Looking For Space // Josh Kiszka

VII

Ask and you shall receive...

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I had moved further away from Josh during the night but I still woke up with his arm across both our pillows and his hand laid above my head. I blinked against the tan skin of his forearm, gingerly rolled over in the hopes of not disturbing him, and found that seeing his room in daylight was a little different than in shadowed blues. I could see he needed to dust the tops of the bookshelves and I noticed the small crumpled pile of clothes by his closet door that I hadn't seen the night before in front of the dresser that was slightly cluttered with a few scattered toiletries, CDs, and empty water glasses. 

Yet everything had a place. Even the minor messes fit in perfectly. 

I got up carefully and put on my clothes. Josh's snoring was so quiet it was almost undetectable, but I did see a nice pool of drool on his pillow that I was glad missed my own. He didn't stir at all, not even when I sat back on the bed to put my shoes on.

As I opened his bedroom door, I prayed I wouldn't see Jake. I didn't, so I zipped into the bathroom and shut the door, basking in the relief of finally being able to relieve myself. I found mouthwash under the sink, and in the medicine cabinet, one of the twins--or maybe both--had a modest collection of all-natural skincare, which I took advantage of. I squeezed some of the cucumber and watercress face wash into my hand and rinsed away the sweat, grime and leftover makeup from my face, immediately feeling exponentially better than I had minutes prior.

I needed water though, badly, and when I stepped out to get to the kitchen, Jake was sitting on the couch again, lazily draped over the cushions with a book in front of him. 

"Oh, sorry," I said, though it didn't stop me from looking through all the cabinets to find a glass. "I'm leaving soon."

"It's okay." His voice was so husky and rich, quite different than Josh's. "Glasses are to your left."

I opened the cabinet and removed one, turning the tap on. "Ah, thanks." It was another relief to down half the glass in one go.

"Is Josh still asleep?" he asked, and I nodded as I took another gulp. "You're not gonna wait for him to get up?" With a grin, Jake added, "Or should I try and wake him up?"

"No, it's okay," I told him. Josh looked so adorable while sleeping, it was probably a crime to wake him up early. "I'm just gonna get an uber. I'll see him in class."

Jake put his book down. "He talks about you a lot."

I nearly choked. "Really?"

Jake got up, stretched and then joined me in the kitchen. He grabbed two mugs from another cabinet and started to pour coffee from the pot on the far end of the counter in one of them. "Coffee?"

I had no idea how long an uber would take to get there. What did I have to lose? "Yeah, thanks."

He poured out the other mug and handed it to me, a hefty black mug with a gold image of an eagle. "I read some of the poem," he said. "It's really good."

"Thanks. We've worked pretty hard on it." I took a sip of the coffee, hot in contrast to the cold water that had just soothed my throat. "We're just waiting to get the grade back."

"It'll be fine," Jake said. "I can't imagine you'd get a bad grade on that."

"I hope you're right. We have a little while longer to worry about it," I replied and took out my phone to get the uber. I didn't want to overstay my welcome as tempting as it was becoming. After hitting "confirm" I paused, then asked, "Is it dumb if I ask what Josh says about me?"