Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:33:54 -0400 From: Ben Bliss Subject: Notch It Up Usual Precautions. Contains gays. Dont read this if it offends or if you're underage. Everyone mentioned is immaginary, underage, and awfully damned good at screwing up. Be 18, don't copy what I've put down, and come back again. Hopefully you'll enjoy. Neil walked up behind Steve as quietly as he could, the noise coming from the cafeteria covering any footsteps, and the overcast day preventing any possible reflection in the wall of glass opposite him. When he was just close enough, he reached out and flicked Steve's ear before launching himself over the back of the bench in front of him. He landed deftly next to Steve, and turned to grin at his friend. "You're such an ass, you know." Steve complained before cuffing Neil over the head. "Well, what am I supposed to do when I'm kept inside for 8 hours a day? Harass you with all I've got, of course." Neil chuckled at Steve's irritation as he unpacked his lunch. September and October still had enough lingering warmth that the two of them ate outside in their school's courtyard as often as it was open, favoring the smaller crowd of people that was less likely to question the motives of the two. Neil and Steve had been friends since their freshman year in high school when Steve sat in front of Neil in Geometry. Suffice it to say that the class was just so entertaining that the two found more than enough time to disregard the instruction and have fun slacking off. It was the kind of friendship that just came naturally. Steve had been strong friends with guys from his church through middle school, but had frankly been tired enough of their machismo that when he found that he didn't have classes or lunch with the guys anymore, he didn't make any effort to maintain any close ties. Neil had gone to the private school a mile from their high school for all of his younger years, but his parents pulled him out to put him into the public high school because of its reputation and better level of schooling. "You know", Neil started "my parents are actually leaving town tonight, and I was wondering if you wanted to get smashed back at my place? I'm pretty sure that I could get some action from a few of the chorus girls tonight if we can pump 'em full enough." Steve turned to look at Neil. "And you leave me out of the equation when it comes to scoring because.....?" Neil glanced up at Steve from his sandwich with a slight leer. "Please Steve. You've never liked any of the chorus girls, you fag." Neil laughed softly, and Steve just sat there. Steve had known that he was gay since he cried himself to sleep at the start of middle school, realizing just how fucking screwed up he was. Being friends with Neil hadn't been the easiest when it came to tolerant comments of homos, but Steve had always just written it off as normal opinion of the gay population. "I'm just not helping you mix the drinks this time so you can try getting at it again with Emily. We nearly had to take her to the hospital you had her so drunk. Are you trying to go necro now?" Steve joked. The two finished up lunch and headed off to their separate classes. Stephen didn't think highly of watching a bunch of distant friends of his, and close friends of Neil's getting smashed so that he could punch them all awake in the morning. Steve generally tried to avoid getting inebriated in public because he wasn't sure what he might do if he were left without scruples among guys he might come on to. By the time school let out and Steve was on his way to Neil's house with him, he knew that it was going to be a long weekend. When they got to Neil's place Steve just dropped his stuff and headed upstairs to change into gym shorts or something or other he could find in Neil's room. Only being friends really with one guy, and a straight one to boot, generally left social interaction at a minimum, but gave one leeway. Not being open to anybody in more than daily goofing off and drunken hazes allowed Steve to avoid confronting the fact that he was in high school, quite gay, and quite closeted. Why come out when there's nobody who would support you, and nobody who likes you? Steve wound his way back downstairs Neil's overly luxurious, soon-to-be-trashed house, and sat at the wet bar in the basement where Neil was already pulling out fifths of Bacardi and some Glenlivet along with Gatorade. Another smooth teenage trick, mixing your alcohol with electrolytes so you can get drunk faster, and with much less cost. Just one step short of injecting the alcohol into your veins. "Wanna mix a few up?" Neil asked. Steven regarded him with a closed look. "You know I don't get drunk when you do these. If you fuck stuff up, who's gonna get your drowning ass out of the swimming pool?" Steve however grabbed a bottle of grey goodness and slouched over to the entertainment room. "Tell me when people start coming." he said over his shoulder. Undoubtedly he'd know when Neil started getting people around. Despite being pussies onstage when they sang, Neil and his chorus buddies were nothing less than pricks when their blood alcohol got a blip above 0%. Steve laid back on one of the couches and turned the wall-sized television on to some old comedy central reruns. He figured with the number of people coming that Neil had bragged at lunch, there would be no problem getting a little tipsy by himself. A couple hours later Steve woke back up to his half emptied bottle and a dark sky outside. He hoisted himself off the leather couch and without turning off the tv, went to figure out why it still seemed that nobody was making something out of the evening with Neil's loads of drinkables. When he turned a corner and looked at the bar, all of the bottles were gone, and so it seemed, was Neil. Steve walked upstairs and saw that Neil's car was no longer in the driveway. "Whatever," Steven said aloud to himself "I'll just stay here in your house while you're off joy riding......ass..." Steve found his way up to Neil's room and was out on his bed before long. Without thinking much of it, he rolled over, awake again, and looked up from his laying position to see Neil leaning against the opposite wall of the large bedroom. "No, no, don't bother. You look fucking comfortable enough there. I'll grab the damn couch." Neil said as he walked over to the bed. Despite what he said, he laid down next to Steven on the large bed anyway. Steve rolled back toward the wall as he looked at Neil, wondering what his drunk friend was doing. Neil lay looking up at the ceiling before he turned his head to look at Steve. "What? You not comfortable with me in the same bed, fag?" Neil asked with a little damper on his words. Steve just pushed Neil off over the side of the bed to smack onto the floor. Neil burst out in hysterics, and drunkenly got up and yanked another comforter out of his closet. He took the blanket back to the bed and threw it down on top of Steve, covering the bed and adding to the crowded mass of blankets that had become tussled when Steve had slept. "I was just kidding with you Stevie." Neil said. "Although you know that it's obvious that you're kinda gay with.....uhm.....where were you tonight?" Neil collapsed face down on the bed next to where Steve still lay, just silently watching his friend make a fool out of himself. Steve remained half sitting up waiting for Neil to keep talking, but lay back down to drift off when he figured Neil had passed out for the night. When he thought that was it, Neil turned his head so he was looking at Steve. "No matter what you think," Neil slurred, "I'm not gonna turn gay someday. If you're gonna fag up your life, you can do it with someone else." Neil continued to try telling Steve how he suspected all kindsa guy stuff ever since he never did any girls and stuff, but when he opened his eyes to keep talking, Steve had gotten off the bed. "Fuck you." Steve said quietly to his prostrate friend before walking out of the room, and down the stairs to the basement. He grabbed his stuff, and the bottle, and was out of the house in a minute. As he stumbled to think of a place he could go to crash for the night before going home to admit his drunkenness to parents, he found himself heading toward the park in his neighborhood. What of Neil? He was no different than the other guys at school. Big deal, one less worry in school, new quiet lunches, more time for study, FUCKING ASSHOLE. Steven could feel it as he began to break down inside, rending apart as he started to grip the fact that he was walking away alone, that he was alone, that nobody cared that he was alone. He wasn't important, he wasn't even worth looking for in his parents' eyes that night. Had he even remembered to tell them where he was? Steve collapsed in a damp pile of leaves somebody had raked together under a tree in the park. Looking up through the branches, Stephen wondered whether he even really cared to wake up tomorrow, or if he'd prefer to freeze here overnight among the leaves. He grabbed for the bottle, knowing the answer wasn't that far away. First chapters are everything. I can say that this isn't main storyline, but my version of an appropriate setting for development. Take it somewhere, drop me a line.