William Harrington, my newly acquired wingman and friend to Felix Corbel, stared at the grid on my wall with his eyes crossing from one corner to the other, from top to bottom and with his mouth in the slight shape of an `O'. His blond curls fell almost helplessly over his ears and right to the middle of his nape. His seemingly renewed awe at the interrelatedness of every single dot on my wall shone perfectly on his dusty blue eyes. Every now and then, he'd turn his gaze to me and raise an eyebrow. In return, I'd nod toward the wall and he'd resume his scrutiny over every detail and length of each string that connected everything.

"Wow," he said the first time I took him up to my room and showed him that part of my bedroom wall. "Not only are you messed up, you're freaking crazy."

I smiled slightly from that compliment. Though his words should've struck as insulting, the tone of his voice remained friendly with a hint of absolute silliness. It was so much like Felix's voice from years ago.

"I know," I answered him and he looked to me again with that adorable smile of his.

It had been over a week since Felix punched me and walked out on me. To be fair though, I made him look like a fool by making myself feel like his saviour. So he had every right to throw that fist and leave me confused on our porch.

Surprisingly, I didn't get any crap from my three former friends – Dennis, Gregory and Patrick. They'd just glare at me, walk past me like I was the biggest scum on earth and leave me alone. They didn't say anything rude to me or even played tricks on me behind my back. They were just...there. And I wasn't even in their way.

Felix made sure not to talk to me for the rest of the week. Many times I tried to corner him and just as many, he avoided me. He either made a sharp turn around a corner, blend into some crowded hallway, hide somewhere or ignore me completely. Especially in every class I shared with him. What made it worse though was how I finally confirmed that he could feel my eyes on his back. When I stared at him for too long in any of our classes, with my desk always somewhere behind his, he'd lower his hand to his side and made it clear to me that he didn't like being stared at. He'd give me the finger.

So at best, I couldn't approach him around school. I didn't even see him with William.

Each time I went to their house to check up on him, his mom always told me that he wasn't around. I knew she was lying, but who was I to verbally accuse her of that when I also lied to her about being Felix's friend.

Sitting on my bed right now, I continued thinking of some way to reconcile with Felix. My dreams about him had worsen and he'd always disappear at the wrong time. Last night, he floated away from my chest after giving me such a raging erection only to find my sheets with a wet spot on top of my crotch. Damn him.

"I'm not sure where to start."

I turned my attention to my guest and he seemed as disappointed as I was.

"Aren't you s'posed to be my wingman?" I asked.

He looked up at me with those boyishly captivating eyes of his and made a thoughtful-looking expression. His lips curved to one end, his eyebrows furrowed unevenly and his nose wrinkled cutely.

"Felix hates your guts," he pointed out. That was pretty obvious. "I need to make you more appealing to him."

I gave him the exact same expression on his face, but it was more of disbelief. "What am I? An offering? A sacrifice to the gods?"

He giggled and answered, "If only to appease him, yeah, sure. Why not?"

I sighed loudly and he did, too.

"I'm doomed," I mumbled as I fell back on my bed with my arms spread outward.

"Huh?"

"You're barely 12," I told him. "I should be more experienced than you. But you're the one helping me."

I heard him stand up from the floor and walk toward me. He stood to my side and I looked up at him. From this angle, I could see how his curly blonde fringe fell halfway to his eyes in the most carefree way possible.

"Why do you think he liked you long ago?" he asked.

"I don't know," I admitted. "You tell me. He's the one who couldn't stop talking about me. You even said it yourself."

He shrugged and sat to my right, my arms barely wrapping around his butt.

"You were his best friend," he started. "And he told me how much he loved watching you laugh and hearing you smile."

That didn't seem right. "Uh...huh?"

William chuckled and leaned back, placing both his arms behind him to support his little weight. As he did so, his butt only moved closer to my arm and I could feel the fabric of his shorts on my skin.

"Felix is weird...really weird," he told me. "I didn't understand him at first, but now I do."

"I'm lost."

When Williams's eyes met mine, I could tell that there was mischief behind them. I could even smell his evil plot right before he turned his whole body around and started tickling the hell out of me.

I should've felt infuriated, but my laughter got the best of me. And so did William's.

Helpless, my arms flew right around him as I pulled him down and started to roll my body over his. He stopped tickling me, but we were both still laughing so hard until I saw how truly just a kid he was when he ended up under me and my chest on top of his. I could even feel his breathing through mine.

His blond curls tangled over his head and spilled on my sheets as if forming the rays of the sun itself and giving him such a messy halo. His half lidded eyes and full smiling lips were something out of a fairy-tale.

"Yep," he breathed out. "It's better to see you laughing than to actually hear it."

Ignoring what was stirring in my gut, I gave him a short chuckle but didn't think of getting off him...just yet. Amazingly, my legs, tangled with his, felt warm. And it didn't help much that we both wore shorts. But that wasn't enough. With my eyes still on him, I couldn't help seeing how the collar of his shirt dared to expose just a little bit of his shoulder.

Damn it.

"Sorry," I mumbled as I got off him and sat on my bed once again.

"What for?" he asked as he also pushed himself up to sit.

"Making you feel awkward."

He dismissed it with a, "Nah. I wrestle with Felix all the time. Back in the city, I mean."

"I like boys, William," I reminded him. "I'm not sure though, but Felix is a boy."

"So?"

I gave him a blank stare and he still didn't get what I mean.

"You're a boy. Doesn't that make you feel...awkward, wrestling like that?"

"Not a bit," he answered. "So what if we're both boys? We're also just kids."

Wow. That actually...was a new perspective for me.

"And kids wrestle all the time," he added. "Nothing awkward with that."

"Easy for you to say," I countered. "You don't get hard when you get so close to a boy."

Oh, fuck...Damn it. That wasn't supposed to come out of my mouth.

Though, I'd have to admit that only Felix ever got me hard. He was second to none. William, though...

"Oh," he sounded as I followed his gaze down to my crotch. I immediately put my hand over it and he laughed. "You mean that."

Yeah. Felix was second to none at getting me hard. And William came so close behind him.

"I get hard, too," he said and I found my eyes looking at his crotch. He wasn't hard. "Not always, but yeah."

I nodded and we soon fell into some silence as I willed my freaking dick to soften.

"What else did Felix tell you? About me?" I asked after some time.

He fell back on my bed with his arms under his head. "A lot. But I think it's best that I show you."

"What?"

"I also want to see for myself."

"You keep losing me, man," I told him. "I don't speak riddles."

He got up again and looked more enthusiastic than ever. "Simple, Chase. I want to see what made Felix like you so much."

"Still not making sense."

"You won't mind if I show you?"

I shrugged and he immediately stood up, pulled me off the bed and began dragging me downstairs.

"First lesson as a good wingman!" he shouted as we headed for the door and I just let him pull me. Looking over his shoulder to me once we were outside, he added, "I need to know you better."

Cool.

Awesome.

For the first time ever, Felix was off my mind and all my attention was wrapped around a curly blonde boy with eyes that smiled even better than his lips.

Oh crap.

William Harrington, my newly acquired wingman and friend to Felix Corbel, wasn't helping in getting rid of the confusion inside my head.

I should have stopped him before we went any further and before I began entertaining Felix's absence in my thoughts. But, William's childish laughter and eagerness to `know' me were even more powerful that the confusion in my head. Soon, we found ourselves in our neighbourhood playground and inside one of those large tubes where we sat diagonally facing each other, my right knee touching his.

"From now on," he began, "this will be our meeting place. We can discuss everything about Felix here."

"We could have stayed up in my room," I said. "Why here of all places?"

He looked at me blankly and he appeared to be arguing with himself.

"Fresh air, Chase," he said. "Your room's all...cramped and with that map on your wall, it's all too distracting."

I returned his blank expression, but didn't respond.

"So Felix told me you like listening to music."

I nodded. He took out his phone and plugged in the earphones he brought with him. He handed me one end and he put the other into his ear.

"But he likes listening more than I do," I told him.

He started fumbling with his phone and soon, he played a track which was all too familiar to me.

"Isn't this..."

"Yep," he said. "The first song you listened to, together with him."

"He told you about this?"

He nodded and we fell into silence as we let the track get to its chorus, then he started singing along. I'd have to admit, his voice was nice to hear, but Felix's was better. And regardless of how inviting he sounded, it didn't get me singing along with him.

"You're not singing," he said.

"Don't feel like it."

He shook his head and paused the track. "Let me hear you sing."

"What? Why?"

"Coz Felix liked it so much when you sing."

That was new. Felix didn't tell me that he liked hearing me sing. In fact, I didn't like hearing myself sing. I sounded awful at best.

"C'mon, Chase. Sing with me."

I needed a little more push. I couldn't just sing and deep in my heart, I knew that it would defeat the song's meaning if I sang it together with William. I only wanted to sing it with Felix.

He sighed in frustration and skipped to the next song.

"You played this a million times before, right?" he asked. "Is it okay if we play it, too?"

"Play what?"

"Guess the lyrics."

He un-paused the song and handed me his phone. "I go first. Pause it anytime you like."

I wasn't sure if he knew the rest of the song and was about to cheat, but I didn't mind. The song started with a few beats of some percussion before a throaty but cool voice began singing. I didn't know what song it was. After a few more seconds, I hit pause and waited for him to guess the next word.

"I love you," he whispered and that got all my attention on him.

"What?"

He still had that blank expression on his face and his dusty blue eyes were far too clouded and shadowed for me to infer what was on his mind.

"I love you," he repeated, making my heat skip a beat. "That's my guess."

"Oh...uhm," I mumbled. "Right. Uhh..." I hit play and we both listened to the words that followed.

The song went on like this:

I know I love you and you love the sea
But what holy water contains a little drop, little drop for me

"I got it," he said with a smile. "Your turn."

"How do I know you're not cheating? I bet you know all the songs in here."

He unplugged the earphones from his phone and gave it to me, saying, "I'll play something from your lists. That way, you can say we're both cheating."

I shrugged and plugged it into my phone, gave it to him before he hit shuffle and play.

Despite having lots of songs on my phone, I didn't know every single one. I'd put lots of songs in there and would listen to them at some other time. However, that didn't afford me the exact time needed to listen and be familiar with each one.

"This sounds cool," he remarked as the song started. I knew this song, but I didn't know all the lyrics.

It took him more than a minute, almost two, to hit pause. I could tell that he liked the song and was lost in the lyrics. I, too, was lost within the words that could possibly follow when the song paused.

"So?"

"Let me think," I told him. "Uhm...letting go?"

He pressed play, and surely, I got the lyrics right.

"That's quite...powerful," he commented as the song resumed playing. "Did you ever think like that?"

"You mean, letting go?"

"Yeah. You know, just moving forward and all."

A million times, yes. But he didn't need to know that. Besides, actually letting go was so much different than just thinking about doing it. And for Felix, I'd never be brave enough to let go.

"Felix said you took everything seriously," he said. "Each line of lyrics, it was you who gave meaning to it."

"I did that?"

He nodded and we fell into listening to the rest of the song.

"It's not easy to run, huh," he mumbled and I nodded. The next song played in the background of both our thoughts and words. "Are you sure you just like Felix?"

"Very sure," I answered, more to reassure myself than him.

"Did you ever think that you just have a crush on him?"

"That's what it means, doesn't it? Me liking him."

"Felix said a lot more about that."

"Like what?"

He shifted closer to me and into a more comfortable position perhaps. I absently moved a bit further from him, feeling uncomfortable with how close our legs were to each other. His skin felt disturbingly soft on mine.

"He went into therapy coz he was scared of the idea that he actually...had feelings for you deeper than just being his crush."

"You mean..."

"He didn't like thinking that he loved you. He couldn't take it so he started deleting you."

"Deleting me?" I asked incredulously.

"That's what he said. You were too much for him."

"That doesn't make sense."

He shrugged and said, "For him, it does. Boys aren't s'posed to like boys. He believed so much in that."

"But...why?"

"It's the rules of the game, Chase. He can't be in love with a boy, so much more with his best friend."

In the years I've grown up with Felix, not once did we say to each other that we were the best of friends. Thinking back to those days, I did actually treat him as my best friend, but I wasn't bothered to call him that. We acted like best friends and that was enough. There was no need to actually say it out loud.

"Uhm..."

"But you know what rules are for?" William asked eagerly. "For breaking."

That was...true. Rules are good only when someone broke them. Without that much excitement, rules were useless.

"You're breaking the rules, Chase," he said. "And I'll help you so Felix can break it, too."

"Yeah. Thanks."

He suddenly held his pinky up to me and said, "Pinky swear."

It was so childish for us to be doing that and we could've done a blood oath instead, but a pinky swear is a pinky swear.

"Okay," I told him and crossed my pinky with his. His dusty blue eyes shone a little and his cheeky grin held so much promise bound to his word. I knew right then that I could trust him completely.

"One other thing," he uttered. "Felix told me that you have a huge penis."

Okay... "WHAT?"

William laughed so hard that he slid on his back and lay curled on the ground inside the large tube we were in. His legs bent upward and his lithe body rocked with joyous laughter.

"He didn't even see me naked!" I protested.

"You sure about that?" he asked once he got hold of his chuckles.

"Very sure," I told him. "And I only got as far as seeing him in briefs."

That got him a lot more curious.

"I wonder..."

"Oh, no. No, no, no..."

"Relax, dude. That's a pretty big compliment, you know. No puns."

"Fuck you!"

"No thanks."

What irritated me more was how I ended up laughing with him as well. And, being the boy he was, he quickly stole a glance to my crotch before jumping on me and ending up on top of me. He was breathing quite hard and we were both sweating by now. I struggled to get him off me, but he was as good as a dead weight.

"See?" he mumbled.

"See what?"

"I get hard, too."

Oh that was a statement coming from him. He made sure to rub his groin so hard on mine that I could feel his full-blown erection which instantly got me hard as well.

"I thought you're not gay," I whispered, eyeing him like I was frightened for my own life.

"So?"

"Why the hell do you have a hard-on?"

He shrugged and pushed himself up a little, bent his head down to look through the narrow gap between my chest and his, down to our crotches rubbing against each other.

He surely wasn't helping my case. He only drove me further into the deep end of the water where I felt sure that I'd drown in all the messed up thoughts clashing in my head. When he looked back to me, moving ever so slightly upward against my chest, his blonde hair falling gently on my cheeks and his dusty blue eyes meeting mine, I couldn't help myself, even if it was wholly unintentional, to brush my lips on his.

And it wasn't just a timid and quick peck.

Surprisingly, he gripped on my shirt and returned the kiss with equal force that I initially gave it. Our lips were pressed so tightly, yet I felt that there was still so much space in between our noses. I could smell his sweat and it was so good that it sent my body shivering from that touch and from how hot the weather really was. Unmindful of my own actions, I embraced him and pulled him closer. He started teasing with his clothed erection rubbing on mine and his smooth legs burning my own.

Damn it. William Harrington knew how to kiss.

No tongues, just tight pressed lips. Yet it was enough to make me want to hold on to him for as long as I could. Sadly, the kiss didn't last.

He pulled away, my arms still wrapped around him and his flushed cheeks holding such a wonderful smile.

"Felix didn't say anything about kissing you," he mumbled. "But you need lots more practice."

I gave him a weird look and he giggled.

He didn't get off of me. Instead, he moved downward and rested his head on my chest. I could tell by how intimately close he was listening that he could hear the missing beats of my heart.

"Guess what," he said.

"What?"

"I think I know now why Felix liked you so much."

"And that is?"

In a much lower voice, but not in a whisper, he answered, "You're Chase Logan."

"That's it?" I asked, feeling stupid and lost.

"That's all you need to be."

And William Harrington who lay on top of me, my erection slowly fading and his in between my thighs, just divided my confused thoughts into two. On one side was Felix Corbel. On the other was no other than a dusty blue eyed, blonde, cheeky and flustered boy who, by now, insisted that I call him...