But we bypass that beautiful display and head to his closet, which is an impressive walk-in that glistens with costumes of all colors and textures. I’m struck at once by all the details. “You made all of these? Holy shit, this is so amazing, Byron!”
“Thanks! I have a bit of an obsession.” He laughs at himself as he runs a hand over the costumes, then pulls out what appears to be a tight superhero one-piece. “I’ve got memories with all of them.”
“That tight spandex-looking guy you’re holding must take a whole stick of butter to squeeze into.”
Byron snorts and shakes his head. “They’re not too bad. Half a stick of butter, tops.”
I laugh, then touch a green, shiny sleeve of another outfit hanging on the rack. It looks like a Spiderman and a bridge troll had a superhero baby. “You really do have a love for this work, don’t you?”
He smiles, watching me. “To me, it’s less about the costume itself and more … about what it does to you. To change. To become strong. To become powerful. To adopt someone else’s persona as your own.”
I lift an eyebrow to him. “Yeah?”
Yeah, we surely wouldn’t know anything about that.
“If it was up to me, I’d make it Halloween all year long,” he says. “I would always be someone else. Not to sound self-hating or anything, but being a barista every day can be tedious and exhausting. My dads don’t really know this, but working is pretty much all I do. I think they were hoping I’d blossom out here on my own with my own place. Find myself. Make contacts. Start designing costumes for a local theater, or whatever my heart finds. I’m probably regurgitating some of the last words they gave me before I moved out.” Byron eyes me nervously. “Am I saying too much?”
“No. I’m actually hearing a lot of common ground between us,” I admit, leaning against the doorframe and crossing my arms. “My parents more or less did the same thing to me, though I might’ve been left a bit more to my own devices to find a place to live and support myself. Graphics is a tough talent to live off of, unless you already know how to do it. I was lucky to land the job I did with Pixelomenon.”
“Pixelomenon? What a weird name!”
“It is!” I agree, laughing, though I don’t remember ever finding the name weird before. Is that you making me agree with him, West? Never mind. “It’s supposed to be a mix of the words ‘pixel’ and ‘phenomenon’. The company specializes in weird or supernatural aesthetics and projects, so all of their clients come to them for bizarre graphical needs, specifically. Being a bit of an oddball myself, it’s right up my alley.”
“An oddball, huh?” Byron smirks as he looks me over. “Somehow, I just knew you and I were gonna hit it off. There’s something about you, Griffin.”
I smile. Well, don’t go taking all the credit. I smile bigger. “There’s something about you, too, Byron.”
His eyes drop to my chest in thought. I don’t know if he’s aware that he’s also idly licking his bottom lip—or what it does to me to watch him do that.
That familiar, terrifying spark of courage that likely has everything to do with West ignites within me. I decide to be brave. “I gotta admit, Byron …”
He lifts his eyes. “Yeah?”
“I’m having a hard time resisting you right now.” I take a breath. “I don’t want to make a mistake or repeat what happened last night, but I’m way into you. I’m so much more into you than I’ve ever been into anyone.”
Byron puts the costume back on the rack. “You didn’t do anything wrong last night, Griffin. I already told you, I …” He bites his lip. “I liked being with you.”
He’s got his hand wrapped tightly around my heart again. Or is it around my gut? Somehow when it comes to attraction, they feel like the same thing.
See? He liked you. I told you he did.
Oh. I keep forgetting you’re still there.
Wow, bro. I’m not sure how to feel about that.
I want to do things to Byron tonight. I want to get close to him again. Feel him again. Touch him. I want to do everything I couldn’t do last night.
I know you want to do those things. I feel them, too.
“And more importantly,” he goes on, “I trust you. I don’t know what it is, exactly, but I just feel safe around you.” He laughs suddenly. “I mean, do you even know how long it usually takes for me to reveal this side of myself to a guy I’m into? You’d be lucky to learn I am obsessively obsessed with costumes before our ten-year anniversary. Like, I would hide it with ninja precision.”