The Tragedy of Daniel and Jake Chapter 2 Written by John Meyers
Disclaimer: You know, I was half thinking of just copying and pasting the same disclaimer from the first one to this one, but I decided that didn't have enough personality in it, or something... Anyway, uh, yeah. The stuff in this story is not real, it is a made up by yours truly. If anyone in the story looks like anyone you or someone else may know in real life than that is just freaky isn't it? This story shows teenage guys doing teenage guy things (Psst. That means having sex.) with eachother. If this offends yo- oh forget it, you're not reading this story if stuff like this bothers you. Ah, my favorite part again, if you are reading this and you are not 18 or this stuff is not legal where you are then leave. Yeah, that's right. Go ahead and click little Mr. X and think about what you've done. All right, all right? You're not leaving are you? Oh well, can't say I blame you. Anyway, now that that's done, on to the story... But before I do, I would like to extend my thanks to all the wonderful people who e-mailed me about this story and let me know how much they wanted to read more, oh and yes, to the person who asked if Jake showed up later, you know who you are, he shows up in this Chapter. I would also like to state that I do not own any of the artists, or songs mentioned in this chapter, I do not own the rights to any of the artists or songs, and they are under copyrights by the individual record companies that are in charge of them. AnYwaY... oN to tHe STorY...
Daniel's POV
"You love flaunting it, don't you?" Mark asked while shaking head and smiling.
"I think you're just mad because I can get away with so much more than you. For instance, I can wear pink whenever I want, I can do yoga without being ostracized, I have every girl at school wanting me to go shopping with them, I can use tanning beds, lotions, scented bath salts, wear anklets and bracelets, pull off any kind of fashion with ease, actually 'match'." I looked him up and down at his plain white tee and bootcut jeans, and his boots.
"What?" He glanced down at his clothes.
"Oh nothing, you actually match fine I just knew that would get you." I smiled my best shit eating grin.
"For your information I could do all those things if I wanted too." Mark stuck his tongue out at me.
"If you wanted to be called gay." I rebuttled. "Face it, the life of a straight guy is vastly limited when compared to that of a gay one." I waited patiently for his rebuttal, oh how I loved the witty forte. Mark thought for a second before looking at Miranda and smiling.
"I can think of a few things that straight guys can do that you can't." He wagged his eyebrows at Miranda and she giggled and blushed.
"That doesn't count." I said simply.
"Why not?!" He protested.
"Because you can only use examples that both parties can or want to do. And of course, since I'm gay, that example is null."
"Well then you can scratch off about half the crap you just said too."
I smiled my smug little grin and slid his keys to him from across the table. "Let's just get going." I walked over and turned off the kitchen lights and grabbed my phone, iPod, and key off the counter. Mark and Miranda were already walking out to Mark's truck so I locked up and walked over, feeling the chilly January air bite at my exposed forearms. Miranda rolled down the passenger side window.
"I'm riding shotgun today Danny." She stuck her tongue out at me and giggled up a storm. "Hop your ass in the back." She rolled up her window while I climbed in the back of his red Dodge Ram. Mark comes from wealthy parents, so they can afford a brand new truck for his first car.
"I vote we go eat first." I said as I pulled the seatbelt over and buckled it.
"Why eat first?" Mark asked while backing out, turning around in his seat to see out of the back. He'd never been able to use the rearview mirror.
"Well for starters I didn't get to eat breakfast and there won't be any movies this early." I tried using the rearview mirror to check my hair, leaning over and pulling a few strands this way and that.
"Well it's all about you isn't it." Mark replied sarcastically. The car sped up in reverse a little bit.
"Mark!" Miranda shouted. The car lurched to a stop and I was flung back in my seat. We just barely missed the neighbors car.
"What was all that?" She sounded a little pissed. I'd learned a long time ago that riding with anyone other than her parents made her nervous, no idea why though.
"Sorry, I uh, just got distracted." His face turned scarlet and he avoided both of our gazes. I settled back into my seat and continued fixing my hair in the mirror. What? I've got a small narcissistic personality disorder. Just about my hair though.
Mark's POV
I turned around in my seat, slowly backing my truck out of Daniel's driveway. Daniel leaned over beside me, fixing his hair in my neglected rearview mirror by the looks of it. He was literally a few inches away from me, I could feel the heat coming off of his body, I could make out every detail of the skin on his neck. I found myself leaning closer almost subconciously, yearning to get closer to my Daniel. I smelled his amazing cologne, becoming enraptured (and incredibly turned on) by the amazing boy in my back seat. Then,
"Mark!" Miranda screamed in my ear. I slammed on the brakes feeling the truck jerk as I did so. The blood rushed to my face in embarassment and I looked away to try and hide it. "What was all that?" I turned to see the combination of anger and fear in her eyes and felt guilty for scaring her as I became reminded.
"Sorry," I mumbled pathetically. "I uh, just got distracted." I steeled myself mentally, berating myself for getting distracted by Daniel. I hated myself for this, I thought as I pulled out of the subdivision driveway. I hate myself for the act I have to put up with Miranda, not that I don't love her, I guess it's just not in that way. I hate myself for enduring this torture. Most of all though, I hate myself for being too scared to do anything with Daniel. For years he's been there, a more than willing, gorgeous boy. Even if he'd only came out a few months ago, there's some things you just can't fail to notice when you're best friends with someone, like how he hadn't had a girlfriend since the seventh grade, or that he never joined in the talk about what he would 'do' to any of the girls around school. If I'd acted before, maybe I'd be in a relationship with him right now, but I just never got the balls to try anything.
As I was driving down the road I heard Daniel's phone ring.
"Hey Jake." His voice rang out, answering the goddamn phone. Jake. Slimy little ass. I hated Jake. He burned through a different girl every two weeks, always claiming that all of them were, "stupid tramps that wanted nothing more than a dick in their pussy", please! He could complain all he wanted but everyone knew that he was more than willing to oblige all of their requests, then dump them the second he'd had his fun. He's on the football team with me, wide receiver. I'm linebacker. Don't get me wrong, he's a great football player, hell, I may even be able to forgive all the man-whoring he does, if it weren't for Daniel. Now, he may be as straight as they come, but that didn't change the fact that he and Daniel had grown pretty damn close. Daniel and I haven't gotten to hang out as much in the past 2 years because of Miranda. Not that I resent her for that, but it bothers me that they're so close. It feels like Im losing my best friend to that ass.
"Nah, we were just heading to the mall, you coming?" Ugh, I could swear Daniel likes Jake, and I mean like in that way, yes. I mean, yeah, he's pretty damn good looking, but that didn't mean he wasn't a huge ass. To me, personality won out over looks. "Oh, just Mark, Miranda, and I." I could hear Jake through the receiver. "Of course Zack can come. Okay, see you in what? 15 minutes. K. Bye." Ass.
"So I guess Jake's coming?" I asked, my hands tightening on the steering wheel.
"Yeah, that's okay right?"
"Yeah, fine." I reassured him quickly. Daniel didn't know I didn't particularly like Jake. How I didn't know though. He was usually so perceptive about this kind of stuff. Regardless, I suppose it didn't matter.
14 minutes later...
Jake's POV
I walked through the huge automatic doors to the mall. Our mall was awesome. I hadn't been to a lot of other places but, seeing as how we don't live in the most.... I don't know how to say it, modern? I guess. Anyway, seeing as how we didn't live in the most modern state in the U.S., Arkansas, for those of you curious, I suppose it worked pretty well. I walked into the atrium, Zack trailing behind me, txting something into his phone. Probably to Samantha, I thought inwardly. Zack and Samantha had been dating for, oh, about 6 months now. Hell, that beat out all of the best records I'd had with a girl. My longest lasting relationship ended about an hour ago. Bitch. Racheal, was probably the most evil, insane bitch on the planet, but, I being an idiot decided she was worth the trouble. Five months and a few of my pay checks worth later, she decided that 'I' was no longer worth the trouble. Bitch. Daniel had said that they'd be around here somewhere. I'd imagined they'd be here waiting for me. I looked around the enormous room, glancing at all of the other people hanging around. I was just about to go look for them when I saw them walking out of the electronics store. Daniel looked up and saw me. Instantaneously I felt elated. Danny had that effect on people. It was like he had a little happy gun hidden behind his eyes that he fired everytime he looked at someone. He waved at me, drawing Miranda and Marks' attention as well. He had a bag in his hand, obviously examining a game, or cd, or dvd of some kind.
I turned and tapped Zack on the shoulder, seeing as he was still absorbed in his message, his fingers firing across his phone at lightning speed. I swear he could probably type 200 words a minute on that thing. He looked up and saw them and smiled. Told you, happy guns. Anyway, we walked over.
"Watcha got there?" I asked peeking around to see what was in Danny's hand.
"Dragon Age 2. I just got it, I played it at Zack's house a few weeks ago and it was awesome.
"That's the understatement of the year." Zack piped up, finally tearing himself from his txting. "Happy birthday by the way. He played that game all night. Couldn't take his eyes off the tv. Went total zombie fest on me." Zack laughed before his phone buzzed and he groaned and pulled out his phone and went away at lightning speed again.
"What? I can't help it that it was an amazing game! Anyway, I didn't get to beat it so I decided I'd go ahead and buy it with some of my birthday money." He started reading the little manual that comes with all of the games. He's the only person I know who reads all the manuals to a game before he plays it.
"So what all are we going to do?" I was hoping to get the show on the road. Anything to distract me from the whole crap with Racheal. I looked over and saw this little arcade looking place. Then it dinged! "This way." I told them as I began walking over to it. I knew for a fact that they had one, and there it was, visible right through the window... A Dance Dance Revolution Game.
Daniel's POV
I couldn't be more humiliated, I thought to myself as I was pushed onto the platform. Jake put some quarters into the machine and the screen started lighting up.
"I can't do this." I said, I am far to shy to do this kind of crap.
"What happened to all the stuff you could get away with that I couldn't?" I think it was the smug smile, or maybe I wasn't as shy as I thought, but I turned back around and picked my song. The beat started up and I began dancing.
"Party Rock!" I heard the machine say. "Party Rock is in the house tonight!" I just watched the guy on the screen and let my body do the rest, a little cheesy I know, but, oh well. "Everybody just have a good time! And we goin' make you lose your mind!" I could feel them staring a hole in my back but you know what I thought? All gay guys are great dancers. "Everybody just have a good time. Party Rock is in the house tonight, everybody just have a good time!" I barely saw the screen, I just saw the arrows, and saw what I needed to do to get those perfects that kept popping up on the screen. "And we goin' make you lose your mind. We just wanna see you... SHAKE THAT!"
I stepped off the platform signifigantly hotter than when I had gotten on. I took the second to look at Mark.
"That!" I pointed at the game. "Is what happened to all the stuff I could get away with that you couldn't." I shot him my shit eating grin and high fived Jake, who looked absolutely delighted with how that had went.
"That was awesome!" He said, beaming.
"Alright, your turn." I said gesturing to the game.
"Oh no. I don't dance." He said, backing away quickly.
"You do today. Get up there." I grabbed his arm and pulled him up to the machine. He trudged up there, looking crestfallen. He went to pick his song, but I stopped him. "I want to pick." I said, my shit eating grin flashing for the second time in two minutes. "Turn around, I want it to be a surprise."
"My luck you'll pick something Lady GaGa-ish." He said as he turned in place. I picked the song and I told him to turn back around.
"Whenever you're ready." Then he started.
"It doesn't matter if you love him... Or capital H-I-M!"
"You've got to be kidding me!"
"Just put your paws up... Cuz' you were born this way baby!"
Jake hopped down, smiling so wide I was half afraid his face would split open.
"See now that wasn't so bad was it?"
"Not funny." He said. He wasn't that bad of a dancer. "You're turn Zack." Zack, smiling to himself, got up on the platform without another word and looked at me.
"You want to pick?" I smiled.
"You asked for it." I picked his song and no sooner did we hear,
"Hiya Barbie!"
"Hi Ken!"
"I hate you." Was the only thing he said before he gladly made a fool of himself, singing along, "I'm a barbie girl" and pulling out all of the oldest, most embarassing dances I've ever seen. We got the full ride. He fit the robot, the running man, the worm, the 'Night at the Roxberry' head bob, the cabbage patch, that disco move, you know the one with one hand reaching up while pointing, the mash, the twist, the macarena, and so many other nameless oddities into his dancing, that neither Mark nor Miranda wanted to follow him.
"You are such a dork." I high fived him while he acted all cool. Oh look, he's Mr. Big&Bad now.
"Alright Mark, you're turn." He got up there.
"Take this for good luck." Miranda walked over and kissed him. While she did that, I picked his song. He stood up, ready.
The opening beat played and we heard a woman. "OooOoo yeah.. yeah.... I got a pocket got a pocket full of sunshine! I got a love and I know that it's all mine!" He struggled to keep up, having been caught off guard by the sudden start. It was hilarious watching him flail around up there, but he deliberately smiled and sang along and pulled out the biggest and best gay act he's ever done.
Miranda was the only one left so we thought about what to pick for her. We knew how much of a prude she was so we finally decided on...
"Nah Nah Nah Come on! Nah nah nah Come on!" She was up there smiling wider than any other person was, her braces showing off prominently as she had her head back cackling most of the time. It was quite comical. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me!" When she finally got done we headed over to another, slightly older means of entertainment... The karaoke machine.
I went first, and of course, I didn't get to pick my song! I heard them saying, "He loves Maroon 5, pick a Maroon 5 song!" Yes! There wasn't a single Maroon 5 song I didn't know. They picked a song and looked up at me as a signal. I saw the words appear on the screen in front of me, but I didn't need them. I knew this song like the back of my hand, having sung it into my hairbrush many number of times.
"I wake up with blood shot eyes, stuggled to memorize, the way it felt between your thighs, pleasure that made you cry!" I sang better than I ever had and closed my eyes, clearly demonstrating my knowledge of the song."-Try to get you back!" I loved this song. By the end of it they were all staring at me, mouths agape. "You were spot on with Maroon 5. Best. Band. Ever. In my opinion anyway. Miranda, you're turn." We all knew that Miranda had a wonderful singing voice. She won the talent show last year for singing a Taylor Swift song. We were all by the machine, trying to pick a song that was funny and worth hearing, and then it hit me. And they loved the idea, of course. And I picked it.
There were some birds chirping and some wind chime music playing. Miranda cracked up before singing.
"Lo-oving you... Is easy cuz' you're beautiful! Makin' love with you.. is all I wanna do!... Lovin' you... is more than just a dream come true.." She continued on, deliberately screaming when that really high note came around. By the end, we were all hunched over from laughing. Zack's turn came around and he said that he already knew what song he wanted to do, and that we definitely weren't going to be disappointed. Something in his voice said that we weren't. He got up on stage and in the deepest voice he managed...
"I'm... to sexy for my love! Too sexy for my love, love's going to leave!" He started doing little catwalk walks around. "I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, oh so sexy it hurts. And I'm... too sexy for Milan, too sexy for Milan, New York and Japan." It was only during this I noticed Jake recording everything with his camera. Zack continued without realizing.
"How much have you recorded?" I asked, smiling devilishly.
"Everything since you danced." He said. "Hello Facebook."
His song finished, and after much applause, it was Mark's turn. We all whispered, thinking of what to get him to sing. And then, like all the others, it hit me. I found it, and picked it. The words showed up while a voice carried the introduction.
"Well now, we call this the act of mating, but, there are several other very important differences between human beings and animals that you should know about." The beat bumped and Mark recognized the song.
"Sweat baby, sweat baby, sex is a texas drought, me and you do the kind of stuff only prince would sing about! So put your hands down my pants and I'll bet you'll feel nuts. Yes I'm Siskel and I'm Eiber and you're getting two thumbs up!" He was totally rocking it out, halfway doing the dance from the music video to this song. When it was over he handed the mike to Jake. At this point, our singing had drawn a small crowd of fellow mall goers who were taking pictures and recording us as well.
"Well Jake, you're up!" Jake got up on the stage and we picked out his song. The words popped up on the screen and he smiled for a second. We all knew he hated Switchfoot.
"Welcome to the planet! Welcome to existence!" You could hear the mild frustration in his voice, but it slowly ebbed away, to be replaced by the genuine effort anyone gave when singing anything. "Everyone's here! Everyone's here!" He closed his eyes and surprisingly, still knew the words. The effort disappeared, and it became effortless. "Everybody's watching you now!" Was it just me, or did he have an amazing singing voice? "Everybody waits for you now!" I felt entranced. I noticed how the light fell on his face. I noticed how everyone had seemed to go still, this was not some silly fun like what we had done. This was... Different. "What happens next?!... What happens next?!" You could feel the power in his voice. "I DARE YOU TO MOVE!" His voice erupted into the room. The karaoke speakers didn't do him nearly enough justice. "I DARE YOU TO MOVE!" The room had seemed to go dark except for the stage. Some people were doing that thing where they hold up their phones and wave them slowly back and forth. It suddenly struck me that I wanted to. Wanted to, but couldn't. "I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor! I DARE YOU TO MOVE! I DARE YOU TO MOVE! LIKE TODAY NEVER HAPPENED! TODAY NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!!" I was drawn in. The others were too. I may have a pretty voice, but his was demanding, spellbinding, forcing you to listen. Making you want to listen.
"Welcome to the fallout! Welcome to resistance!... The Tension is here! Tension is here!" I felt it, all around the room. Tension. As I looked up at him, I saw a pain in him that I'd never seen. It gave him beauty, not that he hadn't always been hot, but this was beauty. Something spiritual almost. "Between who you are and who you could be.... Between how it is and how it should be!" He opened his eyes. I saw it, the pain. What, I asked myself, could give him such pain."I DARE YOU TO MOVE!! I DARE YOU TO MOVE! I DARE YOU TO PICK YOURSELF UP OFF THE FLOOR!" His amazing green eyes were swimming with emotion. "I DARE YOU TO MOVE!! I DARE YOU TO MOVE! LIKE TODAY NEVER HAPPENED, TODAY NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!" As he closed his eyes and kept going I started noticing something. "Maybe redemption has stories to tell! Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell! Where can you run to escape from yourself?!... Where you gonna go?.... Where you gonna go?... Salvation is he-ere!!" As though a heavy stone had been dropped in my stomach. "I DARE YOU TO MOVE! I DARE YOU TO MOVE!... I DARE YOU TO LIFT YOURSELF UP OFF THE FLOOR!!" And my heart had trouble beating, but got faster still. "I DARE YOU TO MOVE!!... I DARE YOU TO MOVE!!" These were the signs that I had felt before, towards other people. "LIKE TODAY NEVER HAPPENED!! TODAY NEVER HAPPENED!!" Signs that only meant one thing. "TODAY NEVER HAPPENED!! TODAY NEVER HAPPENED BEfore-e..." I had fallen for Jake.
Sorry this chapter took so long, I'm sure more than one of you readers were starting to get mad, thinking I wasn't going to post another chapter, well, I don't think I could do that to any of you. I'd like to take this moment to once again thank all of you for your reviews, I continue to appreciate them and they keep me going with this story. I'll have the next chapter up ASAP. R&R to johnmeyerz36@yahoo.com