Johnny Baby

❤️9.5❤️

Nico
    We waltzed into the nearby gas station, listening to the smell bell ring above our heads as we walked in.
    The cashier at the register greeted us with a small hi that Johnny returned casually before focusing on the snack aisle.
    “So, do you come here often?” I ask him jokingly, laughing at the deadpanned look he gave me before turning back to the hanging bags of candy.
    “I’m kidding.” I clarify, going over to stand next to him. “But seriously, do you usually go shopping for sweets in the middle of the night?”
    “It is not the middle of the night, it's only like 9 pm.” He chuckles. “But, yes, I do shop for munchies in the middle of the night very often.” He admits with a chuckle before pulling a couple bags of gummy candies off the rack.
    “You know, I wouldn’t have imagined you to have a sweet tooth.” I tell him, watching as he lays the candy bags in his arm and continues to walk down the aisle.
    “Well, surprise I guess.” he hums, glancing over at me with a smile before continuing to look at his options. “I have a whole stash of candy at home so I don’t have to shop for them so often.” He says with a small, mischievous snicker.
    “Jeez. Hoarding candy, Johnny?”
    “I don’t hoard it. I just save up. If the world ends we aren’t gonna find candy very easily.” He says as if that argument makes sense.
    “Okay but like, if the world ends you shouldn’t be stocked up on candy you should be stocked up on like, I don’t know, canned veggies and shit. You need food that keeps you energized and alive!” I tell him, grabbing a bag of sour gummy worms off the rack for myself as well as some sour ropes.
    “Well yeah, you need that too but like morale! Candy gives the brain dopamine, or chocolate does at least. You need to keep those happy chemicals going or else you’re just gonna let the apocalypse eat you, stupid.” He says, throwing in a small laugh to show the insult wasn’t meant to be mean. Of course, I could already tell by the tone, but that just seems to be a  Johnny habit.
    “Okay, whatever. I am not arguing with you about the apocalypse.” I laugh, lightly bumping his hip with mine.
    He laughs but doesn't retaliate as he continues to look around the aisles for more candy.
I hum quietly as I watch him pick candy bars off the racks. I decide to grab a couple as well but not nearly as many as he does.
He lets out a chuckle and looks over at me.
“What?”
“You have Eddie, Baby stuck in your head or something?” He asks, adding another candy bar to his small pile of candy.
“Listen,” I start, lightly snorting at the way he laughs and continues to walk. “We’ve been practicing it non-stop for like a week already. It’s gonna be stuck in my head for a while so shut up.” I tell him, laughing as he smirks at me before continuing on.
He walks over to the front counter and drops his candy onto it before quickly walking over to the slushie machine.
“Ah, I see you’re a fan of slushies as well.”
“Duh,” He laughs. “People who don’t like slushies are crazy.” He hums, grabbing a cup and filling it with Blue Raspberry.
I make a sound as if I’ve been wounded, smiling at the way he looks at me with concern.
“What?” He asked.
“And for a minute I thought you were cool.” I say dramatically, smiling at the way he laughs and raises an eyebrow at me.
“WHAT!?” He asks more insistently.
“Blue raspberry slushies? Really?” I asked him.
“What?! They’re good! What kind do you get?” He asks as he puts a cover on it and grabs a red straw.
“Uh...Duh. Only the best slushie flavor there is. The almighty Cherry flavor.” I say dramatically as I quickly grab a cup and fill it with my flavor of choice.
“Pfft. Lame.” He says.
“What?” I laugh in response.
“You can’t go and call blue raspberry bad when you drink cherry, you basic bitch.” He laughs.
“Excuse me mr. “I drink blue raspberry because I don’t like natural flavors.” I happen  to be a man of the wild and only eat natural flavors.”
He stammers and stutters over his disbelief as he watches me put the lid on my cup.
“Ok listen, blue raspberry may not be a natural flavor but you can’t go and say that your cherry bs over here is naturally flavored that’s probably just as fake as mine.” He says, quickly turning and walking over to the counter and putting his cup down.
“Well…” I try to think up an argument then shrug when I can’t come up with anything.
“Whatever.” I finish, smiling as he sticks his tongue out at me before turning to watch the cashier scan our large pile of munchies and put them in two different bags.
I decided to be nice and pay when the girl said it would be $25 dollars.
Jeez. Did not think it’d add up that much but, I guess Johnny does eat a lot of candy.
“You don’t have to pay, you know. I have the money to pay for it myself.”He lightly chuckles.
“I know but I’m trying to be a gentleman here while casually flexing the fact I have money.” I joke, smiling at the small huff and eye roll he gives me before smiling again and dropping the topic.
“Well, whatever. Thanks.” He tells me, grabbing the bags off the counter as well as his slushie. He tells the cashier thanks and they wish each other a good night before he and I leave the small corner store.
We quietly walk down the quiet streets towards Johnny’s house.
I can see him lightly bobbing his head to his music. I only am now really processing the fact that he has an earbud in at the moment. I think he’s had it in the whole time and I’m just barely realizing it. He focuses pretty well considering he’s apparently had music playing this whole time.
I speed up my walk a little so I’m right next to him before speaking again.
“What are you listening to?” I ask, tilting my head at him.
“Hm? Oh Well, I was listening to No Doubt but now I just got a Spotify ad.” He laughs.
I laugh and nod. “Of course. You see? That’s what happens when you don’t have premium.” I tease.
“Shut up.” He laughs, grabbing his phone and unplugging his earbuds so I can listen with him without the wires getting in the way as we walk.
The ad ends and Careless Whisper by George Michael.
“Ooooh. How very romantic.” I tease, laughing at the way he blushes.
“Shut up. I’m in my feels.” He jokes, lightly vibing along with the music as we walk. 
He playfully spins around the sidewalk, overdramatically lipsyncing along to the sappy song.
I can’t help but smile as I watch him just dance around the empty sidewalks.
With little care he starts to actually sing along to the bridge of the song. He doesn’t try to perfect it; he just sings along because he can. And wow, he really can.
“You’re so dramatic.” I tease.
“C’mon Nico, sing with me.”
“No.”
“Do it! It’s Careless Whisper! You can’t say no to it! I know you want to!” He continues to try and coerce me, lightly nudging my arm.
“We are literally right next to a neighborhood.” I laugh. I usually don’t feel embarrassed about doing anything but something about singing with Johnny in the middle of a quiet neighborhood feels like it’s pushing some kind of limits for me.
“Sing! Sing it loud! C’mon!” He says before continuing to sing, quickly convincing me to sing along with him.
I only hesitate a moment more before continuing to sing the cheesy song with him, listening as our voices bounce around the quiet neighborhood.
The song finally ends and we laugh, taking a sip of our slushies as we continue to walk.
“I didn’t know you could sing.” He says.
“Oh I can't, that's all you.” I tell him.
“Oh c’mon. Don’t tell me that The Nicholas Albertali is shy.” He giggles.
“I’m not shy. Just humble.” I say, my straight expression quickly crumbling at the raised eyebrow look he gives me.
“Okay, yeah. Maybe I’m a little shy.” I admit, taking a sip of my slushie.
“Don’t be! You sound great.” He hums, nudging my arm with his again.
“You think so?”
“Yeah! I mean, you aren’t broadway ready but neither am I! Considering I’ve never heard you sing, I wouldn’t have imagined you to sound that good.” He says, causing me to lightly blush.
“Well, thanks I guess. I’m more of a guitarist than a singer though.”
“Eh. I guess I can somewhat try to understand that.”
We hum along to the music that plays from Johnny’s phone as we walk to his house.
His playlist really loves to bounce around. It’ll go from some party song from the 80’s to a pop punk song from 2004 or a summer hit from 2016.
“You have a very diverse music list.” I comment, looking over at him as he turns the volume down a bit once we enter his neighborhood.
“Thanks. It’s one of my best traits. I have good music taste.” He chuckles..
“You know, I’ve heard people say that the kind of music people listen to can really say a lot about someone but I’m not too sure that that applies to you with a playlist like this.” I laugh.
“Oh believe me, some of the music I listen to does say a lot about me. And if not the music then the playlist they're in sure say a lot.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes, but I am not gonna get into that right now because that is a whole level of trauma I don’t think I’m ready to unload onto you just yet.” He laughs, lightly scratching at his neck as he looks away before looking forward again. “Oh, we’re here.”  He says when we’ve finally reached his house.
I go to walk up to the front door but stop when I notice him walking around the side of the house.
“Where are you going?” I asked him with a chuckle.
“Follow me and you’ll find out.” He says, beckoning me closer with a small shrug of his shoulder.
So, with little to no hesitation, I follow him around the side of his house.
Now that my head is clear and not hazy from getting my butt kicked, I can take in some of the small details of his house.
Like the chipped old paint of his house and the small wind chimes hanging around the trees. There also happened to be quite a few trees around his back yard as well. I also noticed the wooden poles inside the windows of his houses, keeping the windows blocked.
Hm. Interesting.
“Alrighty.” He mutters to himself, putting his bag of munchies on a small ledge right outside one of the windows in his house.
Johnny tosses his hair out of his face and hops up onto the scratchy ledge, his heavy boots gripping it easily as he quickly pulls himself up onto the roof.
“Uhmm…” I start feeling anxiety slowly start to creep up inside me as I watch him. “What are you doing?” I asked after a moment of hesitation.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” He asks with a small laugh, quickly landing on the slanted part of the roof and leaning down to grab the bags of munchies.
“Uh, it looks like you’re trying to get yourself killed.” I tell him bluntly, taking  a big step back away from the ledge.
“What? I’m not even that high up.”He chuckles, raising an eyebrow as he looks down at me.
“You sure? You had to jump quite a bit to get up there.” I tell him.
His expression softens lightly and he quickly hops down onto the ledge and stares at me as he crouches in front of me.
“Nico,” He starts, making me tense a bit. “Are you afraid of heights?”
I can;t stop myself from blushing as I stammer over an explanation.
“I-wha-no! I am not afraid of heights! I am just afraid of falling and dying. Or breaking my face! You can’t bruise the money maker, Johnny!” I exclaim, trying to keep my voice down at least a little bit. Some people are probably trying to relax at this time of night.
He huffs out a small laugh before offering me a hand.
“C’mon it isn’t that scary. I promise.” He says.
“As much as I’d love to believe that, I am heavier than you and will probably end up breaking through the ceiling. Plus, I’m not nearly as graceful and coordinated as you are and I don’t want to jump and then fall right away.” I ramble away, not even noticing that my hand had already drifted into his.
“Well, I appreciate the compliment but it really doesn’t take a pro gymnast to do this. Come on. Besides, you’re taller so it’ll probably be way easier!” he tries to reassure me as he takes my slushie from my hand and reaches up to place it with his and the rest of the snacks.
“Alright, up we go.” He says, grabbing both my hands and helping me step up onto the same bucket he did and helping me jump up so I’m on the same ledge with him. It makes a faint creaking sound, causing me to tense.
“There we go, see? You’re alright.” He hums. He sounds like a mom trying to comfort their kids when he talks like that.
He gently places his hand on my back and pulls me closer to the wall beside the window.
“Look, the ledge is taller than it seems and the roof is shorter than it seems. You jump up and I’ll be right here to make sure you don’t fall.” He says, gently patting my back as he nudges me towards the wall so I’m standing right in front of the edge of the roof.
“Go on. Just grab onto the edge and pull yourself up. It’s like doing a pull-up almost! You can do that. I’ve seen you do it.” He says.
“When?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
“Uh, duh? Last week when we were helping Megan do something in the gym You went and did a pull up on the bar to try and show off or something.” He chuckles.
“Oh...right.”
Damnit. I really need to stop flexing things that could end up being the death of me later.
“C’mon. I’m right here and it really isn’t that big of a jump.” He tells me, giving me a reassuring smile.
“Okay, sure, it may not be a big jump but it has a big slant so I could easily slip off of that and you, no offense, are not strong enough to keep me from falling off.” I quickly ramble, hoping he thinks this through better.
“Come on! Just try it. You get up there and if it still feels bad then you can get down. But, you have to at least hop up there for a couple seconds. I know you can do it. Come on.” He presses lightly patting my drum and stepping back so I have space to hop up.
I inhale deep and let out a small grumble.
“Fine. But, just so you know, I am not gonna like it. And also, if I fall, I will….I don’t know. I’ll decide that later!”I tell him before turning back to the wall.
I hear him lightly chuckle behind me.
“Okay. Whatever you say. Now, come on!” He says happily.
I take a couple deep breaths, feeling my hands starting to tremble as I gently grab onto the scratchy roof ledge.
I feel as though I might just past out before I even get the chance to jump up, but after a minute of internally hyping myself up, I shut my eyes for a moment then open them once I jump up, quickly pushing my knees forward to land on them. I can feel the roof slightly scrape my knees through my jeans, but it isn’t anything too uncomfortable.
“Hey!” I hear Johnny cheer, a small laugh slipping past his lips with his words. “Look at you! You haven’t fallen!” He giggles.
“Shut up, Johnny.” I mean for it to sound much more aggressive but it comes out a bit more fond than  I would have intended.
“Come on. Crawl forward a little bit so I can hop up with you.” He chuckles.
With a little less hesitation, I crawled forward finding the flat platform where our snacks were sitting.
I listen to the scratchy sounds come from behind me as Johnny hops up onto the roof, his boots scraping off the sandy texture of the roof.
He smiles at me as he happily crawls over before swinging his legs over to hang off the side of the platform.
“C’mon.” He says, patting the rough textured boards. “Come get comfy.” He hums, grabbing his slushie and taking a sip.
I shift my legs slowly underneath me then let them hang off the flat platform and rest on the slanted part of the roof.
“See? It’s not so bad up here.” He reassures me once again.
My hands are still shaking from the built up anxiety, however, the cool breeze up here seems to soothe me a little. It doesn’t help the shaking, of course, but it makes it feel a little less scary.
“Johnny,” I start, slowly looking over at him.
“Yes?” He asks, putting his slushie back down.
I grab mine before looking at him.
“What were we thinking grabbing slushies when it’s literally like almost 40 degrees outside?” I ask, letting a small smile spread across my face. I really didn’t care but I figured it’d be funny and would help me soothe my anxiety.
Johnny gives me a blank look for a moment, probably processing what I said before lightly chuckling.
“Honestly, I’m not quite sure myself. But, slushies are good so it’s worth it.” He says, picking up his cup and gently holding it out.
“Agreed.” I hum before lightly bumping mine into his in some sort of toast.
He smiles at me before taking another sip of his.
We sit up there on his roof for a couple moments in silence, just sipping our slushies.
“So, if you don’t mind me asking, why did you ask me to hang out?” I asked him, grabbing our bag of munchies and digging out my sour ropes.
    He simply hums in response at first, digging into the bag and grabbing his gummy bears.
    “I don’t know. I guess I just wanted to make up for like…” He pauses, looking up at the starry sky as he thinks about it. “”Ghosting” you I guess” He finishes, ripping open the bag.
    “Ah. I see.” I answer before taking a bite out of my sour candy. “Not to be nosy or anything, but why did you do that?” I asked.
    “I….hmm.” He leans his head in his hand as he thinks about it again. He squeezes a small green gummy bear between his fingers before shrugging again.
    “I don’t know. I guess I just felt embarrassed about unloading all that shit onto you when I really don’t even know you. It was just weird to me and even though you didn’t necessarily seem bothered by it, I didn’t want to face you again since I kept thinking you were gonna think differently of me or something.” He explains, not looking at me this time.
    “I guess that makes sense.” I said. I think I got it. I wasn’t exactly the most open about my emotions either so I’m pretty sure I could understand what he was trying to say.
He hummed and took another sip of his slushie.
I could sense some awkward silence coming on so I tried to break the tension.
“I still can’t believe you like blue raspberry.” I laughed, lightly elbowing him. I feel my stomach drop when I feel my foot slide down the roof just barely an inch. In the moment, it didn’t feel like an inch so I quickly grabbed onto Johnny’s denim jacket sleeve in hopes of ‘saving’ myself from certain death.
Johnny didn’t seem to mind luckily based on the way he laughs and grabs onto my sleeve arm to make me feel safer, I guess?
“I still can’t believe you like Cherry! It takes like children’s medicine! Why would you drink children’s medicine for fun?” Johnny asked, slightly shaking my shoulder but keeping a firm grip to keep my panic levels low.
“Excuse me? It does not!” I tell him, quickly grabbing my slushie and taking a sip of it then pausing.
He stares at me in silence, a small smirk slowly spreading across his face.
“Okay, maybe it does, but only a little bit!”
He laughs and takes it from my hand.
“”A little bit”my ass. It tastes like cough syrup!” He says, taking a sip of it and making a sort of face. A little scrunch of the nose and a squint of the eyes that shows his disgust in it.
“Oh come on, you can’t hate it that much!” I tell him, digging through the bag of candies and finding a little bag of Lifesavers.
“These have cherry flavored rings! And so do your gummy bears! You can’t hate it that much.”
“Listen,” he starts with a small choked laugh.     “What?” I ask, purposefully teasing him.
“Shut up! Listen,” He laughs. “I like Cherry just not in slushies because they have some kind of extra strong flavoring in them, therefore, making it take like medicine.” He explains before taking a sip from my cup.
I stare at him for a moment.
“So you really don’t like cherry slushies?” I ask.
“Nope.” He says sternly.
“Are you sure? Because you’re still drinking mine.” I tell him bluntly, trying to hold in my laughter as he stops and blinks at me.
“I’m just trying to dehydrate you because I’m mean like that.” He lies before taking a big drink of it.
“Hey!” I exclaim, reaching over to grab it.
He quickly tugs it away but seems to regret it when he swallows it down and his eyes shut tightly.
“Fuck! Brain freeze!” He groans, bending his knee up and resting his forehead against it, making small grumbles to express his pain.
“Hah! That’s what you get, you little shit.” I laugh, snatching my drink back from him. I do feel a tiny bit bad though so I gently rub his arm and let him relax.
He looks up at me again after a couple seconds of what I assume was agony to give me a playful glare.
“You’re an ass.” He hums, grabbing his own slushie.
“Oh, I’m the ass?” I ask.
“Yes, yes you are.” He says, going to take a sip of his blue drink before I quickly snatch it.
Johnny pauses, seemingly confused for a moment at what just happened before smirking and sticking his tongue out at me.
“Okay Mr. “I drink cough syrup for fun.” What’s the big deal with Blue Raspberry?” He asked, pulling his feet up and sitting criss-cross.
“Well, I mean, I guess there’s nothing exactly wrong with it, but Cherry is still better.” I tell him before taking a drink of his.
He stares at me with a look of offence before trying to stammer out an explanation.
“Wha- How does that make sense?!” He exclaimed.
“Why not?” I asked, laughing at how distraught this subject made him.
“I- Have you never taken a Speech and Debate class?! You don’t go against an argument that has a valid reasoning then back it with “No, that’s wrong!” That’s not how that works!” He all but shouts, aggressively slapping his hands down onto the scratchy roof board to express his anger even more.
I can’t stop myself from laughing out loud.
“Shut up! I am having a moment!” He exclaims, trying to pretend he’s still mad. But, I can still see the smile trying to force its way onto his face as he quickly snatches his drink from my hand and sips it aggressively.
“Careful, you don’t want another brain freeze, do you?” I asked, snickering at the side glare he gave me before slowing down his sips.
We sit in silence for a minute, simply opening up some of our snacks and munching on them.
“So, random question,” Johnny starts, lightly tapping his short, practically non-existent finger nails against the lid of his slushie.