Page 56 of Dead Boys Club

Zach is a little overwhelmed by everyone talking over each other at once.

“I want it noted that she didn’t get me a present,” Parker grumbles down the line.

“Zach, can you hang out or not?” Paige asks, pointedly talking over her brother.

“Maybe,” Zach says, laughing a little. “Um, this is the first Christmas my mom has had off in a while.”

“Kate can join the party!” Isaac says. There’s some more overlapping agreement.

“We can come hang out at your place, if you want,” Bea says. “That way you can still spend time with your mom.”

The idea sounds a little overwhelming, but there’s a cacophony of voices that want to come see him. That are waiting for him to say yes. All of his friends want to come to his house on Christmas day, just to see him.

“Okay,” Zach says, pressing his smile against the receiver. “Let me ask.”

An hour later, Parker pulls his Subaru into Zach’s driveway, and he, Paige, and Bea clamber out of it. Isaac had walked over right after they’d gotten off the phone. Paige is carrying a big gift bag stuffed with red and orange tissue paper. Zach meets them on the porch, and Parker glances toward the half-open door before bending down to kiss him briefly.

“Gross,” Isaac hisses teasingly as they squeeze past him into the house. Parker tries to kick him but misses.

Zach’s mom is pretty much over the moon, not only because Zach has four individual friends, but also because they’re all in her house at the same time.

Everyone arranges themselves on the couch and loveseat, and Paige sets the gift bag between her knees.

“Mrs. Williams, we wanted to thank you for everything you did for us, and—well, also it’s Christmas, so…” She digs into the bag and pulls out a bottle of wine, then leans forward to pass it to Zach’s mom.

“Oh, my goodness,” his mom says, her brows lifting as she admires the vintage. “Oh, wow, this is—” She cuts herself off with a frown, suddenly realizing she’s been handed wine by a seventeen-year-old. “Well, okay, how did you get this?”

“Our parents helped us pick it out,” Parker says quickly, in his lying to adults voice.

“Thank you,” Zach’s mom says, touched. “And tell your parents thank you as well.”

“We will,” Paige promises with a pretty good poker face.

Paige reaches into the bag and pulls out three medium-sized stockings. As she passes them to Zach, Isaac, and Bea, he can see that she’s taken the time to painstakingly write their names onto the white trim in loopy cursive with glitter glue. Something about that makes Zach’s eyes get misty.

The stockings are packed with little knickknacks that Paige and Parker picked out for them. Bea’s stocking is full of fancy calligraphy pens, a little leather notebook, and a pocket planner. Isaac’s stocking has gross boy stuff: several small tubs of slime, a little World of Warcraft figurine, and a camo-colored multitool. When Zach tips his stocking out onto the coffee table, he finds a multitude of little plastic gadgets. He picks one up. It’s a cube with something different on each side: little switches that click, a metal ball that rolls freely, buttons to press. The rest of the toys are in the same vein, pocket-size gadgets to fidget with.

“They’re supposed to help with anxiety,” Paige explains, wringing her hands together in her lap.

“These are great,” Zach says earnestly. “Seriously, Paige. Thank you.”

“Keep digging,” Parker says.

Frowning, Zach pushes his hand further into the stocking and finds a small, thick envelope. Inside are printed photos. Zach recognizes them immediately as the pictures that he and Parker had taken at Saratoga.

“Oh,” Zach says.

His heart squeezes. He looks up at Parker, wishing he could, like, kiss him or something. But his mom is there, reaching over to take the photos so she can gasp and fawn over them. Everyone passes them around, and even Isaac making fun of some of the more embarrassing pictures can’t wipe the big, goofy smile off Zach’s face.

The full house puts Zach’s mom in the Christmas spirit like never before. She rounds everybody up into the kitchen, because they still have leftover Christmas cookie ingredients. Zach isn’t even embarrassed about his mom being, you know, a mom. It feels like something that a normal family might do on Christmas, and he’s been a big fan of feeling normal lately.

While Bea reads off the recipe, and Isaac and Paige tussle over who gets to crack the eggs, Zach tugs gently on Parker’s wrist, pulling him out of the kitchen.

“Hey,” he says softly, as they back into the hallway. “Come with me a second?”

Parker glances over his shoulder, presumably to make sure no one’s followed them. “Yeah, just—hold on. I’ll meet you down the hall,” he says before darting back into the living room.

Zach wrinkles his brow, but hurries to his room and goes right for his desk.