It's the Mess That Feels So Right...

The days blurred together until two weeks had passed, most days William walking me home from school and staying until the day had completely bled out. William and I, we had become more than just friends. Nothing romantic, but just close. Really close. He was that something else that neither Gabe nor Caleb could be, and I was thankful for that. I’m trying to not go all mushy here, but he actually understood every tangled, senseless sentence that fell from my mouth, and made me happy.

But now, with Gabe only a week away from returning, my brain had become a traitor, and now I didn’t have a clue about how I felt about this whole thing. I love Gabe; he was my best friend, so why couldn’t I tell him about William? Surely he would be happy I let another person in, especially with someone he was good friends with, so what was holding me back? In the back of my head, the logic was sitting there, taunting me with truth. Maybe because I wanted to be more than just close friends with William, and I didn’t know how Gabe would react. Maybe...maybe I wanted Gabe to react, to get angry, maybe to show me if he could want me more than-

No. Absolutely not. I refuse to let my mind ponder that thought anymore. I stood up from the couch and wandered over to the fridge.

“Shylo, come get some breakfast!” I yelled out, opening the fridge and grabbing a can of the disgusting smelling dog food. Shylo skidded into the kitchen as I put the bowl on the ground, and I began laughing at the small snuffs of appreciation Shylo let out. The phone began to ring, startling me, and my heart flipped twice before I could move to answer it.

“H-hello?”

“Hey, you. You sound like you just found Gabe’s underwear in the bathtub. Again.” A familiar voice chuckled as they said this and an instant smile spread across my face.

“Haha, not quite.” I replied with a smile. “What can I help you with, Mister Beckett?”

“Well, I was wondering what you were doing tonight?” It sounded like a question more than a statement, and even though he couldn’t see it, I raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

“Oh? And this would be because?”

“Well, I got invited to the opening of this new restaurant down in town, and I’m supposed to bring a... companion, I guess you could say, and I was wondering if maybe you could be my plus one?” He sounded nervous, and I could hear him fidgeting on the other end of the line.

“Wow, William, that sounds oddly like a date.”

“Uh ha, funny that,” William said, his voice going slightly pitchy and I smirked. I loved messing with him.

“Question, am I allowed to wear Chucks with my dress?”

“Uh, I guess, I don’t think that there is a dress code-“

“Say no more. I will gladly be your plus one.” I was grinning. I must have looked like I stepped out of one of those toothpaste ads, and that is creepy.

“Great! Awesome, I shall pick you up, say, sevenish?”

“Sevenish sounds great, see you then.” I flung the phone back onto the hook and collapsed on the nearest chair. Am I really going to go on a date with William Beckett? I groaned, knowing how much that was going to screw up my thoughts.

“What am I going to do, Shylo?” I groaned, looking at the little puppy, who cocked her head at me.

“I haven’t got a clue either. I guess I should find something to wear tonight.” Just as I stood up, the phone rang again. I looked at it, confused, until I realised it probably won’t answer by itself.

“Hello?”

“Bee, baby, how’s it rolling?” Caleb’s playful voice came from the other end and caused me to laugh.

“Hey, Caleb, it’s rolling fine?” I didn’t have a clue what he was going on about.

“That’s all good! So, I haven’t seen you in,” It sounded like he was checking his watch. “27 hours, so let’s say we hit the town tonight, you, me and one heck of a dance party, hmm?”

“Oh, Caleb, timing is not on your side, dude. I just made plans to go out to dinner tonight with a friend. Sorry, man.”

“W-what? You mean the imaginary dude got to you before I did?”

“Yes, the imaginary guy- wait, no! My friend just has better timing. And he isn’t imaginary!” I glared at the phone. Caleb was such a dork.

“Okay, okay fine. He’s not imaginary. But if he isn’t imaginary, why haven’t I met him yet?” He did have a point. William always managed to disappear before Caleb showed up tospy check on me.

“Like I said, he has brilliant timing.”

“Oh you are so funny. Fine. I will sniff him out one day, you realise that? I could just pop out like a ninja, and if he even thinks about thinking about laying a hand on you or thinks any dirty thoughts, I am personally going to shove my foot so far up his ass, he won’t be able to-“

“Hanging up now, bye!” I hung up the phone again, and sunk down to the floor. If Caleb found out about William, he would tell Gabe and Gabe would come back here and blow everything out of proportion. I guess William knew that too, that’s why he was keeping himself on the down low. Shylo barked, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Right, my outfit for tonight, thanks Shylo.” Great, I’m now talking to a dog. I really am going crazy.

-X-

“Wow, might I say you look great,” William said, accompanied with a wistful smile as he gave me a hug, my body willing me to cling on a little longer.

“Thanks Will. You look rather dashing as well,” I replied with a playful smile. He held out his arm for me to link my arm though and lead me down to bottom floor where we began our little stroll towards the restaurant. After arriving and saying hi to various people that William knew, we finally managed to escape to a little table in the back.

“So what would you like, Bee?” Will asked, looking over the menu with intense interest. I did the same and made a face.

“Is everything okay?”

“Oh yeah, of course. Everything is just so... fancy. And expensive. Do you think they will kick me out if I ask for a hamburger?” I asked with full honesty. Will just looked shocked until his mouth curved into a smile and he began laughing.

“Well how about I order you something, yeah? Do you trust me enough?” Will asked with a smirk.

“Bring it on,” I challenged. Twenty minutes later, we were dining through some kind of fancy meat and potato salad thing, and despite the fancy name I couldn’t pronounce, it was pretty good.

“You’re kidding! Mike wouldn’t do that!”

“So not kidding, for months people were asking The Butcher what happened to his left eyebrow, and he never again messed with Mike’s hair products ever again,” William said, his eyes brimming with tears from laughing. I was following suit.

“I can actually see that! Even more reason to be scared of Mike!” I said with a laugh, finishing of the last of my dinner. “Wow, Beckett, I’m impressed, this is delish!”

William smiled. “Well I’m glad you liked it. Dessert?”

“No way! I still need to get through the door!”

“Just the check then,” William said, giving me that boyish smile.

-X-

I was still kinda angry at Bill, after he refused to let me pay my share of the bill. Not name pun intended. We were slowly walking back to my apartment, talking about stupid little things.
“Oh man, it looks like it’s gonna rain,” William said, looking up at the sky with a pout. I smiled at this, I loved the rain.

“Gee Will, how can you ever learn to enjoy life if you don’t learn to dance in the rain?”

“I don’t follow.”

“You know, make the best of worst situations and all that jazz.”

“Oh.” He was silent for a moment. “You want me to call a cab?”

I froze. “O-oh no, that’s q-quite okay.” William turned to me quickly.

“Oh gosh Bee, I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I know you’re afraid of cars, I’m so sorry.” William continued to ramble until I turned to him with an odd expression on my face. Out of the millions of things I had told him, that was not one of them. Before I could say anything, a sudden downpour fell, soaking us completely.

William let out a laugh, and grabbed my hand, flashing me a smile. I grinned back and we began running down the road, letting out little yelps of joy, even giving a few twirls.
We walked into the apartment, holding each other as we laughed, both of us shivering and beaming madly.

“Y-y-y-you’re gonna g-get sick,” William stuttered and I shrugged.

“A little cold won’t hurt.” I collapsed on the couch, pulling William with me until he was questionably lying on top of me, soaking me further. William blushed, and like a gentleman, he tried to roll off but my hands found their way to his arms, holding him there. He looked at me, confused.

“H-how much d-do you know about me?” I whispered and William looked like he had been caught off guard.

“Y-you’re Bee. You love Disney movies because they make you happy and you live with Gabe Saporta. You love chocolate milk but you can’t stand regular milk. You hate seafood with a passion and you can never resist going on the swings when you go to the park. You hate Jimmy Neutron and you have a best friend named Caleb who I haven’t met yet, but you are certain he would marry Gabe if he wasn’t straight and vice versa. Oh, and you burn pasta.”

“N-n-no, I mean, about my past? How much d-do you know?” I tried again, my wide eyes piercing his. He rested his head against my stone cold shoulder and muttered something that sounded like, “More than you do.”

“What?”

“I mean, uh, I know about how your parents and brother aren’t...here anymore.”

“And you never thought to tell me you knew?” I asked with anger behind my words.

William looked up at me with shock. “Well I’m sorry; it’s not something you can just bring up. Oh hey, how are you doing? Oh yeah, and I know how your family died.” I winced at this and William hugged me tighter, looking guilty.

“I’m so, so sorry, Bee, I didn’t mean for it to come out like that,” William whispered. I nodded.

“I’m sorry as well. You have a valid point,” I said with a small forced smile. But this conversation was tearing at wounds that hadn’t healed, and I could feel that empty void burn with depression and I could feel myself slipping again. I didn’t want to feel this. I needed... I needed to feel something else.

So I did the unimaginable. I leaned forward; pressing my frozen lips against William’s quivering ones. He was unresponsive for a mere second, till he pressed harder. He pulled back suddenly.

“A-are yo-you sure?” William asked nervously, biting his lower lip. I didn’t even try to reply, my lower jaw shaking as I pressed my lips to his again. From there it got more heated and a lot more intense, until I finally broke of the kiss.

“Bee, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have gotten so carried away,” William muttered, looking away.

I placed my hand on his cheek, forcing him to look back at me. “I’m not sorry.”

William grinned, and held me closer to him. “So are we more than friends...?”

“Do you want to be?” I asked back. I’m certain I wanted this. I’m certain.

“Yes. Fuck yes,” William replied. I laughed at this; he looked to innocent to swear.

“Are you going to make me leave?” William asked with a pout, listening to the thunder clap outside.

“No. But we really need to get out of these wet clothes. No funny business?”

“Awh, fine.”

-X-

“Coming!” I called out to whoever was at the door in a whisper, detaching myself from the still-sleeping William and hurrying to the door. Will and I had fallen asleep together as... a couple. I shivered involuntarily at that, it was going to take some getting used to. But I had woken up this morning, my face pressed into his chest, and I was happy. Purely happy.

I opened the door to see a grinning Caleb. “Like a ninja!” He reminded me with a grin.

“Oh, hey Caleb...” I whispered, using the door to hide William’s sleeping form. He looked at me suspiciously.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing! Nothing’s going on, swear,” I said with an innocent smile.

“Pfft, alright, I believe you. Let me past, I’m hungry!” Caleb whined.

“It’s good to see you too,” I replied, rolling my eyes and letting him in. He wouldn’t leave if I didn’t.

I hoped he wouldn’t notice the lanky man still sleeping on my couch. Caleb walked passed him, completely oblivious to the William and headed straight to the kitchen, all his thinking being done by his stomach. He opened the fridge door, and rummaged around until he pulled out a slice of pizza.

“I don’t think you should eat that, I’m not sure how long it’s been in there,” I mumbled, awkwardly perching myself on the chair to block Caleb’s few of William. Caleb peered closely at the pizza, before shrugging and biting into it. Caleb grinned.

I made a face. “That is disgusting.”

“Gives it flavour!” Caleb argued, continuing to stare at me while still munching through the pizza. I shifted awkwardly, my heart still pounding because at any minute he could see the guy I had been hiding from him and the whole charade would be up.

“Well, I guess-“ I never got to hear the end of that sentence because at that moment, William decided to let out a loud groan and roll over, arms grasping onto nothing as his breathing became shallow and he lay still. I looked back at Caleb, who was stunned still, eyes about to pop out of his head. He had dropped his slice of pizza in astonishment. I tried to think of some way to lighten the current situation, but I wasn’t sure how much Caleb knew.

“Is that... is that William Beckett? As in, the William Beckett from The Academy Is...?” Caleb asked slowly.

“Honestly Caleb, now is not the time to go all fan girl on me,” I muttered, watching Caleb as he walked slowly toward William, mouth hanging open.

“So this is the guy? The imaginary dude? He was William Beckett all along and you didn’t think to introduce me?”

“Why does it matter?” I asked meekly, not quite sure where this was going.

“Because it’s William fucking Beckett! The finest piece of ass on this Earth!” Caleb explained, getting uncomfortably close to William. I jumped up and dragged him behind the other couch.

“Aren’t you supposed to be straight?” I asked in a hushed yell and Caleb grinned, rolling his eyes.

“Yeah, of course. But anyone would go gay for William Beckett,” He replied cockily. I gave him a look and he just shrugged.

“I didn’t tell you because you would tell Gabe, being practically married to him and all, and Gabe being Gabe, would go psycho,” I said rolling my eyes and Caleb looked offended.

“I am not married to him! And if you didn’t want me to tell Gabe, you just had to say. I’m your best friend first,” Caleb reminded me and I gave him a smile.

“Thanks.”

“So have you tapped that yet?” Caleb asked casually. I looked at him, shocked.

“Caleb!”

“It was just a question!

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

“Alright, I’m out of here, but as soon as he wakes up, I’m so back here and you have to introduce me, deal?” Caleb stood up, pulling me up with him.

“Deal,” I muttered as Caleb hugged me and kissed the top of my head before he walked out, leaving me with a sleepingWilliam boyfriend.