The pizza was gone, and so was Eric's shirt. Now, don't get me wrong, he had spilled tomato sauce on it, and we don't really have the same size in clothes, so he had to stick to being shirtless. His shirt had been completely ruined by the sauce, at the moment it was in the washing machine. My house wasn't the warmest in town, so we both had cuddled up under tons of blankets. I had even brought my duvet as the blankets wasn't enough. Eric was still shaking slightly. I scooted closer to give him more of my body heat, so close that I almost sat in his lap. I hoped that he didn't mind me being this close, and if he did mind, he didn't say anything.

Some action movie played in the background, causing the interior to cast weird, flickering shadows. I wasn't paying attention to it. Eric was too eye catching. His eyes were shining and his mouth was slightly open due to his concentration on the film. I found myself blush as I realised how creepy I am. Nobody stares at their best friend like I did. Well, unless you're one of those couples that say "you're my best friend, and that's why I'm in love with you" or something sappy like that. I jumped when I felt a weight on my waist. In surprise and disbelief I glanced at Eric. If I didn't know better I would say that he was blushing. He put his arm around my waist, his eyes staying focused on the television. Neither of us said anything. Instead we both stayed silent. A warm feeling spread in my chest, this didn't have to mean anything, it made me happy nonetheless.

It had been almost a week since the incident at the party. Eric and I had gone back to our usual routines, but it had been awhile since the last time we had hung out at my house like this, even before the party. When we last met up after school it was because we both had a shift at Millie's. We had eaten, talked and then worked together for almost three hours. But we hadn't hung out like this for almost a month, and honestly? I missed it.

The warmth, Eric's presence and my full stomach was slowly making me feel sleepy. Gradually I felt my eyes shut. My body became limper and soon I was laying on Eric's shoulder. I was too tired to care. Just as I felt myself drifting off to sleep, the television became quiet and a weight appeared on my head.

I fell asleep with a smile.

When I woke up, I was comfortable, but warm. The room was dark, the only sound I heard was the soft snores of Eric. We were laying down on the sofa, his body splayed across my own, our feet were tangled together in a way that not so subtly pressed the body parts against each other. His head was in the crook of my neck, the small puffs of air on my skin making me shiver. Eric's arms were around me, holding me close to his chest. It was paradise. The body contact, the small puffs of breaths on my skin, my exploding bladder...

Paradise shattered.

"Eric. Eric? Wake up! I need to pee," I whisper-yelled in his ear. He groaned, shifting slightly, but didn't show any sign of letting me go. I began to squirm in his arms. This was not good. For either of us.

"ERIC!" I said, louder and harsher than before. He finally forced his eyes open. With a loud groan he sat up. I wasted no time as I shot up and ran to the bathroom, leaving him sleepy and completely confused on the sofa.

A couple of minutes later, I emerged from the bathroom. Something smelt familiar. Pancakes. When walking into the kitchen, I was met by the sight of Eric's naked back. Right. His shirt. Only then, I heard the faint beeping from the washing-machine. That was not boding well. As I was struck by realisation I sprinted to the laundry room, throwing the washer open.

"Shit," the shirt was completely ruined. I smelt awful and it had shrunk, probably to my size. My dad wasn't much larger than me, so this was a tricky situation. Not quite literally as his shirt, apart from being shrunk, had actually gotten rid of the tomato sauce.

Back in the kitchen Eric was still flipping pancakes, not aware that he no longer had a white shirt waiting for him. My footsteps were soft, but somehow he seemed to have managed to hear them. He turned around with a large smile. My hands began to shake.

"Ready for breakfast?" Eric asked chirply. I nodded sheepishly, clasping my hands together to stop them from shaking. The pancakes were soon stacked in a large pile, drenched in golden syrup. Eric even poured me a cup of chocolate milk. I ate the food happily, until:

"What's on your mind? You have been shaking your leg, like for 5 minutes already," Eric said, making me look at him with a mouth full of mushed pancakes. He was grinning, which turned into a laugh. "You have chocolate milk-mustache." I blushed and wiped my mouth with my bare arm. Eric rolled his eyes at me. "Are you a kid? Don't wipe it away with your sleeve!" he scolded and handed me a napkin.

"You're not my mom," I muttered under my breath, but accepted the cloth to wipe my arm. He heard me however, which earned me a small nudge on my arm.

"Speaking of which... can I have my shirt back? It's kinda chilly," he said with a lopsided grin. I started to blush. Twiddling with my shaking fingers I answered:

"Uhm... I may or may not have... shrunk it?" My toes were red, slightly dry and suddenly very interesting. My hands began to shake again, worse this time. Why am I so shaky?

"You what?" he sounded mad, shit. I've made him angry. My hands shook uncontrollably and my face managed to heat up even more.

"We... uhm... fell asleep before it was clean... and because of that... it shrunk," my eyes burned, I was afraid that he would leave like he did that time two weeks ago. If I remember correctly he loved that shirt. He would totally leave me. He would not come back. This was the end of our friendship. I hadn't even noticed that I had started to cry, until his arms were around me.

"Shh. Lucas, it's ok. What's up? Why are you sad? I didn't even like that shirt. It is okay."

"I-I'm j-just r-really..." I couldn't complete my sentence. I wasn't sure how to. What was I supposed to say? Various of options flooded my mind "I'm in love with you." "I'm scared of upsetting you." "I'm scared of losing you.". The list goes on. I wasn't sure why I was upset, it didn't make sense. I had never reacted this badly to something so insignificant. He kept on shushing me, stroking my back in circles. My hands were still shaking.

After a couple of minutes, that felt like hours, my cries finally ceased to exist. We had ended up on the floor; I was in his lap, his arm were around me with a firm, protective grip. I felt exhausted. We sat like that for god knows how long. Until Eric whispered: "Want to buy ice cream?" I snorted at him.

"It's almost december." I announced, feeling his body shake with laughter.

"So? That didn't stop us last week!" Last week we had gotten milkshakes at our local junk-food place, and it had been freezing. I shook my head stubbornly at him.

"There's no way that I'll make myself go through that again!

Half an hour later, I held a chocolate ice cream in my hand, glaring at my best friend. Eric was eating happily on his own next to me. He chose some weird lemon and mint flavour. What kind of ice cream flavour even is that? Sounds like a flavour of a chewing gum to me. We had managed to find a sweatshirt in my wardrobe that wasn't all too tight on him, even if his winter jacket made it way easier to look at him without drifting towards... hrm... his restrained torso.

The small shop was chilly, although compared to the outside, warm. It was almost completely empty in the shop. Eric and I was the only ones except a mom and her two children. The mom was wearing a distressed expression, albeit her children seemed happy enough. An ice cream each may be the cause of that.

I sighed and took a spoon-full of chocolatey creaminess and stuffed it into my mouth. As I let it melt on my tongue, my eyes were stuck on Eric. Somehow he always seemed to appear perfect, even with all of the junk he eats. He almost never had zits, and when he did have them, they were too small to actually draw any attention. Big contrast to my big, red ones that I had from time to time, usually when I needed to look good. Like that one I had on his birthday party all those months ago. It still made me shiver.

Anyway, I guess it had to be because Eric was so active. As I have mentioned before, he was the captain of the American football team. When he wasn't with me, at Millies, in class or sleeping, he was training. And I, well, I usually just did what I needed to do, homeworks and such, and the rest of the time I spent with my friends, on the computer or sleeping. Not a specifically healthy lifestyle as you might have guessed. Something was jabbed in my side, making me jump away with a shriek. Eric looked sheepishly at me, his finger raised in a pointing manner.

"Why'd you do that for?" I gasped with a hand over my heart. He gave me a silly smile, and retracted his hand.

"I've been calling you for almost a minute. Your ice cream is melting," as I looked down on my ice cream I realised he was right. The chocolate was dripping down the sides of the fancy glass, and the napkin I had put underneath it was soaked.

"Oops."

With flushed cheeks, I walked up to the counter and took a large pile of napkins. Eric was full on laughing at me as I got back. I scowled at him and wiped away the sticky mess that had once been my ice cream. What a waste, I was not that sad that the ice cream was gone, but chocolate was chocolate and it should never be wasted.

Eric bought me another one before we left.