Current mood:	cranky
Current music:	Taylor Swift- Come in With the Rain
Entry tags:	jamesxevan, learning to remember, orginal fic, yaoi

Learning to Remember part 3


Part the Third in Learning to Remember
Standard warnings apply. Enjoy?

Part three

James rolled over and hit the off button on his alarm clock and when he glanced at it he cursed. Loudly. It was nine and in little more than three hours his new roommate would be arriving. With great reluctance he left the comfy cocoon of blankets on his bed and made his way to the bathroom. He decide against a shower until he was done moving the ten or so boxes in the living room and settled for brushing his teeth.

Yawning he made his way to the living room, thankful that he hadn’t brought much. A few of the boxes held his clothes and linens along with a few toiletries. Another held a set of dishes, glasses, mugs and silverware while another had various other kitchen supplies and dry food items. He had also brought a TV and DVD player. Nothing too spectacular but sufficiently “cool” enough for two college age guys as his father had put it. His room mate, as of yet still unnamed, had furnished all of the furniture minus the appliances (they had been furnished.) The one thing that was niggling his sense of curiosity was the artist easel and table full of art supplies next to it. He must be rooming with a fine arts major. That or he was some one who was really, really into art, big time.

He lugged the kitchen boxes into the kitchen and set them of the table where they would wait until he could put them away. The other boxes were lighter and it took him very little time to actually move them, it was the unpacking that he wasn’t looking forward to. Still he unboxed his clothes and linens and put them in the proper places. His suit and clubbing out fits were hung in the closet, other miscellaneous clothes were folded and put in the dresser and the extra set of sheets were put in the bottom drawer. He gathered what was left, extra razor blades, a bottle of shampoo and an extra tube of tooth paste and put them on of the shelves in bathroom closet. Dull, tedious work but it had to be done.

James’ stomach growled, signaling it needed food and it would be better if it was sooner rather than later. His stomach growled again and he sighed exasperatedly. He was going to finish unpacking in the kitchen but it looked like he would be hunting up some breakfast first. He glanced at the clock and found it was 11:30. ‘Maybe I should shower first,’ he amended taking a whiff of himself, screwing his face up.

He grabbed a tee shirt and pair of khaki shorts along with a clean pair of boxers and carted them to the bathroom. The bathroom was small, but not too small. The cabinets were stained oak and the floor was tiled with an off white color, not a cream color but not white either, just an in between shade. The vanity had one sink and a silver fixture. The shower was a tub that had a dark blue shower curtain. He stripped his dirty boxers and shirt off and turned the water on and let it build to a steam before he stepped in. In a matter of minutes he was out and toweling himself dry. He rubbed his hand across his chin and decided against shaving in favor of elevating the growling coming from his stomach.

He dressed and ran a comb through his hair, though it wasn’t really necessary before he walked to the kitchen to dig though the meager contents of his box. There were a couple of cans of vegetables, fruit, and soup. He also found a box of granola bars and a bag of chips. He ripped open granola bar and bit into it. It would due until he could go shopping. Maybe his roommate would want to go get some lunch some where, get to know each other. Besides he really owed him for furnishing the apartment, it really would have sucked to lug all of his furniture the 400 miles it took to get to Bellevue. It had been a blessing that the super had called to tell him his roommate was providing furniture.

He polished off his granola bar and grabbed another. The sweet taste of honey and almond danced over his taste buds as he bit into the second. He began to take out the various items from the box as he munched his pseudo- lunch. He found the packages of ramen under a box of cereal.

“You and I almost had a date last night,” said James as he put them in one of the cupboards. He continued going through the boxes and putting the contents away until he heard muffled voices at the front door and then the door unlocking.

“…Now your roommate, James arrived yesterday. He didn’t have a problem with the furniture either so no problems there,” explained John Keriegg, the buildings manager. “You two are the last ones moving in this year so you both will probably be seeing your neighbors dropping by. If you have any questions feel free to ask.”

“Thank you,” replied his roommate. The other man had an Asian look to him. Bronze colored skin and dark eyes with silver rimmed glasses perched on his pert nose. He straight, shining hair pulled back in to a short pony tail and was maybe three, four inches at the most shorter than he was. Both John and the other man saw him at the same time and John made the introductions.

“James! This is your roommate Kent Porter,” said John enthusiastically. John was in his late 50’s and already sporting a head of grey hair. His wardrobe consisted of Hawaiian shirts, Bermuda shorts and flip flops. He was pretty laid back but he didn’t take any grief from anyone. “I’ll get out of your way now.”

There was an awkward pause as John excused himself. James looked the other over and then smiled.

“Hi, nice to finally know your name,” said James extending his hand. “John was a little tight lipped about it.”

Kent took his hand and James was pleased to feel his grip was strong and steady.

“That would be my agents fault,” Kent told him sheepishly. “She thought if you knew who I was before hand you would sell the information or something of that sort.”

“Agent?” asked James bewildered. “I take ‘she’ would be an art agent if the table in the corner is any clue.”

“Yes, actually she said she’d be stopping by later to see how every things going,” said Kent affectionately. “She’s really like a big sister to me, helped pick out all the furniture too. I hope you don’t mind that I brought all the furniture and took up so much of this room with my supplies.” Kent sounded a little anxious.

“No, if anything I’m glad you brought the furniture!” laughed James. “I would have had to get a moving truck and drive it 400 miles to get it here and the table is fine, I’m sure that if we need the extra room we can move it.”

“That’s a relief!” sighed Kent. “Jami, that’s my agent, decided that my first apartment just had to be ‘perfect!’ and I just had to have the best of everything.” He rolled his eyes.

“Well I’ll have to thank Jami,” said James. “I was thinking about going out to get something to eat then run to the grocery store. Would you like to come? It’s my treat.”

“I was actually going to ask if you wanted to go out with Jami and myself in a couple hours,” said Kent. “But if you’d like to go get something now we can.”

“I’ve only had a couple granola bars so far,” said James. “But I can wait, that is if you’re sure you want me to go.”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t,” teased Kent, his dark eyes glimmering. “We should go to the store though.”

“Let me grab my wallet and you can put your bag in away,” said James already heading toward his room. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Kent nodding his consent and heading to his own room, bag in hand.

James grabbed his wallet and keys and called, “We’ll take my car, that okay?”

“Sure!” was his reply.
When they had made their way down stairs James led Kent to his car. It was a dark blue Chevy Malibu, the product of his parents and grandparents graduation present to him. It was by far the best present he had ever received, though the college trust fund in his name was a very close second. For the next four years he didn’t need to work but he had plans to get a job. It would drive him absolutely batty if he only had homework to do in his free time. At the farm he was usually up by five in the morning, feeding the horses and cleaning their stalls. It was calming in his mind.

He shook these thoughts from his mind as he unlocked the doors and Kent and himself slid in. He had just slid the key into the ignition when he heard Kent’s cell phone chirping in his pocket. He pulled it out and read the display and groaned theatrically.

“Do you mind if I take this?” he asked and James shook his head and Kent flipped the phone open. James pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the grocery store he had noticed a couple blocks away.

“Hi Jami,” he said in to the phone. “I figured you’d call, I mean I haven’t even been here and hour.” There was a pause and Kent laughed. “Yes I’m saying you’re suffocating.” Another longer pause and Kent sighed a couple times. “Yes the apartment is good, yes the latest sketches are coming along, and no! No, No, No! N-O! No way, no how! I don’t want you scaring him off.” This time James could hear a laugh over the phone. “Anyway, James and I are heading to the grocery store so I should go. We’re still on for 3?” James glanced at Kent and saw he was nodding. “Yeah, James said he would come also. I know you’re dying to meet him.” There was a pause and Kent made a sound of frustration. “He’s seems to be decent enough and you can make your own impression later. I’ve got to go, we’ve just pulled in to the grocery store.” There was another short pause and Kent made his good bye.

“What was that about?” James asked bemusedly. He was keeping his eyes open for an open space, slowly circling the lot.

“Just Jami being her normal annoying self,” said Kent affectionately. “She asked if you would be willing to be a nude model for me.”

James hit the break and stared at the other man slack jawed. Kent saw his expression and burst out laughing.

“What!?”

“Don’t worry she was just teasing,” reassured Kent. “Oh, if you hurry there’s a space up front that just opened up.”

James composed himself enough that they were able to get the parking space but his mind was still whirling. First Valarie and know the Kent’s faceless agent! “Females are insane,:” he decided firmly. “Absolutely barking the lot of them.”

“Earth to James!” James was jolted from his thoughts by Kent waving his hand in front of his face. “Do you want to push the cart of would you like me to?”

“It’s all yours,” said James and pulled one of the carts out for Kent. “So what first?”

“Well, we could just go up and down the aisles and pick out stuff that looks good,” suggested Kent.

“That’s as good as any plan,” said James and he walked down the fist aisle.

It took nearly thirty minutes but they had a packed cart full of a variety of meat, drinks, vegetables and fruits, frozen dinners, various boxes of instant side dishes, and snack foods. They had both picked out their favorites and found they had pretty similar tastes. James did add a bottle of hot sauce to the cart and Kent had grimaced. It seemed hot foods were not his favorites and James had gagged playfully when Kent threw a couple cans of green beans in. Green beans and him didn’t get along at all.

The checker had whistled when their total, a whopping 436 dollars and 42 cents came up. James handed her his credit card and they were on their way. When they got to the apartment building it took two trips to get every thing upstairs.

“I don’t think I should shop on an empty stomach again,” said James in awe at the sea of bags in front of them.

“Yeah… You know that might be something to remember,” said Kent in an equally awed voice. “My only question is where is it all going to fit?”

“In here obviously,” teased James.

“Har dee har har,” said Kent, sarcasm dripping from his words. “Just start putting stuff away.”

It took them twenty minutes and some creative maneuvering but they got every think into the cupboards and the refrigerator. After they were finished James grabbed a couple of bottles of water that they had gotten added to the their pile of groceries somewhere near the end of their shopping excursion and relaxed.

They had sat in silence for maybe five minutes when the door bell rang. They exchanged looks and Kent got a strange look in his eye.

“I’ll bet it’s Jami,” he said and rose to get the door. James followed him to the door and Kent swung it open.

“Hi James!” said a high pitch sugary sweet voice.

James eyes widened in horror. It was Valarie.

DUN, DUN, DUN!