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He raised his middle finger in reply just as Preston appeared in the doorway, yawning, dark circles under his eyes.
“Morning. Afternoon. Whatever. Why do you Brits drink so much?”
“You drank just as much as I did,” Liam told him. “Personally, I blame Travis. He’s supposed to be the responsible one, but he was the one handing out shots. Him and Kira, in fact.”
“Yeah, let’s blame Travis.” Preston collapsed down onto the empty sofa. “I bet there won’t be many students going to lectures today.”
“Noah said—”
“Noah said what?” A voice came from the doorway, and Noah appeared, interrupting whatever Liam was about to say. Catching movement out of the corner of my eye, I turned to see Elliot right behind him.
My heart fucking skipped a beat. I couldn’t hold back a smile as Elliot’s eyes went straight to mine.Hi, he mouthed.
“I thought you said you were going to your lectures today,” Liam said, pulling Noah down onto his lap.
“I thought about it, but then I decided to invite Elliot over instead. It’s raining, and it’s cold, and if everyone else is staying at home, I’m staying too.” He curled into Liam. “Can we cuddle under a blanket and watchAttack on Titanor something?”
My brows rose as I stared at Liam, watching as he acquiesced to Noah’s every demand, promising they’d watch the show and then tucking a blanket around them both. Who even was this person? I’d never expected to see him getting so sickeningly domestic.
“Come and sit here.” Glancing back at Elliot, I patted the remaining space next to my leg. He sank down next to me, rubbing his hands together.
“It’s so cold today. There was ice on the pavement outside—I nearly went flying.”
“I’ll warm you up.” Holding out my hand towards Liam, without looking away from Elliot, I said, “Mate, pass me that spare blanket.” When he threw the heavy bundle of fabric at me, I wasted no time in wrapping it around Elliot. He gave me a soft smile, his cheeks flushed and his blue eyes sparkling. The urge to kiss him again was so strong I found myself leaning towards him before I remembered where I was. I slumped back against the sofa, forcing my gaze away from my best friend.
“I vote for a movie,” Preston said, diverting everyone’s attention, which was good because I’d just realised that I’d been treating Elliot the same way that Liam was treating Noah. But Elliot was my best friend, and we’d always taken care of each other. It wasn’t a boyfriend thing to do, was it? Or maybe it was if you weren’t already best friends? I groaned aloud. This overthinking shit was getting seriously annoying.
“Are you okay?” Elliot whispered, leaning closer to me. I inhaled his clean, fresh scent, forgetting that he’d asked me a question until he nudged my arm.
“Yeah, I’m good.” Raising my voice, I said, “Yeah, let’s watch a film. Something we’ve seen before because you three look like you might pass out halfway through.”
“I think Elliot wants to watch a vampire movie.”
Everyone turned to Liam, who was smirking as he stared straight at… My eyes followed his line of sight…for fuck’s sake. Straight at the huge, unmissable mark on Elliot’s neck. Elliot must’ve realised at the same time as I did because his cheeks turned red, and he clapped his hand over his neck, burrowing down into the blanket. I turned back to Liam, glaring at him, and he laughed.
“Did a vampire move into your house?”
Noah kicked his shin, shaking his head at him. “That’s Elliot’s private business. Leave him alone.”
The smirk fell from his face. “Alright. Sorry, Elliot. I was only joking.” He pulled Noah closer, whispering something in his ear that made Noah’s eyes widen, and then suddenly, both of them were staring at me.
Fucking great. Liam had put two and two together and made…well, he’d obviously come to the correct conclusion, that I’d been the one to mark up Elliot, based on what I’d told him earlier. It wasn’t like I was averse to telling people, but there was nothing to tell at the moment. What Elliot and I did behind closed doors was our own business. It would be different if we were boyfriends, and when that happened—okay, I was getting waaay ahead of myself. We hadn’t even had a date yet. Which reminded me…
“Put on the latestJames Bond. We’ve all seen that,” I instructed Liam through gritted teeth, still annoyed by his antics. He must’ve felt bad because he immediately grabbed the remote and navigated to the movies app. While he was occupied, I turned to Noah. “Want to show me where the snacks are? I know Liam has popcorn.”
Noah raised a brow, but then he shrugged and followed me out of the room and into the kitchen. I leaned back against the counter, folding my arms across my chest as he began rummaging in one of the cupboards. “I want to do something nice for Elliot. Take him somewhere. Do you have any ideas of what he might want to do? Anything he’s mentioned lately?” I was counting on the fact that with Noah’s relationship with Elliot being different to mine, he could offer a different perspective, and I could take Elliot somewhere he wouldn’t expect me to choose.
The cupboard slammed shut, and he spun around to face me. “Like a date?” he asked sharply.
“Like a…thing that best friends do.” When he just stared at me, I sighed in defeat. “Fuck, okay. Yeah, a date. But this is…I don’t want to pressure him into anything. I want it to be a fun experience for him. Keep it low-key.”
He pursed his lips as he studied me. “Does Elliot know about this?” When I nodded, he said, “Does he know it’s a date?”
“Yes. We…” I paused, thinking. Elliot was close to Noah. Would he have told him about the kiss? Or kisses? There was only one way to find out, and I resigned myself to the fact that Liam was probably going to find out about this afterwards, too. “Did he tell you that we kissed?”
Noah nodded slowly.
“Both times?”
