Stay at my side Ch.2 [M/F] [Friends] [romantic]

Chapter 2:
Dumb feelings

[Chapter 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/v9hau7/stay_at_my_side_ch_01_childhood/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share)

“You look tired, everything okay?” Casey usually kept a smile on her face and everyone would have described her as the most happy girl on the planet. Truth was that, even though she looked like she didn’t even know what problems were, she was deeply worried most of the time. About her grades, her parents, me…

“Of course, just didn’t sleep enough.” She looked a little less worried. “Okay, please tell me if there should be more.” I laid one hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes. “There’s nothing to worry about, Casey. If there is something, you’ll be the first to know.” The worried look in her eyes vanished and she put her usual smile on. “Well then see you in sports class, I guess.” “Yeah until sports, bye.” “bye” We stood like this for maybe one more second and I had to admit that we might have seemed like a couple. But I think this was just our kind of friendship.

–

Our gym teacher was one of the most motivated persons on this planet and even was a professional athlete back in the days. Nowadays he forced students to do the same training as him which included mostly speed and endurance training. We had to admit that his training was really effective but this didn’t excuse that it was torture.

For today he planned endurance training. There was a lake next to our school with a running track around it. We had one hour to complete as many laps as possible.

The first three rounds were no problem but it started getting harder after that. Everyone had placed their water bottles at the start of the track, so they could drink something after each lap. After my fifth round I decided to take my bottle with me because if I didn’t I’d probably die on the sixth lap.

I was one of the faster runners in our class and I already had overtaken some of the students who were still on round four or five. I was currently pretty alone on this part of the track with the only person who I saw was a little bit before me. I guessed it was Casey and, as she turned around to look if someone was behind her, I was pretty sure that it was Casey.

She was slower than me but it should take some time to catch up to her. That’s what I thought but after she turned around, she stopped. I didn’t know why until I came closer to her. She was breathing heavily, even for this class’ measure and wasn’t even standing up straight anymore. She was totally exhausted and I doubted that she could move one more step.

Right as I wanted to say something she just fell into my arms. I caught her and pulled her up again. She put her hands around my neck. I could feel her heart racing. She didn’t seemed to be able to stand anymore so I took her weight on me while she tried to catch her breath. “Water…” was the only word she could bring out. Good that I brought my bottle with me. I thought about wiping it before giving it to her but she just took it out of my hands. I’ve never seen someone empty a bottle this fast. She put the bottle away and then rested her forehead on my shoulder.

She did that pretty often. It gave her a feeling of protection I guess. She did it when she were sad because her grandpa died and also when we both were exhausted because of laughing. One time we were waiting for a train and needed to stand at the station for nearly an hour. She had stood behind me for the whole time and had kept her forehead on my back. We didn’t even have talked in this hour.

I still held her weight, so we were much closer than usual. She was hot, in a literal sense. She now had her arms under mine her hand grapped onto my shoulders from behind. Her heart wasn’t racing anymore but she seemed to want to stay this way for a while. “Are you okay?” This time I asked her this question. She didn’t answer. I noticed how she tightened her grip on my shoulder and swallowed before she looked me in the eyes. Tears. It wasn’t just the run. Something else happened that almost took her to the point of crying. It hurt me to see her this way. I wanted her to be happy, to see her smile and to hear her laugh. She was my best friend, of course I wanted her to feel good but I never felt it with such an intensity. It felt like nothing in the world could be more important than to put a smile on this face again.

Before I could think further about it, I pulled her into a tight hug. She seemed to be surprised for a moment but also pulled me close. She buried her face in my shoulder and I could feel her crying. I hated to see her like this. “It’s okay, I’m here for you.” I didn’t knew why I said these words. She clinched even more onto me and started rubbing her back with one hand. Well, it was more like softly caressing it but I hoped to give her comfort this way. This situation was also new to me. Of course, we hugged before and we also comforted each other but I had never been like this.

I noticed our classmates running by. Some looked but luckily no one stopped. After some minutes she calmed down a little. “Better now?” I asked her. “Thank… you.” She stuttered. “I’m sorry. You’ll get a bad grade because of me.” Casey always was sorry for basically everything. It wasn’t some fake pick me shit. She genuinely felt bad for the person and needed to apologize. “I don’t care. What even happened?” I didn’t hope for an answer but if she would tell me it would be easier to help her. Surprisingly, “You know how my parents are at the moment…” In the last two years Casey’s parents became more and more separated and it was only a matter of time before they would divorce. “… they got into a huge fight yesterday. I could hide it until now but when I was alone I had to think about it, so I started running like an idiot an almost collapsed because this pain was better than the one of my thoughts. I think I was just waiting for you, because you’re my only source of comfort right now.” I didn’t expect such honesty. I pulled her closer. Once because I knew her situation and how bad she must feel. Second because of this damn feeling I got after she told me these words at the end. I just wanted her to be close to me.

I thought about what I could do for her. “You can stay at my place.” She lifted her head to look at me. “Really? Won’t your mum be mad?” “She’ll understand the situation. It’s Friday anyway and it’s not like we never had a sleepover.” I could see her chuckle a bit. “Well, we were kids at that point but I don’t think I wanna go home after school.” “Then it’s settled.” She put her head back onto my shoulder. “Can we just stay like this for one more minute?” asked with a slight tone of begging. “Sure.” She closed her eyes and I just held her.

At some point she swallowed and I expect her to let go of me at any second. What I didn’t expect were her next words. “I love you, you know that?” Where did that came from? Well, of course we loved each other but don’t say that to your friends right? But I couldn’t let her down with this, especially because I also loved her. “I love you too.” I could see her smile and it made me way happier than I wanted to admit.

Then she kissed me. On the cheek. “We should go back to the start. She let go of me and started walking away. I collected myself and caught up to her. It had been just a kiss on the cheek but I still needed a while to wrap my hand around it. I could still feel her soft lips on my skin. There was a certain warmth somewhere in my chest and, even though I hated myself for it, I had a boner.

I looked at her. Her eyes were still puffy but she smiled again. She would sleep in my house this night and I needed to be there for her. No space for dumb feeling of mine. I just had felt this way because I never had had anything with another girl before. I tried to toss my in thoughts aside but I couldn’t get rid of the wish to kiss her back.

Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/vahn8f/stay_at_my_side_ch2_mf_friends_romantic