Best Thing In Town

My bed was one of my favourite places in the world, literally - as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light. And not to mention my blanket, no matter what season or temperature or how thick it was, and boy it was thick, I would wrap myself in it. Cocooning myself in the mass of material to conceal my heat. It was selfish and often left me struggling when it came to making my bed, but who was I supposed to share it with? I was single and I doubt Robin would have wanted to sleep in my bed. So yes, I adored my quilt almost as much as I did my bed. Sometimes it really stumped me how some people managed to sleep with a thin flimsy piece of cloth during the night; I personally just would not be able to do I. Another thing; two pillows is always a must. Never any less - maybe a few more, but they would go beside my head rather than under-

"For Christ's sake Jade!" Robin's exasperated sigh travelled down the hallway.

Wait, what now? I grunted, rolling over in my bed. I hadn't even fully woken up yet and I was already getting the ‘for Christ's sake' treatment from Robin. Shit, what did I do this time. I washed the dishes last night didn't I? And I certainly did flush the toilet after I had to empty my bowel. Then I went to sleep. So what, what could have I possibly done in my sleep to annoy her. Oh yeah! Nothing. My door came flying open.

"You know what, I live here too and sometimes you forget that. I'd like it if you could at least pre-warn me before you invite people around!" She huffed.

But I hadn't invited anyone round, so what was she ranting on about. When did I ever have anyone round? I hardly had any friends and Freya refused to enter the flat when Robin was home. So, to conclude Robin was rude and for all she knew I could have been asleep, stupid girl.

"Well?" She snapped.

Annoyed, tired and not in the mood for a Robin Rant I stuck my arm out from under my quilt and flipped her off. A small scream left her lips followed by the sound of my bedroom door closing - damn right. Who was Robin to waltz in my room like that; I could have been naked for all she knew! Not that it would have mattered at all, because although Robin is a moody, prim and a proper girl, she is a good friend and all good friends have without a doubt seen you in your underwear once, right? Right. If not, then question the levels of your friendship

I was however wrong to think she had left my room. God, Robin would never leave the room mid rant - why was I so naïve. I knew she was still around, because my moment of thinking about how good our friendship secretly was, was soon interrupted by my bed shrinking with me underneath the source of the weight (yes that did mean whoever the hell the ‘source' was had sat on top of me) and two, the quilt being ripped away from my head, letting daylight pour into my eyes.

"Good morning Sweetheart."

I squealed and pulled one of my pillows over my head. How the hell and why the hell was he here? And why was he in my room, on top of me - and no not in that way - he was seriously sat on top of me; I could feel his entire body moulding against mine even through the thickness of my quilt. He chuckled and I felt him vibrate; making my body shudder as he pulled the pillow off of my head.

"No, stop it and get out!" I cried. I was currently blind battling against him for my quilt, because I refused to open my eyes and look at him. However, Alex put up a fight and grabbed hold of my wrists, stopping me from even reaching the corners. "What do you want?" I hissed.

My wrists were so small his large hand was able to grab hold of them both as he used his other hand to pry open one of my eyes, smiling down in amusement as I huffed at him. Brilliant, before I even knew this guy he'd temporarily stolen my phone, flirted with my best-friend whom he'd assumed was me via text message, sat on top of me, seen me without make up and pried my eye open with his fingers.

He stared down at me and his head titled towards the side. He was looking at me like he was inspecting me. His eyes trailing over the entirety of my face. I pouted up at him in frustration, Christ I'm not some sort of bug and I know I look almost like an alien in a morning, but he didn't need to stare - that was just rude.

"I said meet me at two pm and you didn't show up!" He finally spoke. Moving himself around a little, he ended up with his legs either side of my body and folded his arms over his chest.

I looked towards his legs and saw my body between them; he caught me and smirked. I was going to push him off when I realised what he'd said, 2pm? Bugger, had I really slept that long? I'm sure I was in bed at a reasonable time last night. Pretty certain in fact. Also, Alex can say I'd agreed to meet him at two o'clock all he likes, because I didn't agree. My psycho of a best friend did.

I shrugged, his big brown doe eyes staring into mine as he awaited my excuse. I didn't have an excuse, the simple fact of the matter was that I hadn't even agreed and I'd over-slept. Why was he still staring at me? My shrug should have been a good enough reply, but I soon came to realise Alex wanted a verbal reply and sighed.

"Alright, look, in my defence, my friend had my phone and thought it would be groovy to text you back. I'm sorry if I've ruined your day or whatever, but I never really had any intentions of showing up and she just made matters worse, so it's not my problem. Take it out on her." I shrugged again, well attempted to but it's kind of difficult in a bed.

Alex frowned, almost like he was hurt by my comment and then started giggling. Yes, giggling. "Did you just seriously say groovy? Actually, seriously, used the word groovy?" He wiggled his eyebrows and I huffed.

How old did this boy claim he was? Pushing him so hard that he fell off my body, I mumbled some unmentionable words slipped beneath my quilt which meant I stumbled out of bed and landed in a heap on the floor. Standing up like nothing had happened, which is a rule when you fall, I repositioned my night clothes- sometimes I moved a lot in my sleep meaning they got twisted around my body - and shot him a glare over my shoulder as he clicked his tongue. Not caring that Alex was now laying in my bed, wrapped around in my covers, I left the room on a hunt.

"Robin!" I hollered storming into the kitchen. Behind me, I could hear Alex's feet slapping against the bare floor as he followed and decided to ignore him as I turned around and barged past him. "Robin, dammit, where are you, you absolute idiot?" I snapped walking into the living room only to find her sprawled out across our sofa reading a book. My voice came to a halt.

"What?" She asked, peeking over the top of he book.

The book she was currently reading was a good book might I add, she forced me to read it once. I did read it. I loved it and once I'd finished I found out I was in love with a fictional character and for almost a month of my life, the excuse I used for not having a boyfriend was ‘who needs men when you have books' yes, I hit a low spot in my life. Robin hated me for saying it, stating she'd only ever seen me read one book.

"Why are you letting twelve year olds into my room?" My voice came out in a growl and we both chose to completely ignore Alex's input of ‘I'm twenty-three!' something I'm sure he said almost every other word.

Okay bown-eyed-fringe boy, I know you're twenty-three but you look like a twelve year old and therefore I deem you twelve. It's the same for everyone really, I mean my older brother - he's just turned twenty-six - looks fifteen and therefore he is 15. Anyway, that was completely off subject and Robin hadn't replied to me, she was instead still reading.

I hit the bottom of her foot and she looked up, royally pissed... oops.

"I let him in because he said he knew you." She pointed her book in Alex's direction who looked shit scared of her, might I add. She glared at him, seeing that he was staring at her with wide and very scared eyes. She loved scaring people and smugly huffed at me, lifting her book up as she continued to read. "Jesus Jade, why are you hanging around with twelve year olds anyway. Doing stuff like that is breaking the law. I'm not bailing you out.."

"He's not actually twelve, he's twenty-three. I'm not a paedophile, how dare you!"

"Now she takes me for my age." Alex grumbled.

Both Robin and I turned to look at him, he shut up immediately. Raising his hands in defence he backed away. Facing Robin once more, she grinned at me and I grinned back. That's right, girl power. Anyway back to the fact Alex was in my household.

"Robin, you are aware you let a stranger into our home." She looked up at me, eyebrows furrowed. "You are so lucky he's the boy who stole my phone and gave it back yesterday and not some mass murderer. You do realise that don't you Robin? You're meant to be the clever one here... yet there you go letting every Jack, Dick and Harry into our home." I narrowed my eyes at her and she just flipped her hand.

"You don't know a Jack, a Dick or a Harry." Robin sighed.

"It's an expression, idiot!"

"I know a Jack?" That was Alex.

We didn't care about his input and shot him another glare warning him to shut the hell up and not interrupt our dispute; it could result in him loosing a limb. Seriously, one time Robin's brother tried to get involved in our argument and he ended up leaving her room with a bloodied nose and an on-coming black eye. Things got violent.

"To be fair Jade, you don't have many boys coming round for you - so when one comes and says they know you of course I'll believe them. It's not like you're some boy magnet with a different bloke knocking on the door every night. If you were, I'd start to worry."

I grunted. Thanks for that roommate. On the upside, I guess she had just informed Alex I wasn't a whore and therefore didn't have a sexually transmitted disease? But that wasn't a fair argument and it was rude for her to bring up my hopelessness with males in front of him. She might as well just tattooed ‘frigid' right across my forehead in big, red, bold letters because that's basically what she was saying and now Alex was standing with a huge smirk plastered across his lips.

"Well thanks for that Rob." I sneered sarcastically and she winced, knowing damn right that I only called her ‘Rob' when she took something too far.

Robin was difficult. It's not like she set out to be mean, it was how Robin was. Sometimes it came in handy, when you weren't on the receiving end. Unfortunately, I was on the receiving end and now Alex knew I had no such thing as a life that involved boys. Or Jack, Dick and Harry.

"Off you go. Back to reading your book... bye!"

She frowned sympathetically clearly knowing I was embarrassed by her comment. Her head tilted slightly as she looked up at me, frown growing. It's not like she said ‘you're a big slut' because that would be awful and the biggest lie of the century, but it always is offensive when someone points out you're not good with guys, especially with one in front of you - one that was supposedly taking you on a date yet was bordering harassment.

Not giving her a chance to reply, I turned away from her and walked back through the kitchen and then into my room. Of course, Alex followed on after me. I pushed the fact that I didn't know him and he was inside my apartment, no inside my bedroom, out of my head and let him do as he pleased. As I walked into my room, I stared at the walls and then at the floor as I contemplating nothing serious. Alex stopped in the doorway and lent against the door frame folding his arms across his chest, staring at me with genuine curiosity.

The way he was looking at me was like was contemplating my next move. In all honesty, the way he looked at me just made feel like he was seriously scrutinizing every detail of me, something that made me very uncomfortable and at that precise moment I wanted nothing more than for him to remove his eyes from my body and place them where they should be; looking me into my own eyes.

"Where are we going?" I asked and he raised his eyebrows, shocked by my question. Finally, he looked me in the eyes.

"You're going to come with me?" His voice full as almost the same amount of shock as his expression.

Was I really that unpredictable? Nodding my head, he grinned in response.

"I can't tell you where we're going yet, sorry love." He smirked and I was sure that if he smirked at me one more time I'd rip his lips from his face.

"Well, if you can't tell me then I don't know what kind of clothes I need to wear, dickface... looks like I'm going to have to cancel on you. Sorry there."

"Just clothes are usually a good option. Although..." Alex's voice trailed off, as did his eyes. Once again he looked me up and down, only this time like I was a piece of meat. My lips parted as they lingered on my breasts of a little longer than necessary. If we were doing a point tally right now, he'd be in at least minus ten simply for removing his eyes from my own to look at my boobs. Finally, after I'd coughed and placed my hands on my hips he looked back at my face; the same smirk fading into a massive grin. "You could wear nothing if you like?"

"Asshole.." I muttered in response, shaking my head to suppress a laugh.

He was cheeky. His body shook with laughter as I started rooting through my drawers until I found something that would be deemed wearable, which is difficult might I add as most of my clothes are ridiculous and I am yet to buy new ones. After finding something I pulled the items out and turned to face Alex.

"Leave. So I can get dressed." I told him and he pouted. "Seriously." I stated and he rolled his eyes "Oh! And before you leave, just for the record if you ever pull a stunt like that and decide to remove my covers from me without permission you'll lose something you probably like very much, anything could have been under there, understand?" I scolded, feeling like I was a teacher or the boys Mother at that given time. I was in the right, you can't just steal peoples quilts. It's not cool.

"Are you telling that you have both bits and bobs down there? Because if you are I'd like to know now before this," His finger wafted back and forth in the gap between us. "Goes any further Sweetheart."

Annoyed by his patronising 'sweetheart' I grabbed the nearest thing to me, which fortunately for him happened to be a teddy I received on my 16th birthday, and threw it at him, shouting ‘out' for added effect. It didn't cause any damage, but the message was received.

Lesson one in life: Aggression and throwing objects works - despite what people say.

Alex giggled, yes giggled again - such a macho and very manly thing to do - and stalked off down the corridor, his giggle becoming a laugh. He picked up my teddy I'd thrown at him and started tossing it into the air and then catching it. I watched on, holding back a smile, is he deadly sure he's twenty-three? Or as he said, pushing twenty-four. Not only does he look like a twelve year old, but he genuinely acts twelve and I for one do not want to be arrested. That wouldn't be very pleasant, and I'm sure my parents would disown me.

The old sods already swore I was a lesbian. It's funny how that happened.

One bright sunny morning I'd received a phone call at the crack of dawn, my favourite (not) time of day, from my Mother. Expecting the be met with a life crisis, I answered the phone prepared for the worst. Instead, the middle aged lunatic started hurling questions at me about my sexuality down the phone. It seems someone (my money is still on Tony) had figured my Facebook password out and changed everything. Including my relationship status and my interests. She had brightly informed me, at eight o'clock in the morning, that she and my Father weren't going to change the way they felt about me because I liked women, but they would have preferred to find out through my mouth rather than an online account.

The poor woman was so worked up over this I didn't have the heart to tell her I was straight... and I guess the fact a guy hadn't even made eye-contact with me in over a year justified my loving of women for her. Not that it bothered me, my Mother and I didn't really have the greatest relationship going so the fact she'd spent many nights in a mess because she was convinced her daughter was gay humoured me beyond belief.

Laughing at how freaked out my Mother would be if she found out I was going on a date, I pulled on a pair of skinny jeans and a Tonight Alive tee, hoping and praying he wasn't going to do something too drastic. That would be painful and embarrassing, as I've said before most of my clothes are not wearable; not because I'm some kinky sex slave or anything and they're all leather. Mainly because they're years old and I haven't had time, or the money, to replace them. Although I could probably wear them and say I'm going for the hipster look, that didn't really appeal to me however.

"Jade..." Alex's voice droned through my door. "Are you ready yet?"

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. It had been no longer than five minutes, boys are possibly the most impatient species to exist. It was like they didn't understand that women couldn't just wake up and look good, they needed time and some, I.E. me, needed more time than others. Ignoring him completely I moved over to my mirror and touched my face up with little make-up, just enough to enhance a few features. It wasn't like I needed to go all out, the poor guy had already seen me barefaced and hadn't ran away screaming, so piling it on now wasn't going to make a difference and anyway it's not like I was actually trying to impress him right. I mean, right? Right.

Grabbing my phone and my purse off the night stand I yanked open my door and found him leaning on the wall opposite, just smiling. It was quite pleasant really and something inside me almost, emphasis on the almost, fluttered.

"I'm ready."

"Good. You like finger food right?" His smile merged into a grinned and the flutter was gone.

Notes