Looking For Space // Josh Kiszka

VII

Ask and you shall receive...

---

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 tanned 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. 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, cluttered with a few scattered toiletries, CDs, and empty water glasses.

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 pee. I found mouthwash under the sink and in the medicine cabinet, one of the twins 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," Jake replied. His voice was so husky and rich--so different than Josh's. "Glasses are to your left."

I opened the cabinet and removed one, turning the tap on. "Ah, thanks."

"Is Josh still asleep?"

I nodded as I took a gulp of water.

"You're not gonna wait for him to get up?" Jake asked then, with a grin, added, "Or should I try and wake him up?"

"No, it's okay," I told him. "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. "Yeah, thanks."

Jake poured out the other mug and handed it to me--it was a 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 told Jake and took a sip of the coffee. "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. After hitting "confirm" I paused, then asked, "Is it dumb if I ask what Josh says about me?"

Jake smiled a little. "He likes you. He likes working with you," he explained. "He was also really excited about the amusement park which, I'm sure you realize, was perfect for him."

I laughed. "Yeah, he went wild on the teacups."

Jake laughed too. "So you both had fun?"

"Yeah, definitely," I said and took another sip of coffee. "I'm sure Josh told you how I found him so annoying but--I don't know. I like him too."