This chapter was edited on 2/3/2016 and includes minor alterations. Enjoy!
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It'd been about three weeks since Chris agreed to stay with me, instead of Eliot. And it'd been about two weeks since Eliot had gone down to Arizona, and he hadn't bothered to contact me since the night of the party. In one more week, we'd be moving into our new apartment in New Jersey, where I'd somehow managed to get a job, thank God. However, over those three weeks, Chris had been an emotional wreck. He was constantly paranoid that at any minute, Eliot would just come right in through the front door. I didn't say much about it though, and just let it go, because eventually Chris would understand that he was going to be fine, and we had more important things to do. Like packing.
"Why the hell do you have so much shit?" Chris asked with a quiet sigh. We'd been packing up the remaining objects in my room for the part hour, tossing various objects into boxes when we weren't quite sure where they should go. Needless to say there was very little organization involved in the whole process.
"Because I never throw things away." I replied. He rolled his eyes slightly, shaking his head as he tossed what looked like a small sculpture of a dinosaur into the box next to him. I glanced over at him for a second, then paused in packing and turned my head to watch him completely.
I wasn't gay, that I was absolutely sure of. But I did like Chris, a lot more than most of the girlfriends I'd had. Hell, I was uprooting my life for him. Of course, I did have to be careful. Mom and Dad were rather confused about my sudden decision to move out of state and get a job.
It's not that I didn't think they'd like Chris. And it's not one of those things where I was afraid of them shunning and hating me. I just wanted to wait until my relationship with him, whatever it may be, was more stable.
During my internal monologue I had going on, Chris had noticed me staring, and was now glaring back. He'd reverted back to bitch mode over the past few weeks. And I'm not going to lie, I did sort of miss it.
"What the hell are you looking at?"
I smiled innocently. "You. Your face. Your ridiculously adorable face. Just thinking about how adorable you are. And how sexy you are. And what an amazing ass you have."
Chris only glared harder, throwing something at me that I just barely dodged. "Shut the fuck up and pack already."
"Yes sir."
"One more word, Arden, I swear to God."
I ducked my head to hide the smile that made its way onto my face, tossing whatever he'd thrown at me into the box next to me as I continued to pack. It was fun to annoy Chris, even when he was paranoid enough to put most drug users to shame. My phone started ringing from out in the living room though, making me jump and hesitate before going to answer it.
"Yeah?"
"Hey dickface."
"Jesus, how old are you? You shouldn't know that word." I said to Lizzie, who snorted on the other end of the line.
"Yeah, whatever. Mom and Dad are going out, and they want to know if they can drop me at your place."
"No. I'm busy."
"With what?"
"Packing."
"Too bad." Lizzie said right before she hung up on me, making me roll my eyes. How was I supposed to sexually harass Chris with a thirteen-year old here?
"Who was that?" Chris called from the bedroom.
"Lizzie." I said, walking back over and sitting next to him on the floor. "Apparently Mom and Dad are going out, so they're dropping her off here."
Chris nodded slightly, rubbing the back of his neck with a quiet sigh. I watched him for a second before reaching over, worming my hand under his while kissing his temple. "You're lucky I like you," he mumbled. "Otherwise I wouldn't let you get away with that."
He still didn't appreciate all the face-kissing, which in my mind was the perfect reason to do it as often as possible. "Only like? I'm heartbroken." I replied, putting my other hand over my heart as Chris rolled his eyes.
"You're ridiculous. Would you leave me alone and get some packing done, Jesus Christ I'm the only one that's actually packed anything in the last hour."
"Why, am I getting on your nerves? Here I thought you liked me." I pushed, leaning on him slightly as he glanced away. Chris remained silent and didn't give any response to that, so I leaned closer, brushing my lips against his jaw and nipping lightly at the skin there.
I heard him sigh quietly before he leaned against me, still looking anywhere but at me. "You can be really dense sometimes, you know that?" he murmured.
"Hey, what is that supposed to mean?"
"You don't make stupid decisions like leaving your abusive, mildly psychotic boyfriend to move in and live with some guy you just 'like', Arden."
That had me pausing, watching Chris closely as he very obviously avoided looking in my direction. Instead he pretended to be interested in some book he picked up from the floor, flipping open the cover and skimming through pages as I thought over how to respond to that.
"Chris, I—"
"Open up, Arden!"
I was interrupted by Lizzie's loud and obnoxious voice, who was violently knocking on my front door. Of all the moments to show up. Sighing quietly, I released Chris's neck and stood up, heading for the door.
"We aren't done with this discussion." I told him, watching as he rolled his eyes before I was going out to the living room, opening the door and glaring down at the teenager in front of me. She only smiled back, pushing her way into the apartment but not getting far before she paused and glanced around.
"Wow, there's nothing here," she commented.
"It's all at the new apartment. Only stuff we currently have here is the bedroom."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. We?"
Whoops. I hadn't mentioned that Chris was with me. Well, fuck. Just at that moment, the man in question came into the living room as well, cleaning his glasses with the hem of his shirt as Lizzie laughed. "Ha! Seriously? Doesn't he have a boyfriend?"
"Technicalities." I mumbled, glaring back at her as Chris shifted uncomfortably.
"Well, by all means, go back to your packing, if that's even what you were actually doing in there. I'm just going to lay down on your living room floor." Lizzie said with a sigh, dropping down to the carpet and sprawling out, wiggling her toes. I shook my head at her, but noticed Chris smile slightly at her actions.
I didn't get how other people found her so adorable. They didn't have to live with her for nine years. I rolled my eyes, walking back toward the bedroom. Chris followed as I sat on the bed, falling back onto it. I really just wasn't in the mood to pack. We'd done a lot already, so I figured we could afford a break or five.
"We'll finish later." I mumbled, noticing Chris glancing at the things that still needed to be packed. He rose an eyebrow, but thankfully didn't argue. Instead, he walked over and lay beside me, exhaling quietly through his mouth. I glanced over, reaching up to run my fingers over the side of his neck and collarbone lightly, smiling when I felt him shiver from the contact.
I was sort of excited about moving. It'd be nice to get out of Baltimore, and see some new places. If it weren't for the Eliot thing, I think Chris would be excited too. But he was too worried about what would happen if all this backfired. Chris didn't deserve all the shit he got from Eliot. As far as I could tell, he was a good person. Just with a questionable judge of character.
I was about to voice my opinion of that when I looked over to Chris again and paused. He'd fallen asleep, with his head tilted toward me and his mouth slightly opened. I really wasn't surprised, with how worked up he'd been lately and then the physical labor of moving on top of things. Without thinking, I ran my thumb across his bottom lip, causing him to stir and shift so his arm was around my waist, making me smile.
"Not that I want to interrupt your little moment here, but your floor is shit."
I turned my head to see Lizzie standing in the doorway, making her way to the top part of the bed and falling ungracefully onto it with her feet hanging off the side. The bed movement made Chris let out an agitated noise and shift even closer, putting his head on my shoulder. "You two are ridiculous." I mumbled, reaching up and taking Chris's glasses off carefully.
"Love you too, asshole." Lizzie said, though it was slightly muffled since her face was pressed into one of my pillows. I glanced up to her before looking back down at Chris, gently moving some hair out of his face as I smiled a bit.
"Yeah."