(( Hi, hey, hello there!!! Since you guys have been so absolutely patient with me while I've been absent from writing for NaNoWriMo, I thought I'd just show you guys that it wasn't all for naught! If anybody deserves to see a little snippit of my 56,000 word novel, it's y'all!!!! 

Be aware that it's in its rawest of stages - I haven't even looked over it to edit it yet and I just kinda spilt it out without thinking, but I hope y'all like it. This might end up in a published novel one day! U never know. )) 

Elijah felt himself shudder. The walls were closing in. He had to leave. He had to go, and now. This was getting out of control, and Ryder was going to end up tricking him into doing something sinful. Elijah shakily pushed himself to his feet and made towards the door, and in a flash, Ryder was in front of him.

"Hey," he said, reaching out and putting his hands on Elijah's shoulders, "It's okay, Eli. It's alright. You have absolutely nothing to be afraid of, okay? I'm your friend, and I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want to."

"Stop talking to me like a child!" Elijah snarled, wriggling out of his grip, "I hate you. You're trying to convert me to your ways. You're trying to make it impossible for me to ignore my thoughts, I know what you're up to."

"Eli!" Ryder grabbed him by the shoulders again, "Eli. Here. Let's make a deal, okay? Listen to me. I'll walk out of the room. I'll leave you here by yourself, okay? For exactly fifteen minutes. No tricks, no cheating. When I come back in, I'll have no idea whether or not you actually tried on the dress. So it doesn't matter if you do and it doesn't matter if you don't. I'll be none the wiser. And I promise I'll never bring it up again. Ever."

"What- What's the point in that? I'm just going to sit here and stare at the wall for fifteen minutes!" Elijah scoffed, "You get stupider and stupider the longer I know you."

"Well okay, then," Ryder smiled knowingly, "Then I guess you'll stare at the wall for fifteen minutes. I'm locking the door from outside," he held up his hand, jingling a bunch of keys. Elijah had no idea where they'd appeared from, "See you soon!"

Before Elijah could protest, Ryder had slipped through the door like a wet bar of soap, and he heard the doorknob click. Elijah banged his hands on it, "Ryder! This is kidnapping! What, are you just gonna stand out there the whole time and listen in?"

"Nope, I'm going downstairs to get some lunch. See you soon, Eli!" Ryder's voice got fainter as fainter as Elijah heard the floorboards creak under his footsteps.

He growled in frustration and turned around, leaning with his back against the door. This was stupid. This was stupid and insane, and it was all his own fault for thinking he could trust Ryder. Why the hell had he even come over here in the first place?!

His eyes fell on the dress across the room, still lying in a crumpled heap. How much would that have costed Ryder? The fabric looked new enough for Elijah to believe he bought it for him. He'd really go to that trouble for the sake of some kind of prank? This was ridiculous.

Maybe there was still a price tag on it. Elijah pushed himself off of the door and walked across to the other side of the room, crouching down beside the bundle of blue. He reached out and picked it up, searching at the neck of it for any kind of price.

There was no price, none at all. Ryder had bought it from Supre, though, Elijah could tell that much. Good. As long as he hadn't bought it from Forever 21, where Terrence would have most likely served him.

It was so plain. Elijah wondered why it was even on the market. He laid it out on the carpet and traced his fingers over the material. Maybe it was supposed to be going for that 'simple but elegant' kind of look. It was very pretty, and soft, too. That was probably why it was popular. It must have been nice to feel it against your skin, to watch the fabric twirl and shift as you moved, to have all of that freedom that pants didn't give you.

Elijah's throat had suddenly gone dry again. His cup of tea was waiting, abandoned, just on the other side of the room but Elijah knew that no amount of honey would soothe the ache in his heart.

Elijah glanced back towards the door. Could he really trust that Ryder wasn't going to come back for fifteen minutes? Ryder was kind of a douche but he was true to his word, if not a little cunning.

Oh, God, what am I thinking?! Elijah forced himself to turn away from the dress, drawing his knees to his chest and burying his chin there. His fingers ached for a pencil and paper. He had to draw. He had to draw himself wearing the dress. He had to draw a picture of himself twirling around in front of a mirror. Because drawing was how he usually got rid of the urge, but the urge wasn't usually like this. Before, the urge had been unreachable. He couldn't wear a dress even if he did cave in. But now, there was one right behind him, and it was beautiful and silky and Ryder was right, it would look so, so, so good with his hair and eyes.

And then Elijah was wriggling out of his pants, wrestling down the fly and kicking them off as though they'd been filled with spiders. His fingers grabbed at the buttons of his shirt and practically tore them off, throwing it aside like he'd done to the dress just minutes before. He reached out and grabbed the dress, his fingers craving for the feel of the material, his heart pounding in his chest and his breaths ragged. This is wrong. This is so wrong. This is unbelievably wrong and I never want it to stop.

Elijah had barely gotten to his knees when he slammed the dress down over his head. It felt just like a shirt, only it was tight against his body and he was right, the fabric was smooth and cool and it was everything Elijah had ever wanted. He could only barely make it to his feet as he straightened it out and pulled it down to his hips, letting the ends of it fly to his knees.

Wow.

Elijah stood in the middle of the room, panting slightly, with his clothes scattered carelessly about and a cup of tea spilt and seeping into the carpet, and he felt absolutely amazing.

God, it was everything. The way the fabric felt comforting and tight around his torso, and the way it hit his hips and fanned out. There was a brilliant space around his legs, and he could feel the air and his thighs rubbed together and they were bare and the edge of the dress danced against his knees and it was incredible.

His own tears dripped from his chin onto the carpet, disappearing among the long, lush fibres. He didn't even need to twirl, he didn't need the fabric to swish around his legs. He already felt amazing, and that was it. There was no going back for Elijah Olsen after this, was there? He'd done screwed up, and he loved it.

There was no mirror in the study, and that filled Elijah's heart with a nasty pang. He would have loved to have seen what he looked like. Probably a little ridiculous, because of all the tears still running down his face and his masculine figure, but he had to know what he looked like. He wanted it to be burnt into his memory in case he never got the chance to do this ever again.

There was a soft knock on the door, "Hey, Elijah. Just letting you know you've got five minutes, okay?"

Elijah gasped into the empty room, shock filling him. No, no, no! He'd forgotten he was in Ryder's house, not in the privacy of his own. Ryder would know that he tried on the dress, wouldn't he? He would have proved Ryder right!

"Whatever," he snarled at the door, trying to sound as absolutely uninterested as possible. He couldn't have Ryder thinking he'd turned into one of those people. He couldn't have Ryder start to believe he'd 'converted' Elijah into his way of thinking.

He grabbed the dress and pulled it off as roughly and quickly as he'd put it on, throwing it angrily at the same spot on the wall as last time. What am I doing, what am I doing, what am I doing?! I knew this was wrong and I let him convince me! Never trust a gay man!

He scrambled over to the other side of the room, scooping up his pants and rushing to pull them on, hopping on one leg while he tugged the other one through his black school slacks and then swapping over. His school shirt, a sickly pale green colour, lay crumpled on the floor and Elijah knew there would be tell-tale wrinkles in it, maybe even a button or two missing in his haste. But that didn't matter. What mattered now was getting back into a respectable state before Ryder burst in as proud as punch to have caught Ryder red-handed.

Elijah plonked himself down on the carpet in front of the tea tray. He grabbed his overturned cup and righted it, reaching out for the floral teapot, which was still pleasantly warm.

There was another soft knock, "Alright, Eli. I'm coming in. Is that okay?"

Elijah scoffed, adding a pinch of extra venom to his voice, "I'm not a three year old. Of course it's okay. It's not like you're going to walk in on me naked in the middle of your room, idiot."

"Alrighty," the doorknob wobbled as Ryder stuck his key in it, clicking the lock open and gently opening the door. His eyes flickered to the spot where the dress lay instantly, apparently unable to control himself from glancing over to check if it had changed position, "Had fun?"

Elijah rolled his eyes, "If you can call sitting here drinking herbal tea fun, then sure. Heaps of fun." His voice dripped in sarcasm. Hopefully if he coated it thickly enough, Ryder wouldn't be able to detect the hopeful, excited lilt in the way he spoke.

"Really? There sure was an awful lot of thumping going on in this room for you to be just drinking tea," Ryder walked over and sat down cross-legged across from Elijah, "But maybe I'm mistaken. I'm not going to pry. I believe the deal was no questions, no answers."

"Right," Elijah looked down, and quickly shoved the tea cup towards his mouth to stop himself from blurting something out that might give himself away, "Not that it really matters since nothing happened, but yeah."

"As a matter of interest, are you going to be taking the dress home with you?" Ryder asked, his voice painted with politeness as he sipped his cup of tea, "Since it's never been worn, if you pack it back up in the box you could gift it to Madison on my behalf. I'd love that, since I threw the receipt out, so I can't take it back, and I have absolutely no use for it."

"Oh," Elijah's heart plummeted. He had to give it to Madison? It couldn't be his, then. It could never be his. It couldn't ever be something he could throw on in the privacy of his own bedroom. No. If it couldn't be his, it couldn't be anybody's, "Um, actually... I don't know if that's such a good idea," Elijah glanced up at Ryder and bit his lip, "See, Madison's got two brothers and they like to take her new gifts from me and destroy them. It's rather nasty of them but I know Madison would be absolutely distraught if something that pretty was destroyed. It just isn't going to work."

Ryder's lips twitched into a smile, "Ah, I see."

That son of a bitch... Elijah thought to himself. He swallowed, "Also, maybe you could give it to someone you know, instead? You know, like a girl friend of yours or... Collin, maybe, if he's into that kind of thing, you know..."

"Nah," Ryder drained his cup of tea, "You know what? I think I'll leave it here at the house. I can hang it up in a cupboard somewhere in case anybody ever wants to use it. You never know," his smile flickered back onto his face like a switch, "Anybody could come over some day and ask if they could wear it. You know what I mean?"

For a split second, Ryder's eyes met Elijah's and Elijah knew exactly what Ryder meant.

"No, I have absolutely no idea what you mean," Elijah frowned at him, "You're stupid, Ryder." He glanced down at his watch, "And I have to go. I've got to help Dad pick up some timber for the new shed he's building, and I was supposed to be with him ten minutes ago."

"Okay," Ryder said, not shifting from the floor, "My Dad will see you to the front door. Nice to have you drop by."

"Yeah. Wish I could say the same," Elijah stood up and brushed himself down. He turned away from Ryder and walked towards the study door.

"Oh, and Elijah?" Ryder asked innocently, just as Elijah reached the door frame, "Come on over any time you feel like it, okay?"