Worth The Wait: Chapter Two
Jensen sighed, scrubbing his hand back through his hair and then forwards when Chad grabbed the book he was reading from his hands. "Chad, come on, man, really?" and he levelled him with a look, "Do we have to go out? Can't we just hang out here?"
Chad looked offended by the suggestion, "On a Friday night? Dude, you gotta live a little. You're cooped up in here almost every night of the week. Would it kill you to have fun?"
This was not a new argument. Jensen knew the lines pretty well. And their futility, but on the off-chance that Chad might actually listen to reason, "I have fun. I just don't see why we have to go out to get it. Remember when we used to just talk? Play video games? Chill?"
Chad just fixed him with a look, clearly unimpressed, "And what? Braid each other's hair?"
"Well you know Chris is actually the only one with hair long enough for that so…" Yeah okay so he was being a smartass. It's what he did.
Chad being Chad chose to ignore it, "Yeah well Chris is out on a date tonight, you know like you should have been if you'd had the balls to ask out that Danielle chick."
Jensen blinked, "It's Danneel. And it's not like that. She's a friend."
"All the more reason for us to go out tonight," and Chad seemingly sensed he wasn’t getting anywhere in that particular vein, and he adjusted his tactics accordingly. If at first you don't succeed: try begging. "Come on, Ackles. Help me out here. I need my wing man."
Jensen sighed, with a huff of a laugh, he never could say no when Chad used that face, so ridiculous. "Okay. I'll go. But no plays. Or manoeuvres. You don't need that stuff."
Chad just snorted, too busy celebrating his mini-victory. It had been a long shot Jensen knew, but he just wished his friend would believe it.
They were standing at one of those weird tall tables in one of Chad's favourite student friendly bars. It hadn't taken long for Chad to find a girl he was interested in. It never did. Her name was Katie. And she was cute. Blonde. Chad's type. And Jensen was dutifully going along with whatever stories Chad decided to tell, or re-tell. Chad was actually pretty good at that part. The heroic tale of masculine triumph. And Jensen wasn't actually having too bad a time, until Chad went to get them some more beer.
"Thank god!" Katie said with a very put upon sigh. "Let's get out of here before he gets back."
Her tone gave him a dull ache in his stomach. "What?"
"You and me," she said with a flick of her hair, taking hold of his forearm, "We could go somewhere quiet."
Jensen's eyes widened at that and he cleared his throat, brow furrowed, and he took his arm back, "And why would I want to do that?"
"Oh come on, you can't really be friends with that guy, can you?"
"Well I am," he said firmly and he turned and walked away without another word and of course bumped right into Chad.
"What gives?"
Jensen took a breath and shook his head. Chad deserved better than that, "Forget it man. She didn't even like Jurassic Park."
"Dude!" Chad said with a familiar complete and utter disbelief and he took a drink of one of the beers he was holding. "And she seemed so normal."
"Can't trust a girl who doesn't like dinosaurs," Jensen said, relieved that Chad went for it. No matter how disappointed he was.
"You said it. I mean, really?" Chad asked trying to get a look at her over Jensen's shoulder, but Jensen had a sneaking suspicion that she was already gone.
"Come on, I'm sure there's cooler chicks," to use Chad's word, "around here," Jensen tried, wanting to get a smile -or lascivious grin- back on Chad's face. Whatever Chad was thinking, Jensen couldn't quite read him, and he stayed quiet for a beat longer.
"You want to play some pool?" he finally asked.
"Sure," Jensen said, grabbing the beer from Chad he headed for the back room, "You're so going down, Murray."
"In your dreams, Ackles!"
Jared was sitting on the floor, back against Cindy's bed with Amy pressed up against his side and Cindy and Adrianne were lying up on the bed behind them playing with Jared's hair. Braiding it. Whatever. Adrianne had got into the habit of doing it to de-stress back when they were in high school. And now she'd recruited Cindy into the process.
Jared didn't mind exactly, as long as products weren't involved. He had to draw the line somewhere and his was at any goops, goos or sprays that may or may not add colour and/or sparkle. Genevieve was on the floor too, opposite him, leaning back against Danneel's bed as she flipped through the magazine that Danneel had dropped into her lap moments before in favour of doing some sort of fancier braid/pleat thing in Felicia's hair round the side of her head.
They were having a sleepover, something they liked to do somewhat semi-regularly. And even when they weren't, Jared usually ended up crashing with at least one or two of the girls most nights. His own roommate kind of sucked. A lot. For whatever reasons, real or imagined, the guy just refused to show Jared any sort of camaraderie. Just blankness. It made things tense. And Jared just couldn't bear it. So he liked to not be in that room as much as was possible.
It was all about logistics.
He was really lucky to have so many awesome friends. Though normally getting along with people wasn't an issue.
Sucky roommate withstanding.
But with Jensen there was just something more. He couldn't even really explain it. It was like something had just clicked into place. And whatever had shifted? It felt permanent. He knew he was probably just being stupid and maybe more than a tad melodramatic. But was it really that crazy to feel so connected to someone after such a short period of time?
He'd almost been able to push it all out of his mind earlier that afternoon with the puppies providing the best kind of distraction. But after the parade, when the crowd had started to disperse, Jensen had made his way, solo, over to them. Mostly to say hey, and Jared and Danneel had introduced Jensen to their friends. To their credit they hadn't embarrassed him. And Jensen, of course, had reminded Jared why he liked him so much. When Danneel had stepped away to go get her story, Jensen didn't get all weird and close up, he kept up with the conversation easily and even managed to make the girls laugh once or twice.
And apparently Jared wasn't the only one with Jensen on the brain.
"Are we sure he's gay?" Adrianne asked all of a sudden, or it felt that way to Jared, he'd been so lost in his thoughts he hadn't even noticed that they'd started to undo the braids they'd put in his hair. "Because I could go me a slice of that boy."
"Addy!" Cindy chided her, though she still couldn't help but chuckle a little.
Jared's brow raised with a bemused sort of look as he caught Danneel's eye, and she took a breath before saying, "Well no. But we know you are," she shook her head, "Felicia don't you have anything to say?"
Felicia just shrugged but then more thoughtfully said, "Well he is smoking hot. I'd do him. You know, if he had boobs."
Jared's nose scrunched, "Well if there was ever a mood killer."
"Hey don't knock boobs until you've tried them," Felicia countered.
"My girl does love the ladies," Adrianne said fondly.
"Yes. Ladies. Boobs. All good things. Just don't go pinning them on my-...I mean Jensen." The girls all giggled and aww'd at him, and he huffed with a pout, "I hate you," which only made them giggle that much more, but Jared heard the oh poor baby undertone. Amy, Adrianne and Cindy all threw their arms around him since they were closest. A full group hug was inevitable and the other three girls crossed the room to join in. Jared wasn't going to complain about that.
Jared couldn't sleep. The second they'd put out the lights and he'd closed his eyes, he'd felt wide awake. He'd tried everything he could think of in his head to try and lull himself back into the sleepy zone that didn't require getting up out of bed, except from touching himself. But nothing. And he really wasn't at all comfortable with the thought of jerking off in a room full of his friends. Never mind the fact that he was lying right next to Danneel. His choices were limited. He could either get up or...
"Danni," he said in a hushed tone as he rolled onto his side, "are you awake?" He knew she wasn't, but he needed her to be. He watched the steady rise and fall of her chest for a few moments but she hadn't heard him.
"Danni," he tried again and this time he placed his hand on her shoulder to give her a little shake.
She jumped, "Jared?" and she sounded confused, upset, panicked, though he knew part of that was due to the sleep fog she was still in. "What's going on?"
And he felt guilty for putting that sound in her voice, "Hey, shh," he soothed, brushing her temple with his thumb as he kissed the top of her head. "Sorry. It's okay. You can go back to sleep. It's nothing."
"Nothing?" she repeated, "You wake me up in the middle of the night and almost give me a heart attack? Oh it had better be something. Spill it, Padalecki."
"Forget it. Just go back to sleep."
"Jared."
Jared was smart enough to recognise when Danneel was using her tell me or I'll hurt you tone. He'd come clean. But he sighed. It didn't seem so important now and he felt kind of stupid. You know, on top of being certain that he was crazy. He looked back up into her eyes, there was enough light coming in through the window for it and he touched his head to hers for a moment. He wasn't even really sure where he was going to begin 'til he started speaking, "If he was single and not straight then he'd be interested right?"
"Jared-" she started but he didn't let her get further than that.
"When we got ice-cream this afternoon, the guy on the counter was flirting with me."
"He was cute," is what Danneel said, measured but true.
"I didn't even realise it 'til I saw his number on the receipt."
"Maybe he was being subtle."
"No," Jared gave the barest shake of his head, "I've gone over it in my head a thousand times. He was obvious. But I guess it didn't register or maybe I just didn't care...because he's not Jensen. I can't stop thinking about him Danni. And I don't know what to do. Tell me what to do."
Danneel cupped his cheek, wavering smile on her lips, "I would. But I don't think you'll like it."
No, he didn't think he would.
Stop seeing Jensen.
That's what she meant.
Could he really do that?
Danneel's fingers flew rapidly over her keyboard. She'd already finished her next piece and was using her time to make a start on her new assignment for class. But she kept backspacing. She should probably do more reading. That thought made her snort and she reached for her water and when she glanced up to look at the time Jensen was right there. Which wasn't unusual in itself, Jensen was a frequent and friendly hover-er of her desk space, but right now he seemed distracted. His eyes flicked between his watch, the clock and the door.
It was Jared time. The time when he normally showed up. This was the fourth day in a row he hadn't. And it wasn't the first time she'd caught Jensen checking the time so constantly. She cleared her throat a little, "Uh, Jensen?"
Jensen started a little when the scrunched up post-it note she threw at him hit his shoulder, "Huh-wha-...sorry," his attention successfully drawn to her. "Didn't mean to be unannounced."
"Perish the thought," Danneel said and they shared a grin.
And then Jensen asked the question she'd managed to avoid thus far. Monday and Tuesday had been easy enough, Jensen had been busy with his own work and so she had been able to slink off with a smile and a wave. Wednesday she'd seen the frown on his face as he checked the time on his phone. But he hadn't asked then.
"So where's Jared?"
Should have known they wouldn't make it to Friday.
"Haven't seen him the past couple of days."
Danneel hesitated. She didn't know what to say. She didn't exactly want to lie to him, but she didn't want to betray Jared either. But she needed to say something.
Concern etched Jensen's brow as he asked, "He's okay isn't he?"
"What? No. Yeah. Jared's fine. He's fine. He uh, he just hasn't been able to get away as early." That was technically true. But of course the reason he hadn't was because he couldn't. But not seeing Jensen? Jared was a wreck and Danneel wasn't too sure how much it was actually helping.
"Oh," is what Jensen said and he glanced back down at his watch, "You want me to walk you down? I could wait with you 'til he shows."
Danneel smiled a little, they were both going to kill her, it was really very sweet of him to offer, but she had to respect Jared's decision, "Jensen you don't have to do that. Thank you. But I'll be alright."
"You sure?"
"Promise" she nodded, "See you tomorrow?"
"Course."
Jensen had had a restless night. He hadn't been able to get to sleep. He couldn't really put his finger on the why, but something felt off. Or missing. And the feeling had followed him right through sub-consciousness and into the morning. He didn't have any classes on a Friday but normally he liked to get in some study time at the library; less people milling about. Before he'd even gotten up and out of bed he'd decided that coffee was the answer. True, and not too surprisingly, Jensen found that coffee was the answer to a lot of early morning quandaries, but today it really was.
Just as he neared the campus cafe that's when he saw him walk out the door, "Jared," and he couldn't help but smile. It was good to see him.
"Jensen," Jared said as he came to a halt. "Hey. What are you doing here?"
Jensen quirked a brow as he glanced up at the sign over the door and then down at the coffee cup in Jared's hands and Jared shook his head semi-sheepishly, "Right."
It was then that Jensen noticed that Jared was a little more rumpled than perhaps he should have been and a lot more down. True Jensen had never actually seen Jared in the morning before, but Jared’s energy had always seemed boundless. "Jared, are you okay?"
"Yeah. Sure," Jared said with a half flash of a smile, his bangs covered his eyes with a down-turn of his head. Avoiding eye contact. That was definitely un-Jared like behaviour.
Jensen wasn't normally the kind to pry but, "Jared?"
"It's nothing."
Jensen frowned. He wasn't really sure what to say, but when Jared looked back up their eyes met and Jared sighed with a shake of his head, "Unrequited love, man."
Oh. "Yeah?" Not what Jensen had expected, he didn't know what he'd expected, but it made sense. The Jared being upset part at least. If there was someone who Jared was in love with, then he didn't see how they wouldn't love him back.
Jared rubbed the back of his neck, "Guy I like is kinda already taken."
"Only kinda?"
"Well he might not be," Jared shrugged, "But doesn't matter either way. Don't think he feels the same."
"Sorry to hear that," and it was Jensen's turn to give Jared a half smile, this wasn't exactly Jensen's area of expertise, but he wasn't stupid either, "That sucks."
"Yeah," Jared said quiet but firm, unmistakeably disappointed, "Guess I've been kinda bummed about it. The girls keep trying to comfort me. Which don't get me wrong. I'm grateful and I love them-"
"Kinda making you feel crummier?" Jensen supplied and Jared bowed his head with a heavy sigh, what could he do right? But maybe there was something Jensen could do, "You know what you need?" and Jared's head snapped up, "You need a guys night."
"A guys night?" Jared said in a colour me intrigued kind of way, with maybe just a smidge of skepticism.
But Jensen was undeterred, "Yeah. Me, Chris, Chad. We're going out for drinks tonight. You should come with."
Jared blinked, "They won't mind?"
"The more the merrier. The rest of the guys from Chris’s band sometimes like to make an appearance. But I think we'll just be four tonight. You know. If you join us."
Jared bit the corner of his lip, hopefully in consideration and not an outright no. Jensen dropped his head a little to catch Jared's eye, "It'll be fun."
Jared smiled at that shaking his head almost imperceptibly, "Okay. I'm in."
Jared took another t-shirt from his closet and held it up for inspection before tossing it on top of the small mound forming on his bed.
"Yes!" he said with a fist pump as Danneel's ringtone alerted him of her call. He'd sent her a text to do so like five minutes ago, even though he knew she might be busy but, "Danni, you wouldn't happen to know if I left my blue shirt over there would you?"
"Hello to you too," Danneel said unamused.
"Hey. Sorry," Jared said as he eyed up another shirt before sliding it along to the other side of the rail, "Thanks for calling."
"Blue shirt?" and he could practically feel the quirk to her brow.
"Have you seen it?"
So he should have sensed the sarcasm he was about to receive.
"And this is some sort of a life or death situation is it? Because Danni, call me ASAP. It's urgent! kind of made me think there was something, you know, serious."
But Jared hadn't been pulling any punches, not as far as he was concerned, "It is serious. I need my shirt."
He heard Danneel sigh on the other end of the line, but he also heard her concede to his current crazy, "Jared you do know that you own more than one blue shirt right? I'm gonna need a little more to go on."
"The one with the silhouette of the bear on it."
She exhaled, "Haven't seen it. But lemme check."
"Thanks," Jared smiled as he leaned back against the wall.
"So why is it so important that we find this shirt?"
Jared shrugged even though she couldn't actually see him, trying to keep it casual, "I want to wear it tonight."
"Since when did you need to wear a specific shirt for movie night?"
Jared's teeth sunk down into his lip as he scratched the back of his neck, "Funny thing about that-"
"Who are you going out with?"
"Jensen kinda asked me-"
"Jensen asked you out?!" and Jared heard the Dude, come on. Shut up! and he rubbed his chest in sympathy of where she would have smacked him had he been within her reach at that particular moment.
"What? No. Not exactly," he pushed himself away from the wall and dropped down to sit on his bed next to the shirt pile.
"Are you going out with him?"
"Well yeah. But it's not like that. He invited me out for drinks-"
"And that's not a date?"
"Drinks with the guys. As friends. That's it."
Danneel didn't say anything. She hadn't said anything about it, period. He knew she was struggling with the pros and cons of the whole deal with Jensen too. And he knew it was unfair that she still had to deal with him every day...but she hadn't complained about it.
Jared sighed, "I never thought getting over him would be so hard."
Danneel huffed, "And you figure going out with him is the best way to do that?"
"I tried cutting him out, Danni. I can't do it. If I can't be with him, then I can at least be his friend. Talking to him this morning made me feel happier than I have in a week."
They both fell silent for a moment, and Jared closed his hand on the shirt at the top of the pile and threw it to the side as he went through them again, futile as it may be, until AHA! giving himself a mental fist bump. "Found it," he said more quietly to Danneel.
"Be careful, Jare," and Jared didn't need to ask to get her meaning.
He smiled, "I will."
Jared tugged at the bottom of his shirt as he walked along the sidewalk. All that fuss and in the end he’d ended up going with a button down. He supposed what it really came down to was wanting to tell Danneel. Of course he would have had to have told her anyway to let her know he was ditching. But that wasn’t the point. This, whatever it was, was pretty huge. Or it was for Jared. And it was stupid, as he had already told Danneel, this wasn’t a date. But he still wanted to look good. Presentable. But not like he was trying too hard.
Let me repeat. Not a date. Jared reminded himself.
Fun fact: Jensen and Jared’s dormitories were actually in adjacent buildings. But Jensen and his friends were leaving from Chris’s place, which Jared had been invited to do too, but he had his stupid afternoon tutorial and so Jared had decided it’d just be easier if he met them at the bar. And Jared had been relieved about that at first. He’d worried about the two of them having to walk together though for the life of him he couldn’t remember why. If anything, Jensen would have been the perfect distraction from the internal freak out.
He’d meant what he said about removing Jensen from the equation not being better at all. But he was maybe very marginally worried about whether he could handle Jensen and Chris being boyfriendly. Not that he got the impression that either of them were smushy about each other. Or in general.
Just…
Yeah.
Freak out.
And Jared half-heartedly told himself that if he got there and they were nowhere to be seen then he could just turn around and retreat to the girls. But when he got there they were right there waiting and Jensen waved him over.
Chris gave him a smile with a nod of acknowledgement in greeting, and then he was officially introduced to Chad who clapped him on the shoulder rather heartily. All in all he actually seemed like a pretty decent guy, though Jared was under the distinct impression that he wasn’t aware that Jared was gay, judging by a couple of things he said. But not in a douchey way. Chris was just cool. There was no arguing with that. And Jensen was well Jensen. And Jared wouldn’t argue with that either.
The conversation flowed easily between the four of them and maybe in almost direct proportion to how much alcohol they imbibed. Jared really couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed so hard. But the beer also seemed to have an effect on just how close Jensen was sitting next to Chris. It was subtle really. Not like either of them slung an arm across the other or anything but Jensen was definitely leaning into the other boy and Chris didn’t push him away or tell him to get off.
So when Chad and Jensen got up to go get the next round, Jared leaned forward. He had to know. Straight up. And he scrubbed his hand down his face to stop himself from laughing, stupid grin tugging at his lips, but he shook his head before looking Chris in the eye. “So, are you Jensen’s boyfriend?”
Chris didn’t bat so much as an eyelid, didn’t break eye contact just took one of the few remaining sips of his beer and then set it down, “And what if I was?”
Jared did blink, his brow scrunched, “So you’re not Jensen’s boyfriend?”
Chris just fixed him with a just answer the goddamn question kind of look and Jared sucked in a breath and held it for a moment. "Well I'd be happy for you guys,” Jared said with a hint of a shrug as he pushed his hand back through his hair, “Although, I mean, that would kind of suck for me for a while since I'm kind of in love with him."
Whoa. He hadn’t meant to let the L word just slip out into the open like that. It probably sounded crazy. It probably was kind of crazy. But it was what he felt. And he didn’t need to be drunk to know that was true.
Chris didn’t seem too impressed and his gaze still met Jared with rather a fair amount of skepticism. "I'm not his boyfriend. But I am his best friend and I don't know what you expect from him-"
Jared threw up his hands open palmed, "Hey, look man, I don't expect anything. I really like Jensen and if all he wants is to be friends,” no matter how much it sucked right then, and he said more quietly, resigned but no less sincere, “then I can live with that."
Chris held his gaze as he searched Jared’s eyes and then bit his lip as he looked down and he knocked his knuckles together. Jared guessed to mull it all over and was quite surprised when their eyes met once more, he wouldn’t exactly call the look softer, less stern was probably more fitting, "Well it's really not my place to say anything. That's up to Jensen. But if you hurt him I will kill you."
And Jared believed he really could. He huffed a little, he really shouldn’t have expected anything else from Chris with what he’d already learned about him. "Sounds fair."
Of course it was right then that Jensen came back and Jared’s heart thundered in his chest at his, "What sounds fair?"
Fuck.
But Chris surprised him again with a swift shrug and, “Was just challenging the kid-“
And Jared scoffed a little, “Wait. Who are you calling kid?”
“Well I don’t know. But if the next words out of your mouth were going to be I’m taller than you” the last part said in a mocking tone.
Jared just grinned, eyebrow cocked, “But I am taller than you.”
Chris shook his head, “Punk-ass kid.”
“Grumpy old man,” and he seriously had to refrain from sticking his tongue out at him.
But it made Chris snort all the same. “Yeah we’ll see what you have to say once I kick your ass at darts. Loser buys the next two rounds.”
“What!?” Jensen said with an air of incredulity and then shook his head. “Dude, no way. You’re like scary good at that shit. Let’s just play pool. Two on two. I’ll take Jared, and you can go pry Chad off the bartender.”
I’ll take Jared
Yeah Jared’s heart very kindly reminded him of its presence at that. Jensen wanted him…on his team. To play pool. Jensen was single and possibly into guys? Chris hadn't exactly made that part clear. But why else would he give him the best friend disclaimer right? He supposed a better question was whether he could play an entire game of pool without checking out Jensen's ass the entire time. Well, he was about to find out.
As it turned out the answer was mostly no. But he had made a conscious effort to look at other things, like the table, the ground, the wall, his beer bottle, Chad and Chris, Jensen’s face, when they spoke. But when it was Jensen’s turn to play? Ye-ah. And when he and Jensen had won, Jared all of a sudden had his arms full of a warm, pliant Jensen who gave him a full-bodied victory hug, which lasted a little longer than a standard guy hug. He was pretty sure he had been in need of a cold shower after that. Not that the others seemed to notice. And he had a feeling Chad would be the kind to say if he had.
Jared had figured he’d probably be able to get himself back under control. And mostly he did, though there were still residual stirrings. Jensen didn’t exactly make things easier, he had pretty much remained by Jared’s side the whole rest of the time they were there and he kept leaning into him. And fuck if it didn’t make Jared want things. But Jensen was drunk. A friendly tactile drunk and Jared couldn’t really complain. Jensen’s warm smiling face just made him feel happy right down to his soul.
They stayed for the winning rounds bought by Chad and Chris and then they headed out. For a very brief half-notion Jared had contemplated, and apparently out loud, walking back to the dorms. But the older boys would hear nothing of it. They were going back to Chris’s place for a drink. No bailing allowed. They picked up some pizza on their way and they stuck on a movie at Chad’s insistence that they play a drinking game. Jared really didn’t know how they were supposed to keep track of all the rules, he could barely concentrate on them as they flew out of Chad’s mouth in rapid succession. But he was sure Chad wouldn’t let him miss a shot.
Chad had also claimed the comfy chair all for himself which left the rest of them to the couch. Jensen sat in the middle but with a definite leaning towards Jared’s side. He kind of fell over into Chris while trying to dodge Jared’s elbow when Jared very suddenly needed to get his phone out of his pocket, “I need to text Danni,” and he did. He hadn’t texted her the whole night and he definitely wasn’t going to see her until the following day.
Chad laughed, “She your girlfriend?”
Jared blinked, his brow drawn together as his brain processed that question. “Not my girlfriend girlfriend.” She was Danneel. And he supposed in some ways he considered her to be his. She was practically his sister. But way cooler.
“You’re so whipped,” Chad said with a deep amusement. Chris and Jensen snorted but neither of them said anything and Jared just shook his head and tapped out his message before he forgot.
Something he did lose track of was how many shots they had downed. And he was starting to not be able to keep his eyes open for any great length of time. And he was pretty sure they weren’t even watching the same movie anymore. The next time he opened his eyes it was to Jensen’s face, which was like right there. Inches from his own. Jensen must have been watching him. He had this smile. Made Jared smile too. And Jared stared back, his gaze torn between resting on Jensen’s eyes or his lips. God those lips. He really wanted to kiss them.
He could have, or at least he thought he could have, he had felt the tug that reeled him in just a fraction of an inch at a time. But then Jensen had said something that jolted his heart into overdrive.
“We should go to bed.”
“What?” Jared all but spluttered, and then Jensen made the cutest yawn and Jared felt like the biggest idiot ever. Sleep. Duh. The thing he had almost been doing like who even knows how many seconds ago. Jared blinked, looking up at Chris as a blanket and pillow were dropped into his lap. It was then he noticed that Chad was already conked out.
“You can take the couch,” Chris said with a look, that Jared wasn’t sure how to interpret. Jared’s eyes flicked back to Jensen, who reached out to Chris to help pull him up off the couch and they disappeared off into Chris’s room, he guessed. But just to sleep. ‘Cause they were best friends. Like Jared and Danneel were best friends. Though he supposed there wouldn’t be any snuggling. Platonic guy friends don’t snuggle.
Jensen is single.
And maybe into guys.
Jared sorted out his pillow and laid down, one hand on his belly the other above his head with a yawn of his own. He was probably kinda screwed.
CHAPTER THREE