Eric's Pov:

My phone blaring woke me up. I grabbed it and stuffed it under my pillow. The damn thing stopped just to start again and the vibrating under my pillow finally pulled me to a semi awake state.

I yanked it out and clicked answer without looking at the caller ID.

"Who ever you are you better have a good reason to be waking me up." I growled.

My answer was a giggle. "Get over it loser. It's 2 o'clock so get your bum ass up and get ready." Kourtney screamed on the other end.

I looked at the clock and groaned. "Why?" I whined.

"Come on honey buns. We're going shopping. Meet me at the mall in thirty minutes or I'll be banging on your door like the Po-Po in thirty-five minutes. Bye love ya." The line disconnected.

I heaved myself out of bed knowing she wasn't joking and rushed around getting ready.

I pulled into a spot at thirty -two minutes and my phone was blowing up.

I clicked it on and spoke before Kourtney could gripe. "I'm here so chill before I light your tampon fuse and blow up your no-no box."

"Might have problems with that since I don't use tampons. But you can definitely play with what I got dangling below the belt." John joked.

"Pshhh I'd need tweezers and a magnifying glass to find it." I shot back as I walked through the front doors.

"That's not what your mom and dad said last night! That's right I got enough to feed the meat to both of them at the same time. Jealous much." He playfully taunted.

I gagged. "I think I liked you better when you were preaching anti-gay shit. Anyway I'll hit you up later. I'm meeting up with Kourtney."

"Nah don't sweat it. I just wanted to say congrats on growing some balls and letting your dick swing! You made coach look like a trick! You wouldn't believe how many views it got on the campus website. Anyway tell Kourtney I love her and wanna bend her over. Peace out bro."

I heard a squeal and felt arms wrap around me from behind. "Hey KT."

"You're supposed to freak out that someone was trying to rape you. How'd you know it was me?" She whined and popped me lightly on my ass.

"You're so weird. Anyway what am I doing here?"

"Well my sexylicious gay boyfriend. We are gonna get you some shit for your apartment. I know you well enough to know you haven't decorated shit and I'd bet my left boob you haven't even gotten any kind of furniture, linen or kitchen supplies. Plus you're hopelessly uncreative soooooo I volunteer my services. That way the next time you bring over a hot piece they won't freak that you either got robbed or you're some weird serial killer that lured them to your lair to do unspeakable things to them. In a totally unsexual and unfun way." She said dragging me into Bed Bath and Beyond.

"Have I mentioned before that I love you and no body will ever know me as well as you do?" I said sweetly pulling her into a hug.

She swatted my butt and grinned. "Quit with the dirty talk. You're gonna get me all riled up and a horny sexually-frustrated Kourtney is not a fun Kourtney." She said with a grin.

"We're all weird but you dear are the weirdest of our bunch. Besides, John could help with that. He told me to tell you he wants to bend you over."

I couldn't hold in my laugh at her expression.

"That kid is gonna catch something that makes his junk fall off and die. He's such a hoe. Anyway let's start with the bathroom cause it'll be the easiest and fastest. Just pick a shower curtain with a nice design and we'll go from there."

"I have a sliding glass door for the shower and the tub is sunken in and doesn't need a curtain because it doesn't have a shower head just the faucet. But I wanna go with a gray and black theme. That's what the marble counter tops are and I like it."

She nodded and started picking things up and throwing them in the buggy. After twenty minutes we'd moved on to the kitchen stuff. She grabbed another buggy and started throwing pots, pans and cooking utensils in. She flew threw the kitchen department as quickly as she did the bathroom section.

"So your room is covered right? You have all your stuff from home?"

"Yeah I do but the the living room has nothing. Seriously its just a huge blank spot."

"Are you gonna paint it or leave it as is? Is it carpeted or wood floors? How big is the space and how many windows are we talking? The height and width? What color palate and what material furniture are you going with? Personally I think leather's tacky and way over done but I know boys like it. So it's whatever."

"Keeping the off white walls, wood floors. The living room's pretty big, almost double the size of my old bed room. The windows are almost floor to ceiling and run the length of the apartment. No crazy colors and I don't care about what kind of material. Have fun but no crazy shit like zebra or cheetah print."

She led me to check out and waited as I paid. We took the two baskets worth of stuff and dumped them into my car.

"I'll follow you home. I can't really design a bad ass set up without seeing the space." She kissed my cheeks and walked off. She followed me to my apartment and between the two of us we grabbed all the bags.

"KT I could have made a second trip. You're carrying your own weight in bags." I admonished with a shake of my head because she looked so funny struggling with all the bags.

"This place better have an elevator cause I'll have a heart attack trying to walk up stairs with all this. I mean hello I'm wearing 6 inch Jimmy Choo's." She groaned as she readjusted some of the bags to keep from falling over.

We were almost to the building entrance. I looked back at her to tell her to just set it down and I'd come back for it all but she started yelling.

"Yo! Dude hold the door!" She yelled to someone coming out and struggled to speed up with everything.

"Just leave the bags. I'll come back for it all, ya stubborn pain it the ass." I complained over my shoulder to her.

She rolled her eyes "Shut up jerk face. It's stupid to.. Oh hey" She said looking passed me.

"What are y'all doing here?" The smooth strong voice from the door asked as we approached it. I froze and shot a look to my left where he was. Ughh.

"I live here. Why are you at my building? Did Delilah give you my address to make sure I was eating or something. That's really not cool."

He blinked at me and crossed his arms. "As a matter of fact I'm at my building. I didn't realise you lived here and Delilah wouldn't have given out your personal information."

"Awkward!" Kourtney sang.

He looked over at her and laughed. "Let me help, you look like your about to fall over." He grabbed almost all the bags from her and rolled his eyes at me.

"It's not nice to treat your friends like pack mules Eric." He said teasingly.

I rolled my eyes and shouldered passed them. "I didn't, she was just being a stubborn brat Steven!"

I ignored their laughs as they followed me to the elevator and up to my floor. I opened the door and walked in dropping all the bags in middle of the living area.

"Wow, it's better then I imagined. Okay you boys move all the bags and start putting everything away. I need thinking time so I get it just perfect for my gay boyfriend." She cooed.

I grabbed some bags and walked to the kitchen area. Wordlessly Steven followed and started unpacking with me. He started putting everything away and even walked to the bathroom to set things in there.

Damn he looked gooooooooood. He was wearing tight jeans and worn faded T and a leather jacket. He came back in and turned to watch Kourtney inspect the living room.

"Soooo you dragged the poor girl into an all out shopping spree? What the hell is she doing?" He asked lowly.

"Try, she dragged me shopping because apparently after almost three months here I should have gotten around to buying all this crap already. She's 'visualizing' or whatever. She's decided she's gonna be my interior designer because according to her I missed the 'fabulous design and color coordination' gay gene. When you said your building you meant you live here? Did you just move in because-" I trailed off because I could feel the blush starting to tint my cheeks.

I turned around and started gathering up the empty bags.

"Yeah my apartment's on the top floor. I've lived here the last two years but I haven't been here for the last four months I was having the entire apartment redone. Basically had everything torn out and worked up from just a shell."

"I don't see how management is okay with that. Anyway thanks for the help but I-"

"Oi you two quit canoodling! Okay so I think I got it all set. We'll put the sex swing in that corner and the paddling bench over here."

My mouth dropped open and I think I stopped breathing for a second. She giggled and pinched my cheeks. "You're too easy. Anyway we need to go to the huge furniture store on the other side of town."

I narrowed my eyes at her. "You're an asshole."

She ignored me and grinned at Steven. "Mr Becker you wouldn't mind coming along would you? I know this cuts in on your personal time but I want a man's opinion so I don't go overboard or make it to fem. This is a huge deal, It's my honey buns first apartment and I want to make everything's perfect for him." She batted her lashes and gave her sweetest smile.

He smiled and gave a little shrug. "If it's that big of a deal I guess. You can call me Steven it makes it less awkward hanging out."

I felt a stab of intense jealousy and pushed it back. So what if they flirt. She's 18 and beautiful and he's straight and any straight man would be insane not to fall for her.

We walked out and rode down to the entrance. "I'm gonna leave my car here and ride with you. I hate going through down town." She declared while clicking the lock button on her key fob.

I shrugged and walked on.

"Oh bad ass. That's so cool. I always wanted a crotch rocket. Those things haul ass. But you know it looks like it might rain so why don't you ride with us. I'll even sit in the back so you don't feel like a kid or something." She gushed to Steven.

Great just great. Not only does he live literally right above me. But his sexy self has a crotch rocket. That adds even more hot points. Ughh not like he needs it.

"Sure I guess and yeah it'll hit 190 with no problems."

I could hear the smile in his voice and I gnashed my teeth together. Oh joy I get to spend the entire long ass car ride with those two flirting. Stupid heteros.

I spent the next 45 minutes resisting the urge to bang my head on the steering wheel. They spent the entire time talking and what really bugged me was she asked all the questions I've been wondering about but hadn't asked and he answered with no problems.

I bet if I tried to have the same conversation he wouldn't have been so forth coming. Stupid heteros and their stupid hetero 'get to know you' small talk.

I found out he's 24, single for the last 6 months. Went to University of Texas was in a frat and senior year he was pledge master. He majored in teaching because he wanted to follow his uncle's footsteps and loves it. He has dual masters degrees. The other one was in economics and business management. Never been married and no kids. Has a bunch of hobbies and a few cars besides sides his Charger and crotch rocket.

Yep I kind of want to slap her right now. But I tuned back into what they were saying because I guess I'm a glutton for punishment. Hello I'm not only crushing on a teacher which is a big no no. But a straight male teacher at that. I must be masochistic.

"You have got to check out Eric's Camero. It's from the 70's or something and it's so pretty. Red with white racing stripes and a silver thing on the hood that has little round flaps to get more air to the engine or something like that. When he and John were creaming over it I was sorta in my own little world."

He turned to me. "What year is it?"

"1962 fully restored. Guilt gift, I haven't driven it in a while."

"Damn! That's a bad ass car. Where is it? I didn't see it in the lot."

"Parking storage behind the building. We're here."

We got out and Kourtney took off. Steven fell into step with me.

"She's hyper like this all the time? I kinda had her pegged for being chill once she was out of school and not trying to annoy her teachers."

I shurgged. "She's always like this. You'll get used to it. Just wait till she starts with her weird crap. Like 'I'd bet my left boob' or 'ooooh I'm gonna put that in the spank bank for later'." I said shaking my head and giving a small laugh as I watched her flit from area to area and command the sale's associate to do her bidding.

He laughed and looked around. "Sooo you're not actually the weirdest one out of your friends. Hmm."

I know he's joking but I kinda wanted to slap him up side the head right now.

"No as surprising as this may be I'm the normal one. John's the slut, Kourtney's the hyperactive fireball, Daniel's anti social with most people except us and I'm normal-ish except I babble when I'm really nervous."

He bumped shoulders with me and smiled. "Relax I was kidding. Don't get offended but you're not normal. But I don't mean that in a bad way. I just mean you're different. You're playful and nice but have a hell of a temper and my ribs can attest to the fact that you can back your shit up .Yet you still manage to get nervous and babble all the time. It's a surprisingly funny, an entertaining mixture of contradictions. Like a walking, talking puzzle."

I rolled my eyes. "I don't get nervous all the time. In fact hardly ever. Except with you, and that one time with Patrick and only a few times with Delilah but out of the thousands of times I've been at her office it's not that big a deal. Wouldn't you have rambled on if you mistakenly called a straight woman a lesbo?"

"So it's just the three of us that make you nervously spout out whatever pops into your head without any filter?" He tilted his head to the side and focused on me. "Why?"

I looked around for Kourtney but of course she wouldn't come save me from the potential embarrassment I could place myself in. I rolled my eyes at myself and quickly thought of something to say and determined to say only that and not vomit out any and every thought I had.

As calmly as I could I said. "I felt bad for the lesbo thing so that explains that and then well Patrick kinda threw me off when he acted like I'd be hanging out over there. And you.. I don't know you enough to be comfortable so I guess that's why I babble around you."

That sounded believable right? Didn't sound like I was crushing on him right?

He smirked and gave a little shrug. "Guess that'll change since I'm your neighbor and I have you four times a day."

"Three times a day. Regular class, freshman aid and then senior aid seventh. That's three." I corrected.

"Oh I knew I forgot to tell you something. Del wants me to fill in until they find a permanent track coach replacement. So yeah four times a day."

"At least you're guaranteed to be better then coach. Hell I've said all kinds of stuff in front of you and poked your ass and you haven't gone all homo hating hetero on me."

His laugh was interrupted by Kourtney barging in and shoving her hand in my pocket.

"Ooooh is that a rocket launcher in your pants or are you just loving my hand?" She cooed flirtliy. An inside joke from the incident at the airport.

"Nope that's all me baby." I cooed back.

She pulled her hand out and waved my money clip around. "Don't get too happy pappy, I'm just getting your bank card."

"We're done? Good deal."

"Pshh you won't be saying that when you see how much I spent but ehh you can afford it. If not the ATM of Kourtney is always open. All ya gotta do is let me watch the next time you get some. Ahhh that would last a long time in my spank bank. It'll draw all kinds of interest." She winked and walked off.

"Okayyyyy I see what you meant about her. Aren't you going to check what she got before she swipes your card?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

I dropped down on one of the floor model couches. "Nuh huh. She's really good and she knows me pretty well. Last year she redid my room, the game room and chill room at my parents house. She did bad ass. So much so that even though all that stuff was technically mine my parents decided to keep the game and chill room as is."

"Well the way you set up your bedroom area was really nice and the colors flowed well without being too matchy so you're right she's good." He said dropping down next to me.

"I am. Very good at everything I do. Alright boys the nice clerk over there is going to load the car up with everything that we'll need for the next few hours. By the time we finish the delivery man should be there with all the big stuff. Come on we have lots to do."

I watched the clerk blush and run to do her bidding and rolled my eyes. "Let me guess you worked your charms to get it rushed."

"Pshh no, do I look like an amateur? I got it rushed, free delivery and assembly and all the tools we need to hang the pictures, curtains and blinds. I didn't even need to pop a button or two on my blouse." She said smugly.

Steven shook his head and leaned over to whisper. "Yep you're definitely the normal one."

His breath washed over me and I beat back my blush and restrained the pleased shiver that wanted to break free.

Kourtney spent the entire drive back to my place texting away on her phone. So Steven and I chatted away about his cars and mine. We made a deal that he would take my camero out for a spin and I'd take his crotch rocket out.

We talked a little about school. Him teasing me about having to be his slave and me threatening to put salt in his coffee again. He said he was dropping the two a days for the team but he had some plans to strengthen the endurance of the runners without hurting them.

By now we were hanging the blinds up and Kourtney was still texting away.

"So let's hear some of the plans." I said handing him the drill.

"Nothings definitive yet because I need to time you all but I think we need to add in some light weight training and workouts with resistance bands. That'll make straight running easier on the muscles so y'all should get a bit faster time wise. Also I'm thinking about setting the whole team up in pairs according to similar times. Basically you'll get a running buddy who's time is about the same and hopefully that motivates each of you to push a little harder."

"Decent ideas but there's a few problems with that. First being we have an odd number on the team and second no one is anywhere close to my time."

"Someones cocky." He teased ruffling my hair.

"Nah he's really not. He's just that good. Coach used to make the guys race for about 10 laps with hurtles. Eric usually lapped the whole team. Twice. Personally I think it's just so he could watch the other guys asses when he was behind them then he'd have to lap again when he busted a boner."

I felt my cheeks flame and flipped her off. "Not even close. The only really hot guys at school are John, Daniel and me and I could never get with either of them or even think about them that way. It's basically incest." I said with a shudder.

"What about the kid that was running with you the other day?" Steven asked.

I shot him a WTF look. "No he wasn't hot, plus he's like... really small. He looks like he's 10 instead of 17."

He rolled his eyes. "No I meant he was running with you so obviously he could keep up."

"Ohhhh I get ya. No he can't. He's one of the slower ones. He kept up because I wasn't actually trying. I was just trying to survive it." I said with a shrug.

"Why don't you run with him Steven? I mean you used to do track and you said you still ran. I bet since you did it in college you could keep up with Eric." Kourtney asked with the same stupid eyelash flutter and flirty smile she'd used to get him to come with us today.

"KT leave him alone! Ughh he's not gonna-"

He cut me off. "That actually makes sense. If you're as good as it sounds then you'll need someone at your level to keep you motivated to go harder. Besides it'll just be more time we spend together which will make you comfortable and you can stop spazzing out about black people, penis size, molesting me and Del sexting Pat." He teased chuckling when I flipped him off and turned away to hide a blush.

"Hottie teacher say my homo boyfriend said what?" Kourtney asked with a huge smirk on her face.

I threw my hands up in frustration.

"He said nothing. None of that happened because that would mean that I did that stupid nervous babble thing and I haven't done that shit in years. Plus I'd have to be nervous and I wasn't nervous. What's there to be nervous about? Right. See. My point exactly. Except for the time I freaked out about molesting him but that was cause I didn't know it was his ass I was poking and I'm gonna go get a drink now."

I stormed to the kitchen and yanked the frig door open ignoring the two jerks that were laughing at me.

"Man I haven't seen him do that since his nuts dropped when he hit puberty. Gahh I missed it. So my gay boyfriend was molesting you? What exactly was he poking your ass with?" She teasingly asked Steven.

"It wasn't like that. He didn't even know it was me that was carrying him. He just jabbed the cheek with his finger while he ranted that he wasn't done yelling at coach."

He was still laughing and I had a feeling he was thinking about my spazz attack when I realized it was him. I walked back over and ignored them.

"OHMIGOHD! My gay boyfriend is cheating on me with a straight boyfriend! Hot damn I wanna take pictures! Definitely going in my spank bank." She yelled.

I groaned and thumped my head on the wall.

"Shuddup KT or I swear I'll shove my underwear from yesterday's track practice in that stupid big mouth of yours!" I whined.

"I'd listen, he smelled soooo bad. I had to leave the windows down in my car overnight to air it out." Steven said.

I gaped at him and he laughed even harder.

"Kidding." He said walking over to me and playfully bumping his shoulder with mine.

The delivery men showed up and two hours later the apartment was finished. Steven complimented how well everything looked and left.

KT dropped down on the couch and sighed. "That man is so hot. Damn what I wouldn't do to him. You're one lucky little boy."

"How?" I asked still leaning my head back and staring at the ceiling. She laughed but didn't answer.

She pushed herself up and kissed my cheek. "I'm glad you like everything. I'll see ya Monday. I'm beat. Night." And she walked out.

I laid down on the couch and moaned at how freaking comfortable it is. I was too lazy to move so I grabbed a throw from the end and crashed out.