Isaiah looked in the bathroom mirror that sat above his sink, he stood shirtless with a towel wrapped around his waist. He had just gotten out of the shower and after shaving had put some soap on his face. The foam from the soap sitting on his face was starting to tingle letting him know it was almost time to take it off. The sun was shining in the bathroom on him giving his newly washed skin a healthy glow. He looked at his body, it hadn't always been like it was now, he was in decent shape after lots of challenging work before he had joined the football team. Two years ago, Isaiah had first noticed Caleb, he was just an average teenager when he decided he wanted to join the football team. He secretly started to go to the school gym after making sure that he was going to be the only one there. He planned it out for almost a month and watched for when people would be there, so he could avoid them. After securing the regular schedule, he went whenever he would have to, but he made sure he went every day and researched everything he was supposed to do. The only person that noticed at first was Casey until he tried out for the team, unfortunately, he didn't get to be as bulky as he would have liked but he still managed to maintain his slender muscular build. Isaiah turned the taps on and ran his hands under the water to check the temperature, he stared in the mirror, and as the water started to steam it started to fog up. Isaiah filled his hands with the warm water and splashed it on his face rubbing lightly to get all the soap off. Isaiah shut the water off and stopped for a few seconds staring in the mirror, he could see the nervousness starting to shine through each step closer he came to being ready for this party. At this point he wanted to just go and get it over with, he was sure once he had gotten there his nerves would rest a bit more because he would be able to at least talk to Caleb. He was going to try hard not to be awkward but right now his anxiety was almost overwhelming. Isaiah squirted some hair gel from a bottle into his hand and looked in the mirror again.

"Just remember, he asked you to come so you pretty much have to," Isaiah whispered to himself and started to rub the gel through his hair. The sticky feeling of the gel was something Isaiah had become used to, this was something he did every morning except for days before games for obvious reasons. He slowly styled his hair into an updo, positioning each spike individually with his hands as he finished, he looked in the mirror and checked each side of his head then washed the excess gel off his hands. Isaiah stopped for a second then looked at his shirt sitting on the counter, slightly aggravated. He had forgotten to put his shirt on before doing his hair. "I'm worse off than I thought." Isaiah laughed quietly to himself then put his pants on, he slid his belt through each loop of his jeans. He didn't really need it, but he liked the way it looked, he did up the buckle and picked up his shirt putting his arms into the sleeves. Isaiah slid the shirt carefully over his head trying desperately to avoid his hair managing to get it on without messing up what he had done. This wasn't the first time Isaiah had forgotten and put gel in his hair without putting his shirt on first. It had become a regular occurrence before tests and other events that racked his nerves, he had become somewhat of a pro at fixing the situation. Isaiah took one last look in the mirror, checked his hair, sprayed on his favourite cologne and then walked out into the kitchen. Carla was sitting at the kitchen table doing a crossword and drinking a coffee, something she would do often after she got home from work. Isaiah looked at the time, it was five to seven. "Mom, I'm heading out. Not sure if I'll be back tonight. I might stay with Casey."

"Where are you going anyway?" asked Carla looking up from her crossword book.

"Well, we won today. Caleb invited me over to the victory party at his place."

"That's good. Good for you to get out with your teammates once in a while. Call me if you need anything okay." Isaiah made sure that Carla wasn't fully aware of what he thought of most of his teammates or what they thought of him. Since Isaiah's father had died and her parents had been claimed in a car accident when she was young. She had a bad habit of worrying about him when it wasn't really necessary.

"Okay, I will. See you tomorrow." Isaiah put his shoes on and walked out onto the step leading up to the house door. Isaiah looked around at the outside for a few seconds it was a nice day, and it was going to be a nice night. The warm, end of Spring, air blew across his face and the sun was still quite high in the sky, it was perfect weather for a party, or at least he imagined it was. Isaiah reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone, he opened it and looked at Caleb's number on the screen. His phone was an older model his mother had gotten a few years back, so it was a bit clunky. He only had a basic plan his mother paid for monthly, just something she could use to keep in touch with him. He had gotten Caleb's number when he first joined the team, he had never actually called it, it was only for an emergency should he have to miss practice or a game. Isaiah could feel his nerves building so he just hit the call button and exhaled as he put it to his ear. It rang twice before anyone picked up. "Hey, Caleb?" Isaiah said quickly and obviously nervous.

"Nope," said the female voice on the other end. Isaiah almost panicked thinking if he had the right number or not. "Just a second Isaiah." He shortly realized it was Sheena answering Caleb's phone. "Caleb!" she yelled. There was a brief pause. "He'll be here in a second. So, you're coming tonight, right?" Sheena had an expectant tone in her voice that Isaiah had never heard from her before. Isaiah was still trying to suppress the nervousness in his voice.

"Um, yeah. I just don't have a drive." Isaiah did have a drive he would just have to wait until Casey decided to go but he wanted to get there and didn't want to wait. "I forgot when I said I'd come over." Isaiah laughed nervously.

"Cool, we'll get you here." Isaiah was curious as to why she was being so nice, he hadn't seen this part of Sheena before, she was in an unusually good mood. "Caleb should have thought of that when he was telling you to come, though." Sheena's attitude started to come through in her words, making it slightly more familiar. "Oh, here he is." Sheena passed Caleb the phone and Isaiah took a deep breath.

"Hello?" said Caleb.

"Hey Caleb, um, it's Isaiah." Isaiah felt like he sounded stupid and felt the embarrassment move through him.

"Oh, hey bud!" Caleb's tone became slightly more upbeat, almost happy to hear from him. "So, are you coming out tonight?" Caleb's voice made it easy for Isaiah to start to relax.

"Yeah, but I forgot I really don't have a way there."

"Oh shit. I can't come get you. Just hold on a second though, I'll call Jonathan. He's on his way here right now." Isaiah swallowed hard at the sound of the idea.

"Is that a…" It was too late Caleb had already placed him on hold. "… guess so?" Isaiah felt anxiety in the pit of his stomach, he really didn't want to be alone in a car with Jonathan. A few awkward seconds passed Isaiah looked around as he waited for Caleb to come back, almost getting impatient.

Caleb placed Isaiah on hold and looked through his phone for Jonathan's number, he had already started drinking so there was no way he was going to drive in his condition. Caleb was sitting in his bedroom on his bed to avoid the crowd while he talked on his phone, Sheena walked back into the bedroom.

"Caleb why didn't you make sure he had a drive before you started drinking, you've done it for other people on the team for their first party?" she asked irritated. Caleb looked up at her with an annoyed look on his face, still not wanting to deal with her attitude, he went back to his phone.

"I'm getting Jonathan to pick him up." Caleb selected Jonathan's number and hit the call button on his phone and put it back to his ear it started to ring.

"That's a great idea, what if Jonathan does something to him, you know they don't get along." Caleb gave her an irritated look and pointed to the phone, Sheena let out her trademark sigh and left the room. Jonathan picked up his phone after four rings.

"Hey C-man what's up? I'm just on my way over now."

"Good, then I've got great timing. I need you to swing by and pick Isaiah up." Jonathan was silent for a few seconds Caleb was already expecting resistance, but Jonathan was the only person who hadn't already been drinking.

"Man are you serious, I don't want that faggot in my car." Caleb rolled his eyes at Jonathan's remark and chose to ignore it.

"Yeah, I'm serious," Caleb paused, "Can you just do this? I'd go but I've already started drinking and I can't drink and drive, can I?" Caleb decided that guilt would probably work best on Jonathan being his best friend.

"No, you can't I'll go get him." There was a brief pause, as Jonathan seemed to be thinking. "Why do you want that guy there so bad anyway?"

"No particular reason dude, I just think he's a good guy and if he hung out with us more then he would start to fit in better with the team."

"Alright Caleb whatever you say, I'm coming up on his street now tell him to be ready."

"Alright, thanks, buddy. I'll tell him." Caleb hung up with Jonathan and pushed the button on his phone to go back to Isaiah.

There was a click in Isaiah's ear and Caleb was back.

"Yeah, I got him. He's like right around the corner, so be ready. He's got that red beater he drives."

"Oh okay." Isaiah looked down the street and could see Jonathan's car turning the corner. "I see him."

"See you soon."

"Cool. Later." Isaiah closed his phone as Caleb hung up on the other end Jonathan's car abruptly pulled into the yard. The old red car Jonathan drove was something his parents gave him for his sixteenth birthday it was an old station wagon, the nickname for it at school was ironically enough the shaggin' wagon. At least that was what Jonathan told everyone, Isaiah had learned from Casey that it was still his parent's car they just let him use it and would often take it from him at the worst times. Isaiah walked down the steps and toward the car, with each step he could feel the anxiety building. He feared what Jonathan might do to him since they were alone. Isaiah walked over to the side of the car and looked in the window, Jonathan leaned over and unlocked the door then motioned with his hand for Isaiah to get in. Isaiah opened the door and sat down in the car and pulled the door shut. "Hey."

"You're lucky that Caleb caught me so close." Jonathan turned to look behind him as he backed the car out of the driveway. He didn't like the idea of Isaiah being in his car, if people saw him what would they think? The car backed out of the yard and got on the street. Jonathan decided that he was going to drive quickly so that people wouldn't be able to see him, he was only doing this because Caleb asked him.

"Yeah, thanks. I should have told Casey to come get me, but she left pretty quickly to go get ready."

"She gonna be there tonight?" Jonathan got a look in his eye that Isaiah had become all too familiar with. When Jonathan talked about women, he would get a smirk on his face and his right eyebrow would rise. Jonathan looked back and forth from the road to Isaiah as he drove expectantly.

"She's coming later on," said Isaiah wishing Jonathan would just sit in silence for the drive.

"Cool." Jonathan paused as the car took a turn. "She say anything about me?" Isaiah figured the best way to keep from being in an anymore uncomfortable situation than he was already in was to tell Jonathan what he wanted to hear.

"Just that she thinks you're hot." Isaiah wouldn't say anything that he thought Casey didn't want Jonathan to hear.

"That's good." Jonathan paused as the car took another turn, it was obvious to Isaiah that they were taking the back roads. "Is she right?" Isaiah heard the question but wasn't sure if he was hearing correctly. Isaiah looked at him confused for a second before speaking.

"What?" he asked. Isaiah was now extremely uncomfortable but was trying to prepare himself for what was about to come. Jonathan had an almost fiendish smirk on his face.

"Well, is she right?" Still not sure Isaiah tried to draw out the question.

"I don't understand what you mean?"

"Am I hot or what?" Isaiah was starting to become frustrated when he could see what Jonathan was doing.

"I'm not sure what you're getting at, but you being who you are, kinda gets in my way." Isaiah paused, crossed his arms and looked out the window, the passing scenery let him know that they were only a minute or so away from Caleb's house. They were getting into the more well-off part of town. The houses here were large and expensive looking most of them having a pool or some other luxury that most people didn't have in a regular house. "Why are you so determined to find out who I'm into, anyway?" Jonathan's smile faded, and he looked intently at Isaiah, and the car started to slow down. Isaiah wasn't sure what to expect but didn't want to look at him for fear of what he might see.

"What are you implying?" Jonathan's tone was accusing and agitated. Jonathan was trying to get Isaiah to say that he thought another guy was attractive to confirm his suspicions. If Isaiah had said yes Jonathan planned on pulling over and beating him senseless then saying he had made a pass at him. This wasn't something that Jonathan expected, usually, Isaiah submitted to him pretty easily, he had never been this brave before.

"I'm not implying anything but you're pretty into my sexuality, is all," said Isaiah frustrated. Jonathan stayed silent it was apparent that Isaiah had made him uncomfortable. The car started to move at a normal pace again and Isaiah looked at Jonathan briefly then back to the road. They could see the house as they approached, there were cars parked on both sides of the road, and Isaiah could see people walking from their cars and into the house. There was definitely a large turnout for the party, given it would be or could be the last one of the season at least at Caleb's place. As they got closer Isaiah could see several familiar faces including people from the team itself and other people from school. Then there were the people that he didn't recognize at all that were most likely friends from the area that the other students knew. He would always hear about the crowds of people that would flock to these parties but never witnessed it in person. Jonathan remained silent as they arrived at their destination, as the car parked several members of the team approached them and Jonathan got out of the car walking to meet them. Isaiah sat in the car awkwardly thinking for a moment before he got out of the car and walked over to them, they seemed to ignore him at approach.