Unexplained Feelings *Most Likely on Permanent Hiatus*

“Bam?” The person in question looked up and waved at the blond who had spoken.

The blond sighed as he saw another alcoholic beverage in his friend’s hand. “I hung up the poster. I don’t think Ville will be freaked out.” He walked over to the Ice Bar.

“Thanks. Want one?” Bam held up his drink.

“No thanks man. I can’t.” Bam shrugged, taking a swig of his own drink.

“You’re really okay with Max staying here?” Dunn asked.

“Yeah, he’s seems like an okay dude.”

“I noticed that you seemed to take a liking to him. Does he remind you of someone?” Dunn hinted, well, really, suggested. He figured that the black haired kid reminded Bam of Ville.

Bam nodded his head lightly. “Is it just me or do you see Ville too?”

Dunn nodded; he could see where Bam saw Ville in the younger boy.

“Do you know how old he is? He looks like he isn’t even older than eighteen, but Ape wouldn’t let him stay with us if he were under age or under the drinking age. So he has to be older than twenty-one.”

“He’s twenty-five.” Bam nodded.

“Cool kid. You know why he’s rooming here?”

“His boyfriend broke up with him and he doesn’t have enough money to get his own place. That and apparently he doesn’t usually stay in one place for a long enough time to rent, but he stays long enough not to be able to afford a hotel room.”

“He doesn’t stay in one place long enough?”

“I don’t know what that was supposed to mean and he wasn’t really talking to me, just letting me stalk him, really, so I don’t know what that’s all about.” Bam raised his eyebrow questioning his ‘stalking’ statement.

“Well, not really stalking, it just ended up seeming like that because he wouldn’t talk to me. He just told me that he was twenty-two. Everything else was nods and shit.”

“He’s different.” Ryan nodded in agreement.

“Very. It’s cool though because we’re different too.”

“Oh man. Ape’s gonna shit herself. We’re all crazies now. I don’t think that kid’ll stop us from wrecking havoc, do you?”

“Nah, he seems chill enough.”

“As long as he doesn’t get any rude awakenings; he warned me that that’s bad.” Dunn nodded.

“That’s understandable.” Bam shrugged.

“I think I’m going to relax in the pool for a little bit. Want to join me?”

“Not really. I think I’ll go get some food, beer, and soda. Do you want pizza?” Ryan asked.

“Pizza, Resse’s, Heineken, and Mountain Dew. Uh… water bottles, none of that expensive shit, ice cream, Red Bull, Vodka, peanut butter, jelly, bread, and whatever else you feel like getting. Oh, can you see what kind of cigarettes Max likes and get him a carton full.”

“Whatever you say. Don’t drown.”

“Thanks, I needed that advice. Drowning is such a temptation now a days.” Bam’s voice was laced with sarcasm.

Ryan exited the cave as Bam stripped down to nothing and jumped into the Jacuzzi pool.

--

Ryan pushed open the door to Max’s bedroom as quietly as possible. He didn’t want to wake up the supposedly-sleeping male. He breathed a relieved sigh when he saw headphones covering his ears and shut eyes. Going over to the boy’s backpack, he unzipped the main pocket and breathed another sigh of relief when he saw a well-worn pack of Marlboro Reds on top of everything. Zipping up the backpack and placing it back where he’d found it, he exited the room, closing the door as quietly as possible.

--

Waking up sucks, ran through Max’s head as he rolled onto his back staring up at the black ceiling. He tried to wipe away the drool on his cheek, but cringed when he realized that what he was feeling on his cheek was the remnants of dried drool. He only drooled when he took naps; it was the only bad thing about them. Well, that and the headache that he usually got after waking up.

He pushed his headphones off, his beanie soon followed. Running his fingers through his newly black hair with its red streaks, he got up and looked at himself in the mirror that hung on the wall across from his bed. He turned away, not wanting to look at himself. He looked so disgusting. He shrugged it off. Grabbing his hairbrush from his bag, he ran it through his hair a few times before exchanging the hairbrush for his pack of Marlboro Reds and his blue eyeliner.

Relining his eyes quickly and simply, he put the liner back in his bag before lighting up a cigarette, walking over to the window. Opening it to let in the cool air, he sighed, releasing smoke from his lungs. Naps always made him feel like shit. Cigarettes always made him feel better.

He stared at the sky. It was dark now and the stars were shining brightly. It was surprising how many you could see. Puffing away at his cigarette, he stubbed it out when the burning embers got close to the filter. Max searched through his duffel bag for sweatpants and a baggy, long-sleeved, t-shirt. Finding both relatively quickly, he pulled off his jeans, t-shirt, and sweatshirt and pulled on the long-sleeved shirt and the sweatpants. Pulling the sweatshirt back on, he grabbed his almost empty water bottle and his iPod, putting the ear buds in as he headed down to the Pirate Bar. He didn’t think that anyone would be awake, but, surprisingly, Ryan was.

“Hey.” Dunn said without looking up from where he was lying on the sofa, in front of the fireplace. He was reading a motorcycle magazine.

“Hi. I didn’t think anyone would be up.”

“Learn to expect it. Those who stay at Castle Bam have weird sleeping schedules. Bam’s skating right now.”

“Why aren’t you out there with Bam?” Max grabbed a water from the refrigerator.

“I’m not a great skater and I think he wanted to be alone for a little bit. He’s still stressing a little from all of the Missy shit. I just don’t understand how he didn’t realize that they’re relationship was over before it ever began.” Dunn said.

Max shrugged. “People are blinded by what they believe. If Bam believed he was in love with Missy, then there should’ve been no way to tell him that it wasn’t ever going to work out.”

Dunn looked at him oddly, contemplating what he had just said before nodding, realizing what Max said was right.

“So what’s with Bam skating at,” he looked around for a clock, but didn’t find one, so compromised. “Some late time?”

“Ville’s coming. Ville Valo from H.I.M.,” he clarified, but he didn’t have to. Everyone knew that the skater boy was friends with the Finn. “I think Ville makes Bam question himself; more like his sexuality. I think the Finn unintentionally broke up him and Missy.”

“Oh.” Max left it at that. “Anyways, I actually just came here for a bottle of water, but now that I’m up, I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to sleep…”

“D’you want to watch a movie.” Dunn caught the hint.

“Yeah, that’d be nice.” Max followed him up into the living room.

“Any preference?” Dunn asked, gesturing at the DVD rack.

“Just nothing scary.”

Dunn nodded. He pulled out a random movie, some comedy movie that Bam had grabbed from the five dollar bin at Walmart, he wouldn’t know because he didn’t really watch movies, put it in, and sat on the couch. Max had curled up, so that he was partially lying on the couch and Dunn took up the rest of the space with his legs.

An hour later, when Bam entered his home and walked to his bedroom, he saw RV playing on the television screen. The light bright enough to show the two bodies asleep on the couch. He sighed. Grabbing a blanket from his editing room, he threw it over their bodies so that they were both equally covered before heading up to his room and dropping on top of his bed, fully-clothed and passing out, almost on impact.