Original Fic: Getting His Shit Together
Original, Slash, Work in Progress, PG-ish so far
Lanning Pierce wasn't anything like you'd expect him to be by the sound of his name. "Lanning Pierce" sounded like he ought to be the kind of guy who had his shit together and who's parent's had had their shit together, and so had their parents, and theirs, and so on back through the ages, you know. The Pierces sound like that family- you know the one- the rich, smart, successful one with an interest in politics and the arts and a genetic understanding of the rules of polo and cribbage and polite social company. But, alas, that was not these here Pierces- the ones who'd produced Lanning- that was some other family of Pierces who lived somewhere in New England and had a small but perfectly distressed house on the cape for use during the clambake season. These Pierces- Lanning's Pierces, were from New Jersey- and not even the cool, mobster infested, I'd live in Manhattan if I didn't have kids who really ought to have some room to run around in and why the hell would I go out to Long Island when I can come here and save the taxes, northern part of New Jersey. These here Pierces were from that other New Jersey- South Jersey- AKA anywhere below the stink-hole town known as Elizabeth (an area that on a map encompasses three quarters of the state, but somehow is all the south anyway). More specifically, these here Pierces were from a little patch of strip malls and ranch style houses with back gardens that had declared itself Haventon, New Jersey.
Most of the houses in Haventon (including the Pierces') had been built just after World War II. Byron Haven (who incidentally came from a well heeled and socially acceptable Massachusetts family) had seen how old Levitt was making money hand over fist and decided he would try and get in on the action, buying up a hand full of family farms and plunking down houses to sell to GIs and their families. Problem was, Haven did something of a half-assed job of it and the houses were full of construction mistakes and deliberate shortcuts used to save money. Within five years, the houses wouldn't sell, within ten, most of them had been pulled down or greatly reconstructed and in fifteen, the only people still struggling to make a go of the bad idea that was Haventon, New Jersey were the ones with no money to move- like Lanning Pierce's grandparents, who had bought the house Lanning grew up in. It would be nice to say that they got a good deal on an undervalued house in an up and coming neighborhood. But, that wasn't them again- because as one might assume, for generations back before Lanning, before his parents, and before his grandparents, the Pierces did not have their shit together. Seriously- not one of them. The fact that the family continued to have successive generations would be considered a miracle if not for the fact that almost all the firstborn children in the family came into this world a mere seven or less months after their respective parents got hitched. See- screw ups one and all.
So, that was Lanning, surrounded by people with little to no ability to navigate through life without having every last crappy possibility show up on their doorstep- mostly through their own faults and naiveté. Despite that, Lanning had (at the last minute) gotten an application in for Rutgers College and been waitlisted. Three days after the semester started, he got word he had a place and one day after that, he put his key in the lock of a dorm room his whole family had quickly scraped money together to pay for. It felt kind of good, which was ominously bad in Lanning's book because if life was giving to him now, when was it going to start to take way from him again?
As soon as he pushed the dorm room door open, someone- his roommate it must have been- was standing there in the doorway looking ridiculously happy to see him. Wilson Blake was his name and Lanning didn't really know what to make of old Wils until much later on, when it was far too late to run the other way from the sweet guy with the goofy grin and the boundless enthusiasm for everything socially and morally acceptable- especially rules, etiquette and punctuality. Rules, guidelines and deadlines- just the things that always tripped Lanning up- were Wilson's greatest joy. It was completely foreign to Lanning (and he really didn't understand how it had happened) but within a few short days, he was friends with someone- roomies with someone who really had his shit together. It was going to be something else.
***
The thing about Wils was that he was really really pretty. Really. And he had no idea that he was that pretty. He wasn't completely oblivious to the attention he garnered no matter where he was or what he was doing, he just didn't realize that not everyone got treated that way or that most of those people who were just so splendidly nice to him were in fact trying to get in his pants and camp out there for a while. He just thought that was how people were supposed to treat each other and so he treated everyone the same way, without ever letting things escalate into full fledged flirting, not to mention him ever accepting one of those unspoken (and spoken) offers. At least that was Lanning's working theory as to why his roommate was so popular and yet still not getting laid. Either that, or he was an alien and lacked the correct anatomy to take advantage of the plethora of booty, male and female, that was offered up to him on a daily basis.
Lanning was torn on the subject- one the one hand, it was good not to have to endure watching his new obsession going through coeds like they were tissues and he had a really bad head cold, but on the other hand, if Wils were dating or at least occasionally doing someone, Lanning would know if maybe he had the slimmest chance by whether Wils was going with the boys or the girls or both (Lanning stopped in mid thought to imagine that for a minute- Wils in the center of a naked bi orgy- mmm). Lanning really should have taken the fact that Wils never got with anyone to be enough discouragement for his verging on stalker-ish feelings for his roommate, but that would have been the healthy thing to do, the sane thing to do, and well- that just wasn't the Pierce thing to do. It wasn't Lanning's fault- it was genetic.
Instead, he spent the time he wasn't out and out fantasizing about Wils (and his lovely tan colored ass, cheeks so smooth and- he'd gotten a good long look the other day in the dorm bathroom when Wils got out of the shower- Lanning wasn't even trying. Not much.)- Lanning spent the time he wasn't fantasizing about Wils trying to come up with a way to approach Wils and offer him everything and everything and anything and anything- just as long as Lanning got to get off or maybe even if he just got the be in the room when Wils got off. But, that way lies madness because not only was there no indication that Wils was gay, but Lanning was beginning to think the guy might actually be asexual, which was rare, but he'd hear about. You spend enough time online researching alternative lifestyle while trying to figure out if you're gay or bisexual and you read things, you know, you get to understand that there's a lot out there.
So, the long and the short of it was- Lanning had to find out or he was going to go nuts, or fail out of college in his first semester or both. And even if finding out meant that he lost Wils as a friend, it would be worth it (because Lanning could get over a broken heart- he'd done that before when Katie had found out that she wasn't really pregnant and then decided that she didn't want to get married at sixteen or even really talk to Lanning again after that- Lanning could get over a broken heart, but he couldn't keep going as he was- he just couldn't).
In true Pierce form, and considering all the options, Lanning figured his best bet was to get Wils just a little drunk....
TBC
Lanning Pierce wasn't anything like you'd expect him to be by the sound of his name. "Lanning Pierce" sounded like he ought to be the kind of guy who had his shit together and who's parent's had had their shit together, and so had their parents, and theirs, and so on back through the ages, you know. The Pierces sound like that family- you know the one- the rich, smart, successful one with an interest in politics and the arts and a genetic understanding of the rules of polo and cribbage and polite social company. But, alas, that was not these here Pierces- the ones who'd produced Lanning- that was some other family of Pierces who lived somewhere in New England and had a small but perfectly distressed house on the cape for use during the clambake season. These Pierces- Lanning's Pierces, were from New Jersey- and not even the cool, mobster infested, I'd live in Manhattan if I didn't have kids who really ought to have some room to run around in and why the hell would I go out to Long Island when I can come here and save the taxes, northern part of New Jersey. These here Pierces were from that other New Jersey- South Jersey- AKA anywhere below the stink-hole town known as Elizabeth (an area that on a map encompasses three quarters of the state, but somehow is all the south anyway). More specifically, these here Pierces were from a little patch of strip malls and ranch style houses with back gardens that had declared itself Haventon, New Jersey.
Most of the houses in Haventon (including the Pierces') had been built just after World War II. Byron Haven (who incidentally came from a well heeled and socially acceptable Massachusetts family) had seen how old Levitt was making money hand over fist and decided he would try and get in on the action, buying up a hand full of family farms and plunking down houses to sell to GIs and their families. Problem was, Haven did something of a half-assed job of it and the houses were full of construction mistakes and deliberate shortcuts used to save money. Within five years, the houses wouldn't sell, within ten, most of them had been pulled down or greatly reconstructed and in fifteen, the only people still struggling to make a go of the bad idea that was Haventon, New Jersey were the ones with no money to move- like Lanning Pierce's grandparents, who had bought the house Lanning grew up in. It would be nice to say that they got a good deal on an undervalued house in an up and coming neighborhood. But, that wasn't them again- because as one might assume, for generations back before Lanning, before his parents, and before his grandparents, the Pierces did not have their shit together. Seriously- not one of them. The fact that the family continued to have successive generations would be considered a miracle if not for the fact that almost all the firstborn children in the family came into this world a mere seven or less months after their respective parents got hitched. See- screw ups one and all.
So, that was Lanning, surrounded by people with little to no ability to navigate through life without having every last crappy possibility show up on their doorstep- mostly through their own faults and naiveté. Despite that, Lanning had (at the last minute) gotten an application in for Rutgers College and been waitlisted. Three days after the semester started, he got word he had a place and one day after that, he put his key in the lock of a dorm room his whole family had quickly scraped money together to pay for. It felt kind of good, which was ominously bad in Lanning's book because if life was giving to him now, when was it going to start to take way from him again?
As soon as he pushed the dorm room door open, someone- his roommate it must have been- was standing there in the doorway looking ridiculously happy to see him. Wilson Blake was his name and Lanning didn't really know what to make of old Wils until much later on, when it was far too late to run the other way from the sweet guy with the goofy grin and the boundless enthusiasm for everything socially and morally acceptable- especially rules, etiquette and punctuality. Rules, guidelines and deadlines- just the things that always tripped Lanning up- were Wilson's greatest joy. It was completely foreign to Lanning (and he really didn't understand how it had happened) but within a few short days, he was friends with someone- roomies with someone who really had his shit together. It was going to be something else.
***
The thing about Wils was that he was really really pretty. Really. And he had no idea that he was that pretty. He wasn't completely oblivious to the attention he garnered no matter where he was or what he was doing, he just didn't realize that not everyone got treated that way or that most of those people who were just so splendidly nice to him were in fact trying to get in his pants and camp out there for a while. He just thought that was how people were supposed to treat each other and so he treated everyone the same way, without ever letting things escalate into full fledged flirting, not to mention him ever accepting one of those unspoken (and spoken) offers. At least that was Lanning's working theory as to why his roommate was so popular and yet still not getting laid. Either that, or he was an alien and lacked the correct anatomy to take advantage of the plethora of booty, male and female, that was offered up to him on a daily basis.
Lanning was torn on the subject- one the one hand, it was good not to have to endure watching his new obsession going through coeds like they were tissues and he had a really bad head cold, but on the other hand, if Wils were dating or at least occasionally doing someone, Lanning would know if maybe he had the slimmest chance by whether Wils was going with the boys or the girls or both (Lanning stopped in mid thought to imagine that for a minute- Wils in the center of a naked bi orgy- mmm). Lanning really should have taken the fact that Wils never got with anyone to be enough discouragement for his verging on stalker-ish feelings for his roommate, but that would have been the healthy thing to do, the sane thing to do, and well- that just wasn't the Pierce thing to do. It wasn't Lanning's fault- it was genetic.
Instead, he spent the time he wasn't out and out fantasizing about Wils (and his lovely tan colored ass, cheeks so smooth and- he'd gotten a good long look the other day in the dorm bathroom when Wils got out of the shower- Lanning wasn't even trying. Not much.)- Lanning spent the time he wasn't fantasizing about Wils trying to come up with a way to approach Wils and offer him everything and everything and anything and anything- just as long as Lanning got to get off or maybe even if he just got the be in the room when Wils got off. But, that way lies madness because not only was there no indication that Wils was gay, but Lanning was beginning to think the guy might actually be asexual, which was rare, but he'd hear about. You spend enough time online researching alternative lifestyle while trying to figure out if you're gay or bisexual and you read things, you know, you get to understand that there's a lot out there.
So, the long and the short of it was- Lanning had to find out or he was going to go nuts, or fail out of college in his first semester or both. And even if finding out meant that he lost Wils as a friend, it would be worth it (because Lanning could get over a broken heart- he'd done that before when Katie had found out that she wasn't really pregnant and then decided that she didn't want to get married at sixteen or even really talk to Lanning again after that- Lanning could get over a broken heart, but he couldn't keep going as he was- he just couldn't).
In true Pierce form, and considering all the options, Lanning figured his best bet was to get Wils just a little drunk....
TBC