Neighbors

'It’s okay Jeff. Your okay dude.' Was all I could really say. I had my neighbor of a week crying on my shoulder half naked, covered in blood, sitting on the locker room floor the first day of school, and my little brother and best friend kicked his ass. Perfect way to start the school year I thought to myself. We stayed on the ground for a few minutes. The locker room had finally cleared all the way out and the music was off now so I knew no one else was in there.

'I just want to go home please.' Jeff finally got out after he stopped crying on my shoulder.

'Okay, but you need to take a shower or something to get all this blood off, I’m not letting you get into that beautiful car with blood all over you, then I know you’d kill me later for letting you stain your seats.' I joked. I got a little laugh out of him. I helped him up and into the shower stalls. He carried himself pretty well for just having got the shit kicked out of him. I had to help him balance a little bit because of the cut on his leg. I got him into the shower and he just stood there for a minute or two just letting the water flow from his head, down his body, washing away the blood that hadn’t yet even dried. He just seemed so peaceful then. Defeated, but still peaceful.

'Do you need anything dude?' I asked to break the now awkward silence of just watching him stand under a shower.

'Towel' was all he said. When I came back with a towel he had taken off his running shorts and was now standing under the shower completely naked. Now I’ve showered with guys in this exact shower room for years, it was no big deal to me. But once he saw me looking at him he turned the water off in an instant and grabbed at the towel I was holding and ran back to his locker.

'Umm should I ask what happened?' I asked slowly around the corner so I couldn’t even see him. 'I just want to go home, just leave me alone.' Was all he said as he slammed his locker shut and ran by me. I just looked around and laughed at the situation again. I thought about running after him, but decided I didn’t know him well enough and to just leave it. I walked over to his locker and Jeff had forgotten half his stuff, his back pack, his phone, a set of dog tags that he had around a necklace. I got it all together and stuffed it into his backpack. Just then he got a text message asking, 'How’s your first day back at school? Hope no one picked on your or I’ll kill them LOL.' Ya, LOL, I thought to myself putting his phone in his bag.

'Okay kids, now were just gonna be next door staying at the Smith’s house. Please do not burn down my house, and if you do, remember, you’re all rebuilding it brick by damn brick.' My mom said while pointing a finger at all my friends as well as Jeff and Amy. We pretty much adopted them into our family after the first day of school. Even though I still to this day haven’t figured out what it was about, or how Collin, Jeff, and Chip worked it all out. Hell, I don’t really care either. Chip and I practically have a new brother and sister, and the guys now have a girl that can show them the ropes. I’m so happy Amy turned out to be a full on Tom boy. Even the thought of even kissing her is disgusting to all of us. Collin put it the best way last week. 'Like kissing your sister.'

'We all know Momma D, we will not harm your house anymore then we already do on a daily basis. And we can’t really burn down a stone building anyways.' Collin interjected while giving my parents a Magnum bottle of wine.

'Collin, if you weren’t so damn cute I’d break this bottle right over your head sometimes.' My mom said while snatching the large bottle.

'My last Devil Feast of high school. It went by way to quick boys.' I said while looking out onto the large tent we had in our back yard overlooking the city below. 'I guess we should get this party started.' We all held up our shot glasses, 'To all our friends, new, and old, we go forth onto a journey of self discover, wisdom, and life.

May we all survive the devils coming. Cheers!' We all took our shots and chased them down with the Guillotine; A large wooden platform with eight separate three foot beer bongs. Yes, it was the Daniel’s brother forth annual Halloween Devils Feast. Every year since I reached high school, I threw a huge Halloween party at my house. We would rent a large five hundred person tent. Well we actually bought one after my freshmen year when we all figured this would be an annual thing. Invite pretty much whoever we wanted or wanted to come, and just partied the entire night. Since the nearest house was the Adams, and now the Smiths, we didn’t care much of anyone complaining.

And since my uncles are all Sheriffs, they don’t mind all the drinking either. Especially because they all know that high school people are going to party for Halloween, but that when they party at our house, no one is driving home. Everyone just passes out in the tent somewhere. We collect money from people who are coming or whatever anyone wants to give us to buy kegs and liquor and make it into a huge serve your own bar. And this year was no different I thought to myself as I jumped down from the Guillotine to a huge crowd of my already drunk classmates. The one good thing about St. Joes I guess is that with a student population of only six hundred and fifty, you knew everyone there.

'Wow dude, I’ve never seen a party like this ever!' Jeff yelled to me so I could hear him over all the music and talking.

'Ya, well glad you could make it to my last one my friend.' I said while pulling him in for a huge hug. By one in the morning I didn’t even have a clue what was going on anymore, I must have gone up to the Guillotine half dozen times and taken more shots than I could even count. So I decided I’d had enough to drink for the night. The worst thing about throwing a party is you have to be the last one standing. Or so I always thought. And last year I was standing all the way until the sun came up.

'Chip, I haven’t seen your brother in hours, no one has, where’d he go?' Collin asked me around three am.

'I don’t know Collin, he’s probably passed out or screwing some girl or something, why do you even care?'

'Because I just found his phone over by all the ice, he never leaves his phone.' Collin said worried. This was a true fact of both of us. Our phones were never far from us at any point, especially at a party. We may not answer it, but we always without a question of a doubt have it on us.

'Okay, let’s go find the fucking retard then.' I said while rolling my eyes in grief wondering what the hell happened to him. I searched the tent really quickly, no sign, the garage, the entire property, and finally the house. Of which we locked and weren’t supposed to go inside anyways because we didn’t want to have people wondering in there after us to begin with. What I was doing just now anyways. I went inside and for the first time in hours it was completely silent. I reveled in the silence for a while. Up until I heard a loud thump from upstairs. Conner probably drunkenly wobbled into the house to go to sleep. I walked upstairs to his room and when I turned the corner I heard something heavy hit his door; so hard it shook the walls. I ran to the door to try to open it but it was locked.

'Please don’t do this to me, I can’t take anymore of this, please don’t hurt me like this.' I heard Conner crying out in agony. I started yelling and pounding on the door. Something was happening to my little brother and I couldn’t get to him. Everything in my head was focused on one thought, and that was to get to my little brother. He was most important thing in my life at that moment. My adrenaline surged through my body and I rammed my shoulder into the door. As soon as the door opened I saw someone push Conner onto the ground and I ran and tackled him with all my might, plowing him into the wall and punching him in the stomach when he tried moving again.

One after the other I kept punching and punching, as if it was the only way to protect my brother. After what seemed like an eternity, Conner finally ripped me away from this random person that I had beat to a pulp. I wrapped my arms around Conner just to feel that he was safe in my arms. Exactly like a mother trying to comfort her children. I could hear him crying and sobbing into my chest. I pulled his head off my chest and I expected to see some sort of pain on his face. All I saw was shame and anger towards me. I let him go.

'What’s the matter with you?' I asked trying to hug him again.

'Just leave me alone and deal with your…' He looked down at the person on the ground. 'Problem.' Conner said while pointing and clenching his other fist.

'What the hell are you even talking about?' I asked Conner. He was having nothing of this right now and stormed out of his room. Again, like months before, I had no idea what was actually going on. The same look Conner gave me before was the same that he just gave me now. I didn’t even have to turn around to see who was lying on the ground. I knew it was going to be Jeff Smith; our new brother in crime that I had just kicked the crap out of.

I walked over to Jeff, who was miraculously conscious and attempting to get up. I went over to help him. Thankfully this time, he wasn’t covered in blood from head to toe. Without saying a word, I helped him up onto Conner’s bed, and he just plopped face down. I watched as he slowly crawled onto the other side of the bed away from the door. I don’t know why I thought this was odd, but it was to me. It was like Jeff had his own spot on the bed. That or he was just trying to get away from me. I heard his phone ring on the floor so I walked over to look at it. I had just missed to answer it, but he had eight missed calls from the same person, 'Car'. I called the number back because I assumed they were just making sure Jeff was okay.

'Jeff, are you okay? You called but you never said anything? Is Conner okay?' Was all some guy asked before I could say a word.

'This is Chip, Jeff’s neighbor and Conner’s brother. Ummm,' I looked over at Jeff who was still lying still. 'He’s passed out right now, we were having a big party and he drank too much.'

'Oh, I see… Can you do me a favor please? Stay with him tonight? He gets night terrors when he gets really drunk.' He asked as if it was no big deal.

'Ya sure, he’s at my house right now anyways.' I said, watching Jeff starting to stir around.

'Thanks Chip, I owe you one' He said and hung up.

'Can I have my phone please?' Jeff mumbled. I handed him his phone and grabbed onto my hand. 'Conners okay right?'

I held onto his hand and sat on the side of the bed. 'Ya, he’s fine, I’m not even gonna ask this time.' I replied. I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket and it was a text message from Conner saying 'I’m sorry, I went back to the party, I’m sorry I put this on you, but can you please stay with Jeff tonight, I can’t see him right now.' My head was going in circles by this time.

A random guy telling me to stay with my neighbor, and now my own brother telling me to stay with him. I guess all I could do was to stay with him. Besides, it was a cop out to staying up the entire rest of the night taking care of other drunken people. I took Jeff’s shoes off and put him under the sheets and I sat on the other side of his bed and started playing with my phone. You got to love games on phones in moments like these. I must have dozed off because when I finally came too I was under the sheets.

I could see just a slight haze of light coming through Conner’s window. I smelled of some horrible stale beer and whiskey. Thankfully I didn’t have a headache, yet. That’s when something was odd; someone was resting their head on my chest and holding onto me. Almost all their weight was on me because I could hardly move. Very quickly the night came back to me, it was Jeff. I figured it was okay; at least he didn’t wake up during the night screaming like that one guy said on the phone. I tried to stir around but Jeff only clenched tighter and tighter. I wasn’t going to be able to move. So I just laid there.

'Baby, my head hurts, rub it for me pweassse' Jeff finally said after futile attempts to get away from him. So I did. I still to this day remember rubbing his hair in the locker room to see if he was bleeding, thankfully this time as well, he wasn’t. I usually hated rubbing people’s hair because of the gel they always had in it. But Jeff had let his short brown hair grow out some so he only put in a little gel to give it more of a surfer style messy hair. It smelled like coconut.

Which I always loved coconut. I just laid there rubbing his hair not thinking about anything. Not thinking about how a guy is cuddling up to me, and I’m rubbing his hair. Maybe it was because my friends and I did this all the time. Well maybe not cuddling in bed, but resting our heads on each others shoulders or lap, or using the others stomach as a pillow. It just was normal to us. Any thought of this being gay never ventured into my mind. That’s when I actually started thinking about it. I never had any problem with this, being this close to another guy. I was actually enjoying it quite a bit, it was very relaxing and fulfilling, almost like walking outside after a rain storm; a sense of a new beginning.

Obviously I was still drunk I thought to myself. Jeff stirred around and started moving up on my body so his face was resting on my shoulder. I could feel his breathe on my neck ever so softly. It smelled like tequila. Then he put his leg onto mine and draped his arm over my chest pulling himself in even closer. I wiggled my right arm that he had moved on top of around his shoulder and held him and continued to rub his hair. The same thing I’d do with Conner when he was sad or crying. I started dozing off some, letting the entire moment just consume me. I had never actually been this close to someone before when they weren’t crying and I was comforting them; guy or girl.

Not saying that I haven’t had my fare share of drunken sex with a few girls, we would never turn out to sleep together and wake up like this. It was always just some quick fuck and go. Of which I never really enjoyed anyways. This is what I enjoyed, holding onto someone and comforting them, even when they didn’t need to be comforted. After that thought ran through me head, I felt a small touch on the side of my neck where Jeff was lying. It was more then just his breath, but no so much an actual touch. It was warm, and though it wasn’t much, my entire body shivered from it. Then it happened again, but this time just a pinch more forceful. Jeff was kissing my neck.

I don’t even know if you could call it a kiss though, a peck on my neck would be more like it. Then he stopped, he laid still, his face touching my neck. His lips were touching my neck but with no actual movement. I was a little disappointed because such a small action was giving me a world of comfort and joy. My body felt invigorated with spirit. I pulled him in just a little bit closer to me.

'I’m sorry.' Jeff said softly. As I turned my head to look at him to ask why, that same feeling that was on my neck, I could now feel on my lips. No movement just that our lips were touching. I was holding my breath but I could still smell the tequila on his breath. The feeling of invigoration was even more intensified. What I thought nirvana actually should feel like; a sense of complete relaxation.

Not something overly physical like cumming or an orgasm that most would think of. I opened my mouth some and he reciprocated and pushed forward even more. I kissed him. I was kissing my neighbor, my best friend, a guy. And I loved it. I held his shoulders even more tightly; bring him more onto my chest, but supporting most of his upper body weight at the same time. I tilted my head to my left and he tilted his head to his left and we continued kissing. Not full on making out, but still kissing. I was intoxicated by this. Something so simple, of which had only been maybe going on for three seconds seemed like an elegant dance that had been practiced and practiced for hours.

I pulled him closer smashing his lips into mine. I finally breathed out and I could smell the whiskey on my breathe, mixed with the tequila on his. We kept kissing, and kissing as if we had no control over any of this, like we were puppets attached to fine strings. I stuck my tongue into his mouth and was met with his. I could taste Jeff, not just the tequila, but the actual essence of Jeff Smith. He forced my tongue back into my mouth with his and breathed deeply into my lungs. Now I could feel, smell, taste Jeff in every part of my body. Jeff started moaning quietly so now I could hear sounds that I had never heard from him as well. All this was a new experience to me.

Not the fact that I was kissing a guy, but that I could use all my senses to eternally feel someone else. I opened my eyes to see him finally. His eyes opened at the same time, I could see his pupils adjusting to light. I was staring into his hazel eyes that were for once not scanning around in every direction, but were staring straight into my brown eyes. It was something about them that nearly took the breath from me. They were happy and content, but filled with so much fear. I stopped moving and his black pupils nearly consumed his eyes. He pulled back away from me, but I still had my arm around his back so he could only get a couple inches away from my face. He looked at my lips, knowing I was going to say something.

'I love you,' Was all I said before smashing his lips into mine and nearly sucking the breath out of him. I moved my leg up into his crotch and intertwined our legs so I could feel his entire body from lips to toes. I started kissing him with all the passion I had inside me, as if that were the only thing I was born to do. I was born to kiss this person for as long as I possibly could.

I felt Jeff’s hand come under my shirt and he started rubbing my abs. He had such soft hands compared to mine. I had hard coarse hands and his were silky soft to the touch. His hands continued roaming up and down my entire stomach; almost as if he was trying to count every ab muscle I had which each finger. Pinky one, ring finger two, middle finger three, pointer finger four, thumb five, and palm six. He continued this cycle as I moved my holding onto his shoulders and slid it under the back of his shirt to feel his smooth skin. I ran my fingers all the way up his spine; this made him almost shiver and he would kiss me even harder, breathe harder, and grab onto my chest harder.

I’m not sure how long this had even been going on but I could feel his back was starting to sweat and so was my chest. I took my left free hand and cupped his cheek then slid my hand into his hair. His hair was moist from sweat now too. Now I couldn’t even smell the tequila on his breathe anymore, or the coconut from his hair. All I could smell was the sensation that Jeff tasted like when I first slid my tongue into his mouth.

My hand continued to wonder up and down Jeff’s back, feeling every large muscle, massaging it as it strained when he would move in the slightest. Slowly my hand made its way down to his underwear and jean line. Slowly I slid one finger followed by another and another until my hand was all the way on his ass under his jeans and underwear. I’m not sure the proper name I’d give his ass, not fat, or skinny, but just right I guess.

Either way I just loved grabbing onto it. It was just as soft as his hands and back. It was prefect in my eyes. Out of nowhere Jeff stopped kissing me, pulled his hand out from under my shirt and scooted down onto my chest so I no longer could reach his ass. Which I hated wasn’t in my hand anymore, but I was not going to contest this however. I just laid there looking up towards the ceiling as he continued his shallow breathing on my chest.

'Conner never told you about us did he?' Jeff said as he was looking away from me still lying directly on my right pectoral muscle. He must have felt it surge when I moved my arm towards him because he moved away and sat up, still staring away from me.

'Jeff, I don’t know what is even going on? All I know is that, I want to keep kissing you and holding you for a lot longer then that. What does that even mean?' I asked as I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to get him to look at me.

'It means you’re a homo dude, duhhh.' Jeff chuckled as he took my hand on his shoulder and held it. I smirked and gave out one of those half breathing out, half silent laughs at the thought. Of which that thought hadn’t ever crossed my mind anyways, except for when we first started kissing however long ago that might have been.

I’ve always found guys attractive and openly admit that. I’ve watched Collin go from a skinny little boy into a muscled brick that would put most models to shame. I appreciated how he looked, I never thought about kissing him though, or doing anything else with anyone else for that matter. Girls I guess were the same way too. I appreciated their bodies, always was fascinated with their boobs and would just have sex with them because that was just the expected thing to do.

The few times that I did however I wasn’t really the one who was instigating it though, the girl was, as well as she’d do most of the work too. I’d watch them bounce up and down on my dick, it felt awesome. But that’s all it was though, a physical feeling, just like jacking off but a lot better. Now I’m looking at Jeff hold my hand on his shoulder, and I’m not even thinking about any of the sex, or feeling of jacking off, all I’m thinking about is I want to hold him and kiss him.

'Well if me being a homo means getting to kiss you even one more time, then I’m a homo okay?' I said as I tugged on his shoulder again to try to get him to turn around.

'I’m seriously going to kill your brother Chip.' Jeff replied as he backed up towards me and leaned against the head board the same as what I was doing. He really never told you about him and me?' He waited a split second. 'Wow, he really does keep his promises I guess.'

I grabbed onto his cheek and turned his head towards mine so I could see his eyes again. They were so beautiful. This time though he was scanning everything around him like he usually would do.

'Jeff, Conner never told me anything about you guys. Are you talking about the fight in the locker room? Because I told him to deal with that and he said he did, so I never asked any questions.' I said and I moved my hand down to his neck, still staring at his eyes.

'Yea, he dealt with that one alright.' Jeff said with a shameful voice as he turned away from me.

'Did he hurt you again?' I asked in disbelief.

'No Chip, he fucked me, and then we started dating the next day.' Jeff replied as he blankly looked at me. I just stared at him until he gave me a, say something, shrug. For an odd reason, the fact that Jeff just confirmed my own brother was gay, as well as was having sex with our neighbor and never telling me about it did not bother me. What bothered me was that they were dating. It was a feeling of almost petty jealousy of Conner had something that I wanted.

'So, you were dating my brother? And sleeping with him, and kissing him, and letting him hold you?' I paused. 'And touch you?' I said almost under my breath as I turned away from him.

'Yes.' Was all Jeff replied. I started processing this through me head while closing my eyes shut as hard as I could to try and just erase the image of my brother sleeping with Jeff. It made me nauseas even thinking about it. My head started hurting from running images through my head of Conner and Jeff doing the exact same thing Jeff and I had just done. Finally I couldn’t handle the images dancing around in my head any longer; I needed it all to stop.

'So… Damn it, look at me!' I nearly yelled at Jeff. I was about to grab onto his cheek so he would look at me. He swatted my arm away. Mildly pissed off I jump and of bed and walked over to his side of the bed and stood there and spilled everything I was thinking, even if he looked at me or he didn’t.

'So the first day of school my brother and Collin kick your bitch ass for something, and then you FUCK my little brother and then all of a sudden you guys are dating. Buttt ohhhh no, you can’t tell me because why? I don’t know. Because you don’t want me to find out your both homos I guess? So you hide it from all of us and then you get all drunk and you guys get in a fight, then I kick your ass, and have to take care of you and then you start making out with me, your fucking boyfriend’s brother. For what reason? To get back at him? See if you can collect all our cards? You wanna fuck my dad too? Or the rest of the guys? I mean we can have that arranged you little fucking shit.' I yelled, almost spitting at him in the end.

'You said you loved me,' Was the only thing he could mutter.

'Ya, I said I love you when I’m kissing you, the only guy I’ve ever kissed in my whole life. I didn’t mean that though. We were still drunk; I was just saying stupid crap.' I said throwing up my arms while I turned around to look out the window. I felt something grab onto my jean’s pocket and pull me onto the bed, and instantly met with Jeff’s lips again. It didn’t matter if I was on the verge of throwing him out a window one second ago; I was back in love with Jeff now. All those feeling flooded over me, of excitement, rejuvenation, desire and longing for this to last forever.

'You still love me?' Jeff asked as he grabbed both my cheeks in his right hand.

'Yes.' I said as I glared at him. He kissed me one last time and let me go. He got off the bed and started pacing before he explained.

'Your brother and I got into a fight last night because we just weren’t working out together. We were just wrestling around before you came in. Nothing was happening. I was tickling him. That’s all. He was wasted out of his mind Chip. I wasn’t hurting your brother. We broke up yesterday morning and we were just talking about it last night. That’s all that happened. Then you come in and try to punch me to shit, but you were too drunk to practically stand up straight.

And Conner leaves and you and I sleep together. Have I had sex with your brother? Yes. Have I kissed your brother? Yes. Why didn’t we tell you, well because I thought you’d look and Conner differently, or me on that hand. We didn’t want to make something out of nothing.' Jeff stopped, turned over to me and took my hand in both of his. I had scooted over to the side of the bed with my leg hanging of the side. 'And I wasn’t kissing you to get back at Conner; I was kissing you because I had wanted Conner to be you the entire time, not him. That’s why we broke up, Conner knew I liked you more then I liked him. He picked up on it the very first day we all met.

I just didn’t think it was fair to Conner to be with him, when I wanted to be with his brother. He wasn’t angry with you last night; he was just drunk when he left the room. He knew it would make me happy if I could be with you, even for a drunken night. Or even just to sleep in the same bed as you. I wasn’t even planning on doing anything; I just woke up holding onto you like I would usually do with Conner.'

 I squeezed my hand slightly over his. He knew the thought of him and Conner together upset me. 'Well, so I was just going to go as far as you would let me go. I cuddled up to you closer and closer, I kissed your neck, and then I kissed you. But once you started taking it further when you were grabbing my ass, I knew we had to talk about this first.'

I had been processing everything he had been saying the moment it left his mouth, and within a second after he stopped talking I let go of his hand and grabbed onto his ass with both my hands and pulled him to the side of the bed so fast that he fell on top of me, still with me holding onto his ass with both hands.

'So we talked, now can I grab your ass then?' I tried saying as his chest was smashing my face into the bed.

'I’m serious Chip!' He said as he positioned his knees by my hip and looked me in the eyes. His eyes weren’t wondering anymore.

'I am too… Ass.' I squeezed his ass between my hands. It wasn’t as satisfying as feeling his actually smooth ass, but this was working just as well. 'Is now mine.' I leaned up to kiss him on the lips. 'Lips are now mine.' I took his right hand that he was using to hover over me and placed it on my heart. 'This is yours, unconditionally, if were together or not.' He leaned into kiss me slowly. Following everything he had done the very first time we kissed.

'Okay, but we can’t be together right now. Conner and I just broke up yesterday.' He could feel my pecs flexing in his hand. 'And I’m pretty sure that you’ll kill your brother now if you see him with me, so we need to take this slow. We are best friends, that hasn’t changed; we will be best friends for a while.' I squeezed his ass again. He leaned up and straddled me and took both my hands off my ass.

'Best friends like we were before, for a little while Chip. Nothing else.' I gave him a pouty boy look, but I knew he was pretty much right. Besides that, I know I was still drunk a little, I may not be against being with a guy, but being drunk could definitely be the fine line that makes me indifferent or want to be with a guy. I guess we should have added a gay to the group before a girl. Well besides my little brother and maybe me, I thought.

'Okay good, we’ll talk later about this too. I mean I know I can turn any boy gay with this' Jeff said showing his body off, fluttering his eyes. 'But we need to figure out if you really are gay or not.' He grabbed my hand to help me stand up. We stared each other up and down a couple times. I’ve seen Jeff’s body before, naked in the locker room showers even, but this was different. This time was like the first time I’ve ever seen him in my life. 'Gay goggles' I was thinking to myself. 'And we’ll deal the technical stuff later I guess.' Jeff said as he grabbed onto my dick, of which had been hard the entire time; I just didn’t really notice it. Having sex with Jeff had actually not even crossed my mind even.

'Jeff, which one are you, the… one who…' I tried to find the words.

'A top or a bottom, pitcher or catcher, fucker or fuckee, the girl or the guy?' Jeff replied as he was getting a hoodie from Conner’s closet. 'Well talk to Conner and I guess you’ll find out wont you baby cakes.' He said just before running out the door in a scurry.

'I’m going to kill you both!' I yelled at him and ran after him.

When we got downstairs Conner had already started making a pot of coffee and we could hear the TV was on in the other room. Before saying anything I walked onto the back patio to see what last night had done to our backyard. Thankfully there was no large burn marks in the grass like what happened a few years ago when someone, Owen, decided to make a bonfire in the middle of the lawn. We decided we needed a fire pit there anyways. There were maybe 100 people scattered throughout the property, some by the fire pit but most were still in the tent. We had rented a bunch of blankets, same as they use for disaster relief and left them in a corner for people to keep.

People were slowly leaving by now though. I looked down at my phone and it was already pushing 11 in the morning. I hardly ever sleep this long but I probably could guess why I slept in. As I'm pondering the morning, Jeff walks up next to me with a large cup of coffee and hands one to me. Soon to follow is Collin, Owen, Andy and then Amy. The seven of us stood there looking out at everyone who was leaving without saying much to any of them. Nothing needed to be said and everyone was too hung over to really be social anymore.

I looked over to my left and Andy and Owen, then to my right to Jeff, Amy and Conner and I say in my most cheerful voice, "So who wants to start cleaning?" Needless to say everyone just glared at me in disgust of the idea of cleaning up this mess. Amy blurts out, "I say whoever did not make out with Jeff last night, does not have too clean today."

My heart nearly skips a beat hearing this. I can't even fathom why Amy would say this; did she know about Conner and Jeff? I guess that a good assumption, they are brother and sister. Then was that comment directed at me then? While I was running this through my head Amy speaks up again, "So that means Conner, Collin, Andy, Jeff." She pauses and gives me a look and then a look at Jeff, and Chip all have to clean." I instantly look over at Jeff and I recount when I was yelling at him asking him if he was going to try and make out with the entire group pops into my mind. While I'm glaring at Jeff I don't realize everyone else is looking over at me.

"So." Owen chimes in, "We will let you guys sort all this out and we will go, do something, leave you guys to," He paused for a moment, "probably attempt to murder each other, just let us know if you need to go to the hospital."

I'm running Amy's comments through my hazy mind. What was her angle? I then start thinking about what else she said about all of my other friends kissing Jeff too last night. I feel my heart start beating faster and faster and before I can even look over at Jeff I hear him say, "We really need to stop taking pictures when we drink from now on. They're way too many pictures of me making out with everyone."

Everyone starts chuckling at his comment as Jeff turns towards me, grinning at me. He knew I had started getting upset and worried about Amy's simple joke. I quickly calmed myself down when I began thinking about all of the pictures we take when we drink and have parties. They're enough blackmail pictures in there to have all of us put in prison. There is even a picture of Conner and me kissing once. Not sure where that came from, but neither of us remember anything about it. Not the Daniel brother best moment. With all these drunken pictures we had all found a trend in them when it was regarding Jeff. He made out with everyone.

He's kissed all of us already, not sure about Amy but I wouldn't put him past it. It was always a congratulatory kiss like you see on TV. Either he had just won at beer pong or some game. It was just his thing and we all accepted it. Thinking back at it, it makes much more sense why Conner and Jeff were usually the one who were team mates and were "kissing" most of the time. We all cleaned the rest of the day and drove all our friends’ home and slowly pulled our lives together.

Jeff, Conner and I never brought up the events of last night. I think because none of us even know ourselves. That night while everyone was sitting inside watching TV I made my way out to the fire pit. There was still a bunch of wood so I decided to just burn it off tonight. Jeff soon followed behind me and sat across from me so the fire was separating us. I had wished he would have sat a little closer so I could get a better look at him what he started talking about the events from last night.

"So about last night, and mostly this morning, how about we just trump it up to we were both drunk and just laugh it off as just another drunk night." Jeff explained without any show of emotion actual emotion.

This somewhat upset me. Not from what Jeff said, but that it was just as if we were ordering food or talking about a stupid movie. It was almost like this was something on his to do list, to push what happened under the rug bury it.

"Um, that is a little harsh way to put it don't you think?" I ask. "I mean yea I know we were both drunk but give me a little credit here, it's not like we were blacked out and don't remember any of it.