Keegan was napping on the sofa in front of the TV. He was snapped out of his sleep by Karen saying loudly, “He friended me!” Coming out of a weird dream, Keegan rubbed his eyes and felt disoriented in the dark room, only the television and Karen’s computer were giving off light. “Who?” “Noah. Get the hell over here and sign on.” “I’m tired.” Karen crossed the room, grabbed his arm and dragged him to sit at her computer. “I can’t function. I’m out of it.” “Sign on.” Karen nudged him. Keegan tried to think and remember his password since he was on Karen’s computer, not his, and it wasn’t memorized by her computer. He logged on and she immediately took over the mouse from him. “He sent you a request! Oh my God!” She accepted it quickly and opened up the chat box. “He’s on line!” “Oh no.” Keegan shook his head in terror. “No. Log off. I can’t think straight right now. Don’t write anything.” She clicked the mouse. “What did you do?” He was holding his breath. “Poked him, ya know. You want to poke him, don’t you?” “Stop! Go away!” Keegan took over the mouse and logged out, getting off the chair and dropping back on the sofa. “You’re going to make me seem like I’m interested.” “You are interested,” she said calmly, going back to scanning her dating websites. “At least I’m trying. All you do is lie around on your days off, or go out with me and my gal pals.” “Ouch. I don’t just lie around. I workout and stuff.” Karen glanced at him from over her shoulder, giving him the ‘eye’. “Don’t even go there.” “What,” he said whining, “Karen, I don’t even know if he’s gay. And I don’t want him to think I am if he’s not.” “Wah, wah, wah…stop whining. He won’t think you’re gay.” “I’m going to bed.” Keegan felt like shit and dreaded seeing Noah at the hospital now. After washing up, he scuffed his bare feet on the soft pile carpet and closed his door behind him. Stripping off his clothing, he fell onto the bed and tugged the blanket up to his chin. But now that Karen had started something into motion, Keegan struggled to get back to sleep. ~ Noah noticed his friend request to Keegan was already accepted, and not only that, Keegan had ‘poked’ him. He smiled and poked him back. “No! Are you really flirting? Can I be that lucky? Are you gay?” He read over the information Keegan had provided to the site. Originally from LA, two sisters were listed as family, Blanch and Donna, LAFD as his employer, and Keegan’s birthday was in July. A Leo. For the hell of it, Noah sent Keegan a message. ‘Nice to see you on here. How’re your days off going?’ He looked it over, decided it didn’t give anything away overtly, and sent it. There were very few updates on Keegan’s profile, except by one or two ‘macho’ friends of Keegan’s posting silly jokes or puns about firemen, and Keegan’s photos were few. He only had twenty-nine friends and very few ‘likes’ of anything other than fire fighting themes and sports. A real man’s-man. Nothing wrong with that, but Noah had no idea if Keegan was just being friendly or…? And if he was gay? Did he like the brothers? That would be a nice bonus. These were all questions Noah had in his head and he had no idea if Keegan would communicate this way or not. Or, if Noah had to wait until another chance meeting in the ER. He got busy on other things, like surfing for gay romance movies and books to buy, and then checked to see if Keegan had typed back. It appeared he was either blanking Noah, or had logged off. Noah disconnected from the social network, as it sometimes made him frustrated when he did not get fast responses. He checked the time and yawned. It was ten and even though he worked shifts that were all night long, on his time off he tried to sleep like a normal human being. He shut down his computer and headed to bed. ~ Keegan stared into space. He growled in frustration at not being able to fall asleep now, and threw off the blanket. In just his briefs, he returned to the den, seeing Karen on her computer typing IM’s to potential dates on match sites, and the television on as well giving off a flickering blue light. Keegan picked up his laptop to take with him to the bedroom. Karen said, “Snicker,” and giggled like an imp. “Shut up,” he teased back and knew she’d started something Keegan had to finish. Once in his room, he sat on his bed, leaning against the headboard and booted his computer up. What was he supposed to do if Noah and he started a conversation over instant messages? How much was Keegan willing to reveal without knowing Noah enough to trust him not to gossip to the other nurses, which would ultimately lead to outing him in the fire department. His stomach began to get icy cold as the thought of digging a hole he could not climb out of worried him. He logged onto the notorious social site. A message was showing in his in box. He held his breath and opened it. ‘Nice to see you on here. How’re your days off going?’ Keegan noticed it had been sent over an hour ago. Was it worth answering? How did Karen find out if he was on line? Keegan tapped keys and then could see where the chat box was located and which friends were on line now. The minute he did, one of his old high school football buddies, ‘Moose’ noticed and sent him a message. ‘Keeg! hey ya big doofus! ya married yet?’ “Oh God. Shoot me.” Keegan realized Noah was not online or at least not logged into the social network. He typed him back a message, not wanting Noah to think he was blanking him. After all, it appeared Keegan had been the one to initiate the contract, even though it was his meddling housemate. ‘Okay. Not doing much. How about you?’ Keegan sent it and ‘Moose’ kept sending more messages, ‘u blank-n me, dude? wen you comin’ to a reunion? the boys wanna know wat ur up to. u suck! answer me!’ ‘im not goin to a stupid reunion.’ Keegan wanted to log off now. ‘wat r u doin lately? sez firemen on ur site. ur too chicken shit to do that. LOL’ “Oh fuck you!” Keegan deleted the chat and looked for the button to appear offline. “I hate this thing! This is why I don’t log on.” He shut down the computer and placed it on his nightstand, putting his hands behind his head to think. Now he was angry and frustrated and didn’t know what to do about Noah. He had no clue at all.
