"Dammit, John! You left the seat up again!" Abby called from the bathroom. The entire apartment was dark with the exception of the soft glow from the fireplace and the TV set.
"So, turn on the light when you go in there!" John called from the living room.
"I can pee without the light on, John." She called back.
"Not unless you want to fall in again." He quietly mumbled to himself. Abby returned to the living room and quickly slipped under the warmth of the blanket that they were both sharing.
"What did you say?" She asked, finding her still warmed spot. She took the bowl of popcorn from him.
"I said; I'd try to remember." He smiled, snuggling down a bit more under the soft blanket.
"Yeah, well next time you can just go use your own bathroom." She wiggled around to find a more comfortable spot.
They both had their legs drawn up on the sofa, leaning on opposite ends, watching a movie. They each wore their flannel pajama bottoms, he in an old Bulls T-shirt, she in a black tank top. Their legs were tangled under the covers sharing body heat.
"Shh." She whispered, playfully kicking his butt under the covers. John took back the popcorn bowl and set it in his lap. They both continued watching the movie.
She couldn't believe how comfortable she felt. After all they'd been through, both together and separately; they still managed to become closer friends. John was probably the first roommate she'd had since college but by far the most caring and thoughtful one. It was almost as if they were married but they had their separate bedrooms, one at either end of the apartment. With this layout, either of them could bring someone home and the other would not hear anything they didn't want to hear.
"Get me a soda." She again kicked his hip. He pulled his attention away from the television long enough to shoot her a glare.
"Get it yourself, you're closer." He stated, going back to the movie. He was really getting into it and she kept interrupting him.
"I am not. Come on, John," She whined. "Pleeease!" She batted her eyes at him and reached out for his hand but he pulled his hand away.
"I am not." He playfully scooted farther away from her. After several moments, he could still feel her eyes drilling a hole in his side. He handed her the bowl of popcorn. "Fine." He teased, getting up.
"It's cold in here." He complained as he went quickly to the kitchen. He got a soda and bottled water and quickly returned to his spot under the covers, still holding her soda.
"John, don't." She laughed, seeing the evil glint in his eyes.
"You don't think I will, do you?" He said playfully holding the ice cold can in his hands.
"Oh, I know you will," she laughed, holding her hands out to defend herself. He began inching closer to her with a threatening smile.
"Got any spots that are needing maybe a bit of cooling down?" he tormented, bringing the can closer and closer to her warm skin. She squealed as he touched it to her arm.
"Don't!" She squealed again as he made direct contact with her neck. They were now both laughing, John trying to find warm, bare flesh as she squirmed under him.
"How about your stomach?" He laughed, having her pinned under his body, almost sitting on her legs, an arm across her chest.
"Not the stomach! Not the stomach!" She screamed as he pressed the freezing can against her soft flesh. "Enough!" She yelled, giggling like a grade school kid. John, in turn, shook up the can and set it on the table.
"There you go, Abby. It's all yours." He smiled smugly as he curled back up on his end of the couch.
"You bastard!" She laughed, pulling the blankets off his curled up frame. She wrapped herself up and went to get another soda from the kitchen.
"You're not into this movie, are you?" He asked, following her into the kitchen.
"Nope. I mean, I appreciate it and all but honestly, I'd rather watch
'Interview with a Vampire,' she shrugged.
"Next time, you rent the movie. The lady at the video place said 'Ghost' was a good movie. I thought you'd like this one." He said, getting a few baby carrots out of the bag in the refrigerator.
"Too girly for my taste. It's okay, John. I have 'Interview with the Vampire' in my room. Want me to get it?" She suggested.
"Sure. You want some cocoa?" He pulled out a saucepan for the milk and set it on the stovetop.
"You burned it last time!" She shoved him away from the stove. "Just go get the movie and I'll get this going, okay? It should be next to my bed on the far side, probably on the floor." She instructed as John went towards her room.
"Hey, if I'm gone more than a few minutes, send a rescue party, okay?" He teased.
"My room is not that bad, John. Just because you're used to living in a museum," she teased. She could hear him chuckling.
John opened the door to the space Abby called her room. He had to push the door open, shoving the pile of dirty cloths to the side.
"If anything bites me, I'm suing!" He yelled, hearing her laugh. He stepped in a bit further.
Abby was not a dirty person but you couldn't tell that by looking at her room. Judging by her room, it looked as if several people lived in there, along with all their relatives. Clothes laid all over, dirty pile here, clean and folded pile there, books and papers stacked in various places, single shoes strewn about. John shook his head. The only way he could figure out how to get to where she said the movie was located would be over her bed. He crawled up on top and made his way to the far edge, looking across onto the floor.
Just as he was about to reach for the identified video, his eyes caught a glimpse of some pictures. Instead of pulling up the video, he brought the pictures. They were 8 X 10's, all having slid out of a manila folder. John lay on his back and he began flipping through them.
They were black and white pictures mostly, each one more seductive that the previous. Lying on Abby's bed, smelling her scent, John felt himself begin to respond.
"You get lost in here?" Abby called from the doorway. She stopped when she saw John lying across her bed, pictures in hand, and a slight tent beginning around his groin area. She knew exactly what he'd found. He glanced in her direction, smiling slightly.
"When did you have these done?" He asked, still looking as Abby blushed. She joined John on the bed, lying on her side.
"Richard and I had them done. I didn't want him looking at those nude magazines so I posed for him. It was actually a lot of fun. It's about the only thing I actually did get out of the divorce. They're actually written into the divorce papers." She watched him go over them one by one, checking out every detail before going onto the next one. After several minutes, John finally put them above his head and he turned on his side facing Abby.
"They really are beautiful. I mean, you really are beautiful." He brushed a strand of hair from her face. Abby couldn't help but blush, also.
"Thanks, John." She whispered, looking into his eyes. They looked at each other for a long time. Finally, John rolled away and he exhaled loudly.
"Okay, movie?" He reached for the movie, found it, and was heading back to the living room before Abby knew what hit her. As she rejoined him, he was just putting the movie in and they returned to their spots on the couch. Abby held out part of the blanket that she still had wrapped around her body. John looked at it for a minute and shook his head.
"No, thanks, cold is probably a good idea right now." He shuddered, trying to get a certain body part to relax.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
After her neighbor had beaten Abby, she stayed with her ex-boyfriend, Luka for several days. Following the sexual harassment training they were all forced to attend, somehow her relationship with Luka had changed. She began looking for an apartment immediately.
John offered to assist in her search and one day after a very long shift together, Abby found the apartment of her dreams. It was huge, with a large living space in the center that held a beautiful fireplace at one end and a large picture window at the other. The kitchen was open and a breakfast island separated the two rooms with plenty of room for a small dining table. There were two bedrooms, one on either end, both with huge windows and lots of closet space. The neighborhood was good and it was within walking distance of a coffee shop and the El train. Even though she'd fallen in love with it, she just couldn't afford the rent on her salary alone.
That was when John piped in. He'd been living with his grandmother since shortly after he returned to work after being stabbed and while he liked being there for her, Gamma had plenty of help around. When John's mother announced she was moving in, John quickly began looking for something he could afford. This situation seemed to be the answer to both of their living arrangement problems.
They had been friends for a few years having grown into best friends over the recent months. However, suddenly living with each other was very different. While many others raised an eyebrow, wondering just what was going on, the two of them found it to be surprisingly comfortable. There was no pressure and they were able to be open and honest with each other without all the relationship male/female stuff that could come between them. Every aspect of living together was equal.
~~~~~~~~~~
The two of them sat for a long time, both becoming involved in the movie. John had never seen it but knew of the author, Anne Rice. Abby, on the other hand, had seen everything with Brad Pitt and she knew the entire movie by heart. There was just something about the vampires, particularly Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, which she found strangely erotic.
John had been completely silent, curled up on his end of the couch, totally engrossed for most of the movie. Abby would occasionally steal a glance but he never moved. His eyes were riveted to the television. Just over half way into the movie, John actually let out an audible moan when the older vampire, Armand, was telling Louis that he was beautiful, coming so close to touching him. John had his knees pulled up tightly; hugging them and a pillow in his lap as he realized Abby had heard him and she couldn't help but giggle.
"Oh, Honey, we've got to get you laid!" She snickered. He tossed the pillow he was hugging at her.
"It's your fault." He grumbled, lightheartedly. Abby held up her hands in mocked defense.
"Me? I made you a horn dog?" She exaggerated. He nodded, still glued to the television.
"If you hadn't left those pictures out," he complained.
"Hey! I didn't leave them out! You were in 'my' room. They were on the floor, on the far side of the room. You're the one who went snooping." She teased.
"You sent me in there," he replied in his own defense.
“Yeah, to get the movie. But, no, I come in and find you lying on my bed looking at 'my' nude pictures.” She so enjoyed teasing him. John looked at her for the first time since the start of the movie.
“But they were really nice,” he smiled. Abby couldn’t help but blush. She tucked her toes under his hips and handed him back the pillow. They began watching the movie again in a comfortable silence.
To be continued………..
Copyright Footer', 'This site is not affiliated in any way with "ER", its writers or production company, or NBC, and makes no profit from the show. The ERROS skin is by Brihana. The script is eFiction version 3.4.2© Tammy Keefer, http://efiction.org\r\n