Author's Note: More Devin coming up next.

Chapter Two

It was a sleepless night for Matt. After staying up until 3 in the morning drinking and watching TV, everyone was ready to pass out. Nobody had gotten plum drunk, but it had been a long day for them all, and they were ready to retire. Andrew and Joe ended up sharing a bed, while Kyle and Matt shared another. Even though Matt felt totally exhausted, he still couldn’t bring himself to fall asleep. There were so many things on his mind, on top of the fact that he just couldn’t get comfortable. The air conditioning was on, but he felt warm, hot even.

‘Must be the alcohol,’ he thought.

As Matt lay in bed staring up at the ceiling, he could hear Kyle breathing right beside him, lying on his side as he slumbered. He wore nothing but a pair of boxers, and Matt could see him almost as though it were bright as day. Kyle looked so peaceful, so beautiful lying there asleep. If only Matt could be wrapped in his arms, cuddled closely with him…

Matt shook the thought out of his head. He couldn’t be having those types of thoughts about his own cousin, especially not when they were sharing the same bed. God knows what could have happened if he did anything in his sleep that should blow his cover. But he wanted to touch him to bad, to feel his warm body against his flesh, even just for a minute. If only Kyle wasn’t his cousin.

Beep

‘What the hell was that?’ Matt thought to himself. There was something beeping somewhere in the room. Probably someone’s cell phone that was low on power or something. Damn it, the stupid thing would probably continue beeping all throughout the night. That was just great.

There was something blinking from the corner of Matt’s vision. The microwave atop the refrigerator in the room, its display flashed over and over again, its incessant flashing distracting, captivating Matt’s attention. Yet another irritant that would continue to keep him awake.

There was a sudden rattling noise coming from the direction of the air conditioner. Shit, why must the piece of shit be so noisy? Why must there be so many annoying things to keep him awake?

Matt was hot. The air conditioner just didn’t seem to be cooling the room adequately. Kyle turned over in bed, yanking the covers out from under Matt. Matt could feel his clothes cling to his body; he was sweating like a pig. He never thought he could be more miserable in his life.

Just then, the air conditioner clicked off. It had reached its designated temperature, and now it automatically shut off. Great, it was hot enough as was, but now the damn thing had just shut off by itself. What more could go wrong?

Beep

That damn phone… why couldn’t whoever owned it have shut it off before they went to bed? Was that too hard to do? Jesus Christ.

There was a howling coming from somewhere. Matt looked over in the direction of the door. Light from outside came in from the crack underneath. The wind was howling from underneath the space in the door, causing for an ever so irksome noise to be made. Shitty ass hotel. Would it have been so hard to install doors that kept the elements out?

Matt’s eyes were heavy, he yawned. His mind was still wide open, awake. He couldn’t sleep, no matter how tired his body was. The damn microwave display kept flashing, that damn phone kept beeping, the damn wind kept howling, the damn air conditioner wouldn’t come back on.

Suddenly, someone started snoring. Sounded like Joe. Goddamn it. He sounded like a freaking engine grinding because it didn’t have any oil in it. He sounded horrible, almost as bad as Matt’s grandma whose snoring could rattle all the windows in the house. Matt lay in bed, beads of sweat forming on his brow, staring up at the ceiling.

Beep. Flash. Snore. Howl. God damn heat.

Matt rolled out of bed, quietly crawling across the floor to the air conditioner and flipped up the control panel covering. The display read 68, but it felt like 88 or 98. He couldn’t see the controls because it was so dark. He felt around, pressing random buttons. Little lights beside each button lit up, but nothing happened. He covered his hand over the lights to help use what little light they gave off to see what the controls said. Matt found the temperature control and kicked the temperature down. The air conditioner finally kicked back to life, and Matt breathed a sigh of relief. He closed the panel covering and climbed back into bed. It started feeling a little bit cooler now, but now the damn air conditioner started rattling like crazy again.

Somebody farted. Loud. And it stank. Must have been Andrew, he was notorious for farting in his sleep. Farting period. It was a disgusting habit he had even when they were kids. Flatulent bastard.

Matt checked the clock to see what time it was. 3:30. Goddamn it. After all that time he had been laying there in misery, only thirty minutes had passed.

This was going to be one hell of a long week.

--

Matt opened his eyes at around 9 AM. The sun was shining in through the crack under the door. The air conditioner had shut off… again. Everyone was still fast asleep. The phone had stopped beeping. The microwave display continued flashing. Matt didn’t remember when he fell asleep, but he still felt extremely exhausted, so he figured he didn’t get much in the way of sleep. Not only that, he felt like shit too. He felt sticky and dirty, as though he had just run a marathon race and was drenched in sweat. His clothes clung to him as though he’d just worn them to the pool. He felt disgusting.

He quietly got out of bed, everyone still sleeping like rocks. He swiped the room card key and slipped his sandals on before quietly leaving the room. He couldn’t stand being trapped in that room any longer.

Matt headed down to breakfast room where the hotel provided a continental breakfast. He thought it was funny how nice and fancy the word continental sounded, but the breakfast was anything but that. It was nothing but watery coffee, stale bagels, and dry as hell Danishes. There was also the option to eat some cereal, but Matt wasn’t much into that. He settled with a stale bagel and watery coffee, and tried doctoring them up as best as he could. It was better than nothing.

While he sat in the breakfast room where some other guests were gathered, he looked around and suddenly came to realize just how crappy he must look. His hair was sticking up all over the place, his face felt like he had just stuck it in a bucket full of lard, and his clothes were wrinkled as all get out. The other guests looked as though they were dressed for the day and ready to go wherever their soul told them to go. He felt horribly out of place, as per usual. It seemed he couldn’t even fit in amongst a bunch of strangers, either.

After eating half his bagel and drank as much of his coffee as he could manage, he headed back up to the room to see if anyone was up yet. To no surprise, everyone was still dead asleep. He figured since he had nothing better to do he should head down to the beach for the hell of it. He threw on his swim trunks and grabbed a towel before heading down.

At the beach, Matt laid his towel out on the sand and sat down with his eyes squinted as the sun beat down on him, almost blinding him. There weren’t very many people out at that time, but he figured most people had the same sentiments as Andrew the others to sleep in late. Matt didn’t mind though. It was nice sitting out on the beach with hardly any one else around, the wind blowing past him, the waves crashing up on the shore. It was a beautiful day, and it almost made Matt feel better about all the things that had gone wrong since he’d been there.

Out in the water Matt spotted a guy with a surf board. He couldn’t see his face, but could tell just from his body that he was pretty damn hot. He had kind of long dark hair, and wore a pair of bright orange swim trunks with white tropical flowers on them. He had the perfect surfer guy look about him, and Matt was more than interested in him. He sat there on the beach, watching as the surfer dude paddled out and rode the waves. Matt laughed once when the surfer wiped out and got knocked off his board. Matt had more fun watching him than he had doing anything else since arriving at the beach.

After a while the surfer started towards the shore, and once he did, Matt looked away so the guy wouldn’t notice. But when he glanced up to look at the guy, he suddenly noticed him coming up to him, and realized who the surfer was.

“Imagine seeing you here,” Devin said as he approached with his surfboard in hand. Matt looked up at him in disbelief. He was soaking wet and half naked. He almost felt like he was at a strip club… albeit this time he actually enjoyed it.

“H-hey,” Matt stammered nervously, shielding his eyes from the sun. “Um, what are you doing out here?”

“I’m just out for a little surfing before work. Great way to start the day, I say,” Devin replied grinning.

“Oh…” Matt said, trying not to look directly at Devin’s broad, muscular chest.

“So where’s your posse? Still at that strip club?” Devin asked with a grin.

Matt chuckled, and shook his head.

“Nah, they’re still dead asleep, last I checked,” he replied.

“Oh,” Devin said. “Sure they’re not dead?”

“One could wish,” Matt replied.

Devin burst out laughing, and stuck his surfboard in the sand.

“You’re funny,” he said. “So how’d it go with the Three Stooges last night? Manage to survive alright?”

“I’m here aren’t I?” Matt asked.

Devin laughed again.

“Yeah, I guess you are,” he said. “You look kind of tired.”

“Don’t get me started,” Matt said. “I think I may have gotten the best of two hours of sleep last night. It was horrible.”

“Was it because of them, or just couldn’t sleep?”

“A bit of everything. Noisy air conditioner that shuts off in the night and makes it hot as hell. Someone’s dying cell phone beeping over and over. Blinking microwave display. Wind blowing in underneath the crack in the door. Hearing my brother fart like a foghorn. It was just one thing after another,” Matt explained.

Devin cringed.

“Ouch. Sounds rough. Anyone else not get any sleep?” he asked.

“They all slept like babies. I guess I just suck like that.”

“Don’t say that. I have a hard time sleeping in new places too. When you sleep somewhere you’re not used to, you tend to hear everything and find it hard to get comfortable. Just takes getting used to. Happens to lots of people,” Devin said.

“I suppose,” Matt said. “But seriously though, that hotel sucks.”

“I take it you had their breakfast?” Devin asked.

“Oh yeah,” Matt stated, “I felt like playing hockey with their bagels.”

“And baseball with their Danishes?”

Matt laughed.

“Yeah. And I think they used car oil for coffee,” he added.

Devin cracked up laughing, nodding in agreement.

“Most places around here do use car oil for coffee,” he said. “I think the only way to get good coffee is to go to one of the higher ends hotels, or a convenient store. That or buy your own coffee and make it.”

“Here here,” Matt agreed.

“So what’s on the agenda today? More jackassery from the Dunce Brigade?” Devin asked.

Matt shrugged, wiggling his toes around in the sand.

“I don’t know, probably,” he replied.

“Fun, fun,” Devin replied.

“Ain’t it though?”

Devin chuckled, and looked off into the distance without saying anything for a long while. Matt tried not to gawk, but couldn’t help but look up to steal a glance of Devin. He looked so stoic, so dreamy staring off into the distance as he was, the wind blowing through his shining black hair, his body glistening with drops of water. Matt felt a sensation growing in his swim suit, and forced himself to look away. Devin looked down at him once again to see what the matter was.

“Something wrong?” Devin asked.

Matt swallowed nervously and tried to conceal his erection. He couldn’t believe he had popped a woody right then and there in front of Devin.

“Uh, no, everything’s fine,” Matt said, jumping onto his feet, pulling his towel around him and trying it around his waist. “I… should probably get back before they wake up and wonder where I am.”

Devin nodded, his face gave nothing away. He continued to smile, to stare at Matt without ever breaking his gaze. He didn’t say anything, and Matt felt awkward with him just standing there staring at him. Had he seen his boner? Was he quietly laughing at him inside? Or maybe he liked what he saw…? That would be nice, but come on, who could possibly be interested in Matt?

“Well… it was… um… nice to, um, uh… see you again,” Matt said. “I, uh… maybe we’ll see each other again… or something?”

Devin flashed a grin, and nodded.

“Sounds good to me,” he said. “Would you reconsider taking that tour with me?”

Matt swallowed, and bit his bottom lip.

“I’ll… have to think about it,” he said.

Devin nodded again.

“Alright then. If you decide, feel free to come find me down at the Plaza down the strip,” he said.

“A-alright,” Matt stammered. “Will do.”

“See ya, dude,” Devin said.

“Yeah… see ya,” Matt said as he walked off.

Devin smiled, chuckled, and chucked his surfboard up out of the sand and carried it under his arm as he started off down the beach.

‘See ya soon… Matt.’