Beer
I was supposed to be a night out with the guys. It was supposed to be a fun evening, with drinks and chicks and general all around drunkeness.
Then Will got thrown into a building, and broke his arm.
So now Will, Warren, Zach, Steve and Josie all sat around the kitchen table. With beer.
Technically, Josie shouldn’t have been there, what with the ‘guys night out’ thing, but she’d decided to sit, and no one had protested. Josie was unofficially an official guy, because she just rocked that much. She made them the best lasagna ever, and any time they’d come over, she’d make them something to eat, no questions asked. Zach loved that about her.
Besides, more than once, she had flown lunches to them at school back when they were in high school when they’d forgot, and last year she’d flown to China to get real Chinese food for Warren’s birthday. So as far as Zach was concerned, she was pretty darn cool.
There was a sizable pile of empties in the middle of the table, conversation was flowing easily, if a little randomly, and everyone was laughing. A lot.
“Hoo, gotta get to the bathroom,” Zach said, pushing himself off the table, and grabbing at the counter island to steady himself. “Be back, I will.”
Laughter followed him to the bathroom, but when he started heading back a few minutes later, there was less in the way of laughter. In fact, things seemed pretty quiet in the kitchen, which seemed awkward, until he paused just out of sight by the doorway, and peered in.
Warren was leaning heavily on Will’s shoulder, and Will’s casted arm was lazily tossed around Warren’s shoulders, the other propped on the table as he dangled a half empty bottle of beer from his fingertips. Josie and Steve didn’t look at all surprised at this, and Zach realized something.
His best friends were gay.
Together.
Well, that explained a hell of a lot. Like how Warren and Will had shared an apartment since graduation, despite the fact that they were like polar opposites, and Will went to bed early, got up late, when Warren went to bed late and got up early.
It explained why he’d gotten a joint present last year, though Warren had shrugged and said it was only because Will had put his name on it, otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten a present from him at all. And that would really explain that time in Senior year when he walked into Will’s living room and they’d practically leapt away from each other, even though they’d only been sitting beside each other on the couch.
Come to think of it, hadn’t Warren been trying to do his pants up quick, too?
Good God, his best friends were flaming.
Only... no they weren’t. Well, besides Warren’s flaming thing, they weren’t really. If he hadn’t known them this well, and had these brilliant powers of observation - though yes, it did occur to him for a moment over why it had taken him the nearly eight years since senior year to figure this out - he would have been convinced both were straight. And well, it’s not like either of them tried to set him... er.... bent about it, did they?
“Sheesh,” he muttered to himself, taking a healthy swig of the beer that had taken the journey from the kitchen with him. “Who do they think they’re fooling?”
“I’m baack!” he sang, turning into the kitchen. Predictably, Will and Warren leapt apart, though Will let out a hiss of pain when his cast rammed against Warren’s shoulder in passing.
“Nope, not allowed,” Zach shook his head, set his beer down, then with the kind of firm reckless abandon that only a drunk man can manage, he grabbed Will’s arm, and wrapped it back around a gaping, red-faced Warren. “As you were, men. Sheesh. Trying to hide the man love from the Zach Attack, not cool, man. I’m cool with gays. I think they’re cute. Hiding from me, huh.”
Retrieving his beer, he thunked down on his stool, taking a swig, and grinning at the staring Strongholds and Peace. “And don’t you go trying to hide from me, or anyone else no more, got it?” He nodded to himself. “You guys should wear more leather. Well, Will should. And you should get one of those cool rainbow flags for your house. Ooh! Christmas present!”
“Zach...” Will said, slowly, carefully. “What...?”
Zach grinned. “You know me, Will! I like my beer cold,” and he raised said beer, nodding. “And my homosexuals flaming!”
Go back to Sky High.