It was Saturday morning, the day of the drive and Clive made his way out of the kitchen after having quite a heavy breakfast. He swung the front door open only to be greeted by the sight of a half asleep Luke seated on his narrow porch.
“You’re,” Clive looked at his watch, “Seven hours early.” He said.
“I was bored.” Luke said with a yawn.
“No, you were asleep.”
Luke only turned to face him with a silly grin.
“How long have you been sitting here? Did you even have breakfast? Let me get you something to eat.” Clive said as he practically ran back in, “And get your arse in here! It’s freezing!” He said once inside.
Luke took him up on the offer, he hadn’t had the time to eat, not when he was in his parents room rummaging through his fathers collection of fancy colognes wondering which was more to Clive’s taste.
“Frosties or Crunchy Nut?” Clive called out when he heard Luke shut the front door behind him.
He felt a great deal of guilt, it was on this very table that he had scranned a breakfast for two all by himself and here he was now serving breakfast cereal to Luke.
He placed the boxes on the counter before he felt Luke’s arms wrap around his waist, ‘the infamous kitchen counter kiss.’ He sighed to himself in content.
Luke placed a lazy yet loving kiss to Clive’s nape, another thing he picked up from the romance films he had got himself to watch.
“Tea.” He mumbled into Clive’s hair as he tightened his grip on the boy.
“Tea? Can you not have tea for once?”
“And confuse the Americans?”
Clive tilted his head to send Luke a stern look but got a kiss to the nose instead, “Luke we’re running late.” He said seriously, disregarding the mad blush that had made its way onto his cheeks and hoping Luke would do the same.
Luke sighed in defeat, “Frosties it is then.”
Clive passed him a bowl and motioned for him to take a seat.
“Putting the kettle on isn’t th-“
“Shut up and eat your cereal.”
Luke obediently ate the rest of his breakfast in silence occasionally sparing Clive lovey dovey glances because how could he not?
•••
“Hiya!” Emily greeted as she spotted Luke and Clive making their way through the hallway.
Luke sent her a smile before turning to face Clive, “I asked her to tag along ’cause you’re gonna be super busy.”
Clive replied with a half hearted smile, it’s not like he had begged Stephen over the phone to relieve him of any pending duties just 5 minutes ago because he wanted to spend time with Luke. Nothing like that.
“Uh yeah! That’s nice! Uh…I’ll be in the sports hall if you need me.” Clive said before waving them goodbye.
“Okay so we just sit around here doing nothing?” Emily asked Luke once Clive had disappeared.
“As usual.”
“And somehow I’d enjoy that,” she said with a chuckle.
A comfortable silence fell upon them as they began to walk in search of a place where they could while away the time.
“Nasir said he’ll come by later, it’d be really nice if you two get along. You two are very alike.”
“I’m nothing like him.” Luke replied blandly.
“You’ll never know,”
“How come you’re back together?” He asked genuinely.
“Oh you know, this and that.”
He looked at her as though there was more to say.
“Ahhhhh, I don’t know, okay!” She looked away as she spoke with a low voice, “When you love someone you’ll always wanna be around them even when they hurt you.”
“And it’s worse when they don’t even hurt you, how could you ever stay away?” Luke said trying to voice out his feelings.
“Yeah you’d know, with all the birds you pull.” Emily scoffed sarcastically.
‘Oh.’ Luke thought.
“I was talking about Clive.” he shrugged it off like it was nothing.
Emily slowly turned to face Luke with her mouth agape, “I’m usually an observant person but what the fuck?” She asked incredulously.
“I kissed him.” He shrugged again like it was nothing.
“You kissed h- WHEN?!” Emily couldn’t believe how indifferent Luke wasn’t being.
“Well there was that time after his meeting and that other time at his front do-“
“MORE THAN ONCE?! And you’re sure it wasn’t a ‘spur of the moment’ kiss?”
Luke wondered where exactly Emily had got the audacity to ask him something like that.
He was craving that kiss forever but was Clive? Was it a ‘spur of the moment’ kiss for Clive?
‘No he said he liked you…but it had come out more like a question, like he wasn’t sure himself.’
Luke had begun to question his every action since the day before.
Meanwhile Clive was watching as people moved in and out of the hall wondering when he’d get to kiss Luke again. The mere thought sent shivers down his spine. The kiss was sweet yet passionately rough, he didn’t have the right words to describe the feeling all he could do was sit in a corner and reminisce on the celestial experience.
“Do you know how largely useless you’re being right now?” Stephen asked as he passed by, breaking Clive out of his thoughts.
“There’s nothing to do now is there?” Clive tried to argue.
“Well maybe if your boyfriend didn’t bail you wouldn’t be sat here doing fuck all.”
“First off yeah? He’s right here…somewhere!” He tried defending Luke, “…and he’s not my boyfriend.” He mumbled.
Clive felt like he was being a sensitive little bitch, why did it matter whether Luke said he liked him back or not? Clive wanted to hear the words out of Luke’s mouth. He didn’t want this to be some casual hookup, he really liked Luke and he knew Luke wasn’t that kind of a person but he couldn’t help thinking up the worst case scenario.
“Go find him then, it’s not like you’re being of any help here.” Stephen grumbled.
The thing about Stephen was that he wasn’t a hateful person, yes he was overly zealous about his responsibilities which made him hostile towards anyone who wasn’t his pace but that was about it.
Clive flashed Stephen a toothy grin as he dashed out of the doors. He was going to find Luke and Emily but when he spotted Carol sitting all by herself he thought he should pay her a visit. He owed her an apology and he was going to give it to her.
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