FTLOM

Untitled Part 1

foe the love of $$$

"What, Johnnie? That I wouldn't care? That you could just be a slut and id just sit back and take it?""

- 

Maybe he's the one to blame for all of this. Maybe he set the stage for this to happen. He had agreed to this, after all.

Hell, he had even encouraged it on some level.

Yet, understanding the agreement and confronting its reality were proving to be two very different experiences.

It was a warm summer evening when Jake arrived back home a little earlier than expected, after an already painfully long day of filming videos with Tara. Pushing open the door, that was unlocked for some reason, he was greeted by the stillness of their modest living space. The air was heavy with silence, broken only by the distant hum of traffic drifting in through the open window.

Jake dropped his keys on the table and headed towards his room, eager to jump on his bed and go the fuck to sleep. Tara sure is a lot to handle. But just as he passed Johnnie's door, a sudden sound made him stop dead in his tracks.

It was a soft whine, barely audible at first but growing in intensity with each passing moment.

Jake knew that sound all too well, it definitely wasn't the sound of pain or discomfort.

He could hear muffled voices coming from inside Johnnie's room, along with whispered names.

Not his name, and the realization stung.

It had been maybe two minutes and he was still standing there, inadvertently listening intently to the sounds that were blessing his ears. As much as he liked the noises coming out of that room, he couldn't just ignore the jealousy that was slowly creeping inside him, and the fact that it wasn't him eliciting those.

He was unsure if he should be an asshole and barge into Johnnie's room, kick this random guy out and be done with it, or just walk away and pretend he hadn't heard anything. Honestly, the situation was laughable. He had only recently found out that Johnnie would occasionally sneak out at three in the morning to get drunk, do God knows what with some random men, and not come home til the crack of dawn, but this was just bold.

Jake had known Johnnie long enough to know that he was the shy, more timid type; so this was ridiculous. It had come out of no where. This was a direct affront. No, worse than that. This was a slap in the face, a blatant disregard for his feelings.

It felt like Johnnie was trying to push him, test how much he could handle. With a hand dragging through his hair, and with a deep sigh, he finally forced himself to move, turning back towards his room.

He didn't want to stand there too long anyways. Would be super awkward if one or both of them decided to exit the room and just see him standing there.

Stepping into his room, Jake flopped onto his bed, the sheets cool and soothing under his tired body. He decided not to think too hard about it, at least for now. He'd deal with everything later, tomorrow, or really whenever he felt like it. A simple conversation face to face would do. He'd handle Johnnie and whoever else was in that room eventually.

Jake had always been good at avoiding confrontations, making a habit of brushing off any discomfort until it became too overwhelming to ignore.

And this was one of those situations. But all these thoughts were thrown out the window, because for now, he longed for nothing more than the sweet oblivion of sleep. He kicked off his shoes and rolled onto his side, facing the blank wall, and drowned out any sounds that were coming from his unusually loud fan, his annoying dishwasher, neighbors outside doing whatever, along with the moans coming from Johnnie's room.