“Yeah?” Dream tilted his head out of curiosity. “If we’re boyfriends now, then does that mean we have to…?” Trailing off, he pointed at Dream and then at himself a few times. Taking the risk, Karl raised his eyebrows questioningly. Both of them wondered, “ What now?” What were new boyfriends supposed to do upon establishing a relationship? With pounding hearts and trembling fingers, they placed their hoagies’ wrappers into a paper bag from the sandwich shop. Instead both men cleared their throats unsurely. However, despite their relief that their romantic feelings were mutual, the tension between them did not dissipate. In only one awkward exchange of words, Dream and Karl had become more than friends. Karl felt the same way! Drumming fingers on his thigh, he realized, “Oh. “We’re -?” Dream blinked with astonishment. Karl answered Dream’s inquiry with a doubtful question: “So we’re not already boyfriends?”
Manicured nails shimmered in the yellowish light from the street lamp above as Karl wrung his fingers together.ĭream wore only shorts and a tank top, yet sweat collected on his neck and dampened the fabric beneath his underarms. Startled, Karl stared at Dream with astonishment. Instead of a careful response, however, Dream blurted, “You mean, we could split a smoothie like boyfriends?” Instead both of them gravitated toward a solution which would allow them to share the same straw or spoon.īefore Karl could possibly backpedal and lie that they would share the smoothie in a platonic way only, Dream’s lungs filled as he anticipated beginning the conversation maturely. His nonchalance was not entirely genuine the pair could easily buy their own cups and stow leftovers in their refrigerators for the next morning. “We could split a smoothie,” Karl suggested. Then he admitted, “I don’t think I’ll be hungry enough to eat the whole cup, though.” “Smoothies might be nice,” Dream shrugged. “The smoothie shop on the way back to your house is open late.” “Are we going to do anything after this?” Karl asked curiously. Throughout their conversation, Dream and Karl stole glances at each other as tension built between them. Two hopefully-more-than-friends revelled in the peace, chatting quietly as they viewed the darkening horizon above a distant grove of trees. Beyond their rolled-down windows, tiny moths fluttered silently through warm night air.
They did not need to worry about anyone spotting them, for their car was parked directly below a street lamp in a deserted parking lot. Karl assumed that his friend’s inability to keep secrets meant that Dream would confess first.īoth men sat together in the front seats of Karl’s aging car, running their fingers through tattered upholstery as they ate cheap hoagies from a late-night sandwich shop. Dream assumed that his friend’s compassionate personality meant that Karl would confess first. However, both men expected that the other would be the one to start the conversation. Dream and Karl’s romantic feelings for each other were obvious, so their fateful discussion was bound to happen.