*So, I'm considering writing a separate story for any dirty bits, and keeping this one clean. Or something. I don't know. I'm still not one hundred percent sure where this is going, so please please review! And if you don't like it, don't read it and whatever*
When James and I finally got home, we both crawled up to our room and collapsed onto his bed. We were both too tired to be bothered with doing anything but falling asleep. That night, I dreamt of birds. They were all flying together in a flock, and changing colors as they flitted through the sunlight. They flew expertly around in the sky, passing around trees and obstacles. They seemed to have a collective goal. Suddenly, they headed toward a giant red tree. One by one, they flew head first into this tree, cracking their little necks. They seemed determined to fling themselves onto this tree, and they seemed somehow relieved after they reached it.
I woke up in the light, my body sore and muscles aching. I realized that I was still wearing my shoes and jacket from last night. Somehow, in my sleep, I'd managed to kick off one shoe and my jeans. I smiled at the memories of last night. I looked over and realized that I was still in James' bed. He'd gotten half of his jacket off in his sleep, as well as kicking off his pants, shoes, and socks. His shirt was pushed up over his bellybutton, revealing his tight abs and perfect little V leading down to a very tight pair of teal briefs. I couldn't help thinking that this underwear was unbelievably hot. I could see a vague outline of his package through the material. I couldn't resist staring at the bulge. The shape was pretty undefined, but it was still pretty big. James moaned and sat up, and I instantly started blushing and looked away.
"Hey," he said, giving me a peck on my red cheek.
"Morning," I said, trying to hide how awkward I was feeling.
"Oy, I'm so sore all over," he said twisting and stretching.
"Yeah, me too," I said.
James seemed to pick up on how I was feeling, and looked around, confused. He then noticed his tanned, hairy legs were exposed, and his pelvis was rather thinly covered. He tried to grab the blanket from underneath us to cover himself, but he couldn't seem to manage to get it out. He settled on covering his bulge with his hands.
"I had a lot of fun last night," I said, smiling at him.
"Me too," James said.
"And, I really like… you know, dating you or whatever," I said, still uncomfortable with the drastic change in my love life.
"I like dating you or whatever too," James said, laughing.
"I've never… I mean, you're pretty much, like, my first boyfriend or whatever," I said, cursing my incessant use of the word 'whatever.'
James' demeanor changed a little. He seemed more distant, and unfocused. "Oh, really? Well I- I'm glad I could be your first…"
"I mean, you know, if you're my boyfriend, or whatever," I said. James seemed to flinch a little bit at the word boyfriend. "I'm not sure how this is supposed to go. I mean, tell me if I'm doing something wrong."
James seemed even more distraught. "No, you're not doing anything wrong," he said quickly.
"Is something…wrong?" I asked.
"No, I just have to...pee," James said, jumping off of the bed. I slid down after him, and only barely caught a glimpse of the reason why he was acting so weird. His shirt was short enough that it hung just a few inches above the waistband of his briefs. He was turning quickly, so I could only barely see it, but I definitely saw a huge tent in James' briefs. I stifled a giggle as I watched his cute bubble butt strut out of the room and toward the bathroom. I think I gave James morning wood.
I was feeling a little confident as I got ready for the day. I cast a knowing look toward James as he walked back in, and he blushed a little. I liked seeing James let down the wall of perfection that he tried so hard to maintain. When I got downstairs, Logan and Kendall were already in the living room. It looked as if I were interrupting a serious conversation. I snuck into the kitchen, and pretended to go out of the kitchen door. I know it's really rude, but I was feeling way too nosy to care. I crept up to the archway between the living room and the kitchen.
"Logan, I don't want to go over this again," Kendall whispered, agonized.
"I just…. I don't feel like I have closure," Logan said, pained.
"God, do you always have to analyze everything?" Kendall moaned. "I mean, you'll live if we have unresolved issues, right?"
"I-I feel like we have more than just unresolved issues," Logan said. "I feel like we have more than unresolved issues. I don't want this to be the end."
I heard James start to descend the stairs, and Kendall and Logan's conversation ceased. I sighed and went about getting some breakfast. I sat down in the living room next to James. Logan was gone and Kendall was looking like he was pushing himself to be pleasant. "Oh! So, did you guys have fun last night?" Kendall asked, looking genuinely interested, and excited to have a distraction.
"Yeah!" James said. "I mean, I did."
"I definitely did," I said, surprised that Kendall was aware of our date.
"I'm glad. It's about time, since you moved in, James has been-" Kendall said, interrupted by James throwing a magazine from the table at him.
"What?" I asked, a little excited to hear the answer.
"Nothing," James said. "Anyway, we had fun."
"What were you going to say?" I asked Kendall.
"Wait!" James yelled dramatically. We looked at him. "Did you hear that?"
We sat, silent and still for a few moment, and then we both heard it. There was a beep echoing from the upstairs hall.
"So what?" Kendall said. "It was just the smoke alarm, it means the battery is dead."
"Exactly," James said. "Remember last time nobody changed it? Nobody slept for, like, a week."
"Oh yeah," Kendall said. "So, you wanna change it?"
"Yeah, Rainer, can you help me?" James said.
"Okay," I replied. "And then you're going to tell me what you were going to say," I said to Kendall.
We got the ladder from the side of the house and carried it upstairs. We set it up and I held it while James reached up to the smoke detector. Before he could touch it, we both froze: a beep emanated from down the hall. We both looked at each other and laughed, then moved the ladder down the hall to the other smoke detector. I held it still as James climbed up, and I handed him the package of batteries. As he opened the package, we heard the beep coming from somewhere else. We looked around, and decided that it was coming from the bathroom. We folded up the ladder and leaned it on the wall, and I got the stepladder from the closet downstairs, in order to accommodate the much lower ceiling of the bathroom. The hallway was tall and carried echos, but the ceilings of the rooms coming off of this hallway were much lower.
We went into the bathroom, and James finally replaced the battery. We folded up the stepladder, and opened the door. And heard a beep. I groaned as we decided on a new room that could need attention. We decided on our room, and set up the step ladder. As James was changing the battery, we heard another beep, clearly not from the smoke detector in our room. We went into Logan's room, and waited for the beep. I looked around his room. It was full of papers and models and books. He appeared to have left. It was messy, and had minimal furniture. We heard the beep coming from outside of the room. We angrily trudged over to Carlos and Kendall's room. Carlos was taking a shower in the bathroom, so we assumed it had to be the one in the bathroom. Their room was painted a dark maroon color, and had dark mahogany furniture. It was surprisingly stylish and well-kept; considering Carlos and Kendall, I wouldn't have thought either of them was particularly organized.
James changed the battery, and the beeping stopped. I perused their room, feeling in a nosy mood. There was a small set up of scented candles on one table. I looked at James and smiled. I told him not to take down the stepladder. I picked up the lighter, and flicked it until a flame sparked to life. I climbed the little ladder, and held the flame up to the smoke detector. As it went off, I quickly folded up the ladder, grabbed James by the hand, and ran downstairs.
I waited until Carlos came running down the stairs, wet and covered in soap, with just a towel around his waist. I waited by the front door, and yelled "Holy crap, there's a fire!" I opened the front door and Carlos took two steps out before turning around and glaring at me.
"Oh, very nice," he said. "Ha. Ha."
James and I leaned on each other as we gasped for breath, laughing. Carlos mumbled angrily as he plodded up the stairs to resume his shower.