You're hot then you're cold
You're yes then you're no
You're in then you're out
You're up then you're down

--"Hot N Cold," Katy Perry (2008)

Brian dumped his shopping bags on his bed before stomping across the hall to Brandon's room. He found the young man lying in bed in a pair of black Versace boxer briefs, playing Minecraft on his tablet.

"Ah, the prince returns to the palace," Brandon said when he looked up to find Brian hovering over him.

"I ought to fucking kill you," Brian snarled.

Brandon sat up and put on an innocent face. "Why, what'd I do?"

"You know exactly what you did. You can probably still taste Michael's cum."

"Ugh, don't remind me, he tasted like old pennies," Brandon said, making smacking noises with his mouth.

"What the fuck?" Brian asked. "You said last night that you'd leave Michael alone, and then not twenty-four hours later, you're sucking his dick!"

"You told me to leave him alone, but I didn't say that I would," Brandon said, smiling at how sneaky and brilliant he was. "Besides, the boy came over here crying like a baby, what kind of asshole would I be if I turned him away?"

"He was just crying on my shoulder, too, and I had no inclination to put my mouth anywhere on his pasty-white body and taste his ‘old pennies' cum. You crossed the line today, playing with Michael like he's your puppet. This little bet of ours is off."

"Oh, come on. All I'm doing is making it a little more interesting, nothing sinister."

"No, what you're doing is directly interfering," Brian said. "How many bets have I made with you over the years? Countless. How many times have I cheated? Never, because I have integrity and like to win fair. I thought you did, too, before this. When you sucked Michael's dick, you sucked all the fun out of this bet. It's over."

Brandon smiled. "I'm guessing things aren't going so well with your twink?"

"My wanting to call off the bet has nothing to do with Justin. Things are actually going quite well with him and I'm still gonna fuck him before the end of the week. Bet or no bet, his ass is mine."

Brandon chuckled while Brian stared daggers into him.

"You didn't have anything to do with Deb barging in on Michael and Ben today, did you? That has your scent all over it."

Brandon shrugged. "I might have had a chat with Mrs. Novotny at the club earlier..."

"Fuck!" Brian yelled. "Why did you even ask me to help you ruin Michael? You obviously don't need me, because you're doing a bang-up job on your own. I don't understand what it is you're even trying to do here. You claim that you don't want David to find out that you're messing with Michael, but you were kissing him yesterday and sucking his dick today, despite claiming that the boy repulses you. It seems like you're trying to also keep him away from Ben, who probably wants to fuck him, which was the whole point of this from the start. You should have known that having Deb ban Ben from seeing Michael would only draw them closer together, since it's natural for people to want what they can't have. And why go so far as to drive a wedge between Deb and Michael? That wasn't part of the plan.

"As you've continued to interfere in our bet, you've only made me not want anything to do with it. There's no way in hell I'm fucking Michael myself. I thought you wanted someone other than David to deflower him. Seriously, what the fuck is it that you're trying to do here, Brandon? Everything you've done so far is a contradiction."

Brandon stood up and stretched his arms out. "It's all for fun, Bro. I like fucking with people, so there doesn't have to be a reason or a plan. We do things for the hell of it all the time. That's what our various past bets were all about - entertainment. Why did we go to that gross straight bar last year, to see who could pick up a guy first? For fun."

"I won that bet, if you recall," Brian said. "I found the one bi-curious guy in the joint and fucked him in the bathroom. You had to wash my car by hand every day in the dorm parking lot for a week."

Brandon continued, pushing that humiliation to the back of his mind. "Why are you so upset that things are strained between Debbie and Michael? I thought you hated her, since she was the one who told your twink about your playboy reputation. I'm doing you a favor, driving that wedge between them."

Brian thought about it. "Well... maybe, but Deb probably would have found out about Ben and Michael without your involvement anyway."

"Whatever," Brandon said as he walked over to his closet. "I'm going to pretend like this conversation didn't happen and the bet is still on. Did you want to go to that greasy spoon diner on Liberty before going to Babylon? Emmett invited us, if you can manage to eat while watching him and Ted make out across the table. Should I wear Armani or Ralph Lauren this evening?"

Brian got in Brandon's face. "Stay the fuck out of my way."

He went back to his own room without another word, slamming his door as an exclamation point.

Brandon was standing on the catwalk above the dance floor of Babylon, scoping out the night's offerings. He was also keeping an eye out for Brian, who hadn't shown up at the diner or arrived at the club yet.

Emmett and Ted were standing close by, stuck to each other like velcro.

"Do you see anything you like?" Emmett called out to Brandon over the music.

Brandon shook his head. "Nothing but zeroes."

"There are plenty of cuties down there, you're just being picky."

"I see several hot guys," Ted agreed.

"Ooh, look at that one," Emmett said, pointing at someone on the left side of the floor. "See Mr. Six Pack in front of the go-go platform, in the white t-shirt? He is dee-licious."

Brandon scanned the crowd until his eyes locked onto the guy he recognized as Michael's music teacher Ben, a.k.a. The Hulk.

"Yeah, I see him," Brandon said as he stared at Ben, who was dancing along to "This Is What You Came For" by Calvin Harris ft. Rihanna.

"Doesn't he go to our school?" Ted asked.

"He just graduated," Brandon said.

Ted nodded. "I remember him now. I saw him play cello in the Spring orchestra performance, they pointed out the graduating seniors."

"You like orchestra music?" Emmett asked his new lover.

"I love classical music and opera. I learned Italian just so I'd know what Pavarotti was singing about."

The nelly young man nuzzled his boyfriend. "I still have so much to learn about you, I love it!"

Brandon headed toward the stairs before he had to hear any more banal chit-chat from Temmett. He walked down to the main floor and shoved his way through the crowd over to Ben, who was still shaking his "dee-licious" ass to the beat of the music.

"How's it going?" Brandon asked Ben.

Although he was dancing as if he were having the best night of his life, the look on the hunky music teacher's face said otherwise. He was obviously torn up about what had happened at the Novotny home earlier in the day.

"Fine," he answered. "You go to CMU, right?"

"Yeah, that's right," Brandon said as he stepped closer to the man.

Ben took a step back. "I'm really not in the mood to dance with anyone."

Brandon swept his hand around them. "You're surrounded by dozens of dancing fags. Did you think you'd be the only one here tonight wanting to dance with someone? Like the song says, this is what you came for."

"I'm sorry," Ben said, finally cracking a tiny smile. "I was in a bad mood before I came here and I was hoping I'd feel better once I started dancing, but..."

The next song to play was "Till The World Ends" by Britney Spears. The dancing boys around them cheered for their queen.

"Oh, I love this song," Brandon said before holding out his hand, palm up, to Ben. "Would you dance with me, kind sir?"

Ben chuckled. "Sure."

The two young men danced together through the first verse and chorus. Ben kept his hands to himself, but Brandon took the opportunity to run his hands down Ben's sides and around to his sculpted ass. He then started grinding his crotch into Ben's thigh.

"Did you forget about that night we spent together, about two years ago?" Brandon said into Ben's ear.

Ben looked into Brandon's eyes curiously. "Remind me."

"Well..." Brandon said before taking Ben's right hand and putting it over his hard cock. "I found you at Woody's. You were talking to some other guy at the bar and I sent you an Old Fashioned, because I figured that was more your style than the Tequila Sunrise he had bought you."

"Oh, yeah," Ben said, recalling the evening they had shared as he rubbed Brandon's erection through his jeans. "I was pretty wasted that night, so that's probably why I didn't recognize you."

"I'm not surprised you don't remember my face, since I was behind you most of the time," Brandon said with a smile.

Ben was recalling more details. "You drive a black Dodge Viper."

"I did then. My dad got me a red Porsche Carrera for my birthday a couple of months ago."

Ben nodded, impressed with both the car and what Brandon had in his pants.

"Do you want to see it?" Brandon asked.

Ben smiled wide. "Are you talking about your new car?"

"Maybe I'll show that to you later," Brandon answered before he turned to walk toward the backroom. He glanced over his shoulder a few moments later to make sure Ben was following him.

He was.

Brian was smoking from his bong and watching an episode of Breaking Bad on Netflix when saw that he had received a Facebook friend request from Justin Taylor.

He smiled as he accepted the request. Justin sent him a message about a minute later.

Justin Taylor: Hi... I didn't know if you'd still be up.

Brian looked down at his crotch.

"Not at the moment, but..." he said out loud before typing a reply.

Brian Kinney: I'm a night owl.

Justin Taylor: Me, too. My mom is always yelling at me for staying up too late.

Brian sighed, wanting to steer the topic of discussion far away from unsexy and juvenile topics like arguments with their mothers. Brian could top any complaint that Justin might have with ones about dear Joanie. His father didn't call her "The Warden" for nothing.

Brian Kinney: I hope you had a nice time today. I did.

Justin Taylor: I did, too. I've always wanted to go to the Warhol, thank you for taking me.

Brian Kinney: I hope you like your new jacket. If you don't I can return it.

Justin Taylor: I do like it. I've never had a real leather jacket before, it's really nice. I'm sorry if I acted ungrateful earlier. I wasn't expecting you to buy me something so expensive.

Brian Kinney: You really do look great in it, I was happy to buy it for you.

Justin Taylor: Thank you :D

Brian knew that he needed to find a way to see Justin again and step his game up.

Brian Kinney: So... did you have any plans tomorrow?

Justin Taylor: I was hoping you'd come up with something for us to do.

Brian found himself smiling like a fool, happy that the blond wanted to see him again. It was an odd feeling.

The brunet opened a new tab and searched for art studios in the Pittsburgh area. He came across something that he knew Justin would enjoy.

Brian Kinney: There is a place where we can go to paint pottery, if you're into that sort of thing.

Justin Taylor: I'm an artist, of course I would like to go! I hope you plan to feed me at some point, too. I'm a hungry, growing boy.

Brian Kinney: I'll pick you up at 11, we'll get lunch first. I wouldn't want you to paint on an empty stomach.

Justin Taylor: I'll be ready!

"Oh, I'll certainly be ready for you, sweet little Sunshine," Brian said as he stared at the picture that Justin had chosen as his profile image.