Hello y’all. This is the second story I work on – the first one being Alex and Sebastian. I’ll place the link for that one below.
Hope you guys enjoy!
http://www.nifty.org/nifty/gay/college/alex-and-sebastian/
A fellow reader made a playlist with most of the songs I’ve either used or will use in the A&S series. I’ve given him full control as to whether he wants a new channel for this story or just to continue on the original one. If y’all want to listen to the previous one while reading the chapters, the link for it is this:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJZWEUrY9KRSfQ98rYlMYix46VM0CJ7XS
Songs on YouTube:
Life of the Party - Shawn Mendes
I will keep you posted if another link is created.
I updated my email to unfinishedthoughts013@gmail.com if you’d like to reach me!
Please don't forget to donate to nifty here, without which we wouldn't have this collection of great stories!
Every story is free on here, so please let's keep it that way and donate, guys.
http://donate.nifty.org/donate.html
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The Valentine
“Hey, Darren, can I talk to you?”
I turned around just as Michael caught up with me. “Hey, Michael. Yeah, sure.” I looked back at Tay and Kyle and told them I’d catch up to them in a bit. Tay nodded and said they’d wait for me in her car.
“Thanks,” Michael offered me a smile and it took everything in me to stop my knees from quivering.
“What’s up?”
“Listen, I was wondering if you’d like to stop by my place later tonight to help me with a song. Now that Mr. Holland dissolved the partners in Emanon, I’m sure Diana won’t complain.”
I thought about my plans to stop by Drew’s place after school but the way Michael was looking at me, I figured I could miss a day. Besides, Valentine’s wasn’t till tomorrow. I’d make it up to him then. “Uh, yeah. That’s fine, Micheal. I’ll have my mom drop me off. What time?”
The smile on Michael’s face grew wider. Jesus, I’d never imagined he could look more striking. He was wearing a red v-neck shirt that showed off just enough of his chest to make me wonder what he looked like without it.
I blinked away that thought when I realized he had offered a time and was waiting for a response. I scanned my brain trying to remember the time he had just said.
“Huh, oh, yeah. 7PM sounds good,” I nodded.
“Good, I’ll text you my address. See you then, D.” He shot me one last smile before he turned around and walked off in the opposite direction from where I was headed.
I turned away when he disappeared around a corner and realized that both the small conversation we had and the expectation of seeing him later had left a warm feeling in my chest. A vibration in my pocket made me blink and I took out my phone. It was Michael texting me his address. I found myself smiling again, realizing he lived only a couple of blocks away from me - walking distance, really.
Putting my phone back into my pocket, I made my way to the parking lot where Kyle and Tay waited for me.
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I’d be lying if I said Drew sounded more than okay with me canceling our plans tonight. Still, this made it easier for me to hang out with Michael. At around 6:30PM, I told my mom I was headed out and began walking over to Michael’s place. He only lived a couple of blocks away from me in another apartment complex. This allowed me to take my time on the way to his place as well as completely overthink the situation I was in.
I know all Micheal had asked from me was help in a song but the thoughts and feelings I was harboring for him - the things I was hoping would happen - were something I shouldn’t be having. I was with Drew, afterall. It didn’t matter that we were keeping our relationship hidden - it was important to both of us.
But this didn’t dull the memories of Michael’s dimples as he smiled or make the way his shoulders jumped when he laughed any less vibrant.
Everyone had a guilty pleasure and Micheal was mine. The insanely talented, insultingly handsome, and entirely unattainable senior.
Fuck me.
I finally made it to Michael’s apartment and made my way to the elevator like he had instructed. I punched the button for the third-floor and waited patiently as the hum of the elevator indicated my ascension.
I hadn’t waited more than a few seconds after ringing the doorbell before Michael opened his door.
“Darren!” His smile welcomed me more than his grey doormat ever could. “Thanks for making it over. Come in.” Michael moved back and extended his arm to his living room.
“Course, Michael. Always happy to help.” I made my way into his living room and noticed his apartment was just about the same size as mine. His walls, a neutral beige, were adorned with pictures of him and what I assumed were his parents in various stages of Micheal’s life. Like at my own place, it seemed that many of the most recent looking pictures were missing his dad.
“Nice place, Michael.” I said, sincerely. A home is a home. Not all of our parents could afford to live in a huge house like Diana’s.
“Thanks,” he said and, for once, I realized he looked a little sheepish. “It’s not much but it’s home.”
I nodded and walked over to a picture that caught my eyes. It was of a young (maybe 10 or 11 year-old) Michael in front of a piano with a man, his dad probably, both with a smile big enough to cure cancer. Michael was missing a front tooth but it didn’t bother him. The carefree confidence that only youth could offer.
“Home is home.” I announced.
“That’s me and my dad,” Micheal offered as he walked to stand beside me. We both looked at his younger self for a minute before he continued. “He passed away when I was 13. Lung cancer,” he said with a shrug.
“Sorry to hear that, man.”
“Yeah, well, we were all sorry about it for a while, too.” Michael cleared his throat and made his way to the corner of his living room were his guitar was leaning. “Mom won’t be here till after 9ish so it should give us enough time to run through a couple of songs, if you’d like.”
I turned away from the picture and simply nodded. “Yeah, sounds good. What’d you have in mind?”
Like that, we spent the first hour going over songs we’d practice at school and a couple mainstream ones we wanted to do just for the hell of it. Michael and I would take turns playing guitar for the songs since I hadn’t borrowed a guitar from school.
“Hey, Darren,” Michael said after we finished one of the last songs Mr. Holland had assigned to us.
“What’s up, man?"
“Here,” he said, passing me a sheet of music he pulled out of his binder. “Ever heard of Shawn Mendes’ Life of the Party?”
I looked at the sheet of music in my hand. “Yeah,” I said, recalling how obsessed I had been over Shawn’s music back in middle school. You know it?”
“Course,” Michael gave me a coy smile.
Course he does. There wasn’t much this guy didn’t know.
“Help me out with it? I wanted to play it for the talent show at the end of the year.”
I offered him a shy smile. “I haven’t heard it in forever, man. I don’t know how much help I’d really be.”
“I’m sure it’ll come back to you, D. You’re a smart guy.” Michael patted the cushion next to him. “Come closer man, I only have one copy of the song.”
I blushed a little at his off handed compliment but stood and made my way next to him. Before I had time to do anything else, Michael began to strum his guitar.
.
“I love it when you just don't care.
I love it when you dance like there's nobody there.
So when it gets hard, don't be afraid.
We don't care what them people say.”
”
.
Michael’s crystal clear voice filled the small living room and I found myself unwillingly staring at him as he sang.
I continued to admire him as his hands traveled loosely through the neck of the guitar, forming all the various chords the song called for. I found myself lost, staring at the talented guy before me. My eyes traveled from his hands to his face, lost in the emotions of the song.
.
“I love it when you don't take no.
I love it when you do what you want ‘cause you just said so.
Let them all go home, we out late.
We don't care what them people say.”
.
Michael’s eyes had been closed as I looked on but he opened them and met mine. He grinned at me and I found myself smiling back.
“You’re really good, Michael.”
“Thanks, D.” He said, still strumming to the song. “Help me with the next part.”
“I won’t be as good as you, man.” It was true. Michael was one of the most talented singers I’d heard. It was probably what made me like him so much. He had a talent for sounding so vulnerable when he sang, it was hard not to feel something.
“You’ll do just fine, Darren.”
I simply nodded at his encouragement and took a deep breath.
.
“Together we can just let go.
Pretend like there's no one else here that we know.
Slow dance, fall in love as the club track plays.
We don't care what them people say.”
.
As he played, I felt his leg brush against my own but I paid it no mind. It might have been an accident … but what happened next made me believe that it wasn’t. When I came close to finishing my verse, Michael and I met eyes again and in them I saw something I hadn’t seen since … well, since the night we had made out at that party. Swallowing the last of my nerves, I allowed myself to listen to the words we were singing. Was I overthinking it or was there another reason Michael had invited me over today?
I noticed one more thing that made me believe I wasn’t entirely crazy. He had not looked at the music sheet throughout the entire song. Michael knew this song by heart. I realized now that he had just wanted me to sit next to him.
.
“Come out tonight, come out tonight.
There's no one standing in your way.
Come out tonight, come out tonight.
We don't care what them people say.
We don't care what them people say.”
.
Our voices melded together at the bridge of the song. Michael’s guitar rounded out our voices until we sounded as good as Mendes himself. Maybe even better because this was Michael and me singing. Two people who had more in common than either of us would have thought.
It seemed that Michael might be thinking the same thing because, when his eyes met mine again, they showed a … connection.
We continued to lock eyes, a feeling of vulnerability coursing through my body but I couldn’t look away - neither of us could. Instead we continued to look at each other as we sang. Something much more intimate than it had any right to be.
.
“We don't have to be ordinary.
Make your best mistakes.
'Cause we don't have the time to be sorry.
So, baby be the life of the party.”
.
I was thrown back to the memory of both of us singing together for the first time back at Diana’s party. So much had happened in the past couple of months, it seemed almost a distant memory. But now here we were, together again, and we couldn’t have been any closer. Our knees continued to touch as Micheal played and I felt the warmth of his leg through the fabric of my jeans as intoxicating and numbing as the cigarettes we had shared that night.
.
“I'm telling you to take your shot it might be scary.
Hearts are gonna break.
'Cause we don't have the time to be sorry.
So, baby be the life of the party.”
.
We finished the song and Michael placed his guitar down on the floor in front of us. I continued to stare at him as he did this, unable to tear my eyes away from him.
What was this feeling that threatened to over take me? It felt like I was getting ready to jump, all my muscles tight and ready to spring despite my sitting comfortably on his couch.
Michael sat back up on his couch, our knees still touching despite the song being over. “That was really good, Darren.”
“Yeah,” was all my overloading brain could muster.
We sat in silence again as we again looked at each other. What felt like an eternity passed before anything else happened.
Almost simultaneously, Michael and I leaned towards each other and locked lips.
My brain felt like it was short-circuiting. Michael’s lips felt like fire against my own. I let the sheet of paper fall to the floor as I got closer to him and wrapped my hands around his body, pulling him closer. He did the same. I opened my mouth as I felt his tongue try to enter it and our tongues wrestled with each other.
Michael pushed me on the couch until I laid on my back and his eyes swept over me, grey and greedy. I found him looking down at my face slowly, like he didn’t want to miss a detail. He pulled off his shirt and I held my breath, seeing his tight body come into view. His flat abs gave way to a faint treasure trail leading into the hem of his jeans while his chest sported a small fuzz that made my pants feel even tighter. I pulled off my own shirt revealing my tight body until we were both just laying there, topless, on his family’s living room.
My breath hitched each time he pressed his lips to my naked skin. Like the last time we had made out, our hands explored each other’s bodies, admiring every inch of our tight teen bodies.
As Micheal went over to nibble on my exposed neck, a sudden thought came over me: Andrew.
Shit.
“Wait, wait.” I said, entirely disappointed with myself for two different reasons.
“What’s wrong?” Michael asked, his grey eyes studying me.
“We - we can’t.” I said, pushing him off and clearing my head.
“It’s okay,” he said, placing his warm hands on my naked back. “I broke up with Vanessa.”
I thought about what that meant. Still, I couldn’t do this to Drew. “I’m sorry, Michael. It’s not that I don’t want this.” I felt a tightness in my jeans and smiled. “Believe me, I do. But I’m with someone.”
“You are?” He asked, disappointment clear on his face. “Who? Tay?”
“What? No,” I took a deep breath. “It’s - it’s Andrew.”
“Andrew?” He asked and I could practically see his mind trying to figure things out. “The only Andrew I know is - “
“Diana’s boyfriend. Yeah.”
“I don’t understand.”
I sighed, realizing how I was pouring ice water on our encounter. ‘’Diana is his beard. It’s not real … for either of them.”
Michael leaned back on his couch and ran his fingers through his hair. “Wait, does she know he’s - “
“Yeah, she does. But we’ve been keeping it a secret from everyone. That’s why we can’t … you know.”
“Oh,” he said, simply.
I looked at how Michael’s shoulders sagged and had to stop from literally kicking myself. The one time I actually had the chance to hook up with the guy I was fawning over for months and I had to be taken. Fuck my luck.
I reached down to where my shirt was thrown and put it back on. Reluctantly, Michael did the same. After a few uncomfortable seconds of quiet, I slapped my thighs and stood up. “I should head out, Michael. Thanks for - thanks for having me over.”
Michael looked up at me with what I thought was a look of yearning. Before long, he smiled and stood up. “Yeah, sounds good, D. Thanks for coming over and helping me with the songs.”
I gave him a small chuckle. “You didn’t need much help, Michael.”
“It was still nice to have you over, though. Oh, I almost forgot.” Michael turned towards the kitchen and came back with a white envelope. He extended his hand and offered it to me. “This is for you.”
I took the small envelope in my hand and opened it slowly, wondering what it was. Inside was a small Valentine’s Day card.
Under the bright and alluring font were two final words that both elated and made my heart sink at the same time: Love, Michael.
I looked up at him and smiled. “Thanks, Michael.”
Michael’s hands went into his pockets while he shrugged. “You’re welcome, Darren.” His lips stretched into a pained smile that was hard to dismiss. “The point is kind of moot now that you’re no longer single, though.”
My cheeks flushed at this and I had to look away for a second. “I’ll see you at school Monday?” I asked, not sure what else to say.
“‘Course,” Michael’s coy smile dissolved as he walked me towards his door. “But Darren,” he called out as I walked out of his apartment and towards the elevator.
I turned around, “Yeah?”
Michael smiled but I could see a trace of sadness behind his cheery facade. “Do have a happy Valentine’s Day tomorrow.”
I smiled back, sure I looked just as disappointed as him. “You too, Michael.”