Nice Guys Finish Last

Scott rolled his eyes, before accepting the Oreo half into his mouth graciously. "Yeah, well, what do you know?" he asked, mouth half full. "You're just the badass chick-magnet delinquent."

"Thank you," Ethan grinned, "Although the chick magnet thing is one-sided, if you know what I mean."

"Yes, from what's happened today, I think it'd be safe to say I do know what you mean," Scott said. "Now, steering away from that potentially awkward conversation, what's your family like?"

Ethan shrugged, "Mom. Dad. Sister. Boring. Place smells like smoke. What's there to tell? Besides, I'd rather hear about your family--besides your, er, lovely cousin here." Ethan looked nervously toward Kai for a second, then back to Scott.

"My family?" Scott asked. "I have my mom, and our three cats, and then there's my aunt and uncle who sometimes come over to visit. And my totally insane neighbor is kind of like an older sister to me. Then there's Kai, the most relatively normal out of all of us. It's nice."

"Insane neighbor?" Ethan chuckled, "I know the feeling. And, er, cats, huh? Sounds...homey." he tried not to mock the boy in any way. No, Ethan, most people don't usually want to kiss you if you call them lonely bastards.

"Mhmm," Scott nodded, tilting his head back and looking up at the ceiling. "Yeah, my home is really nice and comforting, and so is my mom. She's just one of those nice people you only get to meet once in a lifetime, you know? But as good as it is, it gets lonely sometimes."

"Yeah?" Ethan asked, glancing out the window, "So then you play music, I bet?"

"Yeah..." He nodded again. "It's really the only thing that makes me feel truly at peace, and away from the rest of the world. It gives me purpose."

Ethan smiled and nodded, not really knowing what to say. Silently, he slipped his hand next to Scott's, not quite touching, but just barely enough contact to let him know that he was there.

"What do you do?" Scott asked quietly, smiling a tad. "You know... to just get away from it all?"

"Dunno, really," Ethan shrugged, "Listen to the radio, maybe. Hum along. That's all, I guess."

"Wow, that sounds really boring," Scott said, grinning. "You know, I should teach you how to play an instrument or teach you to sing or something so you can at least have something better to do!"

Ethan snorted, "What, some prissy instrument like the flute? I'm gay, but not that gay."

"Hey, I play the flute! And it's not prissy and gay! It's a fine instrument with a lovely sound. And you obviously have no interest in any sort of thing that produces a harmonic sound, so why don't you just sing or something? Singing's not that hard. Well, it's not hard if you don't suck completely."

"I'll have you know that I probably have a beautiful voice, because I'm awesome at everything!" Ethan objected, popping a full Oreo into his mouth.

"I'm sure you make your mother proud," Scott held out his hand for another Oreo half. "See, this can be your first payment for lessons."

Ethan grinned, handing over another half, "So, when do I start, Teacher?"

((You know he's got some perverted thoughts up there already. =w=))

((Time skip yet?))

"Stop that gross train of thoughts right there. Jeez, does everything you say have some sort innuendo?" Scott joked amusedly. "Anyway, for when you start... I don't know. Whenever is good for you, I guess. You could come home with me tomorrow or something."

"I don't do anything after school that can't be rescheduled, so tomorrow's fine with me," Ethan shrugged, ignoring the innuendo comment, "Sound good?"

"Well, sounds as good as agreeing to hang around with you could get. I don't live far away, and I walk home, so I guess you could walk home with me," Scott said. "Yeah, it sounds like a plan."

"Okay then," Ethan nodded, standing up suddenly and walking away, leaving his empty Oreo wrapper on the table as he headed to the hall, hands in his pockets.

"My life is messed up, Kai," Scott grumbled, kicking a stone absently as they both walked back to his house. "So, as I was saying earlier before I got so rudely interrupted, you'll never guess what happened to me today."

Ethan sighed, lying on his back on his bed with his phone on speaker as he bitched to his best friend.

"I mean really, Parker! I, an extremely attractive person, you know that! And I fucking hit on him, and he's all like, "Oh, no, I don't wanna!" and he's obviously gay! What the fuck is his problem?!"