7 Minutes

A tense silence hung over the classroom. A crowd gathered around a utility closet door. The substitute teacher was gone, leaving to take a call and apparently not intent on returning, leaving the freshman class to do as they pleased until school ended.

For some people, doing as they pleased meant sitting in the back of the room and minding their own business. That’s what Quill, Yarrow, and Cypress were spending their time doing. For other people, that meant initiating some sort of party game that seemed to hinge entirely on peer pressure.

A timer chimed from someone’s phone and a student from the crowd eagerly opened the closet door.

The pair inside squinted against the light, having been in the dark for several minutes now. They looked completely normal aside from the unadjusted eyes and visible awkwardness.

“Again? Do you guys know how to play this game?” The apparent instigator clearly wasn’t pleased with the performance. The octoling trio in the back corner watched as pair after pair spent their time in the closet, all of them subject to disappointed sighs from the crowd for not coming up to expectation.

Quill looked up the rules of the game and informed his friends on what exactly they were witnessing. Seven Minutes in Heaven - a game where two people are put into a small dark room together and left to do whatever they please for seven minutes. ‘Whatever they please’ meant they could talk, just stand there, kiss, or… other things.

The guide the trio looked at said that the best way to play this game was to be respectful, but the crew in their classroom clearly weren’t playing by these rules. They never forced anyone into the closet, but if a couple left unscathed of hickeys, lipstick marks, or rumpled clothes, they became the butt of some supposedly lighthearted but still humiliating jokes.

Clearly the crowd was looking for entertainment, and the instigator was getting desperate for action. If this game petered out from disinterest, then they might become the joke for starting it in the first place!

They were running out of pairs to throw in… until they caught sight of the three octolings. Quill, Yarrow, and Cypress weren’t popular by any means, but their classmates were still vaguely aware of their dynamic. It was hard not to notice Cypress’s open adoration for Yarrow or how Yarrow and Quill were never more than a few feet apart if they could help it.

The students honed in on them. Cypress’s face lit up as a few classmates came over. She looked to Yarrow, but the smile on her face fell as she was ignored and pairs of hands were firmly planted on the boys’ shoulders. They could say no to the game if they wanted to, but the students looked like they were prepared to convince them.

Quill froze under the sudden attention and looked to his friends for help, but Yarrow simply stood from his chair.

“Alright. Come on.” The stoic kid grabbed his friend by the jacket sleeve and helped him up. Quill and Cypress were dumbfounded - Yarrow usually hated stuff like this! - but he quietly followed the other students to the closet with Quill in tow.

The pair obediently walked into the closet and Yarrow shut the door behind them. Cypress followed them and stood outside, clearly confused and being subject to teasing from the rest of the students waiting and watching.

This was exactly what the crowd was hoping for. What could be funnier than separating a girl from her crush and pairing him with his best friend!

There was chatting and apparent threats to physical wellbeing from Cypress toward other students, but the boys couldn’t hear much through the door and their own thudding heartbeats.

It was adrenaline inducing for Yarrow and nerve wracking for Quill. He couldn’t see Yarrow, but Yarrow could see him thanks to the glow of his sanitized scars. The one eye that was illuminated looked around the room, anywhere but at him.

Quill cleared his throat after an awkward silence. “Soooo how have you been?”

“We aren’t going to small talk in here.” There was some amusement in Yarrow’s voice.

“Okay, great, so you do have a plan? I thought it was strange that you would just go along with this. What do you want to do?”

After a moment of thought, Yarrow grabbed Quill’s jacket sleeve. “Come here.”

There wasn’t a lot of room in the closet, but Quill shuffled forward anyway until the boys were nearly chest-to-chest. Being this close wasn’t anything new for them, but the premise of the whole thing made them both feel uncomfortably warm and overly aware of each other’s presence.

Yarrow reached up and started undoing Quill’s tie. He had to lean in to do so, squinting to try to see what he was doing. Quill figured he was intended to use the tie for something… Yarrow was the kind of person that could escape a room with a paperclip if he really needed to. Maybe he wanted to disappear and give the other kids a scare?

He bravely endured the slight manhandling until that tie hung from his shoulders and Yarrow started fidgeting with his shirt buttons next.

Quill jumped backwards like he’d been shocked, hitting the wall behind him.
“Woah, woah! W-What are you doing!?”

It was impossible to see in the pitch dark, but both boys’ faces burned. Even if Yarrow was outwardly calmer, his heart was racing just as fast as his friend’s. “This game will not end for anyone until they get what they want! It’s easy enough to fake what they want to see.”

So that’s why Yarrow was willing to indulge in this game. He could’ve at least told Quill about the plan first! Judging by the overly controlled tone of his voice, Quill could guess that he simply couldn’t bear to ask him outright.

“So you want us to take one for the team? Yarrow, you… you do know what it is they expect us to do, right?”

Yarrow made a sound in the back of his throat like he was struggling to get his words out.
“They want us to… make out, obviously.”

The boys just stood in silence for a few seconds. If they could see each other clearly they would certainly be avoiding eye contact. Normally, friends might be able to joke about the idea, but they both had their reasons trying not to think about any theoretical making out for too long.

“And you’re fine with our classmates… thinking we did that? E-Even Cypress?”

“We can deal with Cypress, and I do not care about anyone else. I just want them to be satisfied so this stupid game can be over.” This was the only way Yarrow could think to end this game without using any kind of force. He wasn’t the most tactful person. Still, he was now realizing that the lack of tact also just made him put his best friend into a corner.

“Sorry.” Yarrow didn’t specify for what, but he hoped Quill understood. “... Do you care what our classmates think?”

Despite how flustered he was, Quill took a step forward. “I guess not. Let’s do this then.”

Yarrow undid the top button of Quill’s shirt. He could’ve just asked Quill to muss his own clothing, but Yarrow seemed insistent to do it for him. Quill wasn’t sure he could overcome shame long enough to do it himself anyway, so he pliantly stood as Yarrow undid buttons down to his collarbone.

“Still… I’ll die of embarrassment if word of this gets around to anyone I know. Can you imagine what our sisters would say?” Quill could picture Paige and Clover calling each other up to freak out about it. The idea made Yarrow let out an amused huff.

“I am not sure about you, but anyone who knows me will know it is a farce. I would never partake in something like this.” Yarrow slid Quill’s jacket off of one shoulder. Despite being more exposed to the cold, conditioned air, Quill didn’t feel any less warm.

“You mean you would never make out with someone?”

“Intimacy creates vulnerability. I have no desire to make myself vulnerable, and especially not in a locked closet with my peers around.” Yarrow recited it like law. Surely one of his own arbitrary self-imposed rules - despite it not affecting him, Quill couldn’t help but ponder on it while Yarrow continued fidgeting with his outfit.

Yarrow was the sort of person that was only comfortable when impervious to attack. Quill couldn’t imagine it. He couldn’t remember how many times he cried on Yarrow's shoulder or clung tightly to him to keep himself safe. Yarrow rarely did the same. If he did cry, he would suck it up as fast as he could. He kept his problems to himself. He would be affectionate only if he was tired or hurt or after Quill made it apparent he wanted it first.

Viewing vulnerability, and intimacy by extension, as an inexcusable weakness made sense for someone like him. Still, Quill couldn’t help but think it was kind of sad. What would a vulnerable Yarrow even be like?

Psychoanalyzing his friend in his mind was a good distraction from having to acknowledge Yarrow’s hands untucking his shirt. Quill was fully lost in his own mind… until fingers dug into the side of his neck and pinched hard.

Quill yelped, nearly screaming, and Yarrow was the one that jumped back this time.

“Sorry!” Yarrow held up his hands. “I didn’t think it would hurt there!”

Quill felt the injury, sensitive to the touch. “W-What was that for!?”

“A hickey would help sell the ruse!” Yarrow was being tactical about it, but there was a slight change to his voice that almost sounded like he was holding in a laugh. “We could not do it… or I could do it the legit way if it hurts less?”

The legit way?
Well, purposely giving someone a hickey wasn’t the same as making out really, but Quill’s brain suddenly felt like static at even the suggestion. Without having to worry about being seen, Yarrow let himself smile at his friend’s stunned sputtering.

“I-I, um! You. I.” Quill did his best to will away the mental image his brain so graciously forced him to think about. “Y-You can do it. Not! The legit way… Not the legit way. You -”

Yarrow pinched his neck in the same spot as before while he was distracted, earning another loud squawk out of his friend.

They didn’t have much time left, and the crowd outside were enraptured with the sudden sounds that were coming from the closet. It sounded like some sort of struggle with Quill yelping every so often and some hushed words from Yarrow.

Sounds of struggle can sound like a lot of other things too, which some students near Cypress were clear to point out from gossiping whispers and giggling. Cypress’s ears burned and her whole body tensed. She only seconds away from kicking the door down to see what the hell was going on!

The timer went off and Cypress immediately flung the door open. The crowd got exactly what they wanted. They erupted into laughter and cheers.

Both boys stood there. Yarrow looked almost the same aside from a few wrinkles in his school uniform. Quill, on the other hand, endured the brunt of whatever happened.
His clothing looked like it’d been opened in a rush. Small, speckled bruises ran up from his clavicle to his jaw - clearly new ones as they hadn’t set deeply in color yet.

Both boys were blushing fiercely, but Quill looked like he was nearly ready to keel over.

Cypress was happy to help him with that.

“QUILL!” She didn’t need to voice her accusation. Despite Yarrow clearly being the enthusiastic one in the false make out session, for all intents and purposes, Quill stole the boy who Cypress delusionally considered her boyfriend.

Quill looked as if his soul was going to leave his body. Yarrow calmly reached for the door handle and started to close it.

“Sorry, we’re not done yet.”

As soon as it clicked shut, a furious punch landed on the wood door and made it creak. The boys had certainly ended the game… but now they were going to have to go with Quill’s original guess and actually escape the closet if they wanted to live.