Preacher Man // ross lynch + driver era

6

I push my hands into his hair, pulling him gently to bring him closer to me. His lips are warm against mine. Ross' free hand is latched to my hip, tugging the thin material.

Finally, the alarms in my head start to go off. "Ross, we can't. We shouldn't." I mumble while he moves his lips to my neck. "We are too drunk." I gently push at his body and scoot backwards so I am sitting up.

"That's what is fun about it," he slightly slurs, his eyes holding such deep emotion, but I can't tell which one.

I shake my head and climb off of the bed. "I'm not the hookup type of girl," I inform him and pull down my shorts to fully cover my backside. I look at the man laying across my bed, his head on the pillow with his hand covering his eyes. "Are you okay?" I ask, walking over to him and moving his hand. He either looks like he's going to vomit or pass out.

Ross nods and grips onto my hand that is resting on the bed. "Lay with me," he instructs while tugging at my hand.

"Are you going to get sick?" I ask with a worried expression. "If you are, it's fine. I'll just grab-"

He shakes his head and tugs my hand harder, "No. Come." I sigh and climb into the bed, laying myself down beside him. He looks down at me with a lazy smile, his eyes looking bright. "I like your warmth next to me," he slurs.

"Better than Sarah's?" I tease, opening the secret vault of jealousy I had laced inside of me.

Ross laughs loudly and turns so his body is facing mine. "Nope, never." He leans his hand down and it lays it within reach of my own. "I don't know what I'm doing. I don't usually cuddle or attempt to, um, cuddle with anyone. I just want to be close to you tonight." I look up to see his eyes fixated on the ceiling but taking quick glances to see my reaction to his words. "I don't know why I said that. I'm blaming the wine."

I scoot closer to him and rest my head onto his chest. I don't comment on his confession to prevent embarrassing him. His hands go onto my shoulders and he lets out a deep exhale as I pull onto his shirt.

I wake up the next morning to an empty bed.

I glance around to see if he left any trace of himself behind and everything including his shoes are gone. I roll over to see 9:32AM written along the clock.

I exit my bedroom and begin making myself a cup of coffee. He isn't in the kitchen or living room either. I sigh and continue to make my cup in the silence of the apartment knowing that my roommates will wake up soon. I sit down at the kitchen table and scroll through my social media.

Fifteen minutes later, Kayla walks out of her room with Chance following right behind her. I smirk and say, "Morning. I made coffee." Kayla winks at my expression then grabs some coffee and they join me at the kitchen table. "So how was ice skating?" I swirl the spoon around in the inch of leftover coffee in my mug.

Chance replies, "it was good! Liv was busting ass, Kayla wasn't too bad. You already know that I'm a champ at basically everything I do. Rocky and Ellington both played hockey at some point so they were great." I nod along to his story. "How was your night?"

I inhale and exhale before replying. "Good, good." Might as well keep it nice and short.

"Saw Ross' car in the parking lot when we got home around 1," Kayla adds, tipping the black mug into her mouth.

I hum in response. "He came over and we watched a movie, drank some wine. We fell asleep and he somehow sneaked out from the time I fell asleep to now. I don't know when."

"What an asshole," Kayla replies, staring at Chance then me. "Did you text him asking why?"

I shake my head, leaning back to the old wooden chairs the accompany our wooden table. "Nope. Don't even have his number," I cringe at the fact that we kissed before we even exchanged numbers.

It was a kiss – a drunk kiss. Nothing more, nothing less.

Chance opens his phone and hands it to me moments later with Ross' contact information up. I reach into my lap and pull my phone out, entering in his number.

Two can play at this game.

I click the little message bubble and simply write: Snuck out of the room last night? Real classy. Then clicked send.

The three of us continue the conversation where Kayla laughs hysterically, updating me on the horrific journey of Liv's ice skating attempts in between her fits of laughter. It was only twenty minutes later when my phone vibrated again.

Ross: Sorry. Had an errand to run in the morning. Didn't want to wake you.

Hayley: Wasn't a nice feeling waking up to an abandoned bed. But no worries.

Ross: I wanna see you again today

I roll my eyes and decide not to reply for a bit. Chance leaves not much longer after we finish the stories from last night.

"Want to grab lunch?" Liv asks as she appears from her room with her hair in a messy bun. Kayla and I decide on going so we get ready for the day ahead.

An hour later the three of us are at a little café in Denver that's known for its sandwiches. "So, you and Chance huh?" I question Kayla. She laughs and shrugs in response. "You seem happier," I add, trying to make her open up a bit.

"He's great. He seems like he genuinely wants to get to know me. It's nice," she replies, a huge smile taking over her naturally gorgeous face. "So Hayley may not know, but Liv was all over Rocky last night," she turns and stares at the blonde who has cheeks redder than the tomato she was popping into her mouth.

Liv responds. "I'm just having fun! He's cute. And he's a good kisser, but regardless, it's just nice having someone around, ya know?" She moves around her salad while avoiding contact.

"You would be cute together," I mention.

She shrugs, "I'm not sure if I want a relationship. He kissed me last night before we left the ice skating rink and it was the first day knowing him. He couldn't possibly want a relationship yet. We will just take it a step at a time. How's Ross though? Oh my god, are we both getting with a Lynch? Roomie goals."

I laugh at her last sentence, adding in my signature eye roll. "He basically told me he was feeling super lonely lately so I invited him back over to the apartment and we watched some crap Lifetime movie. I teased him asking if he was getting feisty because you know how he can get and he got all flirty, pinned me against the bed. Then he kissed me." I glance up to see their reactions, both of them intensely staring at me. I continue. "I kissed him back then realized we were too drunk for this so I pulled away. He asked me to just lay with him then so I did. I woke up the next morning and he wasn't there. Claimed he had an errand to run, but says he wants to see me today."

I sigh, taking another bite of the sandwich while both of them stay silent before Kayla speaks up. "Are you going to see him?"

"I don't know. Kind of insulted he just left without letting me know. The night ended so well. I don't even know how I feel about him. I want to know him so bad. I don't get like that often, but I want to just be around him – platonically or not. I'm confused and frustrated," I let out another full blown rant and run my hands through my wavy hair. I shrug, glancing out of the window to the busy street.

Liv says, "I think you should see him. Hear what he has to say, see how he acts toward you. Rocky told me he's an extremely private person and doesn't like to open up a lot."

"And that confuses me, the night of the party, we sat in his car and in the diner for hours. His favorite color is black and he told me he has demons in his past that he doesn't like to talk about. He told me about his siblings. He told me so much about him, but not much at the same time. Boys frustrate me."

One of my roommates mumble with a mouth full of food, "See him today."

I sigh, pulling out my phone and opening the message I didn't reply to.

Hayley: I wanna see you too.

Within moments, he replies. Ross: Pick you up at five.

I glance at the time, it's already 2:30. I let the girl's know of his response and we hurry up our late lunch to head back in time.