Where The Time Goes

Tuesday September 19th, 2016

Byron laid awake, mulling over the events of yesterday. After Gabby ran to the bathroom, Cait ran after her leaving the boys at the table. The mystery man made it to the table and pulled up a chair. "What's up Anthony?" asked Jack. "Not too much," he responded, "College fucking sucks besides the parties and chicks. What's up with you guys?" Jack and Anthony had been friends since as long as they could remember. Byron, being Gabby and Cait's best friend, was obligated not to completely like Anthony though Byron never had anything personal against him, so he kept it polite.

"Not much I guess just school and work for me," Byron said. Just then, the girls returned to the table. It was clear that Gabby had been crying but she held herself as though everything was fine. As much as she thought she could hide her feelings, everyone knew when she was sad or upset they just chose to let her deal with things her own way. It was times like this that Byron wished he could have the power to just erase her pain.

The table settled into an awkward silence until the waitress returned with their food. Everyone but Anthony started eating, filling the booth with the sounds of forks against plates and crispy bacon crunching. Being the human blackhole, Bryan finished eating his mountain of food first. He tried to start a conversation with Anthony to lessen the tension.

"So how are your classes man? That marine biology degree is a bitch I heard."

"It's actually not too bad right now," Anthony responded. After some various small talk topics, the group had finished eating. Gabby was the first to get up and pay for her food. She was clearly ready to go so the group all got up and paid their checks.

Once outside they deliberated their next plans and decided to hang out on the quad before going their separate ways to class. The rest of their time together was fraught with tension between Gabby and Anthony.

As Byron reflected back on yesterday, he began to feel that familiar hint of jealousy creep into his stomach. He had never been the one who got stuck in feelings. He was very inexperienced and out of touch in the emotional world. This brought about his current lifestyle of "serial fornication". He always joked about it but in truth, it never satisfied him. His ex, Mark, would know, his feelings change like the chaotic Florida weather.

Stuck in his head, Byron missed his first three alarms until his fourth one caught his attention finally. He looked at the clock and saw that it was 10:30, a half an hour before his Computer programming class. As usual, Byron began rushing making sure he looked decent enough, packing his bag, and flipping the switch on his Keurig. Once everything was ready, he was out the door and into his car. He hit 80 down the road and made it on campus in 20 minutes time since he woke up. Computer programming was the only class Byron had with his ex, Mark. Thankfully for Byron, he sits in the middle of a group of jocks. But it doesn't stop him from staring at Byron all class period.

Ever since Byron broke up with Mark back in high school, they were stuck in a weird twilight zone where Mark still wanted to be friends but Byron wanted to ignore Mark's existence.

After class was over, Byron decided to go grab some Starbucks before heading back home to start his homework.

When he got in the house, he tossed his stuff on his messy, non-made bed and cranked up his sound system on a Spotify shuffle. After dancing around for a bit making a sandwich, he got to work on today's diary.

Dear Diary,

Today was pretty uneventful. I was almost late to class so that was pretty stressful. Speaking of class, Mark did his usual again. I wish he would just get over me and back off. It's annoying how much he stares at me and how much he tries to be near me.
Emotionally I'm doing well I guess. Feelings are feelings and the lack thereof seems OK to me.

He rambled on some more about his hopes and dreams for the semester then saved his work and closed the laptop. He checked the time and it said 6:26. It was his first day off of work in a while so he decided to make the most of it. He quickly took a shower and made a bowl of popcorn, then plopped on his living room couch and switched on Netflix.

A few minutes into his episode of Grey's Anatomy, his phone buzzed. He checked and it was a text from the hottie in 12B, the unit right above him. Over the course of the year Byron had been living there, he had formed something like a friendship with Ash who was infuriatingly straight despite a few questionable moments here and there.

When Byron checked the text, he had to suppress his mild elation.
So I hear the Netflix but who you chillin with down there?
Byron responded:
Me, myself and I. There's room for one more if you wanna turn this threesome into a group thing ;)

As with most of Byron's conversations, theirs usually consisted or sarcasm, cynicism, and borderline sexual moments.
Be there soon then, don't start the fun without me lol
Byron laughed at Ash's response then got up to unlock the door. When he laid back down on the couch he texted
Door's open cum right in ;)

He pressed play again and soon after, heard the door open. He looked up to see Ash walk in and he almost dropped his popcorn bowl. Ash walked across the room wearing nothing but a pair of loose fitting pajama pants that hung on his wait just low enough to show off as much of his V-lines as possible without going too far.

Byron couldn't help but stare with his mouth agape. Ash chuckled at the look on Byron's face as he crashed onto the second half of the L-shaped couch. He took the remote and restarted the episode then took a handful of the popcorn out of Byron's bowl. Byron snapped out of his entranced state and put the popcorn bowl next to both their heads.

The evening progressed on with them making snide comments about the show here and there. After about four episodes, Ash asked Byron if he had any beer in the fridge. "No but there's some wine in the chiller," he responded. Ash hopped up and went over to the wine chiller in the kitchen. "Bro there is so much wine in here, I don't even know which one to pick!" Ash exclaimed." Byron answered, "Pick any of the reds, those are the best."

Ash returned to the living room with two bottles of wine. "You trying to get me wasted?" Byron asked. "Hell yeah we getting turnt tonight man!" shouted Ash. He opened both bottles and handed one to Byron. Byron switched the TV to Spotify and started playing some music while they began chatting about random stuff.

Before they knew it, they were drunk and had went through two bottles each already. Everything was a blur for them at that point. The perfect conditions for disaster to strike.