It's Not Fair

Author's Notes: Here's the second chapter. ^^ I hope you all enjoy it. Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters within here. So, no suing please!

KEY:

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ = Scene/Time Change (Same Day)

---------------------------------------- = Day(s) Later

~*~**********************************************~*~

Days had passed, and the weight training routine continued. Josh had seemingly made the training competitive, what with the way he was acting with Harrison. It bothered the brunette to think that Josh was so threatened by him, considering they were over and Brooke was never going to date him again. She had moved on. Definitely. Yes.

Harrison hurt. That much was understandable. He was working out every day after school, to the near point of exhaustion. Today, luckily, was more about his legs than his arms, chest and shoulders, so he wouldn’t be so sore the next day when he started all over again. The trend was ridiculous.

It was nearing four-thirty that Friday afternoon, and Harrison had just finished with his sets of squats. Next was the leg extension and then his seated leg curls. They would have been next, anyways, had Josh not just taken a seat on the machine that Harrison was planning to use.

He just gave the blonde a slight dirty look before he went toward the other one. Unfortunately it was in need of repairs, and it had a “Do not work with” hanging on it. One of the cords pulling the weights had been unaligned, and it looked like the seat was broken.

Harrison huffed and turned around, only to catch sight of Josh, who was laughing quietly at him as he lifted his legs out. Even when he did that he had to show off: the weight was at one hundred, whereas Harrison had a difficult enough time doing thirty.

But Josh looked like he was struggling a bit. Harrison smirked. “My machine might be broken but at least I’ll still be able to walk. You okay there, Ford? Looks like you overestimated your abilities.”

“This—is just—fine,” Josh said between labored grunts. He clenched his teeth and narrowed his eyes at Harrison. “Bet you—can’t even—do—this much.”

“You’re right, I can’t,” Harrison agreed. “But at least I know what my body’s capable of doing instead of trying to overdo it. Don’t want to rip a muscle, now do you? Just in case, you know, Brooke comes running back to you and you need to catch her. What would she think if you collapsed?”

There was a very loud clashing sound as the weights Josh was lifting hit the others resting beneath them. He was out of the seat with a lightning-quick movement, standing before Harrison before the other boy could even blink.

“So not freaking funny,” Josh said. He brought his hands up and very firmly poked Harrison in the collarbone on both sides. “Brooke is going to ask me. It was just a mistake, her asking you.”

The younger one stumbled back just a bit but he firmly stood his ground once he regained it. “And why’s that, Josh, huh?” he asked. “Why is it that a girl like Brooke can’t ask a guy like me to a dance? Is it because I’m not the quarterback? Is it because I’m not tall, dark and handsome? Well, I’m sorry if you feel like your damn ex-girlfriend left you for someone else, but at least she had the intelligence to go for someone who was just as damn smart as her!”

“Because that’s all you have going for you, Harrison,” Josh said heatedly. “Isn’t it? You think that, just because I look like I do, that just because I do what I do, that I’m not smart? God, and you call me judgmental?”

Harrison stared at the other boy blankly for a moment. Then he shook his head, gesturing wildly with his hands, as if it were an absurd statement. “What in the world do I have to go off of otherwise, Josh? You look like a goddamn Greek god! Not much else tends to go on inside the heads of those who look like that!”

“So you’re saying that Brooke is empty-headed too? That she has nothing going on up top? Because she looks good. What about half the actors and actresses in this country? Don’t you even watch television, Harrison? Half of them attended schools like Yale!”

Harrison snorted. “Pretty insightful knowledge for a guy who has a hard time speaking French.”

“What does that have to do with anything?!” Josh exclaimed in exasperation. “Do you realize you don’t even have a solid basis for your stupid questioning here? What the hell is your problem with me, Harrison? What is it?”

There was a long pause. Harrison’s mind was coming up with a lot of things, but it mostly revolved around his idea that he just…wanted to be Josh. But the more he thought about it, the more the idea of other things began popping into his mind. He liked Brooke, yes, but an attraction to her…it had only started when he had seen Josh…was it perhaps that his infatuation with Brooke was simply an infatuation of wanting to be her? Or was it wanting her because she was taken? Psychology was a confusing thing.

“What is it, Harrison?” Josh repeated, sounding more impatient this time.

Harrison took a step forward, and then another one, until he was nearly face-to-face with Josh.

“You want to know what my problem is?” he asked. Josh nodded.

And then Harrison kissed him. Josh’s reaction was immediate; he pulled back, stumbling against the front of the machine. He caught himself, blinking.

“What the hell was that?!”

“An experiment,” Harrison replied, sounding a little flustered. He looked away and downward.

“Yeah, well, it probably failed,” Josh said. “You’re a horrible kisser, you know. I don’t know what Brooke saw in you.”

“Like you can kiss any better? I bet that’s why she left you!” Harrison stated with a slightly condescending tone.

Josh scoffed. “Hell yeah, I can kiss better. Much better.”

“No, no you can’t.”

“You didn’t even give me a freaking chance to respond, you idiot!” Josh glared. “I can kiss really well.”

“Oh yes, I’m so sure you’re right. That’s why Brooke always looked disgusted after kissing you.”

“She did not!” Josh said intensely. “I can prove it!”

Before Harrison had a chance to respond to that Josh was on him, bringing their lips together. The kiss was awkward at first, but soon Harrison was responding. It seemed though, that just as soon as he responded the kiss was broken.

Josh had only pulled away a little bit, enough to look at the other’s eyes. “So?”

“It was…okay,” Harrison lied. It was much better than okay, really, because Josh kissed rather well. He wanted to experience it again.

“It was better than okay,” Josh said, his voice a bit disbelieving. “Right?” Now he sounded curious.

“I guess.”

Harrison was surprised to feel Josh against him again, their lips joined. The response this time was immediate, and Harrison’s hands were slowly working their way upward, awkwardly remaining in the air, until Josh brought one of his hands up to touch Harrison’s cheek. When he pulled back this time, he looked a little bit different.

“What about that time?”

“N-Not…too shabby,” Harrison stuttered quietly.

Josh let out a soft breath of amusement. “Yeah, that’s what they all say.”

“Am I really that bad of a kisser?” the paler one asked.

“I could tell you responded this time,” Josh admitted. “And it wasn’t that bad. No, not really.”

“That’s good to hear.”

There was another soft pause while both boys stared awkwardly at one another. Their eyes met, and that time there was a silent agreement between them, wherein Josh moved in for another kiss.

The third kiss was a little bit more intimate. Josh’s hand lowered some to cup the other’s jaw line, while Harrison’s hands returned to his sides, though they moved across toward the older boy’s, where they rested tentatively at first. Their lips parted briefly before meeting in another kiss, into which Josh let another soft breath.

There was privacy in their being the only two boys left behind in the weight room in the boy’s locker room. The janitors didn’t come in there for about hour, and so they had all the privacy they needed, should they have a need of it.

Josh slowly pulled back, looking at Harrison with a curious glint in his eyes. It was almost like that of a child’s.

“What?” Harrison asked softly.

“No one knows about this,” Josh said very seriously. “Just…no one.”

“Secret is completely safe with me.”

Josh smiled a little, a shy look about him. “You know, I thought about…kissing a guy, just to piss my dad off for being such a jerk about the school play. He would freak out if I told him…”

“I think anyone would freak out, knowing you kissed me.” Harrison raised a brow and laughed.

“Well, my reputation is sort of spunked anyways,” Josh said. “Hell, I’m going with McPherson to the Sadie Hawkins dance…and I’ve been trying my damnedest to lose enough weight…”

Harrison blinked. “For what? You’re…a freaking god, Josh. You’ve got a body better than most of the other guys around here.”

“Yeah, but I want to be the best, Harrison.” Josh sighed and pulled back. “I want to be the one that’s awed and revered…I’m the quarterback so I might as well start looking the part.”

The brunette shook his head. “You do look the part, you know?”

“I don’t really believe you.” Josh shook his head.

Harrison scoffed disbelievingly. “Freaking hell, Ford! Look at you!” He went over to the other boy, grabbing the hem of his shirt and lifting it. Josh stumbled a bit but didn’t move, only looking down at his revealed tummy. “Josh, you have a stomach that other guys would kill for.”

“Brooke once told me she could always wash her unmentionables on my abs if her maytag broke down,” Josh admitted with an amused grin on his face.

“I can imagine why she’d say that.” Harrison lowered the shirt, shaking his head. “Even I’d kill for that.”

“Yours can’t be that bad, Harrison,” Josh said. He reached over and lifted the paler boy’s shirt, revealing the stomach beneath. He didn’t respond at first, but when he did the answer was rather shocking.

“I like it.”

Harrison looked a little stunned. “What, you like the way my stomach looks?”

Josh shrugged a bit. “Some people like that. Brooke didn’t have a very fit stomach and I didn’t mind at all.”

“So what are you saying?”

“Nothing. I think.”

“You think.”

Josh suddenly threw his hands up in the air. “What am I supposed to say? Oh, Harrison, your stomach is the shit? I wanna lick it?”

That made Harrison blush. “You’re joking.” He paused. “Wait, you are, aren’t you?”

There was no response for several moments. Finally, Josh sighed, folding his arms over his chest. “Don’t you ever wonder?”

“Wonder what?”

“You know,” the taller one murmured. “About…doing things. With other guys.” He seemed a little embarrassed bringing the subject up, and he looked downward.

Harrison paused again. “Well. I mean, I guess. Not like it was a real big thought, but—”

“So you’ve thought about it,” Josh said.

“Yeah…yeah, I guess I have then,” Harrison confirmed. “We already have a bit though, haven’t we?”

“With the kisses?”

“Yeah, with the kisses.”

Josh nodded a little. “Yeah. But I mean…Sugar and I, we’ve heard stories about my brother, who’s in college…he said that it’s not wrong to wonder. Nor is it wrong to try things. He did.”

“Did that disgust you?” Harrison asked.

“No…actually, I think it’s what made me start thinking.”

“Well, you heard it from him. There’s nothing wrong about it. If we don’t tell anyone, then what’s the harm?”

Josh snorted. “You know, kissing is fine and all…but he did like…other things…and I don’t know what they were, but I’ve thought about them. I-In my dreams, I mean.”

“Was it good?” Harrison inquired. “Whatever you did?”

“Yeah…it was,” Josh confessed. “What Brooke and I did was great, but…wow…” He began wandering around the small little area, looking downward still.

“Did you come?” Harrison couldn’t believe he asked that question, but he did. His ears turned rather pink.

Josh looked up suddenly. “Why the hell did you ask that?”

“B-Because, uh…” Harrison blinked. “It’s a pretty obvious sign that you liked it.”

The blonde didn’t respond. That was answer enough, and Harrison chuckled.

“Ever experienced that before?”

“Once,” Josh admitted. “With Brooke.”

“Which was better?”

There was another lack of response, which once again answered the question. Josh looked at Harrison, expecting to get some kind of reprimand or condescending remark. Harrison didn’t give him one, however; instead he gave a considering sort of look.

That was until the question got shot back at him.

“Have you ever come?”

Harrison began stuttering again. “I-I well, w-what’s that have to do with it?”

“You have to have come, Harrison,” Josh said. “You’d be some kind of weirdo if you hadn’t, at least by now. Dude, you’re sixteen.”

“I have,” Harrison finally said, wishing to shut Josh up. “Because of dreams. They’re called nocturnal emissions.”

Josh raised a brow. “…Okay. But the point is, you’ve still come. So you know how good it feels.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

“And it’s pretty obvious that you nor I are gonna get it from the McPherson-McQueen pair…” Josh murmured, shaking his head.

“So what are you suggesting, Ford?” Harrison asked with a raised brow.

“What do you think I’m suggesting, John?”

~*~**********************************************~*~