Chapter 43 - Ocean - How To Spend The Night

~~

Ocean

~~

"W..what? W..why are y..you glaring at m..me like that?" I was getting nervous again. The entire time that we were eating I had been calm but not anymore. For some reason after I joked with Makai about taking his dessert he was just glaring at me and not saying anything at all.

"I'm not glaring at you." He sounded like I had slapped him and a shockwave had run through him. "I was just lost in thought, that's all. I wasn't glaring. Sorry."

I watched as Makai turned away from me then. His cheeks were a little pink but he was ignoring me as he unwrapped his dessert. It just dawned on me, but we had just spent a lot of time together without things getting awkward between us. I think it had more to do with the fact that we were both distracted by food.

Well, if all else fails, we could get along when focused on eating or swimming. There was hope I guess, even if it were very slim. All we had to do was get to know each other while we were distracted. By the time either of us realized what was happening it would be graduation and we could just go our separate ways and we wouldn't need to deal with each other any more.

Wait, why did that thought make me feel so empty inside? As soon as I thought about going my separate ways from Makai and never seeing him again I felt a hollow sort of emptiness settle in the pit of my stomach. What the hell was that about?

I was still watching Makai as he faced away from me. My heart was racing and my stomach was aching with a hollow pain. I had joked about eating both of our desserts which I would have been able to do easily but now I didn't feel like I could eat another bit.

I had only eaten half of the dessert that Coach had gotten for me but I couldn't bring myself to take another bite. I couldn't even finish chewing what was in my mouth right now. I had to grab a napkin from the table and spit the glob of chocolate and chewed cookie from my mouth. It was like my throat stopped working and my half filled stomach had been topped off with dread.

What the fuck was the matter with me? This was pissing me off. I didn't know what was going on with me anymore. All of these thoughts, all of these feelings, they just didn't make sense to me anymore.

"I..I uh I th..think I'm g..going t..to go t..take a sh..shower now." I pathetically stuttered my way through my words while Makai just looked over at me. "I don't want that anymore. You can have it or throw it away." I grabbed my bag and stormed into the bathroom.

I just couldn't bear to be in the same room with him right then. I didn't know why. I was stuck with him for the night, hell for the next two nights. I had to get over this. I had to get used to being around him since we were on the same team. This should be used as some sort of bonding experience that would let us be around each other without fighting but it wasn't working yet.

Well, we still have tomorrow. Maybe things will get better after we get some sleep and compete. We have a long day filled with lots of different heats for all of us. Hopefully we just won't have the chance to even notice each other at all tomorrow night.

It was an uncomfortable few minutes in the bathroom. Letting the hot water run down my body and try to relax me and I did my best to keep my mind blank. I didn't want to think about Makai at all. I didn't want to think about the way I had gotten a fucking hard on from the smell of him earlier and had to stroke myself so it would go away. I didn't want to think about the fact that the idea of not seeing him ever again made me feel sad and lonely. It was all too much for me. I didn't want to think about any of it. Not now, not ever.

Once I felt satisfied that I was cleaned I turned off the water and got out of the shower. I dried off and dressed. Normally I slept in just my boxer briefs but I was glad as all fucking hell that I brought an actual fucking pair of sleeper pants to wear to bed this time. I would not be comfortable sleeping in just my underwear this time. That would be awkward as all fucking hell.

I didn't bring an extra shirts though. I only had the two for tomorrow and Sunday and I didn't want to risk sweating all over them and then stinking like a pig whenever someone smelled me in the shirt. But, I mean, Makai was going to see me with my shirt off for ninety percent of the day anyway so that didn't matter right?

When I went back into the main room I saw that Makai was standing next to the window, staring out into the night. He was basically looking at nothing since there was nothing out there to look at but the sky. I could imagine that he just didn't want to look at me. That was fine. I know that we were both uncomfortable with each other. I mean, we didn't know each other at all.

"Uh, y..you can t..take your sh..shower n..now." I stuttered again. I had only started stuttering after I hit my head, and I only did it when I was around Makai. I don't know if it was him specifically or if it was the accident itself that had caused it, but it was getting fucking annoying.

"OK, thank you." He turned and grabbed his bag but didn't look at me as I walked as far from him and the bathroom as I could get so that we wouldn't cross paths on his way to take his shower.

Once he was in the room I looked at the bed. There was no way in hell that I was laying in that damn thing with him. I mean, just his cologne was enough to give me a damn hard on. What would I do if he saw me with a raging boner and flipped out?

He would probably tell the whole team that I was some kind of pervert or something. I wasn't. It was just the cologne he wore. It was like some kind of aphrodisiac for me, I swear. But he wouldn't believe me if I told him that. He would just get pissed off and get angry with me.

No, I couldn't risk that. There was an armchair next to the window and a low ottoman that looked like we were supposed to sit our luggage on it. I pulled it close to the chair and grabbed a pillow from the bed.

With the pillow propped under my head and my feet up on the ottoman I reclined as comfortably as I could. It wasn't the worst that it could be, but I knew that I was going to wake up a little stiff. I would deal though, it was just for one night after all. And best of all, I was exhausted enough to fall asleep before Makai was out of the bathroom.

~~

Makai

~~

After my shower I came out of the bathroom to find Ocean reclined in the armchair by the window. He had one of the four pillows from the bed propped under his head and his feet up on the ottoman. He must have been tired, that or he fell asleep easily whenever he wanted to since he was already sound asleep.

He didn't look very comfortable. I didn't want him to stay there all night since I knew it would be uncomfortable for him and he was going to be sore.

"Ocean." I called his name. "Ocean." He didn't move or make a sound. He was dead to the world. I didn't want to force him to move either since he might not like that. "Hahh. Why does he have to dislike me so much? I wish we could just be friends at least." My words were whispered so they didn't disturb him even though when I spoke his name louder they hadn't bothered him at all. 

I decided I was just going to go to sleep now as well. We had a busy day ahead of us and I didn't want to be too tired for it all, plus I had nothing else to do besides just sit around. Well, there was one thing that I wanted to do before I went to sleep.

I looked in the closet of the room by the door, hoping to find an extra blanket. Unfortunately there wasn't one. There was, however, the small folded one at the foot of the bed as well as the thicker quilted white cover on the bed as well as the sheet. I would be fine with the smaller blanket and the sheet. I didn't want Ocean to get cold though so I took the thicker cover and draped it over him before I laid down on the large mattress.

I didn't take up too much of the mattress either. I laid to the side leaving plenty of room just in case Ocean wanted to move over here in the middle of the night.