"Specs," he said as I picked up the phone. It never ceased to amaze me how he always knew it was me, before I even said anything.
"Hey, Skitts, what's up?" I pushed away from my computer desk, stretching in the chair.
"We need to talk." There was a quality to his voice that told me something wasn't quite right.
"Okay, well, what's going on?"
"No, not on the phone. In person." He sighed, his cell phone crackling a little.
"Um... well, I guess we could do that. Where do you want to meet?" I stood up and slipped into my shoes, looking around for my sweatshirt.
"I'm at your house." I walked over to my window and looked through the rain-streaked pane, and sure enough, Skittery was standing on my front porch, thoroughly soaked.
"Jeeze, Skitts, why didn't you ring the bell? I'll be out in a second." I hung up the phone and headed out the front door, shaking my head. "You're going to catch pneumonia. How long have you been out here?"
"I don't know. Ten minutes, maybe?" He shoved his cell phone back in his pocket, looking over his shoulder at his beat-up Mustang parked on the street. "I got out of my car and came up to the door and I was going to knock and then I thought maybe I should rethink things and then I stood and thought about it and then I figured I should call you to make sure you were even home..."
"Why didn't you get back in your car?"
"Didn't think of it, I guess." He shrugged, looking down at his shoes.
"Skittery, you are out of your mind." I laughed a little, but my smile faded as I looked more closely at his face. "So what's going on?"
"I... well... see, Specs, the thing is, I've got this thing for you." Skittery shuffled his feet awkwardly, bit his lower lip. "Actually, I guess it's more than just a thing. You're everything I've ever wanted in somebody and I never thought that I'd find that in another guy, let alone you, y'know, seeing as you're, like, practically my brother or something..." He ran his hand through his dripping hair, shaking his head to get the water out of his eyes. "But you make me happy. In a different way than the rest of my friends do. You make me laugh, you make me feel better when everything just goes to shit. You make me feel good about who I am, and nobody else has ever been able to do that for me."
I just stood, staring, with my mouth hanging open. I couldn't believe the words he was saying. He looked back at me and sighed.
"Look, Specs, the thing is... I love you. And I need you to love me back."
There was more silence on my end. No words could form. I had what I wanted to say on the tip of my tongue, but it just wouldn't come out - my mouth moved like it was trying to shape words, but there was no sound.
Skittery bit his lip again and nodded, turning to head back through the rain toward his car.
"Okay," I said finally, when he was halfway across the lawn.
"Okay?" He turned back around. He blinked at me, as if in disbelief.
"It doesn't sound too hard." And with that, I walked through the pouring rain to where he stood, and pressed my lips to his.