The Bolt from the Blue (Working Title)

Chapter 9- The Day Off

Chapter Nine- The Day Off

After the test was over, Sam jammed his pen back in his pocket and peeled himself out of his seat. "How do you think you did?" He asked Adrianna as they began to file out.

"Ugh. You?"

"I'll do alright."

"You sure? I can smell your hangover from here." She puckered her nose.

"I'm confident in my abilities." He said, wishing for aspirin or, failing that, oblivion.

A voice called from the front of the lecture theatre: "Mr. Handey, can I speak to you, please?"

Sam turned around, surprised that the professor knew his name. Going against the flow of people, he walked down to where Professor Patten stood. "Yes, Professor?" Suddenly, he was five again, standing before a disappointed teacher who'd caught him fighting with the other children. His palms sweated and his heart raced.

"Are you alright, Samuel?" She asked, her voice making it seem like she already found the conversation tedious, no matter how he answered.

"Yes." Sam swallowed hard- he wasn't sure what he'd done wrong.

"Well then there's no reason to turn up to my lectures in this state, is there?"

"I didn't realise there was a dress code, Professor." Sam had grown up slightly since those classroom brawls- he was allowed to answer back now.

"No, but there are basic standards of effort that we expect you to meet." She looked down at her desk and began to gather her things. "You probably didn't know this, but I have heightened senses. When you arrive in my lecture theatre and I can smell the alcohol on your breath from down here, then I know you're not taking your education seriously."

"I am!" He protested, somewhat shakily.

"Don't insult me, Sam; I know exactly how much you drank last night. When you knew I was giving a test the next morning. So, are you arrogant or do you just not care?"

The pounding in Sam's head made him want to say some very rude things back, but he knew it was best to try and stay on his professor's good side. "Neither, Professor Patten."

"I'm going to mark these this weekend, and I hope for your sake that you score above sixty percent. If not, we may have to review your place on this course."

"I'm confident that I will." Sam really wanted to leave now; leave this oppressively hot room and this stiflingly awful woman.

"We'll see. You can go now."

He left, and considered flipping her off as he went, but then he just wanted to be somewhere else. And with someone else. He looked at his phone- John would have had another hour of sleep by now, and besides, if Sam had to be awake, so did he. He dialled John's number.

When he answered, John sounded slightly more energetic. "Two calls in one day? People will talk."

"Your bare torso sucked my face in the library square, people are already talking. Can I come over?"

"Right now?"

"Yeah." Sam held his breath; he really, really wanted this.

"The place is a tip."

"I know."

"You do?" John sounded embarrassed.

"I saw it last night."

"Oh dear- and you still like me?"

"Enough to want to spend the day with you."

There was a pause. Sam could almost hear Joh wondering how much he could clean up in five minutes.

"I just need to get dressed." He murmured.

Sam sighed, "If you absolutely have to."

John's place did not look any better by daylight.

"When was the last time you had a guest?" Sam asked, surveying the mountain of unwashed plates in the sink.

"I wasn't living here for quite a while." John didn't Sam's eye, and then suddenly changed his tone. "People tend to want you to come to them if you can teleport." John rubbed the back of his neck, not sure where to be ashamed or proud of his squalor. "And that suits me fine."

Sam whipped around suddenly, "Do you have a TV?"

John nodded.

"Let's watch some cartoons."

John's face lit up and he reached into a cupboard, "I have cereal!"

Sam looked around the tiny kitchenette. "Do you have bowls?"

John paused. "I can wash some."

They sat, John in his pyjamas, Sam in his rumpled clothes, watching cartoons and routinely refilling their bowls with sugary cereal. For once, Sam lost track of time. "We're out of milk," he said, shaking the empty bottle over his bowl.

A small portal appeared near John's hands. He rummaged for a second and then his hand emerged, clasping the milk bottle. The portal then blinked shut and was replaced by another, while a new portal appeared right at Sam's side. John put the milk through and it appeared right by Sam. John's gaze hadn't left the television the entire time.

"You are so lazy." Sam chuckled.

"It's my day off."

Sam looked sceptical, "So, normally you would've walked to the fridge?"

"I'm not on trial here."

Sam smiled and tried to concentrate on the TV. But now that they were so close, and in John's house, he allowed himself to think back to the image of John in his very revealing underwear. He really was very attractive- but the pyjamas didn't do him justice. They were so loose. He sidled closer on the sofa.John wasn't paying attention. He seemed utterly transfixed by the animated images on the screen. Sam was now sitting right next to him, and he slowly put his hand on John's chest and began to move it in small circles.

John turned to look at him, a smile creeping over his lips, "Are you bored of cartoons?"

Sam pinched John's loose grey t-shirt between his fingers, "Can you take this off?"

"Of course, love," He obliged and again Sam got an eyeful of John's incredible chest. Up close, he saw that it was criss-crossed with tiny scars and some bruises that hadn't quite healed. Sam was surprised that he found this kind of a turn-on. He propped himself up on his knees and began to trace his finger around John's pectorals. "Are you having fun?" John asked, putting his hand on Sam's right arm.

"Definitely," Sam said, taking a deep breath in. He was very, very interested in John's chest.

"I think I have to ask for a bit of reciprocity here, then." John said, tugging at the sleeve of Sam's shirt. Sam blushed, but only for a moment, before reaching down and starting to undo the buttons. He threw his shirt behind him, where it landed on a pile of John's clothes on the arm of the sofa. John sat up a bit, and took in Sam's bare torso. It was slightly less defined than his own, but then Sam was still young.

And he was definitely still hot.

John put both his hands on Sam's shoulders and brought him down for a kiss. He stuck his tongue into Sam's mouth and began exploring, and simultaneously, Sam slipped his hand beneath John's waistband. He felt John moan slightly inside his mouth and he began to move his hand. They stayed like that, sprawled on the sofa, pressed against each other, their bare skin touching and sending frissons of electricity through their bodies, for a long time.