Another night here alone, Jeff had gone with Adam - again - and I was back to The Lord of the Rings. I'd moved onto The Two Towers, but I'd still rather be doing something else. I had my headphones on, but quietly, so I could hear when Jay knocked on the door.
Where was he?
I turned the page, trying to convince myself to read. He'd show up sooner or later. Wouldn't he? I turned another page, then realized that I hadn't read the previous one. Dammit, forget waiting. If I went to the front desk and asked where he was staying would they be able to tell me? Only one way to find out. I stuck my bookmark back in my book, dropped it on my bed, took off my head phones, and put my boots on. If Jay wasn't going to come to me, I'd go to him.
I hurried down the steps from my third floor room to the lobby and smiled politely at the girl behind the counter.
"Hello, Mr. Hardy, sir," she blushed. A fan, I assumed with a smile. "What can I get for you?"
"I was wonderin' what room Jay Reso was stayin' in," I answered.
"Of course, just a moment," she began typing on the computer next to her then looked back to me. "He's in room 440."
"Thanks," I smiled and went back to the stairs I'd just come from to jog up four floors. When I got to Jay's room, I could see a light through the peephole - a good sign. I just hoped it wasn't Adam and Jeff. I knocked.
"Come in."
"The door's locked, Jay."
"Oh." I heard movement in the room, then the door opened and I found Jay standing there, grinning at me. "Sorry 'bout that."
I grinned back. "I bet."
Jay just turned and went back to his bed.
"What are y' up to?" I asked, stepping in and shutting the door behind me.
"Nothing. Jeff and Adam went out tonight, so I got to keep the room. Sweet deal, huh?" he continued dryly, looking at me dully.
"What'cha watchin'?"
"Tombstone."
I crossed the room and sat on the end of the bed next to Jay. "That's a good movie."
"Yeah," Jay looked over at me, then held up a pillow. "Make yourself comfortable."
"Thanks," I grinned, taking the pillow and laying down next to Jay. The movie quickly cut to a commercial. "Where'd Jeff an' Adam go t'night?"
"I dunno, some bar or club or something."
"Jeff doesn't drink," I said, confused.
"Adam doesn't dance," Jay added with a smile. I shook my head, turning back to the T.V.
"I'd never make it in the old west," Jay informed me as the movie came back on.
I laughed. "Why not?"
"I'm too much of a pacifist."
"Says the guy who's smashed me over the head with ladders an' chairs more times than I can remember."
Jay grinned. "You had it coming."
"I bet."
We fell silent again, watching the movie. It wasn't much, I admit, but it was better than sitting by myself. Half an hour must have passed before either of us spoke. Finally Jay turned to me and broke the silence.
"You know what we need, Matt?"
I raised a brow and looked at him. "What's that?"
"Spicy ho fun."
I blinked at him. "Um, Jay, I don't think..."
But before I could finish my sentence, Jay had pulled out a phone book and flipped to the yellow pages. "Jade Garden... The Great Wall... ah! China Moon, take out and delivery!"
I grinned. Chinese food. "How late are they open?"
"Delivery 'til midnight. Must be a college around here or something," Jay grinned as he picked up the phone and started dialing.
"Hello?... Hi, delivery, please... Um, I'm not sure, we're at the Marriott. Let me look." Jay looked around the phone, then finally found and rattled off a phone number. "Room 440. Thanks... Yeah, do you have spicy ho fun? No? Um, all right, I'll have an order of egg rolls and mandarin chicken... Large. Hey, Matt, what do you want?"
"Uh, sesame chicken?"
"Do you have sesame chicken?... Large, too... Can we get an order of fried rice? Ooh, and egg drop soup. Both large. Anything else, Matt?"
"Pot stickers," I added.
"And an order of pot stickers... Steamed... Yeah, that should do it... no, that's all... Reso, R-E-S-O. Yeah, thanks... Bye," Jay hung up the phone and looked to me. "Twenty minutes."
"Not bad. How much?"
"She didn't say. Man, I'm drooling just thinking of it. I haven't had chinese forever. Adam hates it, so we never go."
I laughed. "How can y' hate chinese?"
"That's what I say," Jay answered, shaking his head and leaning back on the headboard to watch the movie. "Can you imagine smoking a cigarette while you're dying of TB?"
I looked back to Jay, confused. "What?"
"Doc Holiday. Dying of consumption and still smoking. I had some cigarettes when I was in high school - nastiest thing ever," Jay continued on. I blinked. Sometimes I wondered where his trains of thought came from. He never ceased to surprise me. "My dad always smoked when I was little. I'm going to sue his ass for every penny he has when I die of lung cancer."
I chuckled and shook my head.
"But he's still cool."
"Your dad?"
"Doc Holiday. Watch this part," he ordered, pointing at the T.V. Billy the Kid was doing tricks with a gun, spinning it on his finger and all, then slid it back in the holster. Then Doc Holiday mimicked that with his little shot glass. I smiled.
"Seen this movie a lot?"
"Yeah, Adam and I watched it together about twenty million times when it first came out. I didn't like westerns then, but Adam raved about this one, so I watched it." Jay shrugged. "He was right."
"Oh," I answered, falling silent. Jeff was a big fan of American Beauty, but it didn't sound that interesting to me. So we watched it anyway when we were bored one night, and I realized he was right. Then he made me watching every chance we got there after. I wondered if he had Adam watching it all the time now, too. I think I finally understood why Jay hadn't bothered coming down tonight - after this movie came on, he was probably thinking about Adam.
"What time did I call?" Jay asked, looking at his watch.
"I'm not sure."
"Well, I'm going to run down to the lobby."
"Want me t' come with?"
"Nah," Jay shrugged, grabbing his wallet off the nightstand. "I got it."
"You sure?" "Yeah, no problem. Be right back."
"Ok," I shrugged as he left. Naturally, my thoughts drifted back to Adam and Jeff. Actually, Adam and Jay. There was a good chance that Jay was going through exactly what I was going through. But he probably wasn't as much of a doormat as I was. I wondered if he'd ever confronted Adam about blowing him off since he'd hooked up with Jeff. I wonder what he thought of Jeff. If I hadn't gotten a chance to get to know Adam before he swept Jeff off his feet, I can imagine I wouldn't like him very much. Come to think of it, I did get angry at Adam from time to time, even though I knew it wasn't always his fault.
I realized that I wanted to tell Jay how great Jeff was, and how he shouldn't hate him. Of course, I had no reason to think that Jay didn't like him, but still... how do you bring that up in conversation, anyway? No, I guess I would just let Jay reach his own conclusions. He seemed intelligent enough to figure it out.
After a while, there was a dull thud on the door, as if someone kicked it. "Open the door, Matt."
I jumped up and opened the door, finding Jay standing there, struggling to balance two paper bags. I grabbed one from him quickly and he followed me into the room.
"You got it, huh?"
"I didn't drop anything."
I grinned and opened the bag Jay had handed me. There were two foil tins stacked on the bottom and a small bag with two egg rolls. "I got the pot stickers, sesame chicken, an' egg rolls."
"Ok, I got the rest," he said, proceeding to set two take-out boxes and a dish of egg drop soup on the table. Then he turned the bag over and dumped out a few fortune cookies, a spoon, and chopsticks. "Where the hell are the forks?"
"I think this is all we get," I said, emptying my bag and picking up a set of chopsticks.
"Dammit, I can't use those things!"
"Y' can't?" I asked with a grin, sitting down. "It's simple."
He gave me a dull look. "Right."
"It is. I'll teach you."
Jay picked up a set of chopsticks hesitantly and sat down at the table across from me.
"Break 'em apart," I directed, demonstrating with mine. Jay nodded and did so. "Now grab whatever it is y' want t' eat."
I opened the pot stickers and sesame chicken while Jay grabbed his mandarin chicken, watching me attentively. I gripped the chopsticks and held it up for him to see. "Like this."
He fumbled with the sticks for a moment, so I explained further. "The first one should sit on the top of y' second finger an' the base of y' first. Hold it down with the knuckle of y' thumb. Yeah. An' the second one, jus' hold it between the tips of y' index finger an' y' thumb. See? Easy."
"Right," Jay said, testing the grip. "Easy."
I smiled and picked up a pot sticker. The food was pretty good. Looking up, I watched Jay chase a bamboo shoot around the take-out box. "Try somethin' easier. Like a piece of chicken."
He scowled, frustrated, and shifted his pursuit. The chicken was much easier to handle and he picked it up quickly. "Hey! Got it!"
I smiled as he ate it. "Told'ja."
He went for a second piece, and successfully grabbed that one, too.
"Hey, this isn't bad at all," he smirked, holding up the second piece of chicken. Of course, as soon as he said that, he dropped it on his lap. "Goddammit."
I tried my best to not laugh, but Jay just scowled when he saw my grin. "I'm going to eat the egg rolls, those are easy."
I laughed and opened the fried rice.
"Now how the hell do you eat that?" Jay asked, nodding to the rice.
"Like a spoon. Watch." I dug in and grabbed a small scoop of rice.
"Oh," Jay said, a hint of sarcasm to his voice. "Like a spoon. Watch."
With that, he picked up the spoon that came with the soup and dug a large spoonful of rice with a smirk.
"Pretty clever," I shook my head with a smile. Jay sneered at me and picked up his chopsticks again, deciding to challenge his mandarin chicken once more. He started to get the hang of it eventually and started dropping less and less on himself.
"I guess this isn't so bad," Jay shrugged, expertly handling a bamboo shoot now. I smiled and went back to my chicken.
"Want t' try some?"
"Sure," Jay answered, reaching over for a sample. "I've never had this before."
"It's good. Kinda sweet an' jus' a little spicy."
Jay nodded, tasting it, and held out his take-out box to me. I grabbed some of the noodles and tried them.
"Hey, that's really good," Jay said, sounding surprised. He reached for another piece, but ended up dropping this one on his lap before it reached his mouth. I laughed again.
"Smooth."
He lifted his eyes to me slowly, then grabbed the piece of chicken from his lap expertly with his chopsticks and whipped it at me, nailing me in the forehead. That stopped my laughing.
"That's pretty funny, Jay."
He agreed by nearly falling out of his chair with laughter. While he was distracted, I grabbed the spoon and flung a spoonful of fried rice at him. That stopped his laughing as he looked up at me with shock. I just smirked. At least, until he started throwing bamboo shoots and water chestnuts from his mandarin chicken at me. Then it was war. I got in a few good shots - one right between the eyes with a pot sticker - and so did he. But when he reached for the soup, I decided to take matters into my hands. When I jumped up, he followed suit and we locked up defensively. From there, I got him into a side headlock.
And that's when Jeff opened the door.
Jay and I froze, me still holding him in a headlock and both of us smeared with chinese food, and watched as Jeff practically carried Adam into the room. Adam was stumbling and leaning heavily on Jeff with a goofy smile on his face. Jeff stopped momentarily when he saw Jay and me, so I let Jay go. Jeff just smiled, dragged Adam toward one of the beds, and dropped him on it.
"Uh, hey, guys," Jay finally spoke, hesitantly, trying to clean himself off.
"Hey," Jeff said quietly, as usual, as he tried to take off Adam's shoes.
"Hey, man," Adam said, sleepily. "Dude, is that chinese food? Smells like shit."
"What's goin' on?" I asked Jeff, ignoring Adam's comment and brushing off my clothes, too. "Is he ok?"
"Yeah," Jeff answered, half smiling as he was now trying to take off Adam's jacket. This was harder than it should have been, as Adam was pretty much deadweight and out of it. "He was tryin' t' drink with the big boys t'night."
"Unsuccessfully as usual," Jay grinned, and went to help Jeff. I tried to clean up the food mess a little as Jeff and Jay finally managed to get Adam's coat off so he sleep more comfortably. Jay took the coat and hung it up as Jeff rolled a sleeping Adam onto his side, brushed his hair back lovingly, then kissed him gently on the forehead. Adam smiled at this and grabbed a pillow, curling up to sleep with it. Jay watched them with a slight smile. "He'll be ok. This isn't a first."
"I know," Jeff answered with a smile, not taking his eyes off Adam. I looked over to Jay, who was still watching those two with a soft smile on his face. I could guess that his thoughts were running similar to mine. How cute. It was hard to be annoyed with Jeff and Adam ditching us when they were so cute together. Jay looked over to me after a moment, then came back and sat down across the table from me again, picking up his chopsticks again. He acknowledged the remaining mess with a smile, then peacefully went back to eating his mandarin chicken. After a moment, Jeff came over and sat at a third chair.
"Sweet, chinese. I'm starvin'," he said, breaking apart a third pair of chopsticks and looking over our array of food with a smile. "Sesame chicken, man? Y' always did have good taste."
With that, he started picking around all the food - mine and Jay's both - inhaling it all as usual. Jay watched him go, surprised at how quickly he ate with the chopsticks, then grabbed a fortune cookie and leaned back in his chair to open it. He partially crushed the cookie and pulled out the strip of paper. "'You will have new clothes soon.' What the hell is that?"
I grinned and opened a cookie for myself. Jeff took a short break from eating and looked over to me.
"Y' have rice in y' hair, Matt," he informed me dully, picking it out. "How'd'ja do that?"
I cast a sideways glance to Jay with a slight smirk as he grabbed another water chestnut from his mandarin chicken and chucked it at Jeff, scoring right on the temple. Jeff looked up suddenly, confused, as Jay and I broke out laughing. I shook my head and looked down to the strip of paper sitting in the cookie crumbs in my hand.
You will find love in an unusual manner.