“Hey,” his voice said, waking me. I opened my eyes to see him laying next to me, his eyes boring into me.
“Yes?”
“What happened last night and why am I here?”
I chuckled. Did he honestly not remember? I guess I was glad for that.
“What time is it?” I asked, avoiding the question.
“Answer me,” he demanded.
“You drunk-dialed me and I brought you here because you didn’t want to go back to your house and then you slept on the couch.” That was technically the truth. No embarrassment attached, too, which made it better.
“I remember thinking something was really hilarious last night,” he pondered. Uh-oh. I hope he can’t recall it. “Oh, yeah, you said something about you being--”
“Yep, ha, I did. Thanks, bye,” I said, jumping up and moving into the bathroom. I didn’t need this not this early in the morning. A knock on the door.
“I won’t tell anyone,” he promised.
“No one would believe you if you did, remember? We did it the first time we met. In your studio, isn’t that what you said? And then you kicked me out?”
“Who told you about that?”
I scoffed. He was not seriously mad about me finding out about that. He said it! I turned on the shower, having no intention of actually getting in, just driving him away. After half an hour, I figured I was safe to leave. I opened the door, almost closing it again when I saw him on my bed, staring at me. My phone was in his hand. Unlocked.
“How’d you get in my phone?” I demanded.
“Funny how irritating it can be when people don’t tell you everything they know, isn’t it?” he said. He was searching for buttons to push.
“Not really,” I answered coolly. “Take it, I’m gonna get a new one soon anyway.”
He raised his eyebrow at me. He looked down at my phone again, deciding to narrate everything he did. “Ah, Twitter. What to tweet? Oh, I know,” he said, tapping the screen. I lunged at the phone, taking him by surprise and snatching the phone from his hands. He then took me by surprise, grabbing my arms and pinning me on the floor.
“Give me the phone back, I wasn’t done,” he breathed.
“It’s my phone,” I pointed out. He stood, nodding. He held out his hand, and I took it, thanking him for helping me up.
He coughed. “Sorry,” he said, “Shouldn’t have, um, tackled you like that, I suppose.”
“It’s okay,” I reply.
“And I’m also sorry I called you a whore behind your back and spreading rumors about you.”
“I forgive you,” I say. “Uh, also, Jen wants to have a game-night, and she wanted to invite you.”
“Oh, yeah, cool. I’m just gonna go back to the house and shower, then,” he told me. I nodded. He walked out of my room. I sat down on my bed, marveling at what just unfolded before he came back into the room, closing the door behind him. I gave him a confused look.
“I wanted to ask you why,” he explained.
It took me a minute to understand what he was talking about before I answered. “It doesn’t sound fun from my end,” I stated bluntly.
“Why not?”
“Um, because when a woman loses her virginity, her hymen is ripped and bleeds all over the bed sheets and that sounds painful. Also, I’m not married, and there’s always a slight possibility that I’ll get pregnant and then I’d have the responsibility of that and,” I said, taking a breath, “then I’d have to push it out or get cut open to deliver it, so you can see where that doesn’t sound like Heaven.”
He nodded. “But if you married the right person...”
“I don’t know if I would,” I told him.
I was almost done with my nap when I heard Jen scream bloody-murder and a clattering sound downstairs. I sprung out of my nest of blankets and ran to her. She was a mess. Her carefully applied mascara was leaking down her face and her nose was red.
“Jen, what’s wrong?” I ask.
“It’s Oli! He’s, he-- we have to go to the hospital! Now!” she screamed. I nodded, dialing a cab while Jen was still screaming. It arrived in record time, perhaps thinking that Jen was having contractions. I need a car. But gas prices.
We pull up to the curb of the hospital and I pay while Jen runs inside. She pulls herself together long enough to ask what Oli’s room number is. He was on the third floor.
“Oliver!” Jen screeched upon seeing him.
“Hey,” he said, flashing her a smile.
“Don’t worry me like that! What happened?” she inquired, throwing her arms around him and kissing him all over his face.
“Car wreck, drunk driver, you know. Broke my leg, but I’m fine,” he assured.
As if seeing it for the first time, Jen gasped and beheld the cast Oli’s leg was in. She made a small noise, but nothing else. “Vic,” she asked. “Can we be alone? I’ll be home later,” she promised.
I agreed to leaving them and hailed a cab outside. It looked like it was going to rain. The cab pulled up and I told him the address, preoccupied by thoughts of laundry to be done and dinner to be made. I wanted to fix up the spare bedroom, too, or maybe turn it into a lounge. Maybe I could look at furniture online later.
My phone rang when I was about ten minutes from home. I answered it, saying hello to Jay. He was having no pleasantries today.
“Where are you? It’s raining,” he told me.
“Is that so?” I asked. “I’m on my way home. Where are you?”
“I’m at your house. That’s why I asked you where you were. Duh,” he condescended.
I laughed, “Bye Jay, I’ll be there in a while.” I ended the phone call before he could ask anymore stupid questions.
When we pulled up, he was indeed sitting on the steps to my house, soaking wet. I ran through the rain, wanting to avoid as much rain as possible. He shot me a dirty look as if it was my fault he was at my house. Oh, wait. Maybe it was. Game night, I completely forgot.
I shot him an apologetic smile, opening the door. “Where’s Jen?”
“The hospital,” I told him.
“What? What happened to her?”
“She’s visiting Oli, relax. Oli broke his leg, by the way. Do you want to go visit him?”
“Uh, no. Not right now. Do you have any clothes?”
“Uh, I have big t-shirts, maybe some of my sweat pants would fit you but I don’t have male underwear.”
“Can I wear the sweatpants?”
“Yeah, I’ll go get them and the shirt. Oh, and when you’re done with the sweatpants, you can keep them. Or burn them. It’s whatever.”
I heard him laughing as I went and when I came back down he wasn’t where I had left him. “Jay?” I call. I started walking toward the bathroom, thinking maybe that would make sense.
“Yeah?” he called from behind the door.
“Here,” I said. The door opened a small bit and his hand shot out. I placed the articles in his hand and wandered into the kitchen, going to raid the pantry for soup. It was a soup kind of night, I had decided. We had chicken noodle, wild rice, minestrone, tomato... Yeah, grilled cheese and tomato soup. When I turned around, I saw Jay in the doorway of kitchen, his eyes on me. He looked absolutely ridiculous in the large sleep shirt I had given him and the sweatpants that I’d had since tenth grade.
“What are you making?”
“Uh, I thought grilled cheese and soup would be nice?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if he would like that. He nodded his head, his black curls even darker wet.
I walked over to the cabinets by the stove and pulled out my griddle. He was still staring at me. “What?” I ask.
His face reddened and he tore his eyes from mine, looking at the ceiling before saying, “Uh, I can help, if you want.”
“Oh. Okay, can you get the butter and the cheese singles from the fridge?” He hurried over to the refrigerator, still looking embarrassed. I set the griddle down on the stove and plugged it in, turning the heat up. I turned to get the bread, but was stopped by Jay telling me he had it. He set down all of the ingredients for the grilled cheese next to me and picked up the can of soup, taking a pot and warming a burner on the stove. I handed him a wooden spoon so he could stir. It was unspoken, but both of us knew I was the grilled cheese maker and he was in charge of the soup.
When the cheese was grilled and the soup was warm, I got down two bowls and two spoons.
We sat down and I immediately tore my sandwich in half, dipping the gooey cheese-bread into the red soup. Jay followed my lead.
“It’s kind of nice,” he said nonchalantly.
“Of course it is, I’m a great cook,” I informed him jokingly.
“I wasn’t talking about the meal, I was talking about the two of us being able to sit down and not tear each others’ throat out. That’s what’s nice.”
“Oh.” Yeah, I guess that was nice. I sopped up the last of my soup with my remaining bread. “Yeah, it is.”
He smiled, glad that I agreed with him. I then added, “Um, if you want to sleep in the spare bedroom, we can go make it up.”
He nodded, putting his and my bowl in the sink and turning to follow me up the stairs.
The third bedroom was more of an office, since it didn’t have it’s own bathroom. It did, however, have a huge window over-looking the front yard and road. We hadn’t put curtains in here yet, so the light poured in relentlessly. The bed, well futon, was pushed up against the wall in the couch form. It only took about a minute to make it into a bed. I walked back out into the hall, getting sheets and blankets from the closet. The sheets were stripey green sheets and the blanket that was supposed to go over them was white. And fluffy, so fluffy.
I jumped almost three and a half feet when I heard my phone ring from my back pocket. I answered to Jen telling me she decided she would stay at the hospital tonight. I was not looking forward to a night alone with Jay. We were sort of friends now, but what if he was faking so he could strangle me in my sleep? I would close my door so I could hear him if he tried.
“What did Jen want?” he asked. How did he know it was Jen? Seeing my puzzled expression, he explained, “You don’t talk to a lot of people and if it was your mom, you’d have sounded a lot more uncomfortable, Jen says.”
“Oh. Jen says she’s gonna stay at the hospital tonight and look after Oli,” I inform him. He shrugged, appearing apathetic. He passed me a side of the sheet and pulled the futon away from the wall so he could tuck the sheet under the mattress. When we were finished making the bed, I told him I was going to get ready for bed.
A half hour and shower later, I was on my bed, tablet out, Netflix app open. I wanted to watch a movie before I went to bed. A good movie, not a knock off. There was a knock on my door. I took my earphones out and whisper-yelled, “It’s open.” Jay’s face appeared through a crack in the doorway.
“I can’t sleep,” he explained. “What are you doing?”
“I was gonna watch a movie before I went to sleep. Do you... do you want to watch it with me?” I offered. He agreed, so I pulled up Maleficent. I loved Maleficent. It wasn’t fair how misunderstood she was by Aurora. Stephan was a major douche to her, she was angry. Aurora should’ve hated the king, who exiled her at first because he wanted to keep her safe but in the end, he only cared about himself. But everything worked out anyway. Such a good film.
“Are you crying?” Jay asked me. I didn’t think I was.
“I’m merely tearing up,” I covered. I always cried at this. Just like I always cried at season two of my favorite show. “Watch the movie.”
He smirked, but turned his attention back to the iPad. When the movie ended, I locked the iPad and set it on my night stand after turning on my lamp. “Goodnight, then,” Jay said, sitting up and walking out of my room. I didn’t want him to leave. I also didn’t want him to know I didn’t want him to leave. The door clicks shut, completely oblivious to my internal conflict. Yes, he was beautiful. I didn’t know if I like, like-liked him, though. Did I? No. Maybe. Not a definite yes. I didn’t know him, I only knew he was aesthetically pleasing. I did not want to think about this, not this late. It was a problem for the morning. Unless...
Before I was fully conscious of what I was doing, I was out of my bed and walking to Jay’s room. I tapped on the door, telling myself how stupid and impulsive I was and how that would one day be the death of me. Oh well, we all die anyway.
There he was, staring me in the face, the door suddenly open. He looked sleepy, but not tired. I think there’s a difference. Sleepy is adorable and tired, well, you know, tired is like you could fight a bear and then take a nap. I think.
“Yea?” His voice was groggy. It was nice to listen to.
“Hi,” I said. “Wanna talk?” Where was this going? I had no idea and it was late enough that I didn’t care to think about the repercussions of my actions.
He looked surprised, but not angry. “Yea,” he repeated, moving so I could get in. I didn’t know if I should sit or stand, so I stood for a while until Jay motioned for me to sit on the edge of his bed. “What did you want to talk about?”
Us. What we were. I didn’t say that, though, instead blurting out, “I need a car.” It was true, I did need a car.
“Is that the real reason you’re in here at,” he said, pulling his phone from a pocket in my sweatpants and checking the time. “2:18 am? Really?”
I sighed. He got me. “No, that’s not really why I’m here,” I confessed.
“Why are you here, then?” He was sitting up, staring at me. The light from outside fell across half of his face, his eye sparkling. It was a simple question. Not so simple an answer, though. I shrugged, not looking him in the eye. He put his hand on mine, saying, “You can tell me.”
I almost cried. I had never felt so close to someone I was so far away from. “I wanted to talk about...” I say, looking him in his illuminated eye.
“Oli. I should have known. He’s going to be fine,” he assured me. Gah, why was this boy so stupid?
“No, I wanted to talk about us,” I blurt. What.
His entire demeanor changed. His face softened and he took his hand from mine. “Oh.”
“Yeah.”
There really weren’t words for this moment. I braced for the awkwardness I was used to when it came to romantic relationships. I got up to leave, my head hung low when I heard Jay whisper, “Lay with me.”
My head snapped up and I whipped around. Jay was crawling under his blanket with his eyes on me. “I’m not going to repeat myself, Vic.” I broke into a huge grin that he mirrored. I walked back to the bed, crawling under the covers with Jay. He scoots over and waits for me to lay down before he slips his arm into the crook of my neck. His hand was trapped in my hair, but he didn’t seem to mind, taking a strand between his thumb and middle finger and playing with it, twirling it around his fingers. Even though there was about five inches between us, I could feel heat radiating off of him. I scooted closer, noticing how cold I was. Soon, the only noise I heard was Jay’s breathing and the fan spinning at a dangerously fast rate.
“Are you asleep?” he whispered into my hair.
“No. Are you?” Wait. I’m so stupid. And sleepy, too, I guess.
He chuckled, sending chills down my spine. He was turning over onto his side, slipping his free hand across my stomach in a primal, protective gesture. He pulled me closer to him, my torso finally touching his. It was firmer than I had thought it would be and softer than I had imagined. “So...” he trailed.
“Yeah,” I yawned.
“You said you wanted to talk about us, so I think we should determine what we are.”
Oh. Crap. “Well, we’re in the same bed, currently,” I reminded him.
“It seems that we are indeed. I was thinking I could be your boyfriend?”
“Sounds good.” He chuckled again, kissing me on my forehead.
I wanted to kiss him. Very badly. I tilt my head up, breathing in. My head was in the hollow of his neck and I could smell his cologne and the rain on him. I kissed him right there, on his Adam’s apple. I could feel him smile when I did so, so I did it again. And again. He finally lowered his chin and put his mouth to mine. This was a good feeling, kissing. His lips were gentle and efficient at their job. It was light kissing and I could tell he was holding back. I was thankful because that meant he remembered that I was inexperienced. Really inexperienced. He moved his hand under the blanket, finding mine and wrapping his long fingers around mine.
I didn’t want this to end. As selfish as it was, I wanted this night to go on forever. I didn’t want Jen to come home. I didn’t want Jay to leave. I wanted to stay right where I was, in this moment, holding his hand and kissing him. Alas, that did not happen. He ended the kiss and put his forehead to mine, breathing in deeply through his nose. I knew he was looking straight at me, but I could only see the outline of his face. He lifted my hand to his cheek and held it there for a long time.
“I’m tired,” he admitted.
“Okay,” I told him. “Let’s go to sleep.”
He agreed and took my waist, pulling me closer to him. I snuggled up to him and closed my eyes. He was my boyfriend now? He said he was. Cool. First actual boyfriend. I hope I’m not the jealous type. Knowing me, though, I am. I am also probably the clingy kind. Those were problems for another time. Right now, though, I was cuddling with my boyfriend. Boyfriend. The word is so foreign. I had never had one before. Like, a real one, that counted. Not one from third grade or one via Facebook chat. I cringe at the memory. So glad I deleted it long ago. Sleep, I told myself.
When I put my mind to it, falling asleep was easy. I had to stick my foot out of the blanket because Jay was too warm. But oh well. It was worth it.
~*~
what's up, guys? this one was a pretty long update so revel in its magnificent glory. ok, I'm gonna go watch teen wolf so bye and yeah, I sound thirsty when I say this but I'm gonna say it anyway: please comment your thoughts, vote, follow me maybe, but the last one doesn't really bother me too much if people don't. So, anyway, peace out