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It isn't fair, really. Nothing about the situation is, and Jack Kelly is sick of it.
The situation at hand? The fact that he's on the floor, sketchbooks and pencils strewn about, while David and Katherine share the bed. It's not fair, because it's torture, and it's not fair, because they look so pretty sitting high atop a dorm room bed, the light flittering in past Katherine's thin lace curtains, and it's not fair, because Jack wishes he could have just that: the comfort of being next to them.
Maybe that’s a little too dramatic. He is dating them, after all.
Regardless, he sighs, deep in his chest, and pouts when he hears a laugh.
"Jackie," Katherine giggles, placing her own textbook down on the foot of her bed and closing her laptop as she looks at him. She's sitting with her back to David's chest, who is idly reading a novel for his science fiction literature class or whatever, looking all godlike in his oversized t-shirt with a print of The Smiths on it. “It’s okay to take a break, you know.”
“Nooo. I gotta finish this,” He huffs, gesturing to the slew of art supplies taking over Katherine’s floor. Thank God she doesn’t have a roommate- her father is shelling out the big bucks for her to have a single room- because, if she did, they’d probably kill Jack for the mess and the streak of orange paint on the wooden floor he hasn’t been able to scrub off. “I should pro’lly go to studio, I guess. Don’t wanna lug all’a this shit there, though.”
David glances down at him, dog-earring his copy of Parable of the Sower. “Does your back hurt?”
“Huh?”
“Being hunched over like that,” David gestures to Jack’s less-than-stellar posture, and unfortunately, he’s right. Jack is on the floor, shirtless and in athletic shorts and glasses, looking like he hasn’t slept in a week- and he feels like it, too. David beckons Jack closer. “Come on. Up.”
“Davey.”
“Jackie.” David cocks an eyebrow. “Thirty minutes. Take a thirty minute break, and lay up here with us.”
Jack doesn’t look convinced, but then Katherine bats her lashes and says please?, and Jack has never been able to deny her anything. He stands with a groan, planting his feet on the ground as he stretches; his bad shoulder pops and his back cracks as he twists. David makes a face at the sound, which Jack grins at. “Don’t like my old man crackin’, huh?”
“It sounded like you snapped your spine in two,” David mutters, cringing. “Are you going to get in bed anytime soon, or…?”
“Can’t I stand here and look pretty for ya?”
“You always look pretty,” Katherine grins, making grabby-hands toward Jack. “Come on. Kelly cuddles? Please?”
“Needy,” Jack murmurs, grinning, before he steadies himself with a hand on Katherine’s bedframe and pulls himself up onto the mattress. She has massive bed-risers, and David is the only one tall enough to climb up without struggling.
Once Jack is finally on the bed, Katherine and David wordlessly reposition themselves; they both place their backs against the wall that the bed is positioned against, and Jack unceremoniously climbs over Katherine’s thighs to plop himself down right between them, grinning to himself as they both wrap themselves around him. He rests his arms behind their shoulders and uses each hand to massage their scalps. Katherine hums at the feeling, while David closes his eyes.
“Missed you,” Katherine mumbles into Jack’s neck.
Jack just laughs and rolls his eyes fondly, glancing down at her. “Hey. I was the one missin’ you two, Ace,” he murmurs. “Ya both look real pretty from the floor. All curled up like that, readin’ your nerd books? Damn. I should’a drawn that for my final.”
“Do you really need to go to studio today?” David asks, running his hand along Jack’s bare side; Jack, in turn, slides his hand down to rest under the hem of Katherine’s tank top. “Do you wanna get dinner with me and Kathy instead, neshama? I still have meal plan left over. We can get dinner, snacks… me and Katie can sit on the floor with you and study, too. So our backs are just as bad when we’re old.”
Jack knows he should say no. His final for his Sketching I class is due in three days, and he’s not as far along into it as he’d like to be— but he’s always worked best under a time crunch, so he says, “Yeah. Dinner sounds great, cielito.” He looks up at David with a little grin, pecking his lips, before running and pressing a kiss to Katherine’s temple. “Think we got time for a nap, gorgeous?”
Katherine’s head snaps up toward Jack, eyes dazzling, and she immediately locks eyes with David as she exclaims, “It worked! I told you he’d want a nap.”
“I thought he had one too many Red Bulls,” David snickers. “You were right. I owe you.”
“Wh—“ Jack laughs, brows raised. “You two were conspirin’ against me? You two were in cahoots?” As if on cue, David and Katherine both shrug, ans Jack shakes his head fondly as he shifts rhe three of them to lie down, his chest to David’s, with Katherine spooning him from behind. “Can’t believe I thought I could trust the two’a you together,” Jack teases.
“Mm. You know you love us,” Katherine grins, kissing the shell of his ear. “Get some rest. Please? The bags under your eyes are stressing me out.”
“Hey! Davey’s got bags, too,” Jack protests in mock offense. “I don’t hear no one bein’ mean to him about it.”
“Mine are supposed to be there,” David mumbles tiredly, tucking his head under Jack’s chin— how such a tall man can curl up into such a small ball, Jack will never under, but he grins regardless as he wraps his arms around David. “It’s— It’s the default setting for me. You look, um, freaky. With eye bags. Really accentuates the puppy dog eyes thing you’ve got going on, which is highly unfair, so, um. Go to sleep.”
Jack smiles to himself, feeling Katherine wrapping her arms around his waist from behind. “Fine, fine,” he whispers. “I’ll go to bed. Get unfreaky for ya, yeah? G’night, mis amores.”
“Goodnight,” David and Katherine say in tandem, and Jack grins as he closes his eyes, letting himself relax for the first time in days.