A quiet Sunday.

I simply couldn’t stop laughing at the reply I’d just gotten.

That Sunday morning, around 9:30 am, I texted Thomas the following:

-Oliver: Hey, how did it go? Reply when you can or when you feel like it.

What I got immediately after was this:

-Thomas: It went perfectly. She invited me over to her place again. I’m with her right now. I’ll update you on Monday. If you call me today we’re no longer friends.

I took that to mean I could stop worrying about him. Happy as I was for him, I’d rather not spend my time thinking about my boss and my best friend having sex. Instead, I wanted to think about the people who were now knocking on my front door.

Yesterday I asked mom if I could invite my friends over and she said yes. Of course, I invited Mila, Grace, Sarah, Noelle and Alice.

I quickly went down the stairs with a cat following closely behind me. I answered the door to find only Alice and Noelle there, but that was expected.

“Hey. Come on in,” I said, making way for them.

“Hey you!” Noelle kneeled to greet Cake, and the cat snuggled against her hands as she got her neck scratched. “You’ve gotten so big, haven’t you?” she said in a baby voice.

Alice chuckled as I closed the door. “Are the others here?” she asked me.

I shook my head. “Grace had to spend this weekend with her mother and Sarah had one of those family gatherings. Mila had happily said yes, but then I asked her if she’d finished the homework we had for tomorrow. She’s not coming over either.”

“It WAS a sudden invitation,” Alice said, smirking. “Hopefully this’ll teach her to not leave things for last minute.” She then began to look around, searching. “Anyway… Are we alone right now?”

I swallowed. “Y-Yeah. Isabelle and mom went out to buy some things.”

Alice grinned. She wrapped her arms around my neck and firmly pressed her lips against mine. I held her closer and kissed her back.

“Good morning.” She greeted me with a beautiful smile before she quickly pulled away and turned me around.

Noelle was looking at us, her cheeks already tinted pink. “Um…”

I decided to do something a little out of character for me. I walked up to Noelle, got my arms tightly around her waist and lifted her up as I kissed her.

“Ah!” She yelped in surprise, but then began to laugh against the kiss, holding onto me. I set her down with a goofy grin of my own. “Why’d you do that?” she asked, giggling.

“I don’t know. You’re too cute.”

Her face reddened even more. I swear, being with her makes me understand a bit more why the others tease me so much. It’s kinda fun.

Noelle got close again and hugged me, burying her face in my chest. “...It’s been too long since the last time we could do stuff like this.”

“It really has,” Alice agreed with a sigh. “Having to hide is harder than I thought it would be.”

It was. How many times did I have to stop myself from casually holding their hands? How many times did I have to resist the urge to kiss them out of nowhere?

“Do you want to go to my room?”

When we went back there and sat together on the bed. Alice looked around with fascination. “It’s funny. I’ve seen your room before, but now that we’re dating it feels completely different.”

“I don’t know,” Noelle said. “It felt weird before and it still feels weird now.”

“Make yourselves comfortable. It’s not like I’m particular about the way I organize my room.” As if on cue, Cake jumped on my desk and lay right next to my keyboard.

“She’s certainly at home here,” Alice said, chuckling.

“I’d like to see your rooms too one day.”

“Mine is pretty boring,” Alice said. “You have those books there on the shelf, that map on the wall, your computer, your guitar over there in the corner.. I have a bed, a desk to do my homework and a closet for my clothes. That’s it. Noelle, however…”

“Oh, right. Isabelle said your room was full of games, consoles and stuff.”

Noelle blushed. “It’s just a bunch of junk that I can’t bring myself to get rid of, so I made space for it.”

“She has these shelves full of robot figures,” Alice said. “I kinda like those, actually.” She chuckled. “But yeah, it’s a pretty geeky room.”

I snorted. “You’re calling her geeky?”

Alice puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“That you…” I stopped myself at the same time that Alice realized Noelle was in here with us. I very nearly brought up Alice’s little secret,

Noelle tilted her head. “What are you guys talking about?”

I pursed my lips and looked straight at Alice, asking an unspoken question: “You still haven’t told her?”

Alice bit her lip. “Hey, Noelle?”

“Y-Yes?”

“When Isabelle comes back, there’s… something I want to talk to you two about.”

“Huh? W-What is it? You sound all serious all of a sudden.”

“It’s not THAT serious… or maybe it is. It’s important, at least.”

I turned to Noelle. “Maybe this is a good opportunity for you, too.”

“An opportunity?” Noelle’s eyes widened when she realized what I was talking about. She fidgeted and clasped her hands together. “Maybe you’re right. Alice, when Isabelle gets here, I… also have something to share.”

Alice blinked. “And… you know what she’s talking about?” she asked me.

I nodded.

“And you know what Alice wants to tell us?” Noelle asked.

I nodded again.

“How come?”

I shrugged. “You know why. You told me as much. But these are your secrets to tell, not mine. I haven’t said a word.”

Noelle giggled while Alice shook her head with a smile.

When Isabelle came home, she was happy to see her friends here. She was not expecting a bomb of sudden revelations as soon as she came back from buying ice cream.

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