No Such Thing as Too Young

You’re not the same,
‘Cause I can see it in your eyes.
I can see it on your face,
You’re hoping for a taste.
“Dead Walker Texas Ranger” – Sleeping with Sirens

Finally, the best day of the year had come. Halloween, my favourite day. All my friends and I had been invited to Alex Gaskarth’s annual Halloween party, which I was excited for because it was always awesome and just got better every year.

As I got home that afternoon I raced upstairs straight away to start putting on my costume. Wait a minute. Shit. I forgot to buy a fucking costume. I was too caught up thinking about how awesome the party was gonna be that I’d forgotten to buy a fucking costume to wear.

I immediately pulled my phone out of my pocket and called Vic.

“Hey, what’s up?” he said.

“Vic, because I’m such a fucking idiot I forgot to buy a fucking costume. Would it be too much to ask if you’d come to the shops and help me pick one out?”

“Jesus Christ, Kellin, who forgets to buy a fucking costume for Halloween?” he laughed.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. So will you help me?” I huffed.

“Sure, so long as I still have time to get ready afterwards. Can you pick me up?”

“Yeah no problem. Be there in a few minutes.”

I hung up and ran downstairs. “MUM, CAN YOU DRIVE ME AND VIC TO THE SHOPS?”

“If you stop yelling at me I will. What’s wrong?”

“I forgot to get a costume for the party tonight.”

“How can you-“

“Yeah I’m an idiot, can you please drive us?”

“Alright, get in the car and we’ll go get Vic.”

“There’s nothing here!” I cried out, frustrated as I rummaged through the costumes in the third shop we’d visited. “I’ll never find anything, there’s not enough time. I don’t think I’m gonna make it to the party.”

“Don’t say that! We’ll find something, you just have to stop being so fussy and pick something.”

“I’m trying!” I snapped. “Sorry,” I said as I noticed his offended expression. “I’m just stressed out. Halloween’s my favourite day of the year and I really want to make it to this party without looking like a dork.”

“It’s alright. Trust me, we’ll find something. What about… a zombie costume? You just gotta buy some cheap clothes that you can rip up, mess up your hair, get some fake blood and borrow your mum’s make-up.”

“Vic, you’re a genius. Why didn’t I think of that? Quick, let’s go.”

After a little bit of searching in different shops I came with a cheap black t-shirt to rip up and some fake blood, but only an hour left before the party. I called mum and asked her to pick us up, and she drove us to Vic’s house to get ready. We’d then walk to Gaskarth’s from there because he apparently didn’t live very far from Vic.

“Okay, I found some scissors,” said Vic, running back up the stairs. I took them and began hacking at the shirt with them, cutting out holes and tearing some rips in the bottom. “Don’t cut it up too much, you still want to have a bit of shirt to wear,” Vic warned. “By the way, here’s some jeans and a jacket you can borrow,” he said, handing me a pair of black skinny jeans and a light grey jacket.

“Thanks,” I said. “I’ll go put these on in the bathroom now so you can get dressed in here.”

I dressed as hurriedly as I could and then realised I’d forgotten something. “Vic!” I yelled. “I need make-up!”

“Coming!” he replied and came in a minute later with his costume on. He had bought a dorky Dracula costume with fake fangs and all, but it kinda suited him. “Here,” he said as he rummaged through the messy bathroom drawers. “You can use some of my mum’s, she won’t notice.”

We both spent a few minutes slapping on the palest foundation and powder we could find as well as surrounding our eyes in eyeliner and black eye shadow before smearing the fake blood on our faces and necks. “Actually, we don’t look half-bad,” I said when we’d finished, checking out our costumes and make-up in the mirror.

“We look awesome,” agreed Vic. “We’ve got ten minutes left, let’s go.”

“Wait!” I said as we walked out the door. I messed up my hair a bit with my hands, picked up some leaves and dirt from the ground and sprinkled it over my head. “There we go, all done,” I declared. “Now I look like I just crawled from the grave,” I said, wiggling my fingers at Vic and giving him the best creepy face I could.

“You’re an idiot,” he said. “Now hurry up!”

We arrived at the party only a few minutes after six o’ clock, meaning we weren’t really late at all. “Phew!” I sighed.

“All that worrying for nothing after all, huh?” said Vic.

“Shut up,” I replied. “Let’s go find our friends and something to drink.”

“Hey,” Vic called out a few minutes later. “Mike! What are you doing here?”

I then noticed Vic’s brother with a glass of whiskey in his hand, chatting with some kids I didn’t know. “Hey, bro,” he said. “I was invited along by these guys. I didn’t know you were coming.”

“Yeah, I’m in the same year as the guy running the party,” Vic replied.

“Oh right, I forgot you were. And hey, Kellin, how’s it going?” he said, shaking my hand.

“Not bad,” I replied. “Hoping we don’t have a repeat of the last party we went to,” I said, nudging Vic’s arm. Mike laughed as Vic scowled.

“Yeah, it’s your job to make sure he doesn’t get smashed again,” Mike said, pointing at me.

“Will do,” I grinned.

“Alright, whatever, let’s go Kellin,” said Vic grouchily, pulling me away from Mike as I laughed at him.

“Only kidding, buddy. Speaking of drinks, where are they?”

“Here,” said a voice behind me. I turned around to see Justin grinning and holding out a beer for each of us.

“Oh thanks man, you’re the best,” I said as I took the beer and took a big gulp.

“I know,” he said cockily. “Anyways, drink up, I heard a rumour that we’re all gonna play spin the bottle when everyone’s drunk enough and there’s certainly a few girls here I’d like to get paired with.”

“And we all know that they have to be drunk off their tits to agree to kiss you, Justin,” I said.

“Oh, ha ha, Kellin,” he said sarcastically. “Anyways, gotta go. Things to see, people to do. Talk to you later bro.”

“Do you wanna get something stronger than this?” I asked Vic after Justin left, holding up my beer. He nodded and we headed off to the kitchen.

“Hey, this is more your style, isn’t it?” I called out to Vic as I dragged out a bottle of vodka. “Drinking straight vodka until you throw up?”

“Shut up and give me the bottle,” he said as he rolled his eyes.

“I’ll only give it to you if you promise you’ll only have a couple. I don’t want a repeat of last time, it’s really not good for you,” I said warningly.

“Alright, I promise,” he sighed.

“Good,” I said. I handed him the bottle and let him pour himself a drink before taking it back and pouring one for myself.

“Cheers,” I said, holding up my glass. “And may you kiss someone hot during spin the bottle.”

He said nothing and swallowed his drink before reaching for the bottle again. He looked a little nervous.

“You ever played before?” I asked.

“Well… not exactly,” he mumbled.

“Trust me, it’s fun. There’s a chance you’ll get to make out with someone you’d never get to kiss under any other circumstances, and it’s hilarious watching everyone else play too.” I noticed he still looked uncomfortable. “Um… you’ve kissed girls before, right?”

“Well…” his whole face went bright red.

“Oh dude, seriously? So you’re like, a virgin too?” I was a bit shocked. I mean, he’s sixteen!

“Well, yeah. But please don’t, like, make a huge deal out of it. And don’t tell anyone. It’s embarrassing.”

“Yeah, I promise.” Man, that must suck for him.

About an hour later I’d made sure that Vic and I were nicely drunk, but neither of us were completely smashed to the point of being sick or passing out. And it was then that I’d heard the long awaited call – “Everyone! Spin the bottle in the lounge room!”

“Alright, let’s go!” I said to Vic. He looked sick with worry, and to be honest I was nervous tonight too. But I’ve played so many times, I couldn’t explain why I was so jittery. I guess Vic’s emotions were just contagious.

The circle was already forming as we entered the lounge room, and everyone was giggling and drunk and excited. Vic and I sat down next to each other and I could almost feel the tension radiating off his body.

“Alright, I’ll go first, and then we’ll go around in a clockwise circle, okay?” called Gaskarth when everyone was seated. He sat down and spun the empty wine bottle in the middle of the circle, and everyone held their breath until it landed on Tay Jardine. I’m pretty sure all her dreams just came true in that moment as he leaned over and kissed her. It was kinda gross to watch, to be honest. I’d forgotten how into it everyone gets.

I kinda zoned out for a while until I heard a sharp intake of breath next to me, and I turned to see Vic looking almost horrified, the bottle pointing towards him and a pretty girl called Danielle smiling at him expectantly. My stomach tightened as I watched her lean in towards Vic, but at the last second Vic pulled away.

“I- I can’t-” he stammered. “I- I’m not- I don’t…” he scrambled to his feet and stumbled out of the room, leaving everyone looking confused and poor Danielle slightly hurt. I jumped up, waited for the room to stop spinning, and went after him.

I found him in the bathroom, the door slightly ajar, leaning over the sink and breathing heavily.

“Vic?” I asked tentatively. “Are you okay? What happened?”

“I… I couldn’t- I… Kellin, I’m… gay. I couldn’t kiss her because I’m gay, and I didn’t want that to be my first kiss.”

“Hey, Vic, it’s okay. It’s understandable,” I said gently.

“No, it’s not. It’s not okay, because… because…”

And then he turned around, grabbed me by the shoulders and kissed me.