:Love Me:

Jefferson High: 21

Seattle Prep: 28

That was the final score for the first game of the season. Basil D’Amore, Seattle Prep’s quarterback, scoring the final touchdown, breaking the tie.

The post-game party had been set up by the student council at the president’s house, the sign was double-sided, one saying ′Congrats′ the other saying ′You gave it your all’. The perky cheerleaders stood in two lines cheering and shaking their pom-poms as the team ran through the front door.

The music started up, the drinks began to flow, it’s pretty typical for a jock party. By midnight almost all the entire party had gotten completely hammered, stumbling, puking, making out with strangers...doing other things with strangers.

Basil laughed, someone from upstairs had tossed glitter from the staircase, raining down on the rowdy teens. Glitter dusted his blonde hair and stuck to his sweaty skin as he danced in the crowd. He grabbed the small figure trying to shoulder through the crowd, short, black hair and pretty blue-green eyes that seemed to reflect the dancing lights perfectly.

“Dance with me!” He shouted over the bass.

“Pass!”

“Aw, come on, bella ragrazza."

Rolling those beautiful eyes, “try carino ragazzo.” He moved Basil’s hand to the front of his jeans and Basil realised that this pretty stranger was most certainly NOT a girl.

“Whatever, balla con me!" Basil grabbed the boy’s arm as he tried to leave, pulling him closer while his hips swayed to the music.

The pretty boy was very slim, but he wormed his way out of Basil’s hold. He scowled fiercely and slipped away through a gap in the crowd, the space closing before Basil could move.

He clicked his tongue, “the pretty ones always get away.” A blonde girl took his place, her goldilocks curls bouncing with her rack as she hopped with the beat.

After that, Basil remembered flashes of the night. The keg stand he did with the team captain, girls doing body shots off him, losing his shirt, then it all went black, becoming an abyss in his memory.

Basil woke up in the front lawn of the president’s house, he was shirtless but a thin blanket protected him from most of the nipping cold. Groaning, he sat up, the rising sun was killing his head and his stomach went all topsy-turvy on him, leaving him retching up nothing but bile.

“Fuck,” he coughed. He wasn’t the only one in the yard, there was Benjamin from the student paper and Diana, one of the cheerleaders in nothing but her strawberry bra and panties.

His phone in his pocket died, the house was thrashed inside. His house was a couple of streets down, so barefoot and shirtless, he got to walking. Mom went out of town for her friend’s bachelorette party and Dad must’ve already left for work leaving an empty house.

The paperboy, Timothy, waved at him, “had a good night?”

“It was legendary, tell your sister I said hi!” He was humming as he continued on his way. He opened the front door using the spare key hidden in the knocker, inside was silent and warm.

Basil plugged in his phone to charge as he went to take a shower and change into clean clothes. Ruffling his hair with a towel, his clear, blue eyes staring back at him in the mirror. He was a good-looking guy. Tall, blond, athletic, pretty eyes, smart, charming.

His phone rang, Uriah, his best friend called. “’Sup man.”

“You already home?” He asked, apparently just waking up from the sounds of it.

“Yeah, last night was nuts dude, you remember anything?”

Uriah groaned, “um, mackin’ on Stacy then not much after.”

“She next to you?”

“Passed out.”

“Nice, anyways, get your ass over here.”

“Sure thing, see you in a few.”

Uriah hung up and Basil went to his room to get dressed, blue jeans and a white T-shirt. He plopped down on his bed, his hand covering his eyes. Eyes...pretty blue-green eyes. That was the clearest memory Basil had of the previous night, lovely eyes.

His best friend just waltzed in and laid next to him on the bed, three inches separating their shoulders, their bodies not touching. “We need coffee.”

“Yes, we do indeed. Starbucks?”

“Definitely. The one near the school with—”

“—the hot barista? Yep. I’ll drive.”

The two seniors got out of bed, walking downstairs, grabbing his keys from the hook by the front door. Basil’s car was a Saturn, painted dark blue.

Uriah toyed with the radio, settling on the alternative station. Basil parked out front, him and Uri walked inside, behind the counter was a girl with shoulder-length, brown hair and hazel eyes, she must be new. Working alongside her was a boy, slim and small with short black hair. His back was turned, obscuring his face.

“Hi, what can I get you?” She asked, her nametag read ‘Sophia’.

Uriah smiling charmingly, “well, Sophie, can I call you that? I’ll have a large white chocolate latte.”

She looked Uriah up and down with an unimpressed look, “sure thing. How ’bout you?”

“Oh, um, large, half-and-half.”

“Can you make the latte?” She asked the boy behind her.

He nodded, when the boy turned around he paid no attention to Basil and Uriah. His eyes were downcast as he worked silently, his green and white tag read ‘Atti’. It was a cute name, for a boy.

“Atti, how was that party last night?” Sophia asked the boy as they worked.

“What do you expect, it was just a party, nothing but horny, hormonal drunks. I only went there for Nick.”

The girl laughed, “did anything happen between you two?”

Back turned, “made out for a bit, went back to my place, Nick gets like that when he’s drunk.” The boy was gay? Basil could see it, he had a somewhat effeminate air to him. Soft, submissive, cute.

Sophia snickered and poked her co-worker’s shoulder. Uriah scrolled through his Facebook while Basil listened in on the baristas conversation.

“I would’ve gone but I don’t know where your class prez lives.”

“Issaquah,” Atti said.

Wait, party, Issaquah, class president. “You go to Seattle High?”

Atti looked up at him in surprise, breath-taking blue-green eyes. “Yeah, do you?”

Nearly blanching, someone who went to Seattle High and DIDN’T know who he was? His eyes were fixed intensely on Basil, Basil knew that Atti had been with him last night, did he not remember? “Um, yeah. I’m Basil D’Amore.”

“Oh, I’m Atti Locke.”

“I saw you, at the party last night. Remember?”

Atti looked at his face for a moment, “no, don’t think I do, sorry. There were a lot of people. Here’s your coffee, have a nice day.”

Uriah took his drink, laughing at the name on the side, ‘Tyke’. “She seems interesting. That guy, he goes to our school?”

“Apparently.”

“Huh, I’ve never seen him around.” Uriah wasn’t too observant of anyone who wasn’t a pretty girl or a popular, he didn’t bully people because he didn’t need to SEEM cool he WAS cool. “I’m so tired!”

Basil laughed and agreed, it had been a long night. The blond boy tossed one last look at Atti over his shoulder the boy was laughing at something the brunette said. Despite having such soft features, he wasn’t bad looking, he was handsome in a pixieish way.

After dropping Uriah off at his own house, Basil returned home, his older brother was sitting on the couch, playing on his phone. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought Mom would be home, I wanted her opinion on a birthday gift for Bridgette.” Anthony was the second oldest, twenty-five. He worked at an insurance company in Tacoma.

Basil had four older brothers: Gabriele, the oldest, a veterinarian, Anthony, Luca was an IT guy, and Cristian, who worked in a daycare.

“She’s won’t be home for another couple days, why don’t you just call her?”

“I wanted to do some laundry.”

Basil snorted, “there’s the REAL reason you’re here.”

“I saw the posts on last night’s party, it was wild.”

“How—”

It was Anthony’s turn to snort, “my old underclassmen went to the party, to deliver the kegs. Will and Nick—”

“Nick?” Basil interrupted, Sophia, said something about a Nick. Anthony turned his phone showing a picture of a guy, a little younger than himself with dyed blue hair tied in a bun and dark eyes and some stubble. He looked like a ragged art student.

“He’s corybantic! That guy, when he was a freshman, he somehow managed to snag all the girls with the whole ‘mysterious musician’ show.”

′Must be a different guy then Atti was talking about.′ He thought to himself, ′wait? Why do I even care?′ Out loud he said, “sounds wicked.”

“Hell yeah,” the dryer went off, “that’s my cue to leave. I’ll be taking that bag of salt and vinegar chips with me.” Anthony got up and disappeared into the laundry room, coming out with a cloth sack full of clothes and holding the bag of chips between his teeth.

"Addio!" Basil called before he left and got a muffled response. He went upstairs and spent the rest of his lazy Saturday playing video games in his room, occasionally leaving to use the bathroom and get snacks from the pantry.

Around eleven, his dad came home. Shouting, ”sono a casa! Qualcuno a casa?”

"Sì!" Pausing his game, Basil went downstairs smelling the sweet heaven that was Chinese take-out from Lotus Dragon, the BEST.

At home, Basil’s family spoke Italian, his parents grew up in New York in big Italian families, Mom, however, was only half-Italian, that’s where the blond hair came from.

“How was work?” Basil asked taking a container of honey chicken and a pair of chopsticks.

Dad took the lo mein, “same old, same old. You win the game?”

“Yeah,” mockingly he added, “same old, same old.”

Through a bit of lo mein, Dad said, “I don’t know where you get that arrogance from. Must be your mother’s side.”

“If she were here she’d slap you,” Basil munched contently on his food.

Smiling, “then it’s a good thing she’s not.”

They finished eating in comfortable silence, Dad was tired and Basil was going to turn in for the night too, up in his room, Basil stripped to his boxers and tossed himself onto his bed, flicking off the light.

Time to sleep.