Living Years

Disclaimer: The following story contains activity that would be considered of homosexual nature between consenting college students. While none of it crosses into a gratuitous nature, if such material is offensive to you or you are not of the legal age to read such material in your area, please do not. Other than that, please enjoy the story!

The Living Years 26

Chapter 26 "Just Like a Fantasy"

It was like a dream the way the world worked.

The chaos and confusion that seemed to erupt from Dylan's attack seemed to be the breaking point that brought about a bit of harmony for everyone.

Grace agreed to dial back on the Pink Panther relief efforts as long as she was left alone to decide what was best for the club. Which essentially what was allowed for everyone to vote her as president of the club. And with the club having a president, they were given the proper funding they needed to become a real club, with rules and guidelines. Guidelines which included proper protection for the club and it's members, putting it right up there with every other club on campus.

Security was upped around campus, virtually eliminating the fear of random attacks. Dylan had healed and recuperated nicely. And thanks to Collin, people knew about all the good the Pink Panthers were up to.

Of course, it was like the saying went, that wasn't all.

Relationships had been upped to being stronger than ever. After having their dirty laundry aired out for everyone to see, Trey knew he could no longer escape the inevitable. He and Noah were forced to talk out their issues and it had led to them having the best sex they'd ever had together that same night.

Trey and Noah talking had forced Trey to talk to Shawn about what wasn't being said between them and for the time being, Shawn had promised to try not to cause problems between Trey and Noah and that they would continue to work on their own problems little by little.

Probably the thing that really gave them a boost was an upcoming holiday. A holiday that just screamed love.

"I don't know why everybody so damn excited," Grace spoke, with distaste. "Valentine's day is just like Christmas. A holiday invented by the man to get us to put more money out into the economy. We'd all be better off without both."

"Oh come on Grace, you just need to find the right guy," Noah spoke, sitting behind Trey and nibbling on his left ear gently. "Like me."

"Valentine's day is next Tuesday. The only people who find a man that don't have a man in that amount of time are the people you see standing on street corners at 3 am."

"Grace," Trey spoke, giggling from Noah blowing on the back of his neck. "Are you still not over that Josh guy and what he did to you? Cuz, I know it sucked-"

"No actually Trey, you DON'T know. Try having somebody completely fool you into thinking they're a perfect match for you only to turn out to be a sick perverted ass freak ready to put yo ass all over the next Girls Gone Wild video and YouTube."

"Girls Gone Wild? Those chicks are hot. I fucked a girl from one of those videos," Ben spoke, as if it were something to be proud of.

Everyone flashed him a look accordingly.

"I'm just gonna...not speak, again," Ben said, turning his attention back to his toast.

"Anyway, I feel bad Grace," Trey spoke. "I mean you're a huge part of the reason why I'm with Noah right now. I can't let you go on feeling like guys are the enemy to womankind."

"Well it's not ALL guys just A guy, and that asshole is the farthest thing from my mind right now," Grace lied.

The truth was that she remembered fondly how in the short amount of time that she'd gotten to know Josh that he'd made her feel things that she hadn't felt since Dro. And even then she felt like there was a deeper connection.

And then what happened, happened. And here she was.

"You know, I'm single," Dylan mentioned, rubbing his hands together as if he were getting in on some remarkable deal.

"Okay? And?" Grace replied before turning her attention to her own food.

It was almost like they were on good terms, but those terms left them with little to be excited about in their lives. Since before school had even started each week had held some crazy random problem that one or more of them were dealing with or needed to get past and since the incident with Dylan, things had been pretty normal for them. And none of them were quite sure how to cope with normal.

"Maybe you should just not think about it," Zoey said, feeling like she wanted to help.

"My roommate, a good example of the bitches I said stay on street corners, has a new man every night. Maybe I just need to be like her and go for the one night stand-"

"No, no Grace," Zoey interjected, "you have standards. That's a good thing. Let's stick to standards please."

"Standards ain't about to find me a man, are they?" Grace asked.

"Probably not Grace. But look at it this way, at least you didn't get with Josh before you found about him." Trey said.

"Yeah. Good thing, huh?" Grace sighed. ********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* The one thing Jesse took pride in was his ability to abstain from permanent attachments. Some people would call that laziness on his behalf. Others would simply write him off as being lonely, never having the fulfillment of a true companion and destined to choose solitude over friendship.

Jesse called it a safety precaution. It had happened to his brother nearly three times. The third time it had actually happened, him getting a female pregnant. Thankfully, he had enough money in his trust fund to pay the girl to get an abortion and keep quiet so that no one would ever have to know. One thing Jesse did know was that there was no way he was ever going to let that sort of thing happen to him. Thus his permanent displacement regarding the female species.

Unfortunately for him, he'd allowed himself to grow comfortable allowing the very girl that had kicked him out of her place to stay in his. It was almost like the two of them were an old married couple, as they argued about everything yet still shared an apartment together, not to Jesse's liking.

That had been what the norm was for nearly a month, as for whatever reason, Amber refused to go to her own home in favor of shacking up in his.

What was now the norm, however, was Amber and her new cohort in mischief Sierra failing to take several hints and detach themselves from Jesse's hip.

One girl was one containable thing. Two, very resourceful, very vengeful girls was something out of hand altogether. And something that was driving Jesse to quite a few aspirin a day.

Take the moment he was currently trapped in for example.

All he wanted to do was catch up on his computer with all the latest goings on in London, which is exactly what he had set out to do, firmly affixed to his chair at the desk in the corner of his room. Far be it for Amber and Sierra to understand or even care about his wishes in his own flat, as the two of them were giggling madly about various this and that's that he didn't care about, his bed covered in magazines.

"Why do people always say they can bounce a quarter off of somebody's ass? Do people even try that?" Amber asked, as she looked over a picture of a shirtless Brad Pitt in one of the magazines.

Sierra looked over the picture as well before flipping to the next page in her own magazine.

"Brad's overrated. But you know who isn't?" Sierra started before Jesse interrupted.

"You know what seems to be overrated at the current moment and time? Silence. And having one's own place to call home but I figure we'll work on one problem at a time."

Sierra and Amber exchanged glances before acting like nothing had been said and going back to their magazines.

"You know Jesse, you like to act like the world bothers you but the truth is that the two of us are doing you a favor," Sierra said while simultaneously flipping through magazine pages.

"What, one of the constant, all the time, variety?"

"One of the keeps all your dirty little secrets from being revealed to the world, Mr. Kiss and Brother Threatens to Tell All."

There was a point in time in which Jesse had thought that his brother and Noah were the only two people who knew about that. Unfortunately for him, that traumatizing experience had reduced him to apparent talking in his sleep, which Amber, who'd shared a bed with him several nights over, had been very privy to. That along with some other, more harming secrets, needed to stay just that. And as long as Amber, and now apparently Sierra knew about them, he was going to have to put up with the both of them.

Of course, that didn't mean he needed to be left without his best resource: his ability to think well and fast on his feet.

He leaned back in his chair, looking the two girls over before realizing what the most appropriate course of action to take would be, considering the upcoming holiday.

"So you two share everything now, I see," he started.

Sierra sighed, as if Jesse was annoying her and sat up on his bed pulling herself back until her back rested against the bed board at the front of the bed.

"So I guess you both know that at one point in time my brother that you hold with such high esteem was courting both you fine lasses?"

That was when pages stopped turning and the giggling stopped.

It wasn't so much what Jesse had said, as neither girl seemed to have a problem with the idea that they'd shared Nick. It now came down to a question of credibility and neither girl knew who to belief. It was the suspicion setting in.

"Oh well, I have to say that I for one am certainly not about sharing the love of my life with some other girl," Jesse said with a smug tone, "I'd have to pick. But who to pick when the choices are always together and so...similar? I don't know..."

Amber and Sierra each looked at each other. It was true that they'd seemingly put aside their differences to come to some sort of peaceful understanding. But that was only under one condition and he'd pretty much just issued them an undeniable challenge. Sure they were friendly, but they were far from friends, and despite how much they liked to bicker with him, they'd each seen Jesse at his weakest and realized there were plenty of redeeming qualities about him. Things that made him desirable boyfriend material. And Jesse was not someone they were willing to share with the other.

"You know, I did have things to do today," Sierra said, getting off of Jesse's bed.

"Yeah, I think the sisters are having a thing," Amber said.

"Yes," Jesse said, grinning, "you don't want to miss that."

Jesse didn't move a muscle as he watched Sierra and Amber peel themselves from his bed, look each other over in suspicion and disgust, and leave the apartment, without so much as a goodbye.

He figured they'd be frazzled. They'd go back to hating each other and him and that would end his permanent residence in their domain.

He sat back, crossing his hands behind his head with the firm new belief that life was suddenly a whole lot better. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Having come to the recent realization, thanks to the LOGO channel and several hours of gay porn, that they needed to work out if they wanted to stay in shape, Trey and Noah had started a workout program. One that was leaving them virtually drained every night for the past week. Which was the very reason they had been turning in early every night.

Noah was standing in his black boxer-briefs and grey wife beater, flossing in front of the small sink and mirror in the upper middle of the room. Trey was just finishing his shower in the bathroom while Jeremy was, as usual at his computer, building a new character for one of his games.

"Nobody ever told me there was a game where I could be a stud and get all the slutty loose women I wanted AND tell them what to do," Jeremy said, referring to the new game he'd gotten as a gift from a friend called The Sims 2.

"Why don't you wear glasses?" Noah found himself asking aloud randomly. "I mean, with that much screen time I'm surprised you haven't gone blind."

"People say you become the characters you create. I don't create blind losers that need glasses Noah. Strength prevails all," was Jeremy's response to which Noah promptly ignored and continued flossing right before Trey exited the bathroom, rubbing his hair with the towel.

"Jesse's right," Noah said. "You do take long showers."

"When did Jesse say that?" Trey asked, getting the feeling it was said but just not about him.

Noah watched Trey's ass in the mirror as he walked over and sat on the edge of his bed, pulling his sweatpants on.

"To think, that's what I get to sleep next to every night," Noah said with a sly grin on his face.

"I miss those days when that's all there was that happened in this room," Jeremy said. "Sleep."

"Sounds like someone needs a girlfriend," Noah chuckled.

"I'm curious," Trey started. "Have you ever had a girlfriend, Jeremy?"

"We've been over this before people," Jeremy replied. "Yes in the sense that she was a girl, she was a friend, and we had sex. Add time into the equation, and well we just won't go that far."

Trey stood up and walked over to the small table near the front of the room, taking a seat as he started to rub lotion over his legs. Meanwhile, Noah finished flossing and walked over to the bed, beginning to make it up.

"I have to say, Valentine's Day is the one holiday I can get behind, though," Jeremy said to interrupt the silence.

This statement caught both Trey and Noah off guard for several reasons, the most relevant of which lied in who made it.

"Why do you say that?" Noah asked.

"Because," Jeremy started, swiveling around in his chair to face both of them. "There are always less people together then than there is any other time because people break up more then. Vulnerability is an attractive scent on a girl."

"And takes advantage of is a bad one on a guy," Noah replied. "Besides, everyone knows Valentine's Day is a bunch of corporate bullshit anyway and anyone who's anyone could care less about the stupid day."

This was now something that had caught Trey off guard, as he'd been thinking that he and his boyfriend were along the same lines regarding the holiday. He figured if not, at the very least Noah would be willing to compromise for him.

"Yeah but Noah, it's great when you have someone to spend the day with. It makes the other person feel important and special," Trey said.

"As opposed to the other 364 non force fed days of the year right?"

Trey was now slightly annoyed with Noah. To the point where he didn't want to risk getting into another argument with him but also not really wanting to get into any debates this late at night. He figured that for now, he'd just let it go.

"Well, we can talk about it later I guess," he said, walking over to finish helping with the sheets.

Noah chuckled, thinking that maybe Trey was joking.

"You really think this is something we're gonna need to talk about later?" he asked, with a smile to try to mask the underlining tone in his voice.

Trey stopped helping, briefly for a moment as he looked over at Noah, who had already gone back to fixing the sheets.

"Well, yeah, I just figured we could take advantage of the day," he decided to try, simply.

"As opposed to the day taking advantage of us, right?" Noah chuckled, still not really understanding how serious Trey was.

It was throwing Trey off enough to leave him speechless. Jeremy, who was busy studying the situation, could tell easily just how serious Trey was. And either Noah couldn't see or didn't want to see, but the next thing he did proved just how over the conversation was for him.

"Hop in," Noah said, climbing into the bed and patting the space next to him.

Trey looked down and sighed before obliging Noah's request.

"See? Like we really need a special day for this," Noah said, leaving Trey feeling a bit uncomfortable. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

"You seen my Max Up stuff?" Ben asked, frantically throwing things around his room in search of this mysterious Max Up.

Shawn watched him make a complete mess of the room, throwing things around that he knew his best friend had no intention of picking up any time soon.

He and Ben had just finished their daily workout and had come back to his room to do what he thought would be some honest relaxing but it seemed like Ben had other things on your mind.

"Like you need it," Shawn replied. "I'd go for you if you weren't my best friend and I was a girl."

Ben decided to act as though the statement had caused him to become slightly uncomfortable as he continued his search.

"The Kappa Sigs are having a date auction for Valentine's Day," Ben started, settling a bit as he continued his search. "I wanna make sure I go to the highest bidder."

"So you and a bunch of horny frat guys' idea of the perfect Valentine's is to pimp yourselves out to desperate losers?" Shawn asked.

"Who says we're pimping ourselves out? It's all for charity. And besides, only the girls on Sorority Row are eligible as bidders. Have you seen those girls?"

"Yeah, I think Girls Gone Wild features a good 90 percent of them in its videos every month," Shawn replied before realizing it was only the second time Girls Gone Wild had been mentioned that day.

Ben continued to look around the room as a silence feel among them. Not really willing to let the entire subject rest, Shawn spoke up.

"So you're actually serious about this, aren't you?"

Ben, back turned to Shawn, grinned as he looked through his sock drawer.

"It's like taking all the work out of finding a girl to screw. They're coming to us AND paying for it. What's not to love?"

"Speaking OF love, the whole thing sounds less like hookers with hearts of gold and more take the money and run."

Ben turned around with a confused look on his face before he walked over to his sink, looking himself over in the mirror in front of it.

"I don't think you heard the part about it being for charity, dude," he replied.

"You can't tell me the whole thing doesn't sound just a little seedy," Shawn responded.

Ben shifted uncomfortably where he stood. Little by little he'd been slowly coming to terms with the idea that the guy he'd been best friends with since nearly the day he was born was gay. The idea alone was enough for him but so far, that had been all he'd had to cope with. He hadn't seen Shawn kiss another guy or do anything `gay' with another guy since he'd told him. And besides that, Shawn didn't seem to act any differently either. Ben was actually starting to realize that maybe what Shawn had told him about being in love with one single guy had been his problem and now that he couldn't have that guy, maybe he wasn't gay after all.

He turned back around to face Shawn as he crossed his arms, first looking at the ground then looking at Shawn.

"So do it with me," he said.

Shawn, not really sure whether or not Ben was being serious, eyed him for a moment before responding.

"What?"

"You're so concerned with me turning into charity's pimp, if you did the thing with me you could keep an eye on me," Ben replied.

This time Shawn figured Ben had to be serious. All their lives that had been how things worked between them. Neither one of them was exactly responsible but between them, Shawn had been the one looking out for Ben whenever it seemed he was getting in over his head. And now it seemed like even in college, things weren't any different.

"Ben, you are aware I'm gay right?" Shawn asked, half jokingly.

"Are you? I mean you said you and the one guy aren't gonna work out-"

"Yeah but-"

"So what's stopping you from walking out of here right now, going down a floor and convincing the first hot chick you see to suck you off?"

That was about when Shawn started to think for a moment. He knew he was gay. Or at least, thought he was gay. It was true he was in love with Trey, but he couldn't have Trey. Trey was with Noah and there didn't seem to be a whole lot he could do to change that. His interest in other guys had pretty much been non-existent otherwise. It was like he was just now coming to the conclusion that it was either one certain guy or no guys.

Maybe he wasn't gay after all.

"I don't know," Shawn replied.

Maybe he didn't have to be alone and miserable on Valentine's Day after all.

"See? All this time you thought you were gay when you were really just getting your dude on dude college experimenting done early," Ben replied. "I knew I could talk some sense into you."

Shawn was feeling like he had a new burst of energy all of a sudden. He wasn't sure if his friend was right but he was more than willing to find out.

"So I guess now all you gotta figure out is if you like blondes or brunettes?" Ben asked. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Grace wasn't really sure what was going on with her friends but she had a pretty good idea. They were all busy being the couples that they were with no time for her.

She knew that she couldn't fault them, really. She actually found it to be a little comforting the fact that she had no babysitters around. It was like they were all finally ready to let the reigns go and let her be on her own for once. And it certainly gave her the time she needed to get some much needed studying in before an impending lab exam.

That being said, she realized that library probably wasn't the best place for it. She and nearly every other freshman had come to realize that if you really took your classes seriously, as in had 4.0 aspirations, you would pick anywhere other than the library to study. Besides the on site McDonalds and TCBY, the library was more about group pow wows than anything and solo chill times were definitely out of the question.

At the moment she was starting to feel one of her new years resolutions pushing the line of temptation as a group of coeds walked past her, trays of Big Macs and fries on hand. Directly behind her was a couple, try to be quiet as the were, having an argument about something. The people near her in the couch like are she was seated in were all focused on their novels, something she couldn't possibly fathom as being possible given the amount of contained chaos there was going on.

Her surveying her surroundings had left her completely open to miss something very crucial heading directly into her own situation.

"Hi,"

Grace looked over. She'd heard the greeting. She saw the sincere look on his face. What she couldn't see what how he could possibly have the nerve to offer either to her.

And she wasn't about to stick around to get an explanation as she started gathering her things in untidy huff.

"Wait, Grace, can I just-"

"Last time I checked, you were still a lying perverted psycho this place conveniently forgot to background check before letting your ass in!"

"Grace-"

"Josh, get away from me. I'm not playing with you boy."

"Please, just give me five minutes."

In that moment, Grace found the statement almost amusing. Because while Josh probably wanted five minutes to try to justify his sick hobby, she was thinking about all the terrible things she'd have liked to say and do to him in five minutes.

"You know what Josh, you had me fooled and wrapped up in you because yes, I'll admit that you fine and sexy and whatever and yeah, I thought you were smart. But people said the same thing about Charles Manson and those people dead so see ya ass!"

"Grace wait-"

Grace knew herself well enough to know that she was too emotional to even begin to deal with something like that. She had things, calmer, more rational things she would have liked to say to Josh but seeing him was like a reminder of the huge mistake she nearly made.

It was also a reminder that despite how sick and depraved she thought he was, she could feel that she wasn't completely over him. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

It was a strange concept to Trey, spending time to himself. He was so used to everyone being together all the time dealing with problem x that any time he was alone felt foreign and strange.

He wasn't completely alone. He was in Noah's room and Jeremy was of course there, more than likely having never left. But the idea of everyone alone, no one together actually spending time apart was like something that would fit into his old life.

Of course, he figured there was no better time like the present to do his homework and studying and he didn't want to dwell for too long on the fact that he wasn't with one of his friends or boyfriend.

Noah was all that was on his mind anyway. It seemed completely beyond his understanding that Noah would just not be into Valentine's Day, the most romantic day of the year for any couple. The way he saw it, after as hard as they had to work just to get to the point they were at currently, at the very least they could just go to a romantic movie together or something. But even that seemed like it would be pushing things for Noah.

"Why does it always have to be about him anyway?" Trey found himself unintentionally blurting out in what was otherwise a pretty quiet room.

Realizing this was probably something he'd be interested in, Jeremy turned his attention away from the rather uneventful goings on in his game and over to Trey.

"Did that really just come out of your mouth?" he asked.

Trey had an idea of what Jeremy meant by that statement but decided to put it to the side as he let his legs hang off the side of the bed when he turned to face Jeremy.

"I just...I don't understand it at all. I know it's not because Noah's not the romantic type..."

Jeremy sat back in his chair trying to figure out a way to respond to Trey that would still make him seem like a totally objective third party commenter.

"Maybe he just feels like he'd have to top himself. Most guys peak around Valentine's Day relationship wise anyway," Jeremy replied.

Trey decided not to even begin to ponder how it was Jeremy could even have an idea of what he was talking about and instead decided to take solace in the fact that he was an active participant in the conversation.

"Still, it's not like we have to make it about something. It could just be like any other day."

"The fact that you're drawing so much attention to it automatically doesn't make it like any other day," Jeremy replied, before suddenly feeling like there was something that Trey just didn't get.

Trey sighed and quietly thought before Jeremy decided to speak up.

"You gotta understand something," he started. "For Noah, every day is just another day because he's used to days that mean something just blending into other days."

"What are you-"

"His family...have you met them?"

Trey thought for a moment.

"I..."

"There's a reason for that. Look, I think you really should just let it go. I don't think he's gonna budge on this one. Besides you can always just appreciate the fact that you're actually gonna have a boyfriend on Valentine's Day."

Jeremy hadn't realized it but the words that had just left his mouth had filled Trey's mind with thoughts that were making his head spin out of control. He hadn't thought about it before but he really hadn't met anyone from Noah's family. At least not officially. It wasn't like he'd met anyone else's family besides Jesse's brother and Shawn's parent's briefly, but those were different circumstances. He and Noah had been dating for nearly three months now, despite their rough patches.

Maybe it was time he got to the bottom of Noah's problem with holidays. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

"Now I remember exactly why I didn't want to pledge here," Shawn spoke with disgust as he and Ben stood at the front door of the Kappa Sig fraternity house.

Shawn looked around. The head of the fraternity, David Miller, had called a meeting of all the brothers. Despite Shawn thinking that calling a meeting was something formal, the place itself hadn't seen a day of cleaning in it's life let alone ever heard the phrase. It was so full of clutter that it was almost impossible to see the floor.

"It's not so bad," Ben spoke, beaming with a pride Shawn couldn't comprehend.

"Which is why you have a dorm room," Shawn reminded Ben as the two of them made their way into the dinning room to join everyone else.

A blonde missing the top to her bikini came running and laughing past the two of them as a muscled athlete in beach shorts ran after her, the missing top clutched firmly in his hands.

Shawn wanted to say something about the place being an absolute zoo but decided against it as he could tell the impromptu meeting was about to begin.

"So, just so we're clear, you all are participating in the date auction right?" David asked, looking around the room.

"Ah, about that," Ben spoke up. "You guys all remember Shawn right?"

Shawn could hear the room get noticeably quieter, with a few people clearing their throats uncomfortably.

"Yeah, sorry bro. We're not letting dudes bid on us in this thing," David replied, hoping to sound as diplomatic and non judgmental as possible.

"Funny thing, turns out," Ben started, placing and arm around Shawn's shoulders. "He's not so gay anymore. You know those phases, everyone has em right?"

No one really said anything. In fact several people had `not me' looks on their faces.

"Did I mention he probably knows the guys that you guys know," Ben spoke, knowing the statement was loaded enough that he wouldn't have to say anymore.

"So, pussy. You're back on it you say?" David asked, with a slight chuckle.

Shawn looked over at Ben, still beaming, before forcing a slight grin.

"Uh..."

"So, let's get down to business," David started. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

While Shawn was probably regretting his decision to become a potential piece of meat, elsewhere Amber was writing what she knew would be the most heartfelt letter she'd ever written.

The truth was that she had always had a thing for Jesse, from the moment he introduced himself to her. And she hadn't wanted throw him out when she did and especially the way she did. He had just frustrated her into reaching a breaking point that caused he to do something that she now terribly regretted. And she had way too much pride to admit that she was wrong out loud.

She figured the best way to make things up to Jesse and herself would be to write down her feelings as best she could. She'd already invited Jesse over to take the letter she was writing and figured he was well on his way to her.

She was in such a good mood she felt like absolutely nothing could get in the way of that and wasn't going to let anything get in the way of that.

Of course, her being in such high spirits left her in a position to have them dashed and as of late, nothing seemed to do that better than-

"Sierra! WHAT are you doing in here?" Amber asked after hearing the door to her room slam and realizing Sierra was the culprit.

"If you're gonna leave your door unlocked, I'm gonna let myself in," Sierra replied. "Be glad it was me and not some psycho coed killer."

"I actually would prefer that, thank you," Amber spoke matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, death is always the best thing right Am?" Sierra spoke, jumping on top of Amber's bed. "Just a friendly face."

"That's such a bitchy thing for you to do, acting like we're friends."

"But aren't we?"

Amber decided to get back to her original question before she went any further with Sierra.

"What are you doing here Sierra?"

Sierra, deciding not to answer the question at all decided instead that she was more interested in what Amber had been up to before she'd surprised her.

"What's that?"

She made a move to grab Amber's heartfelt letter but Amber quickly jumped up and intercepted her completely, moving the letter behind her back as Sierra stood in front of her.

The two girls stood looking eye to eye, challenging each other without speaking before there was a knock at the door. For a moment, no one made any sudden movements but Amber, realizing she had a pretty good idea who was standing outside her door, decided to forgo her stare down between them and rushed to the door.

"She's trying to kill me Jesse, help me!" Amber proclaimed upon opening the door as she threw her arms around Jesse and hugged him while feigning tears.

"Like I'm the first person to try," Sierra mumbled.

"No, you just would've been the person that would get away with it," Amber spoke, sniffling. "Get rid of her so we can talk."

"I like a good stress free environment," Jesse started, removing Amber's arms from around his shoulders. "Maybe I'll go find such a place and leave the two of you to...your own devices."

"No Jesse wait!" Amber exclaimed. "I have something for you."

Amber was going to pull the letter she had clutched behind her back to her front to show Jesse only Sierra had gotten to it first, instead taking it from her and placing it behind her own back.

"No she doesn't," Sierra replied.

Amber, nearly amazed with both Sierra's speed and tenacity turned around and could do nothing but gasp at her.

"You did not just do that!" she said.

"How very high school and appropriate for the two of you," Jesse sighed, the boredom he felt evident in his time. "I thought perhaps I was going to be treated to a threesome involving you and that hot tottie Heather, but the fake odd couple situation you've come up with is highly grating."

"No, Jesse-"

"I believe I should go," Jesse said, wasting no time in his haste to remove himself from the entire situation.

"Jesse-"

"Bye Jesse! Thanks for stopping by!" Sierra called out before it was just her and Amber, alone in the room.

Amber straightened herself up and tossed her hair back. There was no denying she was furious at the current moment. But she wasn't about to let anything ruin her chances with Jesse. She was going to get past this.

"You think you're smart don't you?" she asked.

Sierra chuckled and took a seat on Amber's bed as Amber walked past her.

"You know Amber, I get it. You saw him first, you think you get him first. And the son of a rich magazine publisher looks real good on the arm of an over tanned fake Britney wannabe."

"I am NOT over tanned!"

"But you know what? Jesse's not into that and I'm gonna prove it."

Amber and Sierra locked eyes.

"And how are you gonna do that?" Amber asked.

"By getting Jesse to be my Valentine. Which he will. Cuz I'm better. And I always win."

"Yeah, I don't think so Lewinski plus thirty pounds!" Amber objected.

A face off had arose between the girls and each one knew that despite how much they didn't want to happen, one of them would come out on top. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Trey had was hoping time would be all he needed to work up his nerve. He'd allowed time to pass in the amount of a few days, bringing things to the weekend for him.

The nerve he lacked didn't seem to have manifested in the span of a few days but he'd already made up his mind that he was going to do it anyway. Which was why he'd come up with such an elaborate plan to cover his tracks.

Grace was going to be doing some research for the Pink Panthers next project, that on top of the one they were already tackling. Zoey was going to help along with Dylan and a couple of other people from the group. Noah had his own research project to do for his Music Studies class and despite the amount of pleading and prodding he had to do, Trey had managed to convince him to do his research with everyone else so he had a little company. And even that almost backfired and would have had it not been for Grace and Zoey doing a little pleading of their own and a promise from Trey that he'd fill them in on his little secretive plan once he was finished.

Trey had explained it that his mother needed him to come home for the weekend to help with some things around the house, and being the caring, loving boyfriend that he was, of course Noah volunteered to help. But the pleading was keeping him at school, and had left Trey free to pursue his other plans.

And his plans had led him directly to Noah's family.

He got the address from one of Shawn's bags and had made arrangements for a taxi to take him directly to it.

And here he was.

"This is the right place, right?" the taxi guy at the front asked.

Trey took another moment to look out the window before leaning back and sighing.

"I guess," he replied, with as much conviction as he could muster.

The truth was that he was a little surprised. Not that Noah had exactly confirmed it one way or the other, but Trey had it somehow figured out in his mind that his house would be some kind of trailer or beat down mess in a bad neighborhood. He'd told him time after time that his parent's were near drunks, throwing the type of parties that high school kids threw, trashing their own home and not caring one way or the other how their children felt about it.

The place that stood on the outside before him was more than put together from the looks of it. Putting aside the fact that it was nearly three times larger than his own home and only a one story at that, the front yard was immaculately decorated, from the bushes surrounding the windows that were trimmed just so, to the near glowing green grass that seemed to be every bit as real as it looked even in the winter, the place was as close to a mansion as one could get a one story home in a, as far as he could tell, perfect suburban neighborhood.

Trey paid the driver and told him he could go, having already made arrangements for another taxi to pick him up later.

He'd come here hoping to gain some insight into why it seemed like Noah had so many latent bitter tendencies and already gained enough information to confuse him even further. Unless Noah had been adopted and just hadn't gotten around to telling him so, Trey could see no reason for him to feel jaded about anything let alone the holidays.

The fact that he was surprised had probably taken away much of the fear he had in coming here as before he could stop himself, he realized he'd already rung the doorbell.

He waited a few moments before the door opened, and a tall gruff man who didn't look a day older than thirty, answered the door a beer in hand. Trey took a guess that the man had to be Noah's father. Despite the fact that he was devastatingly attractive, from the full head of messy hair that Trey was familiar with and the large arms that had always been a major selling point for him, he didn't look a thing like what Trey had pictured.

"Look, I already told the last one of you that I'm not going Jehovah's Witness. I don't care if you did change into some normal clothes," Noah's father answered.

"Um...I'm not-"

"Nope, don't wanna buy a candy bar either. Wait, you're not Chris's boy are you?"

"What?"

"Nah, you don't look a thing like him," Noah's dad responded with a chuckle.

"Uh, yeah, I'm-"

"One of Noah's friends." came the voice of another male, this time one Trey did recognize, from behind Noah's dad. "I remember you."

Noah's father looked back at the guy behind him, who Trey assumed had to be Noah's brother, as they did look alike. He seemed a little annoyed to see him and let out an appropriate sigh to go with the look.

Trey was getting more and more confused with each sigh, word and gesture. So far his expectations had gone out the window and had been replaced with shock and more shock.

"Don't be a fucking jerk, dad. Let him in," Noah's brother spoke.

"How about I let him in and lock you out?" Noah's dad spoke. "Talk to me like that again, why don't you."

And that was the last thing Noah's dad said before completely disappearing, leaving Trey with a slightly intimidating but familiar face.

"Uh..."

"Come in man," Noah's brother spoke, moving aside to make room for Trey to come in.

Trey wasn't sure why, but he hesitated for a moment but decided to come in. That was when he found a bit more surprise to go with his shock.

He wasn't sure what he was expecting, especially after being so wrong about what the outside would look like, but the inside was even more of a shock. Absolutely nothing was trashed, like Noah led him to believe. Quite the opposite actually, as everything from the carpet to the walls had so much depth and detail that he couldn't see anyone in their right minds wanting to destroy something so nice.

The thing he kept thinking as he followed Noah's brother directly past the living room and to a large hallway and into the door before the last one at the end of it was how much the place reminded him of a house he'd seen a few times on the MTV Cribs show. While he wasn't sure if he believed the place had ever been trashed, he did believe the place would be an ideal place to throw a party. He was even in the mood to throw a party in the place and he didn't even like parties.

"Sorry about that guy. He's bitter because no one likes him," Noah's brother spoke.

"Was that Noah's...I mean your...dad?" Trey asked nervously, not really sure what to do with himself once inside the room he took to belong to Noah's brother.

"Have a seat," Noah's brother spoke. "I'm Bryce by the way. And yeah, that's good old dad. Well he's not really either of those things but he knows that."

That statement alone seemed to validate the idea that Noah's father probably wasn't as old as most fathers with a 20 year old would be.

Trey sat down awkwardly on top of Bryce's bed, which he quickly learned was actually a waterbed. He'd never been on a waterbed before and wasn't quite sure how to manipulate himself into it properly, so he just floated on top of it for a bit before deciding to leave well enough alone and remained perfectly still.

He noticed that, from the amused look on Bryce's face that he seemed to be some kind of interesting spectacle to him.

"What?" Trey asked.

"Nothing," Bryce smiled, obviously trying to hold back a laugh.

"Glad I could brighten up your day with a little laughter," Trey spoke, a bit bitterly. "At least one of us in the room isn't uncomfortable."

"I'm sorry, just, you're nothing like the kind of friends that Noah seems to have," Bryce replied. "In a good way. You're.."

"What? Black?" Trey asked, nervously.

"Normal," Bryce clarified.

Again, Trey was surprised. He wasn't sure how to process that statement. He hadn't met any of Noah's friends and Noah had never mentioned any of them at all. Trey figured Noah probably felt like he never had to since he had never had any of his own to tell Noah about so the topic probably never came up.

As far as he could tell so far, Noah's family was perfectly normal, with perfectly normal lives, and everything he thought he knew about his boyfriend was a lie.

"So," Bryce started. "You didn't come by to tell us Noah died or anything did you? Cuz that would so suck."

"No," Trey replied. "I just...I don't know now. I wanted to see for myself-"

"How to raise a loser?" Bryce asked. "You're normal, or at least you seem to be so I have to assume the rest of Noah's friends are normal now, right?"

Trey stared at Bryce awkwardly.

"I...guess, so, yeah," he replied.

"Yeah, so you wanted to figure out what kind of world he came from right?" Bryce asked.

Trey didn't respond. That was probably the best way to sum up the reason he came but he was cautious to admit it.

Bryce looked around.

"No bags?"

Trey flashed Bryce a confused look.

"You can't learn all about the Davis family history in a single night," Bryce replied, matter-of-factly.

"I...cant?" Trey asked.

"Nope," Bryce replied with a grin, making Trey go from feeling a world of shocked to feeling like he'd gotten in over his head and there was nothing he could do about it. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

"Damn boy I said NO mayonnaise," Grace whined, looking over her Big Mac with cheese. "Who I look like to you? Black people don't eat mayonnaise."

"A lot of black people don't eat, either," Dylan shot back. "And yet, here you are, eating for free."

"Ima let that slide only cuz you did buy the food," Grace replied. "And all the research is making me feel like Mo' Nique when she don't get fed on the hour."

"Yeah, remember when THAT'S what we came here for? Research," Noah said, tapping his highlighter over his textbook as he looked around.

There were about eight of them total in their group, including the guy with all the piercings and the girl with the obscenely bright pink hair, and everyone but him was now in the process of consuming their all American junk food.

Noah wasn't in the best of moods to begin with. Having an impending exam was leaving him feeling stressed as it was but that was added with the fact that his boyfriend had apparently not wanted him to help with his stuff his mom wanted him to do. On top of everything, he now had to deal with Grace and her band of losers, who had all pretty much done everything aside from studying anything.

Still, the only reason he wasn't pulling out his hair in utter anger was the fact that all the chaos he had going on was keeping him from realizing that despite that they hadn't been apart long, he missed Trey.

"All you gotta do to keep the gravy train rolling is let me be your man," Dylan spoke, trying as best he could to cozy up to Grace.

"I had a man, he almost killed my best friend. Then I almost had another man, he almost put my ass all over YouTube. My guess is they all just gonna go down from there," Grace sighed.

"See, I wouldn't be like that," Dylan said. "Matter of fact, who's this chump that almost humiliated you and put you on YouTube?"

"Don't worry about it boy, it's in the past," Grace replied, taking a sip of her Sprite.

"His name was Josh," Zoey said. "Josh Morton. All star, sophomore football player by day, scumbag with an internet, life ruining porn fetish by night."

"Didn't I say I didn't wanna talk about it? Damn," Grace spoke bitterly, looking down at her work as if she were heavily involved with it.

Things between the group of friends had grown quiet for a few moments as everyone ate their food. Everyone except Grace, Dylan and Noah. While Noah was busy trying to do what he hoped was passing for studying, Grace was too deep in her thoughts to even consider her food anymore. And no one was quite sure what Dylan was up to. At least, they weren't sure up until he let out a small frustrated sigh.

"Not counting the fact the guy probably weighs two times more than me, I don't think I can handle taking this guy down," Dylan spoke.

"I told you to leave it alone didn't I?" Grace asked.

"And I was gonna let you think I did and go kick this guy's ass. Until I realized that ya'll got the wrong guy."

The food in Grace's lap fell to the floor and stayed there, as she made no move to pick it up. This had caused even Noah to look up from what he was doing, paying attention.

"Did nobody look the guy up then?" Dylan asked, looking around at the few shocked faces he saw.

"His ass was a dirty fool. Why would I go back and look him up? Why are YOU looking him up NOW?" Grace asked.

"I told you, I wanted to help make things right. I went on Facebook. There's two different Josh Morton's that go to this school. One doesn't seem to exist, probably because he runs a scumbag life ruining porn ring that he doesn't want people pinning on him. The other is, like you said, a football player, quarterback, for the school with a 4.0, fluent in four languages, travelled to several different countries and volunteers for charity."

Everyone seemed to be speechless.

"Oh and in case anyone was doubting, I cross checked this stuff with the school website. It all checks out on his player profile on the sports webpage."

Grace exchanged a glance with Zoey that caused Zoey to hard-swallow the food that was in her mouth.

"Are you telling me I threw books the perfect guy's head?" Grace asked. "Damn!"

"Uh, wait a sec, remember he was stalking you to begin with?" Noah asked, hoping Grace would look at the negatives involved as well.

"Maybe he's just shy," Zoey suggested, happy to help with trying to improve the mood of a friend that had been down for weeks.

"The quarterback of a state championship winning football team?" Noah asked, cynically.

So many different thoughts were running through Grace's head. It was true that Josh had seemingly stalked her before working up the nerve to talk to her, but there had been no indication in her mind that would seem to give off the kind of warning bells she would have had flashing had she even suspected he was going to be another creep, like Dro.

She realized now that she went off the word of Jesse, who went of the word of Amber, who was the absolute last person she'd trust on a list of reliable sources. She washed her hands of the guy, or tried to, by not looking him up and not thinking about him as much as she could help it.

But she knew, deep down that there was a connection. Dylan had pretty much described her perfect guy. And she already knew he looked perfect physically.

"I think you should find him, get his side of the story," Zoey spoke.

"What?" Noah and Dylan asked simultaneously.

"Yeah," Grace spoke. "Yeah, even if I don't trust him right away, I could always do some snooping around his place. Ask his roommate, don't let him come back to my place until I'm sure."

"Sounds like you already don't trust the guy," Noah said.

"I don't know him. At least, not yet," Grace smiled, suddenly feeling like the entire inside of her body was warm. She was filled with a rush of anticipation and nervousness she'd only felt during big moments in her life. She wasn't sure yet if this was going to qualify as a big moment but it certainly felt like one.

"Hold up, hold up. I was trying to help you get over the guy not help the guy score some ass," Dylan complained.

Zoey and Grace were apparently not listening as they were off in their own little world talking about the things girls would talk about when guys were involved.

"Haven't you learned the most important thing there is to know about women yet?" Noah asked, putting a firm a hand on Dylan's shoulder.

"What?" Dylan asked.

"Even when you think you're helping, you're really not," Noah replied, with a grin before adding "Why do you think my girlfriend's a guy?"

Dylan sighed, realizing that once again he was losing a girl he never had to someone else. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

"Who buttons up the top button?" Ben asked after looking Shawn over as he entered the kitchen of the Kappa Sig frat house, which had turned into a makeshift locker room of sorts for the date auction participants.

"I look fine," Shawn replied simply.

"Yeah, if you're in high school. We're not in high school anymore bro," Ben replied. "Here, lemme help."

Shawn stood there was Ben unbuttoned the top, next, next, next, and next buttons on his shirt so that his chest was almost entirely visible. He then proceeded to run his fingers through Shawn's slightly gelled hair, forcing it up in a spiked like manner but in one that was also in slight disarray as well.

It didn't really surprise Shawn that Ben wanted him looking more like all the other guys that were participating. Most of them weren't wearing much either. Ben himself was wearing one of those sleeveless shirts, the ones Shawn hated, that had been cut so far back it showed off his pecs.

"If you guys've already screwed most of the girls doing this thing, why do you even care?" Shawn asked.

"That's just it," Ben replied. "We're hoping the ones we haven't screwed are the ones that win."

"Isn't this supposed to be a date auction?" Shawn asked.

"Fuck the date, I want some action," Ben cheered along with several other guys in the kitchen before David made his presence known to everyone.

"Alright so listen up," he started. "We got a lotta horny women out there waiting to get into our pants. Remember the rules, you gotta take condoms with you and no videotaping the shit that goes down. Oh and no bullshit you know'll get the officials on our nuts, kay?"

There were a few chuckles and grunts in the room leaving Shawn feeling slightly suspicious as to thinking there was something going on that he had an idea about but wasn't entirely 100 percent certain of. He had some things he wanted to say and some things he knew he probably should say but figured until he was actually sure that he should leave well enough alone.

"Let's go!" David cheered along with everyone else, who started chanting like they were in the army somewhere as they made their way into the living and dinning room area.

Shawn was actually a bit surprised with how organized everything was now. The complete mess the place had been just a few days earlier now looked like it had never been dirty a day in its life. There was a large red stage set up in the area where the wall covering bookshelf had been in the living room, with curtains behind it and a podium to the left. There were about five large circular tables set up along the living room where all the furniture had been previously, each table looking like it held about six or seven girls.

There obviously wasn't enough guys to go around.

Shawn also noticed the large sign on the left side of the room that read `Kappa Sig Date Auction'. The year was missing, Shawn noticed, but that was probably the least important detail in a long list of other unimportant details he didn't care about.

The way it had been explained to him by Ben, the guys would be heading onto the stage randomly in groups of five and the girls would be bidding in groups of five as well. If none of the five girls wanted any of the guys in the group or there were any of the five guys remaining at the end of the first round, it would shift to the second set of girls, guys or both. For something that Shawn felt to be so cheap and tacky, there certainly was a lot of thought put into it, he noticed.

Ben, some guys name Cliff, Jacob and Ricky were all in the first group along with himself. From the perspective of a guy who had no qualms about sizing up other guys look-wise, Shawn couldn't find one particularly unattractive guy in the entire group of guys participating. Sure there were some that he would probably never be attracted to but that didn't mean they didn't have their redeeming qualities.

Shawn was still trying to take everything before being totally thrown into a state of semi panic and shock when the lights dropped somewhat, replacing themselves with flashing lights and two bold white lights directed towards the stage. This was accompanied by a loud near booming of music coming from somewhere he couldn't quite place.

The entire thing had suddenly turned into some kind of show and Shawn was feeling a lot more uncomfortable about it that before.

He could barely see out into the groups of girls sitting before him and he could barely hear anything that was going on but he put on a smile anyway and sucked it up for his best friend.

"First piece of man meat ladies is this guy right here, my main man, Ben `Big Daddy' Smith! One guess as to why they call him big daddies ladies," David called out, as he was the announcer for the show.

Apart from the cheering, roars, and cat calls Shawn could also hear a bit of clapping as well.

"What should we start the bidding on ladies? Say...fifty bucks? Oh and remember, ladies, you have our bio and stat charts sitting right in front you which does include...length, shall we say," David spoke.

The only thing Shawn could think at that point was how they found time to measure their penises and if they could possibly be accurate listings if they happened to do their own measuring.

The entire thing was quickly overwhelming him. A year ago he would been all for this kind of thing. Now, as a college student who'd already gone through more bullshit than he ever did in high school, he was a bit more wise to life. He would never admit it out loud and knew that it probably wasn't true, but he honestly felt like the most mature person in the room.

"Dude," Ben spoke so that only the two of them could hear what he had to say. "You gotta smile more. Nobody likes a downer."

Things were quickly becoming more grand a spectacle than Shawn would have liked to imagine they would. The four girls sitting directly in front of the stage, obviously girls who weren't eligible to bid this round, all simultaneously stood up and pulled their shirts up, flashing their goods for all the guys to see.

And that was about when Shawn felt like he lost any small bit of desire he had to prove himself wrong. Even if he couldn't have Trey, seeing four hot girls' breasts and feeling like he wanted to puke afterwards fully cemented the notion that he was gay and no amount of date auctioning and free sex was going to help change that.

"I think I have to go," Shawn mumbled so low he wasn't sure Ben had even heard him.

Only he had.

"What? Shawn you can't leave-"

"This stuff isn't for me anymore. Oh and avoid the last girl on the left. She clearly has a secret she's not telling anyone about," Shawn spoke without waiting for anything further from anyone.

He knew he was disappointing his best friend and it had always been something that he was afraid to do but the truth of the matter was that he now knew without a shadow of a doubt who he was and he knew that he was going to have to face the fact that a lot of people were going to be disappointed with him for that.

If they cared anything about him at all, he knew they'd try to get past it. Otherwise, he truly would be alone in the world. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

"So, how'd you sleep?"

Trey found it just a little creepy that as soon as he'd walked out of Noah's door-less room that his brother, Bryce seemed to be outside waiting for him.

"Good," he replied, a bit awkwardly.

He'd slept in Noah's room and in Noah's bed. He wanted to assume that the large t-shirt that was borderline coming down to his knees was also Noah's but he'd already seen the kind of clothes his boyfriend dressed in and they were, if anything else, too small rather than too big.

"Found one of dad's old t shirts in there too," Bryce spoke, looking Trey over.

Trey took the liberty of looking himself over as if he didn't already know what he was wearing before feeling utterly disgusted that he was wearing someone else's shirt.

"So take a shower, get made up cuz I'm taking you on a field trip," Bryce said.

"A field trip?"

"More like, a day in the life of Noah Davis. Should be interesting huh?"

Trey returned the eager grin that Bryce was flashing him. That was the outside. On the inside he was feeling like the only thing that lied ahead was a certain kind of trouble. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Rosa could make a lot of different, wonderfully exotic meals. It had gotten to the point that Jesse could recognize her cooking based on smell alone. There was always just the smallest hint of a spice that just brought the flavor of the food out into the air. It was always a wonderful thing to smell her cooking.

The smell he was currently smelling however smelt like someone had cut off the head of a deer and was currently roasting every little thing that had been inside of it. Needless to say, it wasn't a very pleasant smell.

He was just about to call out the name of his housekeeper when he heard shuffling coming towards his door. He knew that Rosa didn't shuffle and all of a sudden felt panicked. Like there was someone in his apartment that he knew shouldn't have been in his apartment.

He looked around from his bed, searching frantically with his eyes for something to use as a weapon. His search was cut short when he heard a hand on the door and he quickly shot back down and closed his eyes. He figured if he was being robbed, as long as he wasn't awake the culprits wouldn't kill him for fear he could identify them.

"Wake up sleepy head!"

`Wake up sleepy head' was not something Jesse wanted to ever hear in the morning. Especially if it had come from none other than-

"Sierra! What in God's name are you doing here?" Jesse asked, sitting up and revealing that he clearly had not been asleep.

"Making you breakfast," Sierra replied, near slapping a bed tray into his lap containing the likes of highly charred bacon, slightly charred pancakes, some whitish yellowish mess that resembled eggs and something Jesse was only going to assume had to be sausage.

"Are you off your rocker? How did you even get past security?" Jesse asked.

Since moving into the dorm hall and having it renovated, Jesse had seen fit to hire not only a permanent doorman but a front desk security system that only welcomed signed in visitors. He'd bribed everyone else in the apartment complex with $3,000 checks to get over it, which they happily did.

"I think that cute guy at the front has a crush on me and Rosa was happy to hear she had the day off when I told her I'd be taking care of you for the day," Sierra replied, smiling happily as she jumped atop Jesse's bed.

This wasn't what he wanted at all. He'd already gotten rid or one loony nutter's company only to have her be replaced by another.

"Besides, I have our whole day planned out-"

"Sorry, you what?"

"Spending all sorts of time with ME and not her-"

"What are you on about-"

"It'll be fun, so eat up and get dressed and we'll-"

Sierra's solemn words were aptly cut off when she and Jesse both heard the door behind them slam shut only to see Amber standing in front of it, arms crossed and a very pissed off look on her face.

"For the love of God, what nightmare have I awoken to?" Jesse asked aloud.

Sierra, a scowl on her face, jumped off of the bed and rushed over to Amber.

"Who let you in here?" Sierra asked.

"Tim, the cute guy at the front has a crush-"

"No, who let you in HERE?" Sierra cut Amber off.

"Door was unlocked. I let myself in, whore!" Amber shouted. "What, you thought you could seduce my boyfriend?"

"Boyfriend?" Jesse asked, aghast with shock and disgust.

"Jesse, don't eat whatever she found in the trash for you. I bet it's probably poisoned!" Amber shouted.

"I save all that stuff for people like you, bitch!" Sierra shouted back.

Listening to the two girls he despised most yet cared about the most in the world go off shouting at each other at such an early time in the morning, one thing became evidently clear to him. He was never going to be able to decide between the two of them. Even if he wanted to, the two of them would never stand for it. They were better off friends, or better off enemies, but neither one would be better off with him involved.

It was time for him to do a little shouting of his own.

"Alright come off it!" he boomed, his voice now the only thing of sound in the room.

Both Sierra and Amber looked like two little girls dealing with their father after knowing they had done something wrong.

"Neither of you hold my fancy, so neither of you will, and listen to this next part very closely, neither of you will EVER, EVER, be my girlfriend. Do you understand that, yes?"

Neither Amber nor Sierra moved for the longest time. It looked like both of them were working to fight back tears or something. Jesse almost felt bad for what he'd said to them. They hadn't left him feeling that way for long, however.

"Who said we wanted that you self centered little boy," Sierra spoke.

"Yeah, I like football player, jock types of guys, not average little British losers!" Amber added.

"Now, now," Jesse started with an uncomfortable chuckle. "No need to be anything less than friendly about this."

"Friends? Neither of you are my friend, I just came cuz I wanted to watch the Real World on your tv but I changed my mind now," Amber spoke.

"Yeah," Sierra spoke as if she'd come for the same reason.

She and Amber started out of the room, Sierra turning around and coming back for her tray of most inedible food and slamming the door behind her, leaving Jesse once again feeling hugely confused by the two most important females in his life. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

It had taken Grace nearly all day to come up with the courage to do what she was about to do. She knew now for sure that the guy she'd let herself get so wrapped in and the guy that had gotten himself so wrapped up in Amber were two completely different guys and that she owed the first one an apology.

For a lot of things, really. For throwing multiple books at his head. For accusing him of being something so vile and disgusting. And for letting herself believe it.

She never wanted to believe and probably had never fully believed it but she was willing to let someone who potentially could have been a perfect match for her slip through her fingers. And now she was just hoping that someone like Josh, who could have any girls he wanted, didn't currently have one.

"Okay boy, I'm here. You can go," Grace said, letting out a sigh.

"Nope. Not until I get a good look at this guy," Noah said. "You think I wanna leave you alone with him?"

"He ain't no creepy freako, Noah, we know that now," Grace replied.

"Still, I'm sticking around until I check the guy out first," Noah replied.

Grace figured there was no point in arguing with him any further and decided to just go for it. She let out another deep breath and paused for a moment before lifting her hand, balling it into a fist, and striking the door in front of her with it three times.

She'd barely waited all of three seconds before doing an about face turn.

"Okay, he's not here, let's go," she spoke quickly, starting down the hallway just as fast.

A second later the door opened, and Noah who'd turned to watch Grace go, turned back to face Josh as he appeared before him.

"Yeah, can I...wait, I remember you," Josh spoke.

"Just remember, I didn't throw the books at your head," Noah spoke, realizing that even though he'd never admit it, Josh was a little bit intimidating, probably outweighing him but a good sixty or so pounds. "Grace!"

Grace stopped in the middle of the hallway, refusing to turn around.

"Grace?" Josh asked, stepping out into the hallway a little more, Noah gladly obliging by moving out of the way.

Grace turned around slowly.

"Yeah, it's me...sorry about throwing books at yo head when I thought you was a dirty ass psycho and happy Valentine's Day. Gotta go."

"Grace!" Noah called after her.

"You know, I don't care about that!" Josh called out after Grace.

Grace stopped again, turning back around.

"I figured you had me mixed up or something. I'm just glad you figured it out so you could, hopefully, give me the chance of getting to know you better, no cameras involved, I promise," Josh spoke.

Grace looked over at Noah who just smiled before starting back towards Josh, a smile growing on her own face.

"Well, I...guess that's cool. I do kinda owe you," she said.

"Yeah, you do," Josh replied.

She just smiled at Josh smiling at her before realizing out the corner of her eye that Noah was still standing there.

"Okay boy, go, damn!" she spoke.

"Leaving. Now," Noah spoke, starting towards the end of the hallway, happy that his friends all had someone and suddenly feeling just a little unhappy that his own boyfriend was gone for the weekend. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

"Take another one!" Kaz shouted to a crowd of excited people all ready to catch a falling local musician from the stage.

Trey and Bryce were at the back of the club watching everything that was going on. This, apparently was the last stop on a tour of stops around town.

After their awkward encounter earlier in the morning, Trey had the unfortunate pleasure of having some one on one time with Noah's parents. When they weren't offering him a beer every five minutes they were letting him know it was okay if he wanted to light up a joint because they did all the time. Trey couldn't see how two physically perfect people could have so many dirty and unhealthy habits. Not to mention every other word out of his fathers mouth was some racist joke. He didn't make any about black people, but Trey had a feeling it was only because he happened to be there. He could only imagine what he had to say about them when he wasn't around.

Bryce quickly explained to Noah that things hadn't always been like that. Apparently, he and Noah had had another brother who died when he was born about three years earlier. Right around Valentine's Day of that year. That apparently set everyone off into tangents that they didn't normally exist in. That was added to the fact that Noah's mother had had Bryce when she was about 16 and Noah himself when she was seventeen, making both his parents still pretty young people.

It still, Trey figured, didn't excuse their behavior but it certainly made him understand Noah a lot more than he had before and made perfect sense to him why Noah seemed to despise holidays, including his own birthday.

After that it was off to Noah's old high school and then some other local places before they finally ended up at this small club packed full of dirty, sweaty people that reminded him of some of the burnout-esque looking people in the Pink Panthers.

That had led Trey directly to Noah's friends. Kaz, Sabrina and Chuck. While Sabrina wasn't that bad, smart, apparently mostly well mannered, brothers Kaz and Chuck were an entirely different story. Trey didn't really have too much back-story on them aside from the fact that they grew up hating everything and everybody except Noah and Sabrina and they'd been friends for over two years.

Trey could also understand why Noah had picked such downtrodden people to befriend. They hated life and apparently Noah had once hated life as well.

"He does that a lot," Bryce spoke over the noise.

Trey continued to watch everything that was going on. The amount of smoke and noise in the room was causing him to feel like he had a strong headache and like he couldn't see anymore. All he knew was that he'd had enough family history for one lifetime, and while somewhat glad he knew his boyfriend better, was almost sorry he'd asked in away. He liked the idea that his boyfriend was perfect minus just a few slight flaws. Now it seemed he was lucky to have an as put together version of Noah as he did have, as even the Noah he knew now apparently wasn't the Noah he'd once been.

This was one of those instances where curiosity really did kill everything.

"I think I should go!" Trey shouted.

"What, and miss the best part of the show?" Bryce asked, with a grin.

It was about then that Trey finally realized something. Noah, despite his flaws, truly cared about him. And it was because he cared about him that he'd kept the bad details of his life from him. He was protecting him from feeling like he was feeling now.

Bryce, however, had willingly and easily told him everything about Noah, non stop, as if it were his mission to somehow paint him over in some kind of bad light. Trey realized it wasn't because Bryce wanted him to know or even cared. It was because, for whatever reason, he wanted to somehow make Noah seem like a bad person to be around. Almost like some sort of payback or revenge.

And that was something that Trey just did not want to be around.

"Yeah, I'm done here," Trey spoke, turning to leave.

"Wait, you can't go-"

"Get off of me!" Trey shouted. "You may not think much of your brother but he has a lot of people who do, regardless of whatever people want us to think about him."

Bryce, realizing that Trey was finally seeing through his little act, sneered.

"Just wanted you and everyone else up there he thinks is too good for the rest of us to know what kind of guy they're getting involved with," he said. "He's never gonna be happy, not even when you think he is."

"You're wrong," Trey barked back.

"Right, because I'm only just his brother, the person who's known him all his life."

Trey just stared angrily at Bryce, deciding that even if he was right, the last thing he was going to do was put stock in what Noah's obviously twisted older brother had to say about him.

"Hope this weekend cleared up a lot for you," Bryce spoke.

It had, Trey realized, and he was sorry for it. *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

"Press the fret buttons at the same time as the strum bar," Dylan spoke, trying to teach Noah how to play Guitar Hero.

"I am-"

"You see the colors right? You aren't color blind are you-"

"See, this is why people play REAL guitars," Noah spoke, still struggling to hit the notes on the screen.

"Are you serious? Real guitars?" Dylan spoke, as if he couldn't believe that Noah was actually being serious.

Noah, out of frustration, decided he'd had enough and gave the guitar to Dylan, to go get his own guitar. He was now in the mood to show off.

He pulled out his guitar and sat back in his bed, strumming along the cords on his guitar as the notes from the fake guitar were pressed.

"Not helping!" Dylan shouted.

Noah chuckled before settling down, beginning to just strum along softly. He did this for a few moments before the door to his room opened and Trey walked in.

"Hey! Trey! Wanna play Guitar Hero?" Dylan asked.

"No thanks," Trey replied, happy to see Noah as he walked over to him in his bed and crawled up it, snuggling comfortably beside him as Noah continued to play.

"Hey babe," Noah spoke, kissing the top of Trey's head. "How's your mom?"

Trey had already made up his mind in the taxi ride home that just because he knew more about Noah didn't mean that he actually knew Noah. He didn't want to let the words of his sick older brother get in the way of their relationship.

There was no reason he ever had to know.

"She's fine," Trey hoped as he said the words, realizing that in that moment, he'd never been happier to be with Noah.

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Copyright 2007