It was 7:00 in the morning. Shannon and his "overnight friend" were still sound asleep in his room. Jared leaned back in a kitchen chair, his feet positioned comfortably on the black marble table. He wore a thick cotton robe and red tube socks, a toothpick clenched in his mouth. He squinted as he pulled the morning paper closer to his face, his eyesight suffering noticeably with age. He shifted his feet, almost knocking over the cup of organic chai coffee sitting dangerously close to the edge of the table.
His long hair was still drying from his shower, one he'd shared with that blonde girl that'd spent the night. He tilted the paper down, trying to remember her name. ...Claire? No, Kamryn. Started with a 'k' sound...Kylie. That's it. It must be because she mentioned being named after her grandfather...Kyle? Who the fuck names their daughter after her grandfather? Wait. It was definitely Kole...or was it Kamryn?
His pondering was cut short with the slamming of Shannon's door. A long-legged brunette stormed out in nothing but a thong and a blouse, the rest of her clothes dangling from her arm.
"Asshole...," she muttered, not acknowledging Jared's presence in the kitchen. He tilted his head to get a better view of her rear as she stomped out the front door.
Shannon walked out of his room cautiously in his boxers, peering around the door.
"She still here?" He asked tentatively, not daring step a foot out of his room.
"What'd you do?" Jared asked blatantly, raising the paper back up to his face. Shannon let go of the door and walked out of the room.
"Just told her she couldn't stay. I had to be somewhere. They usually take it alright, y'know?"
Jared nodded, while staring at the sports section with little interest. His eyes scanned the titles and pictures, wondering if he could win a fight with any of the athletes. He immediately came to the conclusion that he absolutely could not; he'd never even been in a real fight before.
"Jeez, Jared," Shannon retorted as he swiped coffee grind and wrappers from the counter into his hand, "Would you clean up around here for once?" He pushed the coffee machine back against the wall.
"I put the sugar away this time," Jared replied curtly, continuing to judge pictures in the community section.
"Thanks for that contribution but next time get it all or you're gonna have to start paying rent," Shannon warned, dumping the mess into the trash.
"Sure..," Jared cooed as he nodded slowly.
"When is your floor gonna be done, anyways? You were supposed to be out at least a week ago." Shannon pulled eggs from the fridge and grabbed a frying pan from the grey floating cabinet.
"I know, I know," Jared replied exasperatedly. He threw the paper onto the table and leaned back, rubbing his eyes with his palms, "They found mold underneath the floor boards and didn't fucking tell me until yesterday. I should've just put in concrete floors when I built the damn thing. Now I've gotta wait for them to tear up the upstairs and make sure there's no mold there too." He stood up, walked to the sink, and dumped his coffee. "This coffee sucks by the way."
"Aw, come on," Shannon whined as Jared headed to the guest room, "I told you not to use it if you didn't like chai!"
"I forgot I didn't like it," Jared replied as he closed his door.
A few seconds later, Jared came out holding a crumpled, stained shirt.
"I though you told Maria to take the stains out!" He growled angrily.
"Oh, yeah," Shannon replied, the eggs on the pan beginning to sizzle, "I forgot to tell you. She said she tried with a really strong bleach but it didn't come out. You'll have to bring it to a good dry cleaner or something." He centered his focus back on the eggs.
