this is the dumbest thing i've ever written (cries for fifty years)
disclaimer: i do not own the long walk.
The first time they kissed, it was just out of habit.
It'd been the type of day that started out as a snowy wonderland and ended up being wet clothes drying on a heater and feet getting irritatingly cold and wet. They'd been lying sprawled out and exhausted on Garraty's bed when McVries had leaned over and kissed Garraty's nose. It hadn't seemed out of place at all, it was just like it'd been something that had been waiting to happen.
And Garraty liked it. But at the time he'd had to wonder why McVries hadn't just kissed his mouth, like Jan had back when they'd been dating.
The second kiss had been when Garraty was resting on a bench in a locker room after track, which he and McVries had together. Honestly, he had no idea why he'd tried out for track since it was so damn tiring. The sweat had been running down his forehead and he'd leaned against the much cooler locker, eyes closed. He hadn't seen it coming at all, McVries had just come up to him and kissed his forehead.
He'd almost jumped from surprise and had at first been convinced that someone was trying to play a prank on him, but when he opened his eyes and realized it was his boyfriend, suddenly his face felt even hotter than before.
Garraty had later asked him why he'd kissed him on his forehead of all places, he'd been sweating and it probably tasted gross. McVries had burst out laughing and told him that you didn't really taste anything unless you wanted to taste something while kissing somebody. Garraty was still perplexed by this response, but he decided that he didn't really mind.
Over the next few weeks, Garraty tried to teach McVries to dance. The result was disastrous, Pete kept stepping on his feet and once the pair of them had fallen over while attempting to dance in the living room.
They kept it up, though, Garraty found it amusing how McVries, who was usually so smooth and adept, suddenly turned into a blushing, stumbling dance student who kept tripping over his feet. Garraty had gotten pretty good at dance, and there was something nice about teaching McVries it.
The third kiss was almost accidental. Well, at least it had started out accidentally. They'd just been talking by the lockers and Garraty had started forward only to trip one of McVries's feet and end up with his mouth colliding against his cheek. He'd found himself wishing that he'd gone for McVries's lips instead of his cheek.
Sometimes Garraty was afraid of being seen with McVries. Sometimes they got dirty looks, sometimes some of Jan's friends would whisper in the hallways when they saw them together. But he didn't mind that much, because, well, honestly, did it really matter what Jan's friends thought? Jan was probably happy, whatever she was doing.
And Garraty's mother had been nice about it. She hadn't really questioned anything, and when Garraty had asked whether she cared that he was in a relationship with another boy, she'd just shrugged and said she was happy for him.
He wasn't quite sure what that meant, but it was a good thing, right? It'd been so awkward to just spit the question out to her. He had to wonder whether Pete had had the same problem. His little sister had walked in on them sleeping on the couch together and hadn't said much. Katrina was a nice girl. Stuff like this was pretty easy for little kids to understand.
The fourth kiss was cold. Not in the emotional sense, but in the actual physical sense. It was the middle of February and somehow it was still freezing out and snowing. Garraty sort of agreed with what Collie Parker had said about Maine sometimes. The weather tended to suck. Especially in the winter.
Garraty wasn't really sure what had inspired him to go for a half an hour walk in the extremely cold, extremely wet woods with McVries. They'd been so concentrated on not walking in snowy areas that they'd slipped on a large patch of ice and Garraty had ended up with a large bruise on one leg.
Despite Garraty insisting that he could walk, McVries had sat down with him and after a few moments of examining the bruise, had leaned down and kissed it.
Honestly, sometimes Garraty wondered about McVries.
Garraty was beginning to wonder why McVries never kissed him in the normal place that people usually got kissed. Kisses on the forehead and the nose and the cheek were nice for awhile, but after some time it'd be natural for him to want, well, more, right?
So one day, when he and Pete were just walking back from school, Garraty kissed him. At first McVries made a slightly surprised noise, but he quickly eased into it. He remembered what McVries had said about tasting kisses, and he couldn't help thinking that it tasted awfully nice.
The kiss didn't last that long, but Garraty didn't really care. "Why'd you do that?" McVries asked.
"I got impatient."
McVries laughed. "I figured that you would."
i feel like i've just inhaled ten pounds of sugar
this is why i mostly write angst about people dying