You both wandered back to Dave's place, slowly and talking all the while. Days like this made you nostalgic over the times when you used to do things like this with your best friend. Those days are your favourites but at the same time, you passionately wish that you could go back to being little again, when things didn't matter and you were both carefree.

"-and then, that's when Bro walked in and we both stared at each other and—oh, we're here"

You both stand outside of Dave's apartment. It is a beige coloured block with around 7 flights packed into one building. Sure, it was ugly but it was what Dave called home and that's fine with you.

You both enter the building and climb up the whole seven flights of stairs to get to Dave's apartment at the very top. Whilst you walk, you notice how the gross outside of the apartment matches the gross inside. It didn't seem clean and damp was emanating from multiple corners. The smell was dank and murky and seemed to smell the same as an elevator that someone had just vomited in.

Dave looks over at your disgruntled face and smirks. He turns back around to continue walking up the stairs and says "You get used to the smell and overall grossness of the place, trust me."

When you finally reach the top floor, there's a long corridor filled with around 6 rooms with 3 either side. A red carpet lined the floor and a light yellow paint was splattered across the wall, amongst other unmentionable things which you assume is mould and damp. You're not sure what the bubble-like yellow blobs are – you decide to not find out. You both walk across the corridor to Dave's apartment. He fumbles for the keys in his pocket. You try not to look at the suspicious stains on the wall.

"Bro, ya home?" Dave calls. There is no response but the TV is blaring loudly. You gently close the door behind you as you step inside. Surprisingly, this area of the Strider's apartment is the cleanest – everything is in order and generally tidy, but then you got into the living room.

Pizza boxes and various other take-out boxes were strewn across the coffee table amongst a slightly hidden porn magazine and apple juice boxes.

Bro was living the high life.

You pass through the living room to make your way to some small stairs which were adjoined to the kitchen and lead to Dave's room. Bro is laid on the sofa, he isn't making any noise, just laying there, facing upwards. You daren't take off his glasses to find out whether his eyes are shut because you are 100% sure that his eyes would be the last thing you'd see before your bloodied corpse is brutally placed on top of those pizza boxes. Like, Dave, Bro has a thing for not showing his eyes. His anime shades help him to not only look cool (and slightly dorky) but to conceal his eyes too and from what you have heard from Dave, you really don't want to touch his glasses. Don't be tricked though, Bro is a nice guy from what you can remember.

You follow Dave into the kitchen and watch as he opens up the fridge and grabs two, small, apple juice cartons. One in which he gives to you. You rip the straw off of the side, unwrap it and shove it into the hole at the top of the box.

Dave leads you to his bedroom and you chuckle slightly at the stupid posters stuck to the door and graffiti that he'd drawn on from when he was younger.

You sit down on the bed but Dave sits on the floor and everything is pretty much silent whilst you both drink up the apple juice. You don't know what to say, you want to break the silence but it's to awkward to do so and Dave is probably concentrating on drinking.

So you just stare out of the window and watched as a few crows fight with each other in the air.

Dave stands up and throws his juice box away in a bin which is placed under his desk. He sighs contently. Still focusing on the crow fight, Dave throws a black controller at you which throws you back into reality.

"Wanna play somethin'? Got some new Xbox games and like, some have multiplayer and stuff."

"Sweet!" You reply. "Sure, what games you got?"

Dave listed a few of his games and you finally settle on one.

"DUDE, DUDE DON'T GO THAT WAY! OH MY FUCKING GOD."

"Shit! I'm sorry, wait I'll get that again, just one sec, wait there. No! DON'T MOVE DAMMIT!"

You both argue as you try and find a strategic way of completing this level and after an hour or so, Dave paused the game and laughs.

"What's so funny?" You ask.

"We are so fucking bad at this game, Jesus."

You laugh in response. You expect Dave to unpause the game but instead he just looks at you for a while like he's inspecting you. The light from the TV is illuminating his glasses and you can see him smiling slightly. You swallow slowly. This situation was awkward and embarrassing and you had no idea what Dave was intent on doing. He suddenly moves inward very fast and his face is only inches away from you and he sighs. You look down at his hands which were placed near to you and you can see them shaking slightly like he was nervous or scared of something. You freak out and move backwards but you are too slow and Dave grabs your shirt and pulls you in for a kiss. His soft tongue rolls over yours and dominates your mouth. You have no idea how to kiss since you've never done it before but you just go with the flow and let Dave entwine his tongue with yours and occasionally stop for a small breath. You slobber over Dave a little and you worry that your terrible kissing will freak him out but he just keeps on kissing you regardless.

He pulls back and looks at you with concern. Does he think that I didn't like it? Does he think that you hate him now? You don't hate him. But you surely can't go back to being friends anymore. You have crossed the border of friendship. You were confused about your sexuality and you always have been but you have never expected to do anything like this with Dave. No, you didn't have a problem with kissing anybody, whether they're male, female or anything inbetween but Dave was your friend...

"...that was good." You say after a few seconds of utter silence.

Dave swallows. He doesn't do anything, he just looks at you, panting still from the kiss.

"I've liked you for a while but I didn't want to ruin my reputation, yanno?" He looks at the ground beneath him. "I mean where do we go from here?..."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean..." He pauses to think for a moment. "How do you feel about me? Would you see us being more than friends? I wouldn't force you into anything, I just want your opinion. It's chill if you don't wanna date 'cause I totally understand but-"

"Dave." You cut him off. "...I...I wouldn't mind, I guess. We just gotta keep it a secret for a while...because you know what people will be like..."

Dave smiles; a genuine one, not a smart guy sarcastic one but a genuine one.

"Awesome."

"Hey, John."

"What's up?"

"This is really out of the blue but d'you wanna do something a little more than just kissing?...You don't have to if you don't want to, I won't force you and you know that."

You breathe gently through your mouth and contemplate what to do.

"...Okay. But only if you have condoms and we get to have a safeword."