4. Absolutely Clueless

Noah

There was a small cafe area at the back of the arena that sold some basic junk food, and drinks. I made my way over there on my bandy legs, hoping that no one was watching.

It was fairly empty, and I sat down on a table by myself with my blue raspberry flavoured slushie.

I should have invited Dean and Zac to come with us. For some stupid reason I got it into my head that because Robin had invited us, it wasn't up to me who could and couldn't come. Stupid really considering it was a public place.

Someone plopped down on the seat next to me and I looked across to see Robin grinning at me. He immediately shoved another straw into my slush and took a big sip.

This was perfectly normal behaviour for Robin. He was always stealing my food and drinks. I was relieved to see that he'd got his own straw this time. He didn't usually care and would just share mine.

"Hey," I said in a tone somewhere between a 'hey how are you doing' and a 'hey get off my slushie'.

I immediately looked down, embarrassed that I couldn't even speak a word without being ambiguous.

"I saw Max with Mia," Robin said, tilting his head a little to try to see my face. "It's a bit shit of him to dump you like that for a girl."

"I know, right?!" I said, finally looking up and smiling at him.

"I don't mind helping you for a bit, you know, if that's ok with you?"

I stared at him for a moment, my mouth hanging open a little. Partly because the idea of Robin helping me on the ice brought me out in a cold sweat, but also partly because I wasn't used to seeing this side of Robin. He was usually so confident and brash and would have just told me he was helping me and not given me any choice in the matter.

On realising the silence was getting uncomfortable, I quickly nodded my head.

"Yeah, sure, that would be great."

Robin smiled at me and I smiled back, hoping I looked the epitome of calm.

Inside I was freaking out. Like a volcano of nerves about to erupt.

I looked down at what was left of my slushie and realised I couldn't stomach anymore.

"You want this?" I asked pushing it over to Robin.

"Yeah!" Robin exclaimed like it was a stupid question and promptly slurped up the rest in a matter of seconds.

"Come on then!" he said, getting up to put the cup in the bin.

I took a deep breath before getting to my feet, then deliberately let Robin go ahead so I could bandy leg my way behind him.

By the time we got to the entrance of the rink, I felt like I was going into a full on meltdown.

What was wrong with me?? Why did I suddenly feel this way around Robin??

I was starting to come to one really awful terrifying conclusion.....

I must be homophobic.

When we reached the entrance to the ice, Robin stepped on then stopped and held out his hand for me.

I paused for a brief second, wondering what to do.

There was a chance I could now get onto the ice without help. But it was only a slim chance. Plus if I refused to touch him, would that confirm I was homophobic?

I settled for the middle ground and ignored his hand but grabbed hold of his arm.

"This is how I do it with Max," I explained, hoping that was enough to pacify him.

"Ok," he said smiling, and I breathed a sigh or relief as I got onto the ice and managed to scoot over to the side.

"So what do you need me to do?" he asked, and I was relieved to see that his face was both curious and friendly.

"If you hold your arm like this," I said, demonstrating, "then I can just grab it with this hand."

"Ok, I think I can manage that," he said with a grin.

I grabbed hold of his arm and let go of the side.

We shuffled along at the pace of a snail, and I felt my embarrassment at the situation multiply with every stumble.

"God, you really are shit at this!" Robin said, and I let out a snort of laughter.

Robin grinned back and bumped my shoulder lightly.

The sudden body contact was enough to make me lose focus for a second and I caught the tip of the blade in the ice, making me trip forward, straight into Robin's legs. I fell face first onto the ice, while Robin stumbled, but managed to stay on his feet.

"Ah shit! I'm sorry, are you ok?" Robin asked as he crouched down to where I was sprawled on the ice.

I groaned in response, my knee cap having taken a rather painful hit.

Robin pulled at my coat to encourage me up, then held out his hand when I started to climb onto my feet.

I grabbed his hand and tried to pull myself up, but with a wobbly leg, I lost my balance again. This time my legs shot forwards, completely swiping the feet from under Robin.

Robin came clattering forward and landed with his face planted in my crotch.

My reflexes jolted me forward in response to a bump in the nads and Robin shot back onto his knees like he'd been burned.

As soon as I registered that there was no real pain, and on seeing Robin's mortified face, I couldn't help it. The laughter erupted from my body and within seconds my eyes were watering and I was clutching my aching stomach muscles.

"I leave you alone for like 2 seconds," came Max's voice from above me.

I looked up to see an amused Max staring down at me, and Robin soon joined him having clambered back onto his feet.

"Hey, are you ok?" came another voice and I mentally groaned when I saw Luke looking down at me as well.

"I'm fine," I said sitting up.

Luke offered me his hand, but Robin quickly butted in.

"It's ok, I've got this," he said, putting his hand out in front of Luke's.

"No man, it's ok," said Luke, putting a hand on Robin's shoulder. "We perfected this last Saturday. Let me show you how to get him on his feet."

"No, you don't need to show me, just tell me," said Robin, shrugging Luke's hand off his shoulder.

My eyes quickly scanned across to Max, to see that he was looking as wide eyed as me.

"Hey, I really don't care who helps me up, just as long as they do it quick. My ass is getting cold down here!"

Both Luke and Robin took a step back, seemingly embarrassed at whatever show of dominance they'd just been having, and so Max quickly stepped forward offering his hand, and pulled me back onto my feet.

Luke muttered something and disappeared, probably off to help some other poor soul who'd fallen.

Robin stepped forwards.

"So, erm, if you're here now Max, I'll leave you to it and go find Charlie."

He looked kind of awkward as he spoke, and for some reason I felt a little guilty about it.

"Erm, if it's ok with you Robin, can you help with Noah again a bit later, because I promised Mia I'd go get a drink with her."

"I can stay now if you want?" Robin said, rather eagerly.

"Sure, if you're ok with that."

"Oh my god guys, I'm right here!" I huffed. "If I'm that much of a burden, I'll just go sit on the benches."

"No, honestly, I want to skate with you," Robin said, grabbing hold of my arm, almost like he was stopping me from skating off. As if!

"Great, I'll see you later then!" said Max, skating off quickly before I could protest.

I grinned at Robin apologetically.

"Honestly, don't feel like you have to babysit me. I can manage by myself."

"Will you just shut up. Honestly, I don't mind," Robin replied, before holding his arm out for me to grab.

"Fine," I replied, "but don't blame me if I take you down again."

"You won't. You caught me by surprise that's all," he said with a smile.

And I couldn't help but smile back.

We set back off around the rink and with Robin giving me some pointers, believe it or not, I started to see an improvement. I was definitely falling less, that was for sure.

"Do you fancy going a little faster?" Robin asked after a particularly successful lap.

"Ok," I answered a little hesitantly.

"You'll need to hold my hand," he said, and my face snapped round to look at his.

He was giving me what I could only describe as a mischievous smile.

"What? Why?" I asked, the thought making me start to blush.

"It'll just be easier," he replied, and held out his hand.

I stared at his hand for a second then glanced around me.

Robin sighed. "Just because you hold my hand, doesn't mean you're gay!"

"I know, I just..." I trailed off as I realised I had no defence. Was I bothered what others would think? Or was I just bothered about how it would make me feel.

I licked my lips nervously, then grabbed hold of his hand before I lost my nerve.

He immediately set off, picking up the pace.

There was no way I could try skating at this pace, so I just kept my feet still and allowed myself to be pulled along.

As we hurtled down the rink, I couldn't help the big smile that was plastered across my face. It felt amazing.

Robin turned to look at me, and took my smile to mean he could go faster as I felt him pull me even harder along the ice.

"Robin!!!" I squealed. "Robin!! Slow down!!"

Robin just laughed, and I couldn't help but laugh with him, even if my legs were starting to feel like jelly, and I knew the inevitable was about to happen.

"Robin!! Stop!!" I shouted.

"What? I can't hear you!!" he sang back, and if I could, I would have smacked him over the head.

"Robin, I'm gonna..."

I was cut off mid flow as a young girl suddenly came to an abrupt standstill on the ice directly in front of us.

Robin gave me a little shove to the right, then he let go of my hand and broke away to the left so the girl passed between us.

All of a sudden I found myself, on my own, hurtling towards a group of teenagers at an alarming speed, and there was nothing I could do about it.

The teenagers scattered on seeing me approach, but one left it too late and I ploughed into him.

I expected to be hurled straight onto my back on the ice, but then suddenly there was a pair of arms round my waist and I was dragged backwards to fall onto a much softer surface.

I heard a groan come from behind me and I turned to see Robin sprawled out underneath me.

"Oh, shit, are you ok?" I asked, rolling off him and onto the ice.

I could see that Robin was holding his leg and jiggling in an attempt to control the pain.

"I'll be fine in a minute," he said through gritted teeth.

I crawled to the edge of the rink and managed to pull myself up. By the time I was on my feet and had turned back around, I saw that Luke was already checking out Robin's injury.

Max also joined them, and I felt awful that I couldn't even go over there to ask if he was alright. If I tried I would probably just make the situation worse by falling and landing on his other good leg.

Luke and Max pulled Robin to his feet, and started heading to the entrance. Robin had an arm over each of their shoulders as they pulled him along on one skate.

I quickly pushed passed people, shuffling towards the entrance they had just gone through.

Once I was off the ice, I spotted Robin sat on a nearby bench with Luke and Max stood talking to him.

I quickly waddled over.

"Hey, are you ok?" I asked.

"See, I told you he'd be ok!" Max said to Robin while patting my shoulder.

Robin shook his head at Max.

"Sorry for leaving you on your own out there," Robin said, and I felt my eyebrows raise slightly at his concern for me, when he was still clearly in pain.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," I said, "how's your leg?"

"It's ok," Luke said, smiling over at me. "Nothing a quick rest won't solve."

"Yeah," Max said, patting my shoulder again, "you have to babysit Robin now! Look how the tables have turned!"

Then before I could utter a response, Max and Luke quickly headed back out onto the ice.

"I'm sorry," came a voice next to me, and I snapped my face back to look at Robin. "You don't need to sit with me, I'm fine by myself."

"Don't be daft," I said, sitting next to him and putting a hand on his leg. "It's the least I can do seen as it's my fault you're hurt."

I watched as Robin's eyes moved down to my hand on his leg, and I quickly snapped it back, as a blush spread across my cheeks.

Robin coughed slightly and I felt the tension between us build up, like a thick pungent fog.

I let out a sigh, feeling my shoulders sag.

"I'm sorry," I said. "This being gay thing is just going to take some getting used to. But I will, I promise. You just have to give me time."

Robin was silent for a moment and I was worried I'd gone and said the wrong thing again. But then he started laughing. Like a proper full on Robin laugh.

"What?" I asked, smiling in amusement.

"It's just you," he said, barely stifling his laughter to talk, "you know, out of all my friends, I was most worried about your reaction."

"What? Why?" I asked, not sure whether to be appalled or amused.

"Because you're just so bad at awkward social interactions!! Do you remember that time when Rory was really upset because his parents were getting divorced, and you said, 'never mind, doesn't that just mean you get two of everything, one for each house you stay at?', and then there was that time when Jemma was crying on your shoulder because she'd failed her maths test, and you patted her on the back and said, 'it's only a test, it's not worth getting all puffy-eyed and snotty over.' You're hilariously bad at this!"

I screwed up my nose at being reminded about those things.

"Oh god, I sound like a right bitch," I said with a groan.

"No, you're not," Robin said, shaking his head. "You just sort of panic and say the wrong thing."

"Hmm, like I did with you," I muttered quietly.

"No.....well yes, I suppose, sort of."

I looked across at Robin and could see a small smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry," I said scratching at the back of my head. "I wish I had a filter sometimes."

"No! It's one of the things I love about you. I mean, it's great that you say what you think. I hate people who are two faced and you never know what they're really thinking."

I blinked rapidly, trying to keep focus on what Robin was saying beyond the 'love' part. It was just a saying right? I shouldn't read more into it than that.

Don't be weird Noah. Just ignore it....

"So how did everyone else take the news?" I asked, trying my best to ignore the previous comment.

Robin shrugged. "Some better than others. Charlie was a little annoyed, but just because he had to find out through some gossip. Some people have been really shocked and others said they guessed anyway. Whether they actually did or not, I don't know."

"Max said he already knew," I added.

Robin shrugged. "That doesn't surprise me. Max is really observant."

"Are you saying I'm not?" I asked, giving an over exaggerated insulted expression.

Robin snorted. "God no, you're absolutely clueless! Someone could be outrageously flirting with you and you wouldn't know!"

"As if!" I said blushing a little.

"Oh yeah, then what about Kerry? She was all over you on the geography field trip, did you know that?"

"What? No!" I replied, positive that I would have never missed that.

"Oh come on," Robin said, still laughing at me, "how many times did she ask to be your partner?"

"Yeah, but I was your partner on the field trip, and I think she just didn't know anyone else to ask."

"She had loads of friends on the trip with her, and you didn't see the dirty looks she kept sending my way!"

'Yeah right," I said, knowing he was winding me up. There was no way Kerry liked me.

Robin just shook his head.

"Hey Robin!" came a voice from next to us.

I looked over to see two girls I'd seen sitting with Robin at lunch before.

"Hey," he replied.

For some reason the two girls seemed to be grinning at Robin like he was Father Christmas or something.

"So, who's your friend," one of them said, nudging Robin and winking at him in a very obvious way.

"Just a friend," he almost growled back, making me realise what the girl was getting at.

I stared down at my hands while I felt my face start to betray me. Part of me wanted to jump up, declare I didn't even know him that well, and run away. And a stranger part of me wanted to protect Robin and tell the girls to piss off and stop jumping to conclusions.

But if I'd learnt anything from our conversation just now, it was that whatever my immediate response was, I was better not saying it.

"That's a shame," said the other girl, "you'd have made a cute couple."

I choked on air. "What?" I said, unable to stop the word from coming out.

"I'm just saying, that the two of you would look really good together," she confirmed, with not a shred of humour.

"As if!" I replied, then immediately cringed as I realised how that sounded. The stupid things was, it wasn't a retort to the idea of me being gay. It was the idea that I was anywhere near in Robin's league.

Of course though, I felt Robin tense beside me and wished once again that I'd just kept my mouth shut.

"Look, can you go and bother someone else," Robin snapped at the girls.

The girls opened their eyes wide at this uncharacteristic response and quickly shuffled away.

As soon as they were far enough away we both turned to each other and simultaneously said, "I'm sorry."

I frowned. "Why are you sorry?"

Robin gestured to the retreating figures of the girls.

"Fangirls. That's the other thing you have to deal with when you come out. They can't wait to pair me up so they have a gay couple to 'ship'" he said, putting air quotes around the word ship.

"Yeah, but you'd think they could find someone better for you than me," I said, trying to dig my way out of my earlier hole.

"Seriously?" he said, raising his eyebrows at me, in what looked like disbelief.

I scanned his face, looking for any trace of insincerity, but surprisingly, found none.

"Come on, you're totally out of my league," I said, laughing a little nervously.

"You're really not," he argued, "....if we were playing the same sport."

"We may be playing the same sport," I replied, "but you're in the professional league, and I'm still in the amateurs."

Robin's eyes widened for a second before he shook his head at me, then laughed before grabbing hold of my head in a gentle head lock and ruffling my hair.

"You really don't have a clue, do you?" he said, laughing.

"What?" I said, scrabbling to get out of his hold and smooth my hair back down.

He just shook his head at me again, then looked back out to the skaters going round on the rink in front of us.

We sat for a moment in silence, and I bobbed along gently to a Pink song that was playing through the sound system.

"Do you know," Robin said, never taking his gaze off the skaters, "that all of my male friends wanted to know whether I had feelings for them? I find it really odd, that they all seemed to think that this was likely, yet I bet Francis or Emma have never had to answer that question to their male friends."

I stared at him for a few seconds, not quite sure what to say.

"But you haven't asked me," he said finally turning to face me.

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, not trusting any of my responses. Robin was looking at me with an expression I couldn't quite read.

"Do you want me to ask you?" I eventually settled on.

Robin smiled.

At least it wasn't the wrong response this time.

"I think it's probably best if you don't," he said, and I could see the sparkle in his eyes as he said it.

I narrowed my eyes at him.

I had a feeling I was being played. I wasn't sure how, but it was something that Max often did, so it was a feeling I was familiar with.

Robin suddenly stood up and tentatively put some weight on his sore leg.

"Hey, it's a lot better now," he said, "are you ready to get back on the ice?"

"Are you sure?" I asked, getting up and looking in his face for signs that he was still in pain.

"Yeah, look," he said, while hopping from one leg to another.

"Ok, then," I said, although inside I was sort of sad that our conversation was over. But then I was always sad when my conversations with Robin were over. There was just something so addictive about being around him.

We made our way back out onto the ice, Robin holding out his arm so I could grab on then scoot over the the side.

Once I was settled, he held out his hand for me, and this time I didn't hesitate.

It was weird, but I kind of liked the feeling of my hand in his. His hand was a slightly bigger than mine, so it gave me that feeling of being safe.

He didn't set off too fast, so I was able to do some skating, rather than just being pulled. In fact, I was starting to feel a lot more sure of myself on the ice. Truthfully, I could probably manage now without holding onto Robin, but part of me wasn't ready to let go just yet.

We mainly skated in silence, the music being quite loud, but after a while he pointed to someone on the ice.

"Do you see that guy over there, the one with the red cap?"

I looked to where he was pointing, and sure enough there was a guy, about our age, skating very skillfully, wearing a red cap.

"Yeah?" I replied, wondering who he was.

"Just watch him, he keeps skating underneath people's joined hands."

I watched him as best as I could for a few minutes, and sure enough, he dodged skillfully through the crowds before ducking down and going underneath the joined hands of two girls.

"Oh god, I hope he doesn't do it to us," I said, "I'll probably end up flat on my back!"

"No you won't," he replied, but I wasn't convinced.

I ignored the guy and concentrated on where I was going, but I noticed that Robin was quite distracted constantly looking around.

Sure enough, not long after, I felt Robin stretch his arm out and the guy sailed through between us.

"Hey!" Robin shouted after him. The tone was that of someone who was annoyed, but I couldn't help but notice he was smiling.

The guy turned back around to look at us, then expertly skated backwards for a few meters, grinning at Robin, before he turned and carried on weaving through the crowds.

"Cocky bastard," I muttered under my breath.

Robin just laughed, and for some reason I didn't like it.

It was only on the next lap that once again I felt Robin move away slightly, and sure enough, the red capped guy was coming between us again.

This time however, Robin let go of my hand, and snatched the cap off the guy's head.

I immediately let myself glide to the side to grab onto something, and then turned and watched as Robin skated off at speed with the cap on his head, and the other guy in hot pursuit.

"Wow, you've improved," said Max, as he glided to a stop next to me. "I would have put money on you falling there."

Max was right. I had managed to get to the side, and if I was honest, I didn't even feel like I was close to falling over. But for some reason I still felt annoyed.

"Doesn't seem like Robin would have cared," I grumbled out in a huff.

"Oh come on, he's done his fair share of dragging your ass around. Let him have his fun."

"Yeah," I replied in agreement, although the tone of it said different.

"Why don't you see if you can manage by yourself," Max said, "I'll be right here if you need me."

"Ok," I agreed, seen as I was thinking the same thing not that long ago.

Surprisingly I did alright. I had to go at a slower pace than I did when I was holding onto Robin, but still, I was managing to get round without falling, and that in itself was nothing short of a miracle.

I did my best to not look for Robin, which wasn't that hard, because if I looked any way other than straight ahead for more than a couple of seconds, I felt like I was going to fall.

But just a couple of laps later, Robin found me.

"Hey, I'm back. Sorry for just abandoning you like that. Are you ready?" he asked, holding out his hand towards me.

I was about to reach out and grab it, when Max suddenly knocked Robin's hand away.

"He doesn't need your help now, go on Noah, show him."

And so I did. I skated off away from Robin, and for a moment, I felt great. I felt like I was doing the equivalent of giving him the finger for skating off and leaving me. But then I quickly realised that no one was following me.

I glided into the side and looked back down the rink to see Max and Robin seemingly deep in conversation. Robin was frowning slightly whereas Max looked faintly amused.

If I could, I would have skated back to join them and find out what they were talking about, but that would mean going against the flow of traffic, and even with my new found confidence, I still didn't feel like that would be a good idea.

A moment later, Max and Robin parted, and Max started skating in my direction while Robin joined a group of his friends in the centre of the rink.

I smiled at Max as he approached, and hoped that he couldn't see the disappointment that it was him coming towards me and not Robin.

"What were you talking about?" I asked as soon as he was close enough.

"Oh nothing, I was just winding him up."

"About what?"

"About you."

"What about me?" I asked, while tentatively skating after Max.

Thankfully he stuck to a slow pace.

"I'm not sure you want to know," he said grinning at me.

I frowned. "Of course I want to know. I've only just about patched up the shit storm from earlier today, so the last thing I want is you making things worse again."

"Exactly!" Max said, the smile never leaving his face.

I hated it when he spoke in riddles. Usually I would just ignore him, but I felt that this was potentially too important to ignore.

"Just tell me what you said," I argued back, with what I hoped was my best stern look.

"Ok, but don't say I didn't warn you!" he said, shaking his head.

I skated along in silence waiting.

"Ok, so I asked Robin when he was going to tell you that he had a thing for you."

"Fuck! You said that!" I gasped, beyond pissed at Max for messing this up again.

"What?" Max said, holding his palms up in an expression of innocence.

"Stop messing around!" I said back angrily. "I want to be his friend. I want him to be able to come and speak to me. I don't want things to get awkward. Today was awful, not knowing where I stood with him, and we just made up, and now you've messed it up again!"

"Hey, hey," Max said, putting his hand on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me down. "I haven't messed anything up. If he doesn't want to mention anything to you, then that's up to him."

"What? What do you mean? You're the one saying he likes me."

"Yeah because he does! It's so obvious."

"No!" I sort of squeaked out.

"Look, I know you're in denial, and that's fine. But it's not good for Robin to be totally hung up on you with no idea whether you could possibly like him back. I just told him he should say something so if you're not interested, he can move one."

"But......I.......He's not.......but I..........."

Max just laughed at my poor attempt to form a sentence.

"Look, don't worry about it. Maybe he'll never say anything and will just find someone else to crush on. Hey, maybe he'll get together with Bradley."

My nose unconsciously scrunched up at the idea.

Max was an idiot for thinking Robin liked me that way. I swear it was his life's purpose just to mess with me.

After a moment of silence I noticed Max watching Mia and found the perfect excuse to change the subject.

"So what's going on with you and Mia then?" I asked.

"Nothing," he said, blushing a little. "I think she's into Charlie."

"Oh, tough luck man," I said tapping his shoulder lightly.

Max was one of those boys that the girls always thought was "too nice." He was average looking with wavy nondescript brown hair and brown eyes. At the right sort of angle, you could say he was cute at best.

I had successfully changed the conversation and Max happily chatted for some time about all things Mia related. Clearly not having a chance with her, didn't dampen his enthusiasm for her that much.

I checked the time and saw that it was just past 10 o'clock.

"Shit look at the time," I said flashing my watch at Max. "We need to get going."

Max was going off to some family event the following day and needed to set off quite early, so his mum had told him he needed to be back home by 10.30pm.

We headed off the ice, and bumped into Charile and Robin stood by the skate hire.

"Are you off too?" Max asked after joining the queue behind them to get our shoes back.

"Yeah, we've got a game in the morning," Charlie replied.

It was so nice to get the boots of death off my feet and put my nice battered comfy trainers back on.

"So, you did alright tonight," Robin said, coming and taking a seat next to me, his shoes already on his feet.

"Yeah, I did better than I thought," I said smiling, "although I probably still look like a 5 year old girl out there."

"Honestly, you don't," he said, while pulling his phone out of his pocket. "Promise you won't be weirded out, but I took a quick video of you."

"What?" I asked, but couldn't help the small chuckle escape my lips.

"I promise, it was only to show you just how good you'd got. Look," he said, as he handed his phone to me.

I touched the small triangle and then watched a 10 second clip of me skating round next to Max.

I really didn't look that bad!

I pressed the play button again, but before I could watch it again, the phone vibrated in my hand and a notification appeared on the screen.

Like a moth to a flame, my eyes were drawn to the message. I saw the name "Bradley" appear in bold then the start of a message, 'Fancy meeting up tomo.....'

Robin snatched the phone out of my hands, and I let out a quiet apology for looking.

"It's fine, it's just uh....." and he trailed off while he read the full text.

He didn't reply, just turned off his phone and stuffed it back into his pocket.

I thought back to the conversation I'd had with my mum earlier. I guessed it was now or never.

"So, um, you and Bradley then?"

Robin looked round at me, and I could tell he was surprised by my question.

"No, no, there's nothing going on with me and Bradley. Well, not really."

"What do you mean, not really?" I asked, tilting my head to one side slightly.

"Well, we may have.....well, he offered so I........but I don't really, you know, like him like that."

I couldn't help the face I pulled. It was probably part confusion and part disgust.

"Oh, right," was all I could manage.

"Two boys kissing is no different to a boy and a girl kissing you know," Robin said with a bit of an edge to his voice.

I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face.

"Oh, kissing, is that all? I thought you meant..."

"Shit no!" Robin said then started laughing. "We only kissed, I swear."

"But why Bradley?" I asked, because I was still not comfortable with that for some reason.

Robin shrugged. "Because he's gay, and he was there. I don't know. I've kissed girls before, and I just wanted to know if it felt any different."

"And did it?" I asked.

"Yeah, I guess it did," said Robin thoughtfully, "but Bradley is a bit feminine so maybe it wasn't the best test!"

I let out a slight snort of laughter and Robin grinned at me.

"Come on Noah, I need to go!" shouted Max from over where he'd been talking to Mia.

"Right, I'm coming," I said, getting to my feet and walking towards Max.

I didn't realise that Robin was following me until Max said, "Do you need a ride?" to someone over my shoulder.

"Sure, that would be great," Robin replied. "Let me just go and say bye to Charlie."

As he jogged off, I turned to see Max grinning widely at me, so I slugged him on his shoulder.

Robin reappeared and we headed out together to Max's car.

The drive home was nothing like the drive home from school earlier in the day. It was full of our usual banter, with Max and Robin making fun of my skating, and me and Robin making fun of Max's crush on Mia, and this time, we even teased Robin a bit about his kiss with Bradley.

I couldn't help but feel disappointed that the evening was over when Max pulled up outside my house.

"Thanks for the ride,' I said, "see you both later," and I was getting out of the car when I heard Robin open his door too.

"It's ok, I'll walk from here," he was saying to Max.

"Are you sure?" Max asked.

"Yeah, it's like two streets over, I think I can manage!" Robin joked.

And while I was still just stood there wondering what was going on, Max drove away, but not before gesturing with his hand that he wanted me to call him.

Well that was weird!

I looked over at Robin with confusion on my face as I waited to see why he'd chosen to get out of the car at my house. He'd never done that before.

"So, er, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to go out somewhere tomorrow? You know, just the two of us," he added, while looking down at the ground.

I felt myself smile.

I'd always secretly hoped that one day Robin would ask me to hang out with him at the weekend. Looks like that day had finally arrived!

"Yeah, sure," I said, trying to curtail my enthusiasm so I didn't freak him out.

"Great!" he said, finally looking up at me with a huge smile on his face.

I smiled right back, his joy just as contagious as always.

"What do you want to do?" he asked. "I was thinking we could go for a coffee at Jez's Cafe, then maybe go to the cinema? Or we could just hang out at the park, or kick a ball around, or shoot some hoops? Or we could go hang out in town? Anything really."

I laughed at his long list of suggestions. "Why don't we just meet at Jez's and decide from there."

"That sounds like a plan!" he said, shoving his hands into his pockets and biting his bottom lip.

I felt a little fizz of excitement in my chest. If I didn't know him better, I would say he looked a little shy right now. But Robin had never been shy in his life.

"What time do you want to meet?" I asked.

"Well I have football in the morning, so shall we say 2?"

"Yep, 2 sounds good to me," I replied.

"Ok then, see you tomorrow I guess," Robin said, but instead of turning to walk away, he just stood there, looking at me with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow," I said, but I didn't move either. I found myself rooted to the spot, slightly bemused by the funny tension that had appeared around us. But it wasn't uncomfortable tension. It was sort of exciting. Like there was a fizz of electricity in the air.

Robin suddenly stepped closer to me and I felt myself take in a sharp breath.

"I had fun tonight," he said, and he was so close I could almost feel his breath on my cheek.

My whole body had tensed up in anticipation. Like my fight or flight response had kicked in. Only I didn't want to fight, and for once in my life I didn't want to run either. If anything, I was holding myself back. Like we were polar opposite magnets that were trying to stick together.

And then he did something I wasn't expecting.

He leaned in quickly and kissed me on my cheek.

And as quick as it happened, he was gone and walking down the street.

"Bye Noah," he called, as he waved without looking back.

"Bye Robin," I said, but I didn't go in.

I stood there until he had reached the end of the street and turned the corner out of sight.

Only then did my body finally allow me to move and I reached up and touched my cheek with my hand.

"What the fuck....?" I murmured to myself.

I turned round and walked into my house.

My mum and dad were sat on the sofa watching something on TV.

"Hey, how did it go?" my mum shouted over when she heard me come in.

"Yeah it was good. I managed to skate on my own by the end."

"Oh, good for you sweetie."

I made my way into the kitchen and grabbed a can of coke before heading up to my room.

I felt my phone buzz in my pocket as I headed upstairs.

Max: What was that about?

I shut the door to my room and flopped on my bed before hitting the call button next to Max's name.

"Hey, what's up?" Max said, picking up after only one ring.

"He kissed me," I replied.

"WHAT??!!!" he yelled down the phone, making me snap it away from my ear.

"Hey, shhhhh! You nearly popped my eardrum!"

"Oh my god, I can't believe you kissed!!"

"Woah, woah, woah!" I said, feeling my heart start to hammer a little at Max's words. "We DID NOT kiss, I said, he kissed me. On the cheek."

"Oh," replied Max sounding less than impressed, "well that was an anti-climax!"

"Maybe, but it's still weird right?" I asked.

It was definitely weird. I could still feel the spot on my cheek where he'd kissed me. I almost felt like if I looked in the mirror I'd be able to see it too.

"Right, you're going to have to walk me through it. Tell me exactly what happened from the moment I dropped you off."

"Ok," I said, thinking back, "he asked me if I wanted to hang out with him this weekend, then he listed a load of things we could do, and we settled on meeting at Jez's and just going on from there. Then he said he had a good time tonight, and then he kissed me on my cheek."

There was silence on the other end.

"Max?"

"Yes, sorry, I was just thinking. You know how you said he asked if you wanted to hang out tomorrow? How exactly did he word that?"

I screwed up my face at Max's question. Why did that matter? Why wasn't he focussing on the kiss?

"Erm, I can't really remember, I think it was something like, 'do you want to do something with me tomorrow, just the two of us?'"

"Yep, he asked you out on a date."

"Fuck off!"

"Honestly, he asked you on a date! That was basically him asking you out. And I'm guessing you said yes?"

"Erm yes?" I squeaked out, suddenly feeling incredibly hot.

There was laughter on the other end of the phone, and so I pulled it away from my ear and glared at it, hoping that he could somehow feel it like a hot needle to his cheek.

Eventually the laughter stopped.

"What you gonna do?" he asked.

I had no idea.

"I don't know. What can I do?"

Max was silent for a moment, leaving me to my own thoughts.

Was he really asking me on a date? I suppose that would explain why he looked a little nervous and shy.

I felt my heart clench as I pictured his face when he was biting his lip.

"I'm going to ask you something," Max finally said, "and I want you to think about it before you answer."

"Oookaay," I said hesitantly.

"Do you want to go on a date with Robin?"

"What?!! You know...

"I TOLD YOU TO THINK ABOUT IT," Max shouted, cutting me off mid flow.

I paused, slightly amused more than anything. Why would Max think I wanted to go on a date with Robin? I mean, sure, I wanted to go out with him tomorrow, but not on a date. Yes, I wanted to spend more time with him, and get to hang around with him more and.....hmmm.

"What makes it a date?" I asked. "Why can't it just be two guys hanging out together? Does it really matter what you call it?"

"For the most part it probably will just be like two friends hanging out. But if it's a date there'll be other stuff too."

"Like what?"

"Like flirting, and maybe hand holding, and of course he's gonna want to kiss you at the end of the night."

I felt my heart rate start to pick up again.

"And you understand I'm not talking about just a peck on the cheek either," Max added.

My mouth opened but nothing came out.

My mind went totally blank, and all I could hear was the blood pounding in my ears.

"Noah?" Max asked.

"Noah?"

"Mmm?" was all I could manage to get out.

Max sighed. "Noah, how do you feel about the idea of kissing Robin?"

"I don't know," I forced out in practically a whisper.

"Then think about it."

I closed my eyes and thought about what happened earlier.

Straight away, the image of Robin biting his bottom lip popped into my mind, and then he was in front of me, his lips moving as he said something. But I couldn't tell what he was saying. All I could do was focus on his lips, and the feel of his breath on my cheek.

And there was that feeling again. That feeling like my nerve endings were all on fire, like they were anticipating something.

I could even smell him. Robin had this amazing smell. Sort of like cut grass and.... well, Robin.

And then Robin was leaning in. Only this time he didn't go for my cheek. He moved closer until I could feel his breath on my lips.

I licked them in anticipation.

And then his lips touched mine.

And my stomach lurched like I'd just dived off a cliff.

And I was falling.

Falling, and falling through the air.

But then Robin was there. And I gripped onto him like my life depended on it.

And he wrapped his body round mine.

And then we were falling together.

And nothing mattered anymore.

Except the feeling of Robin in my arms.

"Fuck!"

I barely registered Max shouting my name as I dropped my phone, ran to the toilet and threw up my blue slushie.