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Keith gives a final sigh as he walks up to the house, music already blaring and house overflowing with people he doesn’t know and doesn’t care to meet. Keith normally wouldn’t be caught dead at one of these stupid parties, but he promised Shiro he would come.
It was stupid. He was already regretting making that bet with Shiro, but how was he supposed to know Shiro would actually lead the football team to victory the whole season and even win the championship game?
Yeah, he really should have known better—Shiro is exactly the type to be able to pull that off.
It doesn’t matter now, anyway. He is here at this crowded house, adorned in blue streamers and a multitude of the college’s banners and posters. The fraternity goes all out for parties, and this is the biggest party of the year.
Keith is not looking forward to tonight, but he might as well get it over with. He could get some free booze and maybe find a nice corner to hide in until he is allowed to leave. It is a nice plan in theory, but Shiro wouldn’t allow it. As soon as Keith walks through the door, Shiro greets him and leads him to the dancefloor while giving Keith a plastic red cup. Keith tries to protest but Shiro promptly reminds him that he lost the bet and he has to actually dance and socialize. Keith downs his drink and asks Shiro to get him another one. Shiro rushes off, leaving Keith alone in the middle of the dancefloor.
Keith awkwardly sways to the music as more people fight their way into the room. It is hot and cramped, and Keith wants nothing more than to leave. The people around him start cheering over the music, causing Keith to turn towards the noise. What he sees makes his heart drop to his stomach.
It was Lance. Of course it was Lance. Keith knows Lance goes to every party, but he didn’t quite register that Lance would be at THIS party and that Keith might run into him.
Currently, Lance has his hands raised above his head as his body moves to the music. People are forming a circle around Lance, cheering and whooping as the boy sways in place. It isn’t fair how natural he looks, smiling and dancing like he knows he is hot stuff. Keith hates how popular Lance is just because he is attractive and looks good in his tennis shorts and sleeveless shirt—and while Keith admits that Lance is an excellent tennis player, it doesn’t mean people should automatically like Lance.
In Keith’s opinion, Lance was an obnoxious, over-grown child who couldn’t be taken seriously. As if his carefree and snarky attitude wasn’t enough, Lance feels the need to flirt with anything on two legs. Keith can’t understand how girls keep falling for his lame pickup lines and tacky smiles; and—okay—maybe a small part of Keith’s distaste stemmed from the fact that Lance never even looked twice at him. Keith—one of the nation’s top fencers—certainly had his fair share of admirers, but Lance was too busy partying to even know Keith existed.
Whatever. Keith doesn’t care about the masses of people who flocked to him for shallow reasons, and, besides, he knows he is way out of Lance’s league. He doesn’t have time to waste on other people anyway, if he wants to be the best fencer in the nation and, someday, the world.
But for now, Keith turns away from the growing crowd and tries to ignore the noise of the party. Shiro shows up with two drinks in hand, and Keith takes it gratefully. He feels a little better now that the alcohol is running through his body. He dances with Shiro until Allura, the head cheerleader, comes over and takes Shiro’s attention. Keith works his way to another room, not wanting to watch Shiro dance and flirt with Allura.
He finds a nice couch to sit on, but the people around him are cheering and playing Beer Pong. Keith sighs and figures it is better to be sitting down since the whole house is just as loud as this room. Keith takes out his phone and loses himself in current news about the world’s top fencers. He looks up when the cheering gets louder and freezes at the sight: Lance is chugging a huge glass of alcohol while everyone around him cheers him on. Keith curses his luck and quickly looks back down at his phone. After a minute of avoiding the scene around him, the seat next to him dips down as someone sits in it. He turns toward the intruder, only to find Lance smirking at him.
“What’s a guy like you doing here? I thought you hated parties and socializing?” Lance quirks.
“Huh?”
“Oh, come on, Keith. You’ve never been to a single party, so why start coming now?” Lance pauses, then smirks even more. “Ah. Couldn’t resist me, could you? Don’t worry. You wouldn’t be the first to fall for my charms,” Lance all but sings.
“What are you talking about? Shiro made me come to the party.”
Despite that, Keith couldn’t help the slight blush from Lance’s words.
“I’m surprised you even know my name,” Keith continues.
“Keith. My buddy. My man. Of course I know your name. I know everybody. Besides, we’re rivals.”
“Rivals? How are we rivals? We don’t even play the same sport!”
“Ah, that may be true. However, I keep tabs on everyone who is popular with the ladies. You draw quite a bit of attention, but luckily most people seem to realize I am much more handsome and talented than you. Sorry, but you just have no talent when it comes to socializing.”
“I don’t have time to waste on people who only like me for popularity. I have to focus on training if I want to be good enough for nationals and world championships,” Keith scoffs.
“You are too serious. You gotta sit back and relax a little. Here, have a drink and enjoy yourself a bit,” Lance says as he hands Keith a beer.
Keith takes it with a sigh.
“How can you spend so much time goofing off? Do you ever even train or do any real work?”
Lance gives another smirk, replying “I’m just that talented. Not everyone is as gifted as I am.”
Just then, Hunk leans over and laughs. “Yeah right! You work harder than any of us, Lance!” To Keith, he states “Lance trains longer than anyone else on the team, and he studies really hard on top of that!”
Keith is shocked into silence by the statement. He turns towards a blushing Lance and just gapes at him.
“Ah, well. Uh. I guess? Haha, it really isn’t that big of a deal,” Lance stammers. “Hey, Hunk! How’s things going with you and Shay?”
“I told you, Lance. It isn’t like that. She is just a girl that I met and admire very much. It doesn’t mean anything!”
Lance looks at Hunk incredulously. “Riiight. So, have you met up with her again?”
“Ah, well. Oh, hey. Look at that. Pidge looks like she needs some help getting that jerk out of her personal space. See you later!”
Hunk runs off before Lance could respond.
Lance turns back to Keith.
“Well, that was weird. Anyway. Let’s go back to the dancefloor!”
Lance grabs Keith’s hand and starts to drag him towards the next room. Keith stops him and yanks his hand away, causing Lance to turn around in confusion.
“What’s wrong?” Lance asks, looking shocked and hurt.
“Why are you even talking to me? Don’t you have anything better to do than to hang out with the social outcast of the party?” Keith grounds out.
“Keith, buddy. What are you talking about? Why wouldn’t I hang out with you?”
“Uh, maybe because you have never even spoken to me before tonight? What are you trying to do anyway?”
“Pft. Fine. Shiro told me to make sure you had a good time tonight since he wanted to spend some time with Allura. Who am I to stop a man who wants to spend time with a girl? Plus, I knew you would just sit alone being boring if no one intervened,” Lance confessed.
“What? That is stupid. Tell Shiro you did your job, but I am going home. Stop pretending to be my friend; it’s weird.” Keith yells as he storms past Lance, knocking his shoulder in the process.
“Huh? Hey, Keith. Keith! Wait!” Lance yells after Keith and tries to follow him, but the crowd was thick and he couldn’t get past it fast enough to chase after Keith.
Keith sighs once he gets back to his room. He feels stupid, like he should have known Lance was just trying to do someone a favor. There was no way Lance actually knew who he was or would ever voluntarily talk to him without a reason. They were just too different, Keith figured. He would never be like Lance and he could never hope to really get Lance’s attention. They weren’t friends and he had just been fooling himself all night. Worst of all, he was mad at Shiro. After all, Shiro was the one who forced him to go to the party, then he didn’t even stay with Keith. Keith can’t believe Shiro actually ditched him for some girl – even if that girl was the beautiful Allura.
Keith got in bed, ready to forget tonight ever happened. All of a sudden, his phone goes off. He grabs his phone and sees a new text notification. He opens the message.
Unknown (XXX)XXX-XXXX: Hey Keith~ Did u get home ok? Tonight was fun! U should come to parties more often. Text ya later, buddy.
- Lance <3
“Ugh,” Keith groans. “Great. Now he is never going to leave me alone.”