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“Dude, on Valentine’s Day?"
Miguel sighed and rested his head in his hands. Hawk could hardly believe Sam would break up with Miguel at all, much less on Valentine’s Day.
“What did you do? You must have fucked up bad,” Hawk said.
Maybe he would have been more sensitive if he wasn’t so shocked by the news. Sure, there had been some tension between Miguel and Sam after he ditched her to go to Mexico, but that was ages ago and they seemed to be going strong these days, at least from his outside perspective. He didn't see this coming at all.
“I don’t even know. She said she just…didn’t feel that way about me anymore. I don’t think she even realized it was Valentine’s Day.”
Miguel seemed so sad. Hawk still didn’t like Sam much, but he liked her more than he liked seeing Miguel like this.
“Do you think there’s another guy? Because I can go kick his ass for you,” he offered.
Miguel shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think there’s anyone else. She’s been kind of distant lately. I think she was telling the truth, she just isn’t that into me anymore.”
Hawk literally could not imagine that.
“She must have gone insane,” he said.
Miguel laughed humorlessly, without shifting the depressed look from his face. He didn't say anything.
“Well, at least you don’t have to get her a Valentine’s Day present now,” Hawk tried, looking for a bright side.
“Except I already did,” Miguel said glumly, pulling a box out of his pocket and showing it to him. Inside was a necklace with a little silver octopus pendant on it. Kind of weird, Hawk thought. He didn’t know what Sam would have made of it. Maybe she liked octopuses? Or maybe she hated them and this was why she had dumped him. But even if it was weird, Hawk thought it was actually a pretty cool necklace.
“What are you gonna do with it?” He asked.
“Probably return it,” Miguel said, checking the time on his phone. “Guess I’d better go do that while I still can. I got it at the mall.”
If Miguel was going to return it instead of keeping it for another time, that probably meant he really believed he and Sam were over now. That was a surprise. Hawk would have been kind of glad about that if Miguel wasn’t so sad.
“I’ll come with you. You shouldn’t be alone in these trying times,” he said, clapping a hand on Miguel’s shoulder.
Miguel gave a slight laugh at that, this time accompanied by a smile that actually reached his eyes.
“All right.”
When they got to the mall, they ended up shopping around a bit before going to the jewelry store. Hawk found a tracksuit with lime green stripes down the sides to match the color of his mohawk, even though he would probably dye his hair again soon. Ever since it had grown long enough to put it in a hawk again, he hadn’t been able to resist trying out every color of hair dye he could find.
There was something about just deciding what his hair would look like and making it happen that was like a rush. It felt incredible. Like shoving his past self in a box and moving constantly forward. Almost like getting a tattoo, but a lot less expensive. Well, it would be less expensive if he didn’t have to buy a few new outfits to match every time. Miguel always grinned when he saw him with a new color, and he always said something nice about it. Whenever Hawk was dyeing his hair, he thought about that moment when Miguel would see it, and the shopping trip they would take together afterward. It was honestly a big part of why he kept doing it, although he felt silly admitting that even to himself.
Unfortunately for Miguel, the store wouldn’t let him return the necklace. That made sense to Hawk. Who knew how many lovelorn customers were coming in trying to return jewelry that day?
Miguel sat on a bench and sighed, frowning at the necklace in his hands.
“It's a pretty cool necklace though,” Hawk said, trying to cheer him up.
“You think so?” Miguel asked. “You can have it if you want. Maybe you’ll meet a babe who likes marine biology, right?”
Hawk laughed. “Yeah, maybe.”
“You know, octopuses can change color like chameleons,” Miguel said. “And texture, too, to blend in with rocks and stuff.”
“Badass,” Hawk said with a grin, eyeing the pendant. “I wish I could do that. It would save me a fortune in hair products.”
Miguel laughed, then looked at Hawk, tilting his head to the side, and held up the necklace in front of him.
There was no magic in Valentine’s Day. It was a waste of time, a day of dashed hopes, usually a disappointment for almost everybody. It wasn’t a day for wishes to come true. That was what Hawk had always thought, anyway.
And yet, when he was getting undressed for bed that night, he looked at the octopus pendant in the mirror for a long time, remembering the warmth of Miguel’s hands brushing against his neck as he’d fastened the clasp, and couldn’t help but smile. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad holiday after all.