"Shane?" Jason set the box down and knocked on Shane's door. "Can I come in?" A second later the door opened, but Shane said nothing as he went back to sit on his bed. "I brought you your care package." Jason put the box on the floor and sat down on the bed next to Shane. "You ok?" Shane just shrugged. "Shane, please don't revert back to that, I like it when you talk." Jason sighed. "I could lie to you right now and tell you that I didn't read the notebook, but I did and I think that maybe it would help to vent?"
"I LOVED HIM!" Shane yelled, jumping to his feet and making Jason jump. "I fucking LOVED him and he said that he loved me too! He was my first – my first everything and then one day he just up and broke it off; told me that he just didn't love me and he wasn't sure that he ever had! He didn't even explain himself, he never so much as fucking apologized and now, six months later, he's finally saying that he's sorry and it's only because my parents died! That fucker knows how to get into my head and under my skin and now he's just pulling on the hold that he already has on me! FUCK!" Shane found himself standing in the middle of the room, face flush, arms flailing wildly, breath rapid to try and regulate the circulation of air through his body.
"I'm sorry," Jason stood, walking towards Shane. "He shouldn't use your vulnerability as a way to worm back in to your life." Jason pulled Shane into a hug. "You know what? Since my parents are out tonight, why don't we order in Chinese, rent Moulin Rouge, snuggle up in my room and wallow in self pity with Arnold and Sour Patch Kids."
"I don't want to impose on your life," Shane shook his head. "You've got that party that you're so excited about tonight, I don't want you to miss that, we can go."
"Do you want to go?" Jason asked, looking seriously at Shane.
"Yeah, sure." Shane nodded, hoping that Jason would buy the lie, because he felt bad for Jason's constant striving to cheer him up. Jason wanted to go to this party and it was time that Shane do something nice for him.
"Yeah, that's bullshit," Jason shook his head. "If you don't want to go Shane, just say so, and we can stay here."
"I do want to go," Shane insisted. "Well I did, but now this and I'm not really in the mood, but Jason, I want you to go, ok?"
"No," Jason shook his head. "There will be other parties, ok? Luke will understand, someone has a party every couple of weeks, there will be other chances to see my friends; right now you're going through a rough time, and just like I would for any of my other friends, I want to be here for you."
"What if I want to be left alone for awhile?" Shane asked. "What if I want you to go so that I can have some time to myself?"
"Is that really what you want?" Jason asked.
"No," Shane sighed.
"Ok, so my parents left cash, we can order in, grab the movie and pick up the food, make a night of this and get you feeling a little bit better."
"No, Jason, go to the party, please?" Shane looked at Jason pleadingly.
"No." Jason shook his head and pulled out his phone, dialing quickly. "Luke, hey it's Jason. I'm not gonna be able to make it tonight, I have something that I have to do…no, something that I care about broke and I want to fix it before I lose all of the pieces, you know? Yeah, I'll totally be there next time, I promise, just can't make this one…thanks Luke, have a good time, talk to you later." Jason snapped the phone shut and looked at Shane. "There," he smiled. "Now let's go take that take-out menu by force."
***
About an hour and a half later they were parked in front of the TV in the living room surrounded by empty or mostly empty cartons of Chinese food and a half eaten bag of Sour Patch Kids. Both boys were pressed on the left side of the sofa with Arnold squished between them. "Mitchie said that you liked to sing along, was she just fucking around?" Jason asked, looking at Shane as Satine nearly fell off of the elephant, surprised by Christian.
"No, that's uh…kinda true," Shane shrugged.
"Sing with me." Jason stood up, offering a hand to help Shane get to his feet.
"What? No." Shane shook his head.
"What, are you embarrassed? Come on, I'll be doing it to and there's no one else here, plus, Mitchie said you had a good voice, I want to hear it, you can sing either part."
"I don't-"
"It might make you feel better," Jason said, his sing-song voice tempting Shane.
"Fine," Shane slowly stood. "I do better with Satine's part, just please, please don't make fun of me," Shane looked pained as he stood in front of Jason.
"Don't worry about it, I go all out, so don't you make fun of me."
"Shut up so we don't miss it," Shane let out a small snort of laughter as the opening notes to Elephant Love Medley began.
"I was made for loving you baby, you were made for loving me," Jason sang, jokingly pointing at Shane, who chuckled before coming in quietly with his own part.
"The only way of loving me baby, is to pay a lovely fee."
"Just one night, give me just one night!"
"There's no way, 'cause you can't pay."
"In the name of love! One night in the name of love!" Jason acted along with song, putting a melodramatic and almost comical passion into the words as he sank to his knees, looking up imploringly at Shane.
"You crazy fool, I won't give in to you!" Shane tried to hold back a chuckle.
"Don't leave me this way, I can't survive without your sweet love, oh baby, don't leave me this way…"
"You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs," Shane sang, taking the notes down an octave to make them easier to hit.
"I look around me, and I see it isn't so, oh no."
"Some people want to fill the world with silly love songs."
"Well what's wrong with that? I'd like to know, 'cause here I go, yeah!" Jason got to his feet and jumped onto the couch, now singing down to Shane. "Love lifts us up where we belong, where eagles fly on a mountain high!"
"Love makes us act like we are fools, throw our lives away from one happy day." Shane added his own acting to it, rolling his eyes at Jason's pleading.
"We could be heroes...just for one day."
"You, you will be mean." Shane turned away from Jason in the spirit of the song
"No, I won't!" Jason shook his head.
"And I, I'll drink all the time!"
"We should be lovers!" Jason jumped down from the couch, putting his hand on Shane's shoulder, forcing him to turn around.
"We can't do that." Shane pulled away from Jason.
"We should be lovers, and that's a fact." This time Jason took Shane's hand, turning him around again.
"Though nothing would keep us together…"
"We could steal time," Jason sang.
"Just for one day." Shane's voice joined Jason's, and surprisingly to both boys, the composite sounded good. Really good. "We could be heroes, forever and ever, we could be heroes, forever and ever, we can be heroes..."
"Just because I," Jason belted. "Will always love you."
"I," Shane held the note out, supporting Jason's words.
"Can't help loving you," they sang together again, looking into each other's eyes, Jason stepping a little bit closer.
"You," Jason whispered the next line, holding it out while Shane came in.
"How wonderful life is," Shane sang softly, his heart feeling constricted inside of his chest.
"Now you're in the world." Jason's voice joined Shane's for a final time and both boys held the notes out, matching the actor's on screen. They weren't paying attention to Nicole and Ewan, at that moment, it was just Jason and Shane, and as the song came to a close, Jason's hand, - the one that wasn't holding Shane's, rose to the back of Shane's neck, gently guiding Shane into a soft, gentle kiss. "Shit, I'm sorry," Jason pulled away, jumping back a couple of feet. "I was just caught up in the whole movie moment thing." His voice was harried, his heart beating an odd combination of too fast one second and not at all the next.
"Yeah, no, I was just following the uh, the script." Shane backed up a little, his eyes wide, and ran his fingers nervously through his hair.
"Great," Jason nodded.
"Great," Shane agreed.
"Not great," Jason shook his head.
"No." Shane shook his as well, and before either of the boys really knew what they were doing, they were back in the center of the room, Jason's arms around Shane's slender waist, Shane's wrapped around Jason's neck, lips searching awkwardly, hungrily for the perfect kiss.
