Remember this?
The group of four friends has just arrived at the party. As soon as they stepped in, girls made their way toward some people Wille didn't know. Loud music, a bunch of unfamiliar faces with drinks in their hands, and everyone was dancing and enjoying themselves. Still, Wille wasn't used to that big parties, the ones in Hillerska were way smaller than this one.
Well, at least Simon is still here with me, he thought. As Simon turned to face him.
"Do you want something to drink? I could get us some."
"Yeah, sure," he quickly nodded.
"What do you want?"
"You can pick, I don't mind," he answered.
"Okay, I will be right back."
And with those words he left. No more Simon. Now I'm alone.
Wilhelm looked around, looking for someplace where the music wasn't too loud. This place turned out to be a balcony. It was the beginning of the summer. Cool, fresh air met his face. The building they were in was placed somewhere in the forest near Stockholm, so the smell of needles was pretty strong, and he loved it. But also, the breathtaking view wasn't any worse. He was lost in his thoughts and calming atmosphere. It felt like time had stopped for a while. As someone's palm landed on his shoulder, taking his attention. Wilhelm jumped a little from this unexpected touch.
"Shit, sorry. Didn't mean to scare you," the curly-haired boy apologized, "here is your drink," he said, heading a red plastic glass with some liquid towards the other.
Their fingers brushed a little, which caused a blush on Wille’s face. He prayed to God to Simon not notice it.
"Thanks," Wille took his drink, smelling, trying to understand what it was before sipping.
"This is just apple juice, didn't know what you would like to drink, so as you said, I chose the same drink as for myself."
"Okay."
They both were looking at the sunset, it was the middle of the golden hour. Comfort silence filled the air around for a few moments. None of them seemed to mind, though. But it was rapidly broken by Simon's exited groan as he heard the song that was playing indoors now.
"OH MY GOD, I love this song! I have been listening to it almost non-stop recently!" he giggled.
Wilhelm turned to gaze at the other as he began to sing along to the song that was playing inside. Eriksson was looking nowhere else but him, smiling and swaying his hips. His beautiful brown curls, bright smile, honey sparkling eyes, everything about him was just....perfect, Wille thought.
Moving in together after graduating was the biggest torture in Wilhelm's life ever since he realized that he liked his best friend, not only liked, loved him, but on the other hand it was the best thing ever. Even though it was difficult, he was on the cloud nine to get to see him as first thing in the morning and last in the evening. To get to see his messy after-sleep hair and sleepy eyes. The time they got to spend together was incredible, the late movie nights at their apartment or morning cooking with music on and Simon dancing, while cooking toasts for both of them. Wille would never want to forget any of those memories.
"I've been doing bad things that you don't know about. Stealing your stuff now and then," he sang, "Nothing you'd miss, but it means the world to me," Simon continued.
"You know, I love your voice," I love you, left unsaid.
"I know Wille, you say this every time I sing," the tanned skin boy said, giggling.
"And I will keep saying this 'til I die," both boys laughed.
"I wanna ruin our friendship. We should be lovers instead," Eriksson kept singing and looking directly into Wilhelm's eyes," I don't know how to say this, 'cause you're really my dearest friend."
For a second, Wille turned his gaze to the forest and then immediately back to Simon.
Why is this song so ralate to what I wanna say? Maybe it's a sign that I have to tell him now? Maybe it's the right moment? Should I do it now? But what if he doesn't like me that way? What if I ruin what we have now? Damn it.
Simon now was dragging him inside, heading backward, still holding eye contact with the other, inviting him to dance.
"Actually...," he paused, nervously facing the ground, "Can we - Can we talk, please? I- I wanted to tell you something," there is no going back, Wilhelm thought.
"Sure, is this something I have to worry about?" Simon asked a little confused, if this something makes him that anxious, then this might be serious, the thought appeared in Simon's mind.
"I-," he almost said, he was so ready to say it, but someone bumped into Simon's back and interrupted him, and this someone appeared to be Felice.
"Shit, Simon, I'm so sorry. You okay?" the girl questioned.
"Yeah..Don't worry, I'm fine."
"Simme, would you mind if I steal Wille for a moment?"
"Yes... I mean no, crap, you can take him," he replied.
"Perfect, I will get him back to you asap, I just need to have a-best-friend-talk," she grabbed with her free hand Wilhelm's wrist and dragged him first down the stars and then out of the house to the backyard.
"What the fuck, Felice? I almost said him that I like him!" Wille shouted.
"Oh, I'm so sorry I ruined your moment, but I really need someone I can talk to right now."
"What about Sara? Couldn't you go to her? Why is it specifically supposed to be me?" he questioned.
"Wille! Wille! Can you please shut up and listen to me?"
"Ugh..fine," he mumbled.
"First of all, what do you have in your glass?" she pointed with a bottle of vodka,she was holding all this time in her left hand to his glass.
"Apple juice."
"Wanna something stronger?" Felice asked.
"Hell, yeah.." she added some liquid from the bottle to his glass and then drank some right from the bottle, " Wow, slow down, girl."
"Look, I know you like Simon for years now and I'm sorry you didn't get the chance to say that because of me, but I really need you to help me with something ," she uttered.
"What is that?" he took a sip of his drink and wrickled his face because of its flavor.
"I wanna propose to Sara," girl breathed out, " I mean... we have been dating for six years now and this six years were marvelous. I feel ready to make one step forward in our relationship," while saying that she focused her gaze on the ground, as curly haired girl looked up she saw boy's chin fell down.
"OH MY FUCKING GOD! Feli, I'm so happy for you," blonde jumped into his best friend wrapping his arms around her, picking her up and spinning.
"Get me on the ground, you weirdo!"
"I'm glad you are going to propose, anything I can help with? Maybe order a table at the restaurant or.."
"No,thanks. I'm just freaking out about it a lot recently, and I guess Sara noticed it, she definitely noticed, and I just I don't know what to do," she was talking so rapidly that Wille barely understoond what she was talking about.
She sat on the bench, covered her face with her hands, elbows on her knees. Wilhelm sat down by her side, gently placing his hand on her back in comforting manner, moving it up and down.
"Hey,Feli it's okay. I know you love Sara unconditionally and she loves you the exact same way. Why would you worry?"
"I just think that she might say 'no'," she rolled her eyes.
"What? There's no way she is saying 'no'. I can see the way she looks at you, the way she touches you, she does all these things carefully and caring," he tried to reassure her that this will go well.
"Hah," Felice burst out laughing.
"What’s so funny?" Wilhelm didn't know what exactly this reaction meant, he tried to be serious and his friend just laughed.
"Sorry, just one memory of our childhood appeared in my mind," she kept laughing.
"Which one?" Felice let out louder laughed, her eyes were tearing, that confused him even more.
Sure, they have been friends since kindergarten which meant they had loads of funny and embarrassing moments together, but which one could cause this hard laugh out of Felice.
"Remember the day when I got bullied because of my skin color and hid up behind the tree in the garden?" she was looking directly into his eyes and giggling.
"Yeahhh... you also told me that you liked me then if I remember right."
"Yes ,but do you also remember what promise we made afterwards?"
And there you go, the realization of that day. As he remembered it he started to laugh too. How couldn't he?
"Jesus Christ, I promised you that we will marry when we will be adults."
"Exactly, and look at us now, both going insane about Eriksson siblings."
"Who would know that it will turn out like this?"
"No one."
She moved a little closer and gave Wilhelm a side-hug.
"Felice," blonde mumbled.
"Yea?"
"Do you think Simon might like me back? Crap, sorry I'm the one who freaking out now. I just can't do it anymore, be in love with him and want to kiss him every second even more that i did before."
"Of course, he likes you. I catch him giving you heart eyes every time he's looking at you."
"Well, that doesn't suppose to mean anything, doesit?"
"If you want to know this just go and ask him, he is right there," she pointed somewhere to the door.
"Ugh.. i can't now. I was so ready. But not anymore."
"That's okay, you can take your time. But for now we both can just be madly in love with The Eriksson Siblings and both freak out about getting one step further in our relationships with them. How does that sound?" Felice now was looking at Wilhelm with a generous smile.
"Okay, that sounds great," he nodded, returning the smile,"Do you have any ideas or plans how you gonna propose?"
"Not yet."
"We should hang out at mine tomorrow and figure this out, we need this to be perfect, don't we?"
"Definitely, let's get this drink to our friendship, I don't know what would I do without you to be honest."
"Cheers!" Wille raised his glass.
"Cheers!"
They sat outdoors a few more minutes, and when it started to get colder Felice said:
"Let's go inside, I'm kinda starting to freeze."
"Me too."
Simon and Sara quickly found the others.
"Hi!" Wille exclaimed, grinning at Simon.
"Hi!" the curly boy chimed happily.
"Shall we head out and go somewhere where is just four of us?" Sara suggested.
"Sure,love. Boys what are you thinking?" Feli asked and interlaced her fingers with her girlfriend's.
"Agreed," blonde boy murmured,"Simon?"
"I'm in. Let's do this."
Even though Simme tried to hide his extremely happy face, Wille could tell something was up. He knew him too well, not to notice.
The friend group left the party, and since Simon was the one who hasn't drunk at all, he was the one to drive.
They stopped nearby some pancake cafe, all of them ordered milkshakes, though Sara tried to convince them that it wasn't a good idea to do so after drinking alcohol.
"Gosh, these are the best pancakes I've ever eaten," Wilhelm groaned.
"Can't disagree, they really are the best ones, " the ground started giggling.
"Sooo... what are you two were doing outside?" Sara asked gazing at Felice and then at Wilhelm, while Simon was giving his sister a deadpan look.
"When? Oh, you mean at the party," the curly-haired girl murmured.
"We were just having a-best-friend-talk."
"Sharing some stuff. " two best friends said that at the same time.
"Okay.."
"What time is it?" Simon questioned.
Wille pulled his phone out of his pocket, "Quarter past one a.m. Why? ," he replied.
"I have some plans with Auyb and Rosh for tomorrow. So I guess it would be better if we kept driving to our apartments."
"Yeah,sure."
They paid the bill and left cafe, sitting in the car. Simon was driving and Wille sitting by his side, girls were sitting backwards. During ride Felice fell asleep, putting her head on Sara's lap, how can she sleep when we are singing so loud?, Sara thought, that's probably because she is intoxicated.
"Here you go," Simme announced and put volume of music down as they arrived to the girls' apartment building.
"Hey, mija. We are arrived, get up," Wille was looking how Sara trying to wake Felice up, touching her face gently, brushing the excess hair from her face. He saw how in love Eriksson was with his best friend, no doubt she will say 'yes'.
"Five more minutes, please," Feli begged.
"Cariño mio, let's say 'goodbye' to boys and you will get a proper sleep."
"Ugh, fine.." she got up, all sleepy, blinked her eyes a few times to get used to the light and said," Good night, Wille. Good night, Simon. "
"Sleep well, Feli," Wilhelm answered,"Good night, Sara."
Felice moved a little, took Wille’s face in her hand and kissed his cheeks, "Thanks for listening, you mean the world to me. Love you. "
"Love you too, Feli."
"Jesus, she is super drunk," Simon's sister groaned," Anyway, good night, both of you. Te amo." Sara said and they left the car.
"What the fuck was that?" Simon laughed.
"You mean kiss?"
"Yeah."
"She is just super grateful to have an amazing and charming best friend like me." The curly haired boy burst out laughing.
"Charming?"
"What? You don't think so?" Wille rolled his eyes.
"Maybe I do," he almost whispered,"but like Sara said she just really intoxicated."
"Yeah, right. Felice will have funny night, I guess. "
"Let's keep driving?"
"Mhm."
Eriksson started the car and they were making their way to their apartment.
"You wanted to talk about something before Felice interrupted." Simon eventually broke the silence.
"Oh,yep. It doesn't matter, at least now. Maybe I will tell you later." Wilhelm was anxiously playing with his own fingers.
"Okay, I see," Simon nodded," Whatever it is, it definitely bothers you a lot, so I won't push you to tell me what is it, unless you ready to tell and want me to hear it."
"What did I do to deserve a friend like you?" friend, f-r-i-e-n-d, six letters, one word.
"You did nothing, because you deserve to have good and caring people around you."
"Actually, there is something I want to tell you now, Felice is gonna kill me for this but we need your help."
"Why would she kill you? What is it?"
"She is going to propose to Sara this week. " Simon braked sharply, lucky they were on the parking spot already, "Simme,what was that?"
"Shit, sorry. I'm just in massive shock. My big-little sister is getting married, oh my God, it's unbelievable."
"Hahah,so what do you think Sara will reply?"
"She is down bad for her. So there is no way she is telling Felice 'no'" boy finally parked the car.
"Could you please invite Sara to your hangout with your friends tomorrow? So she won't be alone while I and Felice will think something sort of a plan."
"Yeah, of course. Auyb and Rosh wanted to see you as well but since there is my sister's proposal plan, we're talking about. I'm willing take Sara instead. "
"They did?" Wilhelm was surprised, sure thing he hung out with them during last six years a lot, but he still feels like they only invite him, because he matters for Simon, wait does he?
"Sure, they did," boys got out of the car and headed to their apartment," Why would you ask that?"
"Just sometimes it feels like they only nice to me, because they don't want to disappoint you."
"I'm so sorry you felt this way, but they adore you so much, always asking me how are you doing, what are you doing. And it's not only because you are my best friend,as much as they are," both stopped in front of the front door, facing one another.
"Can I hug you?" Wille whispered loud enough for Simon to hear.
"Come here," the tanned skin boy opened his arms and Wille literally thew himself into the other.
Wille’s arms around his waist, and his around the other's shoulders. They stood like this who knew how long. For Wille every time he got to hug Simme the entire universe stopped working. It just didn't matter how long they were doing this as long as he got a chance to hold him. Simon was the first one to pull apart, but not completely. Their faces were inch apart, if one of them moved forward, their lips would be touching. Blonde's eyes laid on Simon lips. The curly haired boy cleared his throat.
"We should go home, it's late."
"Yeah."