“Just talk to me!”

“Fuck off, Noah.”

“Dude, seriously! What is your problem!?”

“My problem? You want to know what my problem is?”

                                                         ***

Daniel slowly opened his eyes. He was breathing hard, he could feel the sweat on his forehead and his bed sheet was sticking to his body. His hand was still underneath his boxer – which was a mess at this point – and he slowly slid it out. He sighed once, before rolling out of the bed and headed towards the bathroom.

Fuck, he thought as he stood in the shower. This was going too far. He couldn’t keep thinking about Noah like that – about that smile, those eyes, curls, that stomach, or that – Fuck! He yanked his hand away. This was getting out of hand! He could blame the fact that he was a teenage boy and that his hormones were going wild, but… twice in one morning? No, that shit couldn’t happen. But it was already happening, he thought, and there would be no point in stopping now. He sighed. He was already half hard, he could at least finish. He did, although, try to keep his head as blank and neutral as possible. But he couldn’t help wondering what it would be like … If it was his hands instead right now. How it would feel like to run his hands over his flat stomach, or through his hair. How it would feel like to kiss those lips, to have his tongue sliding against his. To have him inside him, to see those beautiful eyes looking down on him, his hair falling in his eyes and sweat making his face shine – Daniel leaned his left arm against the wall in the shower to steady himself as he got closer. He bit his under lip to try not to be too loud. His parents were still sleeping, and the last thing he wanted was to wake them up by calling out Noah’s name. But trying to be silent just made everything worse, and he prayed to God, that the shower drowned out the sound.

“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck”, he whined as he got closer. Not very manly, he thought, but it was all he could do to keep himself from yelling out his name.

He nearly slipped as he came, and let out a definitely not manly yelp as he tried to get his balance. His knees were weak, and his breath was heavy. He spent a few more minutes in the shower, washing off, and making sure his hands were far above his waist. As he trotted back to his room, he collapsed into the bed, his body exhausted by so much arousement. He knew he was fucked. He didn’t want to think about what just happened – twice – and he had no idea how he would be able to deal with this, so he did the only thing that seemed logical; he was going to sleep away his problems.

His plan was cut short when his mom knocked on the bedroom door. He groaned as he rolled over in his bed and looked at the time. 10:15. He let out a confirming grunt as his mother called through the door about breakfast. He stood up, and put on a shirt before walking downstairs. As he sat down at the kitchen table he laid his head on the surface.

“Are you feeling okay?” his mom asked. Daniel mumbled a ‘yes’ that was muffled by the table.

“Are you sure you’re not sick?” his dad asked worried. Daniel lifted his head and looked at them, giving them a small smile.

“Yeah, I just slept poorly”, he said as his dad put down a stack of pancakes in front of him.

“Any reasons?” his mom asked.

“Nope!” Daniel said quickly, before digging into the pancakes, his cheeks burning. He stuffed his mouth full and was thankful when his parents didn’t ask any further.

The day went on slower than Daniel would like. His body felt restless and he felt like he just needed to do something, anything. He felt uneasy about what had happened earlier that morning and nothing he did, helped calm his mind.

He tried drawing. It would usually be the most efficient way for him to calm down. He would usually loose himself in the drawings, and could spent hours on one piece. Today however, he gave up after barely fifteen minutes. He couldn’t focus and felt irritation take over. Nothing he did felt right, and even the easiest of lines felt wrong, or forced.

He tried boxing. If he was irritated or angry, the bag would help him let go off his anger. Normally he would work on the box until his muscles went sore, until his head was blank, and he was unable to think because of the exhaustion. But today he didn’t even take a single punch at the bag. He didn’t even take on his gloves. Just looking at it, made him realize that this wasn’t what he needed today.

He wanted to go for a run. Normally he would run a lap before breakfast, just when the sun rose. This morning, however, he was a bit … busy. After the shower he was too exhausted, and now it was too hot outside to run. The sun was already high on the sky and the temperature were sky-rocketing even for it almost being summer.

He thought riding would help take his mind off things, but the horses were too hot in this weather, and taking them out for a ride would just be cruel. He walked out into the field and laid down in the grass amongst the horses. Most of the them ignored him, as they mostly did. But one horse, Tiger, came over, hoping he would have a treat. He huffed disappointed when Daniel showed him his empty hands, but he stayed for a little cuddling. Tiger was a Shetland pony and was the pony he rode the first time his parents brought him to this house, and the only pony he had been comfortable riding his first years. A few horses had passed away, and a couple new ones had took their place over the years, but Tiger had always been here, even if he started to get old and grey in the face. His mom had a thing for helping animals in need, so a lot of them were rescue horses and wasn’t rideable, but there were a few of them he rode frequently.

Tiger wandered off to the other horses and Daniel laid in the grass for a few more minutes before his impatient got the better of him. He wondered back into the house and roamed the tv channels for a bit before he suddenly got an idea.

He walked down the stairs to the basement and walked past the boxing bag until he stood in front of his old drum set. He looked at it for a while, deciding. He hadn’t played in a while, but he thought maybe playing would help him clear his head. He sat down and brushed off a little dust of the drums. He didn’t know it was that long since he had played last. Some of the parts needed a little bit of tuning, and when he was done he gave them a few tries for testing. He put on his headset and dug out his old drum playlist. Normally when he played the drums, he would listen to a song, learn the drums, and play them while the other song played. He picked a song that didn’t go that fast, as a starting song. As he played he realised that he might be a little rusty, but he hadn’t really forgotten anything. He spent several hours in the basement, challenging himself by playing songs that was faster and faster and testing himself on how fast he could play. He didn’t stop until his t-shirt was soaking wet, his arms ached, and his hands were full of blisters from the drum sticks. When he stopped he was tired, but happy and it finally didn’t feel like his mind would drown him anymore. He took a quick shower and when he walked down it was just in time for dinner.

His mom asked him why he didn’t hang out with Noah today, and Daniel said that he was busy. The truth was, Noah had actually been ignoring him for the past couple of weeks. Sure, he would hang out with Daniel in school, and he would act like everything was normal, but when Daniel suggested them hanging out after school and in the weekends, Noah always found a reason not to. And even though Noah tried to act like everything was fine when they were together, Daniel could tell it wasn’t. He could feel Noah’s look on him when he wasn’t looking, and Noah refused to meet Daniel’s eyes. The usually touchy and open Noah was more closed off and there seemed to be a distance between them. Daniel wondered if he had done anything wrong, if he had said something stupid. Daniel knew he wasn’t the most social person in the world, and he knew that he often said things or did something that offended people and made them hate him, but Noah usually never bothered. If he did, he would tell Daniel, and he would apologize, and they would be friends again. And Daniel would normally know if he fucked up, or if people hated him, he just didn’t care enough about what other people thought of him to care. He couldn’t remember doing anything wrong to Noah, and if he for some reason had, he was sorry. He didn’t want Noah to be mad at him, but he didn’t know what he had done, because Noah wouldn’t talk to him! It had started after the sleepover, but Daniel had gone over the weekend a thousand times in his head, and he didn’t understand how anything that happened could’ve make Noah mad at him. Maybe he had said something in his sleep, but there was no way that Daniel was supposed to know exactly what he had said? So why was he supposed to know what he had done wrong? It was all so confusing to Daniel. He had been tired of asking, and always being shut down, so now he decided that Noah could reach out to him if he wanted to hang out. The only problem of this, was that Daniel didn’t really have any other friends than Noah, and so weekends was long and boring when you had to spend them alone.

After dinner he took Cap out for a walk. Loki had died a few years prior, but they all agreed that the house was too quiet without a dog, and so they had gotten a new one last year. Cap was a Rottweiler, just as Loki. Letting his mom decide the name though was a huge mistake, and her love for the Marvel universe was incomprehensible to Daniel. Like, Loki? It was an alright name, he guessed? But Captain America? Hello? You can’t name a dog Captain America! Hulk? Fury? Thor? For gods sake, even Hawkeye was all decent names for a dog! But Captain America? It was just pathetic. He thought even his mom understood that it was a little inconvenient having such a long name on a dog, so they just called him Cap, which Daniel could live with.

It was a little cooler outside now that night crept on, and it was a comfortable temperature to walk in. Daniel was grateful for a reason to get out, after being stuck in the house all night. He met a couple of kids from his school on the way, and swiftly pulled up his hood and kept walking and ignored them when they tried to greet him.