Miguel stares at the gathered things as he mulls it over. There will be time to be alone. He’ll be lingering here all night, secretly hoping for some sliver of the joy he felt with Gabriella.

“It’s fine.” He decides. “It’s supposed to be a celebration, too.”

With all the strange things he’s suffered through, it felt deeply unfair that this was the one rule of the universe that seemed to stick. Made it hard to gather the energy to celebrate.

But at least two made it a little closer to that.