A Truly Spineless Option
Peter didn’t know if Steve was just playing along or if he was flirting. Peter had obviously meant to flirt with him, though he hadn’t meant to seem so obvious. He decided to think about his response before sending anything back. He didn’t want to wait too long though, since Steve could see that he’d already seen his message.
He could reply one of two ways. Either he could continue flirting in the way that he had with his previous message. Or he could change the subject to something more platonic. He didn’t really want to do the latter but he didn’t want to rush things in case he was wrong and Steve wasn’t flirting with him.
He was thinking on what to reply when Scott came in through the door. “Hey Scott.”
“Hey Petey,” Scott replied. “How was your night in?”
“Pretty boring,” Peter lied. “Just slept. How was the party?”
“Dude, you missed out. We played some pretty cool drinking games. Beer Pong, King’s Cup, Flip Cup. Lots of cup ones.”
“Damn. For sure I’m at the next one.”
“Not sure when the next one will be at Carol’s,” Scott replied. “But I know there’ll definitely be lots of parties for Halloween. We can go party hopping or something.”
“Sounds like a lot of fun. I’ll be prepared.” Peter opened his calendar app to see what day Halloween would fall on. It was next Saturday. It was another opportunity to meet up with Steve at Quicksilver, but he didn’t know if he could take the anxiety of ditching his friends to go have fun with someone else. He didn’t like lying to them, but he didn’t think he could convince them to go to the bar. He had to at least try. “Do you think they’ll have something going on at Quicksilver?”
Scott scoffed. “Of course. It’s Halloween. But it’ll probably be packed with people who want to party. Probably straight people too.”
“Is that a bad thing?” Peter asked, trying to see if he could salvage the obvious decline.
“I mean it’s always nice to have allies, but you know how drunk insecure guys can get when their sexuality is challenged. It’s probably best to stay away.”
Peter nodded, knowing Halloween at the bar was a bust. Maybe Steve wouldn’t even be there either.
“We can totally go the weekend after though,” Scott said. “Just you and me. The girls will probably want to recuperate from Halloween.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Peter said, glad to at least be able to see Steve the week after next. He went back to his phone to think of what he could message back to him.
He figured he’d go with the subject change and asked, “You gonna dress up for Halloween?” Peter ultimately wanted to know what Steve was going to be doing for Halloween. He thought of maybe inviting him to go party hopping with him and his friends. He thought it might be weird to have a twenty-eight year old with their group of college students, but they were all adults so it probably wouldn’t matter. Besides, if Peter wanted to be friends and maybe more than friends with Steve, he wanted them to hang out outside of the bar.
“Not sure yet,” Steve replied a minute later. Peter was glad that Steve was replying quickly. He had no reservations about waiting. Another message came in. “What about you?”
Peter smiled at his phone screen and thought about what he would dress up as. With his schoolwork and stress about midterms, he hadn’t even been thinking about costumes.
“Who’re you texting?” Scott asked him, watching Peter from his bed.
“Uh...Steve,” Peter replied honestly. There was no reason to tell any other lies.
“From the bar?” Scott asked, looking a little surprised.
“Yeah, we found each other on instagram,” Peter said. “We’re talking about Halloween costumes. But I don’t know what I want to dress up as.”
“Hmm,” Scott thought out loud. “Green Arrow.”
“Is that what you’re gonna go as?” Peter asked.
“No, that was an idea for you. I’m going as an ant.”
“An aunt?” Peter repeated. “Like an aunty? Or like the insect?”
“Yes,” Scott said with a smile on his face.
“I’m confused.”
“I’m dressing up as an ant, the insect, but in drag, as an aunty. I got these cool old lady glasses and I convinced Carol last night to do my makeup on the day of. I already have the costume.”
“That’s awesome,” Peter said. “I don’t think I can be Green Arrow though. Might need something more basic.”
“What’s more basic than a hood and some arrows?” Scott asked with a laugh.
“I don’t know…A skull face,” Peter offered. “That’s pretty basic, right?”
“A truly spineless option, Peter. Such a disappointment.”
“It’s what I live for,” Peter replied and then rethought it. “It’s what I died for.” Scott just shook his head.
Peter went back to his message with Steve. He wrote back, “I’m probably just gonna have a friend do some skull makeup on me.”
“Sounds simple,” Steve replied. “Maybe I should do that.”
“Yeah, we could match,” Peter responded, thinking about how they would look if they did end up matching. Would people think they were a couple? Would it mean that Steve was okay with that?
“You going to the bar for Halloween?” Steve asked.
“Sadly no.” Peter had to tell the truth. Maybe this way he could get Steve to come to them. “Gonna go party hopping with my friends if you want to join.”
“Been a while since I’ve been to a college party, but sounds like fun.”
“Is that a yes?”
“It’s a maybe.”
Peter got excited. He didn’t have to skip a week without seeing Steve. Even if it was a maybe, he was getting his hopes up because he had faith. There had to be a reason he met Steve and he figured life just wanted them together.
Halloween evening came and Peter and Scott went over to Carol and Hope’s place to get ready. Carol immediately started to do Scott’s makeup, knowing it would take a while to do, while Hope was just sitting at the couch watching a scary movie and eating candy. She was dressed as a vampire with leather pants and a frilly shirt. She even had some red eye contacts and two attachable fangs.
Peter had been messaging Steve on and off during the week, just talking about Halloween and scary movies. Steve really liked them though they did scare him and Peter was deathly afraid of them and hadn’t watched a lot. Peter was still being careful to not message him back too quickly or too frequently, but he felt like Steve liked him well enough if he kept responding.
Peter looked through Carol’s makeup as she applied it on Scott. There was a lot of actual everyday makeup, but she did have some Halloween makeup as well. He took some of the black and white Halloween makeup and went into the bathroom to do his skull makeup. He figured Carol was already too busy with Scott’s makeup and he didn’t want to make her responsible for his own face as well. Besides, how hard could doing skull makeup be?
Of course, this was all just a distraction from trying to message Steve. He had told him they were going to be at Carol’s if he wanted to come, but Steve hadn’t responded yet. Peter was sure the man was busy. Maybe he had a client that wanted to work out on Halloween in foresight of all the Halloween candy they would be eating.
He started by covering his face with white makeup, using a little sponge to spread it around. He was trying to emulate what Carol had done with Scott’s foundation. Peter looked at his work and thought it wasn’t half bad, though it wasn’t perfect. Then he got into the black makeup and had to look up both a picture of skull makeup and a picture of an actual skull to try to copy what was done. It took a little bit longer because Peter was trying to make it as perfect as possible. He thought that if Steve showed up without a costume on, he could do the makeup on him. He liked the idea of Steve giving him that trust. And the thought of being able to touch Steve’s beautiful face.
As he was double checking his phone, he received a message from Steve. He clicked on it so fast, he smudged some of the black makeup on his phone and it blocked him from seeing the message. “Fuck,” Peter said. He locked the phone and then took some toilet paper to wipe off the makeup from the phone. He had to use several squares. When he’d finally wiped it off, he washed his hands and then unlocked the phone.
Peter was disappointed when he read what Steve had sent him. “Hey Peter, don’t think I’ll be able to hang out with you tonight. Buy maybe I’ll see you next week?”
Peter put the lid of the toilet down and sat on it. He almost wanted to cry. He had been depending on Steve showing up and now that he wasn’t, he felt like his night was just headed for the dumpster before it even started. Everything that he had hoped for the night was just gone like a ghost in the night.
He sat there for a minute before he heard a knock on the door and then Hope’s voice. “Hey, Peter, you okay in there?”
Peter was knocked back to reality and he got up and opened the bathroom door. “Yeah, I’m good.”
“Good, ‘cause I need to pee,” Hope replied. “Ooh but nice makeup!”
“Thanks,” was all Peter said as he took the makeup and left the bathroom. He put the makeup back with the rest in Carol’s box and then went to sit with his friends.
“Looking good, bone head,” Carol said.
“Yeah,” Scott agreed. “You make for a very bonafide skeleton.” Peter smiled at his friends. At least he’d done a good job with the makeup. “We’re gonna have so much fun tonight!”
“Hell yeah!” Carol said.
They both stared at Peter in anticipation and he smiled. “Fuck yeah!” he said, rethinking his situation. Even if Steve wasn’t going to be with them, he was still going to have fun with his friends. He wasn’t going to let one missed night with a guy keep him down.
Peter reached for his phone and quickly messaged Steve back. “It’s okay. Yeah maybe next week.”