I woke up with my phone buzzing nonstop from Alfred's text. The yank. I'm chuffed that we get along just fine, but our texting is really taking me off my usual routine. Text before school, text after school, text last night, text again in the morning. Jeez. Making myself a coffee this morning. I know I need it. Then I finally picked up my phone to read Alred's text.
~.oO*Oo.~
"Hey Art! Gonna have health exam
this morning, so I'm crashing your place
afterward :D You going anyhwere?"
-Alfred "Fuckin" Jones,
Saturday, August 22, 7:51 A.M.
~.oO*Oo.~
Why.
He seems to like hanging around me for no reason. Well, there are some reason, like our project; and it's not that I hate him… but he's really attached to me. Unnecessarily high level of attachment. That or my social meter is just not that high. My introversion plays a big part in this. Also, I'm so lazy when it comes to socializing, it's not even a joke... Most of the things I do centers around me being a lazy arse with no social life:
-Trying not to make big messes: because I'm too lazy for cleaning up.
-Try cooking at home: too lazy and awkward for "eating out" alone.
-Fail at cooking at home, order pizza online: too awkward for phone calls.
I'm so glad I was born sort of bright on the inside, since I probably can't survive otherwise.
I sat down with the pizza after the internal struggle paying the delivery guy. Oh, almost forgot to text Alfred back.
~.oO*Oo.~
"Not really. Good luck."
Delivered 8:36 A.M.
I caught myself using the exclamation mark out of habit and immediately replaced it with a period. Talking with IRL people is so different from online people. I don't think I ever mentioned, but because of my laziness and introversion, again, I indulge having online friends instead of real-life friends. I met most of them on forums, and though we are not really close, they are okay to talk to once in awhile.
~.oO[Buzz]Oo.~
"Thanks! xD"
Alfred, 8:39 A.M.
Where do you find that amount of cheerfulness. It's almost cute that Alfred's text is 100% Alfred IRL.
I finished two slices of the pizza (honestly I don't like fast food that much. Especially American pizza. Too much grease.) and saved the rest for later.
Pulled out my laptop, I sighed. Only 3 days in, and classes are going at a faster rate than I expected. I'm kinda stressed out from the amount of information and assignments to do, but it'll be fine and maybe even fun when I'm all settled in. Therefore… off I go with my notebook, writing a short draft for my assignment in Lit, a short story due in 4 days. In which I get to choose the topic!
.・゜ . ・* ・ *・ . ゜・.
I got much more done than expected, 4 pages in for the actual story, before a certain someone knocked (or hammered, which is strangely interchangeable) on the front door. Upon opening the door, a certain American, with his whole body flopped on the door, greeted me with a weary and out of breath appearance.
"Arthur, help…"
"Okay…?" I asked, confused.
What... is he doing at my door? He literally "have just gotten back" from the health examination, most probably?
Alfred clung to my waist, as I tried to (get rid of him, failed) drag him in and close the door. It was almost noon, and the weather outside is undoubtedly sunny. After getting rid of the heavy body on the floor to crawl up to the sofa by himself, I went and got water.
"What's wrong?" I asked, out breath as well and obviously uncomfortable after having my bubble invaded, looking at the rather curious expression on Alfred's face. Sweats runs down from his temples, his face red from the heat outside.
"Oh my god... Water!" Alfred managed as he try to catch up to his breathing and gulping down half the bottle of water.
I remained silent. Alfred choked on the water and started a coughing fit. Then when he stopped, he leaned forward and looked down at the wooden floor between his feet.
"Welp, that coughing part was more dramatic than I hoped to express, sorry. The exam went just fine. Then I ran into some… friends." Alfred muttered.
"O-oh?"
"Gil and Lud, to be specific." Alfred's look turned sour.
"What did you do?"
"We… Well, Gil spotted me first, since him and his brother was there doing their exam, too, for soccer. We arm-wrestled for fun after the exam. He won. Then Ludwig and some random guys got pulled in and we started wrestling for real… It was bad, Arthur. They got really into it and I tried to escape, so I just ran all the way home from school."
"Um…" I didn't know what to say, other than the fact that I can't picture that in my head any other way but comedic stick figures.
"What? it was not funny! It was serious, Arthur. Have you tried wrestling anyone before? I thought they would break my arm off!"
"Uh-huh." I mused as I picked up my coffee from the table, leaned back on the sofa chair, and took a sip.
"Is that coffee? I didn't know you had any coffee at all!" He looked up at me.
"Rude."
"I want some!" he smiled, his teeth showing.
"Get your own."
He pouted and punched me lightly on the side of my arm as he walked past cheerfully down to the kitchen. I didn't appreciate that as he almost got my coffee.
"Oi. Why are you here anyway?"
"Uh… I was thinking we should start discussing the project soon. And I didn't have any homework, so..." Alfred hollered from the back.
"You don't? What about science? We had those bloody questions at the end of the section." I confronted him. Who can finish all those dumb questions in class? There were about 5, but no, it's not 5 at all! There's part a, b, and c. Some even had part d. Who allow these people to write textbooks!
"Finished it in class." He said, the sound muffled from the back.
I almost spill my coffee again. What!
"You are not serious."
"Tssssshhh." A long gassy sound came from the kitchen. One that's strangely familiar to the whip cream can. Then again, but shorter this time.
"What are you doing?" I asked suspiciously, leaning back to see what he was up to.
The sound of the fridge door closed. Then a Yank tiptoed toward me holding my favorite unicorn mug, some whip cream still on his upper lip.
He giggled innocently. "Do you mind?"
"Not really." I shrugged at the cup of whip cream. He is a little kid.
"But yeah. I already knew most of that stuff. So I skimmed the book and just did it." He said and sipped on the cup of half-whip-creamed-coffee.
Hmm. Well, I knew most of those stupid Newton's law too. I just didn't remember them word for word…
"But anyway, have you thought of what we should do yet?" Alfred spoke up again.
"Do what?" I asked.
"The project, Arthur. I'm not sure yet cuz no one else told me anything, ya know. " "Bonnejoy" haven't told us anything specific, but I'm really bored. So I thought we can just… wing it somehow. So we don't have to worry about it all year."
"What do you mean wing it?"
"Okay, so like, there's many kind of love." Alfred cleared his throat, sounding more than knowledgeable on this subject. "Since I kinda don't want the two of us to research on romantic love by watching weirdly gross romcom, no offend, we should focus on other type of love that's maybe platonic. One of them being, friendship! So let's just… try a bunch of best friend stuff. Hang out, play games together, I don't know. It's the weekend. I think we should have fun." He shrugged." Friendship building?"
"I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly free. I've got quite a bit on my hand right now." I sighed.
"Like what? it's the first week of school, you can't have that much!"
"Short story. Book to finish... Practice some new pieces of music... And the stupid science homework."
"Ugh. Wait I can lend you my science homework." Alfred winked from behind his glasses.
"You would." I questioned him skeptically.
"I would." He assured me.
A moment of silent was given. I think this will work.
"Anyway, go home and take a shower. You stink of sweat." I shooed him away.
Alfred sipped on the cup one last time, then put it down on the table and stood up with a smile on his face.
"Be right back in half an hour. I'll bring my homework too! We should have a sleepover, that'd be fun! Oh, and I think you should look through the project papers." he said and walked to the door.
"You just said you didn't have any homework. And why? I already read them." I replied with raised brows, still leaning back on the sofa chair, holding my cup.
"Good, cuz I kinda haven't." He laughed, and waved goodbye on his way out.
'What a wanker,' I decided, flopping back on the comfy sofa chair.
But then again, I need to finish my short story sooner at this rate. Because Alfred does not plan to leave me alone, it seemed. And what did he say again? Something about sleepover?
.・゜ . ・* ・ *・ . ゜・.
Alfred ended up taking over an hour, which had its pros and cons. On the positive side, I was able to finished my story, only proofreading was needed and it'd be done. I took some time off washing the few dishes and cups, watered my little Barry, and got out the laptop, when… the knocking came again. This time, much more polite.
I opened the door, and the cons were literally at my front door. One Alfred right outside with a small case, his backpack, and a big bag of snack.
"I've got the chips!" He grinned, his eyes smiled, his hair still wet from the shower.
(Jesus Mary and Joseph, he smells sort of good, it's so weird. Is this weird?) I helped him carried the chips, I mean crisp. And then he just started "settling down" in my living room.
"Dude, this is gonna be so much fun!" Alfred exclaimed, as he put the little case down on the side of the sofa and started pulling out various things from the backpack. A stack of colourful papers that I can guess is the project's. A notebook. More paper that poured out on top, and then his laptop. Lastly, his phone from the back pocket. "So… What do you want to do first?"
"Are you serious with the sleepover? It's only 1:20 in the afternoon." I questioned, feeling like I should be shaken up on the inside. Alfred is "settling down" in my living room. Alfred Fucking Jones. My poor fucking living room.
"Heck yeah I am! So pumped for this shit! My first sleepover, are you in?! Woohoo!" He stood up in excitement.
I only stared at him. I sort of wanted to tell him it was my first, too. But then I didn't because he didn't have to know. But really, how can this be Alfred's first sleepover? And is that the sole reason he's here, project whatever aside? The project sounds almost like an excuse to hang out.
"Have you eaten lunch?" I asked, since I've had nothing in my stomach since this morning.
"Actually now that you mention it, I'm starving." Alfred confessed, a bit wavered. But then he remembered. "I brought chips! I'm such a fucking genius."
"Uh… No. Crisps doesn't count as lunch-"
"C'mon Arthur! Your parents aren't around! And don't lie that you never drank freaking tea for dinner before." Alfred laughed.
"What! I never-" I raised my voice before Alfred cut me off again.
"Sure, Arthur. Sure." he smirked, then burst into laughter.
"Well then, I guess somebody does not want pizza for lunch." I turned around and walked slowly to the kitchen.
The American immediately caught up to me, and as I turned around, I witnessed the most incredible face ever. No word should be able to describe it. None, but simply "incredible".
Alfred and I waited patiently for the little toaster oven to warm up the pizza.
"You know, I figured you are missing something."
"What?"
"The things that's missing from this apartment. Do you not play music or like have a radio on, ever? It's too quiet in here, dude." Alfred said, his fingers messing around with the napkin holder.
I looked at Alfred, baffled. Then I pulled myself together again and cleared my throat.
"I do listen to music. I just… don't play it out loud much. Old habit. I really can't get use to listening… out loud. I don't know… It's hard to get rid of." I murmured under my breath. I really don't need to bring up old memories. Things like not being able to play music out loud and such. Alfred doesn't need to know that kind of stuff.
Alfred didn't ask more. Instead, we talked about the type of music that each of us listen to. He sure doesn't look it, but he listen to jazz, country, and of course pop. For me, it's instrumental, mostly classical. I sometimes listen to rock and pop, I guess. It's really depend on the song. Then Alfred let me listen to some of his new favourites, and though I don't think I will ever fall in love with country, he was so insistent upon it, I laughed more than intended.
He ate half of the large pepperoni & sausage pizza, while I munched on another two slides for lunch. Strangely, the pizza tasted much better with another person. I guess I can understand that much. It's something more than just eating alone.
Then, after cleaning up, Alfred lazed around on the sofa while I sat down with laptop.
"Man, I'll so full…." he laughed. "You know what time it is?"
"2:12." I looked down at the lower right corner of the screen.
"What are you doing?"
"Blogging."
"What? "Barry Daily Journal" or something?" he said with a small snicker, his eyes fluttered closed.
I blushed a bit and didn't answer him. It was partially true at least. I do post pictures of my bloody cactus. Not that many, I don't think.
"For real?" Alfred sat up and hovered over to my laptop.
"Bugger off." I elbowed him.
"I wanna see!" Alfred grinned and closed in. "Oh! You have a Tumblr?"
I closed out the window. My Tumblr is probably the worst thing to show to a real life friend. Aka Alfred. And especially "Alfred".
"It's okay. I have one too! I will respect your privacy of course." he winked at me and gave a thumbs up, though his face was still stuck to my laptop's screen.
"You too?" I was actually really surprise. Who'd have guess that even Alfred has a Tumblr. Huh.
"Yeah, it's nothing great. I mostly just use it to pass time." Alfred trailed off as he crawled back to the sofa.
"Me too." I answered casually. Welp, if only he knows the kind of things I reblog. I don't think it's that bad. Just… not Alfred material probably, no offence. It's a compilation of nerdy books, movies, and games posts. 79% I bet. The other 20% is contributed to cute things and nature (like Little Barry! Bloody hell, I know it's not time to talk about Barry but this one time, I stuck googly eyes on him and took some picture for my blo-ahem, right.)
"So… what do you want to do now?" Alfred said, his excitement already back. In front of him, the colourful papers lay neatly on the table, next to the laptop.
"Since you are so eager, let's take a picture?" I asked, as the picture idea just came to me. "We'll need pictures for the project, right? I don't see the point in writing 500 words describing myself."
"Yeah! Great start, actually. It can be like, on the cover, or the introduction even!" Alfred smiled.
Then he whipped out the phone and quickly positioned himself beside me who was still sitting in my chair.
"This is like a selfie, Alfred."
"It should be one! Smile!"
I looked as composed at possible. At least I'm not in my pajamas, like most weekends. Thank god no.
"Aww, you didn't smile." he studied picture. I leaned over to get a glance. Alfred is really like a sunflower. Always cheery with his grin.
"I think it looks fine the way it is. Wait." I looked again at Alfred, his cowlick sticking out and I really never bother but hmm for picture purposes? "Here lemme fix this."
I reached over and tried to get his hair to stay down but to no avail, the strands of hair is just like its owner I guess.
"Yo my hair is fine," Alfred booed at my motherly act.
"You sure? Okay then."
Alfred sent a copy to my phone, then again, he jumped on the sofa.
"Hey Alfred. It's been bothering me for a while. Do you mind if I ask you something?"
"Sure. Come at me, bro!"
"What did you write about in that first bellwork we had? I mean they put us together because of our bellwork, right? Other than that, we are… two completely different person." I asked, a bit hesitant. It might be a bit of a sensitive topic. I really don't know how to approach it.
"Oh… Yeah. I actually didn't know what to write at all. This might disappoint you! Um I was really confused… And I just… I turned it in blank. Sorry."
"Oh."
Right. Blank. I can feel my blood pulsing. So I got put together with Alfred, because we… basically wrote nothing about love? (My love for books is true, dammit!)
"Um…"
"You don't have to apologise, really. There's nothing to be sorry about." I looked up at Alfred's troubled face. He was really confused. I get that.
"To be honest... I really don't have any experience with love at all!" Alfred blurted out suddenly with redness spreading across his cheek, even down to his neck.
"Oh no it's fine. It's not like I- Sorry, I didn't mean to pry." I replied quickly, the secondhand embarrassment getting to me.
"What about you?"
"Uh… Me? No, not one that counts..." I said, a memory of the first and last kiss I ever had with the little girl crossed my mind.
"O-oh... Thank god." Alfred sighed out in relief.
"Why?"
"I thought you were really experience or something. It'll be pretty embarrassing owning up that I haven't even had my first kiss," Alfred laughed loudly. "Anyway!"
Then he was back to his cheery mood. This made me feel much better. We had some personality in common, at least. Our cluelessness. Who'd have guessed.
"It's okay, Alfred. We'll work something out. We have a long year ahead."
"Yeah!" Alfred smiled. "So, what else do we do?"
"Um... let me look at the papers here." I said, reaching for the colourful guides.
Last time I skimmed it, there were the grading scale, a few common rules, and some important dates for required events that needed to be mentioned. Nothing too restricting. It just needed to have an organized structure, meets certain points, and overall, everything else is graded on creativity and good content.
"Can you write well, Alfred?" I asked, my eyes still wandering over the pages.
"Um… I can write? I don't know. I don't like writing papers, but I like telling stories!" Alfred said, his head on the little throw pillow on top of the glass coffee table.
"What can you do? Wait, you can draw, is that right?"
"Yeah, I like drawing." he smiled goofily.
"You plays the trumpet, and a few other things."
"Yup!"
"That might be something we can do. Include a recording, sketches, or a video, something creative."
" That sounds cool! But I really don't want to record myself playing. I'll probably mess up a lot..."
"Great, I felt the same. I was thinking that we should have an audio made, then just put… pictures or something on slideshow for a video."
"Are you good with that kinda stuffs?"
"I can probably…?" I shrugged.
"I'll help you. And also, I'm good with taking pictures. My dad is actually kinda a pro photographer, so I've been taking pictures since forever. I don't know, if we need to." he suggested.
"I'll keep that in mind." I said. This is a good start. "I'll just list out the things we can do first. Let me go get some papers."
"No need. Here." he coolly slid the notebook on the table toward me. "It's suppose to be my science notebook, but so far, there's nothing to write."
Alfred Fucking Jones. You need orders. I wanted to say it out loud, but then again, it's Alfred. My words would be wasted. Let's see how talented he is then. I opened the spiral bound notebook, and on the first page, I saw a little doodles of... Newton (it was labeled) chasing after a laughing mini Alfred (also labeled), as he was throwing apples at the little imbecile.
"Did you draw this? He looked nothing like Newton, to be honest." I said with a small laugh at the silly squiggles that was supposed to be Newton's hair.
"I forgot about that doodle!" he yelped. I continued flipping the pages, until a few papers fell out. It was the… science homework it seemed. I looked up at Alfred, and right then, he was looking at me with a stinking wink, his hands going "Eyyyy".
This disgusting tosser, I thought, as I sighed and stood up to go get my homework out. When I came back, he was sitting with his laptop open again.
"They said the football tryout is next weekend." he mustered.
"Great." I said, as I try to decipher the prat's squiggly handwriting. The answers were actually pretty detailed, and that pissed me off.
"I almost forgot to ask. Are you going on the bus trip next month?"
"Are you?"
"I'm not sure. Kiku's going."
"Maybe I'll go. Better before it gets cold." I said as I tried to change the wording for the answers.
"You have a point." Alfred agreed. "Oh hey. I didn't know we had a place for the clubs in the forums."
"Uh-huh."
"There's nothing in Astronomy yet." he sulked. "I'll ask Ms. Bonnefoy on Monday and see if we can make it cooler. What did you say you were in? Book club?"
"Yes. And Magic."
"Woah, the orchestra's forum page is awesome!"
"Where? Let me see." I scooched over to Alfred's side of the sofa. The page layout was an empty concert hall and velvet curtains, each topic was decorated with little moving instruments. There were plenty of pictures folders from previous years, as well as performance recordings and event dashboard.
"It's okay." I supposed. It's the freaking orchestra, what do you expect. Also, private school. Tsk.
"I wanna go to the concerts. When do you guys have one?"
"I know the band is going for the pep rally in a few weeks, and…. what is it called again? Homecoming or something close. But the orchestra has the Autumn concert around October."
"Cool! And homecoming is like a football thing. Alumni coming back to see their school's home football game."
"Okay."
"So you've never seen a homecoming game?"
"No." I looked up.
Alfred's eyes seemed to lid up immediately.
"The football game is huge! But before the game, we have this homecoming ceremony with like a bunch of queen candidates and escorts, then they have the official king and queen announced and everything. It's really cool!"
"That sounds great, Alfred." I nodded, trying to imagine the scene.
"You should go with me!"
"I'll see."
"Okay, I found the Reading Club. You guys reading Life of Pi?"
"No. The Book Thief."
"Oh yeah, last year's post." Alfred smiled, as he went back to the list of clubs and activities. "There's not one named Magic, Arthur."
"I'm sure it's somewhere."
"Oh, actually there it is. The Black Magic Club." Alfred giggled. "Do you guys actually do black magic?"
"Yes." I said without looking up. Alfred suddenly got quiet for a bit there. So I looked up to see if he was okay. "Problem?"
"Ha ha… No. Not really. I bet you were joking." he laughed faintly with a bit of nervousness.
"Yes, it's a joke. We mostly just get together on tabletops."
"Really? So you guys just play Monopoly and things like that. That's fun!" Alfred cheered. "Then why would you call it the Black Magic Club?"
I paused. I really don't want to sound lame because most of the upperclassmen plays Magic, and that's why we call it that. We don't even have a set of normal Monopoly in the club room (the very mythology class, ladies and lads) without various nerd versions. There's World Warcraft, Game of Thrones, Munchkin, Lord of the Rings,... and many other card games and consoles. The collection seemed to have grown over the years as students kept bringing them in and leaving them for the club.
"Because it sounds cooler." I answered. It's true. "We also call it the Hellfire Club."
"Why…" Alfred groaned.
"Because the seniors said that once you join the club, your grades seems to... burn in hell. And since half of the members thinks they have some magical power that can summon the dead or attract paranormal forces to this city." I laughed. "They just stay after school late together a lot. Gaming purpose probably."
"Why did you join that club…" he curled into a ball on the sofa.
Because I'm the nerdiest kid on the block. Fight me, Alfred.
"It's actually rather funny." I said playfully. "You should come see us whenever we play Ouija."
"You play Ouija? No thank you!"
"What? It's fun."
"But it can summon… g-ghosts…" Alfred stuttered, his head shaking frantically.
Hey, look who's scared of ghost. I grinned at the thought of the bigger boy trembling in fear over some random spirits.
"I've actually seen them before. Ghosts. In England."
"What?" Alfred yelped as he looked down at me in bewilderment.
"Oh, it's nothing scary. I was just walking home from school around noon, when I saw this really pretty lady in a white dress walking past me with a small babe on her arm. The baby boy was the most adorable thing, and I noticed that he was waving at me. So I turned back and waved, but I didn't see anyone else on the road. It was really odd, so I just continued walking home."
"She disappeared? Oh my god Arthur! You could have been spirited away!" Alfred yelled.
"What? It was just a harmless encounter." I blinked, innocently.
"No it's not... Maybe she was just waiting nearby... to see if you will look around to find her. She was totally going to k-kill you!" Alfred bawled, his blue eyes wide, his arms trembling as he hold onto my shoulder.
"I'm okay, Alfred. See? It was a long time ago. I was just a little kid in primary school." I explained, feeling the sweatdrop down my-.
"What? Maybe she was going to kidnap you. Maybe she will when you are older. It's the foreshadowing! Oh my fucking god! This is so terrifying!" Alfred shrieked as his grip tighten on my shoulder.
I'm never going to do this again. I don't know why I thought scaring Alfred was a good idea, because now he's losing his marbles.
I managed to calm him down a few minutes later (with a blanket, a cup of hot coffee with a ton of whip cream), and we decided to just eat the crisps while watching The Fellowship of the Rings, since Alfred was done with the LOTR books (Wtf? This kid is surreal.) During the entire time, he insist that we stick together (because it's safer that way, he said), so we ended up with two boys under a bloody blanket on the sofa, watching more boys (hobbits) losing their shite. Great.
I finally got away from babysitting Alfred about 40 minutes from the ending, when the doorbell rang (I have a bloody doorbell? Yes I do.) and Aunt Roger dropped by to invite us to dinner, questioning why the light was not on despite it being 6:30 in the evening. At some point, Alfred seemed to have forgotten everything about his freaking out from the afternoon (thank god), so we gratefully went over to eat next door.
After dinner, we helped clean up, and went back to continue with the movies. We got through the entire 4 hours of The Two Towers, when it was about midnight, and we decided to go to fucking sleep. That's when trouble arose, once again.
"Where do I sleep?" Alfred asked, having changed into his blue striped pajamas.
"On the sofa?" I asked, as if it wasn't obvious.
"This is a sleepover, Arthur!"
"Whut?" I asked, brushing my teeth.
"Don't you like, sleep in the same place and talk about stuffs?"
Well, that's true. Or that's what most people typically do anyway.
"I guess. By the way, Alfred, do you have your brush?"
"Uh…be right back." Alfred laughed nervously. Then he turned around and sprinted to the front door.
That's surprisingly Alfred-like. But now I think of it, why am I going along with this absurd sleepover idea? Thanks to it, I haven't got the time to do anything that I usually would have done by now, for example… continue to stay on Tumblr for eternity. Quite. It's not like time spent with Alfred was anymore wasted. Oh bollocks. I think the idiotic Alfred gene might be contagious. And I haven't have time for a shower today thanks to a certain someone.
"Got it!" Alfred busted the door open with his toothbrush in hand and pillow on his arm, making some conquesting pose.
"Make sure you lock the door." I said aloud as I checked the back door.
"Okay!"
"Hey Alfred. I'm going to take a shower after you finish brushing."
"Okay dude." Alfred replied, putting toothpaste on his brush.
I walked into my room and turned on the light. Suddenly, all hell came down to me. This would be the first time I've ever let anyone in my room. Actually, Alfred was the first friend I've ever let into my home, not even thinking sleepover. I think I was supposed to have realized this a long while ago, and not now, when Alfred is literally about to be here any second. I looked around my room, the only room I actually made comfortable with personal items (I only have so much stuff; and they all stayed in my room, as expected). The movie and band posters, my random post-it notes and meaningless texts, flags, messy papers littering the study corner, some clothes out of the closet, some stuff animal I'm not comfortable showing others (Most of them are Pokemons…) and unorganized books everywhere. I decided to first lock the room. Then as fast as possible, I shoved the dirty clothes and the stuff animals in an empty corner of the closet, stack the books into a pile at one corner, made my bed in a hurry-
"Arthur?" A muffled voice came from the other side of the door.
"One second!" I grunted. Bloody hell, I never notice these kind of things until it's time I have other people in my room, I guess.
After looking around to see if there were anything sticking out from the corner of my eyes, I breathed out in relief, and opened the door.
"What were you doing? Hiding stuff?" Alfred said, giving me a smug face.
"What? No, it's not-" I retaliated, face turning red anyway, even if I wasn't really hiding "stuff".
"It's okay. I completely understand. You are a growing boy living alone." Alfred nodded while patting my shoulder.
"No, you complete git. It's not what you think." I said again. Then I went to get a towel and my pajamas to change into. Just to make sure, I added, "Don't go digging about."
"Yeah!" Alfred winked and gave me a thumbs up as I walked out of the room.
For good Pete's sake, I just hope he doesn't find my stuff animals. I hope my room doesn't look that tacky...
I took the quickest shower, put on my pajamas, and rushed back to the room.
"You're back!"
Alfred was sitting on my bed, looked up and smiled at me. Whew, I don't think he had looked aro- Oh shite. I looked down at what Alfred was holding on his lap. My mint bunny that I usual had… on my bed. I forgot about him…
I sighed deeply. My life…
"This little bunny is really cute! I love the wings, dude!" Alfred laughed, bouncing up and down on the bed.
"Yes, thanks." I walked up to Alfred and took the bunny away, put it on the bedside table instead.
Then I got the hair dryer out from the drawer.
"You use hair dryer? I thought that's for girl."
"Girl or not, I'm not sleeping with my head still wet." I pushed Alfred's idiotic observation off the van.
"Hmm. That's why I never take showers at night!" he laughed, then stood up and walked over to the bookshelves. "You really have a lot of books!"
"It's not even half the amount I've got back home."
"Wow. Hey, I've read that. Fahrenheit 451."
"It's a good book."
"I haven't read The Giver, but everyone said it's good."
"It is. I can lend you that."
"Thanks! I'll take it when I feel like reading again. Man, Lord of the Rings was good... I think I need a break before I pick up anything else."
I smiled. I feel that way sometimes too. But then I always end up reading again since I have nothing else to do.
After I finished drying my hair, I turned off the main light, leaving the bedside lamp on. Alfred insisted on taking the outer side, so I crawled into the inner side of the bed and grab the blanket. My arm accidentally brushed against Alfred's as I lay down, so I scooched a bit closer to the wall. It felt strange, sleeping with another person.
"This feels pretty weird, dude. And cramp." Alfred said nervously.
"Just go to sleep already you big goof. It's almost 1 o'clock." I muttered. I'm really tired all of the sudden.
"Okay. Good night, Arthur." Alfred said, turning off the lamp.
"Good night."
"Thank you for today. It was fun." he chuckled.
"You idiot. There's nothing to thank me for." I replied. Ah yes, you are bloody welcome. Well... yes, to be honest. Didn't know hanging out with people can be kinda fun.
Now I proceeded to stare at the ceiling fan that's barely visible from the faint light from outside the window, until Alfred was sure to not say another word. It had been a strange day, and I'm not even sure if it was pleasant. If anything, there's this tingling sensation in my stomach that's keeping me wide awake. I continue to think of a word to describe the weird feeling that I'm having, until my weary eyelids grew heavier, and I was sound asleep before long.
.・゜ . ・* ・ *・ . ゜・.
Arthur woke up to the faint sound of the rain outside. The light silky blanket felt warmer, despite the cool wind brushing against his cheek from the ceiling fan. Trying to pull the blanket up, his hand touched something warm and heavy. It was really dark. As if to make himself comfortable, he curled up, snuggled toward the heat against his back, took no notice of the warm breathing against his hair. 'This has been the best sleep I've had in years', Arthur thought lucidly before dozing off again into the pleasant smell that's wrapped around him, one he knew not of.
Song of the Day: "Jenny" by Studio Killers
A/N: Wheeee! Late Christmas, but early New Year update! :D (let's just say I only celebrate new year haha. But for real, I really wanted to get this in before new year for you guys. It's like 3 in the morning lol)
I hope you guys enjoy the little update, and a promising new year to you!
May my updates come regularly in the next year!
/fixing the typos. also, yay for season 6 of Hetalia next year! (although I can really do without the Hetalia World… "Sparkle* ugh Hima why...)
