TWO DAYS LATER

Justin took a quick sip of water before putting the water bottle back into his satchel bag. He raced over back to where he was helping to cut wooden planks with a mechanical hand-saw earlier. Justin and his classmates had spent all day helping out at the building site at the elementary school, just like the previous day, and they had made great progress.  It was now late afternoon, and the group had become increasingly tired as the hours seemed to drag on and on in the heat.

Twenty minutes later, which felt a whole lot longer than it was, Mr. Christianson was ‘rounding up the troops’ to head back to the hotel for some relaxing. More than happy to comply with the orders of their teachers, the kids all got packed up and piled onto the buses in no time.

Hunter smiled at Justin as he wiped some sweat off his brow. “I can not wait to get out of this damn heat!” he said, relieved that they were on their way.

Daphne leaned over so her head was between Justin and Hunter’s seats, as she normally did. “Hey guys, when we get back, everybody’s planning to chill out in the pool for a while”, she told them.

“I was going to suggest we do that anyway”, Justin replied, nodding his head with a smile. A dip in a nice, cool pool sounded very appealing to the teenager, as it did to every other person on the bus. Justin was admittedly proud of the work the school group had been able to get done on the new classroom that day, and what he’d contributed. He felt they all deserved a little fun in reward.

The boy was pulled from his trail of thought when Hunter pinched him on the arm, sensing that he was out of it. When Justin demanded what his friend wanted, only feigning annoyance at the hard pinch, Hunter gave him a naughty smirk and said, “Maybe ‘Mr. hunk-a-licious’ you’ve been daydreaming about will be there, watching your ass in the water.” Daphne burst out laughing at the deep red blush on their Justin’s cheeks in response to this comment. Without warning, he reached over and whacked his friend right in the stomach. “Ouch! Hey man, I’m just teasing you”, he insisted.

“Yeah, yeah. You still deserved that hit, though”, Justin said, trying his very best to suppress his laughter, to no avail. Seconds later, the three friends were laughing until there were tears in their eyes.

*****

An hour later, Justin and Hunter waited for Daphne to meet them down at the pool. Hunter was beginning to get impatient, when the girl pranced up to them in a too-cute pink, one-piece bathing suit. “Heya fellas!” she greeted cheerfully. Justin grinned at her in response, while Hunter’s eyes nearly popped out of his head as he took the glorious sight of his dark skinned friend in. It was not the first time the boy had admired Daphne’s looks. “Shall we?” she asked, gesturing to the inviting-looking pool, already full of boisterous teenagers.

“Hell yeah!” exclaimed Justin. The three young friends all raced over to the water and jumped in, in a flash. Soon, nearly the entire senior class were in the large, glamorous pool, splashing, laughing and having the time of their lives.

Justin noticed Daphne admiring Hunter’s dripping wet body as he stood at the edge of the pool, poised for a dive. Justin leaned over and whispered into the girl’s ear, “Admiring the view?” Daphne’s eyes widened, realising that she’d been caught out staring. Instead of answering Justin’s somewhat rhetorical question, Miss Chanders blushed profusely.         

Her face then changed as her eyes settled upon something apparently above them. “Oh, look, your admirer is back!” she pointed out, nodding up at one of the balconies overlooking the pool area.

Justin looked up, following his friend’s gaze to see none other than the gorgeous man who winked at him two days earlier. Standing on a light red balcony, the beautiful man was staring right at Justin…again. The blond felt his heartbeat pick up slightly. Holy…Hot…Dayum! he thought, praying he hadn’t shouted it out loud instead.    

Brian Kinney smirked as he looked out at the view from his hotel balcony. It was a near perfect sight of the magnificent pool area. But what really made the view worthwhile was the very same beautiful boy he’d been almost drooling over two days earlier. His smile and eyes turned flirtatious when the teen finally looked up at him from his place in the pool. Although the blond was surrounded by multiple other animated bodies, Brian only had eyes for him.

This was not exactly a common occurrence for Brian. Sure, he’d seen many hot pieces of ass over the years, but this kid seemed a little different. Usually, when Brian Kinney saw something he liked, he would walk right over and claim it as his until he was bored with it. He knew he was a little shallow in this way, but ‘Brian Fucking Kinney’, as his friends called him, did not care; he did what he wanted, all others be damned.

But this young man Brian could not seem to take his eyes off, was unlike any man he’d ever seen…or fucked. Never before had Brian thought a guy was beautiful. The way the boy blushed made Brian sure he was indeed gay as well, but Mikey was right; this kid couldn’t be more than sixteen years old! Despite being somewhat of a slut in his own right, Brian Kinney still did have morals. Morals that included not taking the innocence from an underage teenager, no matter how attractive he may be. Perhaps this was one reason Brian was so captivated with him; he was forbidden fruit.

Brian always did like breaking the rules.      

Daphne and Justin jumped as Hunter suddenly barged into the hotel room, flinging the door open carelessly and dancing inside. “Guess what we’re doing tonight?” he said, rather than asked in an expressive voice. “Some guy downstairs is inviting people to this boat party his buddy is throwing, and I scored us an invite!” he announced.

“Way to go, Hunter!” Daphne cheered, jumping off the bed to run over to give her friend a high-five. “Alright! We are gonna par-tay!”

The two teenagers danced about in a silly fashion, laughing at their own ridiculousness, realising after several seconds that Justin was not joining in on their celebrating. Daphne cocked her head at the boy and asked, “What’s up with you? Don’t you want to live it up?” She shook her hips and waved her arms about to emphasise her idea of ‘living it up’.

Justin sank back into the arm chair he was comfortably sitting on and shrugged. “I don’t know if sneaking out to some stranger’s party is such a good idea…” he said, not meeting his friend’s stares.

“Oh come on, where’s your sense of adventure?” Daphne asked, walking towards him, Hunter following closely behind her…getting a nice view of her behind. “Didn’t you want to come out here to experience new things? Well a hot boat party in a different part of the world is something none of us have done before…” she said persuasively, continuing to inch forward.

The blond teen on the arm chair was not yet convinced. “Daph, we’ve only been here a couple days. If we get caught, we’ll be sent home. Do you really want to be kicked off the trip so early on? The trip that I helped to plan?!”

Hunter stepped out from behind Daphne to stand right in front of Justin. “Look at me Justin, and listen to me carefully.” He placed his hands on the boy’s shoulders as he continued, “Nothing bad is going to happen to us. We won’t be the only St. James kids there; plenty of others got invited as well. We just want one night of secret, outrageous fun, and then I promise to behave for the rest of the trip.”

“Yeah and what’s one night?” Daphne added.

Justin looked back and forth between his friend’s eager faces as they waited for his decision. He still didn’t feel completely comfortable with breaking the rules and sneaking out, but he believed that his friends would not let anything bad happen to him. They would stick together, always. Finally, he sighed and nodded slowly. “Urgh, fine. But if there is any funny business, I am so blaming you guys”, he said.

Daphne squealed in delight and jumped up and down, clapping her hands. Hunter settled for giving his bro a high-five. “This is going to be a total blast!” exclaimed Daphne.

*****

A little under forty minutes later, the three ‘outlaws’, all ready for the party, arrived at the dock in a cab. After paying the cab driver, Hunter and Daph excitedly ran over to the party boat, decorated in coloured lights. Justin trailed behind them, nowhere near as glad to be there as his crazy friends were.

They raced onto the boat, and Justin immediately spotted things that made him think this was a really bad idea. As he’d expected, there was a bottle or can of some sort of booze in just about every party guest’s hand. He did not want to be in charge of carrying a drunken Daphne or Hunter back to their hotel, where they would no doubt be caught.

“Shit”, he mumbled, spotting some people, including some of his fellow classmates snorting what was quite obviously cocaine.

Daphne nudged his arm with hers. “Oh, will you relax?!” she asked slowly. “I promise not to get wasted. Now stop grumbling and start trying to have a little fun!” Justin merely nodded his head and stopped himself from rolling his eyes. “Good”, she said. “I’m gonna go dance, okay? You two have fun!”

Before the pair could respond, she was off. “Shit, well I’m gonna go look for something to drink”, Hunter told Justin, who was starting to think that maybe just maybe, a drink was exactly what he needed.

“Get me something while you’re at it, will ya?” he asked. Hunter smirked and nodded, seemingly pleased that his friend looked to really be trying to relax and enjoy himself. Justin made his way around the boat, deciding that standing around doing nothing would be indefinitely pathetic and boring. “Oh jeeze”, he muttered, struggling to move past a couple who looked like they were trying to eat each other’s faces.

This is going to be a looong night, he thought, clutching the strap of his satchel tightly. And how right he was…

“Guys, these are my friends Ted and Brandon”, Ben introduced Michael and his gang to his own friends.

“Brian”, Ted greeted the stud. “Lindsay. I had no idea you two were coming out here for break as well.”

Ben looked surprised that his long-term friend was apparently already acquainted with two of Michael’s friends. “Theodore”, Brian returned the greeting with a hand shake and a smile, as did Lindsay. “What a pleasant surprise.”

Noticing Ben and Brandon looking at him in question, Ted realised he was expected to explain how he knew these two people. “Brian, Lindsay and I all go to the same college.” Ted’s two friends nodded, Ben marvelling at the coincidence. “And Mel”, Ted said, only just noticing the dark haired woman. He reached over to shake her hand as well. “We work together as assistants at the same law firm, just in different departments”, he explained to his friends again. But that was not all.

“Teddy, it’s so great to see you again!” Emmett said with sincere kindness. He gave the short man a quick hug.

“Hey there, Ted”, Michael greeted, shaking his hand. This time, it was he who explained this acquaintance to Ben. “We’ve met a couple times because of Bri, or Mel, or Lindz, or around Liberty Avenue.”

Ben laughed and shook his head. “Well it’s amazing how small a world we live in”, he said, receiving nods from his friends, old and new, in agreement.

Pleasantries were exchanged between Brandon and the rest of the gang, until he got to Brian. They exchanged a knowing smirk and shook each other’s hands. “Brandon. So, ‘Mr. Good-fuck’ has a name, it seems”, Brian joked, pulling an amused laugh from Brandon. Noticing his friend’s stares on him, Brian explained, “We fucked at the white party last year. It was fun, too. Especially since we never exchanged names.” Brandon laughed again at this.  

“Why am I not surprised?” Mel remarked.

“You know, I was just about to say exactly the same thing”, Michael said. Brian’s friends all exchanged a look; they knew their guy all too well. All this was in jest, of course.

Ted offered to fetch people drinks, which they all accepted gratefully. After standing around as a large group, chatting for a short while, Ben leaned in and whispered to Michael, “You wanna go somewhere more private?” Michael nodded, almost shyly, his eyes sparkling. All evening Ben had been looking at Michael like he wanted to eat him up. The pair excused themselves and raced off together like a bunch of lovesick teenagers.

This was what caused the large group to disband. Mel and Lindz disappeared when no one had noticed them sneaking off. Emmett was having fun catching up with Ted, whom he hadn’t seen in quite some time, but was very fond of, and vice-versa. As for Brandon, he’d sauntered off to hit on a cute guy who’d been eye-balling him since he got there. 

So Brian was left on his own, which he did not mind one bit. Truthfully, Brian quite enjoyed his own company. He stood near the back of the boat, a beer in hand, watching the stars in the night sky. There were so many of them. The stars looked so much prettier out there than they did in the city area of Pittsburgh, Brian noticed.

Feeling a nice mix of relaxation and buzz, Brian was having a fairly good time. That was until he was pulled from his thoughts by a body crashing into his. “Oomph!” Brian staggered backwards, trying to regain his balance, which had unexpectedly been taken from him. “Watch where you’re going, jackass!” he growled. Looking up, Brian saw a pleasantly surprising face. Standing before him, wide-eyed and blushing, was the beautiful blond kid from the hotel.

The blond looked rather taken aback- at having crashed into someone in the first place, and the fact that it was ‘his’ gorgeous brunet that he had crashed into. “Oh…uh…s-sorry. I didn’t mean to…uh…” the kid stuttered, laughing nervously when he’d run out of ramblings.

Brian’s expression changed a little. If he was honest, he was kind if glad he was getting to see ‘his’ blond again, and this time up close and personal. He smiled ever-so-slightly to help relax the nervous boy. “Are you always this nervous? I’m not going to kill you, you know”, he said lightly.

“Huh? Oh…n-no…I’m not always nervous…I mean, only most of the time…and I-I know you’re not going to kill me. Cause that’d be crazy, right? Ha…ha…” Brian could tell the kid had never wanted to disappear more than he had right in that moment. The blond’s face burned with embarrassment and Brian knew he thought he was making an absolute fool of himself.

Brian interrupted the kid, saving him from embarrassing himself even further, although Brian was not really judging him at all. “Kid, you need to relax”, he said. The blond nodded and gave Brian a small, but beautiful smile. “Only make sure you look where you are going next time”, he advised in a joking manner. “You took me out like a bowling pin back there.”

“Yeah, sorry. I…I tripped”, the teenager explained, almost lamely with a shrug and shy smile. Brian looked the boy up and down, liking what he saw. This kid is even more beautiful up close, he decided. He noticed the pink tinge return to the kid’s cheeks upon Brian’s ‘inspection’ of him with his eyes.

The brunet stud leaned in close to the boy with a smirk. “Why don’t you go get your friends and get on home”, he suggested in a whisper. It was not nasty or condescending, but friendly instead. “You don’t want to get into any trouble, now do you?”

The blond stepped back and looked up at him with a quirked brow. “In case you haven’t noticed…we’re kinda on a moving boat. I can’t ‘get on home’”, he pointed out.

“Oh, right. That’s right…Heh, maybe I’ve had more to drink than I thought I’d had”, Brian responded. He gave the kid another smirk and looked into his eyes intently. “On that though, I’m out”, he announced and tipped his empty bottle over to watch a few drops drip out. “Stay out of trouble, you hear”, Brian called over his shoulder as he walked away from the delicious boy, intent on getting himself another beer.

For some reason, talking to the kid for the first time, however short and unusual a conversation it may have been, felt amazing. Brian loved the ways the boy seemed to always react to him. With stuttering and shy smiles and blushes. He’s fucken’ adorable.

Justin had not been having a great time. He hadn’t seen Daphne at all since she’d dashed off as soon as they’d arrived at the damn party. So he’d hung around with Hunter for a while, doing some light drinking. That was until Hunter decided to hit on a group of three slutty-looking girls, taking turns sucking each of their tongues. This was something that Justin simply could not stomach. So he wondered off on his own. Towards the back of the boat.

He heard his phone beep, signalling that he’d gotten a message. Justin was so concentrated on getting his phone out of his satchel and reading the message, that he completely missed the large bag placed inconsiderately on the floor.

“Woah!” Justin tumbled over the bag and his body flew right into another one. Holy shit! he thought as he flung into the other person; the larger, strong body he sensed made him think instinctively that it was a man. “Sorry! I’m so sorry!” he rambled in such a way that his words were almost nonsensical. Looking up, his heart skipped a beat. He was right; he had crashed into a poor, unsuspecting man. Only this man was pleasantly familiar. It was the handsome hazel-eyed brunet from the hotel.

At first, the harsh sound of the gorgeous man’s voice made Justin worry that he was angry…with good reason. But looking up into the man’s softening face, Justin realised that the guy recognised him as well. In fact, unless Justin’s mind was playing tricks on him, he thought that the man was actually glad to see him. They bantered on for a short while about virtually nothing, Justin making an idiot of himself by saying the most stupid things…and stuttering, too! Eventually, the man left in obvious search for more booze.

He’d told Justin to stay out of trouble. Ha! Well I’m not the one who actually goes looking for trouble. You’ll have to talk to my friends about that, seeing as they’re experts at breaking the rules and dragging me into all their ludicrous shenanigans, Justin thought.

Several minutes later, the party came to a halt and the sound of sirens were heard. “Oh shit”, Justin said to himself.

The Trinidad water police.

People dashed to tip all the drugs off the boat and hide as much of the booze they could before the nearing police boat arrived. And officer announced that the party was over and that a quick raid would commence over a megaphone. “Aw man”, one loser moaned in disappointment.  

Justin backed away, lifting his head to peer into the crowd to see if he could spot where his two ‘idiot’ friends had gotten to. He was not at all pleased with them at the moment. They’d convinced him to come, promising that they’d stick together and that they would not be caught, yet neither of these things turned out to be true. “God darnit”, he muttered under his breath.

People were moving quickly around the boat, rushing all around the irritated teen. Someone even managed to knock his satchel off his shoulder. Sighing, Justin bent down to pick it up again, but when he stood up, some big guy bumped into him while running past him, sending the teen flying backward. Justin felt himself hit something, undoubtedly another person again on his way backward.

But it did not stop there. It was not just a light bump in which Justin only fell back a small distance. It was a hard shove, and since the teenager had already been standing not too far away from the edge, he, along with the poor innocent soul he’d crashed into, went tumbling off the back of the boat and into the cool water.

“Fuck!” two voices cried out in unison as they toppled into the cold Caribbean Sea.

TO BE CONTINUED…