Top and Tail [boyxboy] [slash]

Chapter 11: Oh, Fuck It

Linda's condition didn't really change much. After a few weeks, she eventually managed to croak out a few words, much to my parents' and Jay's delight. I'd actually participated in a few conversations with her, and made her laugh on occasion with the accidental sarcasm. She was still in hospital; having taken a bad reaction to various drugs, but other than that she had more or less stayed exactly the same since.

Jay however, grew slowly more and more talkative as time went by. Every time I thought I had the shy guy figured out, he'd come out and surprise me with some other new aspect of his personality. Sure he could be shy, awkward, and quiet, but he could also be sarcastic, teasing, and downright immature.

He was a pretty cool guy.

I groaned, and huddled closer to Jay's roasting body. It was a Friday, almost six weeks exactly since Jay had come to live with us, meaning one thing.

"Jay!" I yelled, sitting up and prodding him in the ribs. He opened one eye and regarded me sleepily.

"Uh...?"

"Remind me never to try and hold an intellectual conversation with you early in the morning," I laughed, whacking him in the face with a pillow. "Now move it, get up, come on, etcetera!"

Then Jay sneakily snaked an arm around my waist, pulling me back down into the bed. I felt an inexplicable tightening in my chest when he jerked me down into the mattress, which was still warm from the previous night. And suddenly, all desire to move from my current position evaporated as I collapsed into Jay's warm arms.

"Five more minutes," he promised, squeezing me like I was some sort of teddy bear. I scowled at the thought and swatted his arms away, ignoring the small twisting feeling at the pit of my stomach when he withdrew his arms, hissing slightly.

"Ow..." he said, shifting in the bed so he was sitting up, his shaggy hair falling into his eyes. I stared at him in fascination for a few moments before I realised what I was doing and slapped myself on the forehead, twanging myself back into reality like some sort of elastic band.

"Um.... I'm being nosey, but why are you so excited about today anyway?" he asked, rubbing his eyes sleepily. A huge smile made its way onto my face.

"Dude..." I started, my grin only growing wider. "Guess what?"

"Um..."

"I'm sixteen!" I announced happily. "Sixteen baby! Whoop whoop!"

And I proceeded to bounce up and down in excitement, like a five year old, my excited jumps only magnified by the springs in the mattress. Jay watched my movements with amusement, before my words clicked in his mind.

"Oh! You mean, it's like, your birthday?"

"No shit Sherlock," I smirked, still smiling. "Sixteen. Able to legally change my name without my parents' consent! I can buy a lottery ticket and win millions! I can hold a license to a moped!"

Jay snorted when he heard the last item on my list and threw the cotton covers from his legs.

"Dude, where're you going?" I asked, frowning. "Just five seconds ago you were dragging me back down and now you're the one venturing from the safety of the bed."

Jay blushed, and delved a hand into his suitcase, which he still hadn't got round to unpacking, even after six weeks of shacking it with me. Or rather, he'd littered the majority of his clothes around the room like me, and when my mum requested I clean the bedroom Jay and I cleverly devised the plan of just shoving everything into the suitcase. So as far as my mother was concerned, my bedroom was spotless.

A rather ingenious plan, if I do say so myself.

Suddenly Jay pulled a small square of shiny blue wrapping paper from the bulging suitcase. I stood up and walked over to him, curious about the package.