Two Clueless Shmucks

part 22

Aj was finally discharged from the hospital the next day and, to his despair, his friends had decided to stay over for a few days. It wasn't like it was such a big deal, since they had enough two spare rooms for Chunkz and then Kenny and Sharky in one. Even if the two weren't sharing a room, there was still enough room for them. Aj's problem was that he'd rather have his quiet and more importantly, his alone time with Niko. But the issue was he couldn't really have that when all his friends were just popping about checking up on him. They insisted on only staying a little while but it had now been 2 days and the boys were still there.

As much as Niko was annoyed he couldn't spend his time looking after Aj by himself, he couldn't really blame his friends for wanting to take care of Aj and make sure he was okay. It seemed clear that Sharky especially wanted that when he asked to talk to Niko in private.

Niko brought Sharky up to his room and closed the door. He sat the man down on his bed, wondering what he had to say.

"Listen." Sharky started. "Its been 4 days since Aj was in hospital and I never got to apologise."

Niko was confused. "What for?"

"For not taking care of Aj!" Sharky said as if it was obvious.

"Sharks, it's not like you could've known that Aj was starving himself." Niko frowned at his friend blaming himself. He didn't think it was necessary and knew it wasn't his fault.

"But if I had just paid more attention, then maybe..."

"You wouldn't have been able to do anything anyways! What would you have done? Stood outside the bathroom making sure he wasn't throwing up?"

"But I even found him passed out on the bathroom floor. If that wasn't a sign then-"

"Why are you trying to make me blame you, Sharks?" Niko was so confused.

"No, it isn't that... It's just..." Sharky sighed.

"What is it?" Niko was worried about the look on his friends face.

"Am I... do I..." Sharky stuttered.

"Listen. Chunkz is famous. He sings and literally everyone knows him. You're literally running behind him. Everyone knows you as the biggest menace and... yeah!" Sharky started.

Niko frowned. He knew exactly where Sharky was going with this.

"And Kenny's a boxer, so everyone knows him..."

"And what about Aj, Sharky. You can't go on talking about popularity when you and Aj are pretty much on the same level." Niko wished that his friend wouldn't compare himself so much.

"He makes music too."

Niko laughed. "Firstly, his music isn't that popular. Don't tell him I said that." Niko added. "Secondly, that's the only thing. You're probably more popular than Aje anyways! Have you seen the amount of edits of you?" Niko wondered how Sharky forgot about TikTok.

"But that's because people think I'm attractive. But what am I good at?" Sharky frowned.

"You're literally the best friend that anyone could have ever asked for, are you crazy?"

"Such a good friend I let one of my best friends go to hospital. All because I don't know how to read people properly."

"Hey, Aj's a hard person to read. He doesn't let people in unless you force him." Niko explained.

Sharky huffed. "But when he passed out, over the phone by the way, the first thing Kenny asked me was when the last time he ate was."

That stumped Niko. He knew he shouldn't have looked too visibly stuck but he didn't know how to argue with that. Of course, it didn't make Sharky a bad friend for not realising it but he just didn't know how to argue with that logic.