hello, goodbye, hello.

Chapter 10: Sleeping Through the Storm

"Shut the fuck up!...Anyway we had some drinks..and...and I don't remember after that."

"Sounds like you had more than a 'few drinks' if you blacked out like that."

"Shut up, dude! Where's my fucking phone, and my wallet, all my stuff!" Ricky was getting angrier by the second and he didn't really know why.

"Your phone is on a charger, right there, wallet too." EJ said, pointing to the nightstand where Ricky's possessions were very obviously placed.

"Oh....and my shoes??" Ricky asked, calming down a bit. Was I wearing shoes? Of course I was...maybe?

"They're drying downstairs. We got here and I took off your shoes and your socks-"

"So you get me back here and your first thought is to start fucking undressing me!?!" Ricky was getting angry again.

"Nonononono It's not like that, Jesus! It was raining and you were shivering really bad, your clothes were soaked. I started to....undress you...trust me, I took no pleasure in it either, but It was too weird so I just grabbed a bunch of towels and wrapped you up. Looking at the wet spot on my bed, it seems like it worked okay."

Ricky looked at the pile of wet towels on the bed, a large water stain underneath. He wanted to argue, but between the throbbing pain in his head and the general fogginess of, well, everything, he didn't have the energy.

"I was really asleep in the middle of the street?" Ricky asked.

"Um..yeah." EJ replied quietly. "It was raining pretty hard, I don't know how you managed it, but yeah. I took you back here cause, well I didn't really know where else to go. It was pretty late and I don't know where you live so...yeah."

The reality of the situation hit Ricky. No matter how you looked at it, no matter how weird all of this was, EJ had potentially saved his life. No. He had. EJ saved Ricky's life.

"Th-thank you." was all that Ricky could muster.

"y-yeah, no problem." EJ replied, rubbing his side. "Didn't think that deserved getting attacked."

EJ laughed, causing Ricky to let the tiniest hint of a smile appear on his face.

"Sorry about that. I thought you were some sort of kidnapper or something."

"Nope, just a very concerned friend."

A friend.

EJ had never called Ricky that before. They certainly weren't enemies anymore, but, well, he had just never thought about what they were now.

"Anyway Bowen, it's like 3:00am, the way I see it you have two choices. I can drive you back home or-"

"No!" Ricky blurted out. "I mean...It's really late, like you said, and I think I'm still drunk, my dad would literally kill me if I came home like this."

"So...what about Big Red's?"

Ricky shook his head. He couldn't remember how he got from Big Red's to EJ's, but if it really was that late, Red would definitely be asleep. Besides, something about being back at Big Red's put a bad taste in Ricky's mouth, he didn't know why.

"So, option two then, you stay here for the night, and I drive you home in the morning."

"What about your parents? Aren't they-"

"They're out of town on some business thing." I don't think they'd notice even if they were here.

"Oh...well I mean...If you don't mind that I-"