Rivals 🌈 ✔

46 - Hold Me

First of all: 

Happy New Year! I wish you all the best for 2021! I thought a new chapter would be a good way to celebrate the new year. ;D 

. . .

His brain failed to process the information. Raine never cheated on him but Juice couldn't tell him? He was betrayed by his best friend and Juice had to keep it to himself? He wasn't sure he could.

Even now Raine hadn't cheated, their relationship had been damaged. It hurt to know that Raine hadn't fought for him. He had dropped his confession and left. Not once, he'd asked how Juice was feeling; he'd simply faced his loss and moved on while Juice's life had been on standby. He wished Raine would have begged for forgiveness; that he would have done everything in his power to convince Juice that it had been a one-time mistake and that he would never do it again. Or should it have come from him? Should he have pretended it had never happened? He couldn't do that. He felt cast aside, convinced that their relationship had been a giant joke. He was deeply hurt and also now, he felt a wave of anger come over him. The fact that it had been a set-up, didn't change anything about it.

He glanced at the grey eyes that stared expectantly at him; there was a nervousness in them calming Juice down a bit. Phantom was doing this for him. He barely knew the guy and yet, he was putting his own patch at stake for doing the right thing. 

"I don't know how to keep it from him," Juice said, "but I'll figure something out. And if it slips out anyway, we'll make sure Esai doesn't know."

The hesitation didn't leave Phantom's eyes, but he nodded. "That's all I can ask, I guess. I get it, your emotions are running high. But it would be nice if you could keep in mind that I might lose everything when Esai finds out I ratted him out. To a Son, of all people."

Juice understood. What Phantom had done, meant a lot to him since they weren't even friends. Something he would actually like, he realized. They got along pretty well when they were tracking down Raine's father and this conversation proved that the Mayan had felt that too. 

"You want to exchange numbers?" Juice suggested a bit awkwardly. Immediately after these words, his heart pounded in his chest. This was stupid, right? "I mean — imagine Esai will ever find out, or that you will get in trouble for other reasons... Then I might be able to help you. So you have someone besides your brothers, ya know?"

Phantom took a sip from his beer. Was he imagining things or were the guy's cheeks slightly flushing? When the Mayan looked up, Juice didn't know where to look. It was a stupid suggestion. They couldn't be friends. Hadn't he learned anything from his relationship with Raine? 

And yet — without Phantom, he never would have known that Raine stayed faithful to him.

Or at least that fateful day. The thought that he might have slept around since they broke up, bruised his heart. He himself hadn't been able to touch anyone.

"That's nice of you, man." For a moment Phantom seemed to hesitate, then he shared his number and asked for Juice's. 

There was a strange tension between them. Was it because Juice knew that the prospect was into guys too? That something might happen between them if things weren't going to end well with Raine and him? His stomach dropped at the thought. 

He didn't want to think like that. 

He loved Raine. Replacing him with a guy who shared similarities with him wasn't fair to Phantom, nor to himself, and certainly not to Raine. The latter had already been played by his best friend. That Raine had given up on them so soon hurt, but if he was honest with himself he doubted he would have done things differently if he had been in his shoes. He would have felt too ashamed to ask for another chance, convinced that he didn't deserve it anyway.