I dont own s.p. thats my disclaimer.
It was the first time we'd been home in over a year. One of the few times South Park wasn't covered in snow. Fall was beautiful in South Park, the leaves changing and falling off the trees, the air was cool and crisp, and in early October the entire town had a huge yard sale. It was more like a 2 mile street sale. People from the neighboring towns would drive in and enjoy the festivities, and at nine o'clock the fire department set off fireworks. And since it was South Park it usually ended in the fire department putting out a house they caught on fire.
I looked over at Kyle when we passed the 2 miles till sign. He was looking out the window at the fall foliage. "You ready for the surprise?"
He smiled looking over to me. "My mom is going to flip out."
School was overbearing. They lived 8 hours away from South Park and our schedules never gave us time to go home for a visit. Over Christmas last year we decided to visit California instead of going home, so we decided to take the weekend off and surprise our families. I pulled the car over as the town came into view.
"What are you doing?" Kyle questioned.
I smiled and leaned over to kiss him. No one knew about us except for our friends at the university. Kyle wanted to tell everyone, but I just wanted ready. I was so blessed because he was so patient with me. He didn't pressure me to be out; I just knew he wanted to be. I pulled back. "I just wanted a kiss before we go home."
He smiled back at me. "Just one?"
The little devil.
O
It took us ten minutes to find a parking spot before we came to the conclusion we should just park at one of our houses. We chose Kyle's house knowing that his family would be in town. We wanted to see them but we wanted to have some time to walk around town a little first. It was cold and Kyle had to dig a scarf out of his bag before we could go. The scarf was light green and went well with his red hair and black pea coat. He decided to grow out his hair when we started college and it was now hanging just above his jaw line. We walked in silence until we got to town and then we started to look at everyone's stuff. There were so many people there that we pretty much had to walk glued together to get anywhere. I didn't mind. It gave us an excuse to be close.
"Ooo, Stan look at this." He grabbed me by the hand and pulled me over to the table. "This is pretty." He pointed at a dried flower arrangement in the middle of the table. "That would look good in my mom's kitchen. I'm thinking 'long time no see' present. What do you think?"
"I think you really want to buy it so you made up a reason to buy it. Masking it as a present. But every time you see it you are going to think 'wow that would have looked great on top of our entertainment stand.'"
"I was actually thinking the island counter."
"Yeah it would look good there."
He shot me a sarcastic look, and then realized he was still holding my hand. He let go. "Sorry. I'm just so used to it, I wasn't really thinking."
Did he just apologize for holding my hand? Oh that's right, we aren't at home anymore. Damnit, my hand is cold now. I don't like that feeling, it feels empty. He was walking a few feet ahead of me and I stared at the light shining through his hair making the auburn burn bright red. He turned to me and shot me a 'catch up' look. I did quickly and stood by his side while we looked through peoples yards and onto the main street in town. We found a few things for our moms and a few things to take home. We were nearing the part of the town that our moms always set up.
"This is so exciting." He whispered towards me. "I think I can see my mom's hair from here."
"You could see your mom's hair from the moon."
He laughed at me. His laughter always got to me. It made me all warm inside, just like his smile, his eyes, and his hands…just him in general. He made me the person I was, with his good points and his bad points. And I couldn't even think of any bad points. And here we were, at our childhood homes for the weekend. We would be spending the night away from each other for the first time in over a year. And thinking about that made me feel cold inside. Like my hands felt cold because I didn't have any gloves because I assumed we would be holding hands. He always kept my hands warm. What was I afraid of anyway. We already talked about it and if our families didn't approve we knew we could survive with just each other. And my hands were cold.
We were about twenty feet from where I could see both our mothers and I grabbed his hand.
"Stanley?" He squeaked. "Our parents…"
"I don't care. My hands are cold."
"Are you sure?" His eyes are filled with hope, fear, and excitement.
"I'm sure. We are going to do this. If something goes wrong then we'll go home. If something goes right, we're getting a hotel because that would be weird." I was scared, butterflies surfaced in my stomach but we were going to do this.
His hand squeezed tightly onto mine, "I love you." He smiled.
I smiled back and then looked to the ground as we walked towards the table.
"Buuubie!!" I heard Mrs. Brovloski squeal. "Sharon, look who's hear!!"
"Stanley! This is wonderful! Kyle your hair, it's beautiful!"
"Thank you Mrs. Marsh." Kyle ran his hand through his hair. I looked up to see our mothers coming towards us. Kyle was still holding my hand tightly, and I was waiting for someone to say something. I watched as my mom finally looked to our hands, I tensed and I'm sure Kyle felt it because he tensed as well. Shelia looked to our hands quickly than to our faces. The smile that she wore, I didn't know how to process it.
"If that's why you two didn't come home for Christmas last year I'm going to be angry."
"No mom, we went to California. Wanted to see Disney." I said quickly and quietly.
"Good." Shelia said stepping aside my mother. "We want you to know that we knew this day would come and that we are okay with it."
Kyle broke free from my hand and hugged his mother.
"Your fathers are your own problem though." My mother smirked and hugged me. It was good to feel her embrace.
"How?" I asked her.
"I'm your mother Stanley. I'll always know more about you than you think I do."
I should have known it would be fine, Kyle always said it would be and he never lies to me. I could almost feel the heat of his smile radiating through my body. His smile…God I love him.