Chapter Text
Seven Years Ago
“Why do I have to go to New York?” Corey took off his glasses and pinched his nose bridge, tried not to sound too annoyed.
“I’ve told you I need to go for couple of weeks for a conference, and since you’re in your summer break, won’t it be better if you go visit your Aunt Melissa? She misses you, you know? And you can hang out with Scott too…”
Corey stared at his mother attentively as she was packing her stuffs for the conference. Her light brown hair, which he inherited too, was dancing in the wind when she pacing around the room to make sure she got everything she needed. She had been bugging Corey for days to go to New York and stayed with his uncle’s family during summer break. He admitted that he liked his cousin Scott. Scott was like a big brother that Corey never had, but he was hoping he would be able to spend this summer with Liam and Mason instead. The two of them were his upperclassmen by one year, seniors, and they often took Corey to hang out at cool places, made a lot of his friends envied him. Especially, as the top jocks in their lacrosse team, the said seniors had promised to train him during the summer break, so Corey was really looking forward for that.
“Are you worried if I stay at home alone? I’m not a kid anymore, you know? I’m going to be seventeen next month. I wanna find a part time job and train for the game this summer break.”
“Still, you’re under age. Scott played lacrosse too, so you can practice with him and his friends, and if you really want to have part time job, you can do that at New York. I’ll ask your aunt to have you around her clinic, or at your uncle’s company. It’ll look good for your resume than to take some shitty job at nearby diner,” Maya retorted.
Corey closed his eyes, now had genuinely annoyed. Liam worked at a nearby diner, and it was obvious the reference his mother just made was intended for him. Corey knew his mother did not like him hang out with Liam, for he was not actually an up-straight student. His mother was okay with Mason, but not with Liam. However, since Mason and Liam were practically joined on the hip, and his mother knew about it, so the prohibition was extended to Mason too. The very reason why Corey’s mother dislike Liam was because he was well known to have quite a temper and often got into troubles because of it. Even, in the last incident, Corey was there and he got dragged into the mess, awarded him with detention, much to enrage his mother. Corey was grounded for almost a month afterward, and ever since that time, Maya had been watching him like an eagle, and made a lot of pointed comments as warning. This time, she might smell his plan to spend the break with the two best friends, thus came out with this plan.
“Ugh, Mom…,” Corey groaned.
“Listen, it’s fixed already. I’ve told your aunt that I’ll send you to her place tomorrow then go to my conference. So, start packing your stuffs.”
Corey groaned once more, but dragged his heels back to his room nonetheless. He loved his mom, and it was always been the two of them ever since Corey’s parents got divorced. He knew how his mother was trying so hard to raise him and came up to meet their ends. She also tried to fulfill both roles as a mother and a father for Corey, so he loved and respected her so much for it. Corey always tried so hard both on his study and on the field. He was hoping he could get sport scholarships so his mother would not have to work so hard to pay for his college. He knew it might be easier if he just sought for employment once he graduated from high school, but his mother wanted him to at least finished his bachelor degree, so that was that.
His phone was buzzing inside his pants pocket and he saw Mason’s name on the text sender. He opened it and read that Liam and Mason had waited downstairs. Thanks to the conversation with his mother, Corey was completely forgotten that the seniors asked him to join them to talk about their new strategies for the new season. He cursed mentally and was crossing his fingers that his mother would grant him permission to go outside. Corey certainly couldn’t be honestly said that Liam and Mason picked him out, so he grabbed two of his books and his backpack.
“I’ll go out for a while, but I’ll return before dinner,” he tried to act casually in front of his mom.
“Where are you going?” Maya was eyeing her son as she typed something on her computer.
“Library, returning books before they fine me. I’ll be at New York for weeks, you know?”
Maya rolled her eyes, clearly caught on her son’s sarcasm. “Come back before dinner.”
“That’s what I said…,” Corey closed their apartment’s door and dashed downstairs. Once he got into the street, he saw Liam’s car on the parking lane, with the two friends sat idly in it. The younger boy hastily opened the door and tossed his body on the back seat. “Sorry that took a while…”
The dark-skin upperclassman, Mason, flashed an understanding smile. “No worries. It wasn’t that long. Your mother’s at home, right?”
Corey nodded and returned the smile, also greeted Liam with his wiggled eyebrows. The blonde started the engine and drove away. “What did you tell your mom?” He asked, eyeing Corey from the rear view mirror.
“Told her I’m heading to the library.”
“Nice…”
“Why didn’t you just tell your mom that you wanna meet us to discuss some tactics for the next season?” Mason frowned.
“Because it’s us, Mason. His mom is not really my big fan.”
Corey cracked an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”
Liam shrugged. “It’s cool. I really got you into trouble that last time.”
“It wasn’t even you who started it. That douche bag was literally asking for it,” Mason snorted.
“Still not a good rapport on the parent’s eye, Man. S’ cool, really.”
“I won’t be able to practice with the two of you too,” Corey interjected. “My mom would send me to my cousin’s house in New York for the rest of the break.”
“What?!!” This time, the two seniors whipped their head toward Corey in unison.
“Damn…, I thought we could train the new tactics during the summer break,” Liam clicked his tongue.
“Sorry…,” Corey mumbled his apology again. This was really sucked for him. The practice would certainly give him more opportunities on the field and might attract the talent scouts who were usually visiting their games, opening more windows for him. Why couldn’t his mother understand this? The brown hair sighed.
“Hey,” Mason turned his head to him. “No sweat, okay? We’ll keep you in loop and train you once you returned.”
“It won’t be as good as practicing with you two during the break, you know?” Corey glowered. “But my cousin in New York is playing lacrosse too, so I guess I’ll keep my skill sharp with him.”
“That’s good,” Mason smiled.
“Just make sure you don’t tell him our tactics. We might meet their school at national, you know?” Liam raised his index and middle fingers, crossing them together.
Corey held his hands up, in surrendering gesture, as he laughed along his upperclassmen. Liam pulled over as they arrived at the diner they frequented and they entered the place. They didn’t spend too much time for choosing the seating spot, and were heading to their usual booth.
“What time you need to head back?” Liam asked Corey once they put in their orders. Corey only ordered milkshake, so he won’t get too full for dinner later, while the other two boys went with burgers and fries.
“I think I got an hour and another quarter to walk back,” he glanced over the digital clock on his phone.
“I’ll drive you home,” Liam said. “It’s okay, Corey,” he deadpanned when the younger boy opened his mouth to refuse.
“He needs to drive me home too, anyway. And our house practically on the same direction,” Mason added on before slurped his cola, gave the younger boy a comforting wink.
“Thanks,” Corey pursed his lips. “So, what plan do you got?”
Liam smirked and promptly took out his notebook with a lot of scribble of various game tactics on it. The two best friends explained all the tactics they recently thought of, and Corey gave his own opinion on them. Liam deftly wrote down the younger boy’s suggestion and added his own opinions. As they were vigorously discussing their plans, the time was running out. Corey sighed when he saw his one hour time was up.
“I need to go back now or my mom will get suspicious,” he said as he put his stuffs back into his bag. “Where’s Mason? He’s still in the toilet?”
“He did say he have an upset stomach,” Liam chuckled, still scribbling something on his notebook.
“I’m gonna get him. Need to take a leak, anyway,” the light brown hair stood up and walked toward the men’s toilet. He was about to open the door, before he heard a soft moan at the dark corner near the toilet and he bugged his eyes. At that very corner, hardly noticing his coming, Mason and another senior was making out. They were literally dry humping each other and Corey could feel his head spun. He took off his glasses, wiped them clean on his shirt, wore them again, and yep, it was Mason and he was still kissing that older boy passionately. This was the first time Corey ever seen male and male making out, and it felt surreal for him. He could feel his heart was pounding so hard in his chest and his body started to feel weird. He flinched to the pressure he felt inside his pants and frowned dumbfounded.
As a teenager who hit his puberty, Corey obviously had his own curiosity about sex. However, he was always confined the said curiosity for the opposite gender. He was still a virgin, but that didn’t mean he never kissed a girl. When he was still on his freshman and sophomore years, there were girls in his class made a hit on him, and they tried dating, up to having mind-blowing make-out session. However, they never last long. Corey was putting his study and the game on top of his priority list, so he was never really looking for any dates. He still appreciated any offer came for him, but didn’t really look into it. And yes, he was also aware that some of his schoolmates preferred men than women, but he never witnessing it up close and personal. Especially, this time it was involve the older boy he knew well. He couldn’t really tear his eyes away.
“Until when you’re planning to stand there and watching them making out?” Corey was snapped out from his reverie as Liam’s strong arm dragged him back to their booth.
Corey blinked his eyes swiftly, before able to pull himself to make any coherent sentence. “M-Mason, he…”
“He’s gay,” Liam deadpanned.
The younger boy bugged his eyes comically.
“What? You have issue with gays?” Liam shot him stern gaze. “I’ll punch you here and now if you do, because that’s my best friend we’re talking about.”
Corey hastily shook his head. No, he didn’t think he did. It was quite hot, actually. So that was what he blurted out, drawn a chuckle from Liam. He narrowed his eyes. “What? Don’t tell me you’re into man too, Core.”
Corey gulped. Was he? He was seriously never thought about it. But he hardly thought about having relationships, be it with the opposite or the same gender. He liked his life now, with the classes, games, and two upperclassmen that he looked up like brothers, so he never put any mind on it. However, he did admit guys could be pretty attractive too, and he had no problem with homosexuality.
“Sorry that took me a while,” Mason’s voice pulled Corey out of his train-of-thought. He tilted his head and met with Mason’s soft gaze. His dark eyes were still slightly dilated. Arousal, Corey thought, as his eyes running down to Mason’s lips. They were slightly swollen and Corey felt they were so sinfully inviting. He started to feel something inside him was crawling their way out and making his body tingling with sensation. He never saw Mason the way he saw him tonight, alluring and enchanting. He could see his sex appeal, and Corey was tempted to have a taste of it. He knew he would never see that older boy the same ever again. However, for the sake of their friendships, Corey needed to collect himself and clung to the boundary. Especially, judging from the intensity of make out session he was just witnessing, Mason was taken. There was no chance for him to begin with.
“A while indeed,” Liam sneered. “Why didn’t you tell me you’re meeting up with Lucas here?”
“Lucas?” Corey frowned. He didn’t see Mason’s partner’s face clearly just then, and felt oddly familiar with the name. They did have one Lucas as their school’s basketball captain, who was tall and muscular, fitted the description of the man who was kissing Mason. “That was Lucas??”
Mason gawked, before he was blushing heavily. “You saw?” He shrieked.
“I think he almost got a heart attack when I found him,” Liam grinned.
“I did not!” Corey glared at him, before shot Mason an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to see it,” he cleared his throat. “I was heading to the toilet.”
Mason buried his head in his palm. “Oh, this is embarrassing…”
“S-since when? I-if you don’t mind me asking…”
“They are on and off since sophomore,” Liam answered for Mason. “So it’s on again?”
The dark-skin boy cracked a thin smile. He looked so fragile that Corey felt his heart stung a bit. “I don’t know, man,” Mason said. “Maybe…”
“He’s a douche bag,” Liam deadpanned. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Come on, Corey. Let’s not make your mom waiting,” the blonde grabbed Corey by his elbow and dragged him out. Mason needed more time before he followed them, and the drive back home was much quieter than ever. Every one of them seemed drowning in their own train-of-thought. Liam seemed pretty upset, while Mason lost in his mind. Corey also didn’t bother to initiate any conversation and subtly watching Mason through the rear view mirror. Something was changing inside him that night, and he was anxious to see where it would take him.
**
New York, the next day
“And…, this is your room, just next to Scott’s,” Aunt Melissa opened the white door in front of them, smiled sweetly to Corey, as the boy walked in and cast his eyes around the room. “I’m so happy you come to visit us again, Corey. We really missed you.”
Corey pursed his lips, tried so hard not to let out any sarcastic comments such as: ‘I don’t really have a choice, Aunt Mel’, or ‘Not if I get to choose’, so on. Instead, he nodded his head and dropped his bag next to the dresser.
“Where’s Scott?” He inquired. When they arrived, there was only Aunt Melissa at home. He knew his uncle was at the office, but his cousin should be at home during break. His mother had rushed to the airport after they had short chit-chat with his aunt, so it was only him and his aunt at the moment.
“I think he’s out with his friends or with his girlfriend. It’s hard to keep tabs with him these days,” Melissa sighed. “But I told him you’ll be coming today, though.”
Corey cracked another thin smile. So, his cousin had a girlfriend now. Well, it was about time, actually. Many of Corey’s friends were having their own partners too, especially when the Junior prom approaching, so it shouldn’t be any surprise.
“So, what do you want to do now?” His aunt asked him, still maintaining her cheerfulness. Corey smiled to the thought how similar his aunt and his mother’s characters were, although the blood relationship was not running in them, but from his father’s side.
The glasses boy shrugged. “Unpack and take a nap, maybe. It’s quite tiring, the trip.”
Melissa nodded her head. “Take your rest then. I’ll call you when dinner is ready, or when Scott’s home. I’m going to the clinic shortly and planning to buy groceries afterward, do you need something?”
Corey shook his head. “No thanks, Aunt Mel. I’m good.”
“Okay, then…”
With that, his aunt went out the room and closed the door behind her, leaving Corey sprawling on the bed. He gazed the white ceiling and let out a deep sigh. He took his phone out and texted Mason that he arrived in New York and received a reply; Mason was wishing him a pleasant stay in the city and promised him he would e-mail Corey his training course, approved by their coach already. He replied a thank you and stared blankly to the ceiling again. He could only hope that this time, the stay won’t be too boring. He took off his glasses and started to drift away.
**
Corey didn’t know how long he was asleep, but it was already afternoon when he woke up with dry mouth and growling stomach. He rubbed his eyes, wobbly walked to the bathroom to wash his face, and wore back his glasses. He took a good look of his reflection on the bathroom mirror. He had a soft face with big honey-brown eyes under black eyebrows, and plump lips. He was told that he was quite good looking, but he thought he looked quite boring with his glasses. Maybe he better switched to contacts, not only during the game, he thought. However, the next second, he chuckled, laughing himself. Even if he done so, who he’d like to impress? If he managed to impress anyone, could he keep them; that would be the next crucial question. Corey shook his head and decided to grab something to eat instead of dwelling in ridiculous thought.
As he descended downstairs, he heard a rustling sound from the kitchen. Aunt Mel had done her shift? Great timing, he thought. He could ask his aunt to fix him something.
“Aunt Mel, I’m hungry. Do you have anything to eat?” He asked as he entered the kitchen. He saw the fridge door was opened and his aunt was bending her waist, with her face screened perfectly by the door, taking something from the fridge.
His aunt was clearly startled. She jolted and closed the door promptly, whipped her head to Corey now. Corey blinked swiftly when he saw that it was actually not his aunt at all. He was a he. Corey guessed he was around his age, shorter than he was, a brunette with trimmed black eyebrows framing a pair of twinkling hazel eyes, and inviting sexy thin lips beneath a perfectly sculpted tall nose. He was beautiful. Corey didn’t realize he was holding his breath when he laid his eyes on that brunette, and he could feel how his heart was drumming loudly in his chest when that boy flashed him a smile.
Corey gulped, tried his best to calm his pounding heart. What was this reaction his body made? He didn’t even have such reaction when he saw Mason. He clenched his arm with his hand, tried to pull himself together.
“So-sorry…, Melissa told me to come in…, I… Who are you, anyway?” That beauty stuttered. So cute, Corey smiled.
“And who are you?” Corey cocked his head, smirking, collected himself now. “It’s not polite to ask other’s name without giving yours first, you know?”
The beautiful boy startled and was blushing immediately. Corey let out a low groan when he felt his pants had started to feel slightly uncomfortable now. He walked toward the kitchen island to give his lower part a good screen in case he hardly could contain himself. He offered his hand to the brunette.
“I’m Corey, Scott’s cousin.”
The boy was beaming as he took Corey’s hand to shake it enthusiastically. His skin felt so smooth in Corey's palm. “Ah, I should’ve guessed. Scotty told us about you. I’m Theo, Scott’s friend.”
Theo, Corey replayed the name in his heart and unabashedly checking him out, until Theo flustered and started to nibble his lips. Corey got a strong grip of the counter, pulling himself to behave and not to scare the shorter boy too much. “So,” he cleared his throat and tried to initiate decent conversation, “Are you a junior?”
Theo pursed his lips and smiled, nodded. “You too?”
“Yep.”
They fell into another silent. Theo still looked groggy around Corey and decided to pay full attention to his sandwich. Corey walked to the fridge and making his own sandwich too.
“So-sorry, I didn’t offer you one…,” Theo blushed when he saw he was eating by himself, while Corey was clearly hungry too.
Corey smiled. “It’s ok. I like to fix my own meal, anyway,” he said and caught a lacrosse stick amongst Theo’s bags. He paced into the other boy’s space and touched the stick. “You play?”
Theo nodded, “Scott and Stiles are better than me, tho.”
“Stiles?”
“Our other friend,” Theo explained, as rosy cheeks grew on him again. This time, his gaze was soften at the mention of that ‘Stiles’ name. Corey frowned, didn’t really like what he saw.
“Wanna play with me?” Corey asked. “I could use some exercise…”
Theo beamed and rushing to follow Corey to the back yard. “So you play too?”
“I’m on team at my school. Usually, I’m practicing with my seniors during my break, but my mom insisted for me to come here. That’s why, I’d appreciate any chance for practicing.” He threw the ball to Theo, who deftly caught it.
They were then started to play, running around the big yard and laughing together as they made score out of each other in turns. After some times, they finally sat down to take some break. Theo was still laughing satisfied and sprawling himself on the ground. His shirt wet with sweat, as well as his face, and his chest was heaving. Corey savoured each second of the view, trailing his eyes from Theo’s face down to his body. How would it feel to have him in his arms? He thought. How sweet was the taste of those lips? Corey gulped. He didn’t realize he already moved forward to approach Theo, when the said man suddenly jumped on his feet and beamed.
“Stiles!” He shouted, jogging toward the porch, waving enthusiastically to the two silhouettes who were walking toward his direction. “Scott!!”
Corey narrowed his eyes to see clearly. One of the coming silhouettes indeed belonged to his cousin. He was still like Corey remembered. Scott’s skin was tan like always, crooked jaw, dark-brown eyes and curly raven hair. He smiled and tilted his head when he saw Corey. The other boy, contrary, Corey never met. He was taller than Scott and Theo, maybe as tall as Corey was, and he was a brunette. He styled his hair in buzz-cut, made his face looked boyish with his upturned nose, thin-upper lips and constellation of moles sprawled on his pale skin. The other boy was somewhat cute too, but Corey knitted his brows tightly in the middle of his forehead when he saw Theo was showering that boy with fond gaze, which returned in full scale by the said boy, and they were occasionally caressing each other forearms in those intimate gestures.
“I see you’ve met Theo,” Scott said once he walked next to Corey.
“Yeah, cool kid,” Corey replied without tearing his eyes from Theo, noticing every single rosy cheeks he made when he was with that other taller brunette. Beautiful, actually, but he knew how that would look like, so he held that particular opinion, as well as the uneasy feeling. “We played some. He’s good.”
“Yes, he is. He just got transferred during our sophomore year and we are really lucky to have him joining the team.”
“Yeah? Good for you. And, who’s the other guy?” Corey tilted his chin to the other brunette.
“That would be my best friend Stiles,” Scott waved to the other two boys, calling them to meet Corey. “Hey Stiles, come to meet my cuz’!!”
The tall brunette flashed Corey a friendly wide smile and had his arm wrapped on Theo’s shoulder, as they were walking toward him. The glasses boy frowned even deeper at the sight before him, but managed to compose himself. He tried to return Stiles’ smile. “So you are that Corey? Scott told me a lot about you!!”
“He did? I hope they were good things…”
“They were, no worries,” Stiles grinned. “Theo said you play lacrosse too?”
“Yeah, we just finished playing,” Corey gestured to the vicinity and abandoned lacrosse stick. “He’s good,” he said, stared fondly to the shorter brunette.
“Of course he is, my man Theo is the best,” Stiles pulled Theo tighter and crashed their cheeks together, awarded a protest from the shorter boy, and made Corey flinched. “Hey, Scotty, I’m seriously hungry, dude!”
“Okay! Okay! Let’s head back to the kitchen,” Scotty raised both of his palm, sighing.
“Are you hungry? I’ll fix some sandwich for you,” Theo offered and turned his head to Scott, “I hope you don’t mind, Scott. Do you want some too?”
“Nah, thanks. I just had waffles with Ally before I meet up with Stiles.” For no reason, Stiles was snorting upon the mentioning of some ‘Ally’. Corey guessed that must be Scott’s girlfriend’s name.
“No wonder you made me wait for almost an hour!” Stiles snorted again.
“Only twenty minutes, for goodness sake, Stiles,” Scott bugged his eyes.
“No wonder I was left here for so long,” Theo interjected. “Luckily Corey was there to accompany me,” he turned his head and flashed a grateful smile to Corey, who was following them in silent. Corey smiled back to him.
“Thanks, Corey…,” Stiles shot him another grin.
Corey said nothing as reply and seated himself on the dining chair, watching the boys attentively. Theo was deftly made preparation to make sandwich for Stiles, with that other brunette plastering him anywhere he went.
“Hey, Scotty…,” he whispered to his cousin, as Scott took his seat next to Corey. “Theo and Stiles…, are they an item?”
Scott frowned. A glint of resentment was in his eyes, but he dismissed it shortly. He cracked his cousin a wry smile. “Even you could see it as clear as the sky?”
“So they really are?”
Scott shrugged his shoulders. “I have my suspicion too, but they never admit it. Theo’s family and Stiles’ family are not in good term, tho’. So it’s sort of a miracle to see them that tight. I don’t know…”
Corey rested his face on his palm, studying the brunettes again. Could he read it all wrong? He was new to this, anyway. They might be close friends only, like Liam and Mason. But, as long as he knew his seniors and hanged out with them, he never saw Liam caressed Mason's cheek when he had something on his face, the way Stiles did to Theo, neither would his seniors share one sandwich with each other. They were never exchanging spit the way those two brunettes did with their foods and drinks. Corey didn’t need long to get the answer, anyway. By the end of the week, as he was walking across Scott’s room, he saw Stiles and Theo were kissing, when his cousin was away. He frowned to the sight and felt a pang in his heart. Especially, when he saw how Theo’s beautiful face was flushed and how his hazel eyes locked firmly to Stiles’ amber eyes. They were in their own world, and there was no place for Corey there. Yet.
**