The leaves fall gently in the Fall-time breeze. The sky is a warm shade of pink, as the sun sets behind the horizon. A car cruises up the street stopping in front of a house in the suburbs. The headlights shut off, and the driver's door opens with a creak. A young man steps out, head covered. They make their way up the driveway, leaves crunching underfoot. Light music can be heard outside the home as the figure steps, he passes by the closed blinds of the windows. Walking past a few cheap Halloween decorations, the young man steps up to the front door. Passing under a low hanging party store spiderweb, he reaches a hand up poised to knock. His fingers curl back hesitantly, taking a moment to brush off his outfit and straighten out any wrinkles.
Knock knock knocking sounds out as he pounds the door. A few moments later, footsteps can be heard approaching. The door opens, warm light pouring out onto the dark porch. A figure stands in the doorframe, pale gray skin, ripped clothes, tangled black hair, and a streak of red dripping down their chin.
"June? I hardly recognized you!" It squeals happily. "You made it!" She says inviting him inside.
"Nice costume, Alice." June says, following her inside. The music is much louder now, a mellow yet catchy soundtrack.
"I'm a zombie." Alice says, turning back to him. June is wearing a tight black outfit, with a mask covering all but his eyes.
"And you are...? A cat burglar?" She laughs.
"I-I'm a ninja" He corrects, his covered face blushing.
"Oh wow, you really went all out, huh?" She teases.
The party store didn't have many options. Even fewer that actually fit him. This one was cheap and fit tight around his body. They walk through the hall towards the dining room. Decorations are scattered throughout the house, plastic pumpkins, spiders, and streamers in the shape of "boo!" or "spooky!" trailing around. Rounding the corner, June sees the other invites are all already here. There's a fairy sitting on the sofa with a red plastic cup, her legs thrown over the lap of a wizard with a big fake beard on. A Pirate standing in front of the fridge, staring idly at the contents inside. A younger man wearing a jean jacket sitting at the table full of snacks. He had blonde hair, and green eyes. An athlete's body, with the sleeve rolled up showing off his forearms.
"Everyone, this is June!" Alice says, a hand gesturing to the ninja standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.
"Hey, guys." He says, his hand weakly raised in greeting.
The group all make various sounds of hellos and grunts of acknowledgement. Alice wanders off to the pirate busy plundering the fridge and shoos him off, while June takes a seat next to the young man sitting by the chips.
"Hey, how's the party going?" June asks, pulling out a chair.
"Eh, it's going." He says, pushing aside a bag of chips. "I'm Peter." He says pulling out a crumpled up Spiderman mask from his pocket. June stares at the mask and smirks lightly, pulling off his own. Peter's frame is close to his own. Couldn't be much older either. Running a hand through his hair, June looks around at the other costumed party goers. Peter's eyes study his face for a moment before leaning back in his chair.
"Yeah, not too many people showed I guess. Alice was a bit disappointed." He says. "But I think costume parties just scare some people off."
June nods, crossing his legs. They both turn over to a commotion brewing in the kitchen.
"Get out of the kitchen, I already put out food!" Alice yells, pushing the pirate out into the dining room. He mumbles some half arguments before staggering over to the table, grabbing a bag of chips with more force than necessary. June flinches as the bag gets snatched from in front of him. He looks over to Peter who is smiling with his hand on his head.
"Jesus, Harvey. Calm down, you've had too much to drink already man." He says, clearly finding the image of a drunken pirate crashing the party to be pretty entertaining. Harvey piles chips into his mouth, swaying side to side. His eyepatch dangling around his neck, a mustache that appears to be drawn on with sharpie mostly smeared away at this point.
"Well, it's not my fault this party sucks!" He slurs. "There aren't even any bitches here."
June shifts in his seat uncomfortably. His lips curled into a smile as Peter and himself tried not to laugh.
"What're you giggling about?" Harvey says, jabbing a finger into June's chest. Raising his arms in mock surrender, June smiles and tries to defuse the situation.
"C'mon, I don't even know you." He laughs. The pirate scowls and staggers off to the couch. Plopping down right next to the wizard, sitting part way on him.
"Fuck off, Harvey!" The wizard howls as he attempts to shove him off. The fairy chimes in telling the Pirate off. Only being met with belligerent arguments.
"This is the only good seat in the house, stop hogging it!"
June and Peter watch the show, before Peter stands up and stretches, groaning in a cute way. His shirt creeps up as he does, if only for a moment. June notices, before averting his eyes embarrassedly. June couldn't help but find Peter a bit attractive. How his green eyes peered behind his sandy blonde hair, and how he smiled when they laughed. Shaking off the thoughts, June stood up and walked over to the kitchen.
"Hey Alice, where are the drinks?" He asked.
"Oh, yeah. There's an ice chest under the table by the snacks." She says, her eyes watching the party. Clearly thinking about something else.
"Thanks," June says, making his way to the table. Sliding the chest from under the table, he moves around the ice, grabbing a beverage.
"Want one, Peter?" He says, his head still in the ice box.
Peter's eyes dart over to the drunken Pirate flailing around on the couch, antagonizing the couple.
"Sure, I'll have one." He says, shaking his head.
Popping back up from under the table, with two dripping cans, June sets them between the two of them. They pop them open and smile as they joke about ending up like Harvey if they aren't careful. As they talked, he felt the way his costume hugged his chest tightly, showing his body clearly, showing where he curved and bulged. It wasn't intentional, to get a costume that was so tight. But he wondered if anyone noticed, if Peter noticed. He continued chatting Peter up, who was chill and receptive. June felt like he might actually like him, but became terribly aware of the fact he was clinging to him... Socially at least. As the conversation died down and they sat idly looking at each other, June cleared his throat.
"Is there anything else going on here? Other than drinking and staring, I mean?" He says mustering up his voice.
Peter's face lit up at the prospect, looking around until his eyes met Alice's from across the room.
"Alice! June thinks your party is boring. Have anything more fun we could be doing?" He says. Alice's face scrunches slightly, as though her fears are coming true.
"I didn't say that!" June exclaims flustered, turning to Peter who looks all too proud of himself.
"Well, I don't know. We could play some... Board games?" She says, thinking. The offer sits in the air an uncomfortably long time, before she chimes in again.
"We could play 'spin the bottle' or some shit?"
"That's cliché, Alice." The wizard calls out from the couch, deciding to join the conversation.
