Holiday His Stories (BXB short stories)

Honey on Halloween

"Come on, Dustin. Just pick one."

I could tell Ray was getting annoyed with me, not that he's ever really annoyed, but yeah, annoyed.

"Fine. Fine." I put my hand in his ball cap, and pulled out a strip of paper.

"What did you get?" Ray asked, putting the hat back on his dorm room desk.

I opened the folded paper up.

"Flower." My voice dripped with disdain.

"Well...that's...going to be a cool costume, Dustin. I bet you'll be a great flower."

He was nice enough not to laugh. He never would. Ray was a good guy. A great guy. Easily the best Resident Advisor in all the dorm halls. I overheard tons of vicious rumors about the other ones, about how they called campus police if a party was too loud, or how they dealt drugs from their rooms, or how they were racists or fascists or assholes or too nerdy or whatever else people could gossip about.

But not Ray. Everyone loves Ray.

I did too. Not love, love. I liked him. He was just about the only guy I liked in college. The only one I talked to.

Even if this was the stupidest idea I'd ever heard in my entire twenty years of life on this planet.

It was Halloween at the end of the week. Our dorm was having a party in our lobby downstairs. Totally signed, sealed and approved by the dorm association. Ray's way of building community spirit or whatever.

In the hat was a strip of paper for every person in our building. Matching partner costumes. But like Secret Santa sort of. No one knew who their partner was. You weren't supposed to tell. Just show up and find your match. Not like to date, or hook up or anything. Just to make new friends, supposedly.

Which sounded horrible.

Not making new friends. I had no friends. I wanted them. But it was hard. How do you start a conversation with a stranger? I'd rather sit in my single dorm room, read, and do my homework.

Everything was so hard here. Moving away from home, going to college, living in a building with forty strangers. Living in a new town, in a new state, far from everything I knew. My dog. I missed my dog.

Ray went out of his way to get to know me. To help me feel less afraid or anxious and uncomfortable. I was still those things, but at least with his help, I felt less shitty than I otherwise would feel. He let me vent, listen to me go off about how hard classes were, and how I hated how much it rained here. Luckily his roommate was almost always asleep, headphones on, or blanket thrown over his head. Or just not there. At class or out with friends. So I could talk to Ray and not worry other people were listening to my pity party.

Even though I thought the idea was absolutely cringy and horrendous, I helped him plan out the partner costumes.

Bunny and carrot.

Batman and Robin.

Yin and yang.

Pikachu and Ash.

Spider and web.

Calvin and Hobbes.

That kind of thing. It was Ray's idea to do the matching costume I pulled from his hat. I never in my life would have suggested it.

Butterfly and flower.

Great.

Just peachy.

=

Fuck. Fuck.

I fell asleep. I meant to just lay down. Class was so freaking hard today, and I just wanted to close my eyes for a second and forget it.