"Hey." Pogue stated quietly.
"Hey," Caleb smiled faintly and sat down on the edge of his best friend's hospital bed.
"Guess what?"
"What?"
"I won."
Pogue laughed and then spluttered and coughed, wincing in agony.
"Sorry man," Caleb stated quietly.
"S'okay, not your fault I'm in this mess."
"Yes it is, he was using you to get to me."
"Yeah, yeah." He smiled slightly. "So fill me in, how exactly did it go down?"
"Well... he cornered me in Sarah's room and kicked me around like a ragdoll — after threatening to poison Sarah too — and then he pinned me to the floor in the bathroom and slobbered all over me with his—"
"He slobbered on you?" Pogue asked with confusion.
"He kissed me, but it was gross and slimy and I thought I was going to puke."
"Guess Aaron was actually right for once, eh Caleb?"
The other boy burst into laughed and proceeded to fill Pogue in on the rest of the sordid details.
"You disintegrated him?"
"Maybe."
"Whoa..." He sighed wearily. "I'm glad you won."
"I bet. I saved your sorry ass from complete annihilation loser."
Pogue shook his head as well as he could while almost entirely restricted to the hospital bed.
"Ass..." He sighed. "Would've missed you man..."
"Pogue..."
He wasn't about to admit it but he was touched. It wasn't often that his best friend waxed sentimental like this.
"Right... so where's my rescue kiss?"
Caleb blinked.
"C'mon, I know you played tonsil-hockey with blondie, and gave the bimbo—"
"Kate."
"—a kiss on the cheek. And I'm sure than Red and Ty attacked you the moment they saw you... and I mean... you even kissed the enemy, Cay, the enemy. So... where's my kiss?"
Caleb shook his head and leaned down to give his friend a soft kiss on the lips.
"C'mon Caleb, a real kiss."
"Fine then."
He leaned down again and thrust his tongue deeply in his best friend's mouth, making broad wide sweeps along the insides of his cheeks and tangled his fingers in the other boy's long, messy hair. He was faintly amused when the other boy began sucking on his tongue. Particularly when the heart monitor sped up.
"Excited are we?"
"Fuck you."
"Maybe later," he laughed. "If you're lucky."