I wake up to numb legs. They are folded underneath me and the pressure of the last hours has made all the feeling in them go away. I groan quietly, trying to stand up, when a small bit of resistance holds me back. Sam's hand is still lightly holding mine and I can't help but smile when thinking about the conversation we had.
As gently as I can I pull my hand away and, after making sure he's still fast sleep, I try to stand up. It is quite wobbly and the whole way to the kitchen I feel the awkward tingles everywhere. Still groaning, I actually get to work with making breakfast.
It's still quite early and a weekend, so I know neither mum nor Zach will actually be down in the next few hours. So I make a mountain of pancakes and shove them in the oven to keep warm. Next I chop some fruit just to keep me busy, hoping that anyone will actually eat them instead of the seemingly ever so popular Nutella.
Just when I'm starting to get bored with reading random recipes in cooking books after chopping everything, Sam comes through the door. Still half hidden behind the door frame, he takes a good look around before actually stepping into the room.
He looks me dead in the eyes with no visible emotion on his face when he says: 'Good morning.'
It is actually the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. When I can't stop the smile that once again takes over my features because of him, he just looks at me curiously, tiling his head in the process.
I laugh at that and just tell him to sit down.
'I hope you like pancakes, cuz I made a lot. Fruit or Nutella?' I ask, while preparing a plate for him. I'm usually not one to serve at home, but Sam's the exception.
'Both' is the short answer I get and again, it just makes me laugh. He's adorable once you get past being offended by his one-word answers.
'There you go. Knock yourself out.' I say when I present the plate to him. If I do say so myself, it actually looks really nice. I make myself an identical plate with fruit piled up high and lots of Nutella on top.
We eat together in silence, but he is much faster than me because he started earlier. Halfway through my pancakes he's already finished his and I stand up to get us some water.
When I come back, two of my remaining pancakes are gone and he is happily chewing away.
'You didn't.' I just say, and playfully aggressive ruffle his hair.
He doesn't react the way I wanted him to, doesn't even make a sound, but instead looks at me with an annoyed look in his eyes and just swats at my hand.
'When did you two become best buddies?'
My head snaps up at his voice and my eyes immediately find his. Raph mouths a silent 'good morning' my way before taking a seat next to Sam.
'So?' he asks him, one eyebrow lifted as he waits for his brother's answer.
They look at each other for a long time, neither of them saying anything, before Raph lets out a frustrated sigh.
'Alright, I get it, you don't want to tell me.'
I chuckle and wink to Sam.
'It's our little secret, that's why.' I can see a hint of a smile on his face as he only nods once before going back to eating my breakfast.
'They're in the oven, go get a plate and have some food.' I tell Raph.
When he walks past me to get to the oven, he lets his hand brush mine as a promise for later. However, it doesn't even take me a second to grab his arm, drag him to me and kiss him right on the lips. It's a short kiss and completely innocent, but the shock on his face almost makes me laugh.
His head turns to Sam, who is just watching us with the usual blank face. The situation actually becomes awkward when he doesn't look away for a good few minutes. Then, he just grabs my plate and leaves the room towards the living room, not saying a word.
I chuckle.
'Calm down, he figured it out.' I said, taking hold of Raph's hand in hopes to calm him down. I can still feel him being riled up.
'How?' he whispers.
'He said, and I quote, that I'm the most important to you and you love me so I must be your mate.'
Raph sits down without saying a word, and I immediately sit next to him, worried now.
'Okay. Okay. This is good.' he mumbles.
'I did want to tell him. I'm so sorry about yesterday, it's just that I didn't know how.'
While he talks, he doesn't look at me at all and I can almost physically feel his shame.
My hands find his face so he looks at me before I speak.
'I'm not mad at all. I understand. He knows now and he seems alright, so let's take it from here, okay?'
I get a short and sweet kiss as a response, before he nods, stands up and actually gets himself some breakfast.
'You'd make a good housewife, you know?'
That earns him a slap on his butt, at which he only laughs.
It's two weeks later that I get ambushed at my own house.
Mary is there to pick me up in the morning for uni. I have been avoiding her and thought successfully so. The problem honestly isn't her, I've actually come to like her quite a bit, it's just that I felt like being close to her will make it harder to hide Raph and I. I didn't and still don't want to run the risk of having her find out.
But when she stands in front of my house at 8.30 in the morning, I feel like all my efforts will probably be in vain.
'Woohoo, would you look at that. It's a pretty girl. You sure know how to pick them, lover boy.'
I only roll my eyes when Zach rudely shoves me away only to grab Mary's hand and dramatically kiss it.
She blinks a couple of times, then simply walks past him and up to me.
'How come you've been avoiding me?'
'I haven't?' I try, knowing full well I do not stand a chance.
'Right, now how about you answer the question?' Her finger is now poking my chest and she looks honestly furious. I feel bad, but there's no way I'll let her know.
I helplessly look at Zach, who is still standing outside, and it's his turn to roll his eyes.
But in true best friend fashion, he walks up, grabs Mary around her hips and just hauls her over his shoulder. He then proceeds to walk to school as if it's the most normal thing to do. I do my best to ignore Mary's constant shouting and raging, but it seems to be much easier to do for Zach, who is smiling without a care in the world.
We arrive at uni just when Sheila's car turns around the corner. Both she and Raph get out, the latter coming straight towards me with a happy 'Good morning'.
I smile at him and echo his greeting. He then starts telling me about some play date he apparently had to go to with Sam and how the boy apparently didn't know how to deal with girls his age at all.
It's only when Sheila clears her throat behind us that I remember that she's here too.
'Hey Sheila!' I try to sound enthusiastic, as I always do, but I don't know how much she actually believes me.
After a second, her bright smile appears on her face and she quickly hugs me to herself.
'Hi.'
'Hello Sheila' Zach once again butts in, with a bright grin and a completely annoyed Mary over his shoulder.
'Hey Zach. Is that how you pick up girls? You seriously need to work on your strategy.' Sheila laughs, while at the same time pulling Mary from Zach's arm to set her down on her own feet.
'Thanks.' Mary only huffs while dusting herself off for a reason I do not understand.
While she does so, Sheila turns back around to me and Raph.
'The two of you get along so well now.' she starts, looking from one of us to the other. I tense up immediately, fearing what seems to be constantly locked into my mind, but she just continues cheerfully, 'I honestly don't want to say it, but really, I told you so.'
She's grinning like a maniac, apparently immensely chuffed by being right and the only thing I can think of is how glad I am that she doesn't know. Then I realise how much of a hypocrite that makes me, with me constantly bugging Raph to tell people about us.
'Yeah, actually, why do you get on so well?' Mary then pipes up from next to me.
I don't know what to say, and Raph seems to be in a similar predicament, but once again it's Zach that saves us.
He heaves Mary back up and just leave with her screaming into his ear, while reminding us that our lectures are going to start any minute.
At that moment, all I want to do is hug Raph to reassure myself, but I can't, because Sheila is still here.
'Oh, Donny, I wanted to ask you something. It's the reason I drove Raphael in the first place, actually. This guy here actually has a concert three weeks from now and I figured since I'm going with Samuel, you might want to come with me. You've not really met him yet so that would be the perfect opportunity, right?'
'Is that so? He's not told me.' I say, looking at the ticket in Sheila's outstretched hands. For some reason, I feel betrayed even though I know he most likely didn't tell me because he didn't deem it important enough.
'So? Are you gonna go?' she asks again. I only nod.
'Great, then I guess I'll see you later.' she hesitates for a few seconds before turning away and heading back to her car. I can only assume that she wanted to either hug or kiss me or Raph, but decided against it. She's not really touch either of us lately, saying it isn't fair to us to do so.
When we walked inside the building, Raph just lightly touches his hand to mine, similar to that morning we had pancakes together.