Decadent (4 page)

“
Why aren't you drinking?” he asked, sliding his bottle of beer over to him. “Here, get that down your neck.” He finally cracked a smile and Lachlan knew he'd won that argument. He was relieved that he'd got his point across, as he lifted his head from his arms. He took the bottle and kept his eyes on Cormag as he took a tentative sip.

“
Ooh, that's good,” he admitted, looking at the bottle in surprise. Everything he'd had so far was gross, but the beer was delicious. He took a long drink and held it in his mouth a moment to appreciate the taste.

“Better than the shots?” Cormag laughed at him.

“God yes. Those are disgusting.” He scrunched up at his nose and almost shivered at the thought of having another shot. He was suitably drunk now, so he might not bother. Then again, he wanted to fight a few more of Cormag's insecurities so he might need to get him a little more inebriated before that happened. “But you're not. You're my friend and you're lovely,” he told him, shifting in his seat until he could lean his head on his shoulder.

Cormag laughed at him again, but he didn't feel like tel
ling him off for it. “Thank you,” he whispered, gently kissing the top of his head. Lachlan flushed as he caught Matteo watching him from the opposite end of the bar. He didn't care, but the look on his face said he was looking at an adorable puppy. He didn't want to be adorable.

Konnor was furious with himself when he got out of the main building and found that Lachlan was nowhere in sight. He took out his mobile from his pocket and tried ringing his number, but there was no answer. He stood there, pacing the parking lot of the school as he called and called Lachlan's mobile. It wasn't switched off and it wasn't being rejected because it kept ringing.

He didn't bother leaving a message, since he figured
it wouldn't be listened to anyway. So he resorted to sending multiple text messages in between various phone calls.

He phoned Lachlan's parents, both at work and asked if they'd heard from their son since he had walked out of school. He called Lachlan's brother, two counties over, who was at college and still no-one had heard from him. He eventually decided that he'd visit all the regular hang out spots. If that didn't turn up his friend
, he'd try calling all of his acquaintances that might take him in.

Konnor seriously hoped that Lachlan wasn't all alone somewhere. The guy was not in a healthy place right now and he didn't want to find out he'd been sitting sobbing in the corner of some abandoned building all by himself.

He went to the park, to the beach, to the video store and to the cinema in his first hour of searching for Lachlan. No-one had seen him and since it was a small town he trusted everyone to be honest with him. He checked out the mall, every store on the high street. He even ventured further to the edge of town, visiting Newman's store. But still no-one had seen or heard from Lachlan that day. Eventually, he called Coly.

“
Anything?” he asked, happy that his friend had answered the call.

“Nothing. He never came
to his first class after lunch,” Coly confessed, sounding as worried about Lachlan as he was. He wasn't the type of guy who took off in the middle of a school day and didn't come back. Hell, it was a Friday so they only had two classes after lunch of half an hour each. It wasn't a long time to wait.

“Jax pretended to pass out so he and I could go check the locker room and the men's room for him. We even checked the court and the field out back, but there's no sign. We're pla
ying hookie to try the gym next,” he explained, listening as Konnor rhymed off all the places he'd unsuccessful searched.

He was pissed that he hadn't thought to check the school grounds for his friend, but hearing Coly say they'd come up empty reminded him that he knew Lachlan. And if he ran from the cafeteria he wasn't going to hang around the school for long.

“Okay. I'm going to give his boss a call and hope he's taken on some extra shifts to take his mind off things. I'll call you back if I find out anything,” Konnor promised to keep them in the loop and hung up. He only had this one option left open to him; if it proved a false lead he was screwed. And he'd kill Lachlan when he found him.

With a deep breath and his fingers crossed Konnor dialled out to the local bar where Lachlan worked. It rang a few times before someone answered, just as he was losing hope. “Hi
, Matteo. I don't suppose you've seen Lachlan, have you?” he asked, scrunching his eyes shut tight as he waited for an answer from the owner.

“Lachlan? He's in here…getting hit on and hammered.” Matteo laughed into the phone.

Konnor let out a sigh of relief. He had no clue what he was talking about, but as long as Lachlan was with him his last hour of searching wasn't for nothing. “Thank God. We were getting worried there for a minute. Listen, keep him there. Even if you have to let him get wasted. I'm coming round to pick him up,” he promised that he would collect Lachlan before he ended up passing out. The guy had never had an alcoholic drink in his life; he could only imagine how quickly he'd got drunk.

“
Will do, kiddo,” Matteo promised, hanging up.

He couldn't even say how glad he was to hear that Lachlan would be taken care of. “You bloody moron. I'm going to kill
you,” Konnor muttered to himself, cursing Lachlan from here to Sunday as he dialled out to Coly to let him know their idiot of a friend was safe.

Konnor pulled up to the bar with a drawn out sigh. He'd been delayed from picking Lachlan up by a lengthy phone call argument with Coly, who threatened to kill the idiot for leaving them to worry for so long. He felt like thumping Lachlan himself, until he walked into the pub to find him laughing his head off with some unknown guy at the bar.

When Matteo said he'd been getting hit on while he was getting drunk, Konnor assumed he meant by a woman. To see he was being approached by a guy, who he was leaning far too close to, was a concern.

It was only coming on for three o'clock in the afternoon and both the boys at the bar
were clearly smashed. “Lachlan,” he called to his friend as he approached. He surprised him by turning and throwing his arms out in welcome.

“Konnor! Come
meet Cormag. He's my new friend,” he announced with a laugh, only to sling his arm around Cormag's neck and pull him close. Konnor was about to scold him for flirting when he leaned in close to his 'new friend', almost letting their lips touch. “This is Konnor. He lied about alcohol. He said it was my friend. I say…
you
are my friend.” He laughed, before turning back to the bar and lifting two shot glasses. He handed one to Cormag and raised one in a salute. “To friends!”

“
Friends,” Cormag agreed with a grin, clinking their glasses and downing the drink. Lachlan coughed a little after downing his and shook his head.

“Disgusting,” he decreed.

“Too right. Now let's get you home.” Konnor decided he'd seen enough. It was time to get Lachlan back to his house and sober, before anyone found out what he'd been getting up to.

“Aw, don't go. I thought you were the fun one?” Cormag wagged a finger at him and turned to Lachlan with sad eyes. “You can't g
o. We were starting to have fun,” he protested, cupping his hand around Lachlan's neck. “You were flirting with me,” he admitted cheekily.

Lachlan grinned at him, not even having shame enough to blush or look away. Konnor was mortified.

“So I was,” he agreed, before turning to face him with a straight face. “I am staying with my friend Cormag. You can either join us or piss off.” He followed the words up with a pleading look that Konnor wasn't buying.

It didn't help that Cormag was now leaning his forehead on Lachlan's shoulder, his hand far too high up on the inside of his thigh or that Matteo was laughing at their antics. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't let Lachlan get drunk out of his mind and seduced by some guy because he didn't want to cater to his drunken rambles. He didn't want to see whether Lachlan was a violent drunk either, if he tried to forcibly remove him from the bar. He planted himself in the free seat on Lachlan's other side and glared at Matteo for letting his friend get drunk.

“Do you see that? He's staying,” Lachlan said, in an exaggerated whisper. “Now we can get him drunk.”

“Maybe,” Cormag began, lifting his head from Lachlan's shoulde
r to evaluate him, “we should get you sober again?” he suggested.

Lachlan pouted at him and he smiled.

“That's not fair. You are far too gorgeous when you look like that.” He leaned in to kiss Lachlan.

Konnor noticed the slight move forward, the way Lachlan's eyes met Cormag's. There were signs of reciprocation there. Before their lips could meet he grabbed Lachlan by the shoulders and dragged him off his stool. Cormag was the only one not laughing when Lachlan landed on his butt, on the floor.

***

Lachlan was disappointed to find that as soon as Konnor arrived Cormag went quiet. He began drinking coffee and staring into his drink while his best friend spent the next hour continually badgered him to head home.

“Will you shove off?” he complained when Konnor grabbed his arm again. He shrugged him off and turned to let him in on a little secret. “Go home! I was doing fine until you came. I was happy until you came. Now I'm just depressed again.” Lachlan gave it to Konnor straight.

He was sobering up in his company and the continual coffees that were being forced on him were helping. Konnor had cut off his alcohol supply and he was crashing hard. He hated alcohol and at the moment he hated Konnor for taking it away from him. He looked shocked by his outburst, but Lachlan didn't care. He felt like shit, so he turned back to Cormag and tapped his arm.

“Will you walk me home?” he asked, though he knew that he was presuming a lot by asking. Cormag looked past him to Konnor and sighed.

“Shouldn't your friend drive you?”

“
You
are my friend. And I'm asking you to walk me home. The long way.” Lachlan made his point clear. He didn't want to go home yet and he didn't want to leave with Konnor either. He was asking his new friend to hang out with him a while, under the guise of walking him home to sober him up.

Cormag nodded his agreement and grabbed his coat, paying Matteo for their latest drinks. Lachlan slid off his stool and picked up his school bag before thrusting it at Konnor.

“You can bring it to school on Monday. Which is when I'll be seeing you again,” he explained, before pulling on his jacket and leaving the bar with Cormag.

***

For the first few minutes after they left the bar neither Cormag nor Lachlan knew what to say. They knew each other pretty well from their drunken ramblings and Lachlan truly felt that Cormag understood what he was feeling. He'd had some messy relationships in his life, even though he was only twenty. Yet it wasn't lost love that had taken him to the bar, but loneliness. He'd moved away from home for a new job and knew no-one, so he spent his free time eating and drinking in the bar or reading at the library. They had so much in common that they'd been having a great time before Konnor came round to burst the bubble.

Without even realising it Lachlan moved over to walk closer to Cormag, who made him feel a whole lot better when
he put his arm around his shoulders.

“
I'm sorry about Konnor,” Lachlan apologised as he lay his head on his shoulder and tried to take some comfort from his friend. They'd talked about Orion and what she'd done and how he felt. They'd talked about Cormag being gay and some of his relationships since coming out to his family. It had been satisfying for Lachlan to get to know someone new, who didn't think of him as a geek or the good guy Lachlan.

“He's trying to be a friend.” He passed it off as nothing.

Lachlan led the way as they walked, so when he pointed to the opening of the park Cormag went with him. It was still early, only four in the afternoon and he had all evening to wallow in self-pity. He didn't want to go home yet.

“No. Konnor's trying to control me. Whether he knows it or not doesn't matter. He sees me as the good boy, the geek, the nerd, the straight line Lachlan. I
t's the way everyone sees me,” he complained, quietly.

Cormag caught his hand and pulled him back until they were facing each other. “I
think you're amazing,” he said, blurting the words out.

Lachlan smiled, completely shocked and thrilled by how captivating he found him. He had never thought this could happen to him, that he would be attracted to another boy. He thought he knew himself so well.

“I think you're smart, sexy, funny as hell. You have hidden depths, Lachlan. You only need the right person to coax you out of your protective shell,” he claimed.

“Are you the right person?” Lachlan wondered, as he took a half step forward. Cormag took a deep breath and brushed at a strand of hair that was sticking out at a funny angle from behind the top of his ear. He tugged at his short hair every time he talked about his recent break up. He was such a dork.

“I'd like to be. But only you can decide that. Do I make you better or worse than who you want to be?” Cormag asked.

Lachlan looked over the man in front of him. And he was a man; at twenty he couldn't think of him as anything else, especially with the complexity of his mind. He enjoyed talking to him, even looking at him. Cormag was easy on the eyes. A little taller, a little more muscled and broad shouldered, with dark brown hair and eyes like melted chocolate. He actually found that once he started looking into those eyes he didn't much want to look away. Then there were Cormag's lips. As straight as Lachlan had always thought he was, those lips could turn him easily. Full, inviting, with a little quirk when he smiled.

“Both,” he admitted.

When he was with Cormag, he was both the best and worst version of his ideal self. Selfish in that he wanted him all to himself, selfless in that all he wanted was for him to be happy. Vain because he wanted Cormag to like how he looked and modest because he felt like he couldn't possibly be enough for such a perfect guy. He was so surprised by that revelation that he acted without thinking. It had worked for him so far with Cormag; he only hoped it worked now.

Lachlan leaned in the last of the way and kissed him.