Author's Note: Hello friends! It is well and truly underway now! ;P Above is the attractive Chris Salvatore as Jake. Enjoy!
October 06, 2015 (Monday)
This wasn't a town where many leaves turned colors in the fall. Here and there one could see an oak tree with gold and red leaves, but for the most part palm trees were the order of the day in Westpoint, California. Still, the air was a bit cooler than before, and the sky more often overcast, evidence that Autumn was well and truly under-way.
For almost two weeks the school had been afire with discussions, rumors, and gossip about Dylan's sudden and totally unexpected fall. Word was his aunt in Tex had paid for a plane ticket for him, and that he would be staying there for the rest of the school year, a story I knew to be true.
I would keep an eye on Dylan as best as I could, and I still had Andy watching his activity online and on his phone, just in case he pieced anything together and started suspecting something. It was clear to everyone that Dylan had been destroyed by someone, the pictures and videos proved it. The school launched an investigation, and even the W.P.D. tried to trace the online evidence back to whoever had uploaded it, with no luck whatsoever.
Jake, Benji, Nolan and Ashton were appalled that Dylan could have been destroyed so utterly, and so they closed ranks, rebuffing outsiders with even more hostility than before. Valerie was totally ostracized, as Benji and Nolan seemed convinced that she was behind the fiasco. Apparently they thought she had been trying to get revenge on Dylan for treating her badly, or some such thing.
There were flaws with that theory, but it didn't matter, and I didn't point them out. Fortunately, I was already inside their camp, their attitude toward me didn't worsen, if anything, I became even more welcome.
The Five remained that very thing, as I had earned a place in their number. In the days following Dylan's fall, Ashton had kept his distance (to my slight disappointment), but Jake became considerably warmer towards me, believing that I had done my best to help his best friend through a difficult situation.
He and I were currently leaning against the wall of a boutique in the Westpoint Mall while Ashley and Audrey shopped. The girls had dragged us along with the promise of paying for our food, an offer I couldn't refuse considering how amazing the hot-dogs the food court had were. I wasn't sure why Jake had come, but it was good that he did.
He was next on my list.
"Heard from Dylan? How's he doing?" I murmured to Jake, watching Ashley thumbing through tops, a thoughtful expression on her face.
The black-haired boy shrugged, a look of faint worry crossing his features. "Yeah I did. He's okay. His aunt is convinced that he's gay, and she's trying to set him up with a boy. He keeps telling her he's not, but..." Jake shrugged again, now trying to fight a smirk.
I chuckled, shaking my head in despair. "Those pictures had to be photo-shopped, right? And the video was doctored. Dylan would never have touched another guy like that," I pointed out.
"Had to be. Dylan's not a fag," he agreed, turning his gaze to me, his blue eyes curious. I pretended not to notice him staring at me, and I also pretended to miss the flash of lust that appeared in his eyes before he jerked slightly, turning back to watch the girls.
Jake was openly homophobic, and, yet, I had several very interesting (real, not photo-shopped) pictures of him and people who were most definitely male.
The biggest homophobes were always repressing their own urges, in my experience.
My lips curled upward into a smirk of my own, and I gestured to the exit. "They're gonna be a while. Let's check out the sports place," I suggested. Jake nodded quickly, obviously as eager as I was to get out of this boutique.
"We'll be back when you're ready to feed us," I called to the girls. Ashley rolled her eyes and went back to shopping, but Audrey took the time to flip us off. I just grinned at her as Jake and I left.
"So you and Rosanna, then? I didn't think you were into artsy girls," I teased him as he walked through the Mall, people weaving around us. When you were a couple of muscular teen guys who were six foot and change, you rarely had to move out of people's way. They moved out of yours.
Jake snorted, shaking his head. "I already did her, she was boring. Most of the girls at this school are boring," he admitted, sticking his hands in his pockets. My smirk re-appeared, sensing an opportunity.
"So boring you ignore them all? You must be getting good sex from somewhere, you always look so relaxed," I pushed, my eyes dancing with amusement.
There it was, the slight twitch and the very faintest of red tinge to his cheeks. He might as well have been shouting "I fuck guys!" from the roof-top. I was exaggerating, but given what I already knew, that little guilty twitch was all the evidence I needed.
"I hang out with college girls from Harlesford on the weekends," he replied, his tone neutral. He was lying. I knew exactly what he did on his week-ends, and college girls had nothing to do with it.
College guys, however...
Now was the time to name-drop. "Yeah, I went to a party over there last weekend, Ethan invited me. Met some pretty cool guys. Do you know James and Ryan Gregory?" I asked.
Once again, I found myself pretending not to notice something. This time it was the surprise and apprehension that appeared on Jake's face for a moment before he wiped it away again.
James and Ryan Gregory were brothers in a fraternity in Harlesford. They were tall, brown-haired and blue-eyed, attractive...
And they slept with anything that moved, male or female.
I'd never actually met them, but I knew Jake had. He'd had, ah, a bit of a run-in with Ryan at a party a last semester, before the summer. The two had... Hit it off. I was already having each member of the Five followed by that point.
"Uh... Yeah. I've met them," Jake answered, trying his best to sound nonchalant. Met them? Try fucked them. The brothers often... Shared. If Jake had slept with Ryan, chances are he'd had sex with James at some point as well.
"Ryan said that if I go to Harlesford, they'll get me into the fraternity no problem. He invited me to some pool party thing at a friend's place in Balfier this week-end," I lied, glancing at Jake through the corner of my eye.
This imaginary invite I was telling him about was identical to one he had received. The "pool party" had turned out to be a very private affair indeed. In fact, only Jake and the brothers were invited, with none of their friends in sight...
Jake made a somewhat strangled sound, and this time I turned to look at him, my right eyebrow arching up. "You okay, bro?" I asked, seemingly oblivious.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Jake mumbled, now refusing to meet my eyes.
I had essentially just outed myself to him. Jake had known full well what he was getting into when the brothers had invited him, and now he assumed that I did too, and that I had no idea that he'd done exactly the same thing. What's more, he was now facing the danger that I might mention him to the Gregory brothers, who might very well tell me all about their little rendezvous with Jake before the summer.
He clammed up for the rest of the time at the mall, but I didn't mind. I kept up a one-sided conversation with him, making sure to "accidently" bump into him or brush against him whenever I could get away with it. He got more and more tense, even when the girls finally finished and we went for a bite to eat in the food court.
