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The theme of the One Kingdom Prep 2017 senior prom is "Summer Solstice." Whoever picked that theme is a total dumbass, as it'll be taking place an entire month before the actual solstice. Entrance tickets are playing-card-sized with tacky pictures of sunflowers printed on them.
Students who TA'd as office helpers came in and out of the classrooms all May with little envelopes, the recipients' names in Sharpie cursive. The white envelopes had short labels and single tickets in them. The yellow envelopes were dual tickets for people who'd split the cost with their dates. Everyone loved the sudden interruptions in class where they got to see which losers didn't wind up with anyone and speculate who was going with who.
Today it’s sharply, harshly sunny outside; Ms. Sonya's sixth-period Econ class, which had been in the dark watching a TED Talk, gets practically flash-banged when Faye pushes the heavy door open, peeks her head in, smiles wordlessly at the teacher and bounces over to Genny's desk with a crisp little white envelope.
Gray’s on his phone under his desk staring at the cursor blinking on Twitter. He’s bored as fuck. Tobin’s in P.E. right now, and Coach Valbar goes berserk when anyone brings their phone out to the track. Gray decides to type out the lyrics that've been stuck in his head since lunch:
Can i get a kiss. & Can u make it last forever
He hits send and then sighs and lays back in his blue plastic chair. Ms. Sonya has those desks where the chairs are connected to the table with a bar, and they have these wire racks for textbooks underneath that are perfect for resting your feet. So Gray kicks his green suede sneakers onto the back of Clair's chair. She doesn’t notice.
Clair, Clair, Clair. She used to drive him insane in a way that made him feel like that cartoon wolf watching the showgirl and hammering his fist on the table. Now, ever since that shit she pulled at Luthier's party where she tried to shove raspberry vodka down his throat, she's been driving him insane like a curse or a plague. He stares into her wavy blonde ringlets and watches as she — Good God, he can smell her shampoo from here! It’s torture.
She’s the most gorgeous girl he's ever seen. The two just want completely different things from each other. Gray wants love. He’s still not quite sure what the hell Clair wants, but that sure isn't it. They were doomed from the start; Clair seemed to realize that much, much sooner than Gray had.
"Hey," he whispers and nudges her desk a bit, and she turns around with her whirlpool eyes and cherry gloss lips. "Who're you going with?"
"Oh, um.” She gives a soft, saccharine laugh. "You don't know him. He goes to Rigel."
"... Okay." He isn't quite sure why he asked or what he was expecting to gain from asking. He feels hollow.
Just then Faye squeezes through the narrow aisle past Kliff and Est. She gingerly hands a white envelope right to Clair with a nice smile.
Gray feels hollower. "Oh."
Clair shakes her head and sighs. "Sorry, Gray— I thought you were about to ask me." Someone shushes her, and she shushes back. Ms. Sonya sits at her desk on her phone in the dark; it’s clear from the quiet sound effects that she’s playing Candy Crush. The TED Talk drones on. "I didn't want to reject you."
"That— that feels even worse than getting rejected. You'd rather go alone than with me."
"I'm not going alone, I'm going with friends."
Gray's face gets hot. He says something stupid like he always does: "I'm not even your friend?"
"Ugh. You're being an idiot," She lets out a clear laugh. She does that a lot, insulting him and then pretending it's a joke. He's sick of it. "Girl friends."
"Well—” He debates telling her right then and there. "Well I'm— I'm going—"
Faye slaps the yellow envelope dorm on his desk and hits him gently on the top of his head with her knuckles. Then she waves goodbye to Ms. Sonya, still playing Candy Crush, and leaves the classroom. Gray feels the heat radiating from the door through the cool room when light pours in again for a moment.
Clair stares at the ticket. Then she looks at Gray. "... Huh," she says. He can’t read her— he's never been able to read her— but it feels good to have her know he’s off the table. That he’s a taken man.
Gray gives her a smug grin. "Wasn't gonna ask you. Don't worry." At that, her eyes go wide, and she slowly turns back around to face the TED talk.
Then his phone buzzes. He checks it again. Tobin has responded to his tweet with a simple Sure LOL.
Everything seemed to click a few days after the Luthier’s Party incident. It took hours of deliberation for Gray to finally give in; he ended up calling at about 1AM. Here’s how it went:
“... Hello?”
“Tobinator. Hey. Hey, uh, how’s it hanging?”
“Dude, I’m sleeping.”
“You’re a real articulate sleep-talker, then.”
“Gray, what do you want?”
“I want… uh. Hah, I guess I just wanted to ask if… if…”
“Spit it out already, you goddamn… silly goose.”
“Silly goose? Seriously?”
“Fuck, man, I dunno, I just woke up. What’s your deal? Why’re you even up—”
“Doyouwannagotopromwithme?”
“... Huh?”
“I, um. Wanted to ask. If you’d go with me. To the prom.”
There's a long fuzzy pause on the line. “... Like, as a joke?”
“No. What? No. As a date sort of situation.”
“Oh... You’re. You’re serious right now?”
“Yeah. Y-you can say no.”
“No, no, I'm… just trying to process.”
“No problem, take your time–”
“Yeah, fuck it. Let’s go.”
“... Shit, for real?”
“Yeah, man!”
Neither of them will ever forget the delighted laughter the call devolved into at that moment– the relief, the comfort, the pure joy it brought them to finally settle things like no big deal.
“Hey– I’ll buy us a pair of tickets at lunch tomorrow, alright, Tobarola?”
“Oh, man, that’d be great of you. I really appreciate it–”
“No, no, you’re gonna be reimbursing me. With interest.”
"Shit, I got, like, ten dollars to my name right now… any other way I can pay you back?”
“If you’re trying to sell your body for a prom ticket right now, it’s probably not gonna work.”
“That’s not– aw, fuck off!"
If you want to get into One Kingdom Prep’s insanely small parking lot, you’re gonna need a permit sticker stuck on the inside of your windshield. If you don’t have one, there’s a rough-looking guy named Mr. Saber on a golf cart right at the entrance who’ll make you drive a loop around the lot to come back out the only entrance. His other responsibility is to drive around the perimeter making sure no one’s smoking weed on the premises or trying to skip class. Tobin has no idea what you’d even call that position of employment. Kids either love or hate Saber depending on if he’s ever caught them or not. If you say shit about the eyepatch, you’re going to the principal’s office no matter what.
The parking permit on Tobin’s 2004 beige Honda Civic is fake. He simply didn’t feel like dropping twenty bucks to keep his car at his own damn school. The morning after Gray asks him to prom, right as Tobin’s pulling into the strangely empty lot, Saber stops him and motions for him to roll his window down.
It takes a hilariously long time for the shitty old car to roll its window all the way down as they make eye contact. Most of the buttons on the radio have been broken for years, so he has to fully eject his Bowling for Soup CD to get the music off. “What seems to be the problem, officer?”
"Zimmerman. You need a real permit.”
Mr. Saber only ever calls kids by their last names as an intimidation tactic. Tobin plays dumb. “Huh? What do you mean?”
“You think I haven’t noticed? I can see the tape. I’m not stupid.”
Shit. “Uh… why haven’t you said anything the whole year?”
“S’too busy. You always come in at rush hour. Never wanted to hold up the line.”
“Yeah, what’s the deal? Why’s nobody here?”
Mr. Saber gives him an are-you-kidding-me look that confuses him. “You can park here today. I'll escort you to the office to buy a permit.”
“I’m graduating in, like, less than a month, y’know.”
“And?”
They stare at each other for a tense moment. Tobin continues to make comical direct eye contact as he slowly drives past Saber into one of the many open spaces.
As soon as he parks and clicks the engine off, Tobin checks his phone to find multiple texts from his friends— Alm, Faye, Kliff and even Celica have all reached out. Gray has sent him the simple words "senior ditch day" and nothing else, the gray message exploding with confetti onscreen.
"Hey!" yells Mr. Saber from the entrance to the lot, and Tobin looks up to see none other than Luthier making a break for it, booking it across the street to try and hide behind the sign for the neighboring non-school-affiliated church. The golf cart jolts forward and peels off to the right to follow the unathletic senior, quickly gaining on him. “I can see you! Get back here!”
How come no one told him it was Senior Ditch Day? Now’s his chance! Tobin's car stalls for a second when he tries to turn the engine back on. He pumps the brakes and turns the key again and again to the same pathetic noise. “C’mon,” he mutters, drumming on the dash, staring at the golf cart as it drives away, "C'mon, ole girl, you can do it…"
The engine turns over, and he whoops with joy. He decides to reverse all the way out of the lot, craning his neck to look at the empty road behind him and grinning as he backs right out onto the street, reversing still for a few feet before jerking forward, turning left and speeding off. He rolls the windows down and jams the Bowling For Soup disc right the fuck back in the CD player.
Then he calls Gray on speaker, who picks up nearly immediately as he throws the busted phone into his lap. "G'morning!" Tobin chirps.
"Took you long enough. Did you actually show up today?"
"For a sec, yeah— nobody filled me in till I got here! What's the move? Where're we droppin'?"
"Try Lake Zofia. We're all in the minivan right now."
"Oh, shit, really? Should I go home and grab a swimsuit?"
"What, you can't swim in your boxers? Or—" Gray laughs— "you're wearin' your tighty whities today or some shit?"
Tobin literally is. "I'll swing by my house and meet you guys there. See you in an hour."
"Mwah," goes Gray sarcastically before he hangs up. It still manages to make Tobin blush, smiling to himself as he turns his music back up.
It's a crisp, clear day at Lake Zofia, nothing but still blue above them and rippling blue beneath it out in front of them. A dense deciduous forest surrounds the lake and the beach— it's a short hike on a dirt path from the parking lot to here. There's a small field littered with worn picnic benches that'll give you splinters; the grass gives way to dark sand by the water's edge. The May sun's so bright that even the reflections at the peaks of the small waves are blinding. Good thing Gray brought shades. He's lounging on a pink beach towel in his boxers and Ray-Bans soaking in sunlight while his friends cower under the floral beach umbrella Alm keeps in the trunk of his grandpa's maroon Dodge minivan.
"You guys are boring," groans Gray, though he's so comfortable that he doesn't even feel like sitting up to look at them. Their shoddy excuses to stay dry annoy him; Kliff won't put down Heart of Darkness , Faye just got a miniscule tattoo of a raindrop on her ankle that she doesn't want to accidentally infect (she said some shit about it representing Eponeen from Lay Miz, whatever the fuck that means), and Alm and Celica are insanely easily sunburnt. "Slap on some of that SPF 1,000,000 or whatever and jump in already."
"Are you kidding? The water's freezing," laughs Celica. Gray couldn't believe the bathing suit she rolled up in— an old-timey red stripy one-piece with the shorts and everything. Alm told her it was the cutest thing he'd ever seen, which is hilarious. "I'd go into shock."
"Fuckin'... chicken," says Gray, who would've called her a different word for comedic effect if it wouldn't warrant an ass-beating from Alm. "C'mon. We could play something— did any of you bring, like, a volleyball?"
"This isn't Top Gun, Gray." Kliff doesn't even bother looking up from his book to insult him.
"It could've been fuckin' Top Gun if one of you'd just thought to bring a fuckin' volleyball! I'm even— look!" Gray points to his sunglasses. "I even got the goddamn aviators! God!"
"Tone it down, would ya?" goes Faye. "You sound like you're in an HBO series."
Gray just sighs at that, listening to faint birdsong, insects buzzing in the grass, freshwater lapping against rocky sand. He closes his eyes. "... Alm."
"Yeah?"
"Do a backflip off the dock."
"Hm," goes Alm. "Okay."
Gray hears Alm get up straight away at that, and Celica and Faye bust out laughing, clapping and hollering. He's sluggish from the sun, but he still manages to sit up to watch Alm walk down the shore, run up to the end of dock to where the water gets deep and stand with his back to the edge.
"Ready?" Alm yells as he looks back, and they all cheer in response save for Kliff.
Alm shakes out his limbs, blows out a breath, bends his knees and gets into a ready position. Then he straightens out and jumps back high, tucking his legs close to his chest as he lands without even having made a full rotation, his back hitting the water with a hard slap before he plunges beneath the surface. Gray, Faye and even Kliff cheer at the sight; Celica gasps and immediately runs after him, launching herself down the dock and diving off the end with perfect form after him when he doesn't resurface immediately.
When they both pop up again, Celica's got an arm around Alm, dragging him up to the surface as he laughs his ass off. "Celica, it's alright! I'm fine!"
"That's what always happens," Kliff says, still laughing at the impact. "No follow-through. No technique."
Celica's shivering at the chill of the water, clearly a little pissed. "You guys all knew he'd hurt himself?"
"No, no— seriously, I'm fine!" Alm insists, still laughing. "And I really thought I could do it this time." Even when the water gets shallow enough for them to stand, she keeps her arm around his shoulders. He puts an arm around her as well, grinning at her as he ruffles her wet hair. "You're so sweet for worrying about me."
"Of course," replies Celica, smiling all bashful and stroking a hand down his back, which makes him light up bright. Right afterwards she realizes everyone had just seen that, which makes her face go as red as her hair. They are not the PDA type— despite how obviously in love they are, Gray's never even seen them kiss.
"And you didn't go into shock! See? It's fine," he beams, leading her back into the deeper water— she shrieks at the cold, then laughs as she lets herself sink into the clear lake, happily joining him for a swim.
It seems like Alm and Celica might be soulmates, like they'd just been waiting to reunite all this time. Now that they're together there's a good chance that they'll never be apart again. Going off to the same college, probably getting married way too young, probably having a couple red-green haired babies as soon as they graduate. At least they're not obnoxious about it. If Gray ever found a love like that, he would totally be obnoxious about it.
"Oh, hey, Tobin's here," says Faye.
Gray's head whips around so fast it almost breaks his neck, jaw dropping as he sees his prom date twirling his car keys around his finger, walking across the grass toward Faye and Kliff in nothing but floral trunks and Birkenstock sandals so old and beat-up that they may well have been the very pair that Jesus himself wore.
"Holy shit," Gray mutters under his breath, slowly removing his sunglasses and dropping them in the sand. "He is risen…!"
It happens in an instant, practically involuntary. Gray jumps up and takes off running over to Tobin, leaping and blind-siding him in a tackle that makes him yelp as the two tumble to the grass. All that time out in the sun makes Tobin's bare chest feel cool against Gray's. He smells like SPF 1,000,000.
Tobin stares all dazed and wide-eyed beneath him, perfect brown boy-band hair splayed over his brow. "What the hell?" he breathes. "What was that for?"
Gray puts both hands on the sides of Tobin's face and kisses him how he'd kissed him at the party.
It's so, so much more fulfilling than the first time, no fear, no shame, none of that torn-apart confused sensation in his chest; it just sort of clicks at this point. This is who he's supposed to be with. Tobin laughs against him before he wraps his arms around him and kisses back in earnest.
Faye lets out a long shriek like her favorite act just came on at a concert. Kliff lets out an exasperated " Ohhhhhh my Goddd…" that makes Gray crack up hard enough to break the kiss.
"Jesus, it was real!" hollers Alm from the water, slapping his hands on his face like the kid from Home Alone. "At the party! You guys weren't—!"
Gray rolls off of him and sits up with a big grin on his face. "You totally bought it, dumbass."
Alm's just flabbergasted. "I— I thought I was going crazy! You two… this is…"
"Congratulations!" beams Celica, putting an arm around Alm and shaking him excitedly. "I'm so happy for you two!"
Tobin sits up and scoffs at her. "What, two dudes can't kiss without it being a whole big thing?"
They fall silent. Celica's smile wavers.
Then Tobin cracks up. "Nah, I'm fuckin' with you, he's my prom date." Gray throws an arm around him and gives him a long kiss on the cheek.
Kliff buries his head in his book as the other three whoop and cheer again.
Gray's heart beats quick from excitement, hot in the face from the kiss, hot in general from the sun. If only there was a way to cool off.
"Let's go in," Gray tells him, to which Tobin just shrugs and nods, both of them rising to their feet and dashing off toward the sand. As they pass, Tobin kicks off his sandals and throws his phone and his keys at Faye under the umbrella, who manages to catch neither.
The planks of the dock thump and creak as they race each other top-speed to the end. Gray beats him, of course, but he stops for a second at the edge to grab Tobin's hand right before they jump, swinging it as they plunge into the water.
"Ah, shit," says Tobin to the mirror as he fails yet again to tie his tie, the black knot turning out all wonky like it has the last five tries.
Miriam gasps from the bathroom doorway, making him flinch in surprise. "Mooom! Tobin said a bad word!"
Tobin scoffs as her light footsteps dash off to the kitchen, tattling straight to their mom. "I'm allowed to!" He yells after her. "I'm old!"
"Tobin's old, honey," Mom repeats to her from the other room. "Just remind him he's not allowed to when you or your brother or sisters are around."
Miriam runs back down the short hall and relays the information. "You're not allowed when me and Amos and Zoë and Hannah are around!"
Tobin pulls apart the knot, letting the ends hang around his neck. "I didn't even know you were there! You snuck up on me!"
Back to the kitchen she goes. "Mom, he said I snuck up on him."
"Tobin," Mom calls tiredly. "Close the door if you're gonna use that kind of language."
Tobin thinks about slamming it for a second— he's had it up to here with this tie and with Miriam today— but he's just too excited for tonight to actually be in a bad mood. He closes it gently, locking it for good measure. Then he puts both hands on the toothpaste-stained sink and stares at himself in the mirror. The suit used to be Dad's. Mom had him try it on when he got back from the lake yesterday; he looked like an idiot in it, like a kid pretending to be a businessman. She pinned it where it didn't fit, then spent hours at her sewing machine taking it in at the sleeves and the ankles and the waist. Now it looks quite dashing, in his opinion.
He pulls open a cluttered drawer and picks a pink Hello Kitty comb out of Hannah's box of hair trinkets, running it through his bangs so that they frame his face straight. He has to look his best. He knows Gray'll upstage him as always, but he still has to put up a fight.
After setting the comb down, Tobin picks up his phone and yet again rewinds the tutorial video for tying a tie. He blows out a breath, crosses the ends, loops one end around the other—
The doorknob jiggles. Then a fist bangs against the door. "Tobin, I gotta pee!"
Tobin lets out a deep sigh. Seven people, one bathroom. He shoves his phone in the pocket of his slacks, unlocks the door and pulls it open to find Amos staring up at him.
"Why are you going with Gray?" Amos asks innocently. "You couldn't get a date?"
It's plain from his expression that it's just a genuine question, but his bluntness still makes Hannah and Zoë giggle from the living room. "No, he's just gay," yells Zoë. "And that's great!"
"I'm not— " Tobin pauses. Why protest? Why complicate things when it could all be so simple? "... Yeah," he concedes with a chuckle. "He's my date."
"Ohhh," goes Amos. "That's fun 'cause when you're dating you can just do guy stuff together. You don't have to go shopping or watch rom-coms or anything."
Tobin stifles another laugh. "Is that what an eleven-year-old thinks dating a girl is like?"
"Well, Parker B. from my class is going out with Parker C. from my class, and he's always telling me how lame it is."
"Then he should break up with her."
"But Parker C. is so pretty!"
"If that's the only reason he's with her, then it's not a real relationship. You gotta actually like the person. If you're right for each other, you'll enjoy doing basically anything with them. That's what love is like."
"Do you love Gray?"
"Yes." Tobin steps out of the bathroom and motions to the door. "Go pee."
Amos stares at him with an awed expression for a second, then runs past and shuts the bathroom door behind him.
In the living room, the amber light of the early evening lets in through the small windows. Hannah and Zoë sit on the carpet in front of the TV watching Phineas and Ferb reruns. At the table, Miriam works on a coloring book as Dad works on a jelly-filled donut, powdered sugar sticking in his thick brown beard. He sees Tobin approaching and stops chewing, setting the donut down on a little plate Hannah'd painted flowers on at school. He swallows, wipes his hands on his pants, stands up and beckons him over with his hand.
Tobin confusedly obliges, shuffling over in his socks to stand in front of him. "You want your suit back or something?"
"Looks better on you," Dad muses, putting his worn hands on Tobin's shoulders and squeezing. Then he grabs each end of Tobin's tie and starts to tie it for him. Tobin stares up at him as he does it— the joy in Dad's eyes as he gently works it into a knot almost makes Tobin tear up.
Going off to vocational school in the fall is gonna hurt like hell. Despite how annoying they can all be, Tobin loves his family so dearly that he knows a piece of him will be missing once they're apart. In past years his cluttered, crowded little house has made him yearn for a neat two-bunk dorm, but now the idea of living with a stranger rather than the people he cares about most depresses him. Gray'll be at a university just a mile or so away, thank God, but he'll be hours and hours from Mom and Dad and his siblings. Hell, Tobin practically raised these kids, what with Mom's late shifts at the grocery store and Dad's long hours in the woodshop.
When Dad's done, he adjusts the knot so that the tie's snug around Tobin's neck. Then he puts his hand on Tobin's cheek for a second, stern brown eyes shining. "My boy," he proclaims with pride. As Tobin smiles back at him, Dad sits back down and continues to eat his donut.
Afterwards, Tobin opens his phone's front camera to check out how he looks with the tie. The knot's even more fucked than when he'd tried to tie it himself. This is when Tobin realizes he's never seen Dad wearing a tie before.
"All dressed up already? Lemme see!" Mom runs over from the kitchen to grab his forearms and turn him towards her. She admires her handiwork with how well the suit fits; then she sees the tie and rolls her eyes. "Joe."
"What?" shrugs Dad with his mouth full. "Tried m' best."
She sighs and gives Tobin a can-you-believe-this-guy look that makes him crack up as she once again takes apart the knot, quickly and neatly re-tying it. Only recently has he grown an inch or so taller than her, which is weird for him and probably even weirder for her. He'll probably miss Mom the most.
When she's done, Mom fixes his hair some more and gives him a kiss on the cheek. "So handsome…"
"I know," he says coolly like Gray would say, making her laugh.
"Show us!" goes Hannah, and he turns to them with his arms out. Her and Zoë go "Ooooooh…!" like a studio audience. "Gray's gonna wanna marry youuu…"
Tobin goes red. "You think so?"
Zoë looks up at him from the carpet and excitedly asks, "Can I be the flower girl?"
"No, I wanna be flower girl!" Miriam yells from the table.
"I called it first! You can be ring bearer."
"Ring bearer is for boys!"
Outside toward the street, a familiar car horn goes off twice. Everyone's heads turn out the window, then to Tobin.
Tobin's pulse spikes, booking it to his room to frantically grab his dress shoes and his student ID. Why is he this nervous? It's only Gray, for crying out loud— he doesn't need to impress or woo him or anything. But he'd sure like to impress and/or woo him. His hands are shaking, so it takes him far too long to tie the skinny black shoelaces. Soon the horn starts to go off in rapid succession, over and over obnoxiously. "Amos!" Tobin yells. "Go tell Gray to cut it out!"
"No— tell him to come out front!" suggests Mom. "So we can take pictures!"
"Got it," says Amos. Tobin hears him bolt to the front door, throw it open and bolt out.
Tobin finishes double-knotting and runs to the bathroom mirror to fix his hair one last time with the Hello Kitty comb. When he hears Gray's laugh from outside, his heart starts to flutter. Stupidly, he has to take a couple deep breaths before he finds the courage to come out to the living room.
"Man, you look awesome! " goes Amos distantly from the sidewalk as a car door shuts. "You look like a super-spy!"
"Took you this long to figure it out?" replies Gray. "Guess I'm good at my job."
Tobin's practically holding his breath by the time they get to the door. Amos hurries in, giving Tobin a gleeful look. Then he sees Gray at the end of the lawn.
Gray instantly breaks into a glowing smile as he approaches the house; Tobin's just standing there slack-jawed. Gray looks incredible. His hair's been meticulously styled, thick black waves clean and side-parted with just the slightest amount of product, no doubt the work of one of his older sisters. He's in a classic tuxedo compared to Tobin's simple suit, a frilled white shirt under his black jacket and a matching bow-tie around his neck. His shoes look shiny and new, slight heels at the back that make him seem taller. The tux fits and accentuates his arms as if it was tailor-made— God, he looks amazing…
"What're you lookin' at, huh?" Gray says tauntingly, grinning as he hops up the porch steps. He's holding a small clear takeout box— did he bring a snack or something?
Tobin walks out to meet him by the porch swing. "You're…" literally the hottest guy on Earth. "You look great, man."
"Do I? I didn't notice." Gray looks him up and down. "You look better, though."
The compliment just makes him laugh. "Don't kid yourself."
"I mean it! Here." Gray holds out the takeout box. It's a boutonniere, Tobin realizes, a fancy store-bought one. He opens it to find a single fresh white rose attached to a pin. "Want me to do the honors?"
Tobin nods shyly, making Gray chuckle. He takes the boutonniere, leans in and presses the pin to the breast pocket of Tobin's suit jacket. It takes him a couple tries to fix it in place; Tobin can smell his cologne, his mint breath as he fumbles with it. When he looks down, he finds that Gray's hands are shaking. The sight's endearing and reassuring: Gray's just as nervous as he is.
Once it's finally pinned, they lock eyes and Gray gives him a warm look, sweet and familiar. Despite his nerves, Tobin's willpower gives way. He steps closer, puts his hands on the sides of Gray's neck and—
Mom literally hollers when she sees them out the door. "Gray Moreno, is that you!? "
Tobin blushes profusely as he steps back, his hands whipping back to his sides. "Mom…"
She runs out to give Gray a bear hug, knocking the air out of him. "You clean up so well! I hardly recognized you—" She backs off to get a good look at both of them. "Oh, you're such a handsome couple! All grown up…"
"Aw, thanks, Mary," chuckles Gray sheepishly as she takes out a small digital camera. "Here, get my good side—"
"Wait, wait one second!" goes Mom, rushing back inside toward the kitchen. While she's gone, Dad and Hannah and Zoë and Miriam and Amos each get up to crowd around them, seemingly just as stunned at a formally-dressed Gray as Tobin is.
"You kids'll make good choices tonight, right?" asks Dad, making Tobin grimace with annoyance.
"The best choices possible," says Gray.
"No drinking," Dad says firmly.
Gray laughs. "No problem."
"Here!" says Mom, slipping her gardening clogs on before joining them outside. "Can't believe I almost forgot." She hands Tobin a big red peony bloom from their lawn with a safety pin and a pretty red ribbon sewed into where the stem once was. It's cold in his palm as he holds it; she must've been keeping it in the fridge. She'd obviously made it herself. It's such a wonderful gesture that any trace of embarrassment immediately leaves him. He pulls her into a crushing hug as he thanks her, making her laugh with glee. He's got the best family in the world.
Afterwards he turns to delicately pin it straight onto Gray's tuxedo jacket, careful of the petals. He nails it on the first try. "Awesome," Gray breathes, turning him toward Tobin's parents parents and throwing an arm around him. "Is the light here good enough?"
"Good enough," Mom replies with her camera out again. "Here, wait, stand in front of the house. Kids, go inside."
All four kids do the opposite, following Mom and Dad out to the start of the lawn as Tobin and Gray stand on the porch facing them. The two of them beam so sincerely that even when the flash goes off by accident, all the pictures turn out lovely.
A muttering argument breaks out between Miriam and Zoë as Mom snaps more pictures. When it escalates, Dad shuts it down with, "C'mon, cut it out. You can both be flower girl."
The picture taken right then, of Gray and Tobin caught in the middle of raucous laughter with their arms around each other— that picture's loveliest of all.
"Big fun! On the night of nights… the night of nights, tonight!" chants Mae, a few spaces in front of them in the line to get into the dance. The muffled bass of a pop song blares from inside the gym, multicolored lights flashing through the high windows. It's always so weird seeing the school in the evening during dances, streetlights illuminating the quad with dull yellow bulbs as the sun finally starts to set.
"Let's dance!" continues Genny, shaking Mae's shoulders excitedly as the line shuffles forward on the blacktop. "On the night of nights… you know we're gonna do it right!"
"Are you serious?" groans Boey. "High School Musical? You guys are middle schoolers."
"Your prom date is a middle schooler?" Gray pipes up behind them, making them turn around. "They oughta put you on a watchlist for that."
Boey scowls and faces away from him again, protectively wrapping his arm around Mae as she cracks up. "Jackass."
Gray looks at Tobin beside him, both snickering at Boey's thin skin. They've been holding hands the entire wait, so long that they're both all clammy by this point, but neither of them mind. Tobin used to timidly hold his hand all the time when they were little kids, trusting Gray to lead the way and keep him safe. He only stopped once other kids started to make fun of them for it. It's insanely comforting and nostalgic to be able to do it again— he'd hold Tobin's hand all his life if he could.
Alm taps him on the shoulder from behind. He's in a deep royal blue tux, the ruffles of his dress shirt way bigger and tackier than Gray's. "Do you think they'll play Cha Cha Slide?" he asks him excitedly.
"Ooh, or Cupid Shuffle!" adds Celica from his side. Her flowy white dress is adorned with a pink-gold belt and pink-gold trim, and the gaudy blooms of her corsage around her wrist match the crown of flowers above her bangs.
Even dressed up, they're still the world's biggest dorks. "They're gonna play Uptown Funk and Gas Pedal," says Gray. "That's it."
"Seriously?" goes Alm. "Just two songs? That'll get old quick."
Gray gives Alm a deadpan look. Tobin laughs hard as Alm realizes and cringes at himself. "Aw, c'mon, Gray…" Even Celica giggles, nudging her idiot date with her shoulder.
As they grow closer to the entrance, Celica gasps and begins to wave at someone around the corner of the gym. "Oh, look, he's got a suit on too! Hi, Mr. Saber!"
Gray notices Saber parked in his goddamn golf cart on the other side of the gym, pleasantly smiling back at his favorite student. If Gray had a nickel for every time this bastard caught him trying to cut class or leave a dance before it ended, he wouldn't have to take out student loans. Gray makes furious eye-contact with the glorified yard-duty from afar, which he quickly notices; Saber points one finger at his eye, then points two back at Gray. Okay, that's actually pretty hilarious.
They're searching girls' purses at the door to the gym, making guys turn out their pockets. Coach Valbar makes a big show of holding Jesse's vape right in front of his face. "That's… not mine," he claims.
Coach Valbar looks at him disappointedly and turns it to reveal "JESSE'S VAPE" painstakingly etched into the plastic, making the kids around him snicker. Jesse whimpers as he throws it directly into a trash can no doubt already filled with them.
Honestly, he's doing him a favor. Vaping nicotine has to be one of the most pointless drains of money Gray's ever heard of. Weed vapes are a different story, though; when offered, he'd once hit Python's dab pen in the handicap stall, leaving him lightheaded and dreamy for the rest of his classes. It'd be fun to try that stuff again sometime.
Finally they're at the front, meaning he finally has to let go of Tobin's hand. They present their student IDs, and Gray presents the pair of tickets. Their names get crossed off a list. He shows them that all he has in his pockets are his phone, wallet and keys. Then they're let in.
It's crowded in the gym, much hotter and muggier than it'd been outside, half the large room blocked off so staff can keep an eye on everyone. Everyone's dressed to the nines save for Kliff, standing dead still and straight-faced with his arms crossed amidst a dancing crowd in a button-up and black jeans. Promiscuous by Nelly Furtado blasts through the dark gym, lit only by colored flashing lights and corny lasers beaming across the space from near the DJ's table. The only element of "summer solstice" theming comes from dozens of garlands of plastic sunflowers hung across the tall ceiling.
Even if it's just the gym and some loud music and some fancy clothes and fake flowers and a couple of lights, it's still thrilling to be here. They made it! Four long years of torture have come to an end, and tonight's the night to celebrate it! In a few short months it'll be a completely fresh start, a new chapter of life for all of them.
Alm and Celica enter right after them, and they all laugh at Kliff's sorry ass, who rolls his eyes at them with a reluctant smile. They join him on the dance floor, ruffling his white hair and flaming his outfit further. Faye's dancing with her date Silque up near the speakers quite enthusiastically, pulling out all her theater-kid moves; when she notices her friends, her jaw drops and she pulls Silque by the arm toward the group. She yells something about how amazing they all look, nearly impossible to hear over the music— to their surprise, Faye pulls not Alm but Celica into a big embrace, officially burying the hatchet. Faye beckons in with her arms after, clearly asking for a group hug. Just for the special occasion, the lifelong friends (and a confused Silque) all happily oblige, formalwear scratching against each other's as they appreciate the moment amidst the wild movement of the students around them. Gray realizes he doesn't truly want a clean slate, an entirely new chapter. He wants to keep these people close forever no matter where they all end up.
There's a jarring transition from Promiscuous to Teach Me How To Dougie, the song prompting cheers from the crowd as they all step apart. It's such a harsh cut that Gray busts out laughing, looking to see what kind of a DJ just pulled that shit. When the lights at the back hit the DJ in question for a second, they reveal a five o'clock shadow and hair like seaweed and an expression like the guy would rather be literally anywhere else than here. Gray laughs harder, trying to point him out to Tobin.
Tobin's just staring at Gray with such intense love in his eyes that it makes him reel for a second. It's goofy as fuck to look at him so tenderly with Cali Swag District blaring in the background, but it melts him nonetheless, prompting him to smile and lean in to give him a slow kiss on his forehead. Then he backs off, puts his hands out to get everyone's attention, then proceeds to teach them how to Dougie. It's a dance he'd actually practiced in the mirror way back in middle school; he's practically perfected it by now.
They're all horrible at it when they try to mimic him, especially Tobin. It's one of the funniest things he's ever seen.
The seven of them spend long minutes just dancing together like idiots to various outdated hits from Pitbull, Usher, Ke$ha, Flo Rida, even fucking Macklemore at one point. What the hell is this DJ on? Nevertheless, Gray dances like he hasn't in ages, his footwork soon causing his rental dress shoes to start giving him blisters. Usually he's fine with suffering in order to look good— hell, that's what he does at the gym every other day— but he wants to be able to dance all night with his friends, with Tobin.
He leans in close to Tobin and yells, "I'm gonna check my shoes!"
"Check them for what?" he yells back.
"No— the coat check! I'm getting in line!"
"Oh, okay! Be safe!"
Gray grins, carefully exiting the dance floor toward the weightlifting room off the side of the gym they'd set the coat check up at. His ears relish at the lack of deafeningly loud music once he's further away from the speakers; sounds like he's missing out on Moves Like Jagger right now. There's a big long line of mostly girls who'd brought purses or worn heels that were too high. Once he's at the very back of it, he bends down to unlace his shoes and pry them off. They're nice, and he likes the heels, but he's sure glad he didn't pay to buy them.
A hand taps him on the shoulder while he's down there, startling him. When he picks up his shoes, gets up and turns around, he finds himself looking straight into Clair's whirlpool eyes.
Despite himself, Gray's speechless when he sees her. She's got loads of stunning makeup on, fluttering false lashes, perfectly wand-curled blonde hair, a silky pale blue sleeveless dress that wraps tight around her figure. Absolutely stunning.
"Hi," she says.
"Hi," he says back. They stare at each other for a long moment.
"So…" Clair glances toward his friends. "You and Tobin, huh?"
"Yeah," he chuckles, already sweaty from dancing, finding himself sweating harder. "Listen, I—"
"I'm sorry," says Clair. "I'm really sorry for everything. It was messed up of me to lead you both on like that. And that night at the party—"
"Hey, it's alright," goes Gray, pleasantly surprised by her apology. "No harm, no foul."
"It's not alright," she insists, gripping her powder-blue pumps anxiously in her hands. "I was so mad that Alm didn't want me that I took it out on his friends. All this time, I— I just enjoyed the attention. I didn't consider your feelings at all. I'm so sorry, Gray."
Alm? She was into Alm? The guy who's been waiting for fucking Cha Cha Slide this whole night? Alm?
Gray's so stunned by this new knowledge that he can't even form a sentence. She must've fake-confided in Alm about liking both of them just to throw him off her trail. She must've sent all those texts, all those pictures just to feel wanted, no intention of ever being with either of them. If he'd learned this about a week ago, Gray probably would have dropped dead.
Insanely, it doesn't really matter to him now.
"... Well, thanks for being honest," Gray chuckles. "I appreciate it."
"Seriously? You're not mad?"
"I'm a little sad, I guess, but… y'know." He motions to the hilarious sight of Tobin across the gym absolutely busting it down to Maroon 5. The sight makes Clair snort with laughter. "Honestly, I'm all set."
"But I was so mean to you two."
"I mean, I liked it," Gray confesses with a snicker. "I was fully into it."
"Are you kidding?"
"Not at all."
Clair gives him a puzzled look. "You're a strange one for that."
"Sure am."
She clearly doesn't know how to respond, so she just smiles, shakes her head and tells him, "I'm just glad you two have each other."
"Hey, so am I," Gray smiles back.
Shockingly, Clair puts her shoes in one hand and hugs him at that, which is the most affection he's gotten from her this whole time. The scent of her perfume, the silkiness of the back of her dress under his hands when he reciprocates… it sure is nice, but it doesn't fire him up like it would've in the past. When she lets go, they share a look of understanding that settles things for good. She tells him how great he looks when he's all dressed up. He congratulates her on getting into an Ivy League.
Once he's at the front of the line, he hands in the shoes and receives a numbered ticket from one of the student council kids. Then he quickly runs back out toward the dance floor in his socks over to his just as the first slow song begins. It's How To Love by Lil Wayne. Seriously, does this guy have any music past 2013?
Alm and Celica gleefully hold each other at arm's length like eighth graders and begin to sway slowly to the music. Faye and Silque wrap around other and press their foreheads together like they had at the party. Mae twirls Boey around. Python attempts to grind jokingly on Forsyth, who gets extremely embarrassed and pries him and lectures him as Python laughs and embraces him in earnest. Tatiana and Zeke share a kiss that doesn't end. Tobin glows when he sees Gray approach, sweet brown eyes locking with his as they each grow nearer.
They're practically magnetized to each other, Tobin throwing his arms around the back of Gray's neck, Gray latching his hands onto Tobin's hips to hold him closer. They start to rock back and forth to the gentle beat, just gazing into each other. Gray isn't sure if he's ever been this fulfilled, ever.
Tobin leans in close to his ear at some point. "I love you, dude," he tells him all heartfelt, sending a powerful warmth through Gray's system, heat flushing to his face. "I always will."
When he backs out, Tobin's just as red, smiling bashfully. He knows he means it.
"I love you too, Tobes," Gray echoes just as sincere.
Their lips meet again, fiercely, passionately this time. They each wish this night would never end.