Narrator's P.O.V.
The sun was already beginning to set, making the typically hot Rio de Janeiro weather a bit milder. A few hours had passed since Samuel's arrival, and the apartment now pulsed with the typical energy of a carioca afternoon fueled by alcohol and loud music. The living room was crowded, empty bottles were starting to pile up on the coffee table, and laughter mingled with the sound of side conversations. "Happy birthday" had already been sung, everyone had eaten lunch, so all that was left for them was to enjoy the afternoon in the best way possible!
At one point, one of the guys suggested they play a game. A game would definitely lift everyone's spirits even higher; after all, they had decided to extend the hangout into the night, so nothing better than keeping the hype up. Bia, who was already starting to get buzzed from the drinks, suggested they play "truth or dare," as it was typically called.
"I'm in! We already have an empty vodka bottle, a glass bottle spins well," Kael said, excited about the idea.
"But is everyone here? Feels like we're missing people," Lucas, the one with a C, commented.
Ávila looked around, counting the people in the room. Indeed, there were so many that he almost hadn't noticed some were missing. The man stood up, stepping away from the chatter and walking down the apartment's narrow hallway, looking for the missing guests.
He then heard the muffled sound of voices, distinct from his friends in the living room. Kael noticed his bedroom door was ajar, so without much ceremony—after all, it was his own bedroom—he walked in...
And what he saw made his body run hot in a matter of seconds, but not in a good way. Verônica and Rafael were sitting on the floor, talking to the other two who were on the bed, chatting about something trivial. But the issue wasn't them being in his bedroom. Kael didn't care about that at all. The issue was who was in his bed...
There were Yuri and Samuel. Lying down. Together. They didn't seem to be touching explicitly, but the proximity was way too suspicious, way too intimate. There wasn't even any space between them, as Samuel had his leg thrown over Yuri's body, lying on top of him with half his own weight. Farias, in turn, was flat on his back, one of his hands resting on the curly-haired boy's leg, gripping the back of his thigh.
It was too much intimacy for two people who supposedly hated each other. But what really made Kael's stomach churn, sending a sharp spike of adrenaline and hatred straight to his brain, was Yuri's state. The red-haired boy was shirtless, and the most glaring detail: the button and zipper of his shorts were completely undone, revealing the waistband of his dark underwear.
As soon as Kael stopped in the doorway, the atmosphere in the room instantly grew heavy. It was as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. Verônica and Rafael noticed the abrupt shift in the atmosphere. They looked at Kael, then at the bed, and their eyes widened slightly, mostly because the conversation had been so banal that they hadn't even realized the state the other two were in.
"Yeah... we're heading to the living room," Rafa muttered, pulling the girl by the arm.
The two rushed past Kael, heads down, fleeing the impending hurricane. They knew their friend was reactive, even if he was generally a calm person. They knew the only thing capable of destabilizing a man like Kael was a boy like Yuri. And, once again, he had accomplished that feat.
Samuel, on the other hand, was in no rush. He sat up on the bed with calculated slowness, his dark eyes fixed on Kael's serious face. A cynical, satisfied, and silent smile curved the boy's lips.
"Go to the living room," Kael ordered, not beating around the bush. Without saying a single word, the curly-haired boy stood up and walked toward the door, passing so close to him that their shoulders brushed.
Finally, it was just the two of them. Yuri sat up on the bed, running a hand through his red hair, trying to mask the obvious tension with that expression of fake tranquility he always wore. It bordered on infuriating. Kael found him extremely two-faced, and that pissed him off!
"What's with the shitty look on your face?" Yuri asked, his voice sounding higher-pitched than usual. Typical for when he was already lying or about to.
Kael didn't answer right away, but he knew his expression was definitely giving him away. He lowered his eyes from the younger boy's face, dragging them over his bare torso, until they landed on his shorts with the undone button and zipper. The man crossed his arms, his jaw clenched so tightly his teeth actually hurt.
"Why the fuck are your shorts undone, Yuri?" Kael's voice came out dangerously low, as if he were fighting to control himself.
"What? I was hot, but I wasn't going to strip down to my underwear in front of everyone, right?" He shrugged, forcing a dry laugh and looking away. He hastily buttoned his shorts and stood up, walking over to Kael.
"Hot, Yuri?" He let out a nasal laugh, completely devoid of humor. He took a step into the room, his presence dominating the space and cornering the redhead. "Hot..." Kael repeated the word as if it tasted bitter. "You think I'm a fucking idiot, don't you?"
"What the fuck? I'm telling you, I was ho—"
"You were hot because he was on top of you, for fuck's sake!" Kael cut him off brutally. "We've slept together plenty of times. Even on days when it's hot as hell, you sleep with a shirt on. You know I hate the fabric rubbing against me, but you don't take your fucking shirt off. And now you expect me to believe that, because you were 'hot', you not only took your shirt off in the middle of a room full of people, but you also unzipped your shorts with Samuel right next to you, with his leg draped all over you? I saw where your hand was, man!"
Kael didn't wait for an answer. He didn't need one. The explicit nervousness on Yuri's face was the only confirmation he needed, mainly because he knew that if he pushed it, he wouldn't hear anything but more and more lies. With eyes flashing with pure hatred and disappointment, he turned to leave the room.
"Fix yourself up and go to the living room. Everyone is gathering to play," he said and walked out, leaving the other completely alone.