yall,,, idk when the 8k happened but thanks??? I started this book in January on a pure whim of stupidity and 0 self control, it means a lot that y'all are reading this!!! Do yall want something special for 10k??? Idk how i would do it but i can try of course
<3<3<3<3<3<3 ily guys

--

“Are you gonna raise the dead?” Luke crosses his arms sternly, glaring at his boyfriend. “Because if you're gonna be raising the dead, I want no part in it.”

Ryan snickers, coming up to Luke and kissing his cheek lovingly. “No, Toonzy. I'm just… well…”

“You're just gonna casually revive some spirits or shit, aren't you? You know I'm not down for this shit.” Luke narrows his eyes. He's onto Ryan's bullshit.

The lights flicker and go out, the lampposts around the edge of the graveyard going dark. Bryce, from somewhere else in the cemetery, gives a small gasp of “oh, whoops.”

Luke forms a small flame in his hand, holding it up for light. “Brycey? What did you do?”

“I thought I found a cute snake! But it's just a weird string. I think I pulled a wire or something.”

“Okay, okay, okay, just look at what I'm about to do!” Ryan laughs excitedly as he runs over to a small bench, standing up on it and waving his arms around like a crazy man. There's some chanting from Ryan as he continues waving his arms around in some strange, probably meaningful motions, and then there's the soft glow of some kind of spirit rising from the ground. And then another, and another, and another, and then Luke's feeling mildly unsettled.

“Alright y'all, I've had fun today with y'all, but sadly I think it's time for me to- oh FUCKITY FUCK!” Luke shrieks as a weird spirit thing flies in front of him, extinguishing his little flame and successfully scaring the shit out of him. He jumps back with a panicked cry and swats at it. His hand goes straight through it, the spirit cackling and his boyfriends laughing along with it.

Luke huffs and crosses his arms sternly. “A’ight you stupid little ghosty BITCH. Listen the fuck up here ‘cuz I ain't havin’ any of ya damn shit! You get the fuck back to whatever dirty grave you came from you smelly motherfucker-”

“Shhh…” Bryce is covering Luke's mouth with his hands, vines easily wrapping around Luke's fists and pulling them down to his sides. “Don't be so rude to them, Luke. That's how horror movies begin.” He smiles sweetly at Luke, as if this is common knowledge.

Ryan steps in between them with a grin. “Wanna see something cooler? Brycey, give me a flower.”

Bryce’s smile grows bigger as he whips a flower out of nowhere and holds it out for Ryan. “What, are you gonna possess it?”

“Stop giving away my plans, Bryce! I'm trying to impress you guys here!” Ryan yells at Bryce loudly, no real malice in his voice. They all laugh as Ryan somehow guides a spirit into the flower. The flower proceeds to shrivel up and die in Bryce’s hand, making them gasp in surprise.

Luke, being Luke, isn't having any of this. He struggles and wiggles around in his plant cage, but Bryce has him held down tight.

“Ryan! What did you do?!”

“I guess the spirit didn't like the flower,” Ryan laughs. “Luke, give me some light.”

“I can't! Someone fuckin’ tied me up!” Luke forms a small flame in his hand, ready to burn up the vines surrounding him. And he's about to do it, only the angry former-flower spirit flies straight into the fire and takes it away into the wind as if it was nothing.

They all stare after the now fire spirit thing (?)  as it flies off into the sky. Luke is, admittedly, a little concerned. Is this normal?

Ryan is the first to break the awkward silence with a nervous chuckle. “Well… at least it wasn't a tree.”

Bryce looks like he is also concerned. “Was I supposed to give it a tree to possess? How does this even work?”

Ryan shakes his head. “No. I summoned the spirit and wanted to use the flower to give it a physical form. Because, you know, flowers are cuter than dead bodies or skeletons. But instead it chose your fire and flew away.”

“So… we accidentally released a fire spirit onto the world?” Bryce looks excited for some reason. He laughs giddily and claps his hands. “Yay! We're awesome!”

Ryan chuckles. Luke can't help but smile, feeling a little more calm. He's still tied up, though, so he burns off some of the vines. Bryce sees this and blushes.

“Sorry,” he says softly. “I didn't mean to forget about you like that.”

Luke can't help but smirk. “It's fine, Brycey,” he says, walking up to his two boyfriends. “Next time, sweetie pie, you'll be the one tied up.”

--

Jonathan sighs. Where are all his friends? This stupid sling he has to wear on his arm is frustrating him. He had been playing with Tyler and Craig in gym yesterday, and then hurt his arm again by doing a move that Tyler dubbed “the triceratops” and now his wrist is broken. The sling is to keep him from swinging his arm around. Though they use some magical healing shit on it, they said that they wanted to make sure everything is okay…

He hates this. A lot.

He just finished his homework and is bored and lonely. Jonathan whines loudly, kicking his shoe across the room. It thumps into the wall (and against the rock Evan threw into their room a few months ago, which is still lodged into the wall) and falls onto the floor. Jon kicks the second one for fun.

It flies up and would've hit the door had someone not walked in.

“Ow,” Evan says in a monotone voice. “Thanks.”

“You're welcome.”

They both look at each other for a moment, then laugh at their stupidity.

“What you doin’ here?” Jonathan gets up off the floor, happily sitting next to Evan on his bed. He's thankful Luke yelled at him to clean up yesterday afternoon- Jonathan is almost 100% certain that messy rooms are not how you impress your crush. Imagine if Jon hadn't cleaned his room. Evan would've been sitting on a bunch of toast crumbs and maybe a wrapper from a microwavable burrito he had bought from a gas station.

Evan shrugs, in that same, effortlessly pretty way he always does, and laughs sweetly. “Craig made me come socialize. He got all sassy on me.” He runs a hand through his hair, and god is Jonathan's heart melting right now.

“Did- did he hurt your feelin’s?”

Evan laughs again. “No… why do you say feelings like that? You say it like ‘fillings' and it's funny,” he says. “Never change, Delirious, okay?”

“... Okay. Wasn't planning on it, anyways,” he admits. “So what are you doing here?”

“I wanted attention,” Evan explains. “And I… I…”

Jon frowns. Why isn't Evan finishing his sentence? He's just staring out the window. Jon tries to figure out what he's looking at, but he can't. Apparently owl powers (or whatever you call Evan's powers) give you super vision.

Evan suddenly frowns, narrowing his eyes. “Deer?”

“Yes, honey?” Jonathan answers without thinking. It takes him a moment to recognize his mistake, however, and he blushes madly as he does.

Thankfully, Evan doesn't seem to notice. “No, not you. I think Brock brought home an actual deer.”

Jon looks back out the window and is surprised to see, sure enough, Brock leading a deer towards the other dorm building across from theirs. Brock opens the door to the big blue building, the deer trotting in right after him.

He and Evan stare at each other.

“Do you wanna-”

“Yeah, we should-”

“And then-”

“Spongeb-”

“Yeah.”

They smile at each other, and Jon can't stop the pounding in his chest. Evan just makes him happy like this. He can't figure out what it is or why, he just knows it happens and rolls with it. And while he loves his other friends, nothing beats hanging out with Evan.

Maybe it's love, maybe it's just a special kind of friendship, or maybe Jonathan's jut crazier than he thought. Whatever it may be, Jonathan decides then and there that he'll gladly do whatever it takes to keep Evan by his side and with that pretty smile on his face.