One

                                    

                                          
Well, fuck.
                          
Darren broke up with me. I mean, I'm not really that upset about it, because he was a wanker, but still. That means I'm single. Again.
                          
"What's your problem, mate?" Phil asks me, sitting on the swing next to me. I just sigh, a bit embarrassed about my situation. 
                          
"Darren broke up with me," I admit reluctantly. 
                          
"Good. He was a wanker anyway," Phil says, surprising me a bit. Sure, he was a knobhead, but I wouldn't think that it would be Phil to say something about it. Usually he's really supportive about the blokes I fancy. 
                          
"Eh?"
                          
Phil clears his throat. "Well, I mean it's no secret the way he treated you, Chris. He's made it blatantly obvious that he was just using you for attention."
                          
"I know, but I'll be the laughing stock at school now."
                          
He scoffs. "You're more concerned about being laughed at by our classmates than being in a one-sided relationship? We're graduating this year, you know."
                          
I smile a bit at Phil's logic. He caught my bluff, as usual. "Yes, well, I suppose you're right. That's idiotic."
                          
"Very."
                          
Phil, I've noticed, has been on edge ever since I got together with Darren. It seemed to have been a mixture between disappointment, anger, and jealousy, though I can't pinpoint exactly why. After all, Phil is straight. He dated a few blokes in middle school, but he admitted later that it was because he wanted to be like me. 
                          
Maybe it is jealousy and I'm just naïve. Of course, I don't know what any bloke would see in me- even Phil. 
                          
Suddenly, he sighs, startling me out of my thoughts. "Chris, can I ask you something?" He asks, and immediately, I grow tense. Of course, I don't expect it to be something too personal; after all, it is Phil. I tell everything, so everything personal about me, he already knows. Still, I worry.
                          
"Anything, mate." Well, maybe not anything.
                          
He sighs again, before taking a deep breath. "Would you ever consider going with me?"
                          
Bam.
                          
Like a car halting to a stop, Phil has brought silence to my thoughts. Me? Going with my best mate? Could itbe that he fancies me?
                          
I take a deep breath and ponder my word choice carefully. "I... yes, I would consider it."
                          
"Oh."
                          
An awkward silence falls between us, and I wonder for just how long he's been meaning to ask that question. "Do you... fancy me, Phil?" I ask quietly.
                          
He bites his lip when he's nervous. I first noticed it back in Year 7, when he bit his lips so hard before a cricket match that it started bleeding, and he was taken out of the game. I started watching his lips when we were in tense situations, such as when we had that really bad storm at school back in Year 8. If he wasn't biting his lip, it meant that he knew what he was doing and that there was nothing to fear. Otherwise, I had a reason to worry myself, since Phil has always been the level-headed one of the two of us. When he talked to girls he really liked, he bit his lip. When he was indifferent to them, he was the most charming bloke at school. It gave me a good idea on who he fancied.
                          
It was only now that I realized how often he bit his lip around me. Sometimes, we'd just be having a casual conversation and he'd bite his lip. I didn't understand what it meant until now. 
                          
He bites his lip, and it clicks.
                          
"Do you..."
                          
I can't finish the sentence before Phil's lips are on mine. He pulls me close to him, and though I've kissed many blokes before him, his kiss is different. It's not just infatuation or lust driving his desire for me. I can feel the fear in his body posture, the longing in the way he touches me, and true love in the way his lips move against mine.