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it started with hyde hanging out with julia at her house, sometime on a cold december afternoon.
"are you sure i should ask him out, julia?" hyde questioned, picking at the carpet on the floor anxiously. he didn't want to ruin things with luke, considering they've been best friends for a while.
"duh! have you seen the way he looks at you?? he obviously wants you back!" the blonde answered, sitting crisscrossed across from hyde, twirling her curly hair excitedly.
hyde wasn't sure why she was so excited to help him with this, considering his crush on luke was one of the top 5 most embarrassing things to ever happen to him.
he also didn't know if what julia was saying was true or not. considering he, in fact, has not seen whatever way luke looks at him (if there even is a certain way).
"and besides, it's not like he'll stop being friends with you, by the slim chance that he doesn't like you back." she added, reassuring his unsaid worries.
what the hell? is she like, a mind reader or something? the brunette thought, before realizing he should probably answer julia instead of staring off into space like a total moron.
"uh... i still don't think he likes me back like that. he's way out of my league!" hyde finally replied,
"and like, funny, handsome, and..."
julia cuts him off.
"i get it! anyways, hyde, you. are. stupid." she pokes him in the forehead with her pointer finger with every word.
"he totally likes you back." she replied easily, being used to him talking about luke as if he hung the moon and stars.
with the way she says it, so determined and serious, hyde believes it for a second.
he lets himself hope, hope that luke likes him back, hope that julia is correct.
(even though she always is, he's not going to tell her that and feed her ego).
"i guess so..." the brunette says, still unsure.
"so. you'll never truly know his feelings, if you don't do something about yours! you need to confess to him." she asserted.
"you're right... but how am i supposed to do that??”
“text him and ask him to meet you at the park or something!”
“that’s so cliche.” hyde rolled his eyes, julia had clearly watched one too many hallmark movies or something.
“it’ll work! would i lie to you?”
hyde thinks she has a good point there, but he’s still hesitant.
“look, just say fuck it and confess to him at the park. if anything goes wrong, which i doubt, i’ll be here for you.” she convinced him.
the brunette took a deep breath, and sighed.
“fine, but if something goes wrong, it’s your fault and i’ll hate you forever.”
“sure you will. now text him!”
hyde pulls his phone out of his pocket, and unlocks it using his thumbprint.
he opens his messages app, and opens his chat with luke.
he stares at his phone anxiously, not knowing what to type.
“stop thinking so loud! just ask him to go to the park at a certain time, it’s not rocket science.”
okay, seriously, how does she do that everytime?
hyde is thinking back to his theory from a few minutes ago, about julia being a mind reader, but then he remembers how stupid that is.
he works up the courage to start typing, thumbs moving across the phone’s keyboard.
julia notices this, and gives him a quick thumbs-up, before going on her own phone to doomscroll instagram reels.
“hey. r u free 2day? if so, can u meet me at the park at 3:30? need 2 talk 2 u abt sumthing.”
hyde knows it’s a bit of a cluttered message, but he doesn’t know if he could stand to double text at the moment, or even look at a response.
he’s also 99 percent sure that luke is free, because when he isn’t hanging out with hyde, he doesn’t do much.
hyde feels like he’s going to throw up.
he’s not sure why he only gave himself 30 minutes to get ready to go to the park.
he hits send.
and very eloquently, in a mannerly fashion,
throws his phone across the room.
sees it hit the edge of julia’s vanity, and fall to the floor.
well, shit.
hyde stares at the phone on the ground.
julia whips her head up, not so immersed in her phone anymore.
her gaze meets hyde’s phone, lying on the floor, screen protector cracked.
“hyde!!! what was that all about? what’d you even say to him?”
“...i texted him asking to meet at the park. like you recommended.”
“that does not warrant throwing your phone, it’s not that risky of a text at all! you guys hangout almost everyday.”
“i got anxious, okay??”
“whatever, you better go pick that up and see if he answered.”
hyde awkwardly kind of scoots across the floor to retrieve his phone.
he grabs it, returning to his spot on the floor.
he sees a text message notification from luke.
“he texted back and i’m scared to look.”
“y’know, you can be such a drama queen. just open it.”
so, hyde does as told yet again, because he can’t just sit there all day with it unread.
“Nah im not busy” followed up with,
“Ill see you there?”
hyde types up a quick reply,
“yeah dude, cya”
he’s totally not anxious. his stomach doesn’t hurt right now.
he’s hoping he doesn’t look as nervous as he is internally.
clearly, he does, because julia then says:
“calm down, loverboy. i’m not sure what you’re even nervous about, he feels the same way.” she reiterates her point from a few minutes before.
“okay. i still doubt that, but okay. i’ve gotta meet him at the park in…”
he checks his phone.
“15 minutes.”
“well, you better get to walking!”
“yeah.”
hyde pockets his phone, stands up from his spot on the floor, and starts heading towards the door to the hallway.
“see you around, hyde! good luck on your park date! tell me all about it when it’s over!!”
“how could i not? you’d beg for the details anyway.”
“well yeah, i’m the one that gave you this genius idea!”
“okay then… bye, julia!”
“go get em’, tiger!”
he gives a nervous half smile, and walks out of her room.
he walks down the hallway, to the front door.
grabs his shoes that were sitting by the front door, and puts them on.
he walks out the front door, onto the porch, beginning his walk to the park.
“it’s cold as fuck, oh my god.” he murmurs to himself, regretting not wearing a coat.
he checks his phone again, it’s 3:22.
he walks around for a few minutes, eventually reaching the park.
where he sees luke from a distance, already waiting for him, sitting on a bench.
luke notices him, and waves him over, patting the spot next to him.
hyde walks over, and sits down next to luke.
“hey, hyde! hows it going, man? you said you had to talk to me about something?”
“hey, dude!” hyde tries to respond back with equal fervor, but he’s nervous.
did he mention he’s nervous? because he really is.
if luke notices, he doesn’t point it out.
“yeah, uh, it’s going okay. but yeah, i've gotta tell you something…”
“what's up?”
luke puts a hand on hyde’s shoulder, reassuringly.
it doesn’t do much to help, but hyde likes the attention.
hyde takes a deep breath, feeling like he’s done that way too often today.
he turns to face luke.
“i… like you. like, romantically. i wanna be more than friends.”
the shock on luke’s face is apparent. but it’s mixed with some other expression hyde doesn’t know how to decode.
with no response for a few seconds, the brunette starts rambling. it’s a bad habit he has, when he’s in distress.
“and i know that we’re best friends and i know you probably don’t like me like that and i’m sorry and this is totally weird and i shouldn’t have even said anythi-”
luke cuts him off by pulling the collar of hyde’s shirt, and kissing him.
it’s not hyde’s first kiss, but it’s his first kiss with luke, and it’s shocking nonetheless.
it’s not what other people would call perfect. but, when has hyde ever cared about what others call perfect?
the angle’s a bit messed up, and luke is clearly inexperienced.
it’s luke, and luke is perfect to him, and that’s all that matters.
he pulls away from hyde, and the kiss is over way too soon, in hyde’s honest opinion.
“sorry, i should’ve asked.” luke averts his gaze away from hyde, picking at lint on his jeans.
“no, no it’s okay! it’s just… does this mean you like me?”
“what, do you think i go around kissing everybody?” luke quips, his tone sarcastic.
“well, i’d hope not.” hyde puts his hand over his mouth and giggles.
“also, yes, i like you too. romantically.” luke adds, with a shy grin.
“i guess julia was right, then.” hyde muttered.
“wait, julia??” luke looked at hyde in confusion.
“yeah. she kinda gave me the whole park idea, and she said that you obviously had a crush on me. sadly, i’ve gotta give her some credit.”
“i didn’t know it was obvious.” luke was pink in the face, and hyde was pretty sure it wasn’t from the cold.
hyde thought luke looked cute before, (much more than cute), but he made a personal note to make luke blush more often.
“to everyone besides me, apparently.”
“well, atleast you know now.”
“yeah, i guess so.”
“so, what does this mean for us? do you wanna be my boyfriend?”
“yes.” hyde said, too quickly to be anything but desperate-sounding.
he fake-coughed. “ahem. i mean. yeah. i guess so.”
“okay, whatever, guess we’re boyfriends, then.” luke said, mimicking hyde.
“shut up.” hyde playfully shoved him a bit, trying not to smile, but inevitably failing.
hyde hears his phone make a ding! noise, and pulls it out of his pocket.
a text from julia, saying,
"Hope it's going well ;)."
hyde's face flushed, embarassed.
luke notices hyde's cracked phone screen,
"what happened to your phone??"
hyde waves an indifferent hand.
"that's unimportant.", he pockets his phone.
"cmon, tell me!!
"...i might've threw it across the room when i texted you asking to meet here."
luke burst out laughing, and hyde felt every worry in his body go away, somehow.
god, does liking someone just take away all your iq points? he needs to stop waxing poetic about luke.
"that's so ridiculous!!" luke, the drama queen he is, (hyde does not at all think about how julia called him a drama queen earlier) kept laughing, wiping fake tears from his eyes.
"shush!!" hyde gently pushed him again.
he would definitely have to tell julia about all of this soon. but for now, he enjoyed the moment in the park with his best friend.
(boyfriend, he corrected himself, and wow, it felt strange for him to call luke that. but, he could totally get used to it.)