- Wednesday, September 27th -

"What!?" Finnley already jumped up from his spot, probably seeing spots because of the speed he stood up with. He snatched the phone from the couch, staring at it with wide eyes. "What happened? Where is he?"

"Finn, calm down. Jason is right here at home, but he's a bit shaken."

"What happened?" Finnley repeats his question a bit calmer.

"One of those guys... Jeffrey I think... was following him after work." Aunt Cady tells him with a nervous undertone. "Jason ran back to work and Jeffrey disappeared. They're still scanning the area to see if they can find him. But I needed to warn you to be careful. The police will contact all of you, but I couldn't wait. I had to know if you're okay."

"Well, I think I am okay..." Finnley murmurs. "A bit shocked because he's somewhere around here. How did he know where to find us anyway?"

"I don't know honey." Aunt Cady sighs. "But maybe you could come home, I think Jason needs you right now."

"Yeah, I'm coming home. Tell him I'm on my way."

"I will, be careful sweety."

"Off course aunt Cady." Finnley smiles, although it seems a bit forced. "See you soon."

The conversation ends and we lock eyes. I find fear in his that he probably finds in mine too.

"He's here." Finnley mutters. "Jeff found Jason."

"Calm down." I get up from the couch and pull him in my arms. For a second I'm afraid he's going to push me away again, but he doesn't. He puts his arms around my waist and buries his face in the croak of my neck.

"I don't know if we should be scared or not. What's he going to do?"

"I don't know, but we have to be careful. Make sure we're not alone when we're outside." I force him to look at me, cupping his face to prevent him from turning his head away to hide the fact he's got tears in his eyes. "You're not going home alone."

Finnley sends me an unimpressed look, his whole demeanour changing in a matter of seconds. "I'm a big boy now, Cris. You don't have to babysit me."

I frown, wondering what the hell I said that made him change like this. "I'm not saying you can't take care of yourself."

"Then don't think about deciding whether or not I'm going home by myself. Or do I have to remind you I was out there, all alone, for four months, taking care of myself just fine?" His tone of voice is cold and rather harsh. I really don't know how to respond right now. Is he serious right now? "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." He starts to put on his shoes, which confuses Stan as soon as he gets back from the bathroom.

"You're going already?"

"Jason needs me." His tone still cold and distant, making Stan frown just like I did not even a minute ago. "I'll see you in school." He just waves shortly, grabbing his phone. "Nathan, thanks for the nice evening!" He calls out, not at all sounding like he means it for even a bit.

"Wait, you're going?" Nathan reappears, looking confused.

"Yeah, I'll see you soon." Finnley is already out of the living room before Stan hits me against my head and nods his head in the direction Finnley just left.

"What did you do to him?"

"I didn't do anything!" I look at him with wide eyes, still doubtful if I should follow Finnley. But I'm afraid if I do, he'll only get angry for treating him like a baby.

"Well, why is he upset?"

"Jason used his panic button, aunt Cady called."

"He did what?" Stan's eyes widen. "Is he okay?"

"He's at home. Aunt Cady asked Finn to come home to be there for Jason since he was scared and all."

"And you're letting him go on his own?" Nathan sounds disapproving, already walking towards the hallway.

"Nathan, stop." I call him back. "Finn didn't want me to go with him. When I said I didn't want him to go home alone, he got all cold and stuff."

Stan frowns again, sitting back down on the couch, while Nathan looks down to the street after he heard a car start.

"At least he's here by car," Nathan mumbles, more to himself than he is talking to us.

"He'll be fine. He's just going home. It's not like he's going out on his own." Stan looks at me. "And maybe next time don't tellhim to not go out on his own, but askif he wants you to go with him. It's not like he's weak or something."

"I know... But I meant well."

"And you're back as friends for a week, he probably still has some doubts about it." Nathan crosses his arms. "But he seemed content and happy to just lay there with you." He smirks, Stan grins widely.

"Why don't you ask him out on a date?" Stan suggests. "Just the two of you. So you can talk and all."

"That's a great idea!" Nathan nods in agreement. "You should definitely ask him on a date. You never did that and that way he'll see you're serious about this."

"Seriously," I grumble. "I just told you Jason used his panic button and all the two of you are thinking about is me and Finn."

"Well, we want our ship to sail." Stan shrugs. "Besides, Jason is safe at home. We can't do anything about it and we're trying to distract you from that subject to prevent you from freaking out because of it."

"I agree with Stan." Nathan nods again.

"Off courseyou agree with Stan." I shake my head a little, getting up from my seat to get myself a drink. "Why don't you ask..."

"Because I don't want to." Nathan cuts my sentence short, sending me a warning look. "Not the right time for this conversation, Cris."

Stan looks back and forth between the two of us. I smirk at him in reaction, wiggling my eyebrows before I leave towards the kitchen.

"What was that about?" Stan asks Nathan confused.

"Nothing, don't worry about it."

Stupid Nathan. He should really just admit to Stan what he's feeling. They both could use a little distraction from me and Finn and whatever it is we have going on. Truce? Friendship? Relationship? I have no idea what to call it.

- Friday, September 29th -

"Can't you ask Alex to join you tonight?" Finnley looks at Sam with a pleading look while grabbing one of his schoolbooks and his laptop. "I'd like to see him again."

"He won't come." Sam shrugs. "Honestly, I tried to get him out of the house but he won't listen."

"Just drag him along." Paul shrugs simply. "Tell him to stop whining, that he needs to go out because it's boring to be inside constantly." Both Sam and Finnley send him an angry look. "What?" He asks confused. "What did I do to deserve those daggers?"

"You don't even know what this is about, so it would be much appreciated if you just keep your fucking nose out of our business," Finnley deadpans with a cold look, opening the book while looking at Paul.

"I don't know what it's about, no. Yet it's all you guys talk about in a really annoying secretive way."

"Do you even know my name?" Finnley crosses his arms.

"Eh, have you ever introduced yourself?"

"Have you ever bothered to ask? Because if I call correctly, and I always recall things correctly, you just forced your sorry ass on a chair at a table I was already seated, just because you're constantly following Cris and Sam around like a sad little puppy."

"Finn..." I'm having trouble to hold back my laughter, mostly because Sam is also hiding a smile behind his hand, turning his head away from Paul. "Paul is cool, okay?" I tell him, trying to keep them from another one of their arguments. Paul and Finnley aren't exactly friends and they both don't seem too fond of each other either. And I'm not going to force them to be friends, but I am constantly trying to get them to act friendly.

"So, it's Finn." Paul offers him a hand. "I'm Paul."

"Finn is for friends. It's Finnley for you. And just because you never bothered to remember my name, didn't mean I didn't know yours."

"Whatever." Paul throws his hands up in surrender. "I'm gonna smoke."

"Bye Paul." Finnley waves without bothering to look at him, focussing on finding the right page to his book.

Sam snorts, shaking his head with amusement in his eyes. "What is it you don't like about Paul?" He cocks his head, staring at Finnley curiously.

Finnley shrugs. "His whole being is off." Finnley shortly looks up. "I don't trust him and I'm not gonna bother in finding out if I'm right about not trusting him."

"He is our friend, you know." I chuckle shortly, nudging Finnley in his side. "Anyway, how's Jason now?"

"Fine, shaken a little." Finnley sighs, looking right at me with sad eyes. "I'm sorry I acted out Wednesday."

"Don't worry." I smile reassuringly. "You got stressed, I get it."

"Yeah, but I had no right to treat you like that." He grabs my hand, squeezing it softly. "You meant well. I just felt like you think I can't take care of myself..."

"That's not what I think." I grin, intertwining my fingers with his happily, mostly because he hasn't pulled back yet. "But I don't want something to happen to you. Even if you are perfectly capable of defending yourself if you need to."

It's a difference of day and night with Finnley. Only Wednesday evening he was all curled up beside me, cuddling with me during a movie, right before he shut me out and responded coldly to everything I said.

Yesterday morning, he continued his cold and distant demeanour, before, during lunch, he started talking again. And now he's even grabbing my hand and holding it casually, like he never pushed me away two days ago.

But I won't complain, because I'm already happy this is the second time in two days that Finnley sought physical contact with me.

"Hey, lovebirds?" Sam throws a crumbled piece of paper between our heads. "I'm still here, you know."

"Jealous?" Finnley smirks, looking at Sam pretty much seductively. Let me tell you, when Finnley wants to seduce someone, he looks hot as fuck. It's something in his demeanour that changes, that makes him all the more attractive and I instantly want to jump him when I catch him looking like that to Sam right now.

I know Sam is as straight as they come, so he isn't impressed at all, smirking back. "Jealous? Have you seen this?" He gestures to his own body. "I'm not jealous, people are jealous of me." He winks and Finnley snorts, before they both laugh.

"God, Sam, you're so full of yourself, your ego has its own identity." Finnley responds in between laughing.

Sam smiles happily, nodding enthusiastic. "I even named my ego, he's called big Sam. Because he's bigger than I am."

I can't help but snort, before joining them in their fit of laughter. I wipe tears of laughter, before I look back at Finnley, who is smiling widely towards the entrance of the lunchroom. I turn my head to follow his gaze, noticing Oliver is walking in together with a girl I haven't met before.

"Hey there." He looks at Finnley with a loving look and I feel a pang of jealousy when I notice Finnley grinning like a fool, melting over his sweet greeting.

"Hay Oli." He scoots closer to me to offer Oliver a seat next to him. "You're late."

"I had a meeting with a teacher. I finally got my go for graduation."

"Oh, that's good!"

I want to hit Finnley to whip the smile off of his face, or the dreamy look he casts towards Oliver. Or I could just rebuild Oliver's face, make him less attractive, hoping Finnley stops staring at him like a lovesick puppy.

It's stupid to feel jealous, because when he scooted closer to me, he actually intertwined his fingers with mine again, holding my hand in his. But with the way he's looking at Oliver, I feel like he's only holding my hand to prevent him from floating towards cloud nine; to keep him with his feet on the ground.

Sam looks at Finnley, then Oliver, before his eyes land on me. He frowns shortly, before looking back at Finnley and Oliver, who are casually chatting away about Oliver's research.

I feel you, Sam, I feel you. It sickens me too to see the two of them together.

I feel like I'm competing against some sort of god.

Damn Oliver.

* * * * *

It took about half an hour in the club for me to lose Stan, Nathan and Liam from sight, joining Sam, Eli and Tyler for a drink, listening to Tyler and Eli discussing the opponent for tomorrows soccer match, taking in as much info as possible. Yesterday, after practice, the coach has send out a list with the selected players for tomorrow's game, and I'm on it. I really don't want to mess up my first game and neither does Sam, who got selected as well.

"Robby told me they're defence is fucked up because they're missing two of the best players." Eli looks at me. "Felix and you shouldn't have any trouble to get past them."

"I hope." I shrug. "We'll see tomorrow." I drink the rest of my beer, heading over to the bar to get myself and the others a new drink. I already spotted Finnley, who is, for the first time since we're back to being friends, not with Oliver.

He came in with Jason, who I haven't seen since we got our panic buttons.

They're hanging out with people I don't know, while Oliver is here with his best friend Ally. Every time I see him, he's watching towards Finnley with a look I can't describe. There's something wrong between them. Finnley sends him angry looks, Oliver seems hurt.

I look in the direction Finnley just was, noticing him staring right at me. He just smiles as soon as we lock our eyes.

Instead of going to the bar to get myself and my friends some drinks, I change directions, walking towards Finnley, who looks god-honest to death like a fucking angel to me with his dishevelled hair, a simply T-shirt and a flannel shirt, jeans that fit him perfect.

"Hey."

"Hey." He smiles brighter as soon as I'm right in front of him.

I'm trying not to go crazy right now, since the butterflies are fluttering wildly in my stomach, a warm feeling spreading because his smile is to die for. Each and every single time I really look at Finnley, I feel like I fall for him all over again.

"Can we talk? Outside?"

"Sure..." The smile disappears, a worried frown replacing it. It's like he fears what I want to tell him.

"Don't worry, trust me." I smile, offering my hand for him to take. He's doubtful for a couple of seconds, staring at my hand without moving. All the while he's doubting to yes or no take my hand, I wonder if he's going to turn it down.

But as if he feels I start to lose hope for him to trust me, his hand slides in mine and we intertwine our fingers.

"Okay." He nods. "Let's talk."

I lead him outside and to the other side of the street, towards a low brick wall to sit down.

"What's it you want to talk about?" He asks, as soon as we sit down. He turned towards me a bit, nervously biting his lower lip, playing with the hem of his shirt.

"Us." I smile reassuringly. "You called it a truce..."

"We're friends, Cris." Now he's the one sending me a reassuring smile.

"Good, that's good." I nod, looking down, observing the stones beneath our feet. "But eh..." I drawl, feeling nervous all of the sudden. As soon as I saw him tonight, I knew I just had to take a leap, dive in and take a chance; I want him to be mine.

"What's wrong, Cris?" Now he sounds nervous as hell. "You regret..."

"Doyouwannagoonadatewithme?" God, thanks. My nerves caused me to fuck this up. I stumbled over my words, not at all how I pictured myself asking him out.

Where is the confidence I always have in every situation when I'm asking my best friend out on a fucking date? It's not like I never talk to him. Or did things with him. I've seen him naked... Okay, not really the right moment to think about his hot, naked body.

"Sorry? I didn't quite catch that?" He leans in a bit.

"Would you like to go on a date with me? An official date, you, me, dinner or something."

"Cristian Jacob Evans, are you asking me out?" He smirks, leaning away from me a little, feigning a shocked expression.

"Yes." I nod, scratching the back of my head, feeling very uncomfortable by the lack of an enthusiastic answer. "I'm asking you out, officially. So, will you go out with me?"

"Yeah, I'll go on a date with you." He sighs deeply with a hint of a smile lingering on the corners of his lips. "I'd love to."

"Really?"

"Really, and it shouldn't surprise you either." He leans in, his face close to mine. "You know I'm deeply in love with you, right?" He whispers with his eyes focused on my lips.

"I'm deeper in love with you." I whisper back, leaning in myself too, to meet him in the middle.

"Deepest in love..." He mumbles, right before our lips connect and my eyes shut slowly.