Forget Yesterday

Blind dates.

They were the bane of Alex Gaskarth’s existence.

Why?

Because the only people his friends seemed to know were complete and utter freaks. Take tonight’s date, for instance. It’s the middle of October, a normal night that Alex would quite happily spend curled up in front of the TV but no. Rian hadn’t told him until he got home from work that Rian had got him a date for this very night, and had given him 3 hours to get ready driving him to a restaurant.

Alex only put up with this blind date nonsense to a) make his friends think he wasn’t a completely antisocial asshole and b) to forget why he became such an antisocial asshole in the first place. 6 months ago, Alex didn’t even have a sniff of this problem. But now…eurgh. Now he had all sorts of problems.

“…and then you just have to wait until she snaps her jaws around the mouse’s neck. It’s incredible beautiful,” Alex’s date sighed happily.

Alex forced a smile onto his face as he broke out of his thoughts, pretending like he gave a shit. If he heard another word about this guy’s pet snake Bessie, he was going to feed himself to the damn serpent.

“Do you have any pets?” the man asked hopefully.

“No,” Alex said shortly.

He hated blind dates. He hated them. He hated Rian and Zack and Matt for setting him up on them and he hated the fact that they thought he needed them. Fuck this.

“So…how do you feel about water sports?” the guy purred.

Fuck this.

“Cheque please!” Alex called to a passing waiter.

That’s it. A snake enthusiast was one level of creep, but fucking water sports?! Rian was dead.

*

“RIAN!”

Rian smirked to himself where he sat in the living room of their small apartment. He knew exactly what to expect in 3…2…1…

"Fuck you," Alex growled, walking into the room.

“Hi Alex. You’re back early,” Rian said innocently.

“Not early enough. You’re an asshole,” Alex spat, slumping down into his armchair.

“Care to elaborate?” Rian mused.

“Oh, gladly. Not only did this guy smell worse than the time our toilet backed up, and not only was his hair so greasy that it was practically dripping from him, but he wouldn’t shut up about his fucking snake!” Alex seethed.

“You’ve been on worse,” Rian pointed out, although he was smirking slightly.

Alex growled. Only Rian could find this funny.

“He asked me if I was into water sports,” Alex snarled.

Rian’s hidden smirk turned into full blown laughter.

“Oh man, that’s priceless,” Rian choked between laughs.

“I hate you. Where did you even find this guy?” Alex exasperated.

“He bought that snake from my pet store a few months back? And he came by for supplies this morning?” Rian offered.

Alex opened and closed his mouth a few times, failing to find a response. This was a new level of suckiness.

“I hate you more than ever before,” Alex said angrily.

“I’m only trying to help,” Rian mused.

“I don’t need this kind of help,” Alex grumbled.

“I’m…we’re only trying to help you move on from him,” Rian reminded his best friend.

“Fuck you, I don’t see you going on dates, so why should I?!” Alex retorted.

Rian rolled his eyes, unamused. Alex was so oblivious sometimes.

“Actually I’ve been on quite a few dates in the past 6 months, and I’m on my third date with a guy I like,” Rian said simply.

Alex froze. Rian had…what? Rian had been on dates and he hadn’t even noticed? Rian had been on repeat dates? When the fuck did he get so ignorant about his best friend?! Sure, Alex had his problems...but Rian was Rian.

“Oh,” Alex said quietly.

Rian sighed. He knew Alex hadn’t meant anything bad, but it was time he got his head out of his ass.

“You’ve been so wrapped up in yourself that you haven’t even noticed anything around you,” Rian scolded softly.

“I’m sorry Ri, I just…”

Alex trailed off, biting his bottom lip as the memories from 6 months ago washed over him.

“I know, Alex, I know. Danny was an asshole and you didn’t deserve what he did to you,” Rian soothed.

“I don’t want to talk about him anymore,” Alex scowled.

“Good! Now, how about you go to bed and we can talk about getting you a new date tomorrow?” Rian said cheerfully.

“Rian!” Alex spluttered in protest.

“Okay, okay, I’ll give you a few days,” Rian grinned.

Alex scowled and stomped down the corridor to his bedroom. Who needs best friends anyway?