I Need You Here With Me

Chapter Four

Nothing Makes Sense (Except For You)

Anthony’s POV

There was a weird tune playing out in the darkness. Then I recognized it as my ringtone on my phone. Without opening my eyes I reached my right hand out to find the source of the noise. My fingers slid over something cool and sleek; found it. It finally shut up when I peeked my eyes open and saw that it was a text from my mom. She sent me a picture message of one of the t-shirts she bought off the Smosh website. She was always a supporter of us just like Ian’s mom. She said she loved me and hoped I would visit her soon. I gave a smile and saw that the time was 9:42am. Guess it was time to start the day. But there was a sudden pain in my back, making me cringe in pain. I tried to figure why it would hurt, and when I looked around it all came back to me. Ian and I hung out during the storm and we supposedly fell asleep. I was still sitting against the wall on my bed, finally explaining the pain. Looking down, I was surprised and a little freaked out to see Ian asleep on my lap, his arms around my waist and his body stretched over the length of my bed. I don’t remember him falling asleep like that…

It would have been awkward to call him on it so I shook him awake, pretending like it either didn’t matter he was hugging me or I didn’t notice it. “Hey, wake up.” Ian’s blue eyes fluttered open slowly and made their way up to me, unaware of his pose. “It’s morning.” I told him while he still completely looked out of it. “O-oh…” Ian groaned as he pushed his body slowly up, finally realizing his weird pose as his hands were on my hips to push himself up. He saw it was awkward so he moved away faster, avoiding eye contact with me. “Um, breakfast time.” Half-asleep and drowsy, Ian got off my bed quickly and headed speed-walked to the door, but his sluggish body put him in a horrible moment. My eyes went wide as I saw him start to tip over, and I felt like fucking Superman when I flew off my bed to catch his fall. I knelt on the floor with my arms around him, panting while Ian looked calm. There were a few moments of silence while I felt my cold hands touch his warm skin, a soothing energy rising up under it. There was such relief in that tiny moment, but Ian didn’t’ feel it as much as I did. “Um, thanks for that, Anthony, but I would have fallen on my back and not on my stomach. I would have been okay.” His reassurance only made me shake my head. “No, I can’t take that risk. I gotta protect you or you could get hurt.” I felt his scruffy cheek on my face when before I pulled him in for a tight hug. When I let him go a second later, Ian was looking at me weird.

“…Did you just kiss my cheek?” That made me take my arms back and stand up, confused. “What? No, I-” I looked away from him sitting on the floor for a split second then it hit me. His scruffy cheek didn’t touch my face; it touched my lips. It wasn’t an accident. I unconsciously kissed his cheek as some sort of empathetic thing. Why the hell did I do that? Knowing I was busted, I had the trouble of explaining myself. “I-I g-guess I got caught up in the moment, ya know? S-some sort of instinct…or something. Whatever. Let’s just get food.” Ian didn’t respond but he kept looking at me like I was crazy. I helped him off the floor then left my room, embarrassed and so confused. I couldn’t be totally guilty. I mean Ian clung to me sometime during the night; whether he did it awake or asleep I didn’t know. My body still ached and I wasn’t in the mood to be Mr. Chef so I left Ian at home and got us both McDonalds for breakfast. Cooking for him every day was getting horrible. Ian was right. The baby would be born totally okay even if his diet wasn’t 100% healthy.

The car ride gave me time to think of what was going on between us. We had never been so close in our lives. It had to be Ian’s girly hormone that was making my brain think he was some sort of lady. Man, I gotta keep my distance from him. My plan didn’t work out after I got home and the both of us had breakfast. We played video games side by side and the distance I wanted only brought us closer. While racing each other at Mario Kart, Ian asked casually: “So, are you ready to have a family once the baby is born?” The random question distracted me enough to make Mario and Luigi fall off the bridge on the Donkey Kong course. I was put in 4th place when I was put back. I couldn’t tell if he was being serious or trying to get me to lose. “I-I don’t know.” I replied defensively, squeezing the GameCube controller when I got hit with a green shell. “I’ll help you raise it but you can start your own family with a girlfriend or something.” Ian paused the game and looked at me, dead serious. Guess he wasn’t trying to cheat.