[PART NINE] & Some News
Okay, I'm a little new at this so sorry if I mess this up first go. Because it's been 5 months since the last round even though we haven't been busy. I figured I might as well earn my keep and try to get this place alive again...
THE SOCIAL NETWORK KINK MEME
ASK THE MODS * FAQ * DISCUSSION * RESEARCH * FILL LIST * PART ONE * PART ONE (OVERFLOW) * ( Read more... )
THE SOCIAL NETWORK KINK MEME
ASK THE MODS * FAQ * DISCUSSION * RESEARCH * FILL LIST * PART ONE * PART ONE (OVERFLOW) * ( Read more... )
Standing in the doorway of Mark’s bedroom, Eduardo whined a little as Mark kept his eyes and fingers on the laptop in front of him. “Please, please, please,” he begged, bouncing his knees in frustration and anxiousness. “It’s only for an hour.”
“Take Dustin,” Mark replied like an automated machine.
“He’s already there with Chris but I want you to-”
“I’m not wasting my time to go listen to disgusting, vulgar sounds that are labeled as music. That is not music.”
Eduardo bit his lip and asked more quietly, “Would you waste your time accompanying your best friend to something he really wants to go to and share with his best friend?”
Mark’s fingers froze midair as he took the words into consideration for once. Eduardo had done everything Mark asked of him and the only thing Mark ever did in return was go to the dining hall with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays after their last classes.
Mark sighed, slamming the top of the laptop shut, “Goddamn it.”
***
They could hear the bass and screams before they even entered the building. Mark grumbled for the twenty-fifth time (Eduardo was counting) that he didn’t want to be here as Eduardo squeezed his shoulders under his arm.
“It’s just a little concert. You’ll be back to your precious corner within the hour.”
“Shut up, I like my corner. But what I can’t understand is why you like this shit.”
“You don’t have to.” Eduardo opened the door to the concert hall and held his hand out to let Mark walk in first. “All you have to understand is how happy you’ve made me by coming with.”
All this praise after the guilt trip was really bothering Mark and he hoped that, after this, it would never be brought up ever again.
Eduardo kept a hand on Mark’s back and directed him through the compacted, loud crowd toward the stage where he knew Dustin and Chris were. Mark wrinkled his nose pretentiously at the bodies that bumped into his and glared back at Eduardo, who only smirked and pushed Mark to keep moving forward.
Mark looked at the stage and saw the band playing and dancing around. He wasn’t an idiot, he knew who they were and that they had that one song about snakes for that one movie, and when he was close enough to make out the lead singer, who he knew as Gabe from Eduardo talking about them on the way over, he was disgusted by how thin, tall, and enthusiastic he was.
He wanted to leave.
They got to Dustin and Chris, who were jumping up and down in the front row and singing at the top of their lungs. Eduardo tapped their shoulders and they turned to embrace Mark, both shocked that Eduardo managed to drag him out.
“Dude!” Dustin screamed into Mark’s ear, causing him to flinch. “This is the best shit this school has ever done for me!”
Mark blinked at him. “Are you drunk?”
“Yes!”
Eduardo bobbed his head along to the music, mouthing the words because he didn’t have it in him to sing, even though he knew his voice would be lost in the air with everyone else’s. He watched Gabe closely as he sang and danced provocatively with his hips, eying the crowd with seduction before breaking the contact to focus solely on his own dancing.
When the song was over and the crowd was cheering, Eduardo clapped with a wide smile on his face. Gabe took a deep breath and looked over everyone as the rest of the band recomposed themselves, drinking water and retuning. His eyes settled on Eduardo for one second, then two, then three, four, not looking away. Eduardo’s smile softened, confused, before brightening up again.
Gabe smiled back and licked his lips.
Chris’ eyebrows shot up and Dustin leaned over to scream, “Dude! DUDE! He smiled at you! Smiled. at. YOU!”
Mark rolled his eyes. “Dustin, there are hundreds of people here, the guy couldn’t have possibly pinpointed Eduardo…”
Mark turned to Eduardo for back-up and stopped to find that the two men were, indeed, staring at each other.
Reply
“Wardo,” Mark snapped.
“Yeah, yeah, what?”
Mark swallowed hard, glancing back at Gabe worriedly. “What are you doing?”
Eduardo tore his eyes away from Gabe for just a moment to glance at Mark before returning them back. “What do you mean?”
The crowd was growing restless, high on excitement and wanting more from the band.
Gabe went to the edge of the stage and kneeled down, waving his hand to beckon Eduardo closer. In a trance, Eduardo moved closer until he was up against the barricade.
“Esta usted de America del Sur?”
Chris’ jaw dropped and Dustin squealed.
Eduardo gave a nod. “Brasil, entao eu nao sei muito espanhol.”
Gabe creased his eyebrows, tilting his head to the side.
Eduardo translated, “Brazil. Portuguese.”
“Ah, my apologies.”
Eduardo lifted his shoulders.
“Meet me after.” Gabe nodded to the left side of the stage. “By the door over there.”
Eduardo robotically nodded and he wondered if the reactions, so instant and thoughtless, were similar to how Mark felt whenever he rejected anything someone said.
“Que son muy bonitas, mis companeros del sur.”
Reply
(Thank you, nonnie!!)
Reply
Reply
"Of course he is!" Dustin exclaimed, wrapping an arm around Eduardo's shoulder to give him an encouraging squeeze.
The concert had ended about ten minutes ago and the theater emptied out fast, students high on music and drunk on booze wanting to continue on with their exciting Saturday night. Only a handful of groups remained; hopeful girls that wanted to sleep with any of the band or crew, guys that were either discussing what they should do for the rest of the night or trying to drag their too wasted friends out, and the four best friends waiting by the side door.
Mark checked his watch, tapping his foot for added effect. "He's not coming. Let's just go."
"You can go," Dustin snapped, eyes and cheeks pink as he held Eduardo tighter. "Wardo is getting himself some Ecuadorian ass-"
Eduardo coughed, "That wasn't-"
Chris added, "Guys, calm down, we can wait a few more-"
Mark rolled his eyes just as the door opened, only a crack. Eduardo spun around, Mark glaring at how fast he was to react, and saw Gabe poke his head out a little, wide smile across his face.
The singer whispered loudly, "Come on."
Eduardo went first, Dustin hyperventilating behind him while Chris rubbed his back, and Mark trailed last, shocked that this was actually happening and his coding would have to wait even longer. He would have to remind Eduardo for the rest of his life that he lied, he was away from his corner for more than an hour.
Eduardo introduced everyone as Gabe led the way through the stage's back hallway, which was dark, dirty, and cluttered with audio equipment. He would look over his shoulder every so often at Eduardo, smile a little wider, then look away. Eduardo blushed every time and Mark grew more and more annoyed.
They reached the dressing rooms and Gabe pushed open the door to the first one, letting everyone in first before closing it behind him. They were unsure what to do so they stood around until Gabe sat on the couch, waving his hand in the air.
"Take a seat, guys. The others scattered off, I think to a sorority party."
Eduardo sat on the opposite side of the couch while Dustin and Chris sat in two of the cushioned chairs. Mark opted to stay standing by the door, arms crossed over his chest and face showing he was clearly disinterested.
Eduardo said, "You guys played really great. Very energetic and clean sounding."
Mark scoffed. How could Eduardo think that anything about that band was clean?
Dustin jumped in, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was fun. I was dancing the whole time."
Gabe laughed and nodded. "Thank you both, really. It was fun playing here. This campus is extraordinarily beautiful and rustic." He turned his body towards Eduardo. "I wasn't expecting anything less. Living here must be great."
Eduardo opened his mouth to answer when Mark interrupted, "You can sing, I'll give you that. Why don't you join a real band?"
Eduardo's jaw dropped, Dustin gasped loudly, and Chris ran a hand down his face.
Reply
"I mean, your... little group is badly produced electronic music. Why don't you write songs with real instruments and meaningful lyrics?"
"Mark, stop," Eduardo hissed, looking apologetically at Gabe. "I'm really sorry about him, he can be a bit pretentious when it-"
"I'm not pretentious, I'm honest-"
Gabe saw the power struggle between the two and the personal challenge Mark brought forth in front of him. He wasn't one to back down from a challenge, even from a younger college student that was probably ten times smarter than he was.
Gabe sat up a little straighter. "Dustin said he danced. That's what I want to do for a living; make people dance. Dancing is movement that can free emotions, relieve stress, create art, among other things. To me, the music is secondary. What's primary is that I make you want to get on your feet and sway your hips a little.
"I'm not a professional musician, Mark. I'm a dance enforcer."
Mark raised an eyebrow. "No offense but that's the biggest crock of shit I've ever-"
Chris stood up. "Enough." He looked at Gabe, who seemed relaxed and not at all affected by Mark, which was a good thing. "I'm sorry about him. We should be getting back anyway. Thank you very much for inviting us back here."
Gabe held a hand out, which Chris shook. "My pleasure."
Chris grabbed Dustin's shoulder. "Come on."
Dustin whined, "But I wanna-"
"Now."
Hearing the strict tone of Chris' voice, Dustin stood up without another word and walked toward the door, Chris following behind him. Mark stayed in place, though, waiting for Eduardo to follow, but when Gabe patted the empty cushion between them and Eduardo scooted over, he was uncertain what was going on.
"Wardo," Mark called.
Chris shook his head, grabbed Mark's elbow. "He's staying. We aren't."
"What, we're just going to ditch him?"
"It's not ditching, Mark."
Eduardo and Gabe didn't seem to mind that they weren't yet entirely alone, speaking quietly to one another about their experiences in South America and how their countries cultures differed. Besides Cobra Starship, it was the only common ground they knew they had and they decided to build from there.
Whispering in Mark's ear, Chris said, "He wants to be here. With Gabe. Alone. If he didn't, he'd be in the hall with Dustin right now."
When Mark saw Gabe casually, briefly touch Eduardo's cheek, he finally understood. For once, Eduardo chose someone over Mark. Someone Mark really, really was starting to resent. That resentment, though, may just have been from the fact Gabe took Eduardo from him, regardless of the fact he tried to put the blame on the bad music.
Really, though, Mark thought they sounded like shit and he actually could not get over it.
Eduardo giggled when Gabe spoke to him in Spanish and Chris pushed Mark out the door forcibly. "Let's go."
Mark looked back, searching for any sign Eduardo didn't want to be there, but when Eduardo didn't bother to tear his eyes away or tell him bye, he had to accept that Chris was right and that pissed him off even more.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Sorry to ask, but what did you mean by Que son muy bonitas, mis companeros del sur ?
Reply
but, google translating it from this to english...it makes no sense. i just wanted gabe speaking spanish in there XD
Reply
Reply
Or, would Gabe be underneath Eduardo?
Mark pulled his hands away from the keyboard to hit himself on the forehead. "Fuck, stop it," he grumbled, Dustin loud snores coming from his bedroom.
He got through two whole lines before he concluded Eduardo would want to top, for dominance reasons, but still want to be fucked, so he would be riding Gabe on that disgusting dressing room couch.
Eduardo didn't deserve a nasty couch.
He deserved a solid gold four-post bed with an artistic, fancy headboard that depicted some Biblical story, Egyptian cotton sheets, and silk pillows. The bedroom's walls and ceilings would be made of marble and there would be a huge window that opened to the balcony, always open to let a breeze in. Eduardo would wear a maroon robe that went just passed his knees and walk out to his balcony barefoot, watching the sunrise with a china tea cup full of espresso.
He pounded out the rest of the header code, checking and saving it, and jumped up to get another beer. He liked to imagine beer killed the unwanted brain cells but was starting to think beer was betraying him, too.
Eduardo texted Chris at ten the next day, asking if they all wanted to go to lunch. Mark rolled his eyes at that. Only Eduardo would consider ten o'clock lunch time, not even trying to claim it as a late breakfast time but simply moving on to lunch. Typical Eduardo, Mark thought.
Reply
"Nice scarf," Dustin said quietly, hungover and chewing on a piece of toast messily, "but your hickey's still showing."
Eduardo blushed and readjusted the scarf, pulling it more over one side to finally conceal the purple bruise. Mark's fingers twitched around his bottle of orange juice and he told himself it was from lack of typing, not anger. Definitely not anger.
Eduardo slurped when some milk dripped over his bottom lip and Chris asked, "How was your night, then? I mean, we can guess, but."
Eduardo shook his head quickly, licking his lips until all the milk was gone, and Mark hated that he, Eduardo, wasn't even aware of what he was doing. How could he not know what he was doing?
Eduardo pushed his cereal around the plastic bowl. "It was actually pretty fun."
Of course, Mark thought, because you were riding the singer of some band until eight in the morning like a coked-out groupie.
"We really just talked all night."
Dustin snorted, crumbs flying everywhere from his plate. Chris frowned at him and Mark smirked.
Eduardo sighed loudly. "Yeah, we clearly kissed, but we did mostly talk. We took a walk around campus, I showed him a few things-"
"I'm sure you did," Mark mumbled and Eduardo slammed his spoon on the table, causing the sleep-deprived man to jump higher than he probably should have.
Eduardo glared at Mark, who helplessly looked back blankly. Eduardo figured that, last night, Mark was pissy for being dragged out of his room and he could understand that. He was Mark's best friend, he knew that Mark liked being confined in there. He was okay with that. What he wasn't okay with was Mark's behavior towards Gabe, who was basically a stranger and did nothing to deserve such treatment.
Now, even the next day, Mark was still being a little bitch and Eduardo could still be understanding, he could, but he didn't want to be.
Eduardo stood up, his chair scraping across the floor in a volume that only seemed loud due to the quietness of the dining room and making Dustin cringe a little.
Eyes still on Mark, Eduardo said, "He's in town for one more night and he wants to take us out for dinner, get to know you all," he said the last two words sharply, "and sort of have a somewhat college experience."
Chris nodded. "Of course we'll come along. Let him know we're excited to see him again."
Dustin groaned, rubbing his forehead, "Yeah."
Mark bit his bottom lip and Eduardo said, "You can come, too, Mark, on the condition you get that stick out of your ass and bring your maturity back up from age twelve."
With that Eduardo turned and walked away.
"You know," Chris said as he piled Eduardo's leftover trash onto his now-empty plate, "you can at least pretend to be happy for Eduardo this one time, the way he genuinely is happy for you about ten times a day."
Chris was exaggerating. Eduardo didn't see Mark ten times a day so there was no way that he could be happy for him that many times. Was there?
Reply
Dustin shotgunned the one next to Gabe on the walk over, which left the two by Eduardo. Mark was walking in the middle, behind an overly excited Dustin and in front of Chris, so he figured he'd take the seat next to Eduardo, but when Eduardo looked up at them all with a smile that slightly weakened at the sight of Mark, he took the further seat.
"I'm happy you guys could come," Gabe said, shaking each of their hands, even Mark's dry, cold one. "We waited for you guys before ordering. We came early, so there was no harm in waiting."
It was then that Mark noticed the two almost-empty tall glasses of beer. Thoughts flickered to Gabe spiking Eduardo's drink with a date rape drug and he had to clear his throat to cover the snort that wanted to come out. The thought itself wasn't funny but imagining Gabe doing it right in front of Eduardo and him still drinking it was. Eduardo would either ask stupidly what it was or assume it was some vitamin D powder.
No, Mark wasn't at all bitter.
"You guys order whatever you want, I'm buying."
Eduardo smiled affectionately, saying, "Thank you. We really appreciate it."
Chris nodded his agreement enthusiastically as he opened the menu. "Trust me, the school's food is probably equivalent to prison food despite how much money we pay them."
"Which is why we're poor college students," Dustin added, shaking his head at the menu. "Typical poor college students. Be lucky you didn't get a college experience because it tastes awful nasty and leaves you broke."
Gabe laughed and Eduardo smiled more, everything running smoothly so far. He didn't forget Mark was there but knowing that effort didn't have to be taken to handle him made him relax more. He didn't know if maybe Chris had talked to him (not really) or if he had just jumped off his high horse (not really) but he didn't mind it. He was happy.
They all ordered different John Harvard brews, the waitress not asking for IDs since she was still starstruck by Gabe and didn't want to be "that bitch" that wouldn't give Gabe Saporta's friends beer, and entrees along with a plate of nachos for a starter. Mark considered getting the sirloin steak, make Gabe really pay, but went against it after thinking about how Eduardo would know he did it on purpose (he didn't eat steak) and become disappointed in him all over again.
He ordered the garden burger.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment