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“It's a game,” Jared explains, pulling out his iPhone in its Cowboys cover. “We want to spend a nice evening, right? Not everyone staring into their phone all night?”
Everyone around nods. It's their usual group – Tom, Mike, Danneel, Chris, Steve, Sophia, fucking Chad, Genevieve, Sandy – sitting around their usual table in their usual dive bar.
Jensen feels a bit guilty, because he's prone to playing some Candy Crush when they hit that dead spot at 1 a.m., where a few of them already went home, the others are sleeping on the table, and the rest are making out with each other.
“So,” Jared continues. “Everyone place their phone in the middle of the table. Whoever picks theirs up first, has to pay the bill. No turning off the phone.”
And since they're all poor college kids, everyone plays along.
Two hours later, Jensen declares, “Alright, this? Best idea ever, Jay,” while pointing at pile of various iPhones, Samsung and Sony phones in the middle of the table, beside their pitcher of beer. “I can't remember the last time we argued about a subject so long without just looking it up on google.”
Jared cackles beside him. “Right?”
That's when Danneel jumps up from their table to greet a couple of guys who just came in. She hugs each of them, then turns to their table at large. “Guys, this is Misha, Aldis and Jason, from my biochem class.”
They share a quick round of introductions and handshakes, and then squeeze together on the bench around the table. Misha ends up besides Jensen, and before Jensen realizes what's happening, he's chatting with another chemistry major, except that Misha is a junior already.
“Oh, I meant to ask,” Misha asks after a while, then points at the pile of phones. “What's this? You playing Jenga or Mikado?”
Jensen laughs. “Neither. We, uh... we tend to stare into our phones a bit too often, so we agreed on this game. Whoever picks theirs up first, loses and has to pay our bill.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Misha grins. “I'm in.” And with that, he throws his iPhone on top of the pile. Somewhere in the depths of it, one of the phones vibrates.
“Hey Jen,” Jared says from his other side. “Isn't it making you crazy? Your date from last night could've called.”
“So what,” Jensen shrugs. “He wasn't that good of a kisser anyway.”
“You're gay?” Misha asks conversationally.
“Nah. Bi, actually,” Jensen smiles, because he's had four glasses of beer and is well on his way to that mellow state of well-buzzed.
“Cool. Me too,” Misha bumps his shoulder against Jensen's, and that's all there is to say.
The dead point comes, as it always eventually does, at around 2 am. Jared is sleeping with his head cradled in his arms and with an also-snoring Genevieve leaning into his side, Chris has an arm around Danneel and Jensen gives them a good five minutes until they're lip-locked for the rest of the night, and Chad is busy hitting on Sophia while Steve and Jason argue about who made the better version of 'Tainted Love'. Mike and Tom left some time ago to do God knows what.
“We can just go watch a movie,” Jensen hears Chad say to Sophia in a drunk, lazy slur, “I mean, a lot of cool movies start playing next week. I can get us tickets.”
Jensen pokes Misha's side and whispers. “Hey, watch.”
“Sure,” Sophia answers with a cheeky, flirty grin. She's been playing hard to get with Chad since the semester started, but right now, Jensen can see something else sparkling in her eyes. It's a joy to watch, really. “What did you have in mind?”
“Just a sec,” Chad says and reaches for his phone, unlocking it and searching for the browser.
That's when Jensen, Sophia and Misha all at once slam their hands onto the table, shouting various versions of “Ha!” and “Busted!” and “Got ya!”.
“What?” Chad asks confused.
Jared wakes up from the noise, then almost falls off his chair from laughing. “Oh my god, I knew it,” he splutters.
“What, douchebag?” Chad pokes his elbow, pouting. “Tell me, what'd I do?”
“You gotta pay the bill, Chad,” Jensen explains like Chad is a little kid.
Chad's face turns blank. “Oh,” he looks down at his phone in his hand and after a short moment he adds, “Shit.”
Sophia laughs so hard that she falls over, ending up lying behind Chad's back, and Misha leans his head against Jensen's shoulder, snorting with laughter.
Misha's laugh is pearly and clear and so beautiful that it makes Jensen look at him twice.
Misha looks up at him and grins.
It's really no surprise at all that they end up making out with each other after Jared orders another round of shots.
Around 4 am, they all stagger home to their dorm after having clumsily sorted out the phones on their table.
It really was the best idea Jared ever had, Jensen states to himself with a smile as he drops face-first onto his bed.
***
It's not until the next morning that Jensen realizes his gigantic mistake. They never exchanged cell phone numbers.
Or so he thinks. Last night is a bit fuzzy in his mind.
He opens his phone to check, unlocks the screen.
The desktop image is definitely not his own, even though he does like Family Guy. Did Jared screw with his phone again? No, in that case, there would be a naked Playboy model looking back at him.
Jensen opens the contact list, only to have his worst fear confirmed – this is not his phone.
He stumbles out of bed and into their shared main room.
“Jared?” he calls for his roommate. A grunt resounds from the sofa.
“Do you have my phone?”
“Nah,” Jared groans, then holds up his phone with the trademark Cowboys case.
In hindsight, Jensen regrets not having gotten one himself.
“Why?”
“Because I took the wrong one yesterday,” Jensen sighs. “Great.”
“Well, look through the contacts. There anyone you know you could call? Like Chris or Danni? They could tell you whose phone you have,” Jared sits up to peek at him over the back rest of the sofa, now fully awake.
Jensen scrolls through the contacts and groans. “Nope, not a single one I know.”
“Then it's gotta be one of the three new guys' phone, right? Aldis', or Jason's, or whatshisname's...”
“Misha,” Jensen supplies, then a thought hits him. “Wait.”
He scrolls through the contacts again, finds both Aldis and Jason. Just like he thought.
“Shit, it's Misha's,” he eventually concludes.
Jared raises an eyebrow. “Shit? Why is that bad?”
“'cause I kinda made out with him yesterday?”
“And, was it... not good?”
Jensen huffs amused, remembering the soft, pillowy texture of Misha's lips, the way he kissed with his whole body, hands roaming over Jensen's back and neck and hips and-- Jensen had stopped it, yesterday, or else they would've ended up very drunk, in bed, and that is generally not that good an experience.
“No, it was, actually,” Jensen smiles to himself.
“So you have the perfect opportunity to call him. Wait a sec, better save your number to his phone right away,” Jared winks.
Jensen can't help but grin as he types in the numbers then calls.
“Hello?” a deep, guttural voice answers. “Who's there?”
“Hi Misha,” Jensen says. “It's Jensen. You've got my phone. And I got yours.”
“Oh,” Misha answers, sounding pleasantly surprised. “I was wondering whose it was, but I couldn't remember all the names. Glad you called. Which dorm room are you in?”
“337,” Jensen says. “Could you stop by or should I head over to yours?”
“Nah,” Misha chuckles, then Jensen can hear a door open and close in the background. “I'm 340, just down the hallway.”
There's a knock on the door, the sound suddenly reminding Jensen of his simmering headache and hangover.
He opens the door without hesitation, to find Misha standing there in rumpled pajamas and with an epic example of bed head. He puts Misha's phone down and ends the call.
“Morning,” he smiles.
“Morning,” Misha replies, then lets his eyes travel down Jensen's body, taking him in without shame.
That's when Jensen remembers that he's only wearing his boxer briefs and his hair probably looks worse than Misha's.
“Um,” he scratches his neck, feeling awkward. “Come in.”
They exchange the two black iPhones in silence, and Jensen says, “I programmed my number into yours.”
“Thanks,” Misha grins.
“So you could call me sometime.”
“I will.”
They stand awkwardly in the middle of the room, eyeing each other, not sure what to do. Jensen feels his heart beat hard against his chest, and a blush rising on his cheeks. He hates it when that happens.
Misha, on the other hand, tilts his head and smirks. “Can I be honest?”
“Sure?” Jensen replies.
“I knew it was yours. I just wanted to see you again.”
“You...” Jensen shakes his head in disbelief, but chuckles. “I'm glad you did.”
“So, Friday, movie, you and me?”
“You bet,” Jensen nods, and doesn't protest at all when Misha leans in to kiss him on the mouth.
Jared whoops from the sidelines, and Jensen can't be bothered to be as horrified as he should be that his best friend witnessed all of that.