Cyrus v. the Homosapien Agenda

10/31/21

A.N.: Things will be revealed...

Cyrus

The best day of October has arrived, and with it the sad realization that it is a Sunday. Which means, no drinking at Marty's party. For the main day, all of us are dressed up as various characters from Harry Potter. I'm the titular Harry Potter, Andi's Luna Lovegood, Buffy's Hermione Granger, Jonah's Ron Weasley, Marty's Cedric Diggory, and TJ's Draco Malfoy. As a courtesy, we asked any guests who wanted to dress up as HP characters to tell us beforehand, as well as which costume. Of course, Reed wanted to get into the fun and for some inane reason he chose to be Viktor Krum. Gus asked too, but he's decided to be Neville, which personally is a good fit for him. Hopefully he doesn't behead a snake with the Sword of Gryffindor next year.

Buffy's going to pick us up, thanks to my parents' rule of no more than one person in the vehicle with me, unless it's my sister. Which is totally unfair because I've had my license for over a year, and thankfully, my clumsiness does not translate to my driving. Since Buffy lives closest to me, she picks me up, then Jonah, then finally Andi, normally. But Andi's staying the night, because Bex and Bowie believe their house is too far from Grant and Marty's house, so it'll be easier for her to be safe at mine and be able to get to school on time. The Mack's are really cool.

As soon as Andi walks through the door, she spots the therapy puppies my parents have and runs over to pet them. Arms full of fluffy puppy, her voice is muffled when she turns to talk to me, "I am so glad you have therapists as parents."

I just laugh, "Mom and Dad should give away puppies instead of candy for Halloween."

"That would be amazing. In non-puppy discussion, being fairly new to Shadyside, how is a Marty party?"

"Legendary. The guy's last name literally translates to 'From the Party'. I think he's a descendant of people who threw parties for a living or something and invented a bunch of types. We've been trying to set a record for the fastest party thrown together. He's at 20 minutes right now."

"I'm guessing the no-alcohol issue won't be one at his party?"

"Of course it won't. He knows how to cater to people. Be prepared for the best mocktails ever. Amber once swore she'd never drink a non-virgin piña colada ever because the virgin one she had at the party was the best she'd ever had."

"If Marty had a replacement for wine, that would be awesome. Cece goes through her stash fairly quickly and it would be nice to have a replacement."

"Your grandma drinks a lot?" I ask, stunned she speaks of it casually.

"No, of course not!" she defends, "I mean, she did drink kinda regularly after Pops died, but us moving here helped. She has a lot of guests over often and she always offers them wine. If she can get a replacement for that, she'd be eternally grateful."

"Well, you'd have to ask Marty."

Kira bounds down, "Hey Andi."

"Hey Kira," Andi says, her voice still muffled from the dogs.

Kira turns to me, "I'm sorry, I know it was my turn to open the door. But I was video chatting Bram and I lost track of time."

"How is he?" I say, picking up a therapy puppy.

"He's doing really good. Do you remember Simon Spier?"

"Yeah, that guy who's best friends with Nick Eisner, Bram's old soccer teammate? What about him?"

"Andi, can you give us a second?" Kira asks and she nods.

I follow her to the living room, "I haven't told you this before because he swore me to keep it a secret. But now he's ready to tell. Bram's engaged. To Simon."