peppermint to be // bronnie

xxi

I wasn't sure what to expect at the New Year's Party. The only New Year's Party I've ever experienced were Dave's at the coffee shop and I have always been drunk off my ass.

Brandon and I arrived at a house bigger than I'd ever wish to live in. I followed him down the path to the doorway, pretending like I was ready to socialize. He rang the doorbell and in a few seconds the door opened and a woman who looked like she'd host a party at her suburban house greeted us.

"Brandon! Still cute as a button, as we all remembered!" She grinned.

I glanced over at him and felt a sense of safety seeing him smile softly in response.

"Who's this?" She asked, squinting at me.

My heart started to race. I wouldn't have minded if he said I was a friend...or his roommate or...

"Oh -- this is my boyfriend, Ronnie," he responded almost casually. The words fell so easily from his mouth I was a little taken back -- and so was she.

There was a slight pause between all of us before the woman said, "Well -- nice to meet you, Ronnie, I'm Anne," and shook my hand.

"Nice to meet you, too," I said a bit awkwardly.

"Alright then, come on in, have fun," she chirped, stepping aside so we could come in.

There was a significant amount of people. They stood around talking to one another, drink in hand. There was music in the background, almost drowned out by the talking.

"That was interesting," I told Brandon in relation to the interaction we had with Anne.

"That was an easy one," he shrugged, "there's at least 20 more of those."

A bit of panic hit me, but I didn't want to let him know that. "Hearing you call me your boyfriend 20 times? I'm up for that," I smirked.

****

There were indeed at least 20 "this is my boyfriend, Ronnie"s. 39 to be exact. Some more awkward than others -- we decided to spend the rest of the night with the people who clearly didn't give a shit whether Brandon had a boyfriend, girlfriend or a bad case of diarrhea, they just genuinely seemed to like him. These were my kind of people.

Eventually, we ended up around a bonfire outside. I was drinking a beer in as an attempt to make me buzzed enough to stay warm, but not enough that I wouldn't be able to appreciate how beautiful Brandon looked in the light of the fire.

It was around 10 o'clock when two men started walking towards us from the house and I could tell by just the look on everyone's face that one of them was him. Brandon suddenly looked stone cold and I wasn't sure whether or not I should find some brass knuckles.

"Oh, that's Andy, God, Ronnie, you don't wanna know about him," a guy near me scoffed.

"Who's the other guy?" I whispered, keeping my eyes on the two coming increasingly closer. 

The guy shrugged in response, "I've never seen him."

I sat back in my chair and the two men pulled up a chair beside Brandon and me. "Hey Brandon, it's good to see you here!" one of them spoke up, shaking Brandon's hand.

"Good to see you too, Andy," Brandon said as if he genuinely meant it. He was too good at this. Before I could even process what was going on, Brandon followed up immediately with, "this is my boyfriend, Ronnie."

Too in shock to say anything, I just shook his hand. That alone was difficult -- making any contact with someone you know at some point hurt someone you can't fathom anyone hurting is difficult.