"Bro, I'm sorry, I didn't know it was that bad," Oliver sighed on the phone to Xavier one Friday night. It had been a couple weeks since Oliver's disastrous dinner with his father and things at home hadn't been gotten all that more better since. In fact, Oliver had spent most of the last fortnight hiding out at Will's, not wanting to slug through yet another tense dinner as his father pretended that he didn't exist. Luckily his mother was on his side, sticking up for him whenever his father tried to start anything.
"Yeah, the fighting really is getting worse and worse," Xavier groaned in reply. Unlike his brother, Xavier didn't have a partner to run away to and hide, having to deal constantly with hearing his parents fight over how they would 'deal' with this situation, as his father had mentioned several times. Conversion camps and military school were mentioned more times than Xavier liked, making him about as angry as his mother got whenever they were brought up.
Oliver sighed again, beating himself up inside for causing this entire mess with his family. "Stop that," he heard a gentle voice whisper next to him.
"Stop what?" the blonde asked, his eyebrows furrowing as he looked at his boyfriend who was snuggled up against him as they sat cozily on the couch.
"You're blaming yourself, don't do that," Will replied simply, raising his hand and smoothing out Oliver's wrinkled brow with his thumb. "Tell him he can come here," he offered, giving the blonde a reassuring smile.
"Are you sure?" Oliver asked, still aware of just how secretive Will was about where he lived, but his boyfriend just nodded with a slight shrug.
"You called me and you're not even listening to me," Xavier grumbled through the phone. "What're you guys talking about?"
Oliver glanced at Will one last time, giving him a look to ask if it was OK, but Will just rolled his eyes before grabbing the phone out of Oliver hand to talk to Xavier himself, telling him, "just come here, Xave, we can watch some movies and order some take out."
"Really?" Xavier asked, sounding a bit skeptical about it. "You don't have to."
"Of course, Xave, why wouldn't I?" Will said. "Now make your way over here and I'll invite the girls around, we'll make it like a slumber party or something." Xavier just laughed, telling him how lame that sounded but that he'd be over soon before hanging up.
"You really didn't have to do that," Oliver said, giving Will a small smile. His eyes scanned his boyfriend's face, taking it all in. He couldn't believe just how lucky he was to get a guy like Will. Someone so kind and caring, who loved him so much and would go to such great length for him. Oliver was glad he went through all that effort for him, because his guy was worth it all. "I love you," he whispered before leaning over to capture his boyfriend's lips with his.
"I love you too," Will smiled after they pulled apart shortly after, before throwing off the blanket that had been over them and jumping off the couch to turn and face Oliver. "Now c'mon, we have to clean a bit before everyone comes 'round," he announced, clapping his hands quickly to get his boyfriend moving.
"Yes sir!" Oliver laughed, pushing himself off the couch and heading to where he thought he remembered seeing the vacuum cleaner.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Nuh-uh," Kimi disagreed, shaking her head profusely as Xavier continued to insist that pineapple was good on pizza.
"But it's so good!" he said around a mouthful of pizza, looking at her as if she had gone crazy. All his friends agreed with him, finding the sweetness of the fruit married well with all the salty topping of a pizza. Being with Oliver and his friends was surreal as they all thought it was an abomination, Kimi feeling the most strongly about this.
"Fine, then have it!" she shouted, picking off a chunk from her slice of supreme pizza and chucking it at Xavier's face. It hit just about his left eyebrow before tumbling down and bouncing off his cheek and into his lap.
The look of surprise on Xavier's face, a little offended by what had just happened, caused everyone else to burst out in laughter.
"I hate you all," Xavier grumbled as he picked up the piece of pineapple and flicked it over at Kimi, who dodging it and watched it sail in the air and land somewhere on the kitchen floor.
"Aww, come off it dude," his brother laughed, shaking his head at his little brother. "You like pineapple on pizza but not french fries in a sundae, how does that make any sense?"
"What the hell?" Cash chimed in, looking as if someone had said that puppies were ugly. "French fries in a sundae are the best things ever together!" she exclaimed before shooting a look at Xavier as if he was absolutely mental, adding, "you're weird, dude."
Xavier just glared at his brother, not impressed at being backstabbed by someone he thought he trusted. "OK, first of all, how dare you. Second, pineapple on pizza is totally different from french fries in a sundae. French fries should not go in a sundae, ever, that's just wrong and that's fact. Pineapple though, just goes so well with everything on a pizza, especially the cheese, and there's something wrong with you all if you don't agree with me," he argued, waiting for someone to challenge him again.
"OK everyone, agree to disagree!" Will cut in after hearing Kimi grumble "goddamn white people and cheese" next to him. He really didn't want to spend the rest of the night arguing over pizza toppings and so put a stop to a pretty silly fight about nothing important. "Go pick up that pineapple you threw though, Xavier. Surely you know better than not to litter," he playfully scolded the teen, shaking his head in faux-disapproval.
As Xavier got up in a huff to get the pineapple piece, still annoyed about being pick on, Oliver leaned over to Will and whispered, "thank you."
"For what?" Will asked, confused by the random comment.
"For having us all over here, it really means a lot," the blonde explained, resting his head on Will's shoulder. His head bobbed up and down a bit as Will let out a small chuckle.
"No need to thank me, Ol, it's what I'm here for," Will replied sincerely, reaching a hand up to play with the blonde's growing locks. "You need a haircut soon though."
"You're nuts," Oliver laughed, shaking his head at his boyfriend's comment.
"But I'm your nuts," Will replied without thinking, only realising how odd that sounded when Oliver started to laugh harder. Everyone else, who hadn't been paying attention to their conversation, looked at them in confusion, wondering what was so funny.
Cash was just about to ask when they heard the front door open and closed, followed by footsteps down the hallway. "Nak, I'm home!" a female voice called out. "Did you happen t- Oh! I didn't know you were having friends over, sorry!" the voice continued as it rounded into the room and saw the group of teens sitting on the lounge room floor.
"Ma, you're home!" Will exclaimed as he jumped up and rushed over to give his mother a hug, causing Oliver to fall over since he was using Will as support. Will's mum just laughed, amused by her son's excitement. To be fair though, neither of had seen each other for nearly a week, constantly just missing each other as they went about their lives, especially since Ms. Evans was working nights.
"Yeah, there weren't any clients book tonight so they sent us home," she said, pulling away so that she could see Will's friends. "Are you all alright? Are you hungry? Is Will looking after you all?" she asked, snapping into full mother-mode.
"Of course I am, mum," Will groaned with a heavy eye roll as his friends laughed.
"He's doing a great job, Ms. Evans, don't worry," Kimi reassured after settling down a bit.
"Good to hear, now I know I did a good job," Ms Evans joked, playfully hitting Will's arm. "Where's Liv and Emmie?" she asked as she noticed them missing in the group on the floor, surprised they weren't there as they all seemed to be attached at the hip.
"Oh, they couldn't make it tonight," Will shrugged. Liv was spending the night with Tyler and Emmie was busy on a Tinder date, though Will was sure it would end up being a one-night stand.
"That's a shame," Will's mum stated simply before zeroing in on the two new boys that she hadn't met yet. "And these two cute boys are?"
"I'm-uh, I'm Oliver," said the blonde, not sure why he was tripping over his words so much. It was an odd experience to have the "meet the parents" situation suddenly forced upon you, but what was weirder was just how alike Will and his mother looked. There was no denying that the two were related, with Will being an almost spitting image of his mum, though he was definitely more masculine. Oliver wasn't sure why this confused him so much, but it did. He shook his head, trying to snap out of it, as he motion to his brother and said, "and he's Xavier, my little brother."
"Oliver, as in-" Ms. Evans started, shooting Will a quick look.
"My boyfriend, yeah," Will filled in with ease. He looked calm about it, knowing full well that his mum was as fine with him being gay as he was and wasn't going to spit the dummy like Oliver's dad did.
"He's cute," she stated simply with a teasing smile. "Good job, nak," she added, followed by a light chuckle. Everyone else laughed a bit too, though they didn't find it as amusing as Will's mum did.
"Uh thanks, Ms. Evans," Oliver said, feeling a little red in the face by her compliment, or what he hoped was a compliment.
"Joy," she corrected simply in response, with Will mouthing "that's her name" when he saw Oliver's look of confusion. The blonde just smiled and nodded, not sure how to respond to that. "Well, I'm off to bed. Have a good night, kiddies," Ms. Evan sighed, whisking off out of the lounge and down the hall to her bedroom.
"So, Crazy, Stupid, Love?" Will suggested once he heard his mother's door close.
"That was nice," Oliver said after Will had sat down next to him after putting the movie on.
"Yeah, it was," Will smiled, leaning over to give his boyfriend a quick kiss. After all the drama that they'd gone through constantly, it was nice to have something go nice and smoothly for once, rather than all the theatrics and headaches that usually happened with things like this. It felt normal, and that's what was the best thing about it. "I wish all days were like this," he whispered, wanting life to be easy like that day had been.
"So do I," the blonde smiled, initiating the kiss this time.
"Ick, you guys, we're trying to watch a movie," Cash scolded, slapping the pair who didn't end up pulling apart since Oliver went and deepened the kiss.
As Will enjoyed the moment, a part of him realised just how happy he felt. How the light and joy buried down deeper and illuminated his core. He realised that, as long as Oliver was around, all days would be like this, no niggling voice popping up to ruin the moment. All in that moment, he realised.
He's the french fry to my sundae.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A/N: A terrible, terrible ending, but I really enjoyed this chapter. I hope you did too :)