Take Me Back

Chapter 2

"Well don't you look like the most miserable person on earth"

I was sitting on that couch at yet another house party I had been forced to attend. I looked at the girl standing in front of me, her blonde hair falling to just below her shoulders, and her grey eyes sparkling as she beamed down at me with a broad grin.

It wasn't a cute smile like some girls wear, it was all straight teeth and goofy, like she was laughing about a joke no one else had heard.

"You would be miserable too if this was the third time you'd heard Cher's greatest hits album played this evening"

She nodded in agreement, "Ah Jonathan does have excellent taste in music doesn't he?"

"The best"

She looked at me expectantly, "did you want to dance?"

"I'm not really a dancer"

"I'm not either but we'll give it a red hot go", she laughed and grabbed my hand anyway, pulling me to the centre of the living room that was the make shift dance floor.

She was infectious, it was impossible not to smile as she pulled out all the horrible dance moves she could think of. Before I knew it, I had joined in, showing her my perfect rendition of the shopping trolley.

"See life's not so bad is it?", she reached up and pressed her palm to my cheek.

At that moment it felt like nothing in my life would be bad again.

"No, it's not. I'm Jace by the way"

"Nice to meet you Jace, I'm Kayla"

oOo

Jonathan and I had been friends since high school. At first I was a bit in awe him, I transferred in the tenth grade and here was this guy who was constantly surrounded by all the pretty girls. Sure he was a decent enough looking dude but I just didn't get it.

As far as looks went, we were pretty much each other's opposites. My dirty blonde hair contrasted starkly his dark brown, where he had deep olive skin, I was a lovely shade of pasty white, a fact he would often point out. One of the few features we had in common though was our height, both of us towering over the other guys our age.

He was popular and despite jokes about the new guy coming to muscle in on his territory, he took me under his wing. He introduced me to the social scene, overnight I went from quiet kid that plays guitar to this popular guy I never imagined myself being.

Jonathan had the whole place figured out, always the life of the party, always with a hot girl at his side. He'd get kind of weird when I asked him about relationship stuff though and when I would ask why he didn't just date one of his many admirers, he would just shrug and change the subject.

But everything sort of made sense when he showed up at my house at 11 o'clock one night during our final year of high school.

He was in right state, out of his mind drunk and crying. It was an absolute miracle that I managed to sneak him past my parents, though in retrospect, I think they were probably turning a blind eye. You see they had already figured out the bombshell that Jonathan dropped on me that night or at the very least they suspected.

There we were, 17 years old and my best friend was crying on my bed because his parents kicked him when he told them he was gay.

If you've had any experience with teenage boys you know that, generally speaking, we're kind of crap with the whole emotional thing. If your mate is having a hard time, you get him hammered, give him a pat on the back and tell him it'll all work out.

It didn't really seem fitting.

Instead I sat down on my bed next to him, put my arm around his shoulder and told him, in all my seventeen year old wisdom that, "I don't care how sad you are, I'm still not giving you a blow job"

Jonathan's response was to just laugh and reassure me that I wasn't his type and that, while he could appreciate that I was good looking, he liked his dudes with a little more muscle.

Despite him not being my type either it was hard not to be offended.

Things eventually sorted themselves out. He stayed with my family for a few weeks until things died down at home. To this day his parents aren't into his lifestyle but they've got the whole "don't ask don't tell" thing going on. It's certainly not ideal but it's better than it was.

I rounded the corner into his old street and pulled into Jonathan's old driveway and saw his beat up Volkswagen. He had that thing since we first learned to drive and refused to upgrade. Seeing it's rusty body in front of the old weatherboard house set my heart racing, this whole thing was beyond strange.

I made my way to the front door, unsure as to what I was going to find. Were Jonathan and I friends in this weird, alternate universe, nightmare land? I knocked tentatively on the door and hoped for the best.

What I didn't expect was to see was Jonathan's ex boyfriend Charlie or Cheater McDouchebag as he was renamed after they broke up. So I did the only logical thing I could think of when you see the guy who broke your best friends heart; I punched him in the face.

"What the fuck dude?!" he yelled, "Who the hell are you?"

I couldn't help but grin as he clutched his face, blood slowly trickling from his nose down to his chin. At this point Jonathan came running from the other room, "Jesus man, what are you doing?"

I raised my eyebrows in disbelief. What was I doing?! Because of this guy I had to spend three weeks with a violent hangover because Jonathan needed a wingman while he went on the rebound every night of the week.

Charlie just stood there looking sheepish, he held his hands up in surrender, "Hey, I'm sorry, Jonathan didn't tell me had a boyfriend"

Jonathan and I glanced at each other before bursting into laughter, "he's not my boyfriend! Charlie meet Jace, Jace is a big fan of breasts and other lady parts. He's also been my best friend since forever"

Charlie gave a slow nod, "Wouldn't mind an explanation as to why you felt it necessary to punch me in the face then"

I shrugged and ignored his comment, instead I turned to Jonathan, "Why the hell are you with him again man, you know how much it messed you up when you guys broke up"

Both guys just stared at me, "Broke up is a little excessive, we've only been on two dates"

We stood there in silence while I tried to take it all in, this day just kept getting weirder and weirder.

"I think I'm just going to grab my stuff and take off" Charlie muttered, giving Jonathan a quick peck on the cheek, "I think you need to deal with whatever this is"

He turned and retreated back inside, "Sorry!" I called after him, "I must've confused you with someone else"

Charlie gave me a quick wave without turning around, without question I knew I had fucked up.

Jonathan gave me a once over, taking in my disheveled appearance "I think you better come inside. Is 10am too early for whiskey?"

A/N: so if you're reading from the first time I published, a new little start to the chapter there. If you're new, welcome! If you liked this chapter don't forget to vote and comments are always fun :)