Chapter Text
"...and then she was, like, giving me this look as if... As if I was a total loser or something?" Thomas sighed and let himself fall onto the park bench next to his friend best Minho after pacing back and forth for what seemed like hours to him (and also to Minho). The brunette buried his handsome (no use in being modest, he was indeed quite stunning with his blue eyes and straight nose, thank you very much) face in his hands, his elbows on his knees. "I don't think I'll ever stand a chance with her", he sighed, his voice sounding muffled through his hands.
Minho sighed as if in pain, but patted the other boy's back nevertheless. The tall Asian kid was Thomas' best friend, and even though Minho couldn't stand the wailing about yet another girl that refused to go out with his friend, he still listened. Thomas appreciated his commitment; he secretly doubted he'd have patience with himself if he were someone else, but he never said so - he would have been stupid to do so.
"Don't let that Sonya girl get you down, man", Minho said sympathetically while continuing to pat his friend's back. "I don't see what's so special about her, anyway."
Thomas' hands flew away from his face, his eyes wide in shock. "You WHAT?" he exclaimed, disbelief obvious in every inch of his face. "Sonya is probably the best looking, sweetest, funniest, smartest, kindest girl I have ever met!" Seriously, what was wrong with Minho?!
Minho snorted. Thomas knew that his friend didn't believe in romance, unlike himself, and that he probably thought he was overreacting again. Which he wasn't. In his opinion. "You call the girl kind? Dude, your crush has made you blind!"
Thomas swatted the words away like an annoying fly circling his face. What did Minho know about true beauty? "Alright, scratch the kind if it makes you feel better. But she is amazing! Have you ever seen eyes like that? Nothing compares to that pale shade of green, I swear! And her lips! Her lips! So sweet and red like strawberries! And -"
"Woah, woah, woah, hold it right there, Thomas! You're not a poet, you're making an idiot of yourself, sounding like a love-struck fool!" Minho intervened, his palms up in Thomas' face as if to literally stop him from talking.
The brunette let his head hang. "You're right. Why should I talk about it if she won't look at me, anyway." Today's encounter at the supermarket had made it fairly obvious she didn't want to go out with him.
"Jesus", Minho sighed, pulling out his phone and quickly dialling before putting it up to his ear. "Yeah, hi, Chuck. Yes, he's acting like a maniac again. Yes, please, do come."
Thomas cocked his head up, looking critically at his best friend. "I am NOT a maniac, you slinthead, I am in love, and if you knew what that meant, you wouldn't insult me like that-"
"Thomas, you act like Ron Weasley in Harry Potter when he drank the love potion EVERY SINGLE TIME you're into some girl, which is basically every three weeks. I also don't understand why you don't talk to Brenda about this, she's your female best friend - there's really no reason I have to listen to this klunk."
So, here was the thing. Thomas wasn't stupid or anything - he had really good grades in school and was generally considered a bright boy. However, his passion, and probably also his fatal flaw, was beauty - female beauty, to be more precise. He had been swooning over girls since the beginning of high school and now, at the age of seventeen, nothing had changed apart from the fact that he had grown several inches and also put on thirty pounds of muscles so now he was considered good looking by many girls and he actually got to date some of them. He loved with passion, but never long. After a few weeks, he'd get tired of a girl and never look twice at her again, already searching for his next "only one". Minho and Chuck, his best friends, were used to this kind of behaviour, but this time, his complaining was particularly hard to stand; probably because Thomas had taken Advanced English this year and mistook himself for a poet now.
When the brunette didn't answer, Minho jumped to his feet. "Come on, let's go!"
Thomas looked at him, bewildered. He'd only just joined his friend in their favourite park, where would they go now? "I thought you called up Chuck?"
"I did. He's coming to your house."
"My house?" Now the looked downright confused - because he was. "Why's that?"
Minho sighed in exasperation. "Because it's closer to his house than this park. Because we need to make plans to get you off your thoughts about that Sonya chick. And mostly because I'm really hungry and your mum said something about an apple pie earlier."
The brunette sighed, too. "Do we have to? I bet dad's got people over. I really don't feel comfortable when our house is buzzing with politicians." Thomas' dad, Mr Edison, was currently running for the town's mayor post. Elections were to take place in October, so some two months away, and the campaign was the only topic his parents ever talked about. Glade Town was not a huge city, but not insignificant either with it's forty thousand inhabitants, and even though Thomas' dad was a Democrat and had good chances of winning (Glade Town hadn't had a Republican mayor in decades), the tension in their home was almost touchable and made the boy uncomfortable.
His friend nodded. "Yes, we do. We won't stay long, I promise. But if we don't leave now, we won't get any of that apple pie because Chuck will have eaten it all."
...
Minho had been right. When they reached the Edison's huge house, it smelled of freshly baked pie and their friend Chuck, a rather chubby kid with curly hair, was sitting at the kitchen counter, eating and listening to Thomas' mum chattering as she did the dishes. The brunette didn't mind his friend being there; he thought it was actually kind of cool that his parents had this sort of open-house-attitude, letting his friends in when he wasn't home and offering them their hospitality. The kitchen was airy and bright with the light of huge windows and despite its white colour, it didn't feel sterile but was actually quite comfy.
When the two boys came in, Mrs Edison interrupted herself to kiss her only son on the cheek, pat his best friend on the back and offer both of them cake, which they accepted, sitting down next to their friend.
"Thanks for leaving us some, man", Minho said as he playfully tackled Chuck sitting down next to him. "Thank you, Mrs Edison", he added as Thomas' mum put two plates with pie on it in front of the two newly arrived boys. Thomas tried it and of course it tasted heavenly.
"You're very welcome, Minho", she said, smiling broadly at her son's friend. She was really pretty, still quite young looking with her brown ponytail and light green eyes. Thomas adored his mum; he was convinced she was one of the best human beings alive. "Saturday night, boys. What are you up to tonight?" Mrs Edison winked at them, and it might have been embarrassing if it had been Minho's or Chuck's mum talking, but Thomas' mum totally pulled the cool mum off, talking to them about girls and parties. Maybe that was why the brunette had such a good relationship with his mother; other than his father, she actually knew what was going on in his life, and he was proud to have a modern mum that closed both eyes to responsible underage drinking and casual sex.
Chuck quickly gulped down his last bite of cake. "Guys, that's what I wanted to tell you-"
"Anne?" A voice called from upstairs. "Anne, do you have a second for us?"
"Coming!" Thomas' mum yelled back. "Excuse me, gentlemen", she apologised to the boys and quickly left the kitchen.
"What is it?" Minho asked Chuck as soon as Mrs Edison was gone. The chubby boy looked eager. "There's a huge party at the Isaac's tonight. We should totally check that out!"
"The Isaacs? Are you shucking crazy?!" Thomas hissed. Mr Isaac was the Republican candidate for the mayor elections and even before that, his father had hated him for various reasons Thomas didn't know about, and the feeling was mutual. He was sure that there was no way he'd ever get into that party.
Chuck looked only mildly concerned. "Why? They are having sort of an open house kind of thing. Mr Isaac wants to be a people's man. And we are people, right?" The huge blue eyes quickly moved from Thomas to Minho and back.
"I don't know, Chuck, I don't think that's a good idea", Thomas reluctantly declined. He was actually really curious to see his dad's opponent's house and check out a Republican event, but it just wasn't smart. "What if Gally's there? Isn't he, like, his nephew or something?" Gally was a huge, rather aggressive guy from their school they considered their enemy; on the one hand because it was fun, on the other hand they just disliked him by association with Mr Isaac.
Minho cleared his throat. "I think we should go, actually. But, like, make sure our parents don't know where we are. I'm sure they wouldn't approve." Thomas still looked doubtful, and the Asian kid punched him on the shoulder. "Come on, Edison, don't be lame. Live a little. It might do you good, take your mind off that snotty cow." It took Thomas two seconds to realise that he had meant Sonya. He actually hadn't thought about the girl for several minutes. Huh.
They could hear Thomas' mum come back down the stairs. "Alright", the brunette agreed quickly. "But not a word to the adults." Mrs Edison entered the room once more, clacking on her high heels.
"Sorry boys, the state was in a crisis only a woman could solve" she grinned when she leaned back against the counter to grab a towel. "So, what are your plans for tonight?"
"A movie night at mine", Minho said so smoothly Thomas almost believed it himself.
After a bit more of talking to his mum, Thomas went upstairs to pack his bag. Since Minho's parents were not around (some trip to Hawaii or something, or was it the Philippines? Never mind), the three boys were going to spend the night at theirs; this way, they could return from the party (or wherever they would end up) whenever they deemed fit. The brunette took a few minutes to choose his outfit for the night - who knew, maybe Sonya would be there? He was still a bit uncertain about going to the party. He had his doubts Mr Isaac would recognise him, but Gally might, and he really wouldn't want to cause a fuss. But as long as he didn't misbehave, he should be fine, right? Who knew, they might even be able to use bad behaviour on the Isaac's part against them in the election campaign. Thomas disliked the thought, but this mayor post was dad's dream, and even though the whole thing annoyed him, he wanted his dad to be happy. He promised himself he'd stay sober tonight and then went back downstairs to join his friends. They said good-bye to Mrs Edison and went over to Minho's - the house was only a short walk away and as it was a sunny, warm August evening, they didn't bother to drive. They would probably take the car to the party, but right now, it was just nice to be outside and feel the warm breeze on his skin, Thomas thought.
As they were walking and Chuck was talking about some movie they had to go and see as soon as possible, the brunette's thoughts drifted towards Sonya once more. She was so beautiful. Her strawberry-blonde hair swaying in the breeze as she'd put her groceries into the trunk of her car when he'd met her that morning, her cute green jumpsuit that was the exact shade of her eyes hugging her in all the right places... But she hadn't even bothered to be civil, let alone nice. Thomas had asked her out several times, but somehow, even though his friend Brenda had assured him that she was checking him out in gym class, she wouldn't say yes. The brunette was confused about that - did she want to play hard-to-get? He found that attractive, but at the same time he knew that he'd probably loose interest as soon as she'd be in his bed. What was wrong with him? Brenda called it a relationship phobia, but that wasn't it. Not really. It was just that none of those girls seemed to be worth staying with. They didn't really care about him, and he didn't really care about them, even though, before, he had thought he did... Well, he concluded, it was nothing to be concerned about, he was a teenage boy, and it was alright not to be serious about feelings yet, perfectly so.
"Thomas, what are you thinking about?" Chuck interrupted his thoughts. Thomas was about to open his mouth when Minho added "And if you say Sonya, I'm gonna punch you in the face."
Thomas smiled. "The weather, actually."
...
They spent two more hours at Minho's, eating pizza and talking about this and that (Minho had forbidden to mention the S-word, as he called it) before they made their way to the Isaacs' house halfway across the small town. Dusk was fully upon them, and when they approached the huge mansion, they saw that small lights were blinking in the huge oak trees in the back yard and the garden was buzzing with people. It would be easy for them to get in unnoticed and unidentified as political opponents (Which they weren't. Not really.).
Minho was about to get out of the car when Thomas held him back. "Promise me", he said, carefully pronouncing every word, "you won't cause trouble."
Minho looked at him, weighing his options, then nodded. "Sure. Hey, shank, don't worry, I want your dad to be the new mayor, too! I'll be on my best behaviour. And so will Chuck, even though he always is." Chuck blushed. He really was a very considerate and kind person.
Relieved, Thomas allowed them to get out of the car and carefully enter the garden. There was soft jazz music coming from a stereo that was hidden from Thomas' eyes, and there were people everywhere, and he knew plenty of them; some kids from their school, neighbour, people from church. They stopped to talk to Ben, a boy from their gym class. Thomas and Ben were both in the running team, and he liked the kid fine.
"Thomas", Ben exclaimed, giving him that one-armed-fist-bumping-on -the-back boy hug that was common among the runners and nodded to Minho and Chuck. "Minho, Chuck, hi! What are you guys doing here? Not really your usual crowd, is it?" He smiled - Ben didn't mean it offensively, Thomas knew the guy too well to think that. He was a playful kind of guy, and everyone liked him.
"Nor yours, I take it?" Thomas grinned. "We thought we'd expand our horizons and take a look at the other side of things."
"My sentiments exactly", Ben agreed. "Come sit with me? I've found a nice bench - far away from Gally." He nodded towards a tight ball of people in which Thomas had already suspected Mr Isaac and Gally to stand.
"Sounds good", Minho agreed, and Chuck nodded. Thomas couldn't have agreed more - he was happy they hadn't been the only ones to party-crash the Isaacs, and Ben was a nice person to sit with.
"Let me get a drink first", he said, and the other nodded and made their way over to a group of benches while the brunette sneaked around the assembly of people containing their "enemies" (God, that was kind of childish, wasn't it) and approached the buffet. There were drinks and finger food at the ready, and it all looked so good. Damn that pizza and his vow to stay sober. Huh. Whatever, water would have to do tonight. Thomas had just grabbed a sparkling one and was about to turn around and join the others when he bumped into someone.
"Whoa", he exclaimed, and his eyes turned wide.
Not someone. A boy. The most beautiful boy he had ever seen. And his life would never be the same again.