First
Several of Shawn's female friends are the current renters of a house historically known for its parties and decide to make their end of semester party the end all be all of after-hours recreation for the entire year. When one of the girls runs into Cory and Shawn having coffee together in the student union and tells them they "totally have to be there," Shawn's surprised when Cory laughs and says he will be.
"I thought you hated loud drunken parties?" Shawn remarks.
"I need a little more celebration in my life," Cory smiles.
It's a louder and more drunken party than either of them expected, but the music's good, the vibe is good, and the liquor's good. Some big football guy hands Cory one of the cups of beer that he's filling from the keg, one after another. The occupants of the house hand Shawn a shot glass from the end of a line of glasses running down the cupboard and beg Shawn to toast the end of the semester with them. Cory and Shawn retreat to the living room, and manage to duck the next four rounds of drinks when the entire living room becomes an impromptu dance floor.
It only takes an hour for Cory and Shawn to be the only sober people half-making out on the dance floor- it's too loud to do anything else. With an expression that suggests he's giggling, Shawn pulls Cory's ear to his mouth.
"Let's go home!" He yells over the music.
"Aren't you having a good time?"
Shawn smiles, and, sure that no one is paying them any attention, slides his hand along the fly of Cory's jeans as he says, "Take me home." There's something strange about the expression on Shawn's face, something that Cory's never seen there before and can't place.
Cory kisses him and lets Shawn pull him upstairs. They apologize to the couple on top of their coats, and head home hand in hand.
Shawn shuts and locks the door of their dorm behind them and pulls Cory against him again as he does. Coats, scarves, shoes, sweaters, belts, pants, underwear and socks get pulled off one after another like the petals of a flower, "he loves me, he loves me not" and are strewn around the bed with the absolute knowledge that "he loves me not" has been left out of the game all together.
Shawn reaches into the top drawer of the nightstand, pulls out a small plastic packet, and presses it into Cory's hand.
"Oh," Cory responds, pulling back from Shawn and sitting up, staring into his palm, "This is what you meant by "take me home" I thought we were just gonna-" he makes a flailing sort of gesture and turns pink.
"Oh," Shawn pants, "I thought you…we don't have to," Shawn rubs his hand down Cory's face, "If you don't want-"
"I didn't say I don't want to, I'm just wondering if this is something that we need to, you know, talk about, like at least who's gon-"
Shawn sits up and cuts him off with a kiss.
"I love you," Shawn tells him, wrapping his arms around Cory's neck.
"I love you too."
"If you aren't ready, we'll just wait."
Cory doesn't respond for a second, catching his breath with his forehead pressed to Shawn's.
"You're sober right?" Cory asks him.
"As a judge," Shawn responds, "You too?"
"Yeah," Cory responds. Shawn lies back down, running his hands down Cory's body as he does.
"Okay," Cory sighs, handing the packet back to Shawn.
Shawn tears it open, squeezes the contents into his hands and rubs it between them, warming it, before spreading it over Cory, who shivers anyway, and then between his own legs. Cory kisses him, repositions himself and looks into Shawn's face again, the strange new expression still there, and realizes there isn't something new, there's something missing. Shawn's reticence, cynicism, defensiveness- the kicked dog look is gone.
Shawn is lying naked underneath him, looking at him with total and complete trust.
Next Installment: Ambition