FicWad

Meanwhile, when Joey told Mick where the bar (meaning not a club, despite what he said earlier) was, he decided to just take a walk down there, since it was only three blocks away. Joey is kind of irritable at that, because it’s freezing but hey. This is what he told Mick he was going to do for the guy. Mick then sighs. “Anyway, the guy kept denying that he had anything to do with the roaches on the Safari, and shit, he fucking blamed us for even pissing him off.”

Joey has his hands on his pockets, instantly regretting to leave his gloves in the apartment. “I wouldn’t exactly call that denying anything,” he mutters. “He say anything about me?”

“Yeah, that you’re the reason why this shit happened in the first place. Fucking telling you, this guy is just psycho. Like, why would he get so fucking worked up over his brother.”

“It’s because he’s psycho, Mick.”

“Yeah, I know, but if I slept with his girlfriend, or ex—whatever, then he’d have a good reason to be fucking pissed off.” He pauses, trying to remember the woman’s name. “She’s kinda hot.”

Joey rolls his eyes. “Whatever. What he needs to fucking do is just deal with me/. He did not need to get Shawn or the Safari involved in this, hell he didn’t need to get /any of you all involved in this. I swear to fucking god, that guy’s got problems.” Often times, though, he still blames himself for starting this mess, and he tries so hard to think of what to do to get Geraldo out of their hair. “That’s what I wanted to tell Geraldo.” He spots the bar, then, and he motions Mick to turn right so they can go inside the place, craving for the warmth of the building. Mick can only blink at the building, before he follows his smaller roommate.

It wasn’t really big at all, and it was plain on the outside. Mick certainly hopes that the interior is just as plain, because after being in Flashing Lights, he needs some plain. He sighs. “Well, maybe arranging a meeting with just you two wouldn’t be so bad if he actually felt like talking to you,” he replies, his heart beating more rapidly as they approach the bar, wondering what kind of men are in there. He could joke to himself that there’d be a mixture of twinks and bears, but then he feels that that really isn’t the right time.

Joey stops by the door and replies, “Well he doesn’t, or he wouldn’t have excluded me from the meeting back there.” He looks over at Mick and sighs. “So, last chance. Sure you want to do this?”

Mick bites the inside of his lip and shakes his head. “I dunno, what kind of men are in there?”

Joey simply stares at Mick at such a question. “They’re not what you’d see in a Pride parade, Mick,” he mutters, rolling his eyes and not wanting to relive the last Pride parade this past summer. “They’re just ordinary-looking guys, if that helps you.”

“Just go. I don’t care. Been this far, don’t feel like turning back. Our rides are gone anyway and I’m fucking cold.”

Joey nods and slowly opens the door. He peeks inside before holding the door to Mick, who can only blink as he enters. The bar doesn’t look too much different at all. It wasn’t big, that’s for sure, and there were a number of guys sitting in at the bar while others were sitting on the tables. No dancing, no dance music. Mick’s hearing Queensryche for some odd reason. Mick takes a closer look at the men, now. Some are already staring at him, and a couple of them look with interest, having never seen Mick before. Other than a couple of other burly men around and one feminine boy coming out from the restroom, they all don’t look any different. Mick sighs.

“Can we sit somewhere?” he asks as his stomach is filled with butterflies. Joey nods and leads the way over to sit over by the restroom. Mick ignores the stares that he’s getting and follows his roommate over to sit across from him. Joey simply stares out at the window and sighs. Mick looks over between Joey and some of the other men in the bar. There’s even a little television up near the ceiling playing something, most likely late night talk shows. Although one man has been discussing to bored listeners about hitmen killing employees from some Southern state that used to work at a seafood restaurant. Mick turns back to Joey, who gnaws on the insides of his lips and looks unusually calm, and the larger man asks, “What do even you do here?” Joey looks at him as he continues, “I’m not talking about what guys do here. I’m just talking about you, because you just seem to sit here and say nothing.”

Joey sighs. “I always sit here.” He shrugs before he brushes his hair behind his ear, looking down at the table. “I don’t just come here, waiting for a guy to pick me up or anything. It’s complicated but I come here to relax and think. S’hard doing that even in our apartment. I dunno why. I wanted to come here that night the whole Geraldo thing blew up, but my conscious told me not to come here. Men and all.”

Mick simply nods. “You know what? Let’s not even talk about that anymore. It’s um,” he then looks over at another guy coming from the restroom, “distracting me.” Joey finds himself smiling, trying not to laugh. “But do you think the Safari’s gonna open again?”

Now there’s something Joey can talk about positively. “It’s been going through inspections,” he replies. “That’s what Shawn said. So, I guess when they think it’s good to go again, they’ll reopen it. It won’t be until January-something, though.”

Mick rolls his eyes. “Well great. How are we planning on spending New Years, then?”

“Someone’s apartment.”

“You know what? This shit is too much for me.” And can you blame Mick? Or any of them? They’re all used to going over at the Safari every night and getting together. Yes, sometimes they do it over at someone’s apartment as well, but now that those apartments are the only place they can go to, it really isn’t the same. The fact that they don’t see Shawn a lot doesn’t really help. Tonight was the first time since the night before the incident that most of them were able to see him. Lorraine, too. Of course Charlie puts the blame on herself because she keeps getting injured. “Maybe Lorraine doesn’t mind if we come over to see her then.”

Joey shrugs. “Hopefully.”

Mick nods at Joey, and he rests his chin against the palm of his hand, kind of wanting a beer right about now. He turns to his left and he notices another guy staring at his and Joey’s direction. “Think he’s looking at us,” he says. Joey has been lost in his thoughts again and he didn’t immediately hear Mick until a moment later. When he does hear him, he blinks.

“Wait, what?”

“Someone’s looking at us. Probably you,” Mick speaks, sitting back. Joey simply blinks at Mick for a moment before he turns to the guy. The man was a brown-haired man, obviously taller than Joey, but a little shorter than Mick, and was less than medium-built. And when Joey turned to look at the man, the guy gives him a wink. Mick then wonders if the guy is winking at Joey or him. Joey sighs and turns back around to face Mick, before he realizes that this may be a chance for his roommate.

“He’s not looking at me. He’s looking at you, Mick,” the short man says, “And I think it’d be nice if you’d go and talk to him or something.”

Mick once again turns to the man, who still stares at their direction, grinning this time. He would go there, except fear now holds him back. He sits back again. “I’m not going over there. He’s gonna have to come over here.”

Joey simply stares at Mick, a little annoyed. “Mick, I thought you want this,” he mutters.

“I do!”

“Then get off your ass and go over there. You don’t have to go make out with him or anything. You can just talk.” Joey then looks out at the window. “I’d rather you’d take it slow anyway.”

Mick blinks. “He’s actually coming over.”

Joey turns to Mick again. “Wait, what?” And as soon as he turns to his left again, the guy is right by their table.

“Hi there!” The man speaks, extending a handshake to Joey.

Joey looks a bit baffled at the man’s sudden presence. He hesitantly reaches out and shakes the man’s hand. “Hi,” he replies.

The man then turns to an equally baffled Mick to shake his hand, and the handshake is returned. “So, I’m Matthew,” he speaks, sitting down next to Mick. “It’s nice to meet you. It gets so fucking boring around here.” He looks around the bar. “Because you always see the same people.” He turns to Joey. “I know I’ve seen you around,” and then at Mick, “but not you.” Mick can only blink, wondering if the guy’s going to hit on him. He doesn’t feel that he’s ready for that yet. Unless he has a beer.

Mick supposes that he should speak then. “Mick,” he simply speaks. He turns to Joey, and the latter sighs.

“Joey,” he says quietly.

Matthew smiles at the both of them. “Awesome, man. I hope you two don’t mind me hanging out with you guys, because it’s...” he looks around the bar again, “a bit boring.”

“Well, we’re not exactly exciting people,” Mick replies, shrugging.

“Well, I’ll be the judge of that. You two do drink do you?” The two simply nod, and Matthew grins. “I like you guys already. I’ll pay.”

Joey can only look at Mick before glancing at Matthew. “You don’t really have to pay us.”

Mick simply stares at Joey as if that comment was just completely retarded. “Let him /pay/, Joey,” he mutters.

“Fine,” he mutters back.

After some drinks (mostly consisting of beer), Matthew and Mick have started talking about everything from sports to tattoos. Joey, despite having quite a few drinks himself, has said nothing. He can’t really help but feel a little left out here. Sure he and Mick have some things in common, like heavy metal and cats, but just from looking at these two men, you’d wonder if his roommate and Matthew would have been better roommates. Well, as long as Mick finally explores his curiosity, then whatever. Joey then wonders why in hell he’s thinking about all this, and soon his thoughts are snapped when Matthew calls out his name. Joey blinks and turns to their new ‘buddy.’ “Huh?”

“Well I was asking if I could come over to your apartment, man,” Matthew replies.

Then Mick says, “Yeah, because it’s fucking boring around here.” Joey simply stares at him. The former then continues, “I just feel more comfortable at home.”

“I just took you down here, Mick and we don’t have a ride home,” Joey protests.

Matthew looks between the two and shrugs. “Well, I drive.”

Mick grins and slaps the table. “Well there you fucking go.” Joey looks between the two and sighs.

“Fine,” he mutters. He cocks his head to the side and glances at Matthew. “You’re still paying, right?”

“ ‘Course!” The man responds.
___

Mick unlocks the door to his and Joey’s apartment, and opens it, holding it for Joey and Matthew. Luckily, they left one lamp on so that they could see. Mick hasn’t really forgotten about what he wants to do tonight, but he suddenly felt that it’d be better if he did this in his own apartment. Matthew does look pretty attractive, and he’s actually pretty fun. Plus he’s not a twink or a bear. Matthew looks around the place, whistling as he takes a seat on the couch. “This place looks nice man. How much do you guys pay for rent and shit?” Joey simply stares at him as he hangs up his coat.

Mick shrugs. “$425,” he replies, “excluding cable and shit like that. And there’s not much to watch on TV, so that’s why I got movies.” And by movies, he pretty much means porn. Matthew laughs at this and shakes his head.

He clears his throat and sits up straight. “Well, cool man.” He turns to Joey. “What about you? You watch TV?”

Joey takes out three beers before kicking the refrigerator door shut. He sits down and hands one to the man, and another to Mick. “Sometimes,” he replies.

“And if not?” Matthew presses a little, eyeing the short man, and Joey pretty much notices.

“I do what any guy would do,” he shrugs and looks at Mick, who simply stares at the two with some curiosity. “I sleep with people.” He takes a sip of his beer.

Matthew smiles and nods. “Yep, I can’t blame you for that.” He turns to Mick. “He sleeps with people.”

“Well, yeah I know,” Mick replies as he takes a gulp of his beer. He sets the bottle down and leans in forward. He smirks. “I want to know if you sleep with people when there’s nothing to watch on TV.”

Matthew slowly smirks back, and Joey sighs. He knows the only reason Mick isn’t as nervous now is because he’s a little intoxicated, much like himself and maybe the guy. “Dude, I sleep with people rather there’s anything to watch on TV or not, shit.”

“Well I just jack off,” the large man says, still smirking at him.

Matthew snickers. “To porn, right? Oh man, see jacking off is fine, but why jack off to a bunch of people onscreen, when you can jack off to real people?” He then lowers his voice, “Or why can’t you just have the real thing?” Mick kind of knows where he’s getting at here, and he can only take another gulp of his beer. “I mean, have you ever dated in awhile? Nothing like having the real thing.” Matthew pauses for a moment. “Have you ever kissed a man?”

Mick gulps again and shrugs. Joey looks between the two and gnaws on the inside of his lip softly. “Nah,” Mick replies. “I mean I thought about it, but I never really tried it.”

“And why? Seriously, it’s just like kissing a woman, right?” He turns to Joey. “Right?”

“I don’t know. I don’t remember what kissing a woman felt like,” Joey says softly. He then stands up, thinking that maybe Mick would be better off if he and the guy were alone. “I’ll just leave you guys for a bit. I’m kinda tired.”

Matthew simply stares at the short man before he reaches out and grabs Joey from behind, startling the latter. “Oh nononono,” he whispers, pulling the drummer close so that he’s on his lap. “I want you to stay here with us.” He gives him a puppy dog eyes. “We’d be lonely without you.”

Joey can only blink. “Wait—”

“I know what you guys are doing,” he speaks. He glances at Mick, who just stares at the two. “See, you guys are trying to get him to explore his sexuality, so I’m pretty much the guy you want to test right?” Mick simply nods.

“I mean, I just wanted to see if I’m into guys, you know?” he replies.

Matthew grins and turns to Joey, who really wants to ask him to let him go. “I just think it’d be fun if your roommate really shows you how we do things, Mick.”

Joey can only gape at that. He really had no intention of being around for this at all. Besides, doing things like that with a roommate would’ve been awkward. Very awkward. “I...wait...what? Who said anything about me being here—” Joey is stopped short as his lips are captured by Matthew’s. The short man at first tries to pull away, but then he finds himself being drawn into the kiss, especially as he’s kissed deeper. Maybe it could just be the silence in the apartment, but Mick feels a bit awkward. He can’t really look away, though as he watches their lips lock and unlock. Matthew finally breaks the kiss, leaving Joey extremely uncomfortable, but he keeps his cool. He always tries to keep his cool. He swallows and turns to Mick. Mick then sighs and sits back.

“I’m game,” he whispers. He turns to Joey. “C’mon, man. I fucking just really would like to see how you guys do it, so I can...you know.”

“I think you’re drunk Mick,” Joey simply replies.

Mick becomes a bit irritated at this response. “I don’t fucking care. You said you were gonna fucking do whatever you can to help me explore my sexuality.”

Joey gulps. He turns to Matthew, who can only watch the two. Matthew then leans in to whisper in his ear, “Don’t act like you haven’t fucked in front of anyone before...” Well that is true. Joey has in a few occasions performed sex in front of someone. The most recent event was back in July when a heterosexual couple watched their guy friend fuck Joey. But he hasn’t been a fan of that, and it’s made him uncomfortable, so it’s pretty rare to do it. And only if he’s really drunk. Joey isn’t drunk enough to do this. And besides, Mick’s his fucking roommate. It makes things a hundred times more awkward.

Mick clears his throat. “Can you at least give him a blowjob?” he asks Joey.

Joey simply glares at Mick, because he knows that the guy will never leave him alone now until he does this. He sighs and turns to Matthew, standing up. “Get on the chair and unzip your pants,” he commands. Matthew grins and stands up and walks over to the chair. Mick swallows, kind of grateful, but a bit nervous at the same time, but only because it’s the first time he’s ever seen this. He has watched girls make out and scissor each other a couple of times before, after all, and if these two were women, this would be nothing.

Matthew lifts up his hips slightly after unzipping his pants to nudge his jeans down until their two his knees, and he sits up a bit. He looks over at Mick, making sure the latter can see his cock as he takes it out. Joey should be relieved that the guy isn’t huge, but it doesn’t make this anymore uncomfortable. He thinks to himself that this is to help Mick out. That is all. Mick swallows again and drinks the last of his beer before he decides to drink Joey’s, eyeing their new buddy’s cock, and he leans to the side so he can see the two from their side. Joey sighs and kneels down, swallowing and making sure his mouth is moist. He wants to pretend that there’s no one else in the living room but him and Matthew. He leans down and slowly takes the head of the man’s cock into his mouth and suckles in gently, ignoring the trembling sigh that was emitted from the guy.

Mick blinks at the relaxed expression that Matthew has on his face, even though the latter begins to part his lips in pleasure at the feel of Joey’s hot mouth going further down the man’s length. Joey closes his eyes, having never been a fan of looking up at someone while he gives them head. Joey slowly begins to bob his head up and down, and while Matthew lets out a soft moan, Mick shifts himself a bit, trying to imagine some guy’s mouth around his own cock. It becomes a bit difficult, because he’s also imagining a woman sucking him off. His thoughts are shifted back to Matthew when the man makes another sound, and it doesn’t take him long before he feels his pants tightening, imagining the man’s mouth on him.

Joey begins sucking off Matthew a bit faster, really wanting to just get him off and be done with this already. The fact that he can practically feel Mick’s eyes on him from time to time makes him shiver, and not in a good way. The roommates hear their friend utter a swear word, and Joey adjusts himself as the man lifts his hips slightly. Mick simply watches and swallows as he finds himself placing his hand up to his upper thigh and he holds his breath. He does not intend to touch himself. He knows for a fact that it’d be weird to do simply because the man sucking their friend off is his roommate, but he really wants Matthew to cum so he can head for the bathroom.

And when Matthew warns Joey, the latter speeds up before the man begins shuddering and letting out whimpers. He climaxes with a trembling moan, and Joey unintentionally swallows his release, pulling away to wipe off his lips. He’s not panicked, but he kind of wishes that he should’ve used a condom. These days, some people don’t even know if they’re infected with something, and usually he spits out a man’s release, unless the man knows that he’s not infected with anything.

Mick’s watched Matthew sink down against the chair, shivering a little as the high fades. He glances at Joey just as the latter walks away to the restroom, saying absolutely nothing. They can hear Joey brushing his teeth before he steps out. And he says nothing to them or looks at them as he goes to his room. Matthew looks over at this and shrugs. His breathing is stabilized now. “Man, he’s...I don’t know, but he’s really good at...” he gestures to his cock, “this.”

Mick sighs. “Yeah,” he simply whispers. Matthew can only smile at him as he fixes his jeans.

“Was it nice for you? Or awkward?”

Mick shrugs. “A little. Of both.” Matthew nods before he sees that Mick is a little hard himself. He smiles at this before the larger man stands up but not facing him. “Well, I gotta use the restroom,” he says.

But before the man can leave, Matthew asks, “You mind if I do something with that?”

Mick turns around and blinks. “With what?”

Matthew points at his jeans. “With /that/.”

Obviously it doesn’t take Mick long to find out what Matthew is offering, and he swallows. “Um...well you don’t have to, you know—”

“I won’t bite. And I’m sure you’ve gotten head before, right?”

Mick feels a bit nervous. “Yeah...?”

Matthew stands up and brings Mick back down on the couch. “Well, we actually don’t have to do this, you know, if you uncomfortable,” he says, placing his hands on Mick’s shoulders. “If you don’t want this, I’ll let you go and use the bathroom, but...I kinda wanna help you out with this, you know?”

Mick can only stare at this. He takes a gulp of beer, trying to bring back his confidence. “Uh, well I can just always pretend you’re a woman,” he jokes quite stupidly.

Matthew chuckles. “You know, it’s not that much different when a man or girl gives you head.”

“Yeah I know.” After thinking it over for a bit, he doesn’t see how bad it’ll be. He hopes that Matthew is good, though. He pushes back the coffee table to give the man more room. “All right.”

Matthew grins and leans in to brush back the man’s hair. “I’ll make this as comfortable for you as I possibly can. Just relax. And don’t lift your hips either...”
___

While all this has been going on, Sid has been flipping through channels in his room, not exactly feeling like going to bed yet. He wanted to bother Craig, but knowing that his boyfriend has work the next morning, he thought it’d bet better to just leave him to sleep. Well, he’s actually still up with one lamp on because he’s waiting for Jim to show up. He hasn’t gotten any calls from him or Corey, and he’s beginning to be a little bit worried. He groans and decides to just watch his favorite lesbian drama series again, even though he’s watched about a million times. He wants to get his mind off events from the last month or so. It’s been pretty ridiculous, and he certainly hopes things don’t get any crazier than the way things are right now.

He jumps when he hears keys and the door being unlocked, and he turns around to see Jim slowly coming inside the apartment. Jim looks worn out, and he shivers a bit from being out in the cold.

He and Corey had to stop what they were doing and left the nighclub after the latter became sick and ended up vomiting in a corner of their closet. He can remember saying not much to his friend after that, as they got properly dressed and snuck out of there, and it didn’t take them long to figure out that they were the only ones in the group left. And since it’s too late to take a bus, they had to pay a lot of money for a cab back to the Riverside Apartments (after Corey threw up again), and Jim had to help him up to the shorter man’s floor. Jim can’t remember saying anything to Corey other than whether he was all right or if he could stand. But now that Corey’s out of his hair, he can finally let what happened in that closet sink into his brain fully.

Anyway, when Sid sees Jim come inside, he blinks and sighs deeply. “Oh my god, Jim!” He stands up and walks over to help the guy take off his coat. “Where the hell were you? Is Corey all right? I was waiting for you to call me so I could come back and pick you guys up.”

It takes Jim awhile to process those words, and he looks over at Sid. “Really? Because we had to take a cab,” he mumbles before he breathes deeply and hangs up his coat and scarf. “M’tired...”

“Bet you are, man...sorry for leaving you guys. Everyone wanted to go home, but yeah I was gonna get you guys had you called. Corey okay?”

“In his room,” Jim whispers before he walks over to his own room, not wanting to talk with anyone anymore. All he wants to do is to forget this all happened. Sid sighs and shuts the door to their apartment, and he thinks that he probably shouldn’t ask Jim why he sounds so depressed now.

Jim slowly shuts the door, thankful for the heating in the apartment (although they both should thank themselves for being able to pay the utilities), and he slowly walks over to sit on his bed, turning on the lamp. He takes off his boots before he gets back up to his (or Paul’s) dresser to look at the mirror so that he can take off his contacts. He usually wears them only when he’s working or doing tasks that would not work with glasses. He changes into stretch pants and an old shirt to sleep in, folding the stuff he just wore. He then sits down on the bed for the final time, thankful that he doesn’t really have to work tomorrow, because he knows he’s going to end up with a hangover. He turns off the lamp then and lies down on the bed. Now, he’s finally able to let what happened permeate into his brain and mind.

He knows that it was the stupidest thing he ever could’ve done, and he’s admitted to doing a lot of stupid things in his life. He also knows that if it weren’t for drinking so much, it probably wouldn’t have happened. He doesn’t even remember why he started it now, something about keeping Corey company because of the shit about his job, or shit like that. But then again, he was probably becoming attracted to him and he didn’t even know it. Maybe that’s why even though Corey initiated this, Jim was the one that kept it going and took it further. Maybe ‘was’ isn’t a good word to use; Jim is attracted to Corey, and that’s the worst part. He doesn’t want to be, especially not after their history in the past.

He shudders at that, and he buries his face against the pillow, his eyes becoming moist. He doesn’t want to think about that at all. In the back of his mind, he was actually afraid that this was going to happen at some point and he wants to know why he allowed himself to get close to his friend. Well, he supposes that it’s because /he’s his old friend/, and they have always been friends before they hooked up back in the day. That’s all he wants Corey to be. Just a close friend with whom he can do close friend things, like talking and laughing, watching TV, getting drunk, sharing each other’s secrets and being able to confide in each other. Not close friends that sleep with each other. What was that word again? Jim’s brain is too dead to think of it.

He sniffles, and tries to sleep, unable to get his friend out of his mind. He wants to stop picturing their night in the closet too. He’s partly relieved that his attraction is simply sexual attraction. He’d really feel like the end of the world if he felt anything even slightly more than that.

___

The next morning, Sid is up in the living room, eating cereal while watching television. He does plan on meeting his father today, so he’s eating as fast as he can so he can get dressed. And because there’s nothing really good on television at this time, he has resorted to watching Looney Tunes. Joy. So while Foghorn Leghorn starts talking a bunch of nonsense (let’s be honest, that’s all he does), someone knocks on the door. Sid sighs and sets down his bowl on the coffee table before he walks over to answer the door. And immediately Joey walks in, not looking happy. Sid can only blink. “Um, why are you here? I can’t stay here for long.”

Joey simply takes it upon himself to sit down on the couch. He folds his arms and shakes his head. “I’m really pissed at Mick right now.” Sid simply raises an eyebrow and shuts the door, going over back to his seat, cartoons and cereal. Joey can only stare at the television. “Why are you watching Looney Tunes?”

Sid smiles a bit. “C’mon! They’re not that bad. At least not when you were a kid. You say you’re pissed off at Mick? He didn’t pay the rent or something? I told you that’s what happens when you room with someone that has no job.”

“Mick has a job,” Joey mutters, rubbing his arms, not really wanting to think about last night, or the fact that since he couldn’t sleep, he could hear him and Matthew. “It has nothing to do with that. I don’t really wanna talk about it.”

Sid then remembers that Joey and Mick didn’t come home with them either. “Where did you two go, anyway?”

“I said I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Sid rolls his eyes. “Fine.” Just as Sid says that, a door opens and a very sluggish Jim walks out of his room with a bottle of aspirin. He heads straight for the kitchen, holding his head because he feels like someone’s drilling his skull. Joey can only raise an eyebrow and glances at Sid. Sid then quietly calls out, “Morning buddy. How’s your head?”

“Like someone’s drilling my skull,” Jim mutters quietly as he takes out a glass and opens the refrigerator for a tub of water. He refuses to drink from the faucet, and even when he’s cooking, he won’t use water from the faucet. A bit paranoid about lead and particles in water, as you can see.

Sid sighs as he watches his roommate take his aspirin. “Yeah, you really did drink a lot last night.” Jim shrugs and then turns to the younger man, cocking his head to the side.

“It’s a way to spend the holidays.” He then turns to Joey and says, “Hey.”

Joey simply waves back, and he then turns to Sid. “Actually is it okay if I can stay around here for awhile?” The taller man can only stare at the guy.

“We’re not here all the time! Why can’t you stay with Chris and Melissa?!” Sid retorts.

“Because I really don’t want to see them shower love all over each other. And I’m pretty sure they’re loud in bed.” Plus, Melissa went overboard with the Christmas decorations this year. Luckily the decorations in this apartment are relatively tame, just a tiny Christmas tree. Then again, Melissa’s son will stay over during Christmas weekend.

“Craig and I sleep together sometimes.”

Joey rolls his eyes. “Well here some advice; next time you do that, don’t have Jim watch you.”

“...Wait, what?”

“Nevermind.” Joey really doesn’t know why he mentioned that at all.

Sid slowly turns away and shrugs. “Whatever.” He glances at the clock and blinks at the time. He finishes up his cereal and stands up, taking the bowl over to the sink. He glances at Jim and smiles. “Hope you feel better today, dude,” he says.

Jim smiles faintly. “I’ll be fine,” he replies, leaning against the counter.

Sid grins and steps away. “Sweet. And I’m also recording that Doors movie later, so can you not mess up anything with that?”

Jim raises an eyebrow at that. “But I got that movie on DVD,” he replies.

Sid blinks. “Really? Well shit, lemme watch that tonight. Why didn’t you tell me you had that?”

“You never mentioned it until just now...?”

Before Sid gets ready to get dressed, he nods. “Yeah, fair enough.” Besides, the movie will be on the USA channel, and everyone knows it’ll be censored. Yes, DVD sounds much, much better.

After Sid takes his new clothes and a towel and washcloth from his room, he goes over to the bathroom and shuts his door. Joey sighs and takes the remote, flipping channels. He’s also feeling a bit hungry. He tips his head back to look at Jim. “Are you or Sid going to cook anything?” Jim can only raise an eyebrow at that, regretting that action afterwards because of his hangover.

“We have cereal,” he replies simply, having not caught why the guy is staying here. Besides, do you really think Jim is well enough to even feel like making something, right now? He really plans on doing nothing but take a shower and then sleep until his hangover subsides. He needs the sleep anyway after last night. Someone knocks in the door again. Joey glances at the door and hopes that it isn’t Mick, because he really would not know what to say to him at this point. Jim sets his glass down and walks over to open the door, and somewhere in the back of his mind, Corey could be at the other side of the door. He hesitates for a moment, before he opens the door and tries to prepare himself for what he should say. He blinks at what he’s actually seeing.

What we basically have, readers, are three people—two women and a man—dressed in early Victorian costumes (because there’s a difference between early and late) in nothing but shades of red and green. They smile at Jim, and it doesn’t take the man long to realize that they are carolers. The male caroler looks at the women and says, “All right, ladies, a-one, and a-two!”

“/On a first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me,/” the three sing happily while the tall man simply stares at them, very annoyed, “/A partridge in a pear tree! On a se/—”

Jim slams the door on them and walks back over to the kitchen, not in the fucking mood for anyone singing to him fucking Christmas songs. He sighs and puts his glass in the sink, suddenly realizing that this will be his first Christmas back here in a decade. Joey blinks at all this and sighs, shaking his head. “Mick’s probably going to kill them or something. I hope,” the drummer whispers, glancing at the television, and a little annoyed that everything else on television is mostly religious programming, being that it’s Sunday.

Jim sighs again, staring at the counter. He reminds himself to wash the dishes later. He knows Sid won’t be here most of the day, anyway. The DJ probably won’t have time to check the mail today either. Thank god their mailboxes are inside, and he knows that there are mailboxes for outgoing mail as well. Grabbing the key to their mailbox, he decides to grab his coat because it’s still pretty cold down to the first floor where the mailboxes are. He slips on shoes and tells Joey he’ll be back before heading out the door, and he tries to ignore the carolers singing to a neighbor two doors down.

___

Jim walks downstairs and walks into the room, unable to remember where his and Sid’s mailbox is because his headache likes to confuse him. He eventually finds the number 307 on the mailbox, and he unlocks it. Neither of them have really checked the mail since the day before yesterday. Shuffling through two bills, he finds a letter addressed to him from his niece Amanda. He sets the other mail back for a moment to open up the girl’s mail.

Basically she’s thanking him for being there for her when she was on labor and has given birth to a boy on December 13. Jim and the rest of the family saw the tiny thing that night and they all doted on him. Surprisingly for Jim, even Jerry smiled. Unfortunately his sister wasn’t able to make it. Jim actually hasn’t seen the woman since sometime in August. And then she left to go to some city in St. Louis. God knows what she was doing down there. Amanda sent her a photo to her mother anyway, hoping that she got the right address. It pisses off Jim that she wouldn’t take the time to at least call her daughter and make sure that she didn’t die from childbirth. He tries not to think about it, however, and looks at the letter again.

He smiles as he reads that she can’t wait for the boy’s eyes to open, though none of them will ever know if they got brown or green eyes like the family, or blue like the baby’s father. The girl sent him a photo, and she was going to sent him a picture to his phone, using her’s, but then she decided that it’d be best to have a real photo. The boy has light brown hair, and he has his mother’s nose and lips. Jim never held him yet, partially because Jerry told him he smelled of state cigarettes or something.

He never notices that someone else has walked into the room, and soon the person calls out with a very familiar voice, “Jim?”

Jim looks up at his name being called, and he slowly turns around, his breath caught in his throat and his heart beating rapidly when it turns out to be none other than Corey. He still isn’t ready to see him or talk to him, obviously and he has not worked out on what to say to him. Of course he really doesn’t know what Corey would say to him either. He doesn’t really know if Corey remembers what happened last night and if he does, the man probably would not too happy about it. So while he hopes to God that Corey remembers nothing, he swallows.

“Hi,” he whispers.

Corey swallows as well, and he slowly walks in. “Morning,” he whispers back. Of course, although it took him until the morning, he is well aware of what they did last night, and he hasn’t been able to work out what to say to Jim either. Like Jim, he wonders if his tall friend remembers anything. He’s come here to mail out job applications, even though he knows no one will even look at them. He stood there for a bit when he saw that Jim was in the room, and for a moment he had lost his voice before he called out his name. He feels awkward, but he tries to keep his cool and shrug, smiling a bit. “Is your head hurting like a bitch, too? I feel pretty dizzy right now.” He’s beginning to wonder if it’s just the hangover. Thankfully he took some Ibuprofen.

Jim slowly smiles at that, almost chuckling. “I just took some aspirin,” he replies quietly, taking the rest of the mail, thinking that maybe it’s best to not really say anything more. He takes the key as well and closes the mailbox. Corey watches him, knowing that he’s going to leave, and they probably won’t see each other again for awhile. He thinks of what he should say quickly, especially as Jim tells him that he’ll see him around.

Corey doesn’t even realize that, with a rapidly beating heart, he’s said, “Can we talk?” Jim stops right there and gulps. He turns around, and against his better judgment, he nods. Corey sighs and leans against the mailboxes, looking down and almost fiddling his thumbs against his mail. “Well, you know I just feel...” he takes a deep breath, “I just feel a bit awkward, because, I don’t know if you remember what happened last night at Flashing Lights, but I just know we were in a closet and...”

Jim’s heart beats faster upon realizing that Corey remembers everything. “Yeah, I remember,” he whispers, looking down at his shoes. He inhales and exhales through his nose, and he really wants a cigarette right now. “I...” he begins, before he glances up at his friend, “look, I just want to say I’m sorry.” Corey looks on at him. “I mean, you know, it was bad what happened, and I know that you hate that it happened, and I promise that I’ll be careful next time we do this.” Corey’s face falls at this, not giving himself a chance to speak. Jim continues, “We were pretty drunk, and neither of us knew what we were doing, you know? It was a mistake on my part.”

Corey bites the inside of his bottom lip, and he curls his lips slightly, nodding as he looks down. He doesn’t want Jim to see the sadness in his eyes. “Yeah,” his voice comes out in more than a soft whisper. He speaks louder, “Yeah, man,” with a more confident tone in his voice. He masks his disappointment with a chuckle and he looks up at him. “You’re right, you know. It’s okay, don’t worry about it. I mean, like you said, we were so fucking wasted, and it was so weird. Fucking surprised I even remember that, you know?” Oddly enough, he still remembers vomiting. Jim blinks at that response, surprised that Corey seems okay with it.

“Okay,” he simply whispers, shifting around and curling his lips to lick his lips. “I just...I mean, it you want to pretend that it didn’t happen, I’m okay with that, too.” He feels that it’s best anyway. Corey tries not to let the sadness in his face show.

“Yeah, I’m cool with that, man.” He slowly chuckles. “What happened last night? I don’t remember,” he jokes, partially to himself. Jim can only smile sadly.

“Yeah,” he whispers. “Well...” He looks up at is friend’s eyes. “I should head back to bed, then,” he speaks. But before he heads back upstairs, he then asks, “Are you sure you’re okay about this?”

Corey shakes his head. “Pfft. I don’t even remember what the fuck happened, man,” he replies.

Jim nods and smiles very faintly before he quietly leaves, feeling that the weight has been lifted a little. He’s glad that Corey’s okay with what happened. But he’s still a bit depressed. He’s still sexually attracted to the man. He knows that it will never go away, and he begins to wonder if he can keep himself from going nuts about it. He hopes that if he can get his mind off it, then he can at least get over these feelings. But my god, Corey’s voice alone, especially when it’s soft almost made his knees weaken. His sore head causes him to wonder if he’s better off avoiding his friend for awhile.

Back in the mailroom, Corey lets out a shaky sigh and does what he’s set out to do, mailing out job applications. He had actually filled out three of them a few days before, including the cover letters. He never did tell Scarlett that he’s our of a job, and she will probably worry him to death about it. Sometimes, and he actually said this to her, she wonders if she wants that money for herself. But then he knows that the woman loves their son just as much as he. After putting the mail in the outgoing mailbox, his mind drifts to Jim.

Why the fuck did Jim have to tell him that what happened was bad and a mistake? Of course, it doesn’t really matter anymore that Corey wanted to tell him that he in fact liked what they did last night, because Jim assumed that the guy wanted to forget it happened in the first place. He usually would talk over him and tell him what’s on his mind, but he just can’t. He’s been thinking about Jim in that way too, unable to get the feeling of his friend’s skin and voice out of his mind when he tried to go back to sleep this morning. What hurts the most is that he thinks that Jim will never feel the same way for him.