Joey's Rules

Joey strutted back into the room and kicked off his shoes, after which he flopped onto the bed. The bed creaked under his weight as he made himself comfortable. His shirt crept up a little in the process, giving me a glance of the muscle underneath. I inconspicuously took a peek at him and decided to walk back from the balcony too, closing the doors behind me. “What rules do you have in mind?”

He yawned, making his body tense up for a second. Even while fully dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants you could still see a fair bit of Joey's athletic built underneath. Curse those muscles. It was already hard enough not to drool over Joey like all the girls in our class. Especially during the summer, when all the boys were forced to wear white, tight shirts and short pants, I was hardly able to keep my attention during class.

“Well you know: rules as in who will shower when and who will get which portion of the wardrobe," he lazily answered.

“You can have all the room in the wardrobe you need; I think I'll keep my stuff in my suitcase anyway. If it's fine with you, I would prefer to shower around 8:30 in the morning after my agility exercises," I replied softly, opening up my suitcase to retrieve my phone charger. I took a quick look at the photo camera that was safely stored between my socks and made a mental note to take it with me for tomorrow’s activity.

“Yeah, that’s alright.” Joey stuffed his face into a pillow. “I’ll take the left side of the bed. Oh, and don’t take any girls -or guys I guess- to the room. I really, really don’t want to walk in on anything unsavoury.”

My face started to heat up from the thought alone, which I was able to obscure by facing away from him and plugging my charger into a nearby socket. Did he really think I was the type to do something like that or was he just joking with me? I had never been able to tell with him. Joey was certainly the type to have sex on a school trip, but I would never… I mean, I would with him maybe, but…

“Oh, and don’t take any of your friends here either!” He added. “It’s already embarrassing enough to have to sleep in the same room as you… I don’t need everyone to know that I'll be stuck with the biggest loser of our year in the coming days. Although that news will undoubtedly spread like a wildfire anyway…”

That last comment hurt me more than I would let on. “Sure, is that all? It’s sweet that you think I even have friends,” I bitterly added.

Joey stayed quiet for a couple of seconds and I was afraid that I had made him mad, but then he said: “Yes, that’s all. Is that a deal?” 

I replied with a downhearted sigh: “Fine, it's a deal.”