Black Cat

Jayden woke up the next morning feeling slightly groggy. He had stayed over at Artemis's house until nearly midnight "studying," which consisted of his not paying one iota of attention to any of his studies. He slipped on a jacket, angry that he had to put on another layer between himself and the rest of the world. However, it wasn't supposed to get over 60 degrees all day, and he didn't want Artemis bitching at him as he complained of the cold.

Artemis woke up bitching at Evan even though he wasn't around. He was angrily shouting random curses at his clothes as he slipped on a somewhat tight blood red pinstripe shirt, which, unfortunately for Artemis, was pretty thin and revealing. The only reason he was wearing this over the other shirts was simply it gave some more heat than a t-shirt. He slipped a sweater over it for while he was outside but he knew he'd have to take it off when he got in the school. He groaned and grabbed a quick meal and petted the top of Shadow's head as it mewled happily before going outside to see Jayden with an actual extra layer of clothing on. Awww Jayden might give a crap about him. Or maybe he just didn't want Artemis bitching...

Jayden raised an eyebrow curiously at his friend. "It's funny, you know? I'm wearing more clothes than usual, and here you are wearing less than I usually do. It's nice." He climbed into the passenger seat before Artemis could say anything. He was really tired and wasn't feeling quite up to teasing Artemis as much as he usually would have.

Artemis blinked and wondered what was wrong with Jayden. He never was calm and easy-going like this. It almost frightened Artemis because he hadn’t seen Jayden like this since he'd broken up with his first real boyfriend--when he actually dated people and such. He got into the driver's seat of the car and asked, "Something wrong Jaydy?" He looked at Jayden with worried ice blue eyes and started the engine waiting for a response.

Jayden yawned. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired, is all. I couldn't sleep last night. My room was so cold, and I couldn't get comfortable. I probably only got about two hours of sleep total." He rubbed his hands up and down on his arms, trying to generate some heat in his body. "Heater, pretty please?" Without waiting for an answer, he leaned forward and turned the heater on as hot as it could go.

Artemis didn’t refuse for two reasons, one he was wearing something less heat-inducing and Jayden seemed more sincere about it today then their normal arguments over heat. Something was just plain off about today. Everything felt extremely "bass ackwords." It was weird, as they pulled out of the drive and drove away even all of the lights were green and they had no traffic--where was everyone going to work and school? It was an odd sensation to say the least.

Jayden had fallen asleep on the short car ride over to the school and woke up feeling even groggier than he had been. He tried to sleep through his homeroom as per usual, but sleep wouldn't come. He was so glad he didn't have a mirror; he probably looked like a walking zombie. No wonder people were avoiding him like the plague this morning.

Artemis was receiving a lot of attention in his homeroom, he must have had over fifty random students come up to him he didn't even know the names of (not that that was saying much) who would say either a simple "Hi" to him or a "Wow, you look hot today." He walked away from homeroom towards his Lit class and saw Evan there sitting next to him. Some other red-dyed emo-haired boy sat on his other side giving him looks every so often. It was weird, normally he'd be totally oblivious to these subtle glances but for some reason today he noticed just about everyone who looked at him.

Evan lifted his tired head up off his desk as Artemis walked into the room. Nearly every person in the room turned their heads in his direction, and a buzz of whispering started up. He smirked when he realized what everyone was thinking: that Artemis was abso-bloody-lutely gorgeous.

Artemis saw Evan in his next class, history, and sat next to him grumbling a little bit--the attention was getting to him, he practically felt people undressing him with their eyes. What was with them? He wasn’t anything that special! He banged his head down once on the desk and felt the other person next to him scoot closer to him. Another guy--it seemed a lot of guys took a liking to him this day. How many guys weren't straight in this school? He began to wonder.

"You all right?" asked Evan, feeling genuinely concerned for Artemis. With a sense of satisfaction, he noticed the blonde was wearing a shirt that showed off his very nice body. "I see you kept up your end of the dare," he said smugly.

"Yeah, yeah. Hate you." Artemis replied banging his head once more against the desk, emphasizing his point. He moved his head to the side to stare blankly at the front.
Evan reached out and ran his hand over the shirt.

"It looks really comfortable. This fabric is really soft. Want to go shopping later, and we can buy you more shirts like these?"

Artemis perked up a little, "You serious?" he asked incredulously--he never ever went shopping for clothes but for some reason today he actually felt like it, what the hell?

"Yeah, I'm being serious. I wouldn't have mentioned it otherwise." Evan did an internal happy dance. An extra two or three hours (or even more?!) with this sexy beast...it was as if Christmas had come early!

Artemis lifted up his head and said, "Well, uh, sure I guess. But I'm not very good at shopping, just to let you know. I have little patience for the stuff." He blinked and still felt the skin crawl where Evan touched his shirt. It was an odd feeling. He looked toward the other person next to him who was giving him glances and smiled once at him before turning back to Evan--maybe that would make the glance-stealer next to him stop.

Evan was actually glad that Artemis wasn't that good at shopping. That meant that he would probably let him pick out a hundred different outfits that he wouldn't usually try on. He stared off into space, imagining Artemis in multiple outfits, none of which would be allowed at school.

Artemis saw Evan drift off into space, which seemed very unlike Evan, it was odd, he had only knew Evan for like a day but yet he didn't seem like a person that would space out like that. He nudged Evan's side with his elbow and waited for some form of reaction.

Evan jerked back into reality. He was honestly a little upset that real Artemis was sitting next to him instead of fantasy Artemis. Oh well, he would just have to remedy that. "Sorry, I was, uh, trying to remember if I finished my homework."

Artemis quirked an eyebrow daintily noting the blatant lie. "Uh, sure." Artemis was strangely aware of things today. What the hell was going on?! He felt, not heard, the bell ring. Odd, how the fuck do you feel a fucking bell ring? The day itself just started to piss Artemis off. What kind of game was the universe playing with him today?

Jayden met Artemis and Evan outside the door of their classroom. He had snuck out of his classroom about five minutes before the bell had rung in order to meet the two of them. He hadn't been paying attention, anyway, so what did it matter? He had woken up a little bit more, but he still wasn't what one would call "alert." He yawned and said, "Come on, let's get to lunch. I have a hankering for a nap."

"You're going asleep during lunch? Your super-flirt food festival time?? What's wrong with you today Jay? Have you caught something?" He walked along with Jayden before suddenly slipping on a banana peel into a teacher holding an apple pie smothered in whipped cream that landed, of course, right in Artemis's face. Of how fucking wonder-freaking-ful.

Evan bit his lip in order to keep himself from laughing, but Jayden didn't bother. He was nearly on the floor laughing. "Nice make-over, Arty. Whipped cream looks good on you." Evan was still trying to hold back his giggles, but he managed to say, "I'll go get some paper towels, Artemis. I'll be right back."

Artemis followed Evan to the men's bathroom and started wiping off his face when given the towels. His shirt was somehow immaculate from the attack. As he was finishing up drying his hair, he turned around to talk out of the bathroom when his somehow-untied shoes caused him to trip, making him slide across the wet floor--there was a sign but they chose to ignore it--into a bucket on the ground which flipped up splashing it's sudsy contents all over his shirt. Well, so much for the immaculate shirt then. He started to say fuck and various other curses over and over and remained flat on his back on the cleaned wet bathroom floor.

Jayden, who had just caught up to them, had witnessed the entire spectacle. His hand was up in the air and his mouth was open in a silent warning, but he had been unable to warn Artemis as the boy slipped. His hand went down to his side, and laughter poured forth from his open mouth. "Damn, Arty, your luck is terrible today! Did your little kitty cat cross your path this morning?"

Artemis ungracefully gave Jayden the ever-so-useful middle finger before taking an offered hand from Evan, muttering apologies for Evan as he had to grab his wet hand and grab more towels for him. When he was finally dried off his shirt was more or less ruined and he had to take it off in lieu of being freezing and soaked. His attire now consisted of an under-armor tank top and jeans. He muttered something obscene to nowhere and twitched a few hundred or so times.

Evan stared at Jayden, who was unable to control his laughter. "Is he going to be okay? I mean, can he breathe?"

Jayden looked up at Evan from where he was on the floor. "Yeah, I'll be fine," he wheezed. "This probably isn't that funny...but I didn't get much sleep last night, so everything is funny."

Artemis walked over to Jayden and kicked him over with his foot onto his back and walked on him to get over him to leave the bathroom. "Coming Evan?" it wasn’t exactly a question, more like a threatening statement.

Evan hurried after Artemis but carefully avoided stepping on Jayden. He was honestly feeling a little frightened by the blonde's sudden dominance. Jayden picked himself up off the floor, brushed himself off and casually sauntered after the other two. "Be nice, Arty-chan! Evan looks like a frightened puppy."

Artemis muttered something like "stupid mutt" under his breath as he turned to Evan and overly-sweetly asked, "Want to go to lunch and find a table where we can sit without meager intrusions?" He gave Jayden a short glare at "intrusions" before looking back sweetly at Evan.

"Er, all right," said Evan.

Jayden grinned. "You're not really thinking of abandoning me, are you? Arty-baby, even if you sit at a table for two, I'll just sit on your lap. You can't keep me away from you."

"You sit on my lap and you'll lose mini-Jay capiche?" Artemis glared daggers at Jayden and started walking away at a brisk pace, Evan trying to keep up behind him. It must of been a huge spectacle what with the popularity of Jayden, dress of Artemis, vibrant noises made form both parties, and bewildered boy Evan. Yup, quite a spectacle.

Jayden scowled and grabbed Evan from behind, wrapping his arms around his waist in a tight hug. "You'll let me sit on your lap, won't you, Evan? You won't let Artemis be mean to cute little me, will you?" He nuzzled the crook of the slightly shorter boy's neck. Evan bit back a moan; for being such a whore, Jayden was absolutely irresistible.

No wonder he could get any boy he desired! Evan had to make a decision, though: piss off scary scary Artemis or hot hot Jayden. "Uhh, Why can't we just--" He looked up and noticed the death-glare Artemis was giving the two of them. His eyes widened and he quickly said, "Sorry, Jayden. The god Artemis has spoken." He made to break away from Jayden's death grip and found he couldn't move. "Don't take sides, Evan-kuuun~!" Jayden whined.

Artemis walked over to Evan and purred some words of encouragement in his ear, "If you come with me and leave Jayden we can consider our shopping outing a little date and maybe even go see a movie." He grinned at the look the came across Evan's face.

Jayden's eyes lit up, having been leaning in to hear Artemis's whisper. "Shopping?" he asked excitedly. He quickly let go of Evan and ran off. Evan stood there blankly, but glad that he was finally able to breathe again. He shrugged weakly and said, "I suppose it will just be us at lunch, then?"

"Suppose? Oh no, it will just be us." Artemis grinned and grabbed Evans arm nearly dragging him there before, oh of course, the bell fucking rings to start the next class. Woo-fucking-hoo. Did Artemis ever mention he used fuck a lot when he was pissed? Oh well yeah, he does.

Evan was dragged all the way to Artemis's next class before timidly mentioning that he needed to go in the opposite direction. He sighed in relief when Artemis actually let go of him. Within the past ten minutes, he had been in a death grip by two of the sexiest boys in the world, and he was having trouble figuring out if he was ecstatic or scared out of his mind. "So, do you want to meet at the mall, or what?"

"Sure, where you wanna meet then--well I guess we can meet at the arcade in the mall since it's easy to find," He blinked a few times and added, "Oh and since we didn't actually eat lunch together, I retract the date proposition—later!" He grinned at Evan before walking into class before he could answer.

Evan pouted. No hot date? He stalked off to his next class, which he had with Jayden. Jayden grinned. "So...how was lunch?"

"We never got down to the cafeteria because the bell rang." Evan glanced curiously at Jayden. "By the way, why did you run off when we mentioned shopping?"

"No reason..." In order to avoid any more questioning, Jayden put his head down on his desk and promptly fell asleep; no one could wake him until right after the bell rang.

The day went by smoothly after that minus the fact that Artemis's teacher lost his six page essay, which he would have to redo, he fell out of his chair in the middle of a science lecture, he got asked to take something to the office, found out it was the wrong thing, had to go back up the four flights of stairs to get the right thing, to find out the office didn't need it anyways anymore. Wow, what a fuck-tastic day.

Jayden was waiting for Artemis at his car at the end of the day. Once again, he had snuck out of his class five minutes early in order to avoid the crowded hallways. He had an evil grin on his face when he said, "Arty-chaaan, I can't go home today... My mommy and daddy are tearing up the carpet so we can get new floors...and I can't go home because of my asthma. So...can Jay-chan hang out with Arty-chan, pleeeaaase?" He used his puppy dog eyes as an additional effect, knowing that even cold-hearted Artemis had trouble resisting them.

"If you have to come along fine, but I don't want to hear you half as much as normal. You're still an ass." Artemis got into his car and waited for Jayden to get in before pulling away toward the mall before, of course, it started raining--sideways, through the open window of the car, soaking only Artemis's tank top. Thank fucking god they were going clothes shopping. But still, he had a twenty minute soaked drive now to deal with. What the hell? He didn’t believe in superstitions but maybe having the black cat around so long started to catch up to him.

Jayden waited until they had pulled into the parking lot before taking off his jacket. "Here, Artemis, you can wear this." He tried not to think of the freezing cold rain he was going to have to run through in his flimsy long-sleeved shirt. Oh well, he would put up with it to make his best friend happy.

Artemis quirked an eyebrow at Jayden and responded with, "Nah you keep it, it'll probably just get ruined as well if it's on me. Besides we're almost there." He wondered why Jayden was acting so nice. It was somewhat creepy to say the least. Jayden wasn't usually "nice" per se.

Jayden wrapped his arm around Artemis's shoulders as they ran into the mall. He pulled Artemis into a hug once they had made it inside in order to make the blonde feel warmer...even though he was the one who was shivering. "Feeling any warmer yet?" Jayden asked, his teeth chattering.

"Yeah a little bit but how about you?" He pulled Jayden back into a hug to give him his warmth. He heard squeal from at least forty fan girls in the room at his warm-looking gesture. "We have an audience..."He whispered in Jayden's ear.

"Care to give them a show, then?" Jayden whispered back. Without waiting for an answer, he kissed Artemis's chin lightly. He cracked open one eye and saw Evan walk into the mall. "EVAN!" he squealed, letting go of Artemis. "Evan-chaaan~! I missed you!" He ran over to the startled dark-haired boy and pulled him into a big hug.

Artemis sighed. Well shit, Jayden found an audience and a probably willing boy. Could this day get any fucking worse? At least things seemed to return to freaking normal. He sighed and walked toward the "couple" hearing tons of girls nosebleed at the contact. It's pretty terrible when you can hear a nose bleed ya'know? He just wondered when he could get out of the wet clothes and into something more dry and warm hopefully without having tons of fan girls trying to get a peek in the dressing room. Damn.

Evan pushed Jayden away from him. "You're wet," he said simply. He looked at Artemis and said, "So are you. What, did you guys play in the rain or something? Come on, Artemis, let's go buy you some dry clothes."

"Oh gods I love you Evan." Artemis said without thinking--dry fucking clothes overrode all other normal thoughts. He wondered where they were going to go to get new clothes as it was a huge mall.

A dark look passed over Jayden's face for a moment when Artemis told Evan he loved him, but the look was gone within a second, and even Jayden probably wasn't aware of it. "Let's go to Shikai's," Jayden said. "It's new. I want to check it out."

"Whatever, as long as I get dry fuckin' clothes," Artemis said while shaking his hair out some of the water that accumulated slowly into it.

Jayden led their little group off into some obscure corner of the mall. The front windows were blacked out, and Evan had a sudden and distinct feeling that Jayden really had been here before, especially since the greeter said, "Hey, Jayden! It's nice to see you again!"

Jayden pointed to Artemis. "Go crazy on him. Put everything on my store credit."

"Uhh you don't need to do that Jaydy. I have money." He blinked and saw the person Jayden talked to eye's glint with something wreaking of evil intent...

"I don't care if you have money," said Jayden, already starting to wander off and pick out clothes. "You can pay me back later, but for every $100 I spend, I get a $10 off gift card." He pulled a red silk shirt and a pair of black pants off a rack. "Here, go put this on. At least it's dry."

He looked at the extremely tight looking shirt and tighter leather pants and blinked at Jayden. "How come I feel distinctly like I'm the one getting ripped off here?" He went to the back room to get dressed by some random worker.

Jayden, Evan, and one of the workers greedily searched through the shelves, taking nearly everything into the dressing room for Artemis. Jayden didn't even bother with a dressing room; he merely took off his shirt and changed out in the middle of the store. "Why else do you think they have blacked out windows?" he answered to Evan and Artemis's confused (and somewhat shocked) expressions.

"What about when you're trying pants?" Artemis said as he walked out with the tight red shirt showing a little stomach with crotch-low pants clinging to all parts of his legs.

"I go like this," said Jayden as he took off his pants and ran around the store in his boxers. The store clerk sighed and picked up the discarded pants.

"Jayden, what did I tell you about leaving your clothes on the floor?"

Artemis, angry, caught Jayden by the neck of his shirt and pulled him down dragging him back into the dressing room. A few "crack" "wazamm "bam" "cryckee" and "owwww" sounds were heard before an extremely loud "Bang!" and silence.

"I AM NOT A PUNCHING BAG! AND STOP MESSING UP MY HAIR!" Evan winced as he heard Jayden's voice from the dressing room. His eyes widened when he saw Jayden bolt out of the back room wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. Jayden ran up to Evan and hid behind him. "Evaaaan.... Save me from the evil Artemis!!"

Artemis came out with an angry twitching symbol on his head like in those crazy animes before shouting out, "Jayden Calvin! Put some damned clothes on! Or I am NOT buying ANYTHING!" He growled and twitched some more.

Jayden pouted. "Fine..." He wandered off mumbling before getting his clothes from the front counter. He put on his pants but wandered over to a light blue shirt and put that on instead. "Look! It's only $5! Isn't that great?" He walked behind the front counter and used the price scanner to buy the shirt. He grabbed a mesh bag from the wall and walked around, throwing random things into it.

Artemis blinked again wondered how many times Jayden had been in here. He looked toward Evan. "See anything you want me to try on in here?"

Evan pulled a shirt off one of the racks that matched Artemis's eyes. He held it up to the blonde and said, "This brings out the color of your eyes. It should look great on you."
He look at the obviously designer shirt that had a purposeful rip or two near the abs and on the back with a design of some tribal-tattoo-looking thing and was ice blue on the black shirt. He switched it right out in the shop with the red shirt and asked how it looked to Evan.

"It looks...wow. It looks really great." Replied Evan simply.

Jayden walked up to the two of them and stared at Artemis. "Hot damn!" he said loudly. "That looks bloody fantastic!" He went up to the front counter, grabbed the price scanner, and used it to buy the shirt. He also scanned the barcode on the pants and the red shirt.

"Artemis, help me pick out something for Evan."

"Me help picking something out? I thought you’ve known me for like six years. Is something wrong with you?" He felt the worker who was talking with Jayden look him up occasionally and felt himself almost blush from wearing this ridiculous get-up. There was nothing useful about a hole in your shirt!

"Hmm, you're right," said Jayden. "You have a terrible sense of fashion. What was I thinking?" He shrugged. "Help me anyway. There's nothing in this store that will look bad on anyone. It's great."

Artemis walked around and grabbed some random outfit and shoved it towards Evan, hoping it'd at least be less, err, sexual than something Jayden would surely find.

Evan raised an eyebrow curiously at the shirt. It seemed innocent enough. It was a golden orange color with a green tree. He took off his shirt and slipped it over his head. He realized that the world could see deliciously through the flimsy material. Jayden stared. "I like it. I like it a lot." Without even asking, he scanned the barcode.

Artemis flushed a little from the way the shirt made Evan's muscles jump out at you in great definition. "Umm, it looks...good..."Artemis said almost shyly and twirled his foot around in circles on the floor finding it insanely interesting for some reason.

Jayden walked up behind Evan and put his arms around him. "Doesn't it, Arty-chan?" He ran his hands up and down Evan's chest. Evan shuddered under the feather light touches and felt a light blush come up to his cheeks.

Artemis quirked an eyebrow at the scene—yes quirking an eyebrow did seem, in fact, to be a very common habit of Artemis's recently. He started to look at some boxers they had in the store and was slightly amused by them oddly enough. Oh god, he was amused by things that Jayden liked. God. What was the world coming to??

"Aaaarty-chaaan~!" Jayden called. "You're ignoring meeee..... Fine, then! Evan and I will leave you! Come on, Evan!" Jayden grabbed Evan by the wrist and bolted out of the store, yelling, "Just put everything on my tab!" over his shoulder at the store clerks, who took this as a normal experience.

Artemis sighed loudly and pardoned Jayden to the store clerks—err, well, he tried pardoning him but they didn't seem to be fazed by his antics. What the fuck were these people made of? Crack? He followed the pair out of the store, wearing his tight leather and ripped shirt. Why he even did this shit for Jayden, he'd never know.

Evan stared in shock as Jayden practically ran into the next store. "Mimi! Gretel! I love you!" Evan stared curiously around him, realizing that they were in a nail care store. No sooner had "Mimi" and "Gretel" exchanged their own vows of love than Jayden pulled Evan back out of the store.

They finally stopped in the food court, Evan slightly panting from running all over the mall. Jayden pulled out his cell phone and took a picture of The Panda Express with his cell phone and sent it to Artemis with a message that said, "Meet us here!"

"Um Jayden...You know I'm right behind you right?" Artemis said showing the message back to Jayden after Jayden turned around to see him. He blinked rapidly a few times and wondered why the hell he came to this stupid place again. Oh yeah, warm clothes. He looked down over himself and scowled. Those bastards were right; the clothes did look good on him.

"Oh… Food?" Monosyllables seemed all that Jayden could muster at the moment. He tried for a harder word as he pointed at the Panda Express: "Panda?" Without waiting for an answer, he bounded over and stood in line. "Evaaan... I'll pay for you?"

Evan shook his head. "Er, no thanks, that's all right."

Artemis grinned shyly at Evan and wondered why Jayden was acting so super-friendly with Evan, weird... He walked over to Evan and stood close to him, mainly because it was freaking cold in the damned mall—it was raining outside making it around 60 degrees and they had their freaking air conditioning on. He felt the warmth from Evan's body radiate off onto him quickly.

Evan shrugged his jacket off his shoulders and handed it out to Artemis. "You look cold... You want my jacket? I'm a tad warm, anyway, so I don't really want it."

"No no...It’s ok, I'll be fine." He grinned toothily and hugged Evan around the waist, because of two major things. The first was he was fucking cold and the second was Evan was really nice to him and deserved one...but he explained to himself that he did it mainly because of the first.

Evan couldn't help the grin from coming onto his face as he hugged Artemis back. Jayden glanced at the two before ordering the food...and paying for everyone with some free coupons. "Nice to see you again, Jayden!" said the man at the cashier as he handed out their food. "It's good to see that you're finally eating something other than sweet and sour pork."

Artemis quickly untangled himself from Evan and grabbed his food eating it somewhat vehemently. Hell, he scarfed it down like he'd die any second. Well, he didn't eat any lunch and the Chinese food did look pretty appetizing, sitting there...Steaming hot...Smothered in fatty sauces...

"Slow down, Artemis," said Jayden. "Do you know how hard I worked to make this? Oh!" He jumped up from the table. "I forgot! I'll be right back!" Evan watched with wide eyes as Jayden ran around to each of the food court vendors and said hello.

"...Artemis? Does Jayden know every single person on the face of this planet?"

"Um, at least on the face of the mall it seems. He's, err, a bit of an extrovert." Artemis scowled a little peeved at his friend's exuberance and knowledge of so many people. He also recalled all of the times he dated people for a days or so, playing with them a bit, before ending it and still somehow remaining bosom buddies with them. It was unreal and perturbed Artemis. Oh wonderful, he spaced out again.

Jayden bounded up to their table again after making his rounds of the food court. "Sorry, but I had to make sure that Jim over there at Taco Bell...well, his wife's having a baby, and she's in a lot of pain -- you know how it is -- but then Duke over there at Arby's, his dog's been sick for -- hey, Evan, you going to eat that?" He snatched up some of Evan's sesame chicken and began talking non-stop about the different vendors.

Evan turned to Artemis and gave him a look that plainly said, "Does he have an off button?" Artemis tried to give him a look back that said "Yeah, sex." He didn't think it got the message across much though; it was hard to make a face to express that. He took a sip of his coke bottle and as he pulled it out of his mouth, it exploded in his face, over the table, the floor, and miraculously missed his still-pristine shirt. His hair was wet as all hell now though.

Jayden literally fell out of his chair laughing. Evan handed Artemis a handful of napkins, and together they wiped up the table and floor. "Come on, let's go to the bathroom and get you dried off."

"Fuck deja vu all over again. Gah." Artemis practically shouted startling some random people in the food court. They went to the bathroom and cleaned up Artemis before heading off to some other shop Jayden dragged them too.

Jayden dragged the two boys to the center of the mall where the carousel was. "Evaaan," he whined, "ride the ponies with me!" Without even waiting for Evan's opinion, he dragged him off through the line and onto an empty horse. He waited for Evan to get situated before pulling himself up and sitting behind him, wrapping his arms securely around his waist. "Arty-chan!" he called. "Come ride the ponies!"

"I will not fucking ride the ponies..."

~About three minutes later~

"I can't fucking believe how you managed to get me to ride the ponies." Artemis growled pouting on the same pony as the other two--wasn't there some sort of weight issue on this ponies back? I mean they must've been just ever so slightly heavier than the seven years old that may ride the things.

Evan blushed, having somehow gotten sandwiched between the two boys, Artemis in the front and Jayden in the back. "Must not think dirty thoughts," he muttered to himself over and over. And it definitely didn't help that Jayden's arms were wrapped tightly around his waist.

Artemis felt like the ride must've taken eternity, the constant up and down and forward motion pushing Evan flat against his cold body. Wow, Jayden's stupid antics helped him get warm for once instead of the usual freaking cold.

The ride ended, and Jayden practically flew off the carousel. He stood waiting for the other two, tapping his foot impatiently. "I know you were having soo much fun," he called, "but there are still things we have to do! So will you hurry it up?"

Artemis wondered how Jayden got off the ride before himself, considering he didn't want to be on the ride in the first place. He got off quickly thereafter and marched off with Jayden, Evan following closely behind--he acted a lot like a doggie. No not doggy. Doggie. There's a difference...I swear!

Without paying attention, Jayden whipped around to go just as Artemis came up to him...and his multitudes of bags hit the blonde in the back of the head, causing him to stumble and fall--right into an innocent by standing clown. Jayden looked shocked. "Oooh! I'm soo sorry!" He helped the clown to his feet. "Are you all right, Maynard? I'm sorry, it was an accident, I swear!"

Artemis just so happened to fall straight into the clown's water-flower-thing, setting it off right in his face. "What in hells name is going on today! And why the fuck are you helping that CLOWN out!" He growled out scaring a few children away promptly. He was soaked. Again. And the clown was freaking fine.

"Shh!" hissed Jayden. "Children are present!" To Maynard the clown, he said, "So, how are your children? Has Mindy grown out her beard yet?"

Evan pulled a dry shirt out of one of the bags he was holding and handed it to Artemis. "At least we bought a ton of clothes," he said, trying to be optimistic.
"Yeah yeah...you try getting wet for the millionth time in one freaking lousy day." Artemis groaned and wrenched some of the dripping water out of his hair. "Besides, I never liked clowns. Nor will I probably ever again now." Artemis stalked off toward the bathroom gritting his teeth and Jayden prattled off his mouth with the clown.

Jayden waited for Artemis to come back from the bathroom before pulling them off once more, practically skipping across the mall. They finally stopped outside of a maternity clothing store. "Hold on, I have to see if Linda's baby was due. How ironic is that? She works in a maternity store, and she's pregnant!" He was in and out of the store within five minutes, and pulled them on to the next store. Every display in the store was a different shade of pink, for both men and women.

Artemis. Was. Creeped. Out. It was like...one of those creepy-ass doll shelves in a movie except in the form of mannequins. And it was very very very very pink. There was a freaking pink snake-skin Speedo here. What. The. Fuck-nuggets? Artemis blinked and stayed close to Evan in case something jumped at him...or worse...was PUT on him. He shuddered at the thought.

Jayden laughed at their mortified expressions. "Relax, guys, I'm not going to make you try anything on. I just want to say hi to--TAAAD!!!" Jayden practically jumped into the arms of one of the store clerks. "Oh, Tad, how I've missed you!!"

Artemis blinked. Tad was wearing a pink polo shirt and some black jeans holding up Jayden and smiling happily. Artemis felt a twang of anger go off. It was probably all the evil pink. EVIL.

"Wow, you finally brought some cute friends along," said Tad with a wink in Artemis and Evan's direction. "Sorry, Tad," interjected Jayden, "but they're not for sale." He jumped out of Tad's arms, said a quick good bye, and practically ran out of the store. After the other two had (happily) caught up, Jayden said, "Hey, you two want to go catch a movie?"

Artemis quit. He couldn't handle this anymore. It was too much, in too little time. "Whatever. Let's go."

Jayden grabbed Evan by the hand and pulled him off into the direction of the movie theater. "Come on, Arty-chan!" he called over his shoulder. Once inside the theater, Jayden said hello to nearly everyone in sight. His eyes widened when he spotted a boy with brown hair and hazel eyes. "Someone new!!!" he shouted before running off to introduce himself.

"How the feck do you know if there is someone new at one of over four hundred stores and three movie theaters in one mall? This has gotta be a joke. Where're the fucking cameras??" Artemis spat out almost looking for them truly, though somewhere deep down he knew there weren't any.

Evan stared after Jayden, his mouth gaping open. "I was afraid to ask earlier, but...is he even human?"

"You do not know for how long I've asked myself that exact same question. How does he do it? I've got less of a clue than you do--I haven't been with Jay to the mall since the sixth grade." Artemis remembered that god-awful time and shuddered slightly pushing the dark memories back.

Jayden bounced back up to the duo. "What were you talking about?" he asked cheerfully. "Oh! Popcorn! I get free popcorn here! I'll be right back! You two go on into the movie, and I'll meet you in there!"

"He so freaking definitely has ADD too. Yup. The basket-case," Continued Artemis, walking slowly with Evan to the dark theater.

Evan was tempted to ask if they wanted to try to hide from Jayden, but said hyper child was suddenly right behind them with a gigantic bucket of popcorn in one hand and a tray with three large drinks in the other. "Arty, lead the way! I can't see in the dark...nor can I see over this tub of popcorn..."

Artemis led Jayden to his favorite spot, the back of the movie theater--of course. Evan decided to sit in the middle with Artemis and Jayden on either side of him. Artemis was still a bit pissed with Jayden and didn't feel up to sitting next to him for an entire movie.
"Aww, Arty-chaaan, don't be mad at me..." Jayden honestly looked hurt for a few seconds before covering it up once more with his trademark grin. "Oh well, at least I have Evan to keep me company during this looong movie."

Artemis muttered some to himself and almost felt bad for Evan before letting the anger subside--Evan's dare was still on and he liked to hold that as his little secret grudge at least a little longer. Besides it gave him an excuse to not feel bad for Evan. The few lights that were on dimmed and poofed out of existence as the screen started showing previews.

Jayden yawned loudly halfway through the previews before shoving popcorn noisily into his mouth. Fifteen minutes into the movie, he gave up on popcorn and propped his head on Evan's shoulder, promptly falling asleep. Evan turned and looked helplessly at Artemis.

"He'll wake up in about ten minutes or so, it's a weird habit of his" Artemis whispered quietly and continued watching whatever the horror-film was in mild-boredom. At least it was more interesting than what he would do at home.

True to Artemis's word, Jayden woke up exactly ten minutes later--right as the screen went dark. He jumped, startled, unable to figure out where he was. When he was able to see again, he was clinging to Evan's shirt like his life depended on it. "Scary!" he squeaked, burying his face in Evan's shirt. Evan awkwardly pat Jayden on the head.
"Uh...it will be all right, Jayden. It's...just a movie?" Jayden lifted his up his face and beamed at Evan. "Aww, thanks! I feel much better now!" He cuddled against Evan's shoulder, and Evan promptly sent another helpless look at Artemis.

Artemis shrugged, he steeled himself on his grudge at Evan and silently chuckled at his predicament. Besides if Jayden was going to flirt, come hell or high waters, he'd flirt.

By the end of the movie, Jayden was practically sitting in Evan's lap, declaring the not-very-scary-at-all-not-even-in-the-slightest movie one of the scariest movies he had ever seen in his life. "I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight!" he protested as they walked out of the theater, desperately clinging to Evan's arm. "Evan...sleep with me tonight?"

Evan's eyes widened and realized that he would have been unable to pull away from Jayden's death grip even if he had tried. "Uhh... No thanks, Jayden. Sorry."

Artemis chuckled at Evan's uncomfortability and wondered if the only reason Evan was distant from Jayden was that his mind was slightly set on himself. He walked out with them towards an ice cream shop that Jayden seemed to have led him to.

Jayden pulled a stack of free ice cream coupons out of his pocket. "Yeesh, I really need to get rid of some of these." He bought their ice cream and led them over to a table in a corner, purposely sitting by Evan and pinning the poor boy in the corner.

Artemis sat across from the "couple" and licked at his strawberry ice cream with rainbow sprinkles in a chocolate-dipped waffle cone. He grinned happily at the ice cream loving the taste of the simple pleasure. He watched the two in vague amusement; they were truly pretty silly together.

Jayden, simply, had made a mess. He had chocolate and vanilla ice cream all over his face. Evan took one look at him and began laughing. He reminded him of a child who had eaten ice cream for the first time. Jayden finished his ice cream and stuck his fingers in his mouth to suck the chocolate off, trying to make this gesture as provocative as possible while still pretending to act innocent. In the end, he gave up and made his way to the bathroom to clean up the mess.

Artemis grinned toward Evan and asked, "Had enough yet?" He winked knowingly and grinned broader.

Evan shook himself out of his thoughts. "I don't understand how anyone could get used to him. And doesn't he have a new boyfriend at least once a week? How does he do it?" Even as he said these words, Evan knew that he, too, had become one of Jayden's friends...and that Jayden had become his friend, too.

Artemis grinned, "You know just as well as I do how he gets someone knew every week, his nice to everyone--though that's a little creepy to those watching often--and he’s hot. But it’s mainly the hot part." He nodded at his own comment confirming it more or less.

Jayden came out of the bathroom feeling content. He waved at the clerk at the register, who said, "You made a mess again, Jayden?" Jayden nodded before making his way back over to the table.

"Okay, you guys ready to go? I think I've had enough malling today...and I think it's dark outside. Evan, you sure you don't want to stay over? I'm afraid of the dark..." He winked. "But if you're there, I won't be." Evan once again looked to Artemis for help. Sure, having sex with Jayden would be great, but...he didn't want to be tossed aside like all of Jayden's other "pets."

"Oh Evan-chan you should. It would be suchh a cute little sleepover. You could have pillow fights and spoon." Artemis winked at Evan evilly and continued finishing off his ice cream. If Jayden made Evan take him home, he wouldn't have to take Jayden home. Yay!

"Er..." was all Evan was able to manage before Jayden started laughing. "I'm just kidding, Evan!" he said. "Well, under normal circumstances, I wouldn't be, but I've already promised myself to someone else tonight. You know how it is. ...Or, maybe you don't, but you can pretend, right? Oh, and Artemis, I have a ride home, so you don't have to drive me. Thanks for the offer, though!" With that, Jayden practically skipped off into the distance.

Oh god. Jayden found a ride home. You know what that means? Ugh, Artemis didn't even want to know. Artemis turned to Evan and sighed lightly. He noted that Evan hadn't really made a move at him at all during the "malling" but wondered if he couldn't because of all the attention Jayden showed him...

"That was...exhausting." Evan found himself tired even though it had been Jayden that had been doing most of the running around that day. "So, how did you guys meet, anyway?"

"We met in middle school when he was a little less exuberant." Artemis shrugged a little and finished off his ice cream throwing the napkin away into the trash can nearby that he was holding the ice cream with.

"There used to be a time when he was calm, or close to it, anyway?" Evan asked in surprise. He was unable to imagine this. It practically turned his whole world upside down.

"Only until about freshmen year in high school. I guess it changed with age and puberty. He used to be only semi-crazy," He cocked his head sideways in question, "So we doing anything else or we going home now that Jay has left?"

"Well...I know for a fact that I want to get the hell out of this damned mall! I think I can remember half of the names of all of Jayden's little 'friends' from today." Evan thought for a moment. "But...if you want to go somewhere else, I wouldn't mind...”

"Where would you want to go then?" Artemis asked not really able to think of any place in particular. He wondered what you could do at almost nine at night on a weekday.

Evan thought for a moment before saying, "Hey, the sun's about to set, but...if we hurry, we could watch the sun set at the beach."

Evan was right, it was oddly approaching the sunset late for the fall. "So you wanna lead in your car? I can follow with mine behind." Artemis shrugged and they walked out of the mall into their respective cars,

When they had gotten to the beach, Evan left his shoes in the car and rolled his pants up to his knees. He ran out to the water and splashed around. The sun was just beginning to set, turning the water a deep orange.

Artemis followed him staying away from the water having bad experiences with it today. He watched Evan play in it like a kid with a small smile on his face. It really was a sight to see that late at night.

Evan stepped away from the waves lapping at the shore and sat down in the sand, pulling Artemis down with him. He sat in silence, simply staring at the setting sun. "It's almost like...we're not here, you know? Like, we're watching a movie. It's just too perfect to be real." His statement was meant to include Artemis, but he wasn't sure if he got his point across.

"Haha, you think? But life doesn't always end in happy endings. It is pretty damn hot to look at though." Artemis said sprawled out on the sand looking toward the water.
Evan looked at Artemis and said, "Yeah, it's really damn hot. The view is great from here." He lay down in the sand, not even caring about how nasty his hair would be in a few minutes.

"So what the hell do you like about shitty crabby me?" Artemis asked quietly, almost not even hearing his own question.

Evan closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Well, first of all, you're absolutely beautiful. And then there's the fact that you're extremely intelligent and really caring. And when Jayden pisses you off, I can still tell that no matter what, your friendship will never be broken. I don't know...I guess I...admire you. I've never had a friend who I've felt that strongly about."

Artemis actually blushed a little at this but let the blush fade almost as quickly as it came. He still didn’t see the big deal, or the point of dating much for that matter. He just sat with Evan and watched the waves crash down upon the shore, only the stars left in the sky now.

Evan sat up and locked eyes with Artemis. He knew that he must look a hot mess, but he was past caring. "Artemis..." His voice was barely above a whisper, almost afraid of what he was about to say. "Artemis. I really do like you. A lot." He stood up and brushed the sand off his pants. "All right, well, I'm going home. I'll see you tomorrow."

Artemis was slightly confused at Evan's weird action. He got up and walked to his car before waving to Evan unceremoniously and drove home, only to be wakened up the next morning by his alarm clock. He hit the thing off of the counter and went to school in a huff. He wore some of the clothes they recently bought, form-fitting and all, and walked into school with a small scowl on his face.

Jayden almost ran into Artemis in his excitement. "Artemis!!" he shouted, his voice practically echoing throughout the halls. "I've been looking all over you! I have the best news ever! Ask me about my night last night! Go ahead, ask!"

"What the hell could possibly make you so fecking chipper so early in the godforsaken morning? Did you capture a stray bunny and make it your unwilling pet or something crazy?"

"I guess you could say that," said Jayden, unable to keep the grin on his face from stretching impossibly wider. "But! No! I--I--I went on a date! A real live date!"

"Uh-huh date. You don't go on dates. And besides whom in their right mind would ever go out with someone as crazy as you?" Artemis felt a pang somewhere deep down at even the though of Jayden going on a real date. It was worrisome to say the least.
"You know who! You've met him!" Jayden began jumping up and down. "Guess who! Guess who! And oooh my gosh, he's so cute! And our date was absolutely perfect! I can't believe I didn't try this dating thing any sooner!"

"I've met him? What the fuck? Who the hell is it? How could I possibly know him?" Artemis spouted off rapidly, could the hell could he have gone on a date with since just last night...The only people besides all of the crazy shop owners Jayden hung out with were he himself and...Evan...

To the two reviewers so far

Sekre: I love you!

Dee: I'm glad you've enjoyed the plot so far. The plot will, in fact thicken and tension will run high especially in the next few chapter. Stay with us as we will try to update at least once every week or so. =]