Sounds exploded around him, and a weight landed against him.
“Enough!” Aiden cried, collapsing onto the floor. He hugged himself. “Enough…” He would not think of her.
Not when Brendan was waiting.
Brendan’s hands, Brendan’s jacket, and Brendan returning lost items without fail and without hesitation. Brendan who made him feel both weak and strong.
Aiden wiped the sweat from his forehead.I won’t think about the past tonight. He climbed up the stairs and picked at the lock with the needle.
The door clicked open.
He raced outside of his basement prison, out of the house of expectations, and into the streets of the open air. He smiled and waved at the moon as he called an Uber to take him to campus.
He headed to the ball.
• • •
The dance was held in a familiar building—the building where he met Brendan, Christina, and Javier on that fateful day in the hallway; he was going to his math class, and he had since learned, they had just finished theirs.
Booming music already echoed in the well-lit building just from entering the front doors. Following it, he climbed up the stairs and turned toward the only room where different colors blinked.I hope Brendan didn’t leave and think I stood him up.Waiting for his stepfamily to leave, unlocking himself from his basement, and finding a ride to campus had eaten up time.But I don't have to rush tonight.He looked at the time.
According to Mr. Chen’s schedules, these family meetings tended to end around midnight. He just needed to return to the house before then.
The floors vibrated beneath his feet. A great cloud of chatter floated out into the air. Heart thumping, Aiden stared down at his unusual clothes. He reassured himself that the other students were too drunk to pay attention to a late straggler, but his breaths tightened with each step forward.
It’s fine. It’s Brendan.
Aiden stopped, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath. He walked through the door.
Songs blasted through the air. A crowd of people dressed in various colors, sparkles, shoes, and jackets jumped up and down, moved left and right, and fell to the ground in great laughter. Some girls wore suits, some girls wore magnificent dresses with fake gems raining down the skirt, and some girls glowed in body hugging black.
The boys hung their arms around each other. Some took off their jackets and used them to dance with. Others wore crooked bow ties, loosened ties, and some without anything wrapped around the collar. Colorful socks with silly animal prints pulled up to their ankles, some purposefully mismatched. Shoes squeaked against the floor. Makeup glimmered on the corners of students’ eyes. They danced with their partners, they danced with their friends, and they danced with strangers.
The strong scent of alcohol blanketed everyone as shouts of lyrics rang in the air.
In the midst of joyful chaos, Aiden’s eyes met with Brendan’s, who was waiting by a table of non-alcoholic punch in the back of the room. His feet picked themselves up without thinking, and he slipped past the moving bodies with a heartfelt pull toward the boy rushing towards him with a big smile.
When Brendan froze as Aiden approached, he looked down at himself in his modern hanfu with the glimmering dragon. He rubbed his hands against his side. “Ah, it’s weird, isn’t it?”
“No.” Brendan looked him up and down. “It’s amazing.”
Aiden believed him.
“So, shall we dance?”
He glanced at the other couples bumping into each other or clinging at each other’s shoulders. “I have no idea how to.”
“It’s easy. We’ll just hold each other like this and…sway. And when we get tired of that, we’ll just jump around.”
Aiden smiled and nodded. Carefully, Brendan placed his arms around his waist. The warmth that Aiden had come to recognize as Brendan spread through his body, even more so with the silk’s delicacy. He felt every individual finger pressing against him.
“So, this is dancing.” An electric spark traveled through his body when he wrapped his arms around Brendan’s shoulders. Brendan’s blue eyes glowed of stars, and he almost laughed at the forced neutral expression that failed to cover Brendan’s growing smile.
“Why didn’t you go dancing in high school?”
“I was busy. Family stuff.”
“This is more fun than in high school. Legal alcohol, and less people caring about what they actually look like.” Brendan swayed. A love song hummed in the background. “What are you wearing actually? Is there a name for it?”
