Fluffy chapter😊gonna apologize in advanced it's a little rushed. Also thank you guys so much for getting this book to 1k reads and ranked #6 under Starkid!
Brian bit his lip as he stared at the clock anxiously. Six period couldn't be taking longer to come to an end. He started unconsciously tapping the eraser of his pencil against his desk as he watched the second hand tick closer and closer to the bell ringing.
"Why don't you just start chanting 'Joe's house' and burst into a big musical number when the bell rings?"
"Hm?" Brian jolted, Joey's voice snapping him out of his trance with the clock.
"You know, like the beginning of High School Musical Two? Because that's what you look like with the way you're staring at the clock."
"How old are you?" Brian asked, laughing at his best friend.
"We watch High School Musical like every two weeks; shut it." Joey teased, before his phone buzzed with a notification.
"That who I think it is texting you, loverboy?" Brian teased back, happy to see his best friend happy. Joey flicked him off as the bell rang, Brian practically flying out of his seat. "Wish me luck."
"Good luck, use protection." Joey said, still not looking up from his phone as he texted Lauren, a giddy smile on his face.
Brian rolled his eyes. "More like good luck not saying or doing anything stupid in front of Joe. Or good luck walking out of this situation without MAJOR heartache."
Joey stood up and slid across his desk top so that he was next to Brian. "Just be yourself my dude. Call me if you develop any heartache, but I think everything will go fine," he said with a wink. He gave Brian a reassuring clap on the back as he scurried past him.
He ran a hand through his hair as he half walked half jogged to the choir room. He wanted to get there as fast as possible; that said he didn't want to arrive all sweaty and gross. He took a deep breath in a desperate attempt to slow his heart rate.
This wasn't a big deal. They were just rehearsing. It's not like they were hanging out. He was working himself up over something that he knew in his gut meant absolutely nothing to Joe.
Still, a boy can dream.
xXx
Joe was seriously going to murder Lauren Lopez.
He'd come to the choir room sixth hour with the intention of getting in some last minute rehearsal before his practice with Brian. Instead, he'd spent the hour being interrogated by Lauren Lopez on which guys in Glee he thought were sexy. The fact that he saw the majority of them as practically his brothers had made the conversation uncomfortable. As much as he enjoyed talking it out on his sexuality, he did not want to contemplate on whether he found Darren, Holden, or Jeff attractive.
"What about Robert?"
Joe shook his head. "He's too young. Besides, I don't really know him that well. I don't know any of the freshmen that well yet."
"Fair enough. Jon?"
Joe pursed his lips. "Don't know him that well either. He's always hanging with the freshmen."
Lauren rolled her eyes. "We're just talking about physical attraction here dude. Unless you're looking to leave Zoey for a guy in the Glee club?"
Joe flicked her off. "I love my girlfriend. I feel bad enough talking about people I find attractive in general."
"I'm just trying to help you come to better terms with your sexuality."
"I know, and I appreciate it. God knows I could never have this conversation with Zoey. And I'd feel weird having it with the guys. But like, couldn't we just compare celebrities? Why are we talking about people we know?"
Lauren shrugged. "I guess that's fair. I'm just enjoying talking about Glee boys with you."
"Oh?" Joe asked, moving closer to her. "So are there any Glee boys that you find attractive?"
"Hey, you're just trying to get out of answering me on Jon." Lauren responded defensively.
"He's decent looking, but I prefer brunettes. You've seen Zoey. Now you tell me who you—"
"So Rosenthal?"
Joe paused, completely losing his train of thought. "This again?"
"What do you mean—"
"You're the one that was randomly hounding me over whether or not I find Rosenthal attractive at rehearsal last night."
Lauren bit her lip, weighing over her next response. "You just seem very comfortable around him."
"I am. He's a great guy. He's my friend. I feel weird checking him out."
"Do you also see him like a brother?"
Joe froze, contemplating how he felt towards Brian. Did he see him as a brother? Probably not. For starters, he hadn't known Brian that long. And then there was the fact that he felt like he could be very open with Brian—more open than he would feel comfortable being with family. He definitely wouldn't have felt comfortable crying about the way Zoey treats him in front of Holden or Darren.
He shook his head. He hadn't been crying about how she treated him. He'd been crying over issues in the relationship. Problems, just like any couple would have.
"No. I think he's more to me than that. Granted, we haven't been friends very long. But the more I get to know him, the more things I find that I like about him. I can be vulnerable with him. The only other person in my life who I can say that about is, well, you." He answered honestly, gesturing towards Lauren. "Except with you I get tough love—which don't get me wrong, sometimes I need that. But with him I get more comfort." He paused. Where was he going with this? "Anyway, it's not something I want to complicate by wondering about whether or not I think he has a good ass."
Lauren bit her lip, feeling defeated. "Fair enough." She'd get him on her next attack.
Flash forward to the present, Joe was feeling much more nervous about hanging out with Brian after that conversation. He knew that he shouldn't—they were just going to rehearse after all. Why did Lauren have to go and make him feel all awkward about how hot he thought Brian was? He already felt awkward looking back on how he'd spent the better part of an hour of rehearsal last night telling her about the first time he'd met Brian and how he'd thought he was kind of cute. He shook his head to clear it. Right now, with Brian, he needed to focus on his singing and nothing else.
The second Brian walked into the choir room his eyes traveled Brian's body up and down. He was wearing black jeans, a purple tshirt, with a red and black flannel. Joe mentally facepalmed himself. Why was he taking note of anything of this?
"What's up?" He asked the younger boy, who shyly walked over.
"Exhausted. You?"
"Same. Want to stop for coffee? I promise we don't have to go to Beanies. You can pick today."
Brian laughed. "Did the expression on my face give it away?"
"No you actually held your ground. I just know that Beanies coffee sucks."
"As long as you know that. So, Dunkin' Donuts?"
xXx
Brian couldn't believe how calm he was behaving. He couldn't believe he'd spent the entire day nervous about him and Joe not having anything to talk about; so far, they'd spent the entire time together jabbering away nonstop. He couldn't believe that in the past hour he hadn't said anything stupid or awkward. Talking to Joe just felt so... natural. Which was a huge deal considering how much Brian had always struggled with basic day-to-day conversation.
"So like, we are idiots for getting caffeine when we're about to sing, right?" Joe asked as he opened his front door and let Brian enter his house.
"I've managed to make it happen, but it isn't a good time. Any chance I could trouble you for a bottle of water?"
Joe laughed, walking over to his refrigerator and pulling out two bottles. He threw one to Brian, but he missed and dropped it. Brian flushed horribly, dropping down to his knees and picking it up as quickly as he could. 'Just when I thought I was managing to not make an idiot out of myself in front of Joe,' he thought miserably. He looked up with a red face to see Joe smiling at him. Why was he smiling? It'd be one thing if he was laughing at him. "What?"
"You're silly." Joe responded simply, gesturing for Brian to follow him.
"I'm silly?" Brian asked tentatively.
"Yeah. You make me laugh."
Brian bit his lip as they walked into the living room. What did that mean? He'd imagine it was an insult, and yet Joe was saying it in a good tone. "Happy to be of service."
Joe laughed again. "See? You're funny. Come on, we can practice in the living room." Brian followed Joe, nearly bumping into him when Joe stopped in his tracks. "Dad, can we use the living room to rehearse?"
Brian peaked over Joe's shoulder to see his father, who was sitting on the couch with headphones in. He jumped at the sound of Joe's voice, taking his headphones out. "Didn't hear you come in. You're not hanging out with Zoey today?"
"Nah, she's out with Beth and Allison. I brought a friend home, we have to rehearse for Glee."
Brian waved awkwardly, his face flushing. Joe's father waved back. "New friend?"
"This is Brian. The one a few grades below me. I've mentioned him once or twice?"
Joe's dad nodded, standing up. "Nice to meet you."
"Sir," Brian responded, a little too loudly, reaching out and shaking his hand.
Joe bit back a laugh. 'Brian's so cute when he gets nervous and awkward. Wait, what?' Joe ran a hand through his hair. Why did adorably awkward brunette boys have to make his sexuality so confusing?
Mr. Walker smiled at Brian. "I'll leave you two to rehearse." He let go of Brian's hand and glanced back at Joe. "Nice to see you in the house for once son."
Brian watched as Joe's dad walked up the stairs, making sure he was out of earshot before asking Joe "what's that mean?"
Joe shifted his feet uncomfortably. "My parents feel like I'm never home because Zoey and I always hang out at her place."
"Ah," Brian responded, debating if he should ask for more information. He sat down on the couch and started pulling sheet music out of his backpack. "Is there a particular reason that you guys do?"
Joe glanced towards the staircase, as if to make sure his dad wasn't hovering at the top, listening to their conversation. He walked over and sat down next to Brian on the couch. "Zoey doesn't like my parents."
"Oh. How come? Your dad seems nice—granted I only just met him. Did they have a bad encounter?"
Joe sighed. "Not that I can think of. I feel like my parents were always super nice towards her. But she said that they give her an 'off vibe,'" Joe said with a roll of his eyes. "Granted—my parents don't like her. They both think she's kind of rude. And my mom feels that she's super arrogant. And little things, like that she's on her phone too much. They respect that she's my girlfriend and I love her, but my mom hasn't held back from telling me that she thinks I can do better. Jokes on her; I can't. Not to mention I don't think there is doing any better."
Brian shrugged. "Does Zoey know that they don't like her?"
"She has her suspicions, but I don't think they've ever given her anything substantial to go off of. But I don't like to make her uncomfortable, so we spend more time at her place."
"Well, that's nice that you bend to accommodate her."
"Thanks. That's not the only thing though. She feels like my house... isn't the nicest."
"She actually said that to you?"
"Yeah. Said my house was too small, too far south, rada rada rich girl things."
"And you don't think that that's super rude?"
"I—" Joe froze, mulling over his answer. "I do. But Zoey's had an easy life. It's not her fault that she was raised with snobby rich parents. She has sheltered views on the world, but I like to think she'll mature on that kind of stuff once we're out of high school, you know?"
Brian didn't know how he could tolerate a girlfriend that by the sounds of it dumped on Joe's family and where he comes from, but he knew by now that criticizing Zoey would upset him. "Yeah. Sure. Do your parents know that that's why you're never home?"
"God no. I don't want them knowing my girlfriend hates them. Granted, I think they can tell by the way she acts around them." Joe locked his hands together, thumbs twiddling with each other. "It kind of sucks—I'm really close with my parents. I feel weird keeping secrets from them."
"So you feel like your relationship with Zoey is... kind of creating a divide between you and your parents?"
"What? No! I never said that." Joe responded defensively. "Anyway, we should start rehearsing."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"
"You're fine." Joe paused, taking a second to get his emotions in check. He knew he was being blunt. "Really, you didn't say anything wrong. But if we don't start singing soon my dad's going to question what we're up to." He pulled out his sheet music.
"Fair enough." Brian responded, knowing full well that he'd upset Joe. Why couldn't he ever say the right thing? It was a miracle that Joe even spoke to him. "So are we in agreement that I'll be Rapunzel's prince and you'll be Cinderella's?"
"Absolutely we are not." Joe responded, smirking at Brian. "You're the stronger singing."
"You're a great singer," Brian reassured, smiling back. "And personally, I find the runs Rapunzel's Prince has to sing way harder."
"So you admit you're sticking me with the easy part?"
"Oh for the love of god Walker," Brian laughed. "You're killing me."
Two hours passed of the two debating, singing, and laughing their way through figuring out their duet. Joe managed to bully Brian into singing the part of Cinderella's Prince, and Brian managed to coach Joe through the entire song and build his confidence on it.
Now, they were on the debate of choreography. "I really think that we should unbutton the top buttons of our shirts here. That's what they do in the movie."
"That's easy for you to say." Brian teased with roll of his eyes. "Not all of us have a rock hard six pack you know."
"I don't know about rock hard. And besides you have a great bo—you look fine." Joe finished, avoiding eye contact with Brian.
Brian found himself blushing. What did that mean? He laughed it off. "Not fine like you."
Brian resisted the urge to slam his hand over his mouth. Why the hell had he said that?
Now it was Joe's turn to blush. "I think we're both super fine. So we're in agreement that we'll undo our shirts?"
"No, you." Brian responded, staring at the floor. He might as well have "I have a crush on you" written across his forehead right now.
Joe laughed, walking over to Brian. "No, you." He teased back, pushing Brian's arm playfully.
Brian rolled his eyes, pushing Joe's shoulder. "No, you."
Joe raised an eyebrow at him, before pushing him again, on the chest. "You."
Brian stared back at Joe, before letting his eyes dip down to his chest. He couldn't, could he?
Summon courage he didn't know he had, he reached over and unbuttoned the top button of Joe's shirt. "Nah. You."
Joe glanced down at his slightly unbuttoned shirt, and then at Brian. Before Brian could react, Joe launched at him, wrapping his arms around Brian's waist and pulling him over to the couch.
"Hey, quit it!" Brian yelled, but he couldn't stop the contagious smile that spread across his face.
"Say you'll do it punk." Joe laughed back, pulling the two of them down onto the couch. Brian scrambled, trying to push Joe off of him, but the smaller boy stood no chance. Joe easily sat up and pinned each of Brian's shoulders down. "I'm not letting you up until we agree."
"This is bullying!" Brian laughed back, wrestling one of his shoulders out and pushing Joe's chest away from him. He was trying very hard to remain calm about the fact that Joe was literally on top of him. The last thing he needed was a repeat of when they had hugged in the car. Hiding that he was half hard was going to be a lot more difficult with Joe sitting on his lap.
He attempted to wiggle out from under Joe, but Joe managed to grab both of Brian's arms by the wrists, pinning them over his head. Brian continued to push against Joe, but to no avail.
"Checkmate," Joe taunted, staring down at Brian with a smirk on his face. "Now agree to do it."
'Don't get a boner, don't get a boner, don't get a boner, for the love of god calm down,' Brian mentally reminded himself; he was currently horrified but at the same time loving everything about this situation. "No way; this is peer pressure."
"Come on Brian, I won. You have to."
"Nonsense. I never agreed to a wrestling match."
Joe bit his lip. "I supposed that's fair." He leaned down closer to Brian, before whispering in his ear, "So how would you propose that we solve this Rosenthal?"
Brian resisted the urge to gasp. Feeling Joe's warm breath against his ear sent literal chills down his spine. Fuck, why did everything about Joe Walker have to turn him on so much? He needed to get out of this situation before Joe noticed. "Ugh fine, you win. We'll unbutton."
"Was that so hard?" Joe said mischievously, before climbing off of Brian. "You can even wear a t-shirt under your flannel like you are now if you're self conscious or anything. You shouldn't be, but I get feeling insecure."
Brian sat up, crossing his legs so Joe wouldn't notice his current situation. He was currently feeling extremely self conscious. "Fair enough idea. I can't picture you feeling insecure though."
Joe raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh? And why's that?" He asked, sitting down on the couch next to Brian.
Brian really was being careless today; how was he supposed to explain that off? "I mean, you're just in really good shape. Being, ya know, an athlete and all." He gulped, hoping and praying that his answer had come off like a straight guy answer.
Joe laughed, taking a sip of water. "Thank you for that. But I promise you; I get just as much body negativity as the next guy." Joe froze. Why was he telling Brian that? He never talked about this stuff with anyone except Zoey.
"Huh," Brian responded, dumbfounded. The more he got to know Joe Walker, the more he got to meet the human being, not the incredibly hot popular jock everybody saw at school. "Well, thanks for being honest with me. But personally, I think you of all people shouldn't feel that way. Like I said, you're bodies... like... perfect." Brian bit his lip. The more he got to know the real Joe Walker, the humanized one with emotions and flaws, the more perfect he found him. It was as if every time Brian felt that he couldn't be any more hopelessly in love with him than he already was, Joe sensed it and raised the bar.
Joe couldn't help but smile. "Thanks," he answered, his face red. "That means a lot. I certainly wish my girlfriend felt that way."
Brian nearly dropped the water bottle in his hand. What the hell did that mean? What lies was that horrible girl telling Joe? "She doesn't?"
Joe shrugged. "I mean, she's just always telling me what's wrong with my body—it's not to be mean!" Joe added quickly after seeing the look on Brian's face. "It's just to motivate me, you know? She's not wrong. I could always have less fat, or more muscle. She just pushes me to stay in shape so that I'll stay healthy and succeed in sports."
Brian bit his lip. He was at a loss for words. How could anyone have Joe as their boyfriend and do anything but gush over how they were dating the most gorgeous man on the planet? He already hated Zoey knowing how mean she was to Joe when Joe was nothing but kind to her, but this? Body shaming him? This set his blood on fire even more.
Clearly Brian's silence told Joe that he didn't agree. "I'm not saying I enjoy it." Joe answered honestly. "Sometimes I wish she would lessen up. I get pushing me to be better. But I hate constantly stressing over how my body looks, and whether it'll be good enough for her." Joe broke his eye contact with Brian, staring down at the floor. This stuff was so hard to talk about; and yet, he felt completely safe sharing it with Brian.
Brian nodded, scooting closer to him on the couch. He wished so badly that Joe was with someone who could tell him how perfect he was. Not just his body; but everything about him.
He wished he could be the one to tell him those things. How badly he wanted him just for who he was as a person.
"All I'm gonna say is... I think you deserve love and validation. I think who you are should be enough for her. And she should get that through her head."
Joe stared up at Brian, fighting back the tears that wanted to escape. He scooted closer to him. "I've never even told Lauren about this. Please don't tell anyone."
Brian nodded, filling in the small gap remaining between them. "Promise. Are you okay?" He tentatively reached out and wrapped an arm around Joe.
To his relief, Joe melted into his arms, wrapping his arms around Brian's waist. Brian shifted, pulling Joe more against him. Joe let out a shaky breath, the sound of Brian's heart beating against his chest relaxing him. As much as he wanted to stay in the hug, he pulled away. "Have I expressed that I appreciate you. Like a lot?"
Brian let out a small laugh, smiling to himself. "I appreciate you too Joe."
"I question what exactly I bring to this friendship, but if I contribute anything, then good." Joe sighed awkwardly, staring over the table of music in front of them. "I don't know about you, but I sure could use a break from this song."
Brian leaned back against the couch, running a hand through his hair. "Definitely. Want me to get out of here?"
Joe froze, taken aback. "Do you want to leave?"
"No, of course not. I just didn't know if that was your way of wanting to get rid of me." Brian answered honestly.
Joe laughed. "No. It was my way of saying lets do something else."
"Gotchu," Brian responded, trying not to smile giddily. "Well . . . we could rehearse Different As Can Be? I have the music in my bag."
"Okay so like I was gonna say let's go upstairs to my room and watch a movie or play video games, but I guess we could actually be productive if you so desire it."
"Oh! Okay now I got you for real." Brian responded, trying not to flush. Was he going to get to see Joe Walkers' bedroom?
"Let's compromise; we can go upstairs to my room and watch Harry Potter."
"I'm assuming Sorcerers Stone?"
"Damn, how'd you know?" Joe stood up from the couch. "Right this way Quirrell."
"After you, my Dark King." Brian replied with a smirk, trying to keep his face straight as he followed Joe up the stairs to his bedroom.
What do y'all think is gonna happen next?🤔
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