"Where are we going?" John asked for the hundredth time. Nat just sighed and hugged closer to him. We were all walking in the direction the shop was. There were about two hours left to the compulsive dinner in the main house so Roger dragged us all to God knows where.
"To celebrate Freddie's birthday." the blond turned to Deaky for a moment to make jazz hands.
"But where exactly?" Fred ignored Lu's annoyed look.
"It's a secret."
I ran up and joined Roger at the front of the march. Of course he had his speaker but this time the music wasn't blasting, just quietly trickled, fitting the mood perfectly.
"Um... Roger?" I cleared my throat. Roger turned his head and lifted his nose up, giving me sign to speak. "Do you even know where are we going?"
"To the shop." he smiled cheerfully and bumped his shoulder against my arm.
"But why?"
"To buy some alcohole and snacks. Then we can party." Roger nodded, kind of assuring himself that this is our plan.
"Really?! That's why we are doing all that circus?!" Nat broke free from Deaky's grip with a visible lot of stamina to throw a tantrum. "We have a shit tone of snacks in the resort, Lu has three bottles of the Magic Juice and I have a beer hidden under my bed! What's the point in going to that fucking shop?" she shouted at the top of her lungs. All the birds from the forest around us startled and flew away. We kept quiet and waited who'll speak first.
"Women have more alochole than us? How did it happen, gentlemen?" Bulsara had a shocked expression on his face. Deacon shrugged his arms but also looked a bit surprised.
"Whatever, can we just come back to the resort?" Lu was nibbling on the skin around her nails. I found myself doing the same a minute later. "My legs ache."
"Ok, why the fuck did you lads took those girls with you?!" Roger gestured towards Nat and Lu. They both ignored his nagging comment.
"You took Brian so we thought that we can also bring partners." John walked past Roger, pushing him a bit.
"We are both gay, but that doesn't mean that we are attracted towards each other. Right, Bri?" Roger sent me a 'begging for support' look.
"Right." I coughed and awkwardly looked at my shoes.
"So anyway, I don't want to walk all the way to the shop either." Fred pointed at Roger. "You better find a solution."
I saw that Roger's ready to argue. His cheeks went red, eyebrows narrowed giving his eyes a dangerous glimmer. His pursed lips parted to defend himself and his plan, for now verbally. Before it could go further Deaky whistled, gathering our attention and called us in with a hand gesture. He stood by a tractor with a huge trailer. The driver poked his head out of the vehicle and looked at us with squinted eyes. He was a man in his early thirties in my opinion. When we got closer Roger immediately took Deaky's place as a negotiator. Some kind of new energy entered his body.
"I'll give you a lift but you give me your names." he took a drag of his cigarette.
"I'm Roger, this is John, Nat, Brian and Lu and we don't know his name so we call him Fred. It's his birthday!" he grinned still pointing at Fred. The enthusiasm he eriadiated with seemed to make the man smile.
"You are under eighteen?"
"Yup."
"I see where this is going." the driver adjusted his baseball cap, looked at all of us and laughed. "Get on the back."
"And what about the-"
"I'll give you a bottle of vodka and a bottle of tequila if you help me clean up my field." he dropped his cig and asked me to dump it as he didn't want to get out of the tractor. I obeyed, he has a trailer and alcohole, he rules.
"Excuse me sir, but what do you mean by 'cleaning up a field'?" John asked.
"We have to clean it out of stones." Roger rolled his eyes. "Cruel and tiring job." he shook his head. The man patted Roger's arm.
"I like that boy." he reached his hand to him. "Deal?"
"Deal." Roger shook his hand.
"Now that's the spirit!" the driver laughed and told us to get on the trailer because in this moment we are beginning the best adventure of our lifes.
☮☮☮
Sweat, sweat and more sweat.
Working on the field in the full sun isn't the funniest thing to do. We could've gotten a stroke but luckily everyone was fine.
Despite all the broken nails, bruised hands, crushed toes and fingers.
The man, Cliff was his name, was a really nice guy and he held on his promises. After cleaning up half of the field we took a break. Cliff's wife, girlfriend or whoever she was, gave each of us a tall glass of cola with ice cubes. During the work and the break Roger never left my side. Even when we were coming back on the trailer with our hard earned pay, he sat next to me. On the bends on the road he would press and lean on me. It was totally accidental and unmeant, but I enjoyed it anyway.
We thanked Cliff for giving us a lift back to the resort. He preventively dropped us a bit away from the main gate so no one would ask more questions than necessary. We were already gone for five hours.
"Oh my God..." Mrs. Jones noticed us walking through the entrance. She canceled the call she was making and put her hand on her chest in the place the heart is. "Where the heck have you been?!" poor woman hugged John and Nat, but her face scrunched and she let go of them like she'd just touched a slide on the playground in the middle of summer. "You are all dusty and... wet! Oh you are screwed!"
"We were exploring the forest near by, admiring the beauty of our country's nature. May I also add that we observed some interesting species of fauna and flora." Bulsara nearly bowed in front of her. Well, maybe Mrs. Jones was a biology teacher but this couldn't just appease her.
"Alright but that still doesn't make it better! You were gone for half of the day! I was worried sick! I was actually calling the police when you appeared." she wailed.
"We will help to prepare dinner. Or we can clean up after the dinner." I lifted my head and looked Mrs. Jones straight in the eyes. I bit my lips so no one could see them slightly tremble. From the corner of my eye I saw Roger smile at me. I adored his smiles. Most of them were genuine and even if he faked sometimes, they always looked real enough.
"I can agree on that under two conditions. One: I'd like to take more of your grapes, my dear boys from number three." she made a gesture over us making Deaky sigh. "Two: if you want to sneak out, do it at night and not for hours but for minutes and always come back."
We all looked at each other speechless. All we could do was to nod our heads vigorously.
"Right." the teacher said with a small smile playing on her red lips. "Then I'll ask in the kitchen if they need some helpers." she winked and walked away.
☮☮☮
"I can't believe we have to cook!" Lu threw her arms in the air as we walked through the halls following a staff member.
"You should be thankful that Brian suggested her to give us a punishment. Otherwise she would've called our parents and that'd be the end of our lives." Roger furrowed his eyebrows, gritting the words through clenched teeth.
"Oh please kiddos, you'll just chop some carrots. That can't do any harm, can it?" Fred joined the conversation. Deaky nodded his head.
"I mean, you are right, but I have better places to be and better things to do." Nat shrugged her arms. Deaky nodded his head once again.
"You won't cook anyway. You'll do the work that has to be done but nobody wants to do it." the cook said in a cheeky tone. We entered some big stinky closet. He opened the door to the basement to reveal a shit tone of potatoes. "You two..." man's finger pointed at Deaky and Nat. "...will peel three bucks of potatoes. The bucks are down there so just go and get them. I'll give you all the tools you need in a minute."
We left John and Nat and moved to the nicer place. It was the corner in the main room of the kitchen. In the light and clean room there stood silver metal table, a huge difference from the previous room.
"Now you..." he patted Fred's arm. "And you..." he pointed at Lu. "...you have to chop the vegetables. I'll tell you details in a minute."
At the end, the man led us to a narrow room with wooden cabinets against one wall and a small plastic table against the opposite wall. It wasn't clean and it wasn't dirty. It had a 'grandma's house' vibes. Cosy.
"You have to prepare sausages for the bonfire tonight." he took one sausage from one of the containers and laid it on the chopping board on the plastic table. "You do little cuts like this..." he bit his lower lip and showed us exactly what he just said. Roger was kinda hidden behind me and when he hummed into my arm I realised he's actually almost clinging onto me. "And then you just put it in the other container and carry to the fridge in the previous room. Maybe it seems like the easiest task, but after to work's done your hands will smell like sausage for the next three days minimum."
"Um, ok but I have a question." Roger raised his hand like you would do during classes. The cook gave him a 'go ahead' sign with pursed lips. "Why are we in those exact pairs? I mean, why am I not peeling potatoes with John or why isn't Brian cutting the sausages with Nat?" he made a quizzy face. As I thought of it, it was a really good question.
"Oh son I don't know. Mrs. Jones ordered to put you in those pairs. And the tasks, after the accident a few moths ago I don't want to put young girls in one room with sausages on their own." he coughed and patted my back before leaving the room.
"Well..." Roger sighed looking at the meat.
"Yeah..." I scratched my neck.
"You are vege or vegan or some shit... anyway, if you want I can get the work done so you wouldn't have to even touch it." he took one sausage and made a few little shallow cuts. It didn't look that bad. Sure, it was still a meat, which equals killed animals, but after helping my mum in the kitchen I got used to it. I can change myself, but not the whole world.
"No, I'm fine, I can do that." I claimed and took the knife, beginning the work. That earned a surprised look from Roger who nudged my side with his elbow. Grin was my only response.
"Hey Bri?" the blond said after a few minutes. I hummed. "Can we do something like asking about everything and the response has to be totally honest?" his eyes met mine, in a part of a second the meeting lasted I managed to feel like an idiot at least fifty-eight times.
"Ok." how difficult the questions could probably be?
"How you and Lucas got togheter?"
"Oh that's a toughie for a start." I laughed a bit meanwhile thinking of some good answer. "It was stupid, really. We were friends and when I came out to him, he confessed. Later when I asked him how he got the courage to do that, he said that I wasn't good at hiding my crush on him. So I guess we got togheter because I was too obvious."
"Oh you are." Roger widened his eyes and breathed the sentence out. My eyebrows narrowed and mouth opened in order to complain, but he continued. "Now you ask."
"Um..." I turned my head down and cut the sausage. "What's the weirdest thing that turned you on?"
"Shrek." he answered seriously. I tried to keep stone face but soon failed. With my arms propped on the plastic table, my body bent over a bit so my butt was touching the drawers on the other side I couldn't catch my breath. No sounds came from my mouth as I just suffocated before wheezing. Roger snorted, shaking his head with a toothy smile. "It's fucking crazy. You are looking at the Shrek memes and then boom you are becoming one of those memes. When it happened a few moths ago I had the same reaction you have now."
It got to the point where Roger had to lift me up from the floor. He waited for me to cool down to ask the next question.
"You are a top or a bottom?" Roger asked casually.
"I..." suddenly the sausage on my chopping board became very interesting. "I've tried both and... it depends on my mood. I enjoy being bottom as much as being top. Lucas always told me that I'm a great top but nah, I don't know. Well, he liked me on top because..." there I decided that it's already too much. "...um, yup."
"In my opinion, you have that top vibes." he looked at me all the way from my feet to my head and nodded his head. "Definitely top. Just look, even your hands-"
"My question! Do you really have a hands fetish?" out of too high self courage I decided to cut the sausages with my eyes focused on Roger, which resulted in my finger almost getting cut.
"I just like masculine male hands! What's wrong about it?" he moaned. "Don't tell me you don't have a thing for hands. For me, clammy, chubby hands are yuck. But the strong ones with visible veins, oh man."
"Shit I also have hands fetish." I propped my arms on the table and looked at Roger's hands lifting the knife with grace.
"Everyone has a hands fetish." he shrugged.
"Now give me your last question."
"Awh, last? Ok." Roger took the last sausage out of the plastic container. "Will you go to the bonfire with me?" he did the final cut and threw the sausage to the other container.
"Oh we can't. I have to go to... Amy? I think it was her name."
Roger probably knew I wasn't talking seriously because his face expression was more like curious for what I'll say next than disappointed.
"Well then, your last question." he walked up to the little sink next to the door. To do this, he had to squeeze through between me and the cabinets. I can't even describe the feeling of his crotch rubbing at my butt.
"Will you go with me to Amy and her friends so we could chase them away and go to the bonfire togheter?" I put on a toothy smile. Roger's lips curled up in an adorable smile which showed his braces. The sun coming through the little window reflected in the metal on his teeth. I went blind for a second but it was totally worth it.
"Of course I'll go with you to scare poor girls away." he scoffed as if it was obvious.
"I'm glad then." I walked up to the sink to clean my hands and looked at Roger with a little laugh. We were so close to each other that I could feel his body heat. He craned his neck and moved his face closer to mine and looked me straight in the eyes. From this point of view his baby blue eyes seemed bigger than ever. Droplets of sweat trickled down my nape and further across my back. Luckily my hands were still under running water so they wouldn't get clammy. Roger didn't like clammy hands and-
My breath hitched as the characteristic first sounds of George Michael's Careless Whisper broke the tension and Roger erupted in genuine laughter, spitting a bit into my face. He lifted up his phone with YouTube page open on it. I wanted to laugh with him but my emotions were too shattered.
"Sorry I just... it's fucking amazing how that song works." he swallowed his saliva and breathed out. "I didn't think you would-"
"My emotions!" I turned the faucet off.
"...react like-"
"My emotions!" I raised my hands a bit lower than face level and shook them.
"...like that." he sighed and gestured towards me. My heart was beating still way too fast and I just knew that my face was way too red. "Come on, let me hug you."he reached to me.
"I'm sweaty." I looked down. He immediately backed off.
"Ew. Let me put on some music then."
"Why don't we just get out? The work's done." I reasoned.
"Oh God and the rumors say that you are the smart kid." Roger rolled his eyes. "If we want to get out we have to pass through the whole kitchen because this window is way too small. If you go to the kitchen, they'll order you to help them chop the vebetables or peel the potatoes. We'll just wait here until Fred and John with their partners are done and then we go out. "
I cocked up an eyebrow.
"Aren't you just looking for an excuse to listen to some music?"
"Bri, if you go out now, you'll have to take a part in integration games." he put one of his hands on his pushed to the side hip.
"Ok, put this music on." I ran a hand through my hair waiting for what's about to come.
☮☮☮
I've mentioned Roger's playlist before. Now we had an excellent mix of Iron Maiden followed by half of the Grease soundtrack, then The Police. I couldn't complain though.
We were both sitting against the drawers, our legs under the table. I found it cute that his feet were on a bit above my ankles level. His phone was laying on the plastic table, providing us music. With a lack of other interesting things to do, we started making silly photos with Snapchat filters on my phone. I absolutely loved when he headbutted my arm or shoulder. We talked and laughed like good old friends, eventually locking eyes and blushing.
That was until one certain song started.
Deep voice sang that one sentence that give me chills and makes me shiver.
'Now I've had the time of my life...'
"Oh God that always makes me shiver. I love this song." Roger twitched next to me. He jolted up on his feet and reached his hand towards me. "Dance with me?"
"Ok..." I lifted up groaning. "But I'm warning, I'm not Patrick Swayze."
"I don't expect you to be." he smiled.
So we danced. The space was limited but we did what we could and it wasn't bad at all. To be honest, I really enjoyed that dance. There Roger showed that side of him that I've haven't seen yet. He was a very confident dancer. His ability to turn every wrong move into whole new arrangement was incredible.
Apparently, there was one move that couldn't turn good.
"That's it!" he let go of me and jogged to the other end of the long, narrow room.
"Roger I don't think-"
"Shut up!"Roger waited for the right moment in the song then ran towards me. I panicked and when he jumped, I grabbed his hips lifting him straight up as fast as I could. I had to do it fast because otherwise I'd drop him as soon as he was in the air. Roger spread his arms, but it didn't help when he whacked his head against the ceiling. The hit threw me off balance and my already weak arms gave up.
I was tackled to the floor by Roger's weight. He didn't get lucky because he landed on the hard tiles, but quickly scooted onto me and tackled me down again but this time in a hug.
"Are you alright?" I gently pet his head. He nodded against my chest.
"No." Roger hugged me tightier. I rubbed his back soothingly. My head hurt only from lightly hitting the floor so I didn't even try to wonder how much his head must hurt.
"I know you hit the ceiling, but what exactly happened? Is it your head? Did you hit something else when you fall?" I said in a hushed tone, snaking my both arms around him cautiously.
"No." he replied shortly.
"Then what is it?" I bit my tounge, fighting the urge to say 'baby'.
"You are still sweaty." he sniffed.