Dreams & Reality never mix (Tag Russ, Shelby, etc)

[Lucas Grant]

This weekend had been great. Russ came over bright and early on Saturday once Shelby left and they spent the entire day together. Lucas had loved it. See now he could be himself. They did not go out, but who needed to when they had ways of occupying their time at Lucas's house and no that did not mean spending the day in the bedroom. That was for later, but they had movies, games, a pool and other stuff that occupied the time. For a brief few hours Lucas could forget his dad had no idea he was hiding in the closet and he could pretend all was well. Lucas had a pleasant night sleep. He did not think anyone would be coming home early in the morning. The Grant household like to sleep in.

Lucas went to bed cuddling with his man and had the best dream. When Lucas woke up lost to the feelings of his dream. Sure part of the dream had been sad, but for the most part it brought a smile to Lucas's face. it had been the best dream, because when Lucas woke up, he looked over and saw the man from the dream, curled into his body. The best part of the whole thing.

To actually feel Russ's warm body next to his. For a now he was out of the closet. He was Russ's boyfriend, football star and junior at Gould. Lucas woke up the next day and pulled Russ close to him. He kissed Russ's forehead. "Wake up sleepy head." He cooed softly into Russ's ear as he nibbled a tiny bit. Lucas sat back just taking it all in. The wonder of the morning and how good it felt to wake up next to someone for once that was a man and not a woman.

Lucas yawned and got up to use the bathroom and brush his teeth before hopping back into bed, "I don't want the day to end. At least we have until this evening." Or so Lucas thought. He was unaware his world was about to come crashing down. He never considered what would happen if his siblings found out. Well he did know, Stiles would rat his ass out in a second, but Shelby...although Lucas was the closest to her in the family. He was never sure how she would react, so little did he know he would soon find out.

[Russell Cloy]

Russell grinned blearily at Lucas, pleased to discover that Saturday hadn't been merely a pleasant dream. He was truly waking up in Lucas Grant's bed after a day filled with Guitar Hero and cheesy action movies and splashing around in the pool -- Russ thought it was grand that Lucas' family could afford a pool. They were really wealthy!

"Morning!" He croaked, sitting up on his elbows and admiring his boyfriend. The best part of this weekend had been a whole 24 hours together, with nobody to impress or lie to. He could allow his gaze to linger admiringly without worrying that one of his friends might notice, which would be awful as he was supposed to be single, and he didn't think any of his friends would be particularly impressed if they thought he was crushing on the guy who regularly pushed him into lockers.

"Yeah, it needs to stay this weekend forever!" He agreed, scooting over so he could drape his arms across the other boy's shoulders. "I don't wanna get up...." He added, unwilling to leave the warmth of Lucas' bed and his boyfriend's presence, but then his stomach growled rather loudly. "Unless it's for breakfast."

Breakfast was a very exciting affair, as it was cold pizza; the two boys had attempted to cook a romantic dinner the night before but after setting off the fire alarm had decided that perhaps it was best to leave the cooking to other people. So there was a jumble of dirty pots and pans piled in the sink and burnt garlic bread and rubbery pasta in the garbage, the failed remnants of their endeavor. Pizza was always delicious, anyway, and it was romantic enough that they were spending the weekend alone together.

Russ slid out of the bed, reluctantly letting go of Lucas as he did so, "Whadda you think of breakfast in bed?" He wasn't entirely sure where the Grant's kept their plates, but he was sure he could find them without too much trouble.

[Lucas Grant]

Lucas pulled Russ down and kissed him before letting him go. "I like that idea. I think we have pancak or waffle mix in the kitchen. Come on lazy butt." Lucas joked around as he patted Russ on the butt and rolled out of bed. Lucas grabbed boxers and a shirt and walked to the kitchen. He started going through the cabinets looking for ingreidents.

Finally all the ingredients were out. That should be the worst of it rght...nope. Soon the nice clean kitchen turned into a mess of flouer, sugar, pancake dough, something that seemed unedible, and the smell of burning pancakes, whichturned on the fire alarm. Both boys, at least Lucas was covered in flour every where, "I look like a ghost." He laughed.

"Pizza? Its the breakfast of champions." Lucas suggested laughing. "We can have pizza in bed." Lucas gave Russ a look that said pizza in bed had a nice ring to it. "Of course if the sauce falls on you, I would love to ....you can use your imagination." Lucas said smiling and laughing. Lucas loved his little sexual suggestions to the skrawny boy. Who would have thought, a boy like that would capture Lucas'a heart right now.

Although it would be better if the world knew, but that was not going to happen. So at least they had this moment.

[Russell Cloy]

"We really ought to just turn that thing off," Russ grimaced as they set the fire alarm off for the second time in as many days. Apparently home-cooked meals were not going to happen this weekend. But the idea of eating the cold pizza from last night was appetizing -- pizza was delicious cold! -- especially if Lucas kept his promises. The dark-haired boy swung the refrigerator door open, pulling out the box of left-over pizza with a great deal more enthusiasm than the situation warranted.

"Are you encouraging me to play with my food?" He asked with a laugh. They'd been seeing one another -- hooking up, really -- for almost four months, but he still felt himself turn red at Lucas' suggestions. Being in Lucas' house made their relationship seem both more real, and more innocent -- or at least, about more than just the physical attraction -- but the attraction was definitely still there. "I'm really hungry! Don't distract me too soon or I might have to eat you instead." He warned cheerfully.

The sound of a door opening made him jump -- he and Lucas were supposed to be the only two people home! And here they were in boxers, covered in flour and standing as close to one another as it was possible to stand while holding a box of pizza. If Lucas' parents found out they would both be murdered, their bodies dumped somewhere that nobody would ever find them. And the Cloys thought that Russ had gone to spend the night with Liz, so she'd be the one who was questioned. And she wouldn't be any help, because she didn't know about Lucas, either.

His panicked thoughts subsided when the people entering the kitchen turned out not to be Mr. and Mrs. Grant, but instead his locker partner and Jonell Estes. Not that Russell had any idea that his locker partner was Lucas' sister, so he didn't know how they'd gotten in, or whether he ought to be worried or not. At least they were less likely to kill the two boys.

"Ahh.....ahhh....ummm....good morning! Pizza?" He offered, his face burning much more than it had at Lucas' innuendo.

[Shelby Grant]

"Yeah, it's no big deal," Shelby said to Jonell. "It's just Lucas at home by himself anyway--love him but he can be so lame sometimes," she chattered on. She'd left her credit card at home, which she'd need because the girls planned to spend the day at the mall, which was much needed as a further distraction for Jonell, after that guy she'd liked was more interesting in that gross Cotton girls.

"Yay, here we are," Shelby said, clapping her hands together when they reached her house. She still couldn't believe she'd forgotten something so important. Luckily she'd had some cash to get her by, but there was no way she could go to the mall without a credit card. "Thanks, Reggie, we'll only be a minute," she told the older boy as she got out of the car, rushing to her door to avoid the rain. Jonell accompanied her of course since Shelby also promised to share her new lip gloss with Jonell, that she'd also left at home. Who could remember to pack everything anyway?

She walked into the house, hearing something in the kitchen. "Oh Lucus is up, let's say hi," Shelby chirped, making a detour to the kitchen to say hello to her older brother. But instead of just her older brother...her gross locker partner was also there...and they were covered in flour and like way too close to each other to be normal.

Shelby made a face. "Ew...Lucas...what is going on?!" she shrieked, her eyes wide and nervous, clearly taken by surprise as she still took in the whole thing. Her locker partner offered pizza but Shelby could hardly comprehend what was going on. "Ew! What are you doing in my house?!" she demanded, clearly this must be weird locker partner's fault and not her brother's right?!

[Jonell Estes]

Jonell was grateful for Shelby's company after her embarrassing rejection. Wasn't she pretty enough? She needed validation! So the mall seemed like a good place to go, because with any luck there would be boys there to impress -- if the boys at the mall failed to be moved, she would have to consider drastic measures, like maybe a more restrictive diet. She'd allowed herself to think that sharing pancakes one Saturday was acceptable, but if boys didn't like her then there was a problem, and it couldn't be that they found other girls' personalities more appealing -- everyone knew that boys judged solely based on sex appeal, and not on personal charm.

Her brother was reluctantly playing chauffeur at the request of his parents, which Jonell was not grateful for largely because she thought it was his job to drive her around anywhere she wanted anyway. She didn't mind saying hello to Lucas; after all, he was really cute, even if she would never say such a thing to Shelby. She may have been an incorrigible flirt, but brothers of friends were always off limits, just like she expected her friends not to hit on her older brothers -- although she didn't see why they would want to, her older brothers were freaks.

"Yeah, what are you doing here?" Jonell demanded, looking Russell Cloy up and down. She could see him hanging out with Stiles, maybe, but not with Lucas. And it was kind of strange that they were covered with flour and wearing boxers. Was this some stupid boy ritual or something? Maybe Lucas was hazing Russ, bringing him into the cool camp somehow -- but she dismissed that idea, there was no way someone like Russell could ever be cool. He was way too much of a nerd, and the people he hung out with were pretty awful. Sure, Liz Davies may have dated Nolan last year, but that wasn't enough to propel her into the cool category. "Ugh, no, keep your pizza away from me. Do you know how many calories are in that?" She shuddered, taking a step away from the boys and their pizza; Russ was scrawny, he probably could use some of those calories, but she certainly didn't want them!

"Seriously, what is this? Did Stiles put you up to this?" She narrowed her eyes at Russell in cool disdain. She really couldn't envision any reason for him to be at the Grant house that didn't involve Stiles in some way; he was the rebel of the family, which meant more likely to consort with...undesirables. "Cause you can just move your skinny gay ass away from Lucas, he doesn't need to be bothered by losers like you."

[Lucas Grant]

Lucas was having too much fun to hear the door, but when he heard the voice, Lucas literally froze in place. What the hell…what the hell…what the hell….Crap. They were caught; red….or rather white handed in their case. But either way Lucas was literally caught in his boxers standing oh so close to Russ. He had been about to talk to Russ when this all happened. So he heard what his boyfriend said, but at the moment it was not registering. Right now he needed to do damage control and fast. His mind was going as Jonell walked in. Great. Jonell was not the person he cared to have found him like this.

Lucas looked at the ground and took a breath as soon as both Shelby and Jonell were done telling Russ to get out of the house. At least this was not his father. Lucas had two choices. Come clean, or lie. By the way Shelby and Jonell both reacted to Russ, he had a feeling they would not accept Lucas being gay and this is the problem he had; people who reacted with disgust or disappointment toward people who were gay. Of course Lucas did not realize Jonell was reacting to Russ being a dork then gay, but Lucas zeroed in on the gay…

Finally he had it. It took a while. Thank god he noticed his math book sitting on the table. “Calm down kids. Russ is my damn tutor okay. I need to stay on the team and beggars can’t be chooses about who helps them. He was trying to teach me with cooking, and the flour decided to go on the attack. Besides I told him not to come over on a Sunday and he did so…now I have to deal with it, so keep the comments to your self please. Its embarrassing enough I need a tutor.” That’s all Lucas had to say.

At least he did not disown Russ, or call him some sort of horrible name. He was simply saying that Russ was a tutor. Although that might be a cowards way out still, but who knew if they would believe it or not. He just prayed they believed it in some way. It was a fast thought and seemd good but still….there was no real way of talking himself out of this situation. He just prayed they could keep their young mouths shut. Especially Shelby.

[Russell Cloy]

Russell edged away from Jonell and Shelby and closer to Lucas. At first he didn't understand why they were even there -- he knew Lucas slept around, but surely he didn't go around giving his house keys out to every girl he banged? -- when it finally filtered that Shelby lived there. "Your house?" He gaped, looking from the blonde girl then up at Lucas. He'd had no idea that his locker partner was related to his boyfriend! He'd never even bothered to ask her name. Not that knowing this was going to do him any good; she would follow in her brother's public lead, not his private.

A look of hurt crossed his face when Lucas claimed he was a tutor (not something anyone who knew him would believe; he never did very well in school) and insinuated he'd just invited himself over. He supposed it was too much to expect that his boyfriend would cheerfully admit the truth, not after all the pains he went through to hide their relationship, but after a full day of enjoying themselves with no lies getting in the way he was reluctant to return to the closet, to a life of Lucas mocking him in public to save his reputation. Argh! Why couldn't everything be simple? He didn't want this kind of difficult life. He wouldn't have minded keeping their relationship secret quite so much if Lucas had allowed that they were friends, but constantly claiming he was just some geek with a target hovering over him was upsetting.

"Yeah, it's not going real well, though." He muttered, slamming the pizza onto the counter. "Don't know why I even bothered trying." He reached toward Lucas, then withdrew his hand hastily -- so easy to slip up after only a day. "I guess I'm going home, then, since I'm not supposed to be here. You can just finish on your own." He very nearly turned and stormed out of the house, until he remembered that he was wearing only boxers. "Oh. Umm. I'm gonna go get my clothes." He decided.

He choked back disappointment as he trudged up the stairs toward Lucas' room; he'd been so excited at the prospect of spending the entire weekend with Lucas, alone, but it was all ruined now! Nobody was supposed to come home yet! Why couldn't Jonell and Shelby have just stayed away?

[Shelby Grant]

Jonell's reaction seemed to match her own...shock. Why would Lucas ever hang out with Russell. Ah...Stiles...that made sense. That actually made sense. Where was he? Had he gone off, leaving Lucas to deal with one of his weird friends? Shelby really hated her twin sometimes.

But then Lucas claimed Russell was his tutor and Shelby was easy to agree with that because she didn't want to think that this boy could ever be friends with her brother. Gay hadn't exactly crossed her mind just yet...but it was sort of starting to hit her. Well, maybe she hadn't completely put it together, but things were starting to add up.

"Since when do you need a tutor?" she asked her brother. "And couldn't you find a cooler one? Or you could have at least told me that you were getting my locker partner to tutor you," she pointed out. She and Lucas were close. She would have assumed he'd mentioned it. She didn't see why it was so embarrassing after all. Tons of people needed tutors. And despite being forced to share a locker with him, Shelby never bothered to get to know Russell well enough to know what kind of student he was, so the tutor thing didn't seem so far fetched. Plus, he was a nerd after all, so he must be smart, she'd reasoned.

It was Russell's reaction that seemed to set things into place. He was clearly upset...about being referred to as a nerd? She treated him like that all the time! And even if Lucas had been being nice to him because he had to, Russell had to of known it was just that...because he had to. But the mentioning of getting his clothes...the giant elephant in the room that Shelby had almost missed, mostly due to the fact that she was so overwhelmed and shocked by the whole situation.

...And they'd been so close to one another...why would Lucas let the other boy so close to him while they were both in their underwear...why were they both in there underwear?! "Why weren't you guys wearing any clothes?" she asked, slowly, watching as Russell started to leave. The moment of realization was clear on her face, still, she was determined to give her brother the benefit of the doubt. They did tell each other practically everything, right? Or at least she'd thought that they had....

"Lucas...what's really going on?" she asked him, her eyes wide as she silently pleaded he'd tell her the truth this time.

[Lucas Grant]

Lucas did not have to watch Russ walk away to know how much he must have hurt the other guys feelings. Lucas knew that had to be a blow, but it was better then what would have happened had they been at school. Although right now Lucas would rather the school know, because the idea of this getting back to his father was more scary. If Mr. Grant ever found out his oldest son, the golden child (hence why Stiles hates Lucas), was gay, lets just say Lucas would leave the house with more then a bag, odds are he would have broken bones to go with it.

Although Lucas did trust Shelby, he did not trust Jonell. Lucas was not stupid, someone like Jonell would spread this gossip around School in an instant. Although Lucas could squash the rumor easily. All he had to do was tell people it was not true and Jonell was simply a jealous girl who liked him, but when Lucas said he did not like her back she started the rumor. People would believe the start athlete of the football team, and a junior, over a sophomore.

However he knew that might cause issues with Shelby since Jonell was Shelby's friend and Lucas could not do that to his sister. Hence the dilemma. Lucas leaned against the counter, when Shelby questioned him. He knew she would never believe it. "First, This needs to stay between us...just the four of us...understand..." That statement was more for Jonell then Shelby.

"And please don't tell dad." Lucas said pleading with Shelby. The only reason the truth was about to leave his lips was because of the pleading look his sister was giving him. Lucas could not lie to Shelby, he never lied to her before and he would not started now. Besides he needed Shelby in his corner. He just hoped she could handle the news. What was funny is Lucas figured Shelby would take the news he was gay better then the news that he was dating Russ.

Not to mention that pleading look always worked, its how Shelby got what she wanted from Lucas. "I am gay..and Russ well...I have been seeing him..."Now the cat was out of the bag came time to make sure it stayed in the bag for the rest of the whole school."What do you both want in order to keep your mouths shut?" Another question that was more directed at Jonell and Lucas was looking at Jonell now too.