Just Ignore It

Chapter 9

If the floor could open up right now swallow him whole, Matt would be ecstatic. He'd be even happier if he could beat the crap out of Mallory for doing the extremely intelligent thing of inviting both his high school friend, who was also his ex-boyfriend, and the man he was currently dating to go out to a club together. Yeah, real brilliant there, Mallory.

Speaking of Mallory, Matt flashed a glare over at the redhead, who had the gall to look slightly bewildered at the tension between the two males, both still sitting on opposite sides of the small round table, and still conducting a glaring match of their own, though Tobias had a slightly amused glint to his eye with an arm wrapped around Matt's shoulders.

Annoyed, and rightfully so at this point, Matt cleared his throat before making a motion with his hand to get Mallory's attention, pointing off to the side and mouthing the words, 'we need to talk'. Nodding his head Mallory stood and moved over to the bar that was along one of the far walls away from the dance floor. Untangling himself from Tobias' arm, Matt stood as well, which earned him a confused look from the blue-eyed male as he started to stand, but until Matt waved him back down.

"I'll be right back." Matt said loud enough so the others could hear before following Mallory over towards the bar. As Matt took the stool beside the redhead, Mallory turned to say something but was cut off as Matt smacked him upside the back of the head.

"What the hell was that for?!" Mallory asked as he rubbed the back of his head, sending his own glare at the small brunette.

"What was that for? How about a better question, why the fuck did you ask me to bring Tobias when you had already invited Trent?" Fuming, Matt didn't wait for a response before plowing on, "Jesus, Mallory, I told you how pissed he was after the whole thing with the spa, why did you think putting them in the same room together would be a good idea?"

Now pouting, Mallory turned back to the bar, "I didn't invite Trent, this whole outing thing was his idea."

Matt paused in his ranting to blink dumbly at the redhead, "…what?"

"You heard me. My only job was to get you to come along, 'by any means necessary', if I remember what he said correctly. And while bringing Tobias with you probably wasn't exactly what he had in mind," Mallory shrugged slightly, "He should've been more clear if he didn't want the Snowball along."

Matt frowned, "…Oh."

"Yeah, oh."

Without turning around Mallory slapped Matt upside the head, "That's payback for the uncalled for hit earlier, you ass."

Rubbing his own head Matt slumped against the bar, "Yeah, yeah, I know. Should've asked before I hit you." Sighing, Matt let his head rest against the cool top of the bar, mumbling into the paneling, "God, I need a drink."

As if on cue, the bartender suddenly appeared in front of the two friends, which was rather amazing since he had been nowhere in sight during the argument. "What can I get you, cutey?"

Ignoring the cutey comment, Matt rattled off monotonously, "One Buttery Nipple and a Mike's Hard."

After getting Mallory's order as well the bartender nodded and left, leaving Matt with a silently chuckling Mallory. "…what?"

Smiling wider Mallory leaned over to ask, "You do know how bad that sounded, right? If I didn't know any better it would have sounded like you were asking for some sort of porno than a drink order."

"That's just because your mind is in the gutter 24/7." Matt said, moving away from the redhead as the bartender brought over the drinks. After paying for his order, Matt quickly tossed back the shot before turning back to Mallory, "So, why did you invite Tobias anyways? You never really said."

"Because I knew that if I didn't bring Snowy along, you wouldn't have come. I needed him to lure you out of your hidey hole." Mallory provided, grimacing when he saw Matt take a sip of his hard lemonade, "Doesn't that taste disgusting?"

Confused Matt looked over at the redhead, "What do you mean?"

"Having a Buttery Nipple before taking a swig of hard lemonade? That has got to be the most God-awful combination of drinks I've ever heard of."

Matt rolled his eyes, deciding to change the conversation than to continue on with his odd drink choices, "Anyways, why did I need to come out with to this little gathering that has just been tons of fun so far?"

Mallory shrugged, "'Cause the only way I think Trent is gonna give up is if he gets some sort of shock therapy, and this seemed like the best way."

"…what?" Matt frowned at the redhead, but instead of answering Mallory just shrugged again before getting off the stool, grabbing his so far untouched drink and headed back to where the others where still sitting at, leaving Matt to sit there in slight confusion before grabbing the rest of his drink and following.

Taking his old seat beside Tobias, Matt shot Mallory another confused look, but the other male was ignoring him, instead talking to Ayden, who looked just as confused as Matt felt. Frowning, Matt went to take sip of his drink only to have it be taken away and set out of his reach. Turning to glare at his drink stealer, also known as Tobias, Matt's own determined look faltered at the rather angry look Tobias was sending his way. But before he could voice his question, Tobias asked one of his own, "Have you drank anything else?"

Now even more confused, Matt asked, "What?"

"I asked if this is this all you've had?" When Matt didn't answer fast enough, Tobias looked over a Mallory, who had obviously been listening in because he quickly answered, "He had a shot while we were talking up at the bar."

His face darkening, Tobias pushed the partly drank bottle over to Mallory, "Get rid of that, please?"

"Uh… Sure." Mallory said with a slight shrug before grabbing the bottle and walking back up to the bar.

"H-hey! Wait a minute, you can't just decide to do that!" Matt protested and started to get up, only to be pulled sideways and back down, only into Tobias' lap instead of his own seat. Despite the heat rising in his cheeks, Matt twisted around to glare at the other male, "Why did you take my drink?"

Returning his glare, Tobias answered, "Because you're not supposed to have alcohol after a head injury, especially just the night after it happens."

"Head injury? What happened?" Brice asked curiously, leaning forward to hear better.

"Nothing happened, Tobias is just being an ass, my head is fine." Matt gave the white haired male a pointed look, though Tobias seemed to ignore it, "You are not fine, after hitting your head as hard as you did yesterday, you should be more careful."

"More careful about what?" Mallory asked as he took his seat again, now without Matt's drink.

"Matt hit his head last night, now he can't have alcohol." Ayden supplied helpfully, and Matt turned to glare at the blond.

Mallory grinned over at the brunette, "Really? So, how'd you hit your head, Matt? Or should I being asking Tobias that?" Everyone's eyebrows raised at that last comment, and Matt could feel his cheeks burn hotter as he remembered the night before.

"I… uh, slipped. When we were at the movies last night. T-there was a wet spot in the bathroom a-and I slipped and bumped my head." Matt lied, keenly aware that everybody's was looking at him right now.

"Liar." Mallory said with a smirk, to which Matt replied indignantly, "A-am not!"

"Oh really? Look at you, you can't even get the sentence out and you're blushing like mad."

"Actually, he's been blushing like that ever since he started sitting in Tobias' lap." Ayden piped up, and once again Matt shot a glare over at the blonde, who only smiled in return.

"Hmm, I don't know, I still say that explanation is fishy. What do you think, Trent?" Mallory asked, and Matt blinked and looked down at the end of the table. He had almost forgotten Trent was down there sulking with how quiet he had been.

But instead of answering Trent just shrugged, taking a drink from the bottle Matt hadn't noticed before. An awkward silence fell over the group, which Mallory attempted to relieve by suddenly saying, "Anyways, what a-"

"Actually, I do have a question." Everyone once again looked over at Trent, who was regarding Matt fiercely.

"And that is…?" Tobias asked icily from behind Matt, and Trent's what seemed like ever-present frown deepened.

"Why are there handprints on your ass?"

Startled at the random and blunt question, Matt blinked, "Umm, what?"

"There are handprints on your ass, green ones. I'm asking how they got there."

"Oh, yeah, I saw those when you went up to the bar." Ayden piped up, and Matt looked over at him in surprise.

Brice's eyebrows raised as he voiced the same thing Matt was thinking, "What were you doing looking at Matt's ass?"

Ayden shrugged, "Well they were kind of hard to miss, they were almost fluorescent under the black light."

"Alright, I got see this. Matt get up and turn around." Brice made a twirling motion with one of his fingers and Matt stared agape at the brunette, "What? No!"

"Aww, come on, quit being a spoil sport and let me see."

Now fully glaring at the other male, Matt growled out, "No way in hell."

There was a sigh at the end of the table before, "Still waiting on an answer." Matt frowned down at Trent, before glancing over at Mallory, who was resolutely not meeting his gaze.

"Mallory…" Matt said warningly, knowing that if anyone knew anything about it, it'd be him.

But the red head put his hands up in surrender, "Hey, don't look at me. Try spinning around and asking your current chair what's going on."

Twisting so he could see Tobias, Matt was surprised to see the male look sheepishly at him, "Sorry."

Brow furrowed, Matt asked slowly, "Sorry for what?"

Leaning forward so he could speak directly into Matt's ear, Tobias replied, "It seemed when we were… preoccupied earlier your hair wasn't completely dry."

Matt pulled back slightly to look at Tobias more fully again, frowning in thought, before his eyes widened when it finally clicked. "You mean when…?" Matt slowly asked, his face somehow burning even redder when Tobias nodded in response.

From across the table they heard the ever curious Ayden ask, "I don't get it, what are they talking about."

Eyes wide, Matt spun to look at the others, "N-nothing! Nothing at all!"

But they weren't listening, and Brice asked, "So, Mallory, what are they talking about?"

"I'm guessing about the fact that when they were making out earlier against Matt's living room wall Tobias must have messed with Matt's hair and then grabbed his ass. Thusly transferring the hair dye from Matt's hair and onto his ass in the shape of two handprints." Mallory inferred with a scholarly air about him, which was ruined by the way he grinned at Matt afterwards.

"Well, actually they weren't really on his ass, more like his upper thighs." Ayden interjected, and Brice looked over at him in surprise once again, "Jesus, Ayden, you looked that closely?"

Shrugging his shoulders with his palms up, Ayden replied, "What? They're really bright!"

Ignoring the conversation, Mallory leaned forward to ask Matt, "So, the handprints, are they from when Snowball hiked you up the wall?"

Bring a hand up to his face to hide his shame, Matt muttered, "Can I please go home now?"

Tobias' arms squeezed Matt's waist slightly as he mumbled into the brunette's ear, "But your friend are so entertaining."

Matt sighed, "Only when you aren't the butt of their jokes."

"Hey, what are you two whispering about over there?"

Blinking, Matt looked up to realize that he and Tobias had somehow garnered everyone's attention once again. "Just talking about the thrilling time we're having."

Noting the sarcasm, Mallory rolled his eyes, "Ha ha."

"Seriously, though. We're at a club, so why are we all sitting around gabbing?" Ayden asked curiously, to which Mallory nodded in agreement as he stood up from the table. "He's right, I didn't come here for a conversation."

The two made their way around the table, and Ayden grabbing Brice and pulling the larger male after him as he made his way to the dance floor, Mallory following him. Matt sighed in relief after the two had left, thinking he was safe until a hand landed on his arm, tugging incessantly. Glancing up Matt saw Mallory smiling face while the man continued to try to pull him out of Tobias' lap and onto the dance floor with the others. "Come on, Matt, let's go."

Attempting to pull his hand back, "No way in hell, you know how much I don't like to dance."

"Yeah, and that's why it's so entertaining. You don't mind, do you?" Mallory turned this question to Tobias, and Matt frowned slightly, "Why are you asking him, I'm the one that's going to be embarrassed."

"Aren't you supposed to ask the boyfriend when you're going to dance with his date?" Mallory inquired, tilting his head.

"B-boyfriend?" Matt stuttered, looking quickly at Tobias. They hadn't really talked about their relationship status, not past the dating stage at least, and to actually have the title of boyfriends seemed to make everything much more… serious for some reason. Tobias smiled at him as if he was debating something, before he looked back up at the redhead, "One song, and then I get him."

"Righteo!"

Looking startled, Matt glanced between the two, "W-wha? Hey, wait!" He struggled when Mallory pulled on his arm again, and with Tobias' help Matt was on his feet and being dragged into the pulsing lights by the conniving redhead. When they got into the middle of the small crowd that was on the dance floor, Mallory swung around so he was facing Matt, grabbing the brunette's free hand as he began dancing to the song currently playing. Feeling foolish, Matt stood there awkwardly as Mallory attempted to get him to dance with him, noticing the looks they were getting from the surrounding people.

Rolling his eyes, Mallory said, "You know, you're only bringing more attention to yourself by not dancing."

"I-I know! But… I can't dance the way you do, not with you, at least. " Matt said, glaring when Mallory laughed at him. "Well, of course you wouldn't, are you even listening to the song? You aren't supposed to dance sexually to this, you're supposed to just have fun!"

Matt frowned as he listened to the song and looked around at the others around them, realizing Mallory was right. There were the few horny people that were grinding on each other, but they looked out of place when compared to the rest of the crowd that was bouncing up and down to the beat of the song. "Oh…"

"Now stop being such a damn stick in the mud and have some fun for once." Mallory said over the music and the crowd, once again attempting to get Matt to dance with him, and reluctantly Matt complied. At first just barely swaying from side to side, but by the end of the song he was dancing just as ridiculously as the rest of the crowd was, not caring what so ever and grinning from ear to ear. When the song ended and a new, more sensual song began, Matt made to leave the dance floor like a few other people were, but Mallory held him up.

Looking back at the redhead, Matt asked, "What? I already told you I'm not dancing to these types of songs with you."

"I know, but I'm not going to be the one dancing with you, remember?" Mallory said with a wink, and Matt frowned slightly before jumping when two arms encircled him from behind, and a familiar voice sounded in his ear, "I believe it's my turn now, correct?"


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Author Notes have been deleted per the request of AFF.net.