Author's note: The first third of this chapter is completely intact and unchanged. However the second and third part were merged together and then deleted so I had to rewrite it.

My apologies if it isn't up to the usual standards.

Back to the story*

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Adrian had a frustrating start to his week. On Monday, practice was cancelled at last minute due to some emergency public service announcement. It was labelled mandatory by Principal Thompson so Adrian had to sit through it all.

All of the students were forced to listen to a guest speaker go on and on about drugs and the dangers of them.

If you asked Adrian, the whole assembly was completely pointless. It just reiterated how drugs were bad and the speaker shouted out more jumbo jumbo that was already drilled into his head. Even without having to be taught about it in school, his mom always made it clear about how there was a lack of tolerance if her son ever used drugs.

She even made a point that she would make Adrian regret the day he was born if he ever touched drugs.

On Tuesday he was planning to have a games night with Adam, weeks since their last one. That was until he got called into work last minute.

Getting extra money was no issue with Adrian, in fact he welcomed the idea of earning more money - who wouldn't want more money.

The rest of the day got worse because it was completely swamped at the pizzeria and he was stuck serving one of his dietary specific regulars.

Again, there was nothing wrong with people who had dietary specific needs. But when the same person over explained and over shared why they couldn't eat certain things was what annoyed Adrian.

Especially when Adrian wanted to spend the day relaxing but was forced to plaster a smile on his face as he listened to them ramble on.

Wednesday wasn't any better either. Caden and some of the other Eagles thought it would be funny to play a joke on him. When Adrian was distracted, they had taped the bottom of his skating boots. He didn't realise until he ended up flat on the ice, sore after he landed uncomfortably on his ankle.

Adrian didn't have a problem with pranks, he was a jokester himself. But a prank by someone you hated as much as they hated you, was it really a prank?

The Eagles that did the prank thought it was funny as Adrian saw them all laugh when he had to be helped off the ice, unable to attend practice that day with his ankle becoming too sore and turning a light shade of purple.

It was that same day when Adrian was just about to leave class when the teacher bumped up their psychology exam to Friday evening. Everyone was pissed but the teacher insisted, not caring about any of the outrage from the students.

So, Adrian knew what he was going to spend the rest of his weekdays doing. Having his head down in his book and trying to absorb the information by staring at the pages, and praying it would go in.

Adrian stopped by the diner first to grab a milkshake, he at least thought the sugary sweetness would boost his mood before he would hate himself for not understanding any of the information.

Whilst waiting patiently at the counter, Adrian heard him before he saw him as Brody came up from behind him.

"Hey Adrian, what you up to?"

Adrian's mood already got better, and he didn't even have his milkshake yet - just seeing Brody helped.

"My psychology exam was brought up to Friday instead of next week, this means my day involves cramming information into my stupid head while hoping a milkshake gives me a motivational boost to not hate myself for being dumb." Adrian eloquently expressed his frustration.

"Ah, I see." Brody laughed at Adrian's dramatics. "Well I was going to invite you over to my place tonight, thought we could have a little dinner date."

Adrian thought a dinner date with Brody was a lot more appealing than learning about stress and the brain. "Is the offer still on the table?"

Brody nodded his head. "But I guess we could make it more of a study date if you're up for it. Ashley just told me she's going out with Adam tonight so it'll be just us."

Adrian saw Ashley at one of the booths and happily waved at her before turning back to Brody. "Then it's a date. We can both suffer together I guess then."

"Give me a few hours so I can do some shopping for tonight. I'll text you later the address and when to come by alright?" Brody squeezed Adrian's hand that was on the counter before going back to Ashley.

Adrian waved goodbye to them both who watched him leave as he headed home.

~~~~~~~~~~

Now standing outside Brody's door, Adrian knocked on it as he was waiting for Brody to answer the door.

Brody was smiling as he opened the door, wearing some tight fitted jeans and a dress shirt that made his blue eyes even more appealing. "Come in."

"I didn't know I should have dressed up for this study date." Adrian looked down at his clothes and all he was wearing was a grey hoodie that was a different colour from his jogging bottoms.

"I just threw this on after my shower, you look great." Brody gave Adrian a quick peck on the cheek before he started showing Adrian around.

The living room wasn't super big, there was a TV with different gaming consoles underneath. And the comfy looking couch was behind a glass coffee table. Even the few plants in the room made it feel very home like and comfortable.

The next room was actually seeing distance from the living room area. The kitchen had a counter on top which was already filled with what looked like was Brody's homework. The fruit basket was filled with colourful fruit, and Adrian even saw some raw ingredients that Brody was cooking for dinner.

"Your apartment is really nice, how can you even afford this?"

Brody seemed to ignore the question as he showed Adrian down the corridor. The closest room was the bathroom. It was small and standard, with no bathtub but a toilet bowl, sink and a shower stall.

Ashley's room was in between the bathroom and Brody's. Adrian peeked inside just slightly and saw how it was all clean and organised, expected from Ashley.

"This is my room."

Brody let Adrian in and the first thing they could see was the giant bed with clean and pressed outfits on top of the duvet. Adrian turned to give Brody a smug look, "Randomly threw on an outfit, you liar"

Brody gave Adrian a hug from behind and pressed a quick kiss to the side of his neck. "Guilty."

Adrian continued looking around the room, they said a person's room can show their personality and it kind of showed it for Brody. The room had clearly designated sections, the clothes that weren't on his bed were all hung up nearly in the closet. The desk with his laptop and books were considerably more organised that Adrian's own room.

Right by his bedside, Adrian smiled as he picked up the elephant that Brody has talked about before. "This is the famous Elly?"

Brody proudly smiled back. "The one and only."

The sound of a knock on the door alerted Brody. "That's Ashley's delivery, I'll be right back."

Left in the room alone, Adrian continued looking around and saw a photo frame on his desk. Adrian picked it up and inspected it with a closer look.

In the picture was a young couple who had a striking resemblance to the young child in the photo. Adrian recognised the child as Brody, looking very happy in the photo.

"Those were my parents."

Adrian turned around to see Brody by the door. Brody walked towards the photo and held it in his hands, looking very fondly at the photo. "This is one of the very few things I have of my parents, that and Elly."

Adrian felt guilty at invading Brody's personal space. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be nosy."

"It's fine." Brody placed the photo down gently and repositioned it carefully. "They're the reason I can afford all of this, life insurance and everything."

Silence filled the room as Brody felt the change in the atmosphere. Brody felt responsible for the change when the mood was good before. Brody was still mournfully admiring the photo when Adrian held Brody from behind.

Hugging him and placing a gentle kiss on the back of his neck, Adrian was silently letting Brody know he was here for him without needing to speak.

And Brody appreciated that.

~~~~~~~~~~~

After the sudden emotional toll that was taken in Brody's bedroom, Brody took Adrian into the kitchen and started preparing for dinner.

Adrian had his books out on the kitchen counter, not paying attention to the pages in the book as he watched Brody work his magic in the kitchen. He got down from the stool and went to cuddle with Brody, wanting a distraction from the boring book.

"Need a hand?"

Brody laughed because he knew Adrian was trying to get out of revising. Brody dropped the washed vegetables he was holding and pushed Adrian back towards his psychology book.

Brody put the potatoes in the oven as he sliced the vegetables. "Tell me about the bobo doll experiment."

"Kids get angry, that's about it."

Brody laughed out loud as Adrian jumped off the stool again, and went back to invading Brody's physical space.

"Dinner's not dome yet, let me just sort the rest of this and I'll help you properly."

Adrian didn't give up as he began placing soft kisses to the side of Brody's face. When Brody stopped doing anything, Adrian knew he won as Brody spun around on the spot and kissed Adrian properly.

"Let me prep the rest of this, and then I'll give you 20 minutes on the couch until I have to start cooking again."

"Deal!" Adrian said eagerly, already heading towards the living room, and ditching the books and a laughing Brody in the kitchen.

~~~~~~~~~~

Brody gave Adrian an extra 5 minutes worth of attention as they made out in the living room. After he went back to cooking, Adrian sat down in the kitchen and actually tried to do work.

Eventually dinner was served as they both sat down at the table. Adrian looked at the plate in front of him and smiled wholeheartedly at seeing the food in front of him. "Your signature dish."

Brody smiled back at Adrian for remembering how they talked about it back at the carnival. "Let me know what you think of it."

"You left the crispy skin on which is a bonus for me." Adrian cut a piece of the salmon and took a bite out of it. His taste buds tingled at the succulent fish, with the explosion of flavours that came out from that small piece. "It's delicious!"

Brody sat proudly as he began to dig in also.

"So when are you going to make me pancakes in the morning?"

~~~~~~~~~~

The pair were eating red velvet cake that Brody had bought from the bakery he works at. Sitting down together on the couch, they started watching Love Is Blind on Netflix.

The show was trashy, some of the people were horrible, yet they still enjoyed watching it. The cake was long gone as their eyes were still glued to the screen, partially making fun of the show too.

Adrian really wasn't fond of one of the guys on the show. "Barnett is such a tool, I mean having 3 girls on the go at the same time is just morally wrong."

Brody was still watching the tv screen when he spoke to Adrian. "I could never do something like that."

"What, 3 girls on the go?"

Brody looked at Adrian all proudly as his over confidence began showing. "First of all, everyone would be lucky to have me."

Adrian laughed as he shoved Brody a little, but the topic continued as Brody was looking at him in the eyes.

"But yeah, I'm more of a 1 man kind of guy. I like just having 1 boyfriend, someone I can do things like this with." Brody leaned forward and brushed his lips against Adrian softly for several seconds.

Adrian seemed to have a momentarily blank mind as he gathered his bearings. Adrian seems to understand what Brody meant which made him cough nervously, "I've never had a girlfriend, or a boyfriend before. But I would feel the same, being a 1 kind of boyfriend too. Things I can do this with."

Adrian reached for Brody's hand and entwined their fingers together. A smile was emerging from Brody's mouth as his eyes began to sparkle with strong emotions.

"So, is this official? Can I call you my boyfriend?"

Adrian answered that by passionately kissing his boyfriend Brody.

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