Welcome to the Pride Parade [Frerard AU]

Part III: Chapter 9

          

CHAPTER 9 – THE (AFTER) LIFE OF THE PARTY

The next week went by pretty quickly. Over the group chat, we made plans to go to Ray's house at noon and celebrate his official induction into adulthood for a few hours there. Mikey and I drove over together, and were warmly welcomed by Ray's father.

"Oh – welcome! Ray's in the living room. If you could take off your shoes..."

"Thank you," we chorused politely, obeying the rule.

I'd met the man once before, back when I'd first gotten to know Ray. It was at eighth grade graduation – or rather, right after it. After we all got off the stage with our faux diplomas declaring our degrees in middle school education and our future high school, we'd gone out to be congratulated by our parents. He'd been very sweet then, gladly taking pictures of the two of us with our little papers and really hitting it off with my parents. Mikey followed me around the entire time, I remembered.

Now, he visibly looked older than he had been three years ago. My first impression of him then was completely opposite of the impression I was getting now; he seemed colder.

But of course, maybe he was just having a bad day now or a good day then. I hardly knew the guy.

I walked with Mikey to the dimly lit living room to find Ray sitting on the couch in a snazzy tuxedo and a purple tie. Neither of us had thought to dress up, but I was sure he wouldn't mind. We handed to him the gifts we'd brought, which he took from us and set on a coffee table nearby.

"Hey!" Ray jumped up to hug both of us individually. "Thanks for coming!"

"Wow, of course, happy birthday," I stammered, caught off guard by the sudden physical contact. Mikey smiled at him, happily returning the hug. 

"Whoa, Mikey, you look so happy! What's going on?"

"Don't get him started," I joked. Mikey immediately took the opportunity to sit on the leather chair in front of us and tell Ray about his wonderful week in Joplin. I listened to him tell the story of the woman he'd worked with again, smiling at all the uplifting stories and laughing along to the funny parts, though I knew they were coming. Ray was either really good at pretending he was interested, or he actually was. Spiritual journeys were hard to come by; I understood the fascination.

Right as Mikey was finishing up a story about someone nearly falling off the roof, the doorbell rang and Ray's dad walked briskly by to answer it.

"Thanks, Dad," Ray called after him.

Frank soon entered the room, handing him a wrapped gift.

"Aw, thank you Frank," Ray said, embracing him just like he had us. Frank, too, looked a bit startled by the sudden encounter, but returned it all the same.

"Happy birthday," he said. "Hold on – didn't you wear that to prom? I remember that shade of purple."

Ray forced a laugh. "You bet it is. I spent too long looking for this thing to let it go to waste." He subconsciously started fiddling with it with his fingers.

"Christa loved it at prom," Mikey commented while Frank took a seat in the second leather chair across from the first. I sat with Ray on the couch. "I remember her expression when she saw it."

"That was really wonderful..." Ray said, slowly receding into a memory of her.

"Are you aware of how much Christa misses you?" Frank asked lightly. "She's been posting about how miserably single she is all summer. Almost comically. If you wanted to, you could really..."