Not My Problem || Kai Anderson

the run in

      "All I have is this one pair of sweats," I came out with the pants balled up in my hands. "And before you say anything, you are keeping whatever shirt is underneath that hoodie on, I don't care how wet it is."

I tossed the pants his way, and he caught them.

   "Now go change, in the bathroom," I clarified, "and call the landlord, see how fast he can get here."

   "You got it babe," he saluted me and started down the hall. "You sure you don't--"

   "Go."

He held his hands up in defeat and disappeared behind the bathroom door.

This was just crazy, I had to get him out of here. If that rain would stop I'd send his relentlessly flirty self right back out to the porch. I kept going over my obsessive thoughts and started to make some hot chocolate. Originally for myself, then threw some more milk in the pot for Kai.

   "Called the landlord," he announced, suddenly behind me. "He's half an hour away, in the middle of a meeting."

I turned around to see him drying his hair with my hand towel from the bathroom. Justin's grey sweat pants fit him almost perfectly, and surprisingly, he'd respected my wishes of keeping his shirt on, despite it being pretty damp.

   "A meeting? What meeting?" I demanded.

   "You know, the one that I'm completely in charge of and know every detail about."

   I rolled my eyes. "Okay, well, can't someone else bring a key over? I mean, doesn't he have backup for this?"

   "Luckily for me, he seems to be an unprepared kind of guy," Kai said, and must've seen my face as he finished using my now soaked hand towel. He sat it on the counter and said with a small smile, "Hope you don't mind."

   "I mind everything going on right now," I told him, and stirred the milk in the pot.

It's just a half an hour, I told myself, you can keep him quiet and entertained for that long.

   "These sweats yours?" He asked, coming to stand next to me.

   "No," I could feel my cheeks getting red from how close we were. "They're my boyfriend's, actually."

   His expression fell, and he turned slightly away. "Oh. That makes sense."

   There was a moment of silence while I poured our drinks into mugs, before Kai asked, "So do you like him?"

   My brows furrowed as I turned to hand him his drink, "Uh, yeah. He's my boyfriend of course I like him."

   "So how come you're always escorting him out before 9pm?" His question caught me off guard.

   "I- Well he-.." I struggled. "That's none of your business."

   "Touchy," he warmed his hands on his mug. "But it's your business who I bring into my place, hm?"

I almost jumped to my own defense, but dropped it so as to not play into his 'touchy' idea of me. I walked over and sat on the couch, picking up the remote to flip through the movie selections.

   "What are we gonna watch?" He flopped next to me on the couch, almost making me spill my hot chocolate.

   "Anything," I tried to hold the cup steady while he got comfortable.

   "Cause we won't be watching it anyway, right?" He wiggled his eyebrows at me, which I ignored.

I picked a movie from the Halloween section, without any protest from him thankfully, and we were quiet for a good long while. Every now and then I'd sneak a glance at him, and sometimes he'd be just an inch closer than before. His shirt was almost dry by now, but it still clung to his body. I could smell a mix of rain and day old cologne on him.

   "See something you like?" He beamed.

I was looking for words when there was suddenly another knock at my door. Thank God, it had to be the landlord. I stood quickly.

   "Alright get your wet clothes from the bathroom, that's gotta be the key."

   "Yes m'am," Kai smiled, and got up to gather his things.

I ignored the brief flutter in my stomach and went for the door. My heart nearly stopped when I opened it to see Justin on the other side.

   "J-Justin," I stuttered, and came out of the apartment quickly to close the door behind me. "What are you doing here?"

   "I know it's late," he slurred, and I could already smell the alcohol on his breath. "But that's kind of the point."

   "What do you mean?"

   "I know you're like just getting out of your religion, and have like, religious guilt or whatever," he began, doing air quotes with his fingers for half the words. "But I think it's past time I finally spend the night."

   "Look," I started, crossing my arms. "I told you I'll let you know when I'm ready. That was a huge part of my life and I'm just not--"

   "Was! It's over now! I'm sick of waiting, what is there somebody else?"

   "No, there's nobody else, I just... it's late and you've been drinking and I think its best if --"

   "Y/N?" a deep voice called from inside my apartment. "Everything ok?"

Before I could stop it, Justin was pushing past me to force his way in. Then there was just the 3 of us, right there in my living room.