CALVIN

forty-two: the invitation

I unlocked the back door of haus 19 and led Calvin inside as quietly as possible. The exterior doors were loud and heavy, so I had to pay extra close attention to shutting it. When I turned around, Leon poked his head out of the bathroom, a toothbrush in his mouth. "Oh! Hey Eliaf, hey Calvin."

Calvin nodded at him. "Leon." 

Leon checked his high-end sports watch. "Quite late to be hanging out? I mean, I'm juft - I'm juft - hold on - " he ducked back into the bathroom and spit into the sink. " - I'm just heading to bed myself." He shrugged nonchalantly, leaning against the door frame. "Maria had to study tonight. I told her, 'Babe, Spring Break starts tomorrow, you don't need to study!' but." shrugged again. The three of us stood there in silence. "Anyways. Oh - hey - great job on the play!"

"Thanks, man," Calvin said.

"Yup. Don't mention it." he clapped me on the shoulder as he wedged past me. "Have fun tonight, you two." he winked as he opened his bedroom door. "You deserve it."

"Jesus Christ, Leon."

"Oh! And - " he came back out, a hand in the air, "remember: don't be silly, wrap your willy. Alright, night!"

"Oh my god - " I pushed Calvin up the stairs, trying to fight back the blush I knew was spreading all over my face.

Once we were upstairs, Calvin held onto my arm. "Are you sure Patrick isn't here?"

"He's at chess club." Then I noticed his shoes in front of the door - the only shoes Patrick ever wears. "Oh - maybe he's not at chess club. But I - uh - can get him to leave?" Calvin shrugged and nodded.

I opened the door slowly, expecting the lights to be off and Patrick to be in bed, on his phone playing the Kardashian game (the break-up with Louisa had been rough). Instead, the lamp light was on, and there was a carefully arranged pyramid of mandarins on Pat's desk that was almost as tall as the lamp. There must have been at least fifty mandarins in that pyramid.

I took a couple more steps into the room. Pat was sitting on the edge of his bed, phone in hands. "Um... Pat...?"

"Hey Elias. Good job on the play."

Something was very wrong. Aside from the mandarin pyramid, which freaked me out, Pat didn't even look up as Calvin and I came in. He was missing chess club. He looked pressed together, like a panini. "Are you good, bro?" I asked. "Are you starting an orange cult?"

"Nah, um." he looked up and saw Calvin. Calvin waved at him. It looked like Pat had been crying. "I'm just - uh - I don't know." he looked back down. His knee started to bounce. "I think it's just that mydehdyeteday."

"What?"

"Uh - yeah - " his knee was bouncing faster, and he looked like he couldn't breathe. "My dad died today. I think that's - I think that's why - I feel like this. I think - I think - " 

"Pat - " I knelt in front of him and grabbed his arms. He started to hyperventilate, his face red, his brow furrowed. "Pat? Pat?"

"I'll go get Mr Hayes," Calvin said, and he left the room, closing the door softly behind him. 

"Hey, grab my hands, okay?" I looked up into Pat's face. He was blinking hard, leaning back and forth as he desperately tried to suck in breaths. His hands clutched onto mine, so hard I winced. "Okay,  Pat. So - so - did you - uh - did you know that daddy long legs aren't spiders? Because they have penises. I don't really know how that works but I guess you lose your spider privilege if you have a penis? Or you lose your penis privilege when you become a  spider? Anyways, there was a - well, I read about this daddy long legs that's, like, 99 million years old - but it's fossilized, it's fossilized in amber. So it was fossilized and it's 99 million years old - " Pat's breathing was starting to slow down, his grip on my hands was starting to ease up, " - and all this time, it's had an erection. It got me thinking about all the embarrassing ways I could die - uh - I mean, I mean - " his breathing was starting to get heavy again. What the fuck, Elias? Why the fuck would you say die? "Pat. I'm here, Pat." I sat on the bed beside him and wrapped an arm around him. Slowly, his hyperventilating turned more into crying. And I tried to wipe the tears from my own eyes before Calvin came back.