This is a direct continuation of day five.

The smell of eggs cooking hits him when he steps out of the room after his shower. Hearing his stomach loudly growl, he thinks about the huge appetite he worked up after last night.

Pulling his shirt on, he heads to the kitchen to find Chris cooking more than enough food for them.

"What's with the spread?" he asks as he grabs a strip of bacon.

"Wha-...Oh, I cook when I'm worried or bored or excited," Chris replies, scrambling the eggs in the skillet.

He's not bored or excited, Darren's brain tells him. He figures Chris is worried over what will happen now with their friendship after what occurred between them. But he has to let him know that nothing has to change between them.

"Hey, don't let last night ruin our friendship. We can still be best friends," Darren tells him.

Chris loves and hates how Darren knew what he was worried about without having to ask. Loves it because he knows him so well; better than any boyfriend he ever had. But hates it because he's not his boyfriend; he's his best friend. His best friend who won't be more than that.

This whole thing is making him feel like a kid in a candy store forced to only have one specific candy when he wants the one everyone is bragging about.

"Best friends who shouldn't get drunk together again," he jokes, pretty much telling Darren he still wants to be friends.

He smiles when Darren laughs, laughing along with him.

The sound of Chris laughing is one he never gave much thought to. But, being here now, he realizes just how great the sound is. It's melodic in a soothing and comforting way; has him listening as if it's a song he can't get enough of.

"Well," Darren huffs, needing to think of something else, quick. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving." He pats his stomach and breathes in the aroma of food cooking and fresh coffee brewing.

"I'm not surprised, considering what we d-" Darren hears as Chris bites his tongue, knowing how that sentence was going to end. "Yeah, me too."

"Let's eat, then," Darren says.

Breakfast almost feels like an uncoordinated dance that they are doing. They know the moves, but somehow keep managing to mess up. But in the best ways possible. When hands accidentally brush as they reach for the pitcher of juice, or when they catch the other eyes in a moment of speaking. Little moments that are making it difficult for Chris to focus on anything but wanting to kiss Darren and tell him the truth. Tell him that last night, even drunk, was the best night of his life. Tell him it wasn't a mistake for him like he originally said. To tell him he wants him more than anything he's ever wanted before.

But he knows he can't say all that. In saying that, revealing to Darren his true feelings, he knows he would scare him off and probably lose a best friend. Besides, how he acted and looked this morning was clear indication for him how he felt about the night before. It was nothing but a mistake to Darren, and that sucks for him.

"I'm gonna go do...something," Darren mumbles before he watches him walk away.

Dropping his head in his hands, letting out a annoyed groan, Chris hopes they can get through these next several days with their friendship still intact at the end.

Doing "something" ends up being him taking a walk around the neighborhood they are in. The smell of sea-salt in the air, the sound of waves crashing to shore every few minutes, and the morning sun shining bright in the sky go all unnoticed by Darren as he loses himself in thoughts of Chris and he in bed.

It was crazy and fun and wild and beyond amazing. It was a night he could see himself repeating over and over again. Being with Chris in a physical way was something he never gave much thought to before the night before happened. But now that it has, it's all he can seem to think about. How Chris felt and looked as they were in bed together; how great they were together, something that truly surprised him; how they seemed to know the other's body without having to ask. It all was so amazing that being with Chris like that, where it should make him feel weird, only makes him feel at how right it was.

Lost in thought, he doesn't notice the dog running to him. Suddenly, he finds himself standing there as a Golden Retriever playfully jumps up and tries to lick his face, his paws digging into his chest.

"Forrest!" A voice yells several feet away.

Looking up, Darren finds himself watching a woman in her late forties running up to Forrest and he. Her ponytail behind her bobbing from side to side with every step she takes; a leash in one hand and water bottle in the other.

"I'm so sorry," she says as she pulls Forrest down off him. "He gets overexcited when he meets new people."

"It's fine." Darren kneels down and scratches behind Forrest's ears as he sits there with his tongue hanging out of his mouth and staring at him with chocolate colored eyes. Laughing when Forrest licks his face, Darren scratches a few more times and stands back up. "He's a great dog."

"Thank you," the lady says with a smile. "I'm Lydia."

"Darren," he replies as he shakes Lydia's hand.

"I've never seen you around here before," Lydia points out, reaching down and clasping the leash to Forrest's collar.

"I'm renting the house down the street for a week and a half. Never been here before," Darren informs her as he feels Forrest nudge his hand with his snout, trying to get him to pet him.

"Are you enjoying it so far?"

"Yeah," he nods his head as he responds. "My friend and I are loving it."

"That's great." Lydia smiles as she carefully pulls Forrest away from him. "Yeah, me and my husband have lived here for five years and absolutely love it here. And Forrest loves it because he can chase birds on the beach."

"I'm pretty sure he does." Looking at Forrest as he sits next to Lydia's legs, tail wildly wagging behind him and looking like he's full of energy. "I should be heading back. It was lovely meeting you."

"You too," Lydia says as she shakes Darren's hand again, smiling. "Bye, Darren."

Telling her bye, and petting Forrest once more, Darren turns around and starts to head back to the house. Losing himself in thoughts of what Chris might be doing, Darren is surprised when Lydia runs up in front of him, Forrest obviously happy to see him again so soon. "Yes?" he asks.

"Hey, this might sound strange seeing as we just met," Lydia starts off. "But would you and your friend like to come over for a dinner slash party tonight? My husband is throwing this thing and invited everybody in the neighborhood. I thought it would only be polite to invite you. So, what do you say?"

Thinking it over, Darren considers Chris and he aren't doing anything else. He figures it could be a good enough of a distraction for them.

"Sure," he answers with a small smile. "Why not."

"Good. It starts at seven, so come whenever you can. My house is the last on the left."

"Alright. See you then."

Folding his freshly washed clothes, Chris finds it difficult to go more than a minute without flashes of the night before popping into his head.

Walking out of his room after putting his clean clothes away, he feels his heart stop at the sight of Darren in the kitchen drinking water. Staring at his throat and traveling his eyes down to his stomach when his shirt rides up, Chris is so tempted to kiss along the exposed skin and down until he has Darren in his mouth.

"Oh. Hey, Chris," Darren breathlessly says when he spots him walking into the kitchen.

"Hey, Dare."

"We got invited to a party tonight."

"Again?" Chris asks a bit surprised.

"Yeah. I met this lady while I was taking a walk. She invited us to go over to her house for a party."

"Okay. Could be fun," he says as he shrugs his shoulders. "I'm gonna go read out on the beach."

"I'll come with you."

"You don't have to," Chris informs him.

"I want to," Darren says with a smile.

Walking out on to the deck, the smell of the ocean strong in the air, and the sun shining bright in the sky, hearing Darren following behind him, he walks out onto the sand and sits in one of the chairs set up under an umbrella. Staring at Darren as he sits down next to him in the sand, he averts his gaze before he's caught staring and opens his book.

"I've been thinking," Darren announces an hour later as they sit on the beach.

Both under the giant umbrella, safe from the scorching sun, Chris reads a book he found in the house as he sees Darren out of the corner of his eye place his hands under his head. The movement causes his shirt to ride up just enough for a strip of tan skin to be exposed. That simple, small patch of skin has him biting his lower lip and remembering what it was like to splay his hand out over that skin of Darren's belly as he fucked him.

Bad thoughts, he tells himself as he shakes his head. He needs to stop thinking that immediately if he doesn't want to explain why he suddenly needs to run inside.

"That's never a good idea," he says as he forces himself to look back at the words written on the page of the book.

"Shut up," Darren playfully jests. "But, I think we should go rent a boat or something and go out on the water before we go to the party. What say you?"

What do I think, Chris says in his mind. I think we should get naked together again and bang until our brains are mush and we can't make coherent thoughts. I think we should explore what this is between us as we also explore each other. That's what I think, he thinks, wishing he could say that out loud.

"Sorry," he hears Chris mumble as he notices him come out of his thoughts. "Boats and me don't go well together. I'll just end up spending the whole time bent over the railing puking my guts out."

Yeah, Darren's brain kind of shuts off after Chris mentions being bent over. He hears the rest of the sentence but it doesn't really register. All he can think is having Chris bent over the arm of a couch as he gently thrusts into him. That thought alone has his cock very much interested in that scenario; and his mind tries to figure out a way to make it come to fruition.

Sitting up and bringing his knees to his chest, needing to cover up what could become blazingly obvious to Chris at any second, he wraps his arms around his legs and tries to think of what else they could do together.

"So, no to boats," he forces himself to say, hearing how his voice wavers as he speaks. "Surfing?"

"No waves," Chris is quick to point out. "Plus, I don't think either of us knows how to. And if we tried, I'd find a way to injure myself."

"Swimming?"

"Cause that worked out so well last time."

Darren's mind immediately goes to holding Chris close in the water. How he felt in his arms; how his lips looked so tempting and practically had him dying to take them into a kiss. He remembers how he felt like someone about to experience the single greatest moment in their life.

"I'm just gonna go inside and take a nap before we go." Seeing Chris stand up and walk away with his book in hand.

Looking over his shoulder and watching Chris walk back into the house, staring a bit harder than he should, Darren figures there has to be a way to make these next few days not feel so...forced.

Opening his eyes to the sun still shining in the sky, feeling a bit rested after his nap, Chris sits up and waits for his mind and vision to clear. Stepping off the bed, and seeing it's almost six-thirty, he walks to the bathroom to take a quick shower before they leave. Putting on something formal but comfortable, he walks out of his room to find Darren dressed as well, and looking handsome in his attire. Trying not to think about how he looks at the moment, and how he looked the night before completely naked beneath him, he loudly clears his throat to get his attention.

Seeing Darren whip around when he hears him, he smiles. "Ready to go?"

"Sure." Heading for the front door with Chris following beside him, breathing in the smell of lemons that lingers on his skin, Darren feels his mouth practically water with wanting to kiss and taste his skin. The urge to pull him close and press him up against the wall, and forget about going to this party, is something he fights from doing. But if he did; if he gave into those temptations he would have Chris in his arms and be kissing him like it's what he wants most, which it is. "You don't mind walking?"

"It's fine."

Closing the door behind them when they step outside, he stars to head to where Lydia said her home was, Chris beside him.

"How do you manage to keep getting people to invite you to their parties?" Chris jokingly asks as they head to Lydia's house.

"I'm a sweet and charming guy," Darren replies with a hint of amusement to his voice.

"That's what they think." Avoiding when Darren tries to playfully nudge him in his ribs, Chris laughs and is glad that they are acting more like they used to. He isn't sure what it is that has them acting like their normal selves, but he is glad that they can.

For a few hours there, he was scared that everything had shifted for the worse. Fall into bed with your best friend and there's bound to be consequences and immediate changes in the friendship. But he is glad that Darren and he are able to go beyond what happened the night before and continue to be friends. Yeah, the weirdness and awkwardness isn't all going to go away in a day. But going on and being friends is the right step in heading past this.

"What do you want to say when someone recognizes us?" Darren curiously questions as they head up the path to the front door of Lydia's home.

"I guess we could just tell them," Chris nonchalantly replies with a shrug of his shoulders. "Can't hide it forever."

"Yeah," Darren agrees as he knocks, although Chris can see in his eyes he's thinking of something entirely different. "Can't hide it forever."

When Chris gives him a slightly confused look is when he knows Chris knows he's talking about something completely different. And he would be right. As he spoke all he could think about is how he truly feels toward Chris.

"Darren!" Lydia excitedly says when she opens the door. "And this must be your friend."

"Lydia, meet Chris," Darren says as Chris holds out his hand.

"It's lovely to meet you," Chris tells her.

"Likewise." Lydia smiles and opens the door even wider. "Come in. Pretty much everybody is here."

Thanking Lydia and going inside, feeling Chris staying close, Darren smiles at everybody when Lydia introduces them to the entire room. Behind him, he can practically feel Chris shake with nerves and worry.

"Hey," he says as he turns around and faces him. "It's going to fine. We'll be okay. Besides, these people don't seem like the type to watch our show."

"Yeah...Okay," Chris agrees as he nods his head. "I guess you might be right."

Watching as Chris pulls his bottom lip between his teeth and nervously chews on it, Darren wishes he could pull him close and kiss him. A kiss right now would let him know he's here for him one hundred percent; a kiss would comfort Chris when nothing else will. He would give anything to kiss Chris right now.

"Come on," he says as he takes Chris' hand. "Let's get a drink."

Two hours into the dinner party and Chris is pretty sure the expression "seeing red" would fit him perfectly. Sitting on the couch in the living room, nursing his third glass of wine, he watches Darren with some...girl across the room.

He doesn't understand why he should feel jealousy and anger over what Darren is doing. It's who he really is. A night of drunken sex with his best friend isn't going to change that. It's something Darren regrets, and obviously had no effect on him beyond getting laid.

Draining the last of his wine, not caring how much he is drinking, he doesn't personally know these people, Chris stands up and walks to the kitchen. Refilling his glass, and grabbing a few bites of food from the trays sitting out, he knows he's being stupid.

"Don't you think you've had too much?" Darren asks as he steps into the kitchen and finds Chris starting in on his fourth glass of wine. "This isn't that kind of party."

Watching Chris drain his glass like it's nothing, he stares in surprise when he reaches for the bottle of wine again. Taking it from him before he can pour himself another glass, he gets a good look at him when he tries to take it back. In his eyes he sees anger and hurt, and wondering the reason behind that.

"What's wrong, Chris?" he sympathetically asks.

"Why do you care?" Chris asks in a hurtful tone. "Go back to flirting with your new best friend." He stills when Chris glares at him in anger. "She's pretty. I'm pretty sure she'd do anything you want. God knows I did that night."

It's then that it clicks for Darren that Chris is jealous. He's jealous of some girl he would never even consider.

But not only is he jealous, he's telling the truth about how he really feels about everything.

"Chris-"

"We've turned everything to shit," Chris snarls at him. "I would say fuck you, but I've already done that, and look where it got me."

Before he can even think to ask him what he means by that, Chris is taking the bottle from him and muttering something about going back to the house.

Angrily wiping the tears from his face, not believing he's actually crying over this, Chris hastily walks back to the house before he does anything else stupid.

He can't believe he said that to Darren. To tell him how he felt about what happened between him makes him feel like an idiot. He never meant to say word to him. But seeing him with that girl made him so fucking jealous. How come he has to have feelings for someone he can never have?

Heading to the kitchen when he reaches the house, and pulling out the bottle of vodka in the freezer, he figures since he's already fucked everything up he might as well get wasted and forget what he did.

Walking into the house and closing the door behind him, a million thoughts racing through his mind, Darren has a few questions for Chris.

Staying for the rest of the party only seemed right after Chris left. It was easy to act like he was enjoying himself, and on some small level he was. But all he could keep thinking about was Chris and how he acted and what he told him. It feels relieving, in a strange and good way, to know Chris was jealous of some girl. Because for him to be jealous means there are feelings there that go beyond just being friends. It makes his heart race with hope at thinking Chris could possibly see him as someone more than just the friend he's been for the past several years.

Walking into the kitchen and finding Chris sitting on the bench in the sun-nook near the table, glass of vodka in hand going by the open bottle close to him, looking upset, he stands there and wonders what to say.

"Chris," he quietly says to get his attention.

"You know when I found out what he was doing, I wasn't even that angry or jealous," Chris says as he stares out the window at crashing waves. He lifts his glass and takes a drink. "I actually felt kind of relieved, to be honest. It still hurt, though, to know he could so easily dismiss me like he did."

"Why did you feel relieved?" Darren asks as he grabs a glass and sits down next to Chris, reaching over and grabbing the bottle of vodka. Pouring himself a big drink, he knows that this conversation is going to take some alcohol to get through it all.

"I just...wanted out already. I didn't love him. Hell, by the end I could barely stand him, and when I saw him go it felt like a weight had been lifted. I didn't feel so guilty anymore."

"Guilty about what?" Seeing Chris look at him with surprise in his eyes, as if now realizing he is here, Darren can tell he said something he didn't want to.

"I'm surprised your here," Chris roughly says as he drains his drink and stands up. "I would have thought you'd be in her bed by now."

"Why are you doing this?" he asks with a somewhat broken voice.

"Doing what? Being happy for you," Chris tries to point out, but Darren knowing he's lying by the tone of his voice and the forced smile he puts on. "I'm happy you found someone that can entertain you while we're here. I'm thrilled for you," he adds with a voice filled with ice, shooting him a glare that makes him mad more than anything.

Seeing and hearing how jealous and angry Chris is at the moment, it makes Darren mad that he's being treated this way just because of him talking to some girl he'll never see again. Chris, obviously, is keeping something from him if he gets jealous over something as simple as him talking with a girl.

And then it hits him. He realizes Chris is angry because he was talking to a girl. Here he is having slept with him and then he goes and acts like he normally does. Fuck, he only talked to her because he thought Chris didn't want him. Now here they are with so many important things left unsaid.

But now he's mad, himself. Why should he be treated like this because Chris is jealous.

"Stop acting like a jealous boyfriend," he snaps at him. Standing up and walking over to where Chris is standing, he looks at him with anger.

"Haha. That's not possible considering you would fuck anything in a short skirt and high heels that batted her eyelashes at you." Chris glares at him, placing his hands on his hips and lifting an eyebrow.

Hearing that makes Darren further pissed off. He can't believe Chris blatantly just told him he sleeps around like it's nothing without having to say the word. It's not even close to the truth, but he knows he said it to prove his point of him being straight.

"At least I don't get more jealous over my friend flirting with someone than my boyfriend cheating," he counter-replies, seeing the immediate shock in Chris' eyes. "It's the truth, isn't it? That's why you told me that when I came in. You're shocked to know that you're more angry at me talking to some girl I don't care about than your boyfriend sleeping around behind your back."

The next instant Darren feels a pain across his cheek where Chris slaps him. Looking back to him, seeing the hurt in Chris' eyes grow, he doesn't even know how they got here.

It seems one night can fuck everything no matter how hard you try to forget it.

"Fuck you, Darren!"

Grabbing at Chris' hips and pushing him back up against the kitchen island, pressing his body flush to his, the anger between them palpable and thick; he stares into eyes now filled with excitement. Heart beating wildly in his chest, pulse quickening by the second at how close Chris is, breathing heavy, he quickly darts his eyes to Chris' lips, holding back a moan when he runs his tongue along the bottom one.

"We did that, remember you told me," he whispers, leaning closer to Chris. "Like you said "look where it got me.""

Nuzzling his nose along Chris' cheek, feeling the warmth of his skin, and breathing in the smell of lemons, he pulls back far enough to be less than a breath away from kissing Chris.

He knows this isn't right. They're both not in the right frame of mind at the moment. He's drunk and he's sure Darren has a small buzz going right about now. And doing this out of anger would not be a good idea; it would ruin their friendship even further.

But, god, he wants to close the space between their mouths and kiss Darren until he forgets his own name.

This whole night turned out terrible for him. For Darren to say what he did, and for him to be so rude over the fact that Darren was mindlessly talking with another girl shouldn't have had that kind of effect on him. It shouldn't make him angry. He is able to talk and flirt with whomever he likes. Just because they have one night doesn't mean anything. Darren is still the guy wanting the girl, and he's still the guy who doesn't.

Staring into Darren's eyes, seeing flecks of yellow dotted throughout them, he knows this would be another mistake. So, pushing him away before they kiss, he moves and takes a few steps back.

"Don't do that," he warns him, voice firm. "You're not thinking straight at the moment, and I don't want another mistake to happen."

"Chris, I d-"

"No!" He firmly says, moving out of the way when Darren tries to reach out for his hand. "I'm going to bed now. Please, just leave it be before we ruin our whole friendship. Okay?"

"Okay," Darren agrees, nodding his head.

Standing there rooted to the spot, slightly stunned as Chris walks away from him, Darren can only imagine how much more this can change their friendship.