When Lance woke up, he thought his head was going to explode. He grit his teeth and tried to look around. He couldn’t remember going to bed, but he was waking up in his own room, so that was good.

He sat up and rubbed his head. As he looked around, he saw a plastic cup sitting on his dresser. He groaned when he remembered what it had held. He had gotten drunk. Heather was going to kill him.

As he got to his feet, he noticed that he was still wearing his Halloween costume. No surprises there. He sighed and stumbled around the bed to find clothes for school. He wasn’t going to stay home, because then everyone would know what had happened.

Lance stopped when he stepped on something. Looking down, he saw a pair of fluffy cat ears lying on the floor. He bent down and picked them up. They weren’t his, but they looked familiar. He turned them over in his hands.

Then he remembered. They were Fletcher’s. Why are they here? He wondered. Even as he thought the words, his stomach twisted. A hazy memory drifted through his head. He had thought it was just another strange dream. Could I really have… He brought a hand to his mouth in wonder.

“Lance!” An angry call came from downstairs. Lance cringed. He dropped the ears on his bed and went to see what the yelling was about.

He found Heather in the living room, picking up plastic cups. She looked at him and shook her head.

“This place is a mess.” Ralph grumbled. He knocked a bunch of cups from his chair and flopped down.

“What was in these?” Heather demanded, holding a cup in front of Lance’s face. “They smell like beer.” She tossed the cup into a garbage bag and handed the bag to Lance. “Were you drinking last night?”

Lance knew he couldn’t lie to her. She was married to Ralph, so she knew what a hangover looked like. She already knew that he had been drinking. Slowly, he started to pick up the plastic cups. “One of the guys brought it over.” He muttered. He was ashamed that he had even had a sip.

“If anything’s broken,” Ralph warned him. “You’re paying for it.”

“Yes, sir.” Lance mumbled. He wished that Ralph wouldn’t speak so loudly. His head was killing him enough already.

Heather sighed audibly. “Did everyone get home safely, at least?”

Lance froze. He didn’t know. He thought of Fletcher. If what he had thought was a dream really did happen, then Fletcher had run out in a state of panic. His stomach dropped when he thought of Fletcher getting hit by a car.

“I… I…” His throat felt dry.

“You don’t know?!” Ralph boomed, making Lance wish he were dead. “How could you be so careless?!” He got up from his chair and walked over to Lance. Even though he was a little taller, Lance shied away. “If any of those kids’ parents sue us, I’m going to kill you!”

“Honey.” Heather placed a hand on Ralph’s arm. “Calm down.”

Ralph huffed and stormed out of the room. Heather followed him, leaving Lance to clean up and feel horrible.

* * *

Luckily, nobody had been hurt after the party. Heather had forgiven him, and Ralph had just fallen silent about it, grateful that nobody had sued. At school, many people had congratulated him on throwing a great party.

But he couldn’t be happy about it. Two weeks after the party, he knew beyond any doubt that Fletcher was avoiding him. When he walked to his locker, he sometimes saw Fletcher and Holly talking, but Fletcher would make a point to leave as soon as he saw Lance coming. Every time this happened, Lance felt his stomach clench.

He couldn’t even talk to Holly, he felt so bad. This was hard, since it seemed Holly had become Nicole’s new BFF. She had even joined the cheerleading squad.

“Tomorrow, at the game…” Nicole was saying excitedly to Holly after school on the fifteenth of November. Lance wasn’t really listening, but he gathered that they were talking about some routine they were going to do at a football game.

“Oh, yeah.” Holly replied as she pulled books from her locker. Lance glanced at her when he realized that she didn’t sound very excited. She looked tired.

“Please tell me” Nicole scoffed, “that you’re just saving your energy for tomorrow.”

Holly smiled at her. “Of course. Go Meteors!”

“Holly!” Nicole screamed, horrified. “No!”

Lance sighed. He felt bad for Holly. She clearly was tired. Their team were the Otters, and tomorrow they were playing against the Meteors.

“Sorry.” Holly muttered. She closed her locker and looked down the hall. Lance looked too and saw Fletcher standing against the wall a few meters away. Holly ran off toward him and they left together.