It was New Year's Eve, which didn't really change anything, but it was the best excuse Erik could create later. The whole Y2K scare of the year before had gone and passed, and a New Year's party without the fear of the heater shutting off at midnight felt almost dull by comparison. Erik supposed that he also had the excuse of being drunk, even though he wasn't really drunk, only a little tipsy, but maybe "I was drunk" would be good enough excuse for Jason.
The party had actually been a real New Year's party, the first one either Jason or Erik had attended; usually, the two best friends would hang out with a few friends watching "Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's Eve" or something equally lame. However, this being their senior year of high school, it felt right to go to an actual party with alcohol, popular people, and fun to be had by all. It had been terribly disappointing; the most interesting thing that had occurred before midnight was Erik's accidentally stumbling upon two half-clad people necking in the closet when he attempted to hang up his coat.
Jason had wanted to leave before midnight and go home to turn on Dick Clark and throw popcorn at the television screen, which probably would have been more fun, but Amanda, a girl Erik knew, had caught them and begged them to stay until 12:01. They remained there, bored out of their wits for probably half an hour, at first talking to Amanda, who apparently wanted to tell Erik all about her new boyfriend. Eventually she wandered away, probably to share the news with some other unfortunate soul, and Jason said, "Let's blow this popsicle stand."
They had managed to make their way down to the ground level of the house, but were nowhere near the door due to the crowd of people milling around, when someone yelled "Hey! It's starting!" The annual countdown had begun.
10... It occurred to Erik that he would much rather be at home with Jason and Jason's older brother, Chris, creating stories about Dick Clark, the vampire who never ages, than standing in the middle of this claustrophobic crowd, pressed shoulder-to-shoulder with Jason.
9... Jason saw couples around him gathering because everyone kisses on New Year's. If he remembered correctly, it was supposed to be for luck or something.
8... 7... A guy who had seen probably a few too many empty beer cans that night handed Erik and Jason really obnoxious noise-makers, yelled "Whoo!" in Erik's ear, then continued on his way.
6... Jason crossed his eyes at Erik, who smiled goofily back at him.
5... 4... They tossed their noisemakers at a nearby couple, a blonde girl with a basketball player, who looked too much like Barbie and Ken to be real. Barbie looked over at them annoyed, and Jason looked back at her as though he was confused by her anger. She turned back to Ken.
3... 2... Jason and Erik bolted toward the door while no one was crowding it, stopping their escape. They stopped right in front of the door, well out of anyone else's line of vision to catch their breath before escaping into the chill night.
1... Erik looked up at Jason to smile at him, grateful that he had put up with the extra half-an-hour of party for him.
"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"
Erik was not in his right mind when he kissed Jason. For a moment, he thought it would turn out all right because Jason, for a second, returned the chaste, closed-mouth kiss before collecting himself and pulling back. A look of confusion marred his usually handsome face.
"Erik, what the hell was that?" Jason asked, sounding somewhere between confused and angry. His mind was a swirl of fluttering, cloudy emotions, the brightest being the red of both anger and embarrassment.
"I-- I just-- I didn't mean to--" Erik stammered.
The moment of camaraderie was gone, and Jason flung open the door, walking out to his car parked down the street. Erik trailed after him. Jason drove Erik home in stony silence.
Jason spent the final three days of Christmas break in his house. He sat around reading and watching television and blatantly avoided Erik. The car never left the house; the phone wasn't picked up. Jason merely sat around and fidgeted. He would never have admitted it, but he was bored. Bored, angry and confused.
The day before he had to go back to school and face Erik for the first time since New Year's Eve, Jason sat around and tore up three sheets of notebook paper into fine confetti before his brother sat down on the arm of the sofa and said, "Dude, you're clawing at the walls. Why don't you call Erik and get out or something?"
When Jason was silent, Chris seemed to understand. "What? Did you guys have a fight or something?"
Jason ripped another piece of paper out of his notebook and went to shredding it. "More like the 'or something' part."
"Jeez. What did he do to you? You've been all hermit-like."
Jason ripped the piece of paper in half harshly. "Chris? Leave me alone."
Chris yanked the paper out of Jason's hands. "You're acting like a child, Jase. What's your problem?"
"He freakin' kissed me, all right?" Jason exploded, a hand landing in his homemade confetti, scattering it across the coffee table and onto the floor. "Now, will you leave me the hell alone?"
"Jesus, Jase. You're treating him like you hate him; how do you think he feels? If he can't trust you to be a decent person to him over this, who can he trust? Act like an adult for once, would you?" Chris said before picking up a handful of the confetti on the table and dumping it on Jason's head.
Erik was sitting at home that Sunday before school started up again. He was reading, trying to pretend that his best friend wasn't the biggest jerk in the history of the world when the phone rang. For the past few days, he'd been letting his mother answer the phone, but she was at the grocery, so he picked it up. "Hello?"
The tentative voice came back across the line, "Hi, Erik. It's me, Jason."
"I know," Erik answered, figuring two could play at this game of being cold.
Jason replied, "Are you, you know, okay?"
"I'm fine, no thanks to you," Erik answered, putting a slip of paper in his book to mark his place; this could take a while.
"I just wanted to let you know that I know I was kind of a prick on New Year's," Jason's voice came across the phone line.
"There was no kind of about it, Jase."
"Dude, I'm trying to apologize here," Jason said, voice taut with emotion.
Erik sighed. "So apologize, then."
"I'm sorry, Erik, you probably didn't need me to be a big jerk right then."
"I didn't mean to, you know," Erik explained for the second time.
"Are you gay?"
"Is that your business?"
Jason's voice got all taut with anger again. "I'm your best friend, still, aren't I? Are you gay?"
Erik gave in, defeated. "I don't know."
"I'm not, you know," Jason answered.
"I kind of figured."
Next New Year's Eve, they stayed home and watched Dick Clark's Rocking New Year's, and Jason kissed Erik on the cheek at midnight, just to prove that they were still friends.