Stuck in the Middle

Chapter 4

The next morning, I awoke to none other than yelling.

"You can't just go through my stuff!" John shouted.

"I never touched your stuff!" Marc answered, just as loudly.

I sat up slowly, grabbing my glasses and putting them on so that I could see what exactly was going on, not that I was entirely sure I wanted to. That thought was confirmed when I saw Marc and John standing in the middle of the room, glaring at each other. Neither of them were wearing shirts which, admittedly was the only thing I found myself focusing on, with their toned abs and perfectly sculpted torsos that proved just how much they worked out for whichever sports they played.

"Then where is it?" John demanded.

"How the hell am I supposed to know? You haven't even told me what was missing!"

"Pipsqueak!"

I tore my gaze away from John's abs to look at his face. He was glaring right at me. Oh no.

"Where is it?"

I shook my head slowly. "I'm sorry," I said quietly. "I just woke up. Where is what?"

"My bag," he growled. "With all my shower shit in it. Black plastic bag. Where. Is. It."

I swallowed the lump in my throat, but wasn't able to get a word out before Marc spoke up. "You really think he took it?"

"No. But if you won't admit to taking it, then clearly someone in this room did."

Marc shook his head. "I already told you: I don't know where it is!"

Without thinking, I scambered down the ladder for my bunk. Before either of them could start hitting each other, which looked like it was about to happen any second, I put myself between them. I didn't realize until that moment just how much taller they both were than me. 

Maybe this was a bad idea.

But I was already here, so I couldn't just run away and hide. "Can we please not fight?" I asked, my voice coming out a lot quieter than I had intended. I tried a bit louder. "Clearly, this is not the living situation any of us imagined, but it's the one we're stuck with for now. Can't we just get along?"

Neither of them spoke for a long moment, only continued glaring at one another. I was breathing way heavier than I should be, but I couldn't help it. For one, I just stood up to two people about to get into a full-blown fight. Two, neither were wearing shirts and they were now very, very close to me.

I was lucky they didn't argue at all last night. But, then again, John was out way past lights out time. I hadn't even heard him come in. But that didn't stop him from making an appearance in my dream last night. Both of them. And now, here I was, stuck between them, although it wasn't exactly the situation I had been dreaming about.

My phone started buzzing up on my bed, breaking the silence. My alarm. Marc and John just stared at me, but I was too embarrassed to move. Part of me also worried that if I moved, they'd start attacking each other.

Marc took a step toward the bunks and grabbed my phone for me. Silently, he handed it over and I quickly switched off the alarm.

After another few seconds of uncomfortable silence, with the two of them staring each other down, John let out a groan. "Fine. Guess I shower without any soap today and you'll get to deal with me smelling like shit until you can stop acting like a kid and give me my stuff back."

"At least you'll smell better than usual," Marc retorted, just as John was about to leave the room.

"What?"

"Maybe just standing under the water for a bit will get rid of any lingering scent from that gross cologne you use all the time. What is it? Sandalwood or some shit like that?"

"How the hell do you know what kind of cologne I use? Unless you went through my bag when you took it!"

"Dude, chill!" Marc crossed his arms over his chest. "The whole school knows what kind of cologne you use. I'm actually surprised you even know how a shower works, considering I always thought you just bathed in that shit."

Instead of saying anything else, John turned and hurried out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Marc let out a long sigh. "I swear, he's making up reasons just to get mad at me." He crawled back onto his bed. "All I wanted to do was sleep a little longer before class started."

I didn't reply, noticing the corner of a small black plastic bag under John's bed. I had a feeling that was the bag he was missing, but I didn't want to start touching his things, especially since I knew how he reacted when he only thought someone was going through his belongings.

But I reached down anyway, sliding it out from under the bed.

"Don't tell me that's his missing bag," Marc said from behind me.

Carefully, I opened it up to reveal all of John's shower supplies. I showed it to Marc. "Unless it's yours, I'm going to say he just didn't look hard enough for it this morning."

The door flung open and John stormed back into the room. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his bathroom bag on display between us. "Fuck you both!" he screamed. Then, grabbing his bag and the towel that was on his bed, he once again stormed out of the room.

"Day two and he already hates me," I muttered.

"Don't worry," Marc said. "He hates everybody. You're not special."

Like that makes me feel any better, I thought, standing up. I knew he was straight, they both were, and John was way too nasty for me to ever actually want to date, but I couldn't help being attracted to him. Knowing he hated me hurt.

I had promised TJ I'd meet up with him for breakfast before class started, so I knew I needed to get ready to go. Grabbing some clothes from my dresser and my toothbrush and paste, I headed down the hall to the bathroom. I would have changed my clothes in the room, but I felt too awkward changing in front of Marc.

There was one bathroom on each floor, down at the end. I wish each room had their own, but it seemed like such a minor inconveience to deal with compared to everything I had to endure last year.

But as soon as I walked into the bathroom, I was met with a naked John, with only his towel wrapped around his waist. I froze, unable to look away.

"Move, pipsqueak," he snapped, stepping around me.

I jumped, hurrying into one of the stalls and shutting the door behind me as quickly as I could. I was so mortified.