He Loves Him Read online

  “We’re not fighting. Not really. She said some stuff I didn’t agree with and because I didn’t want it to keep happening and turn into a fight, I told her not to talk to me about it again. She never should have talked to you about it though.”

  “Okay.” Silence filled the car for a second before I continued, “It was about me, wasn’t it? I told her I didn’t want to get in the middle of it, but she said I already was.”

  “Yeah,” he said quietly. “Yeah it was.”

  “Oh. She apologized to me you know, for upsetting me before,” I said trying to, somehow, make things just a little better. Elyse might be a very abrasive person, but she always meant well with Kit, at least.

  “Good. She thinks being in a relationship with you is a distraction. Apparently, my whole life should be about work. Which is wrong. I’m just tired of her having opinions on our relationship that aren’t actually relevant to us. But it’s fine. I’ll talk to her tomorrow. How was your game?”

  I looked down at my ankle again, flexed it, and then gave him the full recap. He listened like he always did, even though most the time he didn’t understand the majority of what I said, but he tried. We made it home, and he told me about a table he served at the diner that he was sure was high. We ate leftovers because Kit was too tired to cook and I couldn’t be bothered to wait for anything to be delivered. We briefly thought about watching a movie or something, but we both knew we were too tired to stay awake long enough for that, so we went off to our separate rooms for the night. I fell asleep, regrettably, with an ice pack lying on my ankle.

  Chapter 7 - Kit

  September 24th, 2016

  I removed the ice from Riker’s ankle and flipped the corner of the blanket back over that foot. He had already made the mistake of letting the ice melt on his bed. I wasn’t about to let that happen on the couch too. That would be a pain for a day or two. I dumped the starting-to-melt ice into the sink and was about to start planning dinner, when there was a knock on the door. I glanced towards the couch. Riker hadn’t woken up, so I walked over to answer it.

  “I brought you donuts. I didn’t know what kind Riker likes though, so I got you six glazed, and then I got him some chocolate glazed ones and some jelly-filled. They sounded like something he would like,” Elyse said, holding a box of donuts out to me.

  “He pretty much likes all donuts,” I said as I took the box. “But why are you bringing us random donuts?”

  “Are you really going to make me say it, Kit?”

  I grinned. “Yep.”

  She groaned. “Fine. I’m sorry for trying to step on your relationship. We both know I get over-intense some times. I want you to be happy, you know that right?”

  “‘Course I do,” I said firmly. When Elyse and I became friends, she was the first person in a long while that cared. No matter how much she pushed me sometimes, I knew she was doing it for me.

  “Good, because I want you to be happy, and he makes you happy. So from now on, I’ll keep my mouth shut about the two of you. Unless it’s something serious like he’s got a girlfriend on the side or something, then I’m telling you,” she said with a light shove to my shoulder.

  I laughed and said, “Thank you. Do you want to come in? Riker’s napping on the couch, but we can watch some Netflix or something.”

  “No, I uh, I actually have a date to get to. Guess that makes me a hypocrite, huh?”

  “Or it means you got your head on a little straighter,” I joked. She shoved me a little harder. “Have fun, Elyse.”

  “I’ll try. See you later Kit,” she said and turned away.

  “See ya, Elyse,” I called after her before turning back into the apartment, quietly shutting the door. Riker was still asleep, which considering we just had that whole conversation with the door open was ridiculous, but whatever. I set the donut box onto the coffee table and took one out for myself. They were still warm, so I took a bite and meandered back into the kitchen.

  I felt like cooking something new, and by “new” I meant inventing something with whatever random ingredients we had lying around. It had been a while since I had tried that, and Riker had never been subject to trying one of those meals before. We had some rice, chicken, hot sauce, parmesan cheese, chicken broth, crackers, garlic, onion, and a bunch of other random stuff. I could work with that.

  I started thawing the chicken first. After that, I set upon the rest of the random ingredients I had decided upon. I cut the onion in half and started pulling the individual rings off and soaking them in hot sauce. I crumbled the crackers into a sort of breading and mixed them in a bowl with some minced garlic. Next to that bowl I set up two other bowls, one of flour and one of egg. I set the chicken broth to boil on the oven and slowly started cooking the rice in it.

  “Donuts!”

  I almost dropped the chicken in surprise at that joyful exclamation from the living room where Riker had apparently just woken up. He came bounding over to lean across the counter with a chocolate-glazed donut in his hand.

  “Where’d the donuts come from?” he asked before taking a bite.

  “Elyse dropped them off,” I said as I dumped some cheese in with the rice.

  “So, are you two good again then?”

  “Yeah, we’re good.”

  “Good. Whatcha cooking then?” he asked excitedly as he leaned a little further forward to inspect what I was doing.

  “Chicken,” I said.

  “That looks like a lot more than chicken,” he said.

  I held up a piece of raw chicken breast with a smile and said, “Do you want to help me?”

  He made a disgusted face. “Nope, no I’m good,” he said then took another bite of his donut.

  He sat there and watched me finish cooking while he ate his donuts, plural because he went back for a second one, even though he knew he would be eating dinner relatively soon. I breaded the chicken, sautéed the onions, cooked the chicken, finished the rice and plated it all. The onions got draped over the pieces of chicken, and the rice went on the side. Breaded, garlic-chicken with a hot onion to top it, and a makeshift risotto on the side. It wasn’t exactly creative, but hey it wasn’t something we had ever had before.

  When we sat down to eat it, Riker couldn’t get enough of it. He kept making sure he got a fairly large chunk of onion with every bite he had, even with the rice. Apparently, sautéed hot onions were now a favorite thing of his. He even told me I had to put that on mashed potatoes some time. I had made enough for us to each have two pieces of chicken each and by the time Riker had finished his first he was sitting there staring at his second.

  “I can’t decide if I want to eat that now or save it for leftovers,” he said with a pout.

  “Save it for tomorrow. You’ll regret it if you don’t,” I told him. “Besides, you can just eat another donut if you’re still hungry.”

  “I did kind of want one of those jelly ones,” he said quietly.

  “There you go.” I stood up and leaned forward to kiss him, then picked up our empty plates, “I’ll let Elyse know you appreciated the donuts. She wasn’t sure if you would like those ones.”

  “I like all forms of sugar,” he said.

  “Oh trust me, I know,” I said.

  “So, do I have to worry about her ambushing me on campus again?” he asked as he followed me to help with the dishes.

  “Nope. She promised to stay out of our business from now on.”

  He hummed for a second then hesitantly said, “You know if I distract you too much with all the texting all day or whatever, I’ll stop.”

  I set the dishes down that I was holding and turned to him. “Have you been sitting on that since yesterday?”

  “Kind of,” he said with a shrug.

  “Riker,” I breathed out. “Why didn’t you say something before?”

  “You know me, have to work up to talking about things.”

  “Yeah I know,” I said and took his hands in mine. “Listen, I will tell you what I told her. I
like it when you distract me. I like receiving all your texts all day. They make me smile, they relax me when I’m stressing too much over an assignment or when I come out of a class that confused me too much. And besides, it’s not that hard to silence my phone if I really need to. I look forward to your texts every day and I never want you to stop.”

  He smiled brightly. “Really?”

  “Yes, my prince,” I said smiling back at him reassuringly.

  Chapter 8 - Kit

  October 22nd, 2016

  “Riker, I swear to god!” I said but he was unfazed. I picked up a pillow and tossed it at him. He just dodged it with a smirk and kept singing.

  “You’re sleeping on your own for a month!”

  He got up on the chair and pretended to be holding a microphone.

  “That’s it.” I stood up and started walking straight for him. He just jumped over the other side of the chair and started walking backwards away from me. Still singing and going back into the chorus again. He grinned wickedly as he sang. He was definitely asking for trouble. I started chasing him around the living room. I had to give it to him though, despite all the running and jumping over furniture he didn’t drop a single lyric. I was even more amused by the time he got around to the last verse.

  He was headed for another leap over the couch when I finally got my arms around his waist and spun him. He squawked, and we both landed on the couch laughing, the last line forgotten. When he finally stopped laughing, he rolled in my arms so that our chests were pressed together and said “We need a song.”

  “As long as it’s not Taylor Swift,” I said earnestly.

  He made a face of mock horror and said, “I love Taylor Swift!”

  I chuckled. “So I’ve noticed.”

  “You loved that,” he said a little too smugly.

  “I was chasing you around to get you to stop,” I pointed out.

  “Ah, but you love chasing me,” he said.

  “Is that what that was? A ploy to get me to chase you?” I asked curiously.

  He shook his head thoughtfully and said, “No, it was a bit of fun that just happened to result in that little side benefit.”

  I smiled at him. “You twist everything don’t you?”

  “Just the good stuff to make it better.” He kissed me then said, “We need a song.”

  I huffed fondly and moved my hands up and down his back. “I can’t think of a single song that fits us. Or that means anything to both of us.”

  “We need one.” He squirmed out of my hold and rolled off the couch.

  “Now what are you doing?” I asked in exasperation.

  “I’m hungry.”

  “There’s left over lasagna if you want it.”

  “You made lasagna?” he asked.

  “I was bored,” I answered.

  Riker froze, halfway to putting the leftovers in the microwave, in disbelief. “You were bored?”

  “It was my day off, you weren’t here, and I had no assignments.”

  “You have friends!” he said incredulously.

  I laughed and stood up to walk over and lean on the counter facing him. “They were all busy. I like cooking, Ri, it wasn’t a bad way to spend my time.”

  “It sounds depressing,” he said and finally started heating up the food.

  “Well, since you’re so convinced, you’ll just have to make it up to me next weekend.”

  Riker spun around so fast it made me dizzy. “Oh. My. God. Kit, what are we doing for your birthday?” he asked urgently.

  “You are a mile a minute right now, aren’t you?” I moved and wrapped my arms around him, pressing his back to my chest and hooking my chin over his shoulder. “Calm down for me a bit. You’re high on life right now, I need you to come down from the clouds.”

  He took a deep breath and settled against me. I could feel the energy drain from him right then. “Mmm, you’re warm.”

  “I will never understand how you have so much energy after a game.”

  “I always have too much energy,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “It’s worse after games. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Do I ever make sense?” he joked.

  “Sometimes, yeah.” I kissed his cheek twice. “Can I leave you alone while you eat or are you going to start bouncing off the walls again?”

  “No, no,” he said and grabbed my arm and tugging until I sat down next to him. “Seriously, what are we doing for your birthday next week?”

  “Honestly, I don’t know. I thought you’d be planning a surprise or something.”

  “You said you don’t like surprises,” he mumbled and looked down at his food.

  I blinked a few times at him, confused by his sudden moodiness, then said, “I genuinely didn’t think that would stop you.”

  “Well, it did,” he said shortly.

  “Hey, what’s going on? I’m not mad at you or anything. I couldn’t care less that you didn’t plan something,” I said sincerely.

  “Sorry, I didn’t…ugh, I feel guilty for not planning something.”

  “Well you don’t need to. Seriously, Riker, I’m glad you didn’t. I don’t want to do anything big anyway.”

  “What do you want to do?” Riker asked.

  “Tell you what,” I said and linked our fingers together. “Make me a deal. Promise to do whatever I want on the day.”

  “You’re not going ask me to do anything absurd are you?” he asked.

  “Nothing illegal, nothing that could end with you injured or in trouble.”

  “Deal.”

  “Good. Then I’ll think about what I want to do and let you know when I figure it out.” I kissed the corner of his mouth then stood up, “Now I’m gonna leave you alone and get in the shower. If you are planning on sleeping in my bed tonight, I better not hear any more of that song.”

  “You’re no fun,” he called after me.

  “Sing something else,” I yelled back.

  Chapter 9 - Riker

  October 25th, 2016

  “Kit!”

  “Riker!”

  “I’m going to kill you!”

  “You have to find me first!”

  I turned a corner, jumped about a foot backwards, and screamed. Great, there were zombies.

  “Kit, I hate you, you lunatic!” I yelled with no heat behind it.

  “The faster you find me the faster you can get out of here!”

  “This isn’t what I signed up for!” I whined.

  “I beg to differ!”

  Okay, so technically he was right, but that didn’t mean I had to be happy about it. I had agreed to do whatever he wanted us to do tonight. However, I hadn’t predicted being dropped in the middle of a nightmare filled maze. How did he even get an hour in a haunted maze just for us anyway?

  “Marco?” I yelled hopefully.

  I couldn’t help the childish smile when I heard him laugh then yell back, “Polo!”

  I started winding my way through the maze, only jumping and screaming around every other corner. I made a mental note to get him back for this one day.

  “Are you moving?” I questioned when I could’ve sworn I went around the same corner a third time.

  “Not really,” he said casually.

  “What does that mean? Are you moving or not?”

  “I’m not moving, you’re just terrible at mazes”

  I froze mid-step thinking about that statement. Then I said, “You ever met anyone who was good at one of these things?”

  “No.” I could hear the smugness in his voice.

  “Exactly! So where are you?”

  “You’re close,” he replied.

  “Can I get a hint?”

  “No,” and there was that smugness again.

  I don’t know why I was running through this thing, but I was. Maybe it was because some part of me felt like it was less scary that way. I went around two more corners and a dead end yelling Marco at him before I finally turned and saw him standing at the end of a s
traight section.

  “Found me,” he said with a huge grin.

  “Oh, just you wait until I get a hold of you,” I said, then ran to him. As soon as I reached him I wrapped my arms around his chest and spun both of us around a couple of times. Kit was laughing by the time I stopped. I kept both my arms tight around him and kissed his cheek repeatedly.

  He was still giggling and tilted his head back onto my shoulder to escape my onslaught. I laughed and shook him a little. Just then a clown came around the corner and I freaked. I cursed and let go of Kit in favor of clinging onto the back of his jacket and hiding my face in between his shoulder blades.

  “Kit,” I whined. I must have sounded pathetic. I was shaking, there was no way I sounded even remotely like I wasn’t going to cry if he didn’t do something soon. He was still laughing though when he tried to move me around so that he had one arm around me and I was hiding in his side instead.

  “Come on, the exit’s right over here.” He pulled me along and I continued to hide in him. We stumbled a few times, mostly because I tripped on his feet due to my lack of looking where I was going. His hand rubbed up and down my back as we walked. I had never felt safer while knowing there were clowns lurking about.

  “Alright, it’s safe to look now,” he said as he came to a stop.

  “No clowns?” I asked.

  “Clown-free, I promise,” he said as he carded his hand through my hair.

  I slowly looked away from his chest to confirm he wasn’t lying before letting go of him. We were back at the car already.

  “Thanks for saving me,” I said.

  “My prince, you hardly needed saving. It was just a clown,” he said as he reached a hand out and gently swiped away the few tears that had fallen off my cheeks.

  “Just a clown? Kit those things are terrifying! They could kill me,” he kissed me to shut me up then pulled away with a smile. “I’d never let them kill you. I love you too much to let the clowns get you.”

  He opened my car door for me and said, “Now, I thought we’d go to that ice cream place you’ve been going on about for ages now.”