Friday

Senn downed a beer under loud cheering from his friends—and a few bystanders that had been hanging out with them all evening. It was busy that night, causing the student house they were in to be packed with teens having a fun night out without any restrictions when it came to alcohol.

Though, it wouldn’t be the first party Senn attended that ended up getting shut down by the cops after complaints coming from neighbors. It all depended on the location, and tonight—in theory—it was the perfect location where nobody expected neighbors to call the cops.

Which was entirely the reason Senn was still at the party and getting drunk real fast. He knew he had already made out with Joyce, but was now giving her the silent treatment because he still wasn’t okay with hooking up. She just knew whenever he was drunk or high, he was touchy.

Which was true. But she didn’t have to use it to get him to kiss her. And now a guy was desperately trying to get her attention, causing her to try and hide in his arms the entire night. Eventually he had told her to back off and give him space. He hadn’t seen her or Samantha ever since.

He had, however, spotted Julian in the crowd a few times already. Every time they made eye contact, Senn had to fight back a smile. One that would give away that he was way too deep involved with Julian. One that would tell his friends that there was more to his disinterest in girls than simply not finding the right one in their school.

“Hey Mr. Reyes,” Julian’s voice sang into his ear, and Senn swirled around to face him. “I’m about to go home.”

“Uh, okay…” Senn lamely said, while he noticed Lucas standing behind Julian, sending him an annoyed look.

“Killian still has one of my games, I need it tomorrow. If you ride with me, I can pick it up.” Julian’s hand slid from his back to his hip and Senn nearly yelped when he actually moved to touch his ass in public.

“I… ye-yeah, uh, I’ll go, sure.”

“What! Senn, no.” Lucas grabbed his arm, dragging him away from Julian. “You promised to stay—”

“I never promised anything,” Senn grumbled, cutting him short. “Besides, it’s nearly 2 a.m. and I’ve been here long enough. I’m tired, Julian is the only one who lives close by. I’m leaving, okay?”

“I thought you, for once, would sleep over at my place. Hang out with Avan and me all night. Be hungover together tomorrow, do a bit of gaming… you know, like we used to last year.”

“Next time, I promise.” Senn squeezed his arm. “I’ll be prepared. You know, toothbrush and stuff. Next week, with Tina’s party, I promise.”

“Why not just now?” Avan asked annoyed, putting an arm around Senn. “What’s going on? You’ve been avoiding us too much for it to be cool.”

“Nothing is going on, okay? I’m just tired and drunk and I need to go home, or else Dad might actually kill me for once.”

Avan dropped his arm, shrugged a shoulder and forced a smile on his face. “Fine. Next week we’re kidnapping you for a guys’ weekend.”

“Deal,” Senn chuckled, gave both of them a fist bump, and followed Julian out of the house, moving around kissing couples and dancing girls, all the while dodging spilled beer on the floor, sweaty people screaming song lyrics into his ear and eventually, puke in the middle of the hallway, smeared out by the many feet of unfortunate people who hadn’t seen the pool in time. Parties could be disgusting, and Senn wouldn’t ever want to throw one himself because of all the cleaning. But other than that?

He was woken up from his stupor when Julian grabbed his hand and yanked him forwards, into the hallway and out of the door.

“In a hurry much?” Senn asked, while Julian unlocked his bike.

“Aren’t you?”

Senn shrugged. “It’s not that great—”

Julian slapped the side of his face. But when they made eye contact, they both snorted and laughed, jumping on their bikes.

“I saw that, you know?”

“What?”

“Your ex. Really, Senn? Making out like that with your ex?”

“Oh shut up,” Senn mumbled, rolling his eyes even though nobody would see it in the dark, let alone Julian, who wasn’t even looking at him. “I’m drunk. People tend to do stupid things when they’re drunk. I figured I might as well join the club. Because it’s really fucking frustrating that people keep bitching that I’m not fucking around because apparently that is what is expected of us seventeen-year-olds. To go and fuck every girl who opens her legs—”

“Senn!” Julian laughed loudly, steering closer to him so that he could grab his hand. “It’s okay, I was joking. I don’t mind, you know that.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Senn sighed softly, staring at their hands instead of watching the road. But he trusted Julian to guide him. Because Senn couldn’t focus on the road in that moment. He could only look at their hands, and eventually at Julian’s face, while his words echoed through his mind.

He knew this was no strings attached experimenting for the both of them. He couldn’t even remember how it started. All he knew was that one day he was suddenly involved with Julian, and in the first two weeks they had used every available moment of privacy to at least make out. Eventually things evolved, and sex became a thing. But all the while they experimented, Julian was clear about his feelings; there simply were none.

Not that Julian had ever said that out loud. But he never forgot to remind Senn that he didn’t mind that he had a girlfriend—which was the case until about a month or three ago—or how he was worried Senn had broken up with Joyce because of them. As if implying there was no them. And Julian had made it pretty clear why it was best not to get involved more than what they had now. He was a senior, and he would move to New York during the summer for college.

Still, Senn’s heart hadn’t been able to follow the rules of ‘no strings attached’ experimenting. Senn had fallen for Julian more and more each day, over the past nine months.

The way he smiled, the way he laughed. The way he could tease Senn endlessly when they were just chilling around, doing nothing. How his hand always searched for his in the moments they were alone, and how he would entwine their fingers carefully. How his head in the croak of Senn’s neck was like matching the last two pieces of a puzzle. How he smelled, how he sounded, how he… how he was Julian, and how it made Senn’s heart race just to be with him, in any way.

But Senn wasn’t going to admit that out loud. He didn’t want to ruin the last few months they had together. He was just going to enjoy it to the best of his ability, and then move on.

High school love stories hardly ever lasted a lifetime anyway.