***

HADLEY WAITS ON the curb with a pair of binoculars in his right hand and a phone in his left. It's been five minutes since he's arrived at five PM sharp, and there's no David in sight. The binoculars, for some reason, get warmer in his hand by the second, and Hadley's sure it's not because of his own body heat.

Though he's not complaining. The cold is damn near unbearable. He regrets not wearing gloves; he can't feel the fingers in his left hand.

He glances at his phone. Six minutes now, and still no David. He puts the phone in his pocket and starts warming both his hands by rubbing the binoculars between them. He lets out a sigh of contentment when he gets warmth back into his hands.

Seven minutes. No David.

A woman passes by him and she glances at him, then at his hands, and Hadley's sure she's smiling when she looks away.

Eight minutes. Someone snatches the binoculars out of his hands and he's about to snatch it back when he sees who's grabbed it.

It's David.

"Oh my god, I missed you so much!" he coos to the binoculars, holding it with hand. His other hand carries two boxes of pizza. "I was practically blind without you!" And David, to Hadley's utter disgust, kisses the pair of binoculars.

"Uh," says Hadley, trying to tear his eyes away from David's passionate love for a pair of binoculars. "Hi."

"Oh, hey there," says David, mid-kiss. "Didn't see you there."

"What took you so long?"

"Long?" David squints. "It only took me eight minutes and—" he pushes the pizza boxes towards Hadley— "I had to get these. Help me out here."

Hadley takes one of the pizza boxes. "Pizza? For me?"

"Don't flatter yourself. It's for my friends."

David leads him into the alley, and Hadley can't quite shake off the feeling of anticipation that clutches at his stomach. If David's like this, like some rambunctious preteen forced into the body of someone nearing adulthood, what must his friends be like?

David turns the handle of the door to the hideout, and declares, with great fanfare, "I got pizza!"

He steps inside. Hadley follows, feeling like he's stepped into a pit of vipers, and as soon as he's past the threshold, he is painfully, acutely aware of how white he is.

Of the two girls and three boys gathered before Hadley's eyes, not a single one of them is white. The neon lights from before are gone, replaced with normal lighting. Hadley wishes for the god awful neon lights back. There's nothing to hide the way everyone in the room is staring at him.

One of the boys—some pudgy East Asian kid with an unbelievable amount of gel in his hair—leans out of his seat to look at Hadley.

"Dave," he says, squinting at Hadley, "who is this white boy you've dragged into poor old Molly?"

"Be nice, Benji," says David, gesturing with pizza boxes. "He's my meal ticket."

"Nice to meet you, meal ticket," says Benji, leaning back in his seat and Hadley isn't quite looking at him because there is a girl—a really, really, heart-breakingly pretty girl—sitting right next to Benji.

Hadley doesn't know how long he keeps looking at her, staying rooted to the spot. But he does know that she's probably one of the most beautiful girls he's ever seen. She looks like she's been carved out of bronze—near damn perfect. She's a dream made real.

She smiles at Hadley.

His heart skips a beat.

"Hey, are you just going to keep standing there or what?" someone says, and Hadley has to tear his gaze away from the girl. "He looks like such a loser. "Where'd you find him, Dave?"

David puts a pizza box onto the table and straightens his spine. He gestures at Hadley with his right arm, and all eyes are on Hadley again. He looks down at the floor.

"This," says David, "is James Bishop Hadley. Otherwise known as the guy who's going to die in less than a year if I—that's right, I—don't save him."

"Cool," says another boy, with blond hair and a soft face. "I missed band practise for this?"

"Can you stop thinking about you and your band for one whole hour?" Hadley recognizes Shani's husky voice. "This is important."

Blond boy lets out a huff. "And I was thinking that Ryan and I were getting so—oh." He looks at Hadley again. "Never mind. He's actually cute."

"Uh," says Hadley, eloquently. "Thanks?"

"He's straight," says Shani. "And he's got pizza."

"No one is ever truly straight," says Blond boy. "And hey, pizza. Get that over here. I'm starving."

Hadley does as he's told. David watches him with amusement.

"Doesn't talk much, does he?" says the same guy who called Hadley a loser.. "You say you found him five days ago?"

"I didn't find him, I sensed him," says David. "And yeah, five days, give or take a few."

"And he's just gone with the flow till now?"

"Hassan?" David says. There's a slight edge in his voice. "What are you getting at?"

Hadley opens his mouth to say something, decides it might not be such a good idea, and promptly shuts his mouth.

"What I'm getting at is that anyone else would've asked a ton of questions. Freaked. Done something." Hassan shoots Hadley a glance. "I don't trust him."

"Don't let that get to you," says Shani, opening one of the pizza boxes. "Hassan doesn't trust his own mother."

"Can we do all this drama shit later? Not right when we're all about to eat pizza?" Benji nudges the pretty girl's knee with his own knee. "Right, Vic?"

"Right," she says. She gives Hadley a sly smile. "We're all hungry, aren't we?"

He's sure that's supposed to be an innuendo. Only, he isn't sure what to do with that knowledge. "Yeah, I guess I'm hungry."

"That's the most words I've ever heard him say," says Blond boy.

David pulls up a chair for Hadley to sit on. On his left sits Shani, Blond boy and Hassan. On his right sits Benji, Vic and David. Each of them get up at random intervals for paper plates, napkins, more pizza. They're all talking to each other all at once, and Hadley can't keep up with a single conversation. Probably because he's not a part of a single one. He hasn't felt this left out since Philippa's fifteenth birthday.

"Tell me this is halal," says Hassan, taking a bit of his own pizza slice. "I'll kill you if it isn't."

"What's halal?" Hadley asks.

They all stare at Hadley.

"What? What'd I say?"

"You," says Hassan, "are so white."

"I was asking a question. I didn't realize being white was a bad thing," Hadley says. "So what if I'm—mmmff."

David puts his hand over Hadley's mouth, effectively shutting him up. "Shh. Just shut up. You're digging yourself a hole here." With his other hand he takes a slice of pepperoni pizza and hands it to Hadley. "Shut up and eat your pizza. Don't pick any fights." David takes his hand off of Hadley's mouth.

"I'm not picking any fights!" Hadley says. "He's insulting me!"

Hassan narrows his dark eyes at Hadley. "I'm not insulting you. I'm just stating facts."

"How are you stating facts when you're—"

"Oh my god," interrupts Blond-boy. "Not even ten minutes and you're both fighting like children."

Hadley shifts his chair away from Hassan and closer towards Vic. "He's the one trying to start a fight, not me," says Hadley.

"Hey," says Vic, and Hadley cannot not look at her when she says it.

"Yes?"

"Eat your pizza."

David lets out a hideous snort of a laugh.

He gazes at the pizza in his hand. He doesn't even like pepperoni pizza.

"Or are you too high and mighty to dine like us peasants, your majesty?" says Hassan, smiling mockingly at him.

Hadley eats the pizza in three whole bites. He doesn't break eye contact with Hassan when he does it.

"God, that's disgusting," says Blond boy. He wrinkles his nose. "Remember when I said that you were cute? I take that back. You're nothing approaching attractive, sweet Jesus Christ."

"I thought that was pretty hot," says David, looking at Hadley with an expression that said he didn't find Hadley hot, at all.

"Dave, you're straight," says Benji. He's on his third pizza slice now. "I keep telling him he's straight but he just won't remember."

"You're not funny," says Shani. "You should be making fun of his standards, not his straightness."

"I thought you said that if you weren't gay you'd let James all over you," says David. He wipes his hands with a tissue, and without looking, gives Vic another tissue which she accepts without a word. It's a small gesture but for some reason, it looks intimate. It sets Hadley's stomach on edge.

"I was joking that time," says Shani. "I had to let him know I was gay, somehow."

David smiles. "Didn't stop him from flirting with you."

Hadley hadn't realized that the entire room had been listening to the conversation. They're all staring at him. He can feel his face flush.

Vic is the first to laugh. She laughs silently, her shoulders shaking with effort of laughter till she can't hold it anymore and God, Hadley hasn't fallen for a girl this fast in his entire life.

Some of the others are laughing too, but Hadley can't hear them. He can only hear Vic. Vic whose full name he doesn't even know, Vic whose laughter sounds as clear as bells to him. He thinks, maybe, just maybe, this would all be worth it for her, if he could get so much as her number.

"Have I mentioned," says Benji, cutting right through Hadley's thoughts, "how much I hate your name?"

"What?" Hadley scowls at him. "I like my name."

"Yeah, but—" Benji points what might be his fifth pizza slice at Hadley— "your name sounds like its straight outta a Jane Austen novel."

"It does not." Hadley scowls harder.

"Oh, Mr. Hadley," Blond boy says in a high pitched falsetto, throwing a hand over his forehead, "save me from the trappings of the patriarchy, my family, Victorian society and marry me, please!"

Hassan cracks a smile then gets rid of it just as quickly and David lets out another one of those hideous snort laughs.

"Okay, so," says David, standing up, "I think it's time for introductions."

"He probably knows all of our names by now," says Blond boy. "I'd be surprised if he didn't."

"I don't know your name," says Hadley.

"I am hurt, monsieur, that you would not even remember my—"

"Shut up, man," says Benji. Sixth slice? There's a sixth slice of pizza in his hand.

"Alright, everybody shut the heck up," says David. "Time for introductions, like I said, for the third time."

"That's actually the second time, Dave," says Shani. 

"Do I look like I know math?" retorts David. "Okay. For real, now."

Hadley prepares himself.

"This is Hassan," says David. "You two were already off to a good start."

Hassan flares his nostrils at Hadley. Hadley flares his nostrils back.

"This is Benji," says David. "Otherwise known as Benjamin Cho, also known as a total pain in the ass."

Benji puts his middle finger to his lips, smacks it, and blows a kiss to David. "Love you too."

David shudders. "Nasty. Anyway. This is Shani. You met her before."

Shani gives Hadley a two fingered salute. Hadley waves back.

"This asshole over here is Frank," says David, pointing at Blond-boy. "His actual name is Francis. You both have stuffy names. You should get along."

Frank is probably the least fitting name Hadley's ever heard for someone who looks like he's stepped out of a Renaissance painting—golden curls, sensual mouth, and clear-eyed. The only thing that makes him any different from the average depiction of an angel is the brown hue of his skin.

David gestures at Vic and Hadley really wishes he didn't feel like such a sap whenever he looks at her. She smiles at Hadley. Or David. Hadley really wishes it's Hadley.

"And this lovely lady over here is Victoria. Vicky. Vic," David says. With a smile, he adds, "My ex."

Hadley starts choking on his own spit.

"Hey, Vic," says David, ignoring Hadley. "You look nice today."

"Hey, Dave," says Vic. "You look nice, too. It's such a shame we broke up."

"I know." David beams at Hadley. "Isn't she just great?"

"Yeah," Hadley mutters. "Just great."

"And this," says David, gesturing at the empty air before them, "is Jeanne."

"I don't see any Jeanne," says Hadley. "Unless you're talking about the coffee table."

"Wait for it."

"Wait for wh—oh!"

Because someone's just appeared right before his very eyes. Hadley'd blinked, and where there was no person before, there was now a person. A girl? No. A boy? No. He can't tell much, really, beyond the brown, terracotta color of their skin and their over-sized clothes and their dark hair cut brutally close to the scalp.

"I was wondering when you'd show up. This is Jeanne," says David. "They're a little creepy, but you'll get used to them."

"I'm not creepy," says Jeanne. "And why's he looking at me like that?"

"Um, I'm sorry," says Hadley. "I was just wondering—"

"If I'm a boy or girl? I'd been wondering that for my entire life." Jeanne smiles at him. "I'll spare you the trouble though. I'm neither."

"Jeanne's non-binary," says David. "Is what they're trying to say."

"That's nice," says Hadley. "I was wondering how you just appeared out of thin air, actually."

Jeanne smiles at him again. "It's a talent. Which I tend to exploit."

They move across the room like liquid, or something to that effect. Like they're not meant to be solid. Jeanne's demeanor is such an incongruity with their scruffy appearance that Hadley's more intrigued by the way they walk rather than they somehow manage to look like a shadow and a person at the same time. It almost seems familiar.

"So, that's everyone," says David. "You met Molly, of course."

Hadley hears an ominous rumble from below his feet.

"I've met her," he says. "So, now what?"

"Now, you take a seat," says David, dragging Hadley by the arm, and pushing him onto a chair. "And Molly sets the atmosphere."

"God, you're so dramatic," says Frank. "You don't have to do any of this, you know?"

"Do what?" Hadley asks.

"Oh," says David, with a shrug. "Just this."

Hadley blinks.

The room is suddenly pitch black. Hadley can't see a damn thing. It's a darkness which is complete and utter in its lack of light. It's a choking sort of darkness, something that makes his breath catch in his throat.

"Relax," says David's voice. Something grips Hadley's shoulder. "It's just a little dark."

"Tell me that it's you touching my shoulder," says Hadley. "Please."

"What? No. I'm not touching anything," says David. "Haha, just kidding. I am. Relax. Wait for it."

"I swear to god if some freaky shit happens again—"

Light comes back in a flood so bright Hadley has to close his eyes. He waits one second, twos seconds, three, four until it becomes too long and David says something but it sounds muffled and distant.

"Hey," David says, voice suddenly clear. "Hey, are you okay?"

"If I open my eyes," says Hadley, "will I see some freaky shit?"

"Depends," says David, taking his hand off of Hadley's shoulder, "on your definition of freaky shit."

Hadley opens his eyes. He closes them again.

"Tell me this isn't happening."

"It's happening."

"Tell me we're not in my room."

"We're in your room."

"Where's everybody else?" Hadley asks.

"Not here, that's for sure," David answers.

­ Hadley opens his eyes again. He's sitting on his bed with David across him, in his own room, staring at the floor when he realizes that something is wrong. He can't tell what, exactly, but something feels wrong, something is wrong, and this room that looks exactly like his bedroom might not be his bedroom. He doesn't know where he is or where David's brought him but this isn't his room. It can't be. He's dreaming. This is all going too fast and he feels like he should be throwing up, but he's not. There's no vertigo. No dizziness. This is all so wrong, he shouldn't be feeling so damn calm about any of this, why isn't he freaking out about anything—

"We're in my room," says Hadley. He rubs his chin. "Alright. We're in my room." He lets out a long and rattled breath. "Now what?"

"Now," says David, getting up from the bed and not quite meeting Hadley's eyes. "Now, we start."

***

a/n: hfskjfj goddddd man who cares... HWO CARES!!! i do but i dont... you get me? you get me?

also wattpad let me fucking indent!!!! my !!! shit!!