the door squeaked behind you as guéla shut it close with his foot, a tired sigh escaping him as the two of you stepped into his apartment. the both of you were just coming back from grocery shopping for his apartment when suddenly heavy rain came crashing down, soaking you two from head to toes.

stepping into his apartment, you mumbled a small ‘sorry’ as water dripped from your hair to the floor.

“don't worry about it.” guéla replied, grabbing two towels from a chair. “i’ll go get us some change, i have a few of your clothes here.” he reassured as he handed you one of the towels before disappearing down the hall.

with a sigh of relief, you grabbed the towel and tried drying most of yourself. as you shook the water from your hair, you glanced up at the couch to see désiré laying on it, a smirk on his lips.

“hey” he greeted you as you dropped on the couch, mumbling back a small ‘hi’ as you kept drying your hair.

after a few seconds of silence, the boy spoke up again. “so, guéla’s got some of your clothes here?” the smirk on his lips grew bigger with every word he said.

“uh yeah? i think i left some here a few weeks ago, why?” with a confused expression, you glanced back at the younger boy. “oh, for nothing don't worry.” désiré shrugged his shoulders as he glanced back at the tv. “it’s just. . . strange.”

“strange?” the frown on your face deepened as you eyes moved from the tv to désiré. “what do you mean by strange?”

“just that it's weird that you two still call yourselves ‘friends’.” a small laugh escaped him when he heard you mumble ‘not this again’ while shaking your head.

that’s when guéla came back from his room, dressed in more comfortable and dry clothes. “what are you guys talking about?” he asked as he handed you a shirt and some sweatpants.

“dez thinks that it's ‘strange’ that you keep some of my stuff here.” you sighed as you stood up, “when we're just friends.”

“ugh not this again.” guéla groaned as he gave a light slap on the back of his brother's neck.

“okay—but think about it!" désiré sat up as he looked between you and guéla with a smile. “first of all, you guys are always texting each other—and i mean constantly!” he pointed to his brother “you don’t even text me half as much as you text her.”

“yeah cause we’re friends.” you replied as guéla sighed behind you.

“yeah yeah—then you two have a lot of inside jokes that the rest of us don’t even understand! like sometimes you’ll say something that makes him laugh and none of us get it.”

“again, it's because we’re friends.” guéla said, shaking his head. “it’s stuff from old conversations we had or videos we’ve sent each other.” he explained as you nodded along with him.

“that leads me to another thing, you guys are always together.” this time désiré stared at you, “he walks you back to your house everytime despite living in the opposite side of the city!”

quite frankly, neither you or guéla knew how to answer that one and instead just stared at each other. fine the two of you were almost never seen without the other, but it's simply because you enjoy each other's company! it certainly wasn’t because of the tiny big crush you had on him.

“and,” of course désiré wasn’t finished. “you two are always touching each other—look you’re even doing it right now!” he exclaimed as he pointed at guéla’s hand—which was currently gently wrapped around your wrist.

you felt your face heat up in embarrassment as you glanced down at where your hand intertwined with his. when you looked back up you noticed that guéla was already staring back at you, a sheepish yet soft expression on his face.

feeling yourself burn you quickly let go of his hand and grabbed the clothes set out for you before rushing to the bathroom. guéla’s hand went to the back of his neck as he rubbed the skin there, giving another slap to his brother’s head with his free hand.