Room 307, Tuesday Evening

[dollpocalypse]

So for Topher, today had been noteworthy due to a variety of circumstances, the most obvious of which being:

1.) His best friend was apparently a world-famous political blogger who'd saved a whole bunch of kids' lives
2.) Said best friend had just been forced to go into hiding to avoid being killed by a Belgian psychopath
3.) Topher's room was still full of paint fumes, and
4.) It was his sixteenth birthday.

As a result of all of that, plus the portal-lag that came from the round-trip excursion to Peter's universe, Topher was just a little bit exhausted by the time he got back to his room in the evening. Too exhausted, in fact, to indulge in his usual birthday tradition of a cupcake and a couple rounds of laser tag at the nearest arena. So instead, by the time he got to his room, he flopped down on his bed to try to repress concerns about Peter by playing Tetris on his phone.

At least he was kicking ass at it, so, you know, there was that.

[[open! billy | dave | kenzi | ben ]]

Comments

[dollpocalypse]

"Totally was," Topher agreed. "You're. Like. Kind of the coolest," he blurted out.

[selfhelphero]

Aaaaand now Billy was blushing wildly, ducking his head down to try to hide it a little. "I don't know about that. I'd settle for being pretty cool," he said.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher shook his head. "Coolest," he repeated, with certainty. "I mean, with the -- and the --" Topher, try not to hit something with all that hand-flailing. "You're just really cool," he summed up.

[selfhelphero]

"With the cupcakes and the...other thing?" Look, he wasn't sure if the word kiss would be too much for Topher, with all the flailing.

[dollpocalypse]

"And the..." Topher wrung his hands. "Billyness."

Eloquent.

[selfhelphero]

"I'm sure my mother will be proud that you're happy with how I am," Billy said with a laugh.

[dollpocalypse]

Topher tilted his head, still sort of grinning a little. "Your mom knows about me?"

[selfhelphero]

"She knows you're a friend of mine. She doesn't, um, know what kind of friend," Billy admitted. "I kind of haven't--I mean, I think she knows. About me and all. My dad too. They're smart and--I'm kind of hoping they'll talk to me about it before I have to talk to them."

[dollpocalypse]

Topher paused, mulling that over. "Oh! About the -- guy thing?"

Not being especially close to his own parents, it had never quite occured to him that that would be something a teenager would tell his parents about, okay? Shut up.

"Yeah. I mean. Maybe they want to give you, um, space to tell them yourself, or something?" That sounded like a thing people did, right?

[selfhelphero]

"Maybe. I'm going to tell them, I'm just waiting for the right moment. I guess," Billy said. "It's easier not seeing them every day."

[dollpocalypse]

"Definitely," Topher agreed. "I mean, your parents probably think you're awesome, 'cause you are, so maybe it won't be that hard?" Shh, he was trying to help.

[selfhelphero]

That set Billy off on blushing all over again. "I think you're pretty awesome too. For the record."

[dollpocalypse]

And Topher was back to grinning too. "Good," he said, "'Cause, um. Equally, um, matching... levels of awesomeness, those are, like. A thing. For. People who. You know. People."

[selfhelphero]

"People who are...kind of more than friends?" Billy suggested as casually as he could manage.

[dollpocalypse]

"That," Topher managed, pointing squarely at Billy's chest.