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February 24, 2023.
Baz.
“Do you remember the first time you invited me to one of your birthday parties?” Simon asks from where he’s laying with his head in my lap on our currently-blue-sometimes-pink couch.
There’s cleaning and cooking and decorating to be done, but I can’t be bothered to get up. Not when I can tangle my fingers through Simon’s hair and scratch his scalp while he purrs for me.
“I didn’t invite you. I think Penny did.”
Simon frowns. “Why would Penny have invited me to my own room?”
“I don’t know. I try very hard not to remember anything from when I was 15.”
“I remember a lot of you from when I was 15.”
“Me too.” I tug at Simon’s hair so he’s sitting up, facing me. Lips inches away from mine. He closes his eyes. “You pushed me into the moat that night.”
His eyes fly open. “You pulled me in! You stole my wand.”
“Dev stole your wand. Or maybe Niall? Or was it Penny’s American? The first one, the one nobody liked. Whatever his name was.”
“Don’t pretend you don’t remember Micah’s name.”
“Snow, for fuck’s sake. It’s going to take me another two years to forget it again.”
“You didn’t forget it in the first place.” He shoves at my shoulder, exasperated.
“Well, I was trying to.”
“Let me finish my thought.”
“You have thoughts?”
“You know I’m only letting you get away with being such a prick because it’s your birthday, right?” He says it softly into my ear, like it’s a secret.
I huff. He used to let me get away with so much worse. “Say your piece, Snow.”
“It’s been eleven years since that party. That piñata Dev made is old enough to go to Watford.”
My blood runs cold. (Colder than usual.) “Would you say Dev is aware of that fact?”
“Who cares? The party was fun.”
“For you, maybe. It was the worst night of my life.”
He looks at me, sceptical. Then gets up and drags me off the couch. (I let him.) “You had fun.”
He pulls me into his arms and I rest my chin on his shoulder.
“Do you want to know how I got the piñata open?”
“The merwolves chewed it open, right?”
“No--I. There was a spell. Penelope’s. ‘Wild hearts can’t be broken.’ We got out of the water and you brought me cake and I knew. I had to face it. That I was going to have to let you break my heart someday.”
“Baz.”
“I know. Don’t say it.”
“Baz. Never again, okay? I promise. No matter what kind of piñata Dev brings tonight, I’m not going to break your heart. I wish I hadn’t done it once. ”
“So he is bringing a piñata tonight.”
“Maybe. I love you. So much.”
“I love you, too.”
I kiss him then. At last. Like I know he’s been hoping for. He’s quick to kiss me back. (He knew it was coming, eventually.)
He always kisses me like he means it. This time he kisses me like he’s swearing an oath. His mouth, his hands, the press of his body all soft and warm and mine.
“I did have fun,” I admit once we finally break apart. “Everyone together. You. You fancied me for a few hours there.”
Simon blushes. As if I hadn’t fancied him for years by that point.
“I thought I wanted to be your friend,” he moans into his hands, his ring pressing into his nose. “I wanted all your attention and for you to talk to me and sit close to me. I didn’t even realise.”
I peel his hands away from his face. “It was a good party,” I say, squeezing his hands in mine. “I hated it at the time. I love it now. I love you now. We figured it out. And I love every single day we spent figuring it out together.”
He kisses me this time. And it’s a miracle that we manage to get the flat pulled together before any of the guests arrive.
And sure, Dev does show up with a brand-new cock piñata wearing my old Watford boater hat, but that was to be expected.
“Why is the hat permanently stuck to it, though?” Shepard asks, once the laughter dies down.
“It’s a long story,” I say. The tone of my voice is irredeemably fond.
“Tonight’s a long night.”
I look around at my friends, old and new. My cousins. My husband. Looking at me like they wouldn’t rather do anything other than listen to the story of the best worst day of my life.
“Alright,” I acquiesce. “To set the scene, the first thing you have to remember is that it was fucking Feburary…”