↔IMPULSE↔

↔Beginning↔

 It all started at Reese's thirteenth birthday party.

A group of ten middle-schoolers sat around his living room with contraband wine coolers that one of the girls smuggled in. Their only form of "supervision" was Reese's seventeen-year-old brother, Archer "Archie" Vaungh, who was in the basement for band rehearsal while his parents were at an art exhibit in the city.

They were snacking on chips and popcorn as they drank their fruity drinks and talked about stupid shit and school gossip. The game they played consisted of ten cards, one through nine and a king. The cards were handed out at random and whoever was king got to order two other numbers to preform a task.

It started off cute with easy but embarrassing tasks, but then, Dory, stupid, moronic Dory, got the king card. He and the other three boys had been drinking something stronger than wine coolers, hoping to impress, the warm and fuzzy buzz of liquor sapping their already poor choice-making skills.

Blake leant on Reese and snickered, "hurry up and give an order before you vomit, Dory!" The girls wrinkled their noses in disgust and giggled. Nikki was recording the whole night on her new camcorder she had gotten for her birthday in February. Hopefully her parents would never ever see it.

"Shut the hell up, Blake! Numbers one and seven, kiss for ten seconds!" In dipshit Dory's defence, there were six girls to four guys so the likeliness of two guys going at it was less likely than two girls or at least one of the guys getting a girl.

Blake looked down at his card and smirked before tossing it in the centre of the circle, "I'm number one! Who gets the honour of kissing me?" He winked at the girls who were eagerly checking their cards.

The room went silent except for the muffled sound of drums and wailing in the basement. One of the girls, Nikki, spoke up,  "none of us are number seven. You know what that means hotshot~!" The girls and Dory snickered, Blake's two options were Gabriel, his teammate on the soccer team, or the birthday boy, Reese.

Gabe tossed his card, number three, sighing in relief. Blake looked at Reese who didn't seem to be paying attention at all, he was absentmindedly swirling his cheap whiskey in his red solo cup, watching it intently with his sea blue eyes.

Dory nudged him, "Reese!"

Looking up like he'd just woken up, "what?"

"You're number seven," Nikki sang.

"And...?"

Rose giggled, "you have to kiss Blake."

Reese raised his eyebrows and glanced over at Blake, Blake could feel his palms sweating as he looked nervously at his friend. This wasn't how he planned the night would go. Reese let out a puff of laughter, "how did we come to this conclusion again?"

Ingrid snorted, "Dory chose it! One and seven, kiss for ten seconds! Hey Blake, want to trade places?" The girls erupted into giggles again, Reese was popular with girls, he had the free-spirit personality, his sandy blond hair was long enough to tie into a little ponytail and he spent weekends surfing at the beach while his brother picked up chicks. He was tanned and lean with muscle, add pretty blue eyes and a friendly demeanour and he was considered "dreamy"...to girls at least.

Reese took a sip of the whiskey, and ticked his brows, "yeah Blake, wanna trade?" 

Something about his words irked Blake, he was spared from answering, Nikki taunted, "too bad that's not allowed!" Slowly she started the classic chant, "KISS! KISS! KISS!"

Blake gulped down his drink in a single shot, his throat burned with the nasty taste as he moved closer to Reese who still looked calm as ever. The chant was still going but it was quieter and more insistent. Blake pulled Reese up so he was standing on his knees just like him.

The blond boy was alarmingly close, Blake could feel his breath on his lips, his breath smelled like the crappy whiskey and Blake was sure his breath smelled the same, if not worse. Who would've thought his first kiss would be with his friend, a guy nonetheless! 

"Jeez! What's with this build-up? Just kiss already!" Nikki shouted.

"Shut up, Nik!" Blake snapped, turning back to Reese, his heart racing dangerously fast. He leant in a little closer, his lips skimmed Reese's until they pressed against his lips gently. The countdown started until Blake pulled away at two, it was too awkward. The counting stopped.

Blake looked away with a light blush from his embarrassment, a hand grabbed the back of his head and turned him forward, without warning, Reese kissed him aggressively. It was unbelievable that Reese could do anything "aggressively". Blake brought his hand up to Reese's chest to shove him away, Reese snaked an arm around his waist to trap him and tilted his head to deepen the kiss, slipping his tongue past Blake's unsuspecting lips.

The feeling wasn't unpleasant so much as unfamiliar. Blake could taste the bitterness of the whiskey and feel a slight breath escape Reese. Blake mimicked Reese, closing his eyes, the hand that was on his chest went around his neck and his fingers toyed with the end of Reese's long hair as he kissed back. When did Reese, who couldn't stay on the same subject for longer than five minutes, become so good at kissing? It ticked Blake off even more that Reese was a year younger than him.

When Reese pulled away, Blake unconsciously followed his lips for a moment. He was sure he was making a shameful face, Reese looked cool as ever, releasing Blake as he licked his lower lip. He smirked a clear challenge in his blue eyes, "if you're going to kiss me then kiss me right."

Nikki was the only one with her camcorder pointed at them. She was awestruck like everyone else, "that was so freakin' hot!"

Ingrid nodded, "kiss me too, Reese!" The other girls nodded silently.  Dory and Gabriel looked wide-eyed and shocked. 

Blake's heart was still racing, his face must've been glowing like a lava lamp, no matter what he drank he could still taste Reese in his mouth. He glanced over at Reese who was easily talking with everyone else like he hadn't just Frenched another guy in front of everyone.

Before his parents came home, Blake helped take out the trash to hide the empty whiskey bottle and wine cooler bottles. While everyone was sleeping, Blake went to the kitchen to get a drink of water to try and clear him up a little, Reese was sitting at the counter with the leftover birthday cake eating it with a spoon, not bothering to cut off a piece.

"Got enough cake?" Blake asked sarcastically trying to sound as normal as possible.

"Want some?" Reese offered him some on his spoon, normally, Blake wouldn't hesitate but his eyes darted from the spoon to Reese's lips. He sighed, if it wasn't a big deal to Reese then it shouldn't be a big deal to Blake. He leant forward and allowed his friend to feed him a bite.

Archie came walking into the kitchen, his hair was darker and his skin was lighter than Reese's because he didn't get as much sun. His shirt had the sleeves cut off and his sides were exposed as he reached for a couple cups. "You guys have fun?"

Reese's eyes flitted to Blake without him noticing, he smirked, "yeah, we had some fun. The band still here?"

"Uh-huh. You brats should get some sleep." Archie filled up the glasses with soda and managed to carry them back to the basement without spilling or dropping them. It was half-past midnight, Reese and Blake were at the counter, sharing a spoon as they finished his birthday cake in silence.

When they went to bed, Reese's party was over and the night concluded after a night full of unexpected things. It was the start of something that would become consuming and addictive.