Boyxboy Holiday Specials

Halloween Special- Rio & Ezra

"Rio!" my mom called from the kitchen.

I sighed and took one last look in the mirror. I looked so stupid. But I wasn't going to be the only one looking this stupid, so I guess I could deal with it.

I left my room and went out to the kitchen. Ezra was cheerfully talking with my parents, dressed similarly to me.

"You look stupid," I said.

"It's Halloween!" Ezra said, as if I didn't know that. "I can look however I want."

I was wearing a Charizard hoodie and Ezra was wearing a Squirtle hoodie. He still had his purple beanie on, and since his hood was back, he looked especially stupid.

"Your beanie doesn't really match," I said. "Oh, who am I kidding? You wear that beanie no matter what color your clothes are. Don't you own any other beanie?"

"I like this one." He held his hand out to me, smiling.

I took his hand in mine, pulling his hood up over the beanie. "Alright, I'm off to be a Pokemon. Adios, parents."

"Bye Rio. Have fun," dad said, laughing.

We left my house and got into Ezra's car. His best friend Lucas was throwing a Halloween party and I had agreed to go with Ezra. We'd bought the hoodies at the mall the other day.

"Thanks for coming with me," Ezra said with a smile.

"I have to be a dork with my boyfriend," I said.

Ezra parked the car and we walked into the party together. It was surprising full in Lucas's house, with music shaking the walls and the smell of alcohol assaulting our noses.

"I'll go get us drinks," Ezra said.

I grabbed his hand. "Like hell. You drove here!"

"Calm down," he said, laughing. "I have a DD secured for us tonight."

I released his hand and he disappeared into the crowd to get drinks. I looked around the party for anyone I knew, but these were Ezra's friends, not mine. I sighed and darted into the crowd, deciding to trail behind my boyfriend until I was drunk enough to be social.

I spotted Ezra amongst the crowd of costumed people. A girl dressed as a nurse with way too much cleavage dangling out was pressed unnecessarily close to my boyfriend as he poured punch into cups.

"Can you get me one, Ezra?" she asked, running her hand up his arm.

"I think you've had enough," Ezra said with a laugh. "I'm cutting you off, Mia."

Mia pressed herself even closer to Ezra, but he didn't seem bothered. He just hooked an arm around her waist so she wouldn't trip over her heels and continued to pour the drinks.

"Ezra," I said, raising an eyebrow. "Care to explain?"

"Don't get jealous!" he said, grinning at me. "This drunk beauty is Mia."

"Who's he?" Mia asked, glaring at me and wrapping her arms around Ezra.

"That's my boyfriend, Rio," Ezra said.

He disentangled himself from Mia and came over, handing me my drink and winking. "She's liked me for a while. She gets like this towards me whenever she's drunk. Lucky for you, my tastes are a little..." He hooked his hand in my pocket and drew me closer, kissing me. "Well, I'd rather have a certain blind man clinging to me."

"This certain blind man is not the jealous type," I reminded him. "If you had been kissing her, that would've been a different story."

Ezra grabbed my hand and pulled me through the party, weaving through dancing people until we reached a quiet corner. He leaned against me and sipped his punch.

A guy came running over. "Ezra Carelli, is that you?!"

"Josh," Ezra said happily. "Hey! Oh, right, this is Rio. Rio, this is Josh."

"Nice to meet you," Josh said to me before turning back to Ezra eagerly. "Hey, man, we're smoking in the basement. You in for getting high? We've got brownies. And I brought your favorite bowl."

Ezra's hand went to his pocket, where I knew he kept his lighter. The smile stayed on his face, though.

"No thanks. I don't do drugs anymore. Quit smoking, too. Drinking is all I plan to do tonight!" He held up his cup before taking another sip.

"Ezra Carelli quitting drugs?" Josh stared at him in disbelief. "Honestly I can count the amount of times I've seen you sober on one hand, kid."

"Good thing you have two," Ezra said good naturedly.

"Well, if you change your mind, we'll be in the basement," Josh said before disappearing into the crowd.

"You said you were a pothead, but were you really that bad?" I asked. How bad could he have really been?

Ezra gave me a sad smile. "I'm glad you didn't know me back then, Rio. I was an ugly person."

"I don't believe that," I said. "Maybe you did ugly things, but you weren't an ugly person."

He shook his head. "I was high all the time. I hit a point where being sober drove me crazy. I went to school high for a while. Sometimes I'd even go smoke in the bathrooms. I got into cigarettes too, and I used to make Brian buy them for me because I was too young. He told me about your brother, actually. That's how bad I was getting. He thought I was going to wind up like Hank."

I put my arm around his waist and drew him closer to me. He was right; I was glad I hadn't known him back then. It would've broken my heart to see Ezra so desperate to escape from reality.

"You don't have it as easy as you let on. You found an escape, but it became too overwhelming. You were strong enough to kick it all," I reminded him, kissing him. "Now you just have weird climbing addictions, you freak. I'm proud of you for switching from weed to climbing walls and churches."

"Hey Rio?" He pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly. "No one's ever said they were proud of me for quitting drugs."

"Shit," I groaned, burying my face against his neck. "You make me sappy. Alright, alright, that's enough." I hugged him back before releasing him.

He was beaming a smile at me, looking as beautiful as always. "Come on Ezra; it's Halloween and I was to scare some children and listen to Panic! At The Disco singing This Is Halloween."

"Let's go dance," Ezra said, chugging the rest of his drink and tossing the cup to the floor. Impressive.

"I'm going to make squirt puns all night," I said, gesturing to his hoodie. "Now let's go."

He held my hand and we let ourselves be dissolved into the dancing crowd. Ezra laughed as we danced to music and drank, looking honestly happy. I smiled at him as we moved our bodies together to the music. I loved seeing him happy, even if we were both dressed like idiots. It didn't matter what he had been like in the past; this was who Ezra was now and I loved him the way he was.
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A.N.- Sorry if this isn't spaced out properly! I'm using mobile and it's being a pain in the ass...