who wasn't there before....he then smiles. He thinks he has it.

"Is it Jasper?"

Thomas stills all of a sudden. Looking Zeke in the eyes. He bites his lips. Before answering. "Yes."

Zeke finally gets off of Thomas, allowing Thomas to sit up. "I finally got it out of you." He smirks.

Thomas gives a half smile and starts to pull his knees up as if to give himself a hug. "Is it because of your face?" Zeke asks in wonder. Thomas' face wasn't swollen anymore but it was colourful and a little tender if poked.

"No, I did deserve that, but..." Thomas starts to rock back and forth a little.

"Christ Tom, please just spit it out." Zeke says impatiently.

Thomas licks both his lips. "Ok...so yesterday Jasper and I...we made out and it was fine. I enjoyed it, and I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it too." Thomas chuckles to himself lightly. "You know he hasn't even kissed a single person before."

"What?" Zeke furrows his brow. "I thought he was supposed to be a ladies man."

"Yeah, well apparently, he thought you only kissed if you were in love or something like that. I told him we make out all the time but we're not in love each other."

Zeke overdramatically clutches his heart with his hands. "You...you don't love me?"

Thomas just rolls his eyes. "Of course I love you, you're my soulmate, but you know we don't see each other in that way."

"Well I'm actually heart broken." Zeke forces out a fake cry. "Carry on..." he pretends to pull himself together.

Thomas again looks straight ahead. "Yeah, so we made out and nothing more really happened, but I just can't stop thinking about it, about him." Thomas clears his throat a little, straightening his legs, turning to look at Zeke head on. "When we were making out just now, it didn't feel the same." He then looks down at his lap as if ashamed. "I just kept thinking that I wanted it to be him I was doing this with. I'm sorry Zeke."

Zeke leans a little closer, laying a hand on Thomas' knee. "You know what this means don't you."

Thomas looks at the hand, then up at Zeke's face which was difficult to decipher. He couldn't tell whether Zeke was happy or sad or maybe a mixture of both "What does it mean Zeke?"

"It means we can't be fuck buddies anymore." Zeke sighs.

Thomas looks a little sad on hearing this, But he still doesn't quite understand Zeke's point.
"Why not? I like fucking with you."

Zeke's serious face then breaks into a big grin. "Because my friend, you have feelings for someone else and not just the I want to get off with someone feelings, like, real feelings."

Thomas' eyes widened at the realisation of what Zeke was actually telling him. "Shit!..you're right!" Thomas clamps a hand over his mouth.

Zeke laughs out loud, pushing Thomas back lightly. "I never thought I'd see the day someone would break you Thomas Hepler."

Thomas, who still felt a little shocked at his self revelation starts to laugh along too.

"So..." Zeke says, reining in his laughter. "The question is now, what are you going to do about it?"