Tim and Wes

Chapter 1 - Beware (+18)

I continue my little game, sympathetic and ready-to-listen. I fill his glass as the evening goes on, whilst staying on my first beer. It's hard to make someone just drunk enough to let his guard down, but not so much that he throws up all over his shoes. Especially when we don't know his capacity for alcohol.

Judging by his build and knowing that footballers are usually party animals, Wes should be quite resistant. I watch him out of the corner of my eye : he seems to be "cooked to perfection", ready to be served on a tray and devoured as a starter. He has his head in his arms, half lying on the counter and, for more than half an hour, he hasn't uttered a coherent word nor opened his eyelids.

Rather satisfied that my despicable plan is going off without a hitch, I turn towards Joe with a smile as wide as a Cheshire cat.

"Do you have an empty bed at the back of the store?" I ask innocently.

He starts to kick up a fuss.

"That's enough ! I don't want to be your partner in crime! Leave him in peace!"

Ah, he's cracking. Sure, he wouldn't want the same thing to happen to him. I become serious again.

"I mean, what? You want him to stay here until tomorrow morning? He can't sleep here, can he? (Joe hesitates) Call a taxi, I'm gonna take him back to his dormitory."

He gives me a suspicious look. Uh! Thanks for trusting me!

"You promise me he'll get to the right door?"

"Of course!" I smile, crossing my fingers behind my back. "Have some faith!"

"If you do anything to him" he warns me with a finger "you'll be cursed for ten years by The Flouted Hetero Spirit."

I chuckle.

"You invented that bullshit!"

"Beware" he scolds me picking up the phone. "We sow what we reap."

I don't bother telling him that it's actually the contrary. He orders a taxi, I pay for my beer and the countless beverages I supplied Wes with. Joe gives me a hand and helps him down from the stool. Each of us lifts him up onto our shoulders and we move him outside of the Cross. When the taxi comes, we sit him on the back seat. The only words he mumbles is a vague "all bitches" between two unintelligible words.

"I'm counting on you" Joe threatens me for the last time. "No touching! If he discovers tomorrow morning that you manipulated him, he won't appreciate it and looking at his build I wouldn't give a lot for your skin."

Joe returns to the bar. I'm too excited to pay attention to him. Now that Wes is entrapped, nothing nor nobody will manage to drag him out of my claws. I get into the taxi and give the address of my dormitory. The night is not over, everything is yet to come. The taxi driver starts up and I rejoice, watching the nocturnal view from the window. I managed to get Wes to drop his guard and now he's snoring innocently next to me while a few hours ago he didn't even know I existed.

"It's here, stop please!"

I pay the taxi man, he helps me to get Wes out of the car, and then he leaves.

Right now, I'm completely alone with him. Looking at the five flights of stairs to climb up, I sigh and thank god I took up judo which should give me enough strength to hold up a footballer without slumping under his weight.

We enter my dormitory, where everybody is asleep already, and we begin to climb up the steps. Once I get to my front door, I unlock it and let Wes go on my bed before closing it again.

"Come on Wes, I call him. You can't nod off like this. Undress yourself at least."

He mumbles, I shake my head and try to take off his t-shirt. He grumbles but lifts his arms up. Afterwards, I undo the laces of his sneakers, as well as removing his socks. To avoid making any mistakes, I switch off the light and then, like the proper chicken that I am, I hide in the bathroom.