#tobythehuffle

I. He thought about Toby a lot, after that first time, by the lake. About Toby, and about the kiss. Mostly about him, though, his messed up hair, the way he bit his lip, the blush that seemed to spread across his face pretty consistently. And it wasn’t like Kyle had never had a crush before, or even never had a crush on a boy. He’d just never really done anything about it, not like that. Despite all the stupid things he did without thinking, he had never asked someone out. And now he had and now he had a date and now he had to make that date perfect so that Toby didn’t realize how much of a loser he was, and decide not to be interested in him anymore.II. He saw Toby in the great hall at breakfast, talking to some of his friends, laughing at some joke that was probably hilarious. Or not, it didn’t really matter to him. Even if he had been sitting at the Hufflepuff table close enough to hear whatever it was, he doubted he would have been paying enough attention to the actual joke. But then he was jostled by one of his classmates, who clapped him on the back and started talking about how damn good the sausage was this morning, and he bit his lip, turning to his friend, and nodding with a smile.III. “Kyle. Kyle. Kyle.” His friend had been poking him for at least five minutes.  He had been staring into the teacup sitting on the table in front of them, not paying any attention to the leaves at all. “What’s wrong with you today, spaceman?” He laughed, and shook his head. Nothing was wrong. IIII. It wasn’t like they hadn’t been talking, or anything. They had been. A lot. Possibly more than a lot. More than just talking, too. But there was something about it that he could never really get off his mind. Hanging out in his dorm, eating lunch, walking to class. IIII. “Hey Frances?” He asked, leaning his head on the library table. She was doing some homework, or something, he wasn’t even sure, because he wasn’t paying attention, because, he was thinking about Toby.  “When is it appropriate to ask someone to be your boyfriend? Like is there a set time where that becomes appropriate or are you just supposed to wait for the other person to do it? Do you even know anything about boys? I mean, despite the fact that you’re hopelessly single, and all..” She smacked him on the head with a book. “Ow.” IIIII. Kyle often hoped he wasn’t distracting Toby from his prefect duties, or his studies, or anything more important. But right now, he didn’t even care. It was one of those stupid, almost couple-y feeling moments, where they didn’t even have to be doing anything for it to feel.. He wasn’t sure exactly how it felt, but whatever it was was good. They were lying on top of Kyle’s bed, well. Kyle was lying, and Toby was sitting, cross legged, doing an essay because the incentive he had been given was that Kyle would help him with it, or he would help Kyle, even though both of them knew that the real reason was mostly, almost purely, actually, the opportunity to make out. “Do you want to.. Um..” He paused, sitting up, and taking Toby’s quill and paper out of his hands, to get his full attention. “Do you maybe want to be my boyfriend?”

The final time, was at Danielle’s Christmas party. Toby had taken a turn with the conversation several times. The more alcohol he’d consumed the more he’d question Rhett, or show lack of confidence. After a while Rhett rolled his eyes, and kissed the other boy, just to shut him up.