Amicitia

Blaize didn’t mean to drink as much as he did. He knew that he and Lars, someone who he considered his best friend, were heading out for the night to have drinks and chat. But what Blaize hadn’t anticipated was the fact that the drinks at the tavern were going to taste so good. He liked drinking, sure, but liking drinking naturally came with the ability to be able to know how to control yourself. However, the tavern recently introduced a fruity drink that tasted better than anything Blaize had ever tasted in his entire life. He asked for a few more than he probably should’ve, and ended up sitting at the counter extremely still, trying to stop the room from spinning.

He could hear Lars talking about something- probably something about boats and the job that he worked- but Blaize could hardly hear him. His body was swaying slightly, his hands rested on his lap.

“Hey, something is wrong with you, right?” Lars said, breaking Blaize out of his haze by addressing him directly. He had a bad habit of ignoring everything else that was going on when someone addressed him.

And the thing that Lars had said happened to make Blaize’s drunk mind rather emotional. Blaize had the kind of face that made him look like he was always mad. He wasn’t, of course, no one wanted to get close enough to figure that out. Couple that with Blaize’s tendency to be quiet and shy and that meant he didn’t have very many friends. Lars being here with him was enough to make him almost cry, but the fact that he had seen past Blaize’s face and shyness and had noticed that something was up was enough to make him nearly start bawling his eyes out.

Blaize looked away from Lars, back down at the wooden counter. “I have had too much to drink,” he admitted. He glanced back up at Lars.

Lars tilted his head. “Do you need to go home?” he asked.

Blaize shook his head. He didn’t want to leave. He had something he had to tell Lars, something that was brought upon by the alcohol that was swimming around in his system.

“I will be okay,” he said. “But...” Blaize looked away, feeling his cheeks burn red. His face often made him seem like an angry and mean person, but he really wasn’t. However, showing off his caring nature still made him feel shy.

“I just wanted to tell you that I’m glad that we are friends,” Blaize blurted out, all at once so that he couldn’t change his mind about it.

Lars stared at him for a moment, his face completely unreadable (at least to Blaize). Then, he gave Blaize a smile.

“We’ve known each other for a while now, haven’t we?” he said. “Since high school.”

Blaize swallowed, nodding curtly. He felt a pang in his head as he realized that Lars hadn’t said he was also glad.

Lars let out a small laugh. “Yeah, yeah,” he continued. “You were quiet. They thought I was a nerd. It was only natural that we ended up talking to each other.”

“You also spilled your drink on my drawing,” Blaize pointed out. The alcohol had made his slightly hurt feelings go away in only a moment, and now he was thinking about Lars and high school and their friendship again.

“Right,” Lars said. “I didn’t get why you were so upset at first. Actually, I didn’t even know you were upset about it at all. I thought you just looked like that. But then I got a good look at you and I realized that you weren’t really mad. You were just sad.”

“I really liked that drawing,” Blaize said, a small laugh leaving his lips. It was funny now, but he recalled that in the moment he felt like crying. “I still think about it.” Blaize shook his head, trying to sober himself up some. He looked up at Lars. “But then you said you’d make it up to me.”

Lars’s shoulders shook as he let out a huff of a laugh. “I’m not very good with emotions, but I knew I couldn’t just leave you there with a mess that I made!”

The two of them shared a laugh together.

“It worked out in the end, though, didn’t it?” Lars said, clapping Blaize on the back. Blaize’s body swayed a little more than it probably should have, which Blaize knew that Lars had picked up on.

“It did,” Blaize said.

“I’m glad you gave me a chance, Blaize,” Lars said. “I didn’t really have friends before, which I didn’t mind. But once I actually did have friends, I realized that I actually did kind of mind.”

“I get you,” Blaize said. He really did understand where Lars was coming from, but the alcohol was still in his system, filling up his body even more. He was getting even more fuzzy than he had been only a moment before, if that was even possible. Conversation was quickly going out of the question.

Lars stared at Blaize for a moment, before seemingly deciding something. He stood up, stretched out his arms behind his back for a moment, and then stepped over to Blaize. “Let’s get you home, okay?” he said with a laugh.

Blaize let him help him up. Lars was shorter than him, but he still did his best to help him walk out of the tavern. With Blaize’s arm wrapped around Lars’s shoulder, the two of them made their way out. When they stepped through the doors, the open air hit Blaize in the face. A wash of the scent of the sea filled his nose. He smiled.

“Hey, Blaize?” Lars said.

Blaize looked down at him.

“I’m glad we’re friends, too,” Lars said.

And as Blaize stared down at him, he knew that Lars really meant it.