It was one of the most convoluted series of events that had lead to this. First, a road trip to celebrate graduating high school with two groups of friends who barely knew or liked each other forced together by one couple dating. Second, the realization that even though everyone had agreed to share single bed rooms to save some money, no one had actually thought through who was going to share beds with who. And finally because Miller nor Monty wanted to complain they were paired off and sent to a room and were now standing before the bed staring at it like it had murdered their first born child.
“Which side do you want?” Miller asked just to break the silence.
Monty startled like he had forgotten that Miller was there. “Uh, it doesn’t matter. I usually sleep in the middle so whichever you want, I guess,” Monty answered, dropping his bag on the floor near the wall.
“I’ll take the right,” Miller said awkwardly.
Monty nodded as Miller moved to that side of the bed and sat down on the edge.
“I’m going to take a shower,” Monty announced just as awkwardly before taking a bundle of clothes quickly into the bathroom and slamming the door. When the water started Miller threw himself back onto the bed with a groan.
Tonight was not going to be a goodnight for him. It wasn’t that he didn’t like Monty, in fact that was the problem. He had a giant crush on the nerdy little Asian and Monty was obviously uncomfortable with the arrangement and as much as Miller knew that it wasn’t really him, it still hurt that he couldn’t relax around Miller.
Quickly, before Monty got out of the shower Miller changed into sweatpants and even through he usually slept without a shirt he decided that it might help Monty relax. He climbed into bed and pulled the covers over himself as he listened for the water to stop running.
Under the water of the ice cold shower Monty found himself able to concentrate a little bit better on his predicament. The guy he had had a crush on for most of high school was about to be sleeping in the same bed as him and he didn’t exactly seem excited about it, he was downright grumpy, more so than usual.
Monty turned off the water and sighed. It didn’t mean anything. They were just going to sleep next to each other. Nothing else. It wasn’t a big deal. He pulled on the sweatpants he had packed and a stretched out sweatshirt before running the towel over his hair in an attempt to dry it off a bit.
Turning off the light, Monty made his way out of the bathroom to find the room dark and Miller’s back to him. Letting out a sigh of almost- relief Monty walked into the room and made his way to the other side of the bed and managed to trip over his feet in the last few steps and fell onto the bed with an “oof.”
Miller rolled over and found Monty sprawled over half bed and hanging off the other half. He cracked a smile and extended a hand to the smaller boy who took it and was thanking his lucky stars that the room was dark and Miller probably couldn’t see that this face was as red as a tomato.
Monty climbed into bed after a mumbled thanks and curled in on himself on the very edge of the bed and tried to sleep while listening to Miller’s steady breathing and eventually he drifted off to sleep.
Miller didn’t know what time it was, and he was only vaguely aware of where he was. The only thing that he knew with absolutely certainty is that he had been woken up by something hitting his ribs hard enough that they were still singing with pain. As he woke up more and more he realized that it was still the middle of the night, the clock said it was 4:26 in the morning, and that the source of his pain was most likely Monty’s elbow which was only a few inches away from Miller’s side and Monty was sprawled across most of the mattress.
Miller sighed and with the hope that it would be the only incident, rolled back over and tried to go to sleep. A few minutes later Monty’s heal connected with his calf.
“Monty,” Miller hissed.
“Hmmm?”
“Stop kicking,” Miller said but only got a slap to the side of his face for his trouble.
He kicked Monty back and for a few blessed minutes it seemed to be over, and then Monty rolled right into Miller’s space and elbowed his chin. “Oh for god’s sake,” he grumbled before wrapping his arms round Monty’s arms and pulled him close and all but immobilized him. In less than a second any tension leaked out of Monty’s body and he curled closer to Miller’s chest and stopped moving.
Miller was asleep in seconds.
Monty woke up the next morning with two strong arms wrapped around him and he almost went back to sleep, until he remembered where he was and who he was with and the fact that Miller had probably just grabbed him in his sleep and didn’t know what he was doing. Carefully, he tried to get out of the grip but it only tightened.
“If you hit me again we’re going to have problems,” Miller mumbled in his ear.
“Hit you?” Monty asked, turning to face Miller who was still holding him so their faces ended up very close.
For a second Miller kept holding Monty until he realized that Monty was awake and that he was awake and there wasn’t a reason to be holding Monty anymore, even if he wanted to be.
“You kept hitting me last night. I held your arms to stop you from hitting me. I’m sorry if it…” Miller mumbled until Monty cut him off.
“It’s fine. I don’t really mind. I’m sorry I kept hitting you,” Monty said, sitting up quickly and swinging his legs over the bed and away from Miller.
“No big deal,” Miller said, starring at Monty’s back and found himself wanting to reach out even if Monty was practically drowning in the oversized sweatshirt.
After a moment of silence Miller decided that even if Monty had woken them up early they had to get up so he rolled out of bed and made his way to the bathroom.
Once he was gone Monty let out a breath he hadn’t known he had been holding. The amount of times that he had imagined waking up in Miller’s arms he hadn’t ever really thought it would be because he wouldn’t stop kicking his crush. The sound of the toilet and the facet running cut through his thoughts and he was extremely aware of the silence and Miller stayed in the bathroom after the sink had stopped.
Suddenly the door swung open quickly and Miller was talking. “What did you mean that you didn’t really mind?”
For almost a full minute Monty’s mouth hung open as he tried to remember saying that and how he was going to get out saying that he enjoyed having Miller’s arms wrapped around him. “I…it…uh. It was warm?” Monty offered weakly.
Miller gave him a disbelieving look that he knew he deserved, but it was too early to be completely mortified.
“Do you want to be even warmer tonight?”
Monty nodded dumbly and Miller gave him a brilliant smile.
“Maybe I’ll even save myself a few bruises in the process.”