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Avery leans over and dangles his pizza slice in front of Ryan. Ryan realizes he is supposed to take a bite. Lovingly.
“It’s very romantic,” Avery says. Ryan feeds him some pizza in return, which Avery responds to with exaggerated ecstasy. Liz and Hannah both crack up.
“How long have you two been together?” Avery asks them.
Hannah and Liz look at each other for a few seconds. Then Hannah says, “Four months, three days, and…two hours.”
Liz pulls back and stares at her. “Really?!?”
Hannah feigns hurt. “How could you not know that?”
“You’re bluffing.”
“Are you so sure?”
Avery laughs, but Ryan is stressed out that this is a real fight. He only calms down when he realizes that Liz and Hannah don’t seem too concerned about it. Hannah starts talking about how they met, her disbelief when an unrealistic crush suddenly became a realistic crush on a long bus ride home from a soccer match. Ryan is jealous at how easily they’ve dispensed with the moment of tension, how heseems to be the only person in the room still wondering if Hannah was making up the four months, three days, and two hours. Is it possible to be in love and to have forgotten the day it all started? Is it different when it’s someone you’ve known all along, instead of someone you just met?
Avery leans into Ryan a little, and Ryan’s thoughts come back to the room, to what’s being said. Hannah gets to the end of her story just as Pope bounds into the room, proclaiming, “Thereyou are!”
The party follows them into the room, as if they found the bookcase that was really a door all along. As other people come in, Pope sits down between Ryan and Avery, practically on their laps.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Pope says. “It makes me so happy to see you together at long last!”
Pope says this as if Avery has spent the past week toiling at school while Ryan fought a war in Austro-Hungary.
Ryan thinks it’s a bit much, but Avery takes it to heart. Because it’s only now that he realizes—the whole time they’ve been dating, he’s been going to play practice. Now that it’s over, he will get so much of his time back. Which means that Ryan will get more of it, too.
“Brave new world,” Avery says, maneuvering around Pope to hold Ryan’s hand.
Pope extends their arms and pats both Avery and Ryan at the same time. Then they stand and proclaim to all who will hear, “This dowager wants some dancing!”
With that, Lavinia Stranglehold exits the room.
Less than a minute later, a disco mix of “Defying Gravity” thumps against the walls.
The dancing begins.
—
It is alwaysa challenge to a couple when one has the natural inclination to dance and the other does not. In the case of the couples on the couches, the preferences are evenly divided. Hannah jumps up immediately as more people follow Pope out. Liz groans a little, but lets Hannah pull her to her feet.
Avery can see Ryan settle farther back in the cushions even as the music and the excitement amplify. At a fundamental level, he gets it: This isn’t a dark club or even the rec hall they first met in. This is someone’s house and the sun isn’t all the way down yet. The people who are dancing are doing it to continue the camaraderie they built over months of rehearsal and performance. Ryan isn’t a part of that, and it will be hard to make him feel a part of that.
Still, Avery wants to try. No pressure, but still.
—
Ryan tries. Eventhough he would much, much rather stay on the couch, he sees that part of Avery is already in the other room, and the remaining part is asking Ryan to accompany him. Ryan gets up from the cushions, then holds his hand out for Avery to take. Even though Avery cancertainly stand up on his own, he takes the hand, then keeps it that way as they emerge into the living room. Ryan has no idea what song is playing—a disco version of something about losing one’s mind—but the music is almost beside the point. This isn’t a dance floor like at the gay prom, with colored lights and a way to be able to hide yourself in the shadows. No, this is a living room with the lights on, and a bunch of friends dancing as unanonymously as possible. Everyone’s eyes are wide open as they sing to each other and sway to each other and celebrate the moment they’re within. Ryan tries to dance along to that as Avery tries to face him and face everyone else atthe same time. But it’s not really working. Ryan still feels like the audience member who’s stumbled onto the stage during the curtain call.
He lasts a song, but then when the next song (the megamix fromSix) comes on, he lets go of Avery’s hand and says he’s just going to step out into the backyard for a moment.
“Are you sure?” Avery shouts over the music.
“Yeah, you stay here and dance. I need some air. I’ll be back in a few.”
“Okay!”
Ryan goes over and takes a can of soda from the refreshment table, then slides open one of the doors that leads into the backyard. When he closes it behind him, the music becomes a quieter version of itself, the joy as played through a pillow. After walking a couple of feet, Ryan turns to watch the scene inside. Pope is proclaiming themself the king ofthe castle, and Avery is one of the members of their court, bowing gleefully.
