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“Okay, who ordered pizza with olives on it?”
The party was in full swing when Grian’s pathetic cry echoed through the halls, the Christmas lights and tinsel doing nothing to hide the disbelief in his voice. Etho’s own nose wrinkled at the idea of pizza with olives on it. Tango always made fun of him for voicing his “picky” eating opinions though, so he kept quiet as the rest of the group argued.
“I like olives, so I ordered olives! If you don’t like it you can pick them off!” Martyn yelled over the top of all the chaos.
“You’re a monster that knows no bounds.” Scott’s voice cut through next.
God, Etho didn’t even want to be here right now. Christmas wasn’t his thing, all of his friends knew that. Impulse had pitched it as just a party at Scott’s, like Etho was stupid and wouldn’t realize it was the twenty-fifth of December and Scott wouldn’t have gone all out with the decorations and festivities. All he got was a sheepish smile when they pulled up to Scott’s house, and a guarantee that if Etho wasn’t having fun within two hours, they could leave.
Two hours was not coming quick enough.
Etho loved his friends. It was just…Etho loved his friends in small doses. Not when all twelve of them were arguing whether or not Martyn was in the wrong or right.
“Why are you complaining anyway, Grian?” Cleo’s voice was mostly amused as they leaned against the table. “You got Scar to pick them off for you.”
The room seemed to settle to a low buzz as everyone looked in Grian’s direction. “Well, I-” Pink cheeks, only growing darker, Etho struggled not to groan as Scar slipped his arms around his boyfriend’s waist and rested his head on top of his. “It’s the concept of it all. What about the people who don’t have a person to eat their olives?” Grian huffed, struggling a bit before letting Scar pull him closer.
“I mean, I eat Bdubs’ olives.” Impulse pipped up, two pieces already in front of the couple. One was almost overloaded with olives, the other picked clean. Bdubs nodded like a bobblehead. “So we’re not really an issue.”
Ren cleared his throat, something almost embarrassed in his smile he offered. “Both me and BigB like olives, so-”
“-You both were arguing against them like, five seconds ago!” Scott sounded offended.
Bigb shrugged. “We both just like arguing.”
A groan went out from around the group, a smile tugging on Etho’s lips at their antics. The front door opened, a chilly gust of wind making Etho curl into himself even as the rest of the group ignored the last person to join the party. “Come on Scott,” Scott’s scowl had a light blush to accompany it as Martyn tugged him close. “I’ll take your olives.”
“...As if.” It took Scott a few seconds to respond, even longer to pull out of Martyn’s hold. “I’ll just give mine to Cleo.”
“Don’t bother!” Etho flitched back as Pearl sing-songed from the corner, a piece of pizza hanging out of her mouth. “I already dumped mine on her plate.” There was a pause as Cleo glanced down at her plate, mouth slowly dropping open before she looked back at Pearl.
“How did you-”
“Tim?” Grian sounded desperate now, motioning at Jimmy and Tango like they would side with him.
Unfortunately for Grian, Jimmy was already picking off Tango’s olives. “Oh! Uh, sorry G.” Jimmy offered a lopsided smile as the rest of the group laughed. Etho was more focused on getting Tango’s attention, since last he checked, Tango also liked olives. One look had Tango flipping him off, cheeks just as flushed as Etho knew they would be.
Grian looked around desperately, eventually deflating as Scar held out an olive-free pizza slice with a blinding smile. “I think you lost this one, Gri.” Grian didn’t answer other than to take an aggressive bite of his pizza.
It was settled.
Etho let out a huff of a laugh with the rest of the group, the reluctant smile finally forming. It was hard to stay grumpy when all of his friends were…well, being his friends. It was especially hard to stay upset when his own olive eater had just walked in.
Joel looked peeved as hell, pushing through the greetings and welcomes to grab a plate and stack it with four slices of pizza. He flipped Scott off before offering a quick thank you to Cleo for hosting, then made a beeline for where Etho was curled up on the couch. “It’s good to see you too, Joel!” Scott called out, a snicker in his voice that would only serve to make Joel more pissed off.
“Bad day?” Etho managed to ask quietly just as Joel sat down beside him. Ren had to shift quickly to make room, which did lead to Joel sitting somewhat on Etho’s thigh, but Etho couldn’t say he hated the position.
“Bad day?” Joel echoed back, a piece of pizza already half gone. He waved the rest around, clearly oblivious to the group starting to listen in. “ Bad day?” Oh, he was about to go on a rant, wasn’t he? Etho dodged out of the way of the flying pizza. “Yeah, babe, it was a terrible day! It’s fucking Christmas and I work at Walmart. You know how frustrating it is to be working on Christmas?”
Etho’s eyes darted towards Tango, who was clearly trying to hold back a laugh. “I can’t say I do-”
“-No, you don’t!” Joel interrupted him before taking another bite. “You work at homeeeee- sorry, that was rude, I just-” Another bite. “God, this old man came in and screamed that we didn’t have any bread like-”
“Did you guys run out of bread?” Jimmy asked from his very safe distance from the kitchen.
“NO!” Joel threw his hands up in the air, a rain of olives flying from his hand and pelting Bdubs from across the room. Etho didn’t even realize Joel was picking them off. “He just couldn’t look in the right department! So I lead him to the fucking bread isle and the guy doesn’t even say thank you!”
Bdubs had started making choking noises, which was as dramatic as it was funny, since Etho was very sure none of the olives had actually entered Bdubs mouth. Tucking Joel under his arm, Etho shook his head at whatever Tango was winding up to say next. As much as it was fun to let people tease his boyfriend, it was Etho that had to leave with him at the end of the night. The room settled into separate conversations as Joel fumed, fingers moving at lightspeed as he removed any olives he could see before he started on the onions. “Are you feeling mushrooms?” Joel asked under his breath, anger still seeping through every word.
Shrugging, Etho let out a tired hum. Joel picked them off anyway. In fact, Joel continued until it was just cheese and bread, all of Etho’s toppings placed half-hazardly on Joel’s second slice before his third was placed on top to make a sandwich. Etho watched with mild disgust as Joel quickly devoured that as well. “I’m not kissing you until you brush your teeth.” Etho mumbled next, wrinkling his nose at the grease on Joel’s fingers. He still let Joel grab his hand anyways, choosing to ignore the slimy feeling in order to be closer to his boyfriend. “You were mean to me.” Etho whispered next, barely dodging in time to not get whacked by a swinging arm coming from above him.
“You like when I’m mean to you.”
“Not like that.”
Joel’s anger had simmered down to a frustrated tiredness, the plate now holding Etho’s singular piece of cheese pizza being sat to the side. “I know.” Joel rested his head against Etho’s shoulder. “I don’t want to be here.”
It wasn’t an apology. Etho didn’t expect one. “I don’t want to be here either.”
“Then why the hell are we here?”
Huffing, Etho readjusted his mask over his nose before looking around. Jimmy and Tango were sitting close but far apart, their pinkies barely touching. Impulse and Bdubs, on the other hand, were tangled up with each other, looking about five seconds away from making out. Scar, Grian, Ren and BigB all were talking in a circle. Pearl and Cleo looked about five seconds away from fighting, only to laugh and drag Martyn back into whatever they were talking about. “You know, you two don’t have to be here.”
Both Joel and Etho jumped back as Scott laughed, the man coming from around the couch to offer them an amused look. Rosy cheeks, he was clearly on his way to being more than tipsy. “We want to support your parties-”
“I feel supported.” Scott waved a hand at Etho’s weak excuse. “Joel just got off a ten hour shift and Etho,” Etho’s back locked up as Scott directed his attention solely on him. “I know you don’t like Christmas. It’s okay. Go do…” Scott’s eyes fell on the sad cheese pizza, his smile growing for a moment before he looked back at him. “Whatever it is the two of you normally do on this totally non-descript day.”
It was easy to agree with Scott when Joel was about to pass out on Etho’s shoulder. Etho forced the two of them to say goodbye, even though he’d rather tear his hair out, and soon enough the two of them were climbing onto the back of Joel’s motorcycle. “Are you sure you don’t want me to drive?” Etho asked, pulling his jacket tighter. “You wore yourself out back there.”
Scoffing, Joel tossed a lopsided grin behind his shoulder before climbing on. “Nah, I was just acting to get us out of there. I know you don’t like parties that much.” Joel patted the seat behind him at Etho’s resulting silence, something warm filling Etho’s chest that would be far too embarrassing to admit out loud. “Wanna get ice-cream?”
It was below freezing.
“Yeah, why the hell not?” Etho agreed anyway, climbing on to the back of the motorcycle and immediately wrapping his arms around Joel. “So, if you were pretending to be all angry and tired then-”
“I totally meant to throw those olives at Bdubs, yeah.”
Etho’s laugh was covered by the engine of the bike, gripping tighter as Joel peeled away from the sidewalk. Oddly enough, his insides never felt colder even as they drove away from the brightly lit house.
Etho supposed that's what having a partner willing to eat olives will do to a guy.