Southern Comfort

"Duke, please unpack your room," his mother pleads, eyes flickering towards where her son is sprawled across the askew couch aimlessly, "we do plan on staying here a while." After her recent divorce anything new looked wonderful. The offer of a job that had beckoned them in the first place would provide them with the money they would need to live and Duke would be leaving for college in a year on his asshole of a father's dime.

"Most divorced people don't move whole states away." Duke can't help the petulance in his voice, upset that all his friends would be spending their senior year together while Duke would be stuck with new people in a new town with a weird ass name.

'Lupus Valley', honestly who called a place Wolf Valley? Sounds like the beginning to a subpar horror movie. School starts next week but all Duke fells was a cold sense of dread.

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School is like any other, Duke struggles a bit to find his first period but it comes to him easily enough. The students stare at him like he’s grown a second head, hell maybe he has, whatever. Mr. Horice, his English teacher just tells him to ‘pop a squat’, which Duke then has to infer means for him to take any available seat. Not a single eye leaves him as he trudges to the middle of the class and grabs the first open seat. A girl giggles and flutters her eyelashes when Duke takes a cursory glance around the room. Duke doesn’t know what it is with new kids, even at his old school people were fascinated by them, thought they were hotter, cooler, etc just because they were new.

The teacher starts telling them about the upcoming semester and what’s expected of them. Pretty much what was going to be done at his old school so he doesn’t feel egregiously unprepared but he never knows. Teacher could drop a bomb on him about something he never even learned about.

School’s the same playing ground, even if he’s in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. He’ll survive even if he doesn’t like it.

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“You gonna try out for the football team?” The voice comes from out of nowhere, nearly making Duke slam his head into his locker door. He hadn’t been expecting someone to willingly come up to him to talk. Usually Duke had to be the one to start the conversations for the first day before everyone stopped treating him like a plague victim.

“Uh?” Duke’s lack of verbal skills will probably affect his ability to make friends, but this guy just rolls on through, like Duke’s serious lack of vocals isn’t a problem.

“The football team? Lupus Valley High Timberwolves? Are. You. Going. To. Try. Out?” The guy has a backwards baseball cap slung back far on his head, unruly brunette hair spilling out underneath in a straight mop. “Because dude, your build is great, we could use you.”

Duke could do worse than making himself seem more friendly by trying out for different sports, and if trying out for the football team makes him at least one friend he’ll count it as a win, “sure, when’s try outs?”

“This afternoon after school, out back on the field,” the guy gestures with a thumb thrown over his shoulder, he smiles clapping Duke on his shoulder familiarly. “I’m Red, nice to meetcha. I’m the Captain,” he laughs slightly. “So I’ll see you after school?”

“Yeah, I’m Duke by the way.” He could do worse things than get involved in an after school activity, at least it’d give him something to do. Maybe make his mom happy that he’s getting out of the house and not moping about anymore.

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Duke stares around him at the other possible team members, feeling slightly overdressed because he doesn’t have a pair of basketball shorts. He hadn’t been planning on being here this afternoon so he’ll just have to make do. Red comes across the field in all his padding with the other members of the team. They are mostly all seniors with a few junior members and even less sophomore ones. They were mostly looking for their freshman third stringers now, people to fill out the team and prepare for the years to come. Duke was the oldest of the possible recruits and that already made him stand out like a sore thumb. He towered over the ninth graders and had considerably more muscle than any of them. Duke wonders why Red invited him if they were only looking at freshman, then again the guy had said something about Duke looking the part; maybe they needed a replacement or something?

Three coaches jog out of the school, rounding them up and telling them to take a seat on the bottom levels of the bleachers. The current members of the team stand behind the coaches with helmets in hand and size up the fresh meat with their eyes. Duke makes eye contact with Red who gives him a smirk and winks—a sign that Duke hopes is meant to reassure him.

Four hours later and Duke’s jogging over to the bleachers to sit down with a giant sigh. Their tryouts had been more involved than he’d thought; thankfully Red offered him a spare pair of gym shorts so that he wasn’t in jeans. They’d spent time going through drills, testing their endurance and speed. He had to run suicides, pass drills, sprints, you name it. He’d been thrown hundreds of balls to see how fast his reaction time was. They ran plays to see their ingenuity, and teamwork ability. In the end Duke doesn’t know where he stands. He’d given his best, but he doesn’t know if that’ll be enough. Either way he got a hell of a workout.

“Dude, you were badass,” Red surprises him by coming over to sit next to him, even offering him a bottle of water.

“What? No way, you guys really showed us up,” Duke scratches his head, grinning when Red elbows him.

“Whatever, you’re a shoo in for the team, you could even get first string if you keep it up. I knew you’d be perfect for the team,” Duke looks over at Red to see that he’s looking off towards the field with a fierce glint to his eye. “I’ve wanted to win the championship ever since middle school league. Our team hasn’t won it in ten years and I want to be the captain that breaks that tradition.” Red turns his head towards him from where he’s reclining against the row of seats behind them, “we have to win this year.” There’s this fierce determination in his eyes, and Duke doesn’t want to let him down.

“You guys will do it.”

“No, we’ll do it,” and Red looks so serious that Duke believes him. “Anyway, the guys and I are having a team get together tonight, you should come.”

“You sure? I’m not even on the team,” Duke shrugs, knowing his mom’s probably wondering where he is, whether he ran away back to his hometown or something.

“Everyone knows you’re going to get on, just come, it’s at my house so I can invite whoever I want anyway, here,” Red holds out his hand and after a second Duke realizes he’s asking for his phone. Duke hands it over without really thinking about it and watches as Red inputs his contact information. “I put my cell phone number and address in your contacts, just map it and if you get lost text me and I’ll direct you. It’s at nine.”

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“I’m so happy that you made friends on your first day Duke! See, this place is looking better and better right?” His mother is all smiles, she’d unpacked more than a few boxes and their house isn’t looking quite as empty anymore. He rolls his eyes in spite, grabbing an apple for a snack.

“Yeah mom, I’m not as completely hopeless as you make me out to be. Anyway, the team’s having a movie night, can I go?” Duke knows that movie night would sound better to his mom’s ears, wouldn’t let her immediately jump to the conclusion that Duke is out to make trouble.

She still seems so happy that he told her he tried out for the football team on the spur of the moment. She’s hovering around the kitchen, stacking plates and cups in cabinets to her liking. “How sweet of them to invite you already, curfe—“

“I’m probably going to stay over there, Red said I could,” Duke cuts his mom off before she can finish telling him he has a curfew. Worse comes to worse he just sneaks in later that night without his mom being any the wiser.

“Oh okay…are his parents going to be there?” Typical parent question, Duke waits to roll his eyes when her back is turned.

“Yeah, we’re just going to be hanging out an watching movies and eating pizza.”

“Well okay, behave yourself, and remember your ‘yes m’aams’ and ‘yes sirs’ when talking to his parents.” Sometimes his mother’s southern comes out, Duke’s got a bit of a down home boy twang too, but not very thick. Now he’s the odd one out up in north California.

“Gotcha.”

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It’s already dark when he pulls up to the house, but he’d pretty sure it’s the right place by the sheer amount of cars in the driveway. Duke’s sure Red didn’t invite the whole team, but there are a good bit of them here anyway. The house is a nice two story brick set up with a well kept lawn from what Duke can tell as he trudges across the grass to the front door. The bell rings through the house like a cave echo. A shadow falls through the glass beside the thick oak door, and opens to reveal a guy who looks eerily similar to Red.

“You another member of the team? Haven’t seen you before, you new?” The guy questions, and steps to the side to let him in.

“Uh, I just moved into the area and tried out for the team today. Red invited me.” Duke scratches his head awkwardly, shuffling into the house and standing there, unsure of where to go now.

“Oh, you must be the kid he was talking about, from what I heard, you’re practically on the team already,” the guy grins lightly, eyes tracking what Duke is sure is a blush rising on his own face. “Shit, sorry, I’m Greyson Ashe, Red’s older brother,” he holds out his hand genially.

“Oh, cool, I’m Duke Chambers.” He shakes the large hand, momentarily distracted by the warmth and feel of the grip. His fingers are tinged black at the tips, hands worn with some calluses yet otherwise smooth somehow. Their handshake probably lasts longer than it’s supposed to, but neither of them seem to mind when they finally draw away.

“They’re down in the basement, let me show you down there,” Greyson gestures towards the hallway and stops at a door. He opens it and steps down the staircase with Duke in tow. “Hey chucklehead, Duke’s here,” Greyson announces unceremoniously. The rowdy group of boys quiets down a bit, enough for Red to rise from his place on a plush couch and come forward to draw Duke into their group. Duke glances back at Greyson who only stands at the base of the stairs for another moment, they lock eyes and then he turns to head back upstairs.

“So glad you could make it dude, here let me introduce you to everyone,” Red seems generally happy to see him, and someone shoves a beer into his hand. “So these assholes you’re going to be seeing a lot of from now on,” he gestures to their semi-circle, there are other guys around the basement, some playing beer pong, others crowding the video game console hooked to the TV and still more around the large speakers pumping the top hits of the year into the basement. The semi-circle however, seems to be Red’s closest friends. “That’s Jimmy, Stevie, Alexander but everyone calls him Xander, Tyler, Marc, and Bobby.” They greet Duke happily, patting him on the back and ‘cheers’ing him with their own beers.

Duke’s not sure when he completely relaxed into the atmosphere, but he’d loosened up after an intense game of beer pong with his teammate being Red, they kicked ass against almost everyone. The cheering got so loud that it drew Greyson down to see what had everyone so riled up. Instead of dampening the mood like most grownups do, Greyson seemed to be well liked by everyone.

Duke is drawn out of his thoughts by a series of taunting jeers directed towards Red and his brother, apparently Greyson had made a comment that he could kick his brother’s ass at beer pong and that had led to a challenge.

“Fuck you, I can totally beat you, Duke and I are invincible, right Duke-y?” At this point both him and Red have been drinking quite heavily, leading to Red’s overconfidence and Duke’s near constant laugh/smile attack. What? He’s a happy drunk, sue him.

“Hell yeah, we can whoop your ass,” Duke replies, high-fiving Red happily and officially challenging Greyson. His eyes are smoldering and suddenly Duke’s not sure if he’s hot from all the alcohol he’s drunk or the way Greyson’s looking at him. Where he was from it wasn’t exactly awesome to be anything other than straight. Alabama could swing either way, but usually it made people uncomfortable when anyone admitted to being not straight. Duke had always preferred guys to girls even though he could appreciate both. Guys were less fragile he felt, and they could fuck like animals. Duke had a tendency to leave marks when he fucked and he liked seeing them in the morning on his partner of the night. That didn’t mean he was picky enough to turn down sex that was offered to him, he simply preferred a warm dick. In Alabama he had to be careful who that was or who he was chatting up if he didn’t want to get punched in the mouth or worse.

“Yeah yeah, we’ll see who’s the real winner here, do I have a partner?” Greyson looks around and multiple hands raise, he gestures to Xander who lopes over with his shaggy mess of a haircut and lopsided smile. “Bring it on pussies!”

||

“Can’t believe we lost,” Duke whispers, leaning back against the door with a huff. People are clearing out because it’s nearly four in the morning and they have school tomorrow. Red’s sitting in front of him on the front stoop grinning happily.

“I knew we wouldn’t win, my brother’s a beast a beer pong, it’s his unofficial major in university.” Red twirls an empty beer bottle around on the stoop, both their eyes following the glinting light.

“Haha, you set us up for failure, thanks loser,” he takes the heat out of his words by smiling. Red grins in response, reaching over to punch him in the calf.

The door swings open and Duke’s leaning too heavily on it so he flails backwards, sprawled out on the entryway floor embarrassingly. Greyson’s standing over him, lopsided grin brightening when he sees what he’s done. “Already bowing down after that crushing defeat? I’m honored!” Duke rolls over and pushes himself up with a huff.

“Yeah right, it’ll take more than a beer pong match to have me bowing down to you,” Duke tries to pretend that the way Greyson’s looking at him could make that sentence sound incredibly dirty, but he plays it off as a trick of the light and the beer. Besides, he’s not going to ruin his new friendship with Red by hitting on his brother.

“Well, I guess I’ll head out now too, thanks for the party man, it was great, I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” Red jumps up to give him a quick bro hug and pat him on the back. Duke trudges across the lawn and turns to wave once before hopping in his car and driving home. The beer is starting to wear off and he’s getting more tired than anything else.

He makes it home in one piece, mostly because he only lives a neighborhood over, and then sets about sneaking around back and going in through the window he left open to his room. He has to crawl up the back porch but that’s a simple task with the roof slanted almost flat. Falling into bed has never felt better.

And if he happens to have a few incredibly sexy dreams about a certain tall, dark, handsome brother…well he’ll keep it to himself.