**I know this section is really small, but my brain has been totally fried from being away from this way too long. It's going to take on a slightly different flavor, hopefully for the better as I get the storyline flowing. Maybe I will see the end of this one finished out...:D**

Part 31: Life Was Good

Bens POV

I looked up from my paperwork as I heard more glass shattering from behind the bar, Bryce staring almost numbly down at his feet. Damen was trying to hold back a badly hidden giggle from his spot sitting on top of the counter. Maybe it was only me, but I was glad that Darren and Daniel had decided to sit this little club hop out because I don't think I could have put up with three people trying to learn how to be bar tenders.

"Damen, would you mind grabbing the plastic bottles for him to practice with?"

Damen nodding at me quickly and hopped behind the bar to help Bryce. The look on Bryce's face was still reading like he couldn't believe he had just dropped another bottle. It wasn't that I was mad about it, but training the new guy wasn't constructive to getting actual work done. I'd told him to get comfortable with the bottles, the nearly empty ones, and he'd broken almost all of them.

I smiled as the love of my life tried to show his Big Bro what his job was all about, only succeeding in dropping his water bottle three times before realizing that it was a lot like twirling the drumsticks he'd stolen from Dan. Damen couldn't play drums, but he could mess with the sticks for hours. That was just his new attitude though. He was more laid back, more confident in what he was doing, but he was almost a mental case if he didn't have something in his hands to mess with.

"Bryce!"

It came out more as a shrieking squawk as Damen flew over the counter and across the room from where Bryce was standing with his thumb over the lid of one of the bottles. Damens shirt was clinging to his chest from where he'd been sprayed with the rather cheap beer that we seemed to never run out of. Bryce grinned cheekily and drank the rest that was left in the bottle, tossing it into the garbage bin.

"Face it Bro, you deserved it!"

"Deserved to smell like cheap beer?"

"You were showing off."

"No, I was showing you what you were supposed to be doing."

I stood up and tapped the end of my pen on the table, eyeing them both. The room went silent as Damen ducked away and into the restroom, Bryce finding another bottle to practice his moves on. I followed Damen in, watched as he scrubbed at his new shirt trying to get the beer out of the fabric. He finally took it off and threw it under the faucet, letting the water cover it. He sighed and leaned forward until his forehead was pressed against the glass of the mirror, his fingers poking the shirt.

I walked up behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist. He didn't move as I rested my chin on his bare shoulder, kissing his neck softly. He closed his eyes and mumbled something that I couldn't hear, pushing back against me.

"What?"

"I said, go away, youre making me hard..."

I let my jaw drop a bit, giggling in his ear.

"What do you think you do to me every time you walk by?"

"Hmm, I dont know..."

He ground his arse back against my crotch before ringing his shirt out and walking back to the door like the little innocent angel he always seemed to think he was. I leaned up against the sink, splashing a few handfuls of water over my face and hair. I wiped my face on my sleeve, staring at myself goofily in the mirror. A happy Damen never was a bad thing...

Damen had turned the music on to a low throb when I came out, shuffling around behind the bar. Bryce watched him intently as he showed off his new talent, both trying to out do each other. As usual, Bryce dropped the bottle first, and his shoulders slumped again. Damen had put his shirt back on, the damp fabric hanging heavily from his frame as he spun around, catching another bottle by the neck before placing it on the counter with a clank. He smiled smugly, earning a disgusted look from Bryce.

"Hey you two...Dont go all Tom Cruise on me, I'll kill you both!"

**

I walked through the lobby and up the stairs and into my apartment, dripping a trail of mixed alcohol the entire way. To say that Bryce and Damen had gotten into a fight was an understatement. My hair was plastered to my head, and I know I reeked of cheap beer. Bryce had been banished back to his hotel room and Damen had gone back to his own apartment to sulk about the whole ordeal. I think I would have laughed if he hadn't have threatened me within an inch of my life.

Sean was reading again when I slouched my way across the kitchen floor, and he shot me a look that he usually reserves for when Troy is being annoying.

"Hey, way to show for the dorm cleanup...You're mopping the floor again."

Halfway through the sentence, his nose was buried back in the book again, dismissing me without another glance. I looked down to the growing puddle around my feet and grumbled. It had taken three hours to clean just the bar area again after those two had gotten done, and now I had an entirely new mess to clean because of the same reasons. I mumbled something under my breath as I finally got back to the shower, getting in with all of my clothes on. I'm sure Sean would have grumbled some more, but it wasn't like I was going to keep beer soaked clothes in my laundry basket after I'd just washed them all two days before.

It was rare that I had a reason to shower with my clothes on, but in some stupid way it reminded me of my childhood, and the one time I had decided to get into a mud fight with the kids down the street. Dad had picked me up by the back of my pants and hauled me out to the backyard to hose me off, nearly drowning me in the process. We couldnt help but laugh after it was over though, just from how ridiculous the whole thing was.

I hopped out of the shower twenty minutes later, stripped of all the soggy fabric. The pile flopped into my hamper thirty seconds later with an unglorifying splat. It was one of those noises that again brought back a few memories, and I couldn't help but chuckle as I went in search of a clean set.

I collapsed onto my own bed for the first time in a long time, just staring up at the ceiling. My room seemed almost bland, like someone was staying there without really living there. It was 'home' without really being a home to me...Home was where ever Damen happened to be, and he wasnt in the little ten by eight space that all my stuff was crammed into. I finally fell asleep looking out the window into the old college neighborhood.

I don't know how long it was before I woke up again, probably a few hours, but I had a warm body pressed up against my back, his arms draped around me like he was my blanket. I smiled at Damen's muted snoring as he pressed his nose between my shoulders, snuggling down and hugging me tighter against him. I rubbed his arm slowly, my fingers playing over his skin as I sighed happily and drifted off back to sleep.

Troy woke us up later on in the evening with the promise of artery-clogging food from the burger strip. When I saw the food, I realized how long it had been since my last meal, just because of how hectic the day had ended up being. Damen continually watched me, laughing as I tore my way into the bag of greasy unknowns. That is the one thing about Troy that I will never get over...He always seems to know exactly what we need for a good cheer up, even if we dont know. It's something I took for granted a lot, I know, but I had the best roommates I could have ever hoped for, and the best of company just downstairs. Life was good.