"What the hell is Melissa doing here?"

Jenn rolled her eyes and pushed Quinn through the doorway. "I'm just gonna go way out on a limb here and say that maybe Logan invited her. You know, seeing as this is his party and all."

"Why would he do that?" Frowning, Quinn let himself be nudged forward into the foyer of the laser tag building. The huge room was obnoxiously decorated in neon graffiti and army motifs.

"You're the one who accepted the invitation to his arch-nemesis' birthday party," Faisal reminded him, chuckling. "Besides, what's wrong with her being here? I feel like making out in a dark corner while everyone's trying to shoot you with laser guns has to be pretty romantic, right?"

"Actually, I was kinda thinking I was gonna break up with her," Quinn admitted, brushing his hair out of his eyes. He had just wanted to wait until after tonight, so he would know he wasn't making a stupid mistake when he did it. He was already having enough doubts about his plan without having to deal with Melissa on top of it.

"Ouch," Faisal said sympathetically.

"Seriously?" Jenn asked in disbelief.

Shrugging, Quinn said, "Yeah. I'm just not really into it."

"God, you are so ungrateful," Jenn muttered.

"I didn't ask you to set me up with her," Quinn said dryly.

"Oh yeah, I was just trying to, you know, be a good friend. But that is literally the last time I help you with anything." Jenn put on a sweet smile as they joined the others. "Hey, guys."

"Sup, fa--friends." Logan laughed to cover his slip-up, then hurried on. "I'm glad you guys came. We're basically gonna take over the whole place, it'll be sick."

Quinn wanted to go over to say hello to Matt, but Melissa gave him a smile and crept over to his side as Logan introduced his brother Adam, Everett, and the other guys who were hanging out with them. Melissa reached shyly for his hand; not knowing what else to do, Quinn laced his fingers through hers. Jenn gave him a scathing look, which had the intended effect of making Quinn feel like a piece of shit. It was just that he couldn't exactly break up with her here, in front of everyone.

Quinn left his backpack by the front desk when they moved into the preparation room with racks of vests glowing green and red. A bored-looking employee came in to shout off his spiel about the rules, then told them to separate into teams.

Batting her pretty blue eyes at him, Melissa asked, "Quinn, um, will you help me put my vest on? I've never done this before."

"Really? Never?" Quinn asked skeptically.

"Yeah." Melissa gave him a small smile and lifted her strawberry blonde hair out of the way, revealing her long, pale neck and the tempting curve of her cleavage in her low-cut shirt. "Please?"

Quinn was pretty sure she was lying, but he felt obligated to fasten the straps for her, and he didn't mind the chance to look a little, if she was offering.

When he was done, Melissa laughed shyly. "Thank you. Is it okay if I stick with you in there? I'm afraid I'll get lost in the dark."

It was ridiculous because she was as transparent as glass, but somehow Quinn still found this act really cute and he would have been very into it if he couldn't see Matt on the other side of the room, laughing that stupid, adorable laugh as he dodged a noogie from Logan.

Pulling his eyes away, Quinn smirked and said, "Sure. You can stick with me."

As Melissa moved up towards the entrance, her butt jiggled in her tiny shorts and Quinn couldn't help thinking that maybe he should really wait to break up with her, just in case things didn't work out the way he was hoping.

Faisal leaned in close to Quinn and murmured, "Are you really gonna pass on that? She wants it bad."

Quinn snorted. "Shut up, Faisal."

"Ready for this, Quinn?" Matt called, grinning at him from the group of people in green vests by the doors.

Quinn smirked at him as he caught up with Melissa and Jenn. "You're going down, Matteo."

"Yeah, right," Matt retorted.

The doors, spray-painted rather unconvincingly to look like industrial, bomb-proof doors, slid open, and an alarm blared overhead. Everyone took off at a sprint into the dark maze, some alone and some moving in small groups.

Melissa followed close on Quinn's heels for a little while, but after a few run-ins with the other team and one long sprint up into a tower with a view of half the maze, he found he had lost her.

"Oops," he muttered, peering back down the ramp he had come up, then through one of the windows in the wall. He couldn't see her, and he didn't want to risk giving away his position by calling her name. Hunkering down in his hiding spot, he aimed through the window in the black-painted plywood wall and started picking off opposing team members.

Soft footsteps sounded on the ramp, and Quinn spun his gun in the other direction, but the person who appeared on the landing was Faisal, his vest blinking a friendly red.

"Have you seen Melissa?" Quinn asked.

Faisal shook his head and moved over to the other window. "Did you lose her?"

"Yeah. She wanted to stick together."

"Whatever, she'll be fine."

Nodding, Quinn lifted his gun again and looked back through the window. A pair of people in green vests were creeping around a corner towards some red team members, their backs to Quinn, and he quickly shot both of them. Their vests went dark, and he could hear their mutters of annoyance. One of them looked up towards Quinn's hiding spot.

"Dude, I think I gave us away," Quinn warned Faisal. The people started towards the base of the ramp. Quinn darted over to the raised walkway that led away from the tower on the other side. "I'm bailing."

"Cool. I'll take them out."

Listening for sounds of confrontation, Quinn trotted across the semi-exposed walkway. Just as he rounded the corner he heard exclamations of surprise from the tower. Lowering his gun, he peered back down the path but couldn't see much. The voices had fallen to low murmurs, impossible to make out below the shouts echoing around the maze.

When he turned around again, he almost ran into Matt, creeping around the corner of a narrow wall with his gun raised. For a split second they stared at each other in surprise, and then Quinn dove for cover. He missed, hitting the edge of the wall hard and falling to the ground with a gasp of pain. Swearing profusely, he clutched at his shoulder.

Looking concerned, Matt lowered his gun and hurried over. "Hey, are you okay?"

Clenching his jaw, Quinn hissed, "That was just about the most graceful thing I've ever done."

Matt huffed in a laugh and crouched down to put his hand on Quinn's throbbing shoulder, his thumb probing ungently. "Do you think you broke it or something?"

"No, it just feels like I got punched by a really pissed off elephant. One that was probably drunk. I'll be fine."

"Okay."

Matt didn't move. His hand was still on Quinn's shoulder. They looked at each other, too close together in the dark, the throbbing pain in Quinn's shoulder pulsing with his quickening heartbeat, and there was no thought of Melissa in Quinn's head, no thoughts of anything except how soft Matt's eyes looked when he was worried, how warm his hand was on Quinn's shoulder, how much he wished Matt would just do something, anything, to let him know that this wasn't all just in his head, that he wasn't the only one who thought this friendship felt like more than that.

The blinking green lights on Matt's vest flickered and went dark. They both looked over to see Faisal at the end of the walkway from the tower grinning hugely at them. Reflexively, Quinn pushed Matt away from him; Matt overbalanced and fell on his butt, laughing.

"Got you," Faisal said smugly. "What's going on here? Why were you both lit up? I smell collusion."

"Matteo got me but my vest just restarted," Quinn muttered, pushing to his feet and avoiding Matt's eyes. "Come on, let's get out of here before he can get us back."

"You can't hide from me," Matt called after them. Quinn flipped his middle finger up over his shoulder.

It wasn't much longer before the alarm went a second time, and they all piled out into the foyer to look at the scoreboard. Melissa and Jenn were standing together, laughing over something, and Quinn and Faisal joined them.

"Who's Melificent?" someone asked, and Quinn looked around to see Logan's brother, Adam, peering up at the scoreboard.

"Oh, um, that's me," Melissa said softly, her cheeks going a little pink.

Adam grinned at her. "Wow, you kicked my butt."

Quinn looked up at the huge screen. At the top of the scoreboard was Melificent, followed closely by GardenofEden. Everyone else trailed them by several hundred points.

Snickering, Quinn gave Melissa a meaningful look. "That's a pretty good score for someone who's never played before."

Her cheeks so pink they were probably hot to the touch, Melissa laughed, too. "Well, you ditched me, so I guess my helpless maiden ploy didn't really work, did it?"

"Ooh, burn," Faisal said with a laugh.

"Sorry," Quinn tried.

"No, it's okay," Melissa said, but her smile said that it wasn't really okay.

Quinn worried at the inside of one piercing with his tongue, wondering if he should ask her to go somewhere private and break up with her now. Before he could decide, Jenn asked her something and she turned away, and soon they were all being ushered into the ready room for the next round.

Melissa didn't bother trying to stay with Quinn at all during the rest of the games; in fact, she sprinted around collecting points and trying to maintain her lead over Adam. Quinn didn't run into Matt again for longer than a few seconds, but he still had his plan, even if he grew more nervous about it as the night wore on.

When they had finished the last game, they all gathered in the foyer one last time while some people waited for rides. Quinn shouldered his backpack. Melissa stood off by the doors, alone. Feeling guilty, Quinn went over to stand beside her. She didn't try to hold his hand.

"Are you coming to Logan's?" Quinn asked, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other.

Melissa tucked the end of one strand of hair between her lips. "No, my mom is coming to pick me up."

"Okay."

A small laugh escaped Melissa. "You're not gonna try to change my mind?"

"Oh, well, if you want me to," Quinn began, looking away uncomfortably.

She looked at him with sad eyes. "Do you even like me?"

Quinn looked down at his feet. "I like you. We just don't have a lot in common, I guess."

Melissa was quiet for a bit, gnawing on her hair. Then, in a thick voice, she asked, "Is there someone else?"

"I, uh--" Quinn laughed nervously, picking at his thumbnail.

"I hope you treat her better than you treated me," Melissa said, tucking her chin and wiping at her eyes. "See you, Quinn." She pushed away through the doors into the soft evening light and climbed quickly into the back seat of the car that had just pulled up. Quinn thought that probably could have gone better, but the relief that it was over made him light-headed.

Everybody who wasn't going over to Logan's house was now gone. Moments later Logan and Matt came out of the bathroom together.

"How long does it take you two to piss?" Everett complained, swinging his car keys around on his finger. "Were you jerking each other off in there something?"

"You wish, Ev," Matt snorted.

Logan punched Everett lightly in the arm, then slung an arm around his shoulder and grinned at everyone. "We good to go? Hey, where's Melissa?"

"She went home," Quinn said, shrugging. Logan narrowed his eyes but somehow managed to hold his tongue.

They all squeezed into Everett's mom's car: Jenn and Adam crushed together in the front passenger seat, in a situation that was surely making Logan incredibly jealous, and in the back seat Faisal, Logan, then Matt, and finally Quinn, who lost the arm wrestle and had to squeeze in on top of the other three.

Quinn may have lost the arm wrestle on purpose. He would never tell, but he did give Matt an apologetic smile as he squeezed onto his lap.

"Your butt is, like, so bony," Matt told him, sucking in a laugh.

Grinning, Quinn wriggled so that his sit bones dug into Matt's thighs.

Matt laughed hysterically, crying, "Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"Jeez, guys, stop flirting," Logan said, rolling his eyes from where he was squished in beside them. "The rest of us don't wanna listen."

"Then don't listen," Quinn retorted, snickering, but he settled anyways, bracing his hands against the seat in front to take some of his weight off Matt.

"Can we keep it down back there?" Everett complained. "Some of us need to focus on driving."

"So focus on driving," Logan retorted. "And go fast. I'm getting crushed here."

Without looking at Matt, Quinn poked him in the shoulder; huffing in another laugh, Matt pinched his side in return. Stifling his laughter, Quinn squirmed away, kicking Logan in the process.

Logan whacked Matt upside the head. "Seriously, stop," he laughed. "You're gonna squish all of us, you fatties."

Sticking his tongue out at Logan, Matt pulled his hands back. As he did so, he realized he had a bigger issue in that he had nowhere to put his hands. His left side was squashed up against the door, and his right side was squashed up against Logan. His lap was full of Quinn, skinny butt pressing into his crotch as Quinn leaned forward between the front seats to chat with Adam, all smiles. Matt had the sudden urge to rest his hand on Quinn's leg, but he thought it would seem too creepy so he didn't.

Logan was smirking at Matt. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?" he asked, just quietly enough that Quinn couldn't hear.

Matt made a face at him and elbowed him in the side. "Shut up, Logan." Solving the problem of where to put his hands by crossing his arms over his chest, he added, "You're a jerk."

"When are you gonna confess?" Logan asked, smirking more widely.

"Confess what?" Quinn asked. He had looked around at them now, his eyes widened innocently.

Matt rolled his eyes at Logan.

"That he's not as good of a skater as I am," Logan said smugly, smacking the brim of Matt's hat with the back of his hand so that it tipped off his head.

"Hey," Matt protested, reaching up to catch it, but Quinn was faster, and he smiled at Matt as he pressed his hat back down over his hair, fingers brushing Matt's cheek a little as he did so. Matt could feel the back of his neck get hot. To distract himself, he muttered, "Quinn's a better skater than you."

Logan gaped at him. "Betrayal," he gasped.

They argued about this all the rest of the way back to Logan's, dissecting the difficulty of various tricks each had done in the past. The discussion wasn't settled as they trooped into the house and kicked off their shoes. Quinn left his backpack by the front door.

Faisal was clearly fed up. "Shut up, guys," he suggested, rolling his eyes. "Why don't you just like, all go skating together and fight it out that way."

Logan tossed a smirk at Quinn while they made their way into the kitchen. "Okay, Jolly Rancher. Let's do it."

Quinn gawked at him. "What?"

"You can come to the skate park with us tomorrow," Logan told him off-handedly. "I'll show you how it's done."

Quinn's smile was slow and wide. "Sure you will, Logan," he said smugly. "You'll probably just fall on your ass."

Logan's mom had left a cake for them in the refrigerator, and now Logan cut it up into enormous pieces that fell apart as he dumped them onto plates. They each took one as they made their way down into the basement, where Adam had the Nintendo 64 set up with the GoldenEye cartridge and four controllers. Laughter and insults filled the room as they took turns at the game.

At some point late in the night, Adam and Quinn were both off, slouching in the beanbag chairs in the corner while the others threw insults and shoved each other for advantage. Quinn yawned hugely, then blinked away the tears that sprang up.

"Yeah, it's been a long night," Adam laughed.

"How late do these things usually go?" Quinn asked, pushing his hair out of his eyes. "Am I gonna have to drag Matteo out the door?"

"Drag him out the door?" Adam repeated in confusion, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Is his mom driving you home? I thought you lived on the other side of town."

"Yeah, I do." Quinn shrugged. "I'm sleeping over at Matteo's."

Adam blinked at him. "Oh, I didn't realize you were-- I thought you and Melissa were a thing. How long have you been going out with Matt?"

"What?" Quinn stared right back at Adam, sitting a little more upright. Slowly, he asked, "Why the hell would you think that I'm going out with Matteo?"

"Oh." Adam's eyes widened in alarm. "Sorry, I just assumed, when you said-- and the way you guys-- I mean, how he looks at you, I thought-- Like, you do know that Matt is gay, right?"

Quinn gawked at him, his pulse pounding in his ears. "Did he tell you that?"

Adam clamped his teeth together, looking deeply embarrassed. "Oh, jeez. Forget I said anything."

Quinn leaned forward, staring intently at Adam. "Did Matteo tell you that he's gay?"

Laughing nervously, Adam glanced over at his brother and Matt, where they were wrestling over a controller. "No, as far as I know he's never said-- but when he kissed me I sorta figured--"

Quinn just about fell out of his beanbag chair. "When he kissed you?"

Adam groaned and covered his face. "Oh, my God. I'm sorry. I shouldn't be telling you this. Did you really not know?"

"When the hell did Matteo kiss you?" Quinn demanded, pale eyes flashing.

Adam pressed his palms out towards Quinn in a gesture of apology, smiling guiltily. "Look, Quinn, this was a couple months ago. There's nothing between us at all, I swear. I'm totally straight."

Adam's soothing tone making him suddenly aware that he was acting like a jealous psycho, Quinn clenched his jaw. "You know it's pretty shitty of you to go around telling other people's secrets like that," he said coolly.

"Don't tell him I told you," Adam begged, twisting his fingers together. "Oh, God, you're not some homophobic asshole, are you?"

Matt happened to glance over at them, and when he saw Quinn watching him he smiled hugely. Slowly, a wide smirk grew on Quinn's face. For the first time, he felt a little bit confident that this might not be a total disaster.

"Don't worry," he told Adam, voice smug. "I won't tell him you said anything."