This chapter is dedicated to Chezbrgr :3 Thank you for voting and commenting and following me :D

There's only one more chapter left you guys! :D I have decided not to tell you anything about what will happen when this story ends until it actually ends XD I do love to keep you all wondering x3

Do let me know what you think!

Hoping you enjoy,

-> Desyre

Salvador

"You're grounded," Ash said as soon as I stepped into the house.

"Ash," Mina said in the menacing tone she saved for when she was running on her last nerve.

                You could imagine my face after spending four days away, only to come home and listen to my mom tell me I'm grounded. I didn't understand what was going on, if I hadn't been here how could I do something to get grounded?

"Wait, why am I grounded?"

"You're not grounded sweetie," Mina said her voice gentle.

"He is. For taking four days instead of the original three without talking to us first," Ash said glaring daggers at me.

"Ashlyn," Mina said again and if I was my mom I would shut up because Mina's patience was running pretty low.

"Mom, I don’t… What are you talking about? Ollie told me he talked to you and told you we would be spending one more day in the hotel. And I was there when Ollie called you the second night. It really had nothing to do with us, Ollie's mom decided to book four days instead of three to let us rest before coming back here."

"We know, Ollie explained it all to us hon', it's just that your mother is being an idiot again," Mina said turning to look at Ash.

"He broke the rules, he stayed four days instead of three which is what we agreed on," Ash ground out.

"Ashlyn te juro por Dios..." Mina started saying.

                Oh, this really wasn't good, if she was swearing by God already then her patience was running very, very low.

"Sal, Em called earlier. She said she wanted the band to gather in her house, why don't you go pick Ollie up and go over there to see what she wanted?" Mina said to me even though she was looking at Ash.

                That was probably a lie, but she was giving me an out and I took it. I nodded and grabbed my keys and wallet before leaving the house quickly. I wasn't even at Ollie house when the yelling started and I wondered silently what Ash had done to get Mina to run out of patience. I got to Ollie's house and was about to ring the bell, wondering what Ollie would think about me being here after spending only about half an hour away from each other. The door opened before I could ring the bell, though, and Ollie stood there looking surprised.

"I was just about to go get you. Em rang earlier and said there was a meeting at her house. We should probably go over there to see if they're still there."

                So that was true? Why didn't Em call our cellphones or send us a text?

"I know what you're thinking and I'm wondering the same thing. Maybe she ran out of minutes?"

                If that was what happened then I could’ve thrown a party all together. No more texts from Em! No more calls! No more nagging! It was for a limited amount of time but it was something.

"You're a little piece of shit," Ollie said, chuckling as he closed the door of his house.

                I put my most innocent face and Ollie laughed, hugging me tightly to his body, before directing us to Em's house. We walked in silence, the silence that was usual of us, the silence that I had come to love. I wondered what Em wanted and why she had called for a meeting so suddenly, while we made our way to her house. Once we got there we were met by the usual: Em's yelling.

"We only have one week left to practice as a band! Not to mention finals start on Monday! After that we need to practice for the gig in Ennie's Uncle's café. So in other words, there is absolutely no time left! I don't care about whatever the hell it is you need to do, we are going to practice all through this week, even if it is only an hour or so. We are going to practice and that's final! Dot. End. Finito."

                I thought it was pretty clear that Em was very moody, and I sincerely felt bad for the poor soul who thought he could reason with her. When Em was done yelling at whoever it is she was yelling, she turned to us and it was our turn to be yelled at, yay.

"You!" She said pointing at Ollie. "And you!" She said, pointing at me this time. "I have absolutely no patience for your relationship crap so don't even dare to bring it up as an excuse. Why the fuck haven't you been coming to practice? And shouldn't you be bed ridden or whatever? Where the fuck were you? Why was it that I couldn’t reach you through your cellphones?"

"I was sick all through Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. And then I made a trip to the city," Ollie said, looking a little taken aback by the direct question.

"I was bed ridden but I’m better now, and then I traveled to the city too, with Ollie in fact, and we just got back, which is probably the reason you couldn’t reach us."

"Oh how cute, you made a trip to the city together. That's nice, but I have to wonder, what the fuck for? Didn't you think that we needed to practice? You've been missing the vocal training and you're not even supposed to be moving!"

                Em's bad mood was getting on my nerves quite a bit, did she really think I would be missing practice for nothing? I was about to answer when Ollie answered for the both of us.

"It was my parent's death anniversary Em. I had to travel to the city to take care of a few things and visit their graves. I asked Sal to come with me. I needed someone to come with me."

                Em looked a little shocked about that because while at some point she had probably figured out that Ollie's parents died, I didn't think she had completely realized what that meant, or how important it was until right then.

"Oh." That's all she could manage to get out after a few moments of awkward silence.

                The whole room fell silent then, nobody knowing what to say after Ollie said such a thing so nonchalantly. I considered letting Em suffer for being so heartless and bitchy, but then again she was my best friend and I couldn't let her think she had screwed up that badly.

"So what's got your panties in a twist this time? Or are you being bitchy just because it's your natural state?"

                Em glared at me and then sighed.

"It's just that we were supposed to have like two weeks to work as a band, welcome Kevin and Ollie properly and get used to their different personalities. But now as it turns out you got injured, and Ollie got sick and all that and we've lost one week. Which leaves us with only one week before we have to go back to practicing for gigs."

"So? Yeah, things didn't go like you planned but that's just life Em, you can't just complain about it because that's not going to change anything. Instead of bitching and yelling you come up with a solution, you find a way to work around the obstacles."

                I made a pause to wait for Em to say something but since she didn't I went on.

"I wouldn't worry all that much about working as a band, we've been doing that since the start. When we practice for gigs we are practicing as a band, we don't need time to get used to each other’s personalities, we've been doing that since Kev and Ollie got here. We already know that Kev's got a cocky attitude and that he needs to be put in his place sometimes, but that he's a nice guy with good ideas.

“We know that Ollie's quiet, that he will do whatever you ask him to do even if he doesn't agree with it, and that he is very intuitive and when he says something isn't going to work out then there's a big chance that it won't. We just need some minor work, start listening to Ollie when he says something's going to be a disaster, and teach Kev to stop saying things in his usual cocky way. We've done a lot of work and grown a lot as a band, you just haven't noticed it because you're always so focused on your plans, on the future, and the way you want things to go. You need to be more observant, and pay more attention to the present Em."

                Em stayed silent when I was done, probably thinking that maybe, just maybe, because I knew her that well, I was right. Dust and Kev stayed silent too, thinking about what I had said. I sighed, we were back to the awkward silence.

"Ollie did say that the gig with The Waiting would be a disaster, and we didn't listen to him. We just forced him to work with us and accept it, and look at how it turned out, man," Dust said after a while.

"And I admit that Kev was right when he said I had worked Ollie too hard, but the way he said it made me want to go against him even though he was right," Em muttered.

"You see? We just need to work on those little flaws we have, because above all else, above being a band, we're friends and we're a team and we need to learn to work together."

"I could try to say things in a more pleasant way," Kev mumbled.

"And I could try to speak my mind a little more often," Ollie supplied.

"Dude, I think the fact that you're speaking is a lot," Dust said chuckling.

                We all laughed at that, and just like that, all the tension in the air, and the awkwardness of admitting our flaws was gone and we were back to our normal selves.

"So what are we going to do about practice and the finals? I know Tainted is pretty important and all that but we need to graduate, man, or else everything we've done will be useless," Dust said when we were done laughing.

"I say we practice for an hour or so three days a week to give ourselves time to study. When finals are done we can go back to our usual three hour practices, to give Em some peace of mind."

                Em glared at me while everyone laughed.

"I think it’s a good idea," Ollie said tugging me to his side and wrapping his arm around my waist.

"I agree too,” Kev said.

"It's a pretty neat idea," Dust said turning to look at Em.

                We all turned to look at Em then, because she was the only one left to give her opinion. She looked at us and sighed.

"Fine, yeah, it's a good idea," she mumbled.

                We all laughed because Em really did hate losing an argument, and proving our point she glared at us and told to go home already. We just laughed even harder at that, but contrary to what she said, she invited us to stay a while longer. We all agreed happily, it had been a long time since the last time we had just spent a while together, hanging out, fooling around, and talking.

“Yeah, right you can stay here a while but the condition is that you have to buy the snacks and drinks,” Em said, and we all stared at her dumfounded. “Come on guys, I put the house, you put the rest!”

                We all looked at each other. She had a point, the thing was, of course, buying the things.

“I’ll put the car to take you to the store, unless you want to make the half hour walk,” Dust said.

                Oh that was so sneaky, just because he never went anywhere without his car. He was addicted to the thing, I bet he even woke up in the middle of the night just to check the car and see it was still in its spot.

“Sal will obviously buy the snacks because he’s still underage,” Kev said in a mocking tone.

                I glared at him wanting nothing more than to snap at him. There was no need to remind me that I was the only one in this group who was still underage, I knew that very well, thank you.

“Calm down tiger,” Ollie whispered into my ear sensing the change in my mood.

                He was right, but I needed to say something to Kev, I just needed to. It was right then that I noticed who bad he really looked. His eyes still had purple bruises around them and his nose had an adhesive tape on it. I thought that with the way he looked right now, considering how much he cared about his face, it was enough and decided to let it go, but Dust talked before I could.

“So who’ll buy the drinks? You? I don’t know man, I think if we left that to you we might end up drinking water because alcohol has too many carbs or something like that.”

                Kev glared at him. Oh, it was nice messing with others but not so nice when it was you, huh? Kev opened his mouth to answer back but Em interrupted him.

“Kids, kids, the adults are trying to talk here,” Em said, obviously fed up with the discussion. “Sal will buy the snacks and Kev and Ollie will buy the drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic,” Em said giving Dust a look. “And if you don’t like that you can let Kev drive.”

                Kev and Dust glared at each other and Em sighed.

“Guys how about you buy the things before the second coming?” Em said as she ushered us outside.

                She closed the door once we were out and we all made our way to Dust’s car. There was really no combination that didn’t result in awkwardness so I decided to be selfish and call the backseat along with Ollie. Once in the car Dust started it up and made his way to the convenience store on the other side of town. I thought the drive to the store would be filled with an awkward silence but it seems like we wouldn’t have that blessing.

“So I see you guys have worked things out,” Kev said.

                Why was he asking about that? What did he care, really?

“Yeah. We had some time to talk when we went to the city,” Ollie answered for both of us.

“That’s cool. So now you know it was all misunderstanding?” Kev asked.

                Where was he going with this? I could tell Ollie was uncomfortable answering the questions since he probably thought it really wasn’t Kev’s business either. Why would Kev think it was his place to ask about the problems in our relationship? Oh, the misunderstanding, the punch, the kiss, it all involved him, it really did… but still, what did he want?

“Yeah, the guys explained it all that same night.”

“They did, huh? And you two worked things out, huh? That’s cool, but don’t you have the feeling that your forgot something?” Kev asked, in a tone that made me frown.

                What did he mean? Forgot something? What was he talking about?

“Oh come on, dude, if you want to say something just say it, stop playing this guessing game shit and be a man. Look Ollie, you almost broke his nose and because of that he looks like he was run over by a truck, and now he’s butt-hurt because you didn’t even apologize to him.”

“I’m not butt-hurt,” Kev said turning to glare at Dust.

“Really? You screamed butt-hurt to me with that guessing shit you pulled back there, trying to see if they remembered on their own.”

“I was just trying to remind them in a non-cocky way that I spent a whole day in the hospital getting any type of exams to see if my nose was broken or not. I disserve an apology,” Kev said matter-of-factly.

“I don’t know man, I think you disserved it even though it was a misunderstanding. I mean, Sal’s Ollie’s guy, what did you expect him to do when he saw you two kissing, hug you or something?”

“He could’ve listened to the explanation,” Kev said in the same matter-of-fact tone.

“Yeah, right, like you’d listen to an explanation from the guy who was just kissing your guy. I don’t know about you man, but I think you got off easy, if it was me I would’ve beaten the shit of you.”

“Oh and you know from experience, don’t you?” Kev asked his a raised eyebrow.

“Hey, hang on a second. I don’t have anything against you guys or anything, but I don’t swing that way, dude,” Dust said glaring at Kev.

“How would you know? You’re still a virgin, aren’t you? And you still haven’t kissed your first woman because you’re saving it for Emerald even though she won’t even look at you twice, right? And don’t even try telling me I’m wrong, because everyone knows this, I bet even Ollie knows it and he’s the new guy in town,” Kev said in a bitter tone.

“Now, hang on…” Dust said frowning.

“Oh you think you’re real subtle, huh? Well you’re not, you know? I think all the grade knows you spend your days drooling after Emerald,” Kev said ignoring whatever Dust was going to say.

“Yeah? What would you prefer I did then? Sleep with everything that moves like you do? I bet you’ve even slept with a girl once or twice in your life. And don’t even try denying it because I think everyone in town and in the city knows that,” Dust said glaring at the road ahead, but obviously wanting to glare at Kev. Kevin opened his mouth but Dust talked before he could. “Oh, I’m not the only who thought he’s subtle after all, huh? I think everyone in town knows you’re easier than breathing,” Dust seethed.

                Ollie and I looked at each other right then, this was getting ugly.

“I think we’re about to miss the store for the second time.”

                Ollie turned towards the window and we both saw the store coming up again.

“Ok that’s it, do something.”

“Me? What do you want me to do?”

“Talk, yell, I don’t know, something.”

                Ollie gave me a pleading look and I shook my head sadly. Nope, there was no way of getting out of this, he had to do it, because I couldn’t talk. Ollie sighed and I gave him an apologetic look, and then he squinted at me in an accusing way and I gave him my most innocent look. I was not taking advantage of him being able to talk so I didn’t have to deal with these two and they’re fights, I was incapable of doing such thing! It had never even crossed my mind! He rolled his eyes, telling me I wasn’t fooling him and turned back to the front. He took a deep breath and right as we were about to drive by the store again, he lost his patience, or that’s what Kev and Dust must’ve thought anyways.

“STOP!” Ollie yelled.

                Dust stepped on the break and the car squealed as it came to a stop in front of the store.

“We will walk back, thank you,” Ollie said as he dragged me out of the car.

                We made our way into the store, Ollie stomping the all way and looking for all the world like he was really angry. Once inside he took a deep breath and gave me a look that said, “The things I do for you”. I put my most love-struck face and he just rolled his eyes, but I knew he loved me, he couldn’t deny it because otherwise he wouldn’t have done that back in the car.

“Go buy the snacks, I’ll see you at the line,” he said before turning around going to an alley full of sodas, beers, and bottles of vodka, rum and any alcoholic drink you could think about.

                I walked through the alleys looking for the snacks until I finally found them. I took a little to decide on what to buy but just because I didn’t really know what to choose. We all liked different stuff, there wasn’t any one thing that we all liked. I heard the door ring and turned around to see who had walked in, and it was Kev who made his way over to Ollie who was still in the booze zone. I returned my attention back to the task at hand because seriously needed to decide on something already so we could get back to Em’s.

                Once I had made up my mind I made my way to the line to pay for the basket full of snacks that I was carrying. I ended up picking a little of everything, that way everyone would be happy, even if it ended up being too much for us to eat. I noticed that Kev and Ollie were making their way to the line too, and that Kev looked like he was in a bad mood. I gave Ollie a questioning look and he just shook his head slightly, which made me frown, why was he blowing me off? I turned to look at Kev and I guessed that right then he noticed the snacks I was buying.

“What the fuck are you buying?” He asked looking at the snacks I had chosen with disgust.

                I think my frown got even deeper, what did he mean what was I buying? Snacks, wasn’t it obvious?

“Chips? Cheese curls? Marshmallows? Microwavable popcorn? Pretzels? Do you even know how many preservatives a single bag of chips has?” Kev asked eyeing the snacks I was buying.

                I turned to look at Ollie with a questioning look and he just rolled his eyes at me, and that was when the other shoe fell. So Kev was having a cow about all the sugary, salty, and fat filled food we were buying? Well, there was a bag of rice cakes in the basket for him. I chuckled as Kev continued on with his rant about how the things we were buying could kill us and clog our arteries with cholesterol and all that. He was talking to the air for all Ollie and I were listening to him, maybe we were going to die of a heart attack but at least we weren’t going to die of hunger.

“I’m not going to pay for any of that,” Kev said when he finally got tired to talking alone.

“We didn’t ask you to. You could’ve just left. We did say we would walk back after all,” Ollie said simply.

                Kev bristled and started another rant on how we should be glad we weren’t going to make the trip back to Em’s on foot and carrying all this “junk” by ourselves. I honestly thought that would’ve been good luck for us, but I didn’t tell him that, not that I could either way since my hands were busy carrying the basket full of junk, as Kev called it. But even though he was ranting on and on he didn’t leave to wait in the car either, so I took it he was better here surrounded by all this fat than in the car fighting with Dust. Finally our turn was up and I started pulling all the things out as the cashier rang them up.

                When we were done paying we made our way back to Dust’s car where he was waiting with his trunk open for us to put the bags in. Kev got into the car in advance since he refused to help with anything, and I noticed he had taken the back seat, which meant we were in for more awkwardness, yay. I gave Ollie a questioning look and he just shrugged, and I hoped once we were back at Em’s place the mood would lighten up some. Once we were done putting the bags away, Dust closed the trunk and we got in the car, Ollie in the front with Dust and I in the back seat with Kev. I thought about cramping up the back seat and acting all lovey-dovey with Ollie to put Kev back in his place, but that would’ve been a little too mean. After all, nobody liked being the third wheel.

                The drive back was turning out to be miraculously silent, granted it was an awkward silence but it was better than fighting. Sadly, it didn’t stay that way and I was seriously starting to think that today was really not our lucky day.

“Listen, man, I’m sorry about what I said alright? I shouldn’t have said you were a whore, not that it’s not true, but I admit I shouldn’t have said that,” Dust said, apparently looking to patch things up but was, in fact, just pouring salt on the wound. “Shit, I mean… I didn’t…”

“Leave it, it’s alright. I’m sorry for speaking the truth too, and bringing out the fact that you’re virgin on all aspects,” Kev said, making it obvious that it wasn’t really alright.

“You’re a real piece of art, you know? I really was looking to fix things with you, man,” Dust said sounding angry.

“Oh yeah, right, and what was all that ‘not that it’s not true’ shit, huh?” Kev asked angrily.

“It was just a slip, I swear I really wanted to…”  Dust started saying before Ollie interrupted him.

“Since we’re talking about apologies here, sorry for punching you Kev,” Ollie said. “I should’ve listened to your side of the story instead of just assuming things.”

                Dust and Kev fell silent when Ollie talked and everything was silent for a moment.

“It’s alright, don’t worry about it, if it was me I would’ve done something worse.” Kev said quietly.

                We went back to being silent after that and I wanted to kiss Ollie for finally shutting those two up.

“You see? That’s how you fix things up with someone,” Kev said in a quiet tone, like he didn’t want to be heard but we all knew that’s what he was looking for.

                Dust bristled and opened his mouth to reply but Ollie talked before he could.

“Oh, I’ve been meaning to show you a radio station that’s really cool for a while now, Dust. What’s the dial Sal?” Ollie said turning to look at me, giving me a pleading look.

                I didn’t trust these two to be stopped by music, though, so I decided to play along with Ollie.

“God, I don’t remember it, I think it’s one-oh-something, why don’t you look for it?”

                Ollie nodded taking the hint and started looking through all the stations starting from the hundred. We had fun with the weird stations we found on our supposed search for the station Ollie wanted Dust to listen to. There was one of opera, and another from some religion talking about how scientists should stop looking for explanations to things and be happy with the knowledge God has already given us. There was one of reggae and other types of music, and even though both Ollie and I knew it was all pretense it helped to lighten the mood some.

                We got back to Em’s place and got out of the car, still laughing of our latest find a station conducted by some nerds that was, from the look of things, mostly about card games. We went into the garage still laughing and started placing things around, and I gave Kev his rice cakes and he smiled, thanking for thinking about him. Em popped her head through the door that lead into the house, probably to see who was making all the scandal.

“What the fuck happened to you guys? You took forever, I even thought you had gone home or something. What did you buy? Ooh, pretzels. Dibs!” Em said grabbing the bag of pretzels quickly and running away.

“Hey! I called dibs on it before you!” Dust said running after Em.

“You shouldn’t have bought that, you may make fun of me and whatnot, but that’s got a shitload of preservatives,” Kev said giving me a disapproving look as he started eating his rice cakes.

“Shut up and eat your rice cakes, if we die at least you can tell our graves, ‘see? I told you’,” Em said as she stopped in front of the table where we were placing things and grabbed the bag of marshmallows before running away again.

“Oh, wait right there, don’t mess with the marshmallows, I might say all that shit about preservatives but I called dibs on that when I saw Sal buying them on the store!” Kev said abandoning his rice cakes and running after Em.

                I smiled at Ollie and he winked at me.

“Lies! He didn’t call dibs on anything! You should eat your rice cakes and let us die of clogged arteries,” Ollie said grabbing a bag of chips and opening it up.

“Traitor!” Kev yelled back from where Em, Dust, and he were fighting for the snacks.

                I grabbed a bottle of vodka and grabbed two shot glasses, giving Ollie a questioning look, which made him chuckle and pull me in for a kiss.

“GROSS!” Em, Dust, and Kev yelled at the same time.

                I couldn’t help but laugh into Ollie’s mouth, and after a moment he pulled away, laughing as well.

“I bet you a shot Em keeps the pretzels,” Ollie said.

“Hey! You’re supposed to be on my side, man!” Dust said from where he was still trying to take the bag of pretzels.

“Oh I don’t know babe, Dust loves pretzels.”

“So? What do you say?” Ollie said smiling.

“I say you’re on.”

“I bet the bag of marsh-mellows, they’re about to make out again,” Kev said.

“That’s not fair, we all know that,” Em said.

                Both Ollie and I chuckled but just as they said we kissed again to seal the bet, and the guys made ew sounds, making us laugh and move to sit on the couch.

“HA!” Dust said as he snatched the pretzels out of Em’s hand and ran towards the couch. “Drink up, man, and learn your lesson for the next time,” Dust said flopping beside us.

                Ollie chuckled but offered me his shot glass for me to fill it. Once it was filled he downed it and pressed his eyes shut like he had eaten a very sour lemon. I chuckled and once he had opened his eyes told him to have more faith in Dust, and that he really did love pretzels.

“Yeah, man, pretzels are sacred,” Dust said opening the bag and looking like he was about to drool.

“So who do you think will keep the marshmallows?”

“I say Em,” Dust said through a mouthful of pretzels.

“Ew.” I gave Dust a stern look, trying to tell him that I really meant it. “I say Kev.”

“I say they realize they look like idiots and decide to share it,” Ollie said.

“Yeah, we should share the bag, they’re really too many for me to eat them all,” Kev said truthfully.

“And they’re too sweet for me to eat them all,” Em admitted.

“That’s cheating!” Dust said turning to glare at Ollie.

“Yeah, that’s not playing fair. You never play fair, that wasn’t even between the options.”

“You never said there were only two options,” Ollie said looking innocent.

“Just drink already you pair of pussies,” Em said going to the table to put the marshmallows into a bowl.

                Ollie filled the two shot glasses and both Dust and I drank them reluctantly.

“I’m not making any more bets with you, man. You don’t play fair,” Dust said shaking his head.

“So all bets are settled, what do we do now?” Kev said as he sat on the floor. “You know that’s not fair, you always take the couch, I say we sit on the floor or don’t sit at all.”

“He has a point,” Em said as she sat next to Kev placing the bowl of marshmallows between them.

“Ugh, you two are a pain in the ass,” Dust said sliding off the couch to sit on the floor.

                Ollie and I moved without making any comments because, I particularly, didn’t care one way or the other as long as I was near Ollie.

“So now that we’re all on the floor, what are we going to do?”

“Oh I think I have a deck of cards somewhere around here,” Em said getting up to go into the house.

                She returned after a moment and we all watched her shuffle the cards.

“So what are we going to play? California Kings?” Kev asked.

“We don’t have a big cup, and I don’t want to get that shitfaced that fast either, thank you,” Dust said.

“No, we’re going to play FUBAR, without the Kings, because none of us are looking to get wasted that fast,” Em said.

“Hang on, so what will happen when we draw a king?” Dust asked.

“I say we replace it with another rule,” Kev said.

“Oh, I say strip,” Em said with a mischievous look.

“We both agree,” Ollie said smiling at me.

“Oh I really don’t mind, you guys are easy on the eyes,” Kev said chuckling. “Though the one that will suffer the most is Dust, there’s only Em for him to look at. We could think of another rule.”

“No, no, man, don’t mind me, I agree too,” Dust said glaring at Kev.

“Oh yeah? You don’t mind watching guys strip? And you still say you’re straight?” Kev said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Right, like I’ve never been in a changing room before. Just because I don’t mind it doesn’t mean I’m gay,” Dust said glaring at Kev even harder.

“Alright, you’re not gay,” Kev said in a tone of voice that said he didn’t believe a word.

                I rolled my eyes, and grabbed five cups.

“So what are we drinking? Choose whatever you like, I really don’t care what you choose.”

“I say beer.” Em said.

“I second that idea,” Kev said.

“I agree too,” Dust said.

                We turned to look at Ollie who shrugged and said he didn’t care either. I put down the cups and grabbed five cans of beer while Em spread the cards in the middle of the table, after that we each took a card and the game started. The first round was little stiff because we kept forgetting the rules but by the third round we warmed up to it and started to have real fun. The game dragged on and on, until we decided that before we took it further we should decide whether we were staying over or what. We decided to stay over at Em’s and we all went to call our parents.

                Dust was the one that got off the phone the fastest and Ollie gave me a look, and I just shook my head, telling him not to mind it. It was not something I could tell him after all, it wasn’t my secret to share, it was Dust’s. Kev even had to go out of the garage, but we still heard him fighting with his mom. Ollie gave me another look and this time I shrugged because I really didn’t know what was up with Kev. Ollie’s dad picked up when he called and he started asking Ollie questions to see if he was wasted already, but he agreed in the end. Ollie called my house after that and Mina picked up, thankfully, and she said that it was alright and told us to be careful. You really had to love Mina, she was the best, not so aloof that it hurt, but not so invested that she was controlling. Kev came back in at some point, saying that it was all arranged and we continued the game.

                The ones with the worse luck out of us all were Dust and Kev, if you asked me, because they kept drawing kings and having to take off their clothes. Finally when they were down to their jeans we decided that if they drew a king they would make some new rule and we had to follow it. Em drew the seven at some point of the night and no one else had got it since. Let me tell you, she’s a mean thumbmaster. When it was decided we were staying over she started to abuse her rank putting down her thumb every five minutes. Finally Ollie drew the seven and the tyranny ended, and even dared to think that our kidneys gave a sigh of relief. Kev drew the six at one point and said that he had never made out with a girl, which was really funny because Dust drank along with Ollie and me but Em didn’t drink. She went red when all of us gave her surprised looks but she didn’t explain, and we didn’t push her either, that was her business not ours.

                By the time we were all wasted whenever anyone drew an eight it became a joke because our words were so slurred we couldn’t make them out anymore and everything rhymed. I didn’t remember when the game ended but I did remember waking up panting in fear and looking around at the total darkness, wondering where the fuck I was, only to have Ollie wrap his arms around me and tell me it was alright and that he loved me. It took me some time to calm down, but knowing that Ollie was right there with me helped a lot. Finally exhaustion and the massive amounts of alcohol we had kicked in and my eyelids started closing. I slept like the dead after that, dreaming of the man I loved.

Author note: Even though in the last chapter Ollie bought Sal alcohol even though he was underage and in this chapter they all got drunk and have fun, I want you guys to know that drinking is a serious thing and that people can get in real trouble or even end up dead if they get drunk and do stupid stuff. Notice that even though Sal got drunk on the last chapter, Ollie took care of him and didn't let him do something stupid, and what's more, didn't sleep with him because he thought that would be taking advantage of him. And in this chapter, they all got drunk but stayed at Em's place, AKA a safe place, and didn't do stupid shit, like driving drunk to their houses or any of that. No matter how old you are, if you decide to drink, make sure that you always have at least somone that you can trust and know that will take care of you, or that you're in a safe place, not in a club by yourself or something. Also, I won't pretend to be a saint and tell you that I didn't start to drink before I was 18 but I will tell you that I started to drink when I was like 15 or 16, not 12 or 11, so please do think about your age before you start to drink because drinking implies responsibilities that I at 12 didn't even know how to deal with, much less, wanted to deal with. 

Hoping I didn't sound condesending or like I was all in my high horse or something,

-> Desyre