(Hockey Bxb) Whistle In The Wind -𝐗𝐈𝐈-

╔══《”Wish I could turn you》══╗
back into a stranger.” 

      “Give it back!” Lucien yelled playfully, chasing his friend around the living room. In his hand was a now crumpled piece of paper. The scribbles and sketches on the edges indicated Lucien’s lack of understanding for the topic.

       “You weren’t even doing it!” Aksel yelled while jumping over the couch to avoid Lucien’s prowling hands.

       “I was trying! Chemistry is hard,” Lucien whined, leaping over the same couch less gracefully. On his way down, a baby blue throw blanket that had gotten knocked off the cushions in their havoc, got caught on his foot. In one motion, Luc lost balance, his body crashing to the ground. His limbs flailed in the air comically.

       Laughter sounded around the room. Groaning, Lucien sat up with a pissed off expression. His back ached, and he clutched it as he stumbled to his feet. “You’re gonna pay for that,” he barked, suddenly running at the laughing blonde. 

       In one swift tackle, Aksel was hip-checked off his feet and flung toward the mountain of pillows behind him. At the same time, Lucien gripped the paper from his hands and pulled. Aksel plowed into the ground, momentum carrying Lucien along with him. “Yes!” Lucien cheered mid fall. Suddenly, a loud rip resonated throughout the living room. Both boys, now comfortably and safely on the floor, stared at each other.

       In each of their hands remained two halves of a piece of paper. “Dude!” Lucien huffed, angry. “That was a study guide for a Chem test I have tomorrow,” he grumbled. The torn in half paper wasn’t graded or even being collected. But Chemistry was a hard class, and Lucien knew he wouldn’t come close to a passing grade without the ripped paper.

       “We can tape it back together!” Aksel suggested, guilty.

       “It’s fine…” Lucien trailed off, heaving himself off the floor. “I was probably gonna fail anyway. Now, at least I have something to blame it on.”

       Remaining silent, Aksel slowly climbed off the pillows, joining the brunette in the middle of the living room. The TV was on in the background, the oversaturated cartoon they had randomly flipped to droning on. Both boys were sweating, their foreheads slick.

       “Ew dude, I’m so sweaty,” Aksel complained, scrunching his nose. “I stink,” he cringed, getting a whiff of his own armpit when he raised his right arm.

       “Ew get away from me,” Lucien joked, knowing his body was coated in an equal amount of sudor excreting from his own pores. “Go shower, just take some of my comfy clothes,” Lucien suggested, stepping away from the smelly teenager and plugging his nose amusingly.

       “Thanks!” Aksel replied, already running out of the room. Lucien listened to the faint sound of his footsteps up the stairs, followed by the opening and closing of drawers before finally, he heard the sound of the shower.

       Remaining in the middle of the living room, Lucien observed the mess. Sighing, he began to walk toward the pile of pillows. His mom loved having an excessive amount of pillows on every couch or bed. This resulted in them carelessly being tossed around whenever people wanted to sit even half of their butt on the couch.

       A faint smile lingered on his face. Hang-outs with his best friend always left him feeling happy. He didn’t care about the study guide anymore. The rush of chasing Aksel around was worth the failing grade.

       Pillow by pillow, Lucien tidied up the room. After five minutes of gruesome labor, according to the dramatic teen, the living room looked no different then it had originally. Knowing Aksel took long showers that drained the Cordes hot water supply, Lucien turned to leave the living room. On the way out, he spotted a small back object poking out from under the couch.

       Bending his knees, Lucien crouched down to retrieve it. Once he grabbed it, his phone wallpaper lit up. He smiled at the moon background, but hesitated when he saw he had no new texts.

       I wonder what Váli’s up to. He’s probably doing something productive, like homework or studying. He frowned. Would it be weird to text him? No! No… We’re friends! Opening his phone, Lucien clicked into their last conversation.

       Typing while walking, Lucien drafted a text. ‘What’ve you been up to?’ Is that too formal? Just saying ‘wyd’ sounds too casual though. Ugh! He contemplated the text, ultimately closing his eyes and sending it. About to turn his phone off, the ‘delivered’ icon changed to ‘read’.

       He opened that immediately. Lucien stared at the open conversation. Váli’s seen the text. He knew that because it said so. Lucien stood still, standing on a step in the middle of the staircase. Here, he stayed for a whole minute. Váli didn’t start typing. He’s seen it! Why won’t he respond? Thoughts churned in Luc’s brain.

       Every worst and least likely scenario suddenly seemed like a real possibility to him. He hates me, he thinks I’m pushy, he’s ghosting me, he found out I–

       He found out I? Wait what? Lucien trailed off, unable to finish the thought. He knew what it was but his brain short-circuited the moment he tried to think it. It was stuck in the back of his tongue. Like a memory you knew, but the more you think about it, the less and less you remember it. Over time, getting so blurry the only thing left is the lasting feeling.

       This feeling was heat. Despite the near freezing temperatures outside, Lucien felt his body temperature rise. Panic? Fear? His heart beat loudly. Shaking his head, Lucien tried to search his brain once more for the answer, but failed. It was like his mind had placed a wall he couldn’t cross. He didn’t know what was beyond that wall, but danger signs were plastered all over it.

       He shivered, turning his phone off and continuing his journey up the stairs. His soft bed welcomed him, his aching limbs finally getting some sort of relief. He screwed his eyes shut, forcing them to remain clenched close. He tried to take his mind off of it, to think of anything but it.

       As he slipped more and more into his mind, his body slowly relaxed. His eyelids slackened slightly, and his form sunk into the soft bed. His mind slipped, and he slowly felt himself drifting farther and farther away…

       Thwonk. A towel smacked Lucien square in his nose, landing on his face. Instantly waking up, he flung it off him and glared at Aksel. His hair was sopping wet, and he grinned cheekily. He wore an oversized t-shirt and a pair of sweats. Lucien recognized the shirt as a random band tee he had gotten from his dad, and the sweatpants were a pair that were too small on Lucien. They only came up to his ankles, and he felt silly whenever he had to wear them out.

       It was a running joke by Lucien about how he was taller than his best friend. It was only by a couple inches, but those inches meant a lot to Aksel. Aksel got to brag about being taller than Váli, and Luc got to brag about being taller than both of them.

       “One day we’re gonna make you pay for the water bill with how long your showers are,” Luc groused.

       Smiling wider, Aksel cunningly replied, “Last I checked you don’t have a water bill since you have a well.” Groaning, Lucien rolled his eyes, laying back down.

       “Always the smart aleck.”

       “Hey! If you’re jealous of my genius brain then just say so. No need to turn to insults,” Aksel smirked.

       “Why would I be jealous of your 70 in English?” Lucien joked.

       “Hey! I only have a low grade because there’s like, one test in and that’s it! It just happened to be the one test I totally bombed–but that’s just because I stayed up super late playing video games that night,” he explained with a whine. 

       “Didn’t you also have a low English grade last semester? All I’m hearing, is a load of bullshit,” Lucien guffawed.

       “…Okay maybe English isn’t my best grade! But I’m not gonna be an Englishist or whatever you call it!” Laughing, Lucien turned on to his side to clutch his stomach.

       “You’re ridiculous,” Luc continued to giggle. The boys fell into another fit of laughter, Aksel propelling himself on the bed next to his bubbly friend. Suddenly, Lucien’s arms were being slapped and his torso was being assaulted.

       Aksel was the type of person to hit others while laughing. He swung his arms around, making contact with whoever or whatever landed in his path. This happened to be Luc. Unluckily for him, he was also cursed with genes that make him very ticklish.

       Any touch, as even as a brush of a sleeve, was enough to make Luc twitch and his skin crawl. Once his bare skin was touched, the tickling sensation overtook everything else. At that moment, Aksel’s thrashing hands were triggering this, which in turn only made Aksel laugh harder and flail more.

       It was a cycle of laughter and pain, and laughter and pain. By the time Aksel was able to take his hands off Luc, he was panting and out of breath. Winded, both boys tried to regain themselves. Lucien was exhausted, his body weak from the sudden tickle-attack.

       “Sorry for tickling you,” Aksel said with a smile on his face.

       “You’re not sorry at all,” Lucien breathed.

       “Nope.”

       “You suck. You know how much tickling irritates me,” Lucien complained.

       “It’s so fun to do! Your laugh is so contagious,” Aksel justified.

       “You mean my wheeze? Which is painful as hell,” Lucien sighed.

       The two fell into silence. Neither making an effort to continue the conversation. “What time are you going home? Not that I’m kicking you out,” Lucien asked.

       “Not sure…There isn’t much to do at home,” Aksel whispered. “You sound like you wanna get rid of me,” he jeered.

       “Nooo, of course not,” Luc responded sarcastically. “But honestly I don’t. I’m just curious because it’s getting late. Váli’s all alone.”

       “Nah he’s got mom, remember?”

       “Didn’t you say they didn’t get along, or something?”

       “…I suppose not, but they definitely tolerate each other. 

       “I see.”

       “You’re getting pretty close with him, huh?” Aksel questioned into the stillness.

       “Well, he was just helping me study,” Lucien replied, obliviously.

       “I didn’t mean that. Or, like, I didn’t mean just that,” Aksel face-palmed. Lucien looked over at his friend with a curious and clueless expression. What is he talking about? Did he find out about the facetimes? We facetime all the time though what’s the big deal?

      “I don’t know, like… You just started waving to him recently, and like, stuff like that. You bring him up a lot too.” Aksel trailed off, “Well it sounds silly now that I’ve said it out loud.” Lucien gave him a dead-panned look

       “You know I’m a friendly person. And the whole ‘bringing him up a lot thing’ I guess I just noticed that he was acting weird and got nervous. I don’t know, I would hate to miss the signs until it’s too late, ya know?” he rambled, going off on a tangent. 

       “What the hell are you talking about?” Aksel yelped, sitting up in bed. Propping himself up, his face was one of worry and confusion.

       “You haven’t noticed? I don’t know… I guess he’s always closed off but… Recently I just started noticing he’s actively closing himself off more and more. That behavior just made me curious,” Lucien replied, as if his observation was obvious.

       “I’ve been around him for his whole life, and I’ve never noticed that at all,” Aksel furrowed his brows together.

       “Oh… I’m probably just imagining things, seeing things that aren’t actually there,” Lucien shrugged, laying back down. The conversation left a sour taste in his mouth, but to not make Aksel more concerned, he brushed the topic off. 

       “You’re probably right… It’s definitely you looking too deep into it. I would notice…” Aksel ended the conversation. Climbing off the bed, he grabbed his bag from the floor where he had left it hours earlier. By now, the sun had long set. The dark sky reflected the hollow feeling in Aksel’s chest. “I’m gonna head out now,” he stated, walking toward the bedroom door. “Thanks for having me over, see ya tomorrow,” he smiled, closing the door behind him.

      Once Aksel was safe from the pronging eyes of his best friend, his mind raced. Lucien had said it was his imagination, but Aksel couldn’t let it go. A sense, or instinct in his body told him he needed to get home, and fast…

Question of the chapter: Are you ticklish?

╚══《Word count- 2,135》══╝

 ══https://open.spotify.com/track/5M4yti0QxgqJieUYaEXcpw══