• “Vince! Vince, you a*****e, answer me!”
    I shake my head, glancing over at my best friend, Aiden Cortez, who is bright red in frustration. “What, Aiden?”
    Aiden slams his hand down on the arm of the couch beside me, his gray eyes flaming. “You aren’t listening to me!”
    I sigh and lean back in the couch, nudging his face with my socked foot. “Well, what’s your issue?”
    He moves up, grabbing my thigh and coming within an inch of my face. “Do we have everything for your party tonight?”
    I smile at him, raising my hand and pushing his face away slightly. “Of course. Beer, chips, the keys to the lake house, my costume, punch, and all the snacks we could ever possibly need. I’m always prepared.”
    He nods, leaning back against the coffee table, even though I can tell he’s still nervous.
    Tonight is my annual Halloween party, even though in recent years it’s become Aiden’s and my party. I can understand why he’s stressed, but it worries me that he’s so stressed. I smirk and press my foot against his chin, making him look at me. “Why are you freaking out?”
    He pouts and leans forward a little, resting his head on my thigh and putting his hand on my stomach.
    I’m not gay. I swear I’m not. And neither is Aiden.
    But I love it when he touches me like we’re lovers. We’re so close as friends that it doesn’t seem gay to us that we touch like this. We’re just snuggling or whatever, and we’re both comfortable in our sexuality to do this. I run my hand over his head and smile at him softly. “What’s up, Aiden?”
    Aiden sighs and shakes his head. “I’m just worried about tonight, Vince. I’m kind of freaked out. I don’t even know your costume. What if I can’t find you?”
    “You’ll find me.” I grin and run my hand through his hair, touching his cheek with my thumb. “Come on, you’ve known me since kindergarten. If you can’t recognize me, then I guess we aren’t best friends.”
    My mom enters the room, speaking loudly. “Boys, I made a snack for y- Oh.” She looks at us, Aiden’s head still pretty much in between my legs and my hand is entwined in his hair.
    Oops.
    Mom doesn’t really know how me and Aiden act around each other, and walking in on this must be a bit of a shock to her system.
    I think Aiden realizes this because he sits up, turning bright red. My mom blinks and her eyes go instinctively to my crotch. “Um… are you boys busy? Because I can come back in five minutes or so.” She pauses and shakes her head. “Vincent Marcella, I am very disappointed in you. Does this mean I won’t get grandchildren?”
    I grin. “Not until gays are allowed to adopt, mom.”
    She shakes her head again, wringing her hands. “Your dad will be so upset…”
    I stand up and hug her with one arm, kissing her on the cheek. “Mom, we aren’t gay, we were just talking. Do you really think I would sit in the middle of the living room and let Aiden give me a b*****b?”
    She throws her hands up. “Gosh, Vince, you don’t have to make me think about that! And I don’t know what kinds of things you boys do when you think your parents aren’t watching.”
    Aiden smiles at her slightly.
    He has a totally gorgeous smile when he’s genuinely happy.
    I know, I sound totally gay.
    But with Aiden around, it’s hard not to be.
    He’s totally gorgeous, with soft, feathery blonde hair, his sexy blue eyes, and a skinny, beautiful body.
    All right, so maybe I’m a little gay for Aiden.
    I know I’m staring at him because he cocks his head to one side and snaps his fingers in front of my face. “Vince, are you okay?”
    I blink and look at him, smiling slightly. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
    My mom rolls her eyes and grabs Aiden, squeezing his stomach, which has virtually no fat on it. “Aiden, darling, you’re too skinny! Look, Vince has some nice meat on him! No girl is going to want you if you don’t have any meat on your bones.”
    Aiden smirks and sticks his tongue out at me. “Vince is just fat.”
    She smiles and pinches him again. Aiden is like her second child. “I made a delicious snack for you two boys. Before your party, so you don’t fill up on beer.”
    I smile in return and shake my head. As long as we stay in the lake house and don’t have more than, say, a hundred people, my parents are cool with it. Needless to say, it’s kind of an exclusive party. “That sounds great, mom.” I smirk and pat Aiden’s stomach. “And maybe you’ll gain some weight.”
    Aiden rolls his eyes and grabs my wrist, walking after my mom to the kitchen and hopping up on the counter. He winks at me and then speaks, his voice soft. “Hey… you sure you don’t want to show me your costume?”
    I smile. “You haven’t shown me yours. Trust me, we’ll meet up. Just call me if you don’t.”
    He nods and glances towards my mom before leaning back on the counter. “I think I’m going to leave after this. I need to get ready… I’ll meet you up there.”
    I nod slowly and run a hand through his hair. “All right, sexy.”
    My mom has made some sort of peanut butter brownie sort of thing that she immediately makes us eat. After Aiden has wolfed his down, he tells my mom that he has to go. She wraps up a plate full of the things, kisses him on the cheek, and sees him out, leaving me to go upstairs and prepare for the party.
    It’s currently four and the party starts at seven. That leaves me an hour and a half to get ready, give or take.
    That isn’t a lot of time when you’re trying to impress someone.
    Yeah, it’s Aiden.
    Tonight may be my one chance to let him know how I feel about him.
    I know, I know, I’ve been claiming to be straight.
    But I can’t fake it.
    I love him.
    It’s the natural progression of our relationship.
    Best friends turn to lovers…
    I just need to make sure that I don’t ******** it up.
    ♥◊♥◊♥◊♥◊♥◊
    An hour later, I’m full dressed in my costume. I’m wearing a vampire-themed thing: tight-fitting black slacks, a white long-sleeved shirt with flowing sleeves, a gold corset looking vest over the shirt, and boots that reach about mid-calf. My dark hair is parted to the one side and overall, I look very vampiric. I’m impressed by it.
    I say goodbye to my mom and my dad, who’s home from work by now, and head out to my pickup truck. All the snacks and alcohol are up at the lake house already; Aiden and I made sure of that.
    In about twenty minutes I’m at the lake house and I start setting up, laying all the snacks out and making sure that the playlist for the night is completely synced up so I can just hit play.
    By seven-fifteen, everyone who’s supposed to be here is here, milling about the large house that is only about twenty feet away from a large lake and a sandy beach that has the most beautiful night views.
    I can’t find Aiden, though, which worries me. I wander the house for a good while, stopping to talk to people or having girls who are already half-drunk throw themselves at me.
    And that’s when I see the guy who looks like he’ll make my night.
    He’s sitting on the couch, another dude toppled over in his lap. A blue and gold mask is covering a good part of his face except for his lips, and his platinum blonde hair is spiked up in a cute, lazy way. He’s wearing a blue jacket and black slacks, gold accenting both articles of clothing. I walk over to him and smile, looking at the fine piece of a** before me. “Don’t you look like Prince Charming?”
    The guy jumps and looks up at me, a slight smile crossing his face. He looks familiar, his eyes sparkling behind his mask. “Oh, um, thanks.”
    I don’t recognize his voice. It’s soft and sultry, everything a guy’s should be, and I’m finding myself more and more attracted to him with every passing second.
    Maybe this is a way for me to get over Aiden.
    I grin and sit down on the arm of the couch, looking the guy over. “You want to dance, sexy?”
    His lips turn up in a smirk and he stands, moving the other boy off of his lap. “You drunk?”
    I shake my head, grabbing his hand. “Should I be?”
    “Why don’t we get a beer first?” He smiles, lacing his fingers with mine. “I’m so thirsty.”
    I nod, letting go of his hand. “Wait here and I’ll go get them.”
    I walk off and grab two beers from the cooler in the dining room, opening them with a spoon and walking back to the hot boy, passing one to him and clinking the bottle neck against his. “Cheers.”
    He smiles, taking a swig. “Why?”
    I grin. “Because I found a totally hot guy sitting on my couch.”
    He laughs this musical, delicious laugh that makes me get shivers up and down my spine and grabs my hand again. “You still want to dance, sexy?”
    I nod, watching him as he leads me out to the cleared den, which is serving as a makeshift dance floor. We’re immediately surrounded by people, crushed against each other in the most suggestive way. My partner for the moment takes a drink of his beer and giggles, the heat rushing to his face as he presses his knee to my crotch, leaning in with an arm around my neck as he whispers in my ear, his breath hot on my neck. “Mmm… maybe we should find a room after this…”
    He has no alcohol tolerance, does he?
    Better for me.
    I nod, wrapping my free arm around his waist and pressing my lips to his neck. I don’t care if I just met him.
    One night stands can be good for a teenage boy.
    I speak, my voice slightly muffled by his neck. “The rooms will be taken… I know a good make-out spot outside on the beach…”
    He arches his neck and takes a sip of his beer, smirking as his knee starts working circles in my groin. It’s a lot of pressure on such a delicate area but it feels so goddamn good, and we really never got around to the dancing because it’s just pressing against each other and groping as I totally start feeling up his a**. He giggles and murmurs, “Outside sounds sexy…”
    I lean up, kissing him slowly on the lips and pulling back to take a drink. “You want to take your mask off?”
    He grins, shaking his head and pressing his hand to the back of my head, pulling me into a deeper kiss. “You won’t like me if I take the mask off.”
    “Dude, I’m already not supposed to like you. You’re a guy. I don’t care if you’re hot or not, I just want you.”
    He smiles and kisses me again softly, still shaking his head. “No… I won’t take it off. You don’t need to see my face.”
    I shrug and take his hand, sipping my beer as I lead him out back. There’s a ton of people sitting on the porch, milling around and a couple of them are passing around a joint. My guy looks distracted by the prospect of marijuana and almost leaves me until I pull him back, leaning forward and pressing my lips to his ear. “We’ll get some later. This is more important.”
    He smiles and nods; he’s only a little bit shorter than me but the way he’s touching me tells me that he wants to be dominated.
    I get him outside in a secluded area near the lake and within moments we’re on the ground, our lips crushed together as his hand finds my pants and unzips them, sliding his hand in and continuing to kiss me hard.
    I pull open his shirt, breaking the kiss and moving hot lips down his chest, sucking on certain choice areas and making sure I’m leaving hickies all the way down his chest. I get to the top of his pants and almost undo them until I notice this guy’s birthmark.
    It’s in the shape of a butterfly, almost, dark and right at the waist of his pants.
    It looks exactly like…
    “Aiden?” I sit up and stare at the guy pinned beneath me, still breathing heavily and still very much aroused, if not more so now that I know it’s my best friend.
    Aiden sits up as well, pulling the mask off and looking at me, surprised. “How…?”
    “Because of your birthmark! Jesus, Aiden, why did you lead me on? You should have told me!”
    “I thought you would recognize me!” He pauses and stares at his hands. “And then when you didn’t, and you started flirting with me, I got thrown off guard because I didn’t think you were gay! So I started flirting back because I knew you would never flirt with me in a thousand years and I didn’t want you to know it was me! I know you don’t like me, so you never would have agreed to make out…” He looks at me, pleading. “That’s why you stopped…”
    I stare at him and grab his face with both my hands, pulling him into a harsh kiss. He pushes at my chest for a moment before his hands grip my shirt, holding onto me hard as he starts to kiss back. I finally break the kiss and slap him on the face hard enough to sting but soft enough for him to know that it’s more of a ‘love-tap’. “You idiot, do you know how ******** long I’ve wanted to make out with you?”
    He stares at me with this blank look in his eyes, biting his lip, and I speak in a low, strained tone. “I have liked you since sixth grade. Do you like me?”
    He blinks and then nods slowly, letting go of my shirt and blushing a hot pink. “Of course I do…” He pauses and then rests his head against my shoulder. “Do you still want to make out?”
    I smirk and grab the mask that’s been dropped on the ground, handing it to him. “If you put that back on, sure.”
    He pouts and leans in, running his tongue over my lower lip and putting a bold hand on my crotch. “Shut up, Vince… I just want you to screw me.”
    I smirk again and shake my head. “I don’t want to now. Now I know it’s you. I want you to be my boyfriend and we’ll get around to screwing eventually.”
    He grabs the mask and slips it back on, smirking slightly. “Come on, then. I want to get some of that weed before it’s gone.”
    I stand up, pulling him up after me and pressing my lips to his momentarily. He smiles and leads me back to the patio, our hands entwined.
    I have never been more in love…
    Thank god for Halloween.