[Stardew Valley] On the Edge - Shane

20

"No. Fuck no."

Shane crosses his arms if his words weren't enough to convince Dev that he was not going to do it. Dev held the bong out to him with an expectant smirk. Would this even count as breaking his sobriety streak? He was nearing a month without alcohol now, but this was a different beast entirely. One that Shane had never approached or considered seriously.

"Oh, so it's like that, huh? You're gonna bitch out on our special agreement?"

"Don't guilt trip me on this, Dev." Shane groaned, his palm landing on his forehead. Yes, they had an agreement, or a pact, or whatever, but that was eight whole years ago. He was a different person than he'd been then.

"Pact? Are you peer pressuring my boyfriend right now?" Aria interjected, looking at Devin suspiciously. Dev just rolled his eyes and dismissed her with a wave. He wrestles a lighter into Shane's tightly closed fist.

"No, Aria. You don't get it," Dev explains. "I would never peer pressure sweet little Shane here. We had a deal. Right Shane?"

Shane just raises his middle finger at Dev. Then he glanced at Aria, sighing at her quizzical expression. "Yeah. I didn't drink or smoke or anything in college. At all. Like Dev said, I focused only on classes and gridball. So when I dropped out to move to the Valley, I promised Dev that the next time I saw him I'd smoke with him."

"Yup. All this time, and now he's backing out. Shame, shame, Shane. Don't make me smoke this whole thing by myself."

Shane mulled it over quietly while Dev continued with his theatrics. He would never openly admit that he only made the pact because he thought it was extremely unlikely that he'd see Dev again. But here he was.

"Alright, fine. I'll smoke the damn weed."

"Yes!" Dev rejoiced, lifting himself up from the couch for a second to celebrate Shane's participation. He sat right after and handed Shane the bong. "I knew you would. I love you, bro."

"Don't." Shane rolled his eyes when Dev laid his head on his shoulder. He fiddled with the removable glass bowl jutting from the base of the glass piece, wondering if this was actually a good idea.

"Start us off, baby. You know what you're doing?"

"Hardly, but I've seen you do it enough times in our shared bathroom to figure it out on my own." Shane says, flicking the dial on the lighter and raising the bong to his lips.

Dev and Aria watch in awe as the glass fills up with milky, completely opaque smoke, and then disappears into Shane with one long inhale. Aria wonders if this is really Shane's first time doing this, while simultaneously finding herself attracted to the way he's leaned back with the bong perched on his lap. Even the way he's holding the lighter between two fingers and the little bowl in his other two is enticing.

A large plume of smoke emerges from Shane and an intense burning in his chest follows close behind. He falls into a series of desperate coughs, handing the bong to Dev before he can drop it. Dev smacking him on the back doesn't help at all, but the moral support is nice.

"This is your first time doing this?" Aria asks, trying to conceal the obvious adoration in her voice. At least he doesn't have to worry about her perception of him changing for the worse.

"Yeah, dude. That was a giant rip. You're going to be on your ass." Dev follows up with a chuckle. He pauses, flicking the lighter and inhaling some smoke from the glass tube. When he exhales, he coughs more than Shane.

"I gotta go big or go home, this is my last hurrah," Dev coughs after a minute. "Go me."

"What do you mean?" Aria asks Dev, peering over his shoulder to look at Shane. Smoking was not a concept that was lost on her at all, but it'd been a long time, and being in the cramped apartment, crammed on the couch with two smoking people was bound to at least give her a contact high.