Shell shocked, Gabe and Quent just sat there for a few minutes, staring at the plastic coated wooden tables. Eventually Quent picked up some of the pamphlets and looked at them, reading the titles aloud.
"There's someone in my head!"
"What to do when you find the one"
"All about soulmates"
"Sheesh, who came up with these titles, a four year old?" Quent snorted.
"Although, there actually is some useful information here," Gabe said, leafing through one. "We really do need to learn how to block each other out of our heads. I can't deal with your constant commenting on stuff, and the idea of someone in my head other than me just creeps me out."
"That's right," Quent agreed, "We need to practise stopping each other from accessing our thoughts. But I'm not sure about doing it here, we need somewhere more private. Isn't your house near by?" He asked, leaning forward so that their faces were inches apart, Gabriel's mint scented breath gently caressing his features in a fine mist.
"There are a few other things that I'd like to practise as well." He said in a low voice.
Gabriel's cheeks turned the colour of a ripe cherry, and he leaned as far back as possible in his chair in an attempt to get away from Quent.
"Yes, my house is technically near by," He spluttered.
"But there will be no practising of things going on when my mom and my sister are in the house. Besides, I have no idea what kind of THINGS you have in mind. What are things anyway?" He said, laughing awkwardly.
"Oh, you don't know what kind of things I have in mind?" Quent replied.
"Maybe I should just show you. They start here," He said, gently trailing a finger down Gabriel's nose, "Then they carry on doing their things over here," He continued, curling a path over Gabriel's wondrously high cheekbones,
"And eventually," He uttered, Gabriel's eyes widening in anticipation,
"They end up here," He finished in a whisper, softly tracing Quent's lips with a single digit.
Gabriel wasn't sure how it happened, (although, as usual, he blamed Quent entirely) but suddenly they were kissing like if they didn't the world would end. And just for a second, the thought flitted across Gabe's mind that maybe it would. And perhaps he wouldn't care if the universe crumbled around them so long as he could just go on kissing this beautiful boy in this single perfect moment.
Then his mind finished its little trip to a different world where two guys kissing in a coffee shop was a totally normal, acceptable occurrence and came back to reality. Once in reality his mind did two things. First, it relaxed and enjoyed the moment for a bit- even in reality it couldn't ignore that Quent was a really quite fantastic kisser, and second of all it commanded his hands to push said kisser firmly away from his mouth.
His mind was extremely disappointed with the results of the second thing it did, and immediately wanted to go back to the first thing and just carry that on for a bit longer. Gabriel was really starting to hate his mind.
Somehow they eventually managed to end up standing outside Gabriel's house, waiting for someone to open the door since Gabriel had forgotten his key. Inside the house a pattering of feet could be heard, as someone rushed to the door. The door was flung open to reveal an attractive teenage girl with what appeared to be a live snake wrapped around her neck.
"Oh. It's you,"She said disappointedly, looking at Gabriel.
"What do you mean 'Oh. It's you.' Shouldn't you at least pretend to be happy to see me?" Said Gabriel indignantly.
"I was hoping you were someone else."
"You have a boyfriend?" Gabriel gasped.
"No. I was hoping you were the mail man. He should have the new hamster cage I ordered. And who is this?"She asked, pointing at Quent.
"Hey," He said, raising his hand in greeting.
"I'm Quent, Gabe's new boyfr..." At this point Gabe slapped his hand over Quent's mouth.
"Best friend," Said Gabe quickly.
"My new best friend," He said carefully, glaring at Quent.
"Is that thing an actual snake?" Quent asked dubiously, his eyes on the snake wrapped round Gabe's sister's neck.
"Yes, this is an actual snake. And she is a she, not an thing. Her name is Harriet. She usually won't bite strangers," Said Gabe's sister, not particularly reassuringly.
Shaking his head, Gabe pulled Quent into the house.
"That was my little sister, Drew. She's obsessed with animals, wants to be a vet or something. We have three cats, two dogs, one snake, about a million fish and at the moment she wants a hamster. Lucky our house is big, you aren't allergic to any animals are you?"
"No," Answered Quent, a little surprised.
"This is my room," Gabe told him, opening the door to an enormous light blue room decorated with band posters, a humongous double bed standing in the middle of it.
"Wow." Breathed Quent. "Your room is huge. Mine is way smaller because my brother claimed the biggest one since I'll be gone soon, and there still a few boxes with stuff in them inside it."
"Right," said Gabriel, casually sitting down on the bed.
"We have to get these... abilities under control. Personally I wish we could just make them go away, but that doesn't seem possible at the minute. Our priority is stopping each other from seeing everything we're thinking. Any ideas?"
"Well I have one idea that always seems to come up in movies and books and stuff. We could try it I guess."
"That sounds like a good place to start," Gabe replied. "What do you have to do?"
"All you have to do us visualise a big, strong wall that will stop me getting in."
"That sounds stupid. How is that supposed to work?" Snorted Gabe.
"I don't know, it just does. We should at least try it though, you picture a wall and I'll try and dig a bit deeper into your thoughts."
"Fine," Agreed Gabe. "Is it working?" He inquired a few minutes later.
"No. Not really, but keep at it. Really imagine a strong, solid wall."
They carried on for a little longer, before suddenly Quent started.
"I think I just felt something just now. Yes, yes there it is! It's working!"
"Really?" Quent asked excitedly.
"Nope. I was just joking. But I found the porn folder!"
"What do you mean you found the porn folder?" Choked Gabe.
"I mean I found the porn folder. All the memories of all the porn you've ever watched. Mmmm, I haven't seen this one. I didn't know you watched gay porn."
"Aaaaaargh" Shrieked Gabe. "Get out of my head RIGHT NOW, or I will rip your head off with my teeth" Gabe roared.
"Aha!" Laughed Quent smugly.
"So you do watch gay porn. I was totally bluffing with the whole porn folder thing, brains are much less well organised than that. I just wanted to see whether you had or not, and that reaction means you have watched gay porn I di..."
His little speech was abruptly cut off by Gabe almost strangling him in frustration. Not that he minded all that much by the end, since they'd fallen backwards on to the bed, and Gabe was lying on top of him. So naturally Quent leaned up and kissed him full on the lips, which had the double positive effects of Gabe letting go of his throat and relaxing into the kiss, and just the general positive of kissing Gabe, something that was fast becoming one of his favourite things to do.
However, rather unluckily, at that precise moment Gabe's sister burst into the room.
"Hey Gabe, can I borrow a... Woah, so he IS your boyfriend."
"IT'S NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!" Yelled Gabe.
"We were just... Wrestling." He continued lamely.
"Yeah, because all wrestling involves synchronised lip movements. Save it bro, I figured it out already anyway. This just confirms my suspicious."
"What! How did you know?"
"I'm not sure, maybe I just sensed something between you two beyond friendship. Also, he was staring at your butt when I let you guys in. I won't tell mom yet, but you have to soon. Tonight."