Everyone wished him a good recovery. They also wished him to drive carefully. It had been a few days since his accident, so he'd gotten a car similar to the one he had through his insurance.
In the parking lot, he closed the door and let out a heavy sigh, burying his face in the steering wheel he held with his trembling hands, feeling so cold.
For the rest of the meeting, he avoided crossing paths with Dante again. As far as he remembered, the two of them weren't close. As far as he remembered, Dante wasn't close to anyone in the business beyond professional relationships. So why did he treat him so closely, as if they were good friends?
He thought about calling his best friend to ask if he could go to his place and visit him, but he chose to skip that step and go straight to his apartment, knowing he was on his days off before having to fly to New York for work. He quickly went to a convenience store to buy some snacks, his beloved Coca-Cola, and some drinks for his friend so he wouldn't arrive empty-handed. He had too many things to tell him, and he might even ask if they could have a few drinks and spend the night there like old times.
Since they met in high school, they have become inseparable. Kyle had a serene, calm personality, while Evan had fear in his eyes but an immense light that never left him.
In those days of middle school, Evan was a lonely, shy boy. Kyle was the one sitting next to him every class, and one day he decided to talk to him and became his first friend.
Kyle was the one who invited him to join the drama club in high school, hoping Evan could make more friends and not be alone, thinking it could help him to gain more confidence when performing on stage. When they entered college, Kyle chose to major in photography, which had always been his passion since he was little. He got a scholarship for his studies, and they grew apart a bit at the time due to how busy they both were at school. However, every time they had free time, they would meet up, as they had become his only family.
Kyle grew up with his grandmother. His parents died when he was too young to remember them, and his grandfather followed them when he was in elementary school. In high school, Kyle's grandmother fell ill and passed away.
Evan, on the other hand, even though his parents were still alive... was as if he were an orphan. To his parents, he was never more than a nuisance, an accident, a mistake, a disaster because the damn contraceptive failed and chained them to a life they never wanted with his imminent arrival in this world.
Perhaps that's why they became so close from the moment they met, because people who suffer are the most perceptive to the pain of others. They were both lonely children without families, so they became their only family, like brothers who could never be separated, even if they didn't share blood ties.
Since they were adults and both were busy with their jobs, they would go to each other's place to sleep over when they had problems and needed to vent and talk to someone. If it was a Friday or the weekend, it became a rule to arrive at each other's house with some snacks and then watch a movie together and stay up all night like two kids having a sleepover.
Neither of them had many friends, and they knew each other's work schedules well. They talked almost daily, even if it was just through texts. So Evan was sure that, at that moment, his best friend would be preparing a meal in his minimalist kitchen.
And just like that, he arrived, as was his custom, at the door of his friend's apartment with his bag of snacks and drinks ready in one hand.
"Kyle! Are you there? I've got some snacks and some drinks to share with my dearest friend," he crooned as he cheerfully tapped the back of his hand, keeping the same rhythm he always did when knocking on someone's door.
He heard his friend's voice in the distance and managed to hear another voice. It then dawned on him that maybe it wasn't a good idea to show up unannounced, knowing that his friend now had a partner and could perhaps interrupt his privacy. He completely forgot that his friend, with zero social life, was now in a relationship and was obviously going to be spending time with his boyfriend.
However, it would have been better if that had been the case, if only Kyle had been there with his boyfriend alone.
When his friend opened the door and saw a head of black hair in the distance, he wished the earth would swallow him up to avoid such an embarrassing moment.
"Hey, Evan. What are you doing here? Come in." He stepped aside and laughed softly when he saw his friend's face. "If you had told me you were coming, I would have told these two to go somewhere else. If you want, we can go somewhere else," he said with a little embarrassment.
"It's okay, it doesn't matter," he spoke on autopilot with his poker face on.
The tall, blond guy suddenly jumped up and approached him, while the one with the messy hair just looked up and stared at him in silence.
"Hey, Evan! It's good to see you. We've met before, but I heard you were in an accident and have amnesia now, so maybe you don't remember me. Nice to meet you, my name is Ryan Carter, and I promise to give Kyle the whole world."
Too outgoing and enthusiastic...
He looked like a golden retriever happily wagging its tail in the air.
Kyle scolded him for the last thing he said, with his cheeks completely red, while the tall blond just laughed, affirming it was the truth.
"Oh, and before you ask. This lab mole isn't your stalker," he pointed at Liam, who was at the table with some papers, and scolded him for calling him that. "I want to modify one of my brother's company's products, but the engineers called me crazy and dismissed my idea without even looking at it. Although it may not seem like it, Liam is a genius at all of this, so he's helping me with the mechanics. He won a lot of robotics competitions when he was younger, you know? And the weirdo now is studying medicine even though he's a nerd for everything tech-related."
Liam sighed and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, revealing his face and green eyes.
"What he said, I'm helping him improve the design of one of his proposals. I didn't know you were coming." He nervously scratched the back of his neck and looked away. "But I think we're in the way, so we'd better go somewhere else, Ryan…"
A nervous Evan interrupted him.
"No, no, no. It was my fault for showing up unannounced. You guys go on with your things. I'm just going to steal some of my dear Kyle's attention." He waved his hands effusively while hiding his nerves behind a smile. "By the way, I brought snacks and drinks." He bent down to pick up the bags he had left on the floor, entering the apartment, which was almost the same as he remembered. "The Coke's mine. Other than that, have whatever you like," and he left the bags on the kitchen counter.
"Your addiction to that soda is going to end with your health someday," Kyle sighed.
"Leave it alone. Some things never change," Ryan said with a smile. "And if it makes him happy, then let him have his favorite soda. Although, Liam, it would be better if you made a healthier alternative. You could become a millionaire if you patented a drink that doesn't kill your kidneys and tastes similar."
"Those drinks are actually very easy to make with natural ingredients, but if I did, I'm afraid the carbonated soft drink market wouldn't be very happy and they might sue me."
"Can you really make a Coke soda?" Evan asked in surprise, opening the can of his soda. "Isn't that a secret formula?"
"Not at all, it's really simple," the green-eyed boy smiled, remembering when he made a whole batch of soda, filling the blond's refrigerator as 'payment' for helping him with a project. "In fact, you could do it with just a few ingredients, and I assure you it's much better than that can of chemicals you're drinking."
"Nah. I don't believe you," he laughed and stuck his tongue out at him after starting to drink his Coke.
"Are you challenging me?"
"Yes, because not even Pepsi-Cola tastes as good as Coca-Cola."
"I'm telling you, it's pure chemicals."
Behind them, Ryan and Kyle shared the same knowing look, aware of their current situation and seeing that, even so, their chemistry seemed unfading. Maybe they could soon return to their old ways and recover that beautiful love that a car crash erased from the actor's memory.
Just a few weeks ago, the four of them used to meet there on weekends. Liam helped Ryan correct his crazy entrepreneurial ideas while Kyle and Evan chatted about their daily lives and shared acquaintances at work. Sometimes, Evan would practice his scripts in front of his friend, and Liam would watch secretly, slightly burying his deep admiration for the blond boy. Afterward, they would make dinner or order pizza and end up sharing the night there, chatting or doing whatever silly things together. The loneliness that had always accompanied Evan and Kyle seemed to have slowly dissipated with the blond boy's energetic laughter and the green-eyed boy's sarcastic comments. Moments before Evan arrived, everyone felt a huge emptiness in the walls of that apartment. Although the three of them continued to hang out, it just wasn't the same without the blue-eyed blond boy, with his innocent laugh and adorable dramatic flair.
In just some months, the four of them formed a very closed friendship in that warm place, out of the sight of the world.