Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2011 01:13:12 -0700 (PDT)
From: John Meyers <johnmeyerz36@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Tragedy of Daniel and Jake Part 3

The Tragedy of Daniel and Jake
Chapter 3
By John Meyers

	Disclaimer: Assuming you haven't just jumped into this story
randomly, you've already read at least 2 Disclaimers, so, just look at
those if you need a refresher cuz they apply for this one too. Good?
Good. Anyway, thanks all you wonderful peoples for your wonderful reviews,
although I must say that I recieved far fewer than I did before, and even
though I don't mean to be annoying, I must remind you that I'm only keeping
up this story for as long as I actually think that people are reading
it.... just saying. :) So, yeah... on to the story and what not.....

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

	Daniel's POV

	Good lord in Heaven I'm such a frickin' spaz. Jake had hopped off
that stage and while everyone else was clapping and applauding I just
stared. I couldn't fricking talk. He came over and I felt my heart race and
my stomach get butterflies. My mouth felt dry and I couldn't compose a
sentence to save my life. After trying to tell him he was really good I
just gave up and said let's go watch a movie. Then Sheryl showed up. The
bitchiest McBitch BitchQueen of the known fricking world. She idolizes
Jake, following him around anytime she sees him like some infatuated little
puppy dog. A bitch puppy dog maybe.

	"OMFG Jake that was incredible!" She ran up in her annoying high
ass voice.

	"Thanks Sheryl." Jake said. Good frickin' lord it was sooo fricking
obvious that Jake DID NOT LIKE HER!! You could tell in his voice he thought
she was some spoiled child.

	"I never knew you could sing like that! You're amazing. You should
be on American Idol!" She hugged the hell out of him. He just sorta patted
her on the back and tried prying her off. I smirked,
laughing. Unfortunately, she heard it. "Oh." She looked at me after Jake
managed to unlatch her. "I didn't see 'you' there." She put a kind of
sneering emphasis on the word, 'you'.

	"Yeah well we were all just celebrating 'my' birthday." I smiled my
biggest, most evil smile and glared the shit out of her.

	"Yes well," She thought, sneering at me. "I guess you 'should'
celebrate as many birthdays as possible. With AIDS in your future, I don't
see many more being all that well for you."

	"Wha- I don't have AIDS you slimy little pretentious-" She cut me
off.

	"You're gay right? So you have AIDS." She honest to god looked like
she believed that. I felt my fists clench up so tight that my fingernails
dug into my palms and my blood pressure spiked from the outrage. "If I were
you I'd start praying immediately. You never know when God is going to
finally get tired of you and... uh." She made a little, finger going across
her throat sign.

	"Not every gay guy has AIDS you little ill informed quazi-christian
bible thumper!" I yelled at her, causing several people to turn their heads
and stare. "Why don't you go have sex with a crucifix or whatever the hell
you god squad assholes are doing these days. Little, holier-than-thou, self
propagating, sanctimonious-" She cut me off again.

	"I think you try and hide behind all these big words so you don't
have to think about your impending judgement, but I'm not going to rise to
your satan talk." Her fake ass smile never faltered. She turned to
Jake. "Call me when you want to hang out with people who are 'good'
examples." Jake smiled and said,

	"No probelm, your number's still 382-5633 right?"

	"382, what?" She asked, like an idiot. It didn't take a genius to
figure out that it spelle-

	"382-5633? That's uh, FUC-KOFF, right? So why don't you make like
your phone number, and 382-5633 right on out of here." He shoo-ed her away.

	"I'll pray for you." She said and turned and walked away. Jake
turned to me.

	"50 bucks says she won't set foot in a church till Easter." Jake
said. I've no idea where this self righteous attitude comes from, she's not
even an avid churchgoer from what I understand, I just think she tries to
piss me off. Needless to say, it works.

	"100 bucks says she bursts into flames when she does." I
retorted. Smiling at the thought. I unballed my fists to discover little
half moon indentations on my palms... from where my fingernails cut into my
hand.

	"You still want to watch a movie?"

	"What? Like I'm going to let 'that' ruin my birthday. Let's go." I
felt my anger ebbing away. On the upside, the whole encounter with her made
me forget about my butterfly stomachy, heart racing reaction to Jake, on
the downside, now it was coming back. "You two coming?" I turned around to
see Mark and Miranda staring at me. "Everything okay?" Mark spoke first.

	"You. Are. AWESOME!!" He ran up and high fived me so hard my hand
stung. "It's about time that little bitch got put in her place." He went to
high 5 me again but I nodded towards Miranda. She was looking at her feet,
avoiding my gaze. Damnit! I walked over.

	"Look Miranda, you know I was only talking to her right?" I put my
hand on her shoulder.

	"Yeah, I guess it just, stung a little."

	"You know that I only said that to her because of what she said to
me, right?" You see, Miranda, was a pretty damn devout Christian. Baptist,
to be precise. I guess she learned some open-mindedness at some point in
her life because she's never expressed any problem with me being gay, but I
guess, me tearing Sheryl a new one leaked over here. "Look, forgive my
language, but Sheryl is a huge bitch." She laughed. "Everyone knows it. I
only said those things because she was insulting me. You know that's not
how I feel about all Christians, just her. Well, her and Fred Phelps." She
laughed again. "There we go. Come on, we're gonna go watch a movie. Where's
Zack?" I looked all around me and I couldn't find him.

	"There he is." Mark said as Zack walked out of the arcade.

	"Za-ack, WTF man?"

	"Sorry Daniel, I was talking to the owner, he was having some
computer problems so I promised I'd come by tomorrow and fix it."

	"Well, hurry up, you're holding everyone up."
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	Later...

	Not much happened in the movies. I still could barely talk to
Jake. He asked why I wasn't talking and I told him that between singing and
yelling at 'whats-its-name', and yes, those were my exact words, that my
voice was tapped out for now. I am somewhat proud to admit, that I am a
wonderful liar. It comes naturally, and yes that's bad, but it comes in
handy and I almost never do it anyway. I was riding back with Mark and
Miranda and we were busy talking about the movie, or more precisely, they
were talking about the movie. I was kicking myself for feeling this way
about Jake. Once upon a time, I'd felt like this toward him. But that was
like in the seventh grade, I was just really figuring out I was gay and I
wasn't sure how I felt about a lot of guys. I got over both him and Mark,
writing them off as impossibilities and moving on, which is what I need to
do now. But... I don't know if I can. Jake is not only super hot, but he's
nice and funny and... well, he's Jake. That's the only way I can think to
describe him. There's just one problem. He's straight as an arrow. Matter
of fact, he's probably straighter than that. Maybe it was because I was so
young, but it was a lot easier to dismiss him when I was in the seventh
grade. I got over, but never really extinguished those feelings. Now, they
seem to be resurfacing, and I don't think it'll be so easy this time.

	We pulled up to my house. I hopped out and Mark locked his truck,
the lights blinking. As I got to the front door I reached down for my sock
and pulled out my key. What? It's the one place I know I won't lose it. I
opened the door and walked in, Mark and Miranda trailing behind me. Jake
and Zack had to leave after the movie. Oh well, I thought as I flipped on
the lights.

	"SUPRISE!!!" The sudden yelling made me jump straight up and Mark
had to catch me to keep me from falling over.

	"Son of a bi-"

	"Hey now." My mom stopped me from swearing. "So what do you think?"
She was absolutely beaming.

	"I think I'll need a paramedic. You 'bout gave me a heart
attack. Actually, no, scratch that. You DID give me a heart attack." I felt
my pulse on my neck and I swear it must have been going ninety to nothin'.

	"It wasn't all that easy to get this set up in a few hours,
especially when it came to getting all of us here undetected." I smiled at
my cousin Cody. He was a junior too, and I know for a fact that he's
gay. Him and his "friend" Sean have been boyfriends for a while
now. Although, noone else knows, that I know of. I don't even think he
knows that I know.

	"Hey Cody. Who else is here?" I smiled around looking at all the
people they'd managed to cram in here. There was my friend Isaac, my
brother Tyler, Cody's brother Cole, Miranda's friends Tiffany Johnson and
Angie Wade, Zack's girlfriend Samantha, there was Alex. Alex was recently
in a terrible car accident and he was paralyzed from the waist down. There
was his friends Charlie, Haley, Devin, Devin was also Isaac's brother, and
Eli. Eli was gay too. I did my rounds, saying hi and thanking everyone for
coming when I saw Sean and Cody talking in the corner. They were apparently
having a very animated conversation about something. I popped on over.

	"Problems you two? Hey Sean." I smiled a knowing smile at the both
of them while Sean just glared at Cody, clearly sending him some hidden
message. "Whatcha talking about?"

	"Well, Sean and I were just discussing-"

	"Don't you dare Cody!" Sean said, looking absolutely cross with my
cousin.

	"Look, if this is about you two being "a bit more than friends",
then you should remember who you're talking to and realize that I don't
care." Sean's eyes got really big and Cody's head turned to me so fast I
heard his neck pop.

	"Cody! You told him. Why the hell did you tell him?! You complete
asshole!" Sean started getting pissed.

	"I didn't tell him jack crap."

	"He didn't tell me anything Sean, I've known for a while."

	"What!" Now Sean's anger was at me. "How long? How long have you
known? Who else knows?" Sean seemed on the verge of tears.

	"Relax, I didn't tell anyone. And I've known since my last birthday
party."

	"But we weren't even together then." Cody seemed confused.

	"I've got really accurate gaydar." I smiled mischeviously at them
both.

	"Damnit all to hell." Sean ran his hand through his hair and I saw
Cody get this glint in his eyes. It was fleeting, gone in an instant, but I
could tell his thoughts weren't very pure at that moment. He must like it
when Sean does that. "You scared me half to death you know that?"

	"Yeah well, you scared the shit out of me when you jumped at me
yelling, so I think we're even." I smirked and Sean smiled. "Enjoy the
party you two, I've got more guests to mingle with." I walked away, but not
before I saw those two smile at eachother and look around, before kissing
quickly. I shook my head, smiling, thinking about how happy I was being
out. I walked past Eli.

	"Hey Danny." He smiled coyly at me. Eli was so frickin' gay. And,
yes, I mean that in the "homosexual" kind of way.

	"Hey Eli." I flirted back, still walking over to the drinks. I
poured myself a Dr. Pepper and went back to mingling. Alex rolled over to
me and said happy birthday.

	"Thanks for coming man, how ya' feeling?"

	"Ah, I'm great. Had to argue with mom for forever though. She
really didn't want me to come." He smiled, taking a sip from his cup. "I
always win our arguments though." He grinned devilishly.

	"Yeah, little master debater aren't you? Who drove you?"

	"I rode over with Devin."

	"Ah."

	"Hey Danny! Come over here!" I heard myself being called over by
someone.

	"Coming. See ya later Alex."

	"See ya." He smiled, watching me walk away.

	"Yeah?" It was Charlie, Miranda, Tiffany, and Angie.

	"Soooo.. We heard from a valuable source that you and a certain
person by the name of Eli had a little flirting encounter. Are you gonna
ask him out?" I rolled my eyes at them.

	"No I'm not gonna ask him out. I flirted because I'm in such a damn
good mood that I felt like returning the gesture. If Alex had flirted with
me, then I'd have flirted with him too. And by the way how the hell do you
know about that? It happened literally less than a minute ago."

	"Oh, never mind that but now that you mention Alex, what were you
two talking about over there?" Miranda winked at me.

	"Nothing thanks to you four."

	"Damn!" They all looked severely put out.

	"Well just run along then." They all dismissed me.

	"Oh what? Done with the probing of my love life." Charlie pouted at
me.

	"Oh sweetie, if only you had a love life to probe into." They all
giggled and I just rolled my eyes and walked away. Tyler ran past me, icing
on his face. He obviously found a cupcake somewhere.

	"Hey Ty, enjoying the party?" I reached over and grabbed a napkin
off the table and wiped the icing off his face. "Don't let mom see that,
she might not appreciate you breaking into the cupcakes."

	"But Zack said I could have one."

	"Oh did he?" I smiled, Zack is going to get Tyler into
trouble. "Why don't you go play with Alex's brother. I think he's here
somewhere."

	"I am, we're playing hide and seek."

	"Oh, well then maybe you should get to seeking then." He scampered
off, opening doors and looking under tables. Someone had turned on a stereo
or something. I could hear Kesha's 'Blow' going through the house. Everyone
seemed to be enjoying themselves. I walked up behind Zack.

	"So a certain 7 year old tells me that you got him to eat
cupcakes." I crossed my arms and did my best to look accusing.

	"What? It was just one cupcake." He smirked. "Besides, you should
teach your brother to resist peer pressure."

	"He's seven."

	"All the more reason too. Look, you're acting far too somber, what
with it being your birthday and all." He put on a puppy dog face. "Can't
you please, ever evers, find it in your heart to forgive me?"

	"You're such an ass."

	"I wouldn't be me if I wasn't." He said before he patted me on the
back and walked off. Why the hell is it that I seem unable to hold a
conversation for more than 20 seconds tonight? I sighed exasperatedly.

	"Problems?" I turned to see Jake leaning against the wall, smiling
his little half smile. His lime green eyes were piercing, framed by the
dark locks of his black hair. His green t-shirt framed his body nicely,
making him look toned and his khaki colored cargo shorts revealed toned
legs as well. The entire ensemble was not helping my whole, butterfly
stomach, irregular heartbeat thing.

	"Oh, just brooding over my apparent social awkwardness that I seem
to be suffering from today."

	"Yeah I noticed that. What's up? Before we went to the arcade you
seemed fine." He looked at me, bemused, still smiling.

	"I don't know, I think I may be coming down with something." I
suppose it helped this new lie I was spinning that my cheeks got really
red, which he took it to mean that I was running a fever. He put the back
of his hand on my forehead and I swear to god my heart stopped beating.

	"Dude you're seriously running a fever. Hold on I'll get you a
water." He walked off before I could stop him. Great, I thought, why does
he have to be so frickin' nice? "Here ya' go." He handed me the ice
water. "Maybe you should go upstairs and cool down, away from the
party. Come on, I'll help you up." He guided me up the stairs. During this
whole encounter I didn't say a word. I couldn't. I felt his hand lightly
pressing on my back, making sure I didn't fall down the stairs. I think I
may have been leaning back a little to make him press harder. We got up to
my room and he opened the door. Right about now I was wishing I had cleaned
up my room a little. He sat me down on the bed and felt my head again.

	"I really am fine."

	"Like hell you are, cuz that's exactly how you feel. Like
hell. You're running a pretty good fever. Hold on, I'll be back with some
medicine." He ran out the door and down the stairs. I could here the party
still going on. My party. I should be down there. I heard him come back up
the stairs and he rounded the corned with two tylenol in his hand. "Here ya
go." I swallowed both of the pills and washed it down.

	"I should be down there, it's my party after all."

	"Hold on." He shut the door, looking awfully guilty. "There's
something I need to tell you." He couldn't look up at me, so he just sat
down beside me on the bed. Oh dear god, surely he's not going to tell me
what I think he's going to. If he does I think I'll about die. "Racheal
dumped me." He said with a tone of finality. I felt myself droop with
visible disappointment. Dammit!

	"Dude. That sucks, I'm sorry." I was about to hug him, but then I
just patted him on the shoulder. Damn I'm pathetic.

	"Yeah, she dumped me about an hour before we got to the mall."

	"Frickin' A man. Look, if it makes you feel any better, there's
plenty of other people out there who actually deserve you."

	"Like who? Who do you think is out there that wants me? I think my
long history of failed relationships speaks for itself in this area." I
wanted so badly to say "me" when he asked who wants him, but that'd have
just made it worse.

	"You're kidding right? Jake, you're funny and nice, and a great
dancer and singer," We both laughed at that. "you're fun to be around, not
to mention yo-" I stopped myself, realizing what I was about to say.

	"I'm what?" He looked up at me and I saw the pain I saw in his eyes
earlier back again.

	"Don't take this in the wrong way, but you're unbelievably hot. I
know that might make you a little uncomfortable, but you," I started
rambling, trying to make sure he didn't freak out. "would have to be blind
not to see it. Even a straight guy coul-" My words were cut off by Jake
pushing his lips to mine. I felt my heart jump and my stomach do flips and
a current ran through the both of us from our lips. He pulled away, looking
horrorstruck.

	"I-I'm so frickin' sorry, I don't know- I mean I didn't mean t-" In
probably the boldest move of my life I pressed my lips to his. At first he
seemed caught off guard, probably like I did, then he moaned and pushed
back, our lips running across eachothers. His right hand tangled itself in
my hair, holding us there. I felt him lick across my lips and I parted them
and our tongues wrestled for control. We laid down, him on top of me on the
bed, my hands were running up and down his sides and back and his hand that
wasn't in my hair was rubbing circles in the small of my back. His phone
vibrated. "Dammit." He said, reaching for it. He lost his balance and
rolled off the side of the bed. He rubbed the back of his head and checked
his phone. "Damn. I've got to go, sorry man. My mom needs me home
now. I'll... I'll" He scrambled to the door, shaking his head quickly
trying to think of something to say. "I'll just.. Yeah." He ran out the
door. I sat there, shocked. It took a second for me to react. I jumped out
of the bed, rolling off and landing with a loud thump. Jumping back to my
feet I raced out the door. I can't let him leave. I was screaming at
myself. If he leaves then... then.. What? What's gonna happen if he leaves?
I stomped down the stares racing right past Zack.

	"Dude, what's going o-" The door slammed shut behind me. I came out
of the house, too late. He'd already left. My mind was swarming with
emotions and thoughts were running rampant around my head. I was torn
between feeling amazingly elated and pulling my own hair out thinking, 'Oh
my god, why did I do that?! Why did HE do that? Fuck this is
terrible. What's he going to think? Ugh, I'm so stupid, I never should have
said that. Dammit I'm an idiot!' I was on the verge of tears and I buried
my face in my hands wishing beyond wishing that I could go back in time and
stop that from happening. Mark came out of the house.

	"Hey man, is everything okay? Why'd you storm out like that?"

	"I just forgot to tell Jake something." Yeah, I thought, or more
like I told him too much.

	"You could always text him."

	"No I can't, he's driving."

	"So?"

	"So, regardless of what I was going to tell him, I'm not about to
tell him while he's driving." I suppose it'd have to wait. What if it
can't? It'll just have to.

	"Dude, it's not like anythings going to happen."

	"You don't know that."

	"And you do?" Mark kind of looked at me and shook his head. "If you
won't I will."

	"NO!" I ran over and in a blink pried his phone out of his
hand. WTF? Why did I-

	"Dude, what the fuck man? Give me my phone back." Why did I take
his phone. I shouldn't have done that. Mark looked really confused and
really pissed.

	"Sorry." I handed his phone back and my hands were shaking. "I
just- I'm... you're right. I'll text him." I ran past him, not looking him
in the eyes as I shouldered past. I opened the door and most of the people
there looked at me. I just ran back up the stairs to get my phone. When I
got it I plopped down on the bed and put it on 'Create a New Message'. I
stared at the white screen. The stairs slowly creaked as someone came
up. There was a knock at the door.

	"Danny? Is something wrong?" It sounded like Eli.

	"Eli... Ugh, Maybe." I continued to stare at the screen, willing
the words to come to me. But apparently my will wasn't at it's strongest
because no words came.

	"Can I come in?" He sounded a little unsure of himself. I seriously
considered telling him to screw off, but he doesn't deserve that, he's just
trying to help.

	"I guess." Still the screen remained blank. The doorknob turned and
when the door opened, there stood Eli. His red t-shirt was clinging to his
body a little and his fohawk was drooping, he must have been enjoying
himself to get that hot. As he walked in I smelt his cologne come out in
front of him, it smelled like a mixture of clean and sweet. Between the
shirt and the black skinny jeans his clothes made him look really tiny.

	"Do you want to talk about it?" He sat down next to me. I sighed
deeply.

	"I don't know. I'm not sure what's going on right now." I sat my
phone off to the side. I didn't seem to be on the fast track to
articulation anyway.

	"Did something happen between you and Jake?" Damn, he's good I'll
give him that.

	"Kinda." I don't know if it was Eli being gay, or maybe I just
really wanted to tell someone, but it was way too easy saying this.

	"You two kissed." It was a statement, not a question.

	"How'd you know?" I laughed a little half-heartedly. He was VERY
good.

	"Just a hunch."  He put his arm around me and, oddly enough, I felt
myself relaxing. I leaned my head on his shoulder. Oh, Eli, where were you
10 minutes ago? He was right there. He even flirted with you, but you
walked right by.

	"Damn." I said outloud.

	"What?" He asked.

	"Oh, just thinking out loud." The door opened suddenly, and there
stood Mark. I thought I saw a look of hurt cross his face for a brief
second, but if it was, then it disappeared quickly enough.

	"Oh, uh. I'm sorry, I'll just.. Let you get back to what y'all
were... mmhmm." He shut the door and I heard him go down the stairs.

	"Well then." Eli said.

	"What should I do, Eli?"

	"You know what you've got to do. You've got to tell him how you
feel."

	"It's not exactly that easy."

	"It never is." He hugged me lightly and sighed. Then he got up and
walked back down the stairs. Damnit all to hell. I picked up my phone, and
finally, the words came to me.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Mark's POV

	Damnit! Damnit! Damnit! How could I be so stupid!? I thought about
those two, Eli comforting Danny. Every sense of normalcy demanded that I
should have been the one comforting him. I'm his best friend for Christ's
sake. Are you? FUCK IT ALL! I stomped back down those stairs and... well, I
don't know what I need to do. Damn Eli to Hell. I should have known.
Fucking opportunist. Jumping up there while he's upset, lacing his arm
around him like some kind of spider trying to catch a fly in it's web. I
didn't even think about how I'd wished it was me up there doing the same
thing. I was just about to go back up there when Eli walked past me. He
went into the living room and joined Miranda and all them. I was torn
between wanting to comfort Danny and tear Eli a new one. (And no, not in
that way.) Finally, tearing Eli a new one, won out.

	"Eli!" I practically roared across the room as I marched over
there, my fists balled up, pushing people over without even noticing. I was
seeing red, and I didn't even care when he turned around like a deer caught
in headlights and Miranda, and Zack, and everyone else stared at me like
some sort of monster. The only thought that I had was, 'That fucker touched
my Danny.' "YOU LITTLE PEICE OF"
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Jake's POV

	As I was driving I kept thinking about the text I'd gotten when I
was in Danny's room.

		You still at Danny's? :)
                           -Mom

	Why had I practically sprinted out of there? Why did I kiss him.
Fuck. What is going on? I'm not gay. Did I enjoy it? His lips were so soft,
and yet firm. FUCK, I'M NOT GAY!! I felt my foot sinking on the gas pedal
as my confusion and anger mounted. This is ridiculous! I'm not gay!  Tears
were flooding my eyes. I'M NOT GAY!! But the way it felt, I moaned. We made
out. I felt myself getting hard.

	"GOD DAMMIT ALL TO HELL, I'M NOT GAY!!!" I screamed as I floored it
and felt my car push 80, then 90. The trees and road practically flew past
me as I sped along as fast as my car would go. My phone vibrated and I
reached over and picked it up. The txt was from Daniel. I flipped my phone
open and read it.

		I don't even know where to begin but, we really
		need to talk-

	That was as far as I got before my entire world came to a
screeching end in a split second.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

	Well, how's that for a chapter eh? So ya'll know the drill, review
to johnmeyerz36@yahoo.com, oh and by the way, I would really appreciate
everyone reviewing this one chapter definitely. Even if you haven't done
either of the other two, this one I would really like some feedback on. I'm
hoping to get another chapter up before the fall semester starts back up,
but if I can't, just be warned that with my workload, chapters may come a
little slower. Sorry in advance for the inconvenience. :) Oh, and in case
y'all didn't catch it, and for the ones that did, here's your confirmation,
Daniel's cousin Cody and his "friend" Sean, are in fact the characters from
my other story, "My St. Patrick". And the Alex character in a wheelchair,
is the character from my story "Overcoming Obstacles", as are all his
friends. This story will follow theirs as a sort of side on POV's. The main
story will be Daniel and Jake, but the side one will be with Cody, Sean,
and Alex. Oh, and to recap, in case you didn't know, this makes Danny,
Jake, Mark, Eli, Alex, Cody, and Sean all gay. And there may even be more
characters to add to the love triangles that are inevitably going to spring
up, everyone loves story drama right? Anyway, have fun and stay safe all
you wonderful peoples, and don't forget to never text and drive.