zeroyalchaos

10: The morning after

Hey look im not dead

Ze:

"Riiiight, well I'm uh, I'm going to go shower." He said looking across the room for his missing boxers, mostly as an excuse as he was unable to meet Anthony's eyes. He quickly enough noticed them on his side of the bed and quickly got up with his back towards Anthony to put them on. After he gathered fresh clothing he glanced back before leaving the room. Anthony was still watching him so he was immediately met with his unreadable gaze. Swallowing hard he made a hasty retreat to the bathroom.

Stepping into the shower he turned the water as hot as he could stand, letting the heat relax his sore muscles while his mind wandered. He thought about the last clear-ish memories he had, of describing how hot Anthony is to Adam in excessive detail. He sighed; Adam wasn't going to let him live that down for the next couple weeks. Lathering up his hair he considered what to do about the whole thing with Anthony. 'Well he made out with me and let me give him a bunch of hickeys'  he thought, cringing at the thought of what he'd done but smiling because it didn't seem like Anthony had any problem with it. 'But what if he was only ok with it because he'd been drinking too? Ugh I'm going to have to talk to him about it'  he thought with a slight hint of despair, he wasn't one for possibly awkward conversations like this. Accepting his fate he rinsed out his hair and got out of the shower, drying off before changing into the random clothing items he'd grabbed.

Towelling his hair dry he walked back into his room. "Hey Anth-" he trailed off realizing there was nobody in his room anymore. He began a quick search of the apartment, even checking Smarty's room on the off chance he was there but not even Smarty was there. Giving up in disappointment he went to the kitchen and got himself a glass of orange juice because he felt like he was dying of thirst, probably dehydrated from all the alcohol.

His stomach was too upset for food so he went and flopped onto the couch to watch some tv, glad to have something distracting him from his slowly building anxiety. He let his mind drift as he watched random shows until he heard someone's key in the lock. Readying himself he set down his juice and took a deep breath, waiting to see who it was.

"Hey Ze." Smarty said as he walked in hair ruffled and wearing the same clothes as the day before.

Letting out his breath he smiled at Smarty. "Hey bud, fun night out?" he asked with the implied innuendo heavy in his tone.

"Yeah I had a fantastic time, even got a number so we can meet up again." He boasted proudly before catching onto the feelings Steven was trying to hide, he was always really good at that. "Where's Anthony?" Smarty asked, easily guessing the cause of his friend's mood.

"I... I don't know." He replied with a slight tremor in his voice. Smarty came and sat next to him on the couch, ready to support him

"Ze tell me what happened?"

"I don't remember!" he said easily falling into Smarty's warm embrace. "I woke up in bed with him, he was covered in hickeys and said we made out, I left as quick as I could and had a shower, and when I got out he was gone." He said blinking back tears; he was not going to cry over this.

"Shh." Smarty said soothingly, rubbing his back, "I'm sure he probably just had something to do, he wasn't mad or anything right?"

"No." Steven sniffed out "he was a lot calmer than me."

"See, you're probably totally fine then!" patting Steven's back before letting him go with a soft smile "So you really like him then? I haven't seen you get this worked up over someone in quite a while!"

Steven playfully glared at him before replying "Since you, you mean! And yeah, it's only been a couple days but I do like him." He said, admitting it to himself and Smarty in one fell swoop. And damn if it didn't feel good to finally admit it.

Smarty just laughed "That's good to hear! So what do you want to do till he gets back?" he said firmly, leaving no room for Steven to argue with him.

"Hmm, lets record some stuff, I'm a bit low on content and I'm sure you are too with moving and whatnot, plus it's always fun."

"As long as you help me set up my stuff, it's a deal!" Smarty declared, sticking out a hand for Steven to shake, a deal which he could easily agree to and quickly did so.

~~Skip~~

Just as they finished a game Steven heard someone's key in the lock, pausing their recording he quickly apologized to Smarty before making his way over to Anthony who was making his way into the apartment.

Now that he had admitted to himself how he felt, it was much harder to ignore the fluttering in his stomach or the pull he felt towards Anthony. Steeling himself he was able to meet Anthony's kind warm gaze and smile, feeling an enormous rush of happiness when Anthony smiled back. "Anthony!" he exclaimed "I've got something I need to tell you."

"Hey buddy, I've got something to tell you too."

Don't worry I won't leave the book without some sort of ending. Also I may edit the other chapters since the spelling mistakes really annoy me so feel free to ignore that.