By the time Matthew and Alex found Stephanie in her flat, she had rounded up nine other kids to watch a film on her tiny box TV set. Connor was there, his costume consisting of a footballer's jersey. So was Lauren and the boy she had called Benny. The room was in the middle of a vote between a film called Texas Chainsaw Massacre and another called Halloween. Alex tried to abstain since he knew nothing about either, but unfortunately, without his vote, it was stuck at a dead tie. The thought of watching a movie with the word massacre in the title unnerved him, but it was the choice Stephanie had voted for. Since she was the most passionate person in the room, Alex sided with her choice.
Alex regretted his decision.
"You can close your eyes if you want," Mathew whispered when he noticed Alex struggling to watch.
"It's the sounds that are getting me," Alex said, though he couldn't stop himself from covering his face with his hands when a poor girl was carried towards a meat hook.
"The sound design is phenomenal in this film," Stephanie gushed in agreement. "It has a shocking lack of on-screen gore. Brilliant use of implied horror rather than explicit."
"Oh, it's plenty explicit," Connor said, a hand over his mouth. "Christ, I think I just became a vegetarian."
"You know, a lot of people interpret that as being the underlying message of the film. It makes people think about how awful it would be to be treated like livestock."
"I don't like how excited you sound when you talk about this movie, Steph."
"I think perhaps we should all focus on treating each other with decency," Benny muttered, "before we indulge in the luxury of worrying about the cows."
The room started to debate the ethics of meat consumption, which made for a poor movie-watching environment. But Alex didn't mind, since now that phenomenal sound design that made his stomach turn was getting drowned out.
Matthew put a hand on Alex's shoulder to get his attention. "I'm gonna go get a drink," he said, getting up from where they had been sitting on the floor. "Maybe see how Ellie and Farrow are doing. Want anything?"
"Um, seltzer water if they've still got it," Alex said, genuinely worried the film might push his stomach over the edge. "Thank you."
"Don't be afraid to socialize while I'm gone. They won't bite. Well, Lauren will probably take a bite out of Benny. But that's consensual. It would be nice if they asked permission from everyone else in the room, though."
Matthew gave Alex's shoulder a squeeze before heading out. He stayed on the outskirts of the vegetarian conversation, only chiming in once when Stephanie polled the group and directly asked him if he ate meat. A year eight girl that Alex recognized from Baptiste's vigil said she would only be able to give up the meat of animals she thought were cute. Beef and pork could be cut out, but chicken and fish were still on the table. That led to a discussion of whether fish counted as meat.
"You're allowed to eat it during fasting days and Lent," a Russian boy named Anatole said, taking the question very seriously. "So, I would say no. Right?"
"Meat's just the flesh of an animal," Benny argued. "It counts. Vegetarians don't eat fish; there's a different word for people who only eat fish meat. Pescatarians."
"I heard some vegans don't eat honey," Lauren mused. "Cuz, it depends on the labour of the bees. Or something like that."
Connor rolled his eyes. "If that's the reason, that's just silly," he said. "Everything in agriculture depends on bee labour, that's how shit grows."
"Maybe that wasn't the reason then."
"I don't get vegans at all," the year eight girl said. "My family's chickens lay eggs nonstop. They're not all gonna get fertilized; if we didn't use them, they'd just go to waste."
"I think it's more about the unsustainability and cruelty of factory farming," Stephanie guessed. "Like the eggs you get at your home, you know, are humanely obtained, but the ones at the grocer probably came from one of those places where the chickens are crammed in steel warehouses."
"Plenty of produce isn't grown ethically either," Benny pointed out. "The scale of some growing operations inflicts massive amounts of environmental damage. Never mind the corporations that utilize stolen land. The workers who are underpaid or downright enslaved."
"This conversation is getting more depressing than the movie," the year eight girl said.
"Benny does have a habit of making the world seem bleak," Lauren said, poking Benny's cheek. "We're trying to work on that."
"Bleak seems a perfectly apt way to describe it to me," Benny said, grabbing Lauren's hand to pull it away from his face. He kept holding on to it, though, lacing his fingers through hers and resting their joined hands on his knee.
"Surely there are pleasures you partake in that are not so bleak," Connor said, a smug smile on his lips as he eyed their hands.
"Ugh, please no," Anatole said. "We have had enough of watching those two and their pleasures."
"And Europeans call us prudes," Lauren said as she put her head on Benny's shoulder.
The conversation naturally died down, and most everyone went back to watching the film. Lauren and Benny started snogging again until they got handsy enough for Stephanie to insist they needed to find their room. Alex vaguely registered that Matthew had been gone a while when they left, but it didn't completely sink in until the end credits of the film started rolling.
"That didn't traumatize you too much, did it, Alexander?" Stephanie asked as she stopped the VCR and rewound her tape.
"Not at all," Alex said, not quite sure if that was true. "But, um, I don't think I'll be watching it again."
"You strike me as a man who would appreciate a good rom-com. Or a contemplative coming-of-age story."
"Yeah, I don't know if horror in general is for me."
Enough about our waking life, thank you very much, AJ added.
"I'll keep that in mind next time I go to the rental shop. Though I understand Matt has plenty of films he's itching to make you sit through, too." Stephanie blinked and looked around, also seeming to realize that Matthew had been gone a long time. "Where'd he go off to? I would have thought he had a strong enough stomach for TCM."
"He left to get a drink a while ago, but I think maybe he got distracted talking to Ellie or someone else."
A couple of kids headed out to enjoy other party festivities, but the rest wanted to keep their movie night going with the other choice Stephanie had presented. She insisted that Halloween was a less gory endeavour than the film they had finished, but Alex used the excuse of finding Matthew to duck out before he could see if that was true.
Alex navigated his way back to the lounge, where he found Ellie and Jack by Mikayla's makeshift bar table. Their backs were to him as they fussed over something on the table. Once he was closer, Alex could see it was a small round cake coated in green frosting. Ellie had a piping bag of black frosting in her hand and was manoeuvring it around with intense concentration while Jack and Mikayla watched over her shoulder.
"I don't think that's what his head is shaped like," Jack was saying as Alex approached. His height gave him a good view of Ellie's cake canvas. She was in the middle of rendering a slightly shaky portrait of the felt frog named Kermit.
"Does this look easy, Jackie?" Ellie said, not looking up from her work. "Because it's not. Mickey, what are his pupils like?"
"They're like little dots with a horizontal line through them," Mikayla said. "You know, like a frog."
Ellie added the eyes and then a smiling mouth, but then hesitated. "And how many little triangles has he got on his collar?"
"Well, it goes around his whole neck," Jack said. "Three should be… No, five is good, I think."
Ellie added the advised number of triangles and then the trio stepped back to admire her work. It was a bit wonky, but certainly recognizable as the banjo-wielding frog.
"He looks good," Alex complimented, earning startled jumps from the three. Ellie was so surprised she squeezed the piping bag she was still holding hard enough to send some flying at Jack's face.
"Sorry," Alex said, stifling a laugh as Jack licked at the rogue frosting. "I didn't realize you hadn't noticed me."
"Where's Matt?" Ellie said, her eyes scanning the area in a panic. "We're not done with his surprise yet."
"I assumed he was with you guys. He came to get a drink… Must have been almost forty minutes ago, I think."
"He was here," Mikayla said. "Left like fifteen minutes ago with a beer and a can of seltzer. We thought he'd gone back to you, but he must have gotten sidetracked somewhere else. Taika was rounding up people for a Mario Kart tournament, I think. Maybe he got drafted by her."
"Alex, can you find him and keep him away from here for like, ten more minutes?" Ellie asked. "I've still got to write the birthday message and add the candles. Oh! And Mikayla, can you get the polaroid Olena left? It's on my desk. Should be fully loaded with film."
"Aye aye, chief," Mikayla said, giving a quick salute before dashing away.
"I realized the other day that we've not got any pictures of Baptiste," Ellie said as she fiddled with the tip of her piping bag. "So, we need to make sure we take lots tonight, okay?"
"Of course," Alex said. "Lots tomorrow and beyond as well."
Ellie smiled and dipped her finger into a bit of frosting that had stuck to the side of her bag's tip. Then she stood up on her tiptoes to dab it onto Alex's nose.
"Go on then," she said. "Deploy every distraction tactic at your disposal. Taika's room is on the floor below if that's where he's gone."
"On it," Alex said, swiping the frosting off his nose and tasting it as he walked away. It was a dark chocolate flavour, one that very much resembled the frosting that would sometimes be drizzled on Chef Jerimiah's sweets and pastries. He wondered if Ellie had just gotten a recipe from him or if he had helped make the cake himself.
Alex couldn't find Matthew anywhere on the third floor. He wasn't on the balcony and hadn't gone back to Stephanie's flat either. A few other flat doors had been propped open, and Alex peeked his head in with a silent prayer that he wasn't intruding on anyone. One flat held a very intense six-person board game in which colourful money and tiny plastic buildings were being exchanged. But no, Matthew.
Another flat seemed to have some kind of drinking game going on, in which people were revealing embarrassing secrets. Alex could imagine a few worse ways to spend his evening; luckily, Matthew wasn't in there either. He did see what looked like a clue at the entrance of that flat. On the floor, right inside the doorway, there was an abandoned but mostly full beer bottle and an unopened can of seltzer. Just like the ones Mikayla said Matthew had walked away with. But one of the girls inside was in the middle of telling a funny but sexually explicit story, so Alex decided against interrupting to ask if any of them had seen him.
Once he was sure he had checked every accessible spot on the third floor, Alex headed back to the stairwell to search the floor below. He realized as he twisted the door handle and inched open the door that he didn't know the room number he was looking for. He was about to turn around and get it from Ellie but froze when he heard a sound coming from the stairwell. It was faint but unmistakable. Steady, shallow, body-shaking sobs. Ones that made Alex's heart wrench, because he was pretty sure he knew who they were coming from.
Alex gently pushed the door open a bit further and peeked his head into the stairwell. Just as he suspected, Matthew was there, perched at the top of the landing right between the third and second floors. His legs were pulled up to his chest, held in place by his arms. His face was buried in his knees, so he couldn't see Alex lurking at the door. Every couple of seconds, he would lift it slightly to bump his forehead lightly on his kneecaps. The motion usually preceded another mangled sob escaping.
Alex didn't need to wonder why Matthew was crying. He knew why. What he didn't know was what he was supposed to do. There must have been a reason Matthew secluded himself in the stairwell, right? Did he just need a minute to himself? Would Alex make it worse if he stepped in? Should he get Ellie? Would that be an even bigger mistake?
Before Alex could decide what to do, he accidentally pushed the stairwell door just far enough to make the hinges creak. The already unpleasant sound echoed in the acoustics of the space, and Matthew's head snapped up to look at him. He didn't say anything, but his expression looked dazed and a touch embarrassed.
"Sorry," Alex said automatically, instinctively backing up a bit. "I didn't mean to… I can… If you just want to be left alone, I can go."
Matthew remained silent, and Alex figured that was his cue to leave. He backed up and started to pull the door closed, but stopped when he heard Matthew call out.
"Wait!"
Alex pushed the door back open and peered down again. Matthew's expression looked hesitant, and he seemed to be looking up at a spot above Alex's head rather than directly at him. But after letting out a shaky breath he spoke again.
"Can you… Can you stay?" he asked, his voice lilting in a way that made it seem like he wanted the answer to be yes.
Alex fully entered the landing, cringing slightly when the hinges creaked again. He descended the first section of stairs and joined Matthew where he was, folding himself into a sitting position by the railing. He didn't say anything. The last time this happened, he hadn't. But Alex still wasn't entirely sure what he had done that day to make things start going right. And things between them had been different back then compared to now. So, did that mean Alex was supposed to do something different? Should he ask what was wrong, even though the answer felt obvious? Should he—
Alex was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Matthew let out a rough chuckle. He turned his head to see Matthew looking at him as he rested the side of his face against his knees. Tears were still flowing, but he was smiling now.
"You're overthinking again," Matthew noticed.
"How could you tell?"
"Call it a hunch. Can you tell me what you were thinking?"
"Nothing special. I just…"
"Just," Matthew pressed when Alex didn't finish the thought right away.
"I just wish I knew what I did right, to comfort you before. So that I could do it again now."
"You're doing it already."
"But I'm not doing anything," Alex said, unable to keep the exasperation out of his voice. Before he could regret his tone, Matthew let out another chuckle.
"Oh, you're doing something alright," Matthew mumbled, lifting his head and straightening out his legs so that his heels rested a step lower. "Hey, scoot closer and stretch your legs out like this. I want to see something."
Alex wasn't sure where this was going, but so far he seemed to be making Matthew feel better by doing what he asked. So he scooted close enough to leave what he figured was still a comfortable amount of space between them. Once his legs were fully stretched out, they extended to the step below where Matthew's heels rested.
"Christ you are a giraffe," Matthew said, tapping Alex's leg with his toe. "Those boots have a heel to them too, huh? That's the last thing you need."
"They're more comfortable than I thought they'd be," Alex said, leaning forward to pick at a piece of carpet lint that had stuck to the boot leather. "I can't think of another occasion I'll have to wear them, though. Is it poor etiquette to return something to a thrift store?"
"Do you not want to keep them?"
"They'd just sit unused in my closet. Seems a shame since they're so nice."
"What size are you?"
"Nine. Oh, but the scale is different in the US and UK. So, a size ten or so by your metric I think." Alex lightly tapped Matthew's shoe, the well-worn trainers that he used for PE. "My guess is they'd be too big for you."
"You saying I got baby feet?"
"They're appropriately sized in proportion to the rest of you."
"You're coming up with real creative ways to call me short. But don't sound so smug. Tiny feet mean I can still get away with shopping in the kids' section of Payless. Got these bad boys on sale for 6.99. But my dad has freakish Sasquatch feet like you, so if you want, I can buy them from you."
"He'd like these?"
"He's a Mexican dad, of course, he'd like quality genuine leather cowboy boots. He'd take the hat you're wearing off your head too."
"Then they're both his. No purchase required."
"What did I tell you about birthday gifts not two hours ago?"
"They're not for you, they're for him."
Matthew narrowed his eyes before letting out a puff of air. "Fine," he said, not sounding at all pleased. "I'll allow it."
"Speaking of birthdays, though," Alex said, finally settling on a debate he had been having since he first saw Matthew crying, "it's meant to be a surprise, but Eloise has a birthday cake waiting for you up there. I was meant to stall you and take you there in about five minutes. But if you're not feeling up for a celebration…"
Matthew sighed and leaned back slightly, laying his palms out flat behind him to prop himself up.
"Sneaky Eloise," he said, a smile on his lips. "I suppose I never made any rules about cake."
"I'm sure she'd understand. If you weren't up for it."
Matthew raised a hand to his face and wiped at the half-dried streaks of tears still on his face. "I'm fine," he whispered. "Well, no. Not fine. But I'm not…" Matthew frowned and let out a small groan as he let himself tip backwards until his back was lying on the concrete floor of the landing.
"It just sneaks up on me sometimes," he said, closing his eyes. Alex noticed another tear droplet sneak out of the corner of his eye. It took a shocking amount of self-control to stop himself from wiping it away. "I have the gall to think I'm doing better. Whatever better means. I feel like I'm getting used to this new shit status quo. That the ache I woke up with is just a fraction of a fraction more bearable than the one I felt when I went to sleep. But then I'm in a crowd of people and I find myself looking for him because I genuinely fucking forgot and…" Matthew brought his arms up to cover his eyes as his body shook with another sob. "And then it hit me like a truck, and suddenly I'm back in that courtyard, seeing him on the ground all over again."
Alex's throat tightened as water banged at his tear ducts. "I… I get moments like that too," he decided to say, hoping the bizarre bit of comfort he got from hearing Matthew put words to his turmoil worked in the other direction. "One second, I'm doing about as well as I could hope. Treading water to the best of my ability. And then the next it's like something's got hold of me. It drags me below for random periods. Sometimes just a couple of seconds. Usually for at least a minute or two. As far as I can tell nothing specific triggers it. It lets go as suddenly as it grabs me, and I shoot back to the surface. My chest aches and my lungs feel like they've gone through a shredder, but somehow, I manage to breathe again. And I…"
"And you got to go back to treading water like nothing happened," Matthew finished, sounding like he understood Alex perfectly. "Cuz otherwise you'll just sink."
"Maybe one day we'll be light enough to float again."
Matthew chuckled. "Maybe," he said, bringing his hands away from his face to look at Alex with a crooked half-smile. "Be nice if someone tossed us a life preserver. A pool noodle maybe."
"What's that?"
Matthew sat up and sighed. "Seriously?" he said as he wiped his face dry again. "You don't know what pool noodles are? There's no way you don't have them in this country. Colourful little foam tubes, hollow in the middle. You use them to float in a pool. Well, you're meant to. If you're a civilized individual you use them to spit streams of chlorinated water at your cousins."
"I never learned how to swim, so I've never really had a reason to hang around pools."
"You're fucking with me."
"Nope."
"You live on an island, Allie."
"My mother thought I had more important things to do with my time, I suppose."
"Right. Well, I'm sure if you ever find yourself trying to tread actual water, the fact that you're a polyglot will come in super handy."
"It certainly gives me options whilst screaming for help."
Matthew let out a chuckle that turned into a wet cough halfway through. He frowned when his move to cover it revealed a good deal of mucus had been escaping from his nose as he cried.
"Jesus, why didn't you tell me I looked like an extra in a Kleenex commercial?" he said, his ear tinged with red as he debated wiping his nose on his jacket sleeve.
"Here," Alex said, untying the bandana still around his neck and handing it over. "A slightly more sanitary option."
"Thanks."
Matthew used the bandana to first dry the last of his tears' residue and then blew into it like it was a handkerchief. Once he was done, he looked down at the crumpled red fabric for a second before smirking and trying to hand it back.
"Gross!" Alex complained, ducking away from the attempted handoff. Matthew let out a cackle and doubled over, his head bumping against Alex's arm in the process.
"Come on," he said, waving the damp and wrinkled fabric. "Your look's not complete without it."
"Try to put that thing near me and I'm never talking to you again."
Matthew let out a couple more stray giggles before getting to his feet and tucking the bandana away in his jacket pocket. "Well now that's a threat I can't afford to have you making good on," he said. "Think Ellie's ready for us?"
"Are you sure you're ready?" Alex said as he stood as well.
"Yeah, I've resurfaced. More or less."
Alex followed Matthew as he headed back up to the door to the third floor. He paused right before opening it and looked back over his shoulder with a slightly unsure expression.
"Hey, Alex?" he said, his voice quiet.
"Yeah?"
"Um, if you ever… Well, the next time you feel yourself starting to go under, you can come find me. If you want. And I could- Well, I could try to…"
Alex smiled at the rare bit of bashfulness from Matthew. "Be my pool noodle?" he finished.
Matthew smiled, and Alex had a feeling that if he hadn't been putting in the effort with Alvaro's extra lessons and Dr Bayer's sessions, his powers would have made his whole body catch fire at the sight of it.
If you ask me, AJ commented, you could benefit from a plunge or two into some icy waters.
"Yeah," Matthew confirmed.
"Thank you. I… I can be yours when you'd like as well."
"Will you spit on my cousins?"
"The optics of that would be a bit loaded, given the societal context."
"Good point. I'll spit on your cousins if you need me to, though."
"I'll keep that in mind, thank you."
Matthew smirked and opened the door, holding it for Alex as he followed behind him. Alex noticed right away that the music in the lounge was quieter than before, and a lot of the people who had been socialising in the hallways were no longer around. When they reached the lounge, he saw that it was because most of them had crowded in there. The dancing had paused, and Ellie and Mikayla stood on either side of their completed cake like they were palace guards. When they saw Matthew round the corner, they both gestured proudly to it like they were presenting a grand masterpiece.
"Surprise!" they both said excitedly as he approached. A flash went off next to Ellie, and Alex noticed Jack was there with the aforementioned Polaroid camera.
"Al told him about the cake," Jack observed as he plucked the printed photo from the machine.
"Alex!" Ellie chided as Matthew stepped closer to see the artwork on his cake. Ellie had added the words Happy Birthday Matt in curly cursive right below the Kermit portrait, and then above him was a lit candle moulded in the shape of a 1. Matthew didn't say anything at first; he just put a hand up to the side of his face as the corners of his lips curled up slightly.
"Jonathan broke the 6," Mikayla explained. "So happy first birthday, McFly."
"I tried my best with the portrait," Ellie added, sounding worried that Matthew might not be pleased with it. "Frosting is a bit more of an unruly medium than I was anticipating."
"It's perfect," Matthew whispered, his eyes glistening again. For a good reason, this time. "Thanks, Ellie. I… Thank you."
Ellie grinned and wrapped Matthew in a big hug, and he mumbled something into her shoulder as he hugged her back. Once they separated, Jack suddenly seemed to remember something and handed off the camera to Mikayla.
"Oh, wait, wait," he said, reaching for something on the table. He picked up an orange paper cone decorated with a black marker. It had doodles of varying degrees of skill, featuring ghosts, witches, black cats, and skeletons. In the centre, in Jack's haphazard writing, it said Birthday Witch. A thin piece of elastic was strung through two tiny holes at either end of its base. "Unsurprisingly, we could not find Halloween-themed party hats in this whimsy-deprived hellhole, so everyone chipped in to decorate yours. I snuck in a tiny dick on the inside just for you."
"Wow, thanks, Farrow," Matthew said as Jack knocked his glasses down onto his face to make room for the cone to sit on his head. He pulled the elastic down below Matthew's chin and let go in a way that made it snap violently against his skin. "Ow! Motherfucker."
"Happy birthday, Inglewood."
Matthew adjusted his glasses so that they were properly fixed in front of his eyes as Ellie and Mikayla started to chant for him to make a wish. He shot Jack a glare before closing his eyes, and he seemed to genuinely think up a wish before he leaned forward and blew out his singular candle. Mikayla was primed with the camera and took a photo right as the flame sputtered out.
Ellie and Jack used a plastic knife to cut up lopsided pieces of cake for everyone who wanted them. It was chocolate on the inside, layered with the same green frosting that coated it. The green frosting was flavoured like lime, and the combination made Alex curious enough to try it despite his usual distaste for sweets.
"You know, I told Ellie this was one of my favourite kinds of cake the first day I met her," Matthew said as he let Alex take a sample of his slice. The sofa had been freed up for the honoured birthday boy to enjoy, and everyone who wasn't destroying the cake was back to dancing to the music. "I can't believe she remembered."
"I can; it feels very much like Eloise," Alex said before he tasted the cake. "Oh, that's nice. I think they did get Chef's help to make it. It tastes like the same recipe he uses for his Black Forest cake."
"Remind me to add Jerry to the Thank You card list, then."
"Do you mean that literally?"
"If my mother found out I let everyone throw me a party and didn't send out Thank You cards… Oh, she'd kill me, Allie. She really would. Cornelia Montoya does not fuck around when it comes to manners. One year, my birthday synced up with some of my mom's extended family coming to LA for a visit, and every single one of them brought me a gift. I had to write 17 personalised Thank You cards for people I had never met before! My hand was cramping for, like, a week."
"Is that the real reason for your aversion to gifts?"
"No comment."
"I didn't realise your mother's name was Cornelia."
"Shit, she'd probably kill me if she finds out I told you that too. Keep it a secret, okay? She goes by Cora. Corny, when I'm trying to annoy her."
Alex couldn't help but smile as he imagined Matthew teasing his mother just for the fun of it. Matthew caught it and raised an eyebrow.
"What?" he asked around a mouthful of cake.
Alex shook his head. "Nothing. It's just… nice. Hearing about you and your family. I'm sorry you had to turn sixteen without them."
"They called earlier, while you were at the library," Matthew said with a smile of his own. "My folks made Thena get up early for it and she was pissed. But we talked for a couple of hours. And you know, as much as I love them, I got to say, it was kind of nice to not have someone try to shove my face in the cake when I blew out the candle."
Alex frowned. "Your family does that?"
"They try. Lord, do they try. I'd say their success rate is 50%. I'm getting better at dodging."
"Why—"
"It's just something Latinos do. Don't ask me for any reasoning beyond that, I have no explanations. The closer your blood relation, the stronger the desire to smash the fucker's face in some frosting. When someone gets me, it's usually my dad, but as Athena grows older, she grows more dangerous."
"When's her birthday?"
"June. Which is the best month to have it, in my opinion. Not too far from or close to Christmas. So, no one's stressed from the holiday season. And school is out, so you're guaranteed not to have to be stuck in classes on it. My dad's a sucker for a December birthday. December 20th, to be exact. That is a shit birthday right there."
"Are you going home for the winter break?"
Matthew shook his head and gave a nonchalant shrug, but Alex noticed his eyes flicker with a touch of disappointment. "Nah, we can't afford the airfare," he said. "Ellie invited me to stay with her family, though. So at least I won't be stuck in this ghost town."
"That's good. I'm sure her family's lovely."
"She's already barred me from teaching her brother any new songs to play on his drums. So, naturally, I've been building a catalogue to give him."
"You play drums too?"
"Very poorly. Which in this case I'd say is a bonus."
"I think your mother might have something to say about your manners, no?"
"There's a difference between being rude and being mischievous, Allie. I understand your confusion, though. It's a fine line to walk. Lucky for me I do it flawlessly."
Before Alex could voice his doubts about that, the song on the stereo changed to something that made Matthew's eyes light up. "Dude, this is Oingo Boingo!" he said before shovelling the last of his cake slice into his mouth. "I told you they were uh ree ban."
"I'm positive that none of that last sentence was English," Alex shouted as someone turned the music up.
Matthew got to his feet and swallowed his precarious amount of dessert before placing his empty paper plate on the sofa's armrest and holding his hand out to Alex.
"Any chance the musical stylings of Mr. Elfman can move you into motion tonight?" he asked, a hopeful tinge in his voice.
"That's a creative way to ask someone to dance," Alex said, trying to keep himself from heating up. Instead of answering he glanced behind Matthew at the makeshift dance floor. Ellie was dancing with Mikayla, their hands joined as they faced each other and twisted in sync with the music. Connor had come out of the movie room, along with that year eight girl. The two of them were rhythmically jumping in place as they sang along to the lyrics of the song. Jack had been snatched up by the witch girl who had offered Matthew her joint. Neither of them looked like they were moving to the music that was playing.
Everyone looked like they were having the time of their lives.
Matthew leaned in close so he could be heard over the music. "You can say no if you want," he reminded Alex.
You should say no, AJ said as Alex tried not to panic over how close their faces were to each other. Under no circumstances whatsoever should you say—
"Okay," Alex said. He kept his body heat tempered as he put his hand in Matthew's, and for the first time in his life, Alexander Conrad willingly let himself be carted onto a dance floor.
He tried his best to not think too hard about his movements. To not feel self-conscious about what he did with his feet or where he put his arms. He didn't have to put in the effort for long, though. Because less than a minute in, those anxieties were brushed to the back of his mind. Pushed aside by the infectious delight Ellie exuded when she realized Alex was coming over to join them. By the involuntary laughs, Matthew elicited when he started dancing in a deliberately atrocious fashion. By the way, the music's upbeat melody swirled with its macabre lyrics to create the most bizarre brand of joy Alex had ever encountered.
Enjoy it while you can. It's just like the weather. So quit complaining, brother. No one lives forever!
Every kid in that room had already learned the hard truth that no one lives forever. But they were all still figuring out what to do with that knowledge. At that moment, they were giving Mr. Elfman's philosophy a shot and enjoying what they had while they could. Alex wasn't sure that was a tenant you could steer your entire life by, but it was certainly a fitting way to spend Halloween. To send a new friend's birthday.
As the song neared its end, a pang of panic shot through Alex's body as he realized he had made a massive, idiotic mistake. He put a hand on Matthew's shoulder and interrupted him in the middle of a dance move that was making Mikayla tear up so much that her elaborate makeup was starting to smudge. Matthew looked up at him with a raised eyebrow as Alex leaned in even closer than Matthew had when he asked him to dance.
"Happy birthday!" Alex shouted, hoping Matthew wouldn't be too upset when he realized that was the first time Alex had said that to him all day.
"Happy Halloween!" Matthew shouted back as Oingo Boingo finished their revelry of mortality. When he pulled back, he flashed Alex the most stunning grin he had ever seen someone wear.
Ah, fuck, AJ said, sounding just as affected by that smile as Alex was. We're in it now, aren't we?