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October 24th. A week until Halloween. Tyler wanders around in the streets, surrounded by bright orange and yellow leaves falling off the trees. There are decorations and pumpkins everywhere, and you could feel the anticipation in the air for what was soon to come. Children excited to go trick-or-treating, parents excited to finally get this orange mess over with, older people excited to meet the neighbor kids, and teenagers excited to get drunk of their faces with a good excuse. Tyler didn’t fit in neither of those categories. A teenager, yes, but not excited to drink any alcohol. Not excited at all. In fact, Tyler dreaded Halloween. Why would you voluntarily dress yourself up hideously and then drink so you look even more hideous? It’s not even that funny to be drunk? To just chug beer after beer with his basketball friends and talk about girls they’d like to smash sounded like a good description of what Tyler’s personal hell would look like. No, Halloween wasn’t going to be fun this year, not as fun as when he was young and got free candy by just putting on an ugly hat and “looking spooky”. Halloween this year would just be another task he had to do, in order to not look weird.
The days went on, and it was suddenly Thursday. Finally Halloween. Yay. Tyler sighed for himself. He went on with the day without putting any thought in it, just following the others and trying to hide his not-excitement for his friends who all were hyped for the night. Tyler just wanted it to be over with. Later, as they arrived at the party that some random guy in the football team was hosting and Tyler had dressed up in a skeleton hoodie to be as “spooky” as he cared to be, did his mind actually start to wake up again. Walking around with a beer in one hand, chatting a little with friends here and there, did he think about how this was supposed to be the best years, or hell, even one of the best days of his life. Being young, being reckless and free with his friends at Halloween, could it be more picturesque? Was this supposed to be the highlights of his life, that he should tell his grandchildren about in sixty years when they ask him how his youth was? Oh, you know, just hanging around with my buddies, in ugly fucking costumes, drinking just for the sake of it and-
“Hi.” A clear voice snapped him back to consciousness again. Tyler whipped his head around to see where the sound had come from, and came face to face with a cute, curly haired boy around his age with a similar bottle in his hand as Tyler’s.
“You look lost, how are you?”
Tyler blinked. Who was this beautiful boy, and why did he talk to him? Not that he minded, but why?
“Oh, no I’m not lost I guess, I’m just questioning my choice of being here right now instead of just being home doing nothing alone,”
“That’s fully understandable, I kinda feel the same way dude. What’s your name?”
“Tyler, and you?”
Tyler. Nice. I’m Josh.”
Turns out, this Josh was actually very nice. And cute. So cute. Shortly after their first encounter had they made their way out on a balcony and found two chairs and a blanket each. Cozying up in a chair with the music from the party inside steadily pumping in the background, did they start to talk. They talked about the party, themselves, their friends, music and much more, and Tyler felt how the words came naturally when he spoke to Josh. Never once did he feel like he had to say something smart or funny, or had to fill up an awkward silence, everything just felt so natural and right with Josh.
“Hey, we have similar hoodies! Why haven’t we thought of that yet?” Tyler laughed out when he realized that they both actually had skeleton hoodies, and Josh answered with a wide smile with teeth and his tongue peeking out of his mouth. Tyler had never seen anything cuter in his whole life.
“Yeah we do, and it can’t be a coincidence. We’re meant to be!” Josh exclaimed happily. “You know, I’ve just known you for, what? Like an hour or something? But I really appreciate you man, you’re special. You’re not like… not like any other I’ve spoken with, like ever.” Josh explained this and locked his eyes with Tyler’s deep, brown ones.
“That’s… so cute of you to say. Thank you. I think the exact same way about you, and I’m happy I’ve found you. Or, that you found me I guess, I feel like this is the beginning of something?”
Josh grinned at Tyler’s words before he began to sing: “I feel in my heart… the start of something new,”
“High school musical? Aw man, I love that!”
“You do? Me too! I’m head over heels for Zac Efron as Troy”
“Oh come on, everyone knows that Troy Bolton is the sexiest character he ever has, or ever will play. No one can top Troy bolton.”
“Are you sure?” Josh wiggles his eyebrows jokingly as he continued: “I’d at least like to give it a chance?” the both boys broke out in a fit of laughter before Tyler spoke up again.
“Yeah, that’s true. Damn, you’re funny. And cute.”
“You’re really cute too. Would you mind if I…” Josh moved his chair closer to Tyler’s and carefully touched Tyler’s cheek. He leaned into the touch and sighed.
“No, I don’t mind at all, in fact, would you…” he was broken off by Josh softly pressing his lips against his. Tyler immediately forgot whatever he was going to say and turned all his focus to how warm and comfortable Joshs lips felt against his own. Melting into his touch did Tyler lean forward and kept on kissing the beautiful boy in front of him. Josh paused, opened his eyes and met Tyler’s gaze with blown pupils.
“I know that I’ve only known you for a short time, but I really like you Tyler. I mean it when I say you’re not like anyone else. And you’re the most gorgeous person I’ve ever seen.”
Tyler didn’t find any answer that would do the words Josh just said any justice. Instead, he opted for smiling and pressing his wide smile into Joshs. This is real happiness. Josh is real happiness. This is what he will tell his grandchildren, when they ask him what he did sixty years ago, on his seventeenth halloween. How genuine affection and happiness feels, when you’re with the person you value more than yourself. How Josh’s lips tasted, that exact Halloween night.