"You actually came!" Aphmau exclaimed, looking up at the man with the bandana.
"Yeah, sorry I'm late," Aaron apologized, shifting a box in his hand. "I brought your gift, though, if that makes up for it."
Aphmau's eyes grew with excitement. They had been planning this gift exchange for weeks before the party, and now they could finally give each other their Christmas gifts.
"You're fine! My gift for you is actually in my room, so just follow me."
Aaron closed the door and followed Aphmau upstairs, greeting guests as he walked by. He noticed Garroth and Laurance on the couch together and stopped. Laurance looked up at him.
"Is Garroth okay?" Aaron asked, pointing at the blonde in Laurance's arms.
"Sprinkles," Garroth murmured, unknowing of Aaron's presence.
"He'll be fine," Laurance brushed off. Aaron shrugged and continued to follow Aphmau.
When Aaron and Aphmau were finally in her room, Aphmau went straight for Aaron's present in her closet. Aaron turned around, closed the door, and sat on the bed with his present in hand.
Aphmau sat down on the bed with him, and they both exchanged gifts.
"Okay, okay, okay!" Aphmau jittered, too excited for Aaron's reaction to contain herself. "Let's open it at the same time!"
"Alright," Aaron laughed; in actuality, he was just as excited for her reaction as well.
Aphmau closed her eyes and motioned for Aaron to do the same.
Together, on the count of three, they ripped the wrapping paper off the box and opened their eyes.
Aphmau gasped, her hand coming up to cover her mouth. Tears pricked her eyes as a smile grew behind her hand.
"Aaron," she murmured, at a loss for words. Aaron was the same. He held the now-unwrapped box in his hands as a bittersweet smile grew on his face.
Both of them had given each other a figurine of the character they'd played in the video game they first met in.
Aaron couldn't even fathom the idea of this video game helping him live the life he has today. The video game that kept him sane during high school and college. How this video game acted like the butterfly that led into the effect of him meeting so many different people or, more specifically, one special person.
Aphmau couldn't believe that the two of them had the same idea for this gift exchange. So she guessed she wasn't the only one trying to be sentimental this year.
When her tears subsided, she finally got a good, clear image of the box. Immediately, her smile dropped into a thin line. Instead of looking at a beautiful cover image of her character's face. Someone, Aaron Lycan, drew in 8D.
"Oh Irene, I hate you."
Aaron noticed what she was looking at and started laughing uncontrollably. Replaying the image of Aphmau going from 'Oh my Irene, this is so cute and sentimental!' to 'What the fuck is this shit?" sent Aaron on a continuous spiral of laughter.
Aaron wrapped an arm around his stomach, becoming weak.
Aphmau was not amused and shoved him down onto the bed before crossing her arms.
Aaron fell back, his hood falling back to reveal his black hair. Aphmau crawled over to him and continued to glare into his bandana-covered eyes. Eventually, her facade faded, and a smile began to bloom instead.
Aphmau sat there and took in all of Aaron's features as he laughed away. Her eyes landed on his bandana, covering the eyes she loved to stare into. She knew he was insecure about his looks, despite the fact that he didn't wear a shirt under his open jacket. She just wished he'd understand that he had nothing to be insecure about.
Aaron's laughter started to finally die down, his eyes cracking open to see Aphmau's gaze upon him.
Well, you sure got a kick out of it, huh?" Aphmau asked, cocking her brow at him.
"Listen, if you had seen what I'd seen, you'd be laughing too."
Aphmau laughed a little, knowing she was being a bit too harsh on him. She looked down at him with a warm smile on her face. Despite the guilt of knowing how she had been treating Aaron's feelings, her eyes couldn't help but gaze down at his lips. They looked so pink. So soft. Well, she didn't actually know if he had soft lips, but maybe she could confirm it just this once. It wasn't going to hurt what they had going on between them. Besides, out of all the boys she'd liked before, none of them had ever come close to how Aaron made her feel.
Finally, she bent down and gave him a lingering kiss on the cheek. Aaron stopped laughing entirely. As she was pulling away, Aaron's hand wound up in her hair and pulled her back down for a full kiss.
So much for taking it slow.
They broke apart, but only for a moment, as Aaron sat up and kissed Aphmau again. This time, Aaron pulled Aphmau to sit on his lap. Aphmau greedily obliged, wrapping her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck.
Aaron broke the kiss, trailing his lips down to start kissing her neck. Aphmau buried her face in the crook of Aaron's neck as he started biting and sucking on her skin, never leaving a hickey.
Aaron left a trail of kisses back up Aphmau's neck and jaw, finally reaching her lips. Before they were able to connect them, a loud crash resonated throughout the house.
Aaron and Aphmau shared a look before scrambling off of each other and heading downstairs. They both came to a halt at the end of the stairs.
There before them, under the mistletoe, were Garroth and Laurance kissing each other on the ground. A red Solo cup lay next to them, and water was everywhere. Everyone's eyes were on the two boys. McCloud, who was right behind them, was frozen in a very...intimate position.
No one was speaking, and no one knew what to do.
Aaron and Aphmau looked at each other, then back at the scene before them.
"What just happened?" they both thought simultaneously.
Garroth and Laurance suddenly pushed themselves off one another, looked at each other, and then screamed.
What? Hold on, let's backtrack.
===
"Is Garroth okay?" Aaron asked, pointing at the blonde in Laurance's arms.
"Sprinkles," Garroth murmured, unknowing of Aaron's presence.
"He'll be fine," Laurance brushed off. Aaron shrugged and continued to follow Aphmau.
Garroth continued to hiccup and sniffle into Laurance's shirt, adding more tears to the wet patch he created on Laurance's shirt.
Laurance didn't mind; honestly, this wasn't the first wet patch he'd gotten on his shirt over Sprinkles, and it probably wouldn't be the last. He patted and rubbed small circles on his back, occasionally running a hand through his hair and wiping his tears away with some tissues Dante gave him.
"Sprinkles was so fluffy," Garroth sniffled.
"I know, Garroth."
"She was beautiful."
"I know, Garroth."
Eventually, Garroth pulled away from Laurance and leaned back against the couch.
"How are you feeling?" Laurance asked, leaning back into the couch as well.
"Lost, empty, like the universe just gave me a heart and ripped it from my hands when I finally experienced true happiness."
"I thought the chick-flick lines were my thing, not yours."
"When you force a man to watch all four Midnight movies, he picks up a thing or two."
The two of them laughed together as they lightened the atmosphere.
"Alright," Laurance started, "you stay here. I'll go get you some water. You need to hydrate if you wanna cry more."
"If you're calling me a cry baby, I am very offended."
"I implied nothing," Laurance called out as he walked through the dining hall and into the kitchen. Garroth did as he was told and stayed on the couch, waiting for his crush to come back. A slight pang of guilt ran through him.
They were supposed to come to this party and have fun. Looking up, Dante was happily chatting away with Nicole; they were having a good time. What about Laurance? Garroth had dragged his friend to the couch to cry over a cat he only had for a few hours. Laurance probably wanted to go talk to everyone tonight, and he was ruining it for him. He shouldn't be forced to put his happiness on the line to help Garroth.
Deciding to no longer lean on Laurance, Garroth got up to meet him halfway. Wiping his tears, he walked the same route Laurance went to get him water. As he walked under the mistletoe, Laurance had just turned the corner with the cup of water in hand. The two of them stopped as fast as they could, and they wouldn't have bumped into each other if it weren't for a third-party member.
"Party ho'!" McCloud yelled as he launched himself off of the dining table and onto the floor. Immediately getting down to the ground to start dancing.
When McCloud had landed, he had bumped straight into Laurance, causing him to lose his balance and fall onto Garroth. Garroth tried his best to catch him and keep them both upright, but with the cup in Laurance's hand, he failed. Instead, Garroth knocked the cup into the air and fell straight to the ground, with Laurance on top of him. Right as their lips smashed into one another, the water fell on top of them, the cup landing to the side.
Immediately, the two boys were frozen in place out of pure shock and disorientation from what just happened. Despite this being a dream for the two of them, they were very much aware that they were lip-locking with their friend and that their sexualities were not out in the open. Yet still, they were frozen, their lips locked.
It was only when the shock subsided and the full grasp of the scene they'd caused settled in that they separated, leaning in just a smidge as if to fulfill a kiss done on purpose rather than an accident. It was a subconscious action, one that left the boys wondering if the other caught on to this little, purposeful slip-up. They did notice, and, for the first time after all the romantic-laced gestures they shared with one another, it mattered. This time, they didn't lean in for the sake of their platonic bromance; they acted on their feelings. The feelings that wished for this fantasy to be a reality. That this accident was purposeful, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case here.
The two of them pulled back quickly and screamed in confusion, embarrassment, and realization—a whole whirlpool of conflicting emotions that neither of them knew how to handle in this state. They went from crying about a cat to kissing on a wet floor way too quickly for their tastes.
Pure silence enveloped the room. No one knew what to do or say. Well, it was as quiet as it could be with Mariah Carey's hit Christmas single blasting in the background. It's not every day that something like this happens. Would it be rude to laugh? That was when Katelyn broke the silence, setting the mood for how to come down from that fiasco.
"I knew it! I told all of you! Money, now!" Katelyn put out her hand, waiting for her reward.
Begrudgingly, both Nicole and Cadenza walked over and each slapped a twenty-dollar bill into the palm of her hand.
"Wow, I knew my brother wasn't completely straight, but I didn't realize he was actually hooking up with his best friend the whole time, or should I say, his lover?" Cadenza admitted, looking at Laurance to get confirmation.
Both Garroth and Laurance shot up from the ground, keeping each other an arm's distance away. Their faces were bright red to the point where it reached the tips of their ears. They opened their mouths to interject immediately, except they were like a faucet that no one turned off until the sink was overflowing.
"What? No! Absolutely, not! We are not dating!" Garroth yelled.
"Yeah, this was all just some accident!"
"There is no way we'd ever kiss intentionally. Besides, I don't even swing that way!"
Garroth regretted his words the moment he said them. He knew he had been caught by Katelyn and Aphmau since they both knew he was pansexual. This also made him seem completely unavailable for Laurance.
"Y-yeah," Laurance agreed, slightly put off by Garroth's words. "If we were-" Laurance looked Garroth directly in the eyes- "I'd never kiss someone like him."
Dear Irene, Garroth hoped Laurance was lying. He'd get down on his knees and beg for it not to be true. Some people were really good at acting. Incredibly good to the point where everyone believed their words were genuine, no matter how disgusted the tone was...
"Same," Garroth avoided Laurance's gaze, his tone noticeably quieter than before, "you wouldn't even be my type anyways, so..."
"G-Good."
"...Good."
From an outside perspective, this would seem like some hilarious scene where two straight dudes accidentally kissed. For the people in question, it was the moment where their hearts shattered, allowing a wave of unanswered questions and doubts to seep into the wound.
Slowly, the party was brought back into the lively swing it had before. Aphmau ushered Garroth and Laurance away to clean up the mess. She made eye contact with Garroth as she walked by, her eyes confirming how Garroth's words didn't fool her as they did with everyone else. Katelyn was also quieter, yet it went unnoticed by her friends as well.
"Maybe...maybe we should talk," Laurance suggested.
"Yeah, maybe we should."
With that, Garroth and Laurance walked off to a more secluded area of the house, finally ready to address the issue that had been dancing in the air for far too long.
===
After the party's livelihood was back in semi-full swing, Dante walked away from Nicole to go talk to Aaron, leaving Katelyn and Nicole together. A horrible decision, really.
Nicole nudged Katelyn on the shoulder with her elbow and motioned toward the mistletoe, where Garroth and Laurance shared a kiss.
"You know," Nicole began slyly, "that could have been you and Travis~"
Katelyn frowned at her and lightly shoved her away.
"No way, Nicole. We've talked about this. Weren't you the one that said I shouldn't date him until we've both worked out our issues?"
"Times change."
"That was an hour ago."
"Like I said, times change. You guys could be like, I don't know, friends with benefits or something."
Katelyn's frown turned into a look of disgust as she backed away from her friend.
"Nicole, what the hell?!"
"Calm down! I just like teasing you!"
"Oh so you can tease me about Travis, but Irene forbid I tease you about Dante."
Nicole was about to interject until Katelyn put her hand up, feeling a buzz in her pocket.
Katelyn pulled out her phone and looked at the caller ID; it was Travis.
"Speak of the devil," Nicole murmured over Katelyn's shoulder. "You should answer it."
"Fuck off."
Katelyn just stared at the screen, watching the phone buzz several times before finally shutting off. She was not going to answer it. It was probably something stupid.
Nicole was about to say something again when she was cut off by Dante walking up to her. She waved goodbye to Katelyn and walked off to another part of the house with him.
Now was her chance. Katelyn quickly made her way upstairs. She'd lied about not answering her phone. She just didn't want to do it with Nicole around.
Katelyn tried to get into her room, but the halt on the doorknob reminded her of how her door was still locked. She gave up and sat right outside of her room, her back leaning against the door, and called Travis back.
Thankfully, he picked up.
"Katelyn? Oh my Irene, this must be a miracle! You actually answered my call!"
"What do you want?" Katelyn's tone was monotone, despite her being eager to call him back.
"Well, when I called you the first time, I was on someone's roof. You will not believe how much I've had tonight."
"How much have you had of what?"
"A lot of things."
"Travis, are you okay?"
"I'm definitely high, if that's what you're asking."
"Travis, you idiot!"
"Hey, Travis is a lot of things, but I think I'm okay. My friend got me down from there and made me drink a lot of water and eat some food. I was so thirsty, and now I'm sitting on a bed."
"Did you really call me just to tell me that you're high?"
"No, no, no. I really wanted to just hear your voice, y'know? It's been a bit of a rough night."
"No, I don't know. Travis, what have I told you about calling me for stupid reasons?"
"That you'll love me no matter what."
"That's not what I-"
"Because I love you tenfold."
Katelyn's words got trapped in her throat. She was frozen in place, yet quickly came back at the realization of his current state.
"Travis... How high are you?"
"I don't know." Travis looked over the bed. "Maybe like two and a half feet?"
"So pretty high."
"Not high enough to stop recognizing your cute face, though."
"Travis-"
"Katelyn, I'm gonna tell you a secret."
Katelyn sighed, still slightly on edge from his weird, intoxicated confession. Travis continued,
"I love you."
"Shut up."
"I remember meeting you back in high school and thinking, "Wow, she's amazing.""
"Shut up." Katelyn's voice got louder.
"I really love you. You know how some people like other people? Well, I like you, but instead, I love you.
"Shut. Up." Louder.
"Do you remember when I made you laugh after you broke up with Jeffory? Your laugh was so cute. Oh Irene, I love you so much!"
"Travis, shut up! You don't love me, you idiot!" Katelyn finally snapped. Tired of having him talk about something she was convinced wasn't true.
Travis was silent on the other end, and Katelyn was desperately waiting for his response. To tell her that everything he just said was a joke would be her dream right now. This was all just another way Travis was trying to rile her up.
"But... I do love you," Travis finally said, his voice notably quieter with a small pang of hurt.
"You're just high, Travis. People say weird things when they're high. You are definitely too far gone to know what you're doing. You don't actually love me. You just have some weird obsession with me."
Katelyn's eyes looked around her surroundings, trying to find anything that could distract her from this awkward conversation, yet everything was getting slightly blurry.
What?
Blinking, Katelyn realized that her eyes were beginning to water.
No. No! NO!
She blinked back the tears feverishly, wiping her eyes. This wasn't something to cry over. Katelyn didn't just cry over people like this. This wasn't right. This wasn't normal.
"Travis, you don't love me," Katelyn repeated slowly, as if trying to convince herself more than Travis.
"No, I love you, Katelyn!"
"Shut up, Travis!"
"You're so strong, like incredibly strong. You're so passionate about sports, and it makes you look so amazing. Especially when you're playing volleyball and you jump up to give an overhand serve—
"Oh! You looked absolutely stunning at prom, too! I know that everyone says things like, "Katelyn is so angry" or "Why is she so aggressive?" but I think that's really attractive and cute. You're like a tsundere, or... or like a blueberry. Angry blueberry. Angy blueberry... Angyberry. Oh boy, and when you're acting-" Travis made a loud whistle- "Wow, you are so good at it. I can't wait to see your play. I know I'm going to love it. You're so amazing, Katelyn."
Katelyn couldn't speak the entire time; she felt like if she did, she'd start to cry. The last thing Katelyn told herself she wasn't going to do right now was cry, yet she couldn't leave Travis in silence.
"I'm-" Katelyn cleared her throat- "I'm not. I'm really not." Her voice was no louder than a whisper. "Fuck. If only things were better, Travis. You deserve better."
"What do you mean?"
"We both have some problems to work through. I-I like you, Travis. I really do, but not now. I can't do this now."
"That's okay," Travis reassured, not fully grasping the weight of what was being said as the buzz of his high continued to wear off. "I can wait, so you can take the time... I mean, take your time. I love you, Katelyn, so much."
Katelyn didn't respond and immediately ended the call. She dropped her phone and placed the palms of her hands on her eyes. She tried her best to even out her breath and not succumb to her tears, yet as the first tear rolled down her cheek, the others came running after. Despite them, she didn't make a sound, holding onto her last strings of stability.
This shouldn't be happening. The party, the argument, college classes—now this was all weighing down on her. This wasn't like her, but everyone had their breaking points.
So, here was Katelyn FireFist, crying under the weight of her problems and self-doubts. Trying her hardest to accept that she deserved love while simultaneously pushing people away. Her heart felt empty and broken. Guilt gnawing at her stomach as butterflies flew throughout her body. All of this was too much for her to handle.
Kawaii-Chan slowly made her way up the stairs. At this point, all she wanted to do was curl up in bed and wallow in her unrequited love, yet she stopped when she saw Katelyn sitting outside her door, shaking with every breath she took.
Without a word, KC walked over to her friend, sat down, and wrapped her arms around her frame.
Katelyn froze, now realizing the other presence with her but not having the strength to do anything about it.
"It's okay, you can cry. Kawaii~Chan will cry with you." KC's voice was soft, finally allowing tears of her own to drip down her face. Katelyn slowly wrapped her arms around Kawaii~Chan and, finally, allowed the whirlpool of emotions inside her to crash.
That's just it. They sat there and wept. They cried about all the things they should've or shouldn't have done and wished they were better.
Unbeknownst to both of them, Aphmau had walked upstairs to use the bathroom. She stopped upon seeing them, taken aback by the sudden change of atmosphere around her roommates. Instead of making her presence known, she walked into her room, grabbed a blanket, and walked back toward her friends.
She draped the blanket over the two of them, making it known to them that someone else was there. Then Aphmau sat down and wrapped her arms tightly around them. She let a tear slide down her face.
"I'm sorry."
That was all it took to allow the dam to break and the water to flow through. The girls sat with their mouths open, allowing a flood of apologies to pour through. Everyone forgave one another with their tear-stricken eyes and cracked voices, wishing that it didn't take this argument to make them realize their faults.
Of course, they knew that saying sorry wasn't going to fix everything. It was going to be the actions they took that made them true to their words and proved that they were capable of change.
===
"I just don't understand why you'd say that in front of everyone!"
"You're acting like I had a choice. After what you said, what was I supposed to do, say I enjoyed it?"
"No, but you didn't have to be so harsh!"
"What you did was fucking cruel! Even though it was an accident, we both leaned in when we could have easily leaned away. You have to at least admit to that!"
Ever since Garroth and Laurance went away to talk privately, they've been bickering back and forth about what they said under the mistletoe.
"Yeah, you're right. Nothing we've ever done with each other has been straight, hasn't it?" Garroth snapped, his voice harsh and cynical as he threw the accusation at his friend. Laurance gave himself a beat to think before replying.
"N-No, I guess not... You didn't have to make such a big deal out of it, though. We could have just laughed it off. Instead, you had to go off and say, well, that."
Garroth's chest tightened. Laurance had a point. Garroth was the one who yelled out of panic that they weren't dating, so Laurance just followed along. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"Oh Irene, I wonder how things would be different if I had just told him my sexuality back in high school," Garroth thought to himself. Surprisingly, Laurance started wishing he would have discovered his sexuality sooner. If the two had admitted that they liked each other before they started pinning aggressively on Aphmau, how different would their lives have been? Most likely, the house across the street could still be vacant.
We've done a lot with each other, haven't we?"
Laurance thought back to how they acted around each other. Baking cookies together. Holding each other. Comforting each other. Hell, they almost kissed while playing gay chicken!
"No homo?"
"Just shut up and hug me."
As if the final piece of the puzzle had been put into place, everything clicked.
Garroth wasn't straight.
Both boys had been dense enough not to look at the image they were creating until they had gotten the whole picture. If only they had looked up, then maybe they could have found out a lot sooner than expected.
"Garroth, you're not straight, are you?" he spoke slower, as if he were fully digesting the question he was asking. Laurance knew his answer already, he just needed the confirmation. One word that confirmed the gnawing question he'd been asking himself every night since he found out he liked Garroth.
This could be it. Both of them admitting that they liked each other. Allowing this prolonged tension to come to an end. They could stop pursuing Aphmau entirely and actually work on having a relationship with each other.
"Yes."
Laurance's heart dropped into the pit of butterflies in his stomach. Garroth let out a heavy sigh of relief, no longer bearing the burden of keeping this secret from his best friend.
"Sexuality?"
"Pan. You?"
"Bi? I'm not too sure yet, but I'm sticking with that."
They allowed a silence to fall between them. Garroth was relieved he could finally get out of the closet with his best friend. He had always been comfortable with others knowing about his sexuality; he just didn't want his crush to know. The last thing he wanted was for his best friend to have any implication that Garroth could be remotely interested in him. Now he didn't have to hide it.
At this point, there were still two more clarifications they needed from one another.
"So, about Aphmau-" Laurance began, but was quickly cut off by Garroth.
"I didn't want to kiss her under the mistletoe. I don't even think I like her anymore like I used to."
Laurance gave him a quick, fleeting smile back.
"Me neither."
Last clarification. No one was making the first move, so Laurance took the leap.
"Garroth, do you like me?"
It was their moment of truth. They both knew the answer. They both knew their feelings, and now was their time to admit them. In a moment of pure honesty, Garroth nodded.
Garroth asked the same question back.
At this point, it was obvious what his answer was. One word. One word, and all of this pent-up emotion could be over. They didn't have to dance around each other anymore, denying that they were in sync with this never-ending tango.
Laurance opened his mouth to answer, but he hesitated. Honest to Irene, he tried to say yes. He knew he liked him, at this point it was obvious, but was he ready to finally admit it? What was going to happen afterwards? Were they going to take it slow? Start dating? Was Laurance ready to do this?!
Yes?
No?
He liked him, but was he ready to start making a romantic commitment to him while trying to discover himself?
While Garroth's words came from the truth in his heart, Laurance's came from the lies in his mind.
"I... I don't know. I'm sorry."
{A/N: OOHHHHHHH BOY DID I HAVE FUN WRITING THIS CHAPTER! Let me know what you guys think! I tried my best at trying to convey the negative emotions and keeping the tone steady. If there was anything that seemed off putting about the chapter, feel free to comment on it. Please leave a star and a comment if you enjoyed it. Bye!}