October 31. Never again. Not a chance in hell.

He’s standing so close to me that I can feel his hot breath on my face. I’m trying to force myself to

calm down, but I can’t keep from glaring at him loathingly. All muscles underneath his white skin are

alert with tension. His eyes drop to my lips, for a split second only. But that moment is very clear, and

somewhat sobering. Then he frowns, and I frown with him.

Suddenly there’s a strong hand on my arm, shoving me back a little, and him into the opposite

direction.

“Hey you idiots, knock it off!”

Anna de Beauvoir hooks her arms under Goth Boy’s from behind, and mercilessly pulls him the first

few steps away from me. And you better believe that militant dyke has the strength to do it. She

mumbles something about cavemen and there being no evolution for our sex, but I’m too busy

continuing to stare at Goth through narrow eyes to really listen to her. He manages to free himself and

angrily shakes off her hands. But he just throws me another dark look before he pushes through the

crowd and disappears.

What the hell was that all about?

* * *

It’s no use. I’m never gonna be able to find Casey in this insane crowd. God, I really hate my birthday.

With a deep sigh I lean against a wall and immediately wince. Damn! My back hurts from my previous

encounter with the edge of a table. What a miserable, completely messed up night this is. But what was

I expecting?

The feeling of loss and of loneliness that I’ve been carrying around all day deepens. Standing still,

all alone in the crowd, I’m watching the blur of happy faces passing me by. A nice strong drink would

be a fine thing now, and I long for that familiar hot sting in my throat. But history has shown that it’s

never a good idea for me to get drunk and lose control on this particular day of the year.

“I thought you hated parties,” Captain Danny Sparrow grins when he magically appears at my side,

out of nowhere it seems. How does he always seem to be able to find me anywhere?

“I do.” Hell, I can’t even begin to say how good it feels to see his face right now. Forget the drink,

this is way better. I even manage a very vague half-smile.

He tilts his head slightly, thoughtfully studying my face as though trying to read my mind. His small

smile is teasing, but there’s a warm sparkle in his eyes. “Then what are you doing here?”

“Well, it’s Halloween. And Casey wanted to come.” I have to almost shout to make myself heard

over the noise. Danny steps closer to me, and if I weren’t propped up against a wall already, I’d move

backwards instinctively to keep the minimum safety distance.

“Yes, but what are you doing here?”

I get what he’s trying to tell me with this, and it irritates me, because he’s right. Yes, I’m only here

because of Casey, because he really wanted to come. And Danny’s also wrong, because there’s nothing I

wouldn’t do to keep things with Casey working for just one more day. Always for one more day, for as

long as I can.

“You’d never change for anyone, would you?”

“People don’t change, Jimmy. You know that.”

“All the same. Would you?”

The pirate smiles before he takes a sip of his beer, and I’d love to be that dark and bitter fluid right

now, just to be swallowed like that. If he knew… if I could only talk about it all. To someone. To him. I

wish he’d simply grab me and take me away, to a place where this freak show called my life is nothing

but a bad dream.

Danny’s expression becomes an interesting mixture of mischievous and pensive while he ponders

my question. “Someone once told me: the most important thing in a relationship is the ability to accept

the other’s flaws without wanting to change them.”

“Would you call sleeping around a flaw?” I ask ironically.

“Are we talking about you or me now?” he grins.

I laugh dryly, but the truth of it stings. “You seduced me.”

“I could do it again. If it weren’t for that flaw you got. That Mills guy, you know.”

“Does that mean you could accept that he and I are together?”

“Have I done anything to make you think otherwise? Have I even touched you since summer?”

Well, true. He hasn’t. “But then again, we’re not in a relationship, you and I. Ergo you don’t need to

accept my flaws.”

Danny laughs, and it sounds like velvet and freedom. “You just reduced your own chastity to

absurdity, Einstein!”

Hell, if not mine, then certainly his. If you can even make a connection between Rizzo and chastity

without annihilating the entire existence of life on this planet. It’s like bringing antimatter together with

matter.

I’m still wrapped up in the poetry of this thought when he suddenly grabs my arm and just snatches

me away from all the noise. Effortlessly he steers me through the crowd, out of the room and out the

backdoor. I step into complete and utter darkness. It takes my pupils a long moment to adjust. It’s

freezing out here.

The night vibrates with screams and laughter from the distance, where bizarre masks and costumes

are roaming and playing tricks on anyone so unlucky to cross their path. Garlands of toilet paper are

decorating the trees of Shriner’s Park.

Danny’s hands are on me and he’s pressed up against me in a moment, like a heat wave hitting me in

the chill of the night. God, it’s been so long, and is that why it’s all it takes to make me so hard? I can’t

breathe when he slides his tongue inside my mouth, and my body goes completely rigid with desire so

intense it causes physical pain. He whispers, breathes my name into my ear, and my fingers sharply

claw into his back to bring him even closer to me. I want his hands on me, tighter, harder, I don’t give a

shit about the sharp pain shooting through my back at the touch. And suddenly there’s clarity. There’s

another reason why things with Casey aren’t working, one that I didn’t want to see: He’s that reason.

“Danny,” I whisper his name. And he responds, with such heated passion it makes me feel dizzy and

drunk.

His hands are all over me, my hands are all over him, and we’re panting into the ecstasy of the kiss.

It’s like a hard drug being injected into my veins, pulsing through my body and completely blowing my

mind. His scent alone is driving me over the edge.

This very moment is all that matters. There’s nothing else. There’s no past, no future, there’s only

right now. And this is the real thing. This is the real thing, and I realize that it’s true. There’s nothing

else comes close.

Virtually unable to hold it back like a school boy, I violently come with such sweet, painful pleasure,

and limply sink against him. And he catches me, and holds me.

He’s so warm against me, and his arms feel good around my body. His cheek is soft against mine as

he calmly breathes the rest of the tension away. His breath flutters like wings over my skin when he

bends down to tenderly kiss my neck, and he seems to tremble a little. I’d completely lost all awareness

of how freezing it was out here.

Something icy and wet gently touches my face. Slowly I lean back and look up at the sky, and a

snowflake elegantly sails through the air and lands directly on the tip of my nose.

I don’t believe it. The first snow this year, and the ground all around us is already covered with a

thin layer of white fluff. Flakes are whirling through the air, and deep silence falls over campus, the

kind of ethereal silence only snowfall can cause.

And we just stand there, in each other’s arms, and watch in amazement. My heart is beating like it’s

gonna burst. I don’t believe in signs, but this is one is so high-profile, it could make even me a believer.