He disappeared back into the building, leaving Blake and Marin alone upstairs.Then, Blake was hit by the depth of his earlier epiphany.His heart squeezed in his chest.
“Hey,” Blake addressed Marin, almost shy.He propped his elbows up on the railing beside him, leaning out over the street below.“You enjoying yourself?”
Marin smiled and nodded.“Yeah.Thanks for coming with us.”
Blake returned the expression.“Of course!It’s been a while since I’ve done something like this.Sophomore year of college, maybe?Dunno.”
“You ought to have fun more often,” Marin told him, leaning into his arm.“It’s a good look on you.”
Blake’s first instinct was to respond to this flirtation withfinger gunsof all things.He caught himself halfway into the movement and managed to awkwardly cross his arms over his chest.And then folded them the other way.
Marin smiled, tilting his head at Blake in confusion.“What are you doing?”he chuckled.
“I.Uh.Nothing.”Blake shrugged.“Uh.Thanks—for the—”
Marin pursed his lips, looking like he was struggling to contain laughter.
“You’re cute,” he told Blake, wrinkling his nose in affection.
It was the worst thing he could have said.Any vague semblance of a hold Blake had on his chagrin was immediately vaporized.He flushed a deep shade of red, coughing and twisting his torso away from Marin.
Absolutely excellent.Great job, DeLuca, Blake chastised himself.Not twenty minutes after realizing the depths of his affections for Marin, now his brain decided to revert to that of an awkward teenager—probablybecauseof that realization, if he was being honest with himself.
Unable to bring himself to flirt back in his frazzled state, Blake changed the subject.“I-I’m surprised how crowded it was earlier—shit, hold on.”
Blake reached for the buzzing at his hip, reaching into his pants pocket to extract his phone.Matt’s name flashed across the screen, along with a picture of his Twitch avatar.
The situation kept getting better.
“Hi Matt,” he answered, trying his best to not sound pained.
“Hey BB!”Matt shouted on the other line.“We’re at the parking lot by the pizza place.Did you guys pick out where you wanted to meet up?”
“Not yet, we’re still waiting for Ryan to wrangle his datemate,” Blake responded, peering down the street to see if he could catch a glimpse of them—seconds later, he spotted Noel’s lanky frame in front of the restaurant Matt had indicated, Matt bouncing in place beside him.“I think I see you—here, uh…”
He scanned the nearby buildings to see if anything nearby looked open, perking up as he spotted a pink storefront shimmering bright on the corner of a building.“Let’s meet over at Dawn’s Diner.”
“Yes!”Matt hissed.“I’m going to get a slice of mud pie the size of a football!”
“That’s horrifying,” Blake returned, blasé.
“Welp, see you when we see you!Good luck with Ryan’s date!”Matt concluded the call.
“Bye?”Blake said into the dead line.With a derisive sigh, he pocketed his phone and turned to Marin.“We’re meeting up with them at a diner down the street.Let’s go see how Ryan’s faring with Celeste, yeah?”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Marin assented, following Blake back into the club and down the stairs.They located the couple at the bar, where Ryan was trying in vain to get Celeste to drink from his water bottle.
“Babe, it’s fine,” Celeste insisted, throwing back a shot and slamming it back on the counter with a sluggish gasp.“I’m fine.”
Ryan sighed, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose.“You’re not fine, you’re wasted.”
“I said I’m fine, baby!”Celeste whined, taking the water from him with an exaggerated swipe of their arm.They fiddled with the cap for a moment before tossing back their head and taking a deep swig.“There, see?I’ll be sober ‘n no time…”
Ryan shot a withering glance over at Blake and Marin as they approached.
“Heeeey…” Blake greeted Celeste with a grimace.“You gonna be okay to go out to eat?We can always call you an Uber—”
It was the wrong thing to say.Celeste launched themself off of the bar stool, almost collapsing into Ryan’s chest—Blake had to wonder how many shots they had managed to feed themself before their boyfriend caught up with them.
