Was it always going to be like this? Keith always seemed to either fuck up any relationship he'd somehow managed to get into or not have any sort of chance to begin with.
Or, in cases like these, the person of his interest is out of reach.
At least Keith knew that he wasn't straight. "That's a start." he thought. But it didn't help anything after all. On his trek back to his lonely apartment, he had to repress the huge urge to cry in public. He saved that for when he got home.
He knew how to deal with these sort of things. There was lame music, helpless moping around, and a lot of junk food. Katie called it Keith's "Extra Special Coping Mechanism" in which he locked himself up in his apartment for so long that he forgot about all of his problems. She had only witnessed it twice, but she wasn't ready to let him deal with this one on his own.
"Keith, come on. Please let me in." She knocked on his door for the 100th time, but with no results. After seeing him storm out of the café, she gathered her things and took after him as soon as she could. "Look let's just talk about it for once. I'll-" Katie reached for her wallet and flipped through what little money she had. "I'll buy you whatever you want from Eileen's, okay?"
She heard a faint voice from the other side of the door. "There's a key in the lamp."
"What? A key in the…" Katie set down her laptop on the ground and reached up as far as her short arms could to the small lamp next to the door. She took out the key and unlocked the door then picked up her laptop and rushed inside. There was a lump of blankets on Keith's sofa, but on closer inspection it was Keith, shriveled up, red-faced, and in nothing but his boxers and Pirate's of the Caribbean t-shirt.
He sniffled, tried to sort out his tangled hair, and looked up at Katie who was towering disapprovingly over him. "Hey." was all he managed to say.
"Hey." Katie replied mockingly. "Get up." She tried tugging at his blankets but all he did was pull back.
"No, come on Katie just let me-"
"Nope. Come on, we need to get you in better shape."
"Like…exercise?"
"No, dumbass. You always drag your ass when some guy isn't available or into you in the slightest. It was concerning at first but now I can't stand to see you like this. So, I'm calling Allura and Hunk and we're going out." Keith knew she was serious when Katie cursed like a sailor, so he slowly took the blankets off of himself and sat miserably in front of her.
"Can I go take a shower first…?"
"No. We're leaving as soon as possible before you look any more like a literal rotting corpse. Now put some pants on and let's go."
"Fine." Keith complied dryly. He stood up, attempted to make himself seem slightly more presentable, and was dragged out by Katie to meet up with Hunk and Allura at their favorite late night arcade by Katie's house. She figured that going there would take his mind off of Lance and would get Hunk and Allura to help too.
"Hey guys!" Hunk waved Keith and Katie over to where they stood at the entrance to the arcade. The two walked over to greet them as they all walked inside together. Keith stood back and watched before Katie noticed, scowled, and raced back to him.
"Come on, they already paid for a few hours for us. Have some fun and try not to think about it." Katie put her hand on Keith's shoulder before returning to challenge Hunk at some racing game. Keith stood and stared at all of the ancient arcade games around him. Maybe Katie was right. Maybe he should just get it off of his mind with something that made him happy.
He stepped over to the Pac-man machine and pressed start, which initiated the classic intro music. Keith grinned and began playing until his mind was only occupied with thoughts of winning. After who knows how many minutes, Keith ran out of lives. But, to his surprise, the leader board shone brightly in front of his face and asked his to input his initials into the first place spot.
"Wow you set the new high score, Keith!" Allura's voice boomed from behind Keith as he whipped his head around, startled by her sudden presence.
"Oh, uh…yeah. I guess I did." Keith looked back at the screen and punched in the letters KK into the leader board.
"Pretty impressive. But, I won't accept it. Come here." Allura grabbed his wrist and pulled him over to the air hockey table. "You may be good at the digital games, but air hockey is the ultimate game for the best of the best. Let's go." They both got into position, Keith complying with her challenge, and began a heated battle. Allura was fast, even with Keith trying his very best, which ended in her victory.
"Oh, would you look at that." She boasted while pointing up to the bright red "WINNER!" flashing across the screens. "I seem to have beat you."
Keith scoffed and crossed his arms. "Sure, whatever. Air hockey isn't even a real arcade game. I see one at every shitty pizza place I come across."
"You're just a sore loser." Allura's smile never faded as she walked over to Keith and lead him to the front of the building where the snacks were. "I'm gonna get some nachos or something for all of us. Go call over the others to come and sit down, would you?"
"Sure thing." Keith turned and walked around the arcade floor, searching for Katie and Hunk, before he found them huddled in front of the Q-bert machine.
"No, no, no. Look, this path is the one that let's you escape, see?"
Keith spoke up softly. "Hey, guys."
"But I already tried that one, Katie!"
"I've beat this one before! I know what I'm talking about, Hunk!"
"Uh…guys?"
"Why don't you let me, the one with the controls, choose, huh?"
"I'm trying to hel-"
"Guys!" Keith grabbed both of their shoulders which halted their argument and caused them to turn towards him. The faint sound of the "You Died" music emitted from the machine as Keith dropped his hands to his sides and spoke up. "Allura bought nachos. Let's go eat."
"Oh…okay. Sorry, Keith." Hunk stepped away from the machine first, followed by Katie, and they both followed him to a booth near the entrance where Allura was already sitting. They all ate and talked together about various things like school and hobbies, the typical "friend" conversations. Keith realized that throughout the night, not one image or thought of Lance passed through his mind. Katie was always right in these situations, not that he had ever doubted her.
Keith realized, after far too long, that he had been staring into nothing which worried Hunk.
"Hey, Keith, you good?" He waved his hand in front of Keith's face to try and get his attention.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry." He reached over to the community-nacho-bowl and grabbed a chip. "What were we talking about..?"
"Well," Katie began informing him on the conversation he missed out on, "Allura was gushing on and on about how simply amazing her and Shiro are going along."
"Hey! You'd be "gushing" too if you had a boyfriend, Katie."
"You and I both know I'll be dating my computer forever. What about you, Hunk? Are you and that Shay girl a thing yet?" She gently nudged him with her elbow before cramming another nacho into her already full mouth.
"I-I told you! It's not like that, Katie!" He was visibly uncomfortable at her statement.
"And what about Keith?" Allura's mentioning of his name made Keith jump slightly in surprise and he met her gaze with wide eyes. "Have you found a nice guy?"
It was silent. Katie looked away, knowing fully well what this would lead to. Hunk tilted his head curiously, also wanting to know about Keith's relationship, or lack thereof in his case. He didn't know whether to share the truth with them, embarrass himself, and feel down for the rest of the night or lie through his teeth and pretend he was doing fine. He was sure just mentioning Lance's name would make him emotional.
When Keith clearly wasn't going to speak up any time soon, Katie took action herself.
"Keith is-" Everyone's eyes moved onto her. "Um, Keith is…waiting to get into a relationship right now. He's focusing on his writing instead. Right, Keith?" She gazed over at him with hopeful eyes, assuming he'd catch on immediately.
All he could do was look down and reply dryly, "Yeah. That's right." It took all he had not to walk away right then and there, having lied to them and got himself thinking about his unfortunate situation for the 50th time today. Why did everything have to be so unfair when it came to things like this?
"Well, I'm glad you're focusing on something at least!" Allura laughed and kept chatting. "But don't worry, I'm sure some prince charming will come your way soon, so chin up!" She patted his shoulder while smiling brightly.
"Prince charming, huh?" Keith thought. She was right in that area, at least. That's how anybody who set eyes on Lance would describe him. Prince charming.
"I sure hope so."