FicWad

The month of September went by fairly quickly for everyone, with Joe, Dirty and Jenn’s birthdays all being celebrated, parties were frequent and liver failure was at high risk for the entire street. October seemed to be running past everyone just as fast as school started to dominate the student’s lives. Ali had started working on a giant art project for the last class she needed before earning her Art degree. Izzy was busy going to local show after show, earning money for the house taking pictures all the while cramming for exam after exam. Jenn had preoccupied her time with not only sketching vaudeville-esk fashion designs, but studying Dirty and asking about his family and adoption story. She was just a curious person. Ashley and Joe had been taking the real-life experiences of the house and combined their English and film majors into one to start work on a script called, well, what’s better than /Brothers and Sisters/? Andy had joined Patrick and Ali in digging up information on Grace and Gabe’s past, but being that the two had become fairly separated from the group, they were struggling. Travi however seemed to break past it and had been spending much time with Gabe, the two writing songs for shits and giggles, even though Patrick found it intriguing, considering he was the music major. Pete was still going crazy trying to figure out how to bed Izzy without the influence of Alcohol, but unfortunately for him, seemed to catch the nervous disease from Patrick. Grace and Gabe both seemed to only be coasting by, doing fairly average in both school and their social lives. Drinking had become a common thing and Ali found the monthly budget fluctuating to cover the costs of Jack Daniels. No doubt the two felt guilty, but were also wrapped around the thought that it was the only way.

It was a Wednesday night when Grace decided to venture downtown to the off-campus clubs that were usually littered with students even on school nights. She knew that it would be a long night and a long morning and thanked the heavens that most of the house had class on Thursdays. Getting into the club was easy, as she had decided to dress herself up, pulling the vixen card out and mini skirt on. It had not gotten that cold yet, and she knew she could get away with it. Inside the club, she immediately made her way to the bar and upon arrival the bartender moved his eyes to her. She smiled, pleased.

“A shot of coconut rum, and a coke, please,” she yelled, the music getting louder as the dance floor became more and more crowded. A voice came from behind her, an arm moving around her and resting on the bar, boxing her in.

“Make that two,”

Grace quickly snapped her head back and let a gasp go as she saw a determined Gabe, a serious expression taking over his usually calm features. She frowned slightly, not used to seeing him this forward. He placed a five on the counter and gulped, looking down at Grace.

“Keep the change,” he spoke and Grace moved her head to look down at the two shot glasses. Gabe moved his body so he was next to her and gripped his, eyeing her until she grabbed hers as well.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, her motivation to have fun tonight gone almost instantly, feeling strangely guilty. Gabe shook his head and raised his shot glass, waiting for her to copy him.

“Same as you,” he clinked their glasses together and the two gulped the burning liquid down in unison. He smashed the glass down on the bar and wiped at his mouth. “I’m drinking my problems away,” Grace let her lips part, a little shocked before placing her shot glass down as well. She licked her lips nervously and watched Gabe as he ordered another round.

“Gabe,” she called. He turned towards her and shook his head.

“Grace,” he said back and creased his eyebrows together. “Let’s just be two people drinking together,” he moved a new shot glass towards her fingers and she picked it up. The two threw back the shots again together and Gabe leaned towards her ear. “Nothing more,”
Grace somewhat agreed with him, and after a few more shots later, the two had migrated to the dance floor the moment Sexy Back began to play.

“You still like Justin Timberlake?” Grace asked, her head near his ear. Gabe through his head back in laughter and nodded his head, snaking his arms around her waist.

“Oh yeah,” he yelled back and pressed his hands to her back, bringing her closer to him. Grace almost fought him, but found that coconut rum was a very persuasive liquid, and in her state of mind, found nothing more thrilling than straddling one of Gabe’s legs and grinding against him.

The night continued much like this, visits to the bar for more shots and then right back into the dance pit for more grinding. Their time there ended not a minute past 2, though as Gabe drunkenly pressed his lips to Grace’s, and in a quick decision, the two decided to find their way home to continue. Bursting through the front door, they found Pete passed on the couch, Dirty on the ground next to him, the two snoring rather loudly. Grace let a giggle go, but found Gabe’s finger pressed against her lips a moment later. He flashed a smile and then leaned down, stumbling slightly as he picked her up bridal style.

“Shh,” he whispered, rather loudly before moving towards the stairs and slowly walking up them, struggling half-way. Grace hopped down and laughed more as she ran ahead, breaking through her room and waiting until Gabe joined her inside before she closed it and locked it. Their drunken make-out session continued then and as the two kicked off their shoes, Gabe pushed them onto the bed, and scooted Grace towards the headboard. She breathed a smile and observed him as he shed his t-shirt and copied quickly with hers before locking their lips again.

“I need this, Gabe,” she spoke, watching as he lowered his lips to kiss her stomach and work on un-buttoning her miniskirt. He nodded as he threw it off and stood up next to the bed, shedding his own jeans before rejoining her on the bed.

“Yeah,” he whispered and let a laugh go as she leaned up to kiss his neck. “Me too,” they were quick to get down to business and the instant Gabe pushed himself into her, her back coiled up and he instinctively placed his hands around her lower back and hips and leaned back onto his knees. Being that they were both still drunk, thrusts were sloppy but the two still found much enjoyment of the act they were participating in, even though they couldn’t say it. Gabe continued his thrusts and leaned back over Grace, pushing his mouth to hers as he felt her contract around him.

“Oh,” Grace moaned out and Gabe smiled against her shoulder and let himself go, the two pausing in their moments as they came down from their natural high. He pulled himself out and fell breathlessly next to her, and seemingly sobered up. Grace seemed to as well and looked over at him skeptically before closing her eyes breathless.

“Fuck,” she breathed. Gabe already knew what she was thinking. They had just made a huge mistake. Regardless, he wrapped his arm around her waist and even though she didn’t cuddle into him, he opted to savor the moment while it lasted. Things wouldn’t be the same in the morning.

*

With information floating around Ali’s head, she decided it was time for a little alone time. No Patrick, no girls, just her and her thoughts. She loved those girls, and she was even growing to love the boys too, but no amount of fun and games could shake the feeling that she was letting herself become Mother Moo a little too often. She was always the go to, and she loved that, the fact the girls felt she was someone they could turn to, but once in a while she would love to be the one with news. Not drama, she wasn’t jealous of that. But with all the people in the house that were finding themselves and other people, it was no wonder that she felt a little left out. Take Grace and Gabe for instance, their antics last night were something she would like to have known about, but Grace went into her room at the first sign of daylight this morning to talk about it. Ali understood the drama she had, but even so, her kindly nature was just getting her bombarded with other people’s problems.
Ali sat on her bed quietly, iPod in hand, listening to anything that played on shuffle. She was happy to have time alone, she needed it. She managed to keep time to herself a lot when the boys didn’t live with them, but now Patrick had set up residence in her bedroom it was hard to keep alone time a priority. As a new song began to play, she crunched her eyebrows together as a tap on her shoulder was felt, and she opened her eyes to see Travis, of all people, standing in front of her, mouthing words that she couldn’t decipher. She rolled her eyes at the disturbance and pulled the ear phones out, patting the space beside her so that Travi could sit. He gladly took the opportunity and sat, facing her as she shuffled around slightly to make herself comfortable.

“Ali, I’m glad I caught you on your own,” Travis smiled slightly and Ali rolled her eyes again, thinking to herself about her interrupted alone time.

“Yeah, I was having me time.” She spoke through gritted teeth, and Travis frowned slightly, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.

“Oh, sorry, I er, this won’t take long.” He moved closer to her and looked at her face, smiling when she raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to speak again.

“So, what is it you want?” She asked, and Travis shook himself from his daze.

“Right, sorry, listen I wondered if you and Patrick were, a thing, you know, like, together?” He looked unsure for a moment and skewed his mouth to the side, Ali frowning at his question.

“Together as in, a couple, dating together?” She asked, and Travis nodded eagerly.

“Yeah, I mean, are you like, romantically involved, so to speak,” He looked confused at his choice of words and Ali smiled slightly.

“No, we’re not. I mean I don’t know what he thinks, but I mean I reckon I’d quite like it if-” Travis interrupted her, not really listening to the rest of her sentence.

“Go on a date with me?” He blurted, and Ali widened her eyes slightly.

“Excuse me?” She asked, and Travis gulped.

“Go on a date?” He repeated, and his face grew with nervousness. “With me?” Ali’s face fell in realization as Travis looked expectantly back at her, and she gritted her teeth and gulped.

“Look, Travi, I think I-”

“I wanted to know if you and Patrick were together, because I mean, you’ve been spending a lot of time with him, and he sleeps in here. You know, I just thought you might be. But, you’re not, so, how about it?” He said all this quite quickly, needing to catch a breath as he finished the sentence. Ali looked rather uncomfortable and sighed.

“Travi you know I like you, as a friend, but, not like that... I mean, no, I’m not with Patrick but, that’s not really the point. So, I’m sorry...” She looked guilty and Travis nodded slowly, taking her answer in.

“That’s fine, yeah, no, that’s fine, I mean, ha, it’s not like I was resting my hopes on this or anything, yeah, no yeah it’s fine, I’ll see you around right?” He wandered towards the door and Ali jumped up, wanting to let him leave knowing she didn’t mean to hurt him.

“Travi I am sorry, I do really like you-” Travi shushed her.

“As a friend, yeah, Ali I know. Honestly it’s fine, I’m a big boy now, I can handle it.” He smiled warmly and Ali nodded, letting him open the door and walk down the hallway. She took a deep breath and shut the door, wanting nothing more than to curl up under her sheets and go to sleep. And she did so, climbing into bed and pulling the covers up and over herself, snuggling in and pulling herself into a fetal position. She whispered to herself as she tried to get to sleep.

“You wanted your own drama Ali, you just got it.”

*

Jenn had decided to skip her classes for a day and in her time off, took the liberty to further investigate her suspicions surrounding Dirty. She sat in the breakfast nook of the kitchen, photo albums she had gotten from her parents open in front of her and two documents that seemed the most important on top. She squinted her eyes, but found herself distracted as Andy entered the kitchen, grabbing a water bottle from the fridge.

“What are you up to, Jenn?” he asked and Jen sighed, watching as he came over, sitting opposite of her in the booth. “Don’t you have class today?” he questioned. Jenn nodded but looked back down at her paperwork.

“I’m just…” she shook her head and handed Andy something. “Look at this,” she spoke. Andy gripped the paper and widened his eyes upon reading it.

“Where the hell did you get Dirty’s birth certificate?” he yelped. Jenn laughed out.

“You can find almost anything on the Internet nowadays,” she mentioned. Andy eyed her suspiciously.

“You scare me,” he joked. Jenn rolled her eyes.

“I’m just curious,” she sighed then and handed him her own birth certificate. “Notice anything?” she prompted and Andy’s eyes re-widened.

“You guys have the same last name,” he mumbled. Jenn nodded her head and looked down at her photo album.

“At least the same birth name,” she pointed to her adoptive parents. “I was renamed Swaine,” she looked back up at Andy. “Did Dirty keep Miller?”

“Yeah,” Andy nodded and looked at the birth records even more. “You guys were born minutes apart, and weighed pretty much the same,” Jenn breathed out, frustrated.

“What the hell is going on?” she asked, more to herself. Andy pursed his lips together and handed back the papers.

“Have you talked to Dirty about this?”

“No,” Jenn answered, flatly before rolling her eyes. “He refuses to talk about anything serious,” Andy shrugged.

“Maybe we can trick him into doing a DNA test with you,” Jenn widened her eyes and looked at Andy, flabbergasted.

“What the hell are you ensuing?” she pushed and Andy offered a small grin.

“Like I said before, maybe you are Dirty are long lost twins,”

Jenn just let her jaw drop open and her heart rate slow down. She looked at Andy as he gulped, just as shocked as her. She looked down at the birth records before pushing her face into her hands.

“Holy crap,” she breathed.

“What?”

Jenn yanked herself up to see Ali standing next to the nook, her own bottle of water in her grasp. She sighed and decided to tell her.

“I think Dirty is my brother,” she muttered. Ali raised an eyebrow and did not even bother to react, jumping right into believing her.

“Ok, sure, now what are you going to do about it?” Jenn seemed cautious of her friend’s trust in her but looked to Andy. He spoke up before her.

“We are going to do a DNA test, behind Dirty’s back, well, as much as we can do something like that behind his back,” Ali nodded but then looked dumbly at both of them.

“Ok, and how are you going to get the money for that?” she pointed out. Jenn held her breath as she tried to answer her before Andy pounded his hand on the table and pointed in the air, having a eureka moment.

“Let’s have a fundraiser!” he announced. Jenn looked to Ali.

“Even better, a benefit party here at the house!” she looked to the calendar conveniently located on the wall next to the nook. “We can have it Halloween weekend! It’ll be a benefit costume party,” Ali sighed out before leaning towards her friend.

“I think it would make more sense to make it a benefit concert and costume party,” she mentioned. Andy nodded and glanced up at Ali.

“Yeah, Travi raps occasionally, and I know Gabe writes lyrics,” he paused. “Patrick’s the musician though,” he added. Ali perked her eyebrows up but found only a suspicious glance from Andy.

“Oh, well then it’s perfect!” she said and smiled brightly. “Another party to plan,” she looked back to Andy. “Tell the boys so they can work on songs, and,” she switched her gaze to Jenn. “You figure out how to get Dirty to not know what is going on,” Andy stood up and laughed shortly.

“By the way, I have Pete’s pledge ready,” he paused and looked at his watch. “It’ll have to wait for tomorrow, though, because it is a week long thing, and it’ll be better if it lasts until next Friday, which is Halloween,” Ali laughed evilly and high fived Andy.

“Does involve pain?” she asked. Andy nodded slowly.

“Pain and humiliation,” he rubbed his hands together evilly. Ali watched him go before looking back to Jenn who seemed to be focused on her photo album again.

“You excited, Jenn?” Jenn just sighed out through her nose and shrugged.

“As excited as I can be,”

Ali understood what Jenn meant and decided to leave her alone for now. Jenn watched her leave and smiled softly at the old picture of her adoptive mom and dad holding her as an infant. Hopefully, she thought, at least now she had the chance to answer questions that they never answered. And maybe gain a brother in the process.

*

“Group meeting in the living room,” Ali yelled outside to the boys, who were currently out sat by the pool, all except Andy. Pete widened his eyes at Patrick who was sat next to him, and slapped him on the shoulder slightly.

“Oh my god,” He whispered, turning to stare at the house, then turning back to Patrick. Patrick raised his eyebrows while he stood up, ready to head inside.

“What?” He asked, and Pete gulped.

“They only call group meetings when there’s a pledge going on... and Izzy said I was next...” He pulled a face at Patrick, only causing Patrick to laugh.

“Well then, you better get inside to see what fate awaits you, remember Andy was in charge of this one, so I’m betting it’s going to be a corker,” He giggled, walking inside, followed by a scared and complaining Pete.

“But I don’t want to! It’s going to be evil, I know it. I just know it.” Patrick smirked as they got into the front room, smiling at everyone when all the girls turned to Pete. He gulped again and squeaked from the back of his throat.

“Oh dear,” He whispered, and Andy smiled evilly before standing to face him.

“Hello Pete.” He grinned and the girls all copied his face. Pete looked genuinely terrified and shifted his feet slightly.

“Hi, Andy,” He looked nervous, and Andy smiled, liking the power he had over Pete.

“Pete, your pledge is ready,” He smiled again, and he pointed to the table, where a black box and what looked like five remote controls were. Pete widened his eyes.

“What are those?” He asked, and Andy simply tilted his head.

“This is your pledge. Want me to explain?” Pete nodded slowly, dreading what was to come.
“Basically, this little black box-” He picked it up, switching a little switch on the front, making a small red light pop up on the front. Andy smirked. “-This dear Pete, is a portable electrocution device.” He sniggered, making Pete look even more terrified. First, because he knew he would probably end up getting electrocuted, and second, because he wanted to know how the hell Andy got a hold of such a thing. Patrick and Joe looked just as terrified by Andy’s device, and Patrick coughed.

“You’re going to electrocute Pete?” He asked, though admittedly looking rather excited about it too. Andy shook his head.

“It’s not that dramatic. It’s just a zapper. Just a vibration,” Pete’s mood lifted slightly at this point, and Andy rolled his eyes. “Not the good vibrations Pete. I mean, painful ones. Just not too painful that we need to transport you to the emergency room.” Pete looked like he was ready to cry. Ashley stood up, standing next to Andy and smirking.

“And that’s just the beginning,” She looked to Andy. “May I?” Andy nodded, and raised a hand to signal to her to continue the explanation. “These five remote controls here, one will be given to each girl, and you will be accompanied at all times by one of the five of us.” Pete frowned, but then smiled cockily.

“So, in bed and in the shower too, then?” He sniggered, sending eyes to Izzy. She rolled her own eyes and looked at Ashley. Ashley nodded and shushed Pete.

“That’s exactly the point Pete. The whole point of this pledge is this,” She moved closer to Pete and smiled. “Basically, you are not allowed to talk to any girl that does not live in this house. No words, no flirting, no cocky Mr. Lovegod, nothing. You are only permitted to talk to girls in this house.” Pete looked angry for a second.

“Least I’ve still got some pretty hot girls in here to talk to, this’ll be easy-” Ashley interrupted him.

“There’s another thing. Even though you will be allowed to talk to the five of us, there will be no hitting on us, flirting with us, nothing.” Pete glared at her, then looked to Izzy.

“Even Izzy?” He asked, puppy dog eyes plastered to his face. Ashley smiled and leaned into his face.

“Especially Izzy. If you are caught breaching those rules, talking to any girl outside of the house, or flirting with any girl inside this house, you will be electrocuted. Hence the fact we all have remote controls.” Pete looked ready to cry again, and huffed.

“Just a day right? That’ll be easy.” Andy smirked from behind Ashley, and stepped forward.

“Not a day, Pete. A week. One week with these rules, or you sleep outside on the grass,” Everyone smiled at this point, knowing that Pete wouldn’t manage it. Izzy smiled.

“But feel free to break the rules Pete, I don’t think any of us will mind having to electrocute you,” Pete gulped, and eyed Andy’s device. He smiled.

“Oh, and if you happen to take your device off at any point, there will be consequences. Dire, dire, consequences.” Pete gulped again and squealed.

“I hate you, Andy.” Andy smirked evilly once more. He moved over to Pete, and used the straps that were attached to the device to put the box on Pete’s chest. Pete groaned once it was on, and eyed the girls, who had picked up the remotes, and were now tossing them in their hands.

“I think we should give it a test run. Just to be sure,” Jenn said, and everyone except Pete, smirked. Dirty looked at Pete’s terrified face and laughed.

“Go for it Pete, try and hit on Izzy,” Pete shook his head and folded his arms.

“No, you’ll electrocute me,” Grace rolled her eyes.

“We’re going to do it anyway, as a test run to make sure it works. You might as well get one last comment in to her before you have to pay for it,” She laughed and Izzy looked expectantly at him and raised an eyebrow as he stood in thought.

“Izzy, I think you-” A high pitched scream came from his mouth in the middle of the sentence and he stared at Izzy, who was the one to press the button. Pete regained his composure and stared at her.

“You didn’t let me finish!” He yelped, and Izzy smirked.

“You were taking too long. Well, it works, anyway.” She laughed and walked around him to the kitchen, followed by the rest of the girls. Patrick walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Good luck dude,” He snorted and couldn’t hold in his amusement. “You’ll need it,”