Taste The Rainbow

The Plan

The Plan

I sigh wistfully while I watch Jeremy take his shirt off, flexing his muscles with the action. I drag my eyes away from him quickly, not wanting anyone at the pool to notice. Especially not my brother, Cade, who has been going around the party, talking to numerous people, to make sure they're all having fun at the party we were not supposed to throw.

"Zach?" I jump, spilling some of the drink in my hand onto the ground. I look up from the grass, that easily soaked up whatever alcoholic drink was in the plastic cup, to see Jer looking at me curiously.

"Yeah?" I ask, cursing inwardly when my voice breaks. I clear my throat, hoping he will just think I had something stuck in my throat that made me sound like a prepubescent boy.

"Cade told me to tell you that he needs your help getting everyone to leave, I guess the party's over," Jer explains amusement dancing in his beautiful green eyes that fit perfectly with his dark hair. He arches a brow at me as if to ask what I'm looking at and I fight off the blush trying to make its way to my face.

"Right, yeah, I'll go do that right now. Um, yeah..." I trail off, mentally slapping myself for being so starstruck. I quickly shuffle away, going around the hundreds of people that are milling around our backyard and telling them to leave.

A lot of people get mad at me while others just grab numerous bottles of alcohol before leaving, making me hope they have a designated driver or are walking to their destination. I make my way through the thinning crowd in search of Cade but I instead find Jer flirting with some girl who looks three sheets to the wind. I swallow down my jealousy as she trails a finger down his still bare chest, giggling and saying something to him that makes Jer laugh.

"Zach?" I jump once more, spinning to face Cade who is watching me with something dancing in his eyes.

"I, uh, got a lot of the people to leave. A guy and girl just took the last of the alcohol." I inform him hastily, hoping he doesn't ask me why I was staring at his best friend like a creepy stalker.

"That's fine, I'm pretty sure it was Jake and Molly. But that's not what I came over for. I need you and Jer to clean up the cups, we can do a more thorough cleaning tomorrow but I just want the majority of the trash cleaned up." Cade explains, thankfully seeming unaware with what I was doing before he came over.

"Oh, I think Jer is busy," I say, motioning with my hand towards Jer's general direction behind me. Cade looks behind me but shrugs, eyes coming back to land on my face.

"Just tell him, he can sleep with whoever he wants after we get the yard looking less like a dump and more like an actual back yard." He says with a shrug before turning on his heel to tell the few other guests to leave. I sigh heavily, for what feels like the millionth time today, and head over to Jer. I swallow hard when I reach him and the slut, who's shirt is way so low it's barely covering anything and wearing a mini-skirt that might as well be underwear considering the fact that if she sat down you could easily see her panties or lack of them.

"Jer," I tap his shoulder, momentarily relishing in the feel of his soft skin under my hand. He turns to me with a bright smile, a smile he always seems to be wearing.

"Yeah?" He asks, turning his whole attention to me and making the slut glare at me for taking Jer's attention from her.

"Cade wants us to clean up the big trash so we won't have much to do tomorrow," I explain before walking away from him so he doesn't notice the jealousy that's surely lurking in my eyes. I go grab a few trash bags and start cleaning up the cups, broken bottles, and occasional thong or condom. I notice a few minutes later that Jer is doing the same, seemingly through with flirting with the slut.

Slowly but surely we clean the yard of all the large trash, leaving mostly just some small stuff that can be dealt with tomorrow. I throw the last bag into the trash and make my way to Jer and Cade, whose backs are turned to me while they talk in a hushed whisper.

"...don't know, but I think it's the best plan we've had so far." I hear Cade whisper to Jer, probably unaware of my presence.

"I guess so but do you think it'll even work?" Jer whispers back in question, making Cade open his mouth to reply but I interrupt them.

"I think we got most of everything, we can probably get the rest tomorrow," I tell them, interrupting their conversation. They both jump and turn to me, mirror looks of surprise mingled with guilt. I wonder briefly why they would look guilty but then wave it off as them being weird.

"Yep, looks good. Hey, we should all go watch a movie considering it's still relatively early." Cade offers, even though it is not early, it's almost two A.M, but I don't plan on trying to explain this to him so I just shrug.

"Eh, why not. It'll pass the time. We can go down to the basement so we can use the flat screen." Jer says, leading the way to our large basementec room. Cade gets Netflix up, putting on the first movie he could select, which happens to be Kill Your Darlings. I arch a brow at Cade who just mirrors my expression.

"What?" He asks and I sigh, realizing he must not know this is a gay movie, which hopefully means my secret is still a, well, secret.

"Nothing, we need some snacks," I say, looking around the large but sparse basement.

"Jer, go get some snacks and drinks." Cade orders, not even glancing at Jer who just rolls his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," Jer grumbles, walking out of the room to get the stuff from our kitchen.

"Zach?" Cade's pulls my attention from the movie to see him looking at me with a weird look, a look that almost looks calculating.

"What?" I reply, eyes darting back to the TV momentarily before meeting Cade's calculating gaze once more.

"Julia asked if you were single," he states and I keep my expression bored, only hoping he won't see any of my panic or fear.

"Who's that again?" I ask absently, keeping up my uninterested facade.

"She was at your school for a while but transferred last year. Anyway, she was a cheerleader, she was friends with that one chick Jer was with." He explains and I roll my eyes at his oh so detailed explanation. Truthfully I know exactly who Julia is, she's another one of those preppy chicks who wear their cheerleader outfit everywhere and sleep with every jock in school.

"Right, well, what did you tell her?" I ask just as Jer comes back with his arms full of chips, soda, and anything else that could possibly be a snack.

"Tell who?" Jer asks curiously, cutting Cade off before he could reply.

"Julia is interested in Zach, and I told her you are. It's true, isn't it?" Cade replies, making my eyes widen slightly. I know full well that half the girls in school want to date me since I'm popular, it's only normal, but I don't want to date some chick who wears too much makeup and not enough clothes, which excludes every female in my school. Not to mention the stupid crush I have had on Jer for the past four years.

"Oh, she's hot. You should date her, I hear she's great in bed." Jer says with an affirmative nod while opening a soda.

"I don't really want to date..." I trail, fidgeting with my watch and hoping the subject will drop.

"Eh, that's fine, you could always just have a one night stand. I'm pretty sure that's all she wants anyway." Cade explains, grabbing a bag of chips to eat.

"No, I don't want to do that," I reply with a shrug, trying to find a way out of this dangerous conversation. If either of them figured out I'm not interested in girls, it wouldn't take long for them to realize I'm crushing on Jer like a lovesick teenage girl.

"What, are you gay or something?" Cade asks casually with a laugh. I can feel the color drain from my face while my heart beats painfully in my chest, but I maintain my placid expression.

"Why would you think that?" I snort, continuing with the act I've been keeping up for the last four years. "Of course I'm not gay, I can't believe you would even think that."

"I don't know, it makes sense. You haven't dated for a long time and when you do date you only stay in the relationship for a week or so. Plus, you never seem interested in chicks." Jer says thoughtfully but I shrug.

"The chicks I date are crazy, I just haven't found the right person," I reply but as soon as I do I realize my mistake.

"'Person'?" Cade echos with an arched brow. I clear my throat, averting my gaze back to the movie.

"You know what I mean," I mutter, now wishing I could just leave so they don't continue to pry but if I left then it would prove their point and they would know my secret.

"We do," Jer says with a nod and smirk.

"You're gay," Cade states casually. I huff, turning my gaze back to the two, ready to lie like I have been doing for the past four years, but the look in their eyes stops me and I find myself feeling tired. Tired of trying to pretend I don't like my brother's best friend, tired of pretending I actually like girls, tired of being someone I'm not just because I'm too scared to lose my friends, my family.

"Yeah, I am," I say in defeat, sighing heavily. "Go ahead, make jokes, snide comments, tell me I'm living a sin and I'm disgusting," I mutter. They both stare at me in surprise but Jer is the first to answer.

"Why would we do that?" He asks, furrowing his eyebrows and sounding hurt that I would think they would do that.

"I-I don't know," I stutter, staring between the two in confusion.

"Zach, you're still the same person. Jeez, why would you even think we would do that?" Cade asks, also sounding hurt.

"That's what happens in books, and TV." I motion with my hand to the TV that's currently playing a scene where the main character comes out to his father who obviously freaks out.

"I can't believe you would think we would do something like that," Cade comments with a sigh before shaking his head.

"Well, we won't do that. Anyway, I need to piss. We can talk about this when I come back." Cade says, walking up the stairs to the bathroom and leaving me with Jer, who is still looking at me.

"What?" I ask, my voice sharper then I intended.

"So, do you like anyone?" He asks, ignoring my question. I huff, hoping I'm keeping my expression blank.

"No," I say nonchalantly but he smirks, a glint in his eyes.

"Liar," he accuses, watching me carefully.

"I'm not lying," I state firmly and he chuckles.

"You are," he continues with a nod, scooting closer to me on the sofa, so close I can smell his cologne. He still hasn't put a shirt on either and I can see his muscles ripple with every movement he makes. I shake my head, unable to find my voice as lust sweeps through me. He continues to smirk, the look in his eyes tell me he knows I'm lying, and then his lips are on mine.

My eyes widen, heart accelerates, and heat fills me. I find myself closing my eyes nonetheless, wanting this to be real but knowing it must be another dream. I let one hand run through his oh-so-soft hair while the other runs down his hard chest, relishing in every single touch.

His tongue flicks out and licks my bottom lip, wanting access to my mouth that I more than gladly give him. His tongue dances with mine while he pushes me onto my back, climbing on top of me and grinding against me, pulling a groan from me that makes him smirk into the kiss.

I let my hand roam down to the hem of his jeans and I almost slip my hand in them but someone clears their throat. I jump, pushing Jer away hastily and turning to face Cade while heat ignites in my face.

"Care to explain?" Cade asks with an arched brow as he leans on the door frame.

"Uh," I reply dumbly, at a loss for words because that was most definitely not a dream. They know, I realize they know my secret, they must, it only makes sense.

"I like Jer, as more than a friend," I confess, hoping I'm right and that they do indeed know already. Thankfully Cade grins, confirming my thoughts.

"Damn, took you long enough," Jer says, smirking and pulling me into a deep kiss. "I have wanted to hear that for a long time," Jer whispers, looking ecstatic as he pulls me into another kiss.