He Kissed Me Crazy

The Girl's Number

When Tucker came home that night, he found Kendell asleep on the couch, a random planetary documentary playing on the television shedding the only light in the room.

He sighed with regret when he saw Kendell’s phone lying next to him on the couch, and quietly moved it to the coffee table, wondering if Kendell had been waiting for him to text back all this time.

He had received two missed messages from Kendell when Tucker had turned his phone again, one being right after Tucker’s text:

[You’re just jealous :P]

And then, a couple of hours later:

[When are you getting home? Want to order something in?]

Now that it looked like Kendell had been waiting for him, Tucker felt really guilty.

He grabbed a blanket and laid it carefully over Kendell, silently promising he would make up for it the next day.

Then, in his room, Tucker started making plans. First, he had to make it up to Kendell for ghosting him the whole day. And, second, he had to somehow get Kendell off the missing girl case.

The next morning, he started plan one.

“Hey, uh… you want to see a movie after school, my treat?” he asked as he joined Kendell in the kitchen before school.

He couldn’t help but notice how he had woken up on his own for a second day in a row.

No punches, whispers, water spills, loud noises… nothing. But then again… Why the hell do I care about that?

“Yeah, sure,” Kendell said lightly, glancing over at him with a smile that made a weird sensation in Tucker’s chest. “What did you have in mind?”

Tucker smiled back, ignoring that anomaly, just relieved to see that Kendell wasn’t pissed off with him for ditching last night. “I hadn’t thought that through. Wanna just decide when we get there?”

“Sure,” Kendell said as his smile turned into a grin.

Yes, thought Tucker. This is what I want. Two happy friends with nothing strange in between them, hanging out for fun. If his stupid heart was running a bit fast right now, that was because they hadn’t seen a movie in a while. And he loved movies.

The movie they agreed on was, of course, action. With a big helping of comedy. It was perfect for two guys who were completely uninterested in each other but still liked to hang out together.

And then Kendell sat down in a couple’s seat in the theater, forcing Tucker to sit in it with him or sit like four seats away.

F*cking hell.

He’d forgotten about Kendell’s pranks in the theater. He'd caught him like this a third time in a row. Damn, this guy likes embarrassing me way too much.

Had Tucker seriously missed the pranks this morning? He was getting stupid in his old age.

About a quarter of the way through the movie, Kendell’s knee moved to rest against Tucker’s. Startled, his heart already hammering, Tucker immediately moved his knee away, furtively glancing around at the other people in the theater. But everyone was engrossed in the film. Even Kendell. Had that been a prank or had Kendell not noticed it had been Tucker he'd moved against?

Tucker swallowed. Whatever it was, Tucker was no longer able to concentrate on anything except how damn close Kendell was to him right now. Through the calm scenes and even the someone’s-going-to-die scenes, it felt like Kendell was radiating heat right into Tucker’s side. And Tucker’s knee was still tingling from where Kendell had placed his.

Shit, I should have sat four seats away or forced him to come with me. This was such a bad idea.

His hands curled into his jeans, subtly grabbing the fabric as he tried to calm his nerves, willing Kendell not to touch him again.

“What’s up?”

Tucker jerked and just managed to keep himself from covering his ear, where Kendell had whispered into it. He glared over at Kendell, expecting to see Kendell smirking at him, but Kendell’s eyes were already back on the big screen. “N-Nothing,” he whispered back hoarsely. What the hell?

Not five minutes later, Kendell touched knees again.

He’s doing this on purpose, isn’t he? Tucker thought with a start.

But why would he?

Tucker glanced over at Kendell, but his friend’s eyes were still glued to the screen, apparently oblivious to the goings on of their two touching body parts.

Tucker’s heart started thudding in his ears.

He couldn’t seem to move his leg away this time.

He told himself to move it away, but… it just stayed there, letting the heat radiating from Kendell’s knee diffuse into his skin.

This is nuts. Tucker swallowed, closing his eyes as his hands tightened on his pants again.

What the hell am I doing?

Fuck.

Kissing Kendell must have made him lose his mind.

---

After the movie finished, and Kendell and Tucker rose to leave the theater with everyone else, Tucker had to hide the cramp he was having in his thigh from leaving his leg in the one position the entire time. As they were moving through the mall, they decided to grab a couple cappuccinos on their way back home.

Tucker couldn’t help looking down at Kendell’s leg as his friend walked in front of him to the little café, checking for any cramping in his friend’s body, because … Kendell hadn’t moved his leg either.

Which made Tucker wonder what the hell just happened back there.

Had it been a prank all along? Had Tucker won because he didn’t quit before Kendell did?

But then… why wasn’t Kendell mentioning it, now that it was over?

Tucker didn’t ask any of those questions, letting Kendell steer the conversation around the movie, until they finally entered their apartment and sat at the kitchen table to finish off their drinks.

Tucker swallowed the lump in his throat that he pretended was cappuccino. It was already time for Plan 2. Get Kendell to stop thinking about that girl.

“So…” Tucker began from the comfortable silence that had settled between them. Comfortable for Kendell, at least. Tucker swallowed. He stared at the paper cup he was twirling around on the table as he gathered his nerves. He could feel Kendell's curious eyes on him. “Still… interested in that girl from the party?”

Kendell made a sudden loud choking sound and Tucker’s eyes shot up in surprise to see his friend cough and sputter out cappuccino he must have accidentally inhaled. “Whoa, sorry, you all right?” He quickly passed over some napkins from the party’s leftover pile on the table.

Kendell nodded vigorously, even as he continued coughing. “Y-Yeah, of c-course,” he said roughly as he gestured for Tucker to continue, while wiping up the few specks of liquid from his face and on the table. “What were you s-saying? The girl?”

“I…” Tucker began slowly, then tried not to let his cheeks heat as he looked down at the table again. “I think I got her number.”

He felt Kendell’s stare drilling into him now, but all his friend said was, “Did you?”

“Yeah… So... Want it?” Say no, please. It’d be a hell of a lot easier if Kendell had already lost interest. As it was, Tucker was already having serious doubts about his plan. Even though it seemed pretty fool-proof.

“Well, yes, yes, of course,” Kendell said quickly, and Tucker felt his heart sink. Damn.

“Okay…” Tucker had planned for if Kendell said yes, so he stuck to his plan. “But she wants you to text her in the daytime, because she... works in the evenings.” If Kendell texted ‘her’ during school hours, Tucker could make certain Kendell never knew the source of the ‘girl’s’ texts. This was the only way he could turn Kendell down without facing him directly. And there was no way he could face him directly.

Things had gotten too…strange.

“No problem.” Kendell shrugged, seemingly undisturbed by the request, and Tucker relaxed a little.

Tucker pulled out his phone, opened up his own messages app, and then pushed it over to Kendell, willing his heart to stay quiet.

He watched silently as Kendell looked down and frowned. On the screen, Kendell would see a conversation between Tucker and an apparently unknown person:

Unknown: [Checking 1, 2, 3!]

Tucker: [Got you.]

Unknown: [Okay!]

“That’s her number,” Tucker said, then swallowed very silently, incredibly nervous.

But Kendell pulled out his own phone and seemed to key in the unknown person’s number, then, much to Tucker’s relief, put his phone down on the table without texting the number.

Tucker had his phone on silent, but still, it would have been really awkward if his phone lit up right after Kendell sent a message to ‘the girl’.

But that didn’t mean Kendell wouldn’t do it right after they were done talking. Tucker had better get the hell out of the room, just in case.

“Okay, well, good night, gonna hit the books,” he said quickly, rising from his chair, dropping his empty cappuccino cup in the garbage, and then heading to his room as fast as he could unsuspiciously move.

He was pretty certain Kendell watched him all the way out of sight, but his friend only offered him a quiet, “Good night.”

----

Tucker knew he had lost his mind when he realized he’d been staring at his phone all through class the next day.

Yes, he had downloaded an app to get a new phone number so he could text his best friend while pretending to be a girl.

Yes, it was the girl Kendell thought he had kissed that night, and her mysteriousness was probably plaguing the usually anal Kendell.

But why the hell was Tucker now unable to think about anything else except for WHEN IS KENDELL GOING TO TEXT HER?

Tucker had it all planned and wanted to get it over with, now.

He—as the girl—would tell Kendell that she wasn’t interested anymore and that he should look elsewhere.

Easy as that.

Kendell would give up,and Tucker would delete the app, and they’d go back to being the best of friends—no, continue being the best of friends as the Kiss became ancient history.

Tucker was in the university café at the moment, and he was still staring at his phone as he considered whether he should text Kendell first. He had an hour and a half break between classes today and knew that Kendell would just be getting out of his own class to go right to the next one. It was very unlikely he would take the time to text an unknown girl with so little time to spare, but maybe if she were to text first…

When Tucker’s phone suddenly went off with a loud buzz, he jumped and nearly dropped the phone on the floor. Tucking himself into the table and taking a steadying breath, Tucker unlocked his phone to check his messages, expecting to have a text from a friend or classmate or girl—

His stomach did a giant flip-flop as he blinked in astonishment.

He had one new unread message… to his new number.

Kendell? But…

With some trepidation, Tucker touched the message app icon and watched it open.

Kendell: [Hello? I’m not sure if this is the right number… but did you happen to come across a Julius Caesar last Saturday?]

Tucker grinned despite himself, immediately feeling more relaxed. That sounded just like something Kendell would say.

He thought for a moment then texted back:

[LOL, yes. Would that be you?]

Tucker was pretty sure that sounded girly enough. He’d even used proper punctuation.

Kendell responded nearly immediately.

Kendell: [Hmmmmmmm… That depends. Could you please check your right collarbone?]

Tucker frowned. What is he talking about? Bemused, Tucker felt around his right collarbone but didn’t feel anything odd.

[Why would I do that? Perv…] he responded, snickering inwardly, hoping Kendell would get embarrassed.

Kendell: [Says the person who came on to ME.]

Tucker’s eyebrows shot up. Says who— He put his hand over his mouth. F*ck, he’s right.

He had kissed Kendell. There was no getting out of it.

Maybe he shouldn’t drink anymore.

Kendell: [Do it for me? Just one look?]

Tucker swallowed, then sucked in a breath. Switching to Camera mode, he turned on the selfie camera and used it as a mirror to look at his collarbone. And nearly dropped the phone again at what he saw.

What the HELL is that?

His face flaming, he jumped up and left the café, going straight into the nearest bathroom.

In the mirror there he confirmed it.

On his collarbone was a deep, dark red hickey.

And Kendell was the one who had put it there.

The memories of their kiss came rushing back to him again and he recalled the feeling of Kendell kissing down his neck and sucking on his collarbone, and Tucker felt shivers move through him all over again. He hadn’t realized at the time what had happened. But Kendell had. To know about it with such certainty, too, Kendell must have done it on purpose.

He was claiming his territory. Tucker felt a weird shiver up his spine and quickly shut that thought down. Besides, Kendell had meant to claim a girl, not Tucker. But what kind of a**hole makes a mark on the very first date—scene—session—on first meeting??

When his phone buzzed, forgotten in his hand, Tucker’s heart jumped to his throat, a little afraid of what Kendell was going to say next. But his thumb was already unlocking it as he brought it up to look at the next message.

Kendell: [I’ve got class now so I can’t text till later. But I’d like to think your stunned silence means I’ve found the right person. :) Am I right?]

Tucker knew this was the moment he should start turning Kendell away, should shut this stupid farce down, should forget about the whole thing. But inexplicably all he said in response was:

[Yes, you found me.]