Loving from afar - JJPope

Five

Sundays sucked. At least they usually did. The day before school started, the day you had to go to bed earlier to actually get some sleep. But this Sunday was different. This Sunday, JJ was coming over to work on their project and Pope was stressed.

All morning he had been running around the house with the vacuum cleaner, ignoring his fathers complaints of 'I just did the vacuuming! Stop!' The house had to be spotless. The dishes had to be clean and put away, the bathrooms needed a clean, Pope's bed needed making. There was so much to do and such little time Pope feared he might collapse.

"The next time you're in your 'cleaning mode' can you come round to mine?" Cleo jokes from the other line, echoing throughout the air. "My room is a mess."

Rolling his eyes, Pope sighs. "Fine, but not today. JJ's coming over."

Cleo scoffs out a laugh. "Yes, I know, it's all you've been talking about for the past hour. 'The house has to be perfect, there's still so much to do!' Blah blah."

"You're a bully, you know that?"

"You love me."

Pope can't help but crack a smile. "Yes, I do, you shit."

Pope can almost hear in Cleo's voice their grand smile of accomplishment. "Okay, I will leave you to race around the house and finish your cleaning."

"Thank you, bye."

"Bye, nerd."

The other line goes dead and Pope turns his phone off, allowing it to slide into his side pocket. He pulls the plug from the sink and watches as the water dissipates down into the drain with a loud sound that makes Pope shake his head in distaste. He moves onto drying all of the dishes, something to keep him busy, and puts on some music to not have to listen to the sound of his racing heart in his ears any longer.

He was anxious. Rightfully so, considering the guy he had been in love with for almost nine years was coming around for the first time to do their partnered project together. The music helped, only slightly, but helped enough for him to ease his breathing and allow his body to relax. It was the exact same playlist he had created from when he was just ten years old. It was filled with love songs - some as old as the 60s and others as new as this very year - that he continued to add that reminded him of JJ. Sweet, charming yet hot headed at times JJ who had no idea that he existed until a few weeks ago.

School had been kind of awkward between the two since the picture of JJ went around and the twitter account had been terminated. The blonde had been avoiding Pope like the plague, sending vague texts with just yes and no answers to the point Pope feared that something had happened. That those bruises he saw on JJ were because of him, were because he had emailed twitter and had gotten the account taken down. Not because he had gotten into a fight like everyone else was saying, not because he got drunk and started a fight with a random stranger on the street, but because Pope had opened his big fucking mouth and had done the one thing that could have gotten JJ ever so badly hurt. It was Pope's fault and he didn't know what to do with that information.

All he knew was that JJ was coming today. Pope didn't know if his siblings were coming, all he knew was that JJ was coming over and that they were doing their project for school. Nothing more, nothing less.

Pope places the last dry dish into the cupboard and lets out a deep set sigh, dragging a hand down his face. He throws the tea towel into the washing machine on his way past the laundry room, jumping two steps at a time up to his bedroom that was still in the need of one last clean up. The music was still playing from his pocket, echoing throughout the room and leaving a warm sense in the air that had Pope's anxiety evaporating.