Or Treat: 3
by Scotty

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Halloween Night

Everyone who could go home had already gone.

That meant Trace and Nick were laid out like roaches on the living room floor. There were pieces of candy corn and crushed ginger snap cookies near where they had fallen asleep. Nick had the remnants of a caramel apple stuck in his hair. And Trace, who had taken off all of his clothes for an impromptu midnight swim, was out like a light. Someone had covered him with a plastic tablecloth, which was kind and then put one of the glow-in-the-dark rubber dicks in his mouth, which was not.

AJ and Christina who had found god and each other over a bowl of Everclear jello shooters, were in one of the upstairs guest rooms, sleeping it off. AJ was probably less engaged now than he had been when he came in the door.

The hayride was Chris’s special treat, a secret that no one but Joey had known about.

He had called off the show at the last minute making Matt Caplan madder than hell. Then he'd arrived jet-lagged and hoarse, having sung the entire first act of RENT for the first class passengers and two flight attendants on the cross-country trip. He’d barely had time to change into his costume and have two shots of Cuervo gold before reining in the horses and driving the wagon to the side of the house.

Chris was trying to keep him quiet, but Joey kept giggling and the horses kept snorting and eventually Lance came out the side door. He saw Joey and almost started to cry which would have been sweet and endearing if he had actually called him Joey, instead of Toby which, he insisted, was a name he was not drunk enough to have forgotten.

Chris took the paper cup out of hs hand and boosted him onto the wagon. Then he took one last look at the second story window that had long ago gone dark. When there was no sign of life, he climbed onto the back.

Lance smiled, suddenly more sober than Chris has imagined. “So. We went to all that trouble for nothing. They were already together.”

Chris shook his head. “Operational word, were. At one time. Now they are. And we did it. No oils or oysters required.”

Chris reached across and tapped their cups together.

“To words starting with O.”

Lance shook his head, obviously lost.

Chris laughed, then settled back into the hay, a smug smile on his face.

“Wake me when you get it. There's still time for one last treat.”