not like that

"Are you sure its not a date?" Kyle teased.

"No, I told you its not a date." Eric told him over the phone. "Its not."

"Then why do you want me to come?" Kyle was busy with homework and Rosie too who kept bringing him pots and pans to the dining table where he was working on English.

"Because."

"Because?" Kyle winced as he whacked his pen against his notebook.

"I'm afraid I'll talk the whole time about Syd. And, I know everyone is sick of it and me, and well, its just too hard to go cold turkey like that. I need you as a buffer."

"Me? A buffer? What are you going on about?" Kyle wanted to know.

"I don't know. Everything is changing and I just feel left behind." Eric sighed.

"Hey, bud, have you forgot you've got a kid on the way?" Kyle reminded him.

"Yeah, well, thats different. Its not like I get to do much with it the next few months, now is it?" Eric sounded indifferent about it.

"No, you're gonna be there from the get go." Kyle told him.

"What? I'm not gonna be there for, you know...that." Eric sounded disgusted about the whole birthing process.

"Why not?" Kyle put down his pen then. "It is your kid."

"God, I'm like the third wheel." Eric croaked.

"No, you're not," Kyle said. "Elliot's the third wheel. You have to be there for the birth. You have too."

Eric didn't say anything for the longest time.

"You've been avoiding this, haven't you?" Kyle questioned. "Is this why you've got Syd on the brain?"

"I hadn't thougth of it that way." Eric finally said. There was a long silence. Kyle didn't want to harp on the subject.

"OK, I'll go on this date with you and Cory." Kyle smiled then.

"It's not a date." Eric kept insisting.