Social Sinners

by TL Travis

  Lucas handled our social media stuff, he was a wiz at it and we didn’t have the money to pay someone else to do it, so he got the job by broke-ass-band default. Stoli didn’t like it, but he didn’t fight it either because he didn’t have any time to do it himself. We knew that Lucas would have some insight into it considering his father’s career and the fact that he was going to the University of Washington aka UDub and was majoring in marketing. He told us there was a rogue follower who kept retweeting and reposting what he was posting amongst other things, but that was a positive. He said it was more free marketing. Lucas claimed the Social Sinners user name on the sites he used, but this rogue poster was called Social Sinners Shadow and none of us knew who it was.

  The gig at Brett’s holiday party went better than we’d hoped. We had people hitting us up for birthday parties and even got an offer to do a New Year’s bash. Brett had assumed the role as our unofficial manager, so we told them to get in touch with him to set it up. Turning paying gigs down wasn’t an option for us. Uncle John told us about a friend he had who was selling his van and we were close to having the funds together for it. Borrowing our parents’ vehicles was no longer working and had become a nightmare for all of us – parents included.

  For Christmas, Uncle John decided to go ahead and buy the van for us and said he would put it in Stoli’s name when he turned eighteen. He added him to his insurance and we paid him each month for our policy. In the interim, we gave him what we’d saved and made monthly payments to him for the difference on the van. It was an old black, nineteen seventy-nine Ford Econoline van. Not pretty to look at, had almost two hundred thousand miles, but the guy had just done a complete overhaul on it and it ran well enough to get us around. It had two seats up front and a bench along one side in the back with plenty of room for our bodies and equipment. Now we could finally play the gigs we’d been asked to do in Portland, Oregon.

  Mickey was the artist in the group and he said he’d design our band logo. After he sketched it he was gonna paint it on the side of the van. We were stoked. Everything was falling into place, but with graduation coming up, it was time to buckle down and get over that hurdle. After St. Patrick’s Day, we collectively decided as a group to hold off on taking any other gigs except for the one we’d already booked for a graduation party that most of our class would be at.

  When graduation day came, the four of us had already turned eighteen and the only one with a curfew was Diamond. Unbeknownst to his parents, he’d moved most of his stuff into the spare room at my house. Brett and my dad had moved the extra bed from Stoli’s room that I used to sleep on over for him to use. All he had left to bring was one duffle bag which he tossed in the van when we picked him up to head over to the school for the ceremony.

  It was painful sitting through the two-hour presentation for the large graduating class we had which consisted of nearly three hundred students. When it ended, we tossed our caps in the air and headed outside to the waiting arms of our families. Mickey was the last one to come out to the designated meeting point we’d established earlier in the day, having stopped to grab four caps off the auditorium floor for us. His folks came walking up at the same time to join the crowd.

  My dad was all smiles, hugging me while Mary claimed the job of photographer. “I’m so damn proud of you son.” He beamed, his arm was around my shoulder as she snapped again. “Make sure to give me the negatives so I can make some prints,” he told her.

  Over the last few years, my dad started hanging pictures up on the walls in the entryway that ran alongside the stairs. All were of us and our tight knit, non-blood related family. Our sterile house had progressed from cold, to warm and welcoming.

  Diamond’s family stood off to the side glaring at us. When his father had had enough, he walked over grabbing him by the arm. “Son, we’re your family not these people.” The spiteful lilt to his voice unnerved me.

  “No Dad, that’s where you’re wrong,” he said retracting his arm from his father’s grip before sadly glancing down at his seven-year-old brother Jeremiah. “These people,” he gestured to our group standing idly by, watching this unfold but ready to jump in at a moment’s notice, “This is my family. They don’t hide who they are. They don’t follow, they lead, and they accept me for who I am — faults and all.”

  At this point, the crowd surrounding us had increased tenfold. His father’s face was turning an unhealthy shade of red and he was clearly pissed. “Let’s go, son. Now. Straight to church where you’ll repent for your sins against your family.” He reached for Diamond’s arm again, who backed away out of his reach.

  “I’m done,” he told his dad, crossing his arms across his chest.

  Brett, Uncle John, and my dad had moved up standing behind Diamond. His dad eyed each of them in turn. “If you don’t come home now, son, you’ll no longer have a place to lay your head with a forgiving family. Choosing these sinners over us will sever all ties you have with your real family.”

  Diamond was shaking, my dad placed his hand on his shoulder in a show of solidarity. “We’re his family now.” He addressed Diamond’s father. I’d never been prouder of my dad than I was right then. Never, would I doubt him or his loyalty again.

  Diamond’s mother and brother were now crying, but his father didn’t care. He grabbed his mom by the arm dragging her behind him as he stormed off, disappearing from our line of sight. The crowd started clapping, when I turned to look at Diamond, he had his head buried in my dad’s shoulder with Brett and Uncle John surrounding them. I couldn’t imagine how he felt right then. Was he sad? Was he relieved?

  “Come on guys, let’s go to dinner before you have to get ready for the party.” Mary guided us out of the dense crowd that had gathered around to watch Diamond’s personal life unfold and headed toward the parking lot.

  When the four of us approached the van, I tossed my arm loosely over his shoulder. “Dude, you okay?”

  He ran his hands through his short hair, releasing a breath in the form of a heavy sigh. “Yeah, I will be. I just wish I could get my little brother out of their controlling clutches.”

  “Your mom didn’t look very happy either,” Stoli said, slapping his hand on Diamond’s back letting him know he was there for him too.

  “Yeah, but she never stuck up for us either.” He shook his head. “She’s always been afraid of him and did everything she could to keep from arguing. In my eyes, she’s no better than he is.”

  Stoli and I exchanged glances before crawling in behind Diamond and Mickey. Mickey had already claimed the driver’s seat. “Where to, guys?” Mickey asked, holding his hand out for the keys with a shit eating grin plastered across his face. He rarely got to drive so this was a win in his book.

  Stoli laughed, and handed them over. “Red Lobster by Alderwood mall they said.” We tossed our caps and gowns in the back as he drove us to the restaurant to meet our families for the celebratory dinner.

  Two hours later, we were loading up the van and heading to the party. June in Washington was the perfect time for an outdoor fest of any kind. There were easily a hundred graduates already there and the party hadn’t even kicked off yet. We got busy setting up our gear on the makeshift stage they’d placed for us to use in the backyard.

  “Whoa,” I uttered, taking in our surroundings, “this is intense.”

  “You can say that again, whose house is this anyways?” Stoli asked.

  “Rob Steiner, he’s in our class,” Lucas answered, walking up to us. “His dad works with my dad.” He kissed me as I was bent over to pull my mic stand out of the back of the van. It was nothing to write home about considering I picked it up at a second-hand store, but it was my first and it was paid for.

  “Hey babe.” I curled my arm around his waist, drawing him in for a deeper kiss.

  “Awesome,” Stoli muttered, walking away.

  “Your hair is getting so long,” Lucas said, twirling my curls around his fingers.

  “Yeah, I vowed never to c
ut it again.” I kissed the tip of his nose. “I didn’t see you outside after graduation, where’d you go?”

  “My dad whisked me off to dinner with some business associates. So much for celebrating my day. All they did was talk contracts and what not,” he huffed. “Um, I may have added to the headcount tonight,” he said while chewing on his cuticles and staring at me.

  “What do you mean?” Mickey asked, sneaking up behind us.

  “Well, I um, tweeted and posted the party on Facebook. When I checked it a few minutes ago, it had more than two dozen retweets and a hundred and twenty-seven likes.” His eyes widened, as he finished telling us the news.

  “Oh shit. Ah, are Rob’s parents going to be okay with that?” One thing I didn’t want to deal with was the cops showing up to break up a paying gig. We needed the money and jail was not an option for us.

  “His parents are out of town, but they let the neighbors know what was going on. Here,” he said handing me an envelope, “They left a check for you guys. I had them write it out to you because I didn’t want it to be blank.”

  “Thanks.” I slid it in my back pocket and we got back to unloading and setting everything up.

  We’d decided on a playset that consisted of more recent releases since the crowd was predominately our age. Although, I did note quite a few college-aged heads there as well. Lucas hunted Rob down and brought him over to introduce us before we started playing. Seemed Stoli and Mickey had him in a couple of their classes. Diamond and I didn’t know him, but he seemed alright. Before long, people were passing us plastic cups of beer and the party kicked into high gear.

  “How’s everyone doing tonight?” I hollered into the microphone, drawing everyone’s attention. They yelled back in response, mixed hell yeah’s and various hooting with their blue and red plastic cups held high in the air.

  “Right on. Now that high school is behind us, it’s time to send those years out in style.” I held my hand up with the cup in it in a salute and then took a drink. I saw someone pass Stoli a bottle of his namesake and knew it was game on.

  “Ha-ha, I see the story of how Stoli became Stoli made its way around. But enough of that. We are Social Sinners and we’re here to get this fucking party rocking. How about we start it off with a little Alice Cooper, School’s Out For…” I paused, waiting for the crowd to catch on.

  Everyone yelled, “SUMMER!” and we jumped into playing the song.

  We planned a nine-song playset, taking a break after every third. When we were done, we had decent buzzes going and decided to pack our shit up in the van before we drank any more. Seemed Rob’s folks had the yard wired with speakers, so he had a playset already rolling off an iPod docking station when we came back in.

  As I rounded the corner through the side gate, Lucas grabbed me by the arm pulling me toward the makeshift dance floor with him. “Dance with me.”

  I was feeling far too good, which rendered me dumb enough that I forgot to remind him that I couldn’t dance. But once we merged with the crowd I quickly learned that bit of information was irrelevant. Bodies were smashed together and all you could do was grind up against each other. With Lucas rubbing his tight, little ass against my front it was making my dick rock hard.

  “Hey, as much as I love what I’m doing to you, it’s boring a grove in my spine.” He winked at me.

  “Fuck man, your ass is driving me insane.” I bent to kiss him, being several inches taller than him made things like that difficult from time to time. Stoli and I looked like the jolly green giants beside him. He was five foot eight, I was already six foot two, Stoli was six foot three, Mickey was five foot ten and Diamond stood at six foot even.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here.” He grabbed my hand, leading me out of the dense crowd. We made our way to the van, but when I unlocked it and opened the side door I wasn’t prepared for what greeted us.

  “What the fuck?” Stoli yelled.

  I stood motionless, taking in the sight of Rob on his knees sucking Stoli off.

  “You gonna join us or what man?” he sneered.

  “Nice try, but we’re not joining you. Come on,” Lucas said while trying to tug me away.

  My eyes were deadlocked on Stoli’s.

  “Yeah, Joey, go follow your boy toy.” The venom in Stoli’s statement snapped me back to reality.

  “Boy toy? Seriously, dude, fuck you.” I slammed the door shut and stormed off after Lucas, following him inside the house. He led me up the stairwell and into a bedroom.

  As soon as the door was shut and locked behind us, he grabbed my face, pulling me down to him. His lips locked on mine before his tongue slid its way between them. It was sloppy as far as kisses go, but I was so fucking horny I didn’t care.

  Guiding me backwards to the bed, he pushed me to sit down on the edge before proceeding to pull my t-shirt off. “We’ve waited too long, I’m not waiting anymore,” he said, kissing his way down my neck as I melted with each graze of his lips.

  “Fuck,” seemed to be the only word I could find.

  He tugged at my belt and had it unhooked and slid out of my jeans and tossed across the room in one fail swoop. I watched him work his magic, unbuttoning my fly and sliding my jeans and boxers down around my thighs. His hands got busy stroking my shaft as he moved down to his knees. Those blue eyes locked on mine with his mouth open, hovering above the head of my dick.

  “One touch of those gorgeous lips and I’m gonna blow,” I warned him.

  “Let’s test that theory,” he said, drawing my cock into his mouth.

  “Oh fuck,” my knees shook. He felt that too as he released me, and then pushed me to lay on my back before pouncing on me like a cat and sucking me again.

  My hands had a mind of their own, grabbing the back of his head and holding him in place. He gagged, shooting me a seething glare. “Sorry babe,” I muttered.

  “Enough of this.” He sat up, taking off his shirt and unzipping his pants. “Are you just gonna stare or are you going to finish getting undressed?”

  I scrambled to get up, realizing as I stripped that we’d never been fully naked in front of each other. Hell, we’d never done anything more than jack each other off before tonight and we never took all our clothes off for that. Was I ready for this? Hell yeah I was, but fuck, I didn’t expect it and hadn’t brought any supplies.

  “Um, Lucas?” I reached down, covering myself.

  “Yes,” he purred, pulling my hands away so he could stroke my deflating cock back to life.

  “Ugh, can’t…think…Um…condom?” I finally managed to ask.

  “I’m way ahead of you.” He reached for his wallet, pulling out a condom. “This is Rob’s room so I’m sure he has some lotion or lube in here.” Opening the nightstand drawer, he pulled out a bottle of baby lotion and tossed it on the bed with the condom.

  My body reacted, and instinct took over. I flipped us around, pinning him to the bed and stroked him with as much ferocity as he was stroking me with. But I was gonna blow if we didn’t stop this and that was not how I wanted this to end.

  “Fuck, stop. I’m gonna come if you don’t,” he told me.

  Reluctantly, I pulled away. He grabbed the condom, tore it open with his teeth and then rolled it down my shaft. That feeling alone made me want to shoot. “I don’t know what to do,” I admitted, as much as I wished I hadn’t done.

  “Don’t worry, I do,” he reached for the lotion and scrambled back on the bed.

  “How?” I asked, watching him squirt it in his hand before spreading his legs and reaching between them.

  “Internet porn. I’m home alone, a lot.” He circled his rim with his fingertip before pressing it in to the first knuckle.

  I gasped, his eyes locked on mine, watching me watch him finger himself.

  He was a pro at this, he must spend a lot of time at home getting off. “Can I try?”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” he said with a flirty lilt to his voice.

  I grabbed the lotion,
doing exactly as I’d just watched him do. I crawled up between his legs, sitting back and staring at the glorious site spread out before me. “God you’re beautiful.”

  “Quit staring and get to fucking me already,” he protested.

  I pushed a digit in, faster than I’d intended and he gasped, “Maybe a little slower with the next one.”

  “Sorry.” The feeling of my finger in his tight ass was unbelievable. Watching my finger disappear inside him. I couldn’t wait to sink my cock in there, but I knew I wouldn’t last long once I did so I had to take my time, or this would be over way too fast.

  “Okay, add another finger beside that one and stretch them out. Spread them like you’re giving a peace sign,” he told me.

  Spreading them apart, my long fingers grazed a knot inside and he jumped. I froze worried I’d just fucked something up.

  “Don’t you fucking stop,” he growled, “you hit my spot and that’s a good thing.”

  “Holy shit, watching my fingers slip in and out of you. Just…fuck,” I mumbled, watching this gorgeous man fucking himself on my fingers.

  A couple grazes later and he was begging me, “Shit…close. Need you inside me.”

  I withdrew my fingers, not thinking before wiping them on the comforter. Well shit. Hurriedly, I coated the condom in lotion and lined myself up at his entrance, waiting for him to tell me what to do next. I was both nervous and excited and didn’t want to screw this up.

  “Take it slow, a little at a time so I can adjust.”

  I tried to push the head in, but it was so damn tight. After a couple of tries, it was finally in. I looked up at Lucas, his eyes were closed, and he was biting down on his bottom lip so hard that it was turning white.

  When he opened his eyes I released a heavy, relieved sigh. “Okay, try a little more,” he told me.

  Nervously, I pushed further, but my hand slid across the comforter and I fell on top of him, fully seating myself inside all at once. He screamed, and I freaked. I started to pull out, but he grabbed my sides to stop me.

  “No,” he commanded with his teeth tightly clenched.