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New Years Eve. A time of beautiful celebration. Friends come over, people play games, count down to the stroke of midnight, and everyone cheers and toasts to a new year. Mean while, couples kiss in celebration. Of course, me and Alex had a problem with this.

There were a few factors for both of us. I wasn't entirely sure if I was gay, he thought it'd be more romantic to kiss in front of his parents in a kind of "fuck you", sense. Also, we both didn't entirely know if we were good kissers, and were afraid of doing it wrong. Yes, there's a lot of thought that goes into this, especially when you're constantly scared out of your wits about being judged and hated. Of course, Ted joked that we should just do it anyways.

We ended up just cuddling all night, and fell asleep on the couch. Waking up was difficult, and it didn't help that my parents had to take us back to school around nine. They had already chosen a house, and were really just packing up and making some extra money while they waited for the current owners to finish moving out.

It's not a bad house, just a little funky looking, and it's only a block or two away from Ted's. It's built with two porches, and the "basement" is at ground level. Wait, that doesn't help. Basically, the first floor is a giant concrete slab. With a ramp cut out of it on the left, a garage cut out on the right, and three small, slit-like windows in between. The mail box is set INSIDE the wall, and can be accessed from both sides. Again, it's a funky looking house.

The second floor has a huge bare place in front of it, on top of the basement. There's a small lawn above the three windows, and there's concrete floor behind and to the right of it. To the right, the space is big enough for a table set to go there, and it makes sense, since it's the only place that gets any sunlight. There's two entrances and a window into the second floor, and just back and to the right of the lawn is another ramp to the third floor.

The third floor only has part of a porch, but it's big enough for chairs and benches and all those decorations mom would set up to never be used. There's a wierd overhang at the bare place to the right of the lawn, and it makes an L shape in the third floor. Interior stairs take you the forth floor, which has another overhang that juts as far out as the beginning of the second floor ramp, giving the forth floor a rectangular shape. The whole thing seems impractically designed.

Luckily, the inside is incredibly spacious. There's a bathroom, bedroom, and at least one main room on each floor. The basement has a garage, the second floor has the kitchen and dining hall, the third floor has a family room, and there's a master bedroom and another family room on the forth floor. The forth floor also has the master bedroom.

The outside concrete was painted some special, semi reflective, white. If it was too sunny, it'd probably burn your eyes to look at, but the red granite slabs on the ramps certainly balanced it out. The trim was all painted scarlet, while the wooden panels were painted a deep amber. The inside walls were mostly painted blues, cyans, and sea greens, with a few rooms painted less vibrant colors like lavender or pink. Then there's the basement's bedroom, which is painted an off-black purple that I call ebony. Since it's my favorite color, I obviously wanted that to be my room.

Once me and Alex got back to the dorm, we decided to just sit and cuddle for a while. I grabbed one of my blankets and wrapped us up in it while he started reading the fake bible we got him for Christmas. It wasn't until around six when Ted got back, so me and Alex were getting tired. When he came out of his room from putting away his bags, he ran to the couch and jumped on us, crushing both me and Alex.

"Ow! Get off!" [Alex]

"Aww... Can't I snuggle with you guys?" He jokingly buried his face in the blanket and pushed us away from each other.

"Uhh..." [Me]

"Seriously, you're laying on my tail, get off." [Alex]

"Pwease?" Ted batted his eyes at Alex and gave him one of those stupid puppy eye faces.

"Why would you even want to?" [Me]

"It's cold as fucking hell in here, duh." [Ted]

"Duh? That's like half a reason." [Alex]

"I just do, okay?"

"Fine..."

"But you're getting some of those sleeping bags." [Me]

"Cool." He jumped up and bolted for his room, coming back out as a mass of moving nylon.

"You know what? We should watch those Harry Potter movies." [Ted]

"Oh, yeah, that sounds fun." [Me]

"Shouldn't I read the books first?" [Alex]

"Dude, it'll take you a month to read all those. Don't bother."

"Okay..."

Ted threw the sleeping bags on us and put in the first movie. He came back over to the couch and was about to start setting up the sleeping bags when there was a knock on the door. He opened it to see the twins, Zane, and Isaac all wanting to come in.

"How long have you guys been here?" [Me]

"We got back at four." [Daniel]

"Noon." [Isaac]

"I celebrated new years alone." We all gave Zane a sad look, and he just burst out laughing. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding! I got back at like three thirty."

"Well at least you guys probably got to sleep in. We had to leave at nine." [Alex]

"And didn't get here until ten." [Me]

"Oh..." [Isaac]

"So, you seem perky." [David]

"Well yeah, he's got a boyfriend." [Ted]

"Oh, good for you guys!" [Zane]

"Honestly, I think Alex would've been better." [Isaac]

"I am his boyfriend you idiot!" [Alex]

"Oh, a three some!" [Daniel]

"Did no one notice that I gestured to Alex?" [Ted]

"Yeah, I'm only with Alex, and I'd kinda prefer to keep it one on one with him. No offense, Ted." [Me]

"None taken. So, we're about to watch Harry Potter, you guys wanna join?" [Alex]

"Sure!" [David]

"Yeah, why not?" [Zane]

"I got nothin' better to do." [Isaac]

They were about to sit down on the couch when Ted stopped them. "The only rule is you have to bring in a fuck ton of sleeping bags and pillows and blankets."

"Why?" [Daniel]

"So we can all get super comfy and warm up! It's cold as balls in here!" [Ted]

"Well yeah, the heaters aren't on, and we can't get to them. The door's locked." [Isaac]

"Oh." [Alex]

"That explains it." [Me]

"Not a bad idea though. I guess we'll all just sleep here then, too, right?" [Zane]

"Sure, why not?" [Ted]

The four vanished and slowly made trips back and forth, bringing in tons of pillows and blankets, and me and Alex went to go get the rest of our stuff. We were almost done when we heard another knock on the door and I went to go check it, and paniced the second I saw Daniel's zebra face.

"Hey... Um, is it okay if I... If I watch the movie with you guys? Uhh, none of my friends are here, and I kinda hoped you guys wouldn't mind." We all just stood there, starring at him. We didn't really want him in here, but if we said no, he'd probably kill us.

"Uh... Sure... Just, get anything you have that's sleeping bags, blankets, or pillows. Anything like that." [Ted]

Daniel's face lit up, "Really? Thank you so much!" He bolted down the hall and we all looked at Ted.

"What? If I said no he'd kill us." [Ted]

"Or just you." [Isaac]

"Preferably not you." We all gave Zane a questioning look. He knew he let something slip.

"Right... So, should I just leave the door open and wait for him, or what?" [Ted]

"Yeah, I guess so." [Alex]

"We don't really have a choice any more, now do we?" [David]

"Shut up..." [Ted]

Daniel came back with a mound of pillows, blankets, and sleeping bags, comparable to Ted's. He dumped it all on the floor and offered people pillows and blankets. Everyone thought they were good, so he just made himself a small nest in the corner and cuddled up with a big stuffed animal orca. Something about him seemed different from before, as if he was calmer and more childish.

I hadn't noticed him leave, but Zane came in with a bunch of bowls and a whole box of microwaveable popcorn. He also had seasonings and a thing of butter.

"Okay, who wants what?" [Zane]

"Wow, now we're going all out!" [Alex]

"Yeah, I just expected it to be us three watching these movies." [Ted]

"What's with all the seasonings?" [Daniel]

"And the butter?" [David]

"Extra flavor." [Zane]

"Oh." [Daniel]

I noticed Daniel kind of looking left out in his little corner. He just watched us all, and we made eye contact for a few seconds before he looked away. I part of me understood how he felt. Everyone else was having so much fun, and enjoying the whole thing, but he was totally out of it. I couldn't stand it. I got up, went over to him, and hugged him. Everyone went dead silent when I did this, and I think I heard someone gasp when he hugged back.

He whispered something in my ear that I don't think anyone else caught, "Thank you."

"No problem." Everyone else went back to what they were doing, and Daniel kept holding on.

"I... I'm sorry I beat you up at the start of the year."

"It's okay... I don't really care."

"You should."

"Eh. I'm over it. Now I can't stand it when I see people left out, though. That's what I care about."

"I love you-"

"I have a boyfriend-" He laughed a little. And we stopped whispering, since everyone else was talking anyways.

"I... I meant it as like... Like family. Like, you're the only one who understood me enough to do that."

"Hey, I've felt left out more times than I can count, and that's including multiplication."

"Wait, what?"

"Pentagrams? PE? No one wants to be your partner in PE when you've got a problem like this."

"Oh... Oh my god... I'm so sorry. Now I feel even worse for beating you up."

"It's okay. Honestly that's not the worst that's happened because of them. My first friend ditched me when he found out."

"Really?"

"Yup. God, I fucking hate Tanner..."

"Wait, Tanner Jamieson?"

"No, it's a different Tanner. Wait, how do you know that kid?"

"Well, last year... I kinda beat him up."

"Wait, he's the one who you put in the hospital for two weeks?!" Everyone heard this.

"Well, I had a decent reason for beating him up."

"Bullshit!"

"No, listen! He called me a fag-"

"So what! I'm pretty sure everyone in this room has been called a fag!"

"You don't understand!"

"What don't I understand?"

"It made my boyfriend commit suicide!" The entire room went dead silent. Even the beeping of the microwave's timer didn't disturb the unfathomably awkward silence.

"The only thing I have left of him is this..." He held up the orca, and I saw him starting to tear up.

"I... I'm so sorry... I... I'm sorry..." [Me]

"It's okay..."

"No, it's not okay. The next time I see that punk, I'm gonna fucking kill him." [Ted]

"No..."

"Daniel. You lost someone incredibly important to you, and it's his fault. I'm going to make that homophobic little fuck suffer until he's brought to tears by my unholy wrath."

"Woah, and I thought I was scary." [Alex]

"Why would you even consider doing that?" [Daniel]

"Because you need help, and I can give it." Ted gave Daniel a hug, who started crying in his arms. We all slowly went back to setting up the movie and making popcorn, and by the time it was all set up, Daniel and Ted were cuddling and holding hands. Ted added his mass of sleeping bags to the nest, which made a huge mound of heat in the corner. Ted was sitting on Daniel's lap, holding on to the orca, and enjoying being kissed behind the ears and being held by Daniel's ridiculous size. He did have serious upper and lower body strength, and was probably two or three times as big as Ted.

Alex really enjoyed the movie, and the whole time was cuddling up to me. About half way through the second movie, Rick and X showed up, and we just told them to get all their bedding and bring it in here. They almost took from the mountain of sleeping bags before X realized Daniel was there, than backed away in shear terror. Ted quickly explained that Daniel's safe to be around, and Rick's brave as hell, so he snuggled up to their mountain of bedding with X.

We stopped after the third movie, and we all just slept where we were. It was nice holding Alex, until Zane turned off the lights. His grip tightened and his tail drooped downward. I squeezed his arm and smiled at him, and it seemed to help calm him down. After a few minutes, everyone was snoring except me. I don't fall asleep as easy as everyone else. I looked around the room, admiring how strong the red and blue glow of my pentagrams was. I stayed awake for a few minutes, and one of the last things I saw as I fell asleep was a hint of green light racing around the blue and red lines on the wall.