After Dark: about a boy who got dragged into a world of sex, love, and horror

After Dark ch1: a story sort of like Queer As Folk in the beginning

Taking You Home

Ryan tugged nervously at the edge of his olive green jacket while he waited for the doorbell to ring. Tonight was the night that he and his best friend, Danni had planned for all week. Well, she had done the planning and he had merely nodded his head at her every question. Thinking back, he really should have pulled the plug before this whole madness had even begun.

The dingdong of the doorbell shattered any hopes of Danni not being able to make it, and with a sigh, he picked himself up from the bottom step of the stairs and opened the front door.

Danni, predictably, had gone all out in the wardrobe department. She stood there, on his conservative father’s front doorstep with a purple sequined halter top, white jeans, black leather heels, shimmery purple eye shadow, and a matching purple wig.

Ryan only had a few seconds to gape at her before she shoved her way in across the threshold. He finally recovered himself after a few more moments and snapped his jaw shut.

“So, um, you ready to go?” He asked diplomatically, hoping to shy away from any and all conversation concerning her outfit.

Danni turned to him and raised one eyebrow nearly to her hairline. “You’re not seriously going to go out looking like that, are you?”

Ryan wanted to ask her the same thing, but he didn’t. He looked down at his own clothes. A pair of old jeans, a white tee, a thin navy blue cotton hoodie, and an olive green jacket. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing right now?”

“You have to ask? For the sake of our English project, in order to do some good investigative work, we have to actually fit in.” She eyed him up and down with a disparaging eye. “You don’t look gay at all.”

Ryan frowned. “Maybe because I’m not?”

“Yes, well, if we’re going to see the scene and not be treated like two straight high school kids, you have to!”

He suggested, “I’m sure you look like a crazy party animal enough for the two of us. Maybe I could just be your tagalong. Like a fag hag, except for women?”

Danni rolled her eyes and pulled him out the door. “Whatever.”

He let her drag him down his driveway to her silver sedan.

Ryan didn’t have his own car yet, mostly because his dad figured that it would be easier to keep track of him if he didn’t have his own method of transportation. But the thing was, even though they lived in the suburbs, they were still in a city. There were buses and taxis and trains and whatnot. Plus, there was always Danni. Not to mention, his aunts lived just a few streets away. But he didn’t see his aunts as much as he’d like—they were sort of a sensitive topic with his dad.

Ryan slid into the passenger seat while Danni climbed in behind the wheel. She patted the dashboard fondly, as if stroking a favorite pet, before putting the car into reverse and driving off into the inner city.

Danni loved her car, loved driving her car, even if it was a used one. Ever since her parents had gotten it for her on her eighteenth birthday a few months ago, she had been driving it to and from school. And Ryan had always been in the passenger seat. Just as he was now.