Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 23:03:55 -0400
From: Cy-kun <cysanonymouslyanonymousemail@gmail.com>
Subject: Everything Will Turn Out Alright Part 17

Disclaimer: Even though you're gonna do it anyway don't read this unless
you're of legal age and this type of thing isn't outlawed where you
live. If you object to reading about sex and love between young boys then
this isn't for you. I'd still love to know why you're here though.
Copyrighted material that may be mentioned is owned by the people who own
it and I am not one of them. All of this is fictional, fake, and never
happened.

Introduction: So, there I was, sitting in front of my computer and blocking
out all distractions while I prepared myself to write for hours nonstop so
I could get the chapter out on time when out of nowhere something hit me in
the back of the head and I passed out. I woke up in a strange lab. It
didn't take me long to realize that I'd been kidnapped by the fiendish Dr
Wu! He was planning on doing all sorts of horrible experiments on me but, I
used my ninja skills to take the guards by surprise and, well, it's a long
story but the end result is I got away but it took me weeks to make it out
of the labyrinthine lab. So that's why the chapter was delayed. It wasn't
my fault. It was Dr Wu's. Damn you nefarious Dr Wu!! *shakes fist* And on
that note I've decided that since the forces of evil are conspiring against
me to keep me from sticking to a schedule I'm no longer going to announce
one. If you want to know when the next chapter is coming out just send me
an email at cysanonymouslyanonymousemail@gmail.com and I'll tell you. Also
if you wanna tell me what you thought of my daring escape....or, the story
I guess, if you want, you can email me about that too. Hopefully it was
worth the wait ^_^;;

-Cy


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

	"Nate! Hurry up! You're gonna be late!" my mom shouted from
downstairs.

	Oh, no, don't want that..... I sighed. Actually, I really didn't
want that. As much as I'd been dreading going to this dance for the last
week I still wanted to get there on time. Why is that, you ask? Two
reasons. The first is that the sooner I get there the sooner I can leave. I
gave it about an hour before either Vicky got bored or I flew into an
adamantium rage and tore the place apart. The second reason was also Vicky
related. All week he'd been looking forward to this saying things like "I
can't wait to go to my first school dance with you Nate" and "Thank you so
much Nate, I know you didn't really wanna go but I promise you'll have fun"
and "I love you, you're awesome, this is gonna be great." I hate to admit
it, but he kinda wore down my resistance to where I wasn't totally and
completely hating the idea of going. Don't get me wrong, I still fully
expected it to suck but I was really, REALLY looking forward to seeing
Vicky have a good time.

	Speaking of forced segues I think it's time to do that thing where
I stop talking about something that's going on in the present and recap
what happened since the last part of the story.

	Yeah, let's do that.

	I guess if I was going to use a metaphor - or maybe it would be a
simile? I never really got the difference (fucking English, how does it
work?)- for the week I'd say it was like a ride on a really boring and
frustrating train that suddenly speeds up, jumps the rails, smashes into a
conveniently placed train resistant wall and catches on fire but somehow
doesn't explode or actually injure you in any way.

	Actually, the week technically started off on the best train
platform ever when I woke up on Sunday with a naked Vicky in my arms. After
we got home from the mall on Saturday we rushed up to my room to use the
bathroom and try on our new clothes for the next four hours and it ended up
taking so much out of us that we pretty much passed out tangled up
together. Which made it slightly surprising that I woke up on my side with
Vicky tucked neatly against my chest and my arm gently holding him against
me. We usually go to bed that way and wake up in the tangled mess. I
wondered if we'd always wake up opposite of how we went to sleep like that.

	More experimentation is required.

	Sunday only got better from there. We ended up trying our clothes
on again before going down to breakfast and even though I'd prepared for
the worst (I hadn't exactly been subtle about wanting to try on clothes
with Vicky) my mom never said anything about it. I really don't understand
her sometimes. If I didn't worry about what what might happen before going
down she probably would have given us a knowing wink or said something like
"Tell me when you're done for the day so I can clean your sheets." I
wondered if my mom could somehow really read my mind and just did the
opposite of what I was expecting just to fuck with me.

	We can do without the experimentation on that one.

	After breakfast I took Vicky by the hand, dragged him back up to my
room and we.........played video games for the rest of the day. What? You
think we spend all our free time screwing like we're a couple in some
trashy bodice ripper romance novel? Not even close, ya perv! (Although, I
guess I can understand why someone might think that....) We did an epic 3
hour multiplayer marathon in Reach and we were the top two players in the
game in almost every match. We ended up having a contest to see who got MVP
the most and it wounds my still tender nerd pride to say that Vicky beat me
by three. After that we played some more New Vegas for the first time in
forever and we actually managed to beat that mission we were stuck on the
day we got together. (we left the Vault, bought some pulse grenades and
fucked those robots up if anyone's curious) It took us another two
hours. Not because it was hard or anything but because we kept getting into
wrestling matches over the controller which then led into make out matches
and maybe even a dry hump or two. That's as far as we went
though. Wrestling around for the controller was what led to our first kiss
and, more importantly, the first time we said that we loved each other. By
silent agreement we decided not to do much more than we did then. We didn't
want to sully the romance of the memory by having the same actions lead to
sex.

	Plus we really wanted beat those Mister Gutsy robots. Even though
they were sorta responsible for getting us together they still needed to
die.

	A little while after that Vicky's dad came to pick him up but spent
about an hour talking to my mom after she screamed up at us to get ready
because Vicky was leaving "now". We ended up having to stand around in the
hallway for 20 minutes before we were able to sneak off without my mom
catching us and telling us to "just wait five more minutes". Why do parents
do that? If you're gonna talk just freaking talk! You don't need to make us
stand around listening to you, we have other things to do. Speaking of that
I kinda wished I knew we'd be waiting that long because there were several
things me and Vicky could have done, including trying on his pants. Like,
for real trying on his pants this time, I kinda wanted to see why everyone
drooled over me when I wore my tight jeans. I'll just have to wait for the
dance I guess. Well, at least now I have a reason to look forward to it for
me anyway.

	Literally right as we stopped expecting to be called in the next
five minutes and started getting into some serious making out my mom
shouted for us to come down. We groaned in frustration, glared at the door
with so much hate that I'm surprised it didn't start cowering in fear and
went back downstairs.

	Why are adults so damn cheerful when they're about to pick up one
of their kids from a friends house? There is no way the amount of smiling
and laughing my mom and Vicky's dad were doing was at all natural. It was
like they were trying to out do each other with their cheer. And
embarrassing comments.

	"You two look like you just woke up." Vicky's dad said as he
ruffled Vicky's hair.

	"Dad." Vicky complained.

	"I dunno about waking up but they definitely look like they just
got out of bed." my mom said with what I assume was supposed to be a
knowing smile.

	"Mom!" I shouted, then blushed because I realized how defensive
that made me sound and then scowled because I realized how guilty that made
me look.

	"Nathan, don't shout in front of company." my mom chided with a
small smirk.

	"I'm not-" I cut myself off, closed my eyes and took a deep breath
before turning to Vicky. "I'll see you tomorrow." I said completely
ignoring both parents. I leaned in close. "I love you." I said quietly.

	Vicky smiled and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. "You too." Then
he glared at his dad who I assume had his mouth open to say something. He
did speak, but instead of whatever no doubt teasing comment he was going to
say all that came out was a goodbye and an odd promise to call my mom later
in the week. Then he left.

	Great. Now they're becoming friends. I'm glad they don't hate each
other or anything but the last thing anyone wants is the parent of their
boyfriend getting friendly with their mom. Nothing good can come from that.

	Nothing.

	I went to bed a little while later not even realizing I'd stepped
off the platform and into the train. Yeah, that sounds appropriately
ominous.

	The next day started, as my days tend to do, pretty normal. I got
up, got yelled at for not getting up earlier, went to school, learned about
one thing I didn't already know, (I swear I'm not one of those 'arrogant
genius' douches that thinks they know everything when they really don't, I
read a lot about the things that interest me so if we ever get to them in
school I almost always know more at the start than they teach us by the
time the lesson is over. For the rest, well, I just get things easy. Sue
me) snuck off for some 'private time' with Vicky and did whatever I could
to make the day pass faster.

	Then there was lunch.

	The second I walked into the cafeteria with Vicky and saw that
everyone was at the table but us I knew something I wasn't going to like
was going on. The girls NEVER get there before me. They always come in like
5 minutes after and then wait in the lunch line for another 5 to 10 minutes
before sitting down. So seeing them there talking all fast and excited
kinda filled me with a sense of, you know, doom.

	Vicky must have felt the same way because we both slowed down at
the exact same time. I looked over at him and he looked over at me.

	"We could run." he said without any conviction. "They haven't seen
us yet."

	"The second we turn around they will. That's just how these things
work." I said resignedly.

	Anyone else might have questioned the logic behind that, but Vicky
was smarter than most people. He just sighed. "Yeah. Let's just get it over
with."

	And with that we walked over to the table.

	"-my god! They were both so adorable in their outfits, you really
should have stayed. You totally missed out." Michelle was saying. Erica
opened her mouth to respond but was cut off by a yell. "Vicky! Nate! You're
late! I started telling everyone about our shopping trip without you guys."
She actually said that with a hint of apology in her voice, like she
seriously thought we had any interest in talking about it.

	"We're not late." I said, deciding to avoid even mentioning the
shopping trip for as long as possible. Kind of the conversational version
of 'if I can't see you, you can't see me'. "You're early."

	"Yeah but you usually get here before us so you're late." Michelle
stated. I sighed. How the hell could I argue with that?

	As we sat down Jason grinned. "So, Chelle-"

	"Don't call me that." Michelle interrupted.

	"-was just telling us about you going shopping with her......and
your mom." he finished without skipping a beat.

	I sighed again. "Is there any chance we can skip this?"

	Jason smiled happily. "Nope!"

	"What if I asked?" Vicky said with his most winningly innocent
smile.

	Jason faltered, just for a second but I caught it and I might have
thought it was weird if I bothered to think about it at all, but all I
could think about was how much I hoped Jason's odd little hesitation would
mean that he'd let it go, but the grin was back in place as he answered
"Nope. I wanna hear ALL about it. Starting with the part where you guys
went all America's Next Gay Model."

	Erica giggled. "Well, that part was worth going for at least."

	"I'm not a model." I growled.

	"That's not what I've been hearing." Jason said in a sing song
voice.

	"Wow," Vicky said. "I thought we were supposed to be the gay
ones. Do you do show tunes too?"

	Carl snorted with a suppressed chuckle and Jason shot him a glare
before turning back to us. I was having trouble holding in my laughter too
but only because I knew what was coming. "Lot's of straight guys like show
tunes." Jason grumbled.

	Vicky's eyes widened. "You're kidding me....." My giggle escaped
and he looked over at me.

	"Nope." I managed. "He's serious." I full on laughed at the pissed
off exasperation on Jason's face. If Jason's love of plays and show tunes
was a dead horse, we'd beat it so hard and so often that it was now a very
unhorse-like congealing pile of goo with little bits of bone sticking out
of it. We'd finally....ok, I'd finally let it drop about three months ago
out of misplaced best friend sympathy but now it looked like he'd have to
deal with it again. And this time from someone new, someone who wasn't me
so technically I wasn't even breaking my promise and to make it even better
it was all Jason's fault for saying something in the first place.

	Oh, I was going to enjoy this.

	"Wow," Erica said. "That's pretty gay Jason, not even Nate likes
show tunes."

	Ha! Now everyone's gonna ge- "Hey!" I said indignantly after the
second part of what Erica said registered. "What do you mean 'not even
Nate'?"

	"Well, out of you and Vicky you're the more.....well, gay one." she
said simply.

	"Fuck that!" I screamed as Jason howled with laughter. I turned to
him. "And fuck you too, Sandra Dee."

	Jason just kept laughing. Jen, who usually stayed out of these
things, was trying so hard to hold back her laughter and not doing a very
good job of it. Carl was intently looking back and forth from me and Vicky
like he was trying to see the 'gay' on us to see who had more or
something. Vicky was opening his mouth to say something, probably intending
on coming to my aid but was cut off by Michelle.

	"She's right you know, you're totally the gayer one." she said.

	Oh for... "What does that even mean?!" I shouted. I didn't give a
fuck if people were starting to stare, my masculinity was being challenged,
dammit!

	"Well...." Erica started hesitantly. Michelle cut her off.

	"Your hair for one." she said.

	"What's wrong with my hair?"

	"It's long and blond and straight."

	"Lots of guys have long, straight, blond hair!"

	"Maybe but yours is all soft and shiny."

	"My mom buys my shampoo-"

	"And you have that girly upturned nose."

	"My nose isn't girly!"

	"You talk kinda effeminate sometimes."

	"I SO don't-" Shit! I lowered my voice "I mean I fucking do not
fucking do that shit!" I hope that didn't sound as 'little kid imitating
daddy' to them as it did to me.....

	"Was that your 'man voice'? Jason cut in. "Dude, don't even
try. Your voice is high. Accept it." He laughed.

	I glared at him. "I'm sorry we can't all go through puberty at 5
like you, you fucking abnormal giant."

	"You like Lady Gaga." Erica said.

	"What?! I do fucking not!" I yelled.

	"You were singing one of her songs to Vicky the other day!" she
said defensively.

	"I was making fun of it! You've never sang part of a song to make
fun of it?"

	"Well, yeah, but you sounded really into it-"

	"I wasn't!"

	"And what about your jeans?" Jason put it.

	Ok, I really need to clear up a few things before this goes any
further. First of all I'm NOT effeminate. Yeah, I may look less than butch,
yeah my voice may be a LITTLE high, yeah there's a possibility that I do
use woman's shampoo since I never look at the stuff my mom buys and yeah,
the jeans are a bit gay, but I don't go around with my wrist flapping and a
rainbow flag tied around my neck like the gay avenger or something. It
really bothered me that people apparently thought of me that way.

	This went on for another 10 minutes. There was apparently a long
list of things that I do that make me somehow gayer than Vicky. I won't
repeat the list. I honestly don't see most of it and I don't want anybody
getting the wrong idea about me so I'll just say that it was a very
unpleasant 10 minutes for me and leave it at that. Several times Vicky
tried cutting in and defending me but everyone ignored him, especially once
Michelle and Erica got into an argument over which one of us was the 'girl'
in bed. The one positive side effect of that was Jason very quickly trying
to change the subject. Apparently, it was perfectly fine to try and paint
your best friend as a flaming homo girly man but once he actually started
having to picture me and Vicky having sex that was crossing the line. I was
tempted to go into details just to see him squirm but by then the argument
had drifted to which show, Gossip Girl or the Real World, was better (
Neither. Jersey Shore, bitches!) and I just wanted the whole thing
dropped. Jason did shoot me an apologetic smile after I spent a good three
minutes glaring at him so maybe he realized he crossed the line. Even if he
wasn't really the one to start it, I guess.

	(And I'm kidding about the Jersey Shore thing. That show's crap.)

 	The next day wasn't much better. Attacks on my manhood were
thankfully absent, Jason called me the night before and apologized saying
that he kinda took it too far and I apologized for the hugging thing and
various other times I may have taken things too far and we both decided to
tone down the friendly insults for a while, but we spent all lunch period
talking about the damn dance.

	"You guys should totally get there early and help us set up."
Michelle said for the 8,000th time. That was another reason for her
unnatural excitement for this dance, the drama club 'got' to decorate the
gym and help the A/V 'club' (two super nerds and three super nerd science
teachers really doesn't make up a club in my opinion but the school
disagrees. Stupid school) set up the speakers and that stuff.

	"No way." I said for the 8,000th time.

	She shot Vicky a pathetic, begging look but he seemed to be a lot
more immune to being manipulated by girls than I am and he just crossed his
arms and shook his head. So cute. "We're not doing it, so just drop it." I
felt a little shiver run through me. Wow, he's so hot when he's being all
forceful and authoritative like that. Mental note: do Vicky hard after
school.

	She huffed. "Fine. But you guys are gonna do, like, a really
romantic dance and kiss each other at the dance to make up for it."

	"No!" I exclaimed. Now, anyone else I would have assumed was joking
or at least only half serious but I knew Michelle. If I let her think that
there was even a possibility of us dancing and kissing for her she'd take
that idea in her teeth and bite down hard until it gave in and
happened. "No way Michelle. No. Way."

	She was glaring at me, which honestly would have been intimidating
as hell if she wasn't wearing a bright pink shirt with a cartoon bear
licking honey off his fingers on it. It just made her look like a little
kid that got her lollipop taken away. She was actually almost cute. For a
psychotic girl.

	It was then that I noticed Vicky was giving me an odd look. "We're
not gonna dance?" he said hesitantly.

	Oh.

	That threw me a little bit. Yeah, I know, we're going to a dance
but I never actually thought that the possibility of DANCING would ever
come up. Stupid, yeah, but I just assumed Vicky wanted to go just to see
what it was like. When I went to my first, and only, school dance I didn't
go there actually expecting to dance with anyone. The one attempt I did was
by myself in what I thought was a dark enough corner to escape notice. I
just wanted to see what the big deal was. Of course, if I was gonna dance
with someone it would have been a boy and there was no way in hell I was
gonna ask any of the boys at my school to dance with me. Vicky had a
boyfriend, and I guess it was natural to assume that he'd be dancing with
his boyfriend at their first dance together. Which is great and everything
except his boyfriend is me and I really don't want to dance. And that's
even without thinking about my total and complete lack of ability.

	Once again I was torn, but this time it didn't last long. I'd
already agreed to go and I hated that disappointed look in Vicky's eyes so,
what the hell, I might as well dance with him. He'll most likely end up
hating it and wanting to leave early so I could at least give him the sweet
memory of dancing with his boyfriend in public, right?

	I smiled at him. "Yeah, we can dance." His disappointed look turned
into a grateful smile.

	"Thanks." he said.

	It struck me again now weird his hesitance about all this dance
stuff was. He'd never had trouble asking me anything or making what he
wanted clear before. I wondered if it was because he knew he was asking me
to do something I really didn't want to do? Or maybe thinking about going
to a dance makes him think about his life before he moved and he just
automatically slips back a little bit into how he was back then? I dunno. I
kinda hoped it stopped though. As cute as it could be I didn't want him to
meekly ask me to do things for him. I'd never really liked that idea of
anyone being the 'dominant' or 'submissive' person in a
relationship. People should be equals in relationships and I very much
wanted Vicky to be my equal and just ask me for whatever he wanted without
worrying that I might say no. Besides, if I ever did say no that would
probably mean that hell just froze over and the world is about 3 seconds
away from exploding and, I dunno about you, but to me that would be a
bigger thing to worry about.

	Michelle must have overheard me because her eyes lit up. I cut her
off before she could say anything though. "But we're NOT kissing for you."
I said firmly to her.

	"Ugh!" she huffed. "You're such a prude."

	Jason burst out laughing.

	Everyone turned to look at him. I might have glared but I was too
busy suppressing a chuckle of my own at that. Me, a prude. Ha.

	"Oh, man." Jason breathed after he'd stopped laughing.

	"What?" Michelle looked confused.

	"You have no idea how NOT a prude Nate is." he said.

	"Yes he is!" Michelle exclaimed. "If he wasn't then there'd be no
problem with kissing in front of me!"

	"Chelle-" Jason started.

	"Don't call me that." Came the automatic response.

	"-did you ever think that maybe Nate, and Vicky really, might have
a problem with being ordered to do stuff in front of you like a couple of
hookers?"

	Vicky snorted. "Thanks for that."

	Jason frowned. "Hey, I'm trying to help you guys here."

	Vicky held up his hands. "Ok, ok, continue."

	But Michelle took the interruption as her cue to talk. "But what's
the big deal? I'd kiss a girl in front of them if they wanted me to."

	There was dead silence as everyone at the table stared in shock at
Michelle. Out of all the things that could have come out of her mouth, and
trust me there were a LOT of things that could have, that was the absolute
last thing any of us expected. It took her a few seconds to realize what
she said but when she did her entire face, like literally the whole thing
from her neck to her hairline, turned bright red.

	"THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!" she screamed. And keep in mind this was
a Michelle scream so I'm pretty sure middle school cafeterias in Canada
joined ours in going completely silent and staring at her. Well, maybe not
the staring part since they'd have to have super vision...and xray vision
and, you know, I'm just gonna stop there. "I just...it's not..." she glared
around at the rest of the lunch room. "What the hell are you staring at?!"
she yelled.

	Everyone continued to stare for about a minute but when she didn't
say anything else and nothing else interesting happened conversation slowly
started up again. Erica was the first one to break the silence. "Well, this
is fun."

	"Shut up!" Michelle said. "Look, I wasn't saying that I wanted to-"
she lowered her voice. "-kiss a girl or anything but if I WAS a lesbian and
I DID have a girlfriend and Nate or Vicky wanted to see us kiss I wouldn't
have a problem kissing in front of them because I'm not a prude."

	"There's a word for that." Erica muttered under her breath. I was
the only one who heard her and I couldn't decide if that was a good thing
or not. On one hand the inevitable Erica/Michelle verbal beatdown that
would have followed would have got the conversation turned away from me but
on the other I don't think my ears, or my soul, could take another fight
between them just now.

	Jason just sighed. "Well, just because you're ok with being a sl-"
he seemed to think better of finishing that sentence. "-exhibitionist
doesn't mean anyone who isn't is a prude. Trust me, Nate's probably the
least prudy person in this school."

	"Hey!" I felt the need to defend myself from the person defending
me. "Way to make me sound like a total whore."

	"I didn't say that." Jason said, then looked thoughtful for a
moment. "But you do have to admit that you are, uh, a bit slutty."

	"Hey!" This time it was Vicky jumping to my defense. Yeah, you let
him have it! "Don't call my boyfriend a slut!"

	Jason arched an eyebrow. (not even gonna comment on it) "Did he
tell you what he was doing at the pool when you guys met?"

	Oh shit. He just had to go there didn't he? I tried so hard to hide
my previous lecherousness from Vicky and now my dirty secrets were about to
be exposed-

	"He was checking out guys." Vicky said.

	-Ha! Just kidding! I tell Vicky everything.

	Jason's eyes widened with surprise. "Oh. Um, ok."

	"Hmph!" Michelle grunted. "I still say he's a prude." Her eyes
roamed around the table until they landed on Carl and then lit up. "Carl!"

	He jumped slightly at her yell. "Um, yeah?"

	"If you had a boyfriend you'd kiss in front of me right?" she
asked.

	His mouth opened, closed, opened again and then stayed that way
with no sound coming out. I never really understood the expression 'like a
deer in the headlights' until just then.

	"Leave him alone." Vicky cut in.

	"I'm just asking a question!"

	"A perverted question." Erica muttered but this time loud enough
for someone other than me to hear.

	"What are you talking about?" Michelle asked. "You're the one who's
always talking about wanting to see them having sex!"

	"NO I'M NOT!" Erica yelled, glared at Michelle then looked at both
me and Vicky. "I swear she's lying, I never-"

	"Oh yes you did! The other day you were all 'We should follow them
home after the dance, they'll definitely have sex then'." Michelle cut in.

	Erica's face flushed and she quickly broke all eye contact with us
before looking back at Michelle and narrowing her eyes. "At least I keep
that stuff PRIVATE. I don't go around begging guys to make out in front of
me."

	"I don't beg!"

	"You do!

	"Do not!"

	"Do either of you," I said calmly but loud enough to get their
attention before another shouting match started. "see any problem with the
fact that you're spending an insane amount of your time either trying or
thinking about how to get gay guys to do things with each other in front of
you? Any problem at all? Maybe even a little hint of unhealthy obsession?"
I hated to even bring it up because these two were a big part of the
'fangirl protection' thing and I risked losing at least some of that if
they suddenly saw how insane their obsession was (because if the craziest
crazies can be cured the slightly less crazy ones can't be far behind) but
I was pretty sure that I'd rather deal with an entire school making fun of
and just generally abusing me than having to deal with these two girls
trying to perv on me and my boyfriend 24/7. I finally understood the whole
'look at my eyes, not at my chest' thing that girls are always going on
about. In fact, I'm pretty sure if everyone could experience just one day
of the shit me and Vicky deal with from these girls you'd pretty much
eliminate sexual harassment in all it's forms overnight.

	As it turned out though, I didn't need to worry.

	"No." They said in unison.

	And just for the record it isn't at all cute when they do it.

	I sighed as they went back to arguing. "Are you sure you don't
wanna rethink the dance?" I asked Vicky quietly.

	He stared at the girls for a full minute before
answering. "Nope. It'll be worth it to go with you." He smiled and, dammit,
I smiled back.

	"Ok." I said and strangely I wasn't dreading it as much as I had
been before. The bell rang soon after that and we all went our separate
ways.

	That was also the day that Carl finally decided to come out of his
shell.

	I was at my locker after 9th period getting my books and everything
packed up when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around expecting to
see Vicky but instead of seeing the familiar gray, the eyes that looked
back at me were dark brown. And about 4 inches higher.

	"Hey." He said. His tone was quiet but lacked the hesitance that he
always seemed to have when talking at lunch. He was looking at me intently
and for some reason that made all my earlier wariness about him start to
come back.

	"Hi." I said, a bit hesitant myself. "What's up?"

	"Nothing really, has she always been like that?" he asked.

	For a second I didn't know what he was talking about, I was too
surprised at his tone. There was no shyness or uncertainty in his voice, or
his posture since he was leaning casually against the locker next to mine,
in fact he was acting totally normal. Like we had locker conversations
every day.

	"Um, oh, Michelle? Yeah, pretty much." I was about to ask him
something, probably something along the lines of 'Why are you suddenly to
talkative?' or 'How the hell did you know where my locker is?' when he
looked behind me and waved.

	"Hey, Vicky." he called. I turned to look and saw that, yep, there
was Vicky standing in the middle of the hall with his eyebrows (both of
them so you know he was really surprised) raised looking at us. He shook
off his surprise pretty quickly and finished walking over.

	"Uh, hi." he said.

	"We were just talking about how psycho Michelle is." Carl said and
again what the hell was with the super casual attitude? Did he just feel
comfortable with us? Was this maybe how he normally is when he isn't
intimidated by a group of people? Or is he like a schizo or something?

	"Oh." Vicky blinked. "She is that." He said slowly. We exchanged
confused looks and he gave a slight shrug. While he was as confused as me
at Carl's sudden, well, normalness it didn't seem to bother him.

	There was a few seconds of slightly uncomfortable silence (well,
uncomfortable for me and Vicky anyway, Carl seemed to be perfectly happy
waiting for one of us to say something) before I decided to
speak. "So.....um....."

	"I need to get going." Carl cut in. "My dad's gonna be early today
and I haven't even been to my locker yet. It was nice talking to you guys
outside lunch for a change." I must have missed the part where he ever said
more than two words to us during lunch. "See ya!" And with a wave he turned
and left.

	I looked at Vicky. Vicky looked at me.

	"Well." Vicky said.

	"Yeah." I responded.

	We looked at each other for a second.

	"So-" I started.

	"Anyway-" Vicky said at the same time.

	We broke off and giggled.

	"So, possessed by Satan or kidnapped by aliens and replaced with a
broken clone?" I asked when we stopped giggling.

	"The alien thing." he said without hesitating. "I'm not really
religious or anything but I kinda doubt Satan makes you friendly and
outgoing."

	"I dunno." I mused. "Could be new age Satan. Less burning and 'your
mother sucks cocks in hell' and more peace, love and disturbing personality
changes."

	Vicky chuckled as I gathered up my bag and walked towards the door
with him.

	The rest of the week went pretty much like that except it seemed to
escalate just a bit every day. Wednesday some of the more 'active' fangirls
made a point to stop by the table and annoy us about various dance related
things (I did wonder for about three seconds how people I'd never said more
than three words to suddenly knew I was going to a dance but one glance at
the pile of energy and insanity sitting to Vicky's right was enough to stop
that pondering) so there wasn't really time for Michelle and Erica to build
up into an argument about anything. Which really sucked because the
conversation was focused solely on me and Vicky. Even Jen seemed to be
getting into it although I kinda think it was more her way of trying to get
to know us better than any weird obsession. It was a bit strange that she
was my best friends girlfriend and we barely said anything to each other
even though we sat at lunch together everyday but, again, there was
probably a very specific, loud reason for that.

	Carl was his usual shy self at lunch but he stopped by my locker a
few times a day to talk with me and Vicky. It was kind of weird going from
never seeing him to having him randomly pop up during the day but other
than the randomness there really wasn't anything odd about it. We only ever
talked for a few minutes about mostly general stuff, you know "how did you
do on that test?", "did you hear about the new Scream movie?", "When do you
think they're gonna bring Captain America back from the dead?". Normal
stuff.

	Well, normal for people that I hang out with anyway.

	With everything that had been happening in my life recently and how
one thing always seemed to lead into another it was kinda weird actually
having a mostly normal week at school. It was also incredibly slow. I'd
never noticed it before but when you're not dealing with annoyingly life
altering drama things are just really......boring. I can't believe I'm even
thinking this but if I didn't have Michelle and Erica's disturbing, yet
incredibly distracting, obsession to deal with I actually might have been
looking forward to the dance, if for no other reason than dancing with
another boy in a crowded room should cause SOMETHING interesting to happen.

	One other thing I noticed during the week was that Skip still
hadn't come back to school. Actually I wasn't the one to notice. After
pretty much destroying the social life of one of the biggest bully's in
school you'd think that most of my time would have been spent either
digging holes to hide in or in a gym building up some muscle mass, so I
could dig the holes faster, but I kinda sorta completely forgot all about
him. I know, I know, probably not the smartest thing to do. I'm not sure if
I was that confident that my plan worked perfectly and he'd never have a
chance to get near me or Vicky again or if I was just scatterbrained and
forgetful but in the end the only reason I even realized he hadn't been
back yet was because I overheard some people talking about it. Well,
actually they were talking about me and how "that short kid must have
really kicked Williams' ass good since he hasn't been back to school
since".

	I guess it's better to be "that short kid" than "that fag" or "that
fairy" but, dammit, I'm not really that short! I just haven't hit my growth
spurt yet. Just watch, by the time I get to high school I'll be taller than
Jason! And I'll have a Duke Nukem physique with Vicky's naturally browned
skin color and a roguish beard-no! Pubes first! I'll get pubic hair first
THEN grow the beard and maybe some combat boots and a t-shirt that says
"You Just Got Your Ass Kicked By A Guy That Likes Dick" or something like
that.

	Or, you know, none of that will happen. In fact, I'll probably end
up shrinking....sigh.

	Anyway, I had no idea why Skip was still out of school. Since I
didn't push my lie on the principal there wasn't anything he should have
been suspended for, except getting in a fight with that guy but the guy
only ended up getting one day of detention. If he got beat up so badly that
he had to miss a week plus of school I think the other guy's punishment
might have been a little bit harsher, and probably would have involved a
bit more police, so I didn't think it was that. So what's the deal? Not
that I was in any hurry to see Skip again or anything....I'm just naturally
curious I guess.

	"Nate!" my mom's yell brought me out of my thoughts and back into
the present. "Are you almost ready?"

	"Gimme a minute!" I yelled back, more than a little startled. I may
have even jumped and let out a small yelp of surprise but since no one was
around to hear I think we'll just file that under 'repress' and move on.

	""You better not be stalling!" She yelled. "Jack is gonna be
dropping Vicky off soon and it would be very RUDE to make them wait on
you!"

	I growled under my breath but didn't answer. Earlier in the week I
made the colossal mistake of telling my mom that she shouldn't embarrass me
in front of Vicky anymore because it made him uncomfortable and making a
guest uncomfortable is rude. I thought it was a pretty good argument but my
mom just laughed and then spent the next 30 minutes going into insane
detail about all the ways I've been rude to people throughout my ENTIRE
LIFE and now she always makes a point to tell me whenever I'm doing
something that might be rude. Not that I thought that making Vicky wait
would be rude, at least not in this circumstance. He asked me to the dance
so, in this situation ONLY, I kinda was the girl and that meant I could
take as long as I damn well pleased getting ready to go out.

	I wasn't stalling though. I was all dressed in my black button down
shirt and, sigh, my tight jeans. If you repeat this to anyone I'll deny it
loudly and violently but my mom and Michelle were actually right, that
shirt with these jeans looked pretty damn hot. The shirt kinda tapered off
in the front and back into these short, pointed strips that I guessed were
supposed to help keep the shirt tucked in, since it was untucked (I have a
natural aversion to putting shirts inside my pants, it's one of my weirder
quirks) those points rested on the very tops of my thighs in the front and
almost to the bottom of my ass in the back. It had the effect of holding
the shirt tight against my slender waist and tastefully hiding the fact
that I was sporting a pretty noticeable ass camel toe back there. Actually
the entire shirt felt like it was tailored just for me. It hugged my slim
frame but it wasn't at all uncomfortable or suffocating like tight shirts
sometimes are. It felt natural. And looked amazing. The best part was I
knew Vicky had a similar shirt and jeans that he was wearing tonight and I
couldn't wait to see how he looked in it.

	I had a feeling I'd need something to carry in front of me all
night.

	So, yeah, I wasn't having any problem with my clothes either. It
was my hair. Have you ever noticed that when you don't care how it looks
your hair kinda just falls exactly the way you'd want it if you did care
but the second you give it any attention at all it decides it wants to play
Emmett Brown and get all frizzy and start sticking up? Hair is
evil. Especially once you let it grow and give it ideas above it's
station. I'd mostly gotten it the way I wanted it, straight and hanging to
either side of my face, but a bit on the right side insisted on curling
just enough to keep finding it's way in front of my eye. I growled again
and viciously brushed it back into place.

	"Keep this up and I swear I'll shave you completely off." I
muttered. "Find a nice, big rat to make a nest out of you, too." Great, now
I'm talking to my hair. Tonight is officially more trouble than it's worth.

	I glared at the offending strands, daring them to step out of line
again, when I heard the doorbell ring. I took a deep breath. Ok Nate, this
is it, you're going to something you hate but you're doing it for a good
cause. Don't be the one that ruins this for Vicky, act like you're having
fun until he gets bored and then you can get home and have
I-Told-You-So-Sex.

	Good plan, good plan.

	I walked opened the door and got to the top of the stairs right as
my mom was drawing in breath to call me. She stopped as she was me and I
felt incredibly satisfied. I guess I kinda am easy to please.

	As predicted, Vicky looked fucking amazing. His dark blue shirt was
a twin of mine in every way but it's color. Well, that and the way it
looked about a billion squared times better on him than mine did on me. It
hugged his body in all the same places and like me he didn't have it tucked
in but there were subtle curves that showed off bits of his slightly toned
teen boy body where mine just showed how slim I was. And those jeans, Jesus
fuck! They were a dark blue that looked almost black and, ohhhh yeah, they
were just as tight as mine. I'd seen him naked dozens of times but I don't
think I'd ever seen his ass look that hot. I wanted to go over there and
grab a handful-

	Something nudged me and I blinked. Huh? I looked to my left and saw
my mom giving me an amused little smile. Shit, I guess I'd been standing
there staring.....but can you seriously blame me? I looked back at Vicky in
time to see his dad give him a similar nudge, followed by a similar smile
once Vicky looked back at him.

	I guess I'm not the only one with a staring problem.

	"Hi." Vicky said quietly and maybe just a bit nervously.

	"Hey." I said in a similar tone. We stood there and smiled
awkwardly at each other. We looked at each others eyes for a few seconds at
a time before shyly looking away. I had no idea where this sudden
bashfulness came from but I couldn't have forced myself to say anything
else if someone had a gun to my head. Vicky just looked so sexy and perfect
and suddenly the entire concept of going out with him filled me with
excitement and fear and arousal and whatever you call that feeling when
you're about to start giggling for no reason at all.

	For a bit there I completely forgot why I didn't want to go to the
dance.

	After a few minutes it became obvious that neither of our parents
were going to say anything to break the mood and try to get us talking. I
think it amused them too much. Or maybe they thought it was cute. I
dunno. What I did know was that now I was being put on the spot. What the
hell is the proper procedure for this type of thing? Vicky asked me so
should he be the one to break the weirdness or am I supposed to make him
feel welcome because it's my house? Shit! We never had this problem before!

	I tried holding his gaze for more than a few fleeting seconds and
that actually seemed to work. We looked at each other and the pressure to
say or do something just kinda fell away. He smiled at me and I smiled
back.

	"Hey". He said, quietly but this time without the nervousness.

	"Hi." I said back. We giggled softly.

	"You ready to go?" he asked and held out his hand towards me. If I
was watching this in a movie I would have thought it was corny but since it
was Vicky doing it my heart did a little backflip in my chest and my smile
widened as I reached out to take his hand.

	"Yeah. Definitely." I said.

	Before I could move my mom cleared her throat meaningfully. I
glanced back at her and she looked into my eyes before giving a pointed
look towards Vicky's dad. Oh, guess I was kinda being rude this time.

	"Um, hi Mr, uh, Jack." Not my smoothest delivery, I know.

	He chuckled. "Hi Nate, how have you been?"

	"Good, I guess." My mom poked me in the back. "Uh, how about you?"

	"I've been good too. Busy but good. You looking forward to the
dance?" he asked with a knowing smile.

	Except it was the wrong kind of knowing. He probably thought I was
as excited for the dance as Vicky, which meant I'd need to lie again. Or
maybe not. I looked into Vicky's eyes. "Yeah." I said. "I am." And to my
surprise, right then, I wasn't lying.

	Vicky's dad smiled again. "I bet." he said. "I remember my first
dance. It was back in high school-"

	"Dad!" Vicky interrupted.

	He blinked. "What?"

	"Please, no stories." he pleaded. "Please?"

	Vicky's dad laughed. "You don't like my stories?" he asked with an
exaggerated pout.

	Vicky sighed. "Dad. Can we just go?"

	He held up his hands. "Alright, alright." he looked back at my
mom. "Unless you want to hear some of my stories maybe?"

	Vicky groaned and my mom laughed. "I wouldn't mind but I think if
you keep them waiting anymore we'll have a mini riot on our hands." she
replied.

	I rolled my eyes. "Goodbye mom." I said forcefully. She was
starting to attempt humor. I needed to stop that before it went any
farther.

	Surprisingly, she took the hint. "Ok, I'll let you guys go. Have
fun!" She and Vicky's dad said their goodbyes and we got in his car and
left.

	Even though Vicky and I held hands for most of the conversation at
the house and the entire car ride Vicky's dad never once acknowledged it.
And it wasn't like he was pretending he didn't notice for his son's sake or
because he needed to ignore Vicky's sexuality like a lot of so called
'accepting' parents would do. He actually legitimately didn't care. In
fact, the only reaction he had to us as a couple was to give us an amused
smile at our awkwardness and start to think about similar experiences he
had when he was younger. He obviously really cared about Vicky, not just
for not caring that he's gay but for packing up his entire life and moving
down here just to give him a better place to grow up. Kinda like my mom
did. Huh. I guess me and Vicky both got pretty lucky with one of our
parents.

	I'm just glad my mom isn't around. She tends to do or say something
to make me think twice when I start having thoughts like that and it was
kinda nice to hang onto it for a while.

	I actually managed to keep my less than negative attitude about the
dance right up until we pulled into the school parking lot. I consider that
a major accomplishment and if you want to send me a medal or a trophy or
something the gesture wouldn't go unappreciated. I took a deep breath,
steadying myself and trying to keep my eyes from rolling or my teeth from
grinding as we got out of the car. Vicky assured his dad he'd call when we
wanted to get picked up, we said goodbye and he drove away leaving us
standing in front of the school.

	I started to walk toward the front doors but Vicky grip tightened
on my hand and he gently pulled me back to him so that I was looking into
his eyes. "Nate," he said softly. "Thanks for doing this for me." I started
to open my mouth to tell him he didn't need to thank me but stopped when he
shook his head. "No, seriously, I mean it. It's stupid but this means a lot
to me, even more because it's something I know you don't want to do. So,
thanks."

	I saw the love and gratitude in his eyes and I couldn't bring
myself to tell even the smallest lie. "You're welcome. And you're right, I
don't like dances at all, but I do wanna go to this one because it'll make
you happy." I pressed my forehead against his. "Anything that makes you
happy I'll enjoy doing."

	He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. "I love you." he
sighed.

	"I love you too." I gave him a soft kiss on his neck. After a
second or two of wonderful closeness we both seemed to remember that we
were standing in front of the school at the same time and simultaneously
took a step back. It wasn't because of panic or shame or anything like
that, we just didn't want anybody being able to witness a private moment
between us. As much as being able to be together in public was awesome
there were still a lot of things that just weren't anybody's business. "And
you should know by now that I can't say no to you anyway so even if you
asked me to do something that I hated I'd still end up doing it." I joked,
but at the same time I was telling the truth.

	Vicky accepted the change in mood instantly and grinned. "Oh, I
know. Trust me, I plan on taking advantage of that later."

	"Oh really? What-"

	"Hey, Nate! Vicky!" Jason's yell from the doors cut me off. I
glared at him but Vicky's soft chuckle banished my annoyance. I sighed
internally. Time to get on with it I guess.

	We walked over to the door and saw that Jason and Jen were standing
just inside. Jason was surprisingly decent looking tonight. Not that he's
at all ugly or unattractive or anything but I almost never notice
it. Tonight I did. He actually looked like he ran his comb through his
shortish hair more than once and his usual t-shirt and jeans were replaced
with a pair of dark blue dress pants (I think my mom would have called them
'slacks' but I'm not sure. To me pants are jeans, cargo pants and
everything else) and a dark red long sleeve button up shirt kinda like the
ones me and Vicky had but tucked in. He looked just a bit uncomfortable and
I guessed that he had as much choice in his clothes for the night as I did.

	Jen looked pretty good too, with her tasteful black dress and tiny
little half sweater thingy that covered up her shoulders, but then she
always did. She was one of those girls that could look amazing covered in
mud and shaved bald, which made me wonder what the hell she saw in
Jason. Don't get me wrong, he's a good friend and attractive enough for a
mean giant, but I wouldn't date him even if he was all I could settle for
and Jen could obviously settle for better. I guess it's just one of those
weird little mysteries of life, like how the hell Friends could last like
11 seasons but Firefly and Jericho didn't even get past one. (Yes, I know
Jericho technically had two seasons but that little 9 episode sequel would
have barely qualified as an expansion pack if it was a video game)

	"Hey Jen." I said. Ignoring Jason. "You look nice." Jason narrowed
his eyes and Vicky smirked.

	"Hey guys." she looked us up and down. "Wow. Now I see why Erica
and Michelle are so obsessed."

	"Hey," Jason said in his fake insulted voice as he stepped closer
to Jen and took her hand. "Maybe drool over me a little bit too? I'm only
the boyfriend after all." I guess one of the best things about being a guy
who's only guy friends are gay is that he never has to worry about his best
friend stealing his girlfriend.

	Jen laughed and snuggled up next to him. They actually looked
pretty damn cute together, which is why Jason's uncomfortable expression
surprised me. Could Jason be shy about public display's of affection? I
took Vicky's hand in mine again and Jason's eyes glanced down and then
quickly looked away. Huh, I guess so. That actually does explain some of
his weirder behavior these past few weeks. I felt relief. I didn't think I
actually thought he had a problem with me and Vicky but it was nice to have
an alternate explanation that made sense.

	"Speaking of Erica and Michelle," Vicky said and looked
around. "Where are they? I though they would have been the ones staking out
the front door for us."

	"They're in the gym." Jen said. "They wanted to wait with us but I
convinced them you might come in one of the other doors and their best
chance of not missing you was to wait where you'd have to show up
eventually." She smiled. "I kinda doubted you wanted them running you down
the second yo got here." She looked up at Jason. "Plus it was nice to get
away from them for a bit and have some alone time with my date."

	I hid a grin at Jason's blush.

	We talked for another minute or so then started walking toward the
gym.

	The first, and last, dance that I ever went to wasn't a back to
school dance. It was one of the normal ones that they have every once and a
while. That one was held in the same place but half the gym was cut off by
that mechanical wall thing all school gyms seem to have and even with that
it was barely two thirds full. I kinda just assumed this one would be the
same.

	I was wrong.

	The entire gym was open and almost completely filled with
people. There were several tables scattered around and of course the large
area in front with all the speakers where the "DJ" played the music but
most of the room was open for dancing. And to my surprise almost all of it
was being used.

	And, of course, the song being played was "Shout".

	"I hate this song." I grumbled. "'A little bit softer now, a little
bit louder now', make up your damn mind."

	I winced as I said it. Damn, I wanted so hard not to say or do
anything to ruin this for Vicky but the first damn words out of my mouth
were snarky and complaining. I glanced at Vicky and to my relief he was
laughing.

	Jason on the other hand just glowered. "I bet no one here has any
idea who Otis Day or the Isley Brothers are." He complained. "They probably
haven't even seen Animal House. Freaking kids."

	I couldn't help but laugh. Jason's....a bit of a music snob. Ok,
actually he's a huge music snob. His tastes in everything tend to run
towards older things but he absolutely refuses to listen to anything
released less than 10 years ago and even then he bitches about most of
it. And even though there were a lot of 6th and 7th graders here he would
have called them 'kids' in that same superior tone no matter what age they
were.

	"Down boy." I said. "Let's try not to spend all night bitching. We
all know no one has the same sophisticated taste in music that you do." I
patted his shoulder condescendingly and he shook me off.

	"Fuck you." he said then glanced at Jen and saw the amused smirk on
her face. He blushed again and this time I didn't bother hiding my grin.

	"God this is so lame!" Came an exasperated shout from right behind
me. I jumped and spun around to see Erica standing there glaring out at the
sea of people dancing and singing along with the song like she was thinking
about wading into them with a steel pipe and swinging away. She didn't even
make an attempt to get dressed up and was wearing the same jeans, baby tee
and hoody that she wore to school. "I've been here for 20 minutes and they
haven't played anything expect for poppy dance crap and this old shit."

	"Hey!" Jason exclaimed. "This 'old shit' is classic. Just because
it doesn't have 37 guitars and some eyeliner wearing closet homo, no
offense Vicky, whining about how his daddy yells at him doesn't mean you
shouldn't appreciate it!"

	I glared. Erica blinked and took a step away from Jason. "Ok,
whatever." She went back to glaring at the dance floor and muttered
something about 'midol'.

	"'No offense Vicky'?" I asked annoyed.

	Jason ignored me and glared at Erica. Oh, for fucks sake. Now he's
gonna be pissy all night. Great. Well, at least I don't have to worry about
MY attitude ruining things for Vicky.

	"Um," Vicky said after the silence started to get a bit
uncomfortable. "Where's Michelle?"

	Erica waved her hand absently toward the dancing masses. "Out
there, with her date." Her mouth curled with distaste as she said that last
word.

	"Date?!" Vicky and I exclaimed in unison.

	"Yeah." Erica said. "Stan Hansen."

	"Who?" I asked, still trying to wrap my mind around the concept of
somebody actually wanting to spend time with Michelle. Although, I guess
she was kinda insanely hot if you're into that whole "girl" thing.

	"Some douchebag from the high school wrestling team." Her glare
hardened and I followed it to see Michelle and some guy that looked like a
teenage Chris Pine. Not bad looking actually. Nowhere near as sexy as Vicky
but as people who aren't Vicky go he was definitely up there.

	"Speaking of dates," Jen cut in. "Where's yours?"

	Vicky and I exchanged surprised glances but managed to keep from
vocalizing our surprise.

	Jen shrugged. "I dunno. Over there somewhere." She waved her hand
in the general direction of anywhere where there wasn't dancing going
on. She turned back to me and Vicky. "Can you two do something so this trip
wasn't a total waste and I can go home?"

	I rubbed my eyes and heard Vicky sigh. "We didn't come here to
entertain you." he said annoyed. "I wanna spend time with my boyfriend. IF
we dance or kiss or anything and IF you happen to be one of the people that
sees it then fine, whatever, but we're not doing it for you or because you
ask us to so just drop it ok?"

	Erica huffed and looked away. "Fine, fine. I kinda expected that."
She sighed. "Had to try though." she grumbled under her breath. Shout ended
and the next song started as she looked back toward us. "If you want to be
alone you should probably get going before-"

	"HEY!" Michelle screeched. More than a few heads turned towards her
as she left her confused date behind on the floor and ran over to
us. "You're here! That's so awesome." Michelle was pretty much the opposite
of Erica in terms of dress. She looked like she did nothing but get ready
for the since she got home from school and, honestly, it wouldn't have
surprised me if that was the case. She was easily the most overdressed
person in the gym with her tight, red no doubt made by some kind of
designer that I wouldn't recognize dress, high heels that she was now
carrying and a tiny little bag that looked so new I seriously doubted it
had anything in it. Except maybe a tag. "Do you guys wanna dance with me?"

	Before I could say something insulting but entirely appropriate to
the situation like "Oh hell no stay the hell away from me devil girl" Vicky
spoke up. "What about your date?" he asked. I noticed Erica was doing her
best to appear uninterested but leaned a bit closer after Vicky asked his
question.

	Michelle shrugged. "I already danced with him. Besides there's,
like, no chance of seeing him make out with a guy so I'd rather dance with
you two." She laughed.

	I really wished I knew if she was joking or not.

	Again, before I could say anything Vicky stepped in. "No. We're
only gonna dance with each other. Actually, we're gonna go do that
now. Let's go Nate." And with that he pulled me into the crowd and we were
immediately swallowed up.

	I expected him to stop once we got far enough in to have a good
chance at letting the crowd hide us while we danced, or tried to in my
case, but instead he kept pulling me until we were through the crowd and on
the other side of the gym where the sound equipment was. "There." he said
after we stopped. "Alone." He looked around at the rest of the people who
had similar ideas and were hanging out around us. "Ish." he added.

	I laughed. "At least no one here wants to watch us make out."

	Vicky's eyes lit up. "Hey, yeah. We should do it while there's no
chance we'll turn anyone on by accident."

	I laughed again. "Hell, it might even get rid of these other
people." Although after I looked around again I saw that there were a fair
number of girls watching us out of the corner of their eyes, and some
openly staring and whispering with their friends, so maybe not. "Actually,
we may have just found fangirl central."

	Vicky looked around and then shrugged. "At least they're just
staring."

	I snorted. "Maybe we should have just stayed on the dance floor."

	Vicky gave me a surprised look. "That would have been ok?" he
asked.

	"Well, yeah, I thought that's what we were gonna do anyway."

	"You're really gonna dance with me?" he asked tentatively.

	"I said I would didn't I?"

	"Well, yeah, I guess. But anyway I know you don't really want to so
we can just wait." He looked away.

	I gently grasped his chin between my thumb and forefinger and
turned his head back towards mine. "It's not that I don't want to, I just
can't."

	Vicky looked confused. "Can't what?"

	"Dance." I said.

	He blinked. "Everyone can dance." he said after a few seconds.

	"Not me."

	He arched an eyebrow. "Are you serious?"

	"Yes! I only said it like a million times."

	"Well, yeah but I thought you were just saying that to get out of
dancing because you didn't want to or something." Vicky cocked his
head. "You really can't dance?"

	I sighed. "Why is that so hard to believe? Can YOU dance?"

	"Yes." he said simply.

	It was my turn to raise some eyebrows. "You can dance." It came out
as a statement but there was a question behind it.

	"Of course. I'm actually kinda good at it....." he trailed off.

	"Like, did you take...lessons or something?"

	"Um, no, I....kinda went through a phase...." he looked
away. "Don't ask. Just trust me, I can dance." He looked back. "And you can
too. Probably. Anyone can. But........" he trailed off again.

	"Hey," I said softly. "If you have something to say just say it ok?
You can tell me anything."

	"It's just," he said. "I kinda get the feeling I'm only gonna get
you to do one dance with me and I kinda don't wanna waste it on just some
random techno song. I want a slow dance."

	Ah. "Vicky, I wanna make this memorable for you. This is all about
you, if it was up to me we'd be at home in my bed right now doing something
that I'm much more coordinated at but since we're here I wanna do
everything you wanna do. If that means making an ass out of myself more
than once then I'm seriously ok with that."

	Vicky let out a frustrated sigh. "I won't enjoy it if you're just
suffering through it for me."

	"Hey," I pressed my forehead to his again like I did in front of
the school. "What did I say before? I'm going to enjoy tonight because I'm
here with you, doing something you want to do. I don't care how stupid I
look, I'll still have fun." And again I was surprised at how true that
was. In fact, I had to admit that so far this wasn't nearly as bad as I
imagined it would be. Well, except for the music but that can't be
helped. "So," I stepped back and held out my hand. "Wanna dance?"

	Vicky smiled at me. "Sure. But even if you hate it you gotta
promise me a slow dance later ok?"

	"Done." I said and we stepped back into the crowd.

	So, remember how I said I can't dance? I was right. There was some
loud, fast electronic song playing and everyone around me seemed to be able
to find some way to move with the music where I ended up looking like a
fish that someone had caught, thrown on the bottom of the boat and promptly
started electrocuting. Vicky laughed at me. The people around me laughed at
me. But it was ok because after exactly 3 seconds of trying to take it
seriously I started laughing at myself. I was actually having a little bit
of fun.

	Until Vicky started dancing that is. Then I started having a LOT of
fun.

	Remember how Vicky said he could dance? He was right. If my body
seemed to repel rhythm and grace Vicky's body created them. He didn't just
move with the music, he took the music inside himself and made it his
own. Every part of his body flowed naturally, like a stream in the forest
and I couldn't take my eyes off him.

	Then he started getting sexy.

	After the first song he never got more than two inches away from me
as he danced. His hands roamed all over my upper body while he pressed his
crotch or, if he was facing away from me, his ass into my groin. It was a
good thing we were where we were because if one of the teachers that were
acting as chaperones got even a glimpse of the things he was doing we would
have been dragged out of the gym faster than you could say "corrupted
youth."

	I REALLY wanted to know more about this phase he went through.

	People around us were starting. Well, actually, the girls were
staring. The guys they were dancing with were either purposefully looking
anywhere but at us or shooting us annoyed little glares. More for
distracting their girls than for being all homo in front of them though. It
was actually enough like my last dance that I expected to feel the same
nervous panic but every time I caught a glare or felt an uncomfortably
intense pair of eyes focused on me some part of Vicky brushed against me or
moved seductively and I forgot about anything that wasn't him.

	We'd been dancing (or trying to in my case) for 6 songs before
Vicky stopped. "I need a drink." he said. I nodded, but it was a reluctant
nod. I really, really wanted Vicky to keep dancing for me. He walked over
to one of the water coolers spaced out throughout the room. Yeah, we don't
even get punch. Fucking broke ass school. I quickly caught up.

	"You are so giving me lap dances from now on." I whispered in his
ear as he got his water.

	He giggled. "If you want one you gotta give me one first."

	"Are you sure you wanna risk it? You saw how terrible I was. I
might injure you."

	He smiled. "I could teach you. And you know what the best way to
learn is right?"

	"No, what?"

	His smile turned seductive as he moved closer to me. "Practice,
practice, practice."

	Oh. My. God. I was so hot for him I thought I'd explode. Who ever
thought dancing could be so erotic? I took a quick look around, satisfied
myself that there was no one watching us and gave hi a quick kiss on the
lips. "If you say so, oh Wise One."

	Vicky looked surprised at the kiss and then grinned. "Wise One, I
kinda like that. Any chance you can upgrade that to Master when I'm giving
you lessons?"

	I laughed. "No. way." I thought for a second. "Although, I might
consider Mr Clarke if you asked nicely." I shot him a seductive look of my
own.

	"Maybe later." Vicky shot me a smile. "Right now," he downed the
last of his water. "I want that slow dance."

	I hadn't even noticed that the music changed I was so wrapped up in
my fantasies about what Vicky might consider "asking nicely". Vicky took my
hand and gently pulled me back to the dance floor.

	Slow dancing with Vicky was a lot different than what we'd been
doing before. The sexuality was there, I was pressed close to Vicky so
there was no way it couldn't be, but there was tenderness added in. Every
move Vicky made was filled with love and affection for me and as we danced
I could see in his eyes how much this meant to him.

	We danced close together, my arms wrapped loosely around his neck
and his hands resting on my hips. Our eyes never broke contact. It should
have been weird, dancing like that in front of most of the school,
especially since there were a lot of 6th and 7th graders there who probably
hadn't heard about us and who stared wide eyed at two guys dancing together
but it wasn't. Like every other time me and Vicky had been together as a
couple in front of people it just felt right. Vicky and I were
together. Actually, to use an overused cliché, we were one. Hiding that
from anyone, or because of anyone, would have been wrong. It was that
thought more than anything else that made me not give a shit if Michelle,
Erica or any fangirl was watching and perving out on us as I leaned in and
kissed Vicky on the lips. He didn't hesitate, just kissed me back.

	If anyone was watching they at least had the decency not to squee
or anything as we kissed.

	As the song ended we broke out kiss and looked into each others
eyes again. Vicky's were tearing up.

	"I love you." he said and blinked his tears away.

	"I love you too." I whispered softly and gave him one last gentle
kiss.

	Yeah, tonight was definitely worth it.

	Needless to say we didn't leave early. We met back up with
Michelle, Erica, Jen and Jason after the slow dance and spent the rest of
the night hanging around with them. We'd already had our alone time and
felt like hanging out with friends. Michelle and Erica both saw us making
out but that actually seemed to calm their usual weirdness down and for the
rest of the night they were almost normal. Jen complained loudly that Jason
was an awful slow dancer and Vicky and I just shared amused smiles and
didn't join in ragging on him.

	Besides as hypocritical as I can be sometimes I have NO right
making fun of anyone else's dancing.

	Speaking of dancing me and Vicky did dance some more. Mostly to the
fast songs but we did a few more slow ones. Despite some begging from
Michelle we both opted out of the dance competition, or at least what
passed for one at a middle school dance. We both knew no matter how great
Vicky was there was no way he could make up for my flailing. Plus I kinda
doubted they'd let two guys sign up together anyway.

	I didn't even pay attention to who won.

	The best dressed competition that Michelle had talked about never
happened which pissed her off a LOT. Apparently the reason she spent 4
hours and about 300 dollars on her appearance was to win. Oh, how we
laughed.

	We'd decided to leave and were actually on the way out of the gym
when out of nowhere Michelle and Erica popped up in front of us.

	"Where are you going?" Michelle asked.

	"Home." I said forcefully. "We're tired."

	"You can't leave yet." Erica said.

	"Why the hell not?" Vicky grumbled. More than me he was the tired
one and considering all the dancing he did I wasn't surprised.

	"The dance isn't over yet." Michelle answered.

	"It is for us." I said. "Move."

	"Oh come on!" Erica whined. "You guys stayed this long can't you
just stay for another 15 minutes. Pleeeeeease?"

	I rubbed my eyes. Great, now Erica was being the whiny
one. Honestly, staying wouldn't have bothered me, we were leaving mostly
because Vicky was tired and done dancing and I wasn't in the mood to fight
with them so I shot him a questioning look.

	He shrugged and sighed. "Alright, but I'm sitting down the whole
time."

	"Awesome!" Michelle squealed and did a little happy dance which
Erica then joined in on. Apparently they "made up" or whatever.

	We'd barely made it to a table when the music stopped and the guy
from the A/V club at the high school that they got to play DJ for the night
got on a mic. "Alright guys and girls, it's the time you've all been
waiting for, time to crown the king and queen of this years Brian Blair
Middle School Back to School Dance!"

	Everyone cheered. I groaned. God, could you maybe try to be just a
bit more cliche Mr DJ guy? He took out an envelope. Ok, apparently he can.

	"Your votes have been counted and added up and the results are here
in this envelope. Who's ready to find out who the king and queen are?"

	There was more cheering. Louder from the girls of course but then
they always seemed to be a lot more into this type of thing than the
guys. In fact, when they passed around the little voting slips halfway
through the dance a lot of guys didn't even bother filling it out but I
didn't see one girl not write something down. I threw mine away without
giving it a second glance of course. Vicky wrote down Jason's name under
king and Erica's under queen just to be a dick though.

	Isn't he perfect?

	It was then that I started to notice something a little bit
weird. A lot of the girls around us kept glancing over at our table while
they were cheering. Yeah, they'd been doing it all night but this time it
seemed different. There was some kind of weird anticipation in their
glances.

	A tiny ball of dread started to form in my stomach.

	I looked over at Michelle and Erica and saw that they were
practically bouncing up and down in their seats.

	Oh. Oh no. You can't even be serious......

	"Alright Brian Blair Middle School! Your Back to School dance king
and queen for the 2010-2011 school year are....." he pressed a button and a
stupid little drumroll played over the speakers. If nothing else he had
good timing because the second he opened the envelope it stopped. "....Nate
Ellis and Vicky Clarke!"

	Oh. You. Have. Got. To. Be. Fucking. KIDDING. ME.

	Loud cheering from the girls at the dance almost drowned out the
stupid generic "celebration" music that erupted from the speakers as the
guy made his announcement. I stared in utter and complete disbelief and
horror at the reactions. A dim, distant part of my mind that wasn't
currently occupied with unsettingly satisfying thoughts of murdering
Michelle and Erica noted that while the girls were cheering almost none of
the guys were. Most looked mildly surprised but pretty much unconcerned. A
few looked relieved that they weren't the ones named. The rest were just
laughing hysterically.

	I'm not even going to hide the bodies. I'll display them
proudly. No jury would convict me.

	Any trace of tiredness in Vicky was gone the second he heard his
name. His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened in the most shocked
expression I'd ever seen on anybody's face in my entire life. After the
cheering started his mouth opened and closed several times as if he was
trying to say something but nothing came out.

	"Nate and Vicky! Don't be shy! Come on up and get your crowns!" the
DJ shouted into his mic.

	This set off a chant of "Get your crowns!" from the girls and a
surprising number of guys. Everyone in the gym was looking over at our
table so it wasn't hard for the DJ to guess where his wayward royalty was
hiding out. He obviously didn't have any idea that "Vicky" was short for
"Victor" because his eyes swept over the table and locked in on Jason and
Jen, the only two people who looked anything like a couple at our
table. Well, a straight couple anyway.

	"Come on up. There's nothing to be embarrassed about! Just get up
here and be recognized!"

	Something inside me snapped. I dunno what it was but that cliché
spewing, over confident little A/V nerd was pissing me off. With his smug
attitude and his superior way of talking down on us like we were a bunch of
kids....it made me want to knock him on his ass. I couldn't do that
though. He was a good foot taller than me and even though he was as skinny
a nerd as I'd ever seen he probably still outweighed me by at least 60
pounds. But I could do the next best thing.

	"Come on." I growled at Vicky and before he had a chance to answer
I took him by the hand and dragged him through the crowd. Once we got up
the cheering got louder and I had the extreme satisfaction of seeing the
DJ's face go from slightly smug and in control to completely and totally
surprised and then embarrassed as he noticed the gazes of the cheering
masses follow us up to the little stage area.

	My satisfaction only lasted for a few seconds. Once we got up in
front of everyone I realized that we were UP IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. I froze.

	This.....was not one of my better ideas.

	"What are we doing?" Vicky asked me warily as his eyes darted
around the gym.

	"I have no idea." I squeaked out. Oh, damn, bad idea bad idea
badideabadideabadidea....

	The DJ was the first one of us to recover. "Oh...shit. You guys
were the ones dancing.....so your...uh....shit, my little brother told
me....ah, hell." His face was a bright shade of red and not just from the
acne either.

	"Just....just give us the crowns so we can leave." I managed to get
out.

	"Um..." he looked anywhere but at either of our faces. "I kinda
have a crown and, uh, a tiara. Um. Who.....shit, who get's what?"

	Before I even had time to flashback fully to the "Nate's the gayer
one" conversation earlier this week me and Vicky were both grabbing for the
crown. Somehow I got it first and held it close to my chest
protectively. Vicky glared at me for a second before his look softened and
he took the tiara. Another round of cheering rose up and this time I
noticed more of the guys getting into it. Apparently cheering for us
doesn't run them the risk of catching the gay.

	"You owe me for this...." Vicky whispered to me.

	"You can do whatever you want to me when we get back to my house
let's just GO." I emphasized the last word with a little push.

	As we hurried out of the gym I looked back at out table one last
time. Erica and Michelle were cheering as loudly as anybody. Jen was
shaking her head and chuckling. Jason was at least trying to hide the fact
that he was laughing hysterically but the red face and the tears streaming
down his cheeks kinda gave him away.

	The second the cool night air hit my face as we walked outside I
calmed down a bit. Don't get me wrong, I was still pissed at Erica and
Michelle, more Michelle because I had the feeling that all this was somehow
her fault, but I didn't really want to kill them anymore. Actually all I
really wanted to do was go home and hug Vicky until I fell asleep.

	As Vicky called his dad to come pick us up I sat down looked at the
crown. It was a lot less cheap than I would have expected. It was silver
and had rounded points, presumably because at 11, 12 and 13 we're all too
stupid not to immediately jam it into our eyes and blind ourselves. It was
made of some kind of metal that surprisingly wasn't pewter and as stupid as
it was I didn't think I'd end up throwing it away. I'd keep it as a
reminder that females are evil and not to be trusted.

	"He'll be here in a little while." Vicky said after he hung up. He
sat down next to me on the grass.

	"Ok." I said.

	We sat in silence for a few minutes.

	"So....that was.....wow." Vicky finally broke the silence. And
actually that kinda summed it up pretty well.

	"Yeah." I paused. "So, you regret it?"

	Vicky shook his head. "No. I mean, I could have done without this,"
he raised the tiara "but before that I had a lot of fun." He looked over at
me. "What about you?"

	I sighed. "No."

	Vicky let out a short laugh. "You sound annoyed."

	"I kinda am. If I was having a terrible time this would have just
been one more bad thing to cap off a bad night. But, since I was actually
having a good time, a really good time at certain parts," I thought of
Vicky's sexy dancing and smiled briefly "it's kind of brings down the whole
night, you know?"

	"Well, you didn't have to go up and GET the damn things." Vicky
reminded me.

	I groaned. "I know! That DJ guy was pissing me off though....and it
was sorta worth it just to see him freak out."

	Vicky giggled. "Yeah, maybe." He looked down at the tiara and
frowned. "Dunno why I had to get the girl crown though."

	"Tiara." I said absently. "And you should have been faster." Vicky
looked at me without saying anything and I started to feel a bit self
conscious. "What?" I asked.

	"Did you just correct me because I didn't call it a tiara?"

	"Um, no." I lied.

	"You liar! You did so!" Vicky shoved it at me. "Here, you should be
the one holding onto this."

	"Hell no!" I exclaimed and pushed it away. "The crown is
mine. Besides everyone must have wrote your name down under the 'queen'
slot anyway because Captain Proactiv said 'your king and queen NATE and
VICKY'."

	Vicky glared at me playfully. "You don't know that. He could have
just thought he was correcting whoever wrote out our names. I do seem to
remember everyone saying you were the girlier one."

	"No! They said I was the gayer one!" I glared back. "And either way
they're wrong."

	"Suuuure. Just keep telling yourself that little man."

	"Little?" I raised my eyebrows. "Really? Do we need to get barefoot
again so I can show you that we're still the same size?"

	Vicky smirked. "I wasn't talking about our height."

	I rolled my eyes. "Well in that case then I AM bigger than you."

	Vicky shook his head. "No, just longer. I'm thicker and thickness
is what makes the ladies scream."

	"Ha!" I barked. "I'm telling Michelle you wanna make ladies
scream!"

	A horrified expression came over Vicky's face as the consequences
of that played out across his mind. "No way! You know I was just kidding!"

	"Nope. I'm telling her." I started to get up.

	Vicky lunged at me and tackled me to the ground. I hit the grass
with an "oompf" as my breath was forced out of my lungs but before I could
take a breath Vicky started tickling me.

	"Noooo!" I yelled through my laughter. Ok, 'yell' and 'laughter'
might be strong terms. It was more like 'gasp' and 'dry
heave'. "Stop. Don't wanna die!"

	"Promise you'll won't say anything." Vicky demanded.

	"Ok! Ok! Promise!" I expanded the last of my air saying that.

	Vicky let me up and I took a deep breath. Well, actually more like
10. I saw concern flash through his eyes. "Are you ok?"

	I took another breath. "Yeah, I'm fine." No need to mention the
near murder and bring the mood down again. Besides if I had actually died
it would have been with Vicky on top of me and I can think of a lot worse
ways to go. I picked up the crown from where it had fallen and brushed off
the grass. Vicky frowned as he picked up the tiara.

	"I should have made you take this while I had you in my power." he
said mock sullenly.

	I grinned. "I'm sure there are other ways you can try and convince
me to take it. I seem to remember us having some special dance lessons
lined up. Maybe if you're a really good teacher I'll let you wear the crown
for a while."

	Vicky returned my grin, then looked thoughtful for a second before
a more wicked grin crossed his lips. "Hey, do you think I could wear it
while I-"

	"Hey!" Vicky's dad's shout made us both jump. "You guys coming?"

	Both our heads shot towards the voice and I saw that his car was
idling about 10 feet away from us. He must have pulled up while we were
talking and we never even noticed.

	Vicky leaned in close. "We'll finish this conversation later." he
whispered before getting up and walking to the car. I followed.

	Vicky's dad's eyes looked down at our hands. "What do you have
there?"

	We shared embarrassed smiles and raised our royal head wear. His
eyes widened for a second then he burst out laughing. "Oh, I can't wait to
hear this."

	On the way home we told Vicky's dad all about the dance. Well, a
carefully edited version anyway. We left out Vicky's inanely hot dancing
but somehow my, um, attempts made it in. When we got to the part about
being named the king and queen of the dance he almost had to pull over he
was laughing so hard. He didn't have any snarky little comments like my mom
would have so I didn't mind all that much.

	When we pulled into my driveway Vicky and I were out of the car
before it turned off. Talking about the dance made me think about how
amazingly sexy Vicky was rubbing up against me and looking at me with an
amazing combination of love and lust in his eyes and I could barely keep my
hands off him. Judging from how he was pressed up against me the whole
second half of the ride and how he kept brushing his hand against my thigh
I figured Vicky felt the same way.

	I opened the door and was about to call out to my mom and then drag
Vicky upstairs when I heard the sound of raised voices coming from the
kitchen.

	"-his life like this! You know that! And without even trying to
call? What's wrong with you!?" my mom shouted in a shrill tone I hadn't
heard her use in a really long time.

	"Mom?" I called tentatively.

	There was silence from the kitchen then I heard the harsh murmurs
of two people arguing quietly. I was about to call out again when I heard
footsteps and my mom came around the corner into the front hall.

	She looked pissed, but it wasn't that pissed look she usually has
where she tries to be all calm and controlled but gives herself away with
her stiffness and clipped tones, she looked like she was about three
seconds away from punching someone in the throat. Her hair was mussed and
her face was red and I took an educated guess that I hadn't got here
anywhere near the beginning of her yelling. To say I was worried would have
been a major understatement. I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen her
like this but I was pretty sure it had been before-

	Just then a man stepped into the hall behind my mom. Who the hell
is-

	Then I saw his face.

	"Nate-" my mom started but was quickly cut off.

	"Hey! There he is." came a voice that was still achingly familiar,
even after not hearing it for over three years. "How ya doing, kiddo?"

	I stared in utter and complete disbelief. I could almost hear the
train collide with the wall. "Dad?"

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

	Who's got two thumbs and just pulled out another cliffhanger? This
guy! *points to self with thumbs* Hehe...he...heh...ahem. *charges shield*