JP and Craig

"Can I stay at yours?"
"Yeh, course"

Only Michela was around to notice them come in. She was slumped in front of the telly and glanced up from scuffing her nails on the chair arm just long enough to look blankly at Craig, not even bothering to acknowledge JP. JP pushed Craig in so he could pull the front door closed quietly behind him, god knew why, thought Craig, with the racket that was coming from the kitchen he could have slammed it like any normal teenager.
"Hi Michela" Craig had to yell over the din
Michela glared at him, then at JP
"Why's he got a bag?"
"None a your business"
The noise level dropped in the kitchen and Myra appeared in the doorway
"You stayin love?"
Craig grinned at her, dropped his bag on the floor. Michela he could deal with, Jacqui and the mother he never quite knew where he was.
"Cup of tea love?"
Apparently he was on safe ground. For now.

"Sorry about them"
"Nah, women shouting? Makes me feel right at home"
Craig grinned at JP, went back to flicking through his CD collection, found one he liked and chucked it across to him.
"Must be weird though. So many of em. I mean, just the smell of them..." Craig sniffed then coughed as the perfume hit the back of his throat
"...god, it's in here too"
JP got up off the bed and kicked the door closed, which had the added bonus of getting the noise level down enough so they didn't have to shout.
"They keep leaving the door open, it's our Mam's perfume" He lowered his voice "...knock off"
"You don't say" said Craig, hoarsely.
JP racheted the window open and propped it with a shoe "I can't even smell it any more"
Craig pushed in beside him and stuck his head out the window to get some air. "That's cos you smell of it too, mate"
"No I don't. No. Do I?"
Craig leaned back into the room, shut his eyes, and took a big theatrical sniff.
"Yep, 'fraid so"
He opened his eyes wide
"Hey...are you named after that French perfume bloke anyway, y'know..."
"Sod off"
"Gaultier...John Paul..."
"I said sod off Dean"
Craig lent back on the windowsill "Bet the girls love that 'Ah, John-Paul make zee love to mee'" JP shoved him "Ow! That was a compliment!"
"You said I smell like a girl"
"You nearly pushed me out the window!"
JP smiled and stuck the CD in the player and switched it on. Craig let himself slide down the wall and stretched out his legs on the floor
"Still, it'll be a nice change to sleep without Darren on top of me"
JP looked at him
"Bunk beds, idiot."
"Oh" JP grinned "Thought maybe he was working his way through the family"
He managed to duck just in time. JP might smell like a girl, but Craig certainly threw like one.

JP didn't usually smoke, and neither did Craig from the way he held the things, but by ten thirty they were making regular trips to the window to share badly rolled joints Craig had managed, JP presumed, to beg off Darren. He worried about being caught at first but Craig rightly pointed out that no smell was going to overwhelm that knockoff, and by eleven fifteen JP didn't care either.

Craig bitched so much about the floor being hard, and more specifically about the music pounding up through it, that eventually John Paul sat up, swung his legs off the edge of the bed, rubbed his eyes, and told him to switch places.
"Thanks. You're a gennelman"
"Don't mention it"
JP slumped onto the jumble of pillows on the floor, gathered the quilt over his head and yawned loudly, but Craig, settling into the bed, wasn't taking the hint.
"Do you think she likes me?"
"What?"
"Sarah"
JP sighed
"Yeah"
"Really?"
"Craig, go to sleep"
Craig rolled over on the mattress "I think your Michela likes me"
"Sleep!"
"I think...your Mercedes likes me"
JP pretended to snore
"I think your Jacqui...no actually I don't. I think she's a lesbian. But I can go on all night, you got a lot of sisters... I think your...Carmel...No really I think she does. No one can resist the Craig Dean charm"
"I can. Go to sleep."
Craig was quiet for so long JP started to drift off for real. Then he heard the bedsprings creak, felt his pillow dip down behind him, fingers poking him in the small of his back accusingly.
"I think *you* like me"
JP sighed "Stop pissing about"
"I'm not pissing about"
"Craig!"
JP turned his head but it was too dark to see much and then Craig was kissing him, on the cheek first, then grabbing for his chin and quickly kissing him on his lips before collapsing in a heap half sprawled on the floor, laughing.
JP propped himself up on his elbow, wiped his mouth and looked down at Craig.
"Right. I can't resist you. No-one can. Can I go to sleep now?"
Craig stopped laughing, let his hand fall over his chest. Looked up at JP.
"No?"
They stopped still for a moment, listening to each other breathing, then JP felt Craig move, felt a hand slide hot onto the back of his neck, fingers tangling in his hair, pulling him down, and they were kissing again, harder this time.
"Oh" was all JP could say when they came up for air.
"Oh what? Oh good or oh bad?"
"Dunno"
"Try again?"
Craig pulled him back down, and although he couldn't see it, JP felt Craig's grin against his mouth as he kissed him back.
END