David and Will were back from their little trip out of the city and decided to some more time with their respective best friends, which they hadn't been often enough since the pair started dating. Max was finally not sick and came back to work. Luke and his friends invited him over to watch another movie with the group next weekend. So far, Dalton's life seemed to be looking up. That is until Will said that David said that Cole said that the two of them needed to talk about something.

Now, Will and Dalton have been friends for years. The Asian should usually know when Dalton is lying, that meant the blond could not say he was busy for the rest of the week. Also, the fact that Will has seen Dalton sit in their apartment for hours on end either binge watching Netflix or scrolling through his tumblr feed. Dalton always has spare time, and he's always up for talking to people when they ask for it.

Sure, the blond could ask Will to do him a solid and say Dalton couldn't meet up with Cole at all but things have been going great for David and Will. Dalton didn't want to mess that up over a stupid, petty, silent argument between a barista and his customer. It wouldn't be fair to his friend, who has already done so much for him. So the blond would just have to suck it up and meet Cole for whatever the heck he wanted from him.

It was probably about the name thing, which would be incredibly easy to avoid talking about. Dalton knew how to play cluelessness, he had a lot of practice when he was a young, manipulative punk teenager who didn't like getting in trouble with authority figures but liked to break the rules. Plus, he went to a public school in Texas, you had to be a good manipulator to survive, especially in his school.

"Fine, I'll talk to him. Where does he want to meet?" Dalton grumbled, making sure to make the reluctance in his voice obvious as he talked to his best friend through the phone.

The blond had just finished homework for the week and Will was at his dance class with David. Dalton's roommate said his class was going to go overtime today because of the class the couple had previously canceled to go out of the city. Will wouldn't be home for another hour, so Dalton had time to meet up with Cole and watch some movies on Netflix with his best friend.

"Uh, hold on. David! Where did you say Cole was?!" A muffled reply was heard through the phone. "Okay, David said Alan, I mean Cole, is still at his work so you can probably pick him up and the car ride can be your talking time."

"Okay, thanks Will." Dalton grumbled and hung up.

The blond hadn't gone out all day but he didn't want to take a shower just because he was picking up Cole. Instead, he threw on some sweatpants he borrowed from Will, a sweatshirt on top of his pyjama shirt, and an old beanie he used to wear a lot when he was sixteen years old. Then, he made his way to the grocery store and parked in a spot near the front of the store. He walked in with his hands in his pockets. The blond probably looked like he was going to steal something to others but at the moment, he really couldn't care less.

"Dalton?" A familiar voice was right behind him, a finger tapped his shoulder as he was studying the impulse items. It was Cole, of course.

"Hey! Uh, Alan? David told me to pick you up, he also said you wanted to talk? Maybe we can do it while I drive you home?" Dalton brought a fake smile onto his face.

"Right. Uh, sure thing, we can do that. Let me just change out of my uniform and I'll be right back." Cole cleared his throat, seeming both suspicious and nervous at the same time. The other blond ran away, leaving Dalton to keep looking at magazines by the cashier.

Cole came back to where Dalton was waiting in record speed, two minutes later. The two made their way to Dalton's car. While driving out of the parking lot, both of them were quiet before Dalton finally decided to break the tension away by speaking up.

"So, what did you wanna talk about?" The bleached blond asked.

"Oh right. I just wanted to ask you to drop the act, because I'm really sorry about everything." Cole sighed, surprising Dalton with his words. He decided to respond without giving too much of a reaction.

"Sorry about what? What act are you talking about Alan?"

Cole was visibly getting frustrated, which made Dalton laugh on the inside. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other man taking slow and deep breaths.

"The act of not knowing my name? Of not spelling my name right whenever I go to your coffee shop? I know I was a dick for talking on the phone but I seriously wasn't thinking. I wanted to say sorry but if you still don't know what I'm talking about, I can still be sorry about the misunderstanding of all of this." Cole quickly mumbled, loud enough for Dalton to catch every single word which was said.

Cole was apologizing to Dalton for doing the one thing Dalton absolutely hates with a passion. He was sincerely apologizing but Dalton wasn't sure why. He obviously didn't know he was doing anything annoying or rude to the bleached blond. Now that Dalton thinks about it, he should probably not just sit there driving, ignoring everything that just came out of Cole's mouth. He was about to reply with a clueless remark again when he remembered Luke and Max.

Max stood by Dalton's weird hobby from the first time they met. He would make up excuse after excuse and Dalton almost never thanked him for it, despite all the work it must've brought in. Luke was risking everything by reading out wrong names. He could've been reported by Cole at any time. The Aussie said himself that Dalton's payback was slowly building up Luke's anxiety when he read the different names out. Yet, he became friends with Dalton, invited him to hang out with his own friends while all of Dalton's weren't able to, and never told their store manager what was happening.

Dalton started to feel something deep in his chest. The tight feeling of guilt and selfishness overtook him, causing him to say the one thing he'd never thought he'd say to the boy in his car's shotgun seat.

"I'm sorry too."