All-Nighters

by Meredith Taylor

  “What are you doing?” Phillip demanded. “He clearly likes you! I only interrupted because I wanted to talk you through it all before you made a move. You can’t be moving too fast, you know?”

  “You did me a favor. He’s nothing but a playboy. I don’t need a guy like him in my life.” Jesse buried himself in his drink. “Let’s get out of here, please.”

  Phillip had a stern look on his face and cocked his head to the side, assuming the pose that he always took when he wanted to give Jesse serious advice. “Listen, Jesse, not every guy is like Martin. Not every guy is going to cheat on you. If you can’t open yourself up to something new, you’ll just end up in exactly the same place you’ve always been. I’m not saying that you should do anything stupid, but at least see where things go with this guy. Put yourself out there. The worst that can happen is he’s not the guy for you, or he’s not looking for anything serious, and either way you’ll have a fun night with a hot guy. I’m going to go over and talk to the bartender again and I expect you to go dance with Luke. Okay?”

  Jesse reluctantly nodded, biting his lip. He watched Luke and his two friends dancing wildly and enjoying themselves. Phillip got up and walked back to the bar, and Jesse thought about his options. He stood up and his legs took charge. He ended up walking right out of the pub.

  Jesse felt his head swirl with confusion and a heaviness descend on his shoulders. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. He pushed through the wild hordes of students at the exit and finally emerged into the cool autumn air. He took a deep breath in relief and stood watching the street in front of Percy’s Pub. He was disappointed in himself, but glad that he could get out of that place. Why couldn’t he just enjoy the company of an attractive guy like everyone else? Why did his anxiety make him such a klutz? The only guy who ever looked past those things was Martin. Even though Martin didn’t treat him that well, at least he understood that Jesse wasn’t very social and just wanted to spend his time quietly at home. Martin would often go out to bars and clubs without him, and that suited Jesse just fine. Jesse checked his phone and saw the message from Martin that he had ignored earlier: I hope you’re having a good night. Would love to talk to you soon. Jesse wanted to believe that Martin had changed. Martin was the safe, comfortable choice, and Jesse didn’t have time or patience for the drama of dating someone new. Especially not someone who could knock him off his feet the way Luke Brennan could.

  Jesse began to walk into the night towards his car, tired and dejected. As he took a step forward, he felt a hand on his shoulder and he heard the words: “And where do you think you’re going?” He turned around to see Luke, pouting playfully. There was no escaping now.

  Chapter 4

  “You’re leaving without saying goodbye?” Luke asked Jesse, his eyes seeming genuinely upset even though he maintained a certain playfulness in his tone. “I thought you liked me,” he said, working hard to maintain his cocky façade.

  Jesse was taken aback. He felt his throat clog up and his anxiety rising. “I was just… it’s not really my scene. I need to get home. I’m not really the kind of guy who comes to a place like this regularly.”

  “Oh?” asked Luke, his eyebrow raised but his smile completely gone. “And what kind of guy do you think I am?”

  Jesse began to stammer and took a step back. “That’s not what I m-meant. I’m just… tired.”

  Look stepped forward, only inches from Jesse. He looked him dead in the eye, searching his face for something. Jesse’s attention was torn between Luke’s icy blue eyes and his plump, enticing lips. Luke grabbed Jesse’s hand and held it in full view of everyone at the entrance of Percy’s. He stood silently, moving slightly closer, and whispered, “Come with me. Maybe I can show you a place that’s a little more to your liking.”

  Before Jesse could think about it he was being pulled back through Percy’s Pub. He saw Phillip in the blur of faces as they rushed past. Phillip stared at him quizzically, and Jesse waved, unsure of what to do. Luke was leading him to the back of the pub, past the restrooms and towards the kitchen. They went through the kitchen door and the staff didn’t seem to mind them passing through. All the while Jesse was staring at his surroundings, wondering what he had gotten himself into. Luke finally opened a back door past the kitchen and turned to smile at Jesse, a glint in his eye: “This is one of my favorite spots.” Through the back door there was a quiet outside area. Stairs led up towards a landing where there was a bench and some fairy lights. Luke led the way up the stairs, finally letting go of Jesse’s hand. “Follow me, come on!” Luke called back, going up towards the landing. Jesse bit his lip and ascended the stairs carefully, unable to steady his thoughts. Who was this guy?

  When he reached the top, Luke was sitting under the fairy lights, his face bathed in a yellow glow. The music from inside the pub was almost completely drowned out. “Come and sit down next to me. You should see this,” Luke said, pointing behind Jesse. Jesse sat down and looked out, and what he saw took his breath away. There, in the secret nook behind Percy’s Pub, was a view of Donovan Square, the square at the center of campus. The tall buildings surrounding the Square were illuminated by the street lights and the amphitheater was visible in the distance. The view was spectacular. Jesse had never seen Ridgemont quite in that way before.

  “How do you even know about this place?” Jesse asked Luke, finally managing to calm his thoughts enough to string a sentence together.

  “I used to date someone who was friends with the manager. He brought me up here. That was a long time ago.” Luke’s gaze seemed to grow distant then, and shadows appeared under his eyes, making them look cold.

  “You probably bring all of the guys up here to impress them,” Jesse said, enjoying the closeness of Luke sitting next to him. The night was cool but Jesse could feel the heat coming from Luke’s arm. He was tempted to hold on to it.

  “Only the boys who are stubborn and don’t fall for my regular charms,” Luke smiled. His eyes were still cold despite the smile on his lips. “Actually, you’re the first guy I’ve brought up here. I just thought you might appreciate it. You remind me of that guy, the one who showed me this place. He was shy too.”

  Jesse grimaced. “I’m not that shy,” he said in a quiet voice. “Anyway, it sounds like you’d rather be up here with that guy. Why aren’t you with him instead of with me?” Jesse said, trying to come off as nonchalant. He didn’t understand what was happening between the two of them, but there was a chemistry that he hadn’t felt with anyone before. Hearing about another guy was not what he wanted at that time.

  Luke took a long time before he responded, gazing at the square across from them. “It was a long time ago. What’s done is done, right? Do you have a boyfriend? I feel like maybe that’s a question I should’ve asked you at the start of the night,” Luke laughed.

  Jesse thought for a second and said, “No, no boyfriend.”

  “Good. I don’t like competition,” Luke said with a serious expression. He turned to look at Jesse and put his arm behind Jesse’s back again. “There’s something about you, Jesse. I don’t know what it is.”

  Jesse felt his stomach jump and his heart race. He couldn’t believe that the words were about to come out of his mouth, and he was sure that he would chicken out, but eventually he said: “There’s something about you too, Luke Brennan.” They stared deeply into each other’s eyes, electricity flying between them. Luke’s sharp, handsome features in the yellow light were intoxicating. Luke took Jesse’s hand again and touched the side of Jesse’s face. The touch of Luke’s hand to his face made Jesse tremble. He opened his hand and took Luke’s in his, amazed at his own bravery as his whole body was shaking. Luke pulled in closer to him, closing his eyes…

  “Shit!” Luke exclaimed as his phone began to ring. “I’m gonna ignore it but let me just turn it on silent, okay?” Luke took his phone out of his jeans pocket and looked at it as Jesse felt himself descend back to Earth. The annoying ringtone pierced the n
ight air. “Shit!” Luke said again. “It’s the number for my security company. It better not be that damned cat again! I need to answer this, sorry.” Luke answered the call and let out a series of exasperated sighs and groans. Jesse watched him and thought of how wrapped up he felt in Luke after only spending less than an hour together. These types of nights were rare, he thought. He allowed himself to like Luke then, to admit that something was happening between them. Luke came to find him outside of the pub. Maybe it wasn’t just his imagination. Maybe there was something brewing between them.

  Luke hung up the phone and turned to Jesse: “Bad news. My alarm went off at my flat. It might be nothing but I need to go and check. They want to send the armed response but there is this stray cat that sometimes sneaks into my flat and sets off the alarm so I told them to hold off until I get there. We’ve got a security guy at the complex who probably went to check it out already so I’ll just ask him what’s up first.” Luke stood up from the bench, the tender moment completely shattered.

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Jesse said, shaking his head. “But I understand.” It was too good to be true, too perfect, Jesse thought.

  “Well I don’t want this to end yet,” Luke said, turning to look at Jesse. “Come with me to check it out. I’d like to keep talking to you, get to know you a bit better. It’s not even midnight yet. The night is still young.” Luke had a mischievous twinkle in his eye. He seemed determined to spend time with Jesse.

  Jesse stood up and tried to walk past Luke. “I really should get up early to study tomorrow. We’ve got test season and I have to start preparing for Prof. Ndlovu’s assignment. Maybe we should just call it a night.” Jesse tried to be realistic. There was no way things would work out between him and a guy like Luke Brennan. He reached out his hand to shake Luke’s, trying to resign himself to the disappointment, but Luke just giggled at him.

  “Come on. What have you got to lose? Tell you what: come with me now and we can have a study session together some time. I’ll even give you my notes. I’m an excellent note-taker, and Prof. Ndlovu loves me. Deal?” Luke flashed his most charming smile, and Jesse couldn’t resist.

  “I’ll go with you to check out what happened at your flat, okay?” Jesse said. “Just to make sure you’re safe. But then I really need to head home.”

  Luke laughed heartily, rubbing Jesse’s arm. “My hero,” he said. “Come on, I only live about five minutes away, just across Donavan Square.” Luke grabbed Jesse’s hand and they descended the stairs and exited the pub together, and they walked to Luke’s flat hand-in-hand, much to Jesse’s discomfort.

  ***

  They arrived at Luke’s flat a few minutes later. It was on the ground floor of the exclusive block of flats across from Donovan Square. The security guard at the entrance told them that there were no signs of entry at the door and no windows were broken, but that he noticed that the kitchen window was open. Luke deactivated his alarm and unlocked his door, opening it to reveal the darkened flat. He switched on the light and immediately they noticed movement in the flat. In the center of the carpet, staring right at the door, was a ginger tabby cat stretching and grooming itself. “Damned cat! I knew it was you!” Luke feigned anger. “I need to install an animal sensor for my alarm since I guess I’m adopting the little critter now.” Luke walked into the kitchen and took out a small packet of kibble. He poured some into a bowl in the corner and hugged the cat as it came over to him. “Well, I guess we have our intruder. Caught red handed!” he smiled at Jesse. “Sorry I dragged you all the way over here for a false alarm. But while I have you we can share some wine. I need to repay you for your heroism in protecting me from the dangerous elements infesting Ridgemont.” Luke put down the cat gently and motioned to his couch as he walked over to a wine rack in his kitchen.

  The flat was immaculate, with beautiful furniture and a magnificent painting of wild horses above the television. A game console was plugged into the TV and controllers were scattered on the couch. There was an impressive collection of books in a shelf next to the window in the lounge, with a lot of classic psychology readers. “Wow,” Jesse exclaimed as he walked towards the bookshelf and scanned through the titles, “you’ve got some great books. Freud’s collection? Carl Rogers? Maslow, Vygotsky? I didn’t know you took psychology this seriously.”

  “Don’t you always see me sucking up to the lecturers? I love it. I’m just not sure I’m good enough to be a professional. Too much of my own baggage,” Luke said as he poured a large glass of red wine and brought it over to Jesse.

  “Well they say the ones who make the best psychologists are the ones with the most issues,” Jesse teased. He felt his cheeks redden at his boldness.

  “Then you must be a complete basket case, because you’re always the top of the class. I’ve been silently competing with you for a long time, Jesse Montgomery. You seem to be unstoppable.”

  Luke said it playfully, but Jesse was taken aback. Had Luke really noticed him for that long? Jesse always thought that he was invisible in class, hardly ever speaking up, afraid that his stutter would embarrass him. He didn’t know that someone was paying attention.

  Luke sat down on the couch and motioned for Jesse to join him. “Don’t be self-conscious. I’m not the kind of guy who wants everyone to know that I care this much about something, so don’t let my friends know that I’m actually working hard at Psych.”

  Jesse sat down next to Luke and took a big gulp of his wine, feeling his head get heavy almost instantly. Wine had a particularly strong effect on him. “The way you speak in class, I never imagined you would be intimidated by anyone. You’re always so confident.”

  Luke let out a loud guffaw, almost spilling his wine. “I’m always making a fool of myself! I speak before I think sometimes, and I give the wrong answers. I’m not really as confident as you might think.”

  Jesse sat back, edging slightly closer to Luke, and said, “Could’ve fooled me. The way you were dancing tonight, swaying those hips… You looked p-pretty confident to me.”

  A naughty look came into Luke’s eyes, and he slightly pouted his lips. “Oh, you liked that, did you? That’s some grade-A dancing I was bringing out tonight. I only bring my A-game when I have a worthy audience.”

  “That wasn’t really a compliment,” Jesse smiled, teasingly. “You were okay, but if that’s your A-game we have some work to do.” Jesse, pleased with himself, sat back and took another big gulp of wine. He was starting to feel the effects strongly.

  Luke put his hand to his own chest and gasped with a smile, “Excuse me! You’re one to talk! You were sitting in that booth all night acting too cool to even be there. I’d like to see you dance like I did tonight!” They both laughed and caught each other’s eyes. Jesse felt a rush in his chest. Luke seemed even more handsome to him in that moment. The shadow around his eyes was gone. Jesse moved in closer and, without thinking, kissed Luke quickly on the lips.

  “Woah there! Haven’t seen that side of you yet. And here I thought you were the shy one,” Luke laughed.

  Jesse put down his glass of wine. “I’ve been wanting to do that all night, but we kept being interrupted.” His nerves had completely gone, perhaps in part because of the wine, but something about Luke made him feel comfortable.

  Luke put down his glass of wine too, and said, “There’s something I wanted to do all night too.” He moved right up next to Jesse, held Jesse’s face in his hands, and slowly moved his face towards Jesse. Luke kissed Jesse softly on the lips, Luke’s full lips gently caressing Jesse’s. His tongue softly massaged Jesse’s lips, finding its way to touch Jesse’s own tongue. They kissed deeply, slowly, Luke running his hands all along Jesse’s body. Luke held Jesse’s face in both his hands then, pulling him in as he kissed him harder, finding a faster rhythm. Jesse was swimming in the moment, his thoughts a blur, drinking in Luke’s fragrance and relishing in his touch. He moved his hand to Luke’s leg, caressing it slowly.

  Jesse broke the kiss and looked
into Luke’s eyes. Jesse said: “I don’t usually do this,” trying to apologize in advance in case he disappointed Luke.

  “I can lead,” Luke responded, and put his hand on Jesse’s chest, feeling his strong muscles. Luke pushed Jesse back so that he was lying on the couch, not breaking the kiss as he lay on top of Jesse. Luke grinded his body against Jesse’s, as Jesse was running his hands along Luke’s back. Luke started to unbutton Jesse’s shirt, slowly working his fingers to free Jesse’s broad, muscular chest.

  Luke broke the kiss again, looking deep into Jesse’s eyes. Jesse saw that Luke’s expression had changed. Suddenly, the shadow that was around his eyes earlier, the shadow that was there when he was talking about the other guy he had shared his secret place with, was back. Jesse could swear that there were tears forming in Luke’s eyes. “I’m sorry,” Luke said, “I need to take a break.”

  Luke rushed out of the room before Jesse could even gather his thoughts and ran into the bathroom. Jesse sat up, bewildered. His hair was a complete mess, the blond curls hanging over his forehead. He buttoned his shirt, wondering what had caused Luke to run away so suddenly. On the carpet in the center of the room, the ginger tabby cat was staring at Jesse. What are you looking at? he thought.

  Had he done something wrong? Was Luke not attracted to him? Had he misread the entire situation? He sat in silence for a few long moments, only the sound of the clock above the television heard throughout the flat.

  Finally, Luke emerged from the bathroom. He seemed cheery as he said, “Sorry about that. Just got a bit hot all of a sudden. I hope you’re still okay. Can I get you some more wine?”