How it Happened is Irrelevant (Mabbell)

7

Craig's POV:

I'd dared TJ to drink from the mystery cup. In all honesty, I had no idea where it came from or what was in it. I never thought that he'd drink the whole damn thing. But it was clearly having an interesting effect on him. He's no lightweight, so seeing him act so drunk is foreign. He hiccupped and covered his mouth after doing so, as though it did anything to change the sound he'd just made. Then he giggled. 

"What's so funny?" I asked him, trying to avoid laughing at the fact that he kept spinning his head around like he was top heavy.

"I assked Thrash to teach me to fliiiiiiirt." He buried his face in his hands and laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. 

But I think that it was true. "You asked him to teach you to flirt?"

He hiccupped again, laughed for five minutes about the sound of it, and then laid his head on my shoulder, looking up at me with lazy, but interested, eyes. "Mhm." He smiled after he answered, and put his hand around my wrist. "So fast," He noted, referring to my raging pulse, which I could feel in my stomach like a hammer. 

"What was in that drink you had?" I asked, now concerned. 

He either didn't care, or was unaware that I'd asked the question, because he didn't respond. "You thought you could beat me."

"Not really," I admitted. "I just like racing with you."

He grinned again. "Can you let my smile disarm you?" He whispered. Those were pretty sober words for someone drunk out of their mind. He turned his head and pressed his lips to the skin on my neck. 

It took everything I had not to give in. "Ah- No! Stop! Stop!"

Immediately he pulled away from me, but he fell against the wall of the bus really hard. "Ow!"

"Are you okay?" 

He nodded. "Fuckin' perfect." He hiccupped once more. He looked into my eyes. "Am I trying too hard?" He slurred his words together, so it was hard to tell what he said at first. By the time I figured it out, he'd looked away.

"I don't-" I shook my head, mostly because I didn't want to answer the question.

He took a deep breath, sniffed relatively unattractively, and then passed out on the bench all in a matter of seconds. 

The following morning, I'd completely forgotten about last night's events. That is until I walked out and saw that TJ was still passed out in the same position that he was in before. It all came flooding back in that moment. "Are you going to lay there forever?" I asked him.

He cracked his eyes open and covered his ears. "It's too loud," He whispered.

"You shouldn't have drank that cup last night," I tutted at him in my quietest voice.

"You told me to."

"If I told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it?"

"If you kissed me first." He smirked, but it was cute. 

"I think you're still under it's influence."

His eyes grew wide. "What? What did I say last night?"

"You don't remember?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I remember drinking, feeling really dizzy, and maybe a few hiccups. The rest is blank."

"You didn't say much of anything important. You told me that you asked Kevin to teach you to flirt. And you may or may not have tried to kiss my neck."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know what I was doing!"

"No, no! It's really okay. You stopped almost immediately. Though I think it may have been because I told you to."

He sighed with relief.

"One more thing though. You asked me if you were trying too hard. I didn't really give you an answer."

"It's okay. I don't want to know." He shook his head. "I'll be right back." He stood up and slowly walked into the bathroom. I tried not to listen, but then I heard a loud bang and him screaming 'stupid stupid stupid.' "Dammit!" He shouted. Then there was silence.

I walked over to it, sure that I wasn't going to see anything that I didn't want to. I opened the door, and saw TJ sitting on the floor with toilet paper against his nose.

"You shouldn't hurt yourself like that."

"I deserved it."

"No you don't." I sat next to him despite there not really being enough room. I didn't know what else to do, except now I knew for sure how he felt about me. He put his head on my shoulder, although now I don't think there was any further meaning to it beside the fact that it was probably hard to keep his head up.

But like I said before. I know how he really feels about me. I just have to figure out if it's not the flirting talking.