"I don't think I'm ever going to get the smell of pizza out of my car," Pylar said, closing his car door.

"Dude, I don't think I'll ever get the smell of pizza out of my pores." Maddox climbed out of the passenger side with a stack of three pizza boxes in his arms. He bumped the car door shut with his hip and walked around the front. "I eat pizza so much, my sweat's probably pizza grease at this point."

"Your hair's got a pretty good shine to it though." Pylar ran to the mailbox, collecting everything inside of it before shifting through his key ring for the house key.

"I'm going to be working in a high rise one day and everyone will ask if we're having pizza, and I'll hide in shame because no, no pizza. The office doesn't smell like pizza. It's just me." Maddox's glasses slipped down his nose. With his arms full, he tipped his head back and bounced his head to get them to jump back up his nose, but instead, they dug into place. He flicked his head back again to try again, but they only slid further down. He walked around to the front of the car and laid the pizza boxes on the hood to push his glasses up his nose before following after Pylar.

"At least engineers don't use drafting paper anymore so you won't smudge everything with grease." Pylar pushed the front door open.

"Most engineers don't use paper. With my luck, they'll stick me with someone who does everything the old fashioned way when I get to interning."

"I'll be honest..." Pylar held the door for Maddox and shut it behind him. "I'm only hoping for that to happen... a little it. Just... Just... this much." He lifted pinched fingers.

Maddox laughed and shook his head. "You're an ass."

"Only because I know you like it." Pylar grinned. He lead the way to the kitchen and cleared the counter of loose dishes and a fallen paper towel roll so there was room for Maddox to set down the pizza. He set down a two-liter bottle of off-brand cola. Tucked under the kitchen window off to the side sat a table, stacked with papers, envelopes and open bills spread over the surface in no easily discernible order. Some sat open, some splayed out. He tossed the loose letters he carried onto the stack with the intention he'd deal with them later when he got the chance. From the living room, about thirty seconds of music played in a loop, part of the soundtrack for whatever DVD his mom had put in. She must've rented something, but because he didn't recognize the scratches mixed in.

After setting the box down, Maddox flicked on the kitchen light. The tiny, single basin sink overflowed with dishes, accumulated over the last week... or maybe it had been two weeks. Pylar settled on it being one week's worth of dishes until he opened the cupboard and only found one clean plate stacked inside. He closed the cupboard and put on the rubber gloves to wash up two more plates quickly.

"Hey, Mad, can you dry these real quick?" He held one of the plates up.

At the same time, Maddox said, "yeah," he also had a towel in his hands and was taking the plate from Pylar. With the third plate handed to Maddox, he took the gloves off and went to the table. Casually, he swiped some of the letters up and put them in stacks before tucking them off to the side, sliding the biggest stack of them into one of the chairs under the table.

In the mix of mail on the table was a sleek black envelope with golden embellishments. It couldn't be confused as anything other than another letter from HVN, just like the first invitation he had gotten. His heart throbbed as he picked it up. He tossed a quick glance toward Maddox to see if his friend was looking before he picked it up. Pylar's fingers carefully tugged at the envelope flap, careful pulling apart the glue and making as little sound as possible.

"What's that?" Maddox said.

Pylar's body went rigid. His breath caught in his throat. "Nothing." His high pitch did nothing to feign innocence. He turned away so his back was to Maddox.

"Uh, who do you think I am, Py?" Maddox stacked the last plate on the counter and made way across the room. He leaned over Pylar's shoulder and Pylar turned away, holding the letter against his chest and covering it with both arms. Maddox leaned the other way, Pylar turned the other way. "Py—What is it?"

Pylar cleared his throat. "Nothing," his voice was more controlled this time, a little too controlled. A little too deep. "Just bills."

Maddox stepped back and crossed his arms. "Dude, c'mon. I might live with my parents, but it's not like I've never seen a bill before. Especially not your bills. Are you—" he paused for too long; the couple of seconds could've been minutes to Pylar. "Dude," Maddox said, followed by another long pause.

"Hm...?"

"Did you order..." Maddox leaned back to look toward the living room, checking for Pylar's mom. When he didn't see her, he walked in closer to whisper in Pylar's ear: "Did you order porn?"

Pylar turned around instantly, pushing Maddox back. "No! It's not like that—"

"Is that another letter from that place downtown?"

Without looking up, Pylar finally said, "Yeah."

"What do they want?"

"I dunno. I haven't opened it yet."

"Well," Maddox nodded his head as if urging him to open it.

Pylar thought about telling him no, he'd wait a little bit and open it later, the pizza was getting cold, but it was already cold and they were waiting for the oven to warm up to reheat the pizza and they'd opened the first letter together, why shouldn't they open the second one together? It was only a little more embarrassing because they knew it went to a sex club — but he shouldn't've felt weird about it because he didn't join the club. He didn't ask for the letter, even if he had gone in the first time and there was some weird, sick part of him that was excited the moment he saw the letter. Heat ran up the back of his neck and his shoulders. He felt it on his cheeks. He ripped the letter open before Maddox could notice. "It's... another invitation."

"Really?"

"And it says the theme is—" Pylar covered his laughter with his hand. His face burned against his fingers.

"What?" Maddox came beside Pylar to peer over his shoulder.

"Sea men," they said at the same time, then locking eyes.

"Oh my god," Maddox said, stepping away. A smile tugged his mouth wide, though he tried to fight the laughter off. "Are you serious? "

"I don't think this place would lie."

"That's so... porn flick-y."

"I know."

"Like it would be the name of a porn flick."

"I know!"

"Are you gonna go?"

"I—" A lump built in his throat and he felt the sweat—the instant sweat of his shirt clinging to his body and heat kissed his cheeks. "I—don't know."

"I mean, you kind of have to, right? This is, like, beyond bizarre. You don't even know why you're getting these. Like I doubt you had a quarter mil to drop on the base-level membership like the website says."

"Yeah—No, I didn't. I wish I had a quarter mil, though."

"You and me both." The oven beeped, alerting it had reached heat. Maddox walked across the kitchen and slipped the first pizza into the oven and stood by, watching it carefully to warm it only enough. When he turned around, Pylar still stood in place, staring at the letter in his hands. Maddox pursed his lips and crossed his arms. "You should go."

"What?"

"You should go, check it out again. You're a little more prepared this time for whatever the hell you'll walk into."

"I... don't think so, Mad." Pylar slipped the invitation back into the envelope and tossed it behind one of the big piles on the table. "You know sex has always... kind of weirded me out. I don't need to go."

"But wasn't it just weird enough to want to go again and see what the hell is going on?"

Rolling his eyes, laughter bubbled up in Pylar's throat. "I know what the hell is going on. It was... a bunch of people... having sex... and watching other people have sex... with some really weird, overtly religious themes. "

"Well, you know, if you're gonna have an orgy, why not in church? Sin and confession at the same time. Probably saves a lot of time."

"You would've liked it, I bet."

"I'm not a pervert, like you, Py." Maddox snorted.

"I'm starving. How's the pizza, boys?" Pylar's mom said from the kitchen door.

Maddox and Pylar jumped, then turned to face her instantly.

"What's with those faces?" She glanced between the two of them, their expressions matching in guilt and a little bit of redness. "You look like a couple of boys with their hands in the cookie jar. You eat all of the pizza without me?"

"Course not, Ms. Bowen. We're just heating it up before we get started. The first one looks done. The other two will probably be ready in like, ten minutes." Maddox put the oven glove on and replaced the warm pizza with the two cold ones. After all the pizzas were warmed, Pylar filled a couple of glasses with ice, grabbed the plates and the pop, then went to the living room. He set everything down on the small coffee table in front of the couch, then pushed the table closer to the couch, wary to leave enough space for their legs.

The three sat down, the movie started, and pizza split across the plates. Pylar's mom reached for a second piece, but instead of taking another slice, she set her plate on the table and leaned back with her cup in her hands. "Are you boys excited for your trip on Monday?"

"Mmf!" Maddox grunted through a mouthful of food. After he swallowed, he said, "I haven't been to Niagara since I was a kid. Like, five. Wonder if it'll look as big."

Pylar brought a piece of pizza to his mouth and nibbled on the crust. Though he watched the screen, the images blurred and whatever they said turned into mumbling, vague voices in the background.

"Pylar?" His mom said.

He leaned back and swallowed the bit of food in his mouth. "Are you sure it's okay for us to go?"

His mom laughed gently and leaned back. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"We've been planning this for months, dude," Maddox said.

"I don't know..." Tight knots formed in Pylar's stomach.

Maddox craned his head. His glasses fell over his nose and he looked over Pylar's slightly blurry face and his mom's slightly more blurry face, then back. "You know it's my treat—My birthday gift to you. So if you're worried about money... This is kind of why I've been pulling the extra shifts lately." Maddox put his hand on Pylar's leg.

A wave of electricity—energy—went through his body and straightened him out. He held his breath without realizing until he said, "It's not that." He pursed his lips. Without thinking, his leg bounced a little causing Maddox to draw his hand back apologetically. "Mad—"

"Pylar," his mom said. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into her. "You only turn 21 once. Go, have fun." His mom laid a hand on his knee. Slowly, he placed his hand over hers. His brow creased, but finally he smiled, even if it was small. Pylar's mom gave his hand a squeeze. "Besides, you can't let Maddox go alone. He'll fall in and you know he can't swim."

"Hey—" Maddox said, "I got that certificate when I was eleven."

"Okay. If he fell in, his glasses would be gone in a second and then so are his chances to find the shore."

"That one's... probably true," Maddox said.

"And imagine all the time Maddox spent looking up different places for you to go." She winked at Maddox over Pylar's shoulder.

"It's an embarrassing amount of time, really. And all the printouts."

"Okay, okay. You've convinced me." Pylar gave his mom's hand a squeeze and smiled back at Maddox. "I wouldn't make you go to the falls alone anyway. I was only a little worried."

"Maddox does such a good job taking care of us though. I think there's enough pizza to last me the entire time you're gone," Pylar's mom said. "Even if you give me one more." She winked at Pylar.

And without having to say more, Pylar gave her another piece and handed her back her plate. He and Maddox had more, and the movie played, and he made notes of the things he needed to pack for the trip coming in a couple of days.