Not so Bad, Just Violent (boyxboy)

Yes, A Crush

Jeremy shook his head, a small smile coming back to him. "I am not calling you that."

Troy folded his arms and said irrefutably, "You have to uphold your side of the deal."

Jeremy rolled his eyes but he couldn't hide his smile. "Fine. Welcome back, Duke of Awesomeness."

"That's how you do it," Troy gave a nod of approval, "Come on, Halo time. You coming, Count Epic?"

I couldn't fight the blush at hearing him call me that in front of my parents. Since I knew they were looking at me now, I turned away and hid my face behind my hand. "I'll be there in a second, Troy, you just go ahead."

"Ai'ight," he grabbed Jeremy and began to pull him into the living room. He didn't get far before my mom spoke, her deadly calm voice ringing through the air.

"Excuse me, I don't remember ever inviting you in."

Troy released Jeremy and turned around. On any other occasion, if I hadn't known that it was Troy who entered my house, I wouldn't have recognized him. He was expressionless, his gaze lingered on my mom as if he was wondering whether or not she was worth talking to. Eventually, his smirk slid back on and he responded calmly, "Of course you don't remember, it was Marc who invited me in."

She was glaring at him now while I just stood there, shocked by his attitude. "My son's name is Marcus."

He shrugged, "He wants to be called Marc so I call him Marc. Listen, lady, I know what you're thinking and you're right. I'm a helluva bad influence on your kids but I'm not going to walk out that door until they personally escort me."

She barked, "Jeremy, tell your friend that he has to go home."

Jeremy's eyes widened with fear. He glanced at Troy with worry that was promptly dismissed when he saw Troy's smile. My mouth almost touched the ground when he said with a backhanded casualness, "Why would I when he's here more than you are?"

Even Troy laughed with disbelief, "Holy shit. When did you take that chapter out of the book of badass?"  

Jeremy shrugged smugly, "You really are a bad influence."

"No kidding, Marc, did you hear him?" He took a look at my face, at all our faces, and laughed again. "I can see you did."

"Troy," I managed to cough out, "Seriously? Did you hear him?"

"Right, right," he put on this fake serious face, "Jeremy, you really shouldn't talk to your mother that way." While he was saying that, they fist bumped.

I spun around to see my parents' reactions, expecting to see anger and tension.

My dad was smiling and my mom... She just looked sad.

I said hastily, "Jeremy, apologize."

"No, it's okay," my mom's voice was weak, she pursed her lips. "I guess he's right. You can go play, I'll... be in our bedroom." She ran pass Troy up the stairs.

We stood around, just staring up the stairs behind her.

"It's okay, kids," our eyes snapped to my dad, "She's just got a bit of a culture shock, she'll be okay. Go ahead and play Halo, I'll talk to her."

"Um, dad?" Jeremy stared at him, guilt was clear in his dark brown eyes, "Should I go apologize?"

"No, I told you, its fine. You just told her how you felt, there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, you should do it more often." He ruffled Jeremy's hair before going up the stairs.

The three of us stood there for a while until Troy got impatient and herded us into the living room. We didn't see my mom again for the rest of the night while my dad came down at some point and sat beside me on the couch and watched the two brats play. Troy divided his time between me and Jeremy by talking to me while he played and once he saw my dad sit down, he started directing his questions to him too. His attitude towards my dad was lukewarm but I could see that he was trying. Perhaps he was actually feeling guilty about what Jeremy said.