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----- A Drink with a Stranger By: Sean Roberts -----
-- Chapter 10 --
Lane and Ellis were keeping their relationship a secret. Neither of their families knew. Finn was going to keep it to himself—entirely—not even Ellis was to find out that Finn knew. Ellis and Finn were friends, though. At school, they were together all the time. By extension, he spent a lot of time with Victoria Hamilton. Of all the people to impersonate to try to retrieve an essay, she was not the best choice. Lane did not make the mistake of underestimating Ellis. But he first had to deal with Finn, who approached him as soon as he parked. Lane knew he would have to have this conversation eventually, and he was prepared. Almost. He was prepared for them both deciding to keep their current significant others.
"I want you back," Finn said. He said it directly, but his eyes were pleading. Those eyes that Lane could not ignore; the ones that made every word Lane want to say catch in his throat.
"This isn't a good time, Finn," Lane said. He walked away before Finn could say anything. He swore to himself, but he pushed it out of his mind. He had to find Victoria. Locating her was not at issue, but getting her to talk to him would have been next to impossible. They had never talked about anything except for trying to one up each other in the grades department. Lane knew what he could offer her.
He looked through his phone; he never had anybody's number when he needed it. He needed Finn again. When he asked Finn to meet him in the Hunter's office at lunch, Finn walked in, guns blazing. They were kissing, their hands intertwined, Lane pushed up against the wall.
"I'm still with Ellis," he said.
"I don't care," Finn said.
They kissed again. Lane took the opportunity to take Finn's phone; Finn noticed Lane's hand and pushed his body closer. He did not notice exactly what Lane's hand was doing. Lane slipped the phone into his own pocket.
"Finn," Lane said, gently pushing him away. "I asked you to come here because I needed to tell you about Ellis. I'm not breaking up with him. I'm not—"
"Okay," Finn said. "It's okay. I understand. No hard feelings, okay?" He was saying okay a lot. He was breathing heavily, and he looked disappointed, but seemed to understand it had to be this way. Finn had simply taken a last opportunity to kiss him. Lane felt like a prick.
"Thanks for understanding." Finn left. Lane frantically sent a text message from Finn's phone. Thankfully the reply came quickly, so Lane could delete the messages. He hoped that Finn and Victoria were not going to talk before the end of the school day. He found Finn again to return the phone, saying he had dropped it in the Hunter's office.
--
Victoria knocked on the Hunter's door just after last period.
"Lane," she said, unimpressed. "Finn asked me to meet him here for some reason."
"No he didn't, I did. Come in. Please." She looked suspicious, but there was no way she was going to leave before finding out what this was about.
"What's going on?" she said.
"It's my fault. I didn't have your number, and I stole his phone and used it to get you to meet me."
"Why?"
"I have something for you."
"Lane, I know your GPA is higher—I check too. You don't have to rub it in." But that was half the fun. For the first time Lane looked at Victoria, really looked at her, past the straight black hair and perfect skin and short skirt. She looked tired. She almost looked defeated.
"That's not why you're here. I need a favour." She laughed. "No, listen. It's actually more of a trade."
"What do you want Lane?"
"A truce." She raised an eyebrow.
"It's because of Taylor. He's on the team, and since that's happened, I seem to run into Finn a lot. So, I mean, we should all be, well not friends, but you know ..."
"Gee Lane, what a wonderful offer. I'd love to be not friends with you. And what do I get in return for this?" Lane cleared his throat. This was not going as planned.
"If I end up with the higher GPA, I'll let you be valedictorian."
"Even if I believed you, there's no way to do that. The rules around that are very strict. They never break them—"
"There's always a backup. And they never break them unless the valedictorian doesn't show up. I looked it up."
"Why would you not show up? For your own graduation? How am I supposed to believe that?"
"You don't have to believe it. I'm going to do it anyway. And we don't have to have a truce. We don't have to be friends, I'm still going to do it. I just thought it would be nice, you know, for Finn." She sighed.
"Yeah, I guess," she replied.
"Hey, great!" Lane said. He smiled and he extended his hand. "By the way, do you drink?" She cleared her throat. Lane smiled even wider, and pulled out the bottle. Alcohol really did solve life's problems every once in a while.
"So what are you doing for your English essay?" he asked.
"Macbeth."
"Nice. What specifically?"
"None of your business."
"Come on Victoria. I'm doing Dickens. Probably something to do with A Christmas Carol."
"Oh alright. I'm writing about Macbeth's increasing insanity throughout the book."
"That sounds like a good one," Lane said.
"I thought so. Ellis said it was good too."
"Ellis?"
"He asked me about my essay too. He was asking for my help coming up with ideas."
"Ah. You know, I don't want to overstep my bounds here ..." Lane took another sip of his drink, prompting Victoria to do the same. "But there's another good one. Personal responsibility. Think about—"
"Wow," she said. She was quick. "That is a good one."
"Don't tell Ellis, he might steal it," Lane said jokingly.
"Why would you be trying to help me, Lane?"
"Well, at this point, if your GPA is higher, at least I'll get to go to graduation."
"Cheers," she said. They clinked their glasses a second time and drank.
Fucking Ellis. Lane was ecstatic, even though he should have been angry as well. He felt a rush when he discovered the truth, and an even bigger rush when opened up his laptop to reel it in. There was a reply.
I can't do a money transfer; my parents control the account. I can leave the cash for you tomorrow. There's a ceiling panel in the northwest corner of the chem lab. I'll stick it up there. You can pick it up from there any time after 6:00 p.m. tomorrow.
Lane wrote back, agreeing to the cash transaction and requesting the assignment details. He sent a text message to Ellis asking him to have dinner the following day. He sent a text message to Finn asking to meet later that night.
--
It was obvious that someone would be watching the chem lab. There was no way for anyone to enter without being seen. That is, assuming that Ellis had thought far enough ahead about that. Lane was sure that he had. He had filled Finn in over the phone before picking him up.
Lane parked at the school; the parking lot was deserted. The stars were out. Lane and Finn were dressed in all black. Lane handed him a black toque.
"You're kidding me with this, right?"
"Actually, kind of. You have that gorgeous dark hair. You'll be okay." He had kissed him to steal his phone; a compliment could not hurt. He pulled his own toque over his light brown hair. He had spent a few hours that day in the Hunter's office. He had access to a lot of information about the school, including some rough blueprints. They were enough to get him what he needed.
They climbed a tree growing close enough to the school to get them onto the roof. They entered through a door left unlocked by a generously bribed janitor. They followed the passageway through the ducts until they came to the classroom they needed. They were looking down into the chem lab. Today was just practice. They went back the way they came and ended up back on the roof.
"This school doesn't have very good security, does it," Finn said.
"I don't know. It seemed too easy. But I'm not going to fight it." They were sitting atop the roof. Finn was going to come back the next night to retrieve the money while Lane was out with Ellis. If anybody was watching the lab, they would not be anywhere near it.
"This was kind of fun actually," Finn said. They let their legs dangle over the side of the school. They had moved to the back, where they could overlook the soccer pitch. "And it's quiet up here."
"It is nice," Lane agreed. "Thank you for agreeing to do this. I know that you and Ellis are friends. And also—"
"I'm doing this for Ellis," Finn said. "Well not really. I'm doing it for you of course. But really, Ellis should give up. He's just causing trouble for himself. He should just enjoy his senior year. He has a great boyfriend, he's doing well in soccer and he's getting good grades. What more does he want?" Finn swayed his body to nudge Lane. Finn turned to him. "Especially the boyfriend thing."
Lane could not help himself. Their adrenaline levels high from breaking into the school, Finn went in for the kill, kissing Lane, putting his hand on Lane's thigh. He rubbed Lane's thigh through his black jeans, silently ordering Lane to get them the hell off. They both pushed their jeans down to their ankles. Finn had grown, over the three years. There was a familiarity to his cock, but it was not the same size as when they were fourteen. They stopped kissing and stared out over the field as they came. They were breathing heavily, and they sat for a long time together that night, holding hands but not saying anything to each other. There was nothing to say. They were on stolen time. They could not keep this up but they could not stop either, and they knew enough not to make it worse by discussing what they had just done. They climbed down with a cold, wet feeling in their jeans. The aftermath of a bad decision.
--
Lane met Ellis before their dinner on Deer Creek's soccer pitch. It was late enough that the school was deserted; Lane had made the mistake of telling Ellis that he did not really care for soccer, and now he had to prove why. Ellis, of course, loved soccer.
"Really, what do you like about this so much?" Lane asked him after they had been kicking the ball around for a while.
"It's incredible," Ellis said. "When you're playing; your concentration just on the ball and the other players. The noise from the crowd feels like it's somewhere else; bombarding someone else's ears. It feels as quiet as it is now while I'm playing. And then the adrenaline kicks in when you're running across the pitch; trying not to fall; getting kicked by another player and still scoring as you go down."
"I feel like that when I'm writing," Lane said. Ellis smiled at him.
"There. So you do get it. I'm glad, because I don't think I could be with someone who doesn't. I don't need you to like soccer, but I'm glad you understand." He walked up to Lane and kissed him. Lane felt very guilty for what he was about to do.