Boy/Boy Problems

The Morning After

Teddy's mouth felt like it'd been used as a dryer sheet. He tried to open his eyes but they closed involuntarily from the pain of the sun streaming through the giant windows that surround his living room. He'd made the mistake of sleeping on the couch, although considering the state of his body Teddy figured he didn't have much choice as to where he passed out. Not that he remembered passing out, or much of anything that happened before that. That feeling of lying stuck in one position for too long, the one that came with passing out involuntarily, was hard to mistake.

The pain his eyes felt at being touched by the sun was nothing compared to the spinning drill of horror that was caused by the intercom buzzing continuously as Teddy prayed for unconsciousness. No matter how much Teddy prayed to a god he didn't believe in, the buzzing did not stop. He was finally forced from the soft safety of the couch he hated when a voice screamed at him from one of the bedrooms, insisting that if Teddy didn't stop that noise they would set the whole place of fire. Teddy couldn't tell if it was Alice or Lily yelling, but he wasn't going to risk the potential for pyromania from either of them.

Teddy wasn't thinking about who he might find on the other side of the intercom. He probably should have been thinking about who was on the other side of the intercom, given that his world had blown up only a day before. But Teddy wasn't thinking. He wasn't thinking about much of anything except making the buzzing stop.

The buzzing did stop when he pressed the intercom button but it was replaced by something that might have been worse. The sound a voice Teddy had not heard in months, outside his dreams. A voice that he had not expected to hear for some time for a lot of reasons, the most significant being that the person the voice belonged to was supposed to be on the other side of the world.

"Hey kid," said Luke Ryan's distorted and disembodied voice. "Can you let me up?"

Teddy couldn't speak even if he knew how to respond. It takes his mind about thirty seconds longer than usual to translate the sounds he's hearing into words. Once he found the meaning in what Luke's said, Teddy still had no idea how to even start formulating a response. He was too hungover to deal with this.

"Why do you call me kid? You're only two years older than me," said Teddy because he had apparently left the ability to filter his thoughts with whatever Alice gave him the night before.

"Thank fuck," sighed Luke in relief. It's only through relief that Teddy noticed the stress Luke had been holding in his voice. Like he hadn't expected Teddy to talk to him. Like he hadn't expected Teddy to be there. Like he thought something had happened.

"Let me up please," added Luke. "No one's spotted me yet but it's only a matter of time before there's a riot on your door."

"You're seriously conceited you know that?" said Teddy, still he pressed the butto. Not because he was ready to deal with whatever conversation Luke wanted to have. But conceited or not, Luke was right. If someone spotted him there'd be hell to pay and he didn't want to make Rah's day any worse than it was already going to be.

"It's not conceit if it's true," added Luke before ending their conversation presumably so he could enter the building and ruin Teddy's life a little bit more.

Teddy allowed himself a moment to feel the smugness that came with the knowledge that Luke had flown halfway around the world just for him. Just a moment though, because he had all kinds horrible thoughts waiting to get a word in and ruin his buzz. Teddy's eyes darted to his distorted reflection in the large glass windows that covered one wall of the apartment. He looked like crap, but there was nothing to be done about that. He didn't have time to clean himself up, he had a more important things to worry about like how to get Lily and Alice to keep their mouths shut about everything he told them the night before.