My Toxic Valentine

Alex rolled over in his soft, warm bed and his eyes slowly fluttered open. The sun was creeping its way in through the cracks at the edges of his curtains and he groaned, burying his head underneath his pillow.

Despite his attempts to go back to sleep, the dull throbbing in the back of his head and the pressure from his strained bladder were too much to resist.

With a frustrated and painful sigh, Alex through the blankets off himself and rolled out of bed, landing in an undignified heap on the floor. With a grumble he stood up and, brushing his hair from his face, began to amble slowly towards his bathroom.

When he caught sight of himself in the mirror he frowned, attempting in vain to flatten his bed hair. He wondered briefly if it may have been partially sex-hair, because it was outdoing itself in terms of unruliness.

He dismissed that notion, however, because he was wearing boxers and had woken up alone. Not only that, but considering he'd consumed his weight in booze last night he doubted he's have been able to commit to much of a performance.

Once he'd relieved himself, he dug through the medicine cabinet until he found a bottle of Advil. Throwing two back with a mouthful of water straight from the tap, Alex groaned and fought the urge to dry reech.

He kicked his boxers to the side of the room and stepped into the shower, making the eternal mistake of turning the hot water on full-bore and scalding his naked body.

“Shit-fuck!” he swore, turning the cold on as well.

Once Alex had recovered he stood in the shower, letting the warm water wash away a night of drinking and felt his hangover begin to subside as the Advil kicked in.

He lazily lathered his hair with shampoo- his favourite kind which smelt like coconut, and his body with axe; which made him smell a lot more masculine than he felt or, indeed, was.

After taking his time to rinse off, he reached out and grabbed a thick, fluffy purple towel, wrapping it around his waist; which would have been skinny if not for the little belly that a lifetime's good food had given him.

Alex pondered his belly briefly, poking it and screwing his nose up at the depth his finger managed to achieve. He wondered whether he should take his friend Zack up on the offer to hit the gym with him.

The thought didn't last long though, with the belly in question rumbling loudly to signify that it wanted to be fuelled and not eliminated. Not willing to argue, Alex began to consider what he could appease it with.

He pondered this dilemma (because, really, the options were endless) as he dressed. He pulled on tight skinny-leg jeans over his unnecessarily branded underwear and slipped into a tightish (but not belly hugging) grey v-neck t-shirt.

When straightening his hair, Alex decided that he felt like a bagel. And, fuck it, he was gonna have one.
After slipping his feet into his new and shiny Nike kicks, Alex walked out of his room singing Blink-182's 'I Miss You' softly. Making his way down the stairs, jumping the bottom few, he whistled loudly, causing a small 'yap' to sound elsewhere in the house.

Alex smiled as he heard the clip of the small terrier's paws on the hardwood floor. He wandered into the blindingly white, modern kitchen, Sebastian following enthusiastically and getting under his feet.

The house was empty except for he and Baz and it would remain that way for another 3 weeks while Alex's parents were away in London.

Not that he minded, though. Having the run of their expansive (and expensive) house suited him just fine.

In fact, he thought, throwing open the fridge door, he'd have to make the most of it and throw a massive party before they returned.

Alex grabbed a carton of orange juice and chugged half of it; not even bothering with a glass before shoving it back in.

And, he thought with determination, he'd have to make sure his party was better than Rian's was last night.

While he'd had fun at Rian's he'd been home by 3 am and that seemed like a bit of a poor effort to him. Mind you, he remembered everything he'd done and had been minimally hungover this morning, which made for a nice change.

Pushing that thought aside, Alex screwed up his nose, spying a plate with sandwiches on it that he'd made yesterday but not bothered to eat. Poking the bread he decided that they were too stale to be fit for consumption and threw them into the trash, sitting the plate on the sink.

Deciding that his bagel would have to entail a trip in to the city, he shut the fridge door and turned to the fluffy little dog that was waiting patiently at his feet.

“Good morning, Baz,” he cooed, gaining a ferocious tail wag “Would you like to go for a ride into town? Ooh, yes you would, wouldn't you?”

With a grin, Alex clipped the dog's leash to his collar and lead him outside and to his shiny black SUV that was parked in the house's generous driveway.

Laying out a towel, lest Baz get fur on the leather upholstery, he helped him in before climbing into the drivers side himself. Pushing on his red Wayfarers, he carefully drove out of his driveway and towards the city.

The drive was pleasant; the sun had come out of hiding after the torrential downpour of the night before which, Alex thought disdainfully, has pushed the party inside.

As he neared the centre of the city, he saw more and more people wandering around and shopping lazily. The traffic had increased slightly and Alex made the informed decision to park just here, rather than attempt to get any closer to his destination.

Besides, the walk would do Baz good. Probably wouldn't do himself any harm either, he thought, patting his small belly ruefully.

Holding Baz firmly in his arms, Alex climbed out of the car and placed the little dog on the pavement, gripping his leash firmly before beginning to walk down the footpath. As they walked, Alex began to take in his surroundings.

He was slightly outside the centre of the city, in an area largely filled with warehouse type buildings. He glanced down an alleyway as he passed it, screwing his nose up as he took in the unpleasant smell that radiated from it. It just looked dirty and Alex couldn't think of a single reason why someone would go down there.

Shrugging to himself he continued walking until he reached his favourite cafe, which was situated on the main street (well, it was a mall, really) where buskers often performed.

It wasn't unusual for Alex to sit here on a Sunday morning, listening and watching and he saw no reason to do anything differently today. He settled at a table that was outside in the sun and Baz curled up happily at his feet.

He ordered a bagel, with cream cheese of course, and a coffee and was disappointed when he realised there were no buskers or street performers of any kind to be seen.

Mind you, Alex thought, no buskers was probably preferably to the woman with fluorescent orange hair who insisted on covering the same 5 songs every day and always in a cat-like wail, which had Alex seriously considering, on several occasions, to pay her a thousand bucks to shut up.

Alex pulled his phone from his pocket and was contemplating sending out a text to see if any of his friends felt like joining him in the city when he heard the unmistakeable sound of someone strumming of an acoustic guitar break through the noise of the lazy Sunday shoppers and brunchers.

He looked up from his phone, oblivious to the pretty waitress who was giving him sex eyes as she set down his order, and searched the mall for the sound.

He spotted a tall, dangerously thin boy with shaggy brown hair that sported one brassy blonde-streak, which made him look suspiciously like a skunk, on the other side of the mall.

Alex waited for him to start singing and was surprised when his mouth remained closed. He was just playing. Straining his ears, Alex tried to identify the tune and a smile broke out on his face when he recognised it as the same Blink song he'd been singing earlier.