They bided time as they waited for the night to progress. Damian took a nap. Alexander actually insisted on doing some homework, despite Damian's insistence that it didn't matter.
Hours passed. With a careful ear, Damian listened for his parents to go to bed. Once everything seemed settled, he silently motioned for Alexander to follow him.
The two quietly made their way upstairs. Damian signaled for Alexander to stay as he made his way to the garage. When he emerged, he was carrying a six pack of beer cans. He held it up like he'd just discovered a dinosaur fossil.
Alexander gave him a thumbs up.
He led him toward the back of the house. In a hallway just behind the kitchen was a door leading out to the back deck. Damian unhooked the lock and opened it very, very slowly. It slid open with a relative ease and the two were able to slip out.
They got about halfway down the block before either one spoke up.
"Where are we going?" Alexander whispered.
"When we used to live in this house, sometimes I'd sneak off to just be a dumb teen. Me and some friends would go to the gully down here and just hang out. It's pretty comfy, not a lot of bugs, and passing cars usually can't see you."
Alexander scurried forward, trying to match Damian's quick pace. "So that house, then, you actually lived in it before."
He nodded. "Yeah, I lived in that one my junior year of high school. I'm surprised I remember it so well. Why, is yours not the same?"
"Uh," he paused to think about it. "It is the same for the most part, but there are some key details that are different. Just like, some of the room placements are different and the way the cabinets in the kitchen are structured is way weird compared to how they were before, but at a passing glance you wouldn't be able to tell."
"What about the school? Does that look like yours? It kind of has parts of mine I think? Like, some of the hallways especially I remember."
"Not really," he admitted. "Or at least, it has all of the parts I don't remember. Now, Mrs. Persimmons is mine. She was my English teacher junior year of high school and she just made me fall in love with the English language. I was always a quiet kid in class so most teachers kind of overlooked me. The Parse was the first one who really took to me and tried to make something out of me. I'm kind of glad she showed up in this weird, weird situation."
Damian led them off the sidewalk and toward a wide open field. A couple dozen yards off lay the aforementioned gully. "Oh yeah? That's cool, I guess."
Alexander stepped gingerly, trying to avoid any hidden pitfalls. "So is Valerie yours? I'm like 99% sure we'd never met before, but she seems important."
Damian half-laughed at that one. "Yeah, but it's weird. Val and I were friends back when we were kids--like eight years old. I moved around a lot after that so we lost touch for a while, but then we became friends again in college. We didn't even talk during high school. I mean, I guess that's what it would've been like. Which is nice, I guess. Just..."
"Really weird?"
He only nodded in response, gesture silhouetted by the far reaches of the suburban street lamps.
They made their way into the gully. Once they were far enough in, Damian let his legs fold under him and drop on the grass. The six pack hit the ground with a muted clamor. Alexander sat down next to him.
Damian wasted no time pulling one of the beer cans from the plastic holster. He pulled out a second one and held it out toward Alexander. "Ready?"
The other happily took it. "I've been ready for this."
The two popped the cans open in unison. They silently toasted each other and threw back the first sips.
Damian's face wrinkled and he recoiled from the beverage. "God, it's like I'm drinking for the first time again. This shit is awful." He took another sip, but the reaction wasn't much better. "Aw man, that's like six years of alcohol tolerance down the drain right there. I'm gonna be done in by like half of one of these."
Alexander chuckled.
The two continued drinking, quietly praying for alcohol to numb their nerves while they watched the stars above. The more they drank, the more they started to open up to each other. It was simple stuff, mostly. They recounted their time in this not quite real world so far. They compared experiences and the familiarities they came across.
Alexander took a sip of his third beer. Four other empty cans lay in the grass. "Okay, hear me out here. I've got two theories on what could be happening here."
Damian leaned back, head rolling on a limp neck. "Lay it on me."
"Okay, so. Option number one is that we've entered some kind of dreamscape, yeah? LIke through some means, either government experiment or some kind of magical Baku--"
"--the fuck is a Baku?"
"--we've been forced into a deep hibernation and had this world created for us to ruminate in. That's why it has things that we both remember, it's pulling it from our own heads. Shit, like--like Inception. It's Inception."
Damian took another drink. He didn't have the chutzpah to explain that he'd never actually seen Inception. "What's idea number two?"
"Multiverse theory," he answered like it was the obvious response. "There's a bunch of different alternate timelines out there and different dimensions where we exist it are doing different things. Maybe we found the glitch in the system that let us access any one we wanted? And in this one in particular we went to the same high school and had to work on the same stupid fucking Shakespeare project."
Damian nodded like he was totally able to follow whatever he was talking about. "A likely story. Remember me to ask you to explain that to me when I'm sober."
"Done."
Damian examined Alexander's face in the dim night light. "You look a lot different as a teen than a 20-something."
He made a face. "You think so?"
Damian nodded. "Back before--or later? In the future?--you looked like a total hipster. In high school you're more of the silent nerd type."
"Call it my chrysalis stage. I have yet to burgeon into the beautiful butterfly of my early twenties."
"It's mostly the hair," he admitted. "In the future it's more...coiffed."
"Coiffed?" Alexander laughed. "That's a good word. I didn't realize you were a cosmetologist."
"Yep. Been to the moon seven times and back. A real cosmopolitan."
He chuckled again. He took another drink. "If you wanted to know, I don't think you look that different in high school than you do now."
"No?"
Alexander shook his head. "Nah, not really. It seems like you matured a lot, though, so that's a plus."
Damian lifted his head. "What, you think I'm immature?"
"No, I just think you were a dumb teenage boy. We all were. You just happen to be the most improved one I've met. I know I gave you shit for it, but you could've turned into a way bigger fuckboy than you actually did."
He pursed his lips skeptically. "Thanks. I think? You're not as much of an insufferable hipster as you could've been too, I guess."
Alexander raised his beer can. "I'll drink to that."
Damian let out of a loud sigh and flopped on the grass. "How're we going to get out of here?"
Alexander huffed. "I never thought I'd be asking for another one of those earthquakes. At least we had an inkling of an idea that we were onto something. Now it feels like radio silence."
Damian nodded. "We gotta get some clues." He blindly reached out and felt around. He grabbed Alexander's hand and held it up. "Universe, give us a sign."
But nothing happened.
He let the hand go and rubbed his eyes. "I thought that might work."
Alexander also leaned back until his back hit the grass. "Eh, it was a good idea at least."
Damian snorted. "I'm surprised you didn't suggest macking yet."
Alexander turned to look at him, lips forming a tight line. "Excuse me?"
"You know," he pressed the tips of his five fingers together on each hand and hit them together a couple times. "How we got time to stop the first time."
"If you thought of it, why didn't you suggest it?"
His hands fell back to his sides. "Well--I--I mean--I didn't--"
Alexander rolled his eyes and turned his gaze back to the sky. "You know what? I take back what I said. You are a complete and total fuckboy."
"What?" He whined defensively.
"You can't even say what it was."
"What what was?" Damian asked.
"A kiss! Literally you are incapable of saying the word kiss. Is it really that anti-masculine for you to admit?"
Damian sputtered. "You think I'm scared of saying the word kiss? Because of some machismo sort of thing?"
Alexander scoffed. "Puh-lease. You're like a textbook example of compulsory heteronormativity."
"I don't even know what the fuck that means!"
Alexander gave him a look.
"I'm not afraid of a stupid kiss! If there were any percepted hang ups it was because you totally caught me off guard and didn't ask. It was a non-consensive macking."
"Non-consensive?"
"Yes! As in--let me educate you on this important topic--I did not consense."
Alexander rolled his eyes. "To be fair, we were in the middle of a weird unexplainable earthquake and we weren't getting anywhere with what we had been doing. I told you my reasoning back at the shop. I don't have to explain myself again."
"You could've asked," Damian insisted.
"And what would you have said?"
He started sputtering again. "Well--I mean--I'm not saying I would've not--in those circumstances I would've--there was a lot--"
"My point, Mr. Ryker."
"I'm not--I'm not scared." He shot upright. Grabbing his beer, he shot back another drink. "Fuck it, I'll kiss anyone at any time of the day. I'm not afraid. It's not a big deal. I don't give a shit."
Alexander didn't bother sitting up. "Methinks ye doth protest too much."
Damian motioned for him to join him. "Come on, I'll show you. Let's do this. Right now."
"You're drunk. You got drunk after two and a half beers, you lightweight."
Damian shot back another drink and crushed the can against the ground. "Three beers, thank you very much. I'm a skinny boy, this is my first alcohol, and I haven't eaten in like six hours. Give me a break and pucker up."
"I'm not kissing a drunk guy."
"I'm not even that drunk, Asshat. I have complete control over what I'm doing. I just don't give a fuck. You know why?"
"Because you're a lightweight?"
"Because I'm not afraid of kissing. Now, come on. Do you want to try and get out of this place or not?"
Alexander let out a long sigh and sat up. "Fine. Do your worst, fiend."
The moment the two made eye contact, Damian froze. His eyes were wide, like a deer in the headlights. "Oh man, you're actually gonna let me? I thought you were on an indignant streak."
The bespectacled one put his hands out in mock surrender. "Hey, if you want to prove you're not afraid of kissing, who am I to stop you? Anything that will help us get out of this place, right?"
Damian hesitated. "Is this like a reverse psychology thing?"
"What, you think I'm so convinced that you're not going to do it that I'm going to act complacent as a way to add salt to the wound of you not being able to go through with it? What kind of cruel, sick bastard do you think I am?"
He narrowed his eyes. "You still don't think I can do it."
"I'm...waiting."
"Well, I'm going to do it," he proclaimed indignantly. "But first, I'm going to ask because I am a decent fucking gentleman."
Alexander hummed, amused.
Damian repositioned himself so he was sitting up straight as a board. "Alexander Cobalt...may I...kiss your face?"
This time, it was Alexander who looked like he'd been caught in the headlights. "Oh," he said quietly. "Uh, yeah, sure. Go for it."
Damian deliberately reached out with his left hand and hooked his fingers around the nape of Alexander's neck. He could feel a slight shudder tickle the tips of his fingers. Without further hesitation, he pulled the other boy close. Despite his impaired motor skills, their lips made contact on the first try.
He held him there for a moment. He didn't let it stop there, though. No, Damian Ryker had something to prove. He moved this lips across Alexander's, gently, but with purpose. Alexander responded with surprising reciprocity. Damian hadn't just kissed Alexander, the two were actively kissing. Under a star speckled sky in the middle of suburbia. Everything tasted like alcohol.
Damian was the first to pull away, slowly dropping his hand from Alexander's face before pulling his face away. He returned to his original position, wiping the corner of his lips off with his thumb.
Alexander only stared at him.
Damian looked back. "See? I'm not afraid."
Alexander nearly laughed. "Dude, what the fuck was that?"
"That was the Damian Ryker special. You're welcome, by the way."
Alexander opened his mouth, but no words escaped.
Damian picked up the crushed beer can and looked at it. "Hm, guess that didn't work. That's a shame." He flopped back down into the grass.
Alexander was still at a loss for words.
"I'm tired," he announced. "I'm going to bed."
"Right here?" Alexander asked skeptically.
"It's pretty comfy, you should try it."
Without saying anything, Alexander joined him.
They were quiet for a minute.
"Do you do that a lot?" Alexander asked.
Damian spoke with his eyes closed. "Do what?"
"Just kiss random people like that. For the hell of it."
"That's what you do, isn't it?"
"Well, not like that," he retorted. "I was a theater kid in high school, I did like stage kissing, not the real deal."
"What? It's not like I used tongue or anything."
"No, no, not like that--"
"--it was purely lip action--"
"--I don't mean--" he sighed. "You still didn't answer my question."
"Which was?"
"Do you kiss all random people like that?"
Damian paused. "I usually don't kiss people for the hell of it, I guess. I was never really into hook-up culture, despite my apparent fratty tendencies. I just did that to one-up you. Why?"
Alexander shook his head, even though Damian shook his head. "No reason," he said quietly. "Just curious."
"You're not falling madly in love with me are you?"
"What? No. Shut up before your ego fills this whole goddamn gulch."
Damian chuckled. "Relax. Take a nap. It's got to be like three AM by now."
Without further protest, Alexander closed his eyes. He felt something brush against his hand.
It was Damian's hand, worming its way into Alexander's. He tightened his grip, fingers intertwining. "Just in case," he said tiredly. "Just in case anything happens."
Alexander adjusted his hand so it was more comfortable, but he didn't let go.
The two let the waves of exhaustion lap over them and pull them into overdue sleep.