Ex Friends Till the End

Pete was gone when Ryan woke up. He didn’t know how, but somehow after a night of drinking and sex, Pete had managed to get up before Ryan and get to class. He was glad of this though. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to face Pete and he was nervous about how he would act around him when Ryan did finally see him.

But unfortunately Ryan was forced to face Pete before he even felt semi-ready. He came in the room about 20 minutes after Ryan had returned from his classes.

“Hey,” Pete said as he came in. He threw his book bag on his bed. “You want to go get some lunch?”

“Sure,” Ryan replied, getting up from his desk chair.

“So how was your night?” Pete questioned as they headed to the dining hall.

“Boring. I finished an essay though,” Ryan replied. And now he knew he had to ask about Pete’s. He always asked about Pete’s nights when he went out and he felt that if he didn’t ask, then Pete would suspect that something was up. He didn’t want Pete to find out that he had heard him last night. “So, um…how was your night?”

“It was okay,” he answered. “I really shouldn’t party during the week. It makes it so much harder to go to class in the morning.”

“Yeah,” Ryan said, forcing out a laugh. They were silent again as they continued walking. After a few minutes Pete stopped and it took Ryan a moment to realize this. He turned to look at Pete.

“Hey, are you okay?” Pete asked.

“What?” he answered, surprised by this sudden question. Ryan looked away from Pete’s stare. He had been hoping this wouldn’t happen.

“Are you okay?” Pete repeated. “You seem a little off today.”

“I’m fine,” Ryan answered quickly. He started towards the dining hall again. “Let’s go eat. I’m hungry.”

Pete didn’t say anything and followed Ryan the rest of the way to the dining hall. As they were sitting together at a table, eating their food, Ryan kept his eyes on his plate and made small talk with Pete, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to convince Pete that he was fine. Even Ryan knew he was acting weird.

Pete didn’t’ bring up the subject again, though, until later in the day when they were in their room and done with classes.

“Ryan,” Pete said, looking away from his computer to look over at Ryan.

“Yeah?” he replied, not looking away from his computer. He didn’t want to look at Pete. Ryan heard him sigh.

“Are you mad at me?” Pete asked.

“No, of course not,” he responded. This time Ryan turned around to look at Pete. “Why would you think that?”

“I don’t know,” Pete said. “You’ve just been acting weird today.”

It was silent now. Ryan didn’t know what he should say next, so he just shrugged.

“Well… something’s going on,” Pete said finally. “You know you can talk to me right?”

“Yeah,” Ryan said, looking down at his hands.

“Okay,” Pete said. It was silent again and then he could hear Pete typing again. Ryan looked up to look at him. Maybe he should just tell him… it might make things better if it was out in the open.

“I heard you last night…” Ryan mumbled, looking back at his hands. Pete’s typing stopped.

“What?” Pete asked. Ryan shook his head and glanced up, meeting Pete’s eyes for a brief moment before looking back down at his hands.

“It’s… nothing. Never mind,” Ryan said with a sigh. He turned around to look at his computer but didn’t do anything. He knew that Pete was still watching him.

“Wait,” Pete started after a moment. “Did you say that you…heard me last night?”

Ryan didn’t say anything and he felt his face flush over the fact that he had to bring this up. It was making him uncomfortable and he just wanted to forget about it.

“Ryan?” Pete said. Ryan shook his head.

“Just forget it,” he said. He opened up a word document on his computer but he didn’t have anything to write. He couldn’t think of anything but the fact that Pete was staring at him and that he was trying to continue this awkward and uncomfortable topic. He closed the word document. It was quiet for a few minutes.

“Shit,” Pete breathed. “Shit. Ryan. Seriously…I’m so sorry. I don’t even know what I was thinking last night.”

Ryan had asked him to forget it, but he still should have known that Pete would eventually figure it out. He continued to stare at his computer screen. He really didn’t want to look at Pete right now because this had to be the worst part of their whole conversation.

“D-Don’t worry about it,” Ryan said quietly. “It’s no big deal.”

“No big deal?” Pete asked. “I fucking brought some random girl back to our room and had sex with her while you were sleeping right across the room… well, apparently you woke up and heard us. So it is a big deal. That was really shitty of me. I’m so fucking sorry, Ryan. I never thought I’d be the roommate that would do that to someone, but I guess I am.”

Ryan didn’t say anything. He didn’t know what to say. He just wanted to forget about this whole thing and move on. Finally, after taking in a shaky breath, Ryan turned around to look at Pete.

“I guess you just owe me even more than you did before,” Ryan said. He gave Pete a small smile. A moment later and Pete was grinning back.

“Does that mean you forgive me?” He asked. Ryan nodded his head. “Then I definitely owe you big time.”

Ryan smiled at Pete before turning back to his computer. He didn’t think he could ever get mad at Pete.