THE HAUNTING

"I THINK YOU SHOULD JUST GO," Matthew's voice had a sense of intrigue, probably curious as to what a Steve Harrington get together would be like. His voice was a little fuzzy over the phone, but not bad enough that Grayson couldn't understand him. "I don't know why you hate Steve so much, he doesn't seem that bad besides being a typical, high school, douche."

Grayson wanted to tell him that if he went to that party, the one in an hour that Grayson still had no idea whether or not he wanted to go to, he would be spending his evening with his notorious ex-boyfriend. He hated, absolutely hated, lying to Matthew, but he knew no matter what, that wasn't his secret to tell. He could hate Steve, he did hate Steve, but he knew how shitty it felt to be outed (especially since he had been outed just this morning) and he didn't wanna do that to Steve. He couldn't.

After probably too much hesitation, he finally responded with, "I don't know. I'd rather be spending my night with you." When in doubt, be flirty.

This earned a small laugh from the boy on the other line, which was always a welcome sound, "Nice try, but I've got a chem test tomorrow and no matter how much "studying" you'll claim to help me with, you'll just distract me. Just go to the party, Gray, live a little. Besides, aren't the girls gonna go with you?"

"I'm not sure, I'll have to call them," It was kind of a miracle that Matthew even kind of convinced Grayson to go. Spending the night at a party with your ex? Didn't sound ideal, like not in the slightest. The fact that a part of him wanted to go was telling him something he really didn't want to hear; not when he had a perfectly sweet boy on the other end of the line.

"Okay, you call them, go to this party, have fun, I'm gonna have the most boring night ever," Matthew joked, both boys laughing into the phone. "I'll talk to you later?"

"Yeah, later."

"All right," Matthew muttered, "Bye, love you."

Grayson's eyes widened. He hung up the phone without another word. Had he imagined that? Did Matthew actually just the say the L word to him? He had to have imagined that, there's no way Mathew could feel that strongly about him, they had only been dating for a few months, they were only coming up on three and a half. Surely, no one could love someone in that short of a time period, right? He had to have imagined that. Immediately, he dialed up the phone again.

"Elise, some shit just happened. Is Emma with you?" he spoke into the phone as soon as it was answered, before the girl on the other line even had the chance to say "hello."

After a moment of registering what was happening, Elise finally responded with, "No? Do you want her to be?"

"No, no!" Grayson shouted, probably alerting his family members downstairs. In response to his yelling, he could already hear the soft pitter patter of Huckleberry trotting up the stairs. "This, this is about our uh, conversation this afternoon."

"What about it?" Elise asked, sounding much more interested than she was when she answered the call.

Grayson breathed in a deep breath, exhaling with a sigh, "You know new boyfriend whom I cannot reveal the identity of? Um, he may or may not have just told me he loved me."

There was a brief moment of silence, like the calm before the storm, before Elise exploded, "Holy shit! No way! What did you say? Are you with him right now? Tell me everything! Oh, my God, I can't believe this, did you and the first one say 'I love you' to each other?"

"Um, okay," Grayson began, taking a minute to process everything she had said, "I didn't say anything, no, it was over the phone, I freaked out and hung up. I hung up, Elise! Who does that? You know who does that? Monsters. I'm a fucking monster!"

"What about you and...?" she drifted off, but Grayson, unfortunately, knew exactly what she meant.

He sighed, his voice getting quiet, "No... we never said it, but I know I felt it."

"Do you still feel it?"

"What? No! He's not what this is about right now, Elise!" he chastised, wanting so badly to change the subject off of his ex-boyfriend and get to the more important matter at hand.

Elise hesitated, most likely delving into her own thoughts. Finally, she seemed to reach a consensus, "Okay, first things first, you're not a monster. It's okay to not feel that for him because people develop things at different rates. You have no idea how much he might've been into you before you two even started dating. Next, I think it's okay if you're still a little bit in love with Steve, right? I mean, judging by the tension I saw, you two have a shit ton of history."

"I don't need to worry about feelings for my ex-boyfriend when I have an amazingly adorable boy that loves me, right?" Grayson pleaded into the phone, sighing as he flopped down onto his bed, feeling defeated. "That shouldn't even be an issue. The issue is that he loved me and I... I don't think I love him. Should I break up with him? Is that what I'm supposed to do in this situation?"

"Are you happy with him?" was Elise's only response, but they both knew that was one hell of a loaded question.

Grayson thought for a moment, not really knowing how definite any answer would be. Instead, he settled on, "I think so... I mean, yes. Yes, I'm happy with him."

"Are you sure?"

"No."

"Grayson!" she scolded, but the worry was clear in her voice, "You're confusing me."

He sighed, for probably the millionth time that night, "I'm confusing myself. Can we stop talking about this? I have a different question, one you can ask Emma, too."

"You can't just ignore this," Elise sounded annoyed, but she had every right to be with how indecisive her best friend was being.

"I know, but do you and Emma wanna go to Steve's party with me?" He asked, happy to have the subject somewhat changed. However, there was still a certain teenage boy that seemed to be fitting his way into this conversation no matter the subject.

Elise genuinely laughed out loud, "No, fuck that. Why? Are you going?"

"Maybe."

"Grayson!" the girl yelled before her voice got much quieter, "You have a boyfriend!"

"He's the one who told me to go!" he reasoned, even though at the back of his mind, he knew he should stay as far away from Steve Harrington as possible. That boy was nothing but bad news for Grayson, he always has been.

With a heavy sigh, Elise said, "I'll ask Emma. Be right back."

The line went silent for a minute, leaving Grayson alone with his thoughts. He heard a clawing at his door, sighing before getting up to open it. Huckleberry waltzed in, tail wagging, before hopping up on the teenager's bed. He shut the door again and picked up the phone right as Elise got back.

"You're on your own tonight, sorry, Gray," the girl groaned, "She wants to, but she's got that hard ass chem test everyone's been freaking out about tomorrow. Also, since Will went missing, our parents have pretty much had us on lockdown, so I doubt we would have gotten far even if we were gonna go with you. You should still go, though, might help you sort some shit out. Have fun with your gay crisis."

"I hate you, Elise," the boy muttered, sighing into the phone yet again, "I'm still gonna go, I think I have to. Wish me luck?"

"Good luck, you fucking idiot."

oof it's been a hot minute but I've had finals so sorry for not updating as often! Anyway, some shit's gonna go down at the party in the next chapter like y'all ain't ready!