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Kevin and Nicky barge into the girls’ room, Kevin headed straight for their liquor and Nicky flopping face-down on their couch, sprawled across Renee and Matt, who had been sitting there when he walked in. Matt looks like he has no idea what to do with his lap full of Hemmick, but Renee simply looks amused, and reaches out to run a hand through Nicky’s hair. Dan wrenches the vodka from Kevin’s hand, replaces it with a sprite, and directs him to the living room, while Allison rests her head on her hand, seated comfortably in an armchair. Renee is the first to speak up.
“So how did the wisdom teeth removal go for Neil and the twins?” Nicky whines and Kevin grunts, staring blankly at the wall.
“Badly, I’m guessing,” Allison says, stifling a laugh. Kevin turns an empty gaze on her.
“They’re friends now,” he says, shell-shocked. Allison furrows her brow, confused.
“Who are friends now? Neil and Andrew? They’re dating, of course they’re friends.” Nicky shoots upright, startling Matt and Renee.
“No. Not Neil and Andrew. Neil and Aaron.” The upperclassmen stare at him in shock. Dan is the first one to break the silence.
“No fucking way. They hate each other. Prove it.” Nicky digs his phone out of his pocket and pulls up a video, already posted to Tik Tok. He hands it off as it starts playing. On the screen, Neil and Aaron are huddled close together, whispering and giggling, but the camera quickly pans to Andrew, who is visibly close to tears and clutching Nicky’s sweater. Nicky speaks softly.
“Andrew, can you tell me why you’re upset?” Andrew, looking more open and vulnerable than anyone in that room had seen him, looks at Nicky, just behind the camera.
“He stole my Neil. That’s my Neil!” He over-enunciates his words to speak around the gauze in his mouth and his fist clenches tighter in Nicky’s sleeve. Before Nicky can say anything, Aaron can be heard slurring off-camera.
“He’s my friend now, suck my dick!” Despite Aaron’s words, Neil appears in the camera frame and attempts to rub his face on Andrew like a cat, but Kevin launches himself into the video to physically restrain him from doing so, saying something about “Neil, you just had surgery on your mouth.” Neil ignores him and starts talking.
“Nooo, Drew, I’m still your Neil. I’m still your nothing, I promise – pinky promise! I’m just also Aaron’s best friend now.” Andrew looks at him solemnly and nods. He takes Neil’s hand in his, much to Nicky’s audible, squealing delight, and drags him back over to Aaron.
“We’re all friends now. We’re best friends. All three of us,” Andrew says to his brother, who squints up at him, thinking. Neil nods vigorously and reaches out with his free hand to take one of Aaron’s. Aaron looks down at it, then looks at Andrew’s free hand, then at his own free hand, before reaching out slowly to hold his brother’s hand.
“Okay,” he agrees. He stands up, smiling, and promptly faceplants into Andrew’s chest. Kevin screeches, rushing in to grab him by the forehead and haul him up to lean Aaron back against Kevin’s own chest. Kevin looks at Nicky, and it’s obvious the man is also near tears.
“Nicky, please help me. I can’t do this alone and you’re literally the adult here. You’re their guardian, help me take care of them,” Kevin begs. Nicky can be heard grumbling as the video ends and loops to the beginning.
The whole room sits in silence, watching the video again until Renee reaches out and turns it off. She looks at Nicky with a mildly disappointed expression and the effect is devastating.
“They aren't going to be happy you took that video, Nicky,” she says. Nicky looks back, cowed.
“Maybe, but! They’re so cute! They’re all napping right now on the couch in Andrew and Neil’s room, in a big cuddle pile. I took pictures, and they’re so fucking cute, Renee.” Kevin cuts in scathingly.
“They’re also finally fucking silent. Not a single one of them shut up the entire ride back. It was all feelings all the time. Andrew was explaining how he didn’t like the word ‘boyfriend’ because it’s too small to describe what Neil is or whatever–” there’s a chorus of aww’s from the upperclassmen and Kevin cuts them a glare before continuing, “–and Aaron wouldn’t shut up about how thankful he was to Neil for making him and Andrew reconcile, and how he was sorry to Andrew for not seeing how he was just trying to protect Aaron–” there was a gasp from Dan, which Kevin ignored. “–and Neil, fucking Neil, was making me almost cry while talking about how he finally knows what family is supposed to be, now that he has the Foxes, I just. Anyways, they’re asleep now, and I’m so fucking glad–” Kevin is interrupted for the last time by frantic knocking on the suite door. They all look at each other, worried and confused.
“Maybe if we ignore it, they’ll go away,” Dan stage-whispers. Unfortunately, as soon as the words were out of her mouth, the knocking started up again. Allison hauls herself to her feet to investigate. She yanks open the door, irritated.
“What?” Allison snaps. It’s a soccer player from down the hall, looking harried and… sparkly?
“They're going fucking insane, that’s what. Those short little assholes are giggling like mad and dumping glitter off the roof. I don’t even want to know where they got so much glitter, but make. Them. Stop.” With that, he spins around and stomps to his own suite, a cloud of glitter trailing behind him. Allison turns back to the room, confused, but Kevin has gone pale white.
“The glitter….” Kevin whispers. Everyone turns to him for an explanation.
“What fucking glitter, Day?” Dan asks sharply. He turns a haunted gaze on her.
“Two months ago, Andrew started ordering, just, massive amounts of glitter off the internet, in these industrial-sized bags. And by industrial-sized, I mean it was these ten-pound boxes of glitter. And he was ordering multiple bags at a time, over the course of several weeks, and he ended up with about 30 huge bags of glitter. I kept asking him what it was for, but he would just slide a look at Neil and refuse to answer, so I assumed he was ordering them for Neil. I have been on edge for weeks , waiting for the glitter bomb to end all glitter bombs. The only places I knew I was safe were the bedroom, because the glitter might contaminate Andrew’s stuff, and the Maserati, because Andrew would never let glitter get inside his car.” He finished speaking and stood up, angrily. “Jesus fucking Christ, those three weren’t sleeping! They were waiting for us to leave so they could plot!” Kevin rushed out of the room, the rest of the Foxes tailing him, and he burst onto the roof, startling the twins, who were holding onto Neil as he leaned over the edge of the roof, massive bag of glitter in his arms. All three men turn to look, blinking owlishly at their teammates, cheeks puffed out because of the gauze stuffed in there. Andrew and Aaron haul Neil fully back onto the roof so he can stand between the twins and place the glitter slowly on the floor. Once he’s upright again, he pauses momentarily before shoving at the twins and shouting.
“Scatter!” And the three begin a panicked game of tag. The Foxes try to grab them, but Neil is too fast for them to begin with, and the twins are surprisingly slippery. Before the sober Foxes know it, the three have escaped down the stairwell. Nicky collapses onto the roof, breathing hard.
“How the fuck did they get away? There are so many of us and so few of them.” Matt pats his shoulder consolingly before hauling him to his feet and guiding him downstairs. They get to the suite Andrew and Neil share with Kevin to find the three boys sprawled on top of each other on the floor, passed out. The sight is, in a word, adorable. Nicky snaps a picture while the group stands there watching the three boys for any sign of them being awake. After a few minutes, Dan appoints Renee in charge of watching over them for the time being, and the remaining Foxes move back to the upperclassmen’s room. Matt collapses onto the sofa, thoughtful expression in place.
“Do you think they’re gonna all stay friends once they wake up sober?” Allison scoffs from her own seat.
“Absolutely not. Aaron and Neil are going to go back to being at each other’s throats and Andrew will go back to pretending Aaron doesn’t exist.” She inspects her pristine nails for scuffs after the struggle with her teammates while she speaks. Kevin looks unconvinced.
“I don’t know, It might be different. You didn’t see how close the three of them were in the backseat.” Allison raises one perfect brow at him and leans forward.
“You want to bet on that?” With those six words, all attention snaps to her, and within minutes all the bets are in, even Renee’s via text. All they have to do now is wait.
Aaron wakes up first, disgruntled, sober and in pain, and, upon finding himself in a tangle of arms and legs with Andrew and Neil, simply rolls over and goes back to sleep. The next time he wakes, Andrew and Neil are both awake, looking cranky with ice packs strapped to their faces, and eating spoonfuls of smoothie. Andrew notices Aaron blinking and pushes another ice pack his way with one pill for his pain. Aaron grunts, swallows the pill dry and slaps the ice onto his face, slumping sideways until he’s leaning on Neil. Neil stills for a moment, glancing at Aaron, but shrugs his other shoulder and continues eating his smoothie.
“Aaron,” Andrew says, tapping his twin’s knee to get his attention, “do you remember what happened while we were high?” Aaron opens one eye and glares balefully at Andrew.
“I remember enough to know we’re friends now. Like, all of us. And you’re not getting rid of me. I’m staying and I’m gonna learn how to be friends with you two sober.” Neil swallows his spoonful of smoothie and turns his head to look down at Aaron.
“Does this mean you’ll help me with Bio?” Aaron squints up at him.
“Only if you help me with Calc.” Andrew looks between them, frowning.
“I changed my mind, I don’t like this. Go back to hating each other.” Aaron smirks over at Andrew.
“No, Andrew, don’t be jealous. I’m not stealing your Neil, I promise.” Andrew reels back like he’s been smacked.
“My– shut the fuck up. He’s not my anything.” Unfortunately, Andrew seems alone in this fight, because Neil picks up where Aaron leaves off.
“Oh, you’re right, you’re so right. I’m your nothing, Drew.” Aaron grins suddenly.
“Oh! I just remembered why you hate it when people call you boyfriends. It’s too small. Actually, hold on, I can help with this. You’re not boyfriends, because that’s not a big enough word for what he means to you, right?” Andrew remains silent and stone-faced, but Neil nods. “So why not just call each other your partner. It’s more than just boyfriends, you’re partners in more than that. Partners in crime, at the very least, since I know Neil is the one who funded your glitter purchases. What were you planning on doing with all that, by the way?” Neil and Andrew share a glance, and while Neil looks somewhat upset, Andrew just sighs sharply.
“The baseball captain said some unsavory things about Wymack and the team,” Andrew explains. “I was thinking his shitbox car needed some redecorating. You in?” Aaron grins. He’s definitely in.
This ends up being the first bet Allison ever loses.