You Have My Attention

It’s safe to say that Jake was not currently talking to Jinxx. It was really quite funny actually; the only one who didn’t seem to think so was (no prizes for guessing) Jake. Actually, let me amend that - everyone (bar Jake) thought it was funny and they all still did, except for me. I found it considerably less funny once I realised I was the one who would have to clean up the mouthwash that Jake spit out all over the bathroom mirror, sink and floor. It was still worth it though to see him run around with his tongue out his mouth and then try and chug enough water to flood a small town.

Like I said, the only repercussion of this was Jake not speaking to Jinxx, and that meant if he had to ask him something he would do it though one of us, which got pretty annoying rather quickly. Still, they’d get over it soon enough, they’re like brothers, they’d make it up eventually.

Right then, everyone else was off doing their own things; so I was left to mill about the bus and clean at a leisurely pace. I was using a dust pan and brush to clean under the sofa; because it was quite a big sofa, I had to lie on the floor with my head and shoulders actually under the sofa and my legs sticking out so that I could reach far enough back to clean to the edges. I was nearly done when suddenly I felt a weight on my lower back and the top of my butt. Someone was sitting on me!

“Hey!” I called out in surprise, jolting slightly in shock and managing to whack my head on the top underside of the sofa in the process. “Ow!”

I heard someone laugh from on top of me but I was still having trouble working out who it was. I was actually hoping that it wasn’t Ashley, the whole ‘help me get ready’ thing from the other day was still reasonably fresh in my mind and still just as confusing to me as it was the day it happened. He hadn’t said anything about it to me since, or even done anything like that again either, but we hadn’t been alone together since then.

I felt the weight lessen on my back, so I took the opportunity to push myself out from under the sofa and roll off of my stomach and onto my back. As I did, I saw that it wasn’t Ashley, but CC, and something about that made me beam, more than I would have if it was any of the other guys.

“You alright there, CC?” I giggled as he sat himself down again on my stomach.

“Yeah, you?” he asked as he laughed down at me.

“Well, there’s a small, hyper drummer sitting on me, but apart from that, I’m good!” I grinned.

“Aw, do you want me to get off? Okay then…” With an expression that was all too innocent, he gracefully stood up and to the side. I was about to ask what he was scheming, when suddenly he dropped to his knees again and started to tickle me.

“Ahhhhh! CC!” I screamed, laughing my head off. It’s a little known fact that I’m extremely ticklish; I keep it little well known since everyone who does end up learning uses it against me.

“What’s wrong, Lukass?” he asked, still maintaining his innocent tone while I writhed and rolled around on the floor, laughing like a mad man as his fingers brushed against my sides, chest and stomach.
Somewhere along the line my t-shirt had bunched up around my ribs, leaving my stomach exposed. CC briefly stopped his tickle torture to gently rub his hand along the top of my chest, his fingers gracefully brushing over my slightly visible ribs. No, I wasn’t anorexic or bulimic, there was just never any food in my old house, well, not any that my dad would let me eat. It’s not like I had a job to buy it myself either, so I scraped together what I could and dealt with it. Of course, I was never a healthy weight because of this and it had knock on effects as well. I would get sick more often and due to the fact that my stomach had shrunk to become accustom to only small portions of food, it hurt to eat too much of anything, even if the portion was normal for most people. I may as well been recovering from an eating disorder, because it was the same stages to recovery either way.

I shook my head gently, hoping that CC wouldn’t pry and ruin the moment that we were having. He thankfully took the hint and just nodded slightly, silently conveying that he knew now wasn’t the time. He then shook his head slightly, like he was trying to erase the little incident and then went back to tickling me, a smile on his face again.

At some point during the tickle-fest we were engaged in, I became aware that none other than Ashley was standing a few metres away, watching us with an unreadable expression. CC on the other hand, didn’t appear to have noticed and carried on tickling me, meaning that I couldn’t make any eye contact with Ashley or let him know I’d seen him as I was still laughing and squirming on the floor with CC. He turned around and left about a minute after I’d noticed him there, probably unaware that I’d seen him.

Despite my many protests, CC was still tickling me, to the point where I had tears running down my face. He only stopped when I inadvertently rolled over and slammed into a leg of the coffee table, causing a glass of water I’d placed there earlier to tip over and spill everywhere.

“Shit” I mumbled, rolling away from the liquid that was cascading off the edge of the table. I turned my head to look at CC, whose expression was guilty.

“Sorry” he said softly, looking sadder than he should have.

“Don’t worry about it” I replied casually as I got to my feet. “I guess I should clean this up” I mumbled, and just like that, any enjoyment that came from mucking around with CC disappeared as I remember once again, that I am staff, not one of their friends. I quickly moved towards the kitchen for paper towels; I guess the one good thing was that it was water and not something even harder to get out of carpet.

Because that’s what I’m here for, at the end of the day, isn’t it? To clean, not to make friends. All I am is staff, whatever feeling it was I had while CC and I were mucking about… I shouldn’t have felt it. I’m just deceiving myself about what this situation is…

And with that, I yanked some of the paper towels out of the holder by the sink and made my way back to the lounge to clean up the mess, significantly less happy than I was just minutes previous.