SMOKE -------------------------------------------------------------------------- by Mike Daryl Ormond
Chapter 3: The Day After
Somebody's singing. I opened my eyes to see my living room ceiling partially lit by the lamp post outside the window. It was still dark outside. I reached for my wrist watch on the center table and saw it was just 4:12 am. "Where is that noise coming from?" I thought. I listened intently. It was coming from my room. It was... Duncan. Singing? I raised my head to hear the words better. "..cause you and I both loved... you and I both..." He must have found the Jason Mraz cd I had on my work desk. I dropped back on my make shift bed on the floor in disgust.
Duncan and I got in the apartment a little past 1 am. He immediately went into my room, threw the comforter out and closed the door before me. It took me about an hour just to get comfortable on the living room floor where my sofa should have been. I should have been sleeping on that sofa. I should have been sleeping on my bed. "...you and I both loved..." And he's back on refrain. He could have at least thrown out a pillow as well. I threw an ashtray to my bedroom door.
I heard heavy footsteps quickly making for the door. I closed my eyes and feigned sleep. "Mike? Was that you?" He said as he searched for me on the floor. "What the hell was that?"
I opened my eyes slightly and saw Duncan standing right in front of me. He was shirtless wearing only his boxer shorts. He was well defined with his muscular pecs and 6 pack abs. His legs and arms were strong with the slight dusting of hair. He looked a lot like the lead guy from the movie Swim Fan.
"Mike? Stop fooling around. I know it was you." He said with his best puppy voice. He was holding up the ashtray. He kneeled with my crotch between his legs and leaned with his face in front of me. "Mikeeeey..." he continued with his boyish taunts. His morning woodie bulged from within his boxers making contact to mine. My body shivered all over.
"Gotcha." He said loudly as he tickled my sides with his hands. I became teary eyed as I convulsed uncontrollably with his touch, laughing as I made him stop. I push him off me and he rolled on the carpet beside me. We fell silent for a minute as we tried to catch our breaths.
"Do you tell your cleaning lady to vacuum? Duncan said facing me as he scratched his left arm. "This carpet itches."
"I do the vacuuming here because unlike you, your highness, I don't have a cleaning lady." I said in a fake irritated tone. "Serves you right - itching for throwing me out of my own room."
I got another jolt as he poked my sides again with his hands.
"Stop it already." I said quickly as I pushed his arms aside.
"You always like this in the morning?" He chided as he sat up.
"Only before daylight."
"Come on" He said motioning me to stand up. "You can sleep on your bed. I'm through with it anyway." "No."
"Michael. I'm serious."
"No. I.."
I was halfway what I was going to say when Ducan decided to pull the comforter I was lying on all the way to my bedroom with me on it.
"Get up. On to the bed." He said - now more forceful.
"I don't..."
"Ok mister. You asked for..."
Afraid of what he was going to do next. I decided to get on the bed on my own. As I got up, I saw that my laptop was turned on with my phone line hooked up to it's modem. "Whatcha doin?" I asked as I fluffed the pillow I salvaged from the floor.
"I was checking on my mail. I figured maybe some of the guys have already answered I survey I sent and..."
"Are you serious?"
"Well... yeah. I have a couple of responses see. Oh... and look here. I have one from Andrea already. Hey... Wanna check it out?"
"She probably just felt sorry for thrashing you apartment and maybe she thought..." I shielded my face mid-sentence as Duncan hurled a magazine towards my direction.
"You ass. Just for that, I'm not telling you who Andrea wrote."
"Hey. You aren't supposed to do that. Don't you guys have a confidentiality agreement shit?" I closed my eyes trying to find my way back to the dream world.
"Well, as we are in prototype and Andrea is our friend, I'm guessing nobody will fucking care."
"Wait till I tell Angela what.."
"Holy shit Mikey!"
"What?"
"She wrote you."
"Me?" I said silently to myself. "Why would she write me?" Andrea knew I was gay. Crap. She's messing with me again. She knew Duncan would read this. God, I hate her.
"Man! What are you going to do now?" Duncan said excitedly
Good question.
"Are you gonna ask her out?"
"No! I'm not gonna ask her out!"
Duncan looked at me dumb-founded. "Why?"
Whoa... Second good question and it is not even 5 am. "Uh... because..."
"Because what?"
"Well... firstly..." I'm gay. "I don't really see Andrea that way and..."
"And?"
"And..." I kinda like you. "I'm really into someone else... right now."
"Really? Who?"
"You wouldn't know...what's with the twenty questions anyway? We'll just not say anything to Andrea. Ok?"
"This wouldn't just go away you know."
"I know." Andrea, you're ass is mine as soon as I see you. "Let's just drop it, ok?"
"You know. I always thought you Andrea would end up together."
Huh? Where the hell did that come from? "Why do you say that?"
Duncan turned off the computer and sat on the bed, bending over to look for his t-shirt. I opened the drawer on my bedside and gave him one of mine.
"Well?" I said as he put on the shirt.
"You know... with how you always spend time with her now." He laid on the bed beside me pulling one of the pillows from underneath my head. "How you two share secret jokes."
"Secret jokes?"
"Yeah. I see you two giggling. I see how she always makes you smile. I never thought... when I got back..." Duncan sighed.
"Never thought what?"
"Just a week before I left for that trip to Milwaukee, you were telling me about this obnoxious girl at work. And when I came back a month later, you had a new best friend."
"Hey man. That's just it. We're just friends."
"No. I knew this was different. Before I left, we were always hanging out. You were always talking to me. I felt I knew everything that is happening in that twisted mind of yours. Now. Now, I figured you have Andrea."
"Nothing has changed man. You want to hang out? We can still hang out."
"I've never seen you so happy with another girl. I think. I really think you should ask her out."
"Fine! I'll ask her out." I'm getting tired of this. "I'll call her first thing later." I turned my head away from Duncan and turned out the lamp on the side table. In the darkness, I heard him whisper something before finally going to sleep.
"You're a good person Mikey. I just want to see you happy."
Clearly, we we're both in the dark.
------------------------------------- Next...
Chapter 4: Out of Sorts
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