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“Of course I’m gonna pay, Blue. No, that’s out of the question. I’m the one who asked you out so I’m paying. Yeah, okay. Tomorrow at 6:00 sounds good.”
Ronan had just arrived at Adam’s apartment and was all set to enter when he heard Adam talking to someone. He paused with his hand on the doorknob. He should have turned around and walked away to let Adam finish his conversation without eavesdropping, but then he heard what sounded like a date being planned. Fuck. Ronan did not want to be in the know about Adam and Blue’s dating life, but he couldn’t bring himself to move.
“Do you want me to pick you up then?” Ronan heard Adam ask, his voice sounded muffled through the door.
Ronan removed his hand from the door and turned to walk away. He knew Adam and Blue had something going on, but he hadn’t realized that they were going out without the others. He had assumed that all of their interactions occurred within a group setting. Shit, fuck. They were a lot more serious than Ronan had realized.
Just as Ronan made it to the stairs the door to the apartment opened and Adam strolled out in all his glory. He didn’t seem to notice Ronan at first. Ronan tried to rush down the stairs as quietly as possible before Adam finished locking up and noticed him. Ronan had made it to the last step and thought he was home free when he heard Adam’s voice calling after him.
“Ronan! Hey! What are you doing here? Are you leaving?” Adam gave him a confused expression.
Ronan turned around, rubbing at his neck, “Uh…no. I just uh…forgot something in the BMW?” Ronan finished sounding unsure.
Adam laughed as he approached Ronan. He seemed to be in better mood than normal. Probably because his date with Blue tomorrow Ronan thought bitterly.
“Well, I was about to head over to Nino’s. Blue is working tonight and I was going to go study and keep her company. Gansey and Noah said they would probably be there later. You want to join me?”
Ronan definitely did not want to sit and watch Adam and Blue flirt and do all the other obnoxious couple-y stuff couples do. Even with Gansey and Noah there, all he would be able to focus on was the way his heart was slowly breaking.
Ronan knew it was stupid to fall in love with one of your best friends, even stupider to fall in love with your straight best friend. But no matter how hard he tried to keep his feelings for Adam in check, he just kept falling more and more for him.
At first Ronan thought it was just physical attraction. Adam was a very attractive person after all, but the longer Adam hung around the more Ronan knew it wasn’t just Adam’s good looks that he enjoyed. Adam was smart and clever. He met Ronan word for word when it came to arguments. He was stubborn and prideful to a fault, but Ronan didn’t care. He liked him more for it.
“Actually. I just remembered that I have to…do the Latin homework still. Yeah,” Ronan cringed, “I’m just gonna…” and with that he turned and basically ran out the door.
———
“What the fuck was that?”
Ronan startled, jerking the steering wheel causing him to almost crashing the BMW as Noah appeared in the passenger seat.
“Jesus Christ, Noah. Seriously. Could you not do that creepy ghost shit while I’m driving!” Ronan exclaimed while swerving back into his lane.
“What just happened back there, Ronan? Did you seriously just use homework as an excuse to not do something?” Noah was giggling in the seat, ignoring Ronan’s complaints.
“Shut the fuck up,” Ronan bristled angrily in the drivers seat.
“I know why you’re mad. And it’s has nothing to do with me materializing in you car scaring the shit out of you.”
“You did not scare me, shithead. I just wasn’t expecting it. And I’m not mad about anything”
“Oh, so you don’t care that Adam is taking Blue out to mini golf tomorrow at 6:00?”
Ronan grabbed the closest thing he could reach, which happened to be an empty Gatorade bottle, and chucked it at Noah. Right before the bottle hit him Noah disappeared from the seat, laughter filling the now empty space.
———
Ronan paced back and forth across his room. He was trying to talk himself out of his completely idiotic plan, but he wasn't doing a very good job. Mostly because he wasn’t trying very hard to dissuade himself.
After Noah had let it slip where Adam was taking Blue on their date Ronan’s brain immediately started thinking of ways to crash their date without it seeming like he was crashing it purposefully. He tried to stop thinking about it but it was all he could focus on. Shitty plan after shitty plan cycled through his mind, each one becoming more and more absurd.
He could convince Gansey to go mini golfing with him. He could pay off one of the workers at the mini golf place to let him “work” there for the night. He could hide in the bushes and sabotage the course. He could find a date and just happen to take them mini golfing. Okay. Yeah. That last one was way out of the realm of possibility.
Ronan decided that he was just going to go mini golfing on his own. No need to bring anyone else into his antics and make it more complicated. Why couldn’t he have decided to just go mini golfing by himself? That was something he would totally do, right?
Ronan made his way to the mini golfing place before he could change his mind.
———
Ronan pulled up the the entrance of the mini golfing place. He saw Adam’s tricolor atrocity a few spots down from where he was parked. He got out of the car and walked into the building.
Inside there were what seemed like hundreds of children running around screaming about tickets and prizes. The place was painted about 30 different colors. There were game machines in every nook and cranny of the place all making different noises clashing terribly together. Dear Lord. What had Ronan gotten himself into? But he was already here. He was now committed to the plan. There was no turning back now.
Ronan scanned the building trying to spot Adam or Blue among the hoards of children. He figured it was best to look for Adam because he wouldn’t be able to tell Blue apart from the kids. Ronan silently laughed at his own joke. Just as he was getting frustrated he caught a glimpse of dirt colored hair going through a door that lead to the outside. Ronan made his way to the door. He was just about to open the door to walk out when someone stopped him.
“Sir, if you want to enter the mini golf course you have to rent a club and some golf balls.” an attendant said in a monotone.
Fuck. Ronan was going to fall too far behind if he didn’t get out there quickly. But it would look suspicious, okay well more suspicious, if he showed up to mini golf without a club and golf balls. He paid the attendant as quickly as possible and hurried out the door and to the first hole.
———
Ronan arrived at the first hole just in time to see Adam and Blue heading to the second hole. Ronan sighed in relief, he wasn’t too far behind. He knew realistically he could just skip the hole and move straight to the second one to catch up, but he thought that he would seem even more obvious since he wasn’t at the first hole with them.
Ronan stepped up to the beginning of the course and put his ball down. This was gonna be easy. All he had to do was get the ball into the hole on the first hit or two and move on. He could do that.
Five swings later and Ronan was being made fun of by an eleven year old. Ronan scowled at the kid as he lined his putter up and swung. They both watched as the ball finally went into the hole.
“Like you could do any better,”he challenged the girl.
The girl placed her ball on the starting point and hit it. They both watched as the ball bounced off the back wall and right into the hole. The girl looked over to Ronan and raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him.
Ronan grumbled, “Beginner’s luck. Bet you can’t do it at the next hole.”
Ronan and the girl gathered their stuff and moved on to the second hole.
“What’s you name, old man?” The girl asked as she placed her ball on the tee, “I like to know the name of who I’m about to destroy.”
Ronan could not believe this girl’s nerve. He scoffed as he replied, “Ronan. But you definitely aren’t going to beat me.”
The girl swung her putter back and hit the ball. Again, they both watched as the ball made it’s descent down the green turf of the course. It clipped a corner and slammed into a wall. It bounced up and off of the course. Ronan whistled.
“Wow!” He said, clapping his hands slowly, “That was a wonderful shot….”
“Opal.” The girl muttered as she went to retrieve her ball.
“Opal? What kind of name is Opal?” Ronan taunted her.
“What kind of name is Ronan?” Opal shot back.
Ronan hated to admit it, but he was starting to like this kid. Pretty soon they fell into easy banter and continued along the course. Ronan had forgotten his mission of crashing Adam and Blue’s date and was actually having a good time.
———
When they got to the last hole, Opal and Ronan compared scores. Both of them had done terribly. It seemed that Opal’s hole in one on the first hole had, in fact, been beginners luck. Ronan was still had two more swings than Opal, but was determined to make this last hole and hole in one to catch up. It was the trickiest hole of the course, the windmill hole.
Opal had gone first and had gotten the ball in the hole in five swings, so that meant Ronan had to make the shot in two or less swings to win, three to tie. Ronan would not settle for a tie.
Ronan approached the tee and set his ball on it. He stepped back and tried to access the best angle to hit the ball. He rounded the ball a few times and lined up his putter. He got down on one knee to get a better line of sight.
“We don’t have all day, old man.” Opal said behind him.
“What? You getting nervous? Think I might actually win?” Ronan retorted as he stood back up and positioned himself behind the ball.
“Ha, you wish!”
Ronan pulled his putter back and swung. Time seemed to slow and his club made contact with the ball. The ball rolled down the course straight towards the hole in the windmill. Ronan tried to time it so the ball would just miss the windmill’s blades. Ronan crouched onto his haunches and watched the ball roll right through the windmill’s opening.
He and Opal both raced around to the other side of the windmill to see where the ball had stopped. When they arrived to the other side the ball was no where to be seen. Ronan looked around panicked. He swore loudly. The ball was no where to be found. It must have gotten stuck in the windmill.
He turned to find Opal standing over the hole with a disbelieving look on her face. Ronan slowly walked over to the hole, telling himself not to get too excited yet. This could all be some kind of joke that Opal was pulling to try and psych him out. There was no way the ball actually went into the hole on the first swing.
When Ronan got to the hole he bent down and peered inside. Sure enough his bright orange ball was sitting on top of Opal’s bright yellow ball.
Ronan bolted up from his position, golf club above his head, and cheered loudly.
“HA! Whatcha gotta say now sucker?” Ronan was gloating at Opal, oblivious to his surroundings.
“Ronan?” A familiar voice said from behind him, a slight laugh behind the word.
Ronan froze, mid-victory dance. He had forgotten that the whole reason he was here was to stop Adam and Blue from having too much fun on their date.
“Parrish, what are you doing here?” Ronan said and he slowly turned to face Adam.
Adam let out a small laugh.
“Well, I’m here because I left my jacket behind accidentally. If you’re asking why I’m mini-golfing, I brought Blue as an apology for the way things ended between us a while back. We’re trying to get back to being friends.” Adam explain thoroughly.
“What are you doing here? And who is this?” Adam continued, gesturing towards Opal.
Ronan didn’t answer right away. His brain was still stuck on the fact that Adam just said that things between him and Blue were over, and had been for a while apparently. Adam was staring at Ronan, waiting for some explanation.
“Uh….this is my…cousin. Opal.” Ronan glanced at Opal and have her his best “just go with it” face.
Opal looked like she was going to dispute Ronan’s claims, but closed her mouth giving Ronan an “okay, but you owe me” look back.
Ronan looked back to Adam and gave him a nod. “Yes, Opal. My cousin. Opal, this is my friend Adam.”
Adam held out his hand for Opal to shake, “It’s very nice to meet you Opal. Ronan didn’t mention he had family coming in to visit.”
Adam turned back to Ronan, still not looking 100% convinced of his story.
“Okay, well then. I guess I will leave you guys to it.” Adam said as he grabbed his coat and stood awkwardly looking from Opal to Ronan. He looked like he wanted to say something more to Ronan, but didn’t as he turned to walk away.
When Adam was out of earshot Opal punched Ronan in the arm hard.
“Ouch, kid! What was that for?” Ronan yelped while rubbing his arm.
“That was for lying and telling him I was your cousin.” And she punched him again, “And that was for being stupid and not asking him to stay and hang out with you.”
“Hey! He is here with Blue. He doesn’t want to hang out with me.” Ronan said defensively. He could not believe an eleven year old girl could punch so hard.
Opal let out a huff of disbelieving laughter. “Yeah, okay, he wasn't obviously hovering to see if you would ask him to stay.”
“Why would he want me to ask him to stay?!” Ronan asked, starting to get irritated at this entire conversation. “He’s here with Blue! He would much rather hang out with her.”
Opal rolled her eyes at him and sighed. “Guys are so stupid,” she mumbled under he breath. “Okay look Ronan. Adam went out of his way to make sure you knew that he was here with Blue as just friends. He could have just said he was here with Blue and left it at that. Why would he care if you knew that he and Blue weren’t together? And honestly, he couldn’t have been more obvious. He was giving you heart eyes the entire time he was watching you celebrate.”
“No. There’s no way…” Ronan trailed off as what Opal said sunk in. Realization hit Ronan like a brick wall as the past few weeks of interactions with Adam realigned themselves in his mind.
He tried to think back to when the last time he actually saw Adam and Blue do anything remotely couple-y, he couldn’t remember. But he did remember Adam sitting by him more often at Ninos and Adam opting to ride with Ronan in the BMW instead of the Pig when they had to take two cars. He flashed back to Adam sitting a little closer than necessary to him on the couch at Monmouth while watching some history thing with Gansey.
Ronan turned and ran after Adam. He caught him by the elbow as Adam had his hand on the door to go back inside the building. Adam turned around to face Ronan, surprised.
“Ronan, what…”
Ronan pulled Adam into a kiss before he could finish the thought. Ronan felt Adam still beneath him, but slowly the tension released from Adam and he was returning the kiss.
Ronan had never been good with words and he figured this was as good a way as any to let Adam know how he felt. They pulled away from each other and Adam just blinked at Ronan, his hand coming up to his lips.
“Do you want to hang out for a bit?” Ronan asked shyly, rubbing his hand over his shaved head.
Adam’s face broke into a beautiful smile.
“Yeah! I mean…shit. Blue…” Adam started as his face fell.
“Just give her your keys so she can go and I can take you home later?” Ronan suggested hopefully.
The smile lit Adam’s face again.
“Yeah! Okay! Just wait here!”
Ronan watched as Adam walked back inside to give the keys to Blue. He turned back to thank Opal but she wasn’t there any more. Adam jogged back to his side and slide his hand into Ronan’s.
“You any good at mini-golfing?” Adam asked.
“Parrish, you have no idea.” Ronan replied with a wicked grin.
They made their way back to the first hole, hand in hand.