Almost Easy

Brian was alone in his bedroom. Staring at the ceiling as he laid on his back on the king sized bed that sat in the middle of the room - despite the fact that he had barely spent the night in it. He had his cell phone clutched in his right hand and periodically he would hold it above his face and read the most recent text message he had received, one for Hollis.

Dinner tonight?

Two words.
Two words were tearing him apart.
Two words was bound to destroy his friendship and his best friend.
Two fucking words.

Downstairs he could hear the TV roaring with the sounds of Mario Party, which Zacky was playing alone on the Wii. He knew he should be down there playing with him, he knew that he shouldn't be deciding whether or not to go out with Hollis again. He knew that it was wrong.

He knew.

His phone beeped again and he held it in front of his face.

If you don't want to...it's fine. I know you're worried about Zacky. Truthfully, I am too.

"Then why do you keep wanting to go out with me? Why did you even agree in the first place?" He asked the phone, as if he was actually expecting it to respond to him.

It beeped again before he had a chance to respond.

I know that you're probably thinking we should just forget about it. That it's not worth it. But you know what? That's bullshit.

"Huh. And why is that?" He asked his phone again, semi-convinced that the phone was responding to him.

I really like you Brian. And as much as I care for Zacky, I care for you more. I don't want to give us up just yet. I'm not ready for that.

He sat up and just stared at the message for a moment before responding.

Me neither.

He sent the message and then threw his phone on the bed beside him, running his hand through his hair. What am I doing? He asked himself as he sighed heavily and pushed himself off of his bed. Leaving his phone on the bed, he walked downstairs to where Zacky was playing Mario Party (still), the wii remote in one hand, and a beer in the other.

"Dude, you're still playing that?" Brian asked as he got a beer from the fridge and plopped himself down on the large armchair opposite Zacky.

"Yeah. I decided that a 50 turn game was a good idea..."

"And?"

"It was a bad idea. A very bad idea." He said with a small chuckle, finishing off his beer and putting the empty bottle back on the table as he won the mini-game.

"Toadette?" Brian asked with a laugh.

"Shut up, everyone knows that she is the best! Her and Toad are a mushroom dream team!"

"You need to get out more dude." Brian said and immediately regretted it when Zacky's eyes flashed with hurt as he continued playing the game. "You know I didn't mean it like that Zacky. I'm sorry."

"Whatever."He mumbled as "FINAL TURN" flashed across the screen.

"Zacky, don't be like that with me. It's me your best friend. Please don't get all introvertive because of something that I didn't even mean."

"I know. Sorry." He mumbled again as the TV declared that Toadette was the superstar and Zacky threw the remote on the ground after turning the wii off.

"Brian?" He asked, opening the other beer he had and gulping down about half of it.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think that I'll ever...be better? Like...do you think I'll ever be able to be with other people like I am with you?"

His words surprised Brian. It was a rare occasion when Brian and Zacky had serious conversations, but since Zacky had started seeing shrinks every week, they hadn't had one. And the worst part was, Brian had no idea what to tell him.

"Of course you will." He decided after a moment, "It just takes time. But you're opening up with Hollis and that's a start. She's not me, and you're able to be more open with her so it won't be long before we're asking you to shut up." He said with a smile and Zacky gave a weak smile in return.

"Well, I'm not talking about Hollis. I mean...be able to talk to people when I first meet them. Hollis is different."

"What makes her different? She's someone you didn't know." Brian asked, confused as to what set Hollis apart from everyone else Zacky didn't know.

"Because...this is crazy..."

"What Zacky? You can tell me anything, you know that."

"Well...I know I've only known her for two weeks...but...I think I might be falling in love with her..."

Shit...