Standard Disclaimer Applies
Word Count: Approx. 30,578 (this part, approx. 2,016)
Rants: So, it appears as the new posting time is around lunch time (as that's when I finally get out of bed). Not much else to say, so enjoy!
At 4.00h Rei's grandparents had left the house for their weekend long trip for the Martial Arts tournament. By 4.12h Spencer was dumping bags of Doritos into large bowls and placing them around the living room and kitchen, and Ian was opening a couple of bottles of vodka for the party.
Rei stepped back downstairs, wearing a tight leather outfit, something that wouldn't have looked out of place on Tala a few months ago, but on Rei, it didn't have just quite the same affect.
"Nice," Spencer said, smirking.
Rei took a deep breath, forcing a smile. Kai Hiwatari was going to be at his house. Everything had to be perfect. He had to be perfect. He'd spent every penny he could find on this outfit, including sneaking some money from his grandmother's Rainy Day fund. He'd pay her back before she noticed, though, so it wasn't a big deal.
"I bought enough cheese and crackers for eight people," Rei said, brushing his bangs behind his ears nervously, "do you think that will be enough?"
Spencer and Ian shared a look, barely containing their laughter.
"Oh yeah," Spencer said. "That'll be plenty."
Rei was too nervous to notice the ill concealed sarcasm, and nodded his head before glancing at his reflection in the antique mirror hanging across from the stairs. He paused to smooth out his hair, and press the wrinkles from his top. The doorbell rang, and the three teenagers lit up with excitement.
- - -
Turns out, that it wasn't enough. Word had gotten out about Rei's small get together, and now, an hour later the entire house and lawn was packed with people – some of whom Rei didn't even know. He squeezed through the hallway to greet Spencer and Ian, both who were lounging on the stairs drinking a clear liquid Rei could only guess at.
Spencer was glaring at Steven across the hall. "That ass is here with Eddy. You know, he never did call me back. I've got the new Madden game and everything."
"Maybe because you only play Game Cube with your pants off?" Ian asked, but his smirk dissipated under Spencer's glare. "He's just using Eddy to get you mad."
The doorbell rang again, and Rei went over and opened it, surprised to see four guys, one he vaguely recognized as Enrique from his Calculus class. "Erm, hey. Do I even-" Rei started, but was pushed aside as they entered, pulling cans of beer out from bags, "-know you?" Rei finished lamely.
With a sigh, Rei headed back into the kitchen, almost tripping. He was wearing the platform boots he'd borrowed from Tala, that the redhead had given him, and he still couldn't walk that well in them. They were dead sexy though, so he had to wear them, even if they would be the death of him.
On the counter was a half full, abandoned plastic cup, so Rei picked it up. He hesitated in dumping in down the sink, before deciding to down it in one gulp. He almost choked. Vodka! He was going to have to kill Ian for this. He told the Russian not to bring any alcohol, but he'd been too busy worrying about himself to pay attention to what the other two were actually doing...
Speaking of the other two, Rei stepped into the living room to see two people making out on his grandfather's armchair, and a spilled cup of something that no one had bothered to clean up. Sighing, Rei knelt to take care of it, then moved on, spotting Spencer get into a drunken wrestling match with Steven in the main hall.
Loud laughter echoed in the living room once more, and Rei entered to see some guys tossing his grandparents Buddha statue around like a basketball.
"Put that down!" He shouted, startling the players. He lunged, and managed to catch it before it shattered on the ground.
Biting back bitter tears, he scuttled into the kitchen to hide it under the sink, hiding his face. His party was going so wrong, so horribly wrong. Kai had decided not to show up after all. He had been stood up by Kai Hiwatari. He choked back a sob, wiping tears from his eyes.
"Hey, Rei," Emily said, snapping Rei out of his self-pitying wallow. "Your friend came to talk to me."
"Oh no," Rei moaned, hanging his hand as he stood up, closing the cabinets.
"I'm flattered, really, and I don't want to hurt your feelings," She continued, pushing her glasses up her nose. "But I only date other athletes. I play tennis, you know."
"Oh," Rei said, shaking his head, "It's fine." He pointed over his shoulder. "I have to pee."
He grabbed another shot of Vodka, gulping it down and ignored the burn. He stumbled slightly as he pushed his way through the crowd. Whoa. His alcohol tolerance sucked. He paused at the foot of the stairs, and snatched Ian's drink away from him, to the smaller boy's annoyance. Well, if he was going to get drunk, he might as well get really drunk. He gulped it down as well, before handing it back.
He headed up the stairs, and opened the bathroom door. Two angry shrieks greeted him, and he closed the door before he had the chance to see anything specific. He did recognize the angry shock of red hair that was Johnny McGregor though. When the hell had that boy gotten here? He shook his head, and headed into his grandparent's room, to use their bathroom.
He managed to pee successfully, and wash his hands, but when he went to leave he stumbled on the throw rug beside the tub and fell over with a loud thump.
"Ow!" He cursed, sitting up to rub his elbow, tears welling in his eyes once more.
Feeling he had wasted enough time as it was, he forced himself to stand up, swaying slightly, and headed back into his grandparent's bedroom, only to see Kai sitting on the bed and staring at him, utterly confused.
"Hey," the senior said, "I've been looking for you forever."
"Me too!" Rei said, then flushed. "Yeah." He said.
"You look, eh," Kai said, then shook his head. "Are those new clothes?" He asked instead.
Rei nodded his head. "Yeah. Thanks."
"Do you want to go back downstairs?" Kai asked, and Rei shook his head, no.
"Let's stay up here," the Neko-Jin said.
He moved to sit by Kai, but stumbled slightly in the boots, and ended up practically lying on Kai's lap. After blinking in confusion and wondering what just happened, Rei forced himself to sit up, placing his hand on Kai's leg as a balance, but didn't move it afterwards. Smooth, Rei. Real smooth.
Kai shot Rei a worried look, brushing the smaller male's hand from his thigh. "Thanks for getting me to come out tonight."
"It's no problem," Rei purred, scooting closer, draping his leg across Kai's lap like he'd seen Tala do so many times.
Kai hesitated before pushing Rei's leg off of his lap, and settled with just patting it. No telling what would happen to the drunken Neko-Jin if he did that. "I know I've been acting weird lately," He said after a moment, his red eyes meeting Rei's amber ones, "but it's just embarrassing when you think you know someone and you find out they've been lying to you the whole time. Tala cheated on me before, so I don't know what I was thinking." He clenched his hand into a fist. "I guess I just expected more from Bryan. We've been best friends since we were kids."
"I would never lie to you," Rei purred, reaching up to put a finger on Kai's lips, feeling how soft they were.
Kai brushed his hand away, "No, I know."
"Although," Rei said, laughing slightly. "Okay, listen. Okay?" Kai nodded his head, quirking an eyebrow in confusion. "I did lie to you a little bit, once, but only for really good reasons."
"What do you mean?" Kai asked, frowning.
"I pretended to be bad at math so you would help me," Rei said, grinning from ear to ear. "But I'm not bad at math." He shook his head. "I'm really good at math." He nodded. "You're kind of – no, you're really bad at math." He giggled a bit at this. "But anyway, now I'm failing. Isn't that funny?"
Rei leaned forward to kiss Kai, but the older male stopped him by placing a hand against his chest. "Wait. You're failing math on purpose?" Kai asked incredulously, and Rei nodded. "That's stupid."
"Not on purpose," Rei whined, shaking his head. "I couldn't talk to you because you were with Tala. And Tala's so scary... he's so bossy... that I had to..."
"Rei, are you -?" Kai started.
"What the hell is going on?" Tala screamed, kicking the door to the bedroom open.
Choking, Rei brought a hand to his mouth, and before he could stop himself, he puked, the half digested food and Vodka splashing onto his and Kai's laps.
- - -
"Kai!" Rei cried out, stumbling down the street, watching the senior male storm off.
"What the fuck?" Michael snapped, startling Rei.
The Neko-Jin turned around to see Michael sticking his upper body out of the sunroof of a blue car he vaguely recognized as being Max's mother's.
"Oh no," Rei whimpered, bringing his hands to hide his face. "I'm so sorry!" He cried out.
"You shitty little liar," Michael continued, clutching his fists in anger.
"I can explain!" Rei whimpered.
"Explain how you forgot to invite us to your shitty little party?" Michael growled.
"You know I couldn't invite you!" Rei cried out, "I have to pretend to be a Demolition Boy!"
"You're not pretending anymore!" Michael screamed back. "You are a Demolition Boy. You're the Demolition Boy! You fucking prick!"
"Michael, I have a curfew!" Max cried from behind the driver's wheel, "And my mom's going to kill me when she realizes her car is missing!"
"You're the worst," Michael spat with hatred, "At least Tala Ivanov and me know we're mean. You act like you're so fucking innocent! 'Oh, I used to live in China where there's no cable TV or shopping malls!' God!"
"Shut up, Michael!" Rei snapped, his distress finally transforming into anger. "Just shut the fuck up!"
"Curfew," Max whimpered. "1h. It's 1.10h."
"Did you have an awesome time?" Michael continued, undaunted. "Did you drink awesome stolen vodka while listening to awesome music and giving awesome lap dances while soaking up each other's awesomeness?"
"Shut UP!" Rei howled, "It's not my fault you're so fucking obsessed with me!"
"What?" Michael asked, his voice dangerously low.
Max stopped the car, and turned to glare at Rei. "Oh no he didn't."
"Obsessed with you?" Michael said, laughing. "I don't even like you. And you know who else doesn't like you? Kai Hiwatari. He broke up with Tala, and guess what? He still doesn't want you. So why are you still messing with Tala, Rei? I'll tell you why, because you're a little fucking prick!" He chucked his baseball at Rei, intentionally missing, watching it bounce off of the asphalt to the side of his feet. "You can keep that. We raised almost a quarter million at the Charity event tonight, no support from you."
Max started the car, and Michael slid back into it, clambering into the front seat. Rei watched horror struck, before turning his attention to the baseball that's steadily rolling towards the curb. He walked over to it, and picked it up. Fighting back bitter tears, he tore off for the house, ignoring everything.
He didn't care Tala had figured out that Kälteen bars helped you gain weight. He didn't care that Johnny McGregor was having sex with who knows who in his bathroom. He didn't care that there was smears on the wall from dirty fingers. He didn't care that his house was trashed, almost beyond repair. Rei didn't care about anything anymore, because Michael was right.
What the hell had he become?
TBC