Oh Boy! (BL)

21 - Of Friends And Family (1/3)

"I don't like this."

Blinking slowly like a Furby plushy with defective batteries, I practically had to rip my eyes from the notepad in my lap. Ever since Clay showed up fifteen minutes before the official end of his practice – to make sure we would notice if Drake followed us and couldn't mingle with the other students who were heading home – I had been working on the second draft of the upcoming Blitz! edition. Cooper's gaze had threatened to murder both of us if I didn't get this draft ready by tonight. Clay had rolled his eyes but spared him a comment.

So, I'd spent the past hour scribbling notes and correcting spelling mistakes on the pile of paper, occasionally glancing left to where Clay was sitting on his driver seat.

As tense as he was, I doubted we'd be doing much anyway.

I drew in my brows. What the hell was I thinking!

Oh my gosh! Get your sh*t together, Fox!

Not that we would have done anything if the situation had been a different one! Of course, not! No! I... I mean. Aaaargh! What had I become? I was a monster! No, worse! I was like...Horny7!

"I don't like this at all."

My firecracker-red face turned to Clay. Impatiently, he was tapping on the top of the steering wheel staring straight out of the windshield at the surprisingly cloudless November sky. His hair was still damp from his after-practice shower, the energy he was supposed to have lost during practice turned into restlessness. We'd been parked in this parking lot one block away from my apartment complex for about fifty minutes waiting for Cooper's black Chevy to pop up behind us. Coop was taking his time picking stuff from his home for a simple overnight bag.

I lifted one raven brow. "It was your idea."

"I know!" Clay growled. "That doesn't mean I like the fact that f*cking Cooper MacIntosh will stick to your side 24/7!"

Before we'd had our talk inside the hospital elevator, I would have probably been confused about his mood. He'd put down the happy smile he usually showed around school, which was – I guessed – as much of an armor to him as my hoodie was to me, and had taken on his stiff, his protective mode. Now, though, I recognized the emotion immediately.

Jealousy.

A feeling I wasn't familiar with, at least not with regard to myself. But I would learn to deal with it if I had to, and maybe I could take this uncertainty from Clay's mind.

Reaching over the center console, I lifted his fingers from the steering wheel to take his hand in mine. "I'm not Cooper's boyfriend." My breath shivered. "I'm yours."

Clay looked at me in surprise and I blushed. It was the first time I even considered uttering the word boyfriend. But I felt that if I didn't say anything, I'd be waiting forever, always uncertain if I understood correctly what was going on between us. So, yeah, I might've held my breath for the five freaking seconds Clay stared at me with an unreadable expression.

Then I was spellbound by the way the reflection of the lantern's light danced in his eyes when he leaned over the center console. "And I'm yours," he whispered before his lips touched mine.

I expected a light kiss – I mean, we were in a public parking lot; chances were that someone from school would walk by and see us in front of the brightly illuminated convenience store. But when Clay embraced my face with both of his hands and whispered quiet words of how much he needed me against my trembling lips, I moaned when his tongue slipped in between my lips.

I didn't understand what went through his worried mind in this moment. Nothing would happen between Cooper and me, school would be a cake walk since a couple of other teams were also heading to their practice camps today and would stay there throughout the entire week before Thanksgiving. My chest felt heavy when I realized that Clay would be leaving in like two hours and that we wouldn't see each other for almost two weeks. The only good thing about this situations was that the school's hallways would be as good as empty. And on top of that, I didn't even have to leave the apartment during the Thanksgiving break - though, I would probably spend the holiday at the hospital. Even though I didn't understand my feelings too well, I clung to Clay's longing body and tried to take the worry off his mind with our kiss.

We didn't stop until a black compact car parked in the space to our left, but only after a line of smaller kisses, did we let go completely to share a silly smile. His cheeks were just as red as mine.

When we got out of the car simultaneously, Cooper gave us a knowing smile. Yeah...guess one only had to have two eyes to know exactly what the two heavy breathing boys had done behind the tinted windows of Clay's sedan. Without a comment – thank goodness - Cooper opened his trunk and took out two suitcases, one black sports bag and a backpack...

I blinked. "Um..."

"How long do you plan on staying with him?" growled Clay.

Cooper batted his eyelashes at him like a prom queen about to have her picture taken. "Forever, honey."

"It's not like that." I sighed. "I told him he had to bring like pillows and stuff because I can only offer him to sleep with me on the couch."

"With you?!"

"Chill, Prescott! Did you even listen to what he said?" Cooper opened the zipper of his black sports bag. "Here's my pillow and duvet, and in that" he pointed at the larger suitcase. "is my air mattress. Or would you have preferred if I cuddle with him, huh?"

Clay closed his eyes for a bit. Then he exhaled loudly. "Sorry."

Leaving Cooper's Chevy behind at the parking lot, the three of us carried his bags over to my apartment complex. Cooper's first reaction was a wide-eyed gaze when I announced that I was living in the square-cut four-story building which's mud-grey walls had been crumbling since before I even moved here. Quietly, he followed Clay and me upstairs, through the empty hallways where his horrified gaze landed on a used syringe right next to the fire exit. But I could literally feel his shock when he first entered my small apartment. I didn't know what he had expected after passing the house's community areas, but he certainly was not impressed by our yellow wallpaper and the miniature kitchen.

"Boss...um...I...I dunno what to say." His blue eyes fell on my desk that was placed in between our TV and the sideboard in which I stored my clothes. "This is where you do your magic?!"

Clay threatened to kill him with his gaze, but I stepped between them before they could fight again. Which they would. I was sure about that. "It's fine. It's not like this is my forever home...or at least I hope it's not."

"It's not," said Clay with determination in his voice; catching me by surprise.

When I looked at him, his grey eyes held a promise that I was too afraid to analyze.

While Cooper settled in my living/dining/bedroom, Clay pulled me to the door.

"I'd stay longer but..."

I hugged him tightly. "Your bus'll take off soon. Have fun."

He nuzzled my hair. "If he tries anything..."

I chuckled. "He won't." When I lifted my gaze, fully aware that he'd pushed my bangs aside and not caring at all, his eyes moved from my brown eye to the blue one before they locked on my lips. Not hesitating for once in my life, I put a hand behind his neck and pulled him down. "Good luck."

"We'll talk" He kissed me once. "on the phone" Twice. "before the tournament." Thrice.

Then he was gone.

And I missed him already.