Page 31 of Dared

“Nah, you’re good there, if you’re comfortable.”

“Okay.”

Alright, it was a little harder to play when I had to stretch my arms around Leo, and yeah, I didn’t win—the honour went to Noah—but I came a respectable second. Now I was out, I could relax and enjoy Leo. I mean, enjoy my friends, which obviously included Leo.

Leo, who made it through to the final round. It was him against Noah, Travis, and Kira, Travis’ girlfriend, and obviously, I was rooting for my lion. JJ was, too, which meant Niccolò was, and that meant Bennett was cheering him on, too. My face ached from smiling so much, seeing the way people were cheering for my friend, and how he seemed quietly pleased, flushed and biting back small smiles as he kept his gaze fixed on the screen. Tonight had gone so much better than I could have imagined, and I was so happy.

“You’ve got this,” I whispered in Leo’s ear before giving in to my instincts and pressing a quick kiss to his hair. I mean, my mouth was right there, and no one could see what I’d done. From any other angle, it would just look like I was talking to him.

Probably.

Fuck it, the way we conducted our friendship was no one else’s business, as I kept reminding myself.

“Thanks. If I lose, do I get a consolation prize?” he murmured quietly, and I craned my neck to see his face. He looked…amused, almost, and it made me chuckle.

“Course you do. But let’s play to win, okay? Team Hammerking.”

“Ham—oh, I see what you did there. Combining our usernames. Does that mean that you think you should get half the credit if I win?”

“It’s all you, little lion, but I’m still on your team. I’m the support person. It’s a very important role.”

“Yeah.” He smiled again. “Okay. I’ll play to win.”

I couldn’t help ducking my head to press another kiss to his skin, just for luck, you know? That was a thing.

My body tensed when the racers lined up, the teasing and bantering between everyone dying down as the countdown began. Travis and Noah lived together, and Kira was at their house most of the time, so they were all aware of each other’s playing styles. Leo was the wild card. I silently willed him on, watching him pull ahead when the players drifted around the first corner of the track, collecting a mushroom boost and timing its use for its best advantage.

In my ideal world, Leo would be wiping the floor with the others, sweeping ahead and winning the whole thing with ease. Unfortunately for us both, we weren’t in my ideal world, and by the third lap, he was slightly ahead of Noah when a shell took out his character. Noah raced past him, and then it was all over, Leo screeching into second place just ahead of Kira and Travis.

“I tried.” Leo turned to me with a smile. “At least I get a consolation prize.”

The way he was looking at me…I couldn’t really describe it, but it made my heart beat faster. What did he want his consolation prize to be? My mind was running wild with thoughts I shouldn’t be having. Couldn’t even believe I was having.

A pair of legs stopped in front of us. “Good game.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Leo accepted Noah’s outstretched hand. “T-thanks. You were really good.”

Noah gave him a soft smile, his gaze flicking to me. “You too. Hey, Finn. You should bring your boyfriend over again. It’s nice to have some actual competition.”

“Boyfriend?” Leo’s voice was high and panicked.

I rubbed my thumb over his thigh, reassuring him. “We’re friends.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Noah grimaced. “Shit. I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed…”

“It’s okay.”Believe me, you’re not the first to think there’s something going on between us. I tried to play it off casually because it was no one else’s fucking business. As nice as Noah was, the last thing I wanted was Leo to be stressed and start pulling away from me. “He’s just very cuddly. What can I say?”

“Yeah.” Noah forced a smile, shifting awkwardly on his feet. “Sorry. Again. I, uh, I’m gonna get a drink. Do either of you want one?”

“We’re good, thanks,” I said. If Leo wanted a drink, I’d get him one, but I had the feeling that he wanted to be left alone more than anything else.

I was right. As soon as Noah had gone, his shoulders slumped. “Can we go?”

“Yeah, course we can. We’ll go now.” Everyone was talking among themselves, no one paying us any attention, so now was as good a time as any to leave. As we headed towards the door, I saw JJ watching us, his brows pulled together, but he didn’t make a move towards us. I was grateful for that. One confrontation was enough for the night.

By unspoken agreement, we headed back to Leo’s flat, both of us lost in our own thoughts. Connor’s bedroom door was shut, with a small whiteboard hanging next to it pronouncing that he was doing a Twitch stream and wouldn’t be available for the rest of the night. Even so, Leo shut and locked his bedroom door behind us to ensure we wouldn’t be disturbed.

“S-sorry.” His shoulders hunched over as he stared down at the floor.

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