After a brief chuckle, you seize your friends by the shoulders and gently shake him, as if it could clear his mind and get that silly idea out of his head. You take a step back, and a second one, staring at your best friend's eyes - formerly yours - as you try to think of a way to say what you have on your mind without hurting him. You know Paul occasionnally had girls in his life, but he never talked much about them.
Although, last weekend, he told you he met that cute girl at the beginning on the monday before, and they already went on a few dates together. From what you understood, he has a huge crush on her, and she seems to like him, too. You're feeling a little bit guilty to potentially ruin his love life.
"What about that girl you told me about, Mariann I think? Weren't you supposed to see her tonight?", you ask carefully.
"Screw her" Paul answers, shrugging. "It's actually tomorrow, but I could cancel off, you know. Or explain her I realized it was time for me to come out, and maybe she'll want to be friends still."
"Maybe" you say, as you don't want to break your friend's hopes. "Anyway, we should probably think this through and come up with a solution. Maybe the cop will be back at the park tomorrow and you could swap back before your date..." you suggest, and you notice Paul's looking at you with a smirck.
"What now?" You ask, a little annoyed at his child-like behavior.
"Nothing. Just, God! You're... I mean..." He tries backtracking a bit so he doesn't make the whole situation between the two of you even messier. "It's just weird how I see you the exact same way, but you look totally different."
You sigh.
"Get dressed, so you can maybe get a little more of a constructive thinking, Paul."
As you turn around to head to the living room, you notice the strech in your best friend's boxer is still there, unchanged. Somehow, you seem to manage to close the bathroom door behind you without fussing more and you go to the couch to reflect on the situation. If Paul doesn't care anymore about Mariann, you do care about Travis, your boyfriend. Paul knows you well enough to be aware that you've always been faithful to your partners, and you wouldn't make and exception for anyone, not even him. Especially not him! He's your best friend, for god's sake!
When Paul gets out of the bathroom, he timidly looks everywhere except at you. He is most definitely nervous, and his nervosity is starting to spread to you.
"Sit down, Paul, you're gonna make me dizzy if you continue pacing around like this. You look tortured, I hate to see you like that! You're my best friend!"
You best friend sighs and takes place on the couch, as far as possible from you.
"Well, that's not exactly what I want to be anymore, you know."
"But that's not you, dude, that's the cop. And the ring's shenanigans."
"Sure, but... I still can't go home like this without my roomate flipping bananas, and it feels like you're gonna kick me out anytime soon, so..."
"What? No! Why?"
"Sure" He asks with hope in his eyes. "I mean, I'd sleep on the couch, I don't mind. I turned gay, I didn't become a perv or a lustful beast, ya know."
"Don't worry, I get it." You reassure your friend "It's just such a weird situation, I don't know what to do. But sure, you can stay over for the night, and I'll sleep on the couch. It's still a little early, you wanna shoot zombies first?"
Most tension between the two of you now mostly gone, you take out your console and play for a little more than an hour. You notice that Paul, who usually is better at this game than you, constantly falls short of you. You're not sure if he's letting you on top of the scoreboard out of niceness or because he's having a hard time getting focused on the game.
It's finally time you both go to sleep, and you suggest, in a yawn : "You can't live here forever. You'll have to talk to your roomate sometime. I could come with you if you want." And you both head either to bed, or to the couch.