A house is only as fun as your house mate

Chapter 2 and 1/3: Keith

I sat back in bed and pulled the covers tight over my body. I was cold and I couldn't seem to get warm no matter how hard I tried. I even resorted to putting on my spare clothes that were in the suitcase I had with me, but that failed to work too. I tried to get to sleep but nothing seemed to happen, regardless of how exhausted I was. I was just too cold. I decided that my safest bet would be to go downstairs and sleep on the sofa. I took one of the smaller blankets with me and draped it over the arm of the sofa so that I could pull it onto me once I had settled down and gotten comfortable. Nothing. "for god's sake." I growled, wondering how on earth I was going to end up sleeping. It was as if Lance had turned off the heating everywhere apart from his room. And that was when it dawned on me. His room. I huffed in frustration and face palmed. No way was I going in there to actually fall asleep. I pulled my old android from my pocket to check the time. My eyes met with the black numbers of 00:07. I could cope with another seven hours staying awake at the least so that is what I planned to do. I continued to sit on the sofa since it was ever so slightly warmer than my room. I had never wrapped a blanket around myself so tight in my life than I had that night.

I sat there, eyes open for what felt like hours. By the time I had finally given up, I checked the time again, revealing that not even half an hour had passed. That was the point I realised, I couldn't survive seven hours like this. I gave in and headed up to Lance's room, blanket under my arm and folded neatly. Though Lance had a huge bed and it would probably be warm laying next to him, I refused to participate in such an act so I made do with camp on the floor at the foot of the bed. I carefully made my way to the side of his bed where he wasn't sleeping and thieved a pillow, hoping he wouldn't notice when he woke up in the morning. I placed it down on the floor, just to help give my head some support as I slept. I pulled the blanket over myself and tried to drift off. The blanket was still cool, but the entire room was not. The heat radiating from the floor and the walls drifted to me like a burrito of warmth. Encasing me in an impenetrable shell. I lay for goodness knows how long and I don't remember falling asleep.

The next morning, I awoke to a scream. Rubbing my eyes groggily and sitting up, the blanket fell from my bare chest and landed in my lap. I had taken my shirt off in the middle of the night since I had gotten so warm yet I did not complain as I would have rather hot than ice cold. I attempted to search for the source of the scream when I saw a shirtless Lance with a pair of trousers hanging in the corners of his hips. I found myself staring again at him when I realised exactly what was going on. Lance had caught me sleeping in his room in his floor, shirtless. Not exactly what you would expect first thing in the morning. "w..why?!" he asked. I shrugged my shoulders, then felt uncomfortable about my bare chest and pulled the blanket over myself to hide me. "i got cold." I responded bluntly.

"did you try and sleep on the sofa?" he continued. I nodded my head in earnestness. "Yeah, too cold." He gave a little cry of frustration before giving in. "you could have woken me." He tried.

"I didn't want to." I countered. There was no way that I would let him win this. "well, you could have taken the other side of the bed." Lance claimed before scratching the back of his head anxiously. He was waiting for my response and I knew fully well that it would not be one that he would want to hear. Yet I had no desire to keep him happy so I told him. "who would want to sleep next to you? I mean, honestly." I snapped. Lance's face filled with hurt, making me feel endlessly guilty about the whole ordeal. " look Lance, I'm sorry." I said, standing up and reaching to put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't touch me." He responded bitterly and smacked my hand away. The ounce of weakness that had shown only moments before disappeared now, leaving my usual scowl in its place. "fine, I won't then." I shouted back and folded my arms. I grabbed the shirt that was on the floor by my makeshift bed and threw it on. I flew out of the room, not bothering to remove any other bits of my stuff and walked away from Lance, leaving him alone yet again and in a state of needing repair. I walked out of the house and attempted to get into my car. After realising I didn't have my keys or my phone I just started walking and refused to turn back around until I had calmed down. This took a fair few hours if circling the block for me to finally go back to the house. However, Lance's car was not there. He was probably running away from our argument like I had. How pathetic. I felt myself grow worried then. What if I had caused him to go away for good? No, it was his house, he wouldn't do that. But he might have gone to stay with a friend. Dammit, why was I such an idiot at times? I kicked a stone that was on the pathway but I kicked it at the wrong point on the stone, making it fly up and hit me on the nose. I didn't flinch but instead lifted my hand to the spot where it had hit me. I pulled away my fingers to see blood covering them. The bridge of my nose stung after I pulled away and the cold air didn't do much to help either. I walked up to Lance's door so I could go inside and fix my nose, only to realise, he had locked me out. Panicking slightly, I searched and searched for anything that I could find that could possibly hide a house key. I checked under the doormat, behind the letter box, in the bushes, yet there was still nothing. Realising that I had no idea where Lance was, I had no money, not even my car keys or phone on me, I just had to wait. And yes, perhaps I could have checked the windows to go in through them, but I was respectful that this was not my house and I wouldn't just do as I pleased. This place had boundaries just like any other home that didn't belong to me. I perched myself on the edge of the doorstep and placed my chin in my hands and my elbows on my knees. My brain ventured back to a couple of hours ago where I had first had a go at Lance. 'who would sleep next to you? I mean, honestly'. Why would I say something like that? I mean, I seriously considered sleeping with him for a while myself, so why would I just turn around and make out like it was his fault. I face palmed and kept thinking. The thing is, ten years ago, I would gladly have slept next to him given the chance. I was over that now though. That was me back then, I didn't care for him in anyway at all.