Author's Note: Inspired by Neil Sedaka's "Calendar Girl", and Dee Dee Sharp's "Calendar Boy" cover - each chapter's plot is prompted by the lyrics of the songs (with some creative interpretation for a couple of the months).
January - "We start the year off fine"
He could feel the pulse of the song, the bass repeated in a base beat, although he couldn't make out any lyrics or melody. The song reverberated in his skull, and he instantly hated it.
It took Lance McClain a few groggy minutes to realise the song he was listening to wasn't a music track at all, but the throbbing of a dehydration headache. The New Year's Eve party last night had been a good one.
And it looked like he'd gotten lucky.
It had become his aim to find someone attractive to kiss as the clock struck midnight, and to date he'd been lucky enough to have had a perfect unbroken streak of three years in a row.
And to mark the start of his 18th year, he'd woken up in his bed with an arm wrapped around him, which was new. He was usually big spoon, but like more than a few things in his life, Lance could be pretty flexible.
His companion slept quietly, the soft sounds of their breath accompanied a gentle touch of warmth on the back of his neck. Not wishing to disturb them for the moment, Lance lay still, and took in what little he could see of the figure he'd spent the night with.
His bed mate was male, if the muscle definition in his companion's arm wasn't already enough of a tell-tale sign, there was also the tell-tale hint of axe body spray, favoured by prep boys... And guys either with little taste, or a limited budget.
Lance smiled to himself, getting a midnight kiss was nice enough on its own, but spending the first few hours of the first day of the new year intimately with someone else seemed like the perfect start to 2018, maybe the guy sleeping with him would be interested in giving a relationship a try?
It was a little frustrating that he couldn't seem to recall who exactly he was sleeping with, the night had gotten hazier around 1:00am, and while he remembered bits and pieces of the new-born year, such as stumbling to his room and taking his clothes off. He was having a really hard time trying to remember who he had been sleeping with.
Sighing and resolved to the fact he was going to have to roll over and inspect his companion; Lance extricated himself from the other guy's embrace as gently as he could, and set their arm down on the pillow.
That's when he saw his bed mate's face.
Black hair. Angular features. A brow that was often furrowed in a frown.
He'd been sleeping with Keith Kogane. He'd been sleeping with Keith Kogane! He'd had Keith Kogane's drool soaking into his pillow!
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Lance scrambled backward, banging his head against the dresser. "Ow! Fuck!"
The noise was enough to rouse Keith from his sleep. He looked around groggily for a moment, before his sleep-blurred eyes settled on Lance and in a reaction that was impressive for early-ish on January 1st, they suddenly cleared, and the frown was back.
"What the fuck?!" He sat up and grabbed at the blanket to pull it over himself. "What the fuck are you doing in my room?!"
Lance gaped in response. "Your room?! This is my room mullet!"
Keith spun on the mattress and looked around. "What the fuck am I doing in your room?"
Lance didn't have an immediate answer to that, as he was adjusting to the news himself. He eventually found enough cognisance to offer some sort of response. "I think we started the New Year with a 'bang'." He added a shaky smile at the end for comic relief.
Keith looked mortified, and he covered his face as he flopped backward onto the pillows. "Nooooooo. Nooooooo."
"Hey, this isn't exactly awesome news for me either. I thought I'd spent the night with someone I could ask out on a date, not someone with a stick up his butt and a serious lack of fashion sense."
"You're one to talk about having a stick up your ass! And if what you wear is what you consider fashion, then I'm glad I'm not trendy!"
Oh, it was on.
Hunk Garrett let out a luxuriant yawn as he traipsed out of his bedroom toward the kitchenette of the apartment. He'd been rooming with Lance for about two years now, but they'd been best friends since forever. When the opportunity to pool their money so they could get a place of their own, a place that was more comfortable than their individual financial situations afforded them, they'd jumped at the chance.
He mustered up a broad smile for the third resident of the apartment: Pidge Holt. Hunk and Pidge had met in Hunk's engineering class at the University of Seattle, and had helped Hunk and Lance get an even better class of apartment.
"Hey, Happy New Year!" He greeted tiredly.
"And a new planetary revolution to you." Pidge smirked.
The cuddly bear of a man gave his roommate a once-over glance as he began to grab some items to make his breakfast, their ginger hair was even more wild than usual, and they hadn't even bothered to put on their glasses yet. As he set a frying pan and some ingredients down, he remarked with some suspicion: "You know something I don't."
"I might do." Pidge nodded. "Lance just woke up."
Hunk winced, remembering how much their roommate had been drinking last night. "Ouch."
"Oh, it gets better." Pidge chuckled, materialising their glasses from somewhere and perching the item on their nose. "He's just woken up and realised he went to bed with Keith."
"What?!" Hunk gaped. "No! Noooo! How did I miss that?"
Pidge shrugged. "You were passing out on the couch when it happened; by the time Shay helped you to bed they'd stumbled into Lance's bedroom and kicked the door shut."
"Huh." The bandanna-less bandana wearer mulled as he resumed making his breakfast. "What sort of sound did he make?"
"It was like a cross between a startled yelp, and wanting the earth to swallow him up."
"It can't have been that bad."
"Hey, that's what I heard."
As hunk cracked some eggs over a bowl for some pancakes, his expression became thoughtful. "About time with those two."
"Heh, yeah." Pidge agreed.
"How long do you give them?"
His fellow engineering student looked up at him dubiously as he mixed up the batter. "Hunk, they're not going to get together after a drunken night they probably won't properly remember."
"They're meant for each other even if they're too stubborn to see it. Maybe a drunken night together is what they need to finally 'connect the dots'." The dark-skinned man reasoned.
"Shay's made you a hopeless romantic." Pidge smirked.
"Nah, I've always been like this. I got it from lo'u tina."
Pidge considered his point, eventually conceding: "Alright, point. So 'Mister hopeless romantic',
how about a little wager?"
He eyed her apprehensively. "What sorta bet?"
"Twenty five bucks and as many of your pancakes as I can eat for a month that they go back to bickering and pretending they don't have the hots for each other."
He weighed up her wager, he even considered not taking it on.
...But he had to have his BFF's back, so he ploughed in.
"Twenty five dollars… And you do the dishes for a month if they start dating."
Pidge made a face, they hated washing up. "Would you be willing to swap out doing the dishes for doing your laundry?"
Hunk shook his head. "Sorry, but I live with you and I've seen your room... I love you, but I don't trust you with my laundry. It's do the dishes or no bet."
Pidge made a disgruntled noise, but covered it up with a quick cocky smirk. "You drive a hard bargain, but deal. I have faith in their mutual revulsion for each other."
"Deal, and I have faith in the power of love." Hunk agreed, and they shook hands.
"Whatever you say, Huey Lewis."
They'd both heard some raised voices from Lance's room, but soon things had settled down again. Although they generally respected the privacy of their friends, and were trying to be patient to see what state things were in for Keith and Lance, Pidge and Hunk's combined impatience for an answer got the better of them, and with a selection of strawberry pancakes for Lance, and blueberry for Keith, the culinary engineer barged into his roommate's room as politely as possible with Pidge in tow.
"Happy New Year, guys!" Hunk cheered. At the sudden arrival, Lance dove under the covers as he let loose a choice selection of swear words in English and Spanish. Keith, to his credit, simply crossed his arms over his bare chest and perfected his impression of a tomato.
"On second thought, my curiosity was not worth it." Pidge drawled.
"Would you get out?!" Lance's muffled voice issued from underneath the blanket.
"Sure, in a minute." Hunk answered. "I just wanted to bring you guys in a little breakfast. Strawberries for you Lance, Blueberry for Keith, and some orange juice for the both of you."
"...Thanks, bud." Lance's exasperated voice issued from behind his blanket barrier.
"Thanks." Keith huffed.
"And I know this is already kinda awkward, but it's great you guys finally worked things out."
"But it's just a one-time thing, amirite?" Pidge interjected.
Keith wouldn't look the bespectacled engineer in the eye, and Lance went notably quiet in his hiding spot.
After a long minute of awkward silence, the tan-skinned boy asked in a quiet voice: "Can I have some privacy with Keith, please?"
Pidge and Hunk shared a look, and made their way to the door.
"Sure."
"No problem, just shout if the pancakes don't taste good."
In one of his rare moments, Keith let out a breathy laugh and smiled. "I don't think that's possible."
"Yeah!" Lance's muffled answer agreed.
Pidge groaned. "It's the end times, they're agreeing with each other."
Hunk gave Keith and Lance an awkward wave, before he pulled the door closed.
"You're safe now." Keith nudged the lump beside him, and Lance re-emerged from beneath the duvet, his pecan hair looking more dishevelled.
The two men lay there for a spell as they absorbed what had happened.
"Maybe we'll talk about this after we've had breakfast."
Although they'd begun 2018 with a bit of a bump, they'd eventually started out the New Year fine. For Hunk, he started it out $25 richer and exempt from dish duty for a month. Pidge, to their credit, kept their annoyed grumbling to a bare minimum.