He kept a sedate pace as he followed Eric into the kitchen, his arms crossing on their own accord and a pinched frown pulling at his mouth. It was selfish, but he'd spent the entire past evening and the better part of that day blatantly ignoring the explanations Eric had given him for bailing. He knew it was selfish, but being pissed off was simpler and easier than trying to analyze the larger part of the situation, as much as he preferred to believe himself better than that.

There was still a large part of him that wanted to scoff at the other boy's earnest explanation. As inconsequential as prom was in the grande scope of his life, it was the snub and disregard that had itched under his skin, his eventual black eye literal injury to the existing insult. But as much as he i>wanted to roll his eyes and mock, Eric legitimately seemed sincere.

Sometimes trying to be a better person was exhausting.

With a sigh he leaned back against the counter and almost scrubbed his palm over his face before catching himself just in time. "I'm not going to say that its all okay because you have your shiny new romance going on," he settled on, rubbing at the underside of his chin with the back of his hand. "Or that I even really get it. I mean, I probably would have let him deal. Well... more like I would have definitely let him deal. But I guess if you had to bail out, that's as good a reason as any. The fact your timing sucked was just further proof that I have some sort of curse on me."