Breathe

halloween.

Clay began to notice a pattern of recovery. Slowly but surely, he woke up every day, and each day was a little lighter than the last. He continued doing his workouts, and he streamed often. The suffocating comfort of streaming made him feel energetic and powerful afterwards. It even got to the point where Clay was doing so well that Nick and George felt comfortable weaning the restrictions off of him some; they didn't take the pressure off so much as to allow him complete freedom, but they did allow him to have more alone time, and he didn't have to check in with his friends as often. For the first time since his episodes began, Clay felt warm and light, he felt unrestrained, and every day he woke up and the weight that used to live on his shoulders was disappearing bit by bit.

Nick and George were still wary, though. Clay had managed to get away with the self-harm and self-loathing for over three years without either boy noticing. They hoped that maybe Clay could be fully recovering, and maybe he could live without any more doubt in himself. But the fact still stood- even though Clay was making remarkable progress, he was still a danger to himself, no matter how much Nick and George wanted to ignore it.

A couple of days before Halloween, George made an announcement.

"I've been invited to a Halloween party !" he cried, standing at the top of the stairs and staring down into the kitchen where Nick and Clay were eating.

The younger two boys gasped. They had been in town for only a few months, and when they did leave the house (which was hardly ever), they did so with face masks and strict schedules. The boys didn't leave the house for leisure very often, since most of their time was already spent coding, working, streaming, and just all around playing Minecraft. But George must have met someone and gotten to know them enough to be invited to a Halloween party.

"It's at Monument Hill, over past all of the residential areas and things," he said, walking down the stairs to meet his friends in the kitchen. "It's super exclusive, I guess, and not a ton of people got invited."

"So I assume that means we're not invited either ?" Nick said in a matter-of-fact tone as he chewed on his sandwich.

George laughed. "Even if you're not, there's no way in hell I'm going without you guys. And I definitely want to go. This party looks like fun. There's going to be alcohol and food and good music, it'll be good!" he said, frowning slightly at his phone to read the details. "8pm-1am, Halloween night."

Clay certainly wanted to go. He hadn't really been out of the house much, and it sounded like a lot of fun. He could go dressed up as a mummy, or a zombie, or really anything he wanted. Plus, there were bound to be people to talk to there, and Clay was desperate to meet someone, maybe a girl ? 

"I want to go," he said, taking his plate to the sink and rinsing it off. "It sounds like fun, and I haven't dressed up for Halloween in years." This was true; he hadn't dressed up for Halloween since before he moved out of his parents' house, and that was a long time ago.

Nick agreed as well. "Ah, why not ?" he sighed. "I'm down for some absolute jams to blast over the speakers as I get sugar high and slightly drunk."

George snorted. "You getting drunk ? I don't think so, mister. You're nineteen years old."

"So ? You think I haven't been drunk before ? I grew up in Houston. The parties there were ragers. Once, I got so drunk, I didn't remember a single thing the next morning."

Clay rolled his eyes. He wasn't going to get drunk at the party; he'd only been drunk once in his life and he hated the way it made him feel, both during and afterwards. He could drive, he supposed, and let the other two party all they wanted.

"Okay, you can drink," George backed off, "but I'm capping you at three drinks."

"Fine," Nick whined. It was better than nothing, he supposed. He didn't really like the feeling of being drunk either, but he liked the taste of alcohol, and he was going to a party. What else was he supposed to do ?