present

BILLY.

More minutes passed of Jack and I talking with one another, and soon he was bribing me into something I thought I'd never do... Well, not in this context at least.

"C'mon," Jack begged with a small, pleading smile on his face. "Please, Billy. It'll be fun!"

I sighed before taking a long swig from my glass of whiskey, memorizing the flavor of the brown liquid as it glided down my throat. "Fine," I murmured while keeping my face almost emotionless. "Let's do it."

"Yes!" Jack threw his arms up in the air in victory before swiveling around in his seat to gaze at the bodies behind us. He promptly stood up from his seat after his eyes found the person he'd be asking, causing me to slowly trail him as he made his way through the dancing corpses. After finally arriving at the stranger's destination, Jack tapped him on the shoulder while wearing a toothy smile. "Hey, man," Jack greeted when the man turned around to look at him. "Do you mind sharing those?"

What Jack's referring to is one of the bags of pills I was talking about earlier. Don't count me as a role model, please. I'm sure your parents wouldn't be happy if you wrote your high school admiration paper on a guy who takes pills from strangers. Write about Oliver instead.

"Yeah," the man responded with a laugh. He handed Jack the bag of pills and lazily, but jerkily, grabbed Jack on the shoulder with his freehand. "They're not even mine," the stranger mumbled with a proud smile.

Jack nervously laughed in response as he opened the bag of pills. "Alright." Jack turned to me as he removed two pills from the bag. He raised an eyebrow as he murmured, "Are you ready, Redford?"

I shook my head slowly while sighing before running a hand down my face. "Not really," I murmured before taking a pause. "But why the hell not, right?" I joked, trying to lighten up the mood.

Jack smiled back as he placed a pill in my hand. "It's time to live," he murmured while throwing the pill up and catching it in his mouth and then chasing it with a shot of whiskey.

I stared at the pill cautiously in my hand while twisting in around with my thumb. It was white with a small portion of one end being light blue, and I had never seen anything quite like it. So, what did I do? I swallowed it.

Please, for the love of God, do not write about me. Just write about Oliver; everyone loves him for some unknown reason. Or write about someone that actually does good in the world, like Oprah or some shit.

"I wonder how fast this shit kicks in," Jack called out to me as we made our way through the sweaty bodies towards the bar.

I nodded my head in response, and after a few more minutes of pushing past strangers...

"Woah," I murmured as I halted in my tracks. I could practically see my own face in the reflection of Jack's eyes when I spun around slowly to see him. My eyes were wide open but I could barely see; my mouth was frozen in a perfect "O" as I searched my surroundings. The strobe lights didn't exactly help my clouded vision as time seemed to completely stop. The physicality of everything didn't stop- oh, no- it was my mind, the mental part of me, that stopped. Thoughts became nonexistent as I breathed in air slowly through my mouth. All I could think of was how much fun everyone was having, and how I wanted to be apart of it. Could I? Could I...invite myself?

Jack's mouth moved but nothing came out, causing him to laugh silently as he doubled over. I knew it wasn't me because I could still hear the music, the chatter, and the rhythmic grinding of everyone and everything around me. Glasses clinked together loudly- louder than they had before- as my hearing heightened tremendously. It was Jack who was soundless; it was him, not me. Maybe he just couldn't speak properly because of the drug, that was probably it. Jesus, thoughts keep swirling around in my head now. I can't seem to stop...having conversation in my head. Or maybe I'm speaking this all out loud? I honestly can't tell anymore.

"Are..." I began before taking a massive gulp of my own saliva. My mouth was completely soaked in my own clear liquids as I tried to speak, almost as if I was gushing blood. But I could taste that it most definitely wasn't...blood. But what if it is and my taste buds are just indifferent to taste? It tastes like nothing....but it tastes alive. Am I a vampire? Do I need therapy?

Don't answer that.

"I can't speak," Jack mouthed out to me as he stifled silent laughter. I nodded before I busted out laughing, excess saliva dripping from my mouth as I doubled over. I stood up straight in record time as I raised the glass of whiskey to my mouth, taking a small shot to help absorb and swallow my own spit. The whiskey seemed to help because that's all my mouth tasted of now. It tasted as if I was producing my own whiskey within my mouth, which seems ridiculous, but it's all I could come up with.

A wicked smile spread across my face as I watched Jack try to regain his composure. His silent laughter had died down and his happiness seemed to drift away as a look of pure terror swept across his features. "Billy," he mouthed out to me while walking towards me, placing his hands on my shoulders desperately. "What's wrong with me? What's happening?"

I chuckled while shaking my head. "You're just having a bad high, Jack," I responded, prompting him to raise an eyebrow. "It happens to everyone, honestly. It's happened to me before. Hell, it's happened with fucking weed."

"This isn't weed, Billy," Jack frantically mouthed to me. "We don't even know what that fucking was."

I shrugged my shoulders as all my cares in the world seemed to disintegrate from my being. I forgot about the court case that would be in a few days; I forgot about Johnny Starson; I forgot about Vinny; I forgot about Austin; I forgot about Oliver. Everything left me, almost making me feel like I was floating. Lifelessness was what I was feeling. I was experiencing complete and utter invisibility from my own life.

"Billy," Jack mouthed as he shook my shoulders, bringing me back to reality for a moment. I searched his eyes and a small, probably cruel, smile took form upon my lips as I watched him in his desperate state. "Help m-"

I cut him off by leaning forward and kissing him, stilling and shocking him for a moment. He didn't react right away, but I didn't expect him to. Time stopped once again as I kept the kiss going, and time seemed to speed up again when Jack moaned into the kiss. He got his voice back, I guess, all from my kiss. Is this what it felt like to be the prince in every Disney movie?

And to make the whole thing even better, I genuinely reached my arm to the side and let my glass of whiskey fall to the floor as I slipped my tongue into his mouth rather forcefully, but he enjoyed it. I brought my hands to sides of his face as I deepened the kiss even more, earning another low moan from the guy I had met only tonight. Jack moaned again as he reached behind my head and tangled his fingers in my hair, drawing me even closer to him. My hands were at the sides of his face- his hands were tangled in my hair- and it all felt mesmerizing. Maybe it was the drug, or maybe it was him, because this was the most erotic thing I had ever experienced- and that's including my sex tape. God, my sex tape. I completely forgot about that, too.

OLIVER.

"Fuck, man," Chris laughed as he banged his fist on the table a few times from laughter. "That's just fucking insane!"

I shrugged my shoulders as a devilish, small smile took form on my lips. "What can I say?" I murmured while picking up my margarita glass and raising it to my lips. "I'm Oliver Blackheart, baby."

Anthony leaned closer to the table and rested his arm against it while his head was still turned in my direction. "So," he began, "let me get this straight. You fucked Ariana Grande on a ping pong table at Gigi Hadid's house, and then you pulled up your pants, walked to a bathroom, was planning on pissing, but then got your dick sucked by a girl who looked like Katy Perry, but you knew it wasn't Katy Perry, and then you pissed in the toilet after she got up and left?"

I nodded my head while humming in agreement. "Welcome to my life," I cooed.

"I feel like you have some crazier shit than that, Snowflake," Anthony countered with a raised eyebrow.

I raised both of my eyebrows while swiping my fingers across my lips and throwing away the imaginary key. "My lips are sealed," I murmured slowly. "For now," I added on with a wink.

Anthony chuckled along with Chris as I watched the two of them with a small smile on my face. I was familiar with being the center of attention, but usually it was only with people who wanted to fuck me. Hell, I've never told that story to anyone because nobody ever wanted to know. Why would I tell someone who wants to fuck me one of my sex stories? It's not like they need to know the other people I've had sex with. And besides, it's nice to be having some "guy talk." It's not like I have many real friends nowadays. But they'll be leaving when they're done with their movie, and I'll be back to my regular agenda. It's sad, really, but everything's too good to be true.

"Hey," Alice said while tapping her knuckles on the table, signalling all of our attention. "Billy's been gone for a long time. Where is he?"

Anthony waved his hand at her, dismissing her question completely. "The man's probably gettin' boned or some shit," he responded, taking me completely by surprise. I even let out a high pitched laugh in response. "Just let him be a dude."

Alice glared at Anthony for a moment before murmuring something inaudible to Sebastian. "That's not like Billy," she countered as she turned to slowly face Anthony once again.

I sighed dramatically while tilting my head back and closing my eyes. "I'll go find him," I sighed while slowly meeting her gaze. "If anyone should go and look for him, it should be me."

Anthony's eyebrows raised as a look of confusion spread across his face. "Why?"

I raised an eyebrow at him in response. "I know this place better than all of you," I responded. "If anyone's gonna have luck finding him, it's gonna be me."

The four of them all glanced between one another cautiously before Alice's gaze trailed to mine from across the table. "Fine," she murmured. "But I expect him back only slightly annoyed from your antics."

I waved off her comment before taking one final swig from my margarita, the glass now completely empty. "Yeah, yeah," I sighed. "Don't worry."

I turned around and began walking towards where I had seen Billy leave. He had gone towards the club area, I knew that much. I glanced around the club before pushing myself through the scattered bodies, not seeing Billy anywhere in sight. I pushed past a few more people as I turned right to head towards the club bar. If Billy was gonna be anywhere, he'd be where he could get away from everything, wouldn't he? I'm not as dumb as everyone most likely assumes I am, okay? I can make observations. I attended fucking Harvard...for a semester.

"Billy," I sang airily as I stood on my tip toes to scan above the heads of numerous strangers. "Where are you, Billy?" It'd be one thing to come back to the table with Billy completely pissed off at me, but it'd a whole different concept if I came back without Billy. Alice would probably freak out on me. Like I said, observations.

I cursed to myself before pushing past more gyrating bodies, occasionally receiving sex-filled glances as I made my way towards the bar. I stood out among the majority of these people, and normally it'd make me happy. Now, I just wanted to be a regular person with average looks and maybe slightly taller. Maybe eight feet tall would work in this situation.

I reached the bar and there was still no sign of Billy. "Shit," I whispered under my breath while glancing up and down the bar. No Billy- not anywhere. "Where could this little bastard be?" I mumbled while spinning around and glancing at the crowd once again. I glanced to my right where there was a slight gap in the crowd, and I could see Billy...but with his lips locked with someone else's. "Oh shit," I laughed while keeping my eyes on the pair. "Anthony was fucking right."

I watched the two for a few more awkward moments, desperately wanting to see the face of the mystery man. The two pulled away for air and Billy released his hands from the man's face, and I had to hold my breath to keep from gasping out loud. I hadn't seen him since the end of high school- since fucking graduation. We were best friends; I was the popular kid in school while he was the overly smart, British kid who I took under my wing and became best friends with. And to top it all off...he's the only person I've ever loved.

"Jack?"

it's been a hot minute since i updated this but here ya go folks! (more drama and flashbacks to come)

(and more seb <3)