Chapter 43: Complements

"You mean it?" Jared asked.

"Yeah sure. Why not?" I laughed.

"Cool."

Jared & I were at his house sitting on the couch with the fireplace lit. We were snuggled up on the couch watching a couple movies with a glass of wine each. The top buttons of Jared's shirt were undone, exposing some fresh hickies I had apparently given him. I had come to enjoy drinking wine with Jared. We'd gone to a couple clubs, but most of our time spent together was either out at a very nice restaurant which he always paid for, or back at his house watching movies, going through their wine collection or...naughty time. Regardless, there was always wine involved & I had come to enjoy it. I always felt so relaxed with Jared. Maybe it was just the drinks talking though.

One of the movies we had watched today had friendship as one of the main themes. Soon after, Jared asked me if I wanted to meet his friends sometime. I was hesitant at first. After all, even though we had been going out, I still wasn't sure how deep this relationship would go into. I suppose deep down I was still waiting for Jade to take me back. But I had backed off from him lately. ACTUALLY backed off too. Aside from some small chat at lunch & around friends, I had left him alone for the most part. And yet, even through the space, I knew I still wanted him back. Which was why I was edgy about calling Jared my boyfriend. But hey, it couldn't hurt to meet his friends, so I agreed.

"So when do you want me to meet them?" I asked as he pulled my arm around his shoulder.

"Well...there's a party tonight at my friend Suzie's house. Her folks are in Bangor for the weekend & so she's decided to celebrate that haha."

"What kind of party..." I asked with a silly skeptical grin on.

"Nice, big house...pool in the back...lots of people...probably a teeny bit of alcohol," he pinched his fingers together & giggled.

"A teeny bit?" I laughed.

He nodded with a smile.

"BUT!" he exclaimed, "WE won't have to worry about beers and whatever other drinks they bring."

"What do you mean?"

"'Cause I'm bringing this," he held up the bottle we had drank from.

"An empty bottle of wine?"

"No," he gave me a look. "A full one. I always bring wine to these things. Beer is so...death-tasting hahaha."

"Ahhh," I nodded.

"Besides," he rested his head against my neck, "I wanna show you off to my friends."

"Yeah?"

"Of course Noah, why wouldn't I?"

"Why don't you tell me WHY instead of me telling you why NOT?" I grinned.

"And give you the satisfaction of basking in compliments? I don't think so," he kissed my cheek. I took another drink.

Just then, we heard jingling keys from outside. Two voices, a man & a woman were speaking to each other.

"Shit!" Jared exclaimed just as the front door opened. He shot up off me & stood up, leaving me still sitting on the couch with my wine glass in my hand. I turned around to face the door just as both his parents walked in.

"Hi guys," Jared chirped, his face red.

"Hey kiddo, how's it goin'?" his dad asked as they took of their coats.

"I thought you guys were at the Red & White Festival until 9?"

"The Normans are postponing it until next weekend," his dad answered as he saw me. "Who's this?"

"I'm Noah," I said, standing up. I walked up to them, my hand extended. "I'm Jared's–"

"Friend. He's a mutual friend of Kari's..." I heard Jared stutter as he finished my sentence. I awkwardly held my hand out as I felt them both shake it, a little put off by what just happened...?

"Nice to meet you, Noah," his mother smiled. I heard Jared walk up beside me. "It's always good to make new friends."

"Yeah..." he muttered quietly.

I saw his mother's eyes look down a little bit.

"Honey," she pointed to him, "fix your shirt. For heaven's sake, someone could think YOU TWO were just making out."

Jared hurriedly fixed his shirt, covering up the hickies I had given him.

"Haaa," his dad laughed deeply as he put an arm around his wife. "Jared's probably picked himself a nice girlfriend that he's been talking to Noah about."

"Dad..."

"No no," his father held up his hand. "I know that's for you boys to talk with each other about. I know how parents can be. Just know that your mother & I will probably want to meet her sometime," he winked.

"Dad, stop."

"C'mon, Noah, spill it. Jared got a girlfriend he's been tellin' ya about?" his father looked to me.

"I can honestly say sir, that I know nothing about a girlfriend. Or any girl for that matter," I gave a shit-eating smile that Jared cocked his jaw at.

"All right, well we're be downstairs if you need anything," his mother smiled at us as they walked past us. I glanced at Jared who walked past me. I followed him until we made it into his bedroom. I shut the door behind me.

"Please," I started, "you MUST tell me about this girlfriend as soon as possible."

He walked over to his window & sighed.

"I'm sorry, ok? I'm not out yet to my parents."

"I thought you were already out though..."

"I am...to all my friends. I have been for a few years now. But I've never told my mom & dad."

"Would they not like it?" I asked as I sat down at his desk chair.

He shrugged. "They've never given me reason to think they'd be ok with it. I mean, you heard my mom when she saw these hickies," he pulled at his shirt collar. "And my dad probably expects me to keep running the family's winery & vineyard, but with a wife & kids who could take it up themselves someday."

"Do you not wanna do that?"

"I wanna run the company someday & I want my kids to run it too when they're old enough. But obviously it wouldn't be the way that my dad pictures it." He looked back to me & smiled. "It'll be great. I wanna spread the company down farther along the east coast. Keep headquarters here & humble, but obviously the biggest parts would be near Boston & New York. And even though my dad does great with our seeds from France, I also wanna bring in seeds from northern Italy & eastern Spain too. We can keep our base buyers with the French seeds, but if we add these new formulas, we can take in a whole new customer range & use that to spread along the coast."

"That's cool, but where in that dream do your parents know about you being gay?" I asked, amazed at how easily he switched subjects.

"I dunno. I'm sure they'll find out someday," he smiled, as if it no longer worried him.

"Find out?" I said incredulously. "Jared...that's a pretty big thing to 'find out'."

He shrugged again. "I'm not gonna worry about it."

"If you're not worried about it, then why not tell them?" I asked.

"Look," he said, walking to his bed & sitting down on it, "it may not be a big deal, but it's still not something I'd rather open up to them about."

"Jared," I held, "as fun as a person you are, I just get the feeling that you hold in a lot of things. It's not good to bottle things up inside for a long time."

He smiled as he shook his head. "I get that a lot ya know. People think I'm secretly unhappy on the inside with all these repressed emotions. But I'm not like that. I don't stow away all these bad feelings. Instead, I just push them out of my life. Honestly."

"So you never feel sadness or anger?"

"Not often. I mean, when I do, it doesn't last for long. But I don't SUPPRESS those feelings, I just ignore them."

"How?"

"I have fun. I think of happier things. I hang out with friends. I spend time doing things that I enjoy, & I don't dwell on the bad." He stood up & walked over towards his window again. "I try not to let bad things hurt me."

"That can't be healthy," I pressed. "Sometimes there are things that you just need to grieve over."

"I don't agree," he chuckled.

"A family death? A rough breakup? A lost friend?"

"Remembering good times & looking ahead to future good times," he countered.

"Jared..."

"Look," he held up a hand. "This is one of those times ok? I don't wanna talk about this anymore. I wanna talk about you & me," he said, walking over to me, "going to that party tonight so I can show you off." He smiled sexily as he wrapped his arms around my waits & held me close to him.

I laughed & shook my head. "You're unbelievable."

He gave a cocked smile, leaned in & kissed me softly on the lips.

"Tell my friends that tonight," he said after we let go.

I rolled my eyes. He sure was one to avoid.

**********

Later that night, I got a text from Jared saying that the party wasn't formal by any means, but that a lot of people were dressing really nicely. I figured I couldn't go wrong with a leaf-green t-shirt, a sport coat & jeans. As I was in the bathroom fixing my hair, my dad walked by. He had one of his suitcases in his hands.

"Hey. What are you dressed up for?" he asked me.

"I'm going to a party tonight with Jared," I replied.

"Ahh so when do I get to meet Jared?" he said.

"In a little bit actually," I said, looking at my watch. "He's picking me up in a few minutes."

"Oh ok."

"Where are you going?" I said, nodding at his suitcase.

"Tehran," he said nonchalantly.

I looked to him & just nodded after a moment of neither of us saying anything.

"Oh by the way," he said, "you might wanna know...there's a couple who have decided to adopt the baby."

There was an awkward moment of silence as I looked back to myself in the mirror.

"Oh," I didn't know what to say. "That's good I guess."

"Mhm. You did the right thing Noah. Trust me."

"Yeah I know," I smiled sadly. It still hurt.

"So lemme know when Jared gets here, ok?" he could see my discomfort. I nodded.

Avoidance number two of the night.

*****

"Your dad's pretty cool," Jared said while we were on our way to the party in his car.

"Yeah, I suppose," I laughed.

"Your house is pretty cool too, being right on the lake there. That must be a nice, especially in the summer."

"Yeah. Aside from the mosquitoes, I can't complain. There's like, a mini beach bear the back of Jade's house that we would always go to & just relax whenever he had a day off, which is almost never. There was one day he had off when we went fishing out of the boat we have & I caught this really big fish. We took a pic & everything. It was pretty cool," I smiled at the memory.

"What does your dad do for work?"

"Communication stuff," I said.

"Was he a, uh, 'communications major' in college?" Jared snickered a bit.

"Nah. My dad didn't go to college," I responded with a snicker of my own.

"Oh."

I chuckled to myself. "So how close are we now to your friend's house?"

"We're here."

As we turned the corner onto a small suburban street, I could see cars parked all along the sides. It was your typical upscale suburban neighborhood. Nothing like home. I figured there would be dozens of people at this party. Jared found a convenient spot a little down the way & parked. As we got out, I could hear noise coming from a yard somewhere. I imagined it was the backyard of this Suzie's house. When we walked towards the house, I followed Jared around the side down a path that lead to the backyard. It was loud, with people yelling & laughing, & music playing from a stereo. There were people swimming in the lit up pool, several people playing badminton nearby on the grass & a bunch of people sitting by an outside fireplace drinking beers. A blond girl came out of the house just then & came up to greet us.

"Jared!" she exclaimed.

"Hi Suzie," he replied. They hugged.

"What's up? I was wondering when you'd get here."

"Haha, sorry."

Suzie then turned to me & extended her hand. "Hi, I'm Suzie."

"Noah," I smiled.

"Well c'mon, we've been waiting to see what you brought," she said as she took Jared hands & lead us to the group of a six or seven people sitting around the fireplace. As we found seats, Jared took out one dark glass bottle of wine from a small bag he had brought after everyone around us said hi to Jared and to me. There were more bottles in the bag. I got the vibe he was popular. No surprise.

"I got us a bottle of The Little Penguin. I wasn't lookin' for a classy bottle, so I went for fun," he said. As Suzie handed out the wine glasses that were apparently nearby, another girl sitting on the lap of some boy across from us spoke up.

"So who's this, Jared?" she nodded toward me.

"Everyone, this is my boyfriend Noah," he lay his hand over mine & kissed my cheek.

I returned the hellos as Suzie started pouring the glasses. As some other guests arrived, Suzie went off to attend to them.

"How'd you guys meet?" a boy near us asked.

"Well I met Noah at a club near Augusta," Jared looked at me & smiled warmly.

"Where do you live Noah?" the same girl asked.

"Winthrop," I answered.

"Winthrop?" another boy said, turning to a girl. "Isn't uh..."

"Yeah, he's from Winthrop too!" she exclaimed, finishing his sentence. Suddenly, he turned his head up toward the house & called out "Hey Dole!"

"Suzie's stepbrother Mark is from Winthrop too. Do you know him?" the girl asked.

"Mark Dole?" I asked, surprised. "Yeah I know him. We're friends."

"Mark Dole...that name sounds familiar..." Jared said. "Is he friends with Ruby & Janie?"

"Yeah," I nodded. I snapped my head to him just then. "Wait, YOU KNOW Ruby & Janie?"

"Of course silly, I've run into them a number of times at that club haha. I've heard of Mark a couple of times. He sounds like an interesting guy."

"He...certainly is..." I said, remembering him implying something about a gay mafia thing of his long ago. Whatever that was all about.

We all heard a door open & turning towards the house, we saw Mark walk out. I guessed he wasn't really involving himself in the party very much. Which would make sense, seeing as I didn't pick him to be the party type very much anyway.

"Hey Mark, what's up? Surprise I guess hahaha," I said.

"I guess hahaha," he laughed. He looked to Jared & after a second, extended his hand. "Hi, I'm Mark."

"I'm Jared," Jared returned the handshake. "I'm friends with Ruby & Janie too. I've heard some nice things about you."

"I've heard some nice things about you too. But I'm usually not quite as popular," Mark chuckled.

They shared a friendly smile with each other before Mark started backing up toward the door again. "Well, I should head on back inside. Got some things I need to do. It was nice seeing you, Noah."

"Of course," I wondered what he was up to.

"And Jared..." he added, "it was nice meeting you."

"Yeah, you too," Jared smiled.

After Mark had gone back inside, Suzie came back to pour everyone some more wine. She was grinning from ear to ear.

"What's the happy for?" someone asked.

"So Stephanie just arrived & she brought along a friend of his who's SOOO hot. I've had a crush on him for a little while now & I'm pretty sure he feels the same way," she sighed happily.

"Well Stephanie is heading for the pool," said a girl sitting across from me. My back was to the gate where everyone was arriving. "But he's coming our way," she squealed to Suzie, who immediately fixed herself up a bit. All of us snickered at her blatant infatuation with whoever this mystery guy was. Just before I decided to turn around & see for myself who this guy was (and more importantly what he looked like), I felt a pair of hands come crashing down onto both my shoulders, rubbing them vigorously.

"Well well well. I'd recognize this blond hair anywhere." Just as I knew that voice anywhere. I didn't even have to turn around as I grinned to myself.

"You guys know each other?" Suzie said incredulously.

"Yup," I said. "Guys, this is my friend Collin," I patted the hand on my left shoulder. Collin walked around & sat down in an empty chair near me.

"What's up man? I didn't know you were gonna be here too. Hey! Jared, right?" he pointed at Jared.

"Yup. We've met, right?" Jared asked.

"Yeah, at a club a while back. I was there the night you & Noah met."

"Oh right!"

We all went on to chat about whatever topics came to mind. And you know what? His friends all seemed pretty cool. It was funny to see us teenagers all sitting around drinking & getting buzzed to wine instead of the other stuff you usually think of teens getting wasted to. Clearly, Jared's wine was a favorite among his group of friends, especially considering he brought four bottles. He probably had the most & it was becoming more & more noticeable to witness how drunk he was becoming. We all had quite a bit, except Collin who refused any every time Suzie offered him some. It was nice to have Collin here too. One thing I found a bit strange was that while Collin & Jared had so many similar interests, a similar sense of humor & a taste for fun, Collin seemed...weary of Jared. Like he didn't want to get to know him any better. It was strange, since they seemed like they could make perfect friends. But at least Jared didn't seem to pay much attention to that. Speaking of not paying attention, it also seemed that Collin was ignoring the painfully obvious flirts that Suzie was tossing out. I wondered why he wasn't going for her. Pretty, nice, rich as an added bonus. What could he not like?

And knowing that Mark was here too, being Suzie's stepbrother was also an unexpected surprise. He was such a mysterious kid. If it were Mark & Jared together, they'd probably make a great match, since Jared didn't like drama & Mark was so secretive about his life.

After a little while, I excused myself to use the bathroom inside the house. Her house was huge! Not a mansion or anything, but something a Beverly Hills kid could probably call a fourth home. When I got out of the bathroom, Collin was walking up to me alone.

"Hey. What's up?" I said.

"Dude, get me out of here," he whispered.

"Why? You're not having a good time?"

"I am, but it's this Suzie chick. Dude, she's bangin' & all, but she's had this obnoxious crush on me for some time now & it's just annoying that she won't take the hint."

I put my hand on his shoulder. "Then you need to tell her you're not interested."

"No, I need a girlfriend so she can back off."

"That's a bit harsh don't you think?"

"Thinking isn't one of my strong points."

"Don't have to tell me twice..."

"Can we go?" he ignored my joke.

"I can't just leave, I'm here with Jared. Besides, isn't that up to your friend who invited you here?"

"I drove HER, that's why I'm not drinking tonight. Speaking of which, I never picked YOU to be a consumer of 'the ethanol'. But for real, I'm parked a block away."

From behind him, Jared was walking toward us, with quite a noticeable stumble.

"Hey."

"Hey. Just lookin' for ya. Am I interrupting something?"

"No," I shot Collin a look. "Not at all. I'll see you back out there," I nodded Collin away. He huffed as he stormed off. Poor baby. How awful to have a girl swooning over you. Then again...the girls who had liked me weren't exactly keepers either...

"So guess what?" Jared said quietly as he walked up to me.

"What?"

"Suzie," he tickled my arm lightly, "mentioned a guest bedroom upstairs while she was telling a story. I figure...if you waaaaaaaaanna..."

"Ohhh all right," I laughed. "But we're obviously locking the door!"

He seemed shocked.

"Really? You're ok with doing it in someone else's house?" he asked.

"Yeah," I shrugged, remembering some not so private places Jade & I messed around in...Oh my god, in a restaurant?!

He led me to the guest bedroom upstairs & as we walked in, we dimmed the lights & shut the door, locking it. The excitement had gotten to me. And it was showing. But not for long as we both got our shoes & socks off. No sooner had I thrown my socks to the side when I felt Jared grab me & yank me into him, kissing me hard but gently on the lips. As I felt his arms wrap around my waist inside my sport coat, I couldn't help but feel his member start to grow & push against my own in our pants.

"I never got the chance to tell you how hot you look tonight. I swear I have the hottest boyfriend in the world." He hiccuped.

"You're not half bad yourself," I winked.

He slowly walked me back against the foot of the bed as we continued kissing. He slowly pushed me back as I began to lie down on the spread, pulling him in my arms with me. I could feel his toes playing with mine as his tongue moved alongside mine, our warm lips connecting passionately. He playfully sucked at my lower lip as he started to take off my sport coat from under me.

With my hands, I began undoing my jeans, feeling the bulge in my underwear pressing against his. I leaned up while still locking lips with him for a moment to get my coat off. Once it was, I tossed it aside & lifted my hips so I could get my jeans off, leaving me in my underwear & shirt.

Jared then took my face in his hands & kissed me softly. I held his arm as he slid his tongue back into my mouth. I could taste the wine on him, just like how he could probably taste mine. He moved his hands to my waist as they slid gently up & down my sides underneath my shirt. His warm hands felt amazing against my skin. With the tips of his fingers, he lightened his touching, sending shivers all over me as I gasped into our kiss.

After an eternity of deep kissing, he began to slide down so that he was now kneeling on the floor in front of me, my obvious erection right in front of him. I felt him him pull my boxers down slowly, letting my hard cock spring up & slap against my lower stomach. I groaned as my member was released, feeling the relatively cooler air now move its way through my crotch. Jared's hands were cool & as he wrapped his fingers around my shaft, I groaned again at the sensation of such a difference in heat. It felt good.

He moved forward & took my cock in his mouth, his warm lips gliding smoothly across my pulsating flesh. I shivered as he held my cock in his mouth, using the tip of his tongue to flick at the underside as far down as he could go. As he came back up, his lips playfully nibbled at my head, causing my legs to tense as I groaned. I tilted my head back & closed my eyes as he began to bob his head.

"Oh wow," I whispered. "That feels really good. Keep doing that. Ohhhhhh Jade..."

No sooner than the name had come out of my mouth that I realized what I had just said. My eyes shot open & my head sprang up.

Jared stopped all of a sudden too & slowly moved his eyes up to look at me with a confused look.

"Uhhhh......" I stuttered.

He let back. "I beg your pardon?" he chuckled.

"I....I don't know what happened," I stammered, horrified. "That was totally just....I must have had too much to drink," I tried.

"Probably hahaha," Jared laughed. Well SOMEONE was taking it well.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."

"It's all right boo, just lay back & let's uh, make up for it," he winked.

I hesitantly lied back again & closed my eyes. That's when I realized that my cock had almost completely gone soft. For a little while, Jared tried & tried to get it back up...but I just couldn't. My mind was whirling around like a tornado. A stupid, messed up tornado. After a little while of Jared going at it, I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Look, I guess...I guess the alcohol is getting to me," I said. I didn't know if that was true or not but I had to make up something.

When Jared looked back up to me, he shrugged & then slurred out, "Yeah but that's ooooook. We'll try again soon hah."

"Yeah," I laughed nervously. I had to leave. I had to get out of here now.

"Listen," I said, "I'll be back in a little bit, ok? Don't go anywhere." I stood up & started to get dressed again.

Jared yawned as he stood up. "Where ya goin'?"

"Just tooooooo find Collin for something," I said as Jared sat down on the bed.

"All right. Hurry back now," he mumbled.

I left the room & went off to look for Collin. When I made it outside, he was by the pool talking to people. He saw me & bounced up, heading toward me.

"We have to go," I said.

"Oh..well I was just gonna say the same to you but I guess you're being more serious than I would've been," he grinned.

"Are we leaving or not?" I said unamused.

"Uh, yeah sure...if you want," we started walking away as we said our goodbyes to everyone around us. "I'll leave my friend here. She likes Suzie enough where she'll have no problem staying the night. What's better is that now I don't have to deal with Suzie."

"Hey guys!" a voice called. We turned to see who it was. It was Suzie coming toward us.

"Fuck everything," Collin mumbled under his breath.

"Hey Noah," she said, not hearing what Collin said, "Jared passed out in the guest bedroom. Shouldn't you take him home?"

"Well he actually drove us," I said. "But um...could you...remind him when he wakes up that I told him Collin & I were leaving because of...a family emergency?" I lied.

"Yeah of course. I hope everything is ok. Anyway, thanks for coming guys. It was nice meeting you Noah. And uh, Collin it was nice seeing you again," she blushed. She couldn't have looked more red if her face was painted. "You guys will have to visit again some–"

"Yeah we'll let you know," Collin said quickly as he grabbed my arm & dragged me away. I waved bye to Suzie as she stood there looking like she had met her celebrity crush.

After we got into Collin's car, he spoke up.

"So what's it like having your pants on fire?" he asked as he started the car up.

"Huh?"

"You obviously just lied about something. Spill it," he pressed as we drove off.

As we drove home, I told him everything. I couldn't tell if it was the alcohol that had made me call out Jade's name by mistake, or something more. I realized that the more I tried to accept Jared as my boyfriend, the more I still longed to have Jade back. Hopefully Jared would wake up too drunk to remember anything. Otherwise I don't know if I could bare the thought of having another person who I truly cared about being upset with me. Not that Collin was much of a help, seeing as he shrieked with laughter when I told him I said Jade's name, but it was nice to have him listen about how conflicted I had been feeling lately.

I'm pretty sure all my drama by now would have made the writers for Degrassi blush. Seriously.

Three.