Oracle

Joel Ch. 2

Jamie let out a grunt, hearing the soft ringtone of someone's phone ringing. Maybe it was an alarm from Joel's phone. Jamie's mom wouldn't have been calling him this early.

Jamie rolled over onto his side on the left side of the bed, brushing against Joel's bare arm, while Joel was occupying the right side. He kept his eyes closed.

Maybe it was earlier than expected. It felt that way anyway. Jamie never felt like he got enough rest, even if he got more than the recommended hours of sleep.

He grunted as he felt the bed shift weight as Joel moved. 

Joel pushed the blanket back a little while his shoulder nudged the curtains open slightly by accident, letting in light from the early sun. He sat up and ran a hand through his unkempt black hair. He'd have to brush it soon.

The illumination from the sun outside lightened up the room above the bed, showing the light blue wallpaper that had clearly seen better days, but was held on loosely by a few mere strips of double-cut tape.

The room gave off the impression that Joel was in the middle of moving, having his belongings packed up in boxes, while some of the more important day-to-day possessions were left out.

The room was Joel's, but at this point it hardly even looked the part. Everything was bare and packed up, his desk had already been taken apart, and the remaining furniture in the room besides his bed was disassembled and put in the living room, awaiting to be packed away in boxes when his parents came back. Joel's house was filled with packed cardboard boxes and large rolls of bubble wrap laying on the floor of the kitchen.

Joel's parents had already left to drop off furniture to the new house in Europe. What seemed like it would have been a dream to go to Paris had already come true, but Joel never wanted to move there completely. He was comfortable in Berwyn with Jamie.

Jamie shivered slightly as the light brown blanket was pushed back. Why was he so cold?

He buried his face sideways into the fluffy blue throw pillow which was laid among the very few other pillows on Joel's bed.

The pillows were all different colors, not matching or being coherent with each other, or even being a set of traditional pillows. They weren't as soft or squishy as most pillows, feeling more like fiber or linen fabric. All of the normal pillows Joel was used to having were put in boxes along with his other belongings in the living room.

Jamie put a hand to his unclothed chest. He suddenly recalled why he felt much colder than normal, and much more sore than he had remembered.

He grabbed the blanket after removing his hand from his chest, pulling the blanket up to his chin, the cozy warmth returning to his chest and neck. He wrinkled his nose as a spare feather from the stuffed blanket and loose strands of his messy red-orange hair tickled his freckled pale face.

The quiet ringing of the phone came to a stop, making a beep noise as Joel picked up the vibrating phone from his bedside table, answering it. He put the phone up to his ear, blinking a few times with narrowed eyes, smacking his lips a bit before letting out an exasperated,"Hello?"

He always appeared to be tired when he wasn't wearing his glasses, his eyes always squinted or narrowed, but it was mostly for the reason that his eyesight was never the best without his glasses. He had worn glasses for as long as he remembered. He had recently been thinking about getting contacts, but it would have to wait until after his family got settled in Europe.

Jamie kept his face smushed into the mattress, ignoring the conversation Joel was having on the phone. Besides, it seemed that it wasn't a very interesting conversation by the little to none responses Joel was replying with, such as hums or "okay's".