Chapter Text
Kyle rocked back and forth slightly as he listened to Jeremy recite the chorus of his song for the 13th time, the song was a bit over the top as it was just 10 or so minutes of Jeremy singing about how great he was but it warmed Kyle's heart to know he had tried at least. Jamie and Jacob sat on either side of the couch, Jacob took up half of the couch and had recovered from the fright he had gotten when Kyle yelled at him for having his shoes on the couch (I mean, that's so rude!! Kyle had just bought the damn thing), his face showed he was unimpressed by Jeremy's song, and he looked like he was about the fall asleep. Jamie was sitting next to Kyle with a slightly sour expression that was aimed at Jeremy, Kyle nudged him and gave him a bright smile then rolled his eyes and glanced at Jeremy, Jamie blushed slightly and smiled while avoiding eye contact; he seemingly got the message because he stopped scowling at Jeremy and sat back in a more relaxed manner with a smile on his face, Kyle smiled as well and placed a hand on his new watch. It was certainly cheaper than the car that Jacob had gotten him, but it was obviously picked out with Kyle in mind unlike the car which Jacob had gotten to piss off Jason, Kyle was still grateful of course but it still stung his heart to know that Jacob had gone out of his way to make Kyle's birthday his rivalry with Jason although Jacob probably hadn't thought about it like that. Jeremy's song came to an end and Kyle began to clap, he looked at Jamie who also began to clap, but Jacob didn't even bother.
"Thank you, Jeremy!" Kyle smiled, he stood up with the intention to hug the slightly taller man but thought against it as Jeremy didn't see their relationship as anything more than co-workers "That was... long, but nice!" Jeremy scoffed.
"Of course, it was nice, I was the one singing it" Jeremy smirked and Jamie's polite smile turned into a sour scowl, Jeremy cleared his throat "Um, thanks though, happy birthday" Kyle smiled and sat back down, Jamie put his arm around Kyle, but it only lasted a few seconds before the other man tensed and pulled his arm away.
"Happy birthday Kyle, do you want to hang out at a cafe or something? I can pay since it's your birthday" That had probably been the 6th time today that Jamie had wished him a happy birthday, but Kyle couldn't complain, it made him feel appreciated; Kyle took a few seconds to process Jamie's question but once it clicked, he stood up excitedly and stretched.
"Sure! I'll drive" Kyle announced as he grabbed the keys to his new car, Jacob smirked and pulled out his phone as they walked outside, he called Kyle over for a photo of him in front of the car; Kyle swallowed back his dread as he realized Jacob was going to send the photo to Jason to piss him off, Kyle walked in front of the car and leaned on the car as Jacob pointed the phone towards him, Kyle smiled as wide as he could and he tried to make the smile to appear as natural as possible. The photo was over quickly, and Kyle was happy to move away from the car and get inside, Jamie sat in the front passenger seat while the other two sat in the back. Jeremy appeared to be mildly nervous and was holding onto the handle above the window, Kyle was a little confused at first but quickly realized that Jeremy didn't trust him to drive; Kyle repressed a smirk as he started to speed slightly, it only took Jeremy a few seconds to noticed and it only made his poorly hidden panicking worse, Kyle slowed down to the speed limit and continued to drive responsibly the rest of the way. Soon Kyle made it to his favourite cafe, and he parked the car, Jeremy practically jumped out of the car while everyone else got out normally.
Jamie was currently sharing a plate of pancakes with Kyle as he tried to ignore his heart pounding in his chest when their forks clinked together while trying to grab the same strawberry, he pulled his fork away quickly and avoided looking at Kyle or the plate; Kyle asked him if he still wanted the strawberry, and he made a vague noise of denial. He noticed a tall woman walking over to the group, he sighed in annoyance at the thought of being disturbed for the millionth time, he grumbled to himself about how people seemed to not realize that they had real lives, and he was pretty sure that no-one heard him, luckily. The woman stopped in front of the table and Kyle smiled at her.
"Hey, Steph!" His voice was cheery as usual, but it had a type of edge to it that made Jamie uneasy.
"Hi Kyle, happy birthday!" She handed him a small box and card "Can we talk... privately?" Kyle tensed and Jamie reached out to hold his hand in what he hoped was a comforting manner.
"Is this about-"
"No! Well, yes? Can- can we just talk?" She starred pleadingly at Kyle and he nodded, he let go of Jamie’s hand, stood up, and walked outside with the women; they didn't go to an extremely quiet spot because they could still be seen outside the window but they couldn't be heard, that was until they began shouting at each other, it was still difficult to make out what was being said but their voices were still loud and there was a crowd forming around them, both inside and outside. Jamie was stunned, he wasn't sure he had ever seen Kyle without a stupid smile on his face and he had certainly never seen the man angry, he was always oblivious to anything upsetting and was quick to accept and shitty situation he'd been thrown into; Kyle was loud, yes, but it was always a joyful loudness, never angry. Kyle suddenly turned away from her and walked back into the cafe while she sheepishly followed, Kyle stayed standing by the table with a scowl and the woman made eye contact with Jamie "Can I talk with you please?" Jamie looked over to Kyle then stood up and followed the woman to the counter, she got the attention of a worker with blue hair, the name tag said 'Avery' "Hey, can we come in the back to talk?" she gestured to the amount of people who were staring at her, the worker hesitated then to let them through.
"Don't talk about this, this could get me in a lot of trouble" Avery spoke quietly then led them into the back room "Don't touch anything" there were three other people in there, but they all left quickly, leaving Jamie alone with this random woman.
"Uh, I'm Stephanie" She held her hand out to shake.
"Jamie" He responded as he shook it.
"I know"
"Yeah..." there were a few more seconds of awkward silence before she sighed and spoke up.
"This is going to sound weird but... can you pretend to be my boyfriend? Just for a week, my parents are in town and they won’t leave my house and they're homophobic, and if they think I'm not dating anyone they're going to set me up with random men and Kyle's my only guy friend who lives around here and it's all just really messy" She pulled her jacket tighter around her body as she spoke and she continued to avoid eye contact "Also... Kyle's my ex" she added with hesitance, Jamie's brain short-circuited for a few seconds
"Hold on. Why can't you just call the police to get your parents to leave?"
"It's not worth it, they'll be gone in a week anyways" She looked back at Jamie with a pleading look, she seemed like she was about to cry.
"Only a week?"
"Only a week." Jamie thought about it some more, he could at least spend this time to sort out his feelings about Kyle while having an excuse to be alone, he knew it was a bad idea, it'll probably just complicate things more.
"Okay, but we're not doing any actual couple things. You can just say I'm your boyfriend and I'll just back you up or something" Jamie crossed his arms to make himself sound more final, Stephanie nodded quickly.
"Thank you so much!!"
Kyle had a drink in his hand. He didn't know how many he had already had. He didn't even know what he was having. He knew it had alcohol in it. He wasn't incredibly sure what was going on around him right now, he wanted to go home. He needed to find Jamie. Jamie had already said he wasn't going to drink. Kyle trusted Jamie. Jamie could get him home. He spotted the familiar red hoodie in the crowd. Kyle started to walk over. Someone stopped him. "Hey, Kyle!" Jason. "Can you help make a TikTok with me?" Jason smirked and laughed. He was probably more drunk than Kyle. Maybe. Kyle nodded and Jason showed him what he needed Kyle to do. Jason pointed the camera at him, and he stepped back slightly to begin. He stumbled. Everything suddenly became a lot quieter; it was peaceful. He didn't even try to hold his breath. It was funny. The last thought he had before passing out was how annoyed everyone would be at him for dropping his drink in the pool.
Jamie sat at the end of his bed looking at his phone, there were so many photos of Jamie trying to save Kyle and it made him a little mad that all anyone could focus on was the 'kiss' and not the fact that Kyle might have died if Jamie hadn't already been keeping an eye on him, Kyle had been drinking a lot and Jamie had gotten very concerned very quickly. Jamie had decided before they went that he wasn't going to drink because he didn't trust Ubers and that meant he was going to end up driving at least one person home, at first, he had thought it was going to be Jason because he had gone straight of the most alcoholic drinks, he could find but Jason had managed to call himself an Uber anyways, so he was perfectly fine. There had been a point during the event when Kyle had walked over to Jamie and given him a hug, the smell of alcohol that came from Kyle had made Jamie want to throw up and he hadn't even been the one drinking. Jamie sighed and looked back at Kyle who was sleeping in Jamie's bed, he seemed so peaceful as if he hadn't almost drowned mear hours before; Jamie had been quick to dive into the pool and pull Kyle out, he had started to give him CPR, Kyle had woken up and coughed the water in his lungs before throwing up and passing out again, Jamie had caught him before he fell into his own vomit. Jamie had taken Kyle to the hospital, and they had determined that he was perfectly fine, with no rib, lung, or brain damage although he would be left with bruising on his chest for a couple of days, Jamie had been told to bring Kyle back his he doesn't wake up within 36 hours or if Kyle is still having chest pains after the bruising clears up. The hospital staff had given him fresh clothes, although Jamie had replaced the shirt with the fluffiest PJ shirt he owned, both Jamie and Kyle's clothes were currently in his drier and Kyle's shoes had been completely ruined. Jamie heard a loud groan from Kyle, Jamie flinched at the noise before gasping and getting up to reheat the soup he made a little while ago; he came back to the room with the soup and a glass of fresh water, and he saw Kyle open his eyes before screwing them shut again and pulling the covers over his face. Right, he was probably hung over and the light from outside was doing no favours, Jamie placed the soup and the water back down then walked over to the window and shut the blinds.
"I made soup" Jamie spoke quietly "There's also a bucket by the bed if you need to throw up" Jamie had laid a towel down and placed a mop bucket by the bed when they first got home. Kyle made a vague noise of acknowledgment.
"Are you actually dating Stephanie?" the question caught Jamie off guard.
"No? I thought you said you knew that”.
"But you said it was only going to be a week; it's been like 2 or 3" Kyle slowly sat up and reached out for his soup.
"Yeah, I- I'll talk to her."
"It's okay if you're together, you seem happy."
"No! She's- I don't have feelings for her" Jamie looked over at Kyle, he wondered if Kyle was jealous, but he quickly dismissed the thought as there was no reason for Kyle to be jealous, Kyle and Stephanie were still friends, but they obviously had no feelings for each other and there was no reason why jealous of Stephanie, right? Jamie repressed the urge to punch himself, Kyle didn't have feelings for him. He was just projecting his crush. The crush he didn't have! Kyle laid back down and snuggled into his covers, Jamie was about to ask if he needed anything else, but he quickly shot back up and leaned over the bed to puke into the mop bucket, Kyle sighed and drank some of the water Jamie had set out before falling back into bed.
"Head..........hurts........" Kyle screwed his eyes shut.
"You did drink a lot last night" Jamie pointed out, Kyle nodded slowly.
"Stupid" Kyle pulled the covers fully over his head "Goodnight."
"It's still morning" Jamie laughed as Kyle made a few annoyed noises, Kyle quickly fell asleep again and Jamie sighed worriedly; Kyle hadn't been acting like himself recently, any time a camera was pointed at him he would act like the happy, dumb, oblivious guy he always was but in a regular setting his smile always seemed so forced, his laughs would come unnaturally, and his eyes seemed wet with unshed tears. But it seemed Jamie was the only person who ever noticed.
Jacob watched through the interview of what happened with Jamie and Kyle's "kiss", Jamie seemed incredibly stressed although he tried to hide it while Kyle seemed like he didn't even know it happened, so it was a rather normal interview.
"I don't see the issue?" Jacob turned to look at Jamie who was pacing around behind him, he was switching between biting his lip and chewing his fingernails.
"The issue is that Kyle is acting like it wasn't a big deal!" Jamie pulled out a chair and sat down, he rewinded the video a bit and paused it on Kyle when he was recounting a time, he fell into a pool mid-show.
"Well, neither were you" Jacob rewinded it more and let it play for a little bit before pausing it "You're kinda like 'I helped him, it wasn't a kiss, I have a girlfriend'" Jacob rolled his eyes then paused "Also, since when did you have a girlfriend?"
"Stephanie isn't important right now, Kyle-"
"Stephanie!? Like, Kyle's ex Stephanie?" Jacob was shocked, Jamie was dating Kyle's ex??
"Wha- how did you know Kyle had an ex?" Jamie's eyes were wide, and he seemed a little panicked "Not important!! Look, Jacob, Kyle almost drowned! He was only in the pool for a few seconds before I got to him, and he had already passed out! And there was already water in his lungs-"
"Jamie. He passed out doing the TikTok thing and fell in" Jacob shrugged.
"But he's acting like it didn't happen! He spent that whole morning in my bed hung over but as soon as we were called in for an interview, he was perfectly fine! Then he passed out immediately afterward, I took him back to my place and he spent the rest of the day complaining about his headache and throwing up" Jamie stood up again as he spoke, there were tears building in his eyes and his face was red.
"He did the interview hung over. Damn, I could never" Jacob was about to laugh slightly but it died in his throat when he saw Jamie's face "Jamie, he's fine. He just drank a bit and fell in the pool, he's probably just embarrassed”.
"Drank A BIT!? HE DRANK MORE THAN JASON DID" Jamie took a deep breath "Whatever, you're probably right" Jamie stood up and left without a goodbye.
Jeremy yawned as he was forced to watch the interview for the millionth time. "I don't get what’s wrong? Kyle's acting completely normal”.
"THAT'S THE FUCKING ISSUE!! He almost died and he's acting like it's some fucking joke! Like it's some funny story he can tell at parties"
"Well, it probably is, I always tell people about when I almost drowned as a kid" Jeremy smirked as he thought about that memory, some random kid had snuck up behind him while he was swimming in a lake and they grabbed his ankle, pulling him under the water and causing him to hit his head on a rock. Okay... not really funny, but he thought it was hilarious and it was funnier when he exaggerated it.
"But it just happened!! It's not like it's a childho- He went to the hospital- ARGH. YOU'RE NO FUCKING HELP" Jamie slammed the laptop shut and stormed off.
Jamie rang Stephanie for the 4th time that day and she finally picked up, Jamie didn't even give her a chance to speak before he began talking "I can't do this anymore, you said one week, and it's been well over two. I've had enough, my life is getting too chaotic and i don't have time to focus on this fake relationship, if your parents are still an issue just call the fucking police! You're an adult. If you can't kick them out of your house, call the police" Jamie hung up, he wasn't going to keep pretending to date a stranger to keep her parents happy, he still hadn't been able to figure out his feelings towards Kyle and now he had to keep an eye on Kyle because there clearly something going on with him. Jamie put his phone down and sighed, he should go to bed.