Chapter Two

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of my housemates yelling in the living room. I frowned, squinting at the bright lights before sitting up in bed and rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand. It took a while for me to fully be awake, but when I was, the first thing I did was look to my side in search for Advik. He wasn't there. He had left the side of the bed he had been sleeping on, and I wondered where he was.

I got up from my bed before heading out into the hallway. Walking in the direction of Advik's room I wondered what he was up to. I didn't hear his voice from the living room, so I assumed he wasn't there. I knocked on his door when I came up to it, pressing my ear against it as I listened for any movement in his room.

There was the sound of feet moving, and some rustling, but no one came to open the door. "Advik, it's me," I said, frowning a bit as I wondered why he was ignoring me.

"You want to talk about last night, right?" he asked, making my confusion grow into more.

"Well, yes and no. I picked you up from a party. That's about it," I said, my ears still pressed against the door as I waited for him to say something back. He sounded distressed and it had me worried. "If you're concerned about what happened, your friend called me and told me that you took some spiked shots, so I brought you back home," I tried to explain further, wondering if the drug had left gaps in his memory. He was more or less passed out when I got to him at the party, and he hadn't moved around all night.

"We... we didn't have sex?" Advik asked in a low tone, making me blink a few times as I digested what he had just said.

Advik's question almost made me choke on air. My eyes went wide as I leaned away from the door as I hugged myself. Sex? Where did he get that from? I wondered, covering my burning face with my hands. Maybe waking next to me with no clothes on made him panic. I should have just slept on the floor.

"No, we didn't. You were burning up, so I pat you down with a warm towel," I explained, listening as Advik let out a small 'oh' in realization. There was a brief period of silence before the door the door creaked open. Advik peaked out, looking at me with an unreadable look. He opened the door some more, and soon he was leaning at the door post with his hands folded over his chest. For a while, he held my gaze, but he seemed that he was a bit uncomfortable because he looked down.

"Well then—" he trailed, looking up at me again. Embarrassment oozing from him.

"You thought we had sex?" I asked, frowning as I stared at him in disbelief. "What?" I asked, watching him scratch the back of his neck. I was sure my face was burning up right now, but I didn't really care. I just wanted to know why Advik thought that.

"Look, I just thought—" he paused, biting down on his bottom lip. "Why are you overreacting like this anyway. Is us sleeping together so unbelievable?" he asked, making me blink in shock before staring down at the floor. For a minute there he sounded flustered and maybe a bit offended. Of course, I wanted to sleep with him. I bloody wanted to do that.

"Huh, that's odd, considering you weren't going to open the door because you thought we slept together," I said instead, pushing my thoughts to the back of my mind. I watched Advik lick his lips.

"I just—"

"Let's just act like this never happened, okay?" I said, cutting him off before he could say anything that would make me melt into a puddle of embarrassment.

The hall was silent for a while, but the sound of kitchenware hitting the ground, and the sound of our roommates apologizing made the both of us look towards the hall's end.

"What are they doing?" Advik asked, looking to me.

I shrugged. "Making breakfast I guess." Advik snorted, and I chuckled, looking at him with a small smile. The awkwardness from before was gone, and now we were just staring at each other in comfortable silence.

"How was the party yesterday?" I asked, speaking up first.

"I—" Advik wrinkled his nose, frowning a bit. "I — I don't remember," he admitted, and I snorted, watching him smile as he tucked his hands into the pockets of his pajama trousers.

"You don't usually drink rubbish just because. I mean, I was scared I thought you were done for," I said, referring to the spiked drinks. Advik was a party animal, sure, but he was usually the sober one in the party, and if he wasn't sober at least he didn't drink enough to pass out. Doing drugs was a whole different level. Yeah, he smoked pot sometimes, but I was sure whatever they had used to spike the drinks were some street drugs that were concoctions of just about anything, and we all know how those go—

"Yeah..." he trailed, brushing strands of his hair back. Over the last year, he had managed to shape it into a long style that I felt suited him. Side bangs and a full middle. Living in the same apartment with Advik had thought me a lot of things. One of those things was that he cut his own hair. I've always wanted him to cut my hair. He has offered to cut my hair before, I'm just too hard on myself and I don't think I'd fair well just sitting down and letting him touch me for about an hour while he did it. The way I behaved about little things concerning Advik would make someone think I was a sex freak, but that wasn't the case. I was just prone to melting into a puddle of embarrassment and paranoia anytime I was put in a position to keep my feelings in check. It was a miracle that Advik didn't know I liked him, but I guess you could attribute that to him being too preoccupied with thinking of Oliver.

"Was it Angie that called you?" he asked, and I nodded, assuming it was the girl who had reached out to me last night.

"Alright, I should call her and thank her," Advik said, stepping behind his door a bit, but not closing it. He stared at me, and I stared at him, wondering if he had something in his mind to ask me.

"So, can I come over to ask you about something later?" he asked, biting down on his bottom lip as he took out a hand to brush his nose. I stared at him, forcing myself to smile instead of letting out the frustrated sigh my lips were aching to set free. He wanted to ask me about Oliver. That's what he always wanted to talk about. No offense to Oliver, but I was getting sick and tired of it. What was so great about Oliver? Why did he like him so much?

"What about?" I said, trying to pretend that I wasn't a meter close to ripping my hair out and groaning.

"Oliver invited me out since he had extra tickets."

I knew it. I said in my head as I nodded and pretended to think Advik was in a rough situation.

"He had George got the same present for each other, so they ended up having four tickets to the water park," Advik explained, and for a little bit I thought he might be inviting me to go out with them, but the next sentence crushed my foolish hopes. "He gave one to his friend Grey, and he asked me if I wanted to come along," Advik explained, and I sucked in my lips, nodding.

"I see," I said. I was sure I wasn't being very useful just standing in the hallway nodding my head and listening to this insignificant thing that was causing Advik to worry so much.

"I want to go, because, you know—" he paused, shrugging his shoulders as a faint blush took form on his face. Advik was cute in situations like this. Being a tall clown in public and being the meekest of sheep when talking about Oliver was a difference that caught me off guard the first time. I liked that side of him. I liked it a lot. I liked the funny party dude part of him too. I really don't think there was anything I couldn't like about Advik. I even liked how oblivious he was.

"I know," I said, and we both just nodded at each other as the hallway gave way to the lingering silence. Advik liked Oliver, and maybe seeing Oliver with his boyfriend would hurt him. I guessed that was what Advik was trying to explain.

"I'll go eat breakfast, my doors open so drop by whenever," I said after a while, breaking the silence. Advik smiled a little, nodding before disappearing completely behind the door and shutting it close. When he was out of sight, I let out the groan I had been holding back. I gripped a handful of my hair, cursing under my breath as I tried to put myself together.

"Dude, what's going on." I let go of my hair, looking forward and staring at Reid with wide eyes.

"Uh..." I trailed. "Nothing," I said, watching at Reid narrow his eyes at me as he threw a chip in his mouth. His dark hair was a mess. He was still in his Pajama's and was currently carrying around a bowl of chips like it was his food bank.

"I thought you and Nexus were making something," I said, hoping to change the discussion, and Reid took the bait, complaining about how bad Nexus was at cooking and how we should ban him from the kitchen. He followed me to the kitchen and ate some of the food I made.

Later in the day, Advik came to my room, and he ranted about Oliver and cried a bit before leaving. I had agreed to be on the line if he needed me through the outing like an idiot. So, I guess I was going to the stupid water park with Morgan next with Sunday.