Going Long (boyxboy)

CHAPTER 3- I Will Make You Hurt

This chapter is dedicated to Joanne and Rachel for letting my borrow their boyfriends' names for this story. Thanks guys!

Disclaimer- Language, drinking, etc... Read at your own risk!

Chapter 3- I Will Make You Hurt

~Jake~

            I was still sober enough to register the look of blind panic that flashed on Josh's face as soon as the word left his mouth. Laney saw it too, and I could practically hear the evil wheels turning in her head as she tried to think up the worst possible dare to give him.

            Normally I'd be all for torturing him, but I'd already put him through a lot today. And Josh was sort of...fragile. He didn't deserve to take any more shit.

            I leaned across the coffee table and whispered in Laney's ear. She gave me a perplexed look, but I stood firm. "Just do it."

            Josh was watching all this with his signature blank look on his face, but it wasn't fooling me. I could tell he was worried.

            Laney told him his dare, but it came out more like a question than a demand. "I dare you to sing us a song?"

            It was common knowledge that Josh could play the guitar. He was rarely seen without it, always strumming some tune or another. What most people didn't know, however, was that he could sing too.

            He wouldn't do it in front of anyone but me, though. He probably wouldn't even have ever sung in front of me if I hadn't walked in on him doing it once and basically flipped out on him. The dude was amazing. He had this raspy, smoky voice that came from somewhere deep in his chest and flowed out of him like silken smoke, wrapping itself around you and making you think of warm summer nights, sweet whiskey, and—I looked down at my solo cup.

I must have been drunker than I thought. Damn cupcake vodka. Who the hell thinks of a dude's voice as 'silken smoke?' I blinked myself back to the present and looked at Josh. Yup. He was pissed.

"I don't sing."

"She dared you. You have to do it." Trip's logic was irrefutable.

"No."

"Ooh pleaaaassseeee Josh! I wanna hear you siiinnnnggg!" Catelynn was doing an excellent impression of an annoying drunk girl. I squinted at her, trying to figure out why. She'd been nursing the same beer all night.

Pretty soon everyone was chanting "doooo it, doooo it" until finally Josh slumped in defeat. He grabbed the glass of whiskey he'd been sipping on, downed it, and looked to me with one eyebrow raised.

When we were alone, he always let me request songs. Guess I got to do it now too. If Josh was going to make his public singing debut, there was only one option.

"Hurt."

He nodded, waited for everyone to shut up, and fingered the first chords. I leaned back against the couch behind me, closing my eyes.

"I hurt myself today," he sang the first words, quiet, slow. I smiled in pure contentment listening to the lyrics pour from his soul. A shiver ran down my spine.

"To see if I still feel..." The cabin had gone totally silent except for the soft strumming of the guitar and his hushed, melodic voice.

When he got to my favorite line, I opened my eyes, drinking in his performance.

"And you can have it alllll, my empire of dirt." His eyes were closed, head thrown back as he swayed to the beat and caressed the strings.

"I will let you down. I will maaaake you hurt." He bowed his head on the final word, resuming the slow, easy rhythm from the beginning of the song.

When the song finally ended Josh kept his eyes closed. It was quiet for a beat, then Laney broke the silence.

"What. The. Hell was that?!" Josh's eyes flew open in shock at her shriek.

"You asshole! How did we not know you could do that?! Why don't you have a record deal right now?!" Josh's face was bright red, and everyone was staring between him and Laney, mouths open.

Josh was at a total loss. "Uh...well, I don't...I don't know."

Laney gave up on his stuttering and swung around to me. "And you! You knew he could do that and you didn't tell anybody?! That's like...that's like...Ugh! You're so selfish!"

I just laughed at her outrage and closed my eyes again. Between the vodka and listening to Josh's sing my favorite song, I was ready to pass out. I listened without really paying attention as everyone else congratulated Josh on his insane talent and worked out the sleeping situation.

There were two bedrooms and two couches in the cabin. Brad had already passed out in a chair on the screened in porch, and no one wanted to sleep with Hunter, who looked like he was ready to hurl at any moment, so he got one of the couches. After a heated round of rock paper scissors, Trip got stuck on the other couch.

That left me, Josh, and the four girls to split two beds. Sunny lost that round of rock paper scissors and got stuck in the bed with me and Josh. Considering how much space me and Josh took up and how tiny Sunny was, it worked out for the best.

When we got into our room we did one final round of rock paper scissors to see who had to sleep in the middle—which I lost, naturally. I pulled my shirt over my head and had my shorts halfway down my legs when Sunny started spluttering.

"Wha—what are you doing?"

"Getting ready for bed. What does it look like?" Girls, man.

"You can't sleep like that!" She had her arms crossed and her hip cocked out, which was pretty funny coming from normally meek little Sunny.

I finished pulling my shorts off and stood straight up in my boxers, right hand raised with three fingers extended. "Suniah Manisha Rupesh, I solemnly swear I am not up to no good. Scout's honor you will leave this bed with your honor intact. Plus, it's going to get hot in the middle and I can't sleep when I'm hot."

She rolled her eyes at me and turned to Josh, who was standing on his side of the bed fully clothed. "What about you? Are you going to bastardize Harry Potter in the name of getting naked?"

He flicked his gaze to me for a split second. "Um, no. I'm good like this."

Why was my best friend such a prude? "Dude, it's already like eighty degrees in here. Just promise her you won't try anything so we can go to sleep. I'm about to pass out." I belly flopped on the bed and scooted under the covers. When I was situated in the middle I patted the empty spaces on either side of me and licked my lips suggestively. "C'mon in. I promise I won't bite...much." I wiggled my eyebrows at them both in turn.

Sunny glared at me but climbed in, pulled the covers to her chin and turned her back to me. Killjoy. Josh's lip twitched, but a smile never materialized. He stared at the pillow next to me for a good ten seconds before finally pulling his shirt over his head and sliding in on my right. He also rolled until his back was to me.

I had a sudden irrational moment of loneliness. What, did I have cooties or something? My eyes closed, and before I could think too hard about it, I was out.

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Poor Jake ='(