Jamie

"Seriously, you two. It's barely 8 o'clock in the morning. On a fucking Saturday."

I drop down next to Patrick on one of the sofas in my garage. Jay is fully occupying the other sofa, feet up, laying down, one arm draped over his eyes. He doesn't acknowledge my comment, much less my presence, and Patrick just laughs. 

"Like I said, I needed to get away from Joel." Patrick explains. 

"And you?" I raise my eyebrows at Jay, but he doesn't move an inch.

"J1!" Patrick yells at him, before throwing a cushion at him. He groans and bats the cushion away with the arms that was covering his face. His eyes are open, so I know he's awake. 

"Lay the fuck off of me, I didn't get much sleep last night." He turns his body around so that he's facing the back on the sofa, rather than us. 

"Right, and you didn't even get laid." Patrick scoffs. "Why are you so lame?"

"Fuck off, you didn't get laid last night either." Jay mumbles into the couch. 

"Yeah, through my own restraint and willpower." Patrick says proudly. "I had plenty of offers, but Wasted Joel came first last night." 

"For a change." I grin at Patrick and he nudges me with his elbow playfully. It isn't like him to pass up an opportunity for sex, but when it comes to taking care of his best friend, of course he'll prioritise Joel. 

"So what happened with Ronnie, dude?" I ask Jay neutrally. "Why all the cuddling? Why no banging?"

"I don't wanna talk about it." Jay mumbles, still not turning to face us. I eye Patrick suspiciously and he rolls his eyes at me.

"That's all I've been able to get out of him too." Patrick informs me. "We'll return to the subject later, when he's done wallowing in self pity." 

"Man up, Jay." I yell over to him. He completely ignores me. 

"So, what about that Noah guy, then?" Patrick fully turns his attention to me now. "We know Jay's night with Ronnie was a total bust, and I went home with Joel. Come on, Jame. Don't let me down."

I roll my eyes and chuckle. Typical Patrick. Living vicariously through our sex lives is one of his favourite hobbies. I think it amuses him. Probably because he knows the action we get is no where near as filthy as what he gets up to himself. He never gives us much details about his hookups, for that reason I think. But, I'm not shy. I don't mind telling the guys about what I get up to.

"Well." I straighten up and cross my legs on the sofa, preparing to tell the tale of my night with Noah. "He walked me home from the club, he kissed me on the front porch so I invited him in. He got a little weird about it though, saying he didn't wanna make things awkward between us cause we're gonna be working together. So, I accepted that nothing was gonna happen and told him he could crash in the guest room because he didn't know how to get back to the dorms. But, one thing lead to another... We didn't sleep together, but we did fool around for a while. And that's it."

Jay suddenly sits up and turns to face me, I knew he was listening. "What the fuck? He stayed here last night?"

"Yeah," I tell him casually, "he just left."

Jay looks at Patrick in disbelief. "They were having coffee when I went upstairs just now." Patrick shrugs his shoulders.

"Well you could have mentioned that!" Jay shouts at Patrick. "I could have had a talk with him."

"Uh, about what?" I ask Jay.

"About whatever his intentions are with you, obviously!" Jay tells at me. I roll my eyes at him.

"You don't see me having any talks with Ronnie." I point out, "we can fool around with whoever we want to, it's not a big deal, Jay."

"I know that." He spits at me. "But after everything that happened with Will fucking Archibald, I just want you to be careful."

I sigh, because I've known this was coming. I knew that the first time I showed interest in another guy since Willgate, Jay would get all protective and go into crazy big brother mode. It's sweet, really, but it's not necessary.

"Jay, please relax." I tell him seriously. "Noah is probably the most good looking guy I have ever seen in my life. Of course I would love to sleep with him, but that's it. He's not the nicest guy I've ever talked to, I definitely do not have feelings for him. So you have nothing to worry about, okay?"

"Hey, what about us?" Patrick asks, pretending to be hurt. "Aren't we the most good looking guys you've ever seen in your life?"

I roll my eyes and nudge him playfully. The truth is, Patrick is better looking than Noah. So is Joel. Jay, not so much. Buy I don't need to tell them that, Patrick most certainly doesn't need the ego boost.

"Shut up." I say to Patrick. "The point is, nothing else is gonna happen between me and Noah, okay, Jay? He said he doesn't wanna make things weird between us. So we can just forget about it, okay?"

Jay looks like he's sulking a little, but he nods his head, accepting what I've just told him.

"So, are you gonna tell us what happened with Ronnie now?" I ask him, checking my phone and seeing that I have a new message from Aubrey.

"Ugh, I guess so." Jay says, sounding miserable.

"Hang on, I need more shitty instant coffee for this." Patrick says, jumping to his feet and rushing back up the stairs to the kitchen.

"Me too please!" I call up the stairs after him, as I read my text from Aubrey.

08:09am, Aubrey: Morning girl, last night was so much fun but I barely saw you in Club T! Not much of a dancer huh? Are you free for breakfast so we can catch up!? xoxo

"Aubrey wants to meet for breakfast to catch up about everything from last night." I tell Jay as I reply telling her to come over. "I have plenty of food upstairs so I'll invite her over here. Kim too."

"Cool." Jay says, rubbing his eyes again.

I put my phone down and give him a meaningful look. "Dude, are you all right?" He'll be more real with me while Patrick is gone.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just feel like a pussy." He sighs and lays his head back on the sofa. I laugh, as Patrick rejoins us.

"Aubrey and Kim are coming over for breakfast." I inform Patrick as he hands me my coffee.

"Cool. Come on then, Jay. Veronica story. Go." Patrick says, looking at Jay with excitement in his eyes.

"We left the club, we went back to my house." Jay begins.

"The palace." Patrick interjects.

"Shut up." Jay glowers at him. "Anyway, she was pretty... bewildered, when she saw the house."

Patrick laughs openly at this, and I try my best to suppress a laugh. His house is fucking ridiculous, I could imagine the poor girls reaction.

"Why didn't you go to her place?" I ask him, trying my best not to laugh.

"She said her roommate was there with her boyfriend or some shit. Whatever. She got over the initial shock of how unescessarily big my parents house is, we went in to my room -"

Patrick cuts him off again. "Your room? You mean your floor?"

He's not wrong. Jay does have pretty much an entire floor of the house to himself.

"Shut up, P!" Jay says, annoyed. "Do you wanna hear this fucking story or not!?"

Patrick's mines locking his lips and throwing the key away, so Jay continues.

"She was pretty keen, you know? So there we were, in my room. I kissed her, and it was fine. But when we stopped kissing, she started saying all this shit about how she likes me and she doesn't wanna sleep with me so soon." He stops and shakes his head, like he's shaking off a bad memory. "I told her I wasn't really interested in a relationship or whatever... So I thought she'd leave, you know? I made it perfectly clear that I just wanted a one time thing. But she didn't leave. It was weird, we ended up talking, she spent the night, and yeah. We just fucking...cuddled. Christ."

He shakes his head again and stands up. Patrick is shaking with laughter, but I'm not. Jays such a good guy. He doesn't like Ronnie, that much is clear, but he didn't have the heart to tell her to leave.

"So what about this morning? She just woke up and left?" I ask.

"Not exactly." Jay says, pacing my garage and rubbing his forehead. "She asked for my number after we got up, I told her no, then she left. She wasn't pissed, but I think she got the message. I hope so, at least."

"I think you have a stalker on your hands, dude." Patrick says when he finally manages to stop laughing. "You should have fucked her! Cuddling is far too romantic, she's not gonna leave you alone now."

"Well, I wouldn't give her my number. So that's something, right?" Jay says, pretty much just to me.

"Totally, I mean, I'd be put off by that if I were in her shoes." I tell jay. Unless Ronnie is a psycho, she's gotta know that Jay has no interest in her. Even if they did cuddle in bed all night...

"Ugh, I wish I'd just stayed at the club with you guys." Jay says, running his hands through his hair. "I feel like a fucking asshole."

"Dude, you kissed her. That's it." Patrick says, looking at Jay in disbelief. "It's not a big deal. It's lame. Don't beat yourself up about it."

"Right." Jay says, sitting down again.

"Let's head upstairs and try to put on some kinda spread for Aubrey and Kim." I suggest, hoping to take Jays mind off of this a bit. I know he's still thinking about Erin, but I'm not gonna mention her right now. I know Patrick won't either. Jay took a step towards getting over her last night at the very least, and that's something.

The three of us (and Benji) head upstairs and start pulling various items of breakfast food out. I fill the toaster with bread, set a jug of fresh orange juice out on the table next to the fruit bowl, and grab some boxes of cereal from the cupboard. I put a couple of the boxes away when I realise that all of the boxes are cornflakes. Yeah, I have a weird obsession with cornflakes. I quite often eat cornflakes for lunch and dinner, as well as breakfast. Not exactly healthy, but we all have our vices.

"Hmm, I wonder what Jamie will have." Patrick says mockingly while watching me put some of the cornflakes boxes away.

"Cornflakes, duh." Jay says from where he's sitting at the kitchen table. He hasn't noticed what I'm doing. I raise my eyebrows at Patrick like haha, your joke failed and he laughs.

When Aubrey and Kim arrive about a half hour later, we make ourselves more coffee (Aubrey and Kim find my instant coffee lifestyle 'cute'), Jay and Patrick make toast for themselves, I pour myself a bowl of cornflakes and the girls help themselves to some yoghurt and fruit. Once we've all settled down with our breakfast, the gossip from the previous night commences.

"So." Kim says, clearly very excited. I know she's gonna talk about Zach. "We left Club T with Zach and John. It was totally cute, they walked us back to our dorm. I spent most of the night with Zach, and Aubrey spent most of the night with John."

Kim winks at Aubrey, and Aubrey blushes.

"Oh yeah? Did you guys get some action?" Patrick asks.

"Not at all!" Aubrey tells him quickly. "But... John did ask for my number."

"And Zach asked for mine!" Kim exclaims, clearly delighted about this.

"That's great." I tell them both with a smile.

"Yeah, Zach is awesome. He totally bulldozed me." Kim says dreamily.

"He bulldozed you?" Jay asks, confused. I'm confused too.

"Totally, I have this theory." Kim launches into an explanation. "When you meet someone, it should feel like they've totally fucking knocked you over, you know? Like, they just come speeding into your life and fuck everything up, like a bulldozer."

Patrick laughs and Jay still looks confused. I think I get it, but Kim goes on.

"Like, I don't think we develop romantic feelings. I think it should just hit us, straight off. Knock us down. Like a bulldozer." She sits back in her chair and smiles, satisfied with her explanation.

"So, you believe in love at first sight then?" Jay asks her.

"Oh, absolutely." Kim tells him. "I mean, I'm not gonna say I'm in love with Zach. It's too soon for that, I'm not a total psycho. But, I know that's how things could go with him."

She looks so happy, and while I don't completely agree with her bulldozer theory, I do think it's sweet.

We finish our breakfast while jay and Patrick tell the girls how their night went (Jay leaves out the majority of the details about his night with Ronnie) and after, I tell everyone that I need to take Benji out for a walk. Aubrey and Kim agree to come with me, and Patrick and Jay say they should go check on Joel. Poor Joel, he has a really bad hangover.

I decide to drive to the beach to let the girls see it. I guessed they had no idea we were even near a beach, and I was right. When we get there, Aubrey and Kim look absolutely thrilled.

"This is so awesome!" Kim says as she gets out of my car. 

It really is awesome. About a twenty minute drive from town, the beach is frickin beautiful, and one of my favourite places to go. The parking lot is just off of the main road. You go up a set of steps to get onto the promenade, there's a kids play park with swings and a slide and a climbing frame, there's a cafe, there are tourist stores that are open in the summer months. And beyond the promenade, is the sand and sea. It's a nice day today, and I'm glad, because the sun is glimmering on top of the beautiful blue ocean, and the sand is as golden as ever. Aubrey and Kim are impressed.

"Okay, I am seriously glad I met you, Jame!" Aubrey exclaims as we make our way up to the promenade with Benji. "Otherwise I could have gone through four years at college without knowing this was even here!"

I laugh. "You would have found out sooner or later. There are beach parties down here from time to time, there's one coming up in a few weeks actually."

"I am definitely interested in that." Kim says as we make our way down from the promenade and onto the sand. Benji runs ahead of us towards the sea, he loves playing in the water.

"It's cool, we usually bring our guitars and jam around a fire pit, loads of people do because so many people here are into music, you know? It's a cool vibe." I tell them.

"Awesome, we will absolutely be attending the first beach party of the semester." Aubrey says with a smile as we begin walking along the beach.

"But never mind that right now." Kim says. "Now that Patrick and Jay aren't around...are you gonna tell us what happened with Noah last night!?"

"I would have talked about it in front of them!" I tell Kim with a laugh, and she rolls her eyes at me.

"We cannot have proper girltalk with those boys around, and you know it!" Kim says defiantly. "They are far too distracting."

"How so?" I ask her, genuinely curious.

"Oh, come on! Have you seen Patrick!?" Kim exclaims, and Aubrey nods her head in agreement. "Not to mention Joel. And Jay is pretty easy on the eye too. Honestly, I don't know how you get any work done with those three running around you all the time."

I laugh at this, I never think of the guys that way, but I can understand why Kim and Aubrey would. "they're all really good looking, but they're my friends. I manage." I smile at her.

"Okay, so, Noah." Aubrey says. "Tell us everything."

I roll my eyes and laugh, before taking a deep breath and preparing to tell my new girlfriends what happened between me and my Hot Asshole last night.