Chapter 2: Fried

'So, you're gay now?'

'Drama!'

After a few days Eric had decided to tell Drama and Turtle too, because Vince's reaction had been much better than he had expected and Eric was just a bad liar. That whole spiel about how good an actor he had been was bullshit, because he couldn't even count the times over the years when he had come close to confessing to Vince or anyone how he felt. He was pretty sure it wasn't as many times as he had almost kissed Vince, though. Anyway, after dinner he had started out slowly by telling them that he had been having feelings for guys and that was when Johnny had burst in with his question and Turtle had scolded him for it.

'What?' Johnny said, perplexed at Turtle's reaction, 'That is a legitimate question. I knew this was the wrong time to start my juice regiment. Now I'll be even more attractive.'

Eric and Vince smiled at each other, which, despite being busy laughing at Johnny, Turtle picked up on. With a knowing smirk on his face he proceeded to mock Johnny.

'When were you ever attractive? No really, when?' Turtle asked, attempting to sound serious, but cracking up nonetheless. The object of his scorn didn't even deign to look at him and merely told him to shut up, while he gathered the ingredients for one of his juices. Turtle sighed, looking at the strawberries and oranges and milk and some increasingly vague and suspect ingredients.

'Your juice regiment? You mean getting up at 4 a.m. to drink shit?' Turtle continued, knowing that regardless of Johnny's unaffected exterior he was getting a rise out of him. Again Johnny pursed his lips and stared at Turtle with disdain. The little headshake of you-obviously-have-no-idea-what-the-hell-you-are-talking-about was performed to perfection by Johnny. He punctuated the movement by slicing the last of the oranges in half.

'You won't be laughing once I have purged my entire body of toxins. I'll be gorgeous. E won't be able to resist me,' Johnny smugly stated and Turtle suffered another fit of laughter. Johnny's brother had quickly turned away and was trying to compose his face, while Eric just stood there with an amused look on his face. Having managed to control his features, Vince turned around to find that familiar expression on Johnny's face. It was the expression they had all come to dread. It spoke volumes, even when Johnny didn't say anything, about how Johnny thought he was never good enough. Vince opened his mouth to say something, anything, to wipe that expression from Johnny's face, but Eric beat him to it.

'Drama, I would be all over you if I wasn't already in love with someone else,' Eric said and winked at Johnny, which slightly freaked Vince out. It was all going a bit fast. Eric was bisexual and in love with him and he was fine with it – really, he was – and Drama and Turtle were fine with it and now his best friend was winking at his brother. Just... too fast, too much.

'I knew you would be,' Johnny answered, slowly starting to grin again. He mouthed 'I told you so' at Turtle, but Turtle missed it, because he was looking at Vince and Eric. He knows, Vince realised, but for once Turtle wisely kept his mouth shut.

'I'm just the same, only now I have a spot soft for a guy,' Eric added and he had to exert all his self-discipline to not look at Vince when he said that. Turtle was smiling stupidly and Eric cursed himself silently. It was clear that Turtle knew who this elusive guy was. All Eric could do was hope that Turtle would shut the hell up about it.

'Don't you mean a hard spot?' Vince asked and Turtle hooted as Eric began to blush furiously.

(***)

Later that evening.

It was ten p.m. and Vince was getting bored. Johnny had just gone to bed; something about sleep helping the body to shed the toxins faster, and Eric was out. There was nothing on television except infomercials and honestly, those were only fun to watch together with Eric. They would mock the infomercials; the ridiculous claims of weight loss or muscle building and all Eric had to do was snort at one of them to get Vince convulsed with laughter. He was just about to give up and try to go and fall asleep too, which he knew wasn't going to wash, because it was still light out and still so fucking hot, when Turtle wandered into the living room. His eyes were already glazy and he was carrying a baggie of weed and a lighted joint.

'Doyouwantonetoo?' Turtle garbled as he sagged into the chair opposite from Vince. Relieved he wasn't going to be tossing and turning in bed, yet, Vince nodded and rolled a joint. A little while later Vince was ready to admit the real reason he couldn't sleep. Every night he would lie awake and think about what Eric had said. His best friend loved him. It was flattering and creepy at the same time. He was trying really hard to pretend nothing had changed, but of course things had changed and Eric was noticing that Vince was acting differently. Pushing all thoughts of Eric away, Vince decided that he would write down all the things he would come up with. Often during smoking he would have some great ideas, but afterwards he could never remember them, so this time he would write them down.

He told Turtle of his plan, but all Turtle did was take another drag and nod listlessly. Over the next two hours Vince made a little list of worthwhile ideas. When he discovered he could barely hold either pen or joint anymore, Vince got up and walked towards his bedroom. On the way he heard the front door and saw Eric come in.

'Hi E,' Vince whispered sexily. Why was he doing that? He hadn't meant to whisper all sexily. Damn it! Why was he so sexy? Eric stared at him strangely.

'Been smoking, huh?' Eric whispered. That was sexy too. E had whispered at him, seductively, sultry, sweetly, sexily. E wanted him. And he... Or was he making this up? Had E really sounded sexy? E was sexy.

'Goodnight Vince.'

'Goodnight E.'

Eric tentatively sidestepped Vince and Vince made his way to his bedroom, where, at least tonight, he had no trouble sleeping.

(***)

Later that night.

'Vince, wake up.'

Groggily, and with immense effort, Vince managed to rouse himself from sleep. What he found was Johnny hovering over him and Turtle standing dazed in his bedroom. What he also found was that he was having a little trouble breathing, because of all the smoke. Turtle threw up in a corner of the room and started coughing.

'Stupid idiot left a joint burning in the living room. I woke up to drink my juice and half the house is on fire,' Johnny explained angrily. Vince was not processing this fast enough, apparently, because next thing he knew his brother had hauled him out of bed and was shoving him and Turtle out of the room. The smoke was everywhere. It was hurting his eyes and constricting his throat and he couldn't see a fucking thing. Fortunately, Johnny appeared to know where they should go and he was alternately pushing and dragging Vince and Turtle with him. And just like that they were outside.

Turtle collapsed on the front lawn and threw up again, but Johnny was merciless and yanked both of them further away from the house. The house was fucked; Vince could see that. Smoke was pouring from every window and in the back the flames were devouring the roof. When Johnny had just finished calling the emergency services and neighbours started to come out of their houses to watch Vince realised something horrible.

'Where is E?' he asked, and suddenly he felt like he really couldn't breathe. Johnny just glanced at him, seemingly not comprehending his question and Turtle looked green with nausea.

'I'm here. Thanks for coming to get me by the way, you fuckers,' Eric said, appearing from the left and Vince heaved a huge sigh of relief, which got him coughing. In the distance Vince could hear the sirens. He couldn't think clearly and wasn't sure whether it was due to the panic or the smoke inhalation or the drugs. Eric said he had left the house from the back and now Vince noticed he was dripping with water and that there were scorch mark on his shirt. Apologetic, Johnny insisted that he didn't know Eric had been in the house. Eric looked at Vince and shrugged at Johnny's explanation.

'My shirt caught fire, so I jumped in the pool,' Eric calmly stated as Turtle started to dry heave on his hands and knees. Eric was still looking at Vince, who felt a pain in his chest. He had known; he should have done something. The lights of the ambulance and fire engine were darting across the lawn and across Eric's ruined shirt. The house was now entirely ablaze. The paramedics were rushing to them and Johnny assured them he was fine and directed them to Turtle. Guiltily, Vince pointed one of the paramedics to Eric, but Eric didn't seem to be in any pain. He seemed resigned. Turtle had to be taken to the hospital, to be treated for smoke inhalation. Vince was coughing too and Johnny urged him to ride with Turtle, so they could properly check him out at the hospital too. For a moment Vince wanted to protest that he wanted to stay with Eric as he caught a glimpse of the burns on Eric's back, but he thought better of it. The house was emitting a fierce heat, but throughout all of this Eric had never taken his eyes off of Vince and Vince felt the coldness of his gaze.