"Is he the one who gave you the swollen face for touching his dick?"
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In the clearing, Jasper can see the faint glow of orange through the trees. As the bike pedals closer, he can see that the glow is actually a campfire. The distant sound of people chatting and laughing can be heard in the air. "Tom. Do you know those people?" Jasper asks as Thomas pedals closer to the small group of individuals.
"Sure do! They're my best friends." Thomas responds with a huge smile on his face, the bike slowing down to a stop. "Thought it was about time you met them."
Jasper looks at five guys sitting around a makeshift fire, toasting what look like marshmallows on sticks, with bottles of beer scattered around their feet.
One of the men, with dark blonde hair, looks up to see Thomas approach, with the younger. He holds his arms up as if to rejoice. "Tom, Tom, you're back! We thought you'd had a better offer." The man then stops, seeing Jasper stood just shy of Thomas. "Is this the guy?" The man asks with a slight grin on his face.
Thomas pulls Jasper forward gently by his left arm. "Guys this is Jasper. Molly's kind of nephew." Everyone now looks up at Jasper, making him feel a little on the spot.
He raises his hand slightly to wave. "Um hi, nice to meet you."
Thomas proceeds to introduce the group to Jasper. "Ok so this is Zeke, Mac, Tayce, Jerry and Robin." Everyone nods in turn before getting back to toasting their treats.
"Is he the one who gave you the swollen face for touching his dick?" Mac says casually like it's a regular occurrence.
Jasper looks at Thomas in shock that he's even told anyone about it. "What the fuck Tom!" Jasper turns and begins to walk away from the group, back up to the dirt track. Thomas quickly follows, putting his hands on Jasper's arms either side, attempting to guide him back towards the direction of the campfire.
"Just ignore Mac, he's just winding us both up." Thomas gives Jasper's arms a slight squeeze, which seems to calm him down a little as he reluctantly makes a 'u' turn and heads back towards the group.
"Sorry kid! Didn't know it was a sensitive subject!" Mac raises his beer bottle to Jasper as some kind of apology.
"He's not a kid." Thomas interjects, before Jasper could correct the male. No matter how tough Jasper thought he was, he wouldn't win a fight against Mac Patterson.
Thomas places Jasper next to Robin, who was focusing intently on his marshmallow, being poked in the fire. Jasper sits on a tree stump and nervously rubs his hands up and down his legs. "I'll get you a drink" Thomas announces before walking away momentarily.
Robin side eyes the younger, taking in his dress code. "Why are you wearing pyjamas?"
Jasper looks down at his checkered cotton drawstring pj pants forgetting completely how he must look like a misfit. "I didn't expect to be going anywhere and I definitely didn't expect to be meeting people." Jasper blushes.
Robin smiles, before looking back at the fire. "I don't know much about you, but Tom says you're here as a punishment or something?" He enquiries.
Jasper chuckles lightly. "Something like that. I'm here to sort myself out according to my mother."
Robin once again looks at Jasper, this time resting the now toasted marshmallow stick on a stone. "What do you mean?"
Jasper clears his throat a little before continuing. "My grades are poor, I get into fights, I get distracted with girls."
Robin narrows his eyes slightly in thought. "You know there is no shame in getting good grades. As they say, the pen is mightier than the sword."
"What?" Jasper looks at Robin a little perplexed.
"What I mean is, your mind will get you further in life than your muscles will." Robin smiles.
Jasper nods giving a half smile. "Thanks. I'll bear that in mind."
"You dishing out your pearls of wisdom again Rob?" Jasper sees the man named Jerry scooch a little closer to Robin, on their shared log, placing a large hand on Robin's thigh and planting a kiss on his lips.
"Just friendly advice." He says back smiling at the man, before they both turn to see Jasper, who was watching with interest. He had never witnessed guys being together like that before, which had once again started off his own questions about himself.
"Here you go." Jasper is distracted by a green bottle being held out to him. Jasper looks up, sees Thomas and takes the drink as Thomas sits on the ground next to Jasper. He spots the toasted marshmallow and pulls it from the stick before popping it in his mouth. He looks up at Jasper who looks a little nervous as he sits on the stump. "You ok?" He asks.
Jasper takes a mouthful of beer. "Yeah I'm fine." He looks around the circle at Thomas' friends relaxing around the fire. "How do you know all these people?"
Thomas now looks around the group before starting. "Well...He's my cousin." Thomas points to Rob. "And Jerry is his boyfriend. Tayce is my neighbour from the village, Mac's mother and my mother were best friends at school, so we've known each other for as long as I can remember and Zeke and I were in the same year at school. He's my best friend." Thomas points to the last boy who is laughing uncontrollably at something Tayce has said. "We don't meet up too often now, because our lives go in different directions, but we always make an effort around this time as most of us are back from uni."
"So is this what you do around here for fun? Just hang out and toast marshmallows?" Jasper says with a hint of sarcasm. He had been to his fair share of parties and this seemed pretty lame compared to those.
"We make our own fun." Thomas says with a smile.
"Like what?" Jasper wants to know, drinking some more beer in anticipation.
"Sometimes we just chill like this, other times we'll go swimming or fishing, or kick a ball about." Thomas suddenly stops speaking with a wide smile plastered across his face, causing Jasper to want to hear his next few words evermore so. Thomas leans in a little closer, lowering his voice. "Sometimes we do dares. They're fun."
"Like what?" Jasper says, a little apprehensive, but still keen to know.
"Not for your ears, but let's just say we learn a lot from and about each other." Thomas leans back into his original place, now drinking his own beer.
Jasper's mind is whirling with what these dares would entail and hoped that he wouldn't have to do one.