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If this was the way it ended, it sucked.
Sure, nobody expected a happily ever after, because seriously, they were just lies adults made up to put their children to sleep at night – at least, that's what Gert would've said. If Chase thought about the way he wanted to die, scenarios involving lesbians would come up 990 times, and the other ten, Transformers, beer, dinosaurs, a guy in a hockey mask, and more lesbians, not necessarily in that order. He didn't want a mundane death, not because of some stupid romanticised notion of legacy, only that it would be lame. He'd never even consider old age, and definitely not this.
Vaguely, feeling like his body wasn't his own to control, Chase realised he was trying to laugh.
"He's coding," he thought he heard someone yell, and he drifted.
-
"Is this how you thought it'd go down?"
"Not at all." Karolina's smile was two parts rueful and three parts sad. "One of the football players probably would've asked me to go with him-"
"Hot stuff," Chase interrupted, grinning.
Karolina tossed a bit of silly string at him. "I would've said yes, more for my parents' sake than anyone else's. Maybe a blue dress, a tiger lily corsage, a pair of strappy stilettos. We'd rent a limo, or Dad could call in a favour and get us a Bentley. My date might want to pose for a few shots for the paparazzi, but we wouldn't make the tabloids..."
Trailing off, she noticed Chase shaking his head. "What? I have more silly string, you know."
"I just thought you're more daisy chain than corsages."
This time, her smile lit up her face. "What can I say? I'm a traditional gal."
They both worked in silence for a moment, half-absorbed in their respective jobs (Karolina decorating; Chase on dip duty). They had their own cliques in school, neither one of them entirely popular, but nor were they social outcasts. Prom was not a make-or-break deal, except, none of them got to have it.
"Your dream prom," Karolina said as she draped some streamers haphazardly on the furniture.
Only one thing, Chase thought. He only needed one thing.
"Gert." He continued stirring, even though everything was already well-mixed. "She'd argue with me about the point of the whole thing, because she's like that, but in the end she'll go. No flowers, no nice car, she wouldn't even wear dress shoes, since she can't walk in high heels. We'd dance, and she'd step on my toes with her combat boots, but we'd laugh it off, and hit the buffet afterwards. She'll laugh and make fun of those girls who starved themselves for days just to fit into their tiny dresses, and when we leave early, she'll write whatever's on her mind with eyeliner, on their date's windshields."
He didn't noticed his shifting tenses, but Karolina did.
"Hey Chase." She pried the bowl from him gently, and handed over another. "Maybe you should start on the hummus."
That seemed to make him snap out of it. His face seemed to change until he was again Chase, the man-boy who never gave a damn. "Sure, only if you quit flirting with me."
"Silly string," Karolina warned.
-
"That's not the way it's supposed to end!" Molly wailed.
"Suck it up, Mol," Chase said, without conviction. He too was looking a little green. Maybe it was too long ago, but he didn't remember this part the last time he watched it.
"I agree with Molly." Green was Xavin's default colour, so it was hard to tell what she was feeling at any one time. "This film is unusually depressing for one meant for children, even if it does contain a worthy message."
Molly's voice was muffled as she covered her entire face with a cushion. "'s not. 'S stupid message."
"What are we watching?" Karolina drifted in, all long blond hair and pretty summer dress. She found a small space between Xavin and Molly, squeezing herself in before putting an arm around the younger girl.
"Old Yeller," Xavin answered, her hand reaching for Karolina's as, onscreen, Travis pulled the trigger.
Molly yelped as the gunshot sounded, abandoning her cushion and throwing herself behind the couch, landing on the floor with a thump and another yelp. Karolina buried her face into Xavin's torso. "I can't watch this I can't watch this I can't watch this..." she repeated over again. "Tell me when it's finished."
Very quietly, from his spot closest to the TV, Chase gripped the claw of an unimpressed velociraptor, and pleaded, "Hold me, Lace."
-
"Oh no. That's not gonna end well for anyone." Chase wrinkled his nose, making an exaggerated motion with his hands.
Gert rolled her eyes and continued to apply what Chase usually referred to as 'nasty ass gunk' to her hair. "Stop being melodramatic, hon. You know I have to touch up once every couple of weeks, or my roots start showing. My hair grows faster than yours."
"Seriously," Chase continued as if she hadn't said anything. "Someone could get hurt from that stuff. Nose cancer. Some kind of poisoning. Could you live with the thought that you might be killing me bit by bit? I don't even remember what colour your actual hair is. Brown? Blond? Are you going prematurely grey? Is that why you're covering up?"
"That's ridiculous, Chase. Look, if you hate it that much, sleep on the couch outside."
"Hey, I'm not the one with gunk in my hair, why do you get to sleep in a bed?"
"Scoot," Gert ordered as she covered her hair with a shower cap and slid into bed. Making a face, Chase nevertheless shifted over to make room for her. "You do it because you love me. Maybe next time I'll go sleep in Nico's room."
There was a certain perking up in Chase's voice. "Will there be making out? And if yes, can I join you?"
"No," Gert said firmly. "To both," she added, pre-empting his next question.
-
The night was ending on a low note.
They watched some lame movie about a dog or something – Chase was only half paying attention. The other half was equally occupied by how hot Karolina was getting, and the fat dorky one with the glasses and the limp brown hair going on about how Hollywood was totally irresponsible.
He was holding up better than Alex though. That guy disappeared somewhere and never came back. "Dude is missing some awesome stuff," Chase said to himself, though the remark elicited a 'hee' from Molly. "It's got rabies and everything."
Overhearing, the dorky one went off on one of her tirades again, this time about the unrealistic portrayal of the behaviour of wild animals.
Chase sighed heavily. He really wouldn't mind if he never saw any of these people again. Let it stop with this; he wouldn't be coming back next year, he thought. Nothing exciting ever happens on these evenings.