For the longest time,
Marco -- and the rest of his family on both sides -- have always been avid fans of sports of all kinds. It didn’t matter if it was baseball, American football, real football, cricket, gymnastic, professional wrestling, if it could be perceived as a sport and it brought out that competitive nature in both player and fan, the odds of the Castillo and Brady clans gathering around the flat screen to cheer and boo and yell and groan were high.
And even though he was the only Castillo-Brady at the Pinehurst-Edenridge game, this couldn’t be any truer than the sounds of Marco standing up, cheering for the Celtics after they took an incredible lead of sixty points. Francis Callahan was amazing and an amazing shot, but he wouldn’t be the one MArco kept his eyes on.
For nearly the entirety of the game (at least when he wasn’t entertaining some people near him who wanted to chat during breaks), Marco found himself feeling the team spirit - or as Robin from Young justice would say, feeling the aster.
(Feeling the aster is good.)
And feel it he did. That euphoric feeling Marco felt crawl up his spine and the blood rushing to his head when he stood up as his arms went up high every time he saw #27 Belmonte scored either via assist or managed to get the shot himself. And every time that happened, when it was done, Marco felt his entire body go hot like a spark under his ass went off every time that he saw Danny Belmonte look his way. He knew he wasn’t actually looking at him, but for a moment, their eyes did meet. And maybe it was the high Marco felt himself under the influence of, but he waved.
It had been at that moment that he smiled and it was also at that moment that he realized that while Danny Belmonte had caught his eye, Marco’s waving managed to catch the attention of one of the Pinehurst Cheerleaders.
When the game came to a close and Marco panicked his way into trying to figure out how he was going to escape before, well a certain strawberry blonde cheerleader found him, it was too late. The girl who he would later find out was a Sophomore at Pinehurst named
Theresa O’Connor, had practically invited him to a party that most of her squad were going. Marco didn’t know how to handle it. He didn’t want to be rude, either, so he sort of just went along with it.
And Tessa, which was what she told him to call her, was cute. So, in the back of his mind he was flattered that she liked him but, as Marco sat on the couch at this party at a southside house and TEssa was somewhere, likely being pulled away from him by her squad, Marco just sat there in a daze. He thought about how this happened. And thinking about that led Marco spending several minutes looking over at a group of jocks.
Danny was with them.
And he was being tipped upside down.
“7!” The boys surrounding Danny loudly roared.
In all that was holy, Danny’s shirt flew over his face and Marco saw what could only be described as something that would bless his dreams for the entire week that followed. He wasn’t toned like the rest of them, but Danny was the only one that caught Marco Brady’s gawking gaze and the only reason why Marco’s entire face went hot and red like a roasted tomato.
“8!”“Keep calm, keep calm.” Marco repeated to himself, speaking as low as he could. Thankfully the music playing didn’t make it too obvious that he was gazing at Danny as if Marco even stood a chance. He wasn’t out and he didn’t even know if Danny swung that way. So it was hardly something that Marco should be doing, yet he couldn’t help it.
“9!”Okay, Danny. Man up or go home.Having used his arm and body strength, Danny found himself doing a handstand on the keg stand, with two of his teammates holding him up and another one of his teammates releasing the valve, letting the beer stream into the freshman’s mouth. This would be the second time Danny’s tried this within his first semester of high school and boy, he needed to beat his last record because any respectable man would get to at least thirty.
“10!”Then again, his peers knew he was the youngest and thankfully, most didn’t pressure him to go beyond what he could handle. He didn’t drink as much as his twin, even at home. Still, Danny was stubborn and had no idea what his limits were! Plus, he wanted to be cool and show off. If not for himself, perhaps to get Francis’ attention… wherever he was. Last party, he could only do 10 seconds before choking. The team had a good laugh and taught him a few techniques after. Let’s see if he can put them in good use and get to twenty.
“11!”With a red cup in her hand, Kylee Grimm shimmied to the EDM music, moving through the crowd. From a distance she saw her history nextdoor desk neighbor sitting on a couch and staring at… oh, the big doof in her spanish class. Danilo Belmonte. Probably on a high from the big win tonight. Sure, Francis Callaghan carried the team, like he usually did, but honestly, Danny kept up with his seniors, which impressed her, even scoring more than most of them. She was sure it impressed others too, like it clearly impressed Marco Castillo-Brady.
“12!”Conveniently, the spot next to Marco opened and she slid herself on the chair right into him, playfully and mischievously bumping into his side,
“You like what you see!” The mayor’s daughter loudly spoke over the music. While that should’ve been a question, it wasn’t because when Marco turned his attention to her, her dark gaze fell to his pants which revealed
how interested he was in the italian basketball player.
“I get it. Give him another year or so and he’s gonna be HOT, HOT, HOT! You should talk to him!”“13!”“What?”Marco’s body jerked itself in a startled fashion when he heard a girl’s voice. Turning around, he saw it was Kylee Grimm. He had her in social studies. He couldn’t say that they were exceptionally close, but he has talked to her a few times and they even had a small project at the start of the semester, so Marco was almost used to her, but he was in such a daze watching Danny excelling at...whatever he was excelling at that he wasn’t ready for her.
Against his better judgement, Marco partially turned away from Danny.
“Oh, hey Kylee,” he said after a few seconds of gathering himself.
“I don’t think that will be a good idea,” he admitted, half-frowning at the girl.
“Besides, I’m..fine right where I am.” “Are you?” While her hazel eyes scrutinized, Kylee watched Marco in pity. Taking a sip of her drink, her gaze went from him to the basketball team. Their counting and drunk roaring turned into background noise as she continued to visually explore the party. For a moment, her dark gaze rested on the big wrestler senior,
Rhett, overseeing the drinking game in silence. He was a dreamboat and so nice to look at. And yet, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t a little intimidated by him.
Shaking the hopeful thoughts out of her head, she continued examining the area and finding anything that intrigued her. Turning her head to the makeshift dance floor, she saw a boy she had a music elective with,
Pierce Mercer. He glanced over at her, through the hustle and bustle of the party, and she returned his stare with a smile.
He was cute, she liked cute.
Bringing her attention back to her couch buddy, she dramatically sighed, annoyed at how lackluster he was acting at the party of the year.
“Want some advice from me, Marc?” That was a rhetorical question.
“I’ve lived here for like a little over three years and meeting people is a hardcore bitch. I’m still considered an outsider even if my dad was born and raised here. But that’s beside the point!” This girl was loquacious to say the least, but she meant well.
“One thing I decided the moment my dad was like pack your bags, we’re leaving Boston, was: I’m not going to be a bystander. Especially not at an Allison Davies’ party. Neither should you!” As meddlesome as Kylee can be, she still cared about people in her own fucked up kind of way. She simply was using the tools her parents gave her to figure shit out as she went. She was
persistent and
demanding but she was also incredibly
lonely. Thankfully, shortly after her move, she met Roddy and that helped her maneuver through adolescence.
“You want to know something? Do your own research. You want that something? Go get it. You clearly seem interested in Danny boy. Stop sitting there with that hard on and think about carpe diem or some shit! What’s the worst that can happen?” Marco’s embarrassment took central stage when he had a slight shade of red on his pale cheeks. So much so that he shifted his position on the couch somewhat to cross his legs in a way that hid what Kylee just pointed out.
“What makes you think I’m even interested in him?” Marco asked. He wasn’t
out and, while he didn’t peg Kylee as the homophobic type, he didn’t want to risk anything.
“Maybe I’m just aroused by the--” He looked around in a panic as if trying to find something very close to where Danny was that could explain it.
“--the keg. I mean it’s very…”Dang it, Marco was looking at Danny again.
“...Sturdy.”“Mmm, yeah. Sturdy.” Playfully, Kylee rolled her eyes and decided for Marco’s sake to use the keg as an analogy.
“Just look how it shines. Such a nice looking keg. Why wouldn’t you be interested? I wonder if that beer has been imported. From Italy or something. Such fine beer.” Her smile went into a wide grin, now completely curious about Marco's reaction.
“Don’t you just want to suck the tap yourself.”“I-”Marco’s cheeks went from strawberry to full on cherry red and he stumbled on whatever words he
was going to say. He shook his head in an attempt to gather himself, trying to completely rid himself of the mental image that Kylee seemed to imply. It wasn’t the implication itself that made his embarrassment meter crack but just the fact she was pushing for something that he wasn’t even sure he was ready for. Marco was never great at approaching anyone that, for a lack of better words, interested him. Whether that was a girl or otherwise, he was always hesitant because he’d get lost in his own head before he’d ever consider a scenario that they wouldn’t immediately recoil from him
making a move.
It’s why he was content in just looking at Danny do jock things from a distance and it’s why he felt especially awkward and tense as Kylee pushed and pushed.
With a sigh, he let a few moments of silence pass before he had to force his gaze away from Danny.
“I’ve got no interest in doing that.” Part of that was the truth but only because Marco didn’t even know
what he felt whenever he kept looking back at Danny. Jesus, how many times did that make it now? Five since Kylee started talking to him?
Garret “Rhett” Cleary, Caitlin Cleary’s older brother, and good friends with Francis Callaghan was quick to interject when he could tell that the freshman boy was exceeding his limits. When they reached 17 count, he grabbed ahold of the smaller kid, pulling the tap away from his lips. Danny started coughing profusely as he hung on Cece's brother’s shoulder. He didn’t even remember becoming upright. Everything happened so fast but the next thing he knew, Rhett was giving the basketball team a lecture about pressuring children.
Everything was dizzy and he was trying to register how far he went in the drinking game, if he made it to 20, but the next thing he knew Rhett had handed him a glass of water and told him to eat some bread.
“Wait, Rhett, where’s Cece?” He hadn’t seen his best friend all day… which was weird now that he was thinking about it.
“Caught a ride with some friends.” Rhett firmly responded, visibly exhausted with all the babysitting he was doing for one night. The older boy said a couple of other things but Danny was too busy staring at Rhett’s wrestler muscles to really listen.
Did he pick me up? Reality was feeling like a dream, maybe he
did drink too much.
“Okay, okay! Sorry I overstepped but like, you could at least talk to him. To get to know him. I don’t understand the stigma of cliques. This town is small, so I feel like…” Her voice trailed off when she noticed the devil himself was making his way to them. Sure, he didn’t look like he was walking straight, but he was beaming, his smile reaching from ear to ear, and had an energetic bounce to his step. Completely caught off guard, Kylee muttered,
“Uh…” “Is this seat taken!?” The young jock slurred. Kylee looked between her and Marco, sitting on a loveseat. There was no extra seat, unless he meant the armrests. Or did he want? Seeing him staring at her, Kylee tilted her head, thinking she got the memo.
Oh, okay.
“I was… just getting up.” Turning to Marco, Kylee showed her teeth in excitement but also confusion. She wasn’t going to ruin this moment for him, so all she did was give him a thumbs up for good luck and got off the seat, going to her next objective: Pierce.
“Perfect. Awesome.” Danny slumped beside Marco and stared at the ceiling, watching the world spin.
“Do you know why people like drinking so much? It’s so weird. It makes the world go round, and round, and round.” thathumpthathumpthathumpMarco’s heartbeat was going especially fast. Hell, it became alarmed when Danny had spoke and caught Marco by surprise, but when Kylee excused herself and Danny took her spot (albeit plopping rather than sitting down) and all he could think about was how close Danny Belmonte was to him. The person Marco had spent most of the night watching was next to him and talking about drinking and what it was like.
“Y-yeah.” He didn’t know what to say in all honesty. He never got drunk, or at least in the way that Danny apparently was. And this was, like, the first impression that Danny was going to have of him. He had to do better than just a stuttering “yeah”.
“Great job today!” Marco said with a wide smile.
“At the game, I mean! You did great!” Oh, god he sounded like such a kissass right now.
“Francis was greater! You saw how many shots he made?!” With basketball being mentioned, Danny perked up and turned to the boy beside him. He looked familiar… like they had a class together or something. Or maybe he saw him in his sister’s shop? Regardless. Basketball!
“I wanted to DUNK but Jillian said there’s other cool things I could do and that I still got a few more inches to grow. UGH! I want to dunk so badly.” He blinked a few times at Danny. Out of all the scenarios that Marco entertained in some of his more far-fetched scenarios that might happen if he ever had the stones to talk to Danny, him just going on about basketball and Marco just sitting there listening wasn’t even close to the top ten. And Jillian? Was he talking about Jillian O’Brien? Had to be. Or maybe he wasn’t. Marco didn’t trust his brain right now.
“You’ll get there, I’m sure of it!” Marco found himself cheering for some reason.
“I hope so.” Danny leaned back into the sofa and slumped even more than he had already, sliding down the chair a bit. Like a toddler, he grumbled,
“I’m sad!” “Why are you sad?” Marco asked, watching Danny slide down in disbelief.
With his ass on the floor now, he laid his head back on the chair and looked up at Marco, grumbling,
“I saw something.” He saw Francis kissing Russ, who was not Allison.
“It made me feel… funny.” He didn’t know why nor did he understand but he felt
funny. Honestly, while she didn’t deserve it, Danny didn’t like Allison and at times wished she’d disappear. She had Francis and she was
perfect in every single way. All his girlfriends, like Jillian and Cece, adored her.
Still, at this moment, he found himself hating Russ even more than her and he didn’t understand why. Not only did his image of Francis become less perfect, because he was cheating on his girlfriend, but he felt a tint of jealousy which didn’t make sense at all. Why was he jealous?
“I don’t understand people.” Or he didn’t understand himself.
As Marco looked at Danny, he did so in a different way than he had all night. His gaze didn’t have any lust or anything of the like behind it, because Danny was acting differently too. The tone of his voice was different too. It was low and almost melancholy. He wanted so badly to comfort Danny in some way, but there was no way for Marco to know how a gesture like
that might be interpreted. He couldn’t handle any possible rejection, so he had to think of another way to maybe cheer Danny up.
But what?After a few moments of thinking, Marco had a lightbulb go off in his head.
“I get it. People are hard to figure out. I mean, Professor Xavier doesn’t know what kind of person his students will be when they accept his offer to leave their home to join his school. I mean, look at Wolverine. He resisted and resisted, but eventually joined up. Everyone thought he was a prick. And maybe he was, but he proved himself when he became comfortable enough.” Marco realized that he was exposing himself to potential ridicule by talking about this stuff, but he didn’t see any other way to help Danny without saying “hey you’re hot, let’s have sex” and Marco Brady would never do that.
“Like, I don’t know if this applies to what you’re going through and, I don’t know I should probably shut up now, but--”“X-Men reference?” Danny dumbly blinked, his drunk self trying to connect what Marco said to his situation.
Before they could take their conversation any further, Reyrey came stomping down the stairs, having such a colorful language as he went through the living room, to the kitchen, and out the backdoor. All the while kicking everyone out of his house. Danny’s mom would be so disappointed if he ever cussed like that.
As everyone else rushed around, trying not to get in the serpent's way, the Italian boy pulled out his phone to the Belmonte sibling group thread. Vivia had quickly texted, can’t bring the twins home. Natalia had responded she had already left. Mira would likely ignore it. His other sisters were all mothers and he didn’t want to bother them, even if Cat did message asking if he needed a ride. With a little struggle, Danny texted back:
I have ride. thx. He didn’t but he didn’t have time to think about that right now. Shoving his phone back in his pants pocket, he sluggishly picked himself back up and looked at his new... friend?
“Do you want to… walk together?” He knew if he walked home by himself he was likely going to pass out somewhere and get hyperthermia. Yeah, he wasn’t here to break his mom’s heart. He also wasn’t here to worry his siblings. So, asking his new friend was the next best thing!
Alerted by the raging Reyrey who came in ceasing all party activities, effective immediately, Marco did his best to focus on Danny and he was probably as stunned by what he asked as he was by the Serpent boss. He knew he should say something. His Ma didn’t raise a Wolverine-type prick.
“Sure! I just..uh, need to get my coat.”
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