A New Day
Chapter 12
A few hours later found AJ wandering aimlessly around his own house. He had spent a couple of hours over at Kevin's, eating take out and just generally hanging out. He had enjoyed it immensely, because they hadn't had time to do that in ages, and they had both missed it.
He'd also hung around because he didn't want to leave Kevin rattling around in that big house of his alone, when he was obviously missing Kristen terribly.
It wasn't that he wasn't used to not having her around all the time, cos the sad fact was that they were used to it; it was more the fact that he hadn't been ready for her to go because she hadn't supposed to have been leaving for at least another week. This way, it was like she was there, and then she was gone, without any warning, and it made it that much harder on Kevin, especially since he'd had all kinds of romantic stuff planned over the next few days for him and Kristen to share before she left.
Once AJ had heard all this from Kevin, there was nowhere else he would be. He knew Kevin, and knew that he wouldn't want to be alone, yet he would never admit it and ask him to stay, so he had made out that he had nothing better to do and didn't want to be alone himself- which was true. He didn't want to be rattling around in an empty house just waiting until it was time to go over to Howie's either. This way meant that neither of them was lonely, and killed some time as well.
Unfortunately, Kevin had to go out at 4:30, so AJ had left his house and returned to his own, which is where he had stayed.
Knowing that he had another 2 1/2 hours before he could go to Howie's, he had driven really slowly, and managed to drag out the journey to last a whole 15 minutes.
Then he had wandered around the kitchen, making a snack to eat.
He took that into the den, and sat down to watch some T.V, only to decide that there was nothing on, and he wasn't hungry either.
So he had left the room and headed upstairs to take a nap, but the bed reminded him of the last two nights, and he swore that the pillow still smelled of Howie.
He was then going to take a shower, but one look at the bathroom reminded him of the previous afternoons bath-time fun, so that was out too.
Frustrated, he had gone to play some pool, but the memories of Howie wrapping his arms around him from behind, and a remembered promise to fuck on the table some other time came into his mind.
This led him up to this point, where he was walking around, tidying up the house, with at least another 1 1/2 hours before he could leave for Howie's.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it), the house was already pretty tidy, and didn't need much done to it. AJ considered for a moment firing his maid, but just as quickly discarded the idea as stupid. Who else was gonna clean up after him?
Time seemed to drag on endlessly for AJ, and it didn't help that he kept looking at his watch every minute either. He was impulsive by nature, and didn't like to wait for things. Because of this, it made him impatient, and restless.
He went back upstairs, and took a shower in the guestroom, deciding that he wanted to be all fresh and clean for Howie, before padding back down the hallway to his bedroom, to change his clothes.
AJ looked through his closet and found that for once in his life he was unsure what to wear. Normally he didn't give a shit and wore whatever he felt like, mainly because he didn't much care about other people's opinions. He wore what he wanted, when he wanted.
The only people whose opinions he cared about were the other guys and occasionally his mom. Nobody else mattered. He liked to express himself through his clothes and his hair, and they were the only people who knew him, and therefore, the only people he felt were entitled to have opinions.
But now, he found himself actually considering what Howie would like him to wear. He ran his hand through the racks of clothes, trying to remember if Howie had ever expressed an opinion on anything in there.
His hand caressed a pair of leather trousers, and he stopped. He seemed to remember Howie once saying he looked really good in them. He looked at them for a moment, before shaking his head. They were not the sort of thing that you would wear to dinner.
Eventually he settled on a pair of baggy black cargo pants, rather like the pair he wore in the video for I Want It That Way, a black wifebeater, and a red button down shirt. He figured it was dressy enough for D, and yet comfortable enough for him to wear.
He looked at his watch again, and was pleased to see that another hour had passed, and it was time to leave. He knew that if he drove a little more sedately than usual, he would be able to make the drive last the extra half-hour, and he would arrive on time.
With one last look in the mirror, AJ ran down the stairs, and into the garage, jumped inside his truck, and was off.