Short Stories

Solitaire - Two

When they arrived, Tyler parked the car about a block away from the house. The three got out and immediately joined hands, with Jayce in the middle. Jayce may have thought nobody noticed his mood, but Tyler did. He always did. It wasn't a bad enough mood to say anything, though. He hoped the music and dancing and laughing would help Jayce forget about whatever was bothering him.

As they walked in, Tyler spotted Casey in the corner with his arm around Kit as she talked to some of her friends. Finn said something about needing to talk to Casey about something. Tyler couldn't quite hear, but Finn parted from the group. Tyler turned to Jayce and yelled over the music- "Do you wanna drink?"

Jayce nodded. They made their way back to the kitchen to find it littered with red plastic cups and empty bottles. Tyler felt Jayce's hand slip from his as his boyfriend went to pour himself a drink. To Tyler's surprise, Jayce poured himself two shots of vodka and downed them immediately, before pouring himself some mixed drink.

It was time to say something, he decided.

Tyler touched Jayce's arm. "Hey."

Jayce turned to look at him and took a sip of his spiked lemonade. "Hm?"

"You okay?"

He nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah. Fine. Great. Why?"

"You just seem a bit on edge tonight."

"Oh. Uh. Had a finals test today. Thats all." Jayce poured more vodka into his drink.

Tyler frowned, but it seemed like a semi-reasonable response, he guessed. But Jayce was also known for saying things just to put Tyler at ease. Look at what happened to Chandler.

Jayce's eyes darted around the room. "Tame Impala."

"What?"

"This song. Its by Tame Impala."

Tyler hadn't even realized there was music playing. Before he could respond, Jayce beat him to it. "We should get drunk."

"I'm driving."

"Oh."

"You get drunk, baby, dont worry about it."

"I plan to." Jayce poured a cup of lemonade for Tyler and moved close to hand it to him. So close Tyler can feel his breath.

Tyler knew Jayce was a shameless flirt, but he hardly did these things in public. Tyler almost thought Jayce was going to go in for a kiss in front of all these people, but instead he just looked up at Tyler and grinned lazily. They stood like that for a moment. What had gotten into Jayce, Tyler asked himself.

"Tyler," he whispered so softly Tyler wouldn't have known Jayce said it unless he was already staring at his lips. Which he was. "I want a drunk hook-up in the bathroom later."

Tyler raised an eyebrow. The three of them were not opposed to small public displays of affection, but they were never like this. Especially Jayce, who preferred to keep things private. Before Tyler could say something, Jayce was gone into the crowd.

~

Jayce was incredibly close to punching the next person who mentioned "graduation" to him.

He was aware that he was probably making things worse, if not at least confusing, for Tyler and Finn but he didn't care. He wanted to ignore the problem. He wanted to flirt shamelessly and embarrassingly with his boyfriends. And most importantly, he wanted to get drunk. Jayce got drunk very quickly, which was great for times like these.

Jayce stayed away from Finn and Tyler and Casey and Kit as much as possible. He was a terrible person.

Jayce situated himself on a chaise with some other 11th-years and chatted. He had lost track of the amount of spiked lemonades he had. This was fine. The conversation all blurred together. But it was fine. At least it wasn't about graduating or sleeping in or going on trips or college. He looked over the crowd and didn't see too many familiar faces, until he saw Finn. Ugh. Really? A check-in?

~

Finn had heard from Tyler about Jayce's strange behavior. Usually, Jayce stuck with him and Tyler throughout most parties, but neither of them had seen him for 45 minutes. Jayce was definitely avoiding them. Why? Finn decided to find out.

After about five minutes of poking around, Finn finally heard the familiar sound of Jayce's laugh but it sounds odd. Ah! There he was. Sitting with some classmates. Thank god. How many cups were at his feet though? Three? Four? Not good.

Finn exchanged pleasantries with the classmates, then kneeled down so he was eye-level with Jayce. He looks pissed. "You okay?"

"Yes I'm fine you don't need to come check on me, like, every hour like a kid, Finn," Jayce snapped with an annoyed grin.

Jayce hadn't snapped like that in months. Not since...

"Okay. Alright. No need to shout at me."

"I wasn't shouting."

"Right." Finn turned to leave.