He Kissed Me Crazy

The Request

Kendell got home late that night, working the mall until it closed at midnight.

He was exhausted and irritated. The later into the evening it got, the more rowdy the teenagers would become—and even some adults who should know better became a big pain in the ass.

He just wanted to get out of his uniform and hit the sack, not necessarily in that order.

But his plans changed immediately when he entered the kitchen to drop his water bottle off, and found Tucker sitting with his head down on the table, arms stretched out over his head.

For a moment, Kendell was alarmed, but just as quickly he picked up on the empty bottles of beer sharing the table with Tucker's head.

"What is he doing now?" he murmured aloud as he put his water bottle down and leaned in to look at Tucker's face around his arm.

Tucker's eyes were closed, and his mouth was slightly open, his breaths forming condensation on the table each time he breathed out.

Unsurprisingly, the smell of alcohol was quite strong.

Kendell snorted. "You drunk.” He looked at the bottles again with a shake of his head. "What are you doing, getting drunk alone?"

Kendell paused, considering. It couldn't possibly be because of what Kendell had told him at the café... could it?

Kendell snorted again, scoffing at his own thought. Like that could happen.

Tucker hadn't been interested in any of the girls Kendell had dated. Why would he care about one he hadn't known about?

Kendell smiled wistfully, poking Tucker in the cheek with his index finger.

Not that there was such a girl...

Tucker frowned in his sleep, moving his face away from Kendell's offending digit.

Kendell grinned wider at Tucker's expression, poking him again.

"Fffrk offff," Tucker mumbled, slurring his words so much they were barely intelligible.

Kendell bent down to Tucker's ear and said softly, "Wake up, lover boy..."

Much to Kendell's interest, visible shivers moved through Tucker's shoulders and Tucker's hands curled into fists as he stretched his back.

Tucker's eyes flickered open blearily for a moment, his gaze unfocused, before closing once again.

Kendell rested his hand on Tucker's back and began shaking him lightly, still speaking lightly into his ear. "Come on, Tuck, you can't sleep here..."

This time he felt Tucker's shivers under his hand, and Kendell's fingers splayed out over Tucker's back, smoothing over the toned muscles there, before he realized what he was doing and took his hand away.

Tucker finally opened his eyes and stared at a beer bottle sitting in front of his face, and his confused expression, as he clearly had no idea what he was looking at, made Kendell laugh out loud.

Which brought Tucker's attention to him.

"Kennd-dell!" Tucker exclaimed far too loudly as he lifted his head off the table in a flash. Then paused abruptly as his eyes nearly crossed, the movement apparently too fast for his drunken brain.

"Hello, Tucker, what have you been up to?” Kendell said sarcastically, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning his hip against the table. He tried to keep his face straight when he saw that the hair on one side of Tucker’s head was sticking up to the ceiling. It was seriously unfair how Tucker could look adorable no matter what state he was in.

But when had the world ever been fair?

"I wass waiting f'you," Tucker said, a slight slur in his voice as he gestured to the table of bottles. "T'join me."

"Join you?" Kendell responded, amused. "Join you with what?"

"Join me for..." Tucker looked down and frowned as he moved one jerky hand through the bottles, picking them up and peering at them, clearly looking for one that still had beer in it.

Then his eyes widened in apparent realization, and he looked back at Kendell. "The beer is in the fridge!"

Kendell remained silent, bemused, as Tucker rose and managed to get himself as far as the fridge and back, two beers now in hand.

Just as Tucker was about to open up one of the bottles though—or try to, because he’d missed the bottle cap twice—Kendell smirked and snatched the bottles out of Tucker’s reach, causing the drunk to protest with a ridiculously baffled expression on his face, before Kendell set them on the counter and stood again with arms crossed in front of his chest.

"You have definitely had enough to drink, my dear drunk,” Kendell said with a firm shake of his head. “You can't even walk properly. What were you doing, anyway, drinking by yourself? Couldn’t you get any of your girls over?"

"Wellll, I was jus' going to drink a couple, to get started, but then you didn't come home so..."

Kendell let his eyebrows raise. "I had a late shift today and, besides, why would you think I'd join you in drinking? You know I don't like to."

For very good reasons, don't you think? His heart panged and he quickly smothered the thought.

Tucker squinted at him then and rose to his feet. "Yeaaahhh.... Why's that? You dinn't have a hangover that mornin' after th’party!" Tucker accused, the speed of his words making them even more slurred as he moved to loom into Kendell's face. "So, what's really the reason y'don't want to drink with me?"

Kendell blinked, then schooled his face into a pleasant smile.

If Tucker hadn’t figured it out, then Kendell wasn’t going to tell him. "Ah yes, I didn't. That was lucky, wasn't it?" Tucker's face looked comically uncertain as he seemed to consider that.

In one way, Kendell felt bad for deceiving Tucker yet again. But it was a secret he’d planned to carry to his grave.

It was Tucker who had gone and shattered all his good intentions.

And Tucker wasn’t being very honest with Kendell right now either, was he?

At the reminder, Kendell decided to make use of Tucker’s drunkenness.

There were a few things that he really needed to know.

He slipped around the table and sat in the vacant chair across from Tucker`s, carefully putting some distance between himself and the drunk staring after him. He patted the table where Tucker had sat with his hand. “Come on, big boy, sit down and let’s talk.”

Tucker smiled and immediately slumped back down in his seat, his dark eyes lighting up with interest.

Puppy-dog eyes. That’s what Kendell liked to call them when Tucker was in hearing. Kendell knew his friend didn’t much like the comparison, feeling himself too macho for such a label, which made Kendell use it all the more often.

Kendell smiled now, idly wondering what Tucker might think of Kendell’s other nickname for his eyes. A nickname that Kendell had made with ruthful distaste when they were in high school, back when Tucker would move from girl to willing girl, but now… things were… changing. His eyes carefully watching Tucker’s expression, Kendell said with a smile, “Have I ever told you that you have “F*ck Me” eyes?”

Tucker’s brows shot up and then Tucker grinned, the usual suckerpunch to Kendell`s heart, making his smile trip as he stared. “Maybe not in thosse termss,” Tucker said, his voice still mildly slurring through his humour, “But girls have definitely—”

Kendell stopped listening, looking away in disappointment.

He had wanted to see Tucker’s cheeks redden in embarrassment and it had backfired.

The damn player.

Interrupting whatever story Tucker had begun about a girl in his past, Kendell tried again, “Stephanie had the most perfect “F*ck me” lips.”

Tucker froze, his mouth still open mid-word, then dropped his eyes to Kendell’s lips.

There we go, Kendell thought as he smothered his pleased smile, making a pretense of picking up one of the empty bottles of beer and studying it, concealing the waves of awareness moving through him at Tucker’s gaze.

Look at me.

His heart sped up in his chest.

It was far too early to think Tucker might feel anything toward him, Kendell knew. But the fact that Tucker was now—if mostly subconsciously—seeing Kendell as a potential target of his desire..?

It was excruciating.

But Kendell didn’t plan to go through it alone.

He breathed in slowly and let it out, trying to get his thoughts back in order.

As if he didn’t notice Tucker’s stare, Kendell continued with a sad tone affected in his voice. “But Stephanie told me today that she doesn’t want to talk to me anymore. Said it was all a ‘drunken mistake’ and ended it just like that. Without even giving me a chance. In a text message.”

He couldn’t resist looking up then to see how Tucker was taking his words.

Tucker’s gaze had dropped to his hands resting on the table, and pink was now staining his cheeks.

There it is, Kendell thought, biting the inside of his lip, his hand clenching on the bottle before he forced himself to calm down again.

He knew very well that he was crazy, taking so much pleasure in seeing Tucker embarrassed, but if Tucker hadn’t all but invited himself to roommate with Kendell after they'd graduated, something Kendell would never have agreed to if Tucker hadn’t already gotten the address off Kendell’s mother and used those aforementioned puppy-dog eyes, then they wouldn’t be in this predicament now.

So, let’s ride this crazy train… right off its tracks.

“I’m sure she…” Tucker’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. “I’m sure she had her reasons for, uh… doing that,” Tucker finished, his voice subdued.

Kendell smiled, taking the opening Tucker had thoughtlessly given him. “Hey, aren’t you supposed to be on my side? You know, tell me how there are many more fish in the sea and all that jazz?” It was one of Tucker's favorite things to say to the guys down on their luck, and it drove Kendell up the wall.

Tucker looked up suddenly and Kendell could see in his eyes a strange mix of emotions Kendell couldn’t figure out.

He changed tactics, wanting more. He leaned forward and stared Tucker down. “Did you take Stephanie from me? Tell her something that would turn her off? You did, didn’t you? Even after you said you weren’t int—”

“What??” Tucker nearly shouted, then quickly lowered his voice, his cheeks staining even redder. Damn, you look too good. “No, f*ck no, of course not! That’s imposs—!” Tucker cut off before he gave himself away and his eyes skidded away. “No, I did not. You know I wouldn’t do that to you.”

Kendell quickly breathed out and schooled his face again as Tucker looked up at him earnestly. Those words had been one of Tucker’s surprise curve balls, smacking him in his broken heart before he knew it was coming. He smiled grimly as his mind raced to his next question.

“Then… do you think you could help me get her back?”

He wasn’t at all ready to give up on ‘Stephanie’ yet.

She was his way to say what he wanted to Tucker. What he felt.

“But…”

Kendell’s mouth quirked at how clearly Tucker was at a loss for words.

“But what? Be a good pal and tell her good things about me, is all I’m saying. Convince her she’s losing out on the best thing in her life. Won’t you?”

Don't take away my one chance at getting closer to you.

Kendell had mistakenly given Tucker an out that morning, because he hadn’t expected Tucker to take it. Tucker had been the one to create Stephanie, after all, so who could have guessed he would have given up the pretense so quickly? As soon as Tucker had jumped on the chance to break things off, Kendell’s heart had plummeted, and he’d quickly tried to figure out a way to turn it around.

He needed answers, but he realized he still couldn’t ask Tucker directly, not even while he was drunk, because the questions were just too damn important to him.

Do you like me or not? Why would you say so if you didn’t? Why did you kiss me? Was it all just a joke to you? Some stupid form of curiosity?

Kendell’s hand clenched into a fist by his side, resisting the usual urge to try that kiss again and find out if he’d remembered it for what it truly was.

That kiss, and the way Tucker had acted every day after…? No, not everything had been a joke.

Kendell knew Tucker well enough to know that.

But he still didn’t know why.

He was worried that he needed Stephanie to find out.

“Couldn’t you… just find some other girl?”

Damn, there it is.

Kendell’s lips thinned before he could control his expression, so he used his slip to say, “I’m not like you, Mr. Flutterbye, remember? Only Stephanie will do.”

He pulled out his phone and swiped it to unlock it.

He heard Tucker surge to his feet in alarm, clearing recognizing Kendell’s intentions, but pretended to ignore him as Kendell pulled up the conversation with ‘Stephanie’ and started typing.

“Wait, what’re you doing? Texting her now?” Tucker asked, and Kendell saw out of the corner of his eye Tucker’s fingers touch the pocket that must be holding his phone. You would make a terrible spy. “B-But it’s so late at night!”

Kendell paused his thumb, as if considering Tucker’s words. Then couldn’t resist continuing his text. “Then she’ll get it in the morning if she’s asleep right now. No big deal. I can’t wait any longer.”

“Washroom,” Tucker said and spun on his heel, nearly toppling himself over in his hurry to get out of the room.

Kendell dropped his hand and watched Tucker go, unable to stop the smile spreading over his lips.

That was one question answered, he thought with relief.

Tucker hadn’t deleted Stephanie yet.

He let Tucker take enough time to scurry to his room before Kendell hit the Send button on his phone.

[Stephanie, I know it might be asking a lot, but I want to kiss you again. For a moment we had something, I felt it, I know you felt it, and I want you to give that feeling another chance. If you’re willing, meet me on the roof of my apartment building tomorrow at 7pm. There’s no light up there so no one will see us, even each other, so you don't have to feel shy.]