Drew was halfway through his iced coffee when Danny said the thing. The thing that cracked the foundation just a little, like the first groan of a fault line under pressure.
"You know, I bet if we actually tried being together, it'd be the most toxic, beautiful disaster anyone's ever seen."
It was a joke. It had to be. They joked about everything-deadlines, exes, their slowly disintegrating knees. But Drew blinked at him from across the patio table like someone just changed the gravity of the Earth and didn't warn him first.
Danny sipped his drink, casually, like he hadn't just said something loaded with more implications than Drew could sort through in real time. His sunglasses reflected the late afternoon sun, hiding whatever was going on in his eyes. That made it worse.
"Toxic and beautiful," Drew repeated, trying to match the joking tone. "Wow, okay. That's the name of our inevitable folk punk band."
Danny snorted. "God, yeah. Songs include 'You Left Me On Read (But Brought Me Coffee)' and 'Our Therapist Ships Us'."
Drew laughed, but it felt like a performance, the sound just a beat too forced. He didn't know why it sat so weird in his chest, but it did. The idea-no, the image-of them as something other than friends lodged itself in his brain like shrapnel.
Danny leaned back in his chair, arms folded behind his head, shirt riding up just enough to expose a sliver of skin. Drew looked away too fast, like he was dodging a punch.
"Relax," Danny said, half-amused. "I'm not trying to kiss you, dude. Just making conversation."
That should've made Drew feel better. It didn't.
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Friction Burn
Roman d'amourDrew and Danny have been inseparable best friends and creative partners for years-cracking jokes, making content, and surviving the chaos of their twenties together. But when a half-joke about dating each other starts to feel a little too real, thei...
