Disclaimer: … Adds: Thanks. Reviews: A special thanks to all the readers who takes some time to write a few words. I love to read all of this. It means a lot to me. Beta-reader: rkolove, this was a hard peace of work, but we finally made it. YAY! I wish that this story never ends, so I never have to stop working on it with you.
I was tired. I hardly slept the night before. Not that I regretted it. Randy had come to my room the previous evening, and now my bed was a mess. He didn't stay the night. I had thrown him out and he deserved it. He would definitely get payback for what he did. But we never actually stayed in each other's room over night.
I had just got back to my room from breakfast and I still had some time before my first therapy unit started. So I laid on my messy bed. It was Thursday. Thursday was a stupid day. Both mine and Randy's schedules overlapped so much that we had no time to see each other. No breakfast, no coffee, no lunch, no midday break, no bench… Maybe dinner or some time in the evening when we weren't too tired. But where there was a Thursday, there was a Wednesday before, and we always managed to enjoy our Wednesdays.
It was strange. I had never spent a lot of time with lovers with anything else but sex. But to be honest, actually we weren't really lovers. Something was missing to call us lovers, but we were working on it and I didn't want to miss the strange excitement anymore that I had every time we were working on it.
A knock at the door brought me back to Thursday. There was only one person who that could be. He had definitely left his sign, and that's not just in my bed. The pillows he had put behind his back were still leaning squeezed against the headboard. And he had forgotten his watch. Too bad. Usually he didn't take it off but in the heat of the moment he had scratched me with the metal strap. He immediately took it off and went to place it on the bed-side table. But he didn't pay attention to it and let the watch fall where he thought where the bed-side table was. I've just heard the sound of metal hitting the floor. That wasn't the bed-side table. He must have heard it too, but he didn't care. He was just too busy. So I picked it up and put it on the bed-side table in the morning, where it still laid. It reminded me that the scratch of his watch-strap wasn't the only mark he left on me that night…
I didn't expect him to show up that early though. Even though I knew that he wouldn't have much time I smiled as I stood up from my bed and hobbled over to the door. I tried to look bored as I opened it. But when I saw who was on the other side I was suddenly anything but bored. It wasn't Randy who was visiting me. Blonde hair, bright smile … and much smaller than Randy.
"Nat!"
"You still recognize me then."
"Thank Skype."
We embraced each other as we squealed with glee, giggled and talked excitedly at the same time.
I heard a quiet groan. Where one blonde Canadian was other ones couldn't be far away. I hadn't seen him before. I supposed it was how they'd planned it to be. It was so mean. I let go off Nat and looked at him.
"Hey hun."
"Jay, I'm so glad that you're here too."
He pulled me in a hearty embrace. Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy this, because I quickly found myself wondering where the third in the Canadian trio was. It just wouldn't be right if he wasn't here.
"I'd told you that you should wait for me," Adam shouted as he hurried to come to my room.
When his voice echoed down the hallway I felt a smile on my face. Not just a smile. I was aglow with happiness! I couldn't believe it. Adam was really here. Did this realization just let my stomach do a little flip? He hadn't said anything to me about it. I loved surprises but this was quite a shock. I felt my heart beating fast but I tried to calm down, I tried to control my excitement, I took a deep breath and let the enjoyment of seeing him wash over me.
"You stop and talk to almost every person who you meet here," Jay let go of me. "Nat didn't want to wait until tomorrow to visit Brae."
"Shut up, Jay," Nat laughed.
"Be happy that you wasn't a part of this girlie reunion," Jay kept on joking.
I stood in the hallway and watched Adam hurry towards my room. As I slowly started to hobble towards him without my crutches, he stopped a few feet away from me. I wanted to show him how far I had come in therapy. I wanted him to be proud of me. I wanted him to know that I was working hard on my recovery. He waited patiently with a smile and let me walk over to him.
It was just a few feet until I finally could wrap my arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms so tightly around my waist that I almost couldn't breathe anymore but that didn't seem to be important in this moment. I didn't know what to say. I just wanted to hold him this close.
"I've missed you," I finally heard myself say.
I didn't know why I was even saying this. It was true but there had been longer periods of time in which I hadn't seen him. I had never said this before even though I wanted to but now I didn't want to and it just came out.
"I've missed you too," Adam whispered softly.
Why was he saying this? He had never said this before too. But I couldn't think about that because my senses were distracted by something else. I clung at him as his scent overwhelmed me. His aftershave - Old Spice. I loved that scent. No. I loved that scent on him. And he knew it! With my eyes closed, I inhaled his captivating scent. Why was he doing this? I was sure that it had no meaning. It just couldn't. I mean, this was Adam. My friend Adam. I, for one, just tried to see him as a friend, even he was a very close friend. Nothing more. Or? And anyway, I was pretty sure that I was just Braeden, his friend Brae.
Suddenly something gently tickled my nose. I giggled as I opened my eyes and saw it was his scruff. His scent had pulled me so close to him. I just couldn't stop sniffling as he softly kissed my cheek.
"You're wearing Old Spice!"
"Just a little bit," he said quietly into my ear as his scruff now tickled my cheek. I giggled again.
"But why do you wear after shave if you don't shave?"
"It's no after shave. It's cologne," he pouted. "I thought you would like it!"
"I do!"
Even though I wanted to cling to him for the whole day, I slowly let go off him. I didn't know how to handle this situation. It felt so good. I felt so good when he was around. He was looking down at me with his irresistible smile. The smile that I'd seen so many times before. The kind of smile that really makes you go weak. The smile that had made me go weak so many times before. I tried to stay strong. But I couldn't stand his hopeful look. I looked away. I had to do something. I had to break out of this situation. I stared at his chest.
"You didn't even shave your chest for me," now I pouted with a mixture of disappointment and indignation as I saw some of the light hair that peeked out of his shirt. I grabbed and pulled it.
"Ow shit… Braeden," he immediately covered my hand with his. "Why would I…" he grumbled "… if you gonna rip it out for me?"
I thought he was pretending until I felt some of his hair between my fingers. Damn! I really had ripped some of it out. I immediately felt guilty and wanted to apologize. That wasn't my intention. I just wanted to tease him a little bit and now I felt stupid. Great!
He held my hand on his chest. He carefully took my fingers and caressed the part of his chest with my fingertips where I had ripped the hair out.
"That feels much better."
Now he used all of his weapons and I felt like I had no defence. Why was he doing this? Why was he saying this? We were friends. Why did this have this effect on me? I just stared at our hands on his chest. Why was I doing that? His hand was still on mine but he didn't move my fingers anymore. I was moving them. I gently caressed his chest as he moved a strand of my hair from my face.
"You two should get a room."
"Fuck off Jay!"
Even though I hardly understood what Adam just had mumbled I could tell by the look of his face that he was pretty embarrassed, like me, and pretty mad. I hadn't seen this side of him very often, hardly ever. He was usually a relaxed and funny guy and to make him that mad it took a while or you just had to hit a sore point. And Jay knew exactly how to make Adam mad.
I just had to smirk because I knew what usually happened next. These two guys were like 'Waldorf' and 'Statler', when they were drunk, what rarely happened, it was more like 'Beavis' and 'Butt-Head'. But why was Adam so mad about Jay's stupid joke? It was a joke, wasn't it? It wasn't the first one about him and me, and it wouldn't be the last one. Did everybody know that there was maybe something true about that joke? Maybe I wasn't the only one who felt somehow caught? Did Jay hit the right point? I loved Jay's warped sense of humour but even I felt that his jokes about Adam and me had a more serious undertone with every time.
"Good that I already have one," I tried to wipe the hint of seriousness away with a smile.
"What are we going to do?"
"I have a surprise for you," Adam smiled.
"I love surprises!"
"I know. That's why I called my friend, Dr. Carter, and asked him if it's possible for you leave the rehab centre for one day. And that's what we're doing today, what we're doing right now."
"Really?"
He nodded, grinning.
"Awww … great!"
The centre wasn't that bad but it could be incredibly monotonous sometimes, except for the extra-curricular activities. I couldn't wait to get out of there, even it was just for one day. That wasn't only a surprise, it was a fabulous gift. I could only thank him with a hug. Something inside of me just wanted to take every chance to be close to him. And the way he hugged me back let me think that he appreciated how I thanked him.
"I just have to get some things."
"And we still have to get someone. We need to get another friend and then we can leave."
Another friend? Another knock at the door caught my attention and I didn't have time to think about what he'd just said. I hobbled over and opened the door without thinking.
"Hi," Randy's usually deep and manly voice sounded so soft.
"Hey," I was surprised but happy to see him.
I slipped through the door, pulled it almost shut behind me and leant against the doorframe. I hadn't thought of him in the last minutes.
"Did you sleep well last night?"
"Yes, pretty good."
"I hope that you had nice dreams…" he smiled as he slowly reached out his fingers to gently touch my forearm.
I would never tell him how nice they were after his visit. So I just smiled back. Actually I would have asked him to come in and he looked like he was expecting me to ask that.
"I have visitors."
"Oh … "
He was surprised, but his warm smile let me know that he was happy for me. He knew that I had wanted to have visitors for a while.
"So what are you doing here?" I was just enjoying his touch. "I thought you would be doing your therapy."
"I've got visitors too. I got a text message yesterday evening but I just saw it when I was back in my room. I think I was too distracted before." His suggestive smile was infectious. "I think we'll leave the centre and I just wanted to let you know that I don't know when I'm back in the evening."
"It's okay. We're going to hop off too, so I don't know anything yet."
"Ah okay."
We were quiet, but it was a pleasant silence. I just watched how his fingers ran over my skin.
"And… uhm… did I leave my watch here last night?" he asked even though he knew the answer.
"Braeden hun?" Jay shouted from the inside of my room. "Guys are used to wait for girls but Adam is getting impatient, slowly but surely."
I just smiled as I looked at Randy and rolled my eyes playfully about the comment that just came out of my room. Randy looked a little bit thoughtful but he was still caressing my forearm. I looked down the corridor to make sure that there was nobody else who could see us and moved closer to him, almost close enough to kiss him.
"You did forget your watch. You want it back?" I whispered playfully.
"Brae? What are doing? Flirting? Not with Adam? Who you with girl? I wanna know!" Nat was shouting now.
I sighed as I moved away from Randy. The look on his face was now unsure, unsteady and questioning. I turned around to tell Nat to shut up but she had already thrown the door open.
"Nat!" I couldn't believe that she had just interrupted us.
Randy immediately pulled his fingers away from my arm and I turned around to look at him. He stared at Nat and she just stood in the door and stared at him. But it was not a simple stare, it was… unexpected surprise.
"Nattie."
Definitely an unexpected surprise.
