Morning Shift

Electricity

        "He's so annoying," Priya remarked after Nicky left her house. He had walked out the door flipping her off after she made a comment about his navy blue hat with a little wool puffball on top— a hat that Jonah had to admit suited him well. Sure it covered all of his curls except for the ones that flopped over his forehead, and it sort of made him look like an Arab South Park character, but Jonah knew he liked it because when Nicky pulled it on his head before stepping out into the blizzard, his heart gave that jolt of electricity that spread all over his body, shocking his every nerve for a few seconds before dying down.

         Ever since his game last week, the electricity had gotten more intense, and shocked him almost all the time. Nicky could just give Jonah that little hint of a smile, or let out a badly suppressed laugh, and it'd happen, and then Jonah would get all warm inside.

        He realized he could make it happen just by thinking about Nicky. He was sitting in class one day and a thought popped into his head: Nicky had a crush on someone, and he still had no idea who it was. That time it felt sort of like a lightning bolt had struck him right in the heart, and then he had too much electricity. It wasn't a good feeling.

        "He makes me feel weird," Jonah admitted.

        "In what way?" Priya asked.

        He shrugged. "I don't know. In a tingly way."

        Priya bit her lip to hold in a laugh, and Jonah appreciated the effort, until she let it out in the form of a snort. "Tingly?" She questioned.

        "Yeah."

        "Tell me, little Jo," she said, even though he was a good half foot taller than her, "what the fuck does that mean?"

        He sighed and leaned his head back against the couch. "Whenever he does stuff, I get all tingly. Sort of like the same tingly I get when I'm playing a big game or when I'm watching Grey's Anatomy and they're getting it on in an on-call room."

        Priya scrunched up her nose. "Ew."

        "Not like that," Jonah said quickly. "It's different than that. Nicer. And I know I've felt it before, but I can't remember why."

        Priya was quiet for a moment as she stared at Jonah with her eyebrows knitted together like she was trying to make some sense of the bullshit he was spewing, but after a minute her confusion was replaced with a sly smirk as she leaned against the arm of the couch and said, "oh."

        "Oh? What's 'oh' mean?"

        She ignored his question and instead asked, "just out of curiosity, when else have you felt this? Besides when you're playing hockey or watching soft core doctor porn."

        He thought for a moment, trying to recall before he even met Nicky, when he felt this electricity. He knew he had before, he just couldn't remember why or what it meant. Finally, after a good minute of thinking, it dawned on him. "Last time I felt it this much was freshman year. It was sort of the same thing with this girl Lana Garcia. She had crazy blue eyes and really soft looking skin," he remembered, thinking out loud.

        "And what did you call that tingly feeling then?"

        Jonah furrowed his brows, deep in thought for a few seconds before he whipped his head around to where Priya was sitting criss crossed on the couch with a smug, knowing smirk. "It's not that."

        "I think it is, Jonah."

        "That doesn't make sense, though. I've never- I don't-" he stuttered, trying to speak even though his brain was still stuck on the whole electricity thing. He was feeling it like crazy now, because Nicky was all that was in his head, and it was like it was overtaking his body and replacing all his blood with lightning bolts. "It's not that, Priya, I swear."

        "Are you sure?"

        Jonah nodded frantically. "Positive. I think it's just because I wanna know who he likes and it's messing with my head. That's a thing that happens, right Pri?"

        "Sure," Priya said, although it didn't sound all that convincing. "What if I just tell you who he has a crush on so you can stop freaking out?"

        "No," Jonah told her, "that's a huge invasion of privacy. If he wanted to tell me he already would have! Let's just drop the whole thing before it gets out of hand. I have to go now anyway and-"

        "It's this girl in my grade. I don't know her name."

        Jonah furrowed his brows because even though he was oblivious to most things, he was pretty aware of the vibe Nicky gave off, and it wasn't very heterosexual. Still, he felt his stomach drop. "Really? Are you sure?"

        Priya gave him a sickly sweet smile that made Jonah's heart pound even harder. "Nope. I made it up. But how did you feel when I told you?"

        Jonah bit his lip and glanced over at Priya. "Bad."

        "Just admit it, Jo."

        He sighed and ran a shaky, ant covered hand through his mop of curls. "I think I might have a crush on Nicky."

        Priya squealed and tackled him in a hug, which usually he wouldn't mind, but he had sort of just made a revelation that opened up a can of worms he didn't want to deal with, so he stayed stiff as she squeezed the life out of him. "You need to ask him out!" She gushed.

        "No way."

        "Why? I have a feeling it would end very well."

        "I don't know, Pri," he said with a shrug, "I just don't think it's worth the risk."

        "There's absolutely no risk involved," she told him, staring him dead in the eye in a way that made him squirm. "I promise."

        "You can't promise me that," he said as he stood and up and began to pull his jacket on over his sweatshirt. She stared at him, dumbfounded as he gave her a quick wave and walked out the door with a, "see you later, Priya."

        He barely even heard her mumble, "idiots. Both of them," before he slammed the door behind him, his body filled to the brim with electricity.

———————

Jonah's got a cruuuuuuush!! What do you guys think is gonna happen next? Give me some predictions :)

Happy new year!! I hope everyone has a great start to their new decade (woah)

~Teddy