Inviting Thomas over.

“Do some gardening, man,” Thomas told me.

“Do you take care of your garden at home?” I asked him.

“Hm? No, my mom does.”

“Then I don’t want to hear it from you.”

I invited the big guy to my house after he pretended to be offended that I had yet to show him my place. I showed him the backyard, he saw the sorry state it was in, and that was his answer to it.

Mom still wasn’t home and Isabelle was out buying more of Cake’s formula. It was just us two dudes right now. Well, two dudes and a tiny kitten struggling to keep up.

“I have no idea why you’d want to come over,” I told him as we went up the stairs to my room. “It’s not like I have anything interesting here.”

“I want to check the browser history on your computer.”

“I use incognito, and so should you.”

“But it’s my computer…”

“One day someone’s gonna find out you’re into MILFs.”

“W-When did I ever tell you…!?” Thomas caught himself before finishing that sentence, but it was too late. “I hate you so much.”

I laughed. “I’d say it was a shot in the dark, but not really. But hey, I don’t judge. So long as you stay the hell away from my mom, that is.”

“Dude.” It was one of those cases where a single word said little, but the tone carried all the meaning.

“Just setting boundaries.” I opened the door to my room and went in. Thomas followed after.

“Big words from the womanizer,” he said as he looked around. Cake, meanwhile, climbed on my bed with more ease than before.

I wanted to reply with some witty comeback, but I couldn’t. Something regarding that matter was bugging me, so I changed the subject.

“So? How’s the basketball team doing? ARE you in danger of not making it to the national tournament this year?”

“We’re always in danger. The province itself has really good teams.” He went on to tell me most of it in more detail. How training was going, the attitude of his teammates, the opponents he was most worried about, all of it. I listened closely while I also played with Cake on my lap.

“I didn’t know team captains had so much responsibility,” I told him.

“The school leaves most of the club’s activities up to the students, with teachers only acting as advisors most of the time. In our case, our coach is more hands-on about it, but I’m still tasked with watching over everyone.”

“I never realized. No wonder the student council has so much work, then.”

“Right? They have it worse than me, so it’s hard to complain too much when they tell me they’re reducing our budget.” Thomas suddenly narrowed his eyes. “Speaking of the student council…”

I had a bad feeling about this.

“Hm?”

“Did… something happen between you and Noelle?”

I felt my chest freeze. “What? What do you mean?”

“For starters, you seem comfortable talking to her.”

“Do I? I’ve gotten better at talking to people in general,” I defended myself. But defended against what? Thomas wasn’t implying anything. Yet.

“Fair enough. But she was looking at you a lot today at lunch.”

“I mean, we were talking, right? Isn’t it rude to look away?”

“You know what I mean.”

“I don’t, actually.”

“I think she likes you, Oliver.”

I groaned and left Cake on the floor. “You’re seeing things.”

“Maybe, but I’m usually right about this kind of stuff.”

“We played games here the other day,” I told him. “Everyone was here. Mila, Grace, Sarah, Isabelle, Alice and Noelle. Somehow we ended up playing fighting games all day. It was… fun.” I sighed. “Even if she does like me, there’s nothing to do, and you know it.”

“I suppose,” Thomas admitted. “I just, you know, wondered what you thought about it.”

“Huh?”

“Do you like her?”

“What’s this? Are you into Noelle?” I asked, trying to deflect.

“Me? Nah.” He shrugged easily. “A bit too nerdy for my own tastes. Also way too short.”

“What’s wrong with being nerdy and short?”

“So you do like her.”

“...” I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “I think she’s cute, and I was surprised to find out we share some interests. But that’s it.” I grimaced. “That has to be it.”

“Ah. Gotcha. Sorry.”

A heavy silence loomed over us. It was awkward. But then, after looking around, Thomas saw my guitar and asked, “Hey, can you play Wonderwall?”

I blinked. “You know what? I… can’t. Huh.”

Awkwardness gone. We spent some time watching random videos after that. I can’t believe I’m friends with a guy who enjoys videos of people falling. He laughs, but I always feel like it’s happening to me.