The next day (Tuesday Evening)

Isaac had fallen head over heels for James.  So when James had invited Isaac to the official, annual grounds inner circle bonfire, his stomach churned up beautiful butterflies. Tonight was the night to find out if James felt the same.

Isaac had to make sure he looked perfect tonight. He locked himself in the small dorm bathroom with his boundless collection of products. He intricately styled 'that one bit of hair' for half an hour straight. Now it was perfect; the little loop of deep black hair hung over his face at just the right angle, framing his tilted eyes well. Fucking sexy, he thought. When he checked the time, he sped up. After rushing skincare, he added the final touch of subtle silver and gold glitter around his eyes. Not too much, but just enough to make him glimmer in the moonlight.

Isaac threw on an unbuttoned flannel and left, smugly smiling at his angry roommates, queuing up for the dorm bathroom. Suckers. Isaac was feeling the vibe tonight. He was ready for this: love. He'd never been in love before and he'd never felt better than he felt tonight.

Isaac took the back exit from the school building. Fresh air invigorated him. The moon was large and so beautiful, but it was nothing compared to the vast, deep black sky; it was even darker than Isaac's hair, it was pitch black. There was a ring of light around the moon, glowing like Isaac was. He saw a soft light in the distance: it was the fire and it looked . Isaac took an overgrown path towards it and pushed through the thorns on the hill carefully in order to preserve his oversized jeans.

Isaac could finally make out the silhouette of James' figure and his stomach completely flipped upside down and turned fully inside out, Isaac felt like he would sick rainbows any second now. Isaac was so focused on making out James' striking dark eyes that he didn't comprehend the fact that there was no one else there but James. He thought it was meant to be a handful of the grounds members.

More importantly, was James staring at Isaac too? Only one way to find out. Isaac timidly waved but couldn't see a wave in response. Isaac loved lemonade and now was the time to make some out of this lemon. Yes it sucked that James wasn't staring deeply into Isaac's soul as Isaac wished but this meant that Isaac could get to James faster without James seeing him. So Isaac sprinted through that overgrown path, desperate to gain proximity to James. When Isaac began to get closer, James finally noticed him and so Isaac stopped running like a right looney. Isaac realised that running wasn't such a great idea. What if he had fallen over? Embarrassing. Although he'd open his eyes to see James over him, dreamy.

James finally waved and brought him back to reality. Isaac walked the rest of the distance and joined James in sitting on a log by the fire. It was magical how Isaac felt both warm and energised by the frosty wind, at the same time. "Hey," James said in a smooth voice. 

"Hi!" Isaac coughed out in rainbows as his voice shook. He told himself to chill but it made things worse.

"Relax Ise," James said. What the- did James just drop a honey nickname on Isaac? That was so goddamn cute.

"Um, cute nickname," Isaac giggled like he was three again. In reality, he was swept off of his feet, dumped into a bubbly ocean and then swept right back up again onto the beach of paradise. "So, uh why isn't anyone here?" Isaac continued.

"I told you the wrong time," James laughed, "I was hoping we could spend more quality time together, we didn't get much today. When you refused my offer to do another lap around the school I was heartbroken," James joked.

Isaac felt great, and he had the ability to break James' heart just like James could so easily break Isaac's in a split second. Isaac had no breath, he was swallowed up by those deep, dark, stunning eyes of Jameses. And then James shuffled closer. Isaac could feel James' hot, minty breath on his cheek. James tilted his head slightly and smiled gently. He moved his hand behind Isaac's head and closed his eyes. Isaac did the same. When Isaac felt James' soft lips on his, it was utter heaven. The moon shone on them both, the sea was calm, the air was fresh and the fire was softly shedding it's sparks.

When they pulled away, Isaac laughed out of shock and smiled so wide. "Oh my god," he said with the most colossal grin on his face. James laughed also.

"I really like you," James said. Isaac's eyes dilated to maximum capacity.

"Wow," Isaac uttered in shock. "And you messed up my hair!" he joked, scared of how it might go down. James didn't allow another second of Isaac's doubt about his awful jokes and snickered away.

"Jeez, the indian kid and the asian, that's something," James laughed carefully, he tried to test the waters around race. Isaac didn't mind.

"It truly is something. The best something ever." Maybe Isaac was meant to act all cool about it, like he'd kissed tons of boys that he'd lost count but Isaac was never one to lie. He couldn't hide his excitement and he finally understood why everyone was such a love-a-holic. He was one too now, he couldn't describe it perfectly but he could and would talk about it for hours on end. Isaac could describe the most random effects on irrelevant organs. The stomach goes inside out of course, skin literally radiates scorching heats, liver freezes, and don't get him started on the pancreas. Isaac was overwhelmed with random thoughts. This was euphoria. He couldn't wait to tell Harriet. He was sure that she would be just as excited for Isaac as he was for himself!

But then James spoke, "Hey that was indescribably amazing," his smile grew... and then shrank a little, "I'm so sorry to have to ask this but can we please not tell anyone... I'm kinda... not out yet." he finished.

Isaac couldn't help feeling a little disappointed but surely James would understand Isaac telling his best friend... "Of course, it won't be a problem... but what about like... Harriet?" he asked hopefully.

"I'm so sorry," James answered. No more words were necessary, that was a no. But he could live with this, it was still something beautiful even if no one knew. It would probably be more magical like this, a secret relationship; it's all the rage these days.

"I cannot wait to sneak around with you." Isaac comforted James and gently touched the top of his hand. James held Isaac's tight and pulled him into a warm embrace. There it was again, heaven. Isaac could do this: keeping secrets. It was very much worth it.

"The time is approaching where the others will be joining us but I've very much enjoyed our quality time together," James winked. His tone was so civilised that the wink seemed out of place but it was so damn cute all the same.

"Right on cue," Isaac said, trying to mimic James' 'posh boy' voice. They laughed as they gazed upon figures approaching from the overgrown path that Isaac had once taken. It seemed like such a long time ago, such a miserable life that was.

Isaac had never been invited to a grounds inner circle meeting as he preferred to chill with just Harriet. He would've been anxious but he knew that James would be sitting close to him the whole way through. As the members got closer, James let go of Isaac's hand, creating an empty abyss of desolate cold between them. It was the vastest a few centimetres had ever seemed.

Isaac observed the figures who were growing larger. At the front: Ivy. Isaac was mildly shocked that Ivy would be attending but he thought that the meeting could be about the surprise birthday party that everyone seemed so hyped about. Then the rest of them came into sight but Isaac couldn't comprehend who they were as they wore masks. The masks were pure white with a small black hook under one eye. Creepy; it gave Isaac the chills. The grounds clique had never seemed more like a cult, but it wasn't one. As soon as Ivy saw me, shock came over her face. And then a strange expression, Isaac would guess poorly masked anger.

"James! What the fuck is Isaac doing here?!" Ivy yelled.

"Jeez Vee, don't fucking swear at Isaac," James replied. Isaac felt bad for being the cause of a fight. But he'd never seen that side of Ivy before... or James. And it made Isaac's heart sink when he heard 'Vee'. It meant that the cute nicknames weren't limited to his crush.

James being defensive made Isaac worried and flushed at the same time. Love was so strange, it truly made all sorts of opposites attract.

Ivy's face sank into meekness, she realised how much she overreacted and thought that if James was ok with it, it must be fine."Sorry," she said. "And sorry Isaac, I must've sounded like a complete freak. I was shocked and overreacted. You are my friend and having you here will liven it up a bit anyway. James is a bore." I was worried about how James would react to that, Ivy was crossing dangerous waters with comments like that. But James wasn't mad, he let out a gentle and genuine laugh.

"I don't know what came over me either, sorry for snapping at you Vee," he said calmly. Wow, James was so considerate, Isaac thought. Isaac realised how hard he was simping for James and internally laughed nervously.

By the end of the dispute, all members were sitting down on the logs by the fire, in a circle. Including James, Ivy and Isaac, there were about ten people present.

"Let's begin," Ivy announced.

She bent down and gathered a small sample of dirt off of the floor. 

She placed it in her mouth. 

She pushed her finger to the back of her throat. 

Ivy wretched and leant over the fire. Yellow liquid dripped out of her mouth for a few seconds. And then she spat the rest out.

Isaac felt sick down to his stomach. What was going on here? He dug his nails into James' back. Hard.

As Ivy sat back down, the member next to her stood up.

Isaac pressed his nails harder into James' back, and felt warm liquid. Oh shit. Isaac inspected his nails in the dim fire light. Blood. Isaac felt a heavy world of guilt but an overriding sickness from what they were doing. He desperately tried to catch James' eye. What the hell was happening? Why the hell did Ivy do... that?!

The next member had already taken a dirt sample. Just as they were about to remove their mask, James stood up.

 "Stop!" he said with authority. He couldn't stand seeing Isaac so distressed and had presumed that Ivy wouldn't do the ritual in front of Isaac. James' eyes went wide as he stared Ivy down.

Ivy got the hint. "Stop," she confirmed with a tone of dissatisfaction. The member returned to the log and sat down. "Next time." She added as she looked around the circle.

And then the world went even darker for Isaac than it already was. The last thing he heard was a thump as he fell to the ground.