Her Sweetness: Hey, all. This is a new story, my first original fiction that will be a chapter-story. Please enjoy and review.

However Long

Chapter 1:

“Ryan, can you handle this?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“…”

xxx

There was mist after the rain that spread over downtown. Unfortunately, the rain just barely stopped as Ryan reached his apartment building. The umbrella he had brought from home—because he watched the weather channel and he knew it would rain today—

had mysteriously disappeared from his desk drawer. However, it was not so mysterious to Ryan.

He pressed the button of the elevator and waited for what seemed like forever but was, in truth, about two minutes before a man walked past him and spared him the statement, “Elevator’s busted.”

Ryan looked back and the man was on his way up the stairs. He followed.

The place looked nice; potted palms and a cream carpet in the lobby but it really wasn’t fit to hold as many tenants as it did. Still, it was cheap and Ryan and his roommate could afford it. Scratch that, Ryan thought, he could afford it. Gavin couldn’t even afford a pair of sneakers lately.

“I’m home,” he called, opening the door to 16C. He was unsurprised to see the place in its usual weekday shambles: hangars on the living room floor, the coffee table cluttered with bills and newsletters and Ryan saw, out of the corner of his eye, dishes stacked in the small kitchen sink. The television in the living room area was on, muted, and Gavin’s frazzled black hair was seen over the top of the couch.

Gavin leaned his head back and mumbled into the phone he held to his ear, “Call you back,” before hanging up.

“I thought you were going to clean up a little.”

“Yeah, I was going to, but I got caught on a phone call.”

Ryan rolled his eyes as he kicked off his shoes on the linoleum square by the front door. “Okay, sure, for ten hours?”

“You weren’t gone that long.” Gavin narrowed his dark eyes.

“I was too!” he groaned, the statement heard from down the hallway where Ryan entered his bedroom. It wasn’t completely neat and tidy but it was a far cry from the rest of the house, mainly because Gavin never entered it, having remarked on numerous occasions that Ryan’s room smelled like scented soaps. He’d been thanking his lucky stars the past three weeks that he had the foresight to get a two bedroom apartment, even though at the time, he had been by himself. He’d thought, I may get a visitor, someone to stay for a day or two. And after on a few months by himself, there came Gavin, knocking on the door at 3 AM on a rainy, Tuesday morning. And one day turned into two, then into three and four. Days turned to weeks and Ryan dreaded the idea of perhaps celebrating a whole month lived together.

He set down his backpack by the edge of his bed - one of the perks at working for a company like HCA, no one cared what you carried your personal things in, whether it be a briefcase or a knapsack and Ryan felt more like a college student this way.

The room itself more so resembled a high school student’s room. A few posters on the wall, mostly things his parents had given him when he moved out, and some ratty furniture. On the bed, his pillows were almost all in place and his covers were not in disarray like the bedroom down the hall.

Ryan sighed, rubbing the back of his head with his hand vigorously. “Gavin, Gavin…”

“Yeah?”

“Jeez!” He whirled around to see his roommate at the threshold of his door. “You scared me.”

Gavin paused. “Pansy.”

“Ugh. Listen, I’m too tired to make anything for dinner and I’m sure you haven’t given it any thought-”

“Actually, I have given it thought. I have Domino’s on their way.”

“Oh. Good.”

“Yep.”

“How’d you get the money?”

“What money?”

“To order pizza…?”

“Oh, I don’t have any. When they come, you answer the door.”

Ryan groaned. “Gavin!”

“What?” he mimicked.

“We’re supposed to go halvsies on everything, that was our agreement for you staying here!”

“You queer, don’t say “halvsies”.”

“… What am I supposed to say?”

“Even.”

“Why the heck kind of difference-”

“It’s a manly word!”

“Oh, what - Never mind! You’re off topic!”

“Am I?” He raised an eyebrow.

“We were talking about the money,” Ryan said through gritted teeth.

“You’re right. I’ll go put the dog up so he can’t hassle the pizza man,” Gavin stated and disappeared behind the wall just as quietly as he came.

Ryan stopped for a moment, then shouting, “You liar, we don’t have a dog!” He thought briefly of chasing him down with a pillow but that idea seemed trite. Instead, he went to his drawer to get out a twenty he’d withdrawn earlier in the week, his eyes flashing to his computer screen and the number of emails he’d received: none.

“I see the car!” Gavin called from the living room excitedly.

“I’m coming,” Ryan muttered.

xxx

They sat in the living room together, the open pizza box on the coffee table, more than half of it devoured already and Ryan was still daintily working on his second slice. Gavin, who had been munching hungrily, looked up for a moment at his roommate with a shrewd eye.

“You eat too little.”

“You eat too much,” Ryan shot back, not caring.

Gavin shook his head. “I’m healthy. See this?” He pinched at his stomach where some extra skin was hanging just over his jeans. “It may look like chub but it’s really muscle.”

“Sure.”

Gavin gave a wide-mouthed smirk. “Want to see?”

“Huh…? What’s that mean?” Ryan swallowed.

“C’mon, let’s wrestle.”

“What? You’re insane!” Ryan scooted further back on the couch. “Don’t come near me.”

“What’s wrong with you? We did it before.”

“Yeah and my back still hurts from where you sat on me. Besides, the neighbor’s downstairs complained.”

“They complained because of your high-pitched battle cries.”

“Those were cries for help.”

“Lay off the War Craft, Ryan.”

“I don’t play that!”

Gavin viciously bit off another bite of his pizza.

Ryan looked at his morosely and picked off another anchovy. “Why’d you put anchovies on this… and pineapple? Basically everything under the sun.”

“Variety is good.”

“Gluttony isn’t.”

“Know what your problem is?”

“Oh God, Gavin…”

Ryan wished the television wasn’t on mute and was looking around for the remote but couldn’t find it. If only Gavin had a remote and a mute button. If only, if only. Gavin resumed speaking after he’d finished his crust, “Your problem is that you’re too feminine. Have you ever had a girlfriend?”

“What the heck does that mean? Of course I did!”

“When, elementary school!”

“High school, you idiot. In Junior year? C’mon you were there, you remember Amanda.”

“Amanda…? Amanda.” He looked thoughtful as he reached for another, and the last, slice of pizza. Ryan watched it go to his plate with no feeling at all. “Oh yeah! I remember her. Short thing, with thighs like tree trunks.”

“That’s not true!”

“Why’d she break up with you anyway?”

“Why do you assume she broke up with me? Why couldn‘t it have been the other way around?”

“Now now, don’t get defensive.”

“I am not getting defensive!”

Gavin blinked at him. He took a bite. “How long did you guys go out?”

“… Not sure. Maybe seven months.”

“So the only girlfriend you ever had-”

“Don’t assume!”

“I’m not. The only girlfriend you ever had was in the eleventh grade and it’s, what, almost five years later? You’ve got to get out on the scene.”

“What scene?”

“The dating circuit! Don’t worry, we’ll do something about your lack of a life.”

“What gives you the right-”

Gavin burped loudly and Ryan cringed. Gavin stood, dusting crumbs off of his hoodie and onto the floor. He walked into the dark hallway, saying, “’Night, thanks for the pizza.”

Ryan was left alone with the empty pizza box and crumbs and his half-eaten second slice with anchovies decorating his plate. He grumbled morosely, “Yeah, yeah… when the heck are you moving out?”