Unnown Love

*Kyle Warner*

The week couldn't go fast enough to suit my tastes. I don't know how to describe the vibe between the massive Alex and Jamie. I'd spoken to Jamie at the same gazebo on Wednesday. We talked for an hour just like Monday. Thursday night, he texted me to confirm our plans for Friday night. We were going to meet at a diner at four. The rest, "we'll just wing it."

That's how I found myself at a little mom and pop diner at four in the afternoon. Ten after rolled around. Couldn't help feeling like I was being stood up after a while. Just as I was about to text Jamie, the bell chimed on the door.

"Sorry we're late, beauty queen here took two hours to pick a shirt." Said Alex, while a blushing Jamie scooted to the wall on their bench seat.

"No worse than the time it takes to do those little spikes you're so fond of."

"Hey, you never know when a lady might choose to walk by."

"You are truly unique."

"I think we should be thankful for that." I said.

"I see how it is, Zebra and the little man gonna gang up on poor Alex. That's fine." He crossed his arms and started pouting.

"No one will ever buy your innocent act." I said.

"He's right. You always look like you just got away with something." Jamie added.

"I can see you both will get on fine."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.

Jamie blushed a bit. "Just ignore him. He hasn't been house trained yet."

"We're not in a house—"Alex said.

"Shut up. Anyway, where is that waitress?"

She eventually quit talking to a man at the counter, who she was obviously flirting with, to come take our order. Alex got a ham steak with some fries. Jamie had the fried chicken meal, which was just two legs and some mashed potatoes with gravy. I wanted the breakfast platter. Two scrambled eggs, four pieces of bacon, two sausage patties, and a bit of toast. Our food came out about five minutes later.

"Holy shit Kyle, did you order enough?" Asked Jamie.

"What?" I said through a bite of eggs.

"How much do you weigh again?"

"One-twenty." I answered.

"You don't go to the gym?" Asked Alex

"No. Why?"

"If I ate like that and didn't work out, I would be on the news. 'Local man sets out to break weight record.'" Said Jamie.

We all ate rather quickly. I thought of getting an ice cream. I decided, however, to wait until later in our friendship to freak them out with my appetite.

"Welp, what do we do now?" Asked Alex as he stretched out in the bench.

"I vote we watch a movie." Said Jamie.

"What's on?" Asked Alex.

"I meant at the house. Why spend money on a movie when we have Netflix?"

"That's fine with me." I said.

I followed their Jamie's truck in my little second-hand Honda Civic. I started to look around a little skeptically when we crossed into the 'bad' part of town. This little city may not be Richmond, but it still has a fairly vibrant drug trade. Violent crime is down. Thefts however, are a different story.

We pulled up to a small, ranch style house. It didn't look ramshackle, nor did it look like the lap of luxury. One wouldn't have to struggle to realize two college students lived there. Jamie pulled in next to a hatchback Chevrolet. I pulled in behind him.

"Home sweet home ladies." Said Alex.

We walked in, Jamie crossing the living room to the kitchen to set his keys down on the counter.

"Just have a seat anywhere. You want anything to drink?" Asked Jamie.

"What do you have?"

"Alex has a few beers in here." He said while peering in the fridge. "Uhhhh... We've also some tea, half a two liter of Diet Pepsi, and what looks to be lemonade. I must say, Alex can wander a bit when he's drunk. I don't know if I would trust that."

"I'll go with the tea."

We all sat down and watched several Law and Order episodes before eight o clock rolled around.

"Well lads, I going to head out. Ya'll want to come with?" asked Alex.

"I'm good. Kyle?"

"I'm not much on clubbing, so no thanks."

"Why do you assume I'm going clubbing?"

"It's eight o clock on a Friday night. It's too early to head to the bar. The nearest club is an hour south. Am I wrong?"

He looked at Jamie while pointing to me. "He's good." He used the bathroom before heading out. "See you when I see you." Then the door shut behind him.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"Alex doesn't always come home. I'm sure you can guess why." Answered Jamie without looking away from the TV.

"Next episode or a different show? Perhaps a movie?" He asked.

"I'm cool with this if you are."

We watched until we came to the episode where Mike Logan leaves. At that point we changed to a movie. It was eleven o clock.

"What movie is this?" I asked.

"'In the Electric Mist' starring Tommy Lee Jones and John Goodman. It's actually quite good."

"I'll take your word for it. It's starting out a bit slow."

"Patience young grasshopper. Good things come to those who wait."

"Fortune favors the bold."

"Patience is a virtue."

"It is better to act now and error than do nothing and arrive upon the same result."

"Who said that?" His brows pinched together as he asked.

"Carl Von Clausewitz."

"Ah..."

The movie was actually good. I was surprised, as it was a bit confusing at first.

"How did you stumble across this?" I asked.

"I would watch John Goodman sit at a bus stop for twenty minutes. Tommy Lee Jones is good too."

"I can't believe someone would love John Goodman that much."

He shrugged. "He was the only reason I watched Roseanne."

"Is that on Netflix?"

"We shall find out."

We went on like that for several hours. At some point, the TV became a blur and the noise became irrelevant. My eyes felt like someone had tied sandbags to them. Jamie yawned.

"I think it's time to clock out, don't you?"

"What time is it?"

"Somewhere near four thirty."

"Fuck..."

"Well, we've two options. Number one, you take my bed and I'll grab the couch. Number two, and may I say the much more attractive option, we share the bed."

I pondered this for a moment. There were several reasons I didn't want to share a bed. None that I wanted to vocalize however.

"I can drive—"

"No you can't. Now pick."

"I'm cool with sharing."

He grunted and turned on the spot. I followed him down a hall. He pointed to a door on the right.

"That's the bathroom." Then he pointed to two doors at the end of the hall. Both were on a diagonal wall, opposite one another with a small horizontal wall in between them. The hall resembles a very tall, skinny pentagon.

"The one on the right is Alex's. I wouldn't recommend it unless you have a HASMAT suit in the car."

He opened the other door, stepping aside to let me in first.

"I'm much neater than Alex. I actually clean my sheets." He said with a chuckle.

The room itself was small, the walls a dull beige typical of rental property. The bed took up most of the room, being a queen size. The sheets were a deep purple with a light colored purple fleece blanket beneath another fleece blanket with a wolf in snow depicted on it. There were no posters on the wall, or anything of the sort. A charger cord sat on the nightstand held down by a straight blade knife still in its holster.

"Nice bed." I said.

"Thanks. It's one of the few pieces of furniture in this place I actually own. The one the owner had in here is in the attic."

"Why'd you bring your own?"

"You get used to a mattress man, or maybe it gets used to you. Either way, I wasn't willing to adjust to a new one if I didn't have to." He stretched his arms out before saying, "Pissed my mother off something fierce when she saw it in my truck. Said I was stealing. I told the crazy bitch to go ahead and report it."

"You don't get along with your parents?" I felt kind of bad for him. Mine adored me a little too much sometimes.

He sighed. "We disagree on certain key issues. Let's just leave it at that."

He started to strip off. I did my best to look away, but there really wasn't anything else to look at in the room. He was muscled without looking freakish. His stomach seemed to have that healthy layer of padding covering the muscle beneath. It was flat, just not a six pack. They're overrated anyway. His pecs were firm, his back muscles fairly average looking. It was clear he worked out, just not enough to have anyone call him a gym bunny. His body hair was pretty much a constant everywhere except his sides, yet nowhere was it so thick I couldn't see skin. He wasn't Chewbacca.

He had his back to me as he pulled off his jeans. I took my shirt off in time to see him bent over with his ass to me. His lime green covered ass. I do love the way boxer briefs show off the assets. His leg muscles were of the same affair as the rest of him. Enough muscle to be pleasing, no more, no less. He stayed bent over as he undid the Velcro straps on a blue brace around his left knee. He sat the brace on a desk with a laptop.

"I normally sleep naked. Don't think I'll put you through that tonight though." He said with a grin in my direction. I wouldn't mind.

"Does this mean no goodnight kiss?" I joked.

"You wish. I'm going brush up. You need a toothbrush?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind."

He walked out the door without a word. I followed him to the bathroom. He crouched, searching through the cabinet below the sink. I looked around. The bathroom was small, with a basic shower tub combo along the far wall. He stood up, blocking my view, near inches from my face. He held a toothbrush just in front of my nose. I crossed my eyes took look at it. He snickered.

"I'm going to guess purple is you favorite color."

He shook the brush side to side.

"What gave it away?" he said with a grin.

He squeezed out some toothpaste on his brush while I waited to do the same. He let go of the tube before I had a hold of it good. The tube got bobbled in the air for a second before he grabbed it in mid-air, though his grip squeezed a large amount out onto his chest. I laughed as I scooped some off with my finger and licked it off to begin brushing. I watched through the mirror as he stared at the side of my head. He shook his head after a bit and continued brushing.

We both walked back to the bedroom. I stripped my pants off to reveal my bright blue boxer briefs. They got tossed near my blue and green checkered shirt, my studded belt still in the loops. I turned to see him move the knife and plug his phone in to charge.

"You dress rather loudly, you know that?" he said, flipping through his phone.

"I pull it off. Better than you mister clippity clop." I said while pointing to his cowboy boots in the corner. He chuckled.

"I swear, if there is ever a shooting on campus, I'd have to scoot on out with my boots in hand. No way I'd sneak by anybody with that racket."

I got under the blankets first while he stood by the light switch.

"Ready?" he asked.

"Yup."

The room turned black with a click, with the exception of the slightly orange glow of the blinds with the streetlight outside shining upon them. I listed to his feet slide across the wooden floor before the bed tilted with his weight.

We lay together in an awkward silence for a moment or two or three. A cold foot pressed against my calf.

"Hey you fucker." I giggled.

We had a short war of trying to get our cold feet on the other before we both wound up facing each other on our sides. I could see a slight glow from his eyes while his ear and a small part of his face had that orange glow on them.

"Why the blue hair?" he asked, extremely quietly, yet his voice seemed to echo somehow.

I twirled a lock as I thought about it, though I didn't need to.

"One, it matches my eyes," his chest seemed to let out a rumble that seemed close to a chuckle. "And two, I like to change it up, stand out a bit I guess."

"So I'm guessing blue is your favorite color." He said, mirroring my earlier statement.

"How ever did you know?"

"Lucky guess, I'd imagine."

He rolled over onto his stomach, shoving his pillow under his chest length wise, while his head stayed at the top of the pillow. His breathing seemed to level out pretty quick. The smell of Jamie seemed to permeate the air in the best way possible. There's something about the musky scent of a man that words can't quite describe adequately. Oh well. Life's full of disappointments.