Chapter Text
W
“You must be kidding – William!!”
William suddenly jerks into reality at the sound of his mother calling his name. He looks up from the book he’s been pouring himself into and watches as his mother comes towards him from across the dimly lit room, her heels clicking loudly on the wood floor. William admires the way her sparkly red dress flows behind her, temporarily distracted from the stern look decorating her otherwise lovely features and the fact that he’s probably in trouble. She always dresses so well, but tonight she is even more radiant. William himself is slightly more down-dressed than his mother and the other adults in the room sipping their champagne and chatting about politics and what-have-you. He’s got on a simple blue V-neck with his favorite pair of bell jeans – a tad casual, but he feels that it doesn’t matter much when he isn’t really involving himself in the party, anyway. He’s managed to keep quiet and hidden on this couch in the corner for the majority of the evening, but apparently he can’t hide any longer. He smiles warmly up at his mother, enjoying the way the light from the fireplace dances off her golden dangly earrings.
“You look pretty, Mom,” William tells her, pulling his long hair out of his eyes to see her better. She smiles a small ‘that’s sweet of you’ at the compliment, but shakes her head.
“Yes, you told me that twice in the car ride here,” she laughs slightly. Then she crosses her arms and purses her lips. “What are you still doing here? I told you hours ago, there’s a kids’ party going on downstairs. You should go!”
William makes a face. He hadn’t forgotten about the teen party. How could he when his reading was constantly being interrupted by the loud thumping of the bass turned up too high and horrible singing? – the result of what he’d assumed was karaoke going on downstairs. He had shuddered at the thought of subjecting himself to humiliation like that.
“I’d really rather not,” William smiles down at the book that’s still lying open in his lap, like what his mother is saying is only joking. His mother huffs.
“It’s New Year’s, William!” William looks back up at her and quirks a skeptical eyebrow. “It’s a time to make resolutions. A new you! Do you really want to spend this next year sitting in a corner, reading like you always have? You need to live a little. You’re only young for a short time.” She looks around with disdain at her fellow adults with their dull conversations and even duller lives.
William is silent for a short time, considering. He nibbles on his lower lip. Well, why not see what the big deal is downstairs? If it’ll make his mother happy…
He sighs and closes his book, then stands up, handing it to her.
“Fine,” he smiles. His mother smiles back and she takes the book before he heads towards the stairs.
G
“One more, champ, let’s go,” Gabe’s father urges from across the small court, panting as he’s slightly out of breath. Not to mention sweaty. He chucks the basketball towards Gabe who catches it easily. Gabe bites the inside of his cheek and rolls his eyes. He’s barely broken a sweat, though they’ve been playing for – who knows how long, honestly? But all the same, he’s tired of it and he lets it show on his face.
“Dad, come on, there’s a party downstairs,” he whines as he spins the orange ball in his hands. “And I feel bad for all those kids having to sit through a party that I’m not at,” he adds with a cocky smirk.
“You and your parties, Gabe,” his dad mutters – not technically saying no. He shakes his head and walks over, motioning for Gabe to pass him the ball. Instead, though, Gabe looks over his father’s head and, with an effortless movement of his hands, shoots a basket from his place at half-court. He smirks at the irritated face his father gives him and sends him a small wave with two fingers. He turns on the heel of his bright neon sneakers and struts out of the room.
*
After showering and changing out of his slightly sweaty clothes, Gabe whistles to himself as he heads toward the doors to the teens’ New Year’s party. The vibrations from what sound like pretty high-quality speakers thrum in his eardrums pleasantly and he grins. This is gonna be great.
Gabe busts through the doors and is immediately greeted by strobe lights and vibrant outfits and loud chatter and he loves it. He walks through the crowd, bumping fists and shaking hands with people he barely recognizes from school, and that’s what he loves the most. Being able to mingle with everyone, having a great time and everyone enjoying each other’s company, it’s like the world is temporarily at peace.
When he isn’t looking where he’s going, Gabe is startled when he suddenly runs into someone.
“Woahh!” He reaches out a hand to steady the person he’d run into and ends up grasping onto a very skinny shoulder attached to a long mane of curly brown hair.
“’Scuse me,” he says in that charming voice he reserves for ladies only. He considers it a bit of a tease, seeing as he’s not really into girls, but he’d rather be a nice, likeable guy than a douchebag. “Sorry, Sweetheart. That was my bad.”
“’Sweetheart’?” the girl – oh God. Gabe’s eyes now fly over the person he ran into’s body that – however feminine at first glance – is definitely male viewed from the front now. A blue V-neck dips down a broad, flat chest and the hem of the shirt ends about two centimeters before his low-rise jeans begin and Gabe feels his mouth drop open just slightly. He clears his throat and lifts his eyes to meet the boy’s. And even when he averts his eyes, he’s still left nearly drooling over wow, I like your face.
“Oh. Uh, I’m sorry. I thought…” he trails off.
Contrary to what Gabe is expecting after undeniably mistaking this guy for a chick, the boy pulls some long brown locks from his face and smiles shyly as he looks at him with pretty brown eyes. He laughs awkwardly. “Hah, that’s okay. I get th-that a lot,” he admits, stuttering a bit. He shrugs. And before Gabe has a chance to continue their conversation, possibly end the night with a new number in his phone, or even ask his name, the boy looks down at his shoes and shuffles away into the crowd, shoulders slouched.
…And just like that, he’s gone.
Gabe chews the inside of his cheek and his brows knit together. Okay, that is not what he likes about parties. Can’t say he’s ever had that happen to him.
At that moment, the current duet performing karaoke finish their song – the short boy with crazy, curly hair looks smug as he waves and blows kisses to the crowd that cheers him on (whether they’re being honest or just humoring him isn’t quite clear), while the girl next to him with some strange flaming orange hair looks out at the crowd with a look of horror on her face; stiff and looking pale like she’s about to vomit.
“Alriiiiigggghhtt!” comes a familiar voice over the speakers. Gabe looks over to the DJ booth to see Alex Suarez grinning into his microphone. He’s wearing sunglasses inside like the top-notch douchebag he is. Gabe loves this guy.
“Ian and Hayley, everyone!” Alex barks over the speakers, clapping along with the crowd. Gabe joins him, an idea hatching as he watches the two singers make their way off the stage in the middle of the room. Alex presses a couple buttons on the control panel and a Lady Gaga song starts resonating throughout the place. He peeks over his dark shades to look out at the crowd. “Okay, hang tight, folks. Karaoke will be back again after a short break!” There are a few sarcastic ‘aww’s from the crowd. Alex ignores them and his eyes search the room until they fall on Gabe who nods at him before heading over. Alex removes the obnoxiously big headphones from around his neck and hops down from the booth.
“Saporta!” Alex slides his sunglasses up onto his forehead and pulls Gabe into a manly hug, “What’s happenin’, man? Haven’t seen you since, like, December!”
Gabe grins. “Still technically December, dude.” Alex simply shushes him, however, with a waggle of his index finger.
“Details, details,” he says. “So what can I do you for? Got any requests? I tell you what; this DJ thing is really doing it for me.” Gabe chuckles. Of course it would. You have to be a certain kind of asshole to handle that job, and Alex is just that kind.
Gabe leans over and puts an arm around the shorter guy’s shoulders. “Yeah, man, actually, I was wondering if you could do me a favor…”
*
The song currently playing comes to an end and Alex pushes a button.
“Aaaaand, we’re back!!” Alex yells. His douchebag sunglasses are back in place on the bridge of his nose and he quickly slips his headphones around his neck. One might question why he even bothers wearing them: probably just for show. The crowd cheers loudly and he seems to soak in all the attention for a second or two longer than necessary. Then he continues.
“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, let’s see who the next lucky duo’s gonna be!” He points over at a tall shaggy-haired kid on a pedestal with a spotlight, “Dallon, do your thing!”
The kid nods and flips on the spotlight. He waves it around randomly for a second or two, and then turns it in a way that could almost be considered deliberately on Gabe. Everyone’s cheering gets a little louder and Gabe feigns surprise. ‘Me?’ he mouths. Then he shrugs and ‘gives into’ the encouragements of everyone around him. He grins and runs toward the stage, waving at everyone like he’s some sort of rock star.
“And now, for lucky contestant number two!” Alex gestures again at Dallon who waves the light around some more. It looks like he’s picking someone at random, but Gabe can see that Dallon’s actually searching in the direction Gabe had pointed towards a few minutes earlier as he’d slipped 10 bucks into the kid’s hand. Gabe hopes to God that the guy hasn’t changed locations since then…
The white light falls on a skinny figure hiding in the back, messing with his phone. He looks up and squints into the light, confused, then looks around. Gabe can see him mouthing ‘what? What’s going on?’ to everyone around him who are pushing him towards the stage. When he looks at Gabe up on the stage, sudden realization seems to dawn on his face and his eyes get extremely wide before some long hair falls in front of them. He stumbles over his long legs a little but manages to get there in one piece.
“We meet again,” Gabe shouts over the loud noise of the party. The guy nervously pulls at some strands of hair and simply nods, then turns away.
“Excellent, excellent choices, Dallon, you tall, handsome drink of water,” Alex says. He’s leaning back in his chair now, with his feet up on the low wall around the DJ booth. He lazily dangles the mic near his face and Gabe thinks that he looks like the epitome of the word ‘asshole’. He has to keep himself from laughing as Alex and Dallon exchange a flirty gunshot-point and a wink, respectively. Alex then turns his attention to his two victims onstage.
“So tell me, comrades, what are your names?”
Gabe speaks first. “I’m Gabe,” he says, mostly in the direction of the brunette next to him who is looking at his shoes.
“Gabriel, mi amigo. Mi pene…es…un gato.” Alex slurs out some random Spanish that he probably only remembers from some random utterings Gabe has made throughout the school year. Gabe grins uncontrollably and has to look away for a second to compose himself.
“You want me to tell you what you just said?” Gabe chuckles. Alex, however, keeps a completely straight face as if he’d just spoken the Lord’s word in Spanish rather than…well, something else.
“Maybe later, babe. I’m workin’,” he says. “You can speak dirty Spanish to me all night tomorrow night, okay?” Gabe and the crowd all laugh. The other boy on the stage even cracks a smile. And speaking of whom…
“And how ‘bout you, handsome?” Alex now asks him. At that last word, Gabe is taken by surprise by how quickly his smile fades and a strange feeling of I saw him first comes over him, even though he knows Alex is straight. It’s the principle of the thing. The boy shuffles closer to the mic and adjusts it.
“I-I’m William.”
William. At last, Gabe knows his name. Now just to get him to loosen up a little. He smirks.
“Nice to meet ya, William,” Alex says. He puts his feet down and picks up what looks like an enormous binder. It’s got a shitload of papers in it and he flips through them, scanning. “Let’s see what song I have for you…”
There’s a brief silence while Alex is flipping through his binder until:
“Oh, here’s a good one!” He looks up at Gabe over his sunglasses, a knowing glance. Then he presses a button and music starts to play.
Oh. Hell. Yes.
Gabe can’t help but start nodding when he hears the intro to Same Blood, one of his favorite songs. The band who plays it isn’t an incredibly popular one, and neither is the song (how Alex even has a karaoke version of it handy is beyond anyone’s knowledge), so the crowd sort of awkwardly moves to it, trying to get into it. It’s never a good DJ move to play a song that not a lot of people know, but Gabe appreciates the exception Alex has made for him. He knows this is Gabe’s jam. Gabe flashes a smile at Alex who nods coolly.
The words to the song flash on the television screen hanging up above the two singers and Gabe looks up at it. Even though he knows it well, he still needs to reference the words. He glances over at William on his right and he’s still looking away, but he’s moving ever so slightly with the music and no, no way. Does he know this song?
Gabe nearly forgets to start singing when the time comes. He tips over the mic stand in one swift swing and pulls it close to his face as he sings.
“Like a cold day in August, I was not prepared for this.” People around them clap and cheer. Gabe has never thought he had the best singing voice, but his charm and popularity make up for it, he supposes. He stares straight into William’s eyes (or at least tries to when William occasionally glances over at him) and drags the mic stand along as he steps closer to him, getting into his space. A few whistles and woots come from the crowd. William is a violent red. “You think that nobody noticed the way that you still care about it...” Gabe reaches a hand out at his petrified partner and makes a small ‘come hither’ gesture as he pulls his hand back towards himself. This seems to work and William breaks a smile and places a shaky hand on the microphone to adjust it again. His body turns ever so slightly to face Gabe and, good, he’s relaxing a bit. He’s getting into it.
“With all the people we need to love and hate, everybody makes the same mistakes. Divided by these walls, together we are lost.” Gabe gestures to William to start singing with a wave of his hand just before the chorus comes. William appears to clear his throat, but Gabe can’t hear anything.
“We are the same blood, all of us we are. We are.” William sings along with Gabe, still not referencing the words, which proves he knows it, and Gabe almost forgets to keep at it because wow, even when he’s singing sort of quiet, he has a really good voice. Consider Gabe surprised. The cheers around the room get louder as they harmonize and William’s smile gets a little bigger.
“While half of us were lost, the other half forgot and we are the same blood. We are the same blood. We are the same…”
When it gets to the next verse, Gabe makes an ‘after you’ movement. William nods, looking more confident now, making Gabe smile.
“You remind me of August, the way that you still care about…” William looks around at the crowd as he sings, slowly getting louder. Gabe nods along, giving him a smiling look of reassurance. “…All the things that you promised when I was still around. Pick you up and drive you down. We are the same blood all of us we are, we are.” William’s got a full-blown grin on his face now as he sings with professionalism and ease and Gabe can’t help but mirror that grin. He absently notes how he likes the way he can see William’s slightly large teeth when he smiles while he sings. And the way his eyes light up when he seems to be getting into something.
The rest of the people at the party seem to approve too, clapping along to a song that probably only 10% of them know, at most. William’s unexpected stage personality seems to be the kind that can turn any song into a hit. Gabe is blown away.
They both sing the chorus over and over, Gabe getting closer and closer to William who’s now taken his microphone from its stand. William is smiling broadly now but still backs away from Gabe slowly until he ends up at the very edge of the stage. Surprise flashes in his eyes when he falls backwards for a second before the crowd catches him. Then he's pushed forward, back into a standing position...and also into Gabe's chest. Gabe is still in slight shock when William immediately pulls away, but they both keep singing nonetheless. Even so, Gabe feels a warmth in his chest for the rest of the song.
*
“You were amazing,” Gabe tells William as he hands him a mug of hot chocolate. William smiles at him and takes the steaming beverage from his outstretched hand.
“Thank you,” he says. He looks down shyly at the drink and blows on it gently. Everything he does just seems so quiet and delicate which, coupled with his long hair and beautiful eyes, leaves Gabe trying hard as fuck to wrap his head around the fact that he’s a boy.
“And you’ve never done this kind of thing before?” Gabe ducks his head to make that eye-contact again that he’s slowly becoming addicted to. He’s very skeptical that anyone could just have a natural talent like that. William shrugs and starts walking, Gabe following him close. They stroll together across the party that has since chilled out significantly and Gabe holds the door for William as they step out onto the terrace. There’s a heavy snow falling and it’s pitch black and cold, but there’s no wind and they’ve got hot mugs and their heavy coats, so it’s perfect. William laughs softly.
“No…Well, not i-in public. I guess I have practice when I’m playing music on my own, but…I’ve never really con..sidered myself a singer?” He takes a small sip of hot chocolate, the action causing most of his hair to fall forward. Gabe resists the urge to push it back behind his ear.
William swallows and makes a face that says he probably should have waited a second longer for it to cool down. “So, uh, what about you? You h-have a really good voice, too,” he says. And the smile he gives Gabe at this moment is sweet enough to give someone a cavity. “And your stage presence is great. You must be some kind of performer.” He quirks an eyebrow in a way that says he’s probably flirting trying to compliment him more than actually being curious about Gabe’s musical experience. And as Gabe continues to talk to him more, he’s starting to realize that William’s occasional stuttering isn’t because he’s nervous or confused or cold or anything, but simply the way he speaks. And Gabe finds it a lot more adorable than he probably should.
Gabe smiles. “Oh, yeah, sure,” he says sarcastically, “my shower head is very impressed by my skills.” They both laugh together before a comfortable silence. William blows on his hot chocolate again and takes another sip. Gabe does the same.
“Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven!” Suddenly, the muffled noise of everyone inside yelling in unison can be heard. Evidently, it’s nearing midnight. Usually, Gabe would be in the middle of the chanting, yelling louder than anyone else. But right now, he’s enjoying the calm silence of the night with William. They both turn and listen to everyone shouting, “six! Five! Four! Three! Two! One!!”
William startles when at that exact moment, right behind them there is an unexpected explosion of fireworks. Gabe smiles at him then looks out at the dark night that’s now decorated with red and yellow sparks. William giggles like a delighted child and turns to watch them too.
“It’s beautiful,” Gabe hears him whisper right before everyone at the party pours out onto the terrace to watch the fireworks. With the sudden change in volume and density, William looks a little flustered, but he laughs all the same, a lot more comfortable than he had been in the crowd at the beginning of the night. Gabe likes to think that it’s because of the supportive hand he’s placed on the small of William’s back.
“I should probably go find my mom,” William eventually shouts over the noise, “to wish her a happy New Year.”
“Yeah, me too,” Gabe nods. “Well, not your mom, my mom,” he corrects, “because that’d be weird if I was wishing your mom…she doesn’t even know me!” Gabe babbles. William laughs and nods – he probably couldn’t even hear half of what he just said but he found it entertaining nonetheless.
Out of the blue, Gabe gets a brilliant notion. “Oh, hey, I’ll call you!” he says. William’s face brightens even more, if that’s possible, and he starts taking out his phone immediately. Gabe gets out his own phone and presses ‘add new contact’ before handing it over to William. They exchange phones and Gabe punches in his number as well as the name ‘Gabe aka the singer guy with the nice ass’ and hands it back to William who gives him back his own phone. William laughs when he sees the name Gabe punched in and he waves the phone at him. “I’ll remember that,” he says.
“Good,” Gabe responds, then he looks down at his phone to save the new contact. “So where do you—” He looks up to ask William a question, but he’s nowhere to be found. Something in Gabe’s chest drops like a stone and he feels as though he's lost something.
And just like that, he’s gone.