Right Turn

((Good heavens. Okay, another chapter. I kinda want to make this a quick story and be in and out before anyone can blink. I\'d hoped to make it all one quickie. I really don\'t have room for another long story on any website. *L* So here\'s another installment, hoping to slip through. I realize it\'s kind of bare bones. But then, it\'s fun! And that\'s what\'s most important! Yay!!!

MVixy: Thank you! Wow.. you were way on top of the reviewing thing! It was fun to get on the next day and find a review and just fueled the fire to get another out there! I\'m glad you didn\'t find it too two D. That\'s quite the compliment!

D-Puppy: Continuing! Yosh! Hope this one is as enjoyable as the last! ))

Right Turn

Ben chews on his lower lip. He leans against his locker and watches as the students slowly sift through the halls on their ways to find friends, to arrange rides and weekends, to catch busses, to head home. The day wasn\'t a long one. Fridays weren\'t often long days, they just seemed like it. But it had seemed like forever since an hour before when he\'d found the slip of paper written in that hand writing he\'d come to anticipate.

Claire leans against him and that alerts him to her being near. Her newest relationship was making her needy. Though she never showed it really to anyone but him. He smiles down at her and slips his arm around her shoulders, glad that he has someone in as bad a state as he is. \"So this is what, second date?\" he asks casually, trying to leave behind the jitters of his up and coming meeting with the man of his dreams.

Claire chuckles. \"Yeah. Shit. I think I might just - bail? I mean, she\'s so perfect. And she\'s going to figure out what a fuck-up I am and then I\'m back to where I was before.\"

Ben rolls his eyes. \"What the fuck ever. Claire, if anything, Jen is more fucked up than you!\" he laughs. \"She\'s awesome. You guys make a good pair. But don\'t go into deciding on what couch you want yet, kay? I mean, it\'s just a date. You don\'t have to make it into such a big deal.\"

Inwardly he screams at himself about being a hypocrite.

\"I know, I know, just - it\'s been so long. And she\'s not completely outed yet. What if she bails? What if I get weird and shit? What... if, what if, what if..\" Claire starts to sing with a laugh. \"I sound like such a loser.\"

The locker door that swings next to Ben presses lightly in against his back and Ben sighs. \"Ky, stop that shit, bastard.\"

Kyler, grabbing the top of the locker door, looks around the side of it and stares down at the pair of them. \"Shit. What do I have to do?\" it was his usual complaint of the last few months. \"Claire, I\'m trying like hell to be nice to your friend but he still treats me like shit.\" And he gives a more rough shove to the locker and Ben\'s shoulder at the same time.

Ben, not so much mad as annoyed, releases Claire and moves she and himself away, grabbing the edge of the locker and slamming it closed. He almost, almost catches Kyler\'s fingers and curses his luck that is so bad he can\'t get the satisfaction.

\"Ky - if you weren\'t human, someone would have to put you out of your misery, man.\"

Claire laughs and reaches over, hugging the athlete. \"I got a date. A second one! Do I look pretty?\"

Kyler\'s face turns red and he grins. \"You look gorgeous. But a second date? When did we have our first one?\"

Claire laughs and then releases the other boy, going back to lean on Ben\'s shoulder. \"Stop pouting Ben. You look like a baby when you do that.\"

Ben grimaces. \"I do not. Now, where is this girl? I haven\'t gotten a chance to give her the stupid friend, hurt Claire and die speech.\"

\"Don\'t even think about it, Ben-oh.\"

\"I think it\'s a great thing, Claire,\" Kyler adds calmly, still slightly pink in the cheeks. It would have been cute if Kyler wasn\'t such an ass. \"I mean, I\'ll even help. When\'s Jen coming to pick you up? You guys gonna meet? I don\'t think I\'ve met her, actually.\"

Claire shoves away from them. \"You guys are not going to get within twenty feet of her, got it? You\'d both ruin it for me! She\'d go running away screaming like any sane human being would. Shit, how did I end up with such screwed up friends?\"

Ben grins. The banter was helping him calm down. He isn\'t as afraid to see Jack turn the corner and start to make his way down the hall. Not as afraid as he\'d been that next day, the day after he\'d first come to realize that he wasn\'t alone in his crush.

~*~**~*~

It was insane, really, to walk into Libby High, with that secret knowledge of Jack\'s orientation and subsequent (and mirrored) fascination with the only visible gay boy in the school, and act as if he didn\'t know a damned thing. It drove him insane. He hadn\'t fallen asleep until three in the morning after thinking about how Jack had waited for him until then and what that meant. Jack was interested too! Jack was hot! And Jack was interested too!

He alternately floated and sunk throughout the day. It was a blessing that Kyler seemed out of it too that day, and hadn\'t slammed him into his locker after Calc II. In fact, Kyler had been almost civil. The guy stopped by, looking all quiet and stuff, and shuffled back and forth, obviously really worried about being seen talking to the token fag boy of his class.

\"Claire \'round?\" Kyler muttered and tried not to look at Ben too much. It obviously stung, having to be nice in order to get Ben\'s help.

Ben sighed, disgusted. \"Fuck, can\'t you just leave her alone, Prickass? She\'s not interested. That\'s kind of obvious? I mean, seeing as how she\'s got a Playboy magazine pin up taped to the inside of her History folder?\" That was true, actually. But it wasn\'t because Claire found the picture cute. It was a joke and Ben had put it in there one January day when Claire was over at his house. The best part was that she hadn\'t realized it was there for three weeks. She\'d left it too, after she\'d beat on Ben for a half hour.

Kyler ran his hands through his black hair and Ben realized for the first time, seeing the worry on Kyler\'s face, that there was a reason all the girls were fawning over the prick. He was good looking, actually. All angles and extremes. From his blue black hair that fell in silken waves down near his face to the silver grey eyes and the darkness of his skin. Kyler was a frightening young man when he approached you and confronted you. But when he looked like this, sort of worn and worried, he was almost someone human.

Or he would have been, if Ben hadn\'t known already that Kyler was the biggest asshole on the planet.

Kyler murmured something about telling Claire that he was looking for her, still refusing to look at Ben, and with his face flushed in anger, a fist balling up at his side, he stalked off down the hall. Ben grinned, watching the jerk walk away. Score one for Ben-oh.

He did tell Claire and she didn\'t seem too worried, even though she went to find the guy after lunch. And Ben really didn\'t have any huge care about it either. He had music coming up and he was going to be across from Jack Ivenson and they had a Secret they shared. An enormous, delicious, marvelous Secret. It made him smile all the way to getting his instrument and into the class. He flashed one at Jack when those green eyes met his and Jack blinked, shocked, and blushed, looking away and went to talking to the girl next to him.

It was okay. The blush said it all.

That Friday, he heard through the grape vine, that Jack was going to some aunt\'s house and wouldn\'t be back until Tuesday. So he didn\'t really expect to see Jack online. The weekend slipped past, the first of the week as well, until Tuesday came.

He got the same blush from Jack, even though the boy of his dreams hadn\'t looked too deeply at him, and he\'d had to glare Kyler down from trying to make a move on Claire soon after. And if things had gone his way, he\'d have left a note in Jack\'s locker, only he wasn\'t sure Jack wanted anyone to know he was talking to a gay boy online. So he didn\'t do anything. He just got home, got online, and waited until two in the morning for nothing.

It sucked. But he could understand. Or he thought he could. He moped around the rest of the week, watching Jack ignore him and feeling like shit. It wasn\'t fair. He had had a taste of perfection and then Jack was going to pull it away?

The only up side was that whatever was bothering Kyler seemed to keep Claire from bugging Ben and also kept the stupid jock from coming by and annoying him. The one upside. The rest of the week sucked.

By Friday night, he was done with it all. He let Claire, who had finally realized her best friend was in a downer, drag him to a volley ball game.

There was a girl on the team Claire was smitten with. She was a little weird actually. The girl, that is. Jennifer Lance was a goth and as much of an oxymoron as Claire was. She wore black make up on the court, had a mean serve that almost always ruined things for the other side of the net, and she was five foot seven, short for a volleyball player. She was strong, cute, barely maintained a high enough grade to play, had purple hair with pink stripes through it, and didn\'t laugh at anything. But then, Claire was always going for those that were kind of like her anyway. And he didn\'t mind things so much.

The game went well for Libby High. They managed to pummel the other team and Claire had screamed at anything Jen did down on the court. It was like sitting in the bleachers with a huge neon pink sign \"We Love Jennifer!\" the way the blonde girl carried on.

Of course, despite Claire\'s exuberance, Ben still couldn\'t be asked to sit anywhere too long and with half an hour passed, he left the bleachers for a pop out at the stand and a walk to the locker rooms to take a leak.

That\'s one thing. Lockers. He hadn\'t been able to completely stay away from the lockers through his school career. He\'d tried and had even gone without a shower during freshman P.E. It wasn\'t worth it. It wasn\'t that there were hot, naked boys in the showers so much as - well. He knew he was going to out himself soon after he met Claire. And he wasn\'t sure how anyone would appreciate him being in there, watching them soap themselves off.

He\'d managed to take other electives the last two years of school but he\'d had a time or two of being knocked around for thinking to get himself clean after a run. Joining the track team had helped. He had guys that, while he wasn\'t close to them, still felt it was their duty to stick up for a teammate. And, he had to grudgingly accept Kyler\'s help once or twice too. Claire had asked the jerk to make sure no one knocked him around too bad. And while Kyler wasn\'t a huge help, he did say the now and again, \"Knock it off, guys. He\'s just a pansy assed gay boy. It\'s not worth it, unless you wanna go through homophobe training with Mrs. Greir.\"

Mrs. Greir was the school counselor. No one wanted homophobe training with her. She scared the shit out of even the line backers. The woman had the Evil Eye down pat. She just had to look at you and you felt like you were two and a half all over again.

The lockers were quiet when he entered in them, quickly relieving himself and then finished, leaning against the wall and closing his eyes. Day dreaming. It was nice. Damn nice.

He found himself doing that. A lot. He dreamed of Jack coming up to him in the middle of the game, roses or some fancy stupid flowers in his hands, and begging, in front of the entire world, that he be forgiven for backing off, for leaving Ben in the lurch like that. His green eyes would be even more green. His brown hair would just.. fall... and they\'d kiss and kiss and kiss and everyone out there on the game floor would swoon because the two cutest gay boys in the school were getting it on.

The click of the lights registered a moment after and Ben straightened. \"Fuck... \" he muttered. The janitor? Someone had thought the lights were just left on.

He felt his way along the wall toward the green patch of faint light where the EXIT sign was. It was damned dark, but not too bad because he\'d had his eyes closed for a while there. It helped. Otherwise he\'d probably not even be able to see that.

And he wouldn\'t have seen the dark shadow rounding the corner. With a strangled curse, he tumbled back, trying to escape. A cheer came through the closed door from outside. Whoever that was.. they knew he was in here. FUCK!

They must have been ready too, because somehow, a hand grasped his and he was pulled in close. He could smell vanilla and male and his own fear making his stomach turn to mulch. He tried to cry out but the sound was slammed into a box marked, \"Give Away, Free\" because the sound of his half scream broke against a mouth that descended upon his.

The kiss was rough, tender, wonderful. It scorched through his body, first forcing his silence. Once assured, it turned sweet, lips teased at his until he opened them, tongue tripped over his gritted teeth, and despite his fears that this was all some hugely sick joke - he found himself giving in to someone well acquainted with the talent of kissing someone senseless.

His moan was the first sound and it was mirrored in a deep groan that broke from his attacker. The sounds seemed to break them both from the sudden assault and the other lips left his, though Ben found that he was (and had been?) pinned to the locker room wall. A tall, lean, gorgeous smelling body touched his all up and down. He was being held by someone who was strong, slender, and trembling and it made his entire body turn to ash.

\"I\'m sorry,\" the whisper came. \"I told you I couldn\'t help myself. I\'m so sorry.\"

Ben shook his head. The lights that had dazed his sight faded some and the green light of the EXIT sign glanced across the tall shoulder. Jack had a hoody on and it made it something like kissing blackness. It was erotic and Ben couldn\'t help himself. He groaned again, needing more. With no real answer for what they were talking about, Ben reached his arms around the other boy\'s shoulders and drew him down to kiss him again.

Jack\'s mouth, Ben discovered, tasted like Red Hots. It was sweet and cinnamon. The scent of vanilla must have come from those, an underlying taste to the candies. Their second kiss was soft, short, more tender than hot. Whenever Ben tried to deepen it, Jack would pull back. It was a couple of tries before Ben remembered what Jack had said about being new at all of this.

He pulled back, laughing breathlessly and low. \"Ever kiss a boy before?\" he asked softly.

He could almost feel Jack\'s blush burn his skin. \"No,\" came the whispered answer. That word was quickly followed by a tight, \"Fuck, I\'m so sorry, Ben. I - I got scared. I.. wasn\'t sure what to say, how to go from there. I know I\'m not... not your type...\"

Ben kissed him silent again. It felt so damn good to be kissing someone! He hadn\'t kissed anyone for a long time actually. His first had been when he was in junior high, and he\'d had a summer fling too, the summer before when Claire was busy working all of the time. While he knew he wasn\'t bad at kissing, it still felt really good to know that he could stop someone\'s voice with his lips. It was a powerful sense and it thrilled him to his toes.

When they broke apart, Jack was trembling again. \"Ben,\" he whispered. \"Please... just trust me. I\'m trying. I really am trying.\"

Even Jack\'s whisper was something smooth as velvet. It was as sexy as the perfect body lined up with his. Ben sighed in delight. \"I\'ll be patient, honey,\" he tried out the endearment and liked how it sounded.

Jack obviously did too because the other boy laughed low, timidly. \"Shit, you\'re right. That is nice to hear,\" he murmured softly. Then, right after, \"You\'re not rambling.\"

The last of Ben\'s worries just melted away at that. Somehow, one small part of him had thought that maybe he was the wrong person, that it was all wrong, that the chatter hadn\'t been Jack, that this was all some huge mess up. This confirmed it though. He laughed and held his crush closer, breathing in the wonderful smell on Jack\'s skin as he buried his nose into the other boy\'s neck and jaw. \"No - I got the rambles kissed right out of me.\" But that had reminded him. \"Will you be online tonight?\"

Jack stiffened, fear most likely, and then nodded, slowly. \"Yeah,\" he breathed. \"Yeah, if you don\'t mind? I mean... if it\'s okay with you?\"

Ben grinned, happy as quickly as he\'d been broken earlier that week. \"I\'d love to talk to you again.\"

Jack cleared his throat and Ben could feel the movement of his adam\'s apple. \"I should go, before my friends notice I\'m missing.\"

Ben laughed. \"Talk to you tonight,\" he murmured and stole one more kiss that Jack turned into two and three. Then a whispered \'night\' floated back and the door opened. Light spilled in. Ben watched Jack dart out, his hoody tucked up around his head, probably trying to hide his blush and his kissed lips with the privacy of the hood. Jack paused, glancing to the side and flipping the light on. Ben winced at the sudden onset of brightness and when he opened his eyes again, Jack was gone.