Editing this fic roughly about three chapters at a time since re-reading made me cringe at the shamble that was my writing, I won't be changing it too much because it was my first fic and I still want it to be the same but I needed to fix the reeeeally horrendous bits, enjoy.
Chapter 1
Ste's point of view
I'm sitting in the deli with Doug when he drops the bombshell on me that he's engaged,
"I proposed to JohnPaul last night.." he says, I can tell its taken him guts to tell me and he expects an argument but how else am I supposed to react? I breathe out slowly to calm myself down, "It wasn't planned or anything Ste, i just kind of blurted it out while we were having dinner" He continue.
Doug and I had only been split up a month before he went to John Paul, who he knew I hated. It was as if he was doing it on purpose to annoy me, over the past couple of months though I've gotten used to it. I wasn't happy with Doug anyway and were still mates but I still can't stand John Paul.
When he tells me though, I don't care. I actually don't, which is weird. I smile at him, and he frowns,
"Congrats, I'm happy for ya" I say, and truth is I am, I might hate John Paul's guts but if Doug's happy with him then I guess that's the main thing,
He grins at me then and pulls me into a hug "Thanks Ste, you don't know how much this means to me" We pull away and he smiles at me before asking, "Does this mean you'll come out to celebrate with us tonight?"
"John Paul won't like that" I say truthfully knowing he'll throw a tantrum about it, "but yeah I'll come, I need a night out" which is also true I've not been out on a proper night out since before I got together with Doug. So about nine months ago, which is depressing considering I've been single for half that time.
We agree as we are cleaning up that we'll meet in the village and head to a gay bar in Chester, which is fine by me. As long as it's somewhere with alcohol and some of my mates are there I'll have a good time.
When I'm home I jump in for a quick shower and walk around the house in my boxers, since Sinead seems to be out I pull out my phone and ring Amy to see how her and the kids are getting on,
"Hey Ste" she says, it's amazing after all these years we still are good friends even though there's a bit of distance.
"Alright Ames, how are you and the kids doin?"I only get to see her and the kids once a fortnight which is a big leap when I've always been able to see them everyday but we're making it work.
"Yeah we're great, the kids are in their bath the now. They are missing their daddy like mad though" I can sense her sad smile at those words,
"I'm missing them too but it won't be long until I see them again." I grin, "but I do have some news for you."
"Oooh spill the beans" She exclaims while getting excited,
"It's nothing about me Ames so don't get too excited." I say while pausing to keep her waiting that bit longer, "but Doug and John Paul are gettin married"
"No way! You've got to be kidding, are you okay Ste?" She asks shocked, "I always thought you would both be able to make things work between yous."
I roll my eyes at the last part and ignore the comment, "Surprisingly yeah I am. We're going out tonight to celebrate." I tell her while walking around the empty living room,
"Well that's good then, maybe you'll bag yourself a man tonight.."
"Nah doubt it, anyway I'm not bothered." I say with a shrug,
We chat away for another fifteen minutes before Amy realises the kids are probably freezing in the bath and I decide I better get a move on.
"Give the kids a kiss from me, alright bye Amy." I tell her before hanging up,
Deciding to skip dinner and quickly get ready, I go for a bright blue polo shirt with my dark tight fitted jeans, Amy used to call them my 'pulling jeans' cause they made my arse look good, never really noticed it myself right enough but I trust her judgement.
We meet outside the deli as planned and there's more people here than what I thought there would be, Doug and JohnPaul obviously, all of John Paul's sisters and his cousins Theresa and Bart, Reily Costello-who to be fair has known Doug longer than what I have , Leanne and Texas, Tony, Rhys, and Darren.
So hopefully it'll be a good night, we're just waiting for Sinead to come then were off. She's late as usual but looking gorgeous again as usual. We all need to get separate taxis so I share with Sinead, Tony and Darren. We have a laugh on the way there and as soon as we get in we're straight to the bar getting the drinks in for the rest since we're first in, downstairs in the club is just the dance floor and a bar but upstairs has a bigger bar and some tables.
There's a table with reserved on it, which turns out is ours. We take a seat and start drinking and having a laugh, the next to arrive is Doug, Leanne, Texas and Bart.
As soon as Sinead sees Bart walking over she grabs me closer and whispers in my ear "Please help, can we go to the dance floor for a while"
"yeah course." I tell her cause I don't need any excuse to go there.
We head down the steep stairs and I'm thinking to myself that I'm defos going to fall down them by the end of the night. We're on the dance floor busting the moves or trying to, a couple of more drinks and we don't even care what we look like, we head back up the stairs and I see Lynsey Nolan a nurse who stays in the village, sitting across from her is a man and a woman, I can't see either of there faces but the woman has a load of blonde curls and the man has shocking black dark hair. I give Lynsey a smile hoping I don't look like an idiot and she grins at me and gives me a wave, the blonde woman turns to have a nosey at me so I pull on Sinead's arm so we can go order yet another drink. We're standing at the bar laughing when Bart comes up.
The smile falls from Sinead's face, "What do you want?" she says giving him a death glare.
"Know what I'm just goin back over to the table and let ya's chat" as I'm walking away I see Doug and John Paul huddled in to each other laughing and smiling.
I shake my head and head for the nearest exit. When I get outside the cool air fills my lungs and I shiver. There's a guy, must be about a year maybe two years younger than me, he's standing smoking and although I've not smoked since I was seventeen I feel the urge for one.
"Alright mate, got a spare fag?" I ask he looks at me then round about him, looking even more dodgy than he did before. He gives me his packet and I take one out and give him them back as he passes me a lighter.
"Ya not from around here then nah?" I say
"Is it that obvious" he sounds sort of posh but he looks like he's not washed all week.
"Can just tell, lived here near enough all me life, ya can always tell when theres an outsider" I say giving him a small smile,
"Could you do me a favour mate?" He asks looking hopeful,
"Depends what it is.." I smirk at him and he looks scared again, what's up with this boy.
"My mate, he's inside there. Could you get him for me?"
"Yeah sure, why don't ya just get 'im yaself?"
"It doesn't matter, his names Brendan you can't miss him. He's Irish, tall, dark and handsome" 'sounds alright' I think to myself without knowing why. "Oh and he's got a moustache" and that ruins it.
I head back inside after finishing my smoke telling the boy I would send his mate out if I seen him. I search the dance floor-not there-, when I get up the stairs I wave over at the table and see Theresa running up towards me, she's drunk I can tell.
"Steee! Want to dance with me?" she says while wrapping her arms around me
"Not the now soon yeah?" she nods along to my words like a little puppy. I order myself and her another drink and I tell her about the boy outside the next thing I know is Theresa's disappeared. Then I see her jumping up and down waving her arms at me.
I join her just outside the bathroom when she says to me.
"Do you think that's him?!" she says louder than expected while pointing at a man sat himself at a table who looks up at us staring at him with Theresa's finger pointed at him. I grab her arm and look at her in shock and it's then that I realise he describes the boys description but fuck he's hot. I turn back towards him and he's still looking at me so I smirk at him and walk forwards, Theresa in tow.
I clear my throat and say "Ehhhrrr is ya name Brendan?"
He looks taken aback "yeah it is" he says and the sexy irish accent sends shivers down my spine but I snap out of it.
"ya mate, es waiting for ya outside. Asked me to come look for ya"
He looks at me and at first I think shit I've just spoke to some randomer. He nods back though and says a quick bye before he heads for the exit and I follow him with my eyes out the room.
Nothing interesting really happens for the next hour. I give Theresa the dance I promised then we head back to the table. Next thing I know the tables near enough empty and the only ones left are, Theresa-who's became my drinking buddy for the night, Darren, Rhys and Reilly.
We're having a laugh then I feel a tap on the shoulder I turn round to see Lynsey smiling brightly at me "Mind if me and my two friends join ye's?
"yeah course you's can" says Reilly of course, he's wanted down Lynsey's pants for donks, so has every guy at this table apart from me. She sits down and that's when I recognise one of her friends. Brendan.
Lynsey does the introductions between us all. We have a carry on and I mostly talk to Cheryl and Theresa they're a laugh and we've agreed to go out again just the three of us. I catch Brendan looking at me strangely a few times, I have a feeling the guy doesn't like me.
We end up on the engagement topic the very one I've managed to avoid talking about all night.
"So why are all of ye's in a gay bar? I get why Ste would be here but that's it" Lynsey says to Riley and Darren whilst Rhys and Theresa are up at the bar getting another round.
"We were celebrating Doug and John Paul's engagement" Riley explains
Lynsey looks at me with pity in her eyes "Awk poor you Ste. I can't imagine how you feel, I'd never be able to go to my ex's engagement"
"I don't mind right, everyone thinks I'm pure bothered when I'm not. Doug and me are just mates now." I say smiling, making sure they all believe me, I'm over Doug.
"Ste I've always wondered this" Darren says ".. But did Doug just get with John Paul to annoy you? Cause he knew you hated him?"
"I don't know, never asked" I say with a shrug, I've always wondered but never brought it up to Doug.
"So you admit you hate John Paul?" He laughs,
"Well yeah but it's not like it's a secret, he even knows it. We've hated each other since school. The knob" I realise I'm starting to sound like the jealous ex, so I down the rest of my drink and smirk when I realise all eyes are still on me "Anyway I wasn't the only one avoiding confrontation with me ex tonight."
"Oh who else was" Theresa says grabbing onto my shoulder while sitting mine and her drink down while Rhys struggles with the others.
"Well Sinead was avoiding Bart wasn't she? But she went back to his so looks like she wasn't very successful."
"Aw yeah I forgot about that. The dirty stop outs!" Rhys slurs looking pissed,
"Wait does this mean you have an empty house?" Theresa replies excited,
"Yeah it does"
"Were you planning on pulling someone?" She grins at me,
I laugh at that question "I never plan on pulling anyone."
"So does that mean we can have a party in yours?" she says fluttering her eyelashes
"Do ya forget I'm gay or sumit?" I howl, "The eyelashes trick dunt work on me anymore, but we'll see what time we leave at."
Rhys and Darren can barley walk so they get a taxi back, Cheryl and Theresa go to the dance floor while Riley and Lynsey end up with their tongues down each others throats and they decide to get a taxi home together.
Which leaves me with Brendan. Someone I barley know, who makes me feel nervous and I don't know why. The conversation between us is strained at first but eventually it starts to just flow and I realise that he's actually a nice guy, not what I expected.
We're both pretty drunk and having a laugh with each other. I find out quite a bit about him, turns out he's been married, has kids the lot. Now though he's gay, well he's always been gay but he's out now,
"I knew for years, was just too scared, I felt embarrassed. Mainly down to my dad, when he died two years ago I started to become comfortable in my own skin, Chez figured out. Helped me through it then we moved over here, thought we needed a fresh start." He tells me,
I wish I could move away and start a fresh but no way. We have a laugh and part of me thinks we're flirting but thats a daft idea.
"Here where's your sister and Theresa? They've been dancin for ages"
Brendan frowns then nods, "Let's go see if we can find them'."
We heading downstairs and Brendan catches me when I trip over a step, he makes a cheesy joke and I smirk at him. We scan the dance floor but can't find them anywhere.
We go outside and I phone Theresa after a while she picks up sounding sleepy, "Auuhhg what is it?"
"Where are ya? And Cheryl?"
"I'm in bed Ste, Cheryl's in hers we left ages ago. We came up to get yous but we saw how well yous were getting on, didn't want to disturb"
"Right okay" I said blankly "I'll let ya get back to sleep then, sorry night"
"Night Ste" she sighs sleepily,
"Where's Cheryl, Steven?" he asks I look up at him and I nearly forgot how gorgeous he was, even with the tache'. I snap myself out of my thoughts, "Theresa said they left ages ago, she was sleepin. Cheryl went back to hers. They probably shared a taxi so I don't think ya need to worry about her."
"I wasn't. There is a problem though, Cheryl's probably sleeping and I don't have keys. She always locks the door paranoid at night."
"If ya don't have anywhere ya can kip at mines" I say, I don't mind letting people stay a night plus Brendan seems alright, don't think he's a physco. Doesn't mean I think anything will happen between us I know it won't.
"Really? Yeah cheers" he says.
My flat is only a five minute walk so we agree to walk there and on the way we carry on, pushing and shoving then I get a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach, it starts when he put his arms around my waist, at first I laugh but then I look up to his face and he has a serious look on his face and in his eyes there's a few emotions, lust confusion and one I can't quite read.
I'll be posting in the summary how many chapters have been edited at a time, but hopefully in about a months time it'll all be finished since I'm not planning on changing the later chapters but that can always be changed..LGx