Chapter Text
“It’s so crazy that we all made it onto the show,” Jimmy was saying, “I mean, I didn’t think any of us would get in, but all three of us? It’s a miracle.”
“Yeah,” Joel said, and he could feel the beginnings of a smile take shape on his face. “It is a miracle that the two of you managed to get on the show." Grian, who had already caught on to what Joel was doing sighed a sigh of the put upon and ignored them both. Jimmy, however, took the bait.
“The two of us? The two of us? And it’s not a miracle that you’re here?”
“No Jim. See I’m the handsome one of the bunch, so really it was a miracle that this show managed to snag me before all the other ones could.”
Grian elbowed Joel in the side. “Shut up, the host is about to make his announcement.”
Joel rolled his eyes but turned his attention to the stage. Grian and Jimmy had been his best friends since first grade. The three of them had been in the same class and one day at recess Joel was going around breaking the rules (And no, it wasn't because he was mad at his mom). He ran on the black top, he cut in line for the slide, and he even jumped off of the swings while he was still high up. He was a self-proclaimed bad boy, and he would never stop being bad. (He stopped being bad the next day.)
His bad behavior had landed him on the time out bench, and Joel had very loudly proclaimed that only cool kids sat on the time out bench because being bad was cool.
“If I sit on the time out bench, I’ll be cool?” A very shy Jimmy had asked when he overheard.
Joel nodded confidently. “You can be a bad boy with me too if you want.”
“Really?” Jimmy lit up instantly and sat next to Joel on the bench.
When Joel got let off of the time out bench, he beckoned mischievously to Jimmy. “Bad boys would wait until someone lost their ball and not give it back.” They ran to wait by some boys playing soccer until finally they lost their ball. A short kid wearing a red t-shirt that Joel recognized from class jogged over.
“Can you give our ball back?” Grian asked.
“No.” Joel said and turned away hugging the ball to his chest. “I’m a bad boy.”
“Really? I remember you from class. You didn’t seem bad then.”
Joel scowled. “I was, I’ve been bad since forever.”
Grian turned to Jimmy and squinted. “Your name is Tim, right? I didn’t think you were a bad boy.”
“I am a bad boy. I’m a bad boy with Joel.”
“That’s right, we’re The Bad Boys.” Joel added proudly.
“And my name’s actually Jim-”
“You can even join us if you want. If you throw the ball further from the field. You can be the third member of The Bad Boys.” Joel interrupted.
Grian pondered for a moment. “Well, Bad Boys is a pretty dumb name.”
Joel gasped, offended. “No it’s not! It’s super cool and awesome!”
Grian grinned. “My mom said that it’s bad to call things dumb. I guess that makes me a bad boy.” And he chucked the ball away from the field to shouts of dismay from the others in the field.
Joel grinned at him widely. “Welcome to The Bad Boys Grian.”
They’d been pretty much inseparable ever since. When they were in middle school, they even started a garage band together called The Bad Boys. They had always done everything together, so it made sense to him that even now, as contestants to a dating show, that they were doing this together too.
The host cleared his throat to get everybody's attention. “Welcome everyone! I’m so glad all of you made it here safely. I know that each of you read the contracts in order to be here, but I’ll go over some of the basic stuff just so everything is clear. You will be paired up randomly with someone in this room, excluding me of course, I know, I’m sad about it too.”
Everyone in said room took a moment to glance around at their prospects.
“With your partner, you will have three lives. One of your lives will be taken away if you fail one of the many challenges we will be having. Remember, even if you don’t complete a challenge, it doesn't mean you’ve failed it. Only one pairing will lose each challenge based upon your total points at the end of it. The lowest score will be the team that loses a life, but be careful,” and he winked at us. “If you ever tie for last place, any pairings involved in the tie will all lose lives as well.”
Joel nudged Jimmy and whispered, “Be careful Jim, you place last in everything you do.”
“Do not.” He muttered back and scowled, which looked more cute than menacing.
“Most of your challenges will obviously be relationship centered, and you will be sharing a room with your partner. There are no cameras in your rooms or bathrooms, but if need be we have a camera crew ready to go. There are cameras in pretty much every room beyond those. We like to try and keep our cameras hidden in an attempt to keep it more natural, which you should have read in your contract. Any camera crew that needs to accompany you anywhere will try to be as discreet as possible. Now,” The host clasped his hands in front of him and smiled, “There will be a little party to celebrate your first day here, and to meet a few of the others. I will announce the first challenge near the end. Have fun everybody.” He winked at us then swept away to do more of his host-ly duties or whatever it is hosts of game shows do.
“Party huh?” Joel said.
Grian nodded over to a bar where it looked like alcohol was being brought out. “Sure looks like it. Okay, here’s the plan. We need to scope out the floor to choose our ideal partners.”
“Just off of looks?” Jimmy asked.
Grian nodded. “Nobody has time to go around and actually meet everyone.”
A blonde guy with a headband on came up to their group. “Hey, I’m Martyn, I’m going around to everyone to quickly get to know them. So, can I get each of your names and something about you?” He asked.
Joel smirked at Grian at which he thought he heard a mumbled “Shut up.”
“I’m Jimmy,” Jimmy said going first, “And I guess I really like animals.” Martyn nodded, seeming to jot this down mentally.
“I’m Grian. I mostly like joking around with friends. I don’t like things to be too serious.”
“And I’m Joel, the leader of The Bad Boys, which is our group.” He saw Grian and Jimmy both roll their eyes at that but chose to ignore their flagrant disrespect. He’s the reason The Bad Boys even exist, so he can nominate himself as the leader god dammit! “I am the grease that our machine runs on,” He continued, “I bring them order and peace, and they are better for it. My unending wisdom has guided them through many trials, and I can say with utmost sincerity, that anyone would be blessed to have me as their partner.”
Grian snorted loudly.
Joel glared at him. “What’s so funny? Got something to say? Say it to my face!”
Grian addressed Martyn instead. “One time we rented one of those two person bikes to see if we could ride it, and as soon as we got the hang of it, Joel of course being at the front, decided to see if you could jump as high off a ramp with a two-person bike as opposed to a regular bike. Spoiler alert, it didn’t end well.”
“Hey!” Joel protested, “We were only in the hospital for a few days. And it was pretty much all your fault since you bailed on me last second and sent us flipping through the air.”
“You didn’t even tell me what you were doing, you just started racing towards that makeshift ramp! Of course I panicked!”
“Uhh, I think I’ve heard enough.” Martyn said, and retreated on to his next victim, who was some red-haired chick.
“Whatever,” Joel sniffed, “If he can’t handle the heat, he deserves to get burned.”
“There’s still a possibility that you guys will be paired together,” Jimmy puts in.
“Yes, I’m aware. There’s a possibility that two of the three of us will be paired. I guess we’ll just have to find a way to live with ourselves if any of those things happen. But enough about those horrendous situations, there’s loads of other people to scope out, and I’d like to get scoping.”
Jimmy nudged Grian. “Look over there, that guy is totally your type.”
Both he and Grian looked over, and hot damn. That guy was smoking. He was tall, muscular, had his brown hair pulled back into a short ponytail, and was tan like he spent most of his days outside in the sun. That guy was Grian’s type.
Except- Grian was frozen still.
“What’s wrong? You know that guy?”
“What? No. Are you crazy? What would give you that impression? Hey, look at that person over there in the opposite direction!”
Joel grinned. “Oh, you totally know him. Stop trying to deflect and spill.”
“Yea, and how come you know him while Joel and I don’t? We do literally everything together.” Jimmy said.
“He’s no one. Just some guy. That I met. A while ago.”
Jimmy gave Grian puppy eyes while Joel gave him a death stare.
“Fine! His name is Scar. You know that one year at school when we weren't in the same class?” Grian waited for them to both nod before continuing. “Well, we were sort of friends that year. Not even friends. More like, he hung around me a lot, so we chatted a little. And I only asked him to be partners for a project once because I didn’t really know anyone else in my class.”
“Uh huh, Suuuuuure.”
“Besides!” Grian went on, “He’s super clumsy and accident prone! One time we were eating lunch together, not because we were friends but because he just liked to hang around me, and he knocked my lunch on the floor. It doesn’t even matter that he bought me lunch for a week after that, because it’s the principle of the matter.”
“Wow, you definitely had a crush on him didn’t you.”
“I didn’t!” Grian was practically shrieking. Lucky for him the music was pretty loud and he didn’t draw too much attention. “He’s not even hot! He’s like, average at best.”
“Okay Grian, whatever you say. Take a look around then, tell me who is hot.”
Grian spun around, quickly surveying everyone, but pointedly not looking in Scar’s direction. He thrust a finger out at a tall, dark-skinned man, who was, admittedly very handsome. “Him. He’s hot, and he’s my type.”
“Yeah, okay.” He conceded. “He’s hot too.”
“Enough about me, what about you? See anyone you fancy?”
Joel took a moment to look over everyone in the room. Finally, though, his eyes landed on a white-haired man wearing a mask at the bar talking to that blonde guy, Martyn.
“That guy’s pretty cute.” He gestured over to him.
Grian rolled his eyes. “I should’ve guessed. You always go for those mysterious types.”
“No I don’t. Jimmy, tell him that I don’t.”
Jimmy didn’t reply though because he was too busy staring at someone else across the room.
“Knew he was being suspiciously quiet.” Grian muttered under his breath.
They followed his gaze to a blonde guy with his hair slicked back with sunglasses resting on top. He wore a black leather jacket and a red shirt underneath.
“Wow Jimmy, quit ogling.” Grian teased, elbowing him.
“W-what? I’m not ogling!” Jimmy said, jumping a little. He was blushing furiously at being called out.
“Then what were you doing?”
“I was just admiring his leather jacket. It fits with our theme as The Bad Boys.”
“Aw, look at that,” Joel said to Grian, “He’s already looking for how to join him into our group.”
“Young love.” Grian said, nodding and sighing dramatically.
“Stop it! Both of you!”
He and Grian kept laughing together and he felt a rush of happiness. No matter what happened on this dating show or who he got paired up with, he knew he had his Bad Boys to fall back on. And he was sure that this new adventure that they were starting out on would end like all the other ones had; Together.