I arrive at Dutchy's room at exactly eleven o'clock, and I knock nervously. This guy Crutchy, who's Dutchy's roommate along with Kid Blink and Mush, opens the door, and lets me in. The room is nearly spotless, which is a huge change from the nuclear fallout zone which is my dorm room. I'm taken aback for a moment, pondering how this is possible with three teenage boys in one room, but then I get distracted by this beautiful sight to the right of me. Dutchy's rummaging through the closet, still looking around for a shirt, and is currently just wearing jeans and a white undershirt. Hot. Damn.

"Hey, Specs," he says, scratching his head in frustration. "I'll be ready in a second, I'm sorry, I just totally forgot that I haven't done laundry since... um, never." He nods to his clothes hamper, which is not only overflowing but has clothes piled on top of it as well. It's the only disorderly thing in the room, and I find it endearing. Seriously, who the hell finds dirty laundry endearing?

"It's cool," I say, breaking my train of thought. "I'm in no real hurry." Except to take your clothes off... with my teeth. I have to tear my eyes away from him. It could turn into a very uncomfortable situation. "So, uh, Crutchy, you comin' to the party tonight?"

"I might pop by later, but I got a project I wanna finish first," Crutchy replies, sitting down on his bed and opening a laptop.

"Crutchy does computer animations. He's really good," Dutchy says, pulling on a black button-up shirt. "You ready to go?" Am I ever.

We walk into the courtyard, ducking out of the range ofthe spotlights on the side of the building. Dutchy says hi to some people I haven't met yet, and then turns to me. "You wanna get something to drink?"

I nod. "I am a little bit thirsty," I say over the music, and we head over to Racetrack, who's manning a table with glasses.

"Our new friend here's thirsty," Dutchy says, and Racetrack grins. He hands me a glass and I drink, nodding at the taste. It's this juice stuff, kind of sticky-sweet, and not bad at all.

"Dammit, Dutchy, you brought the newbie?" Spot rolls his eyes as he takes a drink. Okay, I know Spot Conlon fancies himself some sort of badass, but the fact that he just called me a "newbie" really takes him down about twelve notches on the tough-guy scale. I'm surprised that he didn't tell me to "STFU!"

"He's my friend, Spot," Dutchy says defensively. "And I bet if you'd open up and not be such an assmunch to everyone, he'd be your friend, too. It's nice to have friends." His voice changed to an impersonation of Mr. Rogers in the last sentence, and I nearly spit my drink through my nose. Spot just walks off in a huff, to go find whatever girl he's using as a facade tonight.

Dutchy watches me down a couple more cups of that juice stuff, which gets more and more delicious with each sip, and drinks a little himself. He seems to be a little looser and looks over to the group of people jumping around in the middle of the courtyard. "Why don't you and I take a break from this stuff and go dance?"

He wants me to dance with him. He wants me to dance with him! And when you're a teenager, dancing is like sex, but with your clothes on, and not nearly as much fun! Well, at least I've heard.

"Um..." My head feels a little funny, but my body has a serious urge to go gyrate with him like the other people. "Okay, sure."

We head out to the dance floor, and after a little while, I find my groove. It's really not that hard, especially not tonight, for some reason.

I watch Dutchy as I dance. He's really good. God, if only I could watch him all the time.

The music is loud, and that makes me wonder if we'll get caught, but I don't really care. I like the song that's playing. It seems to explain my situation most effectively, and is really easy to dance to.

Boom, boom, boom, boom

I want you in my room

Let's spend the night together

From now until forever

Boom, boom, boom, boom

I wanna go boom-boom

Let's spend the night together

Together in my room

Dutchy is dancing with me now, specifically with me, and I feel that urge, and that's can't be good. But it is. It's so good. I finally gather up the courage to just go ahead and kiss him, but just as I lean my head in close to him, the song ends. "I need another drink," he says, "what about you?"

Damn it! It was going to be so perfect! Disappointed, I nod and follow him back to the table. Crutchy has finally shown up, and Dutchy starts talking to him over their drinks. I stand by and listen, thinking how funny it is that their names rhyme, Crutchy and Dutchy, while I drink a couple or maybe twelve more cups of that stuff. My head is spinning really fast, and I feel a little bit like I'm in water. It's pretty cool. I just stand there and smile, looking at Dutchy. He's so pretty.

He looks at me and smiles, laughing a little. What's so funny? Whatever. Then he looks above my head and his smile fades almost instantly. "Oh, shit," he says, dropping his cup. I turn around and look, and have just enough time to see the lights are on in the school before he grabs my arm and starts running. Everyone else is scrambling, too, and I really have no idea what's going on.

Dutchy, Crutchy (hahaha!), and I all go to their room because it's closer. When we get in the door, my two new friends just fall down and start cracking up. I start laughing too, I mean, I have no cluewhat we're laughing about, but it's hilarious.

"Welcome to J.P.'s, Specs," Dutchy says, laughing. "You have been properly initiated."

I start to say something witty and insightful that will make him fall madly in love with me, but instead, I just vomit.

"Aww, man," Dutchy pushes himself up off the floor and helps me to a bed. Suddenly, everything goes black.