Stuck in Between / BlindChannel

3. And secondly, sober up

"Joel?But... Joonas was supposed to take you home, wasn't he?" I asked confused and walked to him. The man looked up to us and lowered the beer bottle from his lips.

"He was.. Or was about but... I didn't go" He said and laughed nervously waving the Heineken in his hand. I looked at Aleksi and he looked back at me just as confused and maybe a bit disappointed. I knew I was disappointed. The whole way from the studio to the cars I was only thinking about cuddling next to him on his cozy sofa and having him close to me.

"Umh..We were about to watch a movie at my place, wanna join?" He then asked Joel so the situation wouldn't be any more weirder as it was. I looked back at Joel, hoping he'd say no so that I could just enjoy the rest of the night with Aleksi.

"Sure..Not feeling like going home anyway. Still have some flashbacks about Heli and that asshole fucking the hell out of each others on my fucking sofa..." Joel said and walked to the passenger side of my car. I took a deep sigh, not really happy about the situation but me and Aleksi both knew that letting him go home alone at that state of mind wouldn't be a smart choice. Why the hell was he still thinking about that bitch anyway? It had been two weeks since that most of the time we had all been stuck at the studio focusing into more important stuff than cheating exes. So I really thought that working would just push that memory out from Joel's head but apparently it didn't. It was still there and ready to stir up everything.
"Well...See you soon" Aleksi said and sat into his car. I nodded and sat into mine.

"So, Joel.. Wanna talk?" I asked and looked at him. I noticed that the six-pack he had in his lap was half empty so he had been swallowing the liquid quite fast because he left the studio only 15 minutes before me and Aleksi.

"Sorry I just... I don't know.. " Joel stutter and took another sip of the beer.

"Talk to me"

"I saw you and Aleksi at the cafe today, again" he said referring to today's lunch break. Aleksi had ordered some delicious looking pasta and I just wanted to taste it, so instead of letting me to take a bite with my fork, he feed me some of his pasta with his fork. But Aleksi liked to tease me sometimes and when I opened my mouth for him, he missed my mouth on purpose, so I had the creamy sauce all over my face. We both laughed to that and he then gently wiped the sauce away with a tissue. And of course Joel saw it.

"And what about that? According to my memory you said you were ok for me to move on?" I asked and turned behind Aleksi's car.
"I am, Iam.."

"Are you really?" I was getting vibes that he was not ok with it, not at all.
"Ok maybe I'm still shook about what happened with Heli and now this whole you and Aleksi situation.. It takes some time to adjust"

"Adjust to what?"
"To see you two together"

"Fucking hell Joel... Firstly, you need to stop this. Heli was a bitch and there was only so much I could do to make you feel better that night but it has to stop just like you need to stop over thinking the Aleksi situation... And secondly, sober up.. We're gonna watch a movie and then I drive you back home and you are going to have a good night sleep in your own bed. " I was getting pissed on him.

"Yeah but.."
"But what?" I stopped the car in traffic lights andlooked Joel. He looked me and then the beer.

"Nothing"He then said and moved his eyes to Aleksi's Kia in front of us. I scoffed and started to drive behind Aleksi again.

Soon we all were at Aleksi's house and I stood out from the car. Joel slowly got himself up and we followed Aleksi inside. To be honest, I could feel how tense it all got. It was like he knew Aleksi wanted to move on with me and Aleksi knew that Joel knew that he wanted to. It was all so fucking messed up. I could bet on it that Aleksi would have made his move tonight, finally, maybe because I threw that stupid sentence up back at the studio, but since Joel was here it wouldn't happen. We took our shoes off and walked to the living room with Joel meanwhile Aleksi took something for me and him to drink. Soon he came back with bottle of wine and two glasses. He sat on the other side of me to the sofa and opened the bottle. Then he poured the liquid into both of them and placed the bottle on the table. Joel had another beer in his hand.