THREE | LATE MARCH
BY THE TIME Luca had gotten himself in the right mood to go next door, everyone else had already arrived.
"Are you coming or what!?" Kai yelled from Luca's front lawn, his body half angled towards the house and half angled towards Blake's.
"I'm coming!" Luca yelled, stomping down the stairs and sauntering out of the front door, pulling it shut behind him.
The night air was cool and fresh, a few stray stars lost in an expanse of black sky. A veil of moonlight lustre fell in shadows across his softened face and spilled over the silver lawn. There was something in the air that Luca could feel expanding inside of his lungs with every inhale. Clean and sweet and wistful. The memory of it had existed before he had experienced it. He could feel it in the fading midnight of his veins, like roads of stardust climbing through his skin.
"Nervous?" Kai teased, his mouth quick and his light brown eyes smug, glinting with the reflection of a night that had not yet happened.
"I guess," Luca replied, still watching him from near the house. Kai stood at the edge of the lawn, almost on the sidewalk, under the pale white glow of the streetlight. "I've never been to one of Blake's parties before. We don't talk much."
"You've talked, though," Kai insisted, glancing at Blake's house. The music was blaring inside and the front door was shut, his lawn and porch empty except for a few friends smoking. Any chaos that poured outside was contained in the backyard. It relaxed Luca. "Anyway, you don't need an invite to these parties. Blake and his friends would let anybody in."
"I know," he nodded, the soothing air flooding through his chest and the swift, gentle swirl of a breeze cooling his skin, "but I feel better having the invite."
"Well, you've got it," Kai laughed, the note of it carrying into the sky. "Let's go."
The inside of the house was packed, the pulse of it bursting with activity and noise. People were sliding past each other and dancing on each other; kissing each other and shoving each other; laughing together and yelling at each other, naively attempting to be heard over the madness. The lights were turned low and shots were being tossed back, girls were leading each other through the house in maneuvering chains and boys were throwing their arms around their friends, playfully pushing and pulling them.
It took a few minutes to get used to the place but, once he stopped thinking about it, Luca was able to adapt fairly well and was able to recognize plenty of people he passed, lifting his hand or nodding his head or smiling in acknowledgment.
Kai had beckoned him into the kitchen so they could get themselves something to drink. He'd taken two shot glasses and put them down on the counter, filling them to the brim with vodka. They'd clinked them together and grinned at each other before hastily downing them, both wincing at the taste and the sensation of a burning throat that spread into a burning chest. It was after the second shot that Luca, his face twisted and his eyes screwed shut, felt someone lightly nudge against him.
He turned around and Blake, pouring a vodka and lemonade, glanced up from the cup and grinned at him. "Hey!" He shouted. "I'm glad you came!"
"Me, too!" Luca yelled, nodding enthusiastically at him, his face bright and his cheeks full.
Kai grinned, slinging an arm around his shoulder. "Thanks for the party!"
"No problem!" Blake beamed, displaying pearls of teeth and dimples in his cheeks. There were crinkles tightening at the corners of his eyes, dazzlingly blue and endlessly vibrant. His dark, tousled hair was messier than usual and there was a rosy flush in his face that made Luca's heart beat faster. He lifted two cups up and yelled: "I'm gonna go hand these drinks over! Catch up soon!"
Without waiting for a reply from either of them, he slipped elegantly and easily through the crowd, and Luca watched him until he disappeared into an indistinguishable mess of people. Suddenly, his skin was warm both with delight and with the body heat trapped inside of the house, and he turned to ask Kai if he wanted to go outside for a while.
It was an hour before Luca ended up leaving the backyard. He'd caught up with a group of friends from his art class and sat with them at the table on the deck where Blake had invited him to the party a week before. He hadn't spoken to Blake much since then. They'd smiled at each other in school whenever they passed and, on Wednesday, the two of them had gone out to their front lawns at the same time and Blake had asked if he was still coming to the party. Other than that, they hadn't seen much of each other.
Blake had moved in next door about two months ago and, at first, Luca had believed that meant they would be seeing each other all the time. That prediction had since been proven wrong.
Still, he'd been having a good time with his friends, regardless of his minimal interaction with Blake. He hadn't so much as caught a glimpse of him since their exchange in the kitchen but he didn't mind so much. When he dismissed himself from the group to go back inside, it hadn't been to look for Blake, it had been to look for Kai who had more than likely gotten caught up with someone on his way back from the bathroom.
But it was on his way back through the house that he first caught sight of Blake again. His face was pulled into a frown, unyielding and brimming with offense. He was talking animatedly— clearly upset— to a guy who Luca couldn't identify due to only being able to see the back of his head. With a shake of his head and a roll of his eyes, Blake shouted something else to the other guy and dismissed him by holding his palm flat before pushing his way towards the front of the house.
Luca could feel an impulse bursting in his chest, urging him to follow Blake out to the empty front lawn. For a minute, he hesitated, lost in a sea of high schoolers but the music was still blaring and the night was alive with excitement and the assuring melancholy in his gut was getting hard to ignore. Briskly, he took hold of his hesitance and tore it apart, shoving his way towards the front lawn.
When he got there, relieved to be outside again, he pulled the front door shut behind him and glanced to the left hand side of the porch where Blake was sitting, gently swaying back and forth on a swinging bench. It was quiet outside. Only the quiet chirps of crickets and the muffled din from behind the door could be heard, the slight creaking of the bench.
His blue eyes darted towards Luca, glinting silver with moonlight, and his tired frown tugged into a curious, half-hearted smile. "It's you," he said, surprised.
"It's me," Luca agreed, sharing his surprise.
"What's up?" Blake asked, studying him, his eyes flickering restlessly, as he bit the inside of his cheek.
"Needed to breathe," Luca said, wishing that he had something to do with his hands. Feeling clumsy, he shoved them into his pockets.
"Me, too," he replied with a funny smile. He shuffled along the swinging bench and gestured to the space beside him. "Come sit."
Luca worried that if he tried to reply then his heart would spill out of his mouth. A nervous heat prickled along the back of his neck but was eased by the fresh breeze and the clear night. Silently, he sat down.
For a moment, they sat there together in a comfortable silence that was only comfortable because of the surroundings. The faint reminder of music inside of the house filled up the space of awkwardness and the night was relaxing enough for them to sink into it, letting the vastness of the sky engulf them like lapping waves.
Luca glanced at Blake and saw that his chin was titled towards the sky, his eyes gleaming at the few scattered stars and the skin of his throat pulled tight; the diamond of his jaw accentuated, the arch of his cheekbone softened.
"I'm not sure it's my place to ask," Luca began, his body feeling loose and jittery. There were a few inches of space between them on the cushioned bench. He tried not to think about it.
"Ask anyway," he replied, turning his head so that his gaze was locked on Luca.
Unable to handle the fire it sparked inside of him, Luca looked at his lap and only glimpsed back at Blake when he dared to speak again. "Is everything okay?" He asked, the words like china on his tongue; fragile and cautious. "You didn't look happy leaving the house."
With a wry smile, he shrugged and looked back at the sky. "He's one of my teammates," he began, slouching against his seat. "I was the last guy to date his girlfriend before he did."
"So?" Luca frowned, confused.
"He doesn't like it when I talk to her," he shrugged again. "Thinks I'm trying to win her back or screw him over or something. He usually keeps it to himself when he's sober, but he loses it when he's drunk. Gets all in my face and starts throwing out accusations."
"Sounds irritating," he remarked, hoping to sound supportive; hoping he wasn't crossing any lines.
"It is," he agreed glumly, glancing off towards the porch floor. "Now he thinks we're hooking up behind his back because I asked her if she was having a good time." He stopped then, laughed bitterly at something and glanced at Luca. "I'm not even interested in her anymore."
"And he thinks you're trying to steal her away?" He inquired, the corners of his lips quirking up.
"Yeah," Blake scoffed, pulling his fingers into air quotes. "I'm all over her apparently."
"That's stupid."
"He's stupid."
"He sounds it."
Blake laughed and nudged Luca playfully with his elbow. For the first time since he'd sat down, there were the pearls; the dimples; the crinkles at the corners of those blue, blue eyes. "He's not really that bad if you get to know him," he tried. Luca wondered if maybe he was feeling a little guilty and then wondered if Blake was aware of the fact that he had nothing to feel guilty about.
"Totally," he nodded.
"I don't appreciate that," Blake grinned, shooting him a sideways glance of amused disapproval. "Your sarcasm."
Grinning at his twiddling fingers and ignoring the leap in his heart, the jolt in his chest, he shrugged. "Sorry," he replied half-heartedly. "He sounds like a lot of work, that's all."
"He is," he nodded, "but if you take out all of that stupid girlfriend bullshit then he's a pretty okay guy. I've told him countless times I have no interest in her anymore. At this point, I wish I hadn't even dated her." He sighed. "It doesn't matter, anyway. I won't bore you with it anymore."
"I'm not bored," he replied swiftly. Immediately, he was embarrassed. To cover it up, he kept talking, quick and clumsy. "I don't mind listening. I like listening."
Blake shuffled on the bench and angled himself towards Luca with a dubious smile on his face, one of his arms on the bench's arm and the other resting along the back. "It doesn't bother you to be sitting out here listening to me whine when you could be inside the house having a good time?"
"I am having a good time," he shrugged, his face growing hot at the sincerity of it. He was pinching the body of each of his fingers, pressing hard, as he started to gain control over the clamminess of his hands.
"You're not just saying that to make me feel better?" He asked, only half-teasing. There was an unmistakable heed in the glitter of his eyes, a playful tug at the corners of his lips, the shadow of a simple.
Luca shook his head, intentionally slow, and Blake grinned again.
"Alright," he continued. "Why don't we stay here a while?"
With a stomach full of butterflies and a body built out of air, Luca, shy and giddy, grinned back at him.
note
thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed and if you did then any votes or comments are massively appreciated <3 as always, I'm open to any feedback or corrections!
I literally cannot believe it's august already that is terrifying to me <333333 but anyway, stay safe and have a wonderful rest of your day or night! I hope to see you again next time :')
originally published
tues. 02. august. 2022.
next update
sat. 06. august. 2022.