It was the beginning of YY University's annual festival week. All students were hyped about it, forgetting about the upcoming terror attack called "midterm exams". The festival week was planned to be starting with various kinds of sports races on the first day, leaving the other days less exhausting activities. One of the most hyped sports races of the day was three-legged race, in which Enrique, acknowledged by many people as the hottest jock on the campus, was participating. The race itself wasn't taken seriously. However, no one would be willingly embarrassing themselves either, which Enrique was trying to avoid. He was going to participate in the race with his best friend of 4 years, Andrew. Their friendship was thought to be uncommon and strange by other people. After all, who becomes BFFs with his bully? It was no wonder people who knew their history thought Andrew was weird for that. But Andrew seemed unfazed by it, at least that was what Enrique thought, until the fight they had 3 days prior to the festival.
It all started with Enrique being loose-tongued and telling some homophobic jokes, which obviously upset his openly gay friend. Although usually it would just end up with Enrique being lectured for a few minutes, that day it got out of hand and ended with Andrew lashing out at Enrique. The furious boy unintentionally revealed the negative emotions he kept inside. And the one that gave the crucial blow to Enrique was when Andrew blurted out the reason he became his friend. That he was just scared when Enrique suddenly got too nice at high school, when he used to be an ass in middle school. Enrique used to be regretful about it through high school. But at some point he considered the matter dismissed. Thus he never realized what Andrew was feeling about it. After the fight, Andrew had avoided Enrique with plenty of unconvincing excuses, which resulted to 0 practice of three-legged race for them. And when there were 30 minutes left to the race, Enrique had been looking for Andrew. Considering the campus was overflowing with crowds of people it was a real challenge to find someone. Just when Enrique was losing hope, he saw someone who might know about his whereabouts, his ex girlfriend Angelo.
Although it was going to be extremely awkward Enrique always considered her an observant person, which meant she was very much likely to know where Andrew was. Enrique hesitantly started to walk towards the girl who gave him a sly grin from the seat she was sitting legs crossed. Just as Enrique was about to speak, Angelo interrupted him. "He was going outside of the field. You should check the locker room."
"Did you just...read my mind?" The boy was unsurprisingly surprised.
"Never been hard to do so, honey".
"Don't call me that." He rushed. "Anyways I appreciate your help. See you around." Angelo stood up from her seat as Enrique was about to leave. Her grin was replaced with a weighty expression.
"Before you go let me tell you something."
He responded unwillingly. "Okay..."
"Do you remember what I told you when we broke up?"
"Oh come on I don't want to do this..."
The girl didn't mind the protest. "I told you that you make me feel like you are looking somewhere else, someone else."
"What are you implying?" said Enrique, showing displeasure against her.
"I'm warning you because if you keep on going like this, you will experience this forever" She proceeded to give her best 'you know what I mean' look. "Grab that place, grab that person. You know you want it." Angelo was indeed an observant person. But actually it didn't take an observant to see through Enrique. He was clearly struggling with himself. Deep down he understood, but his stubborn self didn't let him free.
"I don't know what you mean...I'm leaving".
"Sure. Come thank me later" Grin returned to Angelo's face before Enrique made his way to the locker room Andrew was possibly in.
He was nervous, even more confused now because of Angelo. While being drowned in thoughts on his way he reached there quickly. Entering the room his friend was in called on all his courage. In the room, Andrew was alone half naked, his smooth skin was glowing even in the poorly lit room. Not that Enrique was seeing his friend's bareskin for the first time, nevertheless it certainly added another nervous feeling to his heart, this one being rather pleasant. He found out he has been checking out his friend for too long when Andrew turned around and gave him a short stare. After being flustered for a couple seconds, Enrique managed to calm himself down and spoke to his friend, trying to sound energetic.
"Hey I've been looking for you. Where have you been?"
"I haven't been feeling well, sorry."
Enrique felt the cold shoulder but the annoyance would only make him more straightforward. "Tell me, did you mean the things you said the other day? Have you really been feeling like I was forcing you all this time?"
Andrew seemed apathetic about this conversation. He tried to shrug it off, because he very well knew this long time crush of his wasn't working out at all. He always got disappointed over his confused friend. And the first time he showed his frustration wasn't the best. In the end it all appeared to Enrique as friendship issues. "It's not that Enrique. It was just in the beginning. But it doesn't matter anymore. We're good now. Okay?"
"I'm sorry for being inconsiderate. And I'm sorry for giving you a hard time in the past. Will you forgive me? Please?" This wasn't the first time Enrique apologized to his friend in a sincere way. But it was certainly the first time he did it with so much worry.
