Aiden titled his head enough that the kiss only landed on the corner of his lips.

“Lucas, stop. You’re drunk.” He pushed his hand off his face and put his other arm between them.

“I’m not drunk.” Lucas objected, and leaned in again.

Aiden turned his face away easily this time. “Are you aware of who you’re trying to kiss?” He questioned doubtfully.

Lucas let out a frustrated breath against Aiden’s cheek. “You won’t let me?”

“No, I won’t.”

“Are you sure?” Lucas grumbled and leaned back, a little. His hand slipped down from Aiden’s shoulder, and knocked the door handle.

Aiden’s stomach flipped as they fell inside the doorway. His head collided with Lucas on the landing, and his weight crushed him into the ground.

“Ow” Aiden groaned, and cupped the side of his face.

The lights switched on. Connor stood at the foot of his bed with a bewildered expression.

Aiden tapped Lucas’s shoulder. “Get off me.”

Lucas didn’t answer. Steady breaths filled and left his chest.

“Did you seriously fall asleep?” Aiden rolled him off – with Connor’s help – and lay him on his back. He didn’t wake up.

Connor leaned over him with a scrunched-up nose. “He smells terrible.”

“He’s drunk.” Aiden reported getting to his feet. “Lucas,” he shook his shoulder, “Wake up.”

Lucas didn’t respond.

“Will you help me lift him onto the bed?” Aiden sighed.

Connor lifted Lucas’s shoulders and Aiden got his legs. He left his shoes next to the door and draped the covers over him. He took up pretty much the entire bed.

“Good luck falling asleep” Connor flicked off the lights and went back to bed.

Aiden thought about his options. There was a free bed in Lucas’s cabin right now; with a drunk Hugh and Kal, so a big no thank you to that. There were the benches in cabin one, but even if he’d consider trying to sleep on a table – he wasn’t going to wake up Mandy for the key.

He lay down on the bed but stayed on top of the covers.

After what had just happened, Aiden wasn’t even slightly tired.

Lucas had tried to kiss him. Why? Because he was drunk? Maybe that’s what he did when he drank? Went around trying to kiss people? He was certain there had been no other … signs. Nothing even close to flirting ever went on between the two of them.

Actually – was Lucas gay? Aiden was sure he’d had girlfriends since they started secondary school. No boys. But maybe he didn’t want to advertise the boyfriend aspect?

Maybe he – No, Aiden. He cut himself off, it’s not any of your business.

But he still wondered about what would have happened if he hadn’t turned away. What kind of kiss it would have been, and how it would have felt.

“Kal, turn that off.”

Aiden was squashed into the mattress as Lucas reached over him and smacked his phone until the alarm turned off. He flopped back into his corner with a grunt.

“You better have a good excuse for being in my bed.” Lucas growled, sounding hungover and pissed off.

“Give me a minute to think of one.” Aiden replied.

Lucas arm whipped away from his eyes and he looked at Aiden with an incredulous expression. “What are – ah, uh, you, um…”

Aiden wondered if he was still drunk. He lifted himself onto his elbows and looked down at Lucas’s beet root red cheeks. “Was there a question in there?”

“What are you doing in my bed?” Lucas got out in a quieter voice. He rubbed the back of his neck and stared up at Aiden with a confused expression. “Did you come in here when we were drinking? I thought you’d left earlier.”

Either Lucas didn’t remember trying to kiss him, or he was a good actor.

“You know, I just felt like coming over for a cuddle.”

Lucas’s face got even redder, and he squeaked out a “what?”

Aiden’s alarm started going off again. “Kidding.” He sat up and Lucas’s eyes landed on Connor. He went from really confused, to understanding, to confused again. It was almost comical to watch. Aiden did feel a little bad when he started to look stressed out. “You came over in the middle of the night and passed out.”

Lucas sat up. “I’m so sorry.”

“Please don’t, I had to listen to enough apologies last night.” Aiden said quietly. He pulled on his work clothes and brushed his teeth in the bathroom, splashing his face with water. He groaned at the mug staring back at him. He had a black eye. It must have been from the fall last night.

Aiden peeked out the doorway. Lucas was looking around him as if the clues to what happened last night were in the bed sheets. His curls were stuck up in odd directions, and his crumpled clothes made him look like he’d slept outside.

“I’m heading out” Aiden told him, “you can go back to sleep. Bathroom is through that door if you need to throw up.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

Aiden closed the door and heard Connor’s voice.

“You’re a fucking idiot.”

“Shut up” Lucas growled back at him, the crabby tone returning.

Aiden fought back a smile and made his way to the kitchen.

Huh.

Lucas had been kind of… meek?

That was new.

Interesting.

The fishing group was a small one. Only Evie and Connor ended up going. Richard, Evie told them, had spent the night drinking with the staff. Gabby hadn’t shown up in the morning, or before they headed out for the river.

He wanted to see it when Mandy exploded at her later.

“I never would have guessed” Connor said to Evie, “You don’t have an accent at all.”

“I’ve spent so much time away from America it’s faded a lot.” Evie said, “What about you? Where are you from?”

“I was born in America too” Connor said, “Florida, but I moved here before is started speaking so there’s no accent.”

“That’s so handy, you won’t ever have to bother with getting a visa if you want to go over.” Evie adjusted the fishing pole in her hands, and scooted forwards on the deck to dip her feet further into the water. “Are both your parents America?”

“My mom is.” Connor watched the water, “She moved back there recently.”

“Any plans to visit?” Aiden asked.

“No.” Connor replied.

Aiden and Evie both knew that it wasn’t something he wanted to talk about.

“What about you Aiden?” Evie nudged his elbow.

“Nothing as interesting as you two.” He sighed, “I was born in that spec of a town a few miles away and the furthest I’ve been from it is to the nearest city.”

There was a short silence between them. It was a peaceful quiet, not an awkward one. They watched their baits floating downstream, untouched by any fish.

“Connor” Evie broke the silence, “Did you know Aiden used to be fat?”

“Evie” He groaned.

“No” Connor sounded interested, “I didn’t know that. You aren’t now.”

“Spending my summer here makes it impossible to put on weight.” Aiden grumbled. “Why would you bring that up?”

“Because I can’t picture it.” Evie sighed, “Oh! Do you have a picture?”

“If I did I wouldn’t show you.” He replied.

Evie snickered, and drew in her line. There was nothing on the hook. None of them managed to catch anything, but Aiden found it nice anyway. He was glad the others were in bed with a hangover.

Connor talked a bit about his dad, he was a chef – a high end one. He’d met Lucas’s mom through hotel management.

Evie got up saying she wanted to see if her dad would join them for the last half hour.

Connor watched her walk away and waited till she’d disappeared into the tree line to talk again. “What was his dad like?” he asked.

Obviously, he meant Lucas’s. “He was a real dick-head.” He said, “Just drank all the time, if he opened his mouth it was just to snap at people, all he did was sit in front of a tv and waste the money Jenny earned.”

Connor flicked his eyes away from the water to him. “You knew him personally?”

“Oh” Aiden blinked, “Yeah. When we were in kindergarten and primary school Lucas and I were friends. Our parents got along so we were always at each other’s houses.”

“Huh” Connor looked thoughtful. “So it wasn’t till secondary school that he got like that.”

Aiden knew exactly what he meant, but didn’t fully like the way he said ‘like that’. Not after just remembering what a hard time he used to have at home with his dad. “He changed.” He shrugged, “We made different friends. I haven’t thought about it in a while.”

“Do you miss being friends?”

Aiden couldn’t imagine being in Lucas’s friend group now, and he couldn’t stand the thought of having to listen to those stories where they bullied kids and painted themselves as the heroes. “No. Not like it is now.”

“He’s a bit more placid when you’re around.”

“Oh yeah? Like when he dumped me into that mud pool?” Aiden asked.

“I mean this morning. He yelled at me, yelled at you when he thought it was Kal – but you got the ‘oh I’m so sorry’.” Connor pointed out. “Not to mention the whole ‘please let me kiss you’ thing.”

He froze and looked slowly at Connor.

“Yeah” Connor said, “I heard.”

Aiden didn’t know why, but he felt like he needed to excuse Lucas somehow. “He was really drunk.”

Connor gave him a look.

“I’m just saying, he wouldn’t have done that if he was sober.”

“No. He’s too scared for that.” Connor said, “You heard that squeak when you teased him a bit this morning.”

Aiden started to feel uncomfortable. “You’re not going to … uh … well don’t be mean.”

Connor snorted. “I’m not going to go around shouting about it. My dad did ask me to get along with Lucas. I’m just trying to figure out how to do that when he behaves like a mindless dickhead most of the time.”

“Okay. Then, any particular reason you brought it up?”

“Just checking” Connor said.

“Checking what?” Aiden frowned at him.

“He is my brother now.” Connor shrugged, “I didn’t think you’d be the type to run around blabbing, but then again he did dump you into a mud puddle so…”

Aiden let out an amused huff. “You’re looking out for him. I’ll try keep the teasing to a minimum.”

“Oh please don’t” Connor grinned, “I’m going to torture him about it.”

“What part?”

“His crush.”

“Uh, no. He was just drunk.” Aiden objected, “It’s definitely not like that.”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree.” Connor said.

“Agree to disagree about what?” Evie walked past them and sat down again.

“I think,” Connor lifted his fishing rod, “I got a bite.”