Gorilla

By Tyranitar

This couldn’t be right. Glen refreshed his notifications, seeing if the invite had been made in error. There was virtually no reason for Myron Langdon to even know who he was, beyond someone who went to the same school as him. College was a lot more cliquey than Glen had expected, and when Glen hadn’t quickly found himself a circle of friends he proceeded to pay for it for the next couple of years.

Now, it was junior year, and he couldn’t figure out for the life of him why the ever-popular Myron had invited him to a Halloween party. Myron was sociable, friendly, attractive, the type of guy who stood out in a crowd. The type of guy who was everything that Glen was not. Glen clicked Myron’s profile, taking a look at him.

Myron’s profile picture was himself and some friends suited up at an event. In the center of the picture stood the man himself, brilliant smile shining through as he held a wine glass towards the camera. His clear black skin complemented his choice in suit very well, and his short hair was neatly styled, his face cleanly and neatly shaven. He looked brilliant. What did a guy like that want with me, Glen wondered.

Glen waited, staring at his phone for a couple of minutes to see if the invitation would magically rescind itself. If it were an accident, Myron probably would’ve caught it early, right? The invitation remained there, however, as a few people started to confirm their planned attendance, Myron liking each post.

So he had definitely sent it on purpose, Glen thought. Probably. Maybe the best way to test it would be to accept, but did he actually want to go? Of course Glen wanted to go. He was so tired of not having real friends at this school, of being lonely. But anxiety was seeping into his mind. Was this a setup? No, that would be ridiculous. But even if it wasn’t, and Myron did want him to go, would he be able to stand the social pressures?

The thoughts were overwhelming as Glen’s head raced. Be brave, he heard clearly in his head, as he brought his thumb over the button labelled “Accept Invite” and pressed down. He let out a sharp exhale as his heart rate spiked. He had done it, there wasn’t any going back now. Myron would certainly see it, and Glen would know what he thought.

Glen kept swiping down on the notifications page on his phone, watching the wheel refresh itself with a “pop!” sound every few seconds. It felt like an excruciating eternity, but was likely only a matter of minutes before the notification popped up: Myron Langdon has liked your post “Attending Myron’s Halloween Bash”.

Well. That was that. Glen breathed a sigh of relief as his body relaxed. He did feel a looming fear. If this interaction was alone to send him spiraling into an anxious wreck, how in the world would he be able to go to a party? He could always cancel and say he clicked it by mistake, but did he want to continue keeping up his reputation as a loser with no friends? No. He couldn’t do that. He refused to even entertain the thought.

So as scary as it was, Glen started thinking for ideas of a costume. The problem with that was that Glen was kind of fat, and kind of broke. Myron had never specified a theme beyond “make sure to wear a costume!”. Though he knew he could probably just wear his lab coat and goggles and go as a “scientist”, he knew that he wouldn’t win any social favors by half-assing it. He didn’t have the body to go as a spartan or a lumberjack or any type of trendy men’s costume, and going classic like a vampire or Frankenstein’s monster seemed like far too much effort with makeup and whatnot for a big social gathering. Maybe he could try something silly?

Looking online, Glen found himself annoyed as a lot of the “men’s funny Halloween costumes” seemed overtly sexual in nature. He thought that women’s costumes were known for sexualization, but a lot of what he found was crass and crude, certainly not the type of first impression he wanted to give off, especially to Myron.

Whatever. He had half a week or so to figure something out, and he’d stressed himself out more than enough for the night. Putting his phone down, Glen decided he had better things to do as he cracked open his book to the page with the assigned homework problems on it. Professor Grigson’s class was brutal, even for someone like Glen who managed to get stellar grades through pure intellect.

He worked hard for the next few hours, not bothering to check his phone at all as he focused in on his work. Soon, it was done, sitting on the desk by his bed with a nice coverpage and a staple through it. And all in time for bed, too. The clock read 10:30 PM. ‘How time flies.” Glen thought to himself as he changed and threw his clothes in the laundry. He caught a look at himself in the mirror and frowned.

He doubted that Myron had sent an invitation out of pity, but it still kind of felt that way to Glen. Maybe this was the golden opportunity he was really waiting for though. He jiggled his belly, watching it vibrate a little in his reflection. Maybe if this whole party thing went well, he could use it to kickstart some improvement. Imagine that. Glen Stanton, one of the popular kids.

…what a stupid joke. This wasn’t high school anymore. Glen sighed as he removed himself from his fantasy. Still, at least the part about making friends and using momentum to lose weight and dress better and all those other things rung somewhat true. Life was just a very complicated physics problem, and momentum was the most powerful force.

Technically, momentum isn’t a force, Glen corrected himself, but that didn’t matter. Philosophy didn’t have to be scientific, and being right wasn’t the most important thing to do right before bed. He turned away from the mirror and crawled into his sheets, pulling the blankets over him and quickly falling asleep.

–

Glen was lucky to be a morning person. The sound of an alarm wasn’t ever something anyone would call pleasant, but he never woke up in a bad mood. The fact that it was Friday made things even better. Usually he’d take the time in the morning to wake up and decompress and look at forums online. Today though he woke up to messages on his phone, which was surprising. It was 7:00 AM, who would be up this early and already have texted him?

There was one from his mother, asking if he wanted to visit home this weekend. That made sense. His mother worked a very early shift and suffered from bouts of insomnia. He quickly texted her back, asking when she could pick him up. As he waited for a response, he checked his other messages and found a new one from Myron Langdon.

Myron Langdon? Since when had they exchanged numbers?

Glen was pretty sure he’d barely talked to the guy, let alone gave him his number. Maybe it was an integration thing through social media. The message was simple, “Did you want to get together and work on homework for Grigson’s class today?”

It was friendly enough. The reason as to how Myron had his phone number seemed to not even matter anymore, if he just wanted to get together and work on homework. Homework that Glen had already done. He texted back, “I finished it last night! I don’t mind helping you through it though”

Was that too rude? He didn’t want to imply that Myron was dumb. That would be a way to lose favor before he even really got to know the guy. He certainly didn’t want everyone to know him as “this asshole” at the party. Unfortunately, it’s not like he could unsend a text, so he was stuck with his words. He resisted the urge to prattle on, knowing it would only make him look worse.

Confident. He needed to be confident. That’s what Glen told himself as he confidently left his phone in his room as he went to get breakfast. Out of sight, out of mind. The back of his mind told him that avoiding his problems was not remotely confident, but it was a step better than compulsively checking, right? At the meal hall he could relax and have a nice healthy breakfast and not think about Myron’s text.

Of course, that was all in theory, and Glen spent more of his morning worrying than he would like. As he started putting his stuff in his bag for classes, he heard his phone buzz, seeing a message from Myron. “Sounds good. Meet at 2?”

Glen ran his schedule through his head before using the quick reply on the phone’s lock screen to type “2 is good!”

Myron immediately replied asking about a meeting place and the details were quickly settled. Glen grabbed his clipboard for loose papers and put the completed assignment in it, packed his laptop into his bag, and set off for campus for the morning.

Lectures on Friday were always slow. Usually, it seemed that no one wanted to be there other than Glen. Not the other students (who liked morning classes anyway?) and certainly not the teachers (seriously, who wanted to teach at 8AM?). Today though, even Glen was included in the mental slump. It was like a fog was occupying the space in his brain where his engaged thoughts usually were.

Before he knew it, the professor for his first class had wrapped things up with an “any questions?”.

A classmate quickly shot up her hand and was called on, asking “What about non-differentiable distributed loads? How does that affect the differential equation?”

What kind of loads now? Affecting the what? Glen thought he was on top of this class, but he seemed entirely out of his element as the professor droned an answer out. Glen struggled to listen, not really understanding the topic. He knew he was anxious at the best of times, but school was supposed to be his solace.

He left the classroom feeling groggy and down. It was all lectures all morning though, so Glen made his way to the next classroom to sit down for more of the same stuff. Try as he would though, his brain refused to focus on the content of the lecture as he found himself staring at the powerpoint and not absorbing a single detail.

Before he knew it, three classes had passed, and Glen had learned about the same amount as if he’d stayed in bed the whole morning. He had some time before his next class that he usually used to go grab lunch. Today though, he didn’t feel like it. It wasn’t that he wasn’t hungry as much as he wasn’t in the right mood to sit down and reflect on class, or for that matter reflect on anything.

Instead, he sat down in the lobby, alone, and slouched while he compulsively refreshed his phone’s feeds. Nothing exciting had happened in the world by the looks of it over the past few years. He checked a forum for an anime series he was watching, but the content seemed so dull today, people were trying to analyze the hell out of the most recent episode. Usually he’d happily join them, but today he wasn’t in the mood. Sometimes a show was just a show, he thought. He desperately needed to relax, since his brain didn’t seem to want to think today.

Thankfully, his mother had replied to him, offering to pick him up today. If she had asked earlier, Glen would’ve asked if he could be picked up tomorrow instead, but after this morning some home comfort sounded really nice, so he arranged a pickup before dinnertime. That meant there were only a few hours left on campus, which was a nice thought.

Sadly, Glen had to deal with another class before he could allow himself the time to truly relax. It went a little better than the ones in the morning, with Glen able to focus on the lecturer a little better, but he still found himself having some difficulty picking up the material. The lecture ended and Glen found himself grumbling. He had mentally checked out, but he’d already agreed to meet up with Myron and go over the assignment with him, and that was frighteningly soon. With each passing minute Glen’s hopes of Myron deciding to cancel last minute diminished as he made his way to their agreed meetup point.

It was only a couple of minutes before Myron arrived, looking immaculate as ever. The two men were a clear contrast to each other. Myron’s ebony skin was perfectly clear and his smile was perfect as he gave a wide smile to Glen as he went for a handshake. Glen in comparison was pasty and had some acne that he prayed that Myron wouldn’t notice as he let a closed-mouth smile in return, saying hello.

Even the men’s dress was in clear contrast. It looked like Myron had put thought and effort into his wardrobe, wearing a nice button up shirt with pants and shoes that made him look well together. Glen couldn’t help but notice and compare to himself and how he just threw on whatever he found first in the morning. Why did he do that? He cursed himself for being lazy, surely Myron wouldn’t like that.

Myron said hello, and Glen engaged him in some awkward small talk as he dug through his bag. He fished out his clipboard and started fanning through it, but couldn’t find the assignment anywhere in there. He could recall it going in this morning, and he couldn’t remember taking it out. In fact, he definitely didn’t. His mind started to race.

Myron noticed Glen’s increasing frantic state and spoke up, “Hey pal, what’s wrong? You seem stressed.”

“I can’t find the assignment!” Glen exclaimed, then realized he was being a little too powerful in his done. “Sorry.”

For his part, Myron just seemed confused. “What do you mean, isn’t that why we’re here, to work on it? You didn’t go and do it without me, did you?”

Glen’s face returned a blank expression as he tried to parse the comment. What in the world did that mean? “But I said..” he started to stammer, but stopped himself. He had texted Myron something about the assignment. “Um, excuse me for a minute.. sorry.”

Glen got up and quickly walked to the nearby hall out of Myron’s sight to check his phone. He was positive that he wasn’t hallucinating the texts he’d sent earlier. He’d told Myron that he’d finished. Right? Upon opening the message history though, Glen’s jaw dropped as he realized his memory had been faulty. He saw Myron’s message again, “Did you want to get together and work on homework for Grigson’s class today?”.

The followup was not at all what he remembered sending though, but there it was, “Sure, that’d be cool. I guess it’s kinda early to get it done but nice to have things out of the way, right?”

The conversation continued on for longer than Glen recalled before they had settled on “the usual” for a time and place. What did that mean? Glen quickly identified the answer as obvious. It meant where they were now, of course. But what made that the usual? Had they done this before? Obviously not, because Glen was so worried about making a good impression on Myron. But how could they have a usual place? This was A=B logic, where A clearly wasn’t B.

Being anxious was fun. Glen snapped out of his thoughts, as he made an attempt at grounding, looking at the sights around him. This didn’t matter. What mattered was making a good impression on Myron before he could go home, and if he sat down and did the work and didn’t act like a weirdo he could do it. He’d wasted god knows how long standing in the hallway and checking his phone and mulling it over anyway. It was time to go back.

Myron didn’t seem concerned at all with Glen’s absence while he was away. “Everything okay?” he asked, sincerity coming out of his rich voice.

“Yeah, I just had to piss is all,” he said, before shaking his head. That was uncharacteristically vulgar of him. “Err, use the bathroom.”

Myron just laughed as he started talking about the homework. Glen just sat there and nodded, listening to him prattle on. He found that for the technicalities of the work, he was still having a hard time focusing, no matter how easy it was to listen to Myron’s voice.

Eventually, Myron stopped. He gave a slight smile to Glen, who looked directly at him. “Um, Glen,” he started. After Glen nodded in response, he continued. “Are you going to open your work stuff?”

Glen was taken aback as he shook his head in shock. Hadn’t he opened it rooting through his clipboard? For.. something? He took a deep breath. “Sorry, I’ve been feeling really out of it today,” he replied as he fished out some blank paper. As Myron resumed talking about the problem, Glen was absentmindedly scribbling notes.

“So, we start this problem by..” Myron kept going on and on, as Glen started to lose his focus. He was halfheartedly writing stuff down as Myron started to focus on the work, but Glen’s true attention was on the man himself. He just didn’t get it. What did Myron want with him? They weren’t anything alike. Myron was just so.. perfect. Good looking, popular, smart.. all things Glen wasn’t. Err, mostly things Glen wasn’t. He wasn’t dumb. He was just dumb today. It was a one time event.

Normally he wouldn’t spend so much time thinking about a man. It wasn’t like it was sexual. It was weird to word it like that. But this situation was anything other than normal, even if Myron was acting like it totally was. He seemed comfortable with Glen, as if they’d done this a thousand times before. Glen didn’t know why he was picking up that vibe, but something seemed a little different between Myron now and Myron as he knew him. Maybe that’s just what getting to know someone was like.

“I don’t get this deflection coefficient.” Myron said, alerting Glen who was watching on, having abandoned writing who knows how long ago.

“Uhh..” Glen said, confused. Shit, he had to say something! But he was not thinking straight today. What was common in this type of problem? He knew he usually knew it. Something had to come out, what constants appeared all the time? “I think you’re missing a two in there.”

It was a guess. Glen didn’t make a habit of guessing, but it was better than freezing in front of Myron. God, he was acting like a schoolgirl with a crush. His anxiety was bad, but not usually this bad. Myron didn’t seem to notice though, “Yeah, you’re right. I can’t believe I forgot that.”

“I know beams pretty well!” Glen responded, before realizing his error. Just don’t ask me anything about them, he thought. Please, for the love of god, don’t ask me anything again.

“I know, I’d be surprised if you didn’t.” Myron responded, before looking down at his watch. “Oh! It’s almost 4!” he exclaimed, “I didn’t mean to hold you so late. You should go get ready and pack your things!”

Glen looked at his phone. Shit. 3:42 PM. His mother would be here soon, and he didn’t have any of his belongings packed up. Sure, he didn’t have to bring much, a lot was at his parents, but he didn’t want to be completely unprepared. “You’re right,” he said, making quick work of the papers on the desk, throwing them onto his clipboard and into the bag. “I really have to jet!”

“Yeah, no worries. I’ll let you know how far I get. Text me later, okay?”

“Sure!” Glen exclaimed as he made a hasty exit, rushing across the campus to his dorm room. He quickly grabbed a few other belongings and put them into his bag. Clothes. Toothbrush. Video game system. Just enough for the weekend. He was not a moment too soon in packing his belongings before hearing his phone ring, his mother letting him know she had arrived.

It was another brisk walk to the car, to which Glen climbed in the back and nearly collapsed.

“Hello to you too, Glen!” his mother laughed.

“Hi Mom, sorry. I’ve had a long day, and I’m really tired.” He said, as she exited the parking lot and started heading home.

The drive was a moderate distance. Kendall and Savannah Stanton didn’t live so far that living at home would’ve been unreasonable for their son to live with them and commute, but far enough that it would’ve been inconvenient if you’d asked Glen directly. It was certainly far enough for Glen to nearly but not quite pass out in the back seat while his mother quietly played talk radio in the front seat to keep herself entertained and not distract her son.

He felt the gentle braking of the car as the vehicle rolled to a stop, and he opened his eyes to see the familiar driveway of his parent’s home. Comfort washed over him. The week was over. He was finally home, where he could spend some time relaxing.

Glen’s father was in the living room, relaxing and reading a newspaper when Glen and his mother entered the house. He perked up, hearing the multiple footsteps enter the front door as their dog excitedly ran to the front door to greet Glen. “Glen! Are you home for the weekend?” he asked.

Glen smiled as he pet the excited pup at his knees. His mother must’ve not told dad that he was coming home, “Yeah, mom messaged me this morning. I’m glad she did, because I’ve had a long morning. I haven’t been this tired in a long time.”

“Everyone needs a break from school from time to time,” his father responded. “I remember just as well the October stretch of midterms, especially with Halloween around the corner too.”

“I wouldn’t say this is my favorite time of year.” Glen said, kicking his sneakers off. “I’ll be right back, I should put my things away before I forget.”

Glen took a few minutes to bring his bag up to his old bedroom, just setting it on the bed before heading back downstairs, sinking into the chair across from his father. The dog hopped up right up inside him, sharing the space as Glen started petting his head, the dog nuzzling into him affectionately.

“So, the middle of the semester, huh? How many courses are you in?” his dad asked, getting to the meat of the conversation.

“Um..” Glen thought, counting in his head. He felt like he should know this, but the same pressure from talking to Myron wasn’t there in talking to his dad. “Five.” He said, pretty sure that was right.

“Sounds like a tough courseload. You can handle that much?”

Glen was a little insulted at that comment. It wasn’t like it was anything new to him, and why was his dad commenting on that anyway? “Yeah, of course.”

“Hmm.” His dad responded. He moved the newspaper from his lap to the table by the end of the sofa as Glen looked on. His father was an office engineer, and today was his day off, so he was lounging at home in sweatpants and an old shirt, looking a bit more disheveled than usual. He was looking at Glen critically, a look his son recognized as the expression he would make when trying to solve a problem.

“It looks that something is bothering you, though,” his dad said, forthright about the subject.

“I’m just.. exhausted, I guess.” Glen replied, “I’ve had such a hard time focusing on my studies today. And I’ve been invited to this Halloween party next week and I-”

“A Halloween party?” his father interrupted. “I thought you didn’t like Halloween?”

“I don’t hate Halloween.” Glen replied. “I just never really had anything to do on it, except stay at home and work. I mean.. maybe I should be doing that this year, but it’s rude to skip out on it now, right?”

“As long as you’re feeling comfortable with your schoolwork, son.”

That comment didn’t feel good to Glen. He didn’t feel comfortable with his schoolwork at all right now. He knew he was supposed to write off this morning as a once-off, but he couldn’t shake some sinking feeling. Anxiety. It was anxiety, and he was home now and didn’t have to worry about it.

His dad continued the conversation, “So, what are you going to go as?” His tone seemed a lot lighter now, shifting into a more conversation tone from the analytical one before.

“I don’t know, actually. I don’t have a costume. I need one, it’s in the invitation, but it’s not like I’ve done this since high school.” Glen replied, looking at his dad. Maybe he could come up with something?

“I know what’d be perfect!” his dad exclaimed, excited. “I have a big ‘ol gorilla costume in the basement!

“A……. Gorilla.” Glen said, flatly shocked.

“Yes!” his dad replied.

“Why do you have a gorilla costume in the basement?”

It was at this point that his mother had entered the room, taking a seat next to her husband. “Jeeze, hon, how many years ago was that? Ten? Twelve? We went to a party down at Kris’ for Halloween while you were at your nan’s.”

It seemed weird, but it made sense. “Uh, I’ll think about it. At least it doesn’t sound like something I’d have to wear makeup or anything for. I don’t want to do anything super high effort here.”

“Oh no, don’t worry about that.” His dad said. “Just let me know when you’re leaving Sunday, we can pack it with your things.”

“Thanks dad.” Glen said, as the three got into a conversation. They talked about regular subjects. The neighbors, politics, school.. Glen had a harder time talking about his subjects, but his parents didn’t seem particularly engaged in it anyway, which he found relieving. He was able to deflect by asking about his parents work.

Though they were studying different areas of engineering, Glen studying electrical and his father being a civil engineer, part of what sparked Glen’s passions were his fathers endeavors at work. It was nice to hear him talk about that rather than focus on his own classes. His father had worked on some impressive projects over the years, and was involved in some new construction for a school in the district, which was cool to hear about being so close to home.

The atmosphere was wonderful, and by the end of the afternoon when the family sat down to eat a meal Glen’s anxiety had practically washed away. Perhaps for the first time today, everything felt normal. They sat and ate spaghetti and meatballs while the dog lied under Glen’s feet, dreaming of scraps falling his way. Things were normal, as they should be.

That’s why, after he finished dinner and went to his room, Glen was shocked to find missed texts from none other than Myron, asking if he’d gotten home in a somewhat increasingly pressing manner. “Hey, hope you got home, send me a text when you see this please!!”

He wanted to ignore it. Why was Myron so insistent today? Sure, they were friends, but they weren’t so close that Myron checked up on him. Wait, no, they weren’t friends. It wasn’t that Glen didn’t want to be friends with Myron, in fact, he wanted quite the opposite. So why not reply? This was weird, but it didn’t have to be. He would play it cool.

“Sorry, was catching up and eating dinner with mom and dad.. so tired today”

Myron didn’t take long to respond. “Haha it’s okay. You seemed really out of it, I’m just glad you’re alright”

“Yeah, don’t worry about me”

Was it too passive aggressive to leave it at that? Did he care if it was? It wasn’t like Myron was wrong, per se, and it definitely was true that Glen didn’t want Myron to worry. He decided he’d leave his phone upstairs while he went to hang out with his parents some more.

He descended the staircase and heard barking as the family dog ran up to Glen. Startled, Glen exclaimed, “It’s just me, Rex!”. Hearing his voice, the dog calmed down as Glen approached the living room where his dad sat watching the wall-mounted TV.

“It seems you’ve been missed!” he exclaimed.

“You’d think I was a new person the way he went crazy there from me just leaving my room.”

“Maybe he’s going senile.”

“He’s six!” Glen exclaimed, as the dog laid down on the floor to relax.

Glen sat down with his dad to watch the TV. It was some documentary about bears and their differences in appearance and behavior across the globe. At first Glen was hardly interested, but he was forced to watch, lest he go back upstairs and grab his phone, which he didn’t want to do. The topic started to captivate him as he and his dad watched on, the evening turning to night.

Another documentary followed as the first one ended, about the climate and how various cultures celebrated the winter. Glen didn’t like to think of it, but winter was quickly approaching. The documentary he found less interesting than the first one, but it was enough to keep him entertained.

Before too long, the movie ended just like the first, and Glen’s dad let out a big yawn. “I think it’s time I go to bed.” He said, stretching out.

“Yeah, I should do the same.” Glen replied, “I don’t want to feel like this tomorrow. G’night dad.”

As he stood up, Rex started barking like crazy again, running up to Glen, who jumped back. “What’s gotten into you?” he cried out as the dog started sniffing him.

“I think you woke him up, he didn’t like that.”

“I haven’t lived away from home for that long!” Glen exclaimed. “Dogs sure do settle into routines quick.”

“Well, dog years and all that, they experience time seven times slower.”

Glen didn’t believe that, but it wasn’t the time to philosophize. He laughed and wished his dad a good night again before heading upstairs. It wasn’t long before he fell asleep.

–

It was nice to wake up naturally instead of to the sound of an alarm clock. Glen turned to the clock that was on the bedside table and jumped when he saw the time: 10:23 AM. Even as a teen he never slept in that late. He was surprised, though he figured this way he’d at least be able to go the bathroom uncontested, as he did exactly that, taking a long hot shower and getting dressed.

Heading downstairs, his father saw him. “You’re a bit overdressed for the weekend, no?” he asked.

Glen looked down at himself. He was dressed pretty normally: khakis and a polo shirt tucked in. “No?”

“Maybe only by my standards.” His dad said as he resumed watching TV.

Glen went to the kitchen and started rummaging through the fridge. It was nice to be able to make his own breakfast for once, he thought as he grabbed three eggs.

“Hungry?” he heard his mothers voice as he started preparing his breakfast, or practically brunch at this time.

“Well, I’m a growing boy.” He laughed, which his mother chuckled at. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“You said yourself that you were exhausted yesterday, so we figured you needed the sleep.”

Glen didn’t like sleeping in. He considered it lazy, but it was hard to argue with that logic. He did feel a lot more alert this morning compared to yesterday.

His parents didn’t seem talkative as Glen made and devoured his breakfast. He was washing dishes when his father entered the kitchen. “We’re going to the mall today if you wanted to come, Glen.”

“Sure, I’d like that. What are you going out for?”

“There’s a big hardware store there that I need to get some garage stuff for, and then groceries.” His dad replied.

“Garage stuff?”

“Oh,” his mother said, from the other room, “Your father has taken up some shopwork as a hobby lately.”

“..shopwork?” Glen asked.

“Auto body stuff. Or other metal work. I need a good buffer and whatever else I can find. And if you’re going to keep eating like that, I’m going to need more eggs too.” His dad responded.

It seemed like a strange hobby for his dad to suddenly pick up an interest in, but Glen was glad his dad had picked up something new and interesting at least. It wasn’t long before the family was shuffled in the car after saying goodbye to Rex.

After a few minutes of small talk and listening to the radio, it was apparently time for the invasive questions as his father spoke up, “So, Glen, have you met any girls at college?”

Glen nearly sputtered. He wasn’t expecting this brought up out of nowhere. He had enough on his mind these days already! He couldn’t even imagine throwing dating into the mix. “No!” he exclaimed, more expressive and defensive than he meant to. “I mean. Me? Dating? No no, girls don’t like guys like me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” his mother asked, “You’re a lovely young man, why would they not like that?”

Great. He had gone and sounded like an incel. Now he had to recover. “I didn’t mean that, I mean it’s more that I.. don’t have time? Not with my courses and I don’t really meet a lot of them, right?”

“Well, don’t sell yourself short, son.” His dad said, coming to a stop at a set of lights. “College is supposed to be the time of your life, after all.”

Glen doubted that. He sure didn’t feel like he was having the time of his life. More incentive to change, he supposed. Not liking the direction of the conversation, he shut down for most of the rest of the trip there until they had parked.

The hardware store was bigger than Glen anticipated, expecting something small due to being in a mall. He was happy to see his father gush over tools and equipment, to the point where it seemed a little infectious. “When did you start getting into this anyway?” Glen asked, as his father perused the aisles and shelves.

“Oh, a while ago,” his dad responded. A non-answer. Maybe he was too invested in shopping to pay Glen much attention right now. Glen could respect that, he supposed. He watched his dad shop, a number of things piling up in the cart.

It wasn’t long before they had checked out. His dad suggested that he didn’t want to carry all of his tools and things around the mall, so he went to bring the items to the car while Glen and his mom shopped around. It was agreeable, so Glen and his mother found themselves walking through the mall, popping into a few stores here and there.

It was a good way to spend the day. Glen had been to the mall mostly for practical purposes in the past, never really taking the time to truly explore it. It wasn’t like he had any reason to. But just walking around and seeing what there was with his parents was fun. Even the grocery shopping was enjoyable, something that he’d taken for granted living on a campus dorm.

The afternoon was quieter. They arrived home to a cheerful Rex, and put the groceries away as Glen’s father retreated to the garage to look at his new toys. That left Glen with not much to do but sit in the living room and watch TV. Something was nagging at him, like he should be using his time more wisely, but he came home to relax.

And so he did, flipping through the channels. Nothing really seemed engaging, but stuff was on. He flipped his attention back and forth between his phone and the TV, catching bits and pieces of whatever movie was on and looking at news, and texting Myron. Myron had been working hard on the assignment that they were trying to do. Glen thought about doing some work himself, but he really didn’t feel like it. Maybe tomorrow, before going home, he could do it.

Today was for relaxing.

–

Upon waking, Glen made the decision as the sun beamed into his eyes. Sunday was also for relaxing. He stretched, looking at the time. It was late, again. He got dressed and went downstairs to fix himself breakfast again.

“Sunday already, where does the time go?” he heard his mother say from the living room, as Rex perked up and ran up to Glen, barking.

Glen pet the dog, who seemed surprised for a moment before settling down. “Compared to the week I’ve had, this weekend has seemed like a blink. But I needed the break.” Glen said.

He started preparing his breakfast as he engaged in small talk with his mother. It turned out his father had gone out for a drive in the morning, another thing he’d started doing recently. “Since when is dad a big car guy?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I guess he’s been interested in it for a while but only started doing stuff about it recently.” His mother said. It didn’t sound like she was too interested in her husband’s hobby.

“I don’t think I’ve ever heard him talk about it, or watch a show or anything about it.” Glen replied.

“Well, you know people’s interests change. Everyone changes over time.” His mother replied, like it was the most obvious fact in the world.

She was right. Even Glen himself hadn’t been this anxious a few years back. Maybe he simply hadn’t noticed his dad’s new interests because he’d been so occupied with trying to tame his own mind. He felt bad, as if he was demonstrating that he didn’t care about his family. “Yeah, I just guess I would’ve noticed.”

“It’s not worth worrying over, hon.” His mom said.

Glen finished his breakfast and went to the living room to eat and chat with his mom. They arranged that he’d be leaving in the evening. He sat to watch the morning news, and when it ended excused himself to do dishes and go upstairs and work on some homework.

He went up and picked his bag up on the floor, sifting through clothing. He started pulling things out to set on the bed, seeing how things were kind of strewn about in the bag. It wasn’t long before he had an empty bag and no clipboard or books in sight.

How had that happened again!? He texted Myron, asking him if he’d left it with him, but Myron replied back saying that he hadn’t seen it. Shit. First the assignment went missing, wait, no, that wasn’t right. Glen could remember something about his stuff disappearing before, but he couldn’t remember the specifics.

Wonderful. Well, he could at least check the course notes, or something. He opened his laptop and sat on the bed, not bothering to put anything back in his bag. It took a moment to log in, and boot up his internet browser. It booted up to a gray page, as Glen frowned. All of his bookmarks were gone, and the screen stated “Your browser has updated! Here are our new features!”. He grumbled, was one of the new features removing personal data entirely?

It was something that could be sorted out later. He used a search engine to get to his school’s site, and clicked on the online learning portal. The cursor turned into a loading wheel, which turned for about 30 seconds as he got annoyed. Shortly thereafter the page crashed, an error message coming across.

It was like the universe didn’t want him to work. He shouted down to the living room, “Is the internet down? I can’t get onto the school site!”

“It’s working fine for me!” his mother called up.

Wonderful. He thought for a moment. The regular school site seemed to work. He opened a social media page to check if it was just the online learning portal, and confirmed that the internet was working just fine if he wanted to waste time. Waste time it was, then, Glen decided as he scrolled the web.

He lost track of time quickly, and realized that he’d done so when he heard Rex barking his head off hearing the sound of a car entering the driveway. He looked out the window to see his dad returning. Glen was bored, so he closed his laptop and went downstairs to greet him.

“Oh, hi Glen!” his dad said, entering, and looked him over for a minute. “Did you shave this morning?”

“No?” Glen asked, a bit accusatorily. “Why?”

“You’re looking scruffy.” His dad replied.

Glen put a hand to his cheek to feel, but his face felt smooth. He wrote it off as some weird joke his dad was trying to make, and shrugged it off with a laugh. “Where did you go?”

“Oh, out of the county for a drive for a few hours. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately.” He said.

Glen nodded and started asking his dad about his new interests. Or at least new to Glen. He seemed pretty knowledgeable, as if he’d been doing it for a while. The family chatted in the living room for a few more hours before Glen’s mother went to go make dinner. It was homemade pizza tonight, which the men quickly devoured.

“I’ve never seen you two so hungry!” his mother said, as Glen laughed, repeating his joke.

“Hey, like I said, I’m a growing boy.”

“Hmm, if you eat that fast you may grow out more than grow up!” she laughed along.

Glen offered to do the dishes, which his parents thanked him for while they went to catch some evening television. After he was done, he told them he was going to pack his things – it was probably a good time to start heading back to campus, although he didn’t really want to. His mom said she’d drive him back when he was finished.

Upstairs, Glen groaned as he saw his empty bag sitting on his bed with his clothing beside it. Some was washed, free laundry was always a nice opportunity to take advantage of, so he separated it from dirty clothes as he packed things back in. He was thankful that he had a lot of room in the gym bag as to fit all his things. After about ten minutes he went downstairs, where his parents were waiting.

“You’re ready?” his mom asked.

“Yeah, I think so.” Glen replied, “I don’t really want to go but I don’t want to get back too late.”

“Are you going to take the gorilla costume with you?” his father spoke up.

Right. Halloween. Glen had blissfully forgot about it today up until now. It was probably too late to get anything together that could be of any similar quality, so he made a decision.

“Yeah, I think I will take it home with me.” Glen said, as his dad nodded.

“I’ll go get it from the basement then.”

“Thanks dad, I really appreciate it.” Glen said as his dad left to go get the costume. “Hey, where’s Rex? I thought he’d want to see me off.”

“Hmm, I’m not sure. He’s been acting kind of weird this weekend. I’ve never seen him so on edge.” His mother spoke up. She called the dog, but he didn’t come. Fortunately, when Glen’s dad made his reappearance Rex was alongside him, intrigued by the costume. When Rex saw Glen, he calmy approached him for head pats, which Glen provided.

“I’m going to miss you, buddy.” He said, as the dog wagged his tail, happy.

“Surely you’ll miss your mother and I too?” his dad perked up, holding out the costume to Glen.

Glen took it and threw it in his gym bag. The costume was a bit on the large side, but there was plenty of room for it. “Of course I will. I can’t text a dog though.”

It was a short round of farewells before Glen threw on his boots and followed his mom out of the house as she started the car. He texted Myron, practically on instinct. “Finally coming back now. It’ll be late when I get back. Study tomorrow?”

“For sure” he got the quick response, as the car left the driveway and Glen’s mom drove him back to campus.

–

Glen had really hoped that Monday would be kind to him, but it was more of the same slowness that he’d experienced on Friday. He seemed alert in the morning, going down to the meal hall, but found himself irritable as the cafeteria employees refused him as many eggs as he had wanted.

Class was no better. Glen was getting behind, and he knew it. With every lecture he seemed to understand the material less rather than more. For the first lecture he could at least say he tried, but for the second he spent more time in the back of the classroom on his phone or looking out the window than paying attention to the lecture. By the end of it, he decided he was going to skip class today, which left him with a lot of free time before meeting with Myron.

Myron. Glen felt kind of bad that he was skipping class when he thought about Myron. It would mean that his friend would have to spend more time teaching him stuff than actually doing it himself. Something told him he shouldn’t feel bad though, it was Myron after all who had been the one who started all of this.

So, a few hours of free time. Glen had no idea what to do with the time he’d normally spend writing in notebooks and absorbing information. What even else was there to do? He could go to his dorm and play video games, he supposed, and made the trek back. It was a bit of a walk, but Glen didn’t mind. It wasn’t like he didn’t have time.

He entered the dorm and found his room quickly, throwing his backpack on his bed. He’d barely taken the effort to unpack last night, and now seemed like the perfect opportunity. He opened his gym bag and the gorilla suit stared back at him. Right. He wasn’t sure what to do with it. Maybe he could try it on? The thought seemed ridiculous, so he just placed it on the table.

His clothing then went away – clean stuff from laundry on hangers and shelves, dirty stuff throw to a pile on the floor. Usually Glen was cleaner, but he found that he just didn’t care at the moment. He was searching for his game console. He rooted through the entire bag, only to find that it wasn’t there. Crap. He must have left it at home. He sent his mother a text, but knew he would be waiting a while for her to get back from work. His dad wasn’t home either, so he couldn’t call.

Great. There went his morning, with nothing really to do. He could study, he figured. Maybe that was the smart thing to do while he was skipping class. It seemed responsible, but it was the last thing on earth he wanted to do. If all else failed, he could take a nap. No. That was too lazy. It was a nice fall day out, he didn’t need to shut the day out.

So, it was on that thought that Glen decided to take a walk outside. He threw a jacket on over his clothing and left the room. He didn’t just want to walk on campus today. He took a route which crossed over to the boundary of campus and started walking through the city. He’d been living here for a few years, and felt that he’d never really integrated with it.

It was so vibrant. There was something about the fall colors and the cool blue of the sky that was really leaving an impression on Glen. The hubbub of people walking by, the chirping of the birds, even the sounds of construction as he walked by a site. He was so absorbed in taking the sights in that he hardly noticed when he bumped directly into a large man wearing a bright hi-viz jacket and a white hard hat.

It took only a moment to regain his composure, but Glen apologized immediately, embarrassed that he’d done it.

The construction foreman only laughed. That’s what white hat meant, according to his dad. “No harm done, pal, but maybe I ought to get a new jacket. The orange and yellow is supposed to prevent this kinda thing!”

“Oh no, sorry, I’ve been spaced out a lot lately. Entirely my fault.” Glen replied, flustered. The man pointing out the jacket had only served to make him feel worse, despite intentions.

“It ain’t good for a young man to be living in the clouds, mate!” he exclaimed with a hearty laugh.

Glen frowned, that was pretty rude. “Hey, I’m no-” he started, but didn’t get to finish the sentence.

“Don’t worry about it fella, there’s lots going on around this time of year. We’re all busy. Just keep your head on your shoulders.”

“Yeah. Sure,” Glen said, giving a non-answer as to exit the conversation as soon as possible, segueing into “I really should get going. I have to meet with a friend soon about class stuff.”

The foreman seemed confused, but nodded, “Take care Glen.”

Glen briskly walked away, head up to avoid any further incidents, before turning at the nearest street on the way back to campus. He pulled his phone out, looking at the time. It was already almost 3! There was a text from Myron too, which he ignored. He was going to meet him anyway, whatever it was could wait.

He quickened his pace as he broke into a light sweat, going to campus. He headed immediately to the so-called “usual” spot where he found Myron waiting for him. “I’m not late, am I?” he asked.

“A little, but only by a few minutes,” Myron responded. “I can tell you were in a rush. Where were you?”

“I took a long walk.” He responded. “I couldn’t face going to class today.”

Myron seemed a bit surprised for a moment, but shrugged. “It’s not everyone’s favorite thing to do in the world.”

“No, I haven’t been liking it at all lately. I’ve been having trouble catching on to anything and it’s been giving me a headache.” Glen said. “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m saying this, I’m just..”

“It’s fine, Glen. I’m your friend. You can tell me anything.” Myron replied, putting his hand on Glen’s forearm to comfort him.

“I’m just anxious, I guess. I mean, what’s new. But I’ve been having difficulties with school all of a sudden and I don’t get it.. I’m supposed to be smart, right?” Glen said, letting it all out.

“I think you’re smart.” Myron replied.

“Compared to you?”

“Smart isn’t a one-dimensional thing.” Myron replied, “It’s not measured in terms of grades, where I’m doing better so I’m smart and everyone else is not. How could I compare to someone in medicine? Or law?”

“That’s not what I-” Glen started, but Myron interrupted him.

“That doesn’t matter. Don’t be hard on yourself.” It sounded like an instruction.

Glen didn’t respond, and averted his gaze from the man sitting across from him.

“It’s okay. Hey, let’s talk about something more fun. What are you going as for my Halloween party?”

Glen didn’t want to answer. What if it was embarrassing? He was already embarrassing himself as it was. He didn’t like that. He didn’t like any of this. A lie would do. Not a real lie, but a not-truth. “Oh, it’s a secret.”

“A secret?” Myron asked.

“The party is tomorrow. You can be patient until then, right?”

“I guess I’ll have to be, huh? Can you at least tell me what you’re bringing?”

“Bringing?” Glen asked, confused.

“Yeah, like, alcohol.” Myron replied.

“Oh.” That was a faux-pas. “I wasn’t even thinking of that. I don’t really drink..” Glen replied. It was true, no one in his family was big on drinking and it wasn’t like he’d been to a big party like this before.

“Well, you don’t have to bring anything. I’m just curious, is all.” Myron replied.

“Yeah. I’ll uh, figure something out.” Glen replied. He didn’t want to be square. He wasn’t going to the party to be a square, so he would have to think of something.

“No pressure.” Myron replied, which Glen thought was the most ironic thing he’d ever heard. “So, tell me about your weekend. How was your trip home?”

“Oh, uh, good. I was happy to see my dog, even if he was acting kind of weird. It was a nice break though that I needed.”

The two continued to converse as Glen relaxed a little. Myron meant well, even if his sheer popularity was still intimidating Glen. The party was tomorrow. After that, he could put this behind him. And he’d likely make a friend out of it.

–

Halloween. Glen’s 7:00 AM went off as usual, and he turned it off. He got himself dressed and slipped his boots on, as well as a jacket. He was not going to meal hall to get screwed out of his breakfast today. On his jaunt around the city yesterday he’d spied a couple of places that looked like they served breakfast. It was an easy decision to get up and go to a café for breakfast.

The morning was more brisk, especially with it still being fairly dark out. It wasn’t quite winter where it was still nighttime dark out yet, but the sky was a slaty color. It brought a new light to the city, as Glen absorbed the sights. There weren’t nearly as many people out in the early morning as during the day, which was refreshing.

Glen was hardly surprised though to see that the construction site he’d walked by yesterday had already begun stirring. He made sure to pay extra attention to not walk into anyone today, but found himself still caught off guard when he heard from the other side of the fence, “Hey, Glen!”

He turned his head quickly to see the foreman again. “Oh, I’m sorry about yesterday still.. You’ll never let me li- hey wait, how do you know my name?”

The foreman reacted as if that was a stupid question. “Why wouldn’t I?” After a pause where Glen just stared at him, confused, he continued. “Anyway. You’re up early.”

“I always am.” Glen responded, confused on what this guy wanted. “Going out for breakfast today.”

“Oh, got a date with your man?”

“My–  what?!?” Glen responded, “I’m straight, man. And no, I’m alone. I just need to eat.”

“Touchy, just messin’ with you pal. Go get your food.” The foreman’s words were stern, but the goofy expression on his face indicated he was having fun with Glen.

Glen, on the other hand was not having fun. What was this guy’s deal? “That’s very literally the plan.” He said, starting to walk away.

“See you tomorrow big guy, don’t show up too hungover!” the foreman called, as Glen ignored it.

What was his deal anyway? And how did he know his name? Glen made a note to stop walking by that construction site. His last comment did remind him though, that he would have to go get liquor after this. He didn’t even know what to buy. It could wait until after breakfast, though.

Glen entered a breakfast café and sat down, perusing the menu. He was really here for eggs and toast, which was an easy and cheap enough buy. He made his order, and after a few minutes found a huge plate of breakfast in front of him. He was annoyed yesterday about being shorted by the cafeteria, but this seemed excessive.

Still, it’s what he ordered, so he slowly picked at the food as he sat on his phone, browsing his feeds. They seemed thin today. Maybe no one was up. It was early, after all. But he didn’t see a single post about his anime following, even though there was a new episode on the weekend. Not that he’d watched it yet, so maybe it was best to avoid spoilers. It was too early for Myron to be up, though his classes were soon, so Glen just looked out the window.

Wait. Classes. Shit. He had to go to those, right? He was already behind. Was he willing to let it spiral? He pondered his decision. It’s not like he could leave in the middle of breakfast, and he still had to go get alcohol. What was he getting out of class anyway, he wondered. Surely not a lot. Why go? It was a simple conclusion. There was nothing to compel him to go.

And so, Glen leisurely finished his breakfast as he looked outside. Watching people. Watching nature. Watching traffic. The city was so dynamic, and he’d never bothered to notice until yesterday. He wanted to take his time and appreciate it, so he did exactly that. Soon enough though, he’d run out of food, and loitering wasn’t ideal, so he paid his bill with a tip and headed his way out.

It occurred to him after several minutes of walking that he didn’t actually know where the liquor store was. He could pull his phone out, but he felt like that would be inauthentic when he wanted to explore the city. Maybe if he didn’t find it soon enough he could look it up, but for now he decided he would wander.

His stubbornness paid off as he found a place by walking down by where he knew the grocery store was. Most major food chains had attached liquor stores, even if they were small ones. All he needed was beer, anyway. He walked in and was largely ignored by the staff as he headed to the cold room.

As a non-drinker, Glen had never even considered that there were different types and kinds and flavors of beer. IPA. Lager. Stout. Sour. Cider? Was that even beer? He paced the room, looking at various cases and trying to figure out just what he wanted to buy. He didn’t want to pay a lot of money for something he’d be trying for the first time, but he also knew what people said about cheap beer, and didn’t want to give himself a poor first impression on purpose.

His cluelessness must have picked up some attention as he heard a throat clear behind him, followed by a helpful voice. “May I help you sir?”

“Oh! Yes! I’m looking for um.. a normal beer, I guess.” Glen said, thinking about how dumb it sounded immediately afterwards.

“Normal?”

“Oh, sorry. Like, not the lowest possible end, but something most people would drink. Does that makes sense?”

The employee nodded. “I have a few suggestions then,” she said as she led him around the cold room, pointing out some options. Glen decided to grab a twelve case of a simple lager. That seemed a reasonable amount. People drank that much in a night, right? Maybe eight or ten, actually. He could leave some at Myron’s, he thought as he cashed out.

Carrying around a case of beer all day didn’t seem ideal to Glen, so he decided it was time to go home. If there was a party tonight, he wanted to take the afternoon off anyway. Maybe play some video games or something. He recalled that he had forgotten his system at his parents house though. Wait, crap. This was going to be a boring afternoon. What did he usually do? What did he want to do?

He reflected on the questions but found no answer as he entered the dorm, beer in hand. He didn’t have a fridge in his room, so they had to go on the floor and stay warm until he got to Myron’s. He wasn’t a drinker himself, but everyone knew that warm beer was no good.

The question then became that of what to do. There was no obvious answer, but Glen had a lot of energy. He needed to burn it off, he felt like. How did people do that? The gym crossed his mind, which he immediately dismissed as odd. He’d heard that some doctors would recommend it to combat the symptoms of anxiety, but he didn’t feel anxious.. just bored. Maybe some other time, he would go. It would be good for him, and he could lose that pudge.

He texted Myron, asking what he was up to, but got only one word back, “Class”. Well, so much for that. He’d have to find a way to entertain himself. He booted up his laptop. Glen had a problem that would be best solved by anime. He activated his VPN and then navigated to his usual stream site, and turned the show on.

It didn’t seem captivating today. If anything, it seemed annoying. The plot was predictable, the characters were acting tropey, and Glen was unimpressed. He was confused, as he liked this series a lot, but why was this episode so bad? Frustrated, he turned it off, and looked at the sidebar to see if there was anything else interesting.

Nothing immediately popped out, in fact everything looked fairly lame. But as Glen scrolled down, he was surprised to come across something that stood out from everything else: a soccer game. Live, apparently. It was something to watch that while potentially boring, wouldn’t make him cringe, so on an impulse he clicked it. The stream took a moment to set up, but he immediately tuned into a goal.

Alright. Seemed interesting enough. It wasn’t long before Glen had fully tuned into the game, watching the players go across the field and score, and it didn’t feel like long before the game had ended. Without thinking, Glen had immediately tuned into another game after, as he clicked onto a different streaming site. He listened to the commentators, trying to engage in what they were saying.

They were calling it football. For some reason, that sounded right to him. Maybe it was an immersion thing, but it only made sense that it would be football because the entire game aside from goalkeeping, and maybe some heading, was played with kicks. He could get into this. And was getting into it, as the day ticked away.

He was suddenly distracted from his game as his phone buzzed. A reminder for Myron’s party. It was soon. Glen didn’t particularly want to stop watching his game, but he figured he had to get ready. It was finally time to wear the costume from his dad. He stripped his polo off and threw a t-shirt on and changed into some sweatpants. It wasn’t regular attire for Glen, but they were always useful articles to have around.

He pulled the gorilla costume off his desk and opened the zipper off the back. He just had to step into it? Seemed straightforward enough. Glen threw it on like a onesie and zipped the back up with a little difficulty. It fit him well, which was convenient. He figured that he should have probably tried it on before now, but his intuition was paying off. He decided to put the mask on now to see what he looked like all dressed up, pulling it over his head.

One thing that he noticed was that the costume overall was very itchy. Glen frowned, not that the gorilla in the mirror reflected any degree of his expression. Maybe he should’ve tried the costume on before he was ready to go after all, he thought, but it was too late now. The party had clearly indicated that costumes were mandatory. Myron didn’t strike Glen as the type of guy who would be super strict about such matters, but if he was going to make any sort of impression, showing up without a costume, or worse, with a half-assed one, would be the worst way to do it.

He took the mask off. He was pretty sure that wearing a full mask in public would be a good way to get arrested, Halloween or not, so he could carry it. He noticed that the costume had some built in pockets, which he went to stuff the mask in, and was surprised to find that it even included some gloves and shoes. Talk about complete.

He couldn’t wear them there though, so into the pockets they went with the mask, as Glen put his boots on and grabbed the case of beer. Off to Myron’s it was. He left the dorm again, making sure he had his phone and wallet in his sweatpants and not left on the table, and locked the door on his way out.

Outside it was nice. It had warmed up from the morning, which was nice because the costume was hardly insulated. It was a short walk to Myron’s. He thought. Did he even knew where Myron lived? He didn’t think he did, but his legs seemed to be taking him somewhere. He would get there on instinct, he figured. His phone was in his sweatpants, which would be too much effort to dig out in public with this beer.

It was maybe fifteen minutes of walking, slowed down a bit by the cumbersome beer case he was holding, until he arrived at an apartment building. It had to be Myron’s, he figured. This is something he would know. It was.. in the invitation. Yeah. He set the beer down at the entrance and dialed the buzzer code, the same as Myron’s phone number (A thing Glen also somehow knew. He didn’t question it). Then it was the elevator ride up to the 6th floor.

Today had been good for Glen, but all of a sudden the anxiety was back. What if Myron thought his costume was stupid? Or he didn’t like the beer that Glen had brought? He gulped. It was too late to back out now. He’d have to roll with it, something he wasn’t particularly good at. He got off the elevator and went to apartment 605, knocking on the door.

It was only a matter of seconds until Myron answered. He was dressed as a park ranger, and it looked fairly official. He’d clearly put effort into his costume – there was even a name tag with M. Langdon on it, sitting right above his pectoral. It looked good.

“Wow!” Myron exclaimed, seeing the gorilla in front of him, “That’s a bold costume!”

Glen’s heart sunk. He didn’t think that Myron was trying to be rude in his judgement, but it was apparent anyway. It didn’t seem to come from a place of hatred, but Glen couldn’t help but feel that he was immediately pegged as a tryhard. It was apparent, comparing the costumes of the two men. Myron’s costume was relaxed. Just a different set of clothes and a hat. Glen’s face wasn’t even visible. Maybe that could save him some embarrassment, he figured. At least Myron couldn’t see his face going beet red at the moment.

“Um.. thanks.” Glen stammered. “You know. Surprise is fun. Being bold is fun.” He realized he was panicking and diverted, “I didn’t really have much to choose from..” Maybe that would reduce the judgement a little bit. Myron didn’t reply, and after a moment’s silence, in a panic Glen replied. “I uh, brought beer.” He made a gesture with his shoulders to the case he was holding.

“Hey, I like the costume. It’s fine.” Myron said. Glen wasn’t sure if he believed it. “Let’s get you in and put that in the fridge. Is it cold?”

“No. I don’t have a fridge at my dorm.” Glen responded.

“No big, you’re here very early.” Myron said as he made room for Glen to kick his boots off on a shoe rack.

“I thought this was the start time?” Glen asked.

“Well, I mean, technically, yes.” Myron said, “But usually parties don’t start until later. People slowly start trickling in an hour or two after the start of the party.”

“Oh.”

How was he supposed to know that? Was he being tested? Obviously not. Who the hell knew that parties were something you were supposed to research beforehand and learn about. This was his first time, and it looked like things weren’t going to go easy on him. He was so thankful for the mask, so Myron couldn’t see his embarrassment in real time.

“It’s fine Gren, you’re one of my friends. It’s not like I don’t like having you around.”  Myron said, trying to diffuse his anxious friend.

“Yeah. That’s true.. Still, I wish I’d known.” Glen said, and he continued before Myron was given a chance to reply, “Let’s put this beer away. Can you take the case?”

“Sure,” said Myron, as Glen handed it to him. After he was sure Myron had it, he fished the gloves and shoes out of the pockets of his costume and put them on. “There, I’m fully a gorilla now!” he exclaimed.

“A gorilla, huh?” Myron asked. “Your costume looks accurate enough. That hair almost looks real.”

“I’ll have to ask my dad about it. He helped me outfit for tonight.”

“Good taste, if you ask me.” Myron laughed.

“What, you don’t like seeing my face?” Glen laughed.

It was Myron’s turn to be a little embarrassed. “Oh, no Gren. That’s not it, I..”

Glen chuckled. “You’re a little red. Did you start drinking already?”

“Sure.”

“Sure?”

“Sure.” Myron affirmed. Glen wasn’t sure what to make of it.

“So, who did you invite anyway?” Glen asked.

“I don’t think you know many of them. A lot are from my classes. Bryan, Calvin, Stephanie, Alejandro, Hussein, Frederick, Jessica.. Uh.. There’s definitely more than that. Enough to be a party, but not enough to piss off my neighbors. You know, apartment buildings.”

“They’re basically the same as a dorm.” Glen replied. “It sounds like mostly guys though.”

“Well, you know engineering. Mostly guys. You’re probably used to that too.”

Glen was taken aback a bit by the comment. He would know that just the same, he thought. “Well, yeah. It’s a shame. Maybe some guys will bring their girlfriends, but there won’t be many single girls around.”

“Well, that’s not something I’m really interested in anyway.” Myron said.

Glen raised an eyebrow, not that it could be seen under the gorilla’s face. “You’re saying..”

Myron quickly interrupted. “Could you imagine dating a classmate? That’d be weird!” Followed by a nervous laugh. “Hey. It’s fine. This is a Halloween party anyway, not a speed dating session.”

Glen couldn’t argue with that. “Well, since I’m super early, is there anything I can do to help out?”

“Not really.” Myron replied. “Here,” he said, handing Glen a beer. “Let’s just watch TV or something before people start arriving.”

“Sounds good to me!” Glen replied, as he went to Myron’s living room, sitting down and placing the beer in front of him. He took the mask off, revealing his sweaty face. “How do you afford a place like this, anyway?” he asked, “It’s big.”

“Rent control.” Myron replied, ambiguously before taking a seat next to him. He turned to Glen and paused. “Man, Gren, when’s the last time you shaved?”

“Uh.. I dunno. My beard doesn’t grow fast or thick, so it’s been a while. I think my dad brought it up on the weekend too.”

“I don’t believe that!” Myron said, laughing. “Your dad grows such a huge beard, and you can’t grow one? No way.”

Glen was confused, about to tell Myron he was wrong, but as he tried to picture his father in his head, he couldn’t picture his clean shaven face. He could remember various situations with his father, but as the pictures grew clearer in his mind, it was like his dad was growing a huge luxurious brown beard in all his memories. And they were his memories, so they had to be true, right?

“Gren?” Myron asked.

“Huh? Oh. Yeah, I dunno. Maybe it comes in with age?”

“Well, your stubble is looking super thick. Did you shave for the party?”

“It’s part of a hygiene routine, no?” Gren asked as a retort.

“Some people grow beards, we’re adults.” Myron responded.

Gren just grunted. This was a stupid conversation. He’d never been bearded in his life and he wasn’t going to start now. “Do you want to watch a horror movie?” he asked, taking a sip of beer and recoiling.

Myron laughed, “You really aren’t a drinker, huh?”

“How do people drink this stuff?” Gren asked, before taking another sip. It tasted less awful that time, but still like some combination of wheat and metal.

“It’s alcohol. They drink it for fun.” Myron replied with a laugh.

“Makes sense. I guess on a second try it’s not that terrible.” Gren replied. “I still have these paws on me, I don’t think I’ll be able to pick something easily if you give me the remote.”

“Sure, I know some good movies. Shorter ones too, since people might start piling in an hour or so from now at worst.” Myron replied, as he navigated menus and put a movie on.

The two men sat on the couch, absorbing the movie. Gren didn’t seem too impressed with the movie at first, it was pretty cliché and not very scary. Myron on the other hand seemed more captivated by it. Gren looked over and observed his friend, who seemed if anything a bit scared by the movie.

“You’ve uh.. seen this before?” Gren asked, a bit awkwardly.

“I mean… yeah, but still. It’s a horror movie for a reason.” Myron replied.

“I guess I just don’t scare easy.” Gren said, as he chuckled. A comment utterly full of shit from a man who’s anxiety was destroying him from inside out. Still, tonight he felt completely fine. Confident, even. He felt bad for Myron, who was captivated in the movie and his emotions.

Gren wanted to comfort him, even. It was almost instinctual, his motions, as he slid towards Myron. Myron seemed surprised for only a moment, but then leaned into Gren, who slid his arm around his friend. This was comfortable. Natural. Gren felt his breathing slow as he focused into the movie, content with Myron in his grasp.

What he did wonder though is if Myron was comfortable. Lying atop the costume probably wasn’t. But he did it anyway, so it couldn’t have been that awful. What was supposed to be weird, even though it didn’t feel like it, was that the two men were basically cuddling with each other. “Um, you know,” Gren said, “I’ve never done this before.”

“What, watched a horror movie?” Myron asked.

Gren couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, but it Myron wasn’t acting like it was weird, Gren didn’t have to either. That didn’t change the fact that it probably was weird, but it was like it didn’t matter. This could be normal. As the movie went on, Myron slowly inched more and more into Gren, who held him a bit tighter.

The movie was nearly over when Myron’s buzzing phone interrupted the two men. “Looks like someone’s here.” He said, disengaging and leaving the movie on. He picked up the phone and dialed them in. “There’s probably going to be a lot of that upcoming. So we’ll have to end that for now.”

“Just when I was getting comfortable.” Gren replied, “I guess I should put my mask back on.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I mean, it is a costume party, right?” Gren asked, pulling it over his head.

“Yeah, makes sense. Just make sure you can live without the beer for a bit!” Gren exclaimed.

Shortly after there was a knock on the door. Gren sat on the sofa, fully masked, as he heard Myron exclaim “Jessica! Alejandro! Glad you guys made it! Come in, come in!”

The woman dressed as a nun and the man dressed as a vampire kicked off their shoes as Myron welcomed them, saying their hellos and talking about their trip there. “Who’s that big gorilla on the sofa?” Jessica asked, referring to Gren.

Gren motioned to speak, but Myron cut him off. “That’s my very good friend Gren. We were actually just watching a movie before you guys arrived.”

Gren felt like he should know these people, like he’s seen them before. Had Myron previously introduced him? That didn’t sound right. Why would he know Myron’s friends anyway? He was here to make an impression after all. “A pleasure to meet-” he started, but stopped as his voice was coming out.. wrong. It sounded too deep. So he cleared his throat.

“A pleasure to meet you, sorry.” That wasn’t better. He hoped they didn’t think he was faking it. Maybe he could pass it off as a gorilla voice for his costume?

Gren got up and give the waiting vampire a handshake, followed by the nun. “I like your costume,” Jessica said. “Very macho and manly.”

Wow! An actual honest to god compliment from a woman! Gren was flattered as his cheeks turned red. He didn’t know what to say, but he felt even stranger when he saw Myron make a big of a smug expression, “A bit forward for a nun, no?”

“You got me there!” she said, and the group laughed.

The conversation seemed to flow smoothly from there. Gren liked Jessica. She was easy to talk to, which Gren liked. His worried faded away as he effortlessly talked to Myron’s guests as more poured in.

Myron for his part though kept getting Gren to leave and do odd tasks for him. Get the door. Bring in chairs from the balcony. Gren, can you get the chips out of the cupboard? There’s salsa in the fridge. Maybe it was because he was there first that Myron was putting him to work. He had finally put out some drinks for everyone and was relaxing with the guests again and talking to Jessica when Myron called out, “Greg, can you change the playlist? I have another one I wanted turned on.”

Greg let out a deep breath. All this moving around was warming him up, as he was getting very sweaty. He moved over to the couch where some people were sitting, and grabbed the remote. To get out of everyone’s way, he took it and moved behind the couch to try and play with the controls. He was having difficulties though, as he tried to press the buttons but fumbled around.

It was like he wasn’t used to his own hands, which was an odd thought. Maybe these mitts were just too big. Nearly everyone was here (how did he know that?) so he decided he could probably take them off. He pulled at one, and felt a surprising amount of friction resistance as he pulled harder, the glove coming inside out as it peeled off.

Greg noticed two things. That the hair on the back of his hands and fingers was sweaty and sticking up, and that there was a lot of it. That.. didn’t look right. He looked at it for a moment, and realized that people would probably think it would be weird if they saw him looking at his fingers.. He quickly peeled off the other glove too, only to see the same thing. Was he always this hairy? What was going on?

“Hey, gorilla boy!” Myron exclaimed, as Greg turned towards him.

“Oh, sorry. I don’t know what the playlist is called.”

“Oh, my bad. It’s Halloween 2.” Myron replied.

That seemed obvious and easy enough to find. He changed the playlist quickly and easily, before putting the remote back. He kept getting glances of his hands, wondering how they were so hairy. He walked over to the kitchen where Myron was laughing with some friends, overhearing the conversation.

“Oh, I’ve known Greg for a while. He’s a good guy, we’re real close.” Myron was saying, before he turned, “Speak of the man himself, here he is!”

“Hello.” Greg replied, not recognizing anyone in the group other than Myron.

“Myron was telling us about your parents!” One person piped up, “That you have lots of good stories from them to tell.”

“Oh? I can’t think of any. What are you telling them Myron?” Greg asked, confused. He was annoyed that he couldn’t make any facial expressions through the mask, as he wanted to signal an expression asking what the hell Myron was talking about as he’d never met his parents. He thought.

“I was telling them about the time that Konstantin saved all those bottles from beer and vodka and melted it down into the sculpture!” Myron said, excited.

“What?” Greg asked, his voice cracking. As he cleared his throat, he tried to process the absurdity of the situation. Konstantin wasn’t even his dad’s name. It was.. K.. K-something. Maybe Myron just got it wrong? Greg didn’t want to embarrass him in front of his guests. He could roll with Konstantin if he had to. And he could roll with whatever this silly thing Myron was doing was.

Everyone was looking at him. “I’m just surprised you remember that.” Greg said, saving face. “It’s a good story, though.” Filler. He had to get to something. “You’re making my dad sound like an alcoholic though. It was bottles and cans from a long time over, and some parties and whatnot. Maybe a couple were mine, don’t tell. Hey, Myron,” he started, thinking of a way to stall. “Can you grab me a beer out of the fridge, too? Thanks.”

Okay, he was on a roll now. Time to come up with a fake story. “So, dad’s a crafty guy. He really likes his trade. Has an autobody shop set up at home, too.” There we go, that was true. “One thing he’s always liked to do though is push the boundaries of what he can do, try and do more. So he wanted to try a little smelting and sculpting project. Melting glass isn’t so bad, but metal is a little tougher.”

As Greg continued rambling on, it was like details were filling his head. He could remember his dad telling him this stuff, with passion and vigor, so it was easy to retell the same story. As he kept speaking, his voice rumbled and got deeper and more masculine, the modulation becoming powerful. “…so yeah. Now there’s a statuette at my parents house of dad lifting a big comical barbell.”

Myron laughed as the group seemed impressed. “Svetlana says its from when Konstantin was young and performed strongman shows. I don’t believe that but she swears by it.”

“Hey, you’ve met my dad.” Greg said, “I wouldn’t count it out.”

He decided that it was time to take off the mask. A face reveal, even. He wanted beer now, after telling that story. He quickly pulled off the mask as the cool air of the apartment rushed over his sweaty face.

“Wow, Greg! Your beard!” he heard, and turned around to see Jessica. His what? Yeah, he hadn’t shaved in a while, but his beard? As Jessica had gotten a crowd to start looking at him, his face started to itch as his stubble grew thicker and started to grow outwards. He twitched his upper lip and pulled a hand up to scratch his cheek. As he did though, he felt a small jolt, as if the hair on the back of his hands had sent a signal to his beard, and the hairs started erupting on his face.

It was like a chain reaction as it filled in from one side to the other, growing long and dense. The growth moved back over his upper lip under his nose, as his mustache grew prominent and waxed itself sideways, while his beard grew down, straight and well maintained.

“It looks good!” Jessica exclaimed as Greg blushed.

“It looks great.” He heard, a bit more softly, as the voice of Myron filled his ears and Myron started playing with his beard under his chin. It was so thick that his touch wasn’t even messing it up. It felt good.

“Alright, lovebirds,” Alejandro spoke up, which elicited a laugh from the crowd. Yeah, funny. Just guys being dudes. As Myron let his hand off of Greg, Greg felt a short sadness, almost like he wanted the other man to stay near him. Weird.

The itchiness wasn’t going away though, as it started to travel down his body. He absentmindedly scratched at his chest as the others started conversing again. He would chip in on random topics, but kept scratching at his chest. He felt paranoid that someone was going to notice, and couldn’t tell if other people were or not.

Well, there was one easy way to relax and have fun at a party. Myron had said as much earlier. Beer. He was sure he was feeling something from what he had drank so far. Maybe if he drank more the body sensation would overtake the itching. It was a brilliant plan. Genius, even.

So, he drank. He tried to immerse himself in conversation, but the urge to scratch wouldn’t go away. The only way he could possibly get into it without taking his costume off would be to reach his hand down his neck, which he didn’t want to do. After a few more drinks Greg went down to the couch to try and cool down.

He was very sweaty. It felt like he’d just been through several workouts, from how wet he was. A very relaxed looking man dressed as a cowboy asked him in an appropriate drawn out drawl, “Heyyy man.. you look hot as hell dude.”

“I.. what?” Greg responded, shocked. Was he flirting with him? Was he giving off gay vibes? That.. wasn’t good. He had to make sure that he wasn’t being misread.

“Yeah, man. You’re so sweaty.. kinda gross, dude.” The other man said, pausing for a moment and chuckling. Greg noticed the lit blunt in his hand as the man leaned back and stared at the ceiling. “You usually sweat that much?”

What an invasive question, Greg thought, but still found relief that he wasn’t being hit on. “Uh, I mean, I guess.” He said. “This costume’s pretty hot, no ventilation. Usually I don’t wear as much when I get sweaty.”

“Like, at the gym?”

“Um, I don’t really go t-” Greg started as he scratched his chest. God, the itching was so bad. He was interrupted by the stoned man laughing.

“Ahahaha, no way bruh. Like, that’s just not possible.”

“What does that mean?” Greg asked, feeling uncomfortable as he started to sweat even more.

“Like, there’s no way you don’t lift. You’re shitting me right now.”

Greg started to sit up a bit straighter as the discomfort built up in his body. Not only was he itchy all over, but he also felt like there was some heat in his body. He was so sweaty and uncomfortable. Maybe he could duck out and leave early.. but that defeated the point! He had to be able to handle conversation, even if it wasn’t comfortable. “Um, I mean, I guess I do. Everyone does, right? But not like, lift lift.”

The cowboy took a long drag. “How much do you bench, then?”

“I dunno, like 325?” he asked. God, the itching was so bad. Why did he feel so.. weird? It was the sweat, running through all his hair. His hair? No. Focus.

“Heheheheheheheh..” the man said, taking another drag as Greg sipped at his beer, trying to distract himself. “That sounds like lifting lifting to me. No need to be humble, big guy.”

Big guy. That actually kind of sounded nice. He swore he’d heard that before, but couldn’t remember where. The cowboy was in the process of getting stoned out of his mind, he’d have no reason and likely no capability to lie. Greg found himself increasingly flattered. Yeah, he was a big guy.

As he accepted this, affirming it in his mind, Greg spread his legs out on the couch as his posture became more relaxed and his thighs grew wider and thicker. The growth spread up his body as his chest and belly started to push against the costume, his form growing more muscular. It was uncomfortable and even more itchy, but his growing comfort in the conversation was helping him refrain from tucking tail and running.

As the stoned man asked him more about his gym routine, the questions becoming less and less coherent with every blunt, Greg started to describe his workouts in more and more detail as his near-daily routine started to cement into his head, memories of the gym and his growth over the years entering the forefront of his mind. He really did take after his dad, he could remember working out at home in the basement where th-

“Hey, Grego. You’re like… a super chill dude, bro.” the cowboy said, and continued. “I can like.. think.. no.. see, yeah that’s the word. Heheheh.”

“Huh?” Greg asked, “And my name’s n-”

“I know your name bro.. anyway. Like, hehehe.. sorry. I see why you and Myron are so like.. close or whatever.. it’s like.. when Ying and Yang combined and shit..”

“It’s Yin,” Greg corrected as the cowboy lifted his hand up to give him a lazy thumbs up.

“Yeah, that. Her. Thanks. I’m like.. too stoned for this man. I can’t keep up. You go like.. party and stuff. I’ll sit here.. Hehehe.”

“Sure, good talking to you. I could use another beer anyway.” Greg said, putting his empty down on the table. That was okay etiquette, right? There was already some other stuff there, and the cowboy (Why didn’t he catch his name? Oops.) was sitting here smoking, so it wasn’t a big deal.

Greg made his way to the fridge where people were chatting, and opened it up himself to grab a beer, not bothering to ask this time. He went to join the circle as people made room for him. He felt a hand grab up and reach around his back, and turned to see Myron reaching up around him. “Hey big guy.” He said, affirming Greg’s feelings.

“Grego!” Someone piped up. He didn’t recognize him. “It’s nice to finally meet you!”

“Uh, thanks.” He responded. Finally? Man, it’s like he already was popular. Or the butt of a joke, if people already knew about him. This sounded sincere, though.

“We were wondering, and Myron wouldn’t tell us.. why did you decide to go as a gorilla? Myron told us you kept it a ‘secret’ from him.” Another girl asked.

Myron started rubbing Greg’s back, which felt nice. “Well, um, I was talking to my dad..” he started, as he tried to recall the conversation. He remembered something about telling his dad there was a Halloween party.

It was kind of blank after that though, as his mind filled in the details. How did his dad react? Was there something about a costume? He tried to remember the quote, but couldn’t. His dad didn’t seem very receptive, he could recall, but that didn’t seem right.

“Konstantin’s never really been big on Halloween,” Myron interjected. “I can’t imagine he cared much.”

That sounded right. He pictured his dad at home, the tall muscular man with his big beard, saying “Halloween? I do not think there is a reason to be celebrating that, Grego.” To which Grego rolled his eyes. The discussion between his father and himself had always been so forward.

“Yeah, he basically told me I was wasting my time.” Grego said, though it didn’t quite sound right. “I told him that I was celebrating it with Myron though, and his tune changed, sort of. He still went with something like ‘Why do you need a costume?’ which I told him it was a costume party..”

This elicited some laughs from the crowd.

“He told me that I needed to save my money, that I could go very low effort and go as myself, a gorilla. I mean, I know I’m hairy enough..” he said, pausing as Myron kept rubbing his back. He felt good, as he did that. What he realized though was that he wasn’t really itchy anymore. When had that stopped?

“I mean, that looks right by me.” Myron commented, as Grego laughed. He stepped forward as Myron let go, and set his beer down on a nearby counter before pulling a classic most muscular pose. The group looked on in awe as one person even whistled as a joke, egging him on. One sound though permeated the air as the group went silent.

It was unmistakably the sound of fabric ripping. It was hard to tell where it was at first, but he looked down and saw a growing amount of chest hair spilling out of an increasingly bigger hole tearing through the costume. Shit. “I uh.. this wasn’t supposed to happen.” He said, face turning red.

“You don’t know your own strength big guy!” someone said, as the group started laughing. Oh no. Oh crap. They were laughing at him.

“I uh… hold on!” he said, as he quickly left the circle of people, the fabric ripping more and more with every motion. He quickly found the bathroom, swung the door open and flicked on the light, and ducked in, locking the door behind him. He went to the mirror to survey the damage. It was bad. There was a gaping hole in the center of the costume now, with some on the arms as well. How had this happened?

It wasn’t like he could keep wearing it, so he began the process of stripping down. As he removed the costume and looked down at himself, he saw that even the shoes had stretched and ripped. How did he flex his feet? That wasn’t something that was possible! Off they had to go too, he figured. Soon he was staring at himself in the mirror in his full naked glory.

He.. had to admit that he did look good. He flexed a bicep in the mirror, and winked. God, even his shoulders were hairy and sweaty. It looked great, but he cursed himself for not wearing anything under that costume. Now that it had ripped, going commando seemed like the dumbest idea of all time. Who there wanted to see his cock and balls?

Not that they weren’t impressive. Below a massive hairy bush laid maybe the thickest cock Grego had ever seen. Well.. the only cock he had ever seen. He pondered over why he worded it that way. But it was a nice cock. It was long, thick, and a big hairy pair of balls lay underneath it. He looked down, admiring the view from above as the bloodflow started to get going and it started to rise up. He took one hand and started rubbing his balls, feeling the soft hairy fuzz and how comfortable it was.

Then the unthinkable happened.

Someone knocked on the door. “Can you hurry up in there!?”

Panicking and wweating like a pig, Grego quickly grabbed and wrapped a towel around his exposed midriff and groin, covering his obscene hairy cock and balls from view. At least he could move around unexposed now, he figured, but a towel was only one step away from being naked. He had to do something, and quick. It wasn’t like he could just stay in the bathroom the rest of the party, and sneaking out through the window was a bit too extravagant of a solution.

All Grego wanted to do was relax. This whole ordeal had been far too stressful for him. It’s like things were wavering back and forth between good and bad, but after the costume had ripped out under him they had stuck on bad and only progressed to worse. The bathroom, the bathroom.. where could he go from here?

Aha. It was obvious. He hadn’t seen it before, but there was a door other than the one he entered. It was too oddly placed to be a closet, and anything was better than walking out that main door in a towel. “Uh, yeah, I’m gonna unlock the door but give me a minute, I’m going to go out the backdoor!” he announced.

The person on the other side shouted an “OK!” as Grego unlocked the door he came in, and went back towards the other one. He opened the other door and gave a shout, “It’s safe!” as he quickly entered the other room and shut the door behind him. Breathing a sigh of relief, he finally took a moment to observe his surroundings.

He had entered what was very obviously Myron’s bedroom. He took a look around, momentarily forgetting his predicament as he made observations. The room was surprisingly big, for one. There was a king bed, a big TV mounted across from it. Myron must’ve had some income, or rich parents. This didn’t look like a single college kid could come from it. Did Myron have someone he lived with? He didn’t mention having roommates. Myron wasn’t in a relationship, was he? The thought made him feel sad, even.

Despite that, his erection was still raging, forming a nice tent in the towel. It was impossible for anyone to ignore. He had to get dressed, to hide this thing so he could go back out to the party. Did Myron have anything that would fit him? He doubted it. When they were cuddling earlier (was that what that was?) he had practically enveloped the guy, and Myron wasn’t small.

Still, he couldn’t be naked. Maybe underwear would be a good place to start, he thought, so he opened a drawer, guessing on instinct there would be undergarments in there. As he opened it, he found himself guessing correctly, but what surprised Grego was that the underwear in the drawer seemed to be divided into two separate piles, each with their own size and style. On the left were various classic colored briefs, folded neatly and stacked in neat columns. These were no doubt Myron’s. They were fairly average sized, perhaps even a bit bigger, but to their right was a disorganized heap of boxers and boxerjocks, in a size that dwarfed the briefs in the drawer.

So, it looked like Myron did live with someone. Grego didn’t like that. Why was he being so possessive over his friend tonight? Did guys do that when they were close? He sighed, trying to shake the feeling. Grego pulled one of the pairs of briefs out of the drawer, figuring they’d match his style better. He unhooked the towel from his body and looked around the room briefly before deciding to hang it up on the back of the door.

Here goes nothing, he thought as he slid them on.. and got stuck around his knees. This wasn’t going to work. They were too small. He took them off, picking them up in his hands and taking a look. How did he ever think that was going to work? They wouldn’t fit around his legs for one, let alone fit his large endowment, which was still making itself known.

Well, he’d have to take the other man’s boxers then. That didn’t feel as good, but it had to be done. He pulled a nice slate pair up his hairy legs and set them around his waist. They were very comfortable, he thought. He’d have to buy some of these for himself. The one thing they did not do for him though was conceal his erection. He’d have to wait it out. Were people missing him? He hoped not.

He took a deep breath as he closed the drawer and hopped on the bed. Was any of this okay? Probably not. This wasn’t what he wanted out of a party. It was so.. overwhelming. Meeting all of Myron’s friends and helping him run the place. He just wanted to relax. But hey, now he was in Myron’s room, where he could take a load off..

Perhaps literally. The thought crossed his mind. This erection was troublesome. There was one surefire way to get rid of it quickly, and it wasn’t like he wasn’t in the mood. Would anyone hear him at a party? Likely not. He could still hear the music pumping really loudly outside the door. Hastily, he decided that yes, he would jerk off. There was already a large pre stain in the boxers anyway.

He reached down on the front of the boxers and put his meaty fingers to the tip, as his cock throbbed. The stain growing bigger, as he felt the stick pre in the fabric. Through the boxers he ran his hand over the length of his shaft, before cupping his balls, which caused another twitch of his cock.

Fuck. This felt incredible. He couldn’t think straight anymore. Down the boxers went around his feet as he took one hand and started stroking his cock, playing with his foreskin, and fondling his hairy ballsack. It was like his whole body was on fire, but comfortably this time, as he broke into a sweat from the sex hormones flooding his body.

He took his free hand and started stroking his beard. Myron always called him a narcissist for doing it, but Grego loved how hairy he was, and he knew that his friend did too. Wait, Myron.. why was he.. his thoughts though were changing though as he started to rub his nipples, standing erect and making themselves visible on his thick and hairy pectorals.

Yes. Myron. God. There was nothing he wanted more than Myron to come and take his hole right now, but he was at a party.. Myron was busy, so he’d have to do it himself. He took his free hand and started exploring around his hairy ass, letting a deep moan out. A brief moment of consciousness reached him. He shouldn’t be doing this, someone might hear him.

But it felt so good as he slipped his fingers in, closing his eyes and thinking of Myron. The only thing that would be better is if he weren’t alone in this bed. As his finger slipped into his hole further, Grego’s pacing of stroking his cock sped up, and he felt his vision go white. He couldn’t help it. His face contorted into orgasmic bliss.

And he came.

Ropes of thick white cum shot into the air as Grego experienced the best orgasm he’d ever experienced in his entire life as his neck shot back, leaning into the pillow below him. His toes curled, as cum landed all over the bed, all over him, his potent seed making things wet and sticky. He didn’t care. He could just lay down, and relax. He’d never felt better.. maybe he would even fall.. asleep…

…

“Gregor!” he heard, as his eyes snapped open and he lifted his head. There was Myron, standing at the door looking displeased.

“I can explain..” Gregor said, knowing he was in deep shit. How was he going to explain th- huh? He looked down at his legs, and saw no mess at all, and he was wearing his boxers. Didn’t he take those off? To jerk? Clearly he didn’t, though seeing Myron at the door was making him want to..

“You don’t have to, but you’re not going to bed on me now, are you?” Myron asked.

“No, god no. I just had to get away for a bit and I guess I fell asleep..” Gregor responded. “You know how work is.”

“You’re going to work yourself to death on that construction site.” Myron responded. “This party is your chance to relax.”

“Hey, at least I was approved to do an afternoon tomorrow.” Gregor replied, feeling more awake by the second. “It’s just a lot to meet all your college friends at once.”

“ Yeah, I get it. But you’ve certainly made an impression!” Myron laughed, “Though I’d prefer if you kept that view you’re showing to just me.. Gorilla.”

Gregor laughed, it was his lame attempt at a costume, and he thought it was funny. He knew Myron did too, seeing the smile on his boyfriend’s face. “For them, it’s a treat. For you, well, you can see me like this whenever you want. Or maybe with a little less..”

“Save it, loverboy.” Myron said, with a sly smile. “This party isn’t going to go on forever. Come back out. But uh, put some clothes on when you do.”

Myron left and closed the door behind him. Gregor heard him say, “Yeah, he’ll be out shortly, calm down.” As he went back towards the main group.

It seemed that he’d made a good impression. Gregor was usually easygoing, but the stress of meeting all of his boyfriend’s friends at once had been getting to him. Especially at a Halloween party when the Stankevskij’s had never celebrated Halloween in their life. But maybe this was fun, after all.

He sat up and looked at the bed. Odd. You’d think that if you dreamed about sex you’d actually have a wet dream, but apparently not. Oh well, nothing to clean at least.

–

“Thanks for coming! Have a safe trip back!”

Myron waved the party’s last guest farewell before closing the door. After securing it shut, he took a large sigh of relief. The night was over. Exhausted, Myron turned around and let loose a long stretch as he headed over to the living room.

Waiting on the couch, with a hairy arm stretched over the back, was Gregor. At some point while Myron was escorting their last guests off their property, Gregor had stripped down only to his boxers. The self-proclaimed gorilla watched as his boyfriend entered the room, looking completely exhausted. Gregor beckoned Myron over with a flirty smile, and the smaller man plopped himself on the couch, leaning into Gregor’s hairy chest.

“We are not hosting the party next year.” Myron said, exhausted as Gregor’s arm curled around him and started pawing at his chest, trying to unbutton his shirt.

“You didn’t have fun, babe?” Gregor asked, knowing that Myron certainly had.

“I did,” his boyfriend responded, “But. It was a lot of effort, and now I’m completely wiped.” Myron kept talking as he nuzzled himself more into Gregor’s chest, using it as a pillow. “I could sleep here forever, I’m so tired. But there’s so much to clean up..”

Finally freeing Myron’s pecs from the confines of the buttons holding them in, Gregor clumsily reached into his boyfriend’s now half-buttoned up shirt and started playing with his nipples. Myron’s big pecs were smooth, and his large nipples were soft, quite to the contrast of Gregor’s body. Gregor was enjoying himself as he responded, “That’s a tomorrow problem, I think. It’s late.”

“Mmm, I know.” Myron purred, as he cuddled more into his lover. “I’m so tired, I could just fall asleep right on you like this..” His voice started trailing away, as if he was contemplating snoozing for real.

Gregor’s hand started going downward, feeling Myron’s smooth body as he went from his thick pecs to his defined abs, reaching his fingers down around Myron’s crotch. “I wouldn’t mind that babe, but let’s get to our bedroom first. Maybe I can interest you in a little more than that before we sleep, too.” He said, his voice getting sultry as he reached down to rub Myron’s hardening cock.

“I think I’d like that a lot, you big gorilla.” Myron replied, lazily and happily, before he turned and reached up to give Gregor a big kiss, feeling his big beard on his face before their tongues interlocked in a romantic dance.

Gregor broke the kiss as he rubbed Myron’s body, “Still upset I didn’t wear much of a costume, as you said?”

“I’m not upset, babe,” Myron replied. “I just wish you’d done more. There’s a lot you could do, looking the way you do, or we could’ve done some cute couple’s thing..”

Gregor laughed, as he sat up, disengaging from the cuddling. “Not too late for that, hon.” He said, winking at Myron before kissing him on the cheek.

Myron looked at Gregor, confused, while his big hairy boyfriend smirked. Suddenly, he felt himself being lifted in the air as Gregor hoisted himself up off the couch and in one fell swoop, picked Myron up. Myron looked up at his boyfriend in shock as Gregor exclaimed, “Breaking news! Gorilla captures sexy sheriff to take him back to his den!”

Myron caught himself laughing as he was taken by surprise, his boner not going away at all, enticed by being in the large hairy man’s grip. “How’s that for a couple’s costume?” Gregor said, his smile showing through his big beard as he raised an eyebrow at Myron, flirtatiously.

“Oh noo… I’ve been capture by a sexy beast… whatever will I do?” Myron giggled as he looked up at Gregor, who let out a bestial roar in response, before carrying him to their bedroom.