Date: Tue, 29 May 2012 20:19:13 -0700 (PDT) From: Aaron Hull <wah.stories@yahoo.com> Subject: One or the Other: Chapter Twenty-Three - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This is my first story that has chapters! My other stories are Hayden's Story and Gavin's Got Game, they're here under the High School section, I also have a story called The After Party, which is under the college section. If you like this story then you should check them out because there are some similarities except this one doesn't have sex. So if that's what you were looking for I'm sorry. My shorter stories may have sex but this story will contain no sex, there may be references to sex, but I will not go into detail. If you like this story, contact me at wah.stories@yahoo.com. I strongly encourage it. Also, If you want to be on my e-mail list to find out when the next chapter comes out, please include that in the email! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Things were basically back to normal now; Emma and Daniel sat with us at lunch again and it was as if nothing happened. The only weird thing was that Mason would occasionally sit with us and talk to us as if we had been friends our whole lives. Right now, Macy, Kurt, Lizzie, Emma, Daniel, and I were all hanging out at Emma's. Her parents are pretty well off so she has her own "living room," if that's what you want to call it. "So, what are all your plans for Christmas break?" Emma asked. "My family and I are going to Washington to visit more family." Macy said. "We're not doin' anything." Kurt said. "But this will be our dad's first sober Christmas so that's good." "Me and all the Mexicans," Lizzie's related to almost every Hispanic person in the city, don't ask me how, so she just calls her family the Mexicans, "are going to Mexico to visit my abuela" Lizzie doesn't know Spanish, she knows less than I do, so she had this smile of confidence on her face when she was able to say grandma. "Mason's family is coming over." Everyone looked over at me. "What?" "Why are they going over to your house on a holiday in which people are supposed to spend time with their loved ones?" Daniel asked. "There are two possible explanations here. Either Mason's dad is screwing Spencer's mom or Mason is screwing Spencer." "Shut up. My mom invited them over because we can't go anywhere for the holidays and they were free as well." "I wonder how Brennan will react when he finds out his boyfriend is fucking is cousin?" Lizzie said. These were one of the many times I wanted to hold Lizzie's head underwater 'til the bubbles stopped. "Mason and I are just friends. I wouldn't do that to Mason." "The way he hangs all over you begs to differ." Kurt said. "If you have never noticed, most of the football players are like that. Once you've seen guys naked a thousand times, hugging and shit like that is no longer considered awkward." "I wonder why Mason would want to fuck around with you anyway? I mean, I'm sure there are guys on the football team who are more hung than you." Lizzie said. The worst part was she was actually thinking this over. I threw one of the couch pillows; I don't know if there's a proper name for them or not, at Lizzie and it knocker her over because she was sitting on the arm and off in la-la land. "You're also an asshole." Lizzie said as she rubbed her now sore ass. "I wouldn't have to be if you didn't accuse me of sleeping around." "That's why you should join polyamorous-ism! Then you're technically not a whore. Right now you're the biggest whore I know." I decided to ignore her statement and go back to the Christmas topic. "What are you doing, Emma?" "Oh, well my family is wanting to go to this ski lodge in Minnesota and they wanted to know if I wanted to bring any friends along. Kurt, Daniel, I'm sure if you all wanted to my parents could pay for you guys and your dad to go. They really wouldn't mind considering that you all aren't like using me." "Thanks, but I don't think Dad would accept." Daniel said. "He hates having people do things for him." Kurt finished. "Oh, I just wanted you guys to come and I knew your dad would hate being alone and the temptation to drink would be way too much." "Yeah. That's mainly the reason why we'll have to decline as well." Daniel said. "Ask your dad, still. And I'm not doing this to flaunt my family's money, I just want to hang with my friends and show you I'm not a stuck up bitch like most `rich' people." Emma refuses to consider her family rich, her parents are the same way. According to everyone else, they are rich; they have so much money that all of us and our families could have gone on that trip and barely make a dent in their piles of money. They believe that when you're rich, you look down on everyone else so they consider themselves well off. "We know you don't do that shit." Lizzie said. "But as for using you, I might just do that so I can go on the trip and stay the hell away from my family." That made everyone laugh, not because Lizzie was joking, but because we all knew she was being serious. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -Mason's perspective- "So, what are your plans for Christmas?" Tyler asked me. We were at my house playing some games on my Wii. Ever since we broke up, we've been getting along much better although we rarely fought as a couple. "I'm going over to Spencer's." I answered, awaiting his reaction. Tyler just looked over at me and gave me this sly smile. "You gonna give it to him, finally?" "Shut up." I couldn't help but blush. "You are! Dude! I hope you get some Spencer that night." The other day I accidentally worded something wrong and it sounded like I wanted to fool around with Spencer, Tyler decided that from now on, instead of asking me if I was going to kiss him, he would make everything sound like I was going to fuck him. "So, you never told me what happened between you and Lily. You guys look fine to me though." "I told her. She was a little upset, but then she came out and told me she and Hailie had fooled around a few times, and I mean all the way. We kinda took a back step in our relationship though and we're sorta in an open relationship. We decided it'd be best if we had the freedom to feel what it's like with others since we're still young but still stay somewhat committed to each other." "That sounds pretty good. In all honesty, I think you and Lily are going to go all the way and get married and have kids and all that shit." "I don't know. I do love her, but high school relationships barely ever last." "So? You two are like made for each other. You're both bi, you're both okay with each other fooling around with others, you're both hot as fuck, and there's so many things about your personalities that click." "Kinda like you and Spencer?" Tyler said. "Fuck you!" Just then I killed him in that game. "Dude! I was your partner!" I couldn't help but laugh as he began to pout. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -Daniel's perspective- After Kurt and I left Emma's, we returned to our dad fixing his hair in the mirror. He was wearing an old tux of his, I'm guessing he wore it to prom or something, that's how old it looks. "Whoa, Dad! You got a hot date tonight?" Kurt said. "It's my one month of sobriety and they're throwing me a little party at this fancy restaurant." "Have fun, Dad." I told him. "Get lucky!" Kurt said. I rolled my eyes while Dad chuckled. "I'd ask you all to come along but it's all adults and I'd end up drinking again with Kurt talking the way he is while we're there." We all laughed at that despite the fact he talked about drinking again, which he was told was totally off limits by his sponsor. Kurt and I then went to our room. "Do you think Dad is ever going to date again?" Kurt asked. "I don't know. I don't think he's fully over Mom yet." "I'm not either, but Dad needs to have somebody. He's been alone for so long now. Soon you and I will be off at college and I don't want him to be here all alone. He'd probably start drinking again." "Maybe we should talk to him about it." "Maybe. But not right now. I think we should play some Xbox so I can kick your ass!" For the next five or so hours Kurt and I played a few different games; neither of us has a long attention span when it comes to games. We heard Dad come home about three hours into our gaming. He came in to make sure we were asleep, obviously we weren't. Kurt and I paused our game and Dad sat down and told us about the party. It sounded like he had a lot of fun and was going to go out more often if he could find some people to hang with. Neither Kurt nor I brought up the question if he's gonna start dating soon. Once he left, we went back to the game. Kurt soon got tired of losing and decided to go to bed, after he threw the controller at me and missed by a hair. He then flipped me off and I couldn't help but laugh. The next day wasn't memorable for the most part. Kurt and I arrived at the breakfast table to find no one there yet, that's how it usually was. Macy, Spencer, Lizzie, and Emma soon appeared and we had our daily breakfast conversation. After that, we all went to class, nothing special happened. The first thing that happened was after school. Kurt had basketball practice. I normally stayed and studied in the library 'til he got out and one of his basketball friends would take us home. Normally no one is in the library, excluding the tutoring students. Today, however, I ran into Spencer. "Hey." I said to him, it was the first time we were talking one-on-one since we were over at Mason's. "Hey." He said. He seemed a little too cheerful. "What's up?" "Mason and I are hanging out after school. The football coach is finally back and he wanted to have a party for them winning. I didn't want to go because Jordan is there."? "Oh. I'm here because Kurt's at practice and one of his friends is our ride home." "Have you started studying for the Algebra II test?" Spencer asked me. "Not yet but I was thinking about doing that today." To a certain degree, I was lying. I hadn't studied for the test, but I never planned on doing so. Math comes to me very easily. Spencer is good at math, but it sometimes takes him a while to understand what to do. I used to tutor him until this year. "Would you like to study together?" The way he asked it, there was a hint of flirtation in it. It was barely detectable, but I could tell things were almost back to where they used to be before Kasey, before Brennan, before Mason, before Trey, before Hannah. "Sure. Where do you want to start?" We sat down at a nearby table, the tutoring was on the opposite side of the library so we were able to goof around as we studied, it was more like me teaching Spencer but I never wanted to rub it in his face that I'm better at math than he is. About an hour later, Kurt came in all sweaty. "Hey Danny! Hey Spence!" "Don't call me Danny." I used to go by Danny, back in elementary school, but started going by Danny when we started middle school. Kurt, very rarely now, calls me Danny. "Shut up. Come on, Tommy is already out at his car." I grabbed my books and packed up, I originally came to study for my chemistry test, but I got distracted by Spencer. "See ya." "See ya." Spencer said. I could see the sparkle in his eye again. If only it was the beginning of the year when I first noticed the sparkle. "Hey dad!" Kurt shouted as we walked in. "We need to talk to ya!" I gave Kurt a confused look. "The ski trip." "What is it, Kurt?" Dad said as he came out of the kitchen. "A friend of ours offered to take us with them on Christmas break. They're going to a ski lodge." Kurt said. "I hope you boys have fun. You know I won't keep you from having fun." I had to clear things up for dad. "Dad, when he says us, he means the three of us. They want you to come along as well." "I couldn't accept. That's way too much to spend on just one person." "But you were okay with it before you found out you were invited." Kurt said. "It's different with me." "How so?" Kurt said. "You all are kids. You all aren't supposed to pay for your own things. I'm an adult. I'm supposed to do that for myself." "Dad, you need a vacation. You sit around here all day and do nothing. What if all this solitude drives you back to alcohol." "What if you start to hurt us..." My voice started to trail off. I know this was a crazy tangent, but there's a possibility it could happen. Dad sighed. He then looked up at us with a smile. "You boys need to be salesmen. Who do I need to talk to about this trip?" Kurt started jumping up and down with joy. "Emma's parents! I'm going to go start packing!" Kurt then ran off. Dad laughed. He turned to me, "Emma who?" "Emma Chan." I know, stereotypical last name for an Asian. I gave him her parents' home number, Emma gave it to us when we were over there. "If I fall and bust my ass, you boys are taking care of me 'til I can walk again." Dad said as he picked up the phone. I couldn't help but laugh. "You got it." "Hey babe!" Kasey said as he opened the door. "Hey!" It was the weekend before Christmas break. We only had one more week 'til my family sets off for Minnesota with the Chan family. "It's getting pretty cold out." Kasey said. "Maybe you should come in." "Why thank you." I said as I went in. I turned to see my dad leave. He was smiling as he saw me standing there with Kasey. It felt good to have an accepting father. "So, how have you been?" Kasey asked. He was standing in basketball shorts and one of his many cheerleading shirts. Most of the times the team gets extremely girly shirts, but Kasey, Brennan, and the other male cheerleaders, some of the first in our school's history, get their own t-shirts which I may say are pretty masculine looking, until you see the word cheer on the front. "You look nice. And I've been okay. I'm going to Minnesota next week." "Sweet! So, can you bring anyone along?" Kasey asked. "Emma is taking my family. I would bring you if I could." "I could get in your suitcase. You don't need any extra clothes." He said as he pulled me in for a kiss. "You're right. I need something else though." I went in for another kiss, this one lasted much longer. Most may think what I said was sexual, but the truth is that all I wanted was a kiss. Kasey and I have had sex before, it was about a week ago and we have been together for about two months so I didn't feel like it was too early. It was the greatest feeling I've ever had. There aren't words to describe it. We've only done it once though, we agreed that we'd only have sex at special times and not like every other hour like some couples at our school. "I'm going to miss you. Will you come say goodbye Friday night?" Kasey asked. "You should know that I'll definitely be here Friday night. My dad is going to pick me up in the morning and then we're gonna meet Emma's family at the airport." "So I'll be able to be with you all night?" His voice started to become hushed. "Yeah." I said. I could feel his breath on my neck. He quickly jumped back. "So, what do you want to do?" He said smiling. I rolled my eyes. He can be such a tease sometimes. "What did you have on your mind?" "Well, I was wanting to watch a movie or two with you and we could cuddle on the couch." "Hmm, that sounds good." We headed into the living room and he popped in Transformers. I have seen it at least a million times but Kasey loves the movie so I couldn't tell him no. After that we watched the second one. And then the third one. All were movies I had seen on multiple occasions. But as I said, I couldn't say no to Kasey. Near the end of the last movie, Kasey fell asleep. It was only around nine but I decided to let him sleep for a bit. I carefully slipped out from his grasp and headed into the kitchen to eat a snack. Entering the kitchen, I ran into Kasey's mother. "Oh, hi Daniel." They made it a priority to stay out of Kasey's way when he has company. They're the kind of parents who try to not embarrass their child. "Hello, Mrs. MacArthur." "You and Kasey enjoying your alone time?" "Yeah, he's taking a nap right now. I was going to eat something real quick then wake him up." "Let me make you a grilled cheese. I insist." I sat down at the island in the kitchen and watched Kasey's mom make the grilled cheese. She also heated up some tomato soup and got me some milk as well. After she cleaned up her mess, she told me to leave my dishes in the sink and she'd get them later. She also told me that if I wanted any cookies they were in the top cabinet. She then disappeared back to where she and her husband roomed. I quickly ate my food, placed my dishes in the sink, and grabbed myself a cookie. I went back into the living to find Kasey still unconscious. I decided to wake him up just as he woke me up last time I stayed the night. I closed his mouth completely and then pinched his nose shut. In less than a millisecond, Kasey jumped up and I couldn't help but laugh at the expression on his face. "That's not nice." He said? as I was catching my breath. "Now you know how I feel." I told him. "But I did it out of love, you did it out of revenge." "How did you do it out of love?" I asked. "Well, instead of closing your mouth, I covered your mouth with mine and made out with you while I did it." "So if I kiss you then it'll be okay?" "Exactly." "So let me kiss you." I leaned in to kiss Kasey. He turned his head. "No!" "Come on! Please!" "Nope!" He smiled at me. "Okay then." I waited a second until he wasn't expecting it and jumped on him. He hid his face from me again and I pried his hands away. He started to thrash around and we soon ended up on the floor. It then became a wrestling match. I was finally able to pin him. I leaned in and planted a nice, long kiss on him; this time he didn't resist. "I don't want you to leave." Kasey said as our lips separated. "I don't want to leave you either." I leaned in and gave him a quick kiss. Kasey and I got up off the floor and sat back down on the couch. "The only reason you won was because I'm still somewhat tired." "Sure." I said sarcastically. I felt my phone vibrate. I pulled it out of my pocket and it was Kurt calling me. "Give me just a second." I told Kasey. I got up and went into the kitchen, no one was in there at the time. "Hello?" "Hey. Macy and I need you." Before I left for Kasey's, Kurt told me that he was going to be hanging out with Macy and Spencer. "What's wrong?" "It's Spencer. It's nothing life-threatening, it's just...something's wrong." "I don't think I can get there. Dad's out with his friend's remember? And I'm not going to ask Kasey's parents if they can take me to go see the other guy I like." "Don't worry. Max should be there any minute to pick you up. I tried calling earlier but you never picked up." "Okay. Well, I guess I'll be there soon." "See ya." Kurt then hung up. I walked back into the living room to find Kasey sitting there waiting for me to return. "What is it?" "It's Spencer. Something's not right but Kurt wouldn't tell what it was. Macy's brother is going to be here to pick me up soon." "Oh...ok." "I'm sorry, Kasey. Spencer's one of my closest friends and I need to be there for him." "Of course. I understand." Kasey still had this depressed look on his face. "I guess I'll see you Friday...Unless someone else needs you." Those last few words stung, but I had no time to argue with him. I picked up the bag of clothes I had packed over and went out onto the porch. Max soon pulled up. I got into the car with him. "Hey bud, is everything okay with Spence?" Max asked. "I have no idea. Kurt wouldn't tell me anything when I asked." Max started to drive. We soon arrived at Spencer's house. We got out of the car and hurried in. Spencer, Macy, and Kurt were sitting on the couch. "What's wrong?" I said as I went over to Spencer. He stood up. He was right in front of me. Something felt different. "I love you." He then grabbed my face and pulled me in for a kiss. Our past kisses were nothing compared to this one. I closed my eyes and kissed back. I slowly opened my eyes. I wasn't kissing Spencer. I wasn't even at Spencer's. I was lying on Kasey's couch with him on top of me and kissing me. I stopped kissing. "Good morning sleepyhead." Kasey said smiling. "What happened?" "Well, while we were watching the third Transformers movie, you fell asleep. I decided to wake you up with a kiss. Did you have a good dream?" He said. I was dreaming. I never met Kasey's mom. I never wrestled Kasey after we woke up. I never kissed Spencer. "Yeah. I guess. It was...different." "Different good or different bad?" "Good." "Was I in it?" "Yeah. You were." "You seem shocked right now." Kasey's expression became serious. "Is everything okay?" "I think it is." Kasey rested his head against my chest. "If you need to talk, I'm here for you." "I know." After that incident, Kasey and I did nothing special. We played some video games and talked about random things. He's wanting me to try out for baseball, even though I swore to myself I wouldn't play any sports. Tryouts for baseball aren't for a long time, so I knew he'd give his all to get me to try out. It was soon time to go to bed. We went upstairs and changed into our pajamas, he actually wore bed pants and a matching shirt while I was in a pair of basketball shorts. Kasey was soon asleep; I, on the other hand, wasn't able to sleep. I wanted to talk to someone about the dream I had. If felt so real. The kiss with Spencer, it was the best kiss I've ever had, even though it wasn't even a real kiss. I lay there most of the night, drifting in and out of sleep. The conversation that I was having with myself kept going on and on, I didn't know what I was going to do. I love Kasey and I want to be with him, things feel so right when I'm with him and as each day passes my love for him gets stronger, but Spencer, the feelings I have for him are far past what I have for Kasey, it's hard for me to see Spencer kissing and hugging on Brennan and then going and drooling all over Mason. Morning soon came and Kasey was up. In the middle of the night he had scooted closer to me and we were spooning by the middle of the night. Even though I was thinking about ending it with Kasey all night, holding him in my arms was what kept me from going insane last night. "Good morning sleepy head." I whispered in his ear, I then nibbled on it a little bit. Last night I wasn't myself and I didn't want Kasey to know something was wrong, so I decided to cover up my confusion and be with him for now. "Hey, did you get any sleep last night?" He rolled over and faced me. His bed head was even super sexy. "I got some. I did take a long nap, ya know." "I know. Sorry for not waking you up. You're just so cute when you sleep." Kasey then crawled out of my arms and went to the bathroom to go get dressed. My wall fell down for a bit and a tear escaped. All night I was thinking about what I should do, and a little while before we woke up I decided I would end it with him. But now that he's up and I've looked into his eyes, I can't do it anymore. I guess being in love really does suck. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Every time I read a story of Nifty, I never read the top part, so just in case you are like me and only read the bottom portion if you liked the story, here is my email again: wah.stories@yahoo.com. Also, if you want to be on my email list to find out when new chapters come out, include that in your email. AND if you email me, please state what story you're referring to. Thanks for reading the twenty third chapter of my story. I'd also like to give thanks John, my editor, and Trish, who now helps me come up with ideas for the story. Without John, this story would be LOADED with grammatical errors. He is sweet enough to look thorough it thoroughly and find all those mistakes. Without Trish, my story would be really bland right now. She has, and hopefully will later on, help me think of great ideas for the story. For those of you who are unaware, I plan on ending this semester with chapter 25. I plan to then pick up with the next semester and finish Spencer's freshman year with chapter 50. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -