Climbing Class One-Shots

Hey Jealousy

  The two-bedroom apartment was small, but that didn't make it any less perfect. It was a five-minute walk from campus, a seven-minute walk from the coffee shop, and a ten-minute walk from the video store. Josh couldn't decide what part of that time-table was the best part.
"What kind of movies are we renting this weekend?" Chris poke his head out from the kitchen, blue striped apron hanging from his neck. "I feel like we need to establish that before we even go to the rental store."
Actually, the fact that Chris was almost always ten-seconds away was probably his favorite part.
"Horror, bro." Josh closes his abnormal psychology textbook before stretching back out on the couch. "It's October."
"You said that last weekend." Chris laughs before going back to the stove.
"Sam was over last weekend; she got to pick then."
"Yeah, but you're going to pick gross ones like Wrong Turn, Destination, and Saw."
"They're classics, Cochise!" Josh throws his arm up dramatically before pushing himself up off the couch. "What're you in here making, anyways?"
"Soup."
"Soup?" Josh raises his brows before peering over Chris's shoulder. "What kind of soup?"
"Chicken noodle. What other kind of soup is there?" Chris stirs, steam fogging up his glasses.
"You're not sick, are you?"
"I'm not." Chris pulls off his glasses and wipes them with his sleeve. "Ash is."
"Oh." Josh had met Ashley before. She was in his macroeconomics class. Her and Chris had met in the library a few months ago and had been study-buddies ever since. Josh didn't like to think about it too much.
Chris resettles his glasses on his face and stares back into the soup.
"Well, don't catch it from her or anything. Your immune system sucks, and you can be a real bitch when you're sick."
Chris looks offended. "You know I only ever make valiant efforts to make myself ill so you have to take care of me."
Josh rolls his eyes, heat teasing his cheeks. He tells himself it's just the steam.
"But, seriously, if we're doing horror for the second weekend in a row, you have to let me pick which ones." Chris chirps before covering the lid. "That way, if I hate it, it's my own fault."
"Fair enough." Josh shrugs.
**
Spying was wrong. Hannah used to tell him that. Whenever he'd stand on his tip toes in their back yard trying to peer in their parents' window, Hannah would always tell him that.
"So, then you use these variables to solve for x once you have them."
"Okay." Ashley nods and goes back to her paper; her voice sounds raspy, probably from having been sick. A thermos of soup sits to her left. Chris's thermos with Chris's soup.
Math wasn't exactly her strong suit. Josh remembered how she reacted when the teacher called on her for any number trends in macroeconomics. She always went bright red and tried to hide behind a curtain of her hair.
Not like Chris. Chris was great at math.
Josh peers around the corner again to look at the spot between Chris's shoulder, hunched as he looked over Ashley's work.
"No, not like that..." he erases and rewrites something on her page. "Try now."
"Okay." She bites her lip and tried the problem again.
She and Chris are very close, Josh realizes. Shoulders touching, heads close together. If they were facing each other, they'd probably be kissing.
"There you go." Josh can tell from Chris's voice that he's smiling.
"I got it right." She smiles and looks up at him. "You're really good at this."
"Nah." Oh, Chris. Always modest. "Just had a lot of practice. Why don't you try another?"
"Okay." She nods and goes back to the paper.
Josh can't tell if they're flirting or just deep in concentration. He decides not to stay and figure it out.
**
When Chris gets home, Josh is curled up on the couch with his film textbook while he nurses a cup of coffee.
"Hey, dude." Chris shrugs off his jacket. "How goes the reading?"
"It goes." Josh takes a sip from his coffee. "Did Ashley like her soup?"
He doesn't need to ask partially because he already knows and partially because he doesn't care what she thought anyways.
"Yeah, she seemed to appreciate it." Chris leans over the back of the couch. "What are you reading about?"
"Lighting."
"Sounds boring."
"You would be correct." Josh takes another sip before looking up at Chris. He could reach up and touch him if he wanted to. He doesn't.
**
"So, do you care if we invite more people movies tonight?" Chris asks as they shamble up and down the aisles of the rental store. He's picks up a few—It Follows, Oculus, Cabin in the Woods, and Jennifer's Body—and piles them into Josh's arms. Josh has a feeling they all might suck, but in a redeemable kind of way.
"What kind of people?" Josh asks, watching as Chris picks up a copy of Chernobyl Diaries and turn it over to read the back before adding it to the stack.
"Well, Sam, obviously." Chris bends down to look at cover that features Santa Claus with a flame thrower, but decides against picking it up and stands again.
"Dude, sleepover?" Josh's eyes light up. The only way spending time with Chris gets better is when Sam is there. "Can we order pizza?"
Chris laughs and turns a copy of Ouija over in his hands. "Of course. But, um, not just Sam."
"The more the merrier." Josh grins as Chris adds the movie to his stack. "Who else? Jess? Matt?"
"Um...Ash, actually."
Oh.
"Yeah, sure. Ashley can come, too."
"Sweet." Chris grins. "Do you think six movies is enough?"
"Add the remake of Carrie to the stack and it will be."
Chris wrinkles his nose. "I thought you said that movie sucked."
"It fits the theme."
Chris rolls his eyes, but adds it to the stack anyways.
**
Ashley arrives at their apartment before Sam does, which makes Josh want to tear each of his hairs out one at a time or peel all the skin off his arms. After watching them lean too close together on the couch while they talk movies, he resides himself to the kitchen to make popcorn. Of course, that would be going better if he wasn't trying to block everything out.
He's only vaguely aware that the popcorn is burning when Chris is suddenly behind him somehow, pulling the microwave open and waving his hand to try and diffuse some of the smoke.
"Dude, I know you like your popcorn thoroughly popped, but isn't this a bit excessive?"
Josh blinks before looking down at the smoldering bag Chris had extracted from the microwave.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what happened."
"It's okay, bro." Chris claps a hand on Josh's shoulder just as there's a knock on the door.
"It's okay, Josh!" Ashley calls from the living room as Chris goes to answer the door. "I like my popcorn burnt, too!"
And suddenly Josh wants to crawl inside the bag of sizzling popcorn and hopefully burn to death.
"Jesus, what happened?" Sam asks. "It smells like some serious burn in here."
"Josh and the popcorn had a disagreement on what was 'too much heat'." Chris says.
Then all three of them are laughing and Josh seriously considers trying to cram himself into the bag, or maybe down the trash chute. That could work too.
"Here, I'll help him get another bag made for us of the non-burn variety." He hears Sam dump her coat and bag before she's in the kitchen with him.
"Hey, Sammy." He says sheepishly, offering her the bag of popcorn. "Don't like yours extra crispy?"
She shakes her head. "I'm also not into butter."
"Vegans are so weird." He scoffs. "Gotta make another bag for Chris, though."
"I can just share with him."
Better you than her.
"Yeah, that could work."
They go back to making the popcorn together and splitting it up into bowls.
**
Horror movie night was a horrible idea. Josh decides this very quickly by the way Ashley and Chris are clinging to each other before the first movie is even over. Josh knew that Chris was a clinger when it came to scary movies already; he'd never minded before because Josh had always been the one Chris would cling to. Not Ashley. But there the two of them were, tangled in a mass of blankets and limbs to hide from the hobbling, zombie-like creatures on the screen.
Josh himself was a bit jumpy. He sat between Chris and Sam now. Every now and then he'd duck into Chris's shoulder, but eventually seeing he and Ashley cling to each other just got old, and he swapped Chris's shoulder for Sam's.
Sam seemed the least scared, just laughing along with gore and munching her weird vegan popcorn. After they finished Chernobyl Diaries, Ashley got up to use the bathroom and change into her pajamas. At that point, they all decide pajamas was probably a good idea. Sam took Josh's room and Chris and Josh just changed in Chris's.
"I think that's my shirt." Chris says, tugging a black one with a melting Rubik's cube on the front over his head.
Josh looks down, even though he knows it's Chris's white shirt with 'Coach Loop' written across the front. He's not even sure what the shirt is even about.
"Must've gotten mixed up when we did laundry last." Josh shrugs.
"Must have..." Chris smiles. "It looks good on you."
"Don't tell me that." Josh smirks. "You'll never get it back now."
Chris rolls his eyes.
"Um, Chris?" Josh asks.
"Yeah?"
"About Ashley..."
A knock on the door cuts him off and it takes every ounce of willpower not to groan and dramatically throw himself on the ground.
"All changed in there?" Sam calls.
"Yeah." Chris calls back. "We'll be out in a second."
"Okay."
"What were you saying, Josh?"
"Um..." Josh bites his lip before shaking his head and smiling. "It's nothing."
"Did you still wanna order pizza?" Chris asks and Josh's eyes light up. Chris laughs before saying. "I'll take that as a yes. C'mon, let's go see what kind the girls want."
**
They're a third of the way through It Follows when the pizza guy knocks on the door, causing all of them to scream before bursting into a fit of laughter.
"I'll get it." Chris gets up, scooping the pile of crinkled bills they all contributed.
"I'll get plates." Sam pushes herself off the couch and wanders into the kitchen, leaving just Ashley and Josh.
"Have you studied for the test yet in macro?" Ashley asks, braiding her hair while she talks.
"What? Oh, yeah. I feel like it won't be too much trouble."
Why does she have to be nice?
"Chris has been helping me out with the math and stuff...so I feel like I'll actually do okay on this one."
Josh nods. "Yeah, Chris is a great teacher."
Ashley nods in response. "That what friends are for I guess."
Friends. She said friends.
"So how are all of your other midterms going?"
"Fine." Josh nods.
"You're a psych major, right?"
"How'd you know that?"
"Chris told me." She smiled. "He talks about you all the time."
"Really? He does?"
Ashley laughed. "Yeah."
Josh smiles to himself, tips of his ears warm.
"Alright." Chris walks in with the stack. "One pepperoni and tomato for Ashley, one soy cheese and spinach for Sam, and two three meats for Josh and me."
Sam sets down plates. "Okay, hit play."
Chris does and the four of them eat their pizza.
**
Ashley and Sam fall asleep on the couch. Chris and Josh take the floor, being the gentleman that they are. Josh lays awake in his sleeping bag, staring at the ceiling and listening to Ashley snore.
He zones back in when Chris taps the foot of his sleeping bag against Josh's.
"Bro, are you awake?" he sleep-over whispers.
Josh chuckles. "Yeah."
"I can't sleep."
"Me either."
Josh rolls over, facing Chris, whose eyes are squinted up because his glasses are off, and he probably can't see more than a foot or so in front of his face, especially in the dark.
"What're you thinking about, Cochise?"
"Fricking mirror demons." Chris visibly shutters. "Demons in general."
Josh chuckles and scoots closer. "I won't let anything get you."
Chris rolls his eyes in the darkness. "Psh, like you weren't scared."
"Totally scared, bro."
"Both of you will be totally scared if you don't go to sleep." Sam mumbles as she rolls over, adjusting herself on the couch. Ashley is still snoring.
The boys both chuckle before hunkering back down.
"We also need to turn the heat up." Chris shivers again. "It's colder in here than it should be."
"I mean, we're also on the floor." Josh half grins before he unzips his sleeping bag.
"What're you doing?"
"These zip together." Josh pokes at Chris's. "Shared body heat and all."
"You're such a weirdo." Chris mumbles, but unzips his sleeping bag anyways so that Josh can zip them in together. Once they're in together, Chris scoots closer, tucking his head into Josh's shoulder.
"Better?"
"Yeah." Chris curls a little closer, curling into Josh's body. "Goodnight, Bro."
Josh smiles and wraps his arm around Chris's shoulder. "Goodnight, Chris."
**
When Josh wakes up, Chris is gone. He reaches around with his outstretched arm, feeling for the other heat source, and opens his eyes when he comes up short.
He looks up to find Ashley and Sam still curled up on the couch asleep. Then looks at the coatrack by the door where Chris's coat is not.
Where did he go?
Josh yawns before slinking out of the doubled up sleeping back and stumbling into the kitchen to get a pot of coffee brewing. It's halfway done when he hears the front door unlock. Chris comes into the kitchen a minute later with a box of donuts.
"A man after my own heart." Chris laughs when he sees Josh in front of the coffee machine. "I was half way back here before I realized I forgot to pick some up."
Josh pokes at the box of donuts with a smile before pulling down a pair of mugs. "Great minds think alike, I guess."
"Hey, what did you want to ask me last night?"
"Last night?" Josh pulls the cream from the fridge along with a carton of soymilk for Sam.
"About Ashley."
"Oh."
"You seemed like you wanted to ask me something."
Josh's esophagus promptly tries to tie itself into a knot. He wishes he had something more to do with his hands then flick the lid of the creamer open and closed.
"What was it?" Chris is fishing out a donut now, looking at Josh curiously.
"Just, um," there isn't enough air in this apartment for this, never mind in the kitchen where they're less than two feet apart. "Wondering if she was seeing anybody."
Chris takes a bite of his donut, eyebrows creased. "I think she's on-off with this guy named Mark. TA or something; I don't know. Why? Do you like her?"
"No!" Josh says too quickly. "I mean, she's great and all. I just didn't know if she was like...into someone or something...."
"Uh...huh...." Chris takes another bite of his donut, and the coffee pot beeps—thank god—and Josh goes to fix their mugs.
They stand in silence for a few moments, drinking their coffee and munching on a donut each.
Eventually, Sam and Ashley wander into the kitchen, beckoned by the smell of coffee, and the four of them mull over some morning conversation together.
**
"We will have leftover pizza to feed us for the rest of the weekend." Chris calls from the kitchen as Josh folds blankets and rolls up sleeping bags. "Maybe until Monday if we consider Sam's vegan monstrosity."
"I don't understand why she didn't just take it with her."
"Something about not having enough room in her tiny fridge." Chris comes back in and plops on the couch.
"And we have to take those movies back at some point today." Josh plops the pile of blankets into the corner of the room before setting on the couch next to Chris.
"We can go in a little while." Chris picks up the remote and is mindlessly channel surfing now.
Josh curls his knees up to his chest, watching the images flicker past. His toes curl and uncurl inside of his socks.
"Do you like Ashley?" He blurts before he's even realized he's said it.
Chris flips to another channel. "What?"
"Do you..." Josh bites his lip. "Do you like Ashley?"
"I, mean, she's cool and all." Chris scratches the back of his head and flips channels. "And she came to hang out for scary movie night, so I guess I do."
"No, do you like Ashley?" Josh is feeling bold now, even though he's still curled up like a little kid.
"What, like, do I want to date her?" Chris turns to look at Josh, but Josh keeps his gaze adamantly fixed on the floor.
"...Do you?"
"Not really." Chris sets the remote down. "She's not my type."
"She isn't?" If Josh had a tail, it would be wagging.
"Nah; English majors aren't really my schtick."
"Oh, okay. More into tech gurus?"
"I don't want to date myself." Chris snorts. "I'm more into Psych majors with killer taste in movies."
Josh feels like he might explode or vomit up his own heart. There's no way he heard that one right. Or he just didn't wake up at all this morning and this is still a dream. Maybe he got hit by a bus on the way back from the store yesterday, and this is all just in his head.
Still, he chances a look at Chris, and their eyes lock, and, yep, this is definitely some kind of Propofol induced dream while he lays in wait for the doctors to reconstruct his entire everything.
"Oh, come on, like you didn't know."
"I..." His mouth is dry like he just ate six pounds of sand. "Why didn't you say something?"
"Well I was so sure that you were into Sam..." Chris looks away. "It never really came up."
"Sam? Why would I be into Sam?"
"Oh, come on!" Chris throws up his hands but he's smiling. "The way you always make sure we have soymilk, and invite her to movie night, and the way you were curled up into her shoulder last night."
"That's because you and Ashley were tangled up like...like...I don't even know what!"
Both of them look at each other before they start laughing. Not just little 'he he he's', but side crunching, gut busting, wheezing laughter. They're both doubled over and gasping for breath, tears streaming down their faces.
"So, I take it..." Chris wheezes. "I take it you don't like Sam?"
Josh clutches at his stomach, shaking his head. "No. I don't like Sam. Not like that, at least."
"Good." Chris smiles, shaking his head.
"Good?"
"Good." Chris says again before he leans back against the couch, arms folded behind his head.
Josh stares at him a few minutes, blinking and wiping tears away before he nuzzles into Chris's shoulder. He feels warm when Chris wraps his arm around him.
"So, this is okay?"
Josh smiles before looking up at Chris. "More than okay."