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----- A Drink with a Stranger By: Sean Roberts -----
-- Chapter 2 --
Lane knocked on Taylor's door and found his brother standing in front of the mirror, struggling with his tie. Lane put his arms gently around Taylor, loosening the mess and talking Taylor through making the knot.
"Ready to go then?" Lane asked.
"Yeah, but, umm, Jeff texted me and I think I'm going to take the bus with him," Taylor said.
"Oh," Lane said. "Yeah, sure kiddo. See you later then."
"You're coming to watch me tryout after school, right?"
"Yeah, sure," Lane said. "Of course I'll come. But Taylor, I've told you before, freshmen never make the team. Are you sure you still want to try out? Why not just wait until next year?"
"I know," he said. "But I've been practicing all summer! I've got to at least try. And who knows, maybe Finn will go a bit easier on me."
"Not likely," Lane said under his breath.
"What?"
"Nothing. Good luck, okay?" Taylor beamed.
--
Price Humphrey had graduated the previous year, making Lane the Editor-in-Chief of the paper. Unfortunately, nobody else had signed up to be a part of it, leaving Lane to do everything on his own. Lane had gotten along with Price. They had an office to themselves—a comfortable space with a few desks and a couple of couches. Price had introduced Lane to the comfort of a fine scotch. The office was the perfect place to hide bottles and to eat lunch.
Price had left a bottle and some crystal as a parting gift for Lane. Lane took out his lunch and a book from his knapsack. It was a lonely first day. Lane's classmates had gotten used to not talking to him—not that he ever made much of an effort to talk to them—but he had also been grumbling to himself about Taylor. Taylor had been excited all summer to ride to school with his big brother. Lane took another bite of his sandwich and told himself he was being stupid and tried to concentrate again on his book.
He spent the rest of his lunch doing some writing. Lane wanted to be a novelist or a journalist. Or something else. He was not really sure, and he was also not that picky as long as he could do something that would allow him to write—preferably not about sports. He had published a number of short stories in the Hunter since his freshman year. He thought about a nip, but decided not to start any bad habits on the first day.
Lane took his time strolling across campus towards the soccer pitch after last period. There were a number of smiling, fresh faced first year boys trying out for the team. Most of the previous year's team, unusually, had been comprised of juniors. There had only been one senior who had now graduated, which opened up the spot for which Taylor was trying out. Lane had barely said two words to anyone on the team over the last few years, least of all Finn McClain. Lane's stomach knotted up when he saw Finn, the boy who was supposed to be his best friend (in fact, more than his best friend) leading the tryouts.
--
Having a little brother had taught Lane responsibility at an early age. When he was fourteen, his parents had allowed him to spend the final week before his first year at Deer Creek Academy alone with Finn at their lake house. They had cleared it with Finn's parents, driven the boys up, brought along enough food to feed an army, and gone over the schedule for when the boys were supposed to call to check in.
"So, umm, thanks guys," Lane said to them awkwardly when they were still not leaving.
"Are you sure we didn't forget anything in the car?" Sally Conway had said.
"Let's go check," James Conway said. Lane rolled his eyes after they left. Finn had leaned over and whispered something in Lane's ear. Lane smiled. Their parents came back and went over everything once more.
"Maybe we should just spend the afternoon up here," Sally said. "Just to make sure you boys are properly settled in."
"Sure mom," Lane said with a smile. "Come on Finn." The two boys promptly left the kitchen and ran upstairs. They changed into their trunks and ran out into the lake. Finn's plan had worked. It only took a few minutes before Lane's parents walked out to them along the dock. They climbed out of the water and said their goodbyes.
It was not unreasonable for them to be nervous. Two fourteen year old boys left to their own devices could get into a lot of trouble. Lane and Finn had absolutely no intention of getting into trouble. They stayed in the lake until the setting sun painted the sky pink. They lay on the dock, staring at the sky in silence. Lane's heart was pounding, wanting something to happen, but unsure how to make the first move. He gasped when Finn did it. He felt Finn's hand on his stomach, caressing his skin. The boys were tired and hungry, but they were happy. Lane turned to Finn and melted into a kiss.
The first time they had kissed was earlier that summer in Lane's bedroom. Since then, Lane had been working up the courage to ask Finn what it meant. They had been out, walking towards the arcade, when Finn bit the bullet and asked Lane if the kiss meant they were boyfriends. Lane had smiled and nodded his head.
Until their week at the cottage, they had never done more than kissed. Finn's shaky hand moved its way into Lane's shorts. The feeling of someone else touching it was overwhelming. Lane copied Finn, touching the other boy's cock, feeling it stiffen in his hand. They stroked each other inside their shorts, hearing only the occasional ripple from the lake or twig falling from a tree. They could feel each others' breathing as their fingers became wet, and the nervousness the boys had been feeling disappeared, shooting out of them in waves of pleasure. They smiled at each other and lay there for a while before going inside for dinner.
--
Lane watched the tryouts, not really paying attention until Taylor was up. He watched his brother closely, Taylor's eyes focused on the ball. The tryouts were a series of standard maneuvers, but Finn suddenly darted towards Taylor and grabbed the ball away from him. He started kicking the ball towards one of the posts. Taylor shot off after him, nimbly stealing it back. He made it a short distance the other way when he realized that Finn was close behind. Knowing that Finn was the captain of the team for a reason, Taylor took a chance and kicked the ball across the pitch. The goal post was far away, but the ball reached its mark. Had there been a goal tender, the ball would have been stopped. Still, it was a great kick. Taylor retrieved the ball and finished the assigned drills.
Finn went up to Taylor with his hand in the air. Taylor gave him a high five. Finn leaned down and said something quietly to Taylor before patting his back and jogging back to grab the next boy. Taylor was beaming.
At the end of the tryouts, Finn and some of the other boys had walked up to Taylor, surrounding him, while the others headed off towards the locker rooms. Lane watched, a feeling of dread worming its way into his stomach. From where he was sitting, it did not look like they were having a friendly chat. Taylor was surrounded by a semi-circle of players, their backs to Lane, blocking Taylor completely from view. The circle closed in. Lane was more fearful for what would happen to Taylor than what had happened to him.
Lane ran onto the pitch, not sure what he was planning to do. He would never have done anything like this before, but he was a senior now, not a scrawny fourteen year old. Besides, he was there to defend Taylor, and nothing was going to stand in his way. If they touched a single hair on Taylor's head ...
Images of revenge shot into Lane's head. He was going to knock the shit out of every single one of the bastards for touching his brother. He was even angrier that there were so many of them ganging up on a fourteen year old. Whatever happened to a fair fight? As he approached, he focused on one of the bigger apes in the middle, and now had a plan. He was going to grab the bully, pull him away, and punch him as hard as he could in the nose.
Finn turned around at the last second, making Lane stopped in his tracks. Finn suddenly looked uncomfortable; the discomfort of boys who had barely spoken in three years. Lane could see that he was mistaken somehow—they had been surrounding Taylor, but none of them were hitting him. They were all smiling.
"Lane," Finn said. "Umm, hey. We were just—"
"Lane?" Taylor said. The semi-circle had opened and Taylor was beaming. "Lane! Guess what? They said I'm pretty much guaranteed to get a spot! Can you believe it? I'll probably the only freshman who's going to!"
"Wait, you're his brother?" Richard said to Taylor. Richard was the largest boy on the team, the one Lane was planning to hit. Lane knew exactly who Richard was, his face bringing back memories from what happened a few years before. "Aren't you that loser who writes the paper?" Lane looked at Taylor, the smile leaving the boy's face. Lane forced himself to smile.
"You did awesome Taylor," Lane said. "I'll wait for you, okay? Just text me when you're ready to go."
"Oh, will you wait for me too?" one of the other guys said.
"And me!" another one chimed in. They started laughing. Lane turned red. It was not the teasing that bothered him; it was the teasing in front of his brother. Taylor's face had fallen, and turned red as well.
"Hey, shut it you guys!" Finn shouted. "Lane's going to be the only reason you fuckers will make it to college. Did you know that scouts read the paper, to see how you idiots do out here when they aren't watching?" They reluctantly shut up; Lane walked away.
"Lane ... Lane!" Finn jogged over and caught up with Lane. Lane did not stop walking. "Sorry Lane. Those guys are assholes."
"Well they're your friends," Lane said. Lane stopped walking and turned to Finn. "And I don't need you to stick up for me. I can take care of myself, got it?"
"Yeah, yeah I know you can Lane. I wasn't...I was just telling them—"
"Well don't, okay?"
"Okay," Finn said. "I'm sorry. What did you want me to—"
"Nothing. I don't want you to do anything."
"Yeah. I get that," Finn said. "But look, with Taylor on the team, we're probably going to have to see each other sometimes, and I thought maybe—"
"Why's that Finn? Why would we need to have to see each other?"
"Well, I don't know, but we are now, aren't we?" Lane sighed.
"Yes, but only because...this was my fault. It'll never happen again," Lane said. "So do me a favour and fuck off."
--
Lane did not have bottles of scotch hidden only in the Hunter's office. It made for a perfect sense of symmetry (and of course, convenience), to have a bottle in his bedroom. He could afford to skip doing homework for one day, especially the first day of school. He poured himself a drink, turned on some music, and tried to drink Finn out of his head.