Chasing Cheetahs

"Hey dumbass, I literally just texted you, I guess you'll get it in a few seconds."

"Hey asshole." Clyde pulled his phone out of his pocket as 'message from the dark side' emitted from it... in Yoda's voice. His face immediately turned red. Damn Stoley, damn damn damn, this was not how he pictured his day starting.

"Wait... is that Yoda?" asked Craig in amusement, savouring the look of panic and embarrassment on Clyde's face. He prodded Clyde in the arm. "Why am I the dark side?"

"I ermm... because you're very grumpy and you scowl a lot."

"Granted, but why oh why do you have something Star Wars related?"

Clyde crossed his arms, choosing to use the honest tactic... sort of. "I like Star Wars, problem?"

"I never said there was. Isn't Kevin Stoley obsessed with Star Wars?"

Clyde's mouth went dry. "Well he always was throughout our childhood, so yeah probably."

"Have you ever talked to him about it? I'm sure he'd appreciate it, having another Star Wars Nerd about the place." Craig was testing his theory, it had been almost a month since he'd run into Kevin Stoley and his suspiciously mute friend that night, and whilst he hadn't seen much else to suggest Clyde could have been that friend, he had noticed the occasional moment in the corridor, or something that Clyde had said, which made it possible. He waited in anticipation of Clyde's reaction; shock in the face would confirm there was something going on.

Clyde's expression gave away nothing. It was as if he'd practised for moments like these. "Dude, did you just call me a Nerd? But okay then, fine, I will." He turned to leave.

Craig cursed to himself. Fuck, that didn't really tell him anything. It wasn't past Clyde to talk to someone he hardly knew, besides they knew Stoley from childhood. Craig couldn't confirm his suspicions from that. "No. Come back here, I want to tell you something," he growled.

"What?"

"I've got us tickets!"

"Tickets?"

"To the gig, tomorrow night," Craig studied Clyde's confused expression, "the one in Denver, Chasing Cheetahs."

"No way! Are you like serious? Fuck yes, I love you." Clyde threw his arm around Craig's shoulder in utter excitement, or at least attempted to, it was hard due to the height.

Craig shrugged him off. "Yeah, I know, dude. You're hopelessly in love with the band."

Clyde jumped at Craig again, intent on strangling him in a hug. "You bet your moody ass I am."

Once again, Craig pushed him away. "Hey, stay away from my ass."

Clyde punched Craig hard on the arm, laughing, but as he did so a horrible realisation entered his head, it was Kevin's birthday the following day. They hadn't officially arranged to do anything together but he had mentioned they should, and he was sure Kevin would want to spend the afternoon and evening with him. Shit.

Craig noticed the change in atmosphere. "Is something wrong?"

"No nothing, everything's fine," hummed Clyde.

"It's almost out, aren't you excited, K-man?"

"I've already told you not to call me that."

Bradley rolled his eyes. "But that's your name, you can't be nameless, that would be sad."

"Yeah and calling me K-man isn't..."

"So are you excited?"

Kevin grinned. "About The Hobbit coming out? Of course I am. It's extremely exciting news." He thought about how much more eager Clyde was though, the brown-haired boy had screamed when the release date was announced. The Lord of the Rings wasn't even a secret obsession of his like many other things, such as Pokémon, were. People just accepted it, never mentioned it, and carried on.

"Plans still the same for tomorrow night then?"

Kevin who had zoned out briefly, blinked in a daze at Bradley. "Huh?"

"Well it's your birthday. We always have a movie marathon and eat buckets of popcorn, you can't argue with tradition."

"Yes it is my birthday."

"Yes, we've established that. So are the plans the same?"

"Ermm well I ermm." Didn't Clyde mention something about spending the evening together?

"You're acting very strange. Is something wrong?"

Kevin fidgeted uncomfortably. "No, it's just I don't know what I'm doing yet."

Bradley looked hurt. "What other plans would you have?"

Kevin panicked. "Ermm I wouldn't, no I just..." He saw Bradley's dejected face and couldn't stand it. "What film do you want to watch? Because I AM NOT watching Indiana Jones."

Bradley grinned and then stuck his tongue out. "Fine then, spoil sport. I'll watch Star Wars with you, seeing as though it is your seventeenth."

"I thought you hated Star Wars!"

"You informed me that it wasn't possible to hate Star Wars, so I'll give it another chance."

If Bradley was offering to watch Star Wars then Kevin couldn't refuse. The phrase 'once in a lifetime opportunity' had never been truer. "I'll have to find you a spare Stormtrooper mask to wear!"

"Oh God."

It was the end of the day, Kevin walked out of the school gates after orchestra to see the deserted parking lot. It was the one place outside that wasn't covered in snow, it was covered in grit, and dirty tire marks. Whatever snow used to be there was now just a slushy mess. He walked through it regardless; it was the quickest way out of the gates, and back to his house. He jumped in alarm as he heard a honking behind him and spun around to see a familiar red car, headlights pointing towards him.

Kevin grinned and ran over, yanking the door open. "What are you doing here?" he asked as he leant in.

"I couldn't have you freezing that beautiful ass off now could I?" Clyde took Kevin's violin from him and placed it on the back seat, and then pulled Kevin's face forward to impatiently attack it. He sometimes forgot how much he missed Kevin until he saw him again. He pulled Kevin closer to him, squeezing him tightly.

Kevin hungrily kissed Clyde back, a light groan escaping his lips as Clyde's hands trailed down his ass. He traced his lips along the brown-haired boy's collar bone, moving up to brush the neck, dotting kisses along it. Clyde had a very sensitive neck and Kevin had grown very accustomed to paying it lots of attention.

"Well this is a nice surprise," he whispered, sitting down and closing the door.

"Well you know, got to treat you special, birthday boy."

Kevin bit his lip. "That's tomorrow, Clyde, and actually I-"

Clyde pulled Kevin's lips to his again; he knew it was rude but he had to shut him up. He was convinced the black-haired boy would ask the inevitable question, the one where the answer sounded like Clyde was more bothered by a gig. That wasn't true, it was because Craig hat gotten the tickets, it was clear Craig wanted to see more of him. And he couldn't deny his best friend that.

Kevin shoved Clyde away, feeling guilty for kissing him, when he had something important and potentially problematic he needed to say. He looked into Clyde's stunned eyes and couldn't take it. "I can't be with you tomorrow, I'm seeing Bradley!" he blurted out, averting eye contact.

"Oh thank God!" yelled Clyde, crashing his head back into the padded rest.

Kevin raised his eyebrow. "Well that makes me feel much appreciated."

Clyde shoved his arm over Kevin's shoulder and pulled him into a hug. "I promised Craig I'd go to a concert, and I felt so bad, because it's your birthday."

Kevin smiled and patted the Jock's hand. "It's just a day, Clyde."

"It's a special day." Clyde cocked his head to one side. "So you'll be with Bradley all night?"

"Yep, he'll probably end up crashing, he usually does."

"He doesn't know how lucky he is."

Kevin punched Clyde lightly in the stomach. "Shut up. So what about you?"

"The gig is in Denver, we'll be travelling and stuff. Token can't make it, so it's me, Craig and Kenny. It will be really good, I love the band! They're my favourite band it's-"

"Chasing Cheetahs, yes I know. You only go on about them all the time."

Clyde pouted. "Well they're very good, like an electronic, dance, rock type thing."

"I hope you have a nice time, but not too nice." Kevin gave Clyde a knowing look. "So are you doing anything tonight? I have to go out for a meal with the family, at least those of us that are in America. I am so not looking forward to this. One side tells me I need to keep up all the hard work and asks me about my art, while the other tells me that I should be playing more sports, and 'why are you wearing that jumper, why not a Letterman jacket?'." Kevin's voice filled with spite.

"That sucks. You could always borrow my jacket..."

"May look a bit suspicious with 'Clyde Donovan' written on it. Anyway, no big deal, I will survive. Are you doing anything?"

Clyde rubbed the back of his neck. "It's monthly chug-and-fuck night actually, where we, the basketball team, join forces with the delightful football Jocks." Clyde rolled his eyes. "Basically I get really drunk and one lucky lady ends up in the back seat, at least, that's what used to happen. I'm kind of relieved they don't expect me to do that anymore." He had told the team about his supposed 'girlfriend'.

"That back seat?" asked Kevin pointing over his shoulder. "Remind me to never go there."

"Oh I would never take you there. And I definitely wouldn't take you drunk; I'd want to remember everything." Clyde felt himself flush with embarrassment. Why did he never shut up? He hated every time a conversation like this came up. The last thing he wanted Kevin to think was that he was a user, that's why he hadn't done anything yet. He wanted to show just how serious he was.

Kevin smirked, not bothered, but amused by this. "Oh even if you were drunk, you'd remember me. I'm Kevin Stoley, and I blow people's... minds." He winked.

"Oh yes, Kevin. You certainly blow my mind. You can blow my mind anytime." Clyde trailed his hand along Kevin's leg, but something stopped him from going further. He withdrew it and gripped the steering wheel, staring ahead and out the window in a momentary daze.

"Were you planning on ever starting the car?" asked Kevin warily.

Clyde snapped back into reality. "Yes, my liege."

"You learnt the word then?"

Clyde shifted the car into gear. "I did indeedio."

"Hey, K-man, can I tell you something."

"You can stay, tell me something, and not call me that, or you can leave right now." Kevin shoved a bowl of salted popcorn onto Bradley's lap. The Star Wars marathon was about to commence.

It was his birthday which meant that his mom had been fairly nice to him that day; she'd even allowed him a day off from violin practise. He'd gotten a new laptop for his present, he'd desperately needed one, his old one no longer charged and the disk drive had broken. His parents had also given him some requested movies, and new desperately needed Hidersine rosin. Bradley had bought him a couple of Dostoevsky's, Kevin's latest reading obsession.

Bradley was stretched out on the sofa, Kevin on the other side, (it was a big sofa). "Hey, Kevin, can I tell you something."

Kevin smirked, trying to skip through the adverts. "You can indeed, B-man."

Bradley rolled his eyes. He ate a handful of popcorn before looking at Kevin and slightly blushing. "I have a date."

Kevin's eyes widened. "You! But you're hopeless around girls; you go all shaky and fail to get any words out. How the hell did you ask one of them out?"

"Thanks, that means a lot," said Bradley sarcastically. "You know the girl I sit next to in orchestra?"

"Red? Yes, she's lovely, and so good at the oboe. Every time I look over, you're blushing violently, avoiding eye contact, and often manage to knock the music off. I'm surprised she hasn't murdered you yet, I would do. So what happened?"

"Seriously, Kevin, you're being so supportive here." Bradley threw a handful of popcorn in his best friend's direction. "Well I pretty much ran out of the last orchestra practice because I knocked the music off again, and then the stand, and then I got my hand trapped." Bradley frowned. "It was just so embarrassing. She helped free my hand, and asked me if I was okay, and I mumbled some kind of reply and got out of there. She followed me though, yelling down the corridor after me: 'Bradley, aren't you just going to ask me out already!' Then she got closer and shoved her number, which I noticed was written on and ripped off a sheet of music, into my hand. 'You are calling me later tonight, and we will talk,' she said, and then she ran off herself."

"So did you call her?"

Bradley beamed. "I have a date next Saturday. It's kind of surreal, she's so gorgeous, and she's rather popular, she could get someone better than me. In fact I was sure she had a thing for Clyde Donovan."

Kevin felt unnecessarily jealous at this. "He's taken."

"How do you know that?"

"He talks very loudly in History. Now come on, why wouldn't she like you? There aren't many people out there better than you. You've got that blue hair blond eyes thing." Kevin noticed Bradley's bemused expression. "Yes, you heard me right, plus you're smart, and a nice person. AND you have the best best friend in the world, that Kevin guy? He's great."

Bradley took the remote and hit Kevin lightly on the head with it. "He's certainly something, alright."

"I'm serious though, Bradley. Why should anyone be out of your league? I don't see what would be the problem with you and the... head cheerleader for example."

"The head cheerleader only goes for Jocks, just like Jocks only go for cheerleaders. Come on, K-man, that's just the way it is."

"I think it's time for change."

The noise was almost unbearable, bodies crammed together in the tight space, sweat dripping through their clothes. The stink of alcohol was everywhere, due to people flailing their arms in the air, beer flying out of paper cups, into the dancing crowds. Clyde's hair was stuck to his face, and he was almost overheating. He was having an amazing time though. He hadn't had one drop of alcohol either, he thought he'd had enough of that the previous night (the one he was having trouble remembering). The loud music of his favourite band was strangely enough to cure his hangover, or at least it put a new throbbing pain into his head.

A redheaded girl, short black dress, had been making eyes at Craig for most of the night, gradually dancing nearer to him, along with her blonde friend. He hadn't noticed, he seemed unaware of the female sex, and the male sex for that matter, a few of them had been making eyes as well. The blonde seemed to be hedging her bets, also brushing against Clyde, who just laughed. She really didn't stand a chance. He wondered if anyone could sense that he was gay, no girl seemed able to. What about other homosexuals? Was there such thing as gaydar, and if so, why didn't he seem to have it? Clyde realised that although he was definitely gay, he didn't look it, and he actually came across as very straight.

She wants to meet me, she wants to greet me... The music pumped around the room, threatening to shatter ear drums, it almost made you unable to think. Most people weren't thinking, but shamelessly grinding. Kenny appeared in front of him, hair ruffled, and collar wrinkled. Clyde had a fair idea what he'd been doing.

"Wow, who are the hotties?" yelled Kenny into Clyde's ear, pointing to the two girls near Craig. He caught the eye of the redhead and winked, although she seemed intrigued, she wasn't giving up on Craig.

There was a niggling at the back of Clyde's head when Kenny said this, almost a strange form of guilt. "Haven't you had enough for one night?" he yelled back.

Kenny grinned. "You can never have enough... but I think they're more interested in Mr. Oblivious. Fuck, I wonder what they see in him." He was referring to Craig, who was happily listening to the band, and sipping idly on some beer, as the two girls danced impatiently next to him.

Clyde shrugged. "He is sexy in a brooding kind of way, I guess chicks dig that."

Kenny laughed. "It takes a guy who's very comfortable with his sexuality to say that. But you're so relaxed that it doesn't sound gay at all."

Oh the irony. "Yep," was all Clyde said in return.

"I agree though, he is pretty damn good-looking." Kenny caught Craig's eye and winked, receiving an eye roll and a middle finger. He laughed. "Not sure I'm his type."

"Craig doesn't have a type. He's about as asexual as they come."

Kenny nodded in agreement. "Why don't we dance, Donovan?" He stretched his arms up and moved his hips, in what Clyde supposed was meant to be an inviting way.

He laughed. "Well okay then, but if you start pulling me towards the bathroom then I'd rather join the girls ogling captain sexy."

"Just try and resist me when you see my moves, Jock."

...and no I never want to meet herrr, 'cos I'll be chasing cheetahhhss. Clyde wondered what people would think now, now that he was dancing close to Kenny. Did it look more obvious now? Or would people think he was just dancing with a friend, because that was actually all he was doing. He thought about how at one time, dancing so close to Kenny would have had a very different effect on him, but now he felt nothing, all he felt and everything he felt was for Kevin, and those feelings were big.

Clyde tapped his hand rhythmically against the steering wheel. Good job he was the one driving, the others had consumed a little too much alcohol. He had Kenny next to him, bopping his head up and down, as songs played repeatedly through it, hopelessly stuck for the rest of the night, and probably the next week. Craig was asleep in the back, head against the cold glass, his arms wrapped protectively around him.

Kenny's eyes lit up slightly as he looked behind at Craig's rather peaceful form. He stared in what appeared to be a trance for a few moments, just watching the rhythmic rise and fall of the black-haired boy's chest, a slight soft noise escaping his mouth every so often. "Oh he looks even better when he's unconscious," whispered Kenny. "Is he smiling?" The corners of Craig's mouth were slightly turned up, something hardly ever seen.

"Yeah, Craig smiles in his sleep," replied Clyde.

"God damn." Kenny's words came out almost breathy, softly spoken. It could have just been the alcohol taking effect.

Clyde looked at Kenny warily, pretty certain that the blond was only pretending to be showing interest. "Don't go getting any ideas, conscious Craig will beat you up."

Kenny grinned; the more alert and mischievous sparkle coming back into his eye. "How would he know?"

"Oh he'd know. He has weird ways of knowing stuff and things." Clyde sometimes worried that Craig knew more about him than he was letting on. "Anyway why do you want to do whatever it is you're planning up there," Clyde tapped Kenny's forehead, "to Craig."

Kenny considered the question. "I don't know really, sometimes I feel like all this messing around and partying I do with chicks, hot as they are, isn't all that satisfying. I've never tried it before but what if I actually looked for a relationship? A proper chance to, you know, treat someone right."

An overwhelming need to see Kevin crept over Clyde then, a very definite fluttering in his heart, but with it came that feeling of guilt. He sometimes thought that he really was a no good person, someone who just used people to get what they want. He got what Kenny was saying he'd been like that too. He'd just used his popularity and charm to exploit girls, no regard for their feelings. Kevin was different though, Kevin was the true side of Clyde, the side that finally accepted who he was. Kevin was a guy, a wonderful guy, and it was so different to being around a girl, and it was exactly what Clyde loved.

Something puzzled Clyde about what Kenny had said. "So why does looking for a relationship involve Craig?"

Kenny laughed. "He's a good catch?"

"Are you being serious?"

Kenny scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Of course not, Donovan, I'm not bent! Jesus, I'm just having a laugh."

Clyde faked a laugh. "Just checking, dude..."

The clock on the car's dashboard hit midnight, Kevin Stoley's birthday had just ended, and Clyde was about to do something which was completely reckless and stupid, whilst simultaneously making so much sense. What was he doing holding out? He wanted it. The signs were there that Kevin wanted it. He couldn't sit around and let past experiences and a guilty conscience stop him. Although he cringed at the word, Kevin was his boyfriend, it would never be a one night stand, he wouldn't run off and avoid commitment, he was already committed.

Yeah, it was time to get more committed, what were they creeping into his stomach, were they nerves?

A/N: Very Clyde driven chapter there. Thank you for reading, and reviewing 'n' stuff. Keeps me going it does.

It's everyone's favourite fictional electronic/dance/rock band Chasing Cheetahs! Yay! With crap lyrics! Double yay!