"E-excuse me?" Khan stuttered, his face turning warm. Fernando chuckled. He put a single finger on Khan's arm, and then pulled it away quickly, making a hissing noise and shaking his hand off as if it was burnt. Khan didn't know what to say. He's got to be messing with me. He shook his head.

"Very funny Fernando. Now, I think I need to get you out of here. You're too drunk to be partying." Khan was concerned for his friend and was angling to take him home, but at the same time, he didn't want to find out how his parents would react to their son being so intoxicated.

"The party's not really a party without me, cariño," he remarked, his words still slurred. "Let me back down there, I'm fine."

"No, I think you need to go home. I'll give you a ride, I can't let you wander on the street like this, or even worse, drive drunk."

"No! Por favor, let me stay," he pleaded, even clasping his hands together.

"Fernando, you're way, way too drunk," Khan replied sternly.

"Please let me stay, I'll sleep here after the party's over." He patted Khan's bed and winked.

"I- No, Fernando, you're not sleeping on- I'm not letting you go back down there," he stuttered. His face was hot with embarrassment at Fernando's oddly flirtatious tone.

"If I behave will you let me?" He sighed in defeat. He couldn't keep arguing with Fernando when he was in this state.

"Maybe, but you need to sober up first. I'll be back to check on you, Lian's probably looking for me," Khan assumed his serious tone again.

"Gracias, I'll be good just for you, amor," Fernando replied with his signature confident grin. Khan slipped out of the door and back downstairs into the fray. The music was loud, but his racing thoughts were louder. His confusion over the strange interaction with Fernando, and increasingly, his anxiety about Lian seemed to overpower everything. She's going to kill me if I ditch her any longer. He waded his way through the horde of drunken teens, hoping to see the familiar silvery-white head of hair that would stick out even in the darkness of the room. After searching for her for at least five minutes to no avail, he grew worried. He asked a couple of people if they had seen her, but everyone said they hadn't. Oddly, they were all hesitant, as if they were hiding something from him. He had started to head back towards the relatively tranquility of the kitchen to look further when he bumped into a man wearing a werewolf costume.

"Sorry Khan." He recognized that accent.

"Viktor?"

"Yes?"
"Have you seen Lian?" He could hear him wince behind his mask.

"Uh…"

"Don't lie to me, I know she's probably looking for me." The other boy sighed.
"Some stuff happened. Let's go somewhere more quiet and I'll explain." Khan proceeded to lead him to the kitchen, where he took off his mask.

"What's going on?" Khan asked, nervous but stern.

"She fucking lost her mind, dude. Skye was here and she saw her and it just blew up." Khan recalled the girl in a cat costume. That was probably Skye.

"I didn't invite her, Lian told me not to. Do you know who brought her?" Viktor put his hand on the back of his head and looked away.

"I did, sorry." Khan sighed.

"Really dude?"

"Yes, she really wanted to come with me. We've been messing around, you know." Now it made sense. The provocative dancing, the werewolf being Viktor.

"You know how much that pisses her off, right? She wouldn't stop arguing with Skye about it the other day," Khan said.

"Girls are fucking crazy, man, what can I say?"

"You're the one who cheated on her."

"Only because she would have killed me if I dumped her. Look, she's clearly mentally unstable or some shit. You need to run away from that girl, fast, she's going to keep taking out her anger and jealousy on everyone else. Soon enough that's going to be you, and it's not going to be pretty." Khan remembered when she had hit him. Viktor really did know her well.

"She's still my best friend. And I can't just run away from her, she's my neighbor."

"Some taste in friends. Whatever man, all I can tell you is she left after her little catfight with Skye, and I don't know where she is now."

"Thanks for that I guess. I'm going to go see if she's at her house, then." With that, Khan walked away. He snaked his way through the crowd and to the front door, then walked the short distance to Lian's house. He approached the front door of the ornate house, then knocked. He was mildly surprised when her mother answered the door instead of Lian.

"Oh, Khan, what brings you here?"
"I'm looking for Lian, is she here?"

"Yeah, she's upstairs."

"Can I talk to her?" The woman nodded and let him into the house. He made his way upstairs. Khan approached Lian's door and tried to open it, but it was locked.

"Lian? Hello?" He asked nervously. There was a brief silence. He heard some fumbling, footsteps, and then her voice.

"What do you want?" she answered flatly through the door.

"You left my party and I was worried, is something wrong?" he asked innocently. There was another long pause, then laughter.

"Are you really that oblivious?" He was put back by how cold she was, but not surprised in any right.

"You don't have to be so rude. Let me in and we can talk about it," he answered, keeping his temper.

"You ditched me and now that I'm mad you want to help? Fuck off, why don't you?" She replied, seething.
"Come on Lian, I made a mistake and I'm trying to figure out how I can help. Now let me in."

"No! Go back to your stupid party!" She shouted. "Your stupid party with your pretty girls and your popular guys where everyone likes them and not me. Go back to them since you like them so much more than me!" He tried opening the door again, but to no avail.

"Lian, I didn't even invite half those people. I didn't invite Skye." Lian paused.

"So you knew what was bothering me this whole time, and you pretended not to know so you could play innocent, but… you saw what happened and ditched me. I'm done. Go away." He facepalmed.

"Lian, no-"

"Go away!" She shouted again. It was no use. He turned away from her door and made his way back down the stairs, not even saying goodbye to her parents as he left the house and walked back to his own. He pushed through the crowd once again, which he was getting tired of doing, and sat down at the counter in the kitchen. He blankly stared into the distance for a couple of minutes, feeling dejected. He was hurt by Lian's words, and he didn't know if he had done something wrong or if Lian was really delusional. His mind raced as he tried to figure out what possibly he did wrong. Is she really mad because I left her when she went to yell at Skye? Am I supposed to tag along with her? Eventually, a loud bass drop snapped him out of his worries. He looked to the counter and saw the empty six-pack of beers, and then remembered Fernando. Khan made his way to the stairs and rushed back to his room. When he opened the door, he was greeted by the sight of Fernando on top of his bed, wrapped in his covers. He closed the door behind him slowly and continued to take in the sight.

"Fernando?" His dark-haired head poked up from a tumultuous sea of messy covers.

"¿Qué?" he asked, holding the covers around himself.

"What are you doing?"
"I was making myself comfortable… I couldn't help myself," he replied, seeming woozy.
"Did you take a nap?"

"Nah." Khan raised an eyebrow. He couldn't help but feel that something was off. Why would Fernando wrap himself in his covers like that?
"You know, if you wanted a blanket or something you could have just asked me for one."

"I didn't want to make you mad at me, you told me to stay in here. Besides, how could I resist?"
"Resist what?"
"This." Fernando proceeded to pull the covers up and snuggle his face into it. He sniffed it lightly and let out a soft sigh, which made Khan's face turn warm.

"What the heck? What's gotten into you?"

"You can't tell? Ay, you can be so innocent sometimes..." There was a hint of an emotion in his breathy voice that Khan couldn't quite pin down, but it stirred him inside.

"That doesn't answer my question." Fernando looked away. Suddenly, he unwrapped the covers from himself, revealing that he was shirtless, then moved himself to sit at the edge of the bed, facing away from Khan. Khan's heart was pounding now, overpowering the faint echo of the music from downstairs. He still didn't understand what his friend was letting on to.

"Fernando, where'd your shirt go?"

"I was hot." That didn't make much sense to Khan, why had he taken off his shirt only to wrap himself in the covers? Fernando patted the spot next to him, breaking him out of his thoughts. Khan hesitantly sat down next to his friend. The dim orange light of the lamp in the corner shone on Fernando's sculpted abdomen and emphasized how red his face was. Khan couldn't tell if it was from the alcohol or something else. He looked to Fernando, who was staring at the floor.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Fernando chuckled. After another short pause, the Spaniard turned to him and lightly grabbed under Khan's chin. He ran his calloused thumb across his lips.

"You are so beautiful. Too beautiful for your own good." Khan blinked in confusion, then grabbed Fernando's arm, pulling his hand away from his face.

"What are you talking about? Do you-"

"It was always about you, you know," Fernando interrupted, pulling his own hand away. Khan, still confused, did not speak.

"All the shit about Lian, the stuff about me being sad about Cassie, that was lies, well some of it wasn't, but still. It was all about you. I was sad about you and Lian getting together. I was worried about Lian taking you away from me. All the stuff I said about Lian was true, she's a pendeja, but I said it because I love you as more than just a good friend." Fernando took Khan's hand in his own. Khan's eyes were wide with shock. Fernando's slurred words repeated over and over in his head. Khan was trying to tell himself this was just the alcohol talking, he was close enough to where he could smell it on Fernando's breath. But then it all started to click. The awkward times in the locker room, when he caught him staring in math, him wanting to hang out more lately, the way he acted towards him and Lian, it all made sense. Or did it? Could he just be overthinking as always? He sat still, frozen in shock. He rapidly went between not believing it and believing it. Then he made up his mind.

"Y-you're kidding me," Khan answered, pulling his hand away from Fernando's. Fernando sighed.

"Ay, amigo, but I'm not. The love I have for you has weighed heavy on my heart lately."

"This is some bad dream, or you're just, really, really drunk, or this is some practical joke, right?" He stood up, looking down at his friend, who was blushing furiously. Khan ignored the growing hotness in his own face.
"A bad dream?" Fernando asked.

"This can't be real, is what I mean." Fernando continued to sit for a moment, seemingly contemplating.

"It is. I don't know what else to tell you." Khan remained silent, wearing an expression of bewilderment. Fernando stood up.

"If that's how it's going to be, I'm going." His voice sounded tired. He started to put on his fireman outfit when Khan intervened.

"Wait, you can't go, you're still too drunk to drive."

"I'll just walk."

"It's dark out, though."

"I'll be fine." Fernando had finished putting on his costume and headed to the door. He paused.

"Buenas noches, amigo," he replied, a pang of sadness in his voice. He left without turning back to look at him. Khan stared at the door for a long time, not bothering to try to stop him anymore. Then, he sat down on his bed. There was too much on his mind to go back down to the party right now. It felt like the world was spinning around him, and that everything he knew was wrong. Khan contemplated the possibility that everything Fernando had said was true, but he just couldn't bring himself to accept it. He is really drunk after all, maybe this was just a one time thing. Maybe he's just lonely because of Cassie and wanted to connect with someone tonight… He was still staring at the door. He decided he would ask about it when he was sober. Khan turned around and looked at his messy covers, still dumbfounded at Fernando's odd behavior. He remade his bed, and then checked the time. 12:30 A.M. He figured that most people would have started leaving the party by now and that he could finally spend time with some friends. Khan left his room and went downstairs.

To Khan's relief, a considerable number of people had left the party, and someone had turned down the music. He wandered around hoping to find a friend to talk to, maybe Buck or Viktor. He wanted to take his mind off the things that were bothering him. It was his party, after all. Unfortunately, he could not find either of his friends at first. He kept looking, and eventually, he turned a corner and saw Viktor making out with Skye. He paused for a moment, then decided to leave them alone. He walked away and leaned against a wall facing the living room, his empty gaze directed towards the few people remaining at his party. He wasn't friends with any of them. Khan sighed as remembered when his Halloween parties were just him and a couple of friends having genuine fun. He missed the simplicity of it all. Just seeing Viktor and Skye had reminded him of his conflict with Lian and how complicated things were getting. He was contemplating going back to his room and going to sleep when Viktor approached him.

"Hey dude." Khan looked up.

"Oh, hi Viktor," Khan replied flatly.

"You enjoying your party?"
"Yeah, I guess. Just haven't gotten to really talk to anyone tonight."

"Aw, that sucks."

"I was actually just about to go up to my room. I'm pretty tired."

"You can't go to bed at your own party!"
"Why not? I'm not doing anything."

"It's your party man! Don't you want to have fun with everyone, you know, be the life of the party?" Khan looked around, dreading joining the people around him. He thought of Fernando, since he was always the center of attention at his parties.

"I'm burnt out. Usually Fernando's the one who's the life of the party."

"Wait, where'd he go? I saw him earlier," Viktor questioned. Khan panicked. He couldn't tell him the truth.

"He left. Said he was tired," Khan said quickly.
"That's not like him at all, how weird. Oh, did you ever find Lian?" Khan sighed.

"Yeah. She was in her room but she wouldn't let me in. She was pretty pissed off at me." Viktor scoffed.

"What, for not being by her side constantly?"

"I guess. She wasn't really clear," Khan answered.

"That's strange. She usually loves to complain about everything that's pissing her off, but then again, she also likes to play mind games. Don't put too much pressure on yourself, she's probably just moody tonight."

"Okay, thanks. I'm going to head upstairs. You have fun with Skye." Viktor's face turned red.

"Shut up." Khan giggled and walked away. As he headed towards the stairs, he could see the mess he was going to have to clean up the next morning. But for now, it was time for him to rest. He opened the door to his room and started to get ready to go to bed. He took off his costume and put on pajamas, and then went to brush his teeth in the bathroom. Someone was passed out in the bathtub. He did nothing about it. I'll deal with them in the morning if they're not already gone. Khan then headed back to his room, getting into his bed and turning off the lamp. As he got comfortable he noticed that the covers smelled like Fernando's cologne. At first, the smell reminded him of what happened that night. But then, Khan got used to the smell, and it was somewhat comforting. He snuggled deeper into the covers and eventually drifted off to sleep.