Cultured Spirit

A/N: Thanks for the feedback! I hope anyone reading is liking the story thus far.

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Erica did not disappoint. She had long legs and a slender waist but still managed to find clothes that were too tight. Her breath smelled of alcohol, but whose didn’t? Ian was all too happy to let his fingers slide through her blond hair as she gave him an expertly-done blowjob and just as ready to pass out on Ryan’s brother’s bed. He was sure he would’ve been out all night if it weren’t for his back pocket, which began to vibrate.

“Oh shit!” Ian fell off the bed in a tumble of sheets after his bloodshot hazel eyes caught a glimpse of the blinking radio clock.

His phone, which had stopped vibrating for a few minutes as he’d buttoned up his pants, went at it again. He always made it home before his mom’s night shift was over and figured she was worried out of her mind.

A mumbled sigh signaled Erica was awake but he ignored it, having a hell of a time finding his shirt.

“Damn, what time is it?”

Ian couldn’t be bothered to check the clock again. He turned to her, wiping remnants of drool off his face. He hadn’t drunken so much or taken advantage of any loose girls at one of Ryan’s parties since he was sixteen, and the entire ordeal made him cringe.

Erica’s make up was smeared onto her cheek and onto the Fuller’s stark white sheets as her blue eyes stared at Ian expectantly. He had to admit she looked hag-like without the concealer, but that didn’t take away from her still sculpted legs and small mouth. “Dunno. Late.”

Past three in the morning was what his continuously vibrating cell told him.

His eyes immediately narrowed as he saw his shirt hanging off Erica’s chest, smudged as badly as the bed-sheets with her mascara. “Why the hell are you wearing my shirt?”

Erica sent him a sultry look, unfolding her legs to in a provocative way. “Want me to take it off?”

Ian blatantly ignored the look, dizzily grasping his keys. “You expect me to walk out of here shirtless?”

With a pout, the blonde tossed him his shirt. “Whatever. At least give me a ride.”

He tucked it under his armpit and swung open the door. “Yeah, okay. Be out in five.”

The ride home was a lot less eventful than the rest of the time Ian had spent with Erica. They were in a cab because 2 minutes on the road proved Ian was still not conscious enough to get either of them home before morning. It turned out she lived far west and he was paying the bill, which he should have expected.

His mom was waiting outside the house after he’d called her and, unfortunately, slurred his way through reassurance. Her eyes were furious and she was still in uniform.

“Where have you been?”

Ian’s mouth opened to respond, but she didn’t let him.

“To think I thought you were at the pool and that’s why you didn’t bring your friend over like you were supposed to. Who is this friend of yours anyway? He’s a bad influence by the looks of it, stay away from him. I swear to God you’re grounded, for real this time. Don’t you dare give me any of that garbage about how you have to practice for ‘the team’.” She was fuming and Ian winced.

He mentally scoffed when she mentioned Daniel. That wimp was barely a bad influence but he didn’t mind staying away like he was advised.

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself?”

Realising he was allowed to speak, Ian blinked his stinging sleep-deprived eyes a few times, his ears still ringing from his mom’s yelling – this time his response was interrupted by his own black-out.

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Ryan was having a field day, his dr. pepper dribbling out the corner of his mouth as he stifled his laughter. “You passed out in front of your mom?”

The Monday after was heaven for Ian seeing as how he hadn’t been allowed out of the house all weekend. Even if it was for school, he breathed in the sunshine with a heavy inhale and ignored Ryan’s jabs.

“No. I had a momentary lapse of consciousness.” Ian denied. His own cheeks took on a flushed colour but he distracted himself with his sandwich.

Laughing, Ryan shook his head. After a moment of silence that Ian was thankful for, the blond’s eyes grew devious. “So, how was it? Other than the getting grounded part.”

Ian grimaced and avoided answering.

“Oh, come on, Ian. Melissa’s gonna be here soon and you know how annoying she is when we talk about your latest conquests.”

“Nothing happened.” The lie was followed by Ian’s smirk that suggested otherwise.
“Please, everyone saw you guys head upstairs. My mom was rightly pissed about the ruined bed-sheets. Thought it was Ben’s… no one corrected her of course. Ben doesn’t remember anything from Friday night; he thinks he did it too.” Ryan grinned impishly.

Ian laughed. “He wishes.”

“Aw, come on, man. How was it?”

Shoving his book-bag onto the floor, Ian shrugged. “Nothing special. Expensive, too.”

Ryan’s eyes were wide with disbelief. “She made you pay? What the hell, what a whore!”

Not caring enough to specify what part of the night he had to pay for, Ian agreed. “It wasn’t worth getting grounded over, but seriously. I realised I need to get properly laid.”

Ryan laughed at that. He seemed to agree because he fell quiet and snatched a pen from Ian’s bag to begin an essay that was due in less than an hour. Ian shrugged off his jacket, surprised at the warmth of the November weather. He took out his own history book to study for his latest exam, but knew he didn’t need to. His mom had made sure he was studying day and night the past forty-eight hours.

When he flipped to Chapter Nine, a flurry of papers spilled out of the thick pages and Ian swore, forcing Ryan to help him pick them up. It seemed the blond had found one of the advertisements of Daniel’s play, because he snorted loudly.

“What the hell? This guy is insane. Who’d want to see a play this boring?”

Ian’s head shot up quickly and it bumped against the top of the lunch bench. He moaned pitifully, rubbing at it as he pulled himself up. “What?”

“Dautry Jr. I swear this kid has no life. I can’t believe you were going to help out with this thing.” He laughed, fully expecting Ian to join him.

“Yeah well…” Ian trailed off, stuffing loose sheets back into his textbook and putting it away, not particularly in the mood for studying any longer.

“Oh, hell no. Don’t tell me you’re still being the assistant producer or whatever.” Ryan’s face was pulled into an expression that was half disbelief and half cringe.

Ian scoffed. “Yeah right. Not like it matters what I think, anyway. They cut his budget – no one will have to suffer through two hours of that crap.”

“No way! I bet he’s furious.” Ryan didn’t seem to care, his interest already drifting away from the topic. Ian, however, started to feel a squelching guilt in the pit of his stomach.

For some reason, Ian found his eyes searching near the physics classroom for the more masculine – albeit, only by a little – Dautry and was surprised when he got an eyeful of Adeline. She was chewing her lip, glassy eyes scanning the hallways before they landed on Ian with as much surprise as he felt.

“Oh… Ian…” She smiled meekly, before growing serious. “I’m sorry about the play. I know you and Daniel both were looking forward to casting it.”

The guilt began to chew on him as Ian tried his best to smile back. Now that his mind wasn’t plagued with the infection of delusion, he could see Adeline was just being friendly and had never actually been interested in the first place. That seemed to wash away his guilt and he shrugged. “Yeah, well, we can’t all have what we want.”

She was preoccupied, that much was obvious. Her lack of reply made Ian roll his eyes and he was about to walk away when Adeline called out to him.

“You haven’t seen Daniel today, have you?”

It dawned on him that she wasn’t waiting for Riley like he first thought, but actually her brother. He frowned.

“Uh, not at all. Maybe he’s finally loosening up and ditching a few classes.” Ian attempted a smile.

Adeline laughed. “No, that’s not like him.” She was worried again an instant later. “I wish, though. I haven’t seen him since Saturday. He was really torn up about the play. We tried to tell him it was no big deal, but he can be such a drama queen.”

Saturday? Ian’s fingers tightened on his books. Maybe he should have helped Daniel with the play even if his own plans were ruined.

“Ian?” Adeline’s round eyes gazed at him curiously, and she touched his arm with gentle fingers.

“Sorry. What did you say?”

Adeline blushed, her hand falling back to land on her books. “I just said that I’m glad I found you today. It’s nice spending time with you.”

What the hell? Ian’s mind was spinning with confusion.

As was usual, when confused, Ian stared at Adeline blankly. She smiled at him again, before glancing once more at the hallways then slipping inside the room.

Damn. Now he had to find Daniel because he felt guilty and for once the feeling wasn’t irrational.
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It was surprising where Ian found him. He had spent the day in his car, driving to various theatre halls and libraries but there was no sign of the frail boy anywhere. When he had finally given up and headed out to a local diner for dinner, having completely wasted his first free day since that weekend, he saw the boy in a booth by the corner. His hair was swept out of his eyes and his clothes freshly ironed while his lips were positioned around the straw of a milkshake.

Hardly the emotional wreck Ian was expecting.

The sight was about enough to confirm his safety and Ian was about to leave when brown eyes looked up from the plastic cup and locked with his own. They widened in disbelief and Daniel immediately started choking on whatever was in his mouth.

There was no turning back. Ian squared his shoulders and walked up to the still shocked senior. “Hi.” He said anticlimactically.

Daniel blinked owlishly, his hair falling over his eyes after his small choking session. “Hadley?”

Ian managed to smirk, inviting himself to sit at the table. He shoved the sleeves of his grey sweater up to his elbows and peered into Daniel’s cup. “I’m a complete dick once and suddenly we’re not on a first name basis anymore?”

His choice of words made Daniel grimace and Ian laughed quietly.

“No, we aren’t.” The boy snatched his drink back and looked at Ian coolly. “What did you want?”

Ian was busy looking amused at his choice: Strawberry.

“Why the hell haven’t you been home since Saturday?” He said finally, after a pointed stare from his companion.

Daniel looked stunned – and human – for a second, leaving his milkshake unattended. Ian took the opportunity to take a generous sip “How did you know that?”

“Adeline. This is good, but I’m more of a banana kind of guy myself.” Ian’s change of topic was somewhat forced. He didn’t want to talk about Adeline.

“Oh.” Daniel’s voice was suddenly dull. “Her.”

Sensing some family issues, Ian ushered the waitress over and ordered himself some chicken fingers. She gushed at him, smiling brilliantly and almost suggestively. Ian was reminded of his night with Erica and once the waitress left, he let out an annoyed groan.

“What?” Ian had forgotten Daniel was with him and his head shot up at the boy’s tentative minute concern.

“Oh. Nothing.” He supposed Daniel was still very virgin-like and bad but satisfying encounters with women wasn’t something he’d be very inclined to sympathize about.

Daniel looked skeptical, stirring his milkshake with a straw. “That didn’t sound like ‘nothing’. And anyway, shouldn’t I be the one groaning?”

Ian grinned. “You’re right.”

He made no attempt to console Daniel, even though his being there was meant to do just that. They stared at each other awkwardly, having nothing more to say, until the waitress came back with Ian’s chicken fingers. She tossed in a piece of chocolate cake free of charge and Ian sent her a charming smile that made her blush.

Needless to say, Daniel was not as impressed. “I didn’t get free cake.” He muttered under his breath.

“Maybe you should try lightening up. You’re not tremendously ugly; you could probably get yourself a few free parting gifts if you tried.” Ian chewed his chicken, trying not to smile at the slight blush that fell on Daniel’s cheeks. He pushed his cake toward the boy, an attempt to push away whatever remaining guilt was left in his system. “Here, take it. I hate chocolate cake anyway.”

After a few feeble protests, Daniel agreed.

“Back to business now,” Ian said after Daniel had eaten at least half and Ian was finished.

“Mm.” Daniel mumbled around his fork, his eyes lifting to Ian’s satisfied expression.

“Where were you, really?”

Daniel scoffed and looked somewhat offended. “I was over at a friend’s house. Is that really so hard to believe?”

Ian refrained from the obvious answer. “You should’ve called your family.”

“This coming from you?”

Ian remembered his own frenzied mother and shrugged. “Okay, good point. But everyone thought you were having some sort of mental breakdown because of … you know. The play and stuff.”

“I did, actually.” Daniel replied nonplussed.
“Oh.” Ian stared at Daniel’s plate as he continued to devour what was left on it. “Er, well. Okay, then.”

Daniel laughed, his pale fingers uncurling from around the fork. “I understand, anyway. The play isn’t your problem. I’ll just become one of those washed-up Hollywood wannabes after studying drama for four years in college.”

Ian had to wonder if he was serious. There was a longing in Daniel’s eyes, but in general he seemed to be joking.

“We can still do this thing, you know. My mom was real bummed when I blew you both off.”

“Uh-huh. I do not trust you just because you gave me some cake.” Daniel said, suddenly looking a bit cold again. “Especially because you got it for free.”

Ian smiled apologetically. “Okay, next time I’m buying – even if the poor waitress is disheartened that I already ordered my dessert.”

“Next time?” Daniel said skeptically, playing with a napkin that was caked with chocolate. He was obviously a very messy eater, even though he looked so clean and proper.

“Next time.” Ian promised. “Bring your script. I’ll bring the white-out.”

“Funny.”

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