Keith shuffled his way into the ski resort holiday party. He couldn't believe he was missing out on a good few hours of basketball practice for this. He leaned against a wall and crossed his arms, looking moodily out at the mingling guests. Just because he was here didn't mean he had to be happy about it. He scanned the crowd lazily, wondering if anyone else was as bored as he was. His eyes lingered on a brown-haired boy, about his age, seated on the couch, absorbed in reading something on his phone. Keith found himself wishing he could bring basketball with him anywhere, the way a reader could bring a book. Keith's eyes were still on the boy when a woman—probably his mother—came up and snatched the phone out of his hands. Keith couldn't hear the conversation, but it looked like an argument—a negotiation?—that ended with the boy grudgingly getting up to mingle with the party.

Deciding he felt the boy's pain, Keith sighed and started making his way outside. At least there might be some peace and quiet out there instead of the grating sounds of karaoke that bombarded him here. He was just about to squeeze past two particularly buff dudes when a spotlight landed on him. What? He looked around in confusion, until he realized the spotlight was meant to pick the next karaoke participant. Well, victim was more like it.

"I don't sing," he informed the emcee when the guy came to get him.

Apparently that didn't matter in karaoke; he got dragged onto the stage anyway. Resigning himself to his fate, he accepted the mic and turned to see who his singing partner was. His eyes widened in interest when he saw it was the brown-haired boy he'd been watching earlier. Up close he could see that his ocean-blue eyes stood in stark contrast to his brown skin. He looked just as excited to be there as Keith felt. He was…cute.

"You'll thank me later," the emcee declared, putting his arms around both their shoulders before stepping off the stage.

Great, let's get this over with. Keith turned his eyes to the screen just as the first words lit up. Mostly on key but lacking in enthusiasm, he sang. "...nin' so fast / And we never look back / And whatever I lack, you make up / We make a really good team / And not everyone sees / We got this crazy chemistry / Between us…"

It was the other boy's turn now, and he looked mortified. Not wanting to embarrass the boy more than he surely already was, Keith made to walk off the stage. But what he heard next, froze his feet in place.

The boy had started singing. "Jump starting your car 'cause this city's a bore / Buying e-cigarettes at the convenience store / Making new clichés on our own little tour / Let's ride…"

He had the voice of an angel. Keith was so caught in listening to it he nearly missed the chorus. He would have if the boy hadn't given him a pointed look. Keith rushed back to the center of the stage, and they crooned out the chorus together: "You don't have to say I love you to say I love you / Forget all the shooting stars and all the silver moons / We've been making shades of purple out of red and blue / Sickeningly sweet like honey, don't need money / All I need is you / All I need is you, you."

The song went on and so did the two of them, voices swelling with confidence as they fed off each other's smiles. Something just felt so right. When it was over, they were a little jarred by the music cutting out and applause filling the room. They'd barely been aware of anyone else while singing. Smiling self-consciously, they made it off the stage.

Keith was not ready to let go of this boy yet, so he kept a hand on his elbow until they were in a slightly less noisy corner of the room where they could hear each other without shouting. "That was amazing," Keith offered.

The smile he got in return was radiant. "It really was! You were great!"

Keith felt a stupid blush rising in his face at the compliment. A moment passed in silence, in which Keith realized he really wanted to see this boy again. This boy… "What's your name?"

"Lance."

"I'm Keith. Hey uh, we should exchange numbers," he suggested, pulling out his phone.

"I'll give you mine, and you can text me yours," Lance said, taking the phone. "I don't have my phone on me. My mom kinda took it away because I was reading on it instead of socializing."

"Yeah, socializing is the worst," Keith related.

"We're socializing now," Lance laughed. "It's usually fun, but I couldn't really find anyone at this party who was interested in talking. I guess I just didn't see you before."

"Well now I have your number," Keith pointed out, taking back his phone. "I'll text you." He made sure the contact was saved, then turned back to ask Lance whether he was from around here. But Lance was gone. Oh well, he could just text him. He went to tap on the messaging icon and hit delete instead. Frustrated with his own fingers, he jabbed cancel…and hit confirm instead. "Fuck," he said softly but with feeling.