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Chapter 7
Even now while he stood outside the front door he could clearly hear the lyrics of the music and the noise that the crowd made. Even if he hadn't know the way to the house it would have been easy to find it, the music was that loud. Ste smiled nervously. A party with a few of Doug's friends. Doug had assured him that a few people meant that there wouldn't be more than twenty people. Of course he could have known that Leanne had a whole different perspective on the concept of a few friends.
Ste knocked hard on the door in the hope that someone would hear him and open up.
Of course this was not the case.
Alright, now what? For a moment Ste was tempted to turn around and walk away. He didn't feel like having a party with so many people at all. People who he probably did not know. People who Doug probably did not know. The thought of Doug at a party with all strange types around him, types that would not leave him alone and would try to seduce him, made him decide to go anyway. He had promised it after all.
Ste figured he had a mobile, so maybe he could try to call Doug and ask him to open the door for him.
He took his mobile out of his pocket and dialed Doug's number. It ringed a few times before it went over to voicemail.
Annoyed he put the mobile back into his pocket. How difficult was it to pick up your phone? Maybe he should go home after all since Doug didn't even want to make that small effort for him. Then he remembered that he was the one who was an hour and half late, if someone had a reason to be mad at him then that was Doug. On the other hand, the music was much too loud to hear the ringtone of your mobile so hopefully that was the reason that Doug hadn't picked up and not because he was mad at him for being so terribly late. Even though he had every reason to be.
But the question was: how was he going to get inside?
He knocked on the door once again in the hope that someone would hear him this time.
No Luck.
Alright, so no one was going to open the door and he wouldn't be able to reach any of the people inside because the music was too loud. Therefore he had to find another way to get inside.
He pondered his options.
Maybe he could try to find a window and climb into the house, but then it needed to be open and he didn't want to get caught while trying to break into his boyfriend's house. That really would leave the wrong impression.
Climbing through a window clearly wasn't an option.
Ste sighed frustrated and walked off the pavement, towards the fence. When he reached the fence he grabbed hold of it. The metal was nicely cool for his warm hands.
He really was terribly late. He had promised Doug that he would be here at ten o'clock, but it was almost eleven thirty. Amy always chose the greatest of times to get sick, it wasn't really her fault of course, not in the least, because Lucas had been ill, a few days before. Normally she was the one who would cook during the week, but because of her sickness he had to cook, clean and get the kids into bed in time. Once he had them in bed, he had to read them a story and after that he made Amy some soup and made sure she ate it completely. He had proposed to stay, but she had told him to go and after a few badly found counterarguments, he had agreed with her. But when she had finally convinced him to go it was already quarter past ten and he still had to take shower, pick his clothes and style his hair. After a last check on Amy he wanted to leave, but heard crying from Leah's room and when he walked in, he saw a pale Leah and vomit on the floor. So it took even longer to get away. After cleaning the floor, comforting Leah until she was asleep and another convincing speech of Amy, he finally left the house over an hour late. There went his plan to get at the party in time and now he finally was here he couldn't even get in.
So much for a trouble free evening.
He really had no idea what he should do now. The best he could think of was wait for someone to get outside and then sneak inside quickly while the door was still open. Unfortunately it would probably take a lot of time till someone decided to get out. Maybe Doug would miss him and come to see where he was, but since he was so late and Doug hadn't even tried to call him that was not very likely.
Ste turned around so he could lean against the fence while waiting. He looked at the house where Doug lived. Or better said: the house where Texas, Leanne, Dennis and Doug lived. Doug's friends. Friends Ste never had had. He felt a stab of jealousy. He never had been good in making friends. In keeping them. Of course he had Amy, but that was not the same. She was the mother of his kids. The only person that knew him better than himself. She was the one he had been beating up for months. Yet she had forgiven him. Something he had never been able to understand. Now she was his best friend. The only one.
For the rest he had no friends. The only people he had regarded as friends beside her were Rae, Doug, Noah and Brendan. Rae was dead. Doug was his boyfriend. Noah was his ex who he'd found kissing with another bloke the evening before they would leave Hollyoaks. And Brendan… It had been stupid to think that they would ever be able to be friends. He knew better know.
Ironically all his male "friends" had turned out to be more than just friends. He shook his head. No, he definitely was not good at keeping friends. Hopefully that would chance in the future.
Ste was so lost in thoughts that he didn't notice someone walking towards the door until that person had reached it. Ste wondered if he had to warn him that he couldn't enter, but before he'd made a decision, the man opened the door and walked inside.
Ste blinked…..
The door was open…
He forgot to check if the door was open….
How stupid could you be…..
He really was a complete fool.
He wished he had something in his hands right now so he could throw it at the wall. It was probably for the best that he hadn't. Instead he slapped his hand against his forehead.
Ste sighed once more and walked towards the door. Once he reached the door, he grabbed the clink and opened it. Hopefully Doug would not be too angry with him and they could still have a nice evening. He entered the house….
xXx
Ste fought his way through the crowd. Every few seconds he slammed into someone or stood on someone's toes and he muttered an apology without looking who he was talking to.
He couldn't imagine that Leanne knew all these people. Most likely she didn't. Most of them were probably friends from friends from friends. Or something like that. He hadn't seen anyone familiar yet anyway.
Eventually he reached (relatively unscathed) the living room. He saw the table where there lay a mountain of presents and he put his gift there. He smiled when he saw the decorations. Pink streamers hung everywhere and there was a large banner in the middle of the room with Congratulations Leanne on it. Probably something that Dennis had made.
He looked around to see if he spotted Doug somewhere, but he couldn't find his face in the crowded room. Ste sighed again and wondered (not for the first time this evening) what he was doing here. In general he wasn't really fond of parties. It was always a place where he drank too much and the next day all he had left was a terrible hangover. That would not happen to him this time. He had resolved not to drink much tonight.
He walked towards the kitchen, in the hope that Doug would be there. That was not the case, but Texas was there, looking slightly uncomfortable.
"Hi, Texas. Enjoying yourself?"
She looked at him, happy to see a familiar face, and answered: "Hey, Ste and to answer your question, not really no. I don't know anyone here."
Ste took a few steps closer otherwise he wasn't able to hear what she had to say and answered loudly: "Me neither. Have you seen Doug by any chance? I wanted to apologize for being so late."
Somewhere in the middle of the room a few people started dancing and soon a lot of people joined them so he almost missed it when she said:
"I'm afraid I haven't seen him for awhile. The last time I saw him he was half drunk and upset that you hadn't showed up and believe me, an upset and drunk Doug is not a good combination."
Ste knew she was right. He had seen Doug when he was drunk and he was even worse than Ste. That said a lot.
The likelihood of a successful ending of the evening became smaller and smaller.
They stared at the dancing couples for awhile and watched while the music went over to something more romantic so people could slow dance.
Eventually he turned back at her and asked: "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I was just hoping that Dodger would show up but I guess he won't."
He saw her disappointed and hurt face and realized that that was exactly how Doug must be feeling right now. He felt guilty again.
"I'm sure he will come. Look at me I was an hour and a half late. Maybe he was held up."
"Yeah maybe," she smiled at him and added: "Thanks."
"For what?"
"Trying to make me feel better."
He returned her smile and she offered him a beer that he gladly took.
They got into a conversation and talked for a while. Every now and then he looked around in the hope that he would spot Doug somewhere. Unfortunately with no luck.
Suddenly people started shouting and screaming around the dancers and they stopped talking, both looking towards the riot.
Soon Ste discovered what the riot was all about.
Two boys had started dancing closely together, slowly moving on the music.
Some people apparently weren't used to this shown of affection between two men, because some of them were looking like they had never seen something like this before.
But soon people were distracted by someone who was about to faint and the cheering and shouting took off again.
Ste smiled and turned his attention back to Texas.
He almost choked on his sip of beer when he saw her shocked face.
"What's wrong?" he asked her concerned.
She didn't answer him, so he followed her eyes to the thing what had shocked her so much. He raised his eyebrows when he realized that she was looking at the two dancing boys. He didn't understand why she was so bothered about it. Had she never seen two guys dancing before? He had always thought that she was very open-minded to that kind of thing, but apparently he had been wrong.
He just wanted to say something about it when something familiar caught his eye.
One of the boys was wearing the same shirt that Doug often wore.
Doug's favorite shirt.
He let his gaze wander up and he really looked at the two boys for the first time that evening.
One of them was long, he had gold blond hair and his arms were placed around the waist of the smaller guy.
He shifted his gaze form the longer guy to the smaller boy.
He froze when he realized who the other boy was.
Immediately he understood why Texas had looked so shocked.
It was no boy who accidentally wore the same shirt as Doug.
The boy was Doug.
To be continued…
