Chase's POV:
I walked up to his door around 6:05, with my dirty duffel bag on my shoulder. I saw his dad's car in the drive - or what I assumed was his dad's car - so I made sure I looked 'well presented' and as if I was just a coming over for studying. I straightened my back and ran my fingers through my hair, whilst taking a big breath and rapping twice on the knocker.
I saw shadows flicker back and forth through the segregated glass: I was hoping this was Adam, but I was prepared if his dad opened the door.
"Hi." I said as Adam's body emerged from the door.
"Hey, come on in," he said, leaving the door open and going back inside. I wiped my feet on the door mat and dumped my bag by the stairs. "Dad, Chase is here."
"Oh okay, I'm about to get into the shower, I will cook some dinner when I get down." Adam blushed slightly at.. his dad I presumed, but he shrugged it off and wandered into the living room. I followed.
"Hate to be a pain, but-"
"The wifi code's taped to the underside of the rooter." He pointed at a flashing box on top of an old piano.
"How did you know I was going to say that?" I laughed, slightly amused by our similar minds.
"I figured." He smiled too.
"Great minds think alike." I wandered over to the piano as he slumped down onto the sofa.
"Do you play?" I gestured to the piano as I turned the rooter over, plugging the code into my phone.
"Yeah, a bit. Mum is really good and I had lessons when I was younger, but i don't really practise anymore." He scratched his head. "You you play anything?"
I flipped the rooter back over and stuffed my phone back into my pocket. "No, not really."
I actually loved to sing, and I thought I wasn't too bad, but here was no way I was telling him that. No one knew.
"You know how long your going to stay?" Adam asked.
"Uh...I don't know. Maybe a couple of nights, maybe three. I guess the sooner I can get somewhere else to stay the better." I sat down on the sofa-chair adjacent to him.
"Oh, OK. You can stay as long as you need..." he paused, "within reason."
"Well, thanks. I don't want to bother you for too long."
"No, really, its fine," He insisted, "you could always stay round one of your closer friends houses if you really ran out of options."
"Yeah...I guess," I mumbled. "They don't really care about me though, I mean, they only really care about how cool they look and how many girls they can sleep with." He nodded and pulled out his phone.
"I never really thought they were like you," Adam began. "Although you might all look the same, you always came off...more genuine." He smiled. "That's a big compliment from me."
I chuckled. "Thanks."
He smiled.
A warm, hazy smile that let me know he cared.
***
Adam's POV:
Chase had been here for a few hours, Dad had come home and picked Emmy up from school (she goes to a fancy private school that has sports and stuff and Saturdays) and I'd defrosted a pizza for dinner, because although dad had offered to cook, I could tell he was exhausted and had to get up early to catch his flight tomorrow.
We ate at about 9, after sitting and actually doing some homework and chatting about trivial things, like food and games. Chase mentioned GTA, so I challenged him to a few rounds of killing stuff after we'd eaten, and after getting a third round of snacks one of the controllers ran out of batteries and we gave up.
"Uuugh I'm so tired." Chase mumbled, wiping his forehead. "How can playing GTA exhaust me so much."
"I don't know. I'm tired too." I flopped back onto the couch. "It's 1/4 past one."
"Is it too late for me to shower?" He asked.
"Well dad should be fast asleep, and given he sleeps like a log I'm thinking you'll be okay." I smiled. "Bathroom's end of the corridor on the left. I'm going to shower upstairs."
"Okay." He got up and walked out the door. Then he popes his head round and said: "You're way...different to how I though you'd be...take that as a compliment."
I heard him chuckled as his steps echoed away.
