** ALLAN **

SEVEN MONTHS AFTER MY FIRST LESSON WITH BRIAN saw me going to his place practically every day. He seemed to enjoy my company, considering he was the one who kept inviting me over all the time.

I wonder.

On Wednesdays and Fridays, I still had my piano lessons and they were all structured and everything, but I have to admit I loved practicing with him on the other days. I could completely feel the difference between Brian my teacher and Brian my friend.

Gosh, it’s really nice to have a friend. Those years after college had been quite lonesome.

True, I wasn’t partying around with dozens of people, and I don’t think I’d want that. Brian’s company was more than enough to me right now and he always made me believe he felt the same.

Did he feel all the same things I felt for him?

Sometimes I was certain I could see sparks flying from his light green eyes and occasionally he made me feel he was about to come on top of me.

How I wish he would.

But none of us did.

There was this time, the first weekend we spent together. He took me to this awesome theatre concert on Saturday and on Sunday morning he had me go to his place so I could teach him how to play videogame. The situation on its own accord was already so freaking sweet that I couldn’t, but when I got there, things were a whole other level.

‘OH, MY SWEET DEVOTION! Brian, you’ve got a sealed Switch! That’s awesome! I get to witness a real unboxing!’ He looked lost. ‘You know. Unboxing videos on YouTube. People buy stuff and open them on camera.’

‘Why would people do that?’

‘To give their opinions, influence purchase.’

‘And people just follow others’ opinions like that?’

‘Brian, are you sure you’re really twenty? Or you’re like “French twenty”?’

‘What is “French twenty”?’

I laughed a little.

‘You know how French doesn’t have all the numbers, so they go like “four times twenty” to say eighty?’

‘Oi! I was right last night!’

‘About?’

‘How today would be a day of humiliation. We haven’t even opened the thing and I’m already getting called names!’

I would have taken him seriously if he hadn’t said those words almost through a laugh fit. I decided to go on board.

‘Oown, my sweet old child. You are everything, see? Ten, twenty, and eighty! Come here. I’m sorry.’

And I hugged him and he hugged me back. He smelled so sweet and fresh. Somehow, it made me think of my childhood and I felt warm. The world seemed to have disappeared again and I wasn’t much sure how long it was before I managed to break the silence.

‘So. Ready to get your ass beaten?’

‘Ooh. Kinky. Nice to see this side of you.’

‘Oh my God, Brian. No. No. You’re too precious.’

‘Am I, though?’ He said blinking.

Seriously, dude. Just come here and undo my pants.

Whyyyyyyyy?

I coughed and changed the subject.

‘Are we opening that or not?’

‘Yeah! Sure! Let’s pop th—’

‘If you finish that sentence, I’m out of here! And I’ll take the Switch with me!’

We both started laughing hard.

‘Okay, fine. I got it. No kinky Sundays for you. Here. Take this. Since you’re way more excited about this than I am, go ahead and do the honours.’

He handed me the box and when I reached for it, our fingers brushed against each other for a second, but we both pretended to not take notice. However, I was far too excited to be holding that awesome console in my own hands and the inner child took over. About twenty minutes later, the device was all set up and we were playing on his TV. The small joysticks nearly disappeared inside those big hands and I took the excuse of helping him hit the right buttons a few more times than I really needed to, just so I could touch those fingers again.

‘But that’s not fair,’ Brian said, looking flustered. ‘I didn’t invite you here so I could fight the machine. I mean, the machine and I are no friends, but you know what I mean.’

I laughed at that.

‘Well, we can play each with a controller.’

‘Oh. Can we?’

‘Yeah. Why?’

He blushed a little.

‘Because I thought you always needed two…’ he got up and reached for the TV rack, coming with another pair of sealed controllers. ‘And when I thought of asking for your help, I was thinking about that…’

‘That is so sweet, Brian. You really were in need of a friend, weren’t you?’

He blushed really hard. It didn’t help the fact he was wearing a pink T-shirt.

‘I guess so.’

‘It’s okay. I was, too.’

He opened that smile I loved so damn much. ‘I’m really happy to be your friend, Brian.’

If possible, his smile got even wider.

‘I’m really happy too, Allan.’

‘I’m not hugging you again. Not now. Come on. Let’s play this. You keep the blue and red ones and I’ll use these yellow and blue pair. Oi! No pouting! Let’s get to it!’

‘Oh, you mean business! Just wait and see how spectacularly I’ll lose.’

And that was one more of the many times I laughed that day. We played all the games I love and he was right, ‘spectacularly’ was a great way to describe the way he lost. Especially at the kart game. He ordered lunch in and when I meant for us to go back to playing, he told me to go on my own and asked if I minded his playing the piano.

‘What? Why would I mind a free concert by the world’s greatest pianist? Go ahead. I love your music!’ He blushed again, but made his way to the piano and sat by it.

At first, I meant to follow the plan and play games as he played the piano, but it was getting ever more difficult. I was always getting happily distracted, looking at him play. By the end of the second hour, I had already put the console on sleep mode and was peacefully watching him play from the couch. I’m not sure how long he took to notice I was watching, but he seemed to like it. I could do that forever.