The next morning is a pleasant Sunday morning. The whether is at a nice 70 degrees, and perfect weather to go running in. Adam, the fitness buff that he is, decides that this is the best way to avoid you after the fight you had last night. And especially after realizing how much he wanted you, and actually voicing it aloud for the first time. He gets up and immediately doubles over, holding his head in his hands as it hits him just what he imagined doing to your sweet, delicate body. Shame immediately engulfs him as he thinks on how innocent and dumb you are. In his mind, he could probably lead you to his bed and climb on top of you, and you still wouldn't realize what he wanted until his mouth was on top of yours. Who knows, maybe even then, you'd still question it! After all, you were still clueless it seemed over how many times you had fallen asleep with your head on his lap, and a hard on right behind you!

He licks his lips and closes his eyes, but all he can see is you with your head thrown back and mouthing "oh god..."

He shakes his head to clear the image, but to no avail. He rubs his eyes and pulls his hair, then puts his briefs back on and heads to his closet. He rummages around for a bit until he parts the middle and notices movement below him. He hears the sounds of someone just waking up and as he leans backwards to get a better view of the person in question, he is completely shocked to see your confused, sleepy face looking back at him. What's more, the moment recognition hits you, you immediately gasp and throw yourself against the wall. But not before he catches the sight of a pained look cross your features—and your hand looking yanked out of your pants and up to your shoulder.

"What are you doing in my closet?"

"I don't know, sleeping maybe?" You protest clearly frightened.

"But why in my closet?"

"Because it's big, and dark, and you pretty much kicked me out of my room last night so fuck you! Forget this. I'm leaving," you huff angrily as you get up and slide past him. As you pass, Adam catches a whiff of a very bodily smell. He knows this smell, but he can't place it. But then he thinks to your hand...

In a very serious voice, he stops you. "(Y.N.). Why did you have your hands in your shorts?"

"Hands in my pants? The fuck are you talking about, you pervert? I was just scratching my thigh," You rush out rapidly as you stumble towards the door. Adam turns to you, and in a few paces matches your spot and slams his hand over the door you had just started pulling open.

"How long were you in here last night?"

"I don't know. Since after our fight. I was so mad, I fell asleep right away."

He stares you down, horrified that you might've heard, but more angry that you would pretend you didn't. But you don't know how to lie... You've never been able to keep anything from him, and always broke if he stared you down enough when he knew you were hiding something. Still, you shift uncomfortably, and when you look down, he thinks he realizes why: he's still half naked, and almost pressed up against you. With horror at himself, he pulls away and stops pestering you.

You quickly turn to leave the room, but before shutting the door, you stop and say, "don't worry. I'll stop being such a pain soon. I just need to figure some things out."

"Figure what out?" He calls out to you. But it's too late, you've already shut the door and booked it to your room. The moment you get in, you lock the door and crumple into a ball right there. You groan, embarrassment finally engulfing you completely. But more shock than anything else. How did things get so complicated and messy? Adam was just a friend who got annoyed with how often you complained that you needed to find a new place to live that you could actually afford, so he offered to help. You only accepted because he was chill. A little eccentric, a little gross, but chill. You thought it'd be no different than rooming with your roommate at the time, except he wouldn't always be smoking pot and taking your shit without permission. You liked your roommate before. She was cool, but you couldn't handle some of her craziness. And for the price you were paying to be there? Not worth it. Adam was a welcome reprieve.

So why did things have to get more complicated with him?

After you calm down, you grab your cell phone and text Brandon.

"I need your help..."

"Can I please couch surf with you for a few nights? I need to get out of here asap"

You don't even wait for a response. You just grab your duffel bag and start packing all your necessities. You consider leaving the rest untouched, but you think better of it and anything very valuable, you wrap in the clothes you decide to leave and place it at the bottom of your closet. You hide most of your stuff like this actually, and look around.

'Yeah... if he destroys my stuff, at least these things I don't really care about.'

You get a change of clothes and consider showering but decide against it. You don't want to stay longer than you have to so you just clean up as best you can and head out the door, locking your bedroom door behind you before you leave the apartment.

You don't have much cash, and you don't have very good walking shoes, but you can't get a taxi so you decide to walk the distance over to Brandon's.

While you're making the journey away, Adam is busy freaking out in his room. What did you hear. What did you think? Did you really not hear anything? Was it really just him being a pervert thinking you had your hands in your pants?

'I mean, it's not like I accused her of doing something... dirty or anything... I just thought her hand was in there. Why would it be in there? Did she really just get itchy?'

He's overthinking everything—understandably. But after some time, he decides to go apologize. He has to take a cold shower first because he's scared the idea of you touching yourself will make him get a raging boner while he's trying to apologize, so he goes to shrink it as much as he can. When he comes out, he's dressed fully and walks over to your door. He hesitates for some time before knocking, but he finally does.

"(Y.N.), can we talk?"

It remains quiet.

"Seriously, I just need to tell you something."

Still nothing.

"Come on, I'm not going to bite you or anything. Just come outside."

Still, not even a peep. He tries to open the door then, and feels that's it's locked so he gives up for the time being. You're not ready, obviously. You'll go talk to him once you chilled out, he's certain. So he just calls out, "fine! I'm going to head out then. But when I come back, I really want to talk to you."

With that, he goes out for the run he was planning on earlier. You in the meantime get to Brandon's place around then, and start trying to get him to buzz you in. It takes a while for him to answer since he's a bit drunk and very groggy, but when he does, he quickly lets you in. When you get into his apartment, he immediately sits you down and demands to know.

"What did that fucker do that you decided to move out. Like actually move out! Was he rude to you? Did he hurt you? Do I need to buy a shovel so we can bury his stupid hot body?"

You can't help but laugh at his reaction. So much so, tears start streaming from your eyes from laughing too hard. But then... it's just tears coming out before you start to actually realize you're crying... Brandon wraps you up in a tight hug, promising that you don't have to worry. He'll go buy the trash bags and mallets soon to handle it. But then you tell him.

"He didn't hurt me. He didn't do anything except be a prick who doesn't know how to show he likes someone."

"What? ...Are you telling me he likes someone, or that he likes you?"

You pause for a moment, trying to process the events of the night before. Trying to understand. Without meaning to, you say, "he masterbated because of how mad he was I didn't realize..."

Brandon stares at you, dumbfounded. He doesn't even say anything as he walks away from you and over to his kitchen cabinet. He grabs a few drinks, and gets ice from his freezer before mixing together some drinks. He rolls his eyes then and mumbles, "I'm too sober for this bullshit" before downing one of the drinks himself.

He brings one drink over to you, then walks to his room with an another in hand and begins talking to someone in his room.

"Crisis averted. It wasn't an emergency, it's just a damn drama. Give me a few to handle things over here, Kev. Here's a drink if you want it though."

With that, he closes his door, walks over to his couch, and dramatically yet elegantly falls back onto it.

"(Y.N.), do I look like a therapist?" He asks you.

Before you can answer, he continues. "What about a counselor, or hell, a barber? No. I don't. I'm not any of those things. But I'm always here because we're friends. But here's the thing. There comes a point where, though I love you, I get tired of your bullshit too. You can stay here if you want, but I don't get what the problem is if he likes you, and you clearly like him too. Just go fuck him and get it over with! This has been a long time coming. You two just need to catch up."

"But it's too embarrassing!"

"What?" He exclaims in exasperation. "That he likes you, or that you saw him rocking his socks off to you?"

"That I did it too! That he saw me!"

Brandon is clearly taken aback by this as he pulls back in confusion, and looks you over as if suddenly seeing someone completely different in your place. He chortles and immediately goes back to his room. You can hear him apologizing, and saying that he actually needs this drink a little more than the other guy does, and comes back.

He sits alertly in front of you, and with a pointed finger at you says, "this changes nothing. But holy hell, you did what now?"

Your face contorts in embarrassment, and you have to grab a pillow off the couch and scream into it for a minute because it's really hitting you hard. From your position in the pillow, you demand to know.

"How can I live with him if we saw each other do something like that, and still go on as if nothing happened?"

Brandon scoffs and responds, "You don't. You can't pretend nothing happened. You two are both too deep into this to not move on to the next stage, or completely break everything off. I don't think you can even be friends anymore in a situation like this. So figure it out. Are you going to keep living with him as a couple, or are you going to go find someone willing to take you in until you can start over without him?"

"And if he doesn't want to get with me? What if he just wants to fuck, and then act like we're nothing? He does that to every other girl that comes over."

"Every other girl isn't you though. He was probably trying to fill the hole not being able to be with you made."

You look away from him, clearly conflicted, but stop talking. You have a lot to think about, and Brandon knows it. He gives you a hug then, and says you can stay as long as you'd like. But he has his own boo in the other room, so he's going to go cuddle and try to sleep some more. "In the meantime, just think about it. What do you have to lose?"