"That's awesome news, Charlie!" Luke says, taking a sip of his fruit juice.
We haven't seen each other for a long time now, so I hit him up and decided to tell him about it. Luke has always been my biggest supporter ever since I wrote those crappy fanfics on Wattpad. He read them all and always encouraged me to do more. I'm grateful to have him as my friend. While everyone in middle school mocked me for being so open about anime, Luke always had my back and always defended me. He doesn't even watch anime, yet here he is as my friend, accepting me for who I am.
"So, have you thought of how you're going to publish it? Are you going for self-publishing?" Luke asks, his gaze falling on mine.
"Blake and I decided we will publish it on an online platform. That's what a lot of webcomic artists do nowadays." I say, concentrating on beating him at Mario Kart. I ended up losing.
"I'm relieved," Luke says as he strides to my kitchen to check on the pizza in the oven.
"About what?"
"You made more friends than I expected, and uni just started like two weeks ago."
I don't know whether I should take it as a compliment or as an insult, so I say nothing at all. Luke knows I don't socialize and would rather be left alone. But that project forced me to step out of my comfort zone, which now looking back at it, doesn't seem so bad. I did make some new friends and gained a business partner.
"You got any soda?" Luke yells, though his words are slightly muffled with his head stuck inside the fridge.
I drop my controller to the ground and approach him. I'm pretty sure I had some somewhere in there, but then I realized I drank the whole bottle a few days ago. Yeah, I was binging some anime.
"Sorry, Luke. We'll have to settle with water," I say, disappointed. Luke wasn't very amused either but neither of us wanted to go out and buy some.
After I got the pepperoni pizza out of the oven, Luke and I sat around the table devouring the piece in minutes. With my stomach full and my heart happy, I was so ready to hit the hay. Until Luke spoke up again. "Tell me about the guy."
I jerk my head up. "Who?"
"You know," he continues, arms crossed. "Blake, right? The one you'll be working with on the webcomic. He better be a decent guy."
I laugh. "What are you, my mom? Weren't you the one who told me to go find someone to work with?"
"Yeah, I know. But I never thought you would find one. I'm just curious. You told me he agreed the moment you asked him."
"Well," I start, my eyes trailing down along the table. "Blake is really kind. Surprisingly, we have some things in common and stuff we can talk about. He watches anime too. Not as much as me, though. The time he was at my place I lent him some manga. So, I'm hoping he'll like them, but it's also fine if he doesn't. Oh, and his drawings are… Why are you staring at me like that?"
By the time I realized I was babbling away, I found Luke looking at me, his eyes wider than I had ever seen before. His chin rests on top of his palm as he continues to stare at me. His mouth sealed yet I could tell based on the look on his face that something was up.
"What's wrong? You're starting to freak me out." I mutter. Did I say something weird? Even if I did Luke never judged me for saying or doing something out of pocket before. Like that one time I showed him a page of a gory manga he was very much disturbed afterwards, but he never really said anything against it.
So, I'm getting the creeps now seeing as Luke doesn't respond immediately. I keep my eyes peeled, watching as he watches me. Then a second later Luke leans back in his chair and says, "This is new."
I gulp, "What?".
But then my shoulders relax, and I stop holding my breath when I see a smile on his face, his eyes softening.
"Relax. I was just a little surprised to see you talk like that about someone else before. You've never done that."
"What do you mean?"
Luke's head tilts and he crosses his arms. "Dude, you should have seen your face when you were talking about Blake. It was all happy, and it seemed like you could talk about him all day."
"What? Really?" I stammer, feeling a weird heat in my guts.
"Yes, really."
Not knowing what to say I lower my head, watching my fingers wiggling together in my palms. I guess Luke's got a point. All my life if there was something I could talk about all day it would be anime, video games and comics. People never applied to that. It's true that I could've gone on if I hadn't noticed Luke's weird gaze on me. I mean Blake is the first person I met who I could talk about those things with. Not to mention, his art is quite amazing. Though I feel like if I keep talking about Blake, Luke will definitely say something about it again. So, I kept shut and sure enough, it was time for him to leave.
Just as I was about to prepare some lunch a knock erupted. I stride towards the door and open it to see Blake standing there with a backpack over his shoulder. I was surprised at first, but then I quickly remembered that he mentioned he would like to come over today to show me his progress.
"Sorry, did I catch you at a bad time?" He asks.
I shake my head and immediately make space to let him. "No, not all. Please come in."
Once Blake entered and took a seat on the couch, I hastily hurried to the kitchen counter, tidying the mess at lightning speed. No need for him to see that sight. If I knew he would come by this early I would've ordered takeout to save me from the work. But for some reason, I anticipated that he would come much later.
"Sorry, I don't have food right now. Would you like some tea instead?" I ask, already on my way to fill up the kettle.
"Sure, thanks."
I grab two packets of English Breakfast and start preparing two cups. After I'm done, I head towards the couch and set the mugs on the coffee table.
"So, what did you want to show me?" I ask, blowing on my cup.
Blake reaches for his bag and takes an iPad out. Once he switched it on, he handed it to me. My eyes widen as soon as they fall onto the screen. No way. I scroll further, looking at each page carefully. But I can't stop feeling this warm joyous feeling in my tummy. They are the main characters of the webcomic, each page drawn with their full body, side profile and different angles of their face. Holy cow, they're all perfect, drawn exactly how I imagined them in my head. Is Blake some sort of magician or is he naturally this good?
"What do you think? Do you like them?" he asks, and I rip my eyes off the screen to face him.
"Like them? I love them!" I instantly answer, and I see his lips curl up.
"I'm glad to hear that." he smiles, and something tugged at my heart for a second. "I didn't find any time yet to start on the rough sketch for the first episode, but once I do, I'll send it to you.
"Yeah, no worries. Just take your time. I know you're busy." I say and lean back, and for a moment I take in the way how good he looks. I don't think this guy has ever experienced a bad hair day. How does his hair stay parted so perfectly every single time? Judging by the way he's wearing another polo and slacks today only makes me believe that Blake is loaded. Hell, all I own are hoodies and anime shirts. Not that I care that much about my appearance, but Blake seems like he does. He's wearing a different kind of perfume today as well. I'm not sure what made me notice but he smells differently. Citrus… Cherry? I don't know, but what I know is he smells good. Blake knows how to take care of himself. Blake's handsome. I bet girls are always all over him, fawning and whatnot. Charlotte being one of them. She mentioned that Blake likes to go clubbing at night with his friends, but right now he's with me. At my place. With me. I can't help but wonder if he wants to do this with me, though. He's a pretty active student, always out and about. I don't get where he gets that much time from.
"Blake,"
He hums and lifts his face from his iPad. My heart rate picks up as he meets my eyes. I straightened my back, wetting my lips. "You want to do this Web Comic with me just as much as I do, right? I don't want to force you or pressure you into anything you don't want."
Blake just stared at me for a moment, his eyes widening slightly. For a second, I wished I had never opened my mouth, but my heartbeat eased when I saw his smile. That soft smile.
"Charlie, of course I do."
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. I'm so relieved to see his genuine expression. What was I thinking, anyway? If he didn't want to do it then he would have just said so. So, why am I so paranoid?
"I wouldn't have spent hours perfecting these character profiles for you now, would I?" Blake chuckles, stuffing his iPad back in his bag.
I nodded, feeling heat rush to my face from embarrassment. He's right. No person would put so much effort into something they don't want to indulge in.
"So, um…" I mumble, trying to change the subject. "If you're not busy, do you want to play a video game? I got a new game recently, and I heard it's better played in multiplayer mode. I was going to ask my friend, but he's busy most of the time. But only if you're down, of course."
Gosh, I'm rambling too much, aren't I? Never in my 19 years of existence have I ever asked another person besides Luke to play video games with me. Heck, I don't even talk this much with anyone else. But for some reason, I don't want Blake to leave yet. I know he was only here to show me his character profiles, but that doesn't mean he can't stay and hang out, right? I don't know and I'm sweating.
Wiping my clammy hands on my pants, I look up at him and wait for an answer, only to find his smile still intact.
"Yeah, we can play. But I suck at video games." Blake chuckles and removes his cardigan, making himself comfortable.
"Alright, cool." Swallowing back this weird feeling in my chest, I get up and spin around. I head towards my little cabinet with all my gaming gear inside and grab two controllers and the latest game I got like a month ago.
Okay. Blake wasn't lying when he said he sucked at video games. I thought he was just kidding but he was not. How is it that Blake is struggling at the tutorial round? Normally, I'd be annoyed. I played plenty of online games with shitty teammates from across the globe. But oddly enough I'm not irritated at Blake's shitty performance at all. If anything, I'm enjoying myself.
"I don't get this. Why am I always dying?" Blake groans, spamming buttons on his controller like some maniac. It's a hilarious sight, and I can't help but laugh.
"It's because you're pressing the wrong buttons. Here," I get up from the floor and scootch over to him on the couch, almost pressing my shoulder against his. I continue to show him how a controller works but I have a feeling he's not listening for some reason. It's not until I notice that I literally have a solid grip on his hand.
"You got it now?" I ask, swiping my hand away and trying to sound all cool and calm.
"Yup," his eyes linger on me for another second before he turns to the screen. "Got it, thanks."
No, he didn't get it. But I don't care. It's obvious that Blake has never really played video games or is just naturally bad. So, I'm wondering why he's playing with me. Not that I'm complaining, though.
We both lose track of time and Blake's phone eventually lights up. He sets the controller down and checks his phone. Not a minute later, he gets up and grabs his cardigan with him. "Hey, I need to go."
I nod and get up as well. It is late, and I'm surprised both of us were so glued to the game that we hadn't noticed the sun had set ages ago. Time flies fast when I hang out with Blake. And we didn't even clear one level, but that doesn't matter.
"Part-time?" I ask as I shut my game off, watching him stalk towards the door.
He sighs and runs a hand through his perfectly combed hair, "No. My friends want to check out this bar that just opened. I forgot we had planned for tonight."
He sounds almost guilty for leaving, and I don't want to assume but it doesn't seem like he's looking forward to it either. But that can't be true since I know he likes to go out.
I approach him and wave a dismissive hand around him. "That's cool. Have fun. We can play some other time again, right?"
After adjusting his cardigan, Blake turns to look at me and his little scowl turns into a tiny smile, nodding. "Yeah. Next time again, for sure."