Ever since Justin lost his license for the third speeding ticket, he always makes Lance drive him up to Providence. Lance hates going up there — it's too far away and there's never any parking. It would be ok, he thinks, if they went someplace relaxing. But Justin always wants to hang out on Thayer and trash talk with the other skater punks and cruise. Lance doesn't fit in and he's not sure why Justin keeps making him go. Except he has a car and he's cool with Justin's running commentary on all the pretty boys. Maybe that's it.

Tonight, Justin's exchanging digs with his buddies outside the convenience store and checking out the customers as they go in and out. Lance is quiet, but he's checking out the college kids and wishing so hard he was already one of them. Justin likes to make fun of him for this, calls him a tool. But he wants so badly to get out of Warwick, out of a place where smart is a dirty word.

Justin's beside him suddenly, saying something about following that pretty boy to wherever he's going. Lance nods and tries not to sigh and wonders if he can convince Justin to go home early.

Justin spots him coming out of the store, so, so pretty with all that long wild hair and tanned skin. He is so going to get a number —this one's too pretty to pass up. Lance follows him unwillingly and he wants to say "Dude, suck it up!" Lance doesn't understand that Thayer's the best place in the world — all these students from Brown and RISD, pretty boys everywhere. Lance is too chicken to hit on one. Though, give him the chance and he'll talk their ears off about college. Lance has no clue about priorities.

Justin follows the pretty boy to the falafel shop, Lance trailing along behind, and Justin remembers he's broke. "Lance — " he hisses, "lend me enough for a falafel." Lance is all sighs and whiny, but he gives Justin the money and waits outside for Justin to buy his falafel and chat up the pretty boy.

But inside, Pretty Boy isn't alone anymore. He's talking with some guy wearing all black, his hair up and spiky, and he's turned half away from Justin. But there's something about this guy in black, and Justin gets closer to order his falafel and when he catches a better view, wham. Justin's gone, all crushed out on this guy with one glance, just totally gone.

He orders the cheapest sandwich on the menu, then moves back to wait for his order and eavesdrop on the two guys. Pretty Boy is talking a mile a minute, sounds like he's in school around here. Justin's crush responds, but Justin can barely make out what he's saying. Justin angles to move closer, trying not to look too obvious, wishing they had chosen to stand next to the drinks cooler, when the girl behind the counter yells his number once, twice, three times. He gives her a dirty look and then turns to get his food, and by the time he's able to go back to watching his target the guy and his pretty friend have gone too. Justin's pissed, and panicky too, because what if this guy disappears, and he practically runs out of the shop, not caring that he's no longer looking cool.

He thrusts the falafel bag at Lance and demands, "Where did they go?"

As usual, Lance looks confused, and asks, "Who?" while he staring down at the falafel bag in his hand with distaste. Justin wishes that once, just once, Lance would be on the same page. There's no time to tell him that, though, because the guy is getting away.

"That guy, the pretty one I followed in, and his friend." Justin is scanning the street urgently.

"Oh yeah, him. They just left, I guess."

Justin's ready to throttle him, because this is the limit. Lance has just pushed him to the brink and he can't be held responsible, and he turns to let Lance have it and catches sight of black and he squints. Yep, there's the wild hair. Excellent. Reaming out Lance can obviously wait. He lopes off following. Lance is behind him yelling something but he ignores it, focusing on the task at hand. He has to meet that guy.

Chris has been waiting for JC for a while, and when he finally shows up is in no mood to be gracious about it.

"Dude, where the fuck have you been. I've been waiting here for hours."

JC just smiles that blinding smile of his and says, "Hey, Chris." They bump fists and then JC starts babbling as he gets in line. He goes on about the start of the semester and his new classes and by the time they're waiting for his order Chris has calmed down and started carrying on a conversation with him, taming JC's verbosity a bit. They don't actually hang out that much, so in between Chris sometimes forgets that JC's just like this, off in his own world and sort of oblivious. He's pretty much the sweetest guy Chris has ever met, though, so he puts up with it. Listening to JC babble on about school and being back at his apartment and his roommate's latest love interest, he muses that this is the essence of JC...

He's so caught up in his thoughts that he's forgotten to make the appropriate noises, and JC turns and looks at him, smiling, used to this sort of thing. Chris feels bad that he's had to get used to people tuning him out. Chris hates it when people do that to him, and has compensated by being as loud and obnoxious and un-ignorable as possible.

"Sorry about that," said JC, a small smile, rueful. "Next time just tell me to shut up or something."

Chris hates that, too, that JC just expects people to steamroll over him. And they always do, even Chris, even when he tries not to. Inside he curses, but outside he says, "No, I'm sorry. I had something else on my mind. What were you saying?"

And just that little gesture makes JC smile, big and blinding, and talk a bit more about his day and the cute guy. He winds down pretty quick, though. "So tell me about this band we're going to see. Have you seen them at Lupo's before?"

And Chris answers and JC smiles, and they walk and talk about the band and music and upcoming acts at the club.

Justin's followed them what seemed like forever, but he's not too upset about it, since they didn't get into a car or anything. He's just seen them walk into a club called Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, and he's heard that name before on 'BRU, but he's never been. He's pretty sure this is not an all-ages show, but he heads up to the bouncer anyway to try his luck. When batting his eyes and adopting his best winning manner don't work, he shrugs and walks away, but inside he's pissed, and by the time he gets back to where he left Lance, he's muttering about the guy's ancestry.

"What's your problem?" asks Lance, leaning against a building about a block and half from the club.

"Fucking bouncer won't let me in 'cause I'm not 18." Lance looks smug, and Justin knows that if he asked Lance to go in, scope the place out a bit, maybe even chat with one of the guys that Lance would turn him down. Even now, Lance is totally oblivious to the fact that Justin's missing his chance with the best thing he's ever seen, and he's talking loudly about how they need to get home. 'Fucker,' Justin thinks, 'it's only 11:30.'

He's considering just staying there, hanging out outside until they come out and he gets a chance to talk to them. Unfortunately, he'd lose all chance at looking cool, since the club looked small, and they probably would notice that he hadn't been inside. "Grrrr," he growls angrily, and turns abruptly to Lance saying, "Fine, yeah, let's go." He heads for the car and Lance, surprised, has to hurry to catch up.


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