A/N: The quantities and careless mixture of alcohol drunk in this chapter are purely a result of my imagination. Kids, don’t try this at home! ;)

*****

Alex POV

It was Friday night and Tyson and I were at the victory party at the Tribbiani’s house. Joey had been right: our school mopped the floor with our rivals. The athlete was just sharing with us how amazed he was to see us sitting at the same couch.

“Seriously, all you guys do is argue.”

“Actually, we happen to get along much better now,” I protested.

“You mean it used to be worse?” I nodded. “Come on! You two can’t even stay in the same room for five frickin' minutes without getting into a fight,” Joey commented and I heard some of the people around us murmur their agreement.

“Hey, that’s not true!” I objected once more.

He gave me a “yea-right” look.

“Okay, maybe it is, but only because we’re not … hmmm… motivated enough to do so.”

“Okay, how is this for motivation: I bet you twenty bucks… no, make that fifty bucks each that you can’t stay handcuffed to each other for let’s say… an hour.”

“Well, I’m in!” I accepted at once although I was sure that I would regret it later.

“Well, I’m not!” Was Tyson’s grumpy answer. “Besides, where are you going to find handcuff from?”

“Don’t worry, babe; I got that covered!” I reassured, taking a pair of handcuffs out of my black bag.

Tyson looked at me suspiciously.

“Why are you carrying those around?” The boy queried, his mismatch eyes darting between the handcuffs and me.

“Because this is my mystery bag,” I answered with a bright smile on my face.

“Your what?”

“My mystery bag. Since I haven’t used it in over a month I had no idea what was in it besides the things I put in today. So during recess I got bored and started rummaging through it and guess what I found!”

“I’m afraid to ask what else is in there,” he muttered grimly.

“Ooh, no! Don’t try to change the subject; are you in or are you going to chicken out of the bet?” I questioned, giving him my most daring smile. I knew that if I put it like that, he’d say yes.

“I’m in,” Ty announced, glaring at me.

“Okay, then! Give me the kinky gear and let the games begin!” Joey shouted enthusiastically.

Amused by his attitude I gave him a huge grin and a wink whereas Tyson groaned.

“Here you go!” I said, handing him “the kinky gear”.

“Nice!” Joey whistled while taking the handcuff from me. “These actually look like they would hold, not like the ones that are usually sold at sex shops.”

“Thanks! I… hmm… borrowed them from this cop and kind of forgot to give them back…” I saw a few people raise their eyebrows at me. “Don’t ask! It’s a long story.”

“Okay… moving on then. Give me your hands!” Joey ordered us and I extended my right and Ty his left hand so the boy could cuff us. “Well, now that that is all done we can start timing you. Oh, and I’ll be taking this; just to make sure that things will be fair,” he declared, taking the key I’d pulled out along with the handcuffs. “So…” He addressed the others around us. “Let’s start the bets about who is going to kill the other one first!”

I was just about to snort but Tyson beat me to it. To our surprise, it turned out that people liked the idea and for the next twenty minutes or so Joey proclaimed himself for a bookie. Tyson and I on the other hand spent that time unsuccessfully trying to ignore each other.

“Oh, come on! It’s not hat bad!” I stated after yet another quarrel.

“No that bad! Not that bad! How exactly is this situation not bad?” He practically shouted at me.

“Look, all we need is a distraction…”

“All I need is a drink,” he muttered.

“I got it!” I shouted excitedly and made a run for the kitchen. Or at least tried to because a certain somebody was cuffed to my arm and that somebody, not knowing that I wanted to move, was now glaring at me from the floor. I looked at him surprised that I had forgotten about our little new “connection”. But what got me even more astonished was the fact that I had actually managed to pull him off the couch and onto the floor.

“Oops!” I exclaimed sheepishly.

“Oops,” he repeated calmly… too calmly. “You make me stumble to the floor…” He started getting up and rubbing the thigh on which he had fallen “… and then all you say is “oops”.” Tyson was now looking at me with his face completely washed out of any emotion. “I’m going to murder you,” he declared so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him over the music.

“Before that can you at least listen to my idea? I bet it will cheer you up.” He looked at me skeptically so I added: “It involves alcohol.”

“Okay, let’s hear it!”

Well, that seemed to have perked him up.

*****

Tyson POV

“Remind me again why are we doing this?” I queried, looking at the shot glasses in front of us.

“Because I wanted to try it for a while and now seems like as good time as any and I pretty much challenged you to it,” Alex recited with way too much enthusiasm at which I groaned. But it was true; all she had to do was tease me a bit and I agreed to her dumb idea. How come I fall for her tricks so often?

“Fine. Let’s just get it over with!” I grumbled, reaching for one of the drinks.

“Not yet! I asked Joey to play that song. I want to drink them while I listen to it,” she announced just as Tubthumping by Chumbawamba began to play.

It was not amongst my favorites!

“Get ready!” The brunette ordered, tucking her long hair behind her ears to get it out of the way.

I get knocked down but I get up again
You're never gonna keep me down

I looked at the drinks again. Why did I have a bad feeling about this?

He drinks a Whiskey drink,

We both gulped our whiskey shots…

He drinks a Vodka drink,

…we went for the vodka…

He drinks a Lager drink, he drinks a Cider drink

We finished our drinks and grimaced.

“That was awful,” I pronounced, still scrunching my face.

“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be!” Alex remarked.

“If you thought it would be bad why did you try it?” I questioned, raising my voice. This girl definitely knew how to piss me off big time.

“Because I was curious,” she stated as if that was a reasonable explanation. “Are we going for the second round then?” She must have seen my confused face because she quickly added: “There is one more verse with the drinks mentioned.”

“You actually want to do that again?”

“And I will. The question is: will you do it?” She challenged.

“Fine!” I said just in time to drink along with the lyrics.

So we each gulped down four more drinks.

“Well, this time it didn’t seem so bad.” She smiled cheerfully. “I must say, I didn’t think you would actually be able to keep up with the song though. Your movements are too slow.”

“There is nothing wrong with my movements. I can drink…” I searched around the room, feeling a slight dizziness as I moved my head. I probably shouldn’t drink anymore, but I didn’t want Alex to tease me about it so I kept looking around for the nearest alcohol (which was the now half empty tequila bottle) and took it. “… I can drink this and I’ll still move faster than you!”

“If you say so!” She smirked, rolling her eyes.

*****

Alex POV

“Remember when you said we should get a few chickens, paint them our rival team’s colors and let them loose in their school?” A grinning Joey loomed over me still sitting on the couch.

“Tell me you got the chickens!” I pleaded with a hope-filled voice.

“Yep!” He stated proudly. “Only they are kind of running loose around here instead.”

Tyson barked out a short laugh at that. Hmm, I didn’t think he would find something like this funny.

“Umm… Why?” I asked confused.

“Well, my idiot of a drunken cousin, who by the way got them for me, thought it will be good exercise to chase them around. He even turned it to a game: ten points per hen and twenty if you go for the cock.”

At that Tyson giggled. Seriously? Since when does he giggle like that?

“I bet some girls would love to go for the cock,” I mumbled. “So why are you telling me this?”

“Because you two are going to help me catch them and lock them up before we get a bunch of animal rights defenders coming here to ruin our fun.”

“And why do you think we’re going to chase chicks and cocks for you?”

“Oh, I think… Actually, I’m pretty sure you two would want to catch the brown one,” he stated with a devilish grin gracing his face.

“And why is that?” I queried hesitantly.

“Because we tied the key for the handcuffs to it,” the boy announced, barely containing his laughter.

“No! No, no, no! Tribbiani, tell me you didn’t! Please, say that you’re kidding!”

He just shook his head and burst in a loud laugh.

“How did this happen?” I asked, desperation lacing my voice. “Why would you do that? Why? Why? Why?”

“Stop worrying ‘bout it, will you?” Tyson surprised me with his amused inflection.

Okay, what the hell was happening with this guy tonight? He would usually kill Joey on the spot and now he was just sitting completely relaxed on the couch.

“The way I see it, we gotta catch us a chick,” he commented.

“That’s the spirit!” Joey exclaimed merrily before disappearing somewhere, leaving me to stare dumbfounded at Tyson.

“Come on!” He prompted, getting up and offering me his hand to help me stand. I took it, looking with suspicion at him. We stared at each other for a few more moments before I let go of him.

“Maybe we should start from the yard,” I offered.

“‘K!” He said and headed in that direction. “Oops, almost forgot this!” He reached out to take the tequila bottle that he had been drinking from and gulped the last of it.

“All done!” The boy proclaimed, grinning like an idiot.

And then it finally hit me: Tyson was drunk.