Top and Tail [boyxboy] [slash]

Chapter 7: The First Day

Jay and I snuck back indoors around six am. We had a bulky silver alarm box attached to side of our house like a metal parasite, but it was purely for aesthetic purposes. Before I was born, my mum had had a lean black cat that had a fondness of nightly walks. Of course it constantly set off the alarm, so my dad had the whole system uninstalled. They'd left the box up though, in the hope that it would fend off any would-be burglars in the meantime.

And despite the fact that I knew we'd only get an hour or so of sleep, we flopped back into bed anyway.

I'd been rather sneakily clever on Sunday night, setting an alarm for ten minutes before my mum's so she wouldn't catch Jay and I in our rather compromising sleeping position. It was weird in a sense, but I actually kind of enjoyed sleeping nestled next to Jay. He was a constant source of heat during the cold nights, and there was something nice about having his slender arms wrapped around me...

Um... Ahem... I didn't just say that.

When the shrill metallic ringing of the alarm clock filled the room I had the sudden urge to smash the thing to pieces. The thing had just woken me from probably the shortest night's sleep I'd ever had. For school. I wanted to crush the stupid thing.

"Jay, gonna fix that?" I moaned, rolling over so that I was facing away from said alarm clock. Jay groaned and rubbed his eyes sleepily.

"Huh?"

"Tell the bloody alarm clock to shut the hell up!" I commanded, pulling the covers over my ears. Jay was still confused in his drowsy state, but made a sluggish movement to halt the incessant beeping.

"Got it."

"Cheers."

I pulled the covers tighter around me. I didn't feel like getting up just yet. Why is it that beds suddenly get so much more comfortable when it's time to get up?

Sighing, I kicked the thick duvet off, exposing Jay's upper body to the morning chills. He whimpered a little, which, for some strange reason, made me smile...

I shook my head, literally trying to shake those thoughts from my mind. I needed something to distract myself. So instead, I thought about school.

It wasn't a much better train of thought, I'll admit it, but it was something. Besides, if I was dreading school this much, I could only imagine the chilling fear Jay must have felt. My family had never moved house. Hell, my family rarely left the neighbourhood. I'd literally only been to three different towns in my entire life. So I had absolutely no idea how it must feel to start a new school.

Jay let out a huge deep yawn, setting me off too. He laughed at my scowl.

"Come on Ash. We've got school."

"Whoop-de-doop," I grumbled. "Forgive me for not positively jumping with joy. Bad back, you know?"

Regardless of his efforts to maintain a straight face, a small laugh bubbled from Jay's lips.

"Uh huh. Seriously though, get up. I, um, don't really fancy turning up to my first day of school alone..."

When he put it like that...

"Fine..." I complained. I made a big show of slowly peeling back the covers, taking as much time as possible to swing my legs over the end of the bed, and just generally wasting time. Midway through my second theatrical yawn Jay decided enough was enough and pushed me off the edge of the mattress.

"Hey! Dude that hurt!"

Other than a slight ache at the bottom of my back, I was absolutely fine. Well, I was tired, cold and grumpy but those particular three ailments were nothing new. Still, it was fun to see Jay's face pale as panic took over.