Hiccup

By the time we were through, it was almost ten and the shop was getting ready to close.

"I don't know how I'd have done this without you. Thanks a lot." He sighs in content.

"You'd have figured a way out." I mumbled.

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight." He states as he starts packing his things.

"Why?"

"Do you know how many cups of coffee I had?" He asked. "It's enough to keep me up the whole night."

"I'm not sure though. The only time I had this much caffeine was when I was preparing for my freshman exam. Slept like a baby that night."

He chuckles. "You had high caffeine and you slept?" He asks.

"Like a baby." I repeated.

He pauses. "Wow." He's mind blown. "I've heard of caffeine keeping you awake, not making you sleep like a baby."

"Well, there are a lot of things you don't know about me Sinclair."

"And I'm thankful I have more than enough time to know them all." He says without missing a beat and continues with the task at hand.

I stared at him. Something about those words didn't feel right to me.

"I'm starving." I blurted out.

He glances at me. "Let me treat you to dinner. It will be as a thank you gift."

"You want to bribe me with food?" I asked him disappointment.

"Y-you don't want-"

"I want chicken and beer." I interrupted him.

"What?"

"Chicken and beer." I repeated.

"Why?" He asks but doesn't let me speak up. "You just helped me out with a life changing assignment, and what you want for it is chicken and beer?"

"First off, the assignment wasn't life changing, and what can I say? It's what I'm craving."

He stares at me for a moment. "Then I guess chicken and beer it is." He places his laptop in his bag and stands. "My place or yours?"

"What?" I'm confused.

"The best way to enjoy chicken and beer is over rib cracking comedy. I'm not about to eat my dinner at a pub packed with people."

"You know a pub is a bar right?" I reminded him.

"Is that really important now Lockhart?"

"Yes it is."

"My places or yours?" He asks again.

"Yours."

"Huh." He smirks. "I know what you're doing."

"What do you mean?"

"Need enough privacy for Netflix and chill right?"

"Ewww. Gross." I stood up. "Your place is just bigger." I explained even though I didn't have to.

"Bigger for extracurricular activities." He wriggles his eyebrows.

"Fuck off Sinclair." I was starting to fluster, so I walked away from him.

"Trust me baby, it's not something you haven't seen before." He shouts behind me.

I turned to him. "It must have been a boring event since I can't seem to remember it."

"Touche." He walks towards me and I smile at him.

We both walk to his car and he unlocks it.

"Can I drive?" I ask him

He threw me his keys. "Just don't scrape her okay?"

I stare at him dumbfounded. "You want me to drive your car?"

"You said you wanted to drive."

"I know but," I paused. "You usually don't let anyone drive it."

"Guess you're the first then." He answers and opens the passenger door.

"Imagine being the first person to drive your car." I started to tease him when I got in. "I must be pretty special huh?"

"Yeah, sure." He avoids my eye and settles in the chair.

I started the ignition and drove away from the lot. It took us a total of an hour to get the chicken, the beer and get to his place.

By the time I switched off the engine of the car, Christian was already asleep.

"No wonder the ride back was silent." I muttered to myself.

He looked tired. Really tired. He had lines on his forehead and in the middle of his eyebrows.

Was he even getting any sleep?

Talk about having high caffeine and not being able to sleep.

It seemed like a crime to wake him up, so I just let him sleep.

I don't know why, but I couldn't wake him up. This is the first time I'm actually seeing him sleep, and he looked at peace. Although yes, he's a pain in the ass, but watching him sleep right now made him seem like a different person to me.

I brought out my phone and began to scroll through it. I may be literally starving right now, but there's nothing I can do about it.

I don't know how many minutes or hours passed, but Christian woke up.

"How long did I sleep?" He asks.

"I don't know."

He stares at his building. "How long have we been here?"

"Just got here." I lied.

He opens the door to step out.

"I thought you said you wouldn't be able to sleep."

"You're a smooth driver." He smiles and I roll my eyes.

"Are you okay?" I ask him.

"Why?"

"You seem tired." I point out.

"Just school stuff."

"It's not making you sleep?"

"Can't really remember the last time I slept well." He says jokingly.

I made a good choice letting him sleep.

"I see why you let me drive."

"I pray tell, why?"

"You're tired aren't you?" I ask him. "Want me to come take your classes for you?"

"As much as I'd appreciate that very much, it's not possible. And I'm starving. So let's hurry up and eat before it gets cold."

"Oh it's cold already." I got down from the car and locked it behind me. "We can heat it up."

"But why would it be cold?"

"Traffic was hectic." I lied again.

"Traffic?"

I nod. "Yeah. Traffic."

We got to his door and he pressed in the code.

"I forgot to ask," I began. "Why do you have my birthday as your code?" His hand stops mid air. He didn't say anything or move for a second.

He finally turns to me. "What?"

"That's my birthday." I nod towards the lock. "2333. Why did you use it as a passcode?"

"It's the easiest to remember." He replies.

"What?"

"It's the easiest number to remember." He repeats. "I didn't know it was your birthday." He continues.

"Right?! I knew you wouldn't know my birthday date."

"You sound so sure about that." He pointed out.

"I'm so sure about it."

"Why?"

"Because you don't care." I state. "That's why I'm so sure." I walk past him to enter.

I walked to the kitchen to reheat the chicken.

He sets the beer in the sitting room and walks to his room.

He walks out minutes later shirtless and in shorts, while I place the chicken on the center table.

Within minutes, we started watching the movie.

No words have been exchanged since we walked in. Only cued laughter. Just that.

The movie ended and the time was past two.

"That was fun." I noted and yawned.

"And you're sleepy." He states.

"And a little tipsy." I add.

"How many cans of beer did you have?" He asked me.

"I lost count after three." I wriggle three fingers at him.

"Ah."

I yawned again. "Maybe I shouldn't have mixed coffee with alcohol."

"Or maybe you just need sleep." He takes my hand and pulls me up. "Let's get you to bed." He started to walk me to the room but I stopped us.

"You want me to sleep here?" I ask him, a little taken aback.

"None of us can drive. I drank, you drank, there's nothing we can do." He states as a matter of fact.

"But-" hiccup. "But the last time I slept here-" hiccup.

I hiccup when I'm nervous. And right now, I'm pretty nervous, and I don't even know why.

"We had sex?" He finished for me.

I nod. "We slept together." He lets go of my hand.

"Don't worry. You made it your life mission to explain to me how much you regret it so you can take the guest room-"

"But I don't regret it."

The alcohol has kicked in.

The silence between us was so loud, I'm sure it could be heard in the next house.

Christian takes a step forward. "So you're telling me." Another step forward and I took one back. "If I should grab you right now," Another step towards me. With each word, he took a step towards me and I took a step away from him.

"And kiss you right now, you wouldn't object?"

I swear I could hear my heart literally pounding against my chest.

"If I could kiss you like there's no tomorrow, you wouldn't push me away?" He asked but I just kept moving backwards. Well, I did until my legs hit the arm of the couch and I went falling backwards.

Silly me didn't want to fall alone, so I held Christian's hand and took him with me.

Great.

I landed safely on the couch, but the mess up here was that Christian also landed safely on me. Our faces were inches apart and if I could just lean in or move a single inch, our lips would be touching.

Hiccup.