Dereck's Pov:

School was dismissed and we had 15 minutes before football practice. We were leaned up by the lockers talking with Jared, Mitch, Eric and Todd about tonight. When Tara pushed through our group and latched onto Vin's arm.

"My parents are out of town, want to come over?" She purred.

I bit my tongue to keep from calling her out. I was pissed she had her nasty little hands on my Vin. I raised my eyebrow at Vin. She was one of his old booty calls.

He didn't even look at me. He just glared at Tara but she seemed oblivious. "My house. 9 o'clock"

He pulled her hands off him. "I have plans" He gritted out.

She giggled. "Cancel them. You know whoever she is, she can't work you the way I do." She fluttered her lashes and licked her lips.

"Not gonna happen. Not interested. Bye" He turned away and started talking to me. Probably because he knew I wouldnt be thrilled about that hoe-bag.

Next thing I know she'd flung herself at him and crashed her lips to his.

I felt my blood boil and seriously wanted to break my no hitting girls rule. I closed my eyes and breathed slowly. I heard him yell and scuffling noises but I tuned it out. I was beyond pissed.

I opened my eyes just in time to see her slap the crap out of him. Oh hell no!

Without actually thinking I yanked her away from him by the arm so we were face to face.

"You have no idea how lucky you are that I don't hit girls. But do that shit again and I'll make you wish I'd just slapped you." I let go of her and stormed off.

Vincent caught up to me in a matter of seconds.

He pulled me to a stop. "My hero" He crowed fluttering his lashes like a damsel in distress. I punched his arm.

"I did not like that." My voice still dripped with agitation.

"Me either." he agreed rubbing his arm. "I think we need to get you into domestic violence counseling" He joked

I huffed. "Oh man up. It was barely even a tap. What did you say to make bimbo barbie slap you?" I asked looking at his welted cheek.

He laughed. "When I got her off me, I told her I was gay. She didn't think it was a funny joke." He shrugged.

"I thought you weren't gay, just Dare-sexual." I mocked.

He nodded and put his arm around my shoulder. "Definitely Dare-sexual but you want to tell our friends first. I figured that's not the way you want news about us to come out."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a little after 11 and we'd played beer pong, truth or dare, and we've have been playing I Never for the last 20 minutes.

"I've never been in love" Mitch called out.

Half of the people raised their cups and drank. Me and Vin included. They looked at us weirdly. That's the first time either of us has ever drank to 'being in love'.

He shot me a wink over the rim of his cup. I chuckled and shot one back.

Ariel was up and she grinned mischievously at us. We told her we were gonna go public tonight and she of course wanted to ''help''

She cleared her throat. "I've never been in a secret relationship with a close friend."

Only two of us raised our glasses. Everyone was looking curiously at us and my tipsy self found it all extremely funny. Vin raised his brow to see if he still had the go ahead. I nodded my head and hiccuped.

He laughed. "I've never kissed a guy and liked it" He said and clinked his cup to mine and we both chugged the rest of our drink.

It was quiet for about 5 seconds then it was like rapid fire Jeopardy. Everyone shooting all kinds of questions at us. Ariel put her fingers to her lips and did that horrible loud whistle thing.

"How about we let them talk and they may just answer what y'all are wondering. Just food for thought. I have a taser and I'm not afraid to use it." She looked at us.

"This is the circle of trust. We love y'all and we're not here to judge. Speak my darling little fairies!" She said in a spot on impression of a hippie.

Vin grabbed my hand and held it while I talked. "We're dating. Turns out we love each other. That's all. You can go back to your night." I called out nonchalantly.

"Way to be romantic babe!" Vin complained laughingly.

Todd laughed. "good one bro"

Angela gasped. "Damn you just cost me 30 bucks." She handed the money over to Mitch.

He smirked at her "told ya."

Everyone had similar reactions. Except Robert. He looked a cross between puking and pissed off. "Y'all cant be gay. You two have slept with more chicks then any of us. You're just confused. What's the point? You wanna f*ck someone in the a*s, there's plenty of girls out there that'll do that. Stop the joke, it's disgusting."

Vin narrowed his eyes and I tightened my grip on his hand, kind of afraid he was gonna haul off and hit him. The house had gotten quiet again. Seeing how this was gonna play out. I think everyone was shocked because Robert was actually pretty close to Vin.

"That just showed how ignorant you are. It has nothing to do with sex. It's not a joke. We love each other. Always have." Vin yelled.

Robert glared. "I cant believe you. You're gonna give up your teams, popularity, everything just because you're going through some phase? You need to get away from him. Space to clear your head and realise you're gonna lose everything important to you because he's used your pity over his parents death to turn you queer!" He shouted.

My jaw literally dropped to the floor. I mean we were never really close but that was cold and seriously a low blow. Before I could even react. Vin had jumped up and slammed him into the wall. He got in his face.

"I'm not giving anything up, and even if I had to, it wouldn't matter. Dereck"s the only important thing to me. Say something shitty about him again and I'll whoop your ass all over this house." He slammed him once more and turned and started walking back to me.

I rolled my eyes. "News flashes dip shit I can handle myself. I don't need you fighting your friends because of me."

He wrapped his arms around me. "He's not a friend. No one with a problem with you or us is." He kissed me and I melted.

The world faded and it was just him and me and the delicious hot tingling sensations. A shriek made us jump apart and look around.

Mitch was running and picked Ariel up. Robert was on the floor groaning and she was fighting to get out of Mitch's hold. WTH did we miss?

"That's right b*tch! I warned you. Now get up and let me beat your ass!" Ariel screamed.

She elbowed Mitch in the head and he dropped her. She ran and kicked Robert in the nuts and spit on him. "You are the disgusting waste of space not them!" She kicked him again before she was pulled away.

"That crazy b*tch f*ckin tased me!" He laid there a minute longer. I walked over and tried to help him up.

He pushed me away. "Get away homo. I don't want you rubbing your germs on me."

I stepped back and raised my hands up. "Dude, seriously we're the same people we were a few weeks ago. I was just trying to help you up. Besides you're not really my type and the gay germ isn't contagious. Unless you do the secret gay handshake." I said sarcastically.

"That's why you turned Vincent right? Cause it's not contagious? You're a pathetic loser that's only popular because you latched on to Vincent and took advantage of him. How selfish can you be? He's gonna lose everything because you've poisoned his head!"

Vin came in from talking to Ariel and walked over. He reminded me of a bull about to charge. I stepped in front of him. "Don't." I said calmly.

He gritted his teeth and looked over my shoulder. "Get out. I seriously advise you to steer clear of me. Dereck wont always be there to stop me from kicking your ass."

Todd took Robert out and came back. "Think I've had just about all the excitement I can take so I'm gonna head out." He came over and clapped me on the back. "It's all good dude."

The rest of our friends all gave us little shows of support and left.

The house was trashed but I wasn't in the mood to mess with it. It'll still be there in the morning. I dropped down onto the couch and heaved a sigh. Vin laid down and put his head in my lap. I closed my eyes and played with his hair.

"Regretting it yet?" He asked.

"No, actually I was expecting more then one of our friends to freak. You?"

"Never." He closed his eyes and in seconds was asleep.