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Lorn could hear Verger and his team from a block away. Laughter and screams of war.
When he got to the basketball court, he took a moment to observe the scenery. Chuck and Adolf were screaming face to face, the man that was twice the size of Chuck holding a knife that didn’t, however, intimidate the little one. Considering past experiences, Lorn would wish to take the knife and test Chuck’s bravery more carefully.
Troy was aiming a ball at the fence in front of him, no basket nearby whatsoever. He threw it, the ball hitting the chain link fence and he raised his arms victoriously before doing a slow wobbly dance.
Sand was absent-mindedly bouncing a ball with unfocused eyes while Verger attempted stealing it from him. He couldn’t, despite the man not moving and inch.
Lorn made his entrance known by slamming the gate shut. “What’s going on?”
Verger’s head snapped up and he ran to Lorn with his arms open. The man took a step to the side, causing his friend to slam into the fence before clinging on it as if his feet were being pulled downwards by Satan.
“Verger, what’s going on.” Lorn repeated quietly. “You suck my dick and then leave in the morning? That’s not cool.”
Verger closed his eyes and pecked the fence. “I’m sorry baby.”
“Verger for fúck’s sake I’m here.”
The man look at him with wide, bloodshot eyes. Standing up, he walked to him and smiled widely. “Troy would’ve sold various parts of my body on the black market if I don’t come to practice. So I did. And then we’re announced that tomorrow is a contest. Tomorrow, Lorn. We’re so fúcked.” he laughed.
“And so you decided to get stoned?” Lorn scolded.
Verger glanced to the side with a squint as if he was trying to look for the wrong in their decision. His silence let the growl of his stomach to echo between them, barely heard over the other guys’ noises.
“Did you eat anything?”
“Apples…” Verger pointed at an apple tree just outside the basketball court.
Lorn looked around a last time and sighed. “Guys. Guys.” he got the team’s attention. “Your sorry ásses are my friend’s bread and butter-“
“So he eats áss?” Troy snickered.
“Occasionally.” Verger shot back, their little argument a background to Lorn’s talking.
“-so get moving to Bun Bun Mama’s, eat, practice and win.”
“Are you paying?” Adolf asked, scratching his hard stomach.
“Fúck no I’m broke. But my mom works there so I could put in a word to get you discount.”
“Cool!” Troy held up his fists and led the way out, everyone following him except for the two friends. Verger was busy trembling, eyes fixed on Lorn.
“I’ll meet your mom like this?” he whispered, cupping his face and moving it around before starting to slap it.
“Calm down, we’re the sort of family that celebrate 4/20 together.” Lorn said, however didn’t move to stop his friend. It was amusing.
“I’m- I’m not ready!” Verger said, breathing quickly.
“Well I don’t have to introduce you if…”
“No, I want to! It’s cool, we cool.” Verger backed off and jogged after his friends. Lorn shook his head and followed, catching up easily since the mob barely managed to move past a block and were now scattered around.
What caught the friends’ attention was Sand, standing straight like a plank with his chin in his chest to look intensely at a kid. The kid in turn stood straight like a plank, head rolled back to meet his gaze.
“Santa Claus is really your dad dressed in a costume that he later uses for dirty sex with your mom.”
“Come on.” Lorn complained. “I hate this guy. I hate your friends, all of them.” he continued under his breath.
“I know.” the kid replied with that same neutral face.
They stood in silence for another few seconds.
“I had known too.” Sand said faintly, then him and the kid parted ways.
———–
They were nearly there, Lorn could almost feel the familiar smell of homemade buns trailing out the tiny bakery. It could’ve been the one cute thing in town if it wasn’t for the graffiti covering the faded pink walls.
Lorn smiled tiny and went to quicken his pace, but in a matter of seconds he found himself in an alleyway with his breath tickling his chest from the inside in that weird feeling that just drove him nuts.
He gripped Verger’s head and shoved him into a wall, curling into him and deepening the kiss furiously, the way you would throw a chocolate bar in a pleading kid’s face.
The man took it happily, his hands grasping all of Lorn and pulling him closer and closer until their noses were too smashed together to breathe through them. That made their kisses that louder, with gasps and smooches and slurps.
Lorn hugged his waist tightly enough for Verger to become taller than him and Verger, in turn, slid a thigh up and jumped so that Lorn would hold him. With the support of the wall, the man managed, and he frowned at the foreign feeling of doing this with a man.
Verger stopped the kiss with a bite of Lorn’s lip and then raised his head invitingly. Lorn went and attacked his neck, feeling the arms around his shoulders tighten their grip and his friend’s thighs tremble.
“Lorn…” Verger sighed shakily. “Fúck, Lorn, you’re so good…” he said with a face that looked as if he was about to cry.
Lorn hummed into his neck before biting it and licking the sensitive skin. “I still don’t know why we’re here.”
“I missed you.”
Lorn laughed, but then it died as he heard steps approaching.
He let go of Verger and tightly gripped the collar of his white t-shirt, their noses nearly touching.
“Guys what’re you doing?” Troy complained from the end of the alley.
“Just setting some things straight.” Lorn said cleverly, and Verger didn’t bother to hide his smirk in the darkness.
———-
Lorn’s mom looked weirdly similar to Lorn. Weird in the sense that she shared his features but was still feminine and beautiful. But somehow in a Lorn kind of way.
She was tall, skinny, and had a square jaw, thick eyebrows, long forehead and sharp cheekbones. Her eyes were black shaded and her thin, black hair was pulled in a loose bob, strands escaping messily along with a thin braid. (cosplay of her mom to the right. that is not weird at all)
But she was beautiful.
“Lorn you can’t keep bringing your friends here and expect me to lower the prices, I must keep this thing going.” she complained lifelessly, her hollow eyes gazing around.
“But I’m telling you, once they get a taste they’ll come back for more, and won’t expect discounts. It’s an awesome strategy!” Lorn leaned over the glass covering rows upon rows of sweet looking patisseries.
“They look like they don’t even remember how they got here, and you think they’ll come back?” she sighed, rolling her eyes. “Just order already.”
Lorn did, and the mother went and lined up the products required, now and then glancing at Verger who stupidly stood by for no apparent reason. Once the two friends moved the food to the table, they returned.
“One more thing.”
She turned around with her hands in the apron’s front pocket.
“This is Verger.” Lorn pointed at the man. “Verger, this is Tiara, my mom.”
Verger shook her bony hand over the counter and the woman squinted her eyes. “Not to be a bitch but why are you introducing us? You’ve never done that with your other junkie buddies.”
“That’s where the fun part comes in.” Lorn tapped the glass nervously while Verger straightened up.
If Verger wasn’t stoned he would’ve handled this so easy! He was carefree and outgoing himself, but he caught a bad film and panic had taken over his social skills. He had yet to even exchange a word with the woman.
“I mean. You asked me to always present you my uh…” Lorn trailed off when his mother’s eyes finally widened, her sclera standing out in the black surrounding it.
She looked between the two and frowned, leaning on a hip with her hand on it. “He is your boyfriend?”
Lorn’s eyebrows went up and the two friends exchanged a silent glance.
“We… kiss and stuff.” Lorn murmured.
His mother scoffed and looked away with a shake of the head. After a long moment of silence and her staring into distance void of emotion, she spoke. “Your father and his hippy shít, raising you free of standards. I just knew the pink polka dress was too much.”
“What!” Lorn snapped.
Tiara pointed a thumb behind her, at a photo Lorn had seen many times, a cute little toddler smiling at the camera with a couple missing teeth. And a pink polka dress.
“No!” Lorn complained while Verger giggled shamelessly. “I’m not like that!”
Tiara sketched a smile. “Yes, you’re no longer that, in the sense of brave and careless.”
“I hate it when you get wise.”
“I hate it when you get coward. You aren’t here to show him off just because you ‘kiss and stuff’. Get your shít together and call it a relationship before the poor guy leaves you for someone that can.” she said monotonously before looking between them once again. “Man, I’m getting drunk tonight…”
———
“That was… good.” Verger murmured, his voice echoing in the empty bathroom.
Lorn rubbed his jaw and then scratched the back of his neck. “Could’ve went worse.”
“Yeah, she could’ve stopped talking to you for two entire weeks.”
Lorn tilted his head and offered a sorry look. Verger turned towards the two big mirrors and messed with his hair. “We were fine after a while, it’s all good.”
Lorn glanced at him in the mirror, then looked away once their gazes met. It was easier ignoring the elephant in the room when he was still under the pot effect. Now that Verger ate and sobered up, the elephant only got fatter.
“Looking away won’t stop me from bringing it up.” Verger turned around and leaned on one of the sinks. “Lorn, aren’t we a couple?” he asked, looking the man up and down.
His black hair stood out nicely with the white tiles behind, that one blond strand dully reflecting the pale light. As if he sensed Verger’s gaze, he started playing with the strand.
“That would mean… I just… can barely accept I like men. Well… one man.”
“There is no such thing. Once you fully accept liking me, you’ll be able to accept liking others. And need I remind you of Orgy?”
“Shut up. It’s just… What if we ruin our friendship? Like, if things go wrong and we part ways I’m gonna have to have those gay áss slow-motion flashbacks of us rolling down the hill.”
Verger snorted. “Yeah that’d suck. But we’ll never not be friends, I assure you that.”
“You can’t say that.”
“Fúck you! I seriously won’t let you fúck off. Ever. And you’re gonna have to live with that.” Verger crossed his arms. “And FYI, continuing to mess around sexually without a certain bonding is what could possibly bring troubles. You think I’ll stand by and let you hump moist tacos and not throw tantrums?”
“But how can we be a thing when I’m not even sure…”
“You taste sure.”
“You bitch.” Lorn laughed unintentionally. “I’m just saying, what if-“
“Lorn, I love you!” Verger walked to his friend and stopped four feet away. “Don’t you?”
Lorn looked from one eye to the other. “If you were to sink in lava I wouldn’t laugh.”
Verger scoffed, gripping Lorn’s brown t-shirt and using it to pull himself closer. Lorn watched their reflection in the mirror as Verger just leaned into him, watched themselves up and down, how well they fit: their structures, fashion (or lack thereof), style and postures.
“Just ask.”
“Here. In the bathroom of my mom’s bakery.”
“Yes, now.”
“I’m pretty sure I can smell piss.”
Verger inched away and straightened his back so that their eyes got to the same level.
Lorn sketched a smile, letting himself absorb every feature of his best friend, then every memory with him: the moment they met, the streetfight, the police chase, the mall, the party, the warehouse, their date… and eventually grabbed his hand, seizing it in his own before letting their fingers interlock.
“Are you sure? Am I? Are we sure?” he nervously played with his hand until the man tightened the grip as to stop it.
“Verger will you be my boyfriend?” he said simply. He would’ve meant to joke a little, like use ‘bae’ or blink melodramatically or pull a sparkly vampire gaze but Verger’s deadpan stare just didn’t let him.
“Yes.” the man said quietly and then smiled with the telltale scrunch of the nose.
Then they kissed with slow, ginger movements like the first kiss of two teenagers. It was all so quiet and calm that Lorn lost himself in it, so when the door opened he flinched.
But Verger bit his lip and their eyes met knowingly. Being a couple meant facing the outside world, and this might as well have been their first taste of it.
So Lorn closed his eyes and continued.
<><><><><><><><>
“So we should call it a day.” Verger announced.
His team was gathered in a circle, sitting on the basketball court. It had just gotten dark enough for it to be impossible to practice.
“I’d say you guys are ready, just rest well.” Lorn added, and the others nodded. Except for Chuck. Lorn frowned at that, not wanting any negativity in the team that meant his boyfriend’s victory. “What’s your problem?”
Chuck hadn’t been staring at anyone for once, nor was he now. Verger had actually felt kind of uncomfortable with the lack of gaze throughout their practice, it felt as if he could no longer rely on the man to catch his every pass. He did, but it was just unsettling.
Chuck didn’t reply. His expression was that familiar empty deadpan, but aimed at the ground.
“Hey.” Adolf kneed him.
The man turned around, grabbed his backpack, stood up and left quietly. Everyone watched him go, their heads funnily synced, until the darkness swallowed him whole.
“Maybe the little guy is nervous.” Adolf offered. Interesting choice of words, since everyone compared to him was a ‘little guy’.
“Nervous?” Troy dully commented. “That is not a human being anymore, he doesn’t get to feel nervous, he doesn’t get to feel anything. Pour water down his throat and his arm will become a sprinkler.”
“That was uncalled for, what’s your problem with him?”
“Problem is.” Troy tilted his head and glanced away, propped on an arm. “He will die. And by then we’ll have developed some sort of friendship, well, on our side, because it’s in human’s nature to feel empathy. And it just wouldn’t be the first time I watched a friend die of needles. That’s my problem, Verger.”
“Yes, Verger.” Lorn murmured.
The man glanced to the ground and scraped the concrete with his heel. “Let’s just go rest. The contest will go well.”
Sand huffed faintly. “Or will it?”
<><><><><><><>
Or. Will it.
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