Back to Back Pt. 03

"I'm alright. Thanks." I could hear the sarcastic disdain clearly in his voice.

"Fuck off." I pushed Artie and he laughed, letting his body fling to the side.

It was the late afternoon, a little early for dinner, so the Thai place was practically empty. It was a hole-in-the-wall place with dim lighting and closely packed booths. A sign in the front said to seat ourselves so Artie and I picked a table toward the back of the restaurant. Sliding into the booth seats Artie and I's knees kept banging together. We both tried to figure out a comfortable way to sit but my legs were just too long.

"Dude, just sit on this side."

"Are you sure? Don't waiters hate that?"

"I'll leave a fat tip. I want to be able to stretch out my legs." Artie slid back out of the booth and came around to my side, plopping down and getting settled. I scooted toward the wall and leaned my back up against it slightly so I was facing more towards Artie's direction. I was finally able to sink down to a more comfortable position for my legs and back and I felt way more relaxed.

"Who do you chill with around campus? That dude, Conner?" My feathers still felt a little ruffled by that dude. Something about seeing him so comfortable in Artie's space rubbed me in all the wrong ways. I'd bet he's been trying to make moves on Artie for a brick.

"No, we've never hung out besides for school. Last year I would see my sister a lot but she graduated and moved to Maine."

"Ah. Pissy Rissy. I wonder if she remembers me."

"Just Marissa, now. And she definitely remembers you, not very fondly." Artie realized what he said after a second and slapped his hand over his mouth.

"No offense." He added quickly and I cracked the fuck up.

"None taken, dude. I used to terrorize the shit out of her. I'd expect nothing less."

"She'd probably like you now."

"Probably?" I felt my eyebrows raise. Artie just shrugged his shoulders and stuck his tongue out at me. Such a little twerp.

"Why does he call you Arthur, anyway?"

"Are we still talking about Conner? What's your issue?" Good question. My turn to shrug him off.

"Everyone calls me Arthur, at least since high school." I sat up a little straighter.

"My bad, dude. I gotchu from now on."

"No! It's okay. I don't mind it when you call me Artie." Good. I honestly couldn't imagine addressing him as Arthur. It felt so... impersonal?

"Bet." I was going to ask Artie about his involvement on campus when our waitress came to our table.

After introducing herself she put two menus down on the table and asked if we'd like to start off with any drinks. Before I could answer Artie took over, ordering us both food and drinks in one go. I was a little taken aback by Artie's forthrightness, he seemed to me like the kind of person that would let other people take the lead in ordering at a restaurant. The waitress seemed amused as well and smiled widely at Artie's earnestness. She took our menus and left to put our orders in, and I turned to Artie.

"Thank you, I guess?"

"Listen up, I fricking love this place and I know what's good here. I promise you'll like what I got. If not, I'll owe you a favor or something."

"Two favors and you got a deal." I stuck my hand out and Artie shook it with bravado.

I leaned back into the corner formed by the booth and the wall and people watched the other customers. A couple of pairs of college kids and a few stray older folks eating alone. My eyes fell back to Artie, who unwrapped his utensils and put his napkin on his lap. He was clearly eagerly awaiting our meal and I laughed in my head at how Pavlovian his behavior seemed. I just watched Artie for a while as he went about his business. In the warm, dim lighting his skin seemed to glow. I was reminded of the moments in my bed when I felt his skin, and he was just as soft as he looked. My eyes landed on a small mole at the base of his neck, and my hand reached out to touch it.

"Here are your waters and your iced teas!" Our waitress returned with the four glasses on a platter, and softly placed them in front of us.

"Your food should be out in just a moment."

"Thanks!" Artie responded cheerily as I mumbled out a gruff thank you.

"Have you had this before?" He pointed to the iced orange liquid.

"Carrot juice? Yes."

"Mi-... You know what? I'm not dignifying that with a response." He peeled open two straws and put them into the drinks.

"You just responded, though." I retorted.

"Shut your mouth and drink this." He handed the drink to me and looked at my face expectantly.

"How am I supposed to drink it if my mouth is sh-" Artie shoved the straw into my mouth and forcefully closed my jaw. He was lucky my tongue wasn't sticking out.

I took a sip and the drink coated my tongue. It was definitely good. Artie could tell by the look on my face that I liked it and he nodded to himself, taking a sip of his own. I downed half of mine while Artie sipped casually.

"What's in this?" I asked. I couldn't recall ever tasting the flavor before.

"Beats me. Crack?"

"Shut the hell up." I tried not to laugh but I couldn't help it.

Our waitress come with our food and Artie explained to me what he got for us. Vegetable Penang curry and chicken Thai fried rice. It smelled dank and I was about to scoop some of the white rice onto my plate when Artie tsked at me.

"You have to mix them. Eating them separate is for noobs."

"Noobs. Are you twelve?"

"Twelve inches deep in your mom."

My jaw dropped and my fork clanged on the table. He didn't just say that.

I slowly turned to Artie and he had a hand over his mouth, his knuckled white from trying desperately to hold his laughs in. If we weren't in public I would go to town on his bitch ass. But honestly, I was so shocked hearing Artie say something so vulgar I had to let it slide. It cracked me the fuck up.

"Oh my god, Artie. Jesus. I was not prepared for that." Artie finally let out his laughter, and I smiled even harder at the sound.

We dug into our food with little room for conversation, which was seeming to become routine for us. By the time I had filled and finished my second plate I was stuffed to the brim. Artie looked like he had cleaned up about as much as I had and there wasn't even enough to bring back to the dorm for leftovers. We reclined in our seats as far as we could and chilled for a moment, letting our food settle.

"Alright, you're off the hook this time. This was dank."

"I told you it would be good." He piled all the plates together and pushed them toward the end of the table.

"I'm going to use the bathroom, I'll be right back." I nodded in acknowledgment and Artie left the table.

While Artie was in the bathroom our waitress came back to take our empty plates. I handed her my card and asked her to ring up our bill while Artie was in the bathroom and she agreed with a wink. She rushed off just as Artie got back to the table.

"Is there anything else you need to do while we're out?" Artie asked as he sat back down.

"Nah, I'm good. Just gonna get my shit together for school tomorrow."

"Okay, cool." Artie's words were affirmative but his body language was the opposite. His shoulders bowed slightly and he released a long breath out of his nose.

"Something on your mind, bud?"

"No, nothing."

"C'mon, don't make me beat it out of you. Spill."

"There's an ice cream place next door..."

I chuckled. Artie always had a massive sweet tooth. I just assumed he grew out of it but honestly I should have known better. He was so similar to how he was way back when.

"Say less," I concluded, and Artie looked slightly offended.

"Okay...?"

"No, Artie." I laughed out loud, and I really hoped Artie knew I wasn't making fun of him. I was just laughing at how I should have known better.

"Say less is like saying 'I gotchu' or 'word'. It just means I understand clearly."

"Oh." Then after a beat, he continued,

"Yeah, maybe you should teach me your slang. I was about to swing on you."

"Mhm. Sure you were." Artie's head spun to face me and he put his hands up in a boxing pose, his expression stern. I almost giggled. Artie's humor really tickled me.

Artie was throwing fake punches and making noises with his mouth when the waitress came back with my card and the bill. Artie side-eyed the fuck out of me.

"I'm paying for ice cream." I just shrugged. We'll see.

I followed Artie next door to the ice cream parlor, and the setting sun burned my eyes slightly after being in the dim restaurant for so long. Artie impatiently grabbed my arm and jerked me along the sidewalk as I rubbed my eyes. We entered the ice cream parlor and the fluorescent lights killed me.

"Dude, how are your eyes not on fire?"

"Ice cream." Was his short reply.

His eyes were glued to the menu. Eventually, my eyes adjusted and I checked out the options. Nothing was really speaking to me, so I decided to pass. I wasn't the biggest ice cream fanatic and they didn't even have coffee ice cream which was my favorite, so I didn't bother. Artie went up to the glass and placed his order with the worker behind the counter. Artie was bouncing on his tippy toes and his hair flopped up and down. He was acting like a seal at Sea World that was about to be rewarded with a fat bucket of fish, and the mental imagery of a seal with floppy blond hair was geeking me.

I tried to slide my card into the reader at the last second but Artie slammed his body full force into my side, knocking me out of the way and almost onto the floor. That guy could really generate some momentum if he tried.

"You didn't even get anything, frick off." Well, at least I tried.

Artie checked out and we walked back to the dorm. The sun was almost fully set and the sky was orange and purple. Artie was quietly enjoying his dessert and as we walked I felt at peace. It felt like the old days when me and Artie would hang out in the woods all day and when it got dark we'd bike back home, side by side. I felt like if Artie was with me, there was no such thing as stress or worry. Nowhere to be and nothing to do, except be with each other.

Artie

Walking back to our dorm, all I could think about was how I didn't want this day to end. Tomorrow school starts and I knew deep down Miles and I probably wouldn't have so much time to just do whatever we wanted. I think it was officially sinking in that summer was over and school was about to start. I didn't want to go back to the dorm, because the dorm meant sleep, sleep meant tomorrow, and I didn't want it to be tomorrow quite yet. This always happened when the new semester would come around. I always end up staying up all night trying to prolong the inevitable. Miles was just compounding the effect. The beginning of the semester meant less time for myself and less time to hang out with him. I reminded myself that it was just syllabus week and the real work wouldn't start for a little while. I spent the rest of our walk psyching myself up for tomorrow. It's just school. It's just school. It's just school.

We got to our dorm and Miles immediately stripped to his boxers and a t-shirt, settling down at his desk and going through his purchases from the school store. While he did that, I got into my jammies. I grabbed a controller and the remote and crawled onto Miles' bed. I started playing alone but gaming is way more fun with a partner. I ended up just waiting around until Miles was done with whatever he was doing so we could play.

Miles finally looked up from his desk, took a deep inhale, then released it and jumped from the desk to the bed next to me.

"Ready for school tomorrow?" He asked me after he landed on the bed.

"Ready as I'll ever be." He nodded and looked at the TV, which was displaying the Switch's home screen.

"Mariokart?" I probably lit up like a Christmas tree.

"is that even a question?" I launched off the bed and grabbed Miles a controller.

As soon as I sat back down we got down to business. Pushing each other and trash talking as we did our best not to lose to the CPUs. Which was a challenge. This new Mariokart was way harder than the one for Wii. Two hours later, the rollercoaster of a day I had started to catch up with me. I felt my eyelids getting heavier and I knew I had to get up to my bunk before I passed out.

"Alright, time for me to tuck in for the night."

"C'mon dude, you just wanna stop 'cause you know I was gonna beat you next round."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night." I got up and stretched out my neck and shoulders and I could already feel them twinging from sitting in the same position for so long. I knew I was probably going to be even sorer after sleeping on the crappy dorm mattress thing and I really wished I had a pad like Miles.

Miles turned off the TV and the lights and stretched out in his bed. I was contemplating just sleeping in his bed with his mattress pad when suddenly this morning's events rushed back to me. My face flamed. Yeah, definitely not sleeping next to Miles. I quickly crawled up to my bunk.

Somehow I managed to mentally avoid what happened all day, I guess too busy to be left with my thoughts. But now laying in bed, already slightly anxious about school tomorrow, I was stewing. We hung out all day today and everything was fine. Not a weird feeling or stray thought, and I felt my anxiety wean slightly. Then I remembered my shower. I flipped over onto my front and slammed my face into the pillow, still so embarrassed. I did it practically in public too. I felt my face get even hotter and a grimace formed. Oh, my fricking- what is wrong with me?

Deep breaths.

I flipped back over onto my back and took deep inhales and exhales, trying to focus on completely clearing my head of any and all thought. So what? Some guys like butt stuff. Miles' hands on my body felt good, so what? I had an intrusive thought about miles while trying to release my pent-up sexual energy. Doesn't mean they're correlated. Doesn't have to make anything different or weird. After probably half an hour of reorienting myself mentally and physically on the bed, I felt ready to fall asleep. Rain started falling outside, and the pattering on the roof was lulling me to sleep.

"Ready for bed now?" Miles said in the dark after I had been still for maybe a minute.

"Yep."

"Cool. Night, Artie."

"Night, Miles."

*********

If you read this far thank you, and sorry for the delay on this chapter! Finals caught up to me, but hopefully the slightly longer length will make up for it.

This sort of concludes the introductory part of the story. I have a feeling it'll probably end up being around 4 parts, a few chapters each. So, I hope you all are in it for the long haul. Next chapter should be up in a week.