Notes: I have no excuse, I'm so so sorry this is being updated so late. I'll keep trying to update sooner, promise! Thanks to everyone who reviewed/favourited and alerted, you guys rock, and your reviews help my muses to keep moving!
4. You and me with no one else around
"This might not be the best moment to talk about it, but we need to talk about it some time."
Hunter places Sebastian on the bed with all the care he can manage, given that the other boy is a dead weight.
"I wish it was easier for both of us, to say all these...these things we should say." He grabs a pillow and places it gently under Sebastian's head. "I wish we weren't so...you know, so like we are, too stubborn to make things work the right way." He walks to the bathroom and brings back a wet cloth to wipe the sweat from the other boy's forehead and neck. "I wish it was easier to tell you that I'm sorry for what I said. I didn't mean it. You know that, right? Deep inside you have to know."
Hunter shakes his head and sighs as he leaves the cloth on the nightstand and jumps into his own bed. Here he is trying to bare his soul to a passed out Sebastian, when he knows that not even a conscious Sebastian would understand what he's trying to say.
"I wish it was easier, too."
Hunter turns his head so fast that his neck stings painfully, and he sees Sebastian, lying on his side, staring at him through half lidded eyes.
"People usually mean them, those things, you know? I'm used to causing a lot more damage than I do well."
His voice is hoarse and his eyes are bloodshot and his hair's a mess, but Hunter finds a strange comfort in the fact that Sebastian trusts him enough to let him see him like this.
"I wanted it to happen...so badly, I didn't think it would..."
"The letter was your idea." Hunter cuts him off. "Why?"
Sebastian remains silent for a moment, and when he speaks, his voice comes out like the softest whisper Hunter's ever heard.
"Because I've never cared about anyone before, and I realized that I could not bear the thought of you not being the first person I see when I wake up." He looks away for a second. "I thought that maybe...maybe if I fought hard enough, I would get to keep you."
He goes silent then, and Hunter realizes that he is, really, drunk off his ass, because a sober Sebastian would never say something like that. He wants to say something, so at least drunk Sebastian would know, and sober Sebastian would maybe remember.
He looks back at the other boy only to see that he's sitting up on the bed, taking his shirt off sloppily, waving his arms in all directions.
"What the hell are you doing?" Hunter asks, sitting up too and flinging his legs out of the bed.
"I'm hot. It's too hot." Sebastian throws his shirt to the floor and stands up on the bed, legs wobbling dangerously close to the edge, and starts to take off his jeans. "I, you see, Hunt, I'm a very good drunk, I never get really drunk, I can have conversations and all and, you see?" He takes off his jeans, fails at pulling his legs free and trips on the edge of the mattress.
Hunter leaps off the bed and lunges himself to Sebastian, catching him mid-air, and falling back on his bed on the process, with the other boy draped over him like a tangled, moving blanket.
Sebastian starts to laugh, he tries to stand up and pull Hunter up with him, but they end up tripping over each other and almost falling again.
"God, Seb, how much did you drink?"
Sebastian just laughs, and laughs, and wraps his arms around Hunter's neck with a smirk that's only Sebastian's, and whispers.
"Say, Hunt, can I keep you?"
.
In all the history of the Warblers, this is a situation that has never been seen. They've been holding auditions for the last two days, and not a single considerable option has showed up.
"Where are all the good singers in Dalton? Last year we had tons of guys waiting in line to join." Complains Flint eyeing the inscription sheets with disgust.
"Last year we weren't involved in a steroids scandal." Points out Thad "Or any scandal whatsoever."
They stay silent for a moment, staring at each other trying to find the right way to describe their current situation.
"This is bullshit." Deadpans Nick, finally, throwing all the inscription sheets to the air and watching them fall around him like paper rain. "The person we need is not here."
"What person do we need, exactly?" Jeff asks, seated on the floor in front of Nick.
"The guy we need...he has to have charisma." Begins Nick "And he has to smile a lot."
"And he has to know how to move." Thad adds, joining his teammates on the floor.
"And he has to have a very special voice." Flint says, following Thad, until they're seated in circle.
"Well, that's good, not like you're describing Blaine or anything." Jeff rolls his eyes and starts to pile all the papers in the centre of the circle "We need someone new, someone fresh, someone who has something that any of us have."
The three boys stare at him with raise eyebrows, and he finally sighs and shrugs.
"Sebastian took me to this place once..."
"You went out with Sebastian?" Nick asks, dumbfounded.
"Alone?" Thad specifies.
"I needed a night out and Sebastian offered, don't look at me like I joined the Devil for a party in hell, God, you're all so uptight."
They all stare at him again, eyes wide and speechless. Then Jeff starts to laugh, that laugh that only Jeff has that's able to light up a room and make it look like a lighthouse from the outside.
"The thing is. They had a stage and the waiters sometimes jump on it and sing, and they had a band, and the guy who plays the guitar sometimes sings, too, and he sang the night Sebastian and I were there, and he was...something else."
"Great, now you want us to make this kid join and trick everyone into making them believe he's from Dalton? We've turned into show choir delinquents." Flint shakes his head in mock despair,
Jeff throws him a glare.
"The guy IS from Dalton."
The three boys stare at him wide eyed again, and Jeff can see there, for the first time in a long time, something that looks very much like hope.
.
There's a place at the outskirts of town, it's like a cabin made of wood, the windows are too dirty to let the light of the inside show, if there's any, and there are neon signs hanging on the front that are almost burned out.
"I don't really want to go in there." Flint admits, staring at the precarious state of the bar.
They all stay silent for a moment, unmoving.
"For fuck's sake, if Jeff and Sebastian went in there, it can't be that bad." Hunter starts to walk, and the others fall into step beside him.
"Where's Sebastian, by the way?" asks Nick.
Hunter rolls his eyes.
"Sleeping off what will be tomorrow a major hangover."
At the door, they show the fake id's Sebastian got for them a while ago, and even though none of the pictures look like them, the bouncer makes no move to stop them when they pass by.
Once they're inside, it's like they've fallen thought the rabbit hole. The band's playing a loud rockabilly song, and everyone's dancing, and they all dress like they've just been taken out from an Elvis movie.
There are girls dancing on the barstool, and people sitting at the wooden tables drinking beer and serving shots from small crystal jars.
"You boys are gonna have a drink, or y'all just gonna stay there gaping?"
The girl that approaches them is wearing tiny shorts and red cowboy boots and a white, ripped top with "The Road" written across the chest.
"Well, what's it gonna be?" She asks again, with a thick southern accent that definitely does not belong to Ohio.
"We'll have five beers and one jar of tequila, please."
The girl stares at Jeff and her smile widens, pretty green eyes sparkling with joy.
"I remember you; you're Seb's friend, right? Go on, take a seat, I'll bring your drinks right away."
She turns away and walks towards the bar, long blond hair bouncing from side to side as she moves.
"I think I've just fallen in love." Murmurs Thad, as they take a seat on a table close to the stage. "Where has she been hiding all my life?"
"Here, apparently." Hunter takes a look around the bar and fails to hide his disapproval "This people are out of control."
Jeff laughs and hits him softly on the shoulder.
"Come on, Hunter, let loose just this once, who knows, you might enjoy it."
The girl comes back with their drinks, and leaves a plate with lemon slices in the centre of the table.
"There you go. Ren's singing today, y'all enjoy the show okay? Let me know if you need anything."
"I need your number." Thad blurts out.
She stares at him taken aback for a moment, and then starts to laugh before walking away.
"Smooth, Thad." Laughs Nick.
Flint gives each of them a shot, and raises his just as the music starts to play again.
"To the Warblers."
"To the Warblers!"
And then comes the voice, a deep, rough voice that fills the room and makes everyone jump into motion.
" 'Been working, so hard. I'm punchin' my card. Eigh hours, for what? Oh, tell me what I got. I've got this feeling, that time's just holdin' me down, I'll hit the ceilin' or else I'll tear up this town...Tonight I gotta cut loose, footloose!"
The Warblers watch, mouths agape, as the boy in the stage shimmers, he dances and moves and shines like he's made of bubbles and all eyes are on him, even the people that are dancing, are somehow looking at him. He has this thing, this pull, something that the boys haven't seen since the first time Blaine Anderson jumped to sing on a table.
"Well, Jeff, you were right. I think we found him." Nick says.