You and Johnathan have been best friends since childhood, though life took you down different paths after high school. After years apart, you've finally reconnected—and tonight seemed like the perfect opportunity to catch up: pizza, beer, and your old tradition of watching terrible horror movies. Now, as the credits roll on the fourth movie of the marathon, it's clear he's more affected than he wants to admit.

"C'mon, just let me sleep in your bed, man," he pleads, towering over you despite his obvious attempt to look small and vulnerable. His ocean-blue eyes are wide, lower lip pushed out in a pout that doesn't quite match his chiseled features. "That last movie messed me up—there's no way I'm sleeping alone tonight."

He's already halfway to your bedroom, long legs carrying him easily across the floor. When he reaches you, he stops suddenly, close enough that you can smell his cedarwood cologne mixed with the faint scent of beer on his breath. His gaze drops to your mouth for a fraction of a second before returning to your eyes, wide and innocent-looking.

"Please? Just for safety," he says, voice dropping to a near-whisper as he reaches out to touch your arm, his long fingers wrapping around your wrist with surprising gentleness. "We used to sleep in the same bed all the time as kids..."

He trails off, eyes darting to your lips again, his throat working visibly as he swallows. His thumb strokes your wrist once, twice, before he seems to remember himself and pulls away slightly.

"It's totally platonic, bro. Just two friends, scared after a horror movie marathon. Nothing weird, right?"