AJ & Noah

[muscleaddict99]

a lot of desperate fellas on here......me included!  lol

[crushme99]

14 hours ago, muscleaddict99 said:

a lot of desperate fellas on here......me included!  lol

 Please don’t feel pressured, It’s just that we like your work so much and are on the  edge of our seat to read what comes next.   

[muscleaddict]

43 minutes ago, crushme99 said:

 Please don’t feel pressured, It’s just that we like your work so much and are on the  edge of our seat to read what comes next.   

Awww, bless ya, mate! I had wanted to update before now as I don't wanna keep you guys waiting too long! Gonna go over the next chapter when I'm home (currently at work - grrrrr!!) so check back later!!

[muscleaddict]

15 hours ago, muscleaddict99 said:

a lot of desperate fellas on here......me included!  lol

And I love that you're desperate (in the nicest way possible)!!

[Gman]

“MuscleAddict has commented on AJ & Noah”

i keep getting excited!

[Built22]

2 hours ago, Gman said:

“MuscleAddict has commented on AJ & Noah”

i keep getting excited!

not the only one !!!

keep checking to see if theres a new chapter......

darn 

[muscleaddict]

4 hours ago, Gman said:

“MuscleAddict has commented on AJ & Noah”

i keep getting excited!

 

2 hours ago, Built22 said:

not the only one !!!

keep checking to see if theres a new chapter......

darn 

Hmmm. A part of me feels bad about this and wants to apologise. But then another (much, much bigger) part of me loves the fact that people are excited to read more of the story!

[Bjort]

4 minutes ago, muscleaddict said:

 

Hmmm. A part of me feels bad about this and wants to apologise. But then another (much, much bigger) part of me loves the fact that people are excited to read more of the story!

Excited.  Can you see me shiver with antici...say it!...PATION?!

[muscleaddict]

OK here's the first half of chapter 19. I still need to do some work on the rest but I wanted to get more of the story posted and it's quite a big chapter so hopefully you guys won't feel too cheated!

Nineteen

I couldn’t stop staring at AJ’s Facebook messages.

“I’m OK. Sorry I just left.”

“I just had to get out of there.”

“It was because of you.”

“Because of you and that guy.”

It felt like my heart was about to burst. There it was. Undeniable proof that no matter how crazy and unlikely they seemed, both mine and Naomi’s suspicions were right. There was something going on between me and AJ. Exactly what that was, I still didn’t know. But I knew this; that AJ had seen me kissing Eddie and it had had such a strong effect on him and had bothered him that much that he’d gotten upset and angry and left the bar without saying a word to anyone.

I lay awake in bed for hours after reading the messages. My head just wouldn’t stop spinning. I kept going over everything that had happened since I’d bumped into AJ that afternoon in Tesco. Looking for signs that he had feelings for me.

I thought about our very first personal training session. How it looked like he’d made an extra special effort in his appearance. How he’d looked disappointed when our session had come to an end. How he’d seemed to backtrack when he’d told me that booking another session would be a waste of time. How he’d likened Mark Green to being the “bodybuilder version” of me, and how I’d thought that it was odd that he’d put that much thought into what I was like.

I thought about the first time he’d taken me to Scorpio’s. How he’d looked uncharacteristically nervous when he’d opened his front door to me. I thought about our Facebook messages. How he’d asked me if I’d be his groupie that one time and teased me about taking off his lime green posing trunks and throwing them into the audience at me. How he’d said he’d hold my hand during my first bodybuilding competition the night I was sat up messaging him in Eddie’s bathroom.

I thought about the Scorpio’s Gym hoodie he’d gifted me. How he’d said he’d managed to obtain it because he knew the owners of the gym, but then slipped up In the bar and told Naomi and I he’d actually bought it for me. I thought about what his friend, Nathan, said to me about it not being his birthday, even though that was the reason AJ said he’d be in town. I thought about how he’d hugged and kissed everyone in the bar apart from me. Because wouldn’t that mean too much to him? And I thought about how, when his leg had touched mine that night at his while sitting on his bed, he hadn’t moved it. That amazing moment when I felt like I was dying. When the seconds felt more like minutes.

I finally managed to switch off my thoughts and drift off to sleep, but when I woke up later that morning, the euphoria I was feeling at AJ’s confessional Facebook messages and just what they meant was tarred by something else; the thought of exactly how I was supposed to respond. And then something else came into my head which filled me with dread; the thought that maybe AJ had regretted sending those very messages.

A dozen potential replies to his messages went through my head.

“Are you OK?”

“Do you want to talk?”

“You know you can tell me anything.”

But they all sounded so dramatic. Before his drunken confessions earlier that morning, mine and AJ’s messages had never been even remotely serious.

And so I played it safe. “How’s the head?” I messaged him, my stomach twisting in nerves as I sent it. But nothing came back. He was probably still asleep, I reasoned. But when hours passed with no reply, I started to feel sick with worry.

I feared the thing I had dreaded was true. That AJ regretted his messages. Regretted the whole night, in fact. What if he didn’t want to have feelings for me? What if he found it easier to just suppress or ignore them? And what better way to ignore them, than to ignore me?

And then the biggest fear yet came to me. That because of the night before, and AJ’s confessions, whatever we had was now over. That AJ didn’t want to be friends anymore. That he no longer wanted to hang out with, take me to Scorpio’s or send me cute, funny messages. Maybe it was just easier for AJ to forget about me? Just pretend that the past month had never happened?

I wondered whether we could just carry on as normal. Pretend like the night before never happened. Just carry on being friends as if AJ had never sent me those messages. But was that what I really wanted? I wasn’t so sure.

The only things I knew for sure that was last night had changed things between me and AJ, and I had no idea what was going to happen next.

I went to Naomi’s for a few hours that evening. It was her last night in Little Denton and I wasn’t sure if I’d see her again before the end of the summer.

“Maybe he’s never had feelings towards a guy before and it’s freaked him out?” she suggested, when I’d told her that AJ wasn’t responding to my message.

“Maybe he’s just confused?” I reasoned. “Maybe he can tell I like him and he likes the attention and it’s making him think that he might like me back, when actually he doesn’t?”

“Mmmm. You hear about people, though, who just assume they’re straight, and never think any differently, and then one day they meet someone of the same sex and it changes everything! Maybe that’s him?” Naomi suggested.

I didn’t tell Naomi this, but a fellow muscle addict had once told me that “no bodybuilder was one hundred percent straight”. At the time I’d thought it was complete bollocks. And probably wishful thinking on his behalf. But maybe there was something in that, or at least where certain bodybuilders were concerned? I’d heard of guys who were only attracted to bodybuilders. They had no interest in regular sized guys. Sometimes they liked them in addition to girls. Maybe that was AJ? He liked girls, but he was also turned on by freaky, shredded muscle? And then I’d come along, and played with his head and confused him. Maybe if it really came down to it, maybe if we actually kissed, he’d realise he didn’t like me at all? That he could never be with a guy in that way? And certainly not a regular sized, non bodybuilding guy like me.

I still hadn’t heard from AJ when I went to bed that night. When I woke up the next morning, I frantically looked at my phone, but there was still no message then, either.
When my mum asked if I wanted to go with her to visit my nan that afternoon, I jumped at the chance. Anything to take my mind off the fact that AJ was ignoring me. I even left my phone at home, which felt oddly liberating.

“You don’t seem like your usual happy self!” my mum said to me on the walk there.

“I’m fine!” I protested.

“Is it because Naomi’s gone back?”

I rolled my eyes in response.

“You can always go down and visit her before you go back to uni!” she suggested.

“I know!” I replied.

Maybe I should, I thought. Maybe it was what I needed. To get away from Little Denton. To get away from whatever was going on with AJ Jones. Maybe I’d deactivate my Facebook profile and go to Brighton? Try and forget about AJ. Make him worry and wonder why I’d suddenly vanished. Even though the only thing I really wanted in that moment was to hear from him. To know that he was okay. To know that whatever we had wasn’t over and that I would see him again.

My nan was as happy to see me as she always was. I told her Naomi had been in Little Denton for the weekend.

“Yes, they were out boozing at the weekend!” my mum informed her. “I was awake half the night worrying.”

“He’s sensible, aren’t you, Noah?” my nan said.

My mum scoffed. “I’m not sure about that! That Naomi definitely isn’t!”

When my mum went to use the bathroom I was left alone with my nan. I was feeling brave. “Nan, why do you call Naomi my special friend?”

She just shrugged and smiled in response. “You know she’s not my girlfriend, right?”

Her mouth curled into this really warm, kind, understanding smile. “I know that, dear!”

I thought about what my mum had said. Maybe “special friend” really was my nan’s word for gay people? Or however my mum had worded it.

“It’s a shame you stopped being friends with that boy,” she said. “The one with the funny name!”

Oh God. My stomach twisted at the mention of AJ. I never would predicted what my nan said next.

“I think he was a bit of a “special friend” too!”

What the fuck?! I was gob smacked. Before I had chance to question my nan, my mum returned. My eyes suddenly watered. I didn’t really know why. I couldn’t believe what my nan had said. Did she know something about AJ that I so badly wanted to be true? Had she known all this time from when we were at school together?

I decided in that moment that as soon as I got home I would swallow my pride and message AJ again. I couldn’t risk losing what we had. Even if it meant ignoring his drunken confessions. I would make AJ talk to me. I just wanted what we had back. And I wanted to see him again so badly.

Little did I know that he’d already beaten me to it. My heart blew up in my chest and my stomach somersaulted when I saw those words I loved so much on the screen on my phone; AJ Jones has sent you a message.

[Ozymandias]

Another fabulous addition - greatly communicating the "please reply" phase and then the dejection when it all seems to have slipped away. 

And, of course, your signature gutting cliffhanger! Already buzzing for 19 Pt 2!