Super Crush (BxB)

Desperate Times Call for Desperate...Keggers?

What the hell am I doing here? Is there pig's blood in a bucket waiting to be dumped on me?

Stephan answers the door before I can make a run for it.

"You made it. Welcome to hotel hookup," he greets.

I roll my eyes.

He shakes my hand and pulls me in for a bro hug.

Um. What alternate universe have I crashed landed in?

"Nice hat. I noticed it earlier," I make small talk as he escorts me in.

"It's pretty sweet, right? The new guy Clay gave it to me. Said his aunt has a guy's boutique somewhere near the High Line in Chelsea. Thought I'd be a good candidate to do some brand advertising."

I thought getting invited to this party was weird, but suddenly this is the strangest thing I have heard tonight. Clay giving Stephan gifts and suggesting he would be a good candidate for something other than chucklehead of the year is hard to digest.

"He said it was his way of starting fresh after the bathroom incident. Which, I really apologize for, man. Noah, I'm sorry for being a dickhead for like three years. I mean it."

What. The. Hell? Scratch everything I have said because I have now heard the strangest thing of the night. Maybe my life. Stephan just apologized to me. This new dimension I am in really hits different.

"Anyway," Steph says, pointing onward. "Booze and snacks in the kitchen. Make yourself at home."

Walking into the party is bizarre. I have been to parties before, but never without Abe. Part of me is proud of myself for detaching and sticking with it. The other part of me is just sad. I know it's only been a few days, but I miss him.

Thankfully, Annie is at the party. She offers me a red cup of warm beer and a hit of her weed vape. I take the cup but pass on the green.

We head to the living room. As we chat, Annie and I find an empty spot on the wall and watch people dance and play drinking games, I more nurse my beer than drink it. That is until Stephan asks us to play beer pong with him and one of his bro dudes.

I say sure because I am secretly really good at beer pong. Not sure how. I am not even at the table before Stephan launches into the house rules.

We are only a couple of throws into the game when the music cuts off suddenly.

A kid from my homeroom announces, "Everyone, check your phones. Live feed of The Fleet fighting the Maniacs!"

As I pull my phone from my pocket and wake it, the live stream cuts to Slammer and Crimson Kid going toe to toe.

Dammit.

I don't know who I am more annoyed with. Abe for being an ass in all of this or Slammer who just agreed to leave Abe alone.

"Oh shit," I say out loud.

I just connected the dots.

I move through the crowd to find the host. "Stephan, you have to tell everyone to go home. That fight is only a block to two–"

An explosion shakes the condo. Shattering windows, tossing people off their feet. There is screaming. Someone is crying.

I pick up Annie and dust her off. This isn't my first rodeo, but it is the first time I have had to deal with a holder crisis without the guidance of Abe.

"Everyone, let's get out of here! Leave everything, let's go! Exit the building on the south end and run toward the subway entrance on the corner. We will be safer underground."

The building shakes again.

"Don't use the elevators!"

About two dozen of us snake down the nine flights of stairs to the ground floor, but the crowd stops at the lobby.

"What's the hold up–shit!"

I enter through the doorway into the lobby, but the lobby isn't there anymore. Rubble and flames greet me. The entrance is gone and there is a direct view of the street outside.

Before I can order the group onward, a hoard of maniacs gallop past the entryway. Then in a zip, Matriarch goes flying after them.

I turn back to my followers. "Okay, people, we have to move. I'll go first to make sure the coast is clear. Follow behind. Take a right at the edge of the building."

I climb over the mess knowing the structural integrity may not hold. I get to where the glass doors once met the sidewalk. Before I wave the crew on, I get sidetracked by seeing the devastation outside. The whole block is in the same shape. Storefronts and foyers destroyed; flickers of flames and ash paint the buildings.

I remind myself of my mission. I remind myself that Abe isn't coming to save me this time. It's all up to me. I summon the partygoers to me. One by one they run out and around the corner of the building toward the metro station.

As Stephan brings up the rear, an explosion of heat and fire blows from the windows above us.

"Go, go, go" I shouted, pushing him out of the way of falling debris.

Thankfully, they haven't stopped the train service yet. But the one arriving as we descend the stairs may be our last hope.

"Move people, we have to get that train."

For the first time in my life, I follow the lead of the others, and I hop the turnstile without paying. Clay would be proud.

The platform is crazy busy with other people trying to escape the madness, but all of us make it onto the train before it pulls out.

As we leave the station, heading west toward the Chrysler Building, I am mobbed by thankful peers.

Stephan, possibly crying, pulls me into him. "Dude. you saved us."

He starts clapping and soon enough the subway is a buzz with cheering for me.

"Okay, people. Let's get off here for the Green Line. Take the Green Line north or south to stay away from the action. Go directly home and check in with your parents. Hope you have a Holder Distress Plan with your family like they are always nagging us about at school."

I follow half the group onto the Green train and then get off at the 96th Street stop.

Cutting through Central Park, I walk the rest of the way home by myself.