Featuring Pinto
Chris
stepped outside as Zach held the door open of the Starbucks they had just had
coffee at just moments earlier.
“Dinner
next?” Chris wondered, because truth be told, he was hungry. The espresso he’d just
downed hadn’t really done much to get rid of that.
He’d
been vaguely surprised to even hear from Zach as he knew his friend had a
pretty busy filming schedule right now. Still, Chris wouldn’t complain about
any chance to spend time with Zach.
“Eventually,
sure,” was Zach’s reply. “But it being October and just a couple of weeks until
Halloween, I thought we’d do something else first.”
Chris
eyed him. “Something else? Halloween? Oh, God. Please tell me you aren’t having
us go to an Escape Room. I’m claustrophobic.”
Zach
rolled his eyes. “I know that, Christopher. Not an Escape Room. A haunted
house.”
“A
haunted…damn it, Zach. Most of those are so lame. I haven’t gone to one of
those since I was a teenager.”
“A very
long time ago,” Zach cracked.
“Says
the guy who is older than me. Okay,
fine. We’ll go. But you are so buying dinner.”
Zach
smiled amicably. “Sure, sure.” He clicked open the locks of the rental car. “Get
in, my boy.”
Chris
snorted, but got in. Zach remained mostly silent on the way to the haunted house.
Beating a rhythm on the dashboard to Monster Mash playing on the radio.
He
pulled into a parking lot that proclaimed it was for the Haunted House. To Chris
it looked like one of those prop houses on the movie lots, but he shook his
head, grinned good-naturedly, and got out to follow Zach up to the door where
his friend forked over two five dollar bills as entrance fees.
A woman
stood in the front entry way of the house, dressed in an outfit reminiscent of
a Disneyland costume from the Haunted Mansion.
“Welcome,
Victims,” she declared in a falsely eerie voice. She pointed to an elevator. “This
way.”
Chris
withheld his eye role and followed Zach and a few others into the elevator,
which predictably dropped several flows below. There was a scream and the elevator
went dark.
“Disney
should sue,” Chris muttered. He put his hand on Zach’s arm.
The
elevator stopped and the lights flashed on.
He
turned to Zach to say something about the lameness when he saw his hand was on
some other guy’s arm. He stared at Chris.
“Do you
mind, dude?” the guy said, moving away.
“Zach?
Where the hell did you go, man?” He glanced around but didn’t see his friend. Everyone
was moving on to the next part, so Chris followed, all the while looking for Zach,
figuring his impatient friend had gone on without him.
At the
next part, Chris jumped a little when costumed performers jumped out unexpectedly.
And okay, maybe the first time his scream was a little high-pitched.
“Zach? Dude, where’d you go?”
He moved
on to another part with a room full of twisted mirrors, but still didn’t find
Zach. He was starting to get pissed. He hadn’t expected Zach to ditch him.
At the
end, the last room had a mad scientist, and he was working on a mannequin in a
chair. He pulled out a drill and aimed it for the dummy’s mouth.
And then
the dummy screamed.
“Chris!
Chris! Help! Help!”
****
“Hey,
come on, Chris. It was a joke, okay?”
“Not
funny.” Chris walked ahead back to the car.
“It was
a little. You should have seen your face.” Zach stopped to double over
laughing.
“Fuck
you, Quinto.”
Zach
straightened and scrambled after him. “Sorry. Come on. Sorry. Okay.”
Chris
looked away, and wiped his eyes.
“Wait.
Jeez. You…you aren’t crying, are you?”
“No.”
“Shit.
Yeah, you are. Chris, man, no. I didn’t mean anything. It was just a stupid…”
Zach grabbed Chris’ arms and turned him. “I would never…”
Chris
laughed and smacked him in the face. “Crying. Get real.”
“You
asshole!” Zach touched his face where Chris hit him. But he was laughing too. “You
had me going.”
Chris
smirked. “Yeah? That was lame, Quinto.”
Zach
nodded. “Yeah, a little.” He searched Chris’ eyes. “So, we’re good?”
“Yeah.”
He moved in close, putting his hand over Zach’s that still touched his face
where Chris had hit. “Did I hurt you?”
“Stung a
bit.”
“Yeah?”
“Want to
kiss and make it better?”
Their
hands lowered from Zach’s face and Chris smiled, leaning in, kissing his stubbly
jaw.
“Did that
make it better?”
“Hmm.
Not sure. You’d better do it again.”
Chris
chuckled, but he did, and just as his lips touched Zach’s jaw, he turned his
face, so that Chris was kissing his mouth instead. Chris’ tongue teased the
corner of Zach’s mouth.
“Better?”
Chris murmured and kissed him again, this time longer.
“Way
better. Dinner? How about we order a pizza and eat it at your place?”
“Best
idea you’ve had since you called me, Quinto.” He kissed Zach long and slow,
lingering over the stubble of his jaw as he pulled back. “Maybe you can try
escaping from my room.”
Zach
shook his head. “I’ll fail. Because I’m not leaving until morning.”
Chris
laughed. “I thought surely that should be my line. You’ll never get away.” His
laughter was sinister.
Zach
opened the rental car. “Just get in, Pine.”
“Home,
James.”
“Zach.
Remember? Zach.”
Chris
reached for his hand and threaded their fingers together. “Yeah. Yeah. I know.”
