Friends, Lovers, or Nothing

I guess I was surprised when I woke up and my bed was occupied with someone else’s body other than my own. He usually left. He usually was never there in the morning. So yeah, it surprised me when I rolled over and accidentally smacked him with the dead weight of my arm. As I stared at his sleeping form, I decided it was my turn to leave, so I slowly crawled out of the bed and made my way out of my bedroom.

I heard voices in the apartment, making me think I wasn’t the only one awake. I walked down the hall and out into the living room, only to find Max and Danielle in the kitchen with two cups of coffee, talking in hushed tones.

I rolled my eyes and kept walking, clearing my throat so they’d know I was there. They both jumped at the sound, turning to face me. “Oh! Mornin’ Peyton!” Max greeted me first.

I nodded a hello as I looked at Danielle. She had a smirk on her face, a smirk that could mean one thing: she knew Josh was currently sleeping in my room like a little baby.

“So, did you sleep good Peyt?” she asked me.

I brushed by them to grab my own cup of Joe and rolled my eyes when she couldn’t see me do so. “Slept great, thanks. What about you, Max? Sleep well?”

“Slept great once Josh left the room,” he quipped, trying to get a dig in but failing. I slept with Josh (again), so what? What was it to them anyways?

I didn’t remark as I turned around with my coffee in hand. I leaned against the counter and drank it slowly, not speaking as I watched the two of them watch me just as carefully.

“What exactly’s going on with you two Peyt?” Max asked finally.

I shrugged. I didn’t know, and even if I did, after their smart remarks minutes before I wasn’t planning on telling them. “I don’t know, but I’m going to go find out.” I took another sip of my coffee before setting down the mug and heading back to my bedroom. I could hear Danielle and Max’s hushed voices resume what I assumed was their previous conversation (about me) but I ignored it.

I gently pushed the door open and crept inside, careful to be as quiet as humanly possible so as not to wake Josh. It was an unnecessary effort though, because he was wide awake, sitting up in my bed with his arms crossed in front of his chest while he stared straight ahead. “Oh, you’re up,” I remarked stupidly, still being quiet for some unknown reason.

He nodded but didn’t look at me. “I see our roles reversed this time.”

I cocked my head to the side and started walking towards my bed. I sat down on the side I had slept on all night and answered him. “How so?”

“Usually I leave, but I see you gave it a try this time.”

I sighed, but didn’t argue, because that was almost my exact thought process earlier when I had crawled out of the bed. “Why are you guys here?” I asked instead, changing the topic effortlessly.

“For Danielle. I already told you that, Peyt. We thought her grandfather had passed and we wanted to be here for her. We’re her friends.”

“So that was it? No ulterior motive? Nothing?”

I watched as he shook his head, raking his fingers through his mop of dark hair. “Aside from where we are right now?” he said, clearly meaning my bed. “I never have an ulterior motive Peyton. But somehow I always end up falling effortlessly into your bed like magic.”

My brows instantly knitted together in wonder. “That’s a bit of a stretch, Josh.”

I turned to him as he scoffed. “Really? Because the past two times we’ve spent even a little bit of time together have ended in angry sex. It’s like we can’t be anywhere near each other unless it’s physical, which makes me wonder if it’s a good thing we ended when we did. Maybe that’s all we were meant to be, a physical relationship.”

I couldn’t believe he was saying this. Only a physical relationship? I mean yeah, we had sex, but so what? So did everyone else in the world. It wasn’t like that was all our relationship had been built on. So what if we had a bit of sexual frustration built up and it came out in weird ways? “We weren’t just a physical relationship Josh, and it really amazes me that you have the balls to say something like that.”

He put his hand up and then got out of the bed. “Stop Peyton. I’m not arguing with you again. It was merely an observation, a question even. So calm down, alright? I need to get a shower.”

I huffed as I watched him walk out of my room; as soon as he was gone, my brain wouldn’t stop turning over what he had said.

When I felt physically exhausted from my overactive brain but couldn’t sleep do to the cup of coffee I had consumed, I climbed out of bed and went to join the rest of the people in my apartment.

***

Once we all finally got moving and cleaned up, we made a plan for the day. We decided to go get lunch and do a little sight seeing with the guys before they had to head back. They wouldn’t tell us when their flight was, so Danielle and I just figured we’d enjoy the time we had.

Of course, it was the middle of winter and we were in New England, so the weather wasn’t exactly picture perfect. The guys were used to it too, so it didn’t dampen our plans much.

We all bundled up in our coats and hats, and then before I knew it we were heading out.

We did the sight-seeing deal first, because Danielle and I literally lived right in the middle of Boston, and we knew if we did the touristy crap first, the guys would get tired of it easily and complain of being hungry, and then it wouldn’t take as long.

We mainly just walked around the city, Danielle with Josh and I with Max, and showed them the places we visited most along with a few historic spots. We showed them where we went to college and the bar we visited most. We even pointed out the House of Blues right across from Fenway Park. “That’s Fenway, right?” Josh asked just as we started walking down the street.

I nodded, glancing over at the huge green ballpark. “That’s it in all it’s glory. Why?”

“Can we go see?” Max asked excitedly.

I gave him a funny look. Max wasn’t a huge baseball enthusiast, and I guess rightfully so. He and Josh and the other guys, their thing was “football” or soccer as we called it. So why he wanted to go to the ballpark in the middle of winter for no reason? Well, I had no idea, but both of them wanted to so we figured why not?

We were only able to peak our heads in real quick, which was more than Danielle and I thought we’d be doing. The police man on duty there was extremely nice though and when we told him Max and Josh were from England and they just wanted to see the field quick, he took us on a quick, mini-tour of sorts before telling us to get a move on.

After all of the sight seeing was over, we went for lunch. We decided Qdoba was the best spot because it was quick and easy, and best of all it was close. We hurried inside to try and rid what felt like a permanent chill in our bones and started ordering our food.

Once we all had what we wanted, we took seats at a table near the back of the restaurant and dug in. Or rather, the guys dug in while Danielle and I watched in amusement. They were acting like they hadn’t eaten in years, while Danielle and I were taking our time.

I’m not sure what triggered it this time. Maybe I accidentally kicked Josh in the shin, or maybe he hit my plate one too many times with his eager and urgent eating. Maybe I subconsciously wanted to deck him in the head and it was coming out with accidental bumps. I don’t know, in all honesty. All I know is that one second I’m sitting there enjoying my meal, and the next my drink is being knocked into my lap.

I was sitting across from Josh with Danielle to my right. Danielle tried to save the cup, even though it obviously was not her fault. She had been busy with a conversation with Max seconds before. I knew he was to blame.

I just glared at him, while Danielle tried to help me clean up. I could see Max out of the corner of my eye, shaking his head. He could sense the fire in my eyes, I’m sure.

“That was probably your most mature move yet, Josh,” I commented, trying to stay calm as I finally looked back down at the pool of Dr. Pepper in my lap.

“You would know about maturity, wouldn’t you Peyton?” he quipped just as calmly. I looked up just as he popped another chip into his mouth.

“Meaning?”

“You’ve been kicking me throughout the whole lunch, Peyt. I probably have a bruise in the shape of your size ten shoe by now!” he exclaimed angrily, but he was still relatively quiet.

“Grow up,” was all I said. I got up from the table and headed towards the bathroom to try and get rid of the Dr. Pepper stains in my pants before we went out to brave the Boston winter once again.