"Closer"

Brian was sniggering to himself as he peered into the bag tucked underneath his arm. He'd used his free class to pop into town and pick up a little something for Liv, ahead of their anniversary the following week. He could tell she was planning something and thus hadn't booked anything himself, but he did intend to shower his beautiful bride with material goods, and this extra-figure-hugging-but-also-removeable-with-one-zip piece of scarlet red lingerie was the first one. She really did look fantastic in red. It was a pity she didn't choose to wear it more...but then again, teachers generally wore sedate clothes at work, and she wasn't shy about doing herself up at home. Not that whatever she was wearing lasted long, tehe.

Wake up, Brian. He thought to himself as he found himself slipping into a flashback of their escapade earlier. It was probably wrong that a grown man in his late twenties was still given to such fantastical memory-reliving, but he couldn't deny he enjoyed every second.

Every inch of her flawless skin and perfect figure.

Every little coo of delight and breathless sigh.

Every aside, smile, and wink.

Every...

THOSE WERE SENIORS SKIPPING CLASS!

Brian was jolted awake-and none too soon either, seen as though he was walking down the street with a vacant expression looking like a seedy pervert-by the sight of a group of senior students from the school huddled together in Starbucks just on the street corner.

The nerve of them to skip class and have him have to interrupt his daydreaming about his beautiful wife just to go in and yell at them. He sighed and collected himself. He was a science teacher, not exactly a pillar of authority, and he was never sure how to approach his students when he was being authoritarian. Mostly he liked to chat to them about music and sport and pass on numbers of old music managers he'd worked with before he became a teacher. He crossed the road carefully, tightening his tie, and walked firmly into Starbucks.

Frank saw him first and practically spit out his coffee.

"IT'S THE SCHECH!"

The boys all turned towards the door, alarmed, but realised there was nowhere to go and sat where they were, anxious expression on their faces.

"It could be worse," Gerard whispered. "It could be Principal Hamilton."

"Noted," said Frank under his breath, pushing the coffee slowly away as if it were evidence that needed hiding.

Bob stood up to greet Brian. "Schech man, how's it going?"

"Schech? I don't think so. You two are cutting class. My wife's class, I believe."

"I ain't in it," Bob said laconically and sat back down again, taking a sip of Starbucks.

"Give me that!" Brian snatched it off him and glared at the others. "Do you realise what an inconvenience this is? I'm going to have to drag you back myself, report you to Mrs Hamilton, write up a report..."

"Sure, that's the inconvenience," Gerard sniggered. "What does that bag under your arm say? Le Plaisir d'Amour?"

Brian squeezed it tighter to him. "Never you mind."

"Ooh yes, the Schech was having lewd fantasies about Mrs MacSchech and we interrupted him!" Frank snapped a high five with Gee as if this was something to be proud of.

"Are the rumours true then? It is your anniversary over midterm?"

"Why are you still talking?!" Brian said, flabbergasted. "Get out that door right now and back to the school!"

"Ooh, I don't know man, we're in a position here. You see, we could always go up to Mrs MacSchech and tell her about that bag and ruin the surprise..." Frank said with a glimmer in his eye.

Brian narrowed his eyes. "You wouldn't."

Frank returned the glare. "I would."

"She'd kick your ass for not being in the class."

"But see this would distract her."

"What do you want out of me?"

"Silence. We have an offensive planned. You can't let A7X get one over on us."

Brian pondered momentarily. In spite of his teacher (aka supposedly neutral) position, he harboured a surprising amount of hatred for the A7X Crew. Maybe it was their arrogant OC personality, or maybe it was the time one of them crashed a car into the front wall at a very opportune moment between he and Liv.

"It'll cost you your coffee."

"Deal, dude."

"Now get out of my sight."

The boys of MCR stood up, grinning mischievously, and winked at him before leaving. Brian snapped his fingers impatiently, urging them to hurry on. Once they'd left, he took a sip of Frank's coffee and settled down into the booth. He peered in at the lingerie once more, allowing a suggestive smirk to spread across his face.

Time to send her a very naughty shouldn't-be-seen-before-the-watershed text.

~~ * ~~

"Dude, this place is freaky."

Suety stated the obvious as the girls approached the entrance to The Batcave, a not-very-originally named club just outside the main city of Newark that specialised in metal music for the deranged. It was certainly a striking establishment, finished impeccably with gargoyles, bats, and weeping angels etched into the walls and a pair of menacing black lions guarding the gates. The grounds were illuminated by flaming lamps and the venue itself, an old converted church, was surmounted by a staunchly imposing Gothic cross and bell tower. The church was, naturally, attached to an old withering graveyard - though whose idea it was to convert a church by a graveyard into a nightclub and leave the innocent dead folk and their final resting places open to all manner of drunken shenanigans remains anonymous. With a thick and shady black forest growing mightily all around the club, and the moon full in the dim sky on this particular March night, the spectacle created by The Batcave was nothing short of magnificent. It was like an illustration from an Edgar Allen Poe book - the girls' friend Grace's dream place to hang out.

And she was definitely inside, judging from the hulking black Chopper parked neatly just inside the gates.

Chey eyed everything around her with a equal parts bemusement and indifference. This certainly wasn't her type of place, though she had to admit it was aesthetically appealing and the frankly fascinating range of bizarre outfits on show gave her hours of amusement. She pulled out her fake ID (for their connections ensured all the girls were furnished with false identification), as did Suety and Kirsty, and they quickly passed the doorman and entered the main hall of the club. They scanned the crowd carefully, looking for Grace's vampiric features or indeed the equally striking form of her boyfriend, Brian, better known as Synyster or simply Gates.

The steady bassline thumping through the speakers was that of the Nine Inch Nails, and "Closer", and with a knowing glance at one another the girls suddenly remembered where they could find Grace when this track was playing. They turned towards the dance floor and made their way past throngs of oblivious revellers.
Sure enough, there she was.

She'd hate to disappoint, after all.

Grace was standing in the centre of the dancefloor, partially wrapped around Gates, sultrily grinding up against him in perfect time to the lusty music. Tossing her long black hair back over her shoulders seductively, she gazed directly into his eyes as she ran her fingers through his loose dark hair, leaning in so her forehead was touching his. Together they wove themselves around the other, spinning slowly and engrossingly, their eyes never leaving that intoxicating gaze. The lights of the club, an assortment of dark blues, greens, and reds that in Irish would be called ildaite, danced effervescently about them, bathing them in an elegant swathe of iridescence straight out of a 1900s Parisien boudoir.

If, er, you're into that sort of thing.

And Chey was not.

"Excuse me while I go vomit."

She had something of a dislike for Grace's boyfriend. And was unafraid to show it. Ah, but her brutal honesty was what everyone loved about her.

"Should we wait til the song's over?" Kirsty asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, I'm enjoying this!" Suety replied excitedly.

"Hey! Snap out of it, missus, you have a boyfriend."

"I don't know...that Gates fella has some moves..."

"Pity about the lack of penis."

Kirsty & Suety burst out laughing and rolled their eyes at one another. The song was drawing to a close, but another heavy bass line was building up underneath the torrent of music just as it faded.

"Oh shit, is that Rammstein?" Suety thought out loud. "Grab her now!"

"Sure thing." Chey stepped down onto the dance floor and walked determinedly over to the pseudo-pornographic spectacle unfolding on the dance floor. [It should be noted that Grace was fond of miniskirts on top of everything else.] She put her hand on the latter's shoulder and tugged her firmly. Turning, Grace's face lit up at the sight of her friend and she proceeded to bearhug her, much to Gates' chagrin.

"CHEYANNE!"

"Sup."

"I've missed you so much! How are you?"

"I'll be a lot better once we get out of this stifling place."

Gates glared at her, Chey returned the favour.

"Ah, but I was having fun."

"Closer is done, let us leave. You're supposed to be meeting us tonight anyway, not him."

Gates glared at her, and Chey returned the favour.

"Oh, I know. I'm sorry. It's just...I miss this place when I'm in college."

"You're like...half an hour away...and it's spring break, you can come here whenever you like! Now back to my place. Bye Gates."

"I beg your pardon?" He was unimpressed. Nothing new there. It would be something of a euphemism to write that Gates and Chey did not really see eye to eye.

"Do you have a problem with her seeing her friends?"

"No, but you could at least let her say goodbye."

"I'd rather you deflated your little man before you embarrass yourself."

Somewhere in the distance Kirsty & Suety shrieked with laughter. Grace stifled a chuckle. She preferred to let them play this out rather than intervene.

"What was that?"

"Oh no, I forgot. There is no little man. Sorry about that Gates. I didn't mean to remind you of it."

"If you prefer to pretend it's not there just cos you never get to see any, then so be it."

"Please. If that and you were the solution to my problem, I'd turn celibate. You have no idea how appealing you make that sound."

"Ha. Whatever. Not my problem if you want to deny yourself the simple pleasures in life."

"Dude, I know all about the simple pleasures in life, and you are a boil on their behind."

"ON THAT HAPPY NOTE!" Anxious to prevent this going on all night when they had a sleepover to get to, Grace intervened for once. "We should depart. Will you be fine darlin?"

"Yeah, sure. I'm gonna head over to Shads', catch up with him. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Make it late, I've plans with the sisters."

"No problem. See you." He leaned in and whispered something inaudible but undoubtedly perverted into her ear, causing her to giggle raucously and punch him in the chest.

"We'll see," she replied mysteriously, licking her lips before leaning in and kissing him snappily goodbye. "Take care sugar."

"Chey."

"Fuckface."

They turned and left, Gates providing the token Bridie behind her back.

Grace squealed with glee and rushed towards Suety and Kirsty when she saw them standing by the dance floor on the other side of the room. The trio collapsed in a gigantic bubble of love and hugs, squeezing each other for dear life.

"I've missed you two so much! I can't believe I've only been gone since the end of January, it feels like it's been forever."

"You're telling me!" Suety announced, hugging her once more. "You don't come home often enough."

"Well I can't always...I have recitals and such...and I usually end up going to a friend's house for the weekend anyway."

"Yeah, we know which friend."

"Hey!" Grace playfully hit her on the arm. "I don't mean his house. Contrary to popular belief, I don't spend all my time with him."

"Just most of it?"

"Hush."

Suety winked.

"Kirsty my dear! You look somewhat down in spite of everything."

Kirsty nodded slowly. "I just got a text from Gerard...he says they've drawn some blueprints for something...I can't understand why that boy chooses to fail at life so spectacularly."

Grace pinched her cheek. "Taking risks when he's got so much to lose is his way of showing you he has balls."

"There's another much simpler way to do that and it involves me, him, and a locked room."

"Oh well. C'mere." Grace hugged her tightly. "You look great sugar!"

"Thank you. See this bruise right here though? Val's handiwork."

"Seriously?!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

"Yep. She started it too, I'm not being childish."

"No, I believe you...it's just I thought I talked her out of that..." Grace and Val actually got along very well, given their two boyfriends were very close friends. Grace had been the shoulder Val leaned on when her parents got divorced and her father and twin sister moved back to California. A void that searing between you and your other half is never easy, and indeed was oft-used to explain Val's self-destructive perplexing behaviour by the group.

"Meh. She does whatever she likes." They shrugged and headed for the door of the club.

"So back to mine then? I've warned Kat she's being kicked out. She actually offered before I could declare it...I swear, she's growing up to be such a dote." Kat was the younger of Grace's two sisters, and the one she shared a room with at home.

"Yep. We've brought provisions!" Suety held up two bags stuffed full of goodies and artistic tools; this was to be an "artistic" sleepover. As unconventional as the girls themselves.

"Excellent! Right come on then, we'll cut through the trees!"

"Oh noez. That scares Suety."

Chey wrapped her arms around her from behind.

"I gotcha. And Gates is still inside, don't worry."

"Gates is hot, I'd kinda like him to walk me through..."

Chey pulled her hands away. "I no longer like you."

Suety giggled and kissed Chey on the cheek.

"Better now?"

"Well, it stings less."

They linked arms and followed Grace and Kirsty down the pathway through the graveyard.