Mr. Average

Joel celebrates his dreaded birthday.

"Could never tell you what happened

The day I turned seventeen

The rise of a king and the fall of a queen

-Marina and the Diamonds: "Seventeen"

_~_~_

"I'm not messing around, Adonis Johnson tried to kill me and the person who was driving me!" I yelled, letting them sit me on the edge of the ambulance, Zoi or Lola had called for one when she saw us. I insisted that I was fine, that Scott had saved me from any glass or threats of head injury, but they ignored me.

"Sir," hissed a nurse, "You will be questioned later, for now, just let us test your vitals."

I pushed away their arms when they tried to help me into a gurney, "I'm fine!" I yelled, backhanding an arm.

A male nurse's face dropped suddenly, paling. "Dear God, what is that?"

Fear prickled into my stomach, I turned around and felt a broad hand clamp onto my shoulder and push my into the gurney, which they strapped me into.

The male nurse chuckled, reminding me of Scott's constant chuckle. Though Scott's was gravelly and adorable. This nurse's was dry and tasteless, like an unsalted cracker. "I told ya, Janet, some things you need to do; but they don't teach ya in Medical School. Theater, that's where it's at!"

The female nurse, Janet, sighed. "Well, Randy, why don't you go be an actor?"

Randy shrugged, "The stage isn't ready for me... yet."

Janet mumbled something that sounded like "Pretentious douche bag...." but I couldn't catch it, my mind had fallen to Scott, which wasn't rare by any means.

"The driver," I breathed, struggling against the straps on the gurney. "Where is the driver of the car I was in?"

"He was cut by some glass, sir," breathed Nurse Janet, "He was taken in a separate ambulance."

"Let me see him!" It came out as a yell, which was unintentional.

"Calm down," Randy rumbled.

I took a deep breath, tears stinging my eyes, "Is he okay?"

Janet sighed, "It made connection with a vein. We are unsure if it just scraped it or cut--"

"Is he okay?!" I yelled again, fighting the gurney.

"It's unclear, sir." Came a different nurse.

Tears fell from my eyes as I gave up and let my head head the soft pillow of the gurney, trying not to sob.

_~_~_

I woke up later, there was no clock in the hospital room that I was in, so there was no way of knowing what time it was. My mom's warm hand was on my face, her lips shaded with a darker shade of blue, stretched out into a small, greeting smile.

"Hey, honey," she whispered.

I blinked up at her, "Where's Scott?"

She c****d her head, "Who?"

"Scott," I sighed, "My boy-- my friend who was driving me to school."

Mom pursed he lips, "Well, he had to get some stitches, but he'll be fine."

I sighed, relief intruding my veins. I raked my hand through my hair, "Can I see him?"

She laughed, "Honey, you haven't even asked if you're okay, yet."

I narrowed my eyes, "Honestly, I don't care." I moved my arms, "I feel fine, so I must be fine."

She glared at me before sighing, "Yeah, you're fine. Both of you probably have some hell of a bruise or ten, but they'll go away in about a month. Your friend-- Scott-- took a bullet for you."

"He what?!"

She laughed again, flipping her hair. "It's a saying. He did, literally, take a shard for you. A shard of glass that would've gone right into your face, possibly something that could've killed you, or blinded you, or something!" She sat down, "At least, that's what the doctor said. Scott saved your life."

I glared at her, heart fluttering in several different patterns. "I have to see him."

Mom laughed yet again, "I can sense that. Just get dressed and I'll walk you over." She gestured towards a clump of clothes, a black collared shirt, that Mom had always insisted I wore, baggy jean shorts, and my American flag Vans, which I guess had survived the crash.

I gathered up the clothes and headed for the bathroom, before Mom stopped me.

"Wait, honey, the nurse said you were babbling about knowing who crashed into you, who did you say it was, this is incredibly important."

A small part of my brain screamed at me to remember, but as I racked my brain, no recollection of seeing the car came to me. Just screaming at Scott, and feeling his warm arms cover my face and chest.

"Sorry, I can't remember." I admitted, scratching the back of my head.

Mom deflated, pulling some of her hair away from her face. "Just... try to. Okay?"

I nodded, walking into the bathroom and putting the clothes on. The black collared shirt was tight, but I made it work.

Mom walked me to Scott's room when I was dressed, and I looked down at my legs, finding a huge bruise on each knee cap, navy blue in color. I gasped silently, tracing my fingers, ignoring the sting of pain that ricocheted through my leg as response to my touch. I winced, each step pulling a wad of effort.

She opened the door, "Wait! One more thing!" I sighed turning around, meeting her anxious eyes, she was holding a medium sized gift-wrapped box with a purple bow.

I c****d my head, "What's this?"

She cuffed my shoulder, "A birthday gift, of course!"

I gasped, "Oh, God, I completely forgot!"

"Well, you have been busy, getting into car wrecks is tough work," she laughed.

I glared at her, "Hit the bricks." I laughed, hugging her. "Thank you, I'll unwrap it when I get home."

She smiled, "Okay, I'm going to go wait in the car."

I waved at her before walking through the door, seeing Scott's curious eyes following me. I gasped, the relief thickening as I limped over and threw my arms around him, kissing him hungrily. He smiled against my lips and kissed me back, holding my waist into his.

I reluctantly pulled away, resting my forehead on his shoulder. "You saved my life," I breathed.

He chuckled, making the rest of my worries melt away. He kissed me again, holding me tighter, "Joel, I'm so sorry I put you through that."

I looked at him, "You didn't put me through anything, it was that lunatic driver."

Scott looked at me, softly touching my face with his hand, cupping it and pulling my towards him to kiss me again.

We walked, hand in hand, to my mom's car. She dropped us off at home. "Alright," she called, "I'll let you two celebrate the day with some alone time."

I squeezed Scott's hand, "Mom, you don't have to go, you can stay if you want. My friends love you."

"Oh, no, thank you." Mom laughed heartily, waving me away. "The last time I was at a party of teens was when I was a teen, and I hated it."

I looked from her to Scott, who was in a grimace. "Wha-- wait, we're having a party?"

Mom winced, "Ah, shoot, I ruined it didn't I?"

I swirled to Scott, "We just got out of a car wreck, and you want to have a surprise party?"

"In my defense," Scott sighed, "It was scheduled on Friday."

I glared at him warily as my mom drove away. "You're f*****g with me."

Scott sighed, rueful, "Nope."

I bit my lips together, "You must have really hit your head if you think I'm going to a party right after a car wreck."

"It was minor! The biggest injury was some glass in my arm, it barely scraped a vein, and it was my injury." Scott snaked his arms around my waist again, it was becoming a weakness of mine. He pulled me to him, the way our frames fit never failed to surprise me. "I'll make it up to you, please just act surprised and be semi-social."

He kissed me, and I had no choice but to curl up to him and kiss him back before pulling back, "Fine! But, when you make it up to me, it better be f*****g effective!"

Scott grinned mischievously, "Oh, it will."

I looked at him again, before sighing, caving in. "Let's get this over with."

He did a small jump of joy before swinging the door open. It was pitch black inside, my vision going out of whack. He slowly closed the door behind us. Suddenly the light exploded on, and a cluster of people sprung up, shrieking "SURPRISE!!!!"

I faux-gasped, jumping in fake shock, "s**t! Oh, my God!" I spun to Scott, "Wh-What's going on?"

"It's a surprise party!" Chimed Jolly, leaping up and down and clapping her hands. "We got you good!"

I laughed a nervous laugh, "I guess you did!" I turned back to Scott, he was wearing a smile that proclaimed he was so amused he couldn't translate it into a laugh.

Zoi and Lola ran up, gesturing to a table with about fifteen presents, assorted with different colors and patterns of wrapping paper. "There are all your gifts," Zoi grinned.

"We forgive you for almost killing us, Scott and Joel," Lola piped up.

"Happy birthday!" Zola said in unison and trotted off. I called back a thank you and walked into the tsunami of people.

"Brother and brother's boyfriend!" Came a sweet, yet sarcastic, voice. I looked up and saw Carolyn, her beautiful ebony hair hanging loose and straightened as always. She was wearing a scarlet crop top with pink lips printed on it, teeth pearly white with a gap in the front. It must have been a close up of Madonna, but it was still very artsy. She had a black, shiny leather jacket over her shoulders, despite the obnoxious heat. She wore pink booty shorts with black leggings, large ricocheted flames printed on them, and dark purple Tom's. She moved her side bangs away from her right eye with her middle finger, her nails painted a hot pink that matched her shorts. She was gorgeous-- even I could admit it--, she blew everyone else's outfits out of the water.

"Carolyn!" I smiled, hugging her. She hugged me back with one arm, the other holding a red solo cup with a section of lip gloss on one side, which had probably rubbed off of her radiant lips. Gorgeousness must be in the Faire's genes. Thought Scott would disagree, or say he must have gotten denied of the good genes. He always denied himself, and it pissed me off, royally. "I'm so glad you could make it! And make me look like crap, with your gorgeous self."

Carolyn giggled, a musical tone. "Well, my mother told Neil and I," she gestured to her other brother, just as easy on the eyes as his siblings, though he looked kind of awkward, stuffing his hands in his jeans pockets. His awkwardness reminded me of Scott, "To keep an eye on Scott, make sure he doesn't start a meth lab or anything."

"Ugh, no fun," I heard Scott mumble be side me.

I smiled at my shoes, "Well, I'm going to go say hi to the others. Have fun!"

Carolyn and Neil smiled, she waved at me, "You too."

I took Scott's hand and we walked to see Victoria and Kassi.

Vic grinned when she saw us, "Hey, you flaming homosexuals, sucked any d**k yet?"

"No, not yet, but it's still early." I laughed, hugging both of them. "Sorry I couldn't make it to school, we kind of almost died."

Kassi nodded, "Yeah, Zola told us."

"Wouldn't shut the hell up about it, actually," whispered Victoria.

"Be nice, they have ears like a hawk," grunted Kassi.

"Ah, hear this, ya closet lesbians." Victoria said, flipping up her middle finger.

Scott chuckled, I laughed, "Okay, we're going to say hi to everyone else, see you two later."

"Have fun not walking for a week!"

We said hello to Jolly, even though she already made a startling appearance.

I was saying something stupid to Scott when something sturdy bumped into my shoulder. "Oops, sorry!" I laughed, looking at the sapphire eyes of Adonis. I c****d my head, startled. "Oh, hey, you."

Adonis grinned, "Happy birthday." He had acted like nothing happened, or he had gotten all of the anger and sadness out of his system.

A small part of my brain screamed at me, again. I ignored it, if I didn't remember it, it couldn't have been that important.

"Listen," Adonis put his hand on my shoulder, looking deep into my eyes. "The past is in the past."

I actually almost smiled. He probably found someone else, and I was happy about that. "Thank you, for understanding. And thanks for telling me happy birthday."

Finn appeared beside him, "Happy birthday, Mom told me to chaperone the party, so I brought Adonis along so I wasn't bored out my mind watching hormonal teenagers."

I jerked back, "You're one to talk!"

Finn laughed, "I guess that's fair."

"That reminds me, is Madison here?"

"Nah," Finn shrugged, "She said it would be 'awkward'." He rolled his eyes, "Logan is, though."

"Nice." I smiled, "That gives me an excuse to end this conversation."

I looked at Scott, and I realized he and Adonis had been staring at each other with an odd fierceness. Was he... jealous? I took his hand, "Babe, let's go say hi to Logan."

Scott hesitate for a moment, "Yeah, that's cool." He blinked and I led him to where Logan was, hovering over a stereo.

"Where the hell is some Sleeping With Sirens?" She growled.

"I prefer silence, actually," muttered Helena, who was sitting in the corner.

"Suicide Silence? That's good too." She suddenly straightened her back, "R.I.P Mitch Luker!!" She called into the group of people.

Helena sighed, rubbing her temples.

"Logan! Helena!" I called, they looked up, Helena had tired eyes. "Thank you guys so much for coming!"

"Happy birthday!" Screamed Logan, bubbly as always.

"Glad you're not dead!" Called Helena.

I laughed, expecting nothing else. I noticed that Alec, the boy who runs with us at P.E, was clinging to the arm of the chair that Helena was sitting on, smiling dreamily. "Hi, Alec!"

Alec looked at me, "Happy birthday, Joel!" He turned back to Helena and whispered, "You're so beautiful."

Helena suddenly pulled her fist back and swung it at Alec's face. It hit his cheek bone, and he fell. "f**k off!"

Audrey and Kent, the formerly racist cheerleader and the black guy who saved her from falling on her face were there too, hands interlocked, Kent tracing Audrey's features with his finger, muttering "Perfect" under his breath. I decided not to interrupt their love session, so I turned back to Scott, who held my waist to him again.

"Are you having fun yet?" He said, slightly swaying with me.

I laughed, "I guess I am." He kissed me again, leaning in to whisper in my ear. "Let's go upstairs."

I looked at hi cautiously, "Okay..."

Scott grabbed my hand and led me up the stairs, he seemed anxious. "Is this your parents' room?" He pointed at a latte colored door.

I nodded shakily, was he going to break up with me? Was he going to do some Edward Cullen stuff with the whole 'I-can't-trust-myself' speech?

When I walked into the room he quietly closed it an shifted the lock on the door, sealing it closed. I raised an eyebrow at him, he stuffed his hands in his pockets, trying to think of what to say before walking up to me and pulling my waist into him, like he always did now. He kissed me hard for a savory moment.

"Whatever you have to say," I sighed, "I can take it." I was prepping myself for the worst.

He groaned into my lips, "I'm not sure how to say it." He hesitated for a moment, "The wreck, today. It really shifted things into focus for me. It made me realize how precious our time is together. I want to make it the best, even if it's short-- it might end tomorrow, for all I know." He held my face in his hands, "I want to live in the now. When I'm with you, there's never a dull moment."

"What are you saying?"

Scott kissed my neck, his lips so warm and soft that I felt my toes curl up in my shoes. "I want to have every inch of you to myself, because I don't know when it'll end."

"English, Scott!" I moaned, impatient.

He placed another kiss softly on my throat. "I want to have s*x with you," he breathed, "To put it bluntly."

I froze, clutching his shoulder. "You..."

"It's your birthday," Scott kissed my collarbone, "And I am so certain I love you with every cell of my skin, with every particle of my body. I'm pretty sure you feel the same." He kissed my lips again, "So, I want to take it to the next level."

I looked at him, fighting with myself. I was pretty split, but it was undeniable that I wanted him more than anything. I kissed him with a mighty force, grabbing his shirt and pulling it off of his head. He was paralyzed for a moment, embarrassed of his freshly uncovered chest, but slowly, sheepishly, melted back into the kiss. He pinned me against the wall and tugged away my shirt. I fumbled at the button on my pants, and soon enough we were both bare-ass naked.

Scott laid me down on the silk bed, breathing quickly. I leaned up to kiss him again, grazing my hand over his thigh.

"I'm ready."