It was ten minutes after midnight and the dim lights in Shane's new editing room cast an eerie glow over the computer screen in front of Andrew. He'd been sat hunched over in the same position for hours and his neck was beginning to go stiff from lack of movement. They'd done a good job kitting out the "War Room" with everything that they could possibly need which meant no more backache from trying to edit on the couch. Andrew had his own desk now and a proper chair which was pretty neat; Garrett had even gotten him his own personalised stationery. Seated in a chair next to him with his robe tied loosely around him, Shane was eagerly going over his notes for the video they were working on.
"So we'll put the clip of her talking about the crazy Dance Mom fights first," he said excitedly whilst scribbling out a rough timeline on his notepad, "Then we can cut to the bit where I ask her about what being on the show was like, how she got on it and then why she left. Sound good?"
"Yeah..." Andrew murmured distractedly as he stared blankly at his own notepad, "Great."
"Cool!" Shane said as he re-read over his notes once more, "So then we'll lead into..."
They were working on something fun to put up on Shane's channel just in time for Christmas and had eventually settled on a day in the life of Dance Moms alumni JoJo Siwa. It was fun and easy; a welcome break after all the stress they'd endured from dealing with the fallout from the Jake Paul series. Quite frankly if Andrew never heard the words "Team 10" or "It's Every Day Bro" ever again he'd be a very happy man. Shane, on the other hand, was still having trouble letting the whole thing go and had almost instead that they interview Erika Costell about the break up between her and Jake. This was met with a resounding "no" from Andrew, Garrett, Ryland, and Morgan and thankfully Shane had dropped the idea. Now that all the filming with JoJo had been completed they were back in the editing zone or at least Shane was; Andrew had other, more important, things on his mind.
"Pink or orange Andrew?" Shane asked as he held up a blonde wig that Jeffree Star had lent him for his JoJo transformation and a bunch of bows from JoJo's merch line, "Or maybe the polka dot..."
"Orange," Andrew said vaguely as he tried to concentrate on what he was doing, "Or...umm...pink."
To be fair, his lack of concentration was all Garrett's fault; it had been an unexpected turn of events when his boyfriend had brought up the subject of a role-play scenario that involved alien sex. They weren't even at home in bed where you'd normally discuss such things like this either, they were in the Cracker Barrel and Andrew was halfway through his slice of cherry pie when Garrett, seemingly out of nowhere, brought the subject up.
"It would be like I was an astronaut that crash-landed on an unknown planet and been stuck there for a whole year," Garrett had explained as he stole a fork full of Andrews pie, "And you're an alien that comes to help me."
"Ummm, ok..." Andrew said; blindsided by how this was scenario was supposed to be sexy instead of downright terrifying.
He'd seen enough Sci-Fi films throughout the years to know that aliens weren't all that big on human contact, let alone fucking you, and where more inclined to try and rip you to shreds instead. Aliens were gross and scary and Andrew didn't understand how this was supposed to be hot or sexy, like, was he supposed to chase Garrett or something??
"And by "help" I mean have sex with me," Garrett continued excitedly, clearly having put a lot of thought into this, "Because I've been on my own for a year and require your assistance. Doesn't that sound fun Andrew?"
"I'm not really sure..." Andrew trailed off as he tried to think of a kind, supportive way to tell Garrett that there was no fucking way he was pretending to be an alien whilst they had sex, "I mean... maybe..."
Thankfully he was saved trying to figure out how on earth Garrett had come up with aliens = sexy by a frantic phone call from Shane who was having a meltdown over some footage he'd accidentally deleted. That was yesterday and Andrew had spent most of last night and this morning sat in Shane's new editing room trying his best to remain focused and not think about sex starved astronauts. It wasn't going all that well, to be honest.
"Andrew?" Shane called out but Andrew wasn't entirely listening to him, "Do you want a soda? I'm gonna go on a snack run."
The astronaut bit he got; they had a cool uniform which he could imagine looking very sexy on Garrett. It was the alien bit that had him stumped. Why couldn't they both be astronauts? Or Andrew could be a horny crew member whilst Garrett was the captain and they were the only survivors of the crash landing. See, he thought to himself, now that sounded like a good time.
"Andrew?"
Or Andrew could be the captain and Garrett could be a captured astronaut from a rival ship. Andrew felt his cheeks turn a little red as he thought of various scenarios which involved Garrett being tied up somewhere begging for release until Captain Siwicki took pity on him...
"EARTH TO ANDREW!" Shane suddenly shouted as he waved his hand in front of Andrews' face and pulled him out of his space fantasy, "I've been asking you if you want a soda for past five minutes!"
"Sorry," Andrew said as his cheeks flushed red with embarrassment before he remembered that there was no way for Shane to know what he was thinking about, "Uhh yeah, thanks."
Shane stared at him curiously for a few moments before heading off on the long trek to the kitchen; leaving Andrew alone with all his confusing alien sex thoughts. Maybe he should bring up his own space idea when he went home? But then Garrett seemed set on doing this weird alien thing... Maybe he was over thinking it and missing what was supposed to be the turn on about aliens? Hmmmm... somehow Andrew didn't think so. Most of Garrett's role play ideas he could get on board with like when he was Captain America or the Kill Bill one, granted that had required a little bit if an explanation, but this was just plain weird even by Garrett's standards. Like, how could he even think that there was anything even remotely attractive about an alien? Granted, Garrett had very eclectic tastes when it came to just about everything so it shouldn't have been too much of a surprise to Andrew that would be the same for sex as well. Aliens, however, were pushing it even by Garrett's standards.
"Are you daydreaming again?" It was Shane; back from the kitchen with a couple of sodas and an armful of snacks, "Here, sorry but we've only got coconut LaCroix left."
"No," Andrew lied as he took the can from Shane; mentally shaking himself so he could get back to the task at hand, "I was thinking about... stuff..."
"Stuff?" Shane queried as he pulled the tab off his soda and took a large gulp, "What kind of stuff?"
"Just stuff," Andrew said defensively before swirling his chair around and staring purposefully at his editing screen, "Shall we carry on? I found that clip with Abby screaming at her you were looking for."
After that, they worked in silence with Shane shooting Andrew suspicious looks from time to time. It had become a kind of rule that Shane wasn't allowed to ask anything about Andrews and Garrett's relationship whilst they were working. So far he had been very good and had only cracked a few jokes about Andrew being desperate to get back to Garrett and their "Den of Inequity". Unfortunately, despite his best efforts to concentrate on the task at hand, Andrew felt his mind start to wander again and before he knew it, he was back to thinking about aliens again.
"Do you think aliens are hot?"
The words were out of his mouth before he could stop himself and Andrew froze; praying that Shane had been too engrossed in his work to have heard him. No such luck because within seconds Shane's head shot up from the notebook he was scribbling in and he stared at Andrews steadily reddening face.
"What?" he asked clearly a little annoyed that Andrew wasn't devoting as much attention to JoJo's crazy stage mom as he was, "Like Sigourney Weaver aliens or the face-hugging kind??"
Huh; maybe Garrett wanted Andrew to dress up like Sigourney Weaver? No... that didn't really make much sense because Garrett wasn't into girls at all or any parts that came with them. Maybe it was just the outfit he liked?
"Ummm I'm not really sure," Andrew admitted as his face started to heat up and he fiddled nervously with the elastic band on his wrist, "I just mean, like, you know in general..."
Shane stared at him for a moment, his eyes narrowed in suspicion, and Andrew looked determinedly at the floor. Even his ears had turned red by this point and he could almost feel Shane's eyes boring into him. Garrett was going to be mortified when he found out that Andrew had inadvertently let slip the details of his space-themed kink. There was a slight pause before Shane let out a loud gasp; his eyes going wide with realisation.
"EWWW!" he shrieked; dropping the snacks and extra cans of soda he'd brought with him all over the floor, "Is this some weird sex thing that you and Garrett are doing?!"
"No!" said Andrew unconvincingly even though his face had gone so red that he'd almost turned purple.
"OH MY GOD!" Shane cried looking completely horrified whilst Andrew just wanted to crawl into a hole and die, "It is isn't it?! Here's me thinking that that text message was bad enough. ALIENS? What is wrong with you two? What can't you just fuck like regular people?"
A few months into their relationship Andrew had accidentally sent a sexy message to Shane instead of Garrett and he'd never fully gotten over the embarrassment. It wasn't even anything too graphic, just a few choice phrases about what he wanted to do to Garrett when he got home, but it was bad enough for Shane, Ryland, and Morgan to tease them both relentlessly for weeks on end. Now he'd gone and outdone himself by adding aliens into the mix as well.
"It's not...I mean," Andrew stuttered as Shane kept yelling "OH MY GOD" so loudly that he was going to wake the whole neighborhood up, "It wasn't my idea!"
"Oh please, you're just as weird as he is," scoffed Shane as he pointed an accusatory finger at Andrew, "You just somehow manage to hide it better Mr-Cool-Dude-Adidas-Sweatpants-Wearer."
Andrew couldn't really argue with that and looked sheepishly at the floor; he and Garrett had definitely found their fellow weirdo in each other. However, that still didn't mean he was weird enough to try out Garrett's terrifying role-play idea, because there were limits on just how weird he was willing to get. That being said Andrew wasn't about to let Shane get away with making fun of his boyfriend; best friend or not.
"Garrett's not weird," he said defensively and Shane let out a loud groan of exasperation as he bent down to pick up the bag of Cheetos he'd dropped, "He's just, you know, different. Come on Shane; he'll be really upset if he thinks you're gonna make fun of him over this."
"Jesus," said Shane with a snort of laughter as threw himself into the chair opposite Andrew, "You are so dick whipped!"
"No, I'm not!" Andrew cried; his voice going weirdly high pitched the more flustered he got.
"Yes, you are!" Shane shot back and Andrew felt himself flushing even redder if that was possible, "Since you two got together you're either staring dreamily at each other or look like you're about to start fucking every time we see you."
"We do not!" Andrew snapped even though there was enough "Gandrew Being Adorable" and "Gandrew Being Thirsty For Each Other" compilations on youtube to prove otherwise.
Unfortunately, Shane still had that look on his face; the look that said he was about to make Garrett and Andrew the subject of his next YouTube series whether they wanted to or not. Somehow the squad had managed to keep their relationship a secret so far, something that they were very grateful for, but that hadn't stopped a vast majority of the fans guessing that they were together.
"Gandrew Exposed," Shane said; his excitement building as he thought about the endless possibilities, "Meet My Best Friends Boyfriend..."
"No Shane." Andrew said stubbornly but Shane didn't appear to be listening to him and continued on with his "Gandrew Exposed" theme.
"My Best Friends Weird Sex Kink... I could get a really good sponsorship out of that..."
"NO!" Andrew yelled, panicking that Shane might actually go through with this, "Please Shane, Garrett's going to be really embarrassed that I told you any of this."
"Ugh, you're no fun!" Shane sulked before becoming a bit more serious, "You know I would never actually do anything like that you two. You make Garrett happy and that's all that really matters to me, even if you are into bizarre sex stuff."
"Thanks," Andrew said; grateful that he didn't have to inform Garrett that they were going to have to leave the country before twenty million people found out about their relationship and Garrett's weird sex kink.
You're not actually going to do Garrett's fucked up sex thing though are you?" Shane asked incredulously as he studied Andrew carefully, "Man, you've got it bad."
"Ummm," was all Andrew had as a response because he still wasn't quite sure of the answer. If it was something that Garrett was really desperate to do then Andrew guessed he could get on board with the whole Sex-As-An-Alien thing...
"Oh my god go," Shane said as he waved him away with a look of disgust, "And don't ever tell me anything about what you two get up to when you're on your own."
"Are you sure?" Andrew asked even though he had already started unplugging his laptop and had grabbed his backpack, "I can stay..."
"No it's fine," Shane told him and Andrew felt a lot less guilty about leaving him in the lurch, "I wouldn't want to get in the way of your alien fun time. And tell Garrett I'm seriously reconsidering our friendship... aliens..."
"I'll come back tomorrow morning," Andrew said hurriedly, putting his hoodie on inside out in his haste to leave, "We can finish up then."
Then he bolted out of the house; almost tripping over Cheeto as he thundered down the stairs and threw himself into his car. Once in the relative safety of the driver's seat the redness in Andrew's face slowly started to fade to a dull pink and before long he was back to his usual colouring. Plucking at the elastic band on his wrist a few times in an effort to calm himself down, Andrew then texted Garrett to tell him he was on his way home early - giving his boyfriend a subtle heads up just in case there was any mess that needed to be tidied away. The message had barely been sent before his phone buzzed with a flurry of excited messages which made Andrew break out into a goofy smile as he turned the key in his ignition. Throughout their friendship, it had always made him feel special that Garrett had always been so excited to spend time with him but it was different now that they were in a proper relationship. Now Andrew got to give into all the feelings that had been bottled up inside him for such a long time and he quickly messaged Garrett back. As he pulled out of the garage and headed down the driveway he spotted Shane at the upper window, miming the chest-burster scene from alien and pretending to hump something in mid-air. Great; he was never going to hear the end of this.
To be continued...