By October, Miguel had gotten comfortable with the nuances that came from being in a relationship with another guy. They had fallen into an easy groove when it came to who paid for what for the other person and when, or when to go dutch instead. Dates were usually no more complicated than picking up the phone and asking about going to the mall, and more often were as easy as simply hanging out at each other's houses.
Then the school put up fliers about the annual Halloween dance scheduled for the end of the month.
If he was with a girl at the time, Miguel wouldn't have over-thought it so much. He would have been expected to be the one to ask his girlfriend to go. Or was he genderizing with that assumption? Things weren't any different just because they were both guys, right? But then there was the question, who was supposed to invite whom to the dance? Or maybe it should've been a given they were going together?
Active or passive? Miguel wasn't sure what to be in that exact scenario. His Cobra instincts told him to strike first, of course, but shouldn't Hawk have done the same thing?
At first, he gave it some time, waiting to see if Hawk would bring it up. But that made him self-conscious and restless. He didn't like waiting by and doing nothing. Besides, Hawk liked it when he was direct about what he wanted.
So the next day he broached the subject before Chemistry started. "Hey, did you see the fliers about the Halloween dance?" he asked.
"Yeah," answered Hawk. Miguel eyed the way he was fidgeting with his pen. "At least it shouldn't be a shit show like it was last year, right?"
"God, I hope not." Miguel wondered if he meant how the two of them and Demetri hadn't had the balls to go and ask any girls to dance, or if he was alluding to Kyler and his crew beating the shit out of him in the locker room. Either way, Miguel didn't want to remember that disaster of a night.
Instead, he blurted out, "You up for going together this time?"
Hawk smiled, and Miguel watched it transform from a soft one into the joshing smirk as he was want to wear.
"Sure. I might be able to schedule you in," he joked, elbowing Miguel in the side. "Technically we were there together last year, too, you know."
"You actually going to dance this time, though?" asked Miguel, ribbing him back. He wasn't interested in spending the whole night hanging around the punch bowl again.
Tapping his pen against his notebook, Hawk raised an eyebrow and quipped, "Maybe."
Choosing to take that as a yes, Miguel turned the conversation down a different road. "So, what are you gonna go as this year?"
Hawk shrugged. "Haven't really thought about it."
Miguel's mouth curled into a little grin, and he suggested, "How about something without a mask?"