Everything Will Turn Out Alright
by Cy-kun
Chapter 19
I'd barely closed my door before my phone started ringing. I smiled. That seemed so Vicky, calling me right before I was gonna call him. I picked up the phone.
"Hey." I sighed happily.
There was a few seconds of silence then a short sigh. "You think I'm Vicky, don't you?" Jason asked.
Really? That just happened? "You're not?" I asked stupidly. I closed my eyes. I really need to start thinking before I open my mouth.
"I wasn't the last time I checked."
Despite myself I felt a tiny smile tugging at my lips. "Do you check to see if you're Vicky a lot?" I let out a small chuckle.
He didn't laugh. "Look, I really need to talk to you about something." I noticed for the first time how unusually serious he sounded and I sighed again.
"Can it wait?" I asked, well, begged really. I know, I know. I'm a terrible best friend right now but I really can't deal with anyone elses problems on top of my own just yet. Maybe tomorrow, after I spend a few hours with my nose in Vicky's hair breathing him in.
Don't look at me like that, it's not creepy, it's sweet.
"What?" Jason asked after a few seconds. "Nate, I really-"
"Please? I really can't deal with anything serious right now, ok?"
"You can't deal-" he growled. "I've been, you know what? Fine. Fuck it. I thought maybe this was something I could come to y- talk to you about but if you're too damn busy....what the hell are you doing anyway that you can't take 5 minutes to talk to me?"
"My dad just left." I said.
Silence. "Your....dad?" he asked slowly.
"Yeah."
"Your Alaska dad?"
I snorted. "My West Virginia dad now." I answered grumpily.
"What?"
"Yeah. Moved down here and everything."
"Wait, didn't he cheat on your mom and throw up on a judge or something?"
I let out a short laugh. "Bailiff actually, but, yeah, pretty much."
"And he just, what, showed up?"
"Yeah. Me and Vicky got home from the dance and there he was, getting yelled at by my mom."
"Wow." Was all he said.
"Yep."
"So, what does he want?" he said after several seconds. "Are they getting back-no that's probably a stupid question." It was. Jason knew all about happened with my dad so he should know how both me and my mom feel about him. I felt a twinge of guilt that I hadn't told Vicky anything about my dad yet. It wasn't like he asked and I refused to tell him or anything, it never really came up, but it just seems wrong that anyone knows something about me that Vicky doesn't.
"He wants me." I answered. "Like, legally."
"Are you for real?"
"Yeah. He was talking about lawyers and new custody hearings and everything."
Jason breathed out. "Shit. I'm really sorry, man. Is there anything I can do?"
Oh God, I am the worst best friend ever. I completely blow him off when he needs to talk and he turns right around and wants to know if there's anything HE can do to help ME.
Thanks for making me feel worse, asshole.
Wow, I really suck.
"No. But....thanks." I sighed. "I'm sorry I'm being a dick, you're a better friend than me." This is the part where I give a slight pause so he can cut in and assure me that he's not and I'm a great friend but I didn't do it. No need to make him lie tonight. "So, what did you wanna talk about?"
"Uh, nothing, never mind. It's not that important, you've got enough to deal with without my own shit." Well, if that isn't avoidance I don't know what is.
"Dude, it's ok, I was just being an ass. Tell me. I'll help you if I can."
There was a few seconds of silence, then a sigh. "Not right now ok?"
I sighed and bit back a rather rude comment. I mean, what am I supposed to do coax it out of him? I don't even really wanna deal with it in the first place so, yeah, no I'm not doing that. Stop being such a girl, Christ. "Alright." So much for trying to be a good friend, I guess. "I promised Vicky I'd call when my dad left so I should get going."
"Yeah, ok, cool." Was that a little bit of relief I heard in his voice? He's the one who called-sigh. Whatever.
"Alright. Goodnight Jason."
"Night. And uh," he paused. "Never mind. Night." He hung up.
Well then. I'm completely not going to be wondering about that all night now, thanks Jason. That was sarcasm, in case you couldn't tell. I sighed yet again. I really need to talk to Vicky. Actually, scratch that. I just need to hear his voice. Or even just hear him breath over the phone at me.
Again, sweet not creepy.
I picked up the phone and got halfway through hoping that the line would be free before I stopped and realized I had no idea what his number was. Stop looking at me like that! I've never called him before, ok? Ok, well that isn't completely true I guess but it HAS been a while so just, back off.
I walked over to my desk and growled. The damn thing had to be here somewhere. Inside one of these piles of papers that little sticky note with his number is just waiting to be found. Jesus! How the hell did I accumulate so much paper crap on my desk? I am so not in the mood to deal with this. I rustled through the papers on my desk but only ended up merging the seven different piles into one large, papery mess. Great. I'll never find it now.
I did find my missing PSP though.
After I found that I gave up. I'd been looking for it for weeks and finding it pretty much used up all my 'finders luck' for the next week so I just went over to my kick ass Alienware laptop, opened up Firefox and looked his number up online. It took about 30 seconds to find it and I grinned in victory as I flipped off the pile of paper.
Take that spawn of Satan and Nate's impatients!
Yeah, maybe tonight's finally catching up with me. I took a few deep breaths and picked up the phone. I REALLY needed to talk to Vicky.
The phone rang twice before getting picked up.
"Hello?" I smiled. It was Vicky. And he sounded a bit out of breath, like he ran to get the phone.
"Hey." I sighed contentedly.
"Hey." he said softly. "You ok?"
"I am now. You have no idea how soothing it is just to hear your voice."
He laughed softly. "You-" I heard a loud voice in the background. "- grrrr hold on." There was a rustling sound and then. "It's Nate!" More of the other voice which I assumed was Jack. "Yeah, Nate!" More voice. "Just now!" More voice. "I don't know! We just started talking!" Voice again. "Grrrr! Fine! Nate?"
"Yeah?"
He let out an annoyed sigh. "I'm supposed to ask how your mom is."
"She's fine." Not exactly true but it seemed like the answer most likely to lead to getting back to talking to my Vicky.
"She's fine!" Vicky yelled. The voice started talking again but Vicky cut it off. "Dad! Can I maybe talk to Nate now? He kinda called for a reason." Silence, then I could distantly hear Jack yell something that sounded like "sorry". "Finally!" Vicky breathed. "So, how are you doing? Really?"
"I dunno. Bad?" I shrugged, then realized he couldn't see it and felt stupid. Then I just wished he was here. "I miss you."
"I miss you too." We were silent for a bit. "So, if you don't wanna talk about it that's cool, but what happened?"
I started to sigh, then caught myself. I was dangerously close to becoming too melodramatic, even for me. No more sighing. "He moved down here."
"Really? Why?"
"Because he wants to shove himself back in my life. He told my mom, threatened actually, that he was gonna get another custody hearing to legally get me back."
"What?!" Vicky yelled. "That's bullshit! He-" Jack's voice again. "Nothing!" More talking. "I'll tell you later can you PLEASE just let me talk?" A pause. "Thank you! Damn does he not get that that this isn't a three way conversation-you know what, never mind, your dad can't really do that, can he?"
It's kind of amazing that even though I've never told him about what happened with my dad he has the exact perfect reaction. "Apparently he can get a new hearing but my mom says there's no way he'll ever get full custody. The most he can get is joint."
"So what does that mean? You'll see him on weekends or something?"
My blood ran cold. Up until right then I never actually thought what 'joint custody' might actually mean. It was bad enough having tonight screwed up by not being able to fall asleep with Vicky, the thought of having to spend the rest of my Vicky time with...him was enough to send my brand new panic attack into a cold sweat. "Shit. I dunno. Do you think? Maybe I'll just have to spend a few days a week with him? Maybe it can be school days? Shit. I-"
"Nate," Vicky's calm voice cut into my ramblings even more effectively than a shout would have. "Don't freak out yet, ok? Just calm down. We don't even know if it's gonna happen for sure right?"
I nodded then realized I was being stupid again and said "Yeah. Ok. But-"
"No buts -God I sound like my dad- just don't worry about until it happens."
I allowed myself another sigh. My little outburst pretty much pushed the melodrama past acceptable levels anyway. "You do realize you're talking to ME, right?"
Vicky let out a short laugh. "Yeah, but I got you to stop worrying about me didn't I?"
"Yeah, you deprived me, now that I finally have something new to worry about I'm not letting this one go." I said.
It was Vicky's turn to sigh. "So, if I let you worry about me again will you stop worrying about this?"
"You'd let me worry about you again? Really?" I had no idea if I was still playing along or if I was genuinely happy.
"No."
I pouted to myself, not caring how un-masculine I looked since, as I believe we've firmly established, he can't see me. "You're mean."
"No I'm not."
"I know."
Somehow I could tell we were sharing a smile.
"So...." Vicky hesitated.
"What?"
"Um, if you don't want to tell me it's completely ok but....what happened...with your dad?"
"You mean why did they get divorced?"
"Well, yeah that too, but what happened between the two of you?"
I told him the whole story. Everything from how my dad was before, how he changed, how my mom acted, how I blamed her, the fights they had, the cabinet, the three day absence, how I learned that my dad was a cheating drunk and, of course, the custody hearing. He didn't interrupt me or ask me any questions. Even when I paused to gather my thoughts or try to put how I was feeling back then into words he never did anything other than listen attentively. His silent support and attention meant more to me than any expression of sympathy or consolation ever could. I'd talked about my dad before, to my mom and Jason, and it never did anything except make me relive the pain of going through it, but with Vicky it was different. It felt like I was pouring all these old, terrible feelings into him and he was filtering them through his love for me before giving them back and even though it didn't magically turn the old pain into rainbows and sunshine and puppy dogs I felt a bit lighter inside, like I'd just removed three textbooks from an overstuffed backpack.
Now, I'm not saying telling Vicky magically made me not hate my dad or anything. When I thought about him I still got pissed off and hurt and I still wanted nothing to do with him, but I could deal with those feelings without feeling completely overwhelmed by them.
After I was finished he started asking the questions. I didn't even bother wondering how he knew I was done and not just pausing again. The part he kept coming back to was, of course, the bailiff incident.
"So he just threw up right on the guy?" he asked for the 4th time.
"Yep." I answered, grinning. Once you can separate the pain from the memory it's actually pretty damn funny. "All over the front of his shirt."
Vicky laughed then stopped. "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh about it."
"It's ok." I said reassuringly. "You can laugh." He didn't say anything and I got the idea he didn't really believe me. "Vicky, seriously, it's fine. Telling you all this....helped. It's weird, I thought I was over it but until I told you it was always kinda just there, lurking in the back of my heart. It's not anymore. I feel better. A lot better actually." I tried to put all the feeling that I could in the next words. "Thank you."
Vicky didn't say anything for a few seconds but I thought I heard something that sounded like a sniffle. I ignored it. Besides, there was no way to be sure, I couldn't see him over the phone after all. "I'm glad." he finally said, and I could hear the unspoken feelings that filled his words.
"Me too." I couldn't help smiling but my smile quickly turned into a grin. "Plus, it was pretty fucking funny. The guy looked like he wanted to rip my dads head off." I laughed.
So did Vicky. "What did he do?"
"Nothing. He just stared at my dad and shoved him down into his seat then walked back to where he'd been standing." I remembered the guy perfectly, even though it was so long ago and I was so young. It's not something you forget easily.
"Ew. He just stood there all covered in puke?" I could almost see Vicky's incredibly cute 'disgusted face', all scrunched up with his eyes closed and his tongue sticking out.
"No, the judge told him to go get cleaned up and they got another guy to come in. He probably would have stayed there though, just to prove how tough he was." I laughed again. "God, if my dad was sober he would have shit his pants at the way the guy was looking at him though."
"You think he could have taken your dad?"
"Oh, hell yes. He was big and black and pissed off and he looked like he could bench press a mountain. He was so broad we could probably fit inside him standing shoulder to shoulder. The guy would have killed my dad without even trying."
Vicky giggled. "Oh God, you do not want to know what I pictured when you said we could both fit inside him."
I laughed. "Perv!"
"Am not!"
"You so are! Wow, Michelle was right, compared to you I am a prude."
"Hey!" Vicky exclaimed. "I'm not that bad."
"'Not that bad'? You do realize you pretty much just called me a slut, right?"
"Yep." Vicky said happily.
"Ass."
"See? You can't even stop thinking about my ass long enough to have an argument. Sluuuuut."
I tried to hold in the laugh but it somehow found it's way out anyway. "Fuck you."
"You-"
"And don't turn that into a me being a slut comment! If I am a slut I'm only slutty for you so you should be happy and grateful and not mocking."
"Trust me, I am." Vicky said huskily. Then he let out a groan. "Dammit, now I'm horny. Why the hell am I not there?"
"My dad's an ass." I supplied.
"Noooo!" Vicky groaned. "Don't mention your dad and the word ass in the same sentence right after I say I'm horny!"
I laughed. "Wow, you do have a dirty mind." And then like an idiot I thought about it too. "Oh God! No! I can't get it out of MY head now!"
Vicky burst out laughing. "Oh, shit. Oh, shit." he gasped. "I can't breathe."
I started laughing too. "Is it-" I tried to get enough air in my lungs to keep talking. "Is it because" -gasp- "my" -gasp- "my dad's ass is making you breathless?"
"Oh God!" Vicky started laughing all over again. "You suck!" he managed to get out before his laughter turned into manic giggling and he dropped the phone.
That of course just made me laugh even harder. I could hear him laughing and trying desperately to gulp down enough air to keep from suffocating distantly through the phone as I tried to get myself under control. It really wasn't that funny, I kept telling myself. It was actually pretty disturbing that we kept talking about my dad's ass but that just made it even more funny than it wasn't. See? Makes perfect sense. Or something.
He finally picked up the phone but when he heard me still laughing he cracked up again. "Stop!" he panted. "I can't breathe. Stop laughing, you dick!"
Can you guess what that made me do? If you guessed laugh more, you're right.
Eventually, finally, after about 15 solid minutes of this we managed to get our laughter down into the 'occasional chuckle' range. Mostly due to a lack of breath and not any great self control by either of us, but I'll take it.
"Ok," I said after we got back to normal. "New rule. No talking about my dad's ass. Ever."
"Agreed." Vicky said quickly.
"Good." I held in a giggle. "Ok then. Awesome." I was seriously considering making a comment about his dad's ass because, well, perfect set up and all but I had one of my rare attacks of good judgment and decided to keep it to myself.
"Thank you, by the way." Vicky said after a few seconds.
"For what?"
"For not saying anything about my dad's ass." Jesus, he's fucking scary sometimes.
"How did you-"
"I know you, Nate."
I thought about this for a second. "Good point."
Vicky sighed happily. "So, feeling better?"
I smiled to myself. "I was feeling better the second I heard your voice."
There was a few seconds of silence where I knew he was grinning happily to himself before he said anything. "You're too sweet."
"I try."
"No, I mean you're being too sweet. You trying to get in my pants or something?" he joked.
"Oh, so I have to try now?"
"Always. But you never have to try very hard. Just brush your hair back or swish your hips and I'm ready to go."
"Hey! I do NOT swish my hips!"
"You should. Seriously, if you wore those jeans and swung your ass a little bit that'd be it. I'd let you do whatever you wanted to me all night."
"And you don't already?" I asked archly.
"Good point." he said and giggled.
"Hey," I started. "Can I ask you something serious?"
"Of course." Vicky said warmly. "Anything you want."
"What happened...with your mom?" It was my turn to be hesitant. We'd never really talked about either of our absent parents before but I'd mentioned my dad once or twice, I'd never heard Vicky say anything about his mom. I hoped it wasn't because it was too painful to talk about but if it was talking about it might help him like it helped me.
"Nothing really dramatic or anything." he said easily enough. "They never really got along, I don't think I can remember a single vacation or holiday that didn't have at least one fight, and eventually they just decided to get divorced. There wasn't even a real custody hearing. My mom just went and moved out to California to become an actress and I stayed with my dad."
Ouch. "I'm sorry." It was all I could think to say.
"It's ok." he said, then paused when I didn't say anything. "Really. It's ok. I never really got along with my mom anyway so it wasn't like I expected her to want me or anything. Yeah, it kinda hurt I guess but I got over it. My dad took 6 months off from work to spend time with me after. We went around the city doing all the tourist stuff locals don't usually bother with and just had a lot of fun." he said happily. "Up until I met you it was actually the happiest time of my life. No fighting. No worrying about when a vacation was going to be ruined. No having to deal with sympathetic looks from the few relatives who still showed up for holiday dinners. It was nice."
Maybe I'm not the biggest expert, but as someone who apparently went a long time suppressing a lot of parent related hurt I didn't think he was doing the same thing. He sounded genuinely ok with it and I guess I could understand why. I remembered how it felt when I thought my mom was the reason why my parents were always fighting and how much I wanted to just go away somewhere with my dad so we could be happy like we used to be. Since it seemed like his mom really was the problem in his family I didn't have much trouble believing him.
"Well, I'm glad you didn't go through anything like I did." I said warmly. I meant it. I hated thinking of Vicky feeling a hurt like that and, even though it's stupid to feel this way since I didn't even know him back then, I would have felt bad that I wasn't there for him.
"I'd rather it be me than you." he said.
"Well, I wouldn't." I said forcefully, hoping he'd just agree with me even though I was grinning to myself at his sweetness.
"I would." he said with a hint of a challenge in his voice.
Ok, this is getting way to close to an 'I love you more' argument for my liking. "Let's just say we'll disagree on this one ok?" Please say ok. Please say ok. Please say ok.
"Ok." he said congenially enough.
"Really?" I asked, surprised.
"Yep."
Well, ok then. Subject change time. "So, when can you come over tomorrow?"
"Not soon enough." he said under his breath, but I heard him anyway and smiled. "Um, let me ask my dad. Be right back."
I heard the phone being dropped and the distinctive sound of sock covered hot boy feet running away. What I wouldn't give for those feet and the boy connected to them to be running toward me naked while I sit on the bed with my legs spread.......damn. Now I'm hard. In these jeans.
Ow.
I really needed to get these fucking things off but with a full on erection and one free hand that wouldn't be happening. I sighed. I bet this shit never happens to Todd Haberkorn. At least the uncomfortableness is killing the horny.
Why am I focusing on this so much, aside from the obvious reason of my dick hurting, you may ask? Easy. Vicky STILL hasn't come back to the phone and it's been like 5 minutes. I need something to occupy my time that isn't thinking about what that delay could mean. See? I'm trying not to worry about it. You should be proud.
Minute 6 passed and I was about 47 seconds (not that I'm counting or anything....) away from deciding that a pre-worry concern session was in order when I heard him running back towards the phone.
"Hey," he said when he got back." I have a question."
"Ok." I said. This wasn't exactly the "I'll be over at 6AM" that I'd been hoping for but Vicky didn't sound upset so I figured I'd listen.
"Do you think your dad's gonna come back tomorrow?" he asked.
My first instinct was to say "no, of course not. We made it clear he isn't wanted." but then I stopped to actually think about it. He uprooted his whole life, or whatever life a divorced supposedly recovered alcoholic can have, and moved down here without saying anything to us before showing up and expecting to be welcomed with open arms. What he lacked in common sense he made up for in sheer balls so I really had no idea if he'd come back or not.
"Um, I dunno." I answered. "Thanks for making me think about it by the way." I added, grumbling.
Vicky just giggled. "Well, in case he does come back my dad was wondering if you maybe wanted to come over here tomorrow?"
I blinked. "What?" I asked stupidly.
"Do you want to come over? Here? Tomorrow?" Vicky asked excitedly.
I was speechless. In the month or so that we'd been together (crap! I forgot our first month anniversary!) I'd never seen the inside of Vicky's house. His dad was usually working so we just got used to spending time at my house. I never minded but I do have to admit to being a bit curious about that oversized house Vicky runs in and out of. But the bigger implication of this whole thing is that his dad must actually be worried about this. I couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
"What about your dad?" I finally managed. "Doesn't he need to work?"
"He said he could take two days off." Vicky said with the same excitement in his voice.
"Wait, your dad's gonna take off from work just so I can come over there?" I asked skeptically. This sounded an awful lot like something I'd do, invite someone over without asking my mom that way when I did ask her I'd have someone elses potential disappointment to hold over her head.
"Well, yeah. He said he doesn't want us running into your dad and having to deal with any weirdness." Translation: He didn't want Vicky around my dad. Understandable, I guess, although I still felt a little bit of sadness over that. I'm not sure why though. Maybe I was hoping his dad really was that cool after all.
"Why take off work? He could just keep you home couldn't he?" I asked bitterly. I could have punched myself. Once you start questioning things you run the risk of ruining them. I should have just said ok and dealt with any resentment I might have felt from Jack for forcing him to take off of work.
Vicky sighed. "Because he's worried about you, you idiot. And your mom. He told me he wanted to help you two any way he could." Vicky lowered his voice. "I think he might have a thing for your mom. Gross, right?"
I would have laughed if I wasn't too busy choking up over Jack being worried about us. Either things with my mom were further along than I thought or he was just a really, really nice guy. Either way, it was a nice feeling having someone I barely know care that much. Yeah, it doesn't really take a psychologist to make a connection between my dad showing up and me being all emotional about a show of affection from a potential father figure but, dammit, I was going to enjoy the feeling while it lasted.
I swallowed a few times until I was sure I'd be able to speak without any embarrassing sobs coming out. "Yeah, totally gross." I even managed a laugh. "I'd love to come over."
"Yay!" Vicky screamed. Wow. He actually said 'yay'. And I thought he couldn't get any more adorable. "DAD!" I winced and moved the phone away from my ear. "Oh, shit, did I yell in your ear? Sorry." Before I could say anything I heard his phone move. "Dad! Nate's coming over tomorrow!" He moved the phone back. "What time should we pick you up?"
I probably should have said something like, "oh no, don't worry about it my mom will drop us off." but, as my mom will no doubt point out when I tell her all this, I'm kind of rude. "Um, around 10?" I'm sure my mom wouldn't mind. Wouldn't wanna disappoint Vicky after all. (evil grin)
"Awesome." the phone moved again. "Around 10!" he yelled. "Yeah! He asked his mom! It's ok!"
I giggled. "I did no such thing and you know it. Little liar."
"Quiet you." he mumbled into the phone. He moved it again. "Ok! Thanks!"
"So, you'll be here at 10?" I asked when I was sure he wasn't still talking to Jack.
"Yep!" he said happily. "Well, maybe 10:01 if there's traffic."
I giggled again. "I hope there's not traffic then. I don't think I could last another minute waiting for you."
"I know." Vicky sighed. "It's gonna suck trying to get to sleep tonight."
"Yeah." I agreed sadly. "Not only do I not have a Vicky to hold onto but now I'm all excited about going to your house tomorrow. It's all your fault."
"Shut up." Vicky giggled. "It's your fault for.....something. I dunno."
I laughed. "How about we just blame Jason?"
"Good idea!" he said. "Damn you Jason! You bastard!"
"Yeah! Fucking ass!" Then quickly added when I realized what I said "And don't you dare say ANYTHING about 'fucking' or Jason's ass. I don't think I can handle anymore uncomfortable ass conversations tonight."
"I wasn't gonna do anything." Vicky said innocently.
"Bullshit."
"You know me so well."
"I know."
We shared a laugh.
We talked for a few more minutes about nothing in particular before Vicky sighed. "I think I better go. My dad keeps looking in on me. I think he's waiting for the phone but he doesn't wanna kick me off or something."
"Alright." I said sadly. It wasn't but I kinda did need to shower and try to get some sleep. Not to mention convince my mom that I was leaving for Vicky's tomorrow at 10-10:01. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"I can't wait." he said softly.
"Me either."
"I love you."
"I love you too."
"Goodnight."
"Night."
"Bye" we said at the same time and I smiled.
"Bye." I whispered and hung up.
I smiled to myself for a full half minute before getting up and going down to tell, sorry, ask (ha!) my mom about going to Vicky's. She was sitting on the couch in the living room watching a rerun of one of those 'Real Housewives' shows. I wanted so badly to roll my eyes but even though I was sure her yes was a sure thing I didn't want a half joking lecture on not making fun of someone right before asking them for something.
"Hey mom." she looked up at me. "Can I ask you something?"
"Su-" she was cut off by the phone ringing. She glanced at the nearest handset with anticipation. If it was anybody other than my mom I would have thought it was just a bit cute, as it was I had to fight back the urge to puke.
"Just answer it." I sighed. Might as well go for it. "By the way I'm going over to Vicky's tomorrow and spending the night. Get me up at 9 ok?"
"Ok, hun." she got up and answered the phone.
Wow. That actually worked. I'd have to make a mental note to try that with something she might say no to the next time Jack calls. Maybe a tongue piercing.....
Now that that's done I need to pack. I won't go into boring detail but the end result was a duffel bag filled with video games Vicky didn't have, two randomly selected T-shirts and two of the loosest and easiest to remove pairs of pants I owned. Then I unpacked one pair of pants and a shirt and replaced them with an extra pair of pajamas. Shut up, I'm excited, ok? You'd forget you needed to actually wear a set of clothes too if you were this excited.....
I was done repacking when I glanced at my desk and saw the crown sitting on my mousepad where I'd dropped it. I almost turned away and ignored it but I suddenly remembered something Vicky said right before Jack picked us up after the dance. Something about wearing the crown while doing something. Since we were kinda talking about sex at the time (big surprise I know) it wasn't hard to guess how that interrupted sentence would have ended and now a bunch of pretty awesome images filled my head. I grinned to myself as I picked up the crown and shoved it into the bag too.
Ok, so, done packing, got my permission, and now.......I had nothing to do.
Damn.
I looked at the clock. 10:37. Eh, I guess it's late enough to futilely attempt sleep. After a quick shower I quickly got changed into my pajamas, turned the lights off and slipped into bed.
Three hours later I was glaring at my clock. 11:52. That couldn't possibly be right. The goddamn thing HAD to be broken. There is no way time could be moving this slowly. It's just impossible. Maybe if I don't look at it so much.....
Another three hours went by and I decided it was ok to take another look at the clock. Just to make sure it was working right now. 12:32. Oh, come on! No way! That thing is going in the trash tomorrow, seriously. I'm getting one of those ones that links up to that atomic clock thingy so it's always the exact right time. This is just......sigh. I turned over on my back and stared at my ceiling.
See, the thing about sleeping alone is that it sucks. Especially when you're used to a warm body next to you but even more especially when you're used to doing delicious things to said warm body before the sleeping. My internal clock was used to falling asleep with Vicky on Fridays and since he wasn't here my body didn't know it was supposed to be fucking sleeping. Maybe if I went outside and ran around the house a few times I'd be tired enough to fall asleep. But.....that would mean getting up, not to mention the whole running thing, and I think that would be next to impossible right now. I may not be sleepy but my laziness is in full swing. Nothing short of an about-to-rupture bladder is getting me out of this bed tonight.
*RING*
I jumped out of bed and dove at the phone. Surprisingly, I didn't fall flat on my face to fly headfirst into a chair or the desk before picking it up.
"Hello?" I said breathlessly.
"Hi." Vicky said softly.
My entire body relaxed and I took a deep, soothing breath. "You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice."
"Yeah, I do." he said longingly. He didn't ask anything as stupid as "did I wake you up?", he knew he didn't just like I knew he hadn't gotten a second of sleep tonight either.
"So," I said after a few blissful minutes of listening to Vicky breathe over the phone. "Wanna play Reach or something since we're not gonna get any sleep anyway?"
"No." he answered. "I just wanna hear you. It feels so wrong being here alone on Friday."
"I know." I sighed. I got back into bed and laid down. "Where are you right now? Your room?"
"Yeah. Laying in bed actually." he chuckled. "Can I be lame and say 'wish you were here'?"
I smiled to myself. "Of course." I let out an exaggerated sigh. "It's really nice being on this side of a lame comment for a change."
Vicky giggled. "You're not that lame."
"I kinda am."
"No, you're sweet. And awesome. And sexy. And loving. And....just perfect." he finished softly.
"No," I said just as softly. "That's you."
I heard a happy sigh over the phone and then we lay there in comfortable silence for a few more minutes. Just hearing his soft breathing and knowing that he was on the other end of the phone and I could talk to him whenever I wanted was soothing. I almost felt like I could fall asleep now.
"Hey," he broke the silence but spoke softly. "Mind being on the other side of something lame again?"
"Not at all."
"Do you think we could maybe stay on the phone and try and fall asleep? Like, put it on speaker and put it on the pillow next to us or something?" he sounded so adorably nervous, like I would really think his suggestion was lame.
"I'd love to. I was actually just thinking about how I could fall asleep like this." "I giggled. "Mind reader."
"Yep. That's me." I heard a click. "Still there?" his voice was a bit distant and I knew he was on speaker.
I clicked mine on and rested it next to me on the pillow. "Yeah. Can you hear me?"
"Yeah."
"So Mr Mind Reader," I asked playfully. "What am I thinking now?"
He giggled. "You don't wanna know."
"I don't wanna know what I'm thinking?"
"Nope." he said. "It's kinda perverted, I wouldn't wanna expose you to that kind of thing."
"Oh, really?"
"Yep."
"That bad?"
"You have no idea. The stuff about the chains was bad enough but I can't believe you'd be thinking about doing THAT with me. In front of all those people no less."
I stifled a giggle. "Wow, yeah, you're right. I definitely don't wanna know what I'm thinking if involved chains and other people."
"And a dog."
"What?!"
"Shit, I've said too much."
This time I did giggle. "Anyone ever tell you you're not funny?"
"All the time."
"Well, they're wrong."
He giggled. "Thank you."
We talked for a while longer. Short bursts of conversation in between increasing stretches of silence. It was nice, not as nice as having Vicky here but miles better than being alone in a dark room wishing I could touch him. Hearing him breathe was peaceful in a way I'd never really realized before, even with all the times we'd slept together. I think if I had that sound recorded and played it on a loop it would probably be better than pot for making me mellow and content. Not that I'm in any hurry to try pot, mind you.
At some point between a short conversation about something I can't remember and laying with my eyes closed listening to his now slow and even breathing I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew there was that "if you'd like to make a call" disconnected beeping thing blaring from my phone and bright light squeezing in between my blinds.
I blinked a few times and looked over at the clock. 8:39.
Oh, hell yeah.
I was amazingly well rested, and my bladder was way past full, so I skipped my usual lounging-around-in-bed-for-10-minutes-before-getting-up thing and quickly hung up the phone, opened the door and walked out into the hall.
"Ahhhhh!" my mom screamed from less than a foot away from me.
"Ahhhhhhh!" I screamed. "What the fuck?!"
"Jesus Christ, Nate! You scared me!" she had her hand over her heart and was breathing heavily. The heavy breaths turned into laughter. "Damn it, kid. You need a bell on your neck or something."
My heart was still racing. "I scared YOU? Fuck, mom! Maybe try not screaming in my ear 2 minutes after I wake up, ok?"
"Language." my mom said with a smirk. It was a good thing she continued talking otherwise I might have said something that really would have gotten me in trouble. "What are you doing up so early anyway?"
"Slept good." I said, trying to calm down. I wonder what heart attacks feel like?
"Really?" she raised an eyebrow. "Even without Vicky?"
I blushed. How the hell did she know about that? Oh God, was she listening in on our conversation? No, I'd have heard an echo. Maybe she really can read minds. "Not exactly." I said.
"Huh? What's that mean?" she narrowed her eyes. "He didn't sneak in did he?" She looked past me and into my room.
"I wish." I muttered. Then in a normal tone, "No, he didn't sneak over."
"What then?"
I needed to piss in the worst way so I just decided to answer her. "He called last night and we stayed on the phone until we fell asleep, ok?"
"Really?" she had an odd smile on her face. "That's really cute."
I groaned. "Can I pee now, maybe?"
"Not here, use the toilet."
I groaned again. See why I try to keep my mom away from humor?
By the time I was done with my shower and got dressed I was practically bouncing with excitement. I was going to Vicky's house. I was GOING to Vicky's HOUSE. No dad, no mom, no annoying phone line that way too many people had the number to, no walking in the door and being hit in the face with surprise drama, just two days more or less alone and secluded with my boyfriend.
For right now at least, life was good.
"Nate!" my mom called up a little after 10. "They just pulled up! You ready to go?"
Am I ready to go? "Shit, yeah!"
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