There were a lot of people there and he was a little surprised by that. He clung to Seth as they walked through the hoards of people and he looked around the house. It was a little smokey in the house but he hadn't walked into it yet and he didn't realize people were in there getting high and smoking cigarettes.

Seth didn't think about the smoke issue. There was a lot he needed to learn about asthma. "If you're not driving anyway, did you want something to drink? Or a soda, I can find you a soda; they've gotta have mixers somewhere."

"I think I would like a soda." He said, not wanting to have anything with alcohol in it because if he let hismelf get out of control it could lead to some very bad business.

"I didn't realize they'd be smoking pot here. I don't do that stuff." He said it as if that was a line he wouldn't cross, as if underage drinking to excess wasn't a bad enough line to cross in the first place. Seth started off in search of a pop after he got himself a beer from the keg.

Murphy followed him and he tried to stay calm but then he coughed at the smell of some of the smoke and he knew he was going to be ina world of hurt.

The cough made Seth glance over his shoulder as he led them into the kitchen. The crowd had thinned out a little, most people in the living room and hanging out on the stairs. Some chick and her boyfriend were sitting on the counter making out and Seth walked by them without so much as a glance as he headed to the fridge to fulfill his quest for a drink for Murphy. Once he found one he turned triumphantly to hand it to the other boy. "You okay?"

His chest felt heavy already but he didn't want to make a big deal out of it so he just smiled and nodded. Fine. Sure. He took the soda and opened it, hoping the caffeine would help settle his asthma.

Taking a moment to eye Murphy as if he didn't quite believe him, Seth watched the boy take a drink of his pop. Coughing was never a good sign; or at least he didn't suppose it was a good sign. "The music isn't bad, is it?" He decided to change the subject, hoping that Murphy would tell him if there was a problem.

"No." Murphy shook his head. It was far too loud for his own taste but he wasn't going to complain about it. Instead he took another drink and then gave a glance around the room. His lungs felt tight but nothing to be afraid of yet.

As if by magic, Seth had already finished his first cup of beer and had procured another one from a counter top as he led Murphy outside onto the back porch. There were still quite a few people out there, but the pot smoke was, at the very least, more easily dispersed into the air. "Want to go swimming?" He grinned as he coiled his hand around Murphy's hand.

"Swimming? I don't have my swimsuit." So no, he didn't want to do that. Outside the air was clearer and he breathed easier. It was a nice night and he was relieved that they had gone out doors. "Let's swim some other time."

"You don't need a swimsuit to swim," he said with a pout and kept pulling Murphy closer to the pool. There were a few other people in the pool, but mostly people were just sitting around it, engrossed in their own conversations and shinnanigans. Seth was in a terribly good mood, utterly infatuated with Murphy already. "Come on. I'll pull you in and it'll be easy," he teased.

"I'm not a very good swimmer and my clothes will be all wet." He frowned, trying to pull his arm free from Seth's grasp so that the other boy couldn't pull him into the water. Now he kind of wished he was back inside, smoke or not. At least there he didn't have to worry about not being able to swim.

Seth didn't like the feeling of Murphy pulling away from him and he let go so he didn't have to feel it. "Sorry," he said quietly as he brought his cup up to his mouth. It felt good to tip that thing back and look down into it as the liquid disappeared. There would have been an awkard silence between them had it not been filled with the sound of a few people Seth knew coming over and slapping him on the back in greeting. "Hey, hey! Who's this?" One boy said, peering over at Murphy as he kept his hand clenched on Seth's shoulder.

"I'm Murphy." He was quiet but he wasn't shy, so he introduced himself and gave the other boys a smile. Murph wasn't going to introduce himself as Seth's date but he wasn't really sure he could say he was his friend either. "It's nice to meet you." Switching the soda to his left hand, he held out his right to shake.

"I'm Mike," he said and took Murphy's hand. "You're really cute," he added with the kind of smile that was terribly well practiced but seemed natural. Seth frowned and tugged away from Mike. A girl leaned in to whisper in his ear and he frowned even more. "Yeah, he kind of is," Seth said and reached out to pull Murphy away from the group.

Murphy looked over at Seth as he was tugged away and he wondered what the girl had said to him. "What did she whisper to you?" Because he looked upset and that was never a good thing. "Where are we going?"

Briefly, Seth looked as if he'd been caught doing something wrong. "Um--she asked if you were taken. Melinda is kind of Mike's wingman. I um--I know you're not taken or anything but--I mean Mike is a total dick. You don't want to get mixed up with him." Really, Seth was just jealous. Mike was a perfectly nice kid, as nice as Seth anyway. "We're just going away from them. Inside maybe. Upstairs."

"All right." Murphy looked over his shoulder at Melinda and Mike and he went with Seth back into thre house. The smoke was still suffocating but he knew it would probably be clear upstairs. "Whose house is this?"

"It's Mike's house," he said with a shrug and climbed the stairs like he knew the place pretty well. There was an empty TV room upstairs. Seth had passed out there more than once. Somehow, he'd managed to pluck up another drink on the way, this time in a bottle. He sat down on an ottoman, feeling stupid for his minuature temper tantrum downstairs. He'd never really been jealous of anyone before. "You know, if you wanted to go back down there and find him, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to hang out with you."

"No, I came here with you." And he wanted to stay with Seth. He wasn't interested in Mike or Melinda or anyone else. "Do you want to just walk home?"

"Just because you came here with me doesn't mean you have to stay with me. It's a party. Stuff happens." He offered a shrug. He'd never met anyone like Murphy before, the kid didn't seem to operate on the same wavelength as everyone else. "I think I'd like to stay. Mike's parents have a liquor cabinet up here and I can pick the lock. Will you stay with me?"

"Yes." Because he wanted to and he liked being around Seth. "I am going to just stay right here while you get the drinks for you." He sat down on the end of the bed in the room and he took another sip of his coke.

"For me." He nodded a little, noting that specification and left the room so that he could track down the liquor cabinet down the hall. It seemed not moments later that the door opened again. "I thought I saw you guys come up here. Did Seth ditch you? He's fucking famous for that." It was Mike and he stood there, smiling at Murphy. Without being invited, he went to sit on the bed next to him.

Murphy scooted over a little bit and took another sip of his drink. "Well Seth went to get another drink and he is coming right back." At least that was what Murphy thought anyway. "You have a very nice house, Mike. It is very clean."

Mike laughed a little and quirked a brow. "Clean," he repeated and gave a nod. Yeah, he supposed it was clean. "Seth went to get another drink? Big surprise there. Ten bucks says he forgets about you and doesn't come back."

"I am not into gambling." Murphy smiled, still being polite because he always was. "He'll come back." And if he didn't then Murphy supposed he could walk home. Or call Vegas for a ride.

"I wouldn't leave you all alone in a bedroom," Mike said, scooting closer. He went to a different school and as a result had never seen Murphy before, but he knew he wanted to hook up with him. One, the kid was very good looking. Two, judging from Seth's reaction downstairs, it would really piss him off.

Murphy scooted over again, trying to maintain a safe level of space between them. The last thing he wanted to do was give this kid the wrong impression about his intentions. "Well perhaps you and he are very different then." He took another drink of his soda, trying to busy himself because Mike was getting a little too friendly, it felt like.

Mike didn't get rejected. He just didn't. When Murphy scooted away, he frowned a little bit. "Like you two didn't come up here to hook up? Trust me, you lucked out getting me over Seth." He reached out and put a hand on Murphy's shoulder, fingers curling inward so that he couldn't scoot away again. He was quick, convinced that if he could just plant a kiss on Murphy, the minor resistance would be over. He captured the boy's lips, fully confident in his abilities as an excellent kisser.

Everything happened so fast that Murphy didn't know what to do. In an attempt to push him back he dropped his soda and spilled it on the carpet. That alarmed him almost as much as the kiss because he hadn't meant to mess up the floor.

Green light, Mike thought and pressed forward, kissing harder as he held Murphy in place. The kid's lips were amazing and he slipped his tongue past them as he used his weight to push Murphy back onto the bed.

Murphy's heart started racing and when he found himself tipped back onto the bed he started to panic a little. His hand came up against Mike's collar bone and he pushed, needing to get the boy off of him. This wasn't going to end well if he couldn't stop it now.

Instead of heeding that hand, Mike kept kissing, letting his own hand slip down against Murphy's jeans, squeezing at the front of his pants roughly. He thought himself terribly smooth when in reality he was just a typical horny teenager, going for the gusto.

The panic that had been steadily rising peaked when he felt the hand on his crotch. Murphy stiffened, his body betraying him as he reacted with arousal to the way Mike was touching him. He tried to turn his head away and he pushed harder. His lungs were on fire and he was getting very close to an attack.

Smiling to himself when he felt Murphy's body react, it was so easy to convince himself that this was what the boy wanted. Unzipping Murphy's pants, he slipped a hand inside, eagerly taking Murphy in his hand. Seth was taking a long time, trying to pick the new lock Mike's parents had put on the damn cabinet. When he finally got it open, he took the time to pour himself a proper drink instead of heading straight back to where Murphy was.

This was so far from all right and feeling Mike's hand in his pants sent him into a full blow attack. He was breathing heavier and his lungs started to feel really heavy. The more he struggled the harder it got for him to get any air at all.

At first, Mike just thought it was typical heavy breathing. If he had a hand on his dick, he'd be breathing heavily too. But as it went along, he pulled back with alarm just in time for Seth to walk in. Holding his drink, Seth had to blink a few times to fully comprehend the tangle of bodies. His first instinct was to be angry at Murphy, but before it could even manifest, he realized Murphy was having an attack. "Get the fuck off of him!" Seth said and put his drink down so he could grab the back of Mike's shirt and haul him off of Murphy.

Murphy was humiliated and even more than that he was scared. Once Mike's weight was off of him he turned over and fumbled with rubbing at his chest with one hand and trying to find his inhaler with the other, but he couldn't.

Mike just stumbled back, holding his hands up in a kind of surrender. He didn't know what was going on with Murphy since he hadn't a clue about the asthma. Seth, on the other hand, knew exactly what was happening and he went over to help Murphy look. "Where is it?" he asked, knowing the other would have it on him. He reached into his pockets and found it, handing it over to him. "Here."

Murphy shook the inhaler and he managed to take one puff off of it and then a second. He laid his head down and squeezed his eyes shut once he had so that he could try to remember how to breathe. When it didn't get any easier he started to cry, which just made things even worse.

Mike still just stared and Seth felt like panicking but he held it together. "Murphy, Murphy, it's okay. Please don't cry. I don't know what to do. Breathe, okay? Maybe sit up?" He tried to help him, thinking that when he laid down himself when he was sick he coughed more.

Murphy's lips were turning blue and though his rapid, shallow breaths were slowing down to even shallower, and farther apart wheezes. Each breath he took was ragged and felt painful as he tried desperately to get more oxygen. He could hardly even hear Seth abut he tried to turn over.

"Fucking call the paramedics you dumb fuck!" He yelled at Mike. The boy was together enough to whip out his cell phone and dial . Seth sat the boy upright and rubbed his back. "They're coming," Mike said. "I'm going to fucking kick your ass, Mike." Seth growled, but he stayed next to Murphy.

It was official. If he didn't die from oxygen deprivation he was going to die when his parents killed him for being here. Once he was sitting up the pressure on his lungs was eased a little but he still could barely get anything in. Not even enough to make the inhaler worthwhile if he tried again.

Seth was tired of waiting and he plucked Murphy up and carried him downstairs. As he got outside the ambulance pulled up and Seth flagged them over. They set to work and loaded Murphy into the back. They wouldn't let Seth ride with him until he threw a fit.

Murphy got loaded up in the back of the ambulance and they put an oxygen mask on him, which helped a little. The EMTs had steroids that they were able to give him, all sorts of things to make him able to breathe again as they were en route to the hospital. Once he'd calmed down he couldn't even look at Seth.

Seth felt like crying. He shouldn't have left him alone. "I'm sorry, Murphy. This was my fault. I shouldn't have made you go." He hated that murphy wouldn't look at him. Once they got to the hospital, they wouldn't let Seth follow, so he waited in the waiting room wishing he hadn't drank anything.

Murphy was scared and mostly he was just upset over the fact that he'd even let what happened, happen. It felt like it was his fault for not having been able to see what was going to happen or stop it once it started. When they wheeled ihm away from Seth he started getting upset and he started to ask for Seth, wanting to be with someone familiar.

The nurse came out to get him, realizing it would be easier with him in there. Relieved, Seth went into the little monitoring room they had Murphy in. "I'm sorry," he said again, going to sit in a chair and scooting it next to the bed. "Please don't hate me. I shouldn't have left you."

"I didn't want him to be kissing me." Murphy said, barely having enough breath to say it but he wanted to let him know that he hadn't meant to do that. "I tried to push him away but he pushed me down."

Seth had been worried about that. He didn't know whether the attack had been from getting too worked up because he was into it or because Mike was basically forcing himself on Murphy. "Now I'm really going to kill him." Seth said angrily. "I was scared maybe you liked it. When I--I mean when I was looking for your inhaler you seemed into it." He meant the semi-hardness Murphy had been sporting.

That just made him start crying because now he was embarrassed again. He put his hands up over his face and he tried to force himself to calm down. "I didn't."

"Please don't cry," he said softly. "Please. It kills me when you cry. It breaks my heart." He stood up and put his arms around him, making sure not to put any pressure on his chest. "I won't make you go to a party ever again. If you ever want to see me again, I won't take you anyplace unsafe."

"You were drinking." And he'd left him alone and then this had happened. "i'm going to be grounded for the rest of my life." That would be something he'd have to deal with later when they found out he was here.

The mention of drinking made his gut twist and he pulled back. "I'm sorry." It was all he could say. He put his face in his hands and tried to will himself sober. "Do you want me to just leave? Should I call your parents and go? Please don't tell me to go." He couldn't stand the idea that he'd ruined this already. Now he was crying a little.

"No, I want you to stay." he said softly, frowning just a little as he looked over at him. "I just want you to stay here with me." He rubbed at his face again. "Someone needs to call my parents though. They are going to be so angry with me."

The guilt was just overwhelming. Seth got a nurse's assistant and gave him the number so Murphy's parents could be notified. Sitting back down, he kept his hands clasped in his lap. "They should be angry with me not you."

Murphy shook his head a little bit and he just laid back, trying to focus on breathing instead of on the fact that he was about to get into massive amounts of trouble. "I should have known better. I just wanted to be with you."

"Who knew Mike was going to pull that shit?" he posed in defense of Murphy. "He thinks he's so fucking great." There was a lot of animosity there, more now of course.

Murphy just went quiet because he didn't really want to talk about it anymore. Instead he laid his head to the side and closed his eyes. He needed all his energy for when his parents got there.

Seth went quiet as well, trying to figure out what was going to happen between them. He had his head in his hands, elbows on his knees when he heard Murphy's parents come into the room. Immediately, he lifted his head, doing his best to look as sober as humanly possible.

Murphy looked over at them and tried not to get upset. He was expecting the worse but his mother just came over to brush his hair back out of his face and to kiss his forehead. She told him everything would be all right. That he would be all right.

Seth was surprised by that reaction. His aunt would have come in, pretending all of that, but really she just would have been too embarassed not to act the concerned parental figure. He stayed quiet, thinking maybe they'd just lay into him instead; it would make more sense.

Murphy's father was the same and while his mother talked to him, his father came over to sit beside Seth. "Thank you for calling the paramedics. You saved his life."

Blinking a few times, Seth turned his head to look at Murphy's dad. "I'm the one who took him to that party. It wasn't his fault. I practically dragged him there." He wanted to make sure he got that in there just in case they were waiting to yell at Murphy until they got home.

"Murphy is almost an adult and he is very capable of making his own decisions, even if sometimes they are the wrong ones." They weren't mad. Scared, yes. But they weren't angry.

Finding no traces of anger, Seth just stared at him, perplexed. He felt like maybe he should start listing off the reasons they should be furious. Fortunately, he wasn't drunk enough to really think that was a good idea. He looked over at Murphy, a little jealous of what he had here.

"Do you want to stay here with Murphy or can I give you a ride home?" Murphy's dad could tell he was upset and he didn't want to make it any worse.

"Actually, I think I'm going to walk." The party wasn't that far away and he had every intention on making good on his promise to physically hurt Mike. Now that Murphy's parents were there, he felt safe leaving him to go take care of that.

"I don't think that is a good idea." Murphy's dad shook his head and Murphy kind of started to get panicky again. He shook his head and protested through his oxygen mask.

Seth held up his hand. "It's okay, I walk lots of places. It isn't even that late." He didn't understand why Murphy's dad would even care if it was a good idea for him or not. He wasn't used to people caring what he did. Seth looked at Murphy and got up to go stand next to him. "You'll probably get to go home tonight. And I'll come over and check on you tomorrow, okay?"

"Can't you just stay here?" Murphy was afraid of what he was going to do and he didn't want Seth to get hurt or get in trouble. "Just stay and then come home with me."

He just kept thinking about Mike on top of Murphy and he was getting really angry again. "Why?" he asked with a frown. "I can handle myself, okay? I'm just going to walk home." That was a lie, but he rationalized it in his head perfectly.

"Please." Murphy asked softly, his brow furrowed. "Please just come with me." He didn't think he was going to win but he was going to try. He knew it was going to be a mess if he left.

Seth had the 'right thing to do' all messed up in his head. If he let Mike get away with this, then he'd be practically condoning it. He shook his head and offered a meek wave to Murphy's parents as he left.
----The Next Day----

Seth had gotten a few really good punches in and Mike's nose was solidly broken, but only because Seth had ambushed him. Maybe Mike had had a good reason to want to get even with Seth, but the way he'd carried it out had been unacceptable. That night, Mike had been able to take out his anger all over Seth's face and gut. The next morning though, as promised, Seth showed up on Murphy's doorstep, feeling more than a little ill and looking more than a little pulverized.

Murphy had slept through the night but he kept waking up and needing his inhaler. That morning he'd just done a breathing treatment and he was going to go back upstairs so that he could lay down, but the knock drew him back to the door. When he opened it and saw Seth he just frowned. "Oh my god, what happened?"

"I defended your honor very poorly," he quipped and grimaced at the way moving his jaw hurt. "But Mike has a broken nose now." Nothing was broken on Seth, he was just that resiliant and he'd been just that drunk to somehow escape any major injury. "Can I come in?"

"Yes." Murphy moved back and he closed the door behind Seth. He was kind of scared for Seth but now that he was there he was safe, he was certain of it. "Come to the bathroom and I can clean you up, all right?"

He hadn't gone home yet. He didn't want to see the look on his aunt's face when she saw him all beat up. Seth got in fights, but never this bad. Instead, he'd walked around trying to sober up. It was a stupid idea to be sober right then, considering how much his goddamn face hurt, but he was already starting to get embarassed by how he acted around Murphy when he was drunk. He was scared the other boy would get tired of it. He went inside, shutting the door behind him and following Murphy to the bathroom. "Are you okay? When did you get home last night? Did your parents yell when you got here?"

"No, they didn't. They said that I learned from that mistake and that if I go to a party like that again then they'll ground me if I don't tell them first." He wasn't too worried about it. He guided Seth into the bathroom and then went to get some ice so that he could put it on his face.

Waiting for him, Seth sighed, hating that he'd made such a big mess out of everything. Murphy didn't seem all that worked up over it though. That confused the shit out of him. He ran the water and cleaned some of the dried blood off of his cheek. He was more than thankful for his empty stomach because he kind of felt like throwing up.

Murphy came back with a warm wet cloth and a little baggy of ice. Seth had already started wiping the blood up but Murphy helped him out, getting the last bit of it wiped off. "I'll put the ice on your cheek after your face is cleaned up, okay?" His voice was still sort of wheezy but he knew he'd be all right after a day or two.

Seth could hear the scratchiness and he stared at Murphy's face, finding that he liked so much the way it looked. "I think I could look at you all the time." It was awkward, kind of a clutzy thing to say, but he meant well by it.

"Yeah?" He smiled a little bit and he leaned in to press a soft kis to Seth's lips before he reached for the ice. "I'm sorry about the thing last night. I don't know why I... you know." Why he got hard. "I didn't want it, I tried to push him off but I couldn't.'

He shrugged a little. "It doesn't mean anything that you did. I understand." Hearing about how Murphy tried to push Mike away just made him feel better about slugging the asshole. "Remember when I said last night that you aren't taken?" He looked down at his feet, feeling incredibly shy about this. "Well, I'd kind of like you to be."

"Yeah?" That made him smile and he just kept the ice very gently against his his cheek. "Do you want me to be your boyfriend? Because I would really like to be that." Murphy tried not to get so excited about it because he didn't want to end up with another attack.

"You would?" Even if Seth wanted it, he hadn't expected Murphy to be so eager after all that had happened last night. He brought his hand up to cover Murphy's that was holding the ice in place. "Yeah, I want you to be my boyfriend." He leaned forward and kissed Murphy on the nose, afraid that a flat out kiss would hurt too much.

That made him smile and he kept his hand with the ice against his cheek. "I really like you. I am glad that you want me to be your boyfriend." he coudln't wait until he could tell Vegas about this. "Do you want to come and sit with me in the living room?"

Murphy was painfully innocent, yet incredibly insightful all at the same time. It fascinated Seth to no end. "Okay," he said, feeling much better now that Murphy had cleaned him up. It wasn't so much the fact that he was cleaned up, but that Murphy had done it. He stood up, taking over with the ice. Once they got to the living room, Seth felt exhausted, the lack of sleep and the physical exertion catching up with him.

Once they were in the living room he let Seth sit first so that he could sit second, and sit close. "I'll put a movie on and get a blanket if you want to curl up with me. I can't really get up and around much." Just because he didn't want to wear himself out. It always took a few days to recover from an attack like that.

"Okay," Seth nodded, making himself comfortable. All he really wanted to do was relax, and he certainly didn't want to stress Murphy out in any way.

Murphy got up and he put a movie in and then grabbed one of the heated blankets that was sitting on the back of the sofa. He settled in again, pulling the blanket up over them boefore leaning against him. "Does your face hurt really badly?"

It sounded like the set up for an old joke, but coming from Murphy, he trusted that it was probably just an honest question. "It's more my stomach that hurts now. He got quite a few good punches in to the gut. I'm pretty sure I deserved those, but he shouldn't have brought you into it."

"Do you think that you need ice for your stomach too? Maybe if you wanted I could fill the tub up for you and you could soak for a while and it will make your muscles feel better." He kissed his cheek and then down along his jaw. "I could do that for you."

Seth laughed and then groaned a little at the jab of pain it caused. "You don't have to get up, I'm good here." Especially now that Murphy's mouth was running against his skin.

"All right but if you want to take a bath in a little bit then I will go upstairs and run one for you and I will sit with you." either in the bath or on the floor just next to it. "I told my mom and dad that you were coming over today and they said that was al lright."

"Your parents are completely insane." He didn't mean that literally, more like the fact that they were so cool just boggled his mind. "Are they always like that? It's like they care about you but also aren't all overbearing about it. When I was little, my dad was just really strict about everything, but he wasn't like that because he cared."

"They do care but they know that we have to make our own choices too." he nodded and he leaned his head against Seth's. "And I think if they were really worried about you then they wouldn't let you come over."

"They should be worried about me," he corrected. "But I'm going to do my best not to hurt you again." As he said those words, even Seth himself knew he was talking bullshit. There was no really good way to keep himself from hurting Murphy and he knew it, but he was going to be selfish and go ahead with him anyway.

"I think that they know that I am old enough to make choices." He said as he looked over at Ben. "and if I get my heart broken that's just part of life, but I don't think that you are going to break my heart."

"Why?" Was all he could think to say. Why wouldn't Murphy think that he'd break his heart? It only stood to reason that the type of person Seth was, he'd end up hurting the other boy.

"Because. I think that this is nice and I think that you like me and I like you, so why would you try to hurt me?" he leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

It was so logical and so simple when Murphy said it. Seth sighed and chose to believe that it would be so easy. He returned the kiss, slipping one arm around Murphy and drawing him closer. "You're right. I would never try to hurt you."

That made him smile and he pressed a kiss to his cheek again. Wrapping his arm around Seth's waist, he leaned in so that his chin was resting on the boy's shoulder. "I don't want you to go after Mike again, I don't like to see you hurt like this."

He fell silent, surprised that Murphy knew he was thinking about trying to get back at Mike some more after he'd healed up. "All right," he finally said, a little sullen that he wouldn't get another crack at Mike. "He deserves it though. Murphy, he practically tried to rape you. I get the feeling he would have if you hadn't had the attack."

"Well then I guess I should be grateful for my asthma." He smiled just a touch and he kissed his cheek again. Always trying to see the bright side of things even though really, that was kind of fucked up. He was still sort of freaked out after the whole Mike thing but he didn't want Seth to know.

Seth looked at him dumbfoundedly. "That's pretty fucked up," he had no qualms about saying. Murphy seemed far too all right with the whole mess that had been last night and he was starting to worry that that meant he was just pretending to be okay.

"I don't want to make you upset then." Murphy's logic was sound enough. Maybe Seth focused too much on possibilities rather than facts. He turned his attention to the television, watching what was on quietly.

Murphy bit his bottom lip and just turned his head so that he could look at the movie. He was still upset, it hadn't entirely reigstered with him that he had nearly been raped and he knew if he thought too much about it he'd just really freak out.

Seth resolved himself to be there if Murphy ever needed him again. It would be difficult to balance the alcohol and another big commitment, but he was determined to do it without giving up either. Soon enough, he took to dozing against Murphy, so comfortable.