About That (Almost) Kiss [boyxboy]

My nights never go to plan (Alec)

"Hello? Someone here?" Alec had heard something from outside—a muffled yelp, and a smack. Common room makeout session turned a little kinky, maybe? Not the most romantic—or cleanest—place on campus for that, in Alec's opinion, but what did he know? Alec hadn't had anyone to make out with in a while.

As much as he hated to rain on the kinky make-out parade, the common room was impenetrably dark. He slid a hand along the wall, found the light switch, and flipped it on. Fluorescent light flooded across the common room's battered red couch and once-beige armchairs. Standing between the red couch and a decrepit foosball table, JP Wu blinked and hugged his bare, muscular arms to his tight gray t-shirt.

"JP?" Alec said, bewildered. "What—?" He broke off, thinking of the slap, and wondered if JP was here with someone. 

But there wasn't anyone here, apart from the two of them. An image from last weekend jolted through Alec—JP, leaning in towards him, brushing his fingertips over Alec's knuckles, asking Alec about his paintings—and Alec's heart began to race.

"Uh, hey," JP said. "I'm locked out. Of my room. That's why I'm here."

"Oh." No dark, secret make-out session, then. "I thought I heard something...?"

"Spider," JP admitted. "On the couch. It... startled me."

"You want me to call your R.A. to let you in?" Alec asked.

"Would you mind?" JP ran a hand through his thick, black hair, standing it upright. "He's probably still at that party, but it's worth a shot."

"Right." Why wasn't JP at that party? Where else could he have gone in the middle of the night, before he came back to his locked dorm room?

Don't think about it, Alec told himself. He pulled his phone out of his front pocket and scrolled through his contacts, only to realize, belatedly... "I don't have his number. Damn. I'm sorry, man. I can look him up on Facebook—"

"It's all right," JP said. "Thanks, anyway."

"But what are you going to do?"

JP frowned at the common room couch with thinly veiled revulsion. "I don't know."

"Someone else I can call?"

JP shrugged, his dark eyebrows knitted together, his gaze remote.

"You can't just stay out here all night," Alec said, concerned. He wished he could invite JP to stay over at his place—on the couch, obviously—but Alec didn't really have a place anymore.

JP frowned at Alec, squinting, as if he were looking into the sun. "Are you here for... something? I mean, this isn't your dorm, and there's nobody else here...."

"Crashing in a friend's room," Alec admitted.

"Oh." JP flushed, low and dark, along the neckline of his t-shirt. Alec was wondering if the flush went lower, onto JP's chest, when the tone of voice JP had used filtered through Alec's thick head. "My friend Sam. Samantha," Alec clarified. "She's a girl. It's not romantic. It's just a favor." Sam, along with a few other friends, had taken pity on him.

"Oh," JP said again. JP didn't say anything else, but he didn't need to. Alec knew JP was curious about Rand. Everybody was. The rumors circulating campus didn't scratch the surface of what had actually happened—the way Rand had dumped Alec for another man a month after they signed a lease together, only to leave that man a week later, just as shell-shocked as Alec was. Now Rand brought a different guy home every night, while Alec wandered the campus like a ghost, praying that he could keep it together until their lease was up.

JP shuffled away from the couch and leaned instead against the side of the foosball table. His thin t-shirt hiked up around his waist, and he smoothed it back down, avoiding Alec's gaze.

Alec nodded at the foosball table. "Wanna play?"

"Isn't your friend waiting for you?" JP asked.

"She's not answering." Alec stuffed his phone back in his pocket before JP could figure out that Alec hadn't actually texted her.

"She's probably at that party, too," JP offered.

"Maybe." Actually, Sam was at her friend's apartment up the street, waiting for Alec to text her. But she wouldn't mind waiting a little longer. She was even more of a night owl than Alec. For her, though, it was by choice.

Alec circled the cluster of armchairs to join JP at the foosball table. "So... why aren't you at that party?"  

"Dunno. Just tired tonight. I wanted to turn in early."

"Night's not going to plan, then," Alec said.

To Alec's surprise, JP's mouth tilted upwards in a shy, self-deprecating smile. "It never does."

Alec moved closer, until he could rest his hands on the edge of the foosball table, kitty-corner from JP. Close enough to see JP breathe. Close enough to touch him.