Keith watched Eric sit on the couch, scrolling on his phone. How long would Eric keep this just friends thing up? He couldn’t resist Keith for long, especially when he was touch-starved. Eric wouldn’t try to fulfil his needs with someone else, he was too paranoid of strangers for that. The thought of him with someone else gave Keith an uncomfortable twist in his stomach.

  Keith walked to the couch. He took a seat right beside Eric, Eric only spared him a glance.

  “What was the writing group like?”

  Eric laid his phone in his lap and gave him his attention. “Other than a short introduction from the organiser in the beginning, we were left to our own devices. Everyone was already divided into groups, like little cliques at schools.”

  “With who did you sit?”

  “Someone else who was alone. We chatted a bit.”

  Keith hummed. He hadn’t expected him to actually speak to anyone, but he supposed that was the point of him going there.

  He laid his arm on Eric’s shoulders and leaned against him. Eric raised a brow.

  “It’s good for you to get out of the house more.” Keith smiled. “Maybe I should join you sometime.”

  “Why would you go to a writing group?”

  “I meant in general,” he murmured before pressing a kiss to Eric’s temple. “We could go on a date.”

  He felt Eric’s shoulders tense underneath his arm. Eric was still for a moment, his face seemed to be considering something. He looked away, upset. Then he put a hand on Keith’s chest and pushed him away, to Keith’s surprise. He caught himself on his hand behind him, sitting leaned back.

  “I told you not to do things like that,” Eric sternly told him.

  Keith clenched his hand on the couch in annoyance. “We’ll see how long you can keep this up when you’re starved for affection.”

  Eric let out an angry, mocking laugh. “How could I possibly resist a guy who doesn’t take my feelings seriously?” He pushed himself off the couch. “Honestly, you think you’ll win me over like that? Grow up!” He stormed off to his room.

  Keith was left on the couch, stunned. Grow up? He had to grow up? Keith wasn’t the one who broke them up over a stupid relationship label! Why was labelling it such a big deal to him?

  He decided to give him space. He’ll come back to him. He always does.

  Eric walked into the library again. There was Ben, in the same spot as last week. Eric smiled and took his headphones off, leaving them around his neck. It was nice, some normalcy.

  “Hey,” Ben greeted with a grin as Eric arrived at the table.

  “Hi.” Eric sat.

  “Have you written anything yet?”

  “Nope.”

  “Why not? Busy week?”

  Eric shrugged. “No, I… I don’t know how to start. Or where.”

  “At the first scene? Or your favourite scene? Or you could plan out more of the story, so it doesn’t feel like such a huge task and you don’t have to figure things out as you go.” Ben leaned closer. “Would probably make for a better story in the end.”

  “You only write short stories, how would you know how to plan a longer one?”

  “I don’t only do short stories, just for now until I’m ready for something big. Which I have been planning for a while.”

  “Oh yeah?” Eric smirked. “About what?”

  Ben shyly turned his head away. “A—uh… romantic fantasy type of thing.”

  “What kind of fantasy?”

  “More low fantasy. Like our world, but one magical component added, you know?”

  “More magical than the superhumans that do exist?”

  Ben tensed up, his face was almost offended. “Superhumans aren’t magic.”

  “Then what are they? Sci-fi?”

  “I don’t know.” Ben became quite animated with his hands while he argued, “But it’s not magic, there’s always a biological component to it.”

  “As if magic can’t be biological.”

  Ben groaned. “I don’t know what it’s classified as, but it’s not magic, because it can be scientifically studied.”

  Eric arched a brow. “And how do you know all that?”

  Ben shrugged, becoming more still again. “It’s basic knowledge if you’ve ever done as much as an Internet search on superhumans.”

  “Have you?”

  “Obviously. You haven’t?”

  “I have,” Eric admitted. Though, it was a bit more than an Internet search for him. “Gotta do a bit of research on them if I wanna write about them, right?”

  Ben chuckled. “Yeah.”

  Eric thought of a question. But would it be too obvious? Maybe if he had asked it out of the blue, but this conversation could lead to it. “Have you met one?” He had now, but knowingly?

  A pause. “No. Not in person. Have you?” Ben squinted.

  “No. What would you do if you did?”

  Ben thought about it. “I don’t know. Ask how their powers work? Be honoured they’d trust me enough to tell me?”

  Eric sniffed out a chuckle with a smile.

  “What would you do?”

  “No idea. Depends who they are to me.” Eric saw Ben’s frown and reconsidered his answer. “Not that I’d turn anyone in or rat them out, but if I’m close to them, I’d not care that much.”

  “Do you think you would freak out?”

  “Probably not, but it hasn’t happened yet, so I don’t know.” A lie. But Eric could hardly tell the truth right now.

  Ben hummed. “Hard to predict.”

  “You seem quite interested in supers. Why?”

  “Because they’re fascinating! People with all kinds of superpowers, who wouldn’t be interested?”

  “Yeah, true.” Eric smiled.

  “Back to your story, though,” Ben changed the subject. “I could help you outline?”

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  “If you wanna help, sure! That’d be great.”

  Ben grinned. That damn grin. “That’s why we’re in a writing group, right? To help each other out?”

  “Yeah. Could I help you too, somehow?”

  Ben shrugged. “You could give me critique when I need it.”

  Eric smiled. “Deal. Although, it would be nice if you could help me more than two hours a week.”

  Ben stared at Eric for a moment, like his brain was processing something, then smirked. “Give me your phone.”

  Eric raised his eyebrow, then reluctantly unlocked his phone and handed it to Ben.

  Ben messed around with it for a minute, then handed it back. “There.” That same godforsaken grin again.

  Eric looked at his phone screen, he felt blood rush to his cheeks. He had a new contact: Ben.

  Smooth little bastard.

  Eric hadn’t even meant it as a hint, just an observation.

  “Feel free to text or call me whenever you feel like it.” Ben winked.

  Yep, Eric was sure of it. He was flirting.

  Eric grinned back, trying to play it cool like he hadn’t been with only one person his entire life and was totally used to this. “Will do.”

  Eric lay in bed on his side, staring at his phone. He had an empty chat opened, debating what to send. Ben didn’t have his number yet, so he at least had to tell him who it was.

  He never texted anyone. Not full conversations, anyway. Sometimes, he sent Keith or Abi a text like We’re out of milk, or Where are you? But never much more than that.

  He began typing, then deleted it. He started over but sighed and deleted it again. This was ridiculous, he had no reason to be so anxious about something so stupid.

  Eventually, he landed on, “Hey, it’s Eric. What are you up to?”

  He waited for a response. He laid his phone down and closed his eyes; he might not answer until morning.

  But after a few minutes, his phone vibrated. He picked it up and saw an answer from Ben.

  “Hi! Getting ready for bed. You?”

  Eric smiled.

  “Already in bed.”

  “Oh, so I have your undivided attention? Sweet.”

  “Depends how entertaining you are, sleep is very tempting.”

  “Oh gee, how could I compete with sleep itself? Such unrealistic standards.”

  Eric quietly laughed.

  “You’re doing a good job so far.”

  “Great :) did you do anything today?”

  “Nah. I had some small arguments with both my friends, but nothing too serious.”

  Eric wasn’t sure if he should’ve told him that. And it didn’t happen today. But it was on his mind, and it was nice to tell someone who didn’t know the other two.

  “Oh, that’s not so great. About what?”

  “I told one that he had to grow up, and the other that she needed to find a hobby. They were both a bit offended.”

  “Does sound like something they’d need to hear. Are things still tense?”

  “A little, but it’ll blow over.”

  “Alright.”

  “Did you do anything today?”

  “I sat at home, made some delicious dinner, took a bath, might’ve been waiting to see when you’d text me.”

  Eric was surprised.

  “Oh, were you? How flattering. Are you a good cook?”

  “I like to think so. You could come over and I’ll make you something ;)”

  “Sure, I’ll make you pancakes in return.”

  “Haha, sounds good. But we should go to sleep. I’m also in bed now.”

  “Aw, okay.”

  “Tomorrow is another day.”

  “Sure is. Good night.”

  “Good night :p”

  Eric laid his phone down on his bed. He pulled the covers up to his chin and closed his eyes with a smile.

  Abi watched Eric and Keith sit on the couch from the kitchen. They sat on the far ends of the couch, as far away from each other as they could. She let out an annoyed sigh. So it was time for this again? For seven years, she’d watched them play with each other’s feelings and break each other’s hearts over and over, when would it end? She wasn’t sure how things were between them before she came along, but when she’d met them, she had asked if they were a couple and they couldn’t agree on that. Which was quite a yikes. They’d been in this relationship limbo ever since.

  Eric went out of his way to meet other people now, he’d never done that before. Did it mean he was done with Keith? Was he looking for someone new? Had Keith realised that? How would he react if he did?

  She tried not to insert herself in their relationship too much, the last time she did that was the catalyst of how things are now. She should’ve stayed out of it.

  She’d considered their suggestion of finding a hobby. It would be nice to have something to do other than look at screens when they weren’t planning a robbery. Eric was looking for that too, now. Didn’t seem like Keith was, but he seemed content with how he spent his time.

  What could she do? What would she like? A physical activity? Anything artsy? She didn’t want to leave the house too much; risky. Going on hikes wouldn’t be for her. Reading? No, reading gave her a headache. Watching anime was more TV, which defeated the purpose of finding something other than that. She knew ‘finger painting’ had been a joke, but something artistic did seem like a good option. If only she had a single creative bone in her body.

  She sighed. She didn’t know. She could go into town and look around for something there, since she could use a break from the tension here, anyway.

  Abi entered the pharmacy, pulled a number and waited in line. She didn’t like the medical smell of the place.

  Her number was called and she approached the counter. The pharmacist greeted her with a smile.

  She smiled back a bit and said, “Prescription for Abigail Jones?”

  He typed on the computer. He rubbed his chin, then nodded. “One moment.” He walked away.

  He came back a minute later with a couple of small boxes of pills. He put a sticker on it and handed it to her. “Here you go.”

  Abi took them. “Thank you.” She turned around and went back outside. She checked the label on the box to be sure, the box was different again.

  Estrogen, okay it was correct.

  She went on her way home, through the shopping centre. She was reminded of the suggestion of a hobby again. She could take a look around.

  There was a game store. Video games defeated the no-screen purpose.

  An arts and crafts store. No, she decided against that.

  A bookstore, also no.

  A garden centre. Huh, she hadn’t considered that. She could care for plants. But that wouldn’t take up that much time. Or she could take a step further and begin gardening.

  An aquarium store. Caring for an aquarium could be cool. But same as plants, that was mostly to look pretty. Other than keeping it clean and feeding the fish, what could she do with it? Buy more stuff, she guessed. But they always only paid in cash, if she constantly bought things and only ever gave cash, people might get suspicious.

  How about a pet in general? Like a cat or a dog? That would take a lot of time. But should she risk putting an innocent animal in danger? Their lifestyle wasn’t the safest. And what if something ever happened to them, who would care for it?

  She exited the shopping centre and continued on her way home.

  “Wanna meet up at the library today? We don’t only have to meet during writing group hours.”

  Eric read the text from Ben. He smiled. He did want to leave the house for a bit.

  “Sure, I’ll see you there,” he texted back. He grabbed his jacket and called out to the house, “I’m going out for a bit!”

  “Okay,” Keith called back.

  Eric opened the door and went on his way to the library.

  He walked in but didn’t see Ben anywhere. He sat at the table in their usual spot and got his phone out, then hung his jacket over the back of his chair.

  He’d been enjoying hanging out with Ben, it was nice to have this bubbly ray of sunshine in his life. Keith and Abi were fun too, but they always had a darker, pessimistic tone to them, which matched Eric’s own. He liked having a more optimistic presence around.

  He saw Ben walk in with his black messenger bag over his shoulder. He smiled at Eric when they made eye contact. He hurried to come sit next to him.“Hi.”

  Eric leaned on the table and gave a smile back. “Hey. Did you have anything in mind that you want to do?”

  Ben pulled his laptop out and set it down on the table. “I thought it’d be fun to start outlining one of your stories.”

  “Oh, really?”

  “Yeah. I have a bit of a writer’s block, so helping you would be nice for a change of pace.”

  Eric chuckled. “Sure.”

  “Do you have something on your phone you could use? We could use my laptop, too.”

  “Uh.” Eric thought about it. He couldn’t think of any apps he had on his phone that he could use for this. “Your laptop’s better.”

  “Alright.” Ben opened a program, it looked like a corkboard. One file was opened, it had a bunch of little cards on it, colour-coded and placed in a certain order. “This is the outline for the thing I’m working on.” He opened a new file. “I like to put all the ideas I have for scenes on a card each, then figure out the order of everything and how it’s connected after that. Kinda, puking up all your ideas onto the board and worrying about how it makes sense later.”

  Eric laughed. “How elegant.”

  “There’s nothing elegant about the writing process.”

  Eric put his hands up in defeat. “Okay, professor, keep teaching me how to write.”

  Ben stuck his tongue out to him.

  Eric leaned closer. “You even look like a professor with your glasses and that bag, all you need is a necktie.”

  Ben raised a flirty brow. “Would you like that?”

  Eric put a hand on his chest. “Well, I don’t go to college, but I’m pretty sure professor-student relations are quite taboo.”

  “So what? If we both want it, then that’s our business.”

  Eric pushed their shoulders together with a hum and a smirk. “How about you keep teaching me for now?”

  Ben grinned back. “If that’s what you want.” He turned back to his laptop. “What idea do you want to go with?”

  “Let’s do the one with the demons.”

  “Hell yeah. Any ideas for scenes?”

  “I had this one scene in my head with one of them running into the other after years. And of course the big reveal. Several of them.”

  Ben pushed his laptop to Eric. “Go ahead and puke them up.”

  Eric typed his ideas. Meanwhile, he thought of something he was curious about. “Why do you write?”

  Ben shrugged. “I like the escapism.”

  “How did you get into it?”

  “When I was a kid, I always made up stories. It was comforting.”

  “Comforting for what?”

  Ben tensed up and looked away. “I was lonely,” he said, barely audible.

  Eric hummed with a frown. “I was, too.”

  Ben smiled a little. Eric smiled back. He returned to the laptop. He liked working on this together with someone, especially someone as cute as him. He wasn’t sure where this would go, this friendship, but he’d like to find out.