A Match Into Water

When Vic and I finally left the kitchen and entered the living room, I wasn’t exactly for sure what I had been expecting, but it sure as hell wasn’t what I was currently seeing in front of me. True to the Fuentes brothers’ word, there were two more boys that had joined us in the apartment, but what really got me was that one of the newcomers, a tall guy with spiked up black hair and tattoos covering his right arm, was currently waltzing around the living room with Mike while the other guy, who was covered in tattoos like Mike, had gages, and had long dark brown hair sticking out from underneath his snapback, was off to the side with an amused expression on his face but not saying anything.

Needless to say, the sight was too much for me and had me in hysterics. Everyone’s head turned towards me (although Mike was still hand-in-hand with his new dance partner) and it didn’t take long for the two guys I hadn’t met yet to realize that I was this new person the Fuentes brothers had brought home and both of them broke out into wide grins. The guy who had been dancing with Mike immediately ditched him, causing Mike to frown and pout at the loss of contact, and I was scooped up into a giant bear hug and spun around as soon as my feet left the ground.

“You must be Vic’s new neighbor and the girl Mike wouldn’t shut up about on the phone,” the guy joked, still holding onto me but pulling away to look down at me and grin. “I’m Jaime.”

I couldn’t help but giggle a bit at Jaime’s words and at how Mike blushed a bit and tried defending himself after Jaime ‘ratted him out’. “Nah, I’m just the Fuentes’ stalker, but it’s nice to meet you anyway Jaime,” I joke, smirking at him and causing him to burst out into a loud laugh. God, this guy was just bubbling with so much happiness and it was really contagious.

“Well your stalker-secret’s safe with me,” Jaime promised holding up his fingers in a boy scout salute before playfully winking at me, causing me to laugh yet again at him. “But can I get the name of the girl who’s secret I’m keeping?”

“Oh right, sorry, it’s Dean,” I tell him, mentally cursing myself for forgetting something as simple as forgetting to give him my name.

Jaime’s head cocked to side in an adorable way (kind of like a puppy in a way) and looked like he was trying to figure something out. “Interesting name,” he remarked, still looking like he was thinking.

I chuckled a bit and glanced at Mike momentarily before looking back at Jaime and saying, “Funny, that’s exactly what Mike said- of course, you’re not hitting on me like that asshole was, but still.” I shrugged a bit and there were laughs from three out of the four men in the room. The fourth one, Mike of course, pouted and let out a cry of indignation at my remark and I smiled innocently at him.

Jaime went over to comfort poor Mike, who was doing a great job of looking butt hurt, and the other guy I had yet to meet took the chance to walk up to me. “Hey, I’m Tony,” he told me with a bit of a shy smile as he stuck out his hand to shake.

“Dean,” I replied, shaking his hand in response before jokingly adding, “though I have a feeling you already knew that.”

Tony let out a slight chuckle and smiled at me. “Yeah, kind of,” he said, shrugging casually as a response. I smiled back at him and before I could say or do anything else, Tony gave me a quizzical look and asked, “Is Dean really your name?”

Normally, I would have gotten upset with him asking me that question and instantly my mood would have turned sour, but the bubbly happiness I had felt from Jaime hadn’t rubbed off yet and there was just something about Tony that I just couldn’t get mad or annoyed at. I just shrugged a response and told him, “Yeah, my parents were nuts and wanted something unique. Go figure.”

Tony laughed a little at that and looked at me a bit hesitantly before pulling me in for a hug. “Welcome to the family,” he told me quietly.

When we pulled away from the hug, I gave him a bit of a skeptical look. “Thanks, but isn’t it a bit early to be saying that?” I asked him.

Tony just shrugged at me and looked over at the three other boys who had happened to gather over by the CDs. “It could be, but I think you were accepted long before Jaime and I walked through that door,” he told me. “You’ve obviously gained Mike and Vic’s trust already, which believe me, that isn’t always such an easy feat. You’re already beginning to be treated like family, Dean and those two have barely known you a day. That, and it’s obvious Jaime likes you-”

“Damn right I do!” Jaime yells at Tony, grinning when he caught sight of me before turning and going to back to arguing over CDs with Mike while Vic tried to be the reasonable adult in the situation.

Tony shook his head at the boys and turned his focus back to me. “Anyway, Jaime likes you, Vic and Mike like you, and honestly, I’m beginning to like you too-”

“Only beginning to like me?” I ask, placing a hand over my chest in mock-offense and pretending to sniffle. “Tony, that’s hurtful.”

Tony smiled a bit and shrugged innocently. “What can I say? It take me awhile to warm up to people,” he admits. He shook his head and then continued on with what he had been saying earlier. “Either way, we all like you and approve of you, so that basically makes you family, Dean. So yeah...welcome.”

I felt my cheeks heat up a bit and I gave him a shy smile in response. “Thanks,” I say softly, not for sure what else to say. My subconscious was really beginning to scream at me now. I was getting close to people...four people to be exact. And from what Tony was saying, I was only going to get even closer, and my subscious did not like the sound of that at all. I tried to shove that to the back of my mind for the moment and just focus on what was going on right now, which currently consisted of Tony smiling back at me and nodding his response along with Mike and Jaime bickering like little children.

“We’re playing this CD!” Mike shouts, waving the CD he was holding in Jaime’s face.

Jaime frowned at him and swatted Mike’s CD. “No, we’re playing this one!” he rebuttled, shoving his CD into Mike’s face. Then continued to bicker like this and Vic just groaned in annoyance.

“Guys, can’t you just come to a compromise or something?” Vic pleaded.

“NO!” Mike and Jaime shouted in sync, still arguing over which CD to play.

I couldn’t help but laugh a bit at the two boys and I, along with Tony, walked over to where they all were at. “So what is it exactly that they’re arguing over?” I asked, causing Vic to turn around and sigh at both Tony and I.

“Well you know how you haven’t really heard of our band?” Vic asked. I nodded and he continued. “Well, we have all our albums at my apartment and these two shitheads are arguing over which one we should play for you,” he finished, rolling his eyes a bit because clearly he thought this was a stupid little fight that really shouldn’t be happening.

I heard Tony chuckle next to me and I couldn’t help but smile a bit. “Well, is there an album that either of those two haven’t picked out?” I asked.

“Well, yeah, one-”

“Then we’re playing that one then,” I say with a laugh, getting the attention of both Mike and Jaime and they pouted, both upset that their choice wasn’t picked. Vic laughed along with me and said, “Well, seems fair I guess,” he said, pushing his brother and friend out of the way so he could set up the sound system and put the music in. It didn’t take long for the music to fill the apartment and my eyes immediately lit up with recognition. Vic must have noticed because a smile began to creep onto his face.

“I thought you didn’t know of us,” Vic teased me, elbowing me playfully.

I swatted Vic’s hand away and I said, “ Technically, I never said that. But yeah, at the time I couldn’t place the name, but I would recognize your guys’ music anywhere-”

“Well that doesn’t sound stalkerish at all,” Jaime teases me, causing me to stick my tongue out at him playfully.

“Anyway, as I was saying,” I continue, “a few years ago, my friend showed me this really cool band that I really loved listening to, but I couldn’t ever for the life of me remember their name, so I just kind of went along with just listening to the music whenever she would and jamming out with her. That’s how I heard your music, all because my friend was a big fan of you guys and never could stop playing your music while we were at work.” I laughed a bit at the memory of my friend but that smile slowly faded. I shook my head of the horrid memories beginning to surface and smiled back at the guys. “So yeah. Ta dah.”

A small fit of laughter traveled through the guys and they all seemed to be smiling at me. “Well at least now we don’t have to worry about culturing you,” Mike jokes, getting up from the floor and clapping me on the shoulder. We both smiled at each other before he looked back at everyone and shouted, “NOW WHO WANTS PIZZA?”

Mike was met with loud cheers of agreement and with my laughter. Soon, we were all filing into the kitchen and gathered around Vic’s kitchen island. The first box of pizza was opened and we all grabbed our first slice. As Jaime was busy trying to stuff his entire piece into his mouth, Mike dramatically cleared his throat and said, “Wait! We must have a toast-”

“Why?” I say with a giggle. “We already have pizza.”

This earned a few chuckles from the guys and Mike sarcastically said, “Haha, very funny Dean, but seriously, here’s to us guys, and here’s to you Dean, because I have a feeling this isn’t going to be the last time we’re gathered here in Vic’s lovely apartment sharing a pizza together.”

“Wow Mike, that was really sincere and deep,” Jaime said softly, almost a bit taken aback by his words. Jaime carefully set his pizza down and placed his hand over Mike’s forehead. “I think you’re coming down with something; are you feeling feverish at all?”

This made everyone laugh and made Mike frown at a fussing Jaime. “I’m fine,” he grumbled, “now eat your damn pizza.”

Jaime didn’t need to be told twice to do so, because he picked up his piece and practically devoured it in two bites before going back for a second piece. I stood there and watched wide eyed as that happened and Vic had to shake my shoulder to snap me out of it.

“Sorry about Jaime,” Vic told me, smiling a bit before taking a bite out of his pizza. “He’s a bit of an animal-”

“Am not!” Jaime protested, pouting at us.

“Yeah you kind of are, Jaime,” Tony teased, smirking a little at his best friend.

“Oh, you wanna talk about being an animal, Turtle?” Jaime questioned, pointing a finger at Tony and giving him a mock glare.

Tony blushed a bit and was about to say something, but I was too busy laughing for him to say much. “Turtle?” I ask, turning to look at him with a rather amused expression.

“It’s a nickname-”

“No, really?” I say sarcastically, lightly punching him on the arm. Tony pouted at me and pretended to rub his injured arm whilst sniffling.

Jaime gasped and rushed over, pushing me to the side and holding Tony close to him. “My baby!” he dramatically cried, pretending to cry over Tony, who was still pouting pathetically and sniffling into Jaime’s chest. Jaime then glared at me and pointed a finger at me, hissing, “You monster.”

I smiled innocently at Jaime and shrugged. “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do,” I say simply, causing both and Mike to Vic laugh.

“That’s cold,” Vic jokes.

“Yep,” I nod, acting rather pleased with myself. “Just like my heart.”

“THE SECRET’S OUT!” Jaime obnoxiously yelled, making poor Tony cringe as most of the sound got directed towards his ear drum. “Dean doesn’t have a heart-”

“I never said that!” I said with a laugh. I had to hold my sides at this point from how much and how hard I had been laughing since Jaime and Tony got here.

“Still,” Jaime teases, giving me an innocent shrug and a playful wink to go along. I frowned a bit at Jaime and threw my crust at him, which he caught with his teeth and swallowed whole. “Thanks Dean!”

I groaned a bit at Jaime and rolled my eyes, muttering something under my breath along the lines of calling Jaime an asshat. This caused everyone to laugh and Vic reached over to ruffle up my hair. I gave him a mock glare and he just shrugged. I chuckled a bit and as I tried to fix my hair, he leaned over and quietly said, “Told you they’d love you.”

I laughed a bit at Vic and swatted him away, causing him to laugh in return and give me playful wink as he went in for another piece of pizza. I did the same, and for the next hour, hour and a half, the five of us stood around that kitchen island talking, goofing off, and mainly stuffing our faces with pizza. Once all of it was gone and we’d all had at least a beer or two, Jaime let out a loud groan and rubbed his belly. “Dude...so much pizza,” he moaned, grimacing as he burped up what I assumed was the taste of pizza.

“Same bro,” Tony complained, holding out his fist and bumping fists with Jaime without even having to make eye contact. Both Tony and Jaime were the ones that were responsible for eating most of the pizza we had bought and were also the ones that provided the most comedy for us while we ate our pizza. At first, Tony had seemed like this quiet, shy guy to me- which he still kind of was -but after spending a dinner with both him and Jaime, I learned that it was quite the opposite really. I hadn’t realized how energetic and how funny he could be, and honestly it was kind of hilarious to watch.

“Well what’s next on the party agenda?” I asked in a joking tone, looking over at Vic and Mike. “You know, since I’m pretty sure those two are going to be slipping into a food coma soon-”

A loud groan came from both Tony and Jaime as Tony mumbled, “No, don’t even mention food.”

The three of us laughed at Tony and Jaime and Vic just smirked at the two of them. “That’s what you get for eating all of our pizza,” he teased, finishing off the beer he had in his hand and tossing the bottle into the recycling bin.

“Why’d you even buy that much pizza?” Jaime whined, trying his best to glare at Vic but only really managing to do a really awkward looking squint.

“Because it was meant to be shared and maybe have leftovers for tomorrow, dumbass,” Mike said with a laugh, smacking Jaime upside the head.

“Well then you should have said something then!” Jaime pouted, glaring a bit (properly this time) at Mike and rubbing the sore spot on the back of his head. I started laughing at him and Jaime turned to glare at me too, so I held up my hands in surrender and bit my lip to stop the giggles coming from my mouth.

Vic stood there laughing and shaking his head at all of us. “Next time we will, don’t worry Jaime,” Vic tried to reassure Jaime, lightly patting his shoulder and giving him a kind smile.

Jaime sniffled pathetically and nodded at Vic. “Thank you Vicky, that means a lot,” he mumbled like a child, momentarily smirking as he saw the frown on Vic’s face when he was called ‘Vicky’.

I heard Mike chuckle from beside me and he looked over at all of us before saying, “Well, since it seems that you two are doing better and won’t be falling into any sort of food coma soon, why don’t we go watch a movie or whatever in the living room?”

“Excuse me,” Vic sassed, giving his brother and mock glare, “but since when did this become your apartment? You can’t just order us around!”

Mike let out a very exasperated sigh and rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he said, exaggerating the last syllable. “Would like to do the honors then?”

Vic gave him a short nod before clearing his throat and grinning at the four of us. “Let’s go watch some movies, guys!” he cheered, causing everyone to laugh and cheer in response. Soon, we were all gathered in the living room and huddled around Vic’s extensive DVD collection. “Okay, so what do you guys want to watch-”

“Oh my gosh, is that Star Wars?” I blurt out, blushing a bit at my outburst but still reaching for the Episode III DVD and staring at it in wonder.

I heard a bit of a squeal from somewhere behind me and suddenly Tony was gushing out, “Wait, you like Star Wars too?”

I looked over at Tony and grinned, raising my hand for a high five as I shouted, “Hell yeah! Star Wars is the shit, man!”

Tony laughed and didn’t hesitate in high fiving me while Jaime made an obnoxious siren noise and in announcer’s voice said, “Attention everyone: we have another Star Wars geek on the premise. I REPEAT- we have another Star Wars geek- Ow!” Jaime cried, rubbing the spot on his arm where I had smacked him.

“That wasn’t nice, Jaime,” I mock pouted, sticking out my lower lip for added effect.

“Yeah!” Tony cried out, reaching over and pulling me to his chest. “Be nice to the fellow Star Wars fan!”

Mike and Vic started to badger him about it too (doing it in jest obviously) and after a while, Jaime finally let out an over-exaggerated sigh before said, “Alright, alright, fine. I’m sorry Dean for making fun of you. Better?”

I pretended to sniffle and wipe some tears from my eyes. “It’s a start, I guess,” I mumbled. Then I smirked at him and added, “But just you wait, one day you’ll regret making fun of me.”

Jaime couldn’t stop a smile from forming on his lips as he rolled his eyes and began to tease me. “Oh, what are you going to do? Use the force on me or something?”

A mischievous smirk tugged at the corner of my smile and I casually shrugged, saying, “Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll just have to wait and find out.”

Mike started howling in laughter and poking fun at Jaime. “Dude, you’re going to get your ass kicked!”

I looked over at Mike and raised an eyebrow at him. “And you’ll get your ass kicked too if you keep this up,” I threatened. That immediately shut Mike up and he let out one last awkward cough before rubbing the back of his neck.

Vic chuckled from where he was next to me and said, “Easy tiger. Let my poor brother be and hand over the film.”

I giggled a bit and handed over the DVD with a sigh. “Only because you asked nicely,” I joke, watching as Vic opened up the DVD case and pop out the disc.

Tony let out a bit of gasp and asked, “We’re actually watching it?”

“Well yeah,” Vic said with a shrug. “Just as long as you don’t start quoting the movie like last time, I think the guy won’t try killing you,” Vic adds as a joke, although due to Tony’s slight blush I was starting to think that joke wasn’t much of a stretch.

“It’s okay Tony,” I say, patting his shoulder for comfort, “I’ll protect you from the mean boys.”

Suddenly everyone was laughing and both Mike and Jaime were letting out cries of protest, saying that they would never dream of hurting Tony and that they were all good guys. I just laughed along with them and shook my head at all of them. Soon enough, Vic had placed the DVD into his player and we were all heading over to the couch to settle down and watch our movie.

“Shit!” I suddenly exclaim. “I forgot my beer in the kitchen!”

The boys laughed at me as they watched me run off to the kitchen to retrieve my half-drunken beer bottle and when I got back, the previews were rolling and most of the seats in the living room were taken. I ended squeezing myself in between Vic and Tony and the two boys tried to give me extra room, but due to the size of the couch, I just ended up with curling into Vic’s side and having my legs laid across Tony’s lap. Tony started playing with my shoelaces absentmindedly and Vic had his arm resting behind me on the couch. Mike started poking fun at the three of us, but he was quickly shushed by our little couch trio as the opening sequence for the movie started. Mike just chuckled at us and turned his focus to the TV as we all sat around and watched the movie.

Normally, I would be watching very intently and focusing on every detail in one of my favorite movies of all time, but right now, there was something else on my mind. As I looked around at the four boys in the room with me, I couldn’t help but already feel connected to them. Tony was right, it hadn’t taken very long, but these boys had taken me in and accepted me as family. It was something that made me happy but also a little scared, and it wasn’t even my subconscious that was scaring me. What was scaring me was how fast I was trusting these boys and how easily my walls were starting to come down. I knew I shouldn’t be so trusting with them and getting so close to them so quickly, but I couldn’t help it. These guys were so comfortable to be around, and in the first time in months, I felt like I was myself with them. So, as the last of the opening Star Wars title screen stretched across the screen, I knew I had a choice to make: continue to be friends with these guys and risk everything or start shutting them out and ignoring them for good.

Vic must have noticed that I wasn’t paying attention because suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder and I was staring into pair of worrying brown eyes. “Everything okay?” he barely whispered.

I nodded at Vic and whispered back, “Yeah, I’m fine, I was just thinking.”

“Are you sure?” he asked, concern laced in his tone. I glanced away from him for a moment and found the other guys looking between us and the movie screen, trying to figure out if I was alright just like Vic was. It was in that moment where I finally made my choice and was prepared to face whatever consequences came my way for it.

I smiled genuinely at Vic and nodded. “Positive. Now focus back on the movie, idiot,” I tease, causing him to let out a soft chuckle and the guys to let out a small breath simultaneously. We all turned our attention back on the movie and Vic’s hand slipped down from the couch, resting across my shoulders as he rubbed my shoulder in friendly, comforting way. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling, and as the movie continued, I couldn’t help but feel like I had made the right choice.

These boys were changing my life, and I knew that moving to San Diego was going to turn out to be the best decision I’d made in my life. I had the boys and I was finally getting the clean start that I had been wishing for forever.

But at some point down the line, all good things must come to an end, right?

Notes

I hope you guys enjoyed how Dean met Jaime and Tony. My updates are going to be around this length from now on because I just enjoy writing longer chapters. Also, updates are going to be a bit more frequent since I'm on spring break right now, but don't count on anything because I still have lots of homework and just other crazy family drama to deal with too.