Yes, new chapter! Finally! I've been working on this for weeks. School has been so demanding and overwhelming, so sorry for the wait!
I'm definitely going to keep writing, so just hang with me, guys :) You'll have to be patient while school is in. But thank you for sticking with me and waiting so long for me to update!
The drunkenness dragged on. Out of all of the Warblers, it seemed the Nick and Kurt were the only two who were still sober.
Up on stage, Wes, David, and Thad sang and danced to Katy Perry's California Girls. As hilarious as it was, Nick found himself feeling sort of embarrassed for them. He doubted any one of them would do that sober…
Others danced sloppily and sang along to songs in semi-coherent voices. The games were over since none of them were sober enough to even remember the rules of any of the games, so the party seemed to be reaching its last few hours. A lot of Warblers were beginning to crash now. Most years, they all just stayed over at the party host's home since none of them was willing to be the designated driver for all the other drunks…
Meanwhile, Nick kept an eye on Jeff. You'd think he would have learned his lesson from last year's party, but nope. He was probably just as drunk now as he was then. Maybe more. The Adam Lambert ordeal had been just plain embarrassing. Jeff probably won't remember it tomorrow, but, unfortunately for Nick, it was burned into his memory. He'd never be able to listen to For Your Entertainment again without blushing madly.
Too bad. It had been one of his favorite songs. He loved Adam Lambert. Like, really loved Adam Lambert. He'd had a crush on him back when he was in American Idol.
Anyways, Jeff was being pretty clingy, staying close to Nick the whole rest of the party, right next to him. Maybe even in the way, a little. He was flirting excessively and repeatedly tried to kiss Nick, no matter how many times he tried to turn the blonde down. Believe it or not, alcohol breath wasn't really much of a 'turn on.'
At one point, he kept rambling nonsense about the numbers 'three' and 'six,' because his favorite number happened to be six and he just seemed to assume Nick's favorite number was three.
It went something like, "3+3=6. 6 squared equals 36. The square root of 36 is 6." And other problems got a lot more complicated but still incorporated the two numbers. Even completely drunk, Jeff was still a bit of a math whiz. Nick just let him ramble on about it until he eventually ran out of smart math problems to show off with.
Then he just kind of crashed on the sofa, like many of the other Warblers, sprawled across Nick's lap. The karaoke was through with, as many of them were too worn out to sing anymore, and most of them were just finding some place to sleep off the party.
Kurt was the only other sober Warbler, and he was helping an extremely drunk Blaine into his jacket. To Nick, he said, "I think I'm going to take Blaine home."
Nick couldn't help but wonder, Yours or his? He smiled at Kurt. "Alright, then good luck," he said.
Blaine laughed a loopy giggle and staggered against Kurt's shoulder. "Oh, hey!" he greeted brightly, as if he hadn't seen the brunette all night—even though he had literally just helped him with his jacket. He patted Kurt's shoulder. "Are we going somewhere…" he paused for a moment, "…sexy beast?" Blaine laughed as though he just told some hilarious joke.
Kurt laughed softly, probably a mix of amusement and exasperation. "Yes, Blaine," he said, a little patronizingly. "You need to go home and get some sleep."
"Aww, but I'm not tired," Blaine complained whiningly.
Kurt sighed and Nick stifled a snicker. "I wish you a lot of luck," he teased Kurt.
Kurt led his drunken boyfriend to the door. "Same to you!" Kurt called back to him, motioning to the sleeping Jeff in his lap.
As they exited out the front door, Blaine shouted loudly, "Best party ever!" followed by Kurt shushing him sharply.
It was around 3 am, after all. Don't want to wake up the neighbors. Nick glanced around the room where not a single Warbler was still standing. Most of them were crashed out on the floor or on one of the two sofas, and Nick noticed Thad and Flint in particular each sleeping on a table. And, of course, Jeff was fast asleep and snoring loudly across Nick's lap.
He was probably going to be soooo hungover tomorrow…
Nick didn't want to wake the blonde up, so he just stayed put where he was and let Jeff sleep. It wasn't like some kind of sacrifice on his part, at least. Jeff was pretty warm and soft. The only thing he Nick could do without was the snoring.
Because of how late it was, Nick ended up drifting off as well, half sitting up on the couch.
Screaming from another room woke everyone up the next morning. Jeff woke with a start and fell off the couch at Nick's feet and winced at the noise. Nick sat up, immediately alert. Flint practically jumped from the dining room table, knocked over a chair, and landed on the floor with a thud. He groaned and covered his ears. "What the hell!"
Wes bolted from the hallway screaming, shirtless but otherwise clothed. He grabbed a pillow from one of the sofas to hold over his torso, breathlessly blubbering something about David.
"Wes—calm down," Nick eased. "What's wrong?"
"And stop screaming!" Jeff muttered hoarsely, rubbing his temples. The other Warblers grumbled in agreement.
Before Wes could calm down enough to explain, David stumbled from the hallway, also shirtless, a dazed and bewildered expression across his face.
That clicked in Nicks mind. "Whoa," he said, sitting up. "Whoa, hold on. You two didn't…"
"I don't know!" Wes said shrilly. "I woke up…and he was sleeping there, right next to me!" He shuddered.
"No, I woke up and you were sleeping next to me!" David countered.
"Yeah? Well you had your arms around me!" Wes shot back at David.
"Well…your head was on my shoulder!" David snapped.
"No, you were holding me to your shoulder!"
"Stop fighting!" Jeff snapped. "Just shut up. My head is killing me."
Tyler was laughing where he was sitting up in the corner on the floor. "This is better than last year!"
Wes shot a glare at the older Griffin brother. "You think this is funny?" he challenged dangerously.
"Admit it, Wes. If it wasn't you, then you'd probably think it was hilarious, too," Tyler said.
Nick couldn't help but feel kind of bad for Wes and David, and he hated to admit that this was actually slightly amusing. He wouldn't let that show, though. "Tyler, don't be so obnoxiously insensitive," he mumbled. "Imagine if you were in that position."
"Oh, believe me," Tyler said, "I know. Been there, done that. You know the drill."
"Um…what?"
"Yup. That has totally happened to me before."
"Don't even ask, Nick," Jeff advised. "Never ask."
Nick nodded slowly. "Right," he said.
"Hello?" David cut in. "What about us?"
"Maybe you guys didn't do anything?" Nick suggested, if only to calm them down a little. "I was awake longer than most of you. And trust me, I didn't hear anything like that going on anywhere in the house." Thank God…
"You don't remember doing anything, do you?" Jeff asked.
"No," David answered.
"Me neither," Wes said. "But then again, I can't remember most of that whole party."
"Well, then, you probably didn't do anything," Nick said. "Everyone just fell asleep where they happened to land. I mean, Flint and Thad slept on tables, so…"
David shrugged, looking a little more at ease while Wes seemed to be considering what Nick said.
"Were you clothed?" Tyler piped up.
Wes shot daggers at him, eyes narrowed. "What does it look like to you?" he muttered, motioning to his bare chest.
"I mean your lower half," Tyler corrected himself. "I don't know about you, but I sleep shirtless all the time."
"Yes, we were wearing our pants," David responded awkwardly.
"Then I don't know what you're freaking out about," Tyler said. "You're obviously still clean. You just happened to wake up in an incriminating position."
That seemed to satisfy even Wes. They agreed to forget about the whole thing and everyone started to head home. Jeff crashed on the sofa again once everyone was gone, moaning about how badly his head was hurting. Nick got him some aspirin and a bag of ice for his headache before leaving for home before either of his parents woke up and figured out he'd been out all night long.
…
Jeff managed to sleep off his hangover most of the day in peace. He was pretty glad Tyler was busy dealing with his own hangover, or he'd probably find sort of game out of irritating his little brother.
The house was a wreck, but Jeff couldn't even think about cleaning it up today. His parents weren't due back for a week. He had time.
Or so he thought.
At around 8 pm, a car pulled into the driveway. Tyler checked out the window. "Shit!" he muttered. "It's dad."
"What?" Jeff scrambled from the sofa to the window. "He's not supposed to be home 'til Monday!" It was like his heart dropped out of his chest and he suddenly couldn't seem to breathe straight. The place was a mess! It was so obvious there was a party here. Empty alcohol cans and bottles littered the floor, streamers hung from the walls, and the place was a complete wreck. His dad wasn't supposed to come home yet!
He wondered if this was what a panic attack felt like, because he was definitely panicking right now.
There wasn't any way to clean up before he came in so Jeff just had to wait for what was coming.
"Dude, chill out. You look like you're going to puke or something," Tyler said. "You'd think you've never gotten in trouble before. I say we're looking at…summer grounding and a lot of chores?"
Oh, Tyler had no idea why he was freaking out. Last time Jeff did something 'wrong,' he wound up getting slapped across the face by his father. Now that he actually broke the rules, how would his dad respond? Would it be worse? His mind was racing, and it was all he could do to keep from completely freaking out.
Jeff stumbled over to the sofa and sat down, feeling dizzy. His heart was pounding in his ears and he had a strange urge to flee. To get out before his dad came in. He was pretty damn scared.
It was all Tyler's idea to have the stupid party here! Why couldn't he have kept his mouth shut and let someone else volunteer? Then Jeff wouldn't be in this mess right now!
The front door clicked open in the entryway and Tyler sat by Jeff on the sofa. He didn't seem worried at all, and he sent a questioning look at Jeff.
It was silent for a moment. The front door closed. Keys touched a tabletop with a jingle. Jeff's heart raced as he waited for a response to the mess. He prayed his dad was in a good enough mood to just yell at them and ground them. He willed it.
There was a sudden crash in the kitchen, like someone threw something at a stack of plates. Jeff's heart skipped a beat at the sound of glass shattering and he leaned back against the arm of the sofa. Next thing he knew, his father was storming into the room, face blood-red and eyes furious. "What did you do?" he demanded gruffly. He didn't wait for a response and immediately went for Jeff, grabbing his arm and forcing him to his feet with a painful jerking motion.
"Ow!" Jeff winced. "Dad—!"
"You threw a party?" he demanded furiously. "I left you alone for two days and you threw a party!" His voice rose with each word, his grip tightening on Jeff's arm.
Tyler got to his feet. "Wait, dad—" he started.
"You have the nerve to go behind my back!" his father continued harshly. He drove Jeff halfway across the room and he staggered against the far wall. "After all the shit I've done for you? This is how you decided to repay me?"
Jeff couldn't say a word. He was petrified.
"I can smell the alcohol on you! As if the bottles everywhere doesn't give it away. You had those Dalton boys over here, didn't you? You're sick! You should be ashamed!" his father went on, his voice at nearly a scream now. "What did you do? Huh?"
What! Was he actually trying to imply that Jeff would have actually used the party just as some 'gay opportunity?' A chance to sleep around with a bunch of guys? He had a twisted view of homosexuality, that was for sure.
"Dad!" Tyler repeated, louder this time. "Quit freaking out on Jeff. I'm the one who organized the party."
His father whirled around, releasing Jeff. "Don't you dare try to take the blame for him."
"I'm not!" Tyler said. "Since when do I 'take blame' for anything Jeff does? Hell, I hardly take the blame for what I do."
"I know that those Warbler boys were over here! How can you claim that you threw a party for Jeff's friends?"
"I was a Warbler too, you know," Tyler pointed out. "And the seniors were juniors when I was there. So a lot of them are still friends of mine."
His father glared a moment longer. "Then you're both grounded. Forget television, video games, cell phones, computers… everything. 4 months."
There goes summer.
"Wait. You can't ground me from my phone," Tyler protested. "I pay for it myself…" he trailed away when their father sent an icy, threatening glare at him. He laughed uneasily. "Actually, I can just cancel my payments for the next few months…" He reached into his pocket and handed over his cell phone.
Jeff did the same with his phone without hesitation. "I'll clean the house up, too," he offered quietly.
"You sure as hell better clean it up!" he snapped. "I expect it to be spotless before you're mother gets home tomorrow morning."
So basically he'll be up all night cleaning… "Why isn't mom with you?" he asked his father.
"We canceled the trip because her aunt Sheila is ill," he grumbled.
Jeff frowned. "Oh," he mumbled. Yeah, he felt a little bad about that, but he hardly knew his great aunt Sheila. He was more upset about the fact that his father had come home so early.
"Start cleaning," his dad ordered. He glanced between Jeff and Tyler. "Both of you. I'm going to the hospital to check on your mother. I expect the whole living room to be spotless before I get back." He didn't wait for a response and stalked back through the kitchen and out the door in moments.
Jeff sighed in relief and headed to the closet to grab a broom. "I knew he'd take it all out on me," he said shakily.
"Er, yeah. Sorry about that," Tyler said sheepishly. "I never imagined he'd get so angry. I don't remember him having anger issues like that. It looked like he was about ready to hit you or something."
Jeff muttered, "It wouldn't be the first time."
Tyler sent a look at him. "What?"
"Nothing."
"No, did you just say, 'wouldn't be the first time'?" Tyler pressed on, his voice serious. "Jeff?"
Jeff didn't reply and silently began to sweep the beer cans, bottles, loose steamers, and trash into a pile on the floor.
"Dad has actually hit you before?" Tyler concluded. "He's never hit me! And I was probably ten times worse than you when I was living here. What did you do?"
"Nothing," Jeff said. "Forget it. Forget I said anything."
"Seriously, Jeff," Tyler pressed on. "What happened?"
Still, Jeff didn't speak. He didn't want to dredge up that memory. He didn't want Tyler to know. He'd done a good job at burying it. Even Nick knew better than to bring it back up. It was history. Long gone. Forgotten.
Except, it wasn't forgotten at all. Jeff was actually afraid of his own father now since that incident, and today just told him that his fears were real. His father wasn't below getting violent with Jeff. He could very well hit him again, or worse.
"Jeff!" Tyler said again, impatient.
"You really want to know why he hit me?" Jeff snapped, whirling on Tyler. "Well, here it is; he's homophobic! He found out that I was bi. He got pissed off. And then he slapped me across the face. I guess the thought of me kissing a boy is just too sickening for him to handle." Once that was out, Jeff immediately turned back to cleaning without waiting for a response.
That seemed to shut Tyler up, at least.
For hours, they did nothing but clean in silence. Jeff was pretty surprised that Tyler was even helping. He was so lazy normally. Maybe it was the guilt trip. They got the living room clean in record time. Jeff was glad that he'd spent the day sleeping because they still had the whole rest of the house to go…
They had a long night of cleaning ahead of them.
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