No Homo

Chapter 4 - Guard Dogs and Games

"Yeah, when you made me wear the stupidest matching costumes to ever be spat outta hell." Minho huffed sarcastically, putting the device away and beginning to walk in the direction of Gally's home, Thomas keeping pace beside him.

"I gave you all my Reese Cups in return! It was a fair deal!" Thomas protested indignantly, apparently insulted by such mockery of his amazing costume selection. "Besides, you liked it." He asserted smugly, earning naught but an incredulous scoff from his friend. "You may look annoyed but, trust me, I can tell." He concluded cheerily, shoving his hands into his pockets as the cool evening air began to settle over the town.

"How do you know? I'm literally rolling my eyes in every picture we took that night." Minho defended, but he knew the boy was right, it had been nice to just do something cheesy and stupid with his friend. They had even won the prize for "Best Couples Costume" and he still didn't know which was better, the actual prize, which had been a motherload of candy, or pissing off Newt and Alby, who had been trying really hard to win. Either way, the spoils had been worth not correcting the judges and, honestly, the whole night had been fun. Though, hell would freeze over before he admitted that to Thomas or anyone else for that matter.

"I'm your best friend. It's my job to know these things." Thomas stated confidently with a curt nod of finality before breaking into one of his stupid I-have-an-idea grins, sending a wave of foreboding over his companion. "Let's go as a devil and angel next year! You'll be the devil, obviously." The teen chirped, before pausing to gesture at a familiar street sign that let them know they were approaching their destination.

"'Cause you're such an angel!" Minho snickered, nearly choking on his own spit at the ludicrousness of the claim.

"I am! I'm sweet, and adorable, and innocent!" Thomas informed the older boy eagerly, counting the traits off on his fingers as he spoke. Minho opened his mouth to retaliate, ready to tell the boy that at least one of those things wasn't true, but his unspoken words were drowned out by a sudden blare of music, the heavy beat of a bass drum seeming to vibrate him to the core as the sound thundered out of a familiar house at the end of the lane.

"Guess we found the party!" Thomas yelled to be heard over the music but was still practically inaudible, leaving Minho to read his lips as he grimaced and covered his ears. The boy merely nodded, unwilling to battle with the music to be heard as they moved further down the street, their pace slowing as they took in the flashing lights glinting out of the windows and flooding the dark lawn with their neon beams.

"Did Gally get a new car?" Thomas spoke again as they finally came to a halt in front of the madhouse, gesturing to where a shiny sedan sat in the driveway, the white gleam of a strobe light glinting off its untainted black paint in a pattern of sickeningly quick beats. Something stirred in the back of Minho's mind, like his brain was trying to put together a puzzle he didn't have all the pieces to yet. He couldn't remember seeing the boy in question with such a vehicle before but it could easily belong to one of his guests or maybe the teen's dad could've gotten it for him. Either way, the boy couldn't explain why it stuck out to him so much so he decided to shake the odd feeling off with a shrug.

The front door of the house abruptly swung open, the blast of the unmuffled music quite near deafening as Minho resisted the urge to stumble back at the sheer force of it. With it came the smell of booze, cheap perfume, and an overlying odor of sweat; the classic party scent the Korean had become so accustomed to over the years - The familiarity of it was almost welcoming in a way.

A boy with short cropped black hair stumbled out to greet them, dangerously sloshing the golden liquid filling a red solo cup he was holding as he swayed with the beat of whatever song was playing, cackling drunkenly as he gestured them forward.