As the weeks passed, Cyrus found himself spending every other day with TJ. Eventually, he even stopped thinking about him as 'TJ Kippen', fully getting rid of all the things he had once associated with that name.
Instead - he was just TJ. The boy who drove him to flea markets and bookshops, the boy who shamelessly sang along to his favourite 80's CD's with the car window down and the boy who always seemed to forget where he had left important things (including his car keys - which had resulted in an hour long raid of his house on one particularly hot Sunday afternoon.)
He blamed the fact that they lived right next to each other, but really, he just didn't want to admit that he had begun to crave the boy's company when they weren't together.
By the third week of summer vacation, the knock on Cyrus' door came as no surprise to anyone. He immediately rushed downstairs to fling it open, fixing his hair as he went.
"Hey there." he greeted.
TJ stepped inside, an apologetic smile on his lips. "Hey! Sorry I'm late."
Cyrus laughed slightly as he closed the door. "No, you're on time," he assured. "I invited you at 4:30 because I knew you'd get here around 5."
Another thing about TJ - he was always fashionably late to social events. Amber had insisted to Cyrus one that he spends longer in the bathroom getting ready than she does.
"Smart move." He remarked.
They settled down on the couch after TJ had dashed upstairs to put his bag away.
"So...what do people usually do during sleepovers?" Cyrus inquired, shifting slightly to lay down.
"Play video games?" TJ suggested.
"I only have Mario kart though - and I'm afraid you'll be angry when I beat you. Which is inevitable, of course."
The athlete smirked slightly at that. "Cyrus Goodman, is that a challenge?"
"Nope!" he responded cheerily. "It's just fact."
The boy glared at Cyrus for a moment, before moving forward to give him a playful shove. "You sure do know how rile someone up, don't you?"
"Oh I'm sorry, have you already forgotten about that disastrous game of Uno?"
TJ narrowed his eyes. "Alright. Where are the fucking controllers? We're playing Mario kart."
Cyrus laughed at that, sitting up and walking over to the TV cabinet to rummage around for the controllers.
As Cyrus had quickly discovered, TJ also happened to be a compulsive swearer. It had taken about a week of constantly hanging out to realise that the boy had obviously just been censoring himself during their first few interactions.
Although Cyrus didn't usually swear himself (out loud, anyway), he had passed the point of caring when others did. That was definitely a middle school thing.
"Found them!" he called triumphantly.
He pulled the controllers out, only to find that-
"Wow. Do you need some help untangling that?"
Cyrus laughed in disbelief. "Uh. Yeah. That'd be nice."
The two boys eventually managed to untangle the cables and set up the game, settling back down on the couch about 10 minutes later.
"Cable untangling should be a professional sport," TJ remarked, wiping the non-existent sweat off his forehead.
"Are you sure you're not just being a drama queen?" Cyrus quipped, sending the boy a teasing smile.
TJ shot him a glare. "I'm so looking forward to winning this thing right now."
"In your wildest dreams."
~
"This is Cyrus Goodman reporting live from his living room - TJ, how are you handling the epic defeat that just occurred?"
TJ just groaned, flopping back onto the couch and throwing a dramatic hand over his face. "No news people allowed!" came the muffled reply.
Cyrus laughed at that, shuffling over slightly to give the boy a playful nudge. "Wanna play Uno instead?"
"I hate you." TJ grumbled, reluctantly sitting up again.
Cyrus gasped. "You don't!"
"Yeah, I don't," TJ agreed, giving the boy a fond smile. "I could never."
~
Later on when they had retreated to Cyrus' bedroom, he bravely suggested that they watch a few horror movies.
TJ was always raving about how much he loved horror movies (including the terrible ones), and although the idea terrified Cyrus slightly, he knew he could probably handle it with a friend there. Particularly if that friend was TJ.
"Are you sure about this, Cy?" he asked him, his hand hovering over the play button.
Cyrus hesitated for a moment, before giving a quick nod.
"Okay."
TJ clicked the button, settling back down on the bed amongst all of the pillows. He handed one to Cyrus with a small smile.
"You can hug this if you get scared."
"Can't I just hug you?" Cyrus blurted.
He regretted the words almost instantly, but the athlete didn't seem to mind too much though. In fact, all he did was raise an amused eyebrow. "That's cool too."
Cyrus survived most of the movie, even managing to join in on TJ's quips about the main characters from time to time. That was - until one particular jump scare that had him jolting violent and grabbing onto the closest thing to him. That thing just happened to be TJ, and the way he ended up clinging to the boy was downright embarrassing.
The athlete chuckled, running a soothing hand up and down the boy's back. "You can look now." he murmured after a few moments.
Cyrus slowly lifted his head, a very obvious blush staining his cheeks. "That wasn't one of my finest moments." he said with a grimace.
"It's fine - I did the exact same thing with Amber when we watched our first horror movie."
He reached over to pause the movie, gently closing the laptop and turning to the boy with a bright smile.
"That one was bad anyway! How about we do something else?"
There was a smirk tugging at TJ's lips now, and Cyrus felt his stomach flip.
"...Like what?" he asked wearily.
TJ shifted so that he was fully facing the boy, crossing his legs and resting his chin on his hands.
"I don't know, do you like anyone?"
Cyrus nearly choked at that, and it took a few seconds of wide-eyed staring for him to collect himself again.
"Do I what?"
TJ gave him an amused smile. "Is that a yes?"
"No!"
"Oh come on, we're friends now!" he complained "There aren't any girls that you find cute?"
Cyrus opened his mouth to respond, but the words got stuck in his throat.
TJ didn't know he was gay.
"Um..." he stalled, trying to think up a way he could change the topic. "How about we keep watching that horror movie?"
He very nearly face-palmed at his own obviousness.
TJ smiled mischievously, which only served to make Cyrus even more flustered.
"Are you trying to change the subject?"
"No!" he defended. "It's just that...well...if there were someone, it wouldn't really be a girl per se."
TJ went silent for a moment, and Cyrus was worried that he had misread the situation somehow. What if the he wasn't actually okay with it? What if-
"Okay. Any cute boys then?"
TJ raised a playful eyebrow, and Cyrus immediately let out a relieved sigh.
But - were there any cute boys? TJ was definitely cute, but he was also definitely straight. Plus, that could be put down to friendly admiration. Nothing more.
"No," he responded, smiling wide. "I mean - there are lots of cute boys, but I'm not really interested in any."
The athlete seemed suspicious, but he nodded anyway.
After a few moments, it was Cyrus' turn to smirk. "What about you?" he asked.
TJ immediately averted his gaze, turning back to the laptop and opening it. "We're not going there."
"What?" Cyrus spluttered, throwing a pillow at the boy. "That's not fair!"
"Life's not fair." TJ responded, throwing him a smug smile.
~
A few days later when the weather had finally cooled down (and it became socially acceptable to wear hoodies again), TJ and Cyrus were back to drawing with chalk.
They both took a few moments to admire their work once they had finished (although really - Cyrus' ocean was nothing compared to TJ's galaxy.)
"Can we drive to the ice-cream parlour?" he asked suddenly.
TJ stopped packing up his chalk for a moment to give the boy a fond eye-roll. "And by 'we', I'm guessing you mean me?"
"Well yeah," Cyrus replied, reaching over to grab a chalk that had rolled away. "I'd prefer to make it there in one piece."
"Practice makes perfect, Cy."
"Not when it comes to me, it doesn't."
TJ gave him a pointed look, and he let out a defeated sigh. "Next time?" he tried.
"...Fine," the boy agreed, standing up reluctantly and holding out a hand for him to take. "Has anyone ever told you that you're ridiculously hard to say 'no' to?"
Cyrus grinned as he took TJ's hand. "A few people."
TJ snorted at that. "It's definitely your eyes. No one does innocent, pleading looks like you do."
Cyrus's smile widened, and he decided to demonstrate the exact look that TJ was talking about.
"Oh no!" the boy gasped, shielding his eyes dramatically. "You're making me wanna agree to something you haven't even asked yet!"
"Could you pay for my ice-cream?" he asked hopefully.
"Absolutely not."
Cyrus burst into laughter at that, giving TJ a playful shove as they walked towards his car.
"Rude!"
"Hey - I'm the one driving you there in the first place!"
"Whatever."