Housemates (boyxboy)

Chapter 10

I wished my pillow was better at canceling noise than it was doing at the moment because I thought I'd vomit if I heard one more giggle escape from Amber's mouth. Squeezing the pillow to my ears, I groaned as her laughter sounded from the living room below. She must've been forcing herself if I could hear her from my bedroom.

Alec wasn't a particularly funny guy so, I couldn't fathom what she could be laughing at. Unless Vinny was somewhere down there with them.

Well, knocking soon sounded at my door and I sighed, telling the visitor to come in. Peering over to the door, I watched as a head of red hair entered, a sly grin on the boy's face.

"Surprised to see you're not downstairs," I said, pushing myself up in bed.

"Alec must be quite the comedian I'd say," Vinny replied, grinning.

"Doubt it," I mumbled. "What're you up to?"

Doing a quick little hop, Vinny plopped down on the foot of my bed, causing creaks to sound for a moment. He craned his head to look at me and the grin remained spread across his lips. And he was yet to reply.

"What is it?" I asked with a frown.

"Zion," he replied.

"What about him?" I said.

"You two have been quite chummy lately," he told me.

"Chummy?" I repeated. "He's stone cold, Vinny. There's no way we'd ever be chummy."

"Uh-huh, right," Vincent said and I knew he didn't believe me.

Releasing a breath, I shook my head at the peculiar boy.

"Why would you say that?" I questioned.

Vincent offered a shrug. "Hasn't he been coming in here lately?"

I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. "Keeping tabs on Zion's whereabouts?"

"No," Vincent replied. "You seem to keep forgetting my room is next to yours."

I released a sigh. I wasn't sure why Zion was narrowing the boundary between us recently either.

"It's not like anything ever happens," I told Vincent and he shot his head back at me, winking suggestively.

"It sounds as if you're disappointed, Cade," he spoke slowly. "Do you perhaps want something to happen?"

Reaching behind my head, I pulled out my pillow and tossed it at the red-haired fellow and he winced upon the impact.

"Shut up," I said. "Not with Zion at least."

Vincent's eyebrow raised. "With who then?"

I felt the corner of my lip curve up in an unexpected grin. "A man who resembles a dog."

Vincent's eyebrows narrowed in confusion at my statement. "A dog?"

"Are you more surprised I'd compare him to a dog than the fact that he's a man?" I questioned.

"Yes," Vincent answered. "Is he like a puppy?"

I released a laugh. "If only."

Vincent gently tossed my pillow back at me before he pushed off of my bed and stood up. "I wish you luck with that then."

I simply nodded my head.

I didn't want luck anyway. I needed to get over Alec.

Well, Vincent soon took his leave and I decided it was time to get some sleep. I had work early in the morning.

———

Alec was busy shuffling around as he was readying himself for work, and the two of us left the house together to face the long day ahead of us at the office.

There'd been something on my mind as of recently and it'd been weighing on me every day I showed up to work. You see, the whole relationship facade that Alec and I got ourselves into was becoming painstaking. And if that was going to be the case, I didn't think we should pretend anymore. Alec was in a real relationship with Amber anyway and I'd only be putting myself through something that would undoubtedly give me false hope and despair. So, when we arrived at work, I pulled Alec to the side and decided to tell him what I'd been thinking.

"I see," he said once I'd explained. "That's fine with me."

I forced a smile. I hadn't expected him to agree so quickly but why wouldn't he? My naivety had gotten the best of me.

The relationship was short lived and with it finally being over, I knew it was time to move on. Still, it hurt knowing we'd never cherish the same feelings.

Anyway, work went by especially slow and when I arrived home, I was simply exhausted.

Even so, I thought that I should tell Zion about the fake relationship that Alec and I decided to sever at work since he knew about it. So, I figured that knocking on Zion's door wouldn't have been a problem since he'd been doing the same to me as of recently, but I was very heavily mistaken.

I knocked twice on his white, wooden door and awaited a response that never came despite the fact I knew he was in there. I narrowed my eyes at his apparent rudeness and resorted to knocking again.

This time, the door slowly creaked open and Zion's eyes met mine through the small crack that he allowed to appear between us. I couldn't see anything but his eye so I pushed the door with a small bout of force. Zion stopped the action on the other side but not before I was able to glance at his bare chest and neck which were marked with red blotches.

And it was at that moment I realized I'd interrupted something.

I'd interrupted Zion's hot date. The same hot date that I doubted was even real.

"I'll come back later," I said to the older fellow. "I see my timing isn't quite preferable at the moment."

Zion puffed out a laugh before staring into my eyes once more as he ran a hand through his messy, long hair. "See you soon."

And with that, he closed the door as I remained still in the hallway, dumbfounded at what I'd just experienced.

"Dude," Vincent said upon discovering me in the hall. "Just go in already. I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

Turning my head to look at Vincent, I replied softly.

"I can't."

———
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