Overheard
by Helen

At first he thought it was part of his dream, the long low gasp, the quiet voices, a girl's laugh, and then he woke up enough to realize that it was a real girl, a real girl moaning out there beyond the partition, and then she said

"Chris, oh—" and he realized that it wasn't just some girl, it was Dani, and Dani and Chris were having sex on the bus.

"oh, man," he mumbled to himself, and then someone was fumbling with the curtains, and it was JC, very pink, looking as embarrassed as he felt.

"We have to get out of here," JC said, leaning close to him, muttering in his ear.

"We can't," he said, because Chris was moaning now, and Dani was really making a lot of noise, and if it had just been some groupie he would have strolled right out there, because Chris would have deserved it, because he was, if Joey correctly interpreted the erratic creaking from the other room, doing it on the table, where they had to eat and everything, but it was Dani, and it was Chris, and Chris was muttering something about how much he loved her, and he wanted to be able to look both of them in the face without everyone dying of embarrassment, after all. JC nodded, obviously thinking the same thing, and climbed into the bunk with him, sitting down at the end when Joey pulled up his feet. JC grinned at him helplessly and winced when Dani said, quite piercingly

"Oh, Jesus."

There was an assortment of little bangs and crashes, no doubt the salt and pepper and ketchup and napkins falling on the floor. These sounds were less distressing than the breathless moans that accompanied them, and once Chris saying

"Ow, that's—not there—"

and Dani saying "sorry, sorry—"

They tried covering their ears for a while, but that didn't work, and after a few minutes it became apparent that it wasn't going to be over any time soon, and JC shifted up so he could whisper

"They couldn't just have a quickie?" and Joey snorted and pressed his lips together, and then Chris moaned really loudly and JC began to crack up, clapping one hand over his mouth and looking at Joey with horrified eyes, which, in turn, made Joey laugh. They covered their faces with their hands and laughed until their stomachs hurt, and JC had to lie down, eventually, ending up half on top of Joey, and Joey shoved him and he banged his head on the wall which only made them laugh harder.

Then it stopped being funny and started to get sort of boring.

"Man, they're really going at it," JC whispered, moving around a little and pulling part of the blanket over his legs.

"Yeah," he said.

"I love you," Dani was saying, helplessly, totally fucking out of her mind,

"—love you," Chris echoed, raggedly.

Then it stopped being boring and started to get sort of depressing.

JC frowned slightly and rolled over to his stomach, resting his head on his crossed arms.

"Hey," Joey said, and then he put a careful hand on JC's back. JC sighed.

"s'nothing. just—" he turned his head so that Joey could see his face, "what did he do to deserve that, anyhow?"

"JC—"

"It's not fair," JC whispered fiercely.

"No," Joey said. JC bit his lip and rested his face in the crook of his elbow, and the creaking from the other room died down, but they didn't move, except for Joey's hand, stroking down JC's back, nape to waist, over and over.