Owen had been trying. He really had.
For all his cocky remarks and teasing, for all the confidence he projected, he had been careful, conscious of the balance between them, making sure neither John nor Lila felt left out. He knew what it was like to be on the outside looking in, and the last thing he wanted was for either of them to feel that way. This was new ground for all of them, and Owen had gone out of his way to make sure it felt even, not just about him, not just about John, not just about Lila, but all three of them together.
And yet, now? Now he was the one being shut out. It was subtle. Just a joke. Just John throwing a little teasing his way. But in Owen’s tipsy state, it hit differently.
“You can look, but you can’t touch.” The words played in his head on a loop, knocking against the warm haze of alcohol in his system. Maybe if he were sober, he’d brush it off, fire back something sharper, play into the push-and-pull that had been simmering between them all night. But right now? Right now, it felt like a door was being closed in his face.
His smirk didn’t falter right away, he was too good at masking to let it drop so easily, but something in his chest clenched. He was trying, wasn’t he? He had been careful, making sure they were all on the same page, making sure no one felt like a third wheel. And yet, even as they stood here, tangled up in each other, John had drawn a little line between them. And Owen? Owen was standing on the wrong side of it.
The worst part was that it wasn’t even serious. It was teasing. It was John playing a game, slipping into his usual flirtatious, cocky persona. But that almost made it worse. Because if this was just fun to John, if shutting Owen out, however lightly, was a game to him, then maybe Owen had been playing this whole thing wrong.
A flicker of insecurity surfaced, buried under layers of bravado and intoxication. He wanted this. He wanted them. But if John was going to keep throwing up little walls, even as a joke, then where did that leave him?
The playful tension between them hung heavy in the air, a charged undercurrent of teasing and desire. Owen, still grappling with that little tug of being left out, found himself caught between two emotions, the simmering need to pull everyone together and the rising frustration of being pushed just outside their shared space… He tried to shake it off, laughing along with the others, but it kept pressing in, creating this invisible wall between him and the connection he thought they’d all shared.
But then, Lila. She had a way of cutting through the tension, like she always knew when to ease things and bring them back to the present. Her eyes flickered from John to Owen, a slight hesitation on her face, like she could feel the friction too. The moment felt like it was slipping out of their hands, the playful banter taking over instead of the shared intimacy they’d been dancing around.
And then, just as quickly, Lila spoke. Her voice, soft, teasing, but with an underlying command, brought a spark back into the room. “You know you want to touch him…” The way she said it, her wink, the playful twinkle in her eyes, reignited something in Owen. His pulse quickened. The joking atmosphere shifted. There was an undeniable shift in the air, something that felt real and immediate between all three of them. Lila was pulling them in, inviting them back into the moment, bridging the gap that had formed.
Lila didn’t wait for either of them to respond. She was in control, guiding the moment with that quiet authority that only she seemed to possess. Before either of them could protest or falter, she pulled them both to her, drawing their faces together in a three-way kiss.
Lila’s hands guided them, pulling them closer, urging them to give in to the kiss. Owen could taste the sweetness of her lips, the alcohol, the warmth of John’s breath, and it felt like everything was suddenly collapsing into this shared, breathless exchange. For a brief moment, everything that had been unspoken, the tension, the doubts, the shifting dynamics, was forgotten. There was only the heat of their bodies pressing together, the intensity of their lips, and the undeniable need to connect.
And then, just as quickly as it began, the kiss broke apart, each of them gasping for air. Owen stood there for a moment, staring at the two of them. Lila seemed lost in the aftermath of the kiss, but Owen wasn’t sure what he was supposed to feel anymore. The warmth of the kiss, the desire, it had all been real, but John’s behaviour made him feel like he was on the outside, like his efforts to connect with both of them had been in vain.
He couldn’t ignore the gnawing frustration anymore. Lila’s gaze met his, but Owen didn’t know how to answer it. Her question, her teasing, it was like she was trying to make light of the moment, but Owen knew the truth. John hadn’t fully given in, hadn’t let himself be present in the way Owen wanted. The playful jabs, the distance, it was like John was shutting him out.
With a sharp breath, Owen finally spoke, his voice quieter than before, the earlier confidence replaced with a sense of resignation.
“I’m out of here,” he said, his gaze flickering between them. “You two… do whatever you want.” His tone wasn’t harsh, but it was tinged with frustration. He wasn’t angry, not exactly, but he couldn’t force himself to keep pretending things were okay when they weren’t. He’d tried so hard to bring them together, to make them feel included, and it felt like he’d failed. The vulnerability, the openness, John had shut it down with a joke, with a playful wall that Owen couldn’t ignore anymore.
Owen turned to walk away, and he didn’t look back. He wasn’t running, he was just done with pretending everything was fine when it clearly wasn’t. The chemistry was still there, and deep down the desire was still there, but for tonight, the mood had been ruined for Owen. The door clicked shut behind him, leaving Lila and John alone in the room.
