Kevin & "John" | Wednesday night

[x-wither.livejournal.com]

Kevin decides that John should have his own birthday celebration without Nick hanging over his head...only with a side of mischief.

"So, pretty much Ah'm thinkin' that even if you don't have, like, your own birthday you can still steal Nick's. But since you're not Nick 'cause you aren't all emo and in a corner you need a different birthday present," Kevin explained as they drove. He hadn't told John where they were going. He actually said much other than to meet him down in the garage and make sure he had his ID on him. Kevin wasn't sure if John had an ID or if he had found Nick's ID maybe and was using that. Maybe he had a fake ID. Fake IDs worked just fine with Kevin. Though, really, who wanted to be twenty one when you could get in at eighteen anyway? "You've got, ID on you, right?"

John dug into his pocket a fished out two IDs. One that had been sold to him in the homeless shelter, and Nick's that he'd found on his dresser a few weeks back. "Got myself covered." He might look more like Nick, but he had done a much better job of memorizing the information of the unknown, smiling gentleman on the other ID. Either way, he was ready. He couldn't help but let out a grin. "You're not going to take me to some kind of poetry reading? That seems like the type of stuff he'd be into."

Kevin gave him a look akin to horror. Clearly John had a very, very low opinion of Kevin. "Poetry reading? Seriously? Alright, just so we're clear here. Ah don't do poetry. Ah might do a lotta art and have too many friends who're girls - and half of 'em might think Ah'm gay - but poetry readings are a whole level of pussy Ah couldn't attain if Ah actually aspired to it. And if you doubt me then you're walkin' home." They were already a twenty minute drive from the mansion."

John nodded his head. "Good to know. Just had to check." He turned his head and looked over the unfamiliar scenery. Since he came to the mansion a couple of months ago, he had spent almost all of his time on the campus. Everything outside of there seemed so alien to the impoverished area of New York City he had come from. "Where are we going anyway?"

"To the city," Kevin answered vaguely. He didn't normally kidnap people and not tell them where they were going but he was making an exception today. partly because it really seemed like John might need to get away from the Land o' Nick he was living in. Kevin had liked Nick alright, but he sort of preferred John if he was honest. "For your birthday. Which Ah've decided is today. Or tomorrow. Or sometime next month. Y'know, whenever."

"So you're taking me on a binge of horrible crime sprees to celebrate my shift to adulthood?" He grinned as he began nodding his head up and down. "I could get into that." It was his subtle way of trying to get some sort of hint about where they were off to in New York.

"Well, damn. Here Ah was thinkin' strip club but if horrible crimes are what you're after Ah could figure out some banks to rob, some hookers to maim and maybe a couple orphans to slaughter. Ah mean, it's your birthday so really you should be into what we're doin'." Kevin's eyes slid to the side to look at John, a small smile forming as he did.

"Strip club?" The boy's eyes flashed in only the way that an adolescent who just pictured a naked woman in his head could. "I could be convinced to avoid putting a mark on my criminal record in order to get to a strip club." As he leaned back in his seat, he let out a small, but noticeably awkward giggle.

Did...did he just giggle? Wow. At least he was pro-strip club. Of course, he didn't quite know what Kevin had in mind for him so there was no way John could really appreciate what lay ahead for the evening. "Prioritizing nudity over bein' some dude's bitch in prison? You might have potential."

About a half hour later Kevin drove up to a building on West 27th. The sign only read Zizzo's Best and due to construction on nearby buildings the pictures of the performers had been taken down. "Ah gotta find parking. You should go in and Ah'll find you." John was going to kill him.

"Alright. I'll try to save a few dollar bills and a front row seat for ya." John hopped out of the truck and straightened out his shirt. He had no idea how you were supposed to act when going to a strip club, so he decided it was best just to try and fit in. But this didn't go well. Instead, he puffed out his chest, and walked awkwardly forward. Flashing his ID at the security guard, he got an awkward eyebrow before disappearing behind a door and into the club.

Inside the club was just as John had pictured. It was full of feisty, turned on, lust-filled women. Only they were the patrons. Up on stage a ripplingly muscled man in a g-string had a woman on her back on the floor with her legs spread and was grinding into her. Delighted squeals came from the audience. Another similarly outfitted man had a woman's leg up over his shoulder while he straddled her other leg and gyrated against her.

John's eyes instantly became saucers as soon as he saw what was going on. "Oh my God!" Quickly his eyes shifted from side to side. As soon as he was able to shake the terror from his body, he quickly turned and exited back through the same door he entered from. All the while, his words coming out as one, without a breath or pause. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod." His head was still shifted down as he began to wonder his way back out into the parking log, not daring to look up in an attempt to make eye contact.

Kevin hadn't gone far with the car. He had been waiting to see how long it would take for John to run out with his tail between his legs. It took longer than he'd expected but with the look of terror on his face he was sporting Kevin figured maybe he had been frozen in fear. John had, however, walked right by the car idling on the side of the road. Slowly the car crept alongside side, keeping pace with the teenager easily. Kevin rolled down the passenger side window. "So guess that means you're pretty damn sure you're not gay?" he called out.

His head still down, John reached for the door handle, pulling it open and disappearing inside. His head still down, he began muttering to himself. "I have seen... things..." His head instantly began shaking as he thought things through. "I never thought that a sausage would look so terrifying as it does after tonight..." He did not want to look up, afraid that they somehow followed him out of the club.

He sounded horrified. Well and truly traumatized, even. John may never be the same after that. Kevin was laughing hysterically and unashamedly as he drove off. "So, like, those sausage links and pepperoni links that hang in delis and stuff? Not something you're gonna wanna go near for a while? Oh! Does this count as your childhood trauma now?"

John was still muttering to himself. "Trauma, I'm still concerned that I can't get pepperoni pizza again, and have to get mushroom..." His voice trailed off as his mind was screaming at his mouth to try to stop it. But it was too late, the image was already in his head. "....no, no, NO not Mushroom. Not EVER mushroom." Slowly he had begun to draw his knees up into his chest, trying to get the images out.

This just got more and more funny as John went on. Maybe that mad Kevin a really bad person, but he was beyond caring about that. "No sausage. No pepperoni. No mushrooms. Zucchini? Carrots? Calamari tentacles?" He grinned. The tentacles were gross even out of context as far as Kevin was concerned. He had no idea why Italians thought deep frying tentacles was a good idea.

John shuttered slightly. "Nope... no... no more of that." He shook his head again as he turned towards the driver of the truck. "You know, for someone who's not trying to turn me back into the emo mess that Nick supposedly was, you're doing a horrible job of it."

Kevin stopped the car suddenly and looked over at John. He was crestfallen. "You mean bringin' you to actual naked ladies isn't gonna cheer you up? Damn. You're worse off than Ah thought... Ah was even gonna buy you a lap dance. For your birthday and all."

A huffy look overtook John's face as he stopped shaking and slowly turned towards his new partner in crime. "Are you sure it's going to be girls when I walk into this place?" Right then and there he made sure that he wasn't going to walk into the second club without insuring that Kevin went in just in front of him.

A wounded expression came over the Southerner's face. "We really gotta work on your trust issues here. Yes, there will be ladies. Some of them might even not float by default if you throw 'em in the water. But some of 'em will so depending how you like your racks..." he tilted his head to the side and depressed the gas peddle again. Then Kevin grinned. "At least one is an art student. She promised me she'd be real nice to you." You met the most interesting people in community college. Luckily, Kevin had kept Rose's e-mail address.

"Then I'll do my best to trust you." He winked before he continued. "At least for now. But if there is one pepperoni pizza sitting outside my door in the morning, I'm going to know exactly who to go to..."