NO Love Club (Boy × Boy) ✔

48) HONESTY HOUR.

X Bélizaire's POV 

"How old were you when you got your first kisses?" I asked, letting my gaze sweep over the room. I gave Declan and Wilder a cursory glance, before getting back to staring at Cole, whose head was resting on my lap.

We were playing this a game where you had to answer honestly to every question the others came up with. We called it Honesty hour, even though we had been on and off with it for more than an hour by then. It was a long time to come up with questions and to gain answers.

To mention a few: Wilder had broken his arm three times from different places, during his skateboarding era. Cole was missing a bottom tooth, due to falling from a tree when he was 10. He was trying to sneak out in the middle of the night, and never dared to mention about the missing tooth to his parents in fear of getting caught. Declan could wiggle his ears, which I admit seemed like a much more interesting fact when we were drunk. 

"14." Declan said with a shrug.

"11." Cole murmured. He had shut his eyes, but would occasionally open them to look around in the room.

"I haven't." Wilder muttered. When the room grew silent, he explained: "Haven't kissed anyone, haven't wanted to either." Then he turned to look at me, to shift the focus away from him: "What's your real name?"

"Xavier." I told him. It wasn't anything like a deadname or some huge secret never to talk about. It was just a name, which I had chosen to leave behind when we moved, for no particular reason. Other than maybe because I wanted to protect my identity from all the media attention mom keeps getting and to start anew. "My mom still calls me Xavi sometimes. But don't start calling me that."

"I like X." Cole mused, opening his eyes as he looked up at the ceiling. He hummed, coming up with a question: "What are you most afraid of?"

"My bike." I blurted out without thinking. It was nothing new to Cole, but I could still feel his curious gaze boring into me.

"Heights." Wilder and Declan answered in chorus. They shared a surprised look, before drunkenly grinning and snickering at each other.

"And you?" I asked Cole, even as it wasn't strictly by the rules of the game. I swirled a lock of his hair around my forefinger, smiling when the gesture made him grin. 

"My mom." Cole admitted, in his typical blunt way. When Wilder chuckled at that, thinking Cole was kidding, Cole continued: "Really. She scares the shit out of me sometimes."

"She is terrifying." Declan agreed, without a hint of amusement in his voice. They must have been drunker than I had thought, as they launched into the topic like Wilder and I weren't there eavesdropping the conversation. "Does she still like to yell at you or is it just silent treatment now?"

"Neither, actually." Cole hummed, then chuckled at himself. "She's doing so much better. Which doesn't change the fact that she scares the shit out of me, I just can't help it I guess."

"What's wrong with your mom?" Wilder asked. I shot a warning glance at him, trying convey he was being rude, but Cole didn't seem to mind.

"Too many things to count?" Cole ventured, then pursing his lips and crunching up his eyebrows. "I'm still trying to figure her out."

I studied Cole's face with wonder. His flushed cheeks, the dip of his Cupid's bow, the tiny spots on his temples. The tip of his nose, his chiseled jawline and the shell of his ear. I had seen all of those features in thousands of different versions, in thousands of faces, but I felt like I could never get bored of studying him. Which I, apparently, wasn't doing as imperceptibly as I had thought.