Diving In

Chapter Seven: All Dressed Up

Most people enjoy getting all dressed up for formal events. They like the change from their dreary weekdays in school or work into a more classy attire. It appeals to some people because of its fairy tail connotations, or to others because it is an excuse to get drunk. Either way, most people enjoy the change from their daily routine. Alexis Lucas was not one of those people.

Alex was cleaning The Downtown bar on Thursday afternoon when she felt her phone vibrating in her pocket. She put down her towel and reached into her pocket only to see the name "Kevin Trainer" in the caller box. She wasn't really sure how to react to this, so she decided to answer it.

"What?" Alex snapped.

"Hello to you too," Kevin answered.

"What do you want?" Alex asked. Alex had been working with Kevin on their Math project for the past week in a half without any flirtation from his end. She knew that it was her outburst in the library that had done it, and this made her quite proud.

"Okay, so I know you said that you wanted us to just work together in the library, but you never said anything about us hanging out outside the library..." Kevin started.

"Let me stop you right there. I don't like you. I don't want to hang out with you. I really don't understand what you can't get through your head." Alex interrupted.

"Yeah, I heard you the first time. What are you doing tomorrow night?" Kevin said. Alex was in awe. Was he really as stupid as she thought he was? However, she was somewhat curious as to what he was going to say.

"Working probably. Why?" Alex answered.

"Liar. I already talked to your boss." Kevin caught her in the lie.

"What are you stalking me now?" Alex asked, offended.

"Somewhat. Well anyway, if you're free, which I'm guessing you are, I'll pick you up at eight tomorrow night." Kevin said.

"Eight? For what?" Alex wondered.

"Just dress formally." Kevin said and then hung up, leaving Alex annoyed, frustrated, and a little bit intrigued. She really didn't understand why Kevin was pursuing her the way he was. She knew she was pretty, not that she was vain, but she was actually quite beautiful. She had bright blonde hair that she usually kept back in a ponytail, which looked good against her naturally tan skin. She never went tanning or anything like that, but she inherited her fathers skin tone. She never wore make up, or painted her nails, or anything like that. This was why she didn't understand that Kevin Trainer was interested in her. He was usually interested in the stupid bimbo girl that was all over him; the type of girl that Alex would knock out if given the chance.

He said to 'dress formally'. She had no idea what he meant by that, but it didn't matter. She wasn't planning on actually going to hang out with him. She thought it was funny because he had no idea where she lived or anything like that. And Friday was the one day that they didn't meet to study, so she decided to just ignore it and began to finish cleaning the bar.

Cameron hadn't really seen or talked to James since James had asked him on a date over the phone, which was a week and a half ago. That was until Cameron found a note in his locker Thursday morning saying "I can study after school today. If it works for you, write your address down and leave it in my locker. It's number 217." Cameron checked his schedule and then did as he was told. He then told Matt that he couldn't hang out because he had to study for a test. He didn't like lying to Matt, he just didn't think Matt would appreciate it if Cameron was meeting with another boy. It wasn't like him and Matt were going out, but Cameron just wanted to avoid drama.

Now, Cameron was waiting in his room for James to arrive. He had rushed home and cleaned frantically to make his room presentable. Cameron wasn't a messy person; in fact he was overly clean. When he frantically cleaned his room, he basically picked up two pieces of ripped paper off of the floor, and then vacuumed. Twice. As Cameron did final inspections of his room, Laura Wright came in eating a bag of chips.

"Hey sweetheart, I just got home, and I'm about to run over to the gym. Do you..." Laura was interrupted before she could finish.

"Don't step in the room, I don't want you getting crumbs on the floor." Cameron snapped. Laura looked at him and rolled her eyes.

"You're a freak," she laughed. "I'm going to the gym. Do you want me to get anything while I'm out?"

"No, I'm fine. My friend James is coming over to study." Cameron told.

"James who?" Laura asked.

"James Winters, you don't know him." Cameron said quickly.

"Hmm. Why hasn't Travis been around lately?" Laura wondered aloud.

"I don't know. He's busy, I guess." Cameron mumbled. He actually didn't know why he hadn't seen Travis that much in or outside of school lately.

"Okay then. I'll see you later sweety." Laura said and then left, closing the door behind her. Cameron checked to see if she had left any crumbs behind, and was happy to see that she didn't. He then waited patiently until his phone began to ring.

"Hello?" Cameron answered.

"Hey, I'm outside," James said.

"Okay, I'll be right out." Cameron said then hung up. He did one last quick inspection of the room and made sure that his room was sparkling clean, and then rushed down his stairs and swung open his front door to see James standing there.

"Hey," James smiled.

"Hey," Cameron said back. "How'd you get here?" Cameron didn't see anyone else who could've driven him.

"Oh, I passed my road test. On Tuesday actually, so I can drive now." James explained.

"Oh, nice." Cameron smiled. " Here, let's go up to my room and I can show you some stuff I found." Cameron showed James up the stairs and into his room. Cameron noticed a gum wrapper that was under his bed that he hadn't noticed, and quickly grabbed it and threw it in the garbage can. He then reached into his desk and pulled out a couple Internet printouts. "So, I was researching 'Fractals' and I found some stuff. I thought maybe we could focus on Fractal's in buildings. I found this website with some stuff on that."

"All right, cool." James said as he plopped down on the bed. He began to scan Cameron's spotless room to try to learn something about him, but the only thing he found out about Cameron was that he was a neat freak.

Cameron sat down next to James on the bed, but kept a few inches between them. He didn't want to lead James on anymore then he already had. He handed James some of the Internet print out's and they both began to look through them. As Cameron rifled through the papers, he realized that he never really got a chance to talk to James about being gay at all.

"Hey, can we talk for a second?" Cameron asked.

"Yeah, sure. What's up?" James said.

"Look, um, I feel like we never really got a chance to talk about...you know..." Cameron started.

"Yeah. I've been wanting to talk to you about that for a while, I just didn't want to push it." James admitted.

"Really?" Cameron smiled. The thought that James had been nervous about talking to Cameron made him smile a little bit, but he tried to hide it.

"Yeah," James smiled. He looked up at Cameron and there eyes met, and they both smiled at each other. Cameron felt himself start to shake and knew that he needed to change the subject.

"So, does anyone know?" Cameron asked. James looked down at the floor.

"No. Well, besides Mr. Reilly. What about you?" James said.

"Well, besides you, only one other person knows." Cameron said. He hesitated to mention Matt, but decided that James wouldn't tell anyone. "Matt Regan, he's a senior at our school."

"Oh, is that the guy that your...dating," James as he finished his sentence. It reminded him that he had made an ass out of himself when he asked Cameron out on a date. Cameron sensed that and tried to answer quickly.

"Yeah," Cameron said. "This club in the city had this gay teen night, and I went in and met him there. I found out after that he went to our school, which made for an awkward encounter in school."

"That's ironic." James mumbled.

"Hey, you should come to that club with us. I think they might have one tomorrow night, I can find out." Cameron said.

"Actually, I have this stupid fundraiser for my mom tomorrow night." James explained. "Hey, wait, would you want to go to that? My mom asked me to invite all of my friends..." Cameron was surprised to hear that James thought of him as a friend. Not that they weren't friends, it was just weird for him to say it aloud. James was Mr. Popular, and Cameron wasn't anything. It was weird that a month ago they wouldn't even address each other.

"Wouldn't it be a little awkward?" Cameron asked. "I mean, I'd love to go, but I feel like if I went it'd be like me, you, and all those Kevin Trainer kid's. I don't think I'd fit in very well."

"You can bring Matt." James said.

"Really?" Cameron asked. "Okay, yeah then sure."

"Yeah, it starts at eight. It's at the Great Oak Country club. You know where that is, right?" James explained.

"Yeah." Cameron smiled. They soon continued to look through the Internet print outs, but Cameron found himself only thinking about Friday night.

Marissa Tampa lay looking up at Travis McCarthy's ceiling. She had gone to his house after school Thursday because Travis had no pot left and he was going to meet with his dealer to try and get some more. So, while Travis called his dealer, Marissa lay on his bed thinking about the past couple weeks.

She liked pot. She knew that from the moment she had her first puff, but part of her also knew that it was a big step to go from the Homecoming Queen to lying on Travis McCarthy's bed waiting to score some weed. She wasn't sure how she felt about this change that had come over her, but she knew that she didn't like the person that she used to be. And for right now, Travis was helping her transition into the person that she was going to be.

When Marissa entered Travis' house, it was not what she had expected. From the outside, she could tell that he was not rich, which she already knew, but she had not expected the inside to be decorated so quaintly. The kitchen in which she entered was spotless, and the living room next to it was decorated with floral wallpaper and pink couches. She definitely had not expected that.

However, as Travis escorted her up the stairs and into his room, she got more of what she had originally thought Travis' house would look like. His room was scattered with papers; old homework assignments, old tests, and just garbage. There were multiple holes in the walls, which Marissa assumed were done by fists. He told her to lie down and make herself comfortable while he called his dealer.

"Hey," Travis said as he reentered the room ten minutes after he had left, but he was now holding a dime bag.

"Hey, that was quick," she remarked.

"Yeah, well he was in the neighborhood and he owed me," he explained. He sat down on his desk and pulled out some rolling papers. He poured out the weed and began to roll a joint.

"Sweet," Marissa smiled.

"If we don't finish this, we can smoke it tomorrow night," he suggested.

"All right, cool," Marissa said. "Oh, wait, crap. I have this stupid thing tomorrow night."

"What kind of thing?" Travis asked.

"It's this stupid fundraiser for underprivileged children. I would honestly rather hang myself then go, but my parents are making me to keep up the façade that we're still a happy family." Marissa groaned.

"Sucks," Travis smiled. "I can pick you up after, if you want." Marissa was surprised at Travis' offer. She was not used to guys going out of their way to hang out, unless there was a possibility of sex.

"Really?" Marissa smiled.

"Yeah, why not." Travis said as he finished rolling the joint.

"That's sweet of you," Marissa remarked.

"Oh no. Don't say that." Travis groaned.

"Say what?" Marissa asked, confused.

"Don't say that I'm sweet. I don't want you to get that idea in your head. I'm not a nice guy. Don't expect me to be. If you do, I'll break your heart, I'm telling you right now." Travis said as he struggled to light up the joint.

Marissa was somewhat taken aback by his comment. So far, Travis had been a very sweet guy. Even warning her that he wasn't a nice guy was, well, sweet of him. She got up from the bed, and knelt down next to him. She gave him a soft kiss on the cheek.

"You're not as bad as you think," she smiled and then took the joint and lighter and easily lit it. She took a hit and smiled at Travis.

"Why would I want to go to that?" Matt wondered aloud as he took books out of his locker on Friday morning. Cameron leaned up against the locker next to Matt's.

"I don't know. I thought it'd be fun." Cameron shrugged.

"A fundraiser for underprivileged children? What sounds fun about that?" Matt asked. Cameron was having trouble convincing him to come.

"Well, we'd be able to help children without homes and food and shelter. Come on, Scrooge." Cameron smiled. Matt jokingly frowned at him. "Plus, I'll pay the twenty-five dollars for you to get in."

"We have to pay to go to this miserable event?" Matt groaned.

"Yes," Cameron replied.

"Why can't we just hang out at my house?" Matt asked.

"Because I told my friend that we'd go." Cameron explained.

"Who?" Matt asked.

"James. James Winters, I don't think you know him. He's my year." Cameron replied.

"Is that Kate Winters' brother?" Matt wondered. "Wait! Isn't that the kid that...you know. We saw..." Cameron wasn't sure that Matt had seen James' face, which made it more uncomfortable now that Matt knew James was gay.

"Yeah," Cameron shyly said.

"Wait, is that the kid who you've been studying with?" Matt asked.

"Yeah," Cameron suddenly felt the need to explain the fact that he had hid that James was gay. "Look, I know I should've told you. I'm sorry I didn't. I just didn't know how you would react."

"Why would I care?" Matt asked. This was not the reaction Cameron had expected. He suddenly wanted Matt to be jealous.

"I don't know..." Cameron muttered. He looked around to make sure no one was in hearing range of them. "I mean, cause, we're, you know, like together..."

"Good," Matt smiled. "I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page here." Cameron suddenly felt a wave of relief come over him. Matt closed his locker and they both started to walk down the hall together.

"So, will you please come tonight?" Cameron begged using his best puppy dog face. Matt looked at him strangely.

"Is that supposed to be a puppy dog face?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, I know. I suck at it. I'm working on it." Cameron smiled.

"Okay. I'll come tonight, if it's that important to you. What do I have to wear?" he asked.

"I'm wearing khaki's, jacket and tie." Cameron replied.

"No shirt?" Matt joked.

"Very funny," Cameron smiled. "I got to go, I'll call you later." And with that Cameron ran down the hallway, thinking about how much fun he would have later that night.

Alexis Lucas collapsed on her couch after a hard afternoon of work at The Downtown. Her clothes smell of toilet water, and her hands smell of wood polish, but she was too tired to shower. She was even too lazy to pick up the remote, which lay inches out of her grasp. So she just decided to lay on the couch for a few more moments.

Alex moved into her own apartment after several disagreements with her parents. Her parents never really understood her and she never really understood her parents. Her mom bitched around her dad, and she felt bad for her father, but was sick of her mother. She honestly wanted to move out with her dad, but he saw that as too drastic a step. He did love her mother, but it was an odd relationship. So, her parents allowed her to move out on her own as long as she paid her own rent and went to school. Alex found a small apartment that looked out on the water, which was perfect for the summer but horrible for the winter. It wasn't expensive, but it wasn't very nice either. She constantly had to deal with termites and rats, and it didn't help that she had to take care of herself, but she felt it was better than living with her mother. Alexis felt her phone vibrating in her pocket, but didn't have the energy to pick it up. She wasn't expecting any phone calls, and she decided to let it go to voicemail. However, after the person called back three more times, she finally decided to answer it. Without even looking at who the caller was she flipped open her phone. "This better be important," Alex snapped. "I'm outside," the caller said. "What do you mean you're...?" Alex was interrupted by a knock on the door before she could finish her sentence. She pushed herself up to and swung open the door to find Kevin Trainer standing at her front door with a jacket and tie on. "What the fuck are you doing here?" "It's eight o'clock..." Kevin started, hoping that would jog her memory. "I said I'd pick you up..." Suddenly Alex remembered their conversation from the day before and regretted not telling him no. "I figured you'd forget to dress up, so I got you a dress." Kevin smirked. Suddenly Alex started to laugh uncontrollably. "What's so funny?" "No, I'm sorry," She tried to hold in her laughter. "I just find it funny, you know, you showing up here all dressed up with a dress, thinking you're Mr. Suave. Did you get this from 'She's All That' or something?" Kevin looked very embarrassed and Alexis felt somewhat guilty for her comments. "Look, I'm sorry. I just was surprised that you showed up." "No, it's fine." Kevin said as he started to leave. "No, no. Stop. Look, I just honestly wasn't thinking. It was sweet of you to come with a dress and pick me up. I'm sorry. It's just...I'm not used to it," she started. "Look, if you're trying to impress me, you don't have to do all this." "I want to though," Kevin smirked. "Again, trying to be the sweet guy. Look, I know you. I know your type. You just want to get in my pants, and we both know that it's nothing more then that, so please don't try and pretend. I'll come with you to your stupid fundraiser, as long as you promise you'll stop it with this stupid act." Alex said. "Okay," Kevin agreed. "Okay, now I'm going to go shower. You can watch T.V. I only get four stations so don't be disappointed." Alex said and headed off into her bathroom. Kevin pretended to watch the T.V. while he tried to get a glimpse of her getting undressed before getting in the bathroom, but had no such luck.

Cameron and Matt felt more awkward then they had expected as soon as they entered the fundraiser. Cameron barely knew any of the kids. He recognized the majority of them from school, but hadn't talked to any of them.

"I'm so glad we came," Matt sarcastically remarked.

"Oh, shut it," Cameron smiled.

"So what do we even do now?" Matt asked.

"I honestly have no idea. I think we just..." Cameron was interrupted by a girl and a boy who had just approached them. The girl had long blonde hair, and the boy had black spiked hair.

"Hi Matt, I didn't know you were coming!" The girl said cheerfully. Cameron already didn't like her. He could see right through her fake smile. And the boy with the spiked hair was giving him a dirty look.

"Hey, yeah, I just came with my friend Cameron here." Matt explained.

"Oh, Hi. I'm Kate. Kate Winters, my mom is running this." She smiled.

"Hi. Cameron. Nice to meet you." Cameron smiled back.

"I'm Jeremy." The boy with the spiked hair introduced. He still was not very friendly, but Cameron shook his hand non-the less. However, Cameron began to notice an awkward tension between Jeremy and Matt. Or maybe it was between Kate and Matt. Either way, there was a very awkward quality. Cameron looked for comfort in Matt, but Matt was staring intensely at Jeremy. Cameron was relieved when he saw James picking food at the buffet. He quickly excused himself from the conversation and joined James.

"Hey, I just had the most awkward moment," Cameron blurted as soon as he got over to the buffet. James turned around and smiled when he saw Cameron.

"With who?" James asked.

"Matt saw these people that he knew, and it was just really awkward because there was some serious tension. I think the girl was actually your sister. The guy was some guy Jeremy." Cameron told, gesturing towards Matt, Kate, and Jeremy, who were still standing awkwardly.

"Oh, that's Matt?" James said trying to sound nonchalant.

"Yeah," Cameron replied, realizing that this conversation was getting quite awkward as well.

"Oh, cool. Well, anyway, that girl's my sister and that kid Jeremy and her are really good friends. He's fucking weird though. He's always calling the house and coming over, but just like recently. I never even heard of him before like two months ago." James explained. Cameron felt relieved that he had changed the subject off of Matt.

"That's so weird," Cameron remarked. "He was staring daggers at me the entire conversation. I'm not even kidding. He wasn't even being subtle about it either."

"Maybe he thinks you were checking out my sister. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a thing for her," James suggested.

"Maybe," Cameron said. "So, what do we do here?"

"What do you mean?" James asked.

"Well, what do we do tonight? Do we just sit and eat and..." Cameron started to say, but stopped when he saw Matt approaching them. This was going to be a little awkward. "Oh, hey. Matt this is James, James this is Matt."

"Hey, how's it going?" Matt smiled and shook James' hand.

"Thanks for coming," James smiled back. There was an awkward silence that lasted about ten seconds but seemed like it lasted for ten minutes. "I actually got to go help my mom with some stuff. I'll see you guys later."

"Oh, okay. I'll see you later." Cameron waved.

"Yeah, it was nice meeting you." Matt smiled. After James had left, Matt turned to Cameron. "Okay, I didn't know he was that cute. Now, I'm a little bit jealous."

"Oh, stop. You have nothing to be jealous about, I've told you," Cameron said. "Now, can you explain to me why Jeremy was contemplating strangling me."

"What?" Matt asked.

"Are you serious?" Cameron said, shocked that Matt had not noticed Jeremy's staring. "He was staring me down the entire time! You seriously didn't notice that?"

"No," Matt smiled to himself and seemed to be thinking. "Was he really?"

"Yes!" Cameron exclaimed.

"That's so weird," Matt was still smiling, and Cameron didn't exactly know how he felt about that. "I'll tell you another time." Cameron was about to force Matt to tell him now, but he suddenly saw something he had not expected. Alexis Lucas in a long white dress with her arm hooked around Kevin Trainer.

"Oh my god, is that Alex?" Cameron blurted.

"Who's Alex?" Matt wondered aloud.

"Hold on," Cameron walked over to where Alex was standing next to Kevin Trainer. He didn't want to have to awkwardly pull her away from Kevin, so he decided to throw bits of pasta from the buffet at her until he got her attention. It took about four throws until she turned around to see Cameron. She excused herself from Kevin and ran over to Cameron.

"What are you doing here?" Alex exclaimed.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" Cameron asked.

"It's a long story," Alex said simply. She then turned to Matt. "Hi, I'm Alex."

"Matt, nice to meet you," Matt smiled, happy that Alex was a girl and not someone else that he had to be jealous about.

"Wow, you have no idea how happy I am that you are here" Alex smiled.

James watched as Alex, Matt, and Cameron joked around by the buffet table and found himself feeling, once again, alone. He had felt this feeling often as of late, but tonight, after meeting Matt, he felt it more so. The words of Mr. Reilly saying, "You are going to be alone," rang in his ears. He wondered if he actually would end up alone, because right now that seemed like a growing possibility.

James was sitting at one of the tables. The table was half filled, but James felt one-hundred-percent alone. He watched as his sister Kate flirted with a group of guys. He wished that he could trade places with her. Not that he wanted to be a girl; he just wanted to be able to go up to a guy and flirt with him.

"Who the fuck is that?" Kevin Trainer said as he plopped down in the empty chair next to him.

"Who's who?" James asked.

"That fucking faggot flirting with Alex," Kevin explained, gesturing towards Cameron.

"Oh, that's Cameron. And trust me, he's not flirting with her," James smirked.

"That's what it looks like to me," Kevin grunted. "If I don't get with her by the end of the night, I'm going to pound that fags face in." James suddenly felt defensive for two reasons: firstly, because he was talking about pounding Cameron's face in; and secondly, because he was calling him a faggot.

"Really? You're really going to punch someone in the fact because he's just talking to this girl that you are trying to fuck?" James frowned.

"Yeah," Kevin simply replied.

"What are you two pussies bitching about?" Max Greco said as he sat down in the other seat next to James. James was really sick of Max's whole asshole routine. Max was always the guy to say the insensitive asshole comment, the first guy to punch someone for no reason, and probably the first guy to beat James up when he found out he was a 'fag'.

"Nothing," James mumbled.

"That fucking fag is flirting with Alex," Kevin updated Max. "He's going to ruin my chances with her." Max looked to where Kevin was pointing.

"Want me to take him outside?" Max suggested.

"No! Jesus! You guys are being fucking ridiculous!" James screeched.

"Oh shut up Winters, you're such a pussy, I was just fucking joking," Max laughed. James was getting more sick of Max by the minute, so he decided to excused himself from the conversation. James walked past Cameron, Alex, and Matt and walked out of the front doors of the building. He needed some fresh air.

In the front of the building, there was a big porch the extended all the away around to the back. He started to walk along that porch, until he saw someone sitting on one of the benches. He was surprised to see that it was Marissa Tampa smoking a cigarette. He wasn't sure if he should sit down next to her or not. They used to be pretty good friends, but recently she'd been acting very oddly. He decided to sit down anyway.

"Hey," he smiled as he sat down.

"Hey James," Marissa smiled back at him.

"We haven't talked in a while. I miss our biology chats from last year. How've you been?" James tried to start up the conversation. He actually did like Marissa. Even though she could be a real bitch, he could tell that she was a good person at heart. Plus, he knew from the town gossip that she had a hard family life.

"Yeah, I know. I know. I've been pretty good. How about you?" Marissa said politely.

"I've been good," James replied. There was an awkward moment between them, but Marissa didn't seem to notice as she took another puff of her cigarette. "So, what's this new attitude that you've adopted?"

"Ah, the question that everyone seems to be asking nowadays," Marissa smiled. "I'm not really sure, to be perfectly honest. Do you ever get sick of it?"

"Sick of what?" James asked.

"Sick of the whole bullshit of high school," Marissa explained. "I don't know, I just think it's stupid that people are 'popular' and 'losers'. I don't know. I just realized the other day that if this were a teen movie, I'd be the bitchy girl. And I don't know, I didn't like that. Sorry, I'm just rambling."

"No, no. I understand you. I actually do think about that sometimes," James admitted. "Sometimes, I honestly wish I could just tell people off and actually say what I'm really thinking. It's just, I feel like I've built up such a reputation for myself, and I'm too scared to change that. I don't want to be alone."

"I hear you," Marissa smiled. Suddenly, there were two honks heard from the parking lot across from them. "Hey, sorry. That's my ride, I'm sneaking out of here. It was nice talking to you though."

"Yeah," James smiled. Marissa started to walk away, but then turned back for a moment to look at James.

"Hey, don't be scared about being alone. Sometimes it's necessary to become truly happy." Marissa smiled and then walked away.

People enjoy getting dressed up. However, what people enjoy more then that is getting undressed. Whether it be going back to a lover's house after a night out; or whether you being coming back home alone, it feelings good to take off the outfits that felt so good to put on in the first place. We worked so hard to look so good, only to feel relieved when we are able to undo what we did.

Thank you so much for reading and please e-mail me at ryanwest25@yahoo.com with questions, comments and suggestions. Thanks again, and I hope you continue reading.