Be My Bad Boy

The next morning, Jinxx woke me up with a cup of herbal tea.
"This will make you feel better," he said.
"Is it some wacky Asian medicine?" I sniffed the cup just in case it had some weird shit in it.
He wrinkled his forehead and then shook his head. "It's not Asian. It's honey and lemon. Why?. Don't pigeonhole me, Hannah."
Before I could apologise, I noticed the grin on his face. I wrapped my hands around the cup, wanting to absorb its warmth. Jinxx sat on my bed and I told him about Andy.
"Oh, you should never wake up Andy when he's sleeping. He might kill you."
"You aren't joking about that. He was really freaked.”
“There are some demons in that man's sleep that I'd hate to even know about," said Jinxx.
"You tell me that now," I said and laughed nervously. I wished I'd never gone near him.
"When we're on tour, we always make sure he has his own room."
"What? Ashley doesn't spoon with him?"
We both laughed.

"You know he's got a girlfriend."
My heart sank. It sank right through the ground.
"Andy?" I asked in a strangled voice.
"No. Ashley."
"No way. A girl girlfriend? But he likes Andy, right?" I sat up straighter. I needed details.
"Not gay."

"He's gay for Andy."
Jinxx grinned. "That may be so."
"Does he make her dress up as Andy during sex? I bet he does. Though I guess that would be safer…"
"There's shit that happened in Andy's life. He doesn't talk about it but he lived on the streets for a while and I think he still doesn't feel safe at times."
"Oh yeah, before his dad bought him this place."
Jinxx's eyes widened and he laughed. I have no idea why. It didn't seem particularly funny to me.
"Did he tell you that story?"
I nodded.

"Andy's a strange one." He shook his head with a weird smile on his face. "Drink up your tea and you can sleep some more."
"Maybe I should leave today. I'm feeling better. I can look after myself."
He felt my temperature.
"You're still pretty feverish. Stay here. At least you know now."
I sunk back down into the bed and thought about what Jinxx had said. I was sure Andy would come up later and apologise and laugh the whole thing off.
“ woke up to the smell of wonderful food. Spicy, garlicky smells. I'd barely eaten anything in the previous few days. I felt as if I could eat a horse. A huge horse. I jumped out of bed and headed downstairs.
Jinxx stirred something at the stove

"Ah, you're awake. Do you want a shower?"
To be honest, I did feel pretty manky. I probably smelt a bit manky too. That was probably his way of saying I stunk.
"Sure, but I don't have a change of clothes or anything." I really didn't feel like putting my horrible old clothes back on. I'm pretty sure I'd sweat through them all.
"That's okay, I can loan you some pyjamas. They have a drawstring so you can tighten them to fit."
He ran off and returned with some neatly folded PJs and a towel.
"There's shampoo and everything in the bathroom. Help yourself.”
I couldn't believe how good it felt to get under the warm water and wash all the sweat and grime from myself. I washed my hair and scrubbed myself clean. When I got out, I dried my hair and wished I had some makeup to put on. I looked through the cupboards. No cosmetics, as you'd expect, but they did have some high quality skincare.
When I came out, Jinxx had set the food on the table. Huge bowls of soup. I'd be almost totally cured after eating that soup, I knew it. My stomach rumbled and I wished he would stop fussing around so we could sit down to eat.

Then I noticed there were only two bowls of soup.
"Where's Andy?"
Jinxx shrugged. "He's gone out. Didn't say where he's going."
I started eating. My mouth nearly exploded from the hot chillies and I grabbed for a glass of water.
Jinxx laughed. "I didn't know you couldn't handle the hot stuff."
"I can handle it. I can handle it fine. I just wasn't expecting it. I'm fine now. See. See." I spooned the soup into my mouth and tried my hardest not to grimace at the spiciness of it.
He was such a good cook. No wonder, with a mother like he had. He also seemed to work hard at it outside of the band. Altogether, he'd make a good boyfriend for someone. Not for me, obviously, since it'd be not right for me to date someone from the band, and I really did not want a boyfriend. But he'd make a great boyfriend for Angie. Better than Andy. She just had to see past Andy's rock star glamour and notice Jinxx's good points.
"How are you feeling now?"
"Much better. You and Andy have been so lovely, looking after me and letting me stay here. I must've been a mess yesterday."

"Yeah, he was really worried about you."
That made my stupid heart skip a beat.
"So," Jinxx said, "what do you want to do after dinner? We could watch a DVD or something."
"Sounds perfect."
I helped him clear up then he got me a selection of DVDs to pick from. I expected guy movies, Fast and Furious type things or maybe music-type movies.
"So, who owns the chick flicks?"
Jinxx hung his head. He tried to look shamefaced but his mouth twitched at the corners.
"You big softie. Hey, what's this? Busty, Horny Babes?"
"Whaaaaat?" He jumped to grab the case out of my hand.
"Got you. You really believed it was though, didn't you? You totally fell into my trap. How many horny babe DVDs do you own?"
"Hey, I thought it could've been Andy's. Of course it wouldn't have been mine."
"Yeah, you are more the kind of guy who has his porn on the computer, right?"
I laughed and he slapped at me.
We curled up on the couch. I grabbed one of the blankets sitting on the floor and put it over my legs. It smelt like Andy.
"This is cosy, isn't it?"
Jinxx sat a big bowl of M&Ms down on the coffee table.
"I hope it doesn't put me in the friend zone." He gave me a lingering look, so that I had to break his gaze.
Was something going on there? Had Andy gone out and left us alone on purpose? I wasn't sure I liked that idea.
"Are we going to watch this or what?" I asked. Better to deflect comments like that than try to answer.

Notes

I've been in trouble lately. Sorry.