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“Where is Jake?” Milly groaned, clearly losing her patience. Zander rolled his eyes, arms crossed and his usual angry expression on his face. “He’s probably ditching us.” He scoffed. Hailey glanced at her phone, “No he isn’t, see? He just texted. He’s almost here.”
It was Halloween, and the music club was going trick or treating together. They met up at Hailey and Zander’s house, and were currently waiting for Jake to arrive so they could get going.
“He better be! I had to beg him to match with me.” Milly complained. “I still don’t get why you just did clown makeup.” Luke commented. Milly rolled her eyes, “It’s juggalo face paint! You all just suck and don’t listen to good music like me and Jake.” Sean laughed, “Sure, whatever you say.”
The rest of the club hadn’t done any sort of matching costumes like Milly and Jake had. Hailey was a witch, Luke a demon, Sean a vampire, and Zander had done skeleton face paint.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, and Milly jumped up to get it. Zander happened to be closer to the door, so he got there first. “You took f…” Zander trailed off as he looked at Jake. He had juggalo face paint on, as Milly said he would. He was wearing a tight black t-shirt, with his jacket over it, and cargo pants. Zander’s eyes lingered on the boys torso for a moment, before he quickly looked up. “..forever.” He finished, trying to play off the short pause.
Jake didn’t seem to notice, grinning cockily, “Yeah, yeah. I’m here now though.” He defended himself before fully coming into the house. When Zander turned around he noticed Hailey raising her eyebrow, clearly catching his small slip up. He pretended he didn’t notice. “Alright, I think we can head out now.” Hailey announced as she grabbed her bag. Zander felt relieved.
“I told you it was fine, Mil.” Sean repeated with a sigh, though he was smiling. Milly shook her head, “No, they should’ve given you candy! You are not too old to be trick or treating!” She complained, pulling candy out of her own bag to give to Sean, ignoring his protests. Zander tuned them out, almost subconsciously.
His eyes were focused on Jake, his hair had gotten a bit messed up in the hour they had been out. Zander refused to acknowledge how good he still looked. He was starting to sweat off his face paint, right at his forehead. But it wasn’t noticeable at all, unless you were staring very closely at him. He was digging through his bag, before pulling out a KitKat and opening it.
“Really? You can’t even wait til we’re done?” Zander questioned incredulously. Jake gave him an annoyed look, “I’m hungry.” He shrugged, chewing as he spoke. Zander scrunched his nose up in disgust. Jake was so incompetent, it was almost, cute. But it wasn’t , definitely not. Zander found absolutely nothing about the boy to be cute.
Especially not his singing voice.
Or his soft brown eyes.
Or that stupid ass smirk that gave Zander butterflies—
Nothing at all.
Zander whipped around to face the rest of the group instead, “Are we going to keep standing here or are we going to the next house?” His face felt hot, and suddenly he was grateful his face paint likely covered up his blush. Not that he was blushing for any particular reason. “You weren’t acting this eager to be trick or treating earlier, what’s the rush?” Milly commented, following as everyone else started walking. “You are all starting to get annoying, I want to be done with this.” He huffed.
“Starting to? So you don’t find us annoying all the time? Aw, how sweet Zander.” Jake gushed in a teasing manner, leaning closer from where he was standing beside him. Zander looked away, face heating up. “I did not say that.” He denied, his voice a slightly higher pitch than usual out of embarrassment. He likely wouldn’t have had such a reaction if someone else had said it, anyone but Jake.
They reached the next house and Hailey knocked on the door. An older woman opened it, smiling widely. “Oh it’s nice to see so many teens out still having fun, here take some.” She smiled, holding out a candy bowl, with full sized candy bars. Hailey and Sean grabbed some, followed by Milly and Luke, since they were in the front of the group.
Then Zander and Jake walked up to take some candy. They were quite close to each other, but didn’t notice until the woman spoke up. “Oh what a cute couple.” She said sweetly. Zander moved away from Jake in an instant, eyes blown wide. He glanced over at Jake, who looked equally shocked. He gave a bashful laugh, looking away and rubbing his neck. “Oh, we aren’t a couple.”
“If you say so,” is all she said, still smiling. “Happy Halloween!” And with that she shut the door.
Zander almost feared turning around, knowing the group would have some sort of reaction. Sean and Luke whispered something to one another, both smiling. Hailey grinned as she looked between the two boys. And as expected, Milly laughed loudly, a shit-eating grin on her face. “I told you they acted like a couple!” She boasted to Hailey, who widened her eyes and gave her a look, glancing between the two boys and Milly.
“No we do not.” Jake said with a disbelieving smile, having recovered from his momentary shock. “I’d never date that idiot.” Zander defended himself. Luke muttered a quiet “Sure you wouldn’t.” Zander glared at him, Jake didn’t seem to hear the comment. “You two literally are like two old married people. I mean with the way you argue—“ Hailey started, but Jake interrupted. “You’re kind of right..” He muttered, with a look of deep thought on his face.
Zander mentally face-palmed, did he not get the implications of that? Seconds too late, Jake’s eyes widened, realizing what Hailey had meant. Hailey raised an eyebrow at the blonde, “Jake is there something—“
“ No! Nope, don’t even ask.” He quickly said, his voice cracking and eyes looking anywhere but at Zander or the rest of the music club. “Well I guess Jake x Daisy is out of the question, Sean. We’ve got a new pairing.” Milly whispered very loudly to Sean. Zander’s face burned, so much so that he was almost sure you’d be able to see it through his face paint. “Shut the hell up, Milly.” He snapped, rolling his eyes.
Zander couldn’t help but look back to Jake, whose eyes had already been on him, though he quickly looked away when Zander seen him. He couldn’t help but smile, looking at the boys (cute) embarrassed face. All he could think in that moment was, maybe being with Jake wasn’t such a bad concept.