Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

"Dude!" Zack cried out, racing down the hallway once he spotted Jack.

"What's up?" Jack laughed, letting out a grunt when Zack ran smack into him. "You need to stop doing that."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Zack waved his friend off, "But I just realized something."

"What?" Jack asked, trying to humour the other teen.

"Halloween is in, like, three days!" Zack cheered, his expression turning into one of confusion once he noticed Jack's face fall.

"Oh," Jack hummed, "Wow. You're right."

"Yeah, isn't that great?" Zack asked.

"Of course," Jack nodded, "It's just that, I've been so busy with other things, that I have absolutely no plans.

"Other things meaning Alex," Zack stated, and Jack nodded in affirmation.

"Other things meaning Alex."

"Well," Zack began, pacing back in forth in front of Jack. "There isn't really much for you to think about, now. That's why I came over here. I've got a mental list of basically every single party in the area that will be held that night. Between parties, we can just fuck around, or whatever."

"Sounds cool," Jack commented. "But I still have no idea what to do for a costume."

"You better hurry up on that," Zack shook his head, "Everything's probably sold out by now."

"Hey!" I have an idea!"

"What is it?"

"I could do Batman and Robin with Alex!" Jack cheered, glad to have finally come up with an acceptable idea.

"Didn't you and Rian do that last year?" Zack laughed, and Jack shrugged.

"So?" He said, collecting all of his things and shutting his locker, ready to go hang out with Rian and Zack. "That just makes it easier."

"Alrighty, then," Zack hummed, as the two boys went to go find Rian.

They ended up hanging out at Rian's, since he lived the closest to the school. There was absolutely no time to be had stalling between locations, as temperatures were nearing the freezing point. Once finally inside, the three boys shrugged off their jackets, glad to finally be inside.

"So, what now?" Rian prompted, sitting down on a chair as both of his friends flopped down onto the couches in the living room.

"No idea," Zack yawned, and Jack was about to nod in agreement, before he remembered his earlier conversation with Zack.

"Wait," Jack sat up quickly from his seat, passing by Rian as he moved over to the door of the room. "Rian, you still have your Robin costume, right?"

"Yeah, I do. Why?" Rian asked curiously.

"Where is it?" Jack continued to ask, antsy and not wanting to answer any questions of his own.

"In my room. Now why do you-" Rian tried, before Jack bolted down the hall.

Upon entering his room, Rian found Jack with his head buried in his closet, peering inside.

"On the right side," Rian directed, before finally hearing a triumphant cry from Jack.

"Do you think this will fit Alex?" Jack asked, to which Rian raised an eyebrow.

"Do you have plans for it?" Rian questioned, grinning when he could tell Jack realized he had still not properly asked Rian to borrow the costume.

"Oh, right," Jack shook his head. "Can I borrow it? Please?"

"Go ahead," Rian smiled, "Zack and I are being pirates, anyway."

"Where'd you come up with that?" Jack chuckled, "I feel like you would have already done that in, like, the third grade, or something."

"Oh, trust me," Rian shrugged, "We both did. We watched Pirates of the Caribbean a couple weeks ago, though, and got really excited about pirates. Now, here we are."

"Understandable," Jack smiled, before following his friend back out to the living room. Once they got there, it had been obvious that Zack had helped himself in the kitchen, as an array of items were now strewn across the table. Helping themselves to the food, too, Jack and Rian both sat down with Zack, ready to play whatever video game they would eventually agree upon.

"Why do you get to be Batman?" Alex asked, trying to be as polite as possible. Truthfully, he had loved the Batman and Robin idea Jack had pitched to him the next day, as they hung out at his house after school. Everything about it was great, except the part where Jack expected him to be the sidekick.

"Because it's my costume," Jack countered, sliding down to lay in Alex's bed, instead.

"Well, this is my bed," Alex grumbled, shoving Jack off of the edge, from where he sat beside him.

Landing on the floor with an 'oof,' Jack said, "You make a fair point."

Alex giggled at that, and he leaned over to offer Jack a hand back up. Jack accepted it, and he was soon seated next to Alex once more, with the younger boy crawling into his lap this time, instead of pushing him off of the bed.

"Please?" Alex asked, drawing out every letter in the word.

"Why?" Jack asked for a final time, hoping Alex had a good answer prepared.

"Because Batman's cooler, and I'm cooler." Alex smirked, causing Jack to roll his eyes.

"Fine, whatever. I was Batman last year, anyway." He shrugged, smiling into the kiss Alex then pressed to his lips.

"Thanks, baby!" Alex sang, wrapping Jack up in a hug.

"Yeah, yeah," Jack hummed, not able to help the smile on his face. "You're welcome."

None of the boys wore their costumes to school on Friday, claiming they wanted them to be surprises. Not one of them believed another, though, because there was absolutely no one to surprise, and not any of their costumes were that good, anyway. They were just all too scared of looking stupid, knowing their group of friends was the type to single one person out as a joke.

Alex sat with Marissa, Sam, and Natasha at lunch, since he figured he would be seeing Jack for the rest of the night. Marissa was dressed as a fairy, with cute, sparkly wings on her back, while Sam was dressed in her soccer uniform, going with the easiest thing she could think of. Natasha, on the other hand, had no costume.

"Where's your costume?" Sam asked the girl, as she joined her friends at the beginning of lunch.

Shrugging, Natasha responded with, "At home, I guess."

"Wait, what?" Marissa laughed. "You still have no idea what you're doing for tonight, do you?"

"Nope." Natasha cracked a smile, saying, "I'll figure it out. What are you doing tonight, Alex?"

"I'm not really sure," Alex chuckled, "Probably some parties, or something? I'm just going to be following Jack and his friends."

Nodding, Sam asked, "What are you going to be?"

"Jack and I are going to be Batman and Robin." Alex responded still not used to the string of 'aw''s he received in reply. "Come on, guys, superheroes aren't cute."

The four boys finally set out from Zack's house when night fell. With no idea where they were going, Alex, Jack, Rian, and Zack kept to a steady stroll, enjoying the all around vibes that Halloween night gave them. They ended up walking around for quite a while, eventually finding some fireworks in their possession, and lighting them off at a park nearby with a couple of other guys they knew from school. Splitting off once again, the group decided to check out a couple parties, where they got their free food and drink fill for the night. It was still not terribly late when they found themselves bored, with nothing to do.

"What now?" Jack said, sitting down on the curb. Alex sat down next to him, cuddling into the arm his boyfriend had outstretched for him, while Zack and Rian paced from behind.

"No idea," Zack said, shaking his head.

"Hey!" Rian suddenly piped up, "I know! Let's just head to a store, get some candy and snacks and stuff, and head back to someone's house to watch movies. We could have a sleepover,"

"Sounds good!" Zack agreed, while Jack went with, "Nice,"

"Um," Alex tried, looking up at Jack. When he caught Jack's attention, the pair only had to make eye contact for a moment, before Jack was frowning.

"Oh."

"'Oh,' what?" Rian asked, jokingly displeased that his perfect idea was not being treated with more excitement.

"Alex's mother doesn't want him and I spending the night together," Jack explained, and Rian nodded his head.

"Oh, I see."

"Well, it's not like you guys are going to have sex with us around, right?" Zack added, expecting the response Rian then gave him.

"You never know with Jack."

"Yeah," Zack agreed, "But Alex is classier than that."

Alex giggled, while Jack let out a whine at his friends in response.

"Seriously, though. What if we have it at yours, Alex? That way you can tell your mom it's not only her supervising you two, but Zack and I as well." Rian decided, glad when Alex stood up in response.

"Good idea, I'll call my mom now."

After several minutes, Alex came back with an excited look on her face. After only a small battle, his mother had agreed, making sure Alex knew not to turn it into a habit. With that, the four boys made their way to the store and then to Alex's house, with full intentions of not going to sleep until sunrise.

Notes

hello!!!!! the next chapter get's a lil interesting, if u know what i mean ;;;~)

also! i've decided that i'm going to upload this story twice a week now -- BUT, only if i receive at least 5 or 6 comments on the earlier one (this counts wattpad/minba, too). i know that makes me sound thirsty af, but i only want to be updating rapidly if people are actually engaged, you know? it takes time to write these, and i don't want to be pumping them out twice as often if nobody's reading them.

anyways, thanks for reading! please please please leave a comment if you can <3