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Luke Patterson is a menace. He’s stubborn and persistent, and when he wants something, he stops at nothing to get it. And that includes flirting with Reggie to make him go to a punk rock gig in downtown LA with him. And the thing is that Reggie wouldn’t even need any convincing at all if the show wasn’t scheduled for a school night. Reggie loves gigs just as much as Luke does, he lives for trashy underground clubs and loud guitars. But his parents are fighting enough as it is, and he doesn’t want to give them more ammunition by staying out late on a school night. But Luke really wants to go, and he knows his big hazel eyes won’t have any effect on Bobby and Alex, who both already told him no and were since spared Luke’s incessant pestering. And the worst part is that Reggie knows it too, but he’s still helpless against his friend’s charms. That doesn’t mean that he’s not putting up a fight, though. Reggie Peters will not go down without a fight.
They’re just done with band practice and Reggie puts his bass on its stand when he feels Luke’s arms sneak around his waist from behind.
“Reggiiiiiee,” he sing-songs, his lips right next to Reggie’s ear. “You know you want to go to that gig with me next week. It’s Green Day, man!”
Reggie closes his eyes and tries to keep the heat from his cheeks. He knows it’s futile. He’s probably red like a freaking cherry. Or at least like a ripening tomato. Something flutters in his stomach when he feels Luke’s breath on the side of his neck, and it’s really not fair. Sighing, Reggie leans his head back against Luke’s shoulder. He has every intention to fight him, but that doesn’t mean he can’t enjoy the physical affection he’s being offered so freely for a little longer.
“I already said no, Luke. I’m not very keen on another screaming match with my parents,” he repeats for what feels like the tenth time this week.
“But they don’t have to knooooow. Just tell them we’re studying at my place and you’re staying over. Plus, you’re 18, you can do whatever you want,” Luke says in his most whiny tone of voice, but so low in pitch that it sends shivers down Reggie’s spine. He bites down on his lower lip to regain his bearings and snorts.
“Yeah. You know they don’t care how old I am. And as if they’d believe we’re studying. We don’t really have the best track record on that one, do we?”
“Come ooooon, Reg. Please?” Luke’s voice is even lower now, and his lips are brushing against Reggie’s ear. He feels like he’s about to burst, really. “Think about how much fun we’re gonna have, babe.”
The babe is just enough to make Reggie snap out of his trance and rip himself away from Luke’s embrace. He turns around to glare at him, but it’s so hard when Luke is looking at him like that.
“Stop flirting with me,” Reggie says indignantly, “I’m not gonna fall for it.”
Luke steps closer again, tilting his head and presenting Reggie with his most suggestive smile.
“Oh, but you might just fall for me,” he says, voice impossibly low in register, and Reggie faintly wonders how he does that. All he can do is stare at him, anyway. He knows his cheeks are red red, judging by the heat he feels, and he opens his mouth for a comeback but comes up with a blank, so he closes it again. It takes him several moments to recover, but in the end it’s the expression on Luke’s face that does the trick. Luke looks so smug. He thinks he won, but two can play his game. Reggie won’t just let him have it. So he clears his throat and straightens his shoulders, taking the last step that separates him from Luke. He transforms his own spluttering into a smirk as he leans so close, their lips are only inches apart. Luke gasps ever so slightly, and the soft sound pleases Reggie immensely.
“So you want me to go see Green Day with you that badly, huh?” he asks, matching Luke’s low voice from before. Two can play this game. Luke blinks, suddenly looking a little taken aback. It’s the best thing Reggie has ever seen.
“I--” the oh-so-confident frontman starts, stuttering, “I mean, yeah. That’s the whole point of this, Reg.” His voice is barely more than a whisper now, and he averts his eyes, blushing a rather adorable shade of pink.
“Well, babe. Then I think you might just have to work for it,” Reggie tells him, and his lips brush over Luke’s just ever so slightly as he speaks. Luke visibly splutters when Reggie steps back, his cheeks flushed in a way Reggie has only seen them after gigs before. Oh, this is good, he thinks. So he winks at him, grabs his backpack, and leaves the garage and a lost looking Luke behind. The game is so on.
He waits until he’s all the way down the street before he sits down on the curb and takes a deep breath, trying to cool down before he keeps on walking home. Oh boy.
+
The next day, Luke appears at practice with ten red roses, held together by a black bow. Alex and Bobby stare at him like he’s lost his mind, but Reggie immediately sees what he’s doing. So he’s not surprised when Luke goes on his knees in front of him and hands him the roses.
“Reggie Peters, would you do me the honour and go see Green Day with me?” he asks, trying his hardest to look all teary eyed and serious, but Reggie can see the corners of his mouth twitching upwards. Two. Can. Play. This. Game.
So Reggie puts a hand in front of his mouth and gasps.
“Luke! Those are for me?” he says in the most dramatic tone he can manage. “Oh, Luke. You’re so, so amazing. But I’m afraid I have to decline your proposal. You know, it is custom to ask for the blessing of the concert buddy’s parents first.” He holds the roses to his chest and sniffs dramatically, nearly bursting into laughter when Luke clutches a hand to his heart and collapses to the floor in a fit of fake cries.
“My love! I cannot believe you would do this to me!”
Reggie shakes his head, a hand covering his mouth.
“Oh, baby. Love hurts, ” he whimpers, clutching his free hand to his heart as well. Luke looks at him from the ground, their eyes meet, and then they both burst into laughter. Reggie sinks to the floor next to Luke, and they end up in a pile of limbs as they keep laughing like a bunch of hyenas.
When they recover enough to stop breaking into fights of loud laughter every few seconds, Reggie pins Luke to the floor with his hands above his head.
“You’re gonna have to try a little harder, Luke,” he says suggestively as he leans down until his face is merely inches away from Luke’s. Luke blushes again, but this time he’s much quicker to recover.
“Challenge accepted, babe,” he says, and then surges up to press a kiss to Reggie’s lips before he can pull away and get back to his feet. It’s just a short, rough kind of smooch, and then Reggie is being pushed off Luke rather roughly as the other boy stands back up, but it’s enough to make him a spluttering mess sitting on his ass as he stares up at Luke, who grins way too smugly again. Reggie narrows his eyes at him. Alex and Bobby are staring at them as if they have both grown a second head right in front of them.
“What the fuck did we just have to witness here?” Alex asks Bobby, who merely shrugs and looks like he’s about ready to leave the country.
Reggie spends the whole practice staring at Luke. He can’t help it. He thinks he’s catching some feelings, and that was so not part of the game plan. He’s a fool, really, because he should have seen it coming. His weakness for Luke Patterson has never been a secret to anyone who knows them. And Reggie is absolutely fucked.
+
The next morning, Reggie is being pushed against a dumpster behind the school when he crosses the parking lot from his car to the school building, and he’s about ready to kick his assaulter into oblivion, when he realizes that it’s Luke. His pupils are blown wide when Reggie meets his eyes, and he swallows, Luke’s hands on his waist suddenly burning through his shirt.
“You like what you see, Reg?” he asks, suggestively raising an eyebrow. Two.
“You like what you see, Luke?” he asks back, matching Luke’s tone.
Luke hums. His cheeks flush ever so slightly anyway. There is no way Luke can fool him.
And then Luke starts planting feather light kisses along Reggie’s jaw, and oh. He moans a little at the contact, and Luke giggles. Damn it.
“So, are you excited for our Green Day gig? It’s only four days away,” Luke asks between kisses, sounding completely casual. As if Reggie didn’t say no, and as if it was completely normal to just kiss your best friend’s face.
“Luke,” Reggie whines. He doesn’t want to push him away, but he thinks he needs to. “I said no. I’m not coming with you.”
He’s about to wriggle his way out of Luke’s arms when Luke dives in for his neck instead and the sound that comes out of Reggie’s mouth can only be described as obscene , really.
“I think you are, though,” Luke says, lips brushing against Reggie’s skin. Reggie doesn’t understand how they got here. A bit more, and he would be well and truly making out with his best friend by the dumpsters behind their school. His best friend, who’s a boy. His best friend, who is the resident Prince Charming and every girl’s dream, Luke Patterson.
“Luuuuke!” Reggie whines. “Oh my god. What are we doing here?” he asks. Luke keeps kissing his neck, biting down and sucking and licking, and Reggie is pretty sure he’ll end up with a hickey.
Luke pulls away, suddenly looking a little self-conscious. Then he shrugs.
“I’m working for it. I really want to go to that gig, man,” he says. Reggie stares at him for an extended moment, and then he pushes him away. He’s feeling an itch under his skin all of a sudden, and he identifies it as irritation. But he has no right to feel so irritated about this when Luke’s intentions have been clear from the start. So Reggie swallows it down and tilts his head, eyeing Luke curiously.
“You do realise there is nothing straight about any of this, right? I’ve been going back and forth, but… I’m pretty sure you just gave me a hickey, dude.”
Luke hums as if he’s considering Reggie’s words. Then he shrugs again.
“It’s hot though, man. Do you want me to stop?” he asks. Reggie stares at him for a few moments longer, and then he shakes his head. He’ll have to talk to Alex later. For now, he lets Luke plant kisses all over his neck and his jawline.
+
Alex and Bobby stare at them open-mouthed when Luke and Reggie appear at their table at lunch. They haven’t had any classes together yet, and Reggie knows they both look well put together again, except for the bright and blooming hickey on Reggie’s neck. He’s been wearing it almost like a badge of honor all day, and several guys from their year patted him on the back in the hallway to congratulate him. If only they knew…
“Is that a hickey?” Alex screeches. Bobby wrinkles his nose.
“I’d congratulate you, man, but I got a feeling that Luke is responsible for this and frankly, it’s disgusting and I don’t wanna hear about it.”
“Aww, you jealous, Robert?” Luke coons, “Do you want one, too?”
Bobby looks unimpressed.
“Not in this life, Patterson. Other than every other member of this band, apparently, I actually don’t get the hots from looking at your stupid face.”
Luke pokes his tongue out at him and flicks a french fry at his head, Reggie giggles, and Alex stares for a moment longer before putting his fork down rather forcefully, making all three heads turn towards him.
“Okay, what is going on here?” he asks, looking completely out of the loop. It’s surprising, because usually he’s the smartest one of them, really. Bobby turns to him and rolls his eyes.
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Reggie frowns and exchanges a quick look with Luke, who merely shrugs. Well, at least he’s not the only one who has no idea what Bobby is about to say, he thinks. But Bobby doesn’t clarify and shakes his head instead.
“I can’t believe I’m the odd one out in this band,” he grumbles.
“Odd one out?” Alex asks. He’s really a little bit slow today, Reggie thinks. Even he can guess what Bobby means by that.
“Apparently I’m the only one here who can look at pictures of River Phoenix without getting all hot and bothered. May he rest in peace,” Bobby adds.
Reggie, Luke, and Alex all sigh at the same time, talking over each other as Alex says “River,” in a dreamy sort of voice, Luke argues that “Dude, that guy was hot,” and Reggie tilts his head as he asks, “Can you really blame us? He’s pretty hot.”
Bobby rolls his eyes and raises his hands as if to say “I told you so.”
Reggie, Luke, and Alex all look at each other, shrugging, and returning to their food. At least Reggie and Luke do. Alex keeps staring at them.
Yeah, Reggie really needs to talk to him.
+
“So, will you please tell me what’s going on with you and Luke?” Alex asks when they’re on the way home in Reggie’s car after school. Reggie offered to drive him, even though his house is in the opposite direction of his own. Reggie shrugs, but he knows he’s grinning a little stupidly. Something about Luke just makes him feel that way lately.
“Nothing,” he says, “He just really wants me to come to that Green Day gig, so he’s trying to seduce me into it.”
“Seduce you?” Alex asks, voice high pitched. Reggie chuckles. “So he did give you that hickey.”
“Yeah,” Reggie confirms, rubbing a hand over said love bite. Not that Luke bit him there because he loves him. Oh god.
“And you both think River Phoenix was hot,” Alex says, nodding to himself as he seems to draw a conclusion. Then he huffs.
“I can’t believe neither of you told me.”
“Told you what?” Reggie asks, eyebrows raised.
“That you both like boys?” Alex says incredulously.
Reggie reaches over to squeeze his forearm.
“I dunno, man. I don’t think we realised.”
Alex stares some more. “You didn’t—”
Reggie shrugs.
“Only you and Luke,” Alex says with a shake of his head, “Only you two.”
Humming, Reggie keeps staring straight ahead on the road and biting his lip when he says, “I think I’m enjoying it more than I should, though, Alex.”
Alex frowns.
“What, making out with Luke?”
Reggie blushes, and he’s so glad he has an excuse to avoid Alex’s eyes.
“We haven’t— we haven’t made out , it’s just. Maybe I wouldn’t mind if we did, you know?”
There is a small pause, a moment of silence, before Alex says, “Okay? I thought that was kind of the point of this whole thing?”
Reggie sighs. He wishes Alex could just read his mind for once. He feels awkward dissecting his confusing feelings like that to be able to put them into words.
“No. The point is that Luke thinks he can make me go to that gig with him by flirting with me. So I started flirting back, because two can play this game. I won’t just let him win without putting up a fight.”
Alex just looks like Reggie is a little slow in the head now, and that’s just rude, Reggie thinks. It’s not like he’s lying.
“And by giving you hickeys?” he asks, eyebrows high on his forehead.
“Yeah, it might have escalated a little,” Reggie admits, hand inadvertently coming up to the bruise again. He thinks the worst part is that he really likes that thing, and he likes that people can see it. Because then he’s reminded who put it there, and he feels all warm and tingly, and there’s a pleasant fluttery sensation being set loose beneath his ribcage.
“You think?” Alex says with a snort. Reggie doesn’t say anything, pondering his feelings for Luke instead, and then they reach Alex’s house and his friend gets out of the car, only turning back to say, “You do know you’re going to a Green Day gig next week, Reg, right?”
Reggie closes his eyes and nods, barking out a laugh as he restarts his engine.
+++
Band practice goes over smoothly that afternoon, even though Luke keeps staring proudly at the hickey on Reggie’s neck, and Reggie keeps blushing and getting distracted, and therefore missing his cues and playing his chords all wrong. Bobby keeps rolling his eyes at him, and Alex just smiles knowingly. He glares at them both.
Reggie is sort of glad when he returns to his room that night to sort through his feelings, but he only gets about two hours to himself until there’s a knock on his window and he looks up to find Luke crouching out there. He’s not sure how he feels about it when the fluttering starts right back up. Sighing, Reggie gets up to let Luke in, and is immediately greeted with a kiss pressed to his cheek. He blushes again, stupidly, and Luke steps back to pull a CD out of his backpack. He’s drawn little doodles all over its cover, one of them being a little heart with the letters “L + R” on the inside. Reggie’s breath hitches.
“I made you a mixtape. It’s only my favorite Green Day songs, though. So you can get ready for our gig,” Luke says with a grin. Reggie returns it, but shrugs and shakes his head.
“Still not going, dude.”
Luke walks across the room to Reggie’s stereo and puts on the CD, humming and growling out the first few vocals when he comes back over and steps right into Reggie’s space. He hums as he leans in and presses a kiss to the tip of Reggie’s nose.
“I think you’re wrong about that,” Luke says softly. And Reggie knows that, of course. He might even have mentioned staying out next week to his mom over breakfast that morning. She didn’t look happy, but she didn’t say no either. It’s as good as it gets with his parents. So yes, he’s fully aware that he’s going to a Green Day gig in three days. That doesn’t mean he’s just going to let Luke win, though.
Luke is really close again, and Reggie wants to kiss him. Properly on the mouth. But that’s a boundary they haven’t crossed yet, aside from that rather wet smooch Luke pressed to his lips at practice two days ago, but Reggie doesn’t think that one counts. He was shoved rather violently right after, anyway, and it lasted barely more than a second. So Reggie doesn’t dare. He does still have some revenge to get in, though, so he dives right in and presses his lips against Luke’s neck. He tilts his chin up with his fingertips so he can get better access, and then continues to plant featherlight kisses just under Luke’s jaw, slowly making his way down as he wraps an arm around his waist. Luke’s breathing grows a little heavy, and Reggie feels him shiver under his touch. He counts that as a win and keeps going, putting a little more pressure to his kisses, until he picks a spot to suck on a little harder. Luke moans rather obscenely, and it only serves to spur Reggie on. He’s never given anyone a hickey before, but he thinks he’s doing alright, sucking and biting, and soothing the sting with a flick of his tongue.
When he pulls back, Luke’s eyes are wide, his cheeks are flushed an impossible shade of red, and there is indeed a beautifully sized hickey blooming on his neck. Reggie gets why Luke keeps eyeing his’ proudly now. He feels rather accomplished.
“We’re even now,” Reggie says, pushing at Luke’s shoulder. Luke keeps staring at him for a moment longer, before clearing his throat and nodding.
“Watch out, Peters. I’m not done yet. I really want to go to that gig.”
They spend the rest of the night lounging on Reggie’s bed like they always have, listening to music and working on songs, just enjoying each other’s company, like they always have. The only difference is that they’re both sporting purple bruises on their necks, and Reggie has opened a butterfly farm just under his ribcage. At least that’s what it feels like now. He knows he’s screwed.
++
Bobby makes a gagging noise when he sees Luke’s hickey the next morning at Saturday practice. Reggie smiles proudly. Alex just shakes his head at them, but he can’t hide his smirk. Reggie sees it, and when he does, Alex shrugs.
The first few hours go well and without any distractions or incidents, but then Bobby and Alex decide to go out and get coffee, and that leaves Reggie alone with Luke in the garage. It ends with warm fingertips pressed onto Reggie’s skin just beneath the seam of his shirt. And then it’s a full hand, and Reggie whimpers as Luke shoves his shirt up as he hugs him from behind and lets his hand wander over Reggie’s stomach and chest. It’s crazy intimate, and Reggie feels his head buzz. They haven’t even kissed yet.
“Reg,” Luke whines, “You know the gig is only two days away. But you are coming, right?”
Reggie closes his eyes and throws his head back when Luke’s hand brushes over his nipple.
“For fuck’s sake, Luke,” he hisses. Luke presses his lips against the side of Reggie’s neck, just underneath the bruise, he thinks. It’s almost too much.
“What are we doing, Luke?” Reggie asks again.
Luke hums. “Just say yes, bro.”
Reggie chuckles.
“Oh, but that would be so boring, wouldn’t it? I’d much rather see what else you got up your sleeve.”
Luke regrettably removes his hand from underneath Reggie’s shirt and makes him turn around in his embrace instead. His eyes look a little wild as they flicker from Reggie’s down to his lips, and Reggie knows he’s about to be kissed, finally , when Bobby and Alex burst back in through the door.
Reggie whines. “Worst timing ever, guys,” he complains. Bobby kicks him in the shin when he walks past him.
“Stop trying to make out in here then. I’m not sure I would ever recover if I had to witness that,” he says dryly. Reggie knows he’s only teasing, so he pokes his tongue out at his friend.
“Have you agreed to go with Luke yet, then?” Alex asks. Luke shakes his head.
“He hasn’t yet, but we all know he’s coming.”
And well, they’re all correct in that assessment. It’s not like Reggie can say no to Luke anyway.
++
Where Luke was being all steamy with him at practice, he’s all soft and cuddly at the party they go to that night. He keeps holding Reggie’s hand, intertwining their fingers, presses little kisses to his knuckles and his cheeks and his forehead.
“Reggie-poo?” he says sweetly when they’re each about three gin tonics in. “You’re going to that gig with me on Monday, right? Look at how convincing I am.”
Luke proceeds to pepper soft kisses all over Reggie’s face, only sparing his lips. And it’s getting harder and harder to not just pull him in and crash their lips together. But Reggie has enough impulse control to hold himself back. He knows he’s playing a losing game, but that doesn’t mean he has to go all in right away. So he snorts instead and brushes Luke’s hair from his forehead.
“Yeah. Look how gay you are about this,” he says. Luke pulls away and pouts.
“‘m not gay. I just don’t care what gender people are. There is a difference.”
He continues with the kisses and Reggie thinks about this for a moment.
“I think girls are hot. But boys are hot, too. You are. River Phoenix was. I would kiss Alex,” he ponders. “But isn’t it still gay if we’re being gay together right this moment? Not that we are. But this is.”
Luke pulls away again and shoves at his shoulder, laughing.
“Shut up, man. You’re ruining this.”
“But—”
“Yes, okay. Right now, we are being a little bit gay,” Luke says. He pauses, his pout reappearing on his lips. “Wait. Hey!” Reggie receives another shove to the shoulder. “You want to kiss Alex?”
Reggie sighs and leans in to nibble at Luke’s jaw as he starts his own mission to cover Luke’s face in tiny kisses.
“Right now, I don’t. I just said I would ,” he says between light presses of lips against soft skin. Luke seems to accept that and closes his eyes as he straddles Reggie’s hips and lets himself be covered in kisses on a couch in the middle of a party as he lets his hands rest on Reggie’s shoulders, playing with the hair at the nape of his neck.
“You guys are so gross,” Bobby says as he flops down next to them. Reggie stops his kissing and groans, poking their friend in the side.
“I think it’s adorable,” Alex comments from their other side. “They’re super in love.”
Luke and Reggie stare at each other, both red cheeked, their mutual hickeys almost glowing in the purple light, like beacons of something they haven’t counted on. Oh boy.
++
Reggie often comes over to dinner at the Patterson’s on Sunday nights. It’s something that started in Sophomore year, when Emily found out that family dinners aren’t really a thing at Reggie’s house and she didn’t want him to miss out. So, this Sunday isn’t any different, except for the way Luke keeps eyeing him across the table. He’s wearing a bandana around his neck to cover his hickey, and Reggie already forgot about his own again and self-consciously rubbed a hand over it when he stepped into the house and saw Luke’s scarf earlier. It’s only natural that Emily keeps eyeing him curiously, her eyes darting to the bruise on his neck.
“So, do you have a girlfriend then, Reggie?” she asks casually, a kind but knowing smile on her lips. Reggie blushes, his hand immediately coming up again to cover the hickey. His eyes act on their own accord when they dart across the table to Luke’s bandana-covered neck. And of course Emily follows his gaze right to its destination.
“Are you feeling a little cold today, Luke?”
Reggie knows they are busted. Emily is a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them. She and Luke fight a lot, but Reggie thinks that’s mostly because they’re so alike in so many ways. Emily worries about him a lot, and Luke has a hard time dealing with that, because he is stubborn and driven, especially when it comes to his music. But Reggie also thinks his mom would understand how serious he is about it, when they would only sit down and talk, and if Luke showed her some of their music instead of breaking into screaming matches right away any time the topic comes up. They both love too fiercely, he thinks.
Luke’s eyes widen and he reaches up to adjust the scarf, carefully avoiding his mother’s eyes, but his cheeks are already coloring a faint shade of pink.
“You know it’s not polite to wear a scarf to dinner, right? Why don’t you take it off?”
Reggie thinks Emily is enjoying this a little too much.
“No!” Luke exclaims, a little too loudly, and a little too high pitched. “I mean, I am a little cold today, Mom,” he adds, but it’s too late.
Emily chuckles knowingly and then Mitch gets up from the table to fetch his wallet. He doesn’t say anything as he hands Emily a five dollar bill.
Luke and Reggie stare at them, and then at each other, completely dumbfounded.
“What?” Luke squeaks.
Emily waves her freshly won five dollar bill in the air.
“I’m happy for you two. Took you long enough.”
“What?” her son squeaks again.
“We weren’t born yesterday, kid,” Mitch says. “Your mother had a feeling there was something more going on. I wasn’t sure, but I stand corrected.”
“But— but—” Luke stutters. Reggie can’t blame him. “You don’t mind?”
Emily shakes her head.
“Why would we mind, dear? We’re both big fans of Freddie Mercury and David Bowie. And Reggie here is a lovely young man.”
Luke keeps staring at them, looking completely taken aback. Reggie recovers first and gives Emily and Mitch both small, grateful smiles.
“Thank you, Emily,” he says. And then Luke suddenly jumps up from his chair, nearly knocking over his coke, and he walks around the table to hug his dad from the side first, and then presses a kiss to Emily’s cheek and hugs her as well.
“I love you guys,” he says, “I’m sorry we fight so much, but I love you guys.”
“Well, we love you too, kid,” Mitch says. Emily nods.
“So much, my boy,” she adds.
Reggie sniffles a little and wipes a tear away from the corner of his eye. Luke smiles happily at him, and Reggie thinks his heart is about to burst.
When he’s about to leave that night, Luke presses a short, chaste kiss to his lips that makes Reggie feel like he’s floating all the way home. He doesn’t count it as a proper kiss either, because it only lasted about a second and Luke’s parents were watching.
He’s determined to change that now, though. Luke’s parents think they’re boyfriends, so they might as well claim that title. Reggie’s butterfly farm agrees wholeheartedly.
“Tomorrow?” Luke asks when they part, wiggling his eyebrows. Reggie only winks at him and leaves.
++
Luke clings to him like a freaking tick or something at school on Monday. He keeps pestering Reggie, insistent to know whether he is actually coming to the gig with him tonight, but Reggie refuses to give him an answer. He has a hard time keeping the grin from his face, though. By the end of the school day, Luke is pouting, and takes his bike home without even looking at Reggie or saying goodbye, and Reggie thinks he might have overdone it a little. Luke actually looked a little upset at the end, like he actually believes Reggie isn’t going to come.
So he makes sure to show up at Luke’s house extra early to pick him up. Luke looks grumpy when he opens the door, and his eyebrows shoot up in surprise when he spots Reggie.
“Well, get dressed, Patterson,” he says in fake exasperation, eyeing Luke’s jogging bottoms. “We got a Green Day gig to attend.”
Luke’s entire face lights up, and it’s the best thing Reggie has ever seen.
“Really?”
Reggie snorts.
“You didn’t actually think I wasn’t going to come with you, did you?”
Luke scratches behind his ear and tilts his head, smiling sheepishly.
“No, of course not.”
They grab dinner at their favorite burger place first, before heading to The Palace, the presale tickets Luke got months ago firmly in their hands. Luke is giddy like a child when they get in line, jumping up and down excitedly, and ranting to Reggie about Green Day’s entire discography. Reggie loves him so much, he thinks. And that just makes so much sense.
When they get inside the venue, Reggie drags Luke to the side, despite the other boy’s protests. He still has something on his agenda that he needs to do before the gig starts. So he pushes Luke gently against the wall, takes his beautiful face in for a moment, lets himself save the look in his eyes into his fondest memories folder, and then closes the space between them, connecting their lips. He finally kisses him with all the feelings and pent up emotion he has for his friend, cheered on by his butterfly farm. Luke kisses back like he plays music or rants about his favorite band. He nearly bursts at the seams with passion. Reggie deepens the kiss, his hands roaming over Luke’s sides, grinning when he manages to get a moan out of the other boy. He licks over his lips, releasing his own when Luke parts his lips and lets him in. Reggie never wants to stop kissing Luke, but he knows they have a gig to catch, and so he pulls away eventually, smiling softly as he does.
“Look at you, babe. Now you not only fell for it but for me as well. I won on all accounts,” Luke says, his smug smile back on his face.
Reggie lets his lips ghost over Luke’s, their heavy breaths mingling between them.
“Who's to say I didn’t plan this all along to make you fall for me?” he asks.
“Who‘s to say I wasn’t already down here waiting for you?” Luke asks back, and damn. He hums.
“If this is losing, I want to stay a loser my whole life, man.”
Luke chuckles, wraps his arms fully around Reggie’s waist and kisses him again. Reggie’s hands come up the back of his neck to keep him close, and they kiss until someone bumps into them and they break apart, breathing heavily. Luke’s cheeks are red, and his lips are swollen, and he looks absolutely gorgeous. He takes his hand and drags him closer to the stage, where a mosh pit has formed. The two of them were so caught up in their kissing, they didn’t even notice the support band coming on. They share a single glance before jumping right into it, the music vibrating under their skin and propelling them on. They mosh and jump around and rock out until they’re both sweaty and out of breath, and when the gig is over and they’re stumbling back out into the warm LA night air, and Reggie finds himself pressed against the wall of an alley next to the venue with Luke’s hands and lips all over him, he thinks this is the best thing that’s ever happened to him. He’s insanely in love with his best friend and with life, really, so that’s what he tells him. Luke Patterson, an absolute menace, Reggie’s best friend, resident Prince Charming, and a boy , and now officially Reggie Peters’s boyfriend.
Yeah, he thinks. This gig was the best idea Luke ever had.
- End. -