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The preps had hosted a party, though it wasn’t really a "party" per se because only the preps were invited. Derby had ordered food and a bunch of alcohol to celebrate since it was a Friday night and nobody had anything better to do. They even got a bartender to make and serve drinks for the preps. Derby was sitting at the end of the expensive royal couch next to Pinky, while Bif (Derby’s right-hand man) was at the other end of the couch. The couch was gold and white and a gift from Derby’s father. Derby actually begged for permission from his father so he could have the couch in the Harrington’s household. He kept bugging his father because he kept bragging about how beautiful the couch would look in Harrington’s house, to the point where his father got annoyed and just gave it to him.
Pinky (possibly drunk) kept gossiping off to Derby about God knows what. Something about Christy commenting about how Mandy’s thighs are "chubby" or whatever, Derby usually just nodded and gave out little hums sometimes to prove that he was listening to her when he was obviously not. It was really hard to tune out Pinky because of her high-pitched voice and constant go-ons, and the worst part is that she’s drunk, which makes it even worse. Bif could tell that Derby was tuning her out, as Derby is now very obviously staring out into the abyss. He lazily turned his head to stare at Bif at the other end of the couch as he put on a face of "Please end my suffering" Bif responded with a nervous smile with the meaning of, "Hang in there, buddy". Bif and Derby are now starting to think serving alcoholic drinks to minors was a bad idea. Especially when they both looked to the other side of the room to see Gord.
Gord was drunk, maybe even drunker than Pinky, and poor Parker had to witness it all. Parker chose to sit next to Gord because, in all honesty, he wasn’t very social, especially within his own clique. He kind of only interacted with Gord if he doesn’t count sparring with Bif (or talking to his only friend, Gnomey).
In all honesty, he had a slight resentment towards Gord; he felt like that resentment came from jealousy, but he didn’t want to admit it, and he felt like Gord was insane sometimes. I mean, what kind of cretin would date a known two-timer like Lola? It’s revolting! And the fact that ‘tard Gord can get a proper date, or multiple proper dates for that matter, but Parker can’t even get one, It made him sick to his stomach.
Sadly, Parker can’t just leave the couch he and Gord are sitting on because Gord has his arm around Parker’s neck hanging loosely, and Parker thinks moving said hand would be awkward. Gord is sitting cross-legged on the couch, his free hand holding a cocktail glass, and his cheeks are all red from drinking so much. Parker can’t even remember how many cosmopolitans he had. Parker only had one drink because he didn’t like alcohol, but he tried it at least once that evening to fit in with the rest of his peers. Gord was talking to Parker the same way Pinky is talking to Derby. Parker just nervously nods at whatever Gord is saying. His speech is entirely slurred, which makes it even more embarrassing for him. Why isn’t this cretin leaving him alone?
"Heyy! Bartender! Bring me a ‘nother one, would you kindly?" Gord says loudly
Everyone is noticing how drunk Gord is getting; he is laughing loudly at his own jokes, while Parker chuckles nervously as Gord keeps asking the bartender to bring him more drinks. All eyes are on the God-forsaken couch he and Gord are sitting on. Parker slowly winces into the couch cushions out of embarrassment and squeezes the bridge of his nose while his eyes are sewn shut, cringing at the realization they’re not just looking at Gord but at him as well. Parker thinks he’s starting to hate Gord now. Parker hates having unwanted attention drawn to himself.
"Oh, I say, Parker! Have you ever seen Eunice in a cheerleading outfit? It’s despicable; I almost threw up in my own arse!" Gord laughed out loud at his own comment, as Parker is witnessing in horror that his reputation is getting shattered. Gord is usually talkative, but he’s even worse when he’s drunk.
"Oh my God!" Pinky says in a whiny voice while drawing out every word for some reason, "Poor Gord, he can’t even hold his own alcohol; he’s embarrassing himself!"
Bif raises an eyebrow. "He can’t even hold his own alcoholll," Bif mumbled to himself with a scoff, imitating Pinky’s high-pitched voice and raising his hands in a girly matter. "You’re one to talk, Pinky."
Derby let out a huffed laugh as he heard Bif’s comment, one of the only real genuine reactions Derby gave all night other than deadpan from Pinky’s conversations.
Pinky whipped her head around and stared at Bif; her face turned sour, and her eyes squinted as she opened her mouth. "Come again, Bif?"
Bif rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Nothing, Pinky."
Pinky straightens out her back, contrasting with the slightly slouching posture she had before like she’s trying to make it known that she’s proving a point. "Hmph! I’m not drunk, just tipsy!"
Bif turned to look at Derby, who was too focused on the commotion going on with Parker and Gord.
Parker felt eyes drilling to the side of his skull; those eyes were none other than Derby's, his expression deadpan, not the type of deadpan he was giving off earlier that night, but a different kind, a scarier kind, to say the least. Derby tapped his index finger at the arm of the couch, just staring at Parker. He gave Parker a nod at the staircase for his final clue, meaning "Get him out of here."
Parker took the memo without hesitation and got up fast off the couch. Parker looked at Gord with his best fake smile, and clapped his hands together.
"Gord, may we take our conversation upstairs?"
Gord looked at him as he was still sitting on the sofa, his head tilting slightly and lazy-eyed, confused about why Parker was suggesting this.
"But Parkerrrr~, I want to stay down here." Gord says in a whiny voice, similar to Pinky’s.
Is he…disagreeing? Does he not see the social suicide he’s doing to himself? Parker's body tenses up. "Please don’t tell me I have to force him off the couch…" Parker hoped to himself, as Derby’s sight is still drilling holes into him. Watching this whole thing play out, Parker felt like Derby was testing him.
"Ha ha ha!-" Parker laughs very nervously with a twitching eye, as his reputation is crumbling more.
"This isn’t really a choice, Gord," Parker says through gritted teeth. Gord finally senses that he’s serious, or somewhat serious, due to Gord’s drunkenness.
"Ok, I’ll only go if the room will stop spinning,"Gord says while slurring every word with a smirk on his face.
Parker didn’t even react to that last comment; he was sick of this shit. He sensed Gord didn’t look like he could stand on his own, so he quickly grabbed Gord’s arm and tossed it around his shoulder for support.
"Ooh," Gord cooed, "I forgot how strong you were."
Parker cringed at this comment and dragged Gord upstairs to his room. Gord’s room was almost the same as everyone else's—everything Aquaberry, of course. But instead, Gord’s bed had light blue canopy curtains and a little stuffed bear on his bed, holding a heart that says "be mine," which Parker notices is from the carnival.
Parker leaves the door ajar, letting a little bit of yellow light come through the cracks, and lies Gord down on his bed.
Gord hums a bit, seeming tired, and then looks up at Parker.
"So," Gord says, lazily eyed but smiling, "you wanted us to continue our conversation?"
Parker looks at Gord, forgetting what he had promised him before, but the problem was that Parker didn’t think Gord would actually remember. God, he just wants to leave.
"Uh-yeah, sure", Parker says, as he again then puts on his best fake smile he could give. Gord genuinely smiles back,
"Alright then, close that door, will you? The light from the outside and the noise from downstairs is giving me a headache…"
Parker then gives the door a push until it closes; he’s now in a completely dark room with Gord Vendome.
Parker then shifts over to the bed, lying down, because, he has to admit, he was pretty tired himself for the evening. He uses one of the pillows on Gord’s bed to give him head support against the headboard. Parker then puts his hands loosely together and lies them on his stomach while he lays on his back.
Parker probably would’ve expected all things—Gord probably puking or burping disgustingly—but instead, Gord put his head on Parker’s shoulder and smiled up at him. Parker didn’t know exactly how to react to this; he felt his face turning red.
"You took my best pillow," Gord says smugly. Parker simply nodded, not knowing how to react to this sudden change of emotion. Hell, he had nobody to get up so close to him before, and especially to lie on his shoulder like this (in a probably gay or not manner), Parker was stunned.
"Sorry," Parker replies, with a still slightly stunned expression on his face.
"Mmm, it’s alright," Gord says with his eyes closed. "Now what are we talking about? Oh right, I heard Pinky talking about Christy calling Mandy’s thighs chubby, like, who does she think she is?"
Parker remembers trying to go out with Christy once; she told him that buying diamonds for her was “normal” on a third date, and so he did. They broke up later on, meaning Christy was just after his money because, of course, she was. "It’s always the pretty ones," he thinks, sulking to himself.
Gord continues to ramble on about the same conversation that Pinky herself was having with Derby, and Parker didn’t seem to care that much, but he tried to listen, but he couldn’t help that he was slowly drifting off to sleep, closing his eyes.
"Christy is a bit of a slut, honestly. The last time I made out with her, she-“
Gord cut himself off. Parker cracked open his eyes to see what was wrong. Hopefully, Gord didn’t have to vomit. God, he really hopes Gord didn’t have to vomit.
"I'm sorry, Parker, but I just have to say how much I like the smell of your new cologne."
Parker’s jaw almost dropped. "You don’t usually wear that cologne very often, but you should," Gord says with a smile, staring at Parker in the eyes. Nobody has commented on Parker’s cologne before. He thought that wearing cologne made it much easier to attract girls (even though he didn’t pull in any girls at all, sadly), but he didn’t think that Gord would notice. Gord complimented Parker on a lot of things, which made him feel good. Gord was actually the only person who complimented him, besides Derby’s slight complimentary remarks that he makes rarely, but that’s beside the point.
"T-Thanks, Gord," Parker says, feeling flushed. "I didn’t think anyone would notice," Parker cringed at the realization of him admitting that to Gord, admitting that he at least wanted someone to notice him in a way.
Gord's face went smug, and he parted his lips.
"Well…I did."
The warmness Parker felt on his neck from when Gord replied, the deep voice he gave off while saying it, and topped off with the aroma of his fruity breath from the drinks he'd drunk that night made Parker shiver; it made his stomach feel... warm?
"Well, uh, yeah, I appreciate it," Parker said it nervously. Gord noticed this and giggled at Parker with his cute nervous response.
"You know, it’s kind of cute when you get nervous like that," Gord says as he's trying to tease Parker more.
"I…uh-" Parker didn’t know what to say. Was Gord flirting with him? Parker wasn’t good at flirting at all; he feels embarrassed and flushed that Gord is purposely doing this to him. Gord then makes another little giggle in response to Parker’s stutters and slumps down on his shoulder, supposedly getting more comfortable. Gord then yawns,
"Your shoulder is…like…really comfortable, Parker…." Gord snuggled up to Parker and slowly drifted off to sleep. Parker wanted to move, but he couldn’t because he didn’t want to wake up Gord; that would be rude. So he decided to let him sleep on his shoulder. Parker decides to sleep on Gord’s bed for this one night.
Parker woke to the sound of rain as it beaded off of Gord’s windows. Gord is still asleep on his shoulder. Parker was thankful that it rained, since he never really liked the beam of the sun shining down on his face, waking him up annoyingly (and especially after a long night). Instead, he got dark, cloudy weather, which he personally liked. Parker then looks down at his watch.
6:09 AM
Since Parker was still tired and slept in a very weird position that night, he was just going to sleep inside his own room instead with Gord, so he very carefully prompted Gord off of him and took the pillow that he was lying on and put it beneath Gord’s head for support. Parker looked in Gord’s desk mirror and saw dark bags under his eyes, his jet black hair is everywhere and a mess and his Aquaberry is crumpled.
“Mmph…”
Parker looked back to see Gord trying to rise from his bed while holding his head, Gord looked as bad as Parker in many ways. Gord kept holding his head and groaning in pain, most likely due to a hangover.
“Um-,” Parker began to speak lowly, to not disturb Gord too much “Would you like some water?”
Gord looked up at Parker, and then laid back down, seemingly too tired to speak, but then let out a little noise that kinda sounded like a “yeah”. Parker nodded and then headed downstairs.
The living room wasn’t that bad, but it was messy enough to know that there were multiple people there. He headed to the kitchen to grab a water bottle, but not before noticing Bif sitting in the dining room with a cup of coffee. Derby is also there sitting next to Bif, he has his cup of coffee lying on the table next to him, with his face planted down on the table, supposedly sleeping.
“Didn’t know you were gonna be up so early”
Bif remarks at Parker, while Parker opens the refrigerator door to grab a water bottle, “You usually jog around 7:00, right?” Bif says while taking a sip of his coffee.
“Yeah I do, I woke up this early because I just slept in a weird position, I felt uncomfortable”
Parker says as he grabs the water bottle out of the fridge
“Yeah that explains it, you look terrible. You must’ve been pretty tired last night, you didn’t even change into your pajamas” Bif says mockingly, while taking another sip of his coffee. Parker rolled his eyes at Bif’s comment. He always had a slight grudge against Bif because of how perfectly fresh he looked in the morning compared to him, it was vexing.
“Also what’s that on your shoulder?” Parker snapped out of his daydream and looked at his shoulder, It was smeared saliva on his Aquaberry. At first, he thought it was himself by accident, but he remembers who he was sleeping with, “Oh god” Parker said out loud and wiped his right hand over his face in an annoyed manner
“Gord must’ve…slobbered on me” he muttered. Bif’s face began to wrinkle in disgust and put down his coffee, “Ew...Wait, Gord slept with you?” Bif asks while raising an eyebrow, “ didn’t know you guys were that close ” Bif muttered to himself. Parker caught a whiff of this and made himself stop looking at the spit on his shoulder and turned his head to Bif
“What? No, it’s not like that! After I took him to his room last night, he wanted to sit there and gossip to me about-“ Parker made a motion with his hands trying to desperately remember what they were talking about last night, “God knows what, and he fell asleep on my shoulder!” Derby made a loud snore from his sleep in response to Parker’s slight outburst. Bif took his index figure and placed it to his lips, telling Parker to be quiet.
“Say, was Derby already down here when you woke up?” Parker then says with his quiet manner back
“No, he had a slight hangover, so I got him up and made him some coffee."
“That reminds me…,” Parker felt the water bottle making his hand wet from the coolness of the bottle, “I have to go take this to Gord, I’ll be back.” Bif simply nodded and went back to his coffee
Parker went upstairs and put the water bottle next to Gord, who was now clutching the “be mine” teddy bear that was on his bed. Gord got up and smiled at Parker, with bags under his eyes like him, “Thank you, Parker…I really appreciate it.” Gord says groggily while looking at Parker in the eyes. He grabs Parker’s hand and holds it. Parker wasn’t expecting that at all, Parker's face heats up, and gets that warm funny feeling in his stomach again, “No problem Gord” Parker says smiling back at him…wait, was Parker…blushing? Parker gently lets go of the embrace as Gord still smiles. “I’ll uh- catch you later and everything…” Parker says nervously, Gord waves at Parker in a sly manner and Parker gently closes his room door
As Parker changes his slobby shirt in exchange for a clean one, he meets Bif back downstairs for some coffee. Parker can’t explain it, but there’s something about Gord he can’t lie his finger on, he gets warm every time he’s talking to him, but this hasn’t happened before, it’s just so surreal to him..is he really starting to have slight feelings for Gord? No, that couldn’t be true…he must be tired… there’s no proof that he actually liked Gord…right?