< Chapter 17

Chapter 18

The gang had been tense all morning. They would be posting the list sometime that day for the results about the cheerleading try outs and Britney was on the edge of her seat, which in turn had everyone else all freaked out. They knew that if the team knew what was best for them, they would not cut her, but at the same time, if there was one thing they’d learned at high school, not everything turned out the way they thought it might.

Before homeroom, Britney, Christina and Emily all headed over to the Athletics Board where all team postings were kept. There was no sign of it which only proved to prolong Britney’s torture.

During first break, they headed over again but to no avail.

The same was said for the break between second and third period. By lunch, Britney was going mad.

At lunch, the gang was two short. Justin and Nick had a Varsity team meeting with Coach Griffiths in the locker rooms. It was a short meeting, but everyone had to be there. In a mere two weeks, they’d be having tryouts for the new team and the Coach as well as Brian just wanted to go over a few things so everyone was on the same page.

As Justin and Nick were heading out of the Coach’s office, they noticed a piece of paper on the bulletin board that hadn’t been there earlier. It took one glance to tell them both what they needed to know, the Cheerleading Roster had been posted.

"Should we look?" Nick asked nervously. He looked around but Britney was no where to be found. Justin gave a shrug.

"I don’t know... What if she didn’t make it? Will she want us to know before her?"

Nick’s lips curved downwards into a frown. "But what if she does make it?"

Justin nodded. They stood in the middle of the hall for a few minutes until finally Nick made a decision.

"Okay, so we look right. But if she didn’t make it, we pretend that we didn’t look. If she did make it, we don’t tell her that she made it, but when she’s found out we congratulate her."

Justin’s lips formed a grin and he nodded as he gave his best friend a high five. "Good plan. And if she asks if we looked and she did make it, we tell her of course we did, because we knew she’d make it."

They both nodded and gave another high five. They stepped up to the sheet and carefully read down the list, taking in the names of that year’s Lincoln High Cheerleading Squad. They gave each other a serious, searching glance before heading off. It took them no time to sprint through the halls towards the quad where everyone was finishing up their lunches. Before they stepped outside, they both tried to regulate their breathing. "Now remember," Nick whispered. "Don’t let on you know anything. Just say that it’s posted."

"She won’t stop to hear anything else when she hears that," Justin mumbled. They casually joined the rest of the group outside, grinning as they all greeted them.

"Hey!" Lance said, moving over to make room. Both Justin and Nick shook their heads.

"Hey.." Nick and Justin exchanged a nervous look before turning to Britney. "Um, we just came from Coach Griffith’s office..." Nick started.

Justin nodded. "And when we were passing the gym, we saw that there was a piece of paper on the Athletic Boar..." The rest of his sentence was pointless as Britney had squealed and jumped up, her once colourful face now a pale white.

"Oh my god, are you serious?" Britney gasped and looked at Christina before sitting back down. "It’s ...up...."

"What are we waiting for?" Emily asked as she got to her feet.

"I don’t want to know." Britney said quietly. Before anyone could protest, she jumped back up and bolted to the door and down the hall. The rest of the gang all exchanged humourous glances before grabbing their garbage, throwing it in the trash and following Britney through the halls towards the gymnasium.

When everyone had caught up with Britney, they found her a few feet away from the board, staring at it silently. Nick’s breath caught in his throat as his mind reverted back to a year prior, when he and Justin stood in this exact same spot, finding out whether or not they had made Varsity Basketball. Of course, his name had not been on the list and Justin’s had, a point that had nearly dissolved their friendship, but now, a year later the feelings were still as strong as they had been that day. Nick trembled and smiled as Justin squeezed his shoulder

"Well?" Billy asked, just as nervous as his girlfriend. Whether or not Britney made the squad wouldn’t affect how he felt about her at all, but he knew how important this was to his girlfriend and had been crossing his fingers all week that she’d make it.

"I can’t look," Britney confessed. She turned her head so that she was looking at her friends over her shoulders. Her feet wouldn’t move to take her closer to the list, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what the results were. If she made it, she would be ecstatic, but if she didn’t, she would be crushed, and in that moment, she wasn’t sure she was ready to possibly crush her dreams. All of her friends were watching her with sympathy and understanding in her eyes. Out of everyone, she knew that Nick and Justin understood the most, as they had been in this situation before.

"Okay," Lance said with a shrug. "If you’re not going to look then what are we standing here for?"

The whole group including Britney turned to him and gasped, not at all expecting his easy acceptance of her decision. He simply rolled his eyes and waved his hand in the air.

"What?"

"Dude," Nick whispered. He nudged Lance as if to tell him to be quiet.

"What?" Lance repeated. It was taking all of his power to refrain from bursting into hysterical laughter. The expressions on everyone’s faces were enough to make him laugh, not to mention how stupid they all looked standing and staring at the wall. "I’m just saying. She doesn’t want to look.."

"Of course she wants to look," Christina answered. She glared at Lance who only stuck his tongue out at her.

"Then why isn’t she?" Lance questioned, his tone of voice bored. "Look, either check the list or don’t, but hurry up with it. Class is going to start in a few minutes."

Britney glared at Lance. She was about to snap at him when his lips curled into a tiny smirk and he winked at her. That small action was all it took for her nerves to calm down considerably and her pulse to speed up. She knew that no matter what the list said, whether or not her name was on it, her friends would be there. They would understand. She hadn’t made the squad the year before, and although at the time she had thought that her life was over, it wasn’t. She would be okay either way, and that knowledge gave her the strength to take two steps forward, moving her closer to the wall.

"Just a bit closer," Lance prodded. He heard Britney growl at him and he chuckled.

Sounds in the hall amplified as Britney’s breathing became laboured. This was the deciding moment and as she took one step closer, she held her breath. Knowing that if she was on the list, her name would be at the bottom, she started at the top. The longer she put off the inevitable, the easier it would be. Or so she told herself.

A shriek echoed in the hall, indicating that Britney had learned her fate. Justin and Nick exchanged knowing glances and held their breaths. "OH MY GOD!" Britney yelled. She turned around quickly, a giant grin on her face. Nothing more needed to be said and instantly she was surrounded by the whole group, all cheering and congratulating her. Billy was the last, and he took her into his arms to kiss her passionately.

"I’m so proud of you," he whispered against her lips. Britney was trembling in his arms and he pulled her closer to his body. He felt an inherent need to protect her, and wouldn’t let her go until she’d stopped shaking.

"Thank you, oh my god, I can’t believe it." Britney gushed, breathless. Once Billy had let her go, she stepped back up to the wall and checked again. Christina was beaming at the list and then at Britney.

"Yep, it’s there."

"Just making sure," Britney exclaimed, punctuating her words with a shimmy. "I can’t believe it."

"I can," Christina hugged Britney again. She’d never been prouder of her best friend and knew that there hadn’t been a doubt that she would make the team. "There was no way they were going to cut you."

Again, Britney shook her head. "I don’t know, they’re so ..." She took a second to catch her breath before she finished her sentence. "...they’re just so good. And they’ve been doing it for so long, that I thought they wouldn’t want me on the squad."

"Well, haven’t you been taking dance for ever?" AJ asked. Britney grinned and nodded.

"Yeah, but it’s different."

"Well, whatever," Justin said hugging Britney again. "You made it."

The bell rang, signaling the five minute warning for fourth period. Everyone groaned, class was the last place they wanted to go now. It was Friday afternoon and Britney had just made the cheerleading squad. Unfortunately, they couldn’t miss class.

The sophomores headed down to their lockers, arms all linked together. Britney was between Justin and Nick and as they reached her locker, she turned to them. "You guys checked didn’t you? When you saw the list was up?"

Justin and Nick exchanged a glance before answering. "Kinda, yeah. We so knew you were going to make it, so we just had to make sure."

Britney narrowed her eyes, but her lips were still curved into a smile.

"What if I hadn’t have made it?"

Nick snickered. Justin groaned. "But you did."

"What if I didn’t?"

Christina looked at Justin and Nick with an amused expression on her face.

Nick shrugged, unappologetically. "We would have told you we hadn’t looked."

"NICK!" Justin gasped, his eyes wide. He hadn’t expected Nick to confess that. He blushed, surprised when Britney and Christina laughed.

"I figured," Britney said as she shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Only the polite thing to do." Nick stepped in and pulled Britney into a tight hug. He knew exactly how she felt and was relieved that she had made the squad. He wouldn’t have wanted to deal with the dramatics if she hadn’t have made it. "Well, congratulations Brit. You’re gonna be awesome!"

Britney blushed and hugged Nick back. "Thanks!" The rest of the day was spent on Cloud Nine for Britney. Nothing could bring her down from the amazing high she was on from making the squad. Not to mention that her wonderfully amazing boyfriend had promised whether or not she made it, he would take her out for a celebratory dinner and a movie date to show her how proud he was.

~*~*~*~

Lance had to make a stop at the Report office before he head to his locker after last period. There were a few things that he had to speak to Matt about in regards to the upcoming issue of the paper. They’d been trying to add something new to the paper, while keeping with all of the usual features that students and teachers had been saying they loved. He checked his watch to see that it was twenty to four, which gave him plenty of time before he had to meet AJ on the front steps.

The Report office was in full swing when Lance stepped inside, he was surprised to see Emily and Kyle sitting at one of the tables by the window, going over a few old issues. "Hey," Lance greeted them as he crossed the room.

Emily looked up and grinned as she recognized Lance making his way over to where they were sitting. "How are you? I thought you and AJ had your usual Friday night plans."

Lance gave Matt a nod and held up his hand, indicating that he wanted to talk to him in a few seconds. When the senior nodded Lance focused his attention on his two friends. He gave a short nod, "yeah, we do. But I had to talk to Matt about something and he’s in the art room finishing off a few things. We’re meeting after four."

Kyle held up the paper he was reading and shook his head, clearly impressed. "This is really good. Our paper was nothing like this."

The two boys looked at Emily who was beaming. "I know, this is fabulous. If our paper had been this cool, I so would have been working on it all this time." She looked at Lance with an expression of genuine gratitude. "Thank you so much for suggesting I come by, I had a few ideas for Matt and might even be doing my own piece for the next issue."

Lance was happy that he’d suggested Emily come to the Report as well, as he could tell she was seriously excited about working on the paper. They talked for a few more minutes until Matt approached, lying his hand on Lance’s shoulder.

"Did you need to talk to me? If so, get me now, Mrs. Renado is going to be back in ten minutes and I’ll be going for a meeting with her, Delaney and Lane." Matt saw the concern in Lance’s eyes and shook his head. "Oh, we have to have sporadic meetings, just so they can see what’s going on, what we’re printing and so forth. It’s pretty lame because they always approve what we’re doing, like we’re stupid enough to print something they’re going to expel us for."

"Not only that," Kyle added with a laugh. "If you do print it, like you’d be stupid enough to warn them about it first."

Everyone broke into laughter. "Exactly," Matt agreed.

"Okay," Lance said. "It won’t take long," he turned to Kyle and Emily and said his good-byes. They’d all made tentative plans to go to a movie the next night, so he told them he would see them there.

Ten minutes later, Mrs. Renado had returned to the office, letting Matt know that they should head down to the office where their meeting was to be held. They had just been finishing up their conversation anyways and Lance had to get going if he wanted to meet AJ on time.

"So, how did it go?" AJ asked. They caught up with each other in the halls on the way to the front exit of the school. As soon as Lance was in arm’s reach, AJ grabbed his boyfriend’s hand, threading their fingers together. His pulse raced as Lance flashed him a giant grin. It still amazed him that after a year, Lance could still make his pulse race and his stomach flutter like nothing else. Their official one year anniversary was coming up in November, but the date that AJ had first seen Lance was quickly approaching. That day which he still thanked God, Nick and Justin for.

"Pretty good," Lance answered. He took a quick glance down each hall before stepping in to softly kiss AJ’s lips. It had been far too long since he’d been able to kiss his boyfriend, and that small, chaste, non-kiss was all he would be afforded until they got to AJ’s house. Thankfully, with it being Friday, his mother wouldn’t be home and they would have the whole house to themselves. Lance was sure that the time alone would not be wasted on homework. At least not all of it because the second they arrived, he had plans to throw AJ to the couch, or even the floor if he had to, and pounce on him.

"Don’t," AJ whimpered softly. His eyes fluttered shut as he felt his groin twitch.

Previously, Lance would have been terrified that he’d upset AJ or made him mad, but now he knew his boyfriend well enough to know that the soft, whispered plea ‘don’t’ wasn’t that he didn’t want to be kissed. It was that he did want to be kissed, and if Lance was going to tease him, AJ wouldn’t be able to control his actions. For point seven seconds, Lance considered repeating his actions, just to see what his boyfriend would do, but in the distance, Lance could hear someone opening and closing a locker, which only reminded them that they weren’t the only ones at the school, and while Lance had no problems with people knowing he was gay, giving them a show was not an option.

"When we get to your house," Lance promised. He felt AJ’s hand tighten in his.

"You’d better believe it."

The plan was for them to order pizza for dinner, but neither were hungry and truth be told, they had more important things on their minds than food. AJ’s mother had taken the car that day, so they were forced to take the bus. The duration of the ride was spent with idle chit chat and secret smiles. Lance was torn on what he wanted to do to AJ first, kiss his mouth or jerk him off. A fleeting thought to suck AJ off flashed in Lance’s mind and his whole face heated up giving his cheeks a rosy tint.

"What are you thinking about?" AJ asked, leaning in closer to Lance. He could smell the cologne that Lance wore and AJ couldn’t help but sniff playfully under his ear. The way Lance snickered and squirmed away only prodded AJ to lean in closer. "Your cheeks are all pink."

Lance shook his head, too embarrassed to reveal his thoughts. Although AJ had given him a blow job on his birthday, and they’d spent countless making out time jerking each other off, as well as jerking themselves off in front of the other, Lance had never returned the favour of the blow job. There had been once that he’d wanted to, but then just as they were making out, Denise had come home early from her night out with a headache. Which thankfully she’d come home when she did, as had she been a mere five minutes later, she would have found AJ with his pants around his ankles and Lance on his knees between his thighs. After that, Lance had assumed it was a sign that he wasn’t ready and hadn’t made the attempt again.

"Just you."

"And?" AJ asked with a giggle. He couldn’t deny that it made him feel great to know that just thinking about him got Lance all hot and bothered. With a quick glance out the window, AJ could see that they were approaching his stop. He leaned over Lance to pull the cord. "Well?"

The bus stopped down the street from AJ’s house and they both stepped onto the sidewalk, eyes focused on each other. "I was just thinking about what I want to do..."

AJ raised an eyebrow as if to say ‘and?’

"You know, when we get to your house."

There was something in how nervous Lance was that caused for ripples of excitement to travel up and down AJ’s spine. He knew it must be something important if Lance was nervous. On the whole, they were extremely comfortable with their own bodies, and each others, so clearly Lance was thinking about something that they hadn’t done. Suddenly AJ’s boxers were a little fuller and he could feel his erection pressing tightly against the fabric. Subconsciously, he reached down with his free hand and adjusted himself, not aware of Lance’s eyes riveted on the bulge.

The whimper was out before Lance could stop it. He watched as AJ adjusted his crotch and had to fight reaching out to help him. He could just lean in, cover AJ’s erection with his hand and maybe squeeze a little, give a sharp tug. That image bled forth into another of AJ’s head back, his whole body trembling as Lance jerked him off, lower lip firmly caught between his teeth, and then finally of the expression on AJ’s face just after he’d come. Lance whimpered again. When he raised his eyes, he saw AJ watching him, a hungry look in his eyes.

"I want to suck you," Lance admitted softly. He stepped in closer and put his hands on AJ’s hips, pulling them so that they were nose to nose. "I want to know what it feels like to have you in my mouth."

"Fuck," AJ breathed. That was possibly the last thing he expected Lance to say. "Serious?"

Lance could only nod. He was in a daze, drunk on the possibility of having AJ in his mouth and bringing him to orgasm, screaming his name. "Do you want that?"

AJ wanted to laugh, Lance thought he had to ask. If he wasn’t sure his neighbors would probably call the police, as well as his mother, he would have dropped his jeans right then and there and shown Lance just how much he wanted it. But he couldn’t, so rather than answer, he grabbed Lance’s hand and pulled him down the street towards his house.

"I ..guess that’s a ...yes..." Lance laughed as he chased after AJ.

It was once AJ had unlocked the front door and pushed him inside that he received his answer. AJ’s mouth was hot and insistent on his, their tongues battling erotically between their mouths.

"Fuck yeah..." Before he finished his thought, he paused. "MOM!"

They both waited.

"MOOOOOM!"

Silence. They both grinned. Just as he was about to kiss Lance again the phone rang, startling them both apart.

AJ darted across the room to the phone that was on the coffee table.

"Hello?"

"Sweetie, you’re home."

AJ grinned at the sound of his mother’s voice on the other end of the line. If she was calling, then she wasn’t home and they had the house to themselves. "Just got in."

"Okay, well I’m just calling to say that I left you guys dinner in the oven. It’s a pasta casserole, your favourite. I know you were going to order pizza, but you eat enough crap and I want to make sure you’re eating healthy."

"Ma..." AJ whined. A smile covered his face at the thought of his mother’s pasta casserole.

"Alexander, don’t whine. Now, be good, tell Lance I say hello and behave. I might be a little late tonight."

"Okay, thanks mom."


AJ hung up the phone and beckoned Lance across the room. "She’s at work. Gonna be late."

Slowly, Lance’s lips curled into a sexy smirk. His eyes darted upwards then to AJ who was slinking across the room towards him. His stomach fluttered a few times and just as AJ approached him, he wiggled his eyes and darted towards the stairs. AJ followed close behind. They fell together onto AJ’s bed, tangled and giggling. Now that they were certain they were alone and that Denise wouldn’t be home until much, much later, the atmosphere around them was relaxed. As relaxed as it could be while filled with sexual electricity.

Using the remote control on his night stand, AJ turned his CD player on random, filling the room with music. Their lips met in a steamy crush of a kiss, Lance melted under AJ’s touch. It was uncertain how much time passed between the first kiss and when Lance’s hand slid under AJ’s jeans. Lance pulled away, lips swollen and wet from AJ’s kisses. His eyes were clouded and his breathing laboured. "Can .."

"You can do anything you want," AJ assured him breathlessly. He had a million and ten things that he wanted Lance to do, as well as wanted to do to Lance, but now that he’d gotten the idea of getting a blow job into his head, that was all AJ could think about. If Lance decided he wasn’t ready, AJ wouldn’t hold it against him, but at the same time, the excitement of being Lance’s first blow job, of Lance being his first recieved blow job, made his stomach flip excitedly.

"Anything?" Lance teased. His blood heated when he saw AJ’s expression, which was nearly smoldering.

"Anything."

Lance leaned in and kissed AJ again. It was both to stall, as he wasn’t entirely sure he was ready to give his boyfriend a blow job, but at the same time it served as reassurance that he loved him and couldn’t bear to be away from him.

A scene from a movie that JC had given him flashed in AJ’s mind and he froze. A few months earlier, Kyle’s brother had given him a video with porn on it. The three of them had gotten together one night to watch it and Josh had immediately told AJ about it. AJ had never seen a porn movie, and although wouldn’t admit to Josh at the time, was curious. From that point on, every once in a while, Josh would tell him that they’d seen another one and while AJ knew that Kyle had watched a few with Emily, Josh assured him that he and Christina had never watched them together. It was then that AJ confessed he was curious as to what the big deal was.

Josh only smirked and promised he’d take care of it. A week later, Josh had come over to hang out, with him he brought a brown paper bag. Inside, was what would be the first porn movie AJ had ever watched.

It had been everything Josh had told him about, and more. Of course, it was straight porn, which surprisingly had still gotten AJ off, but he figured that any type of sex would have gotten him excited and didn’t think too much about it. AJ admitted only in the confines of his own room, and to himself that he’d spent more time watching the man than what he was doing to the girl, and in the one scene that there was two men having sex with the one woman, in AJ’s mind the woman was replaced with another man which had upped the sexual excitement ten fold.

AJ had kept the movie for four days, had he kept it any longer than that he would have been tempting fate and was scared that his mother would find it when she would be cleaning up his room. The last thing he wanted was for her to find porn in his room. He kept the few magazines he had well hidden and the only time he brought those out were when she was out of the house and he was alone. But during those four days, he watched it as often as possible. Thankfully, Denise was a very sound sleeper, and she never woke up during the night. Of course, he had kept the volume on very very low when he had dared to watch it while she was in the house, but he’d seen it enough times to have memorized every single scene.

Josh put in a special request to their ‘supplier’ and on one of AJ’s rare days off, paid him a visit. Denise was at work and AJ had been wondering what he was going to spend his whole day off doing. Josh’s visit answered that question as he presented AJ with another paper bag, this time a little heavier than the first. There were two videos, both unmarked except for a small sticker on the corner.

"The one with the butterfly was taped from pay per view, so that has like, three movies or something on it," Josh had explained. The other one is a copy of a movie. They’re both yours. To keep."

AJ’s cheeks had been a bright pink and he’d had difficulty looking Josh in the eye. He knew that he had nothing to be embarrassed about, that there wasn't anything he and Josh couldn’t talk about, but at the same time, he knew that for Josh to ask for this specific type of movie would have probably caused suspicion with whoever he got it from.

"Are ...you serious?"

Josh had grinned and wiggled his eyes. "Totally serious. That’s why they’re both unmarked, Greg just made copies for me."

"Who ..who’s Greg?" AJ asked softly. The tapes felt heavy in his hand and he stared at them, curious and excited about what they contained. He looked up and saw Josh watching him. Josh smiled, easing AJ’s nerves.

"Greg is Kyle’s brother’s best friend. He’s the one that got that for me. We were talking to Dave about porn and I asked if he could get me something specific. He said sure, just let him know. So I asked. Kyle knew why I was asking I think, but Dave was a little curious but he knows better than to ask."

AJ had been mortified to know that Kyle now knew he wanted porn and they’d gone to his brother for it. Josh was quick to assure him that it didn’t matter and they didn’t judge. Josh learned quickly that nothing was considered strange in the porn business and what he’d been asking for was quite tame compared to most of the requests that Dave and Greg got. Quick to assure AJ of that, Josh continued his story.

"He said it wouldn’t be a problem and this morning Kyle stopped by to drop it off at the house. It took him like, two days and here you go. Said that Greg had just made copies, taped stuff off of Pay Per View since they have over three hundred channels. And they said to tell you that this is good stuff to start off with. Not too kinky or freaky, but still really hot."

AJ’s groin had tightened and he suddenly wanted Josh to leave so he could watch it in privacy. Thankfully, his best friend understood. They had said their good-byes and AJ was up the stairs and into his room before Josh had made it to the bottom of his street. It took him a phone call to the diner to find out what time his mother was off to ease his worries about being found out. She would be home some time after six. AJ had over six hours to revel in the present his best friend had just brought him, as loud and long as he wanted.

Lance broke the kiss and AJ’s eyes darted to his closet where he knew those well worn video tapes were hiding. He’d watched them countless times but found that he never tired of them and one of these days, he was going to ask Josh if he could get him more. But for now, they were serving him quite well.

"What about ..." AJ started, inhaling deeply. Lance was working the buttons on his jeans and he was having a difficult time concentrating.

"What about what?" Lance asked. He started tugging AJ’s jeans down his thighs. Once they were free of his boyfriend’s legs, he threw them across the room and laid him back on the bed.

"Us maybe ..." AJ’s cheeks darkened and Lance grinned. "...at the same time."

The grin froze on Lance’s face and he felt his stomach lurch. "What?"

The image from the movie flashed in AJ’s eyes again and he moaned while his cock throbbed. "We can blow each other at the same time..."

Lance’s eyes widened and AJ wondered if maybe he just should have kept his mouth shut and let Lance suck him. They were both frozen, staring and one another and AJ wasn’t sure what to say next.

"Uhh... At the same time?" Lance squeaked out. He tried to picture it, finding it difficult to do. Although the thought of AJ blowing him while he blew AJ made him even harder than he had been. "How is that possible?"

AJ coughed as he tried to clear his throat. "Uh... You lay like this ..." AJ laid Lance down, kissing him softly on the lips. "And then I lay the opposite way. It’s uh ...called a ...sixty nine."

Lance trusted AJ with his life. He knew that his boyfriend would never do anything to hurt him, and loved him just as much as Lance loved him. So with that knowledge, he didn’t panic as much as he probably should have. What he did was question how AJ knew about a sixty nine. He furrowed his brow and scratched his head. "How do you know about this?" Lance watched AJ blush and look away and despite his confusion, he laughed.

"Well ...you see .. I saw this movie.." AJ paused as Lance’s eyes widened to comic proportions.

End Chapter 18


Chapter 19 >