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Winter 2

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Gill stretched awake. Winter-grey sunlight was filtering in through the shutters and scattering across his sheets, playing patterns on his face and shining in his eyes. He slung his legs out of bed and shuffled over to his dresser, feeling in the relative dark for a set of clothes, then shucking off his pajamas. He sat back on his bed to put his underwear on, button up his shirt, and pull on a pair of pants, but walked over to the door and did his tie in front of the mirror. The mirror in question hung on the door itself, which had been his father's way of preventing him from slamming his door, thereby teaching him to control his anger. It had worked a bit. He didn't slam doors if he was angry, he just insulted people and occasionally kicked things that couldn't fight back.

But today, he resolved, he would do the best he could to be immaculately behaved. After all, today was his birthday.

After attending to his hygiene, Gill walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, where he didn't dally for long. He simply made himself some breakfast for the walk and went to the table to grab his keys, then left the house and walked to Town Hall.

As per usual, Elli wasn't there yet. Gill finished off his sandwich and got to work. By the time Elli had arrived, he had run out of things to do, and had already pulled out his journal.

His father appreciated painting and liked to do it in his spare time. Gill was more literary-inclined, but once in a while, he did decide to sketch, and today was one of those days. He drew himself as a child. It wasn't great, but he felt that the stray piece sticking up would identify him to anyone who knew him.

He became so immersed in his drawing that when the bell above the door tinkled, he whipped his head up to find that it was eleven o'clock. He stared at the timepiece uncomprehendingly for a few moments before turning to see who had entered. To his shock, it was Julius.

"Hi there! I came to fill out that facebook thing you were talking about," the youth said, plopping himself down in front of Gill. He did a double-take upon noticing the young man's scratched ear. "You don't look so super. What happened?"

"Oh, you know, lamp posts," Gill answered vaguely as he reached for the book in question. "I see you changed your clothes."

Julius perked up. "Yup! It is Winter." He was wearing bright red pants and a cream-coloured dress shirt underneath a purple trenchcoat with pink and black striped sleeves and a black ruffled collar. His rhombus earrings had been traded in for hearts. What Julius lacked in subtlety, he made up for in flamboyance.

For a strange second, Gill found himself admiring the get-up. Really, all his clothes were modeled after the Victorian era, they had merely been styled to match his hair colour. Then the mayor-to-be shook his head and turned the book to an empty page before handing it over. "Just fill in things like your birthday and what you like to receive as gifts," he said.

Julius's smile grew mischievous. "I wonder what my aunt put down," he asked aloud as he flipped the pages back. He giggled. "Gems, huh? It looks like a lot of people here prefer gifts related to their work." He went back to the page Gill had picked out for him and began to write.

Gill found himself watching the young man as he worked. Something about him drew the eye, something more than his outlandish garb and his manicured fingernails. Maybe it was his long hair, or his crimson lips that matched his incarnadine eyes. Or maybe it was his porcelain complexion and his slight figure…

Gill looked down quickly. 'That was weird,' he thought to himself.

And then he realized that he had left his diary open on his desk. Blushing out of self-consciousness, he reached over to close it, but was shocked when Julius grabbed his hand. "You don't have to, it's a good picture. It really looks like you, only a lot younger," the boy said.

If Gill had been blushing before, now he was positively red. "T-thank you," he stammered.

Julius smiled. "So why did you draw it?" he inquired.

Gill shrugged, and the jeweler laughed. "Come on, no one does anything without there being a reason behind it. Do you really think that the person who built the desk you're using did it just to do it? No, he did it because he wanted to help build the Town Hall. So why did you draw yourself as a little kid?" he asked again.

"I guess I did it because it's my birthday today," Gill responded, a bit flustered.

"Really? That settles it, I'm taking you out to lunch!" Julius declared, pushing himself to his feet.

"What? No, I don't even eat lunch," Gill protested.

"Nonsense, it's on me! Come on, what have you got to lose, an hour working that you don't get paid for anyway? Let's go!" Julius exclaimed. And, even though his rational mind was telling him that he must be crazy to actually be accepting the offer of such an eccentric person, Gill sighed and stood up. Why not, it WAS his birthday.

"Elli, I'm going for lunch," he told her on his way by.

Julius led him to the Sundae Inn. Gill walked in silence, unsure of how he felt.

When they got there, Colleen greeted them and showed them to a table. She seemed confused that Gill was gracing someone like Julius with his presence, but she didn't remark on it and instead handed them a pair of menus.

The red-eyed boy didn't need very much time to choose what he wanted. He gave the menu one brief skim-through, then set it down, saying, "Pumpkin soup sounds delicious. What do you think, Gill?"

"I think I'm going to get the tomato soup."

Julius called Maya over and gave her the menus and their order. Gill watched, fascinated, as he noticed the fashion virtuoso give the waitress the same intense look that he had given Gill yesterday, but instead of smiling afterwards, he merely nodded to her before she left to the kitchen.

"So, how did you get into politics?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.

"My father," the platinum blond replied.

Julius tilted his head to the side. "Oh? Who's your father?"

"The mayor."

Gill savored the look of shock on Julius' face. "Really? And what about your mother?" the younger male inquired.

In a split second, the blue-eyed youth's expression had gone from proud to extremely closed and moody. "She left my dad when I was seven," he murmured.

Julius gave him a look full of sympathy. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Gill shook his head. "There's nothing to talk about. She thought Waffle Island was too small-time for her but he refused to move. She had stayed with my father because she thought he'd make her rich, but when that didn't happen, she left. I haven't heard from her since the lawyer nullified their vows. That was that. Didn't even kiss me goodbye."

He stopped talking abruptly, realizing that he'd said more than he wanted to. No one had ever asked him how he felt about it before, and only now did he realize how much resentment he still carried. A bit embarrassed, Gill looked away and pretended to be extremely interested in the grain of the floorboards.

Truth be told, he didn't really have friends. He was friendly with Elli and a few of the older people, but not with anyone young, and not enough to be considered anything other than an acquaintance. At a young age, he'd decided who was and was not deserving of his attention, and being privately schooled hadn't forced him to socialize, so he'd never learned that he had to get along with other people.

Julius gave him a smile. "You don't have to be shy. I enjoy talking with you," he said. "Since you trusted me, I'll trust you, too. My mom and Aunt Mira are sisters. I lived here when I was young, but my parents had a major case of wanderlust and decided to go see the world. I've always wanted to come back, though, so when I got the opportunity, I elected to take my last two years of trade school as an apprentice."

"You used to live here? That's odd, I don't remember you." Gill was sure that he would remember Julius if he had ever met him before in his life.

"I don't think you went to school with the rest of us," Julius guessed.

Gill wondered who else had lived here that he had never known about.

"Anyway, the place has changed a lot since then. The old teacher is gone, a lot of my classmates seem to have evaporated into thin air, and many of the buildings that used to be here aren't here anymore," Julius continued. "If my aunt wasn't so busy, I'd ask her to show me around, but she's still mourning her husband and she takes her sadness out on her work. I can find my own way around, though. I see that this is definitely the bar," he said in a conspiratorial tone.

"Aren't you a bit young for that?" Gill asked, his disapproval for dipsomania showing through.

Julius gave him a mischievous look. "But YOU aren't," he pointed out.

At that moment, Maya showed up with two bowls of soup on a tray. "Here you go, boys!" she said in her usual cheery way, and this time, the purple-haired youth smiled at her.

"Thank you," he said politely as she placed their dishes in front of them. The aromas that wafted up to Gill's nose smelled delicious, but he refrained from digging in until Julius was ready.

"Mmm… This is wonderful!" the apprentice cried out after swallowing his first mouthful. "How's yours, Gill?"

The young man in question took a sip. The heady taste of tomato swirled around his tongue. It was as though his mouth was having a climax. "It is quite agreeable," he said, trying to appear nonchalant. He dabbed his mouth with the napkin.

Julius seemed pleased with this response. They spent the rest of the meal in silence, each of them being quite hungry. Once they were done with the soup, the pink-clad male raised his hand, and Maya came over. "Do you have a dessert menu?" he inquired. She nodded, pleased, and grabbed two from her apron, which she handed to each of those seated.

"Pick a cake," Julius instructed his guest. "And don't choose something cheap. This is your birthday. Only the finest will do."

Gill was both surprised and pleased. He liked the finer things in life, and he appreciated it when another person did the same. He chose strawberry shortcake and Julius picked the same. While they waited for the order to come, the conversation picked up again.

"So I bet you're wondering about my clothes," Julius began.

Gill HAD been wondering, and normally, he would have stated this, but since Julius had been astonishingly nice to him, he found himself blushing.

The youth laughed. "It's all right, most people do, it's just that most aren't so polite about it. I feel that looks should be a statement about who a person really is on the inside, what they like and who they are. In the same vein, I don't think that people should judge others based on how they look. They should only make inferences. It's not right for one person to impose what they like on other people or tell them they're wrong for being bold enough to show the world who they really are. I bet you can tell who I am from how I dress. Go on, try it," he urged.

The blond took a minute to answer, and when he did, he felt rather foolish. "I guess… You're outgoing… You're adventurous… You like expensive things and original items… And you're handy with a needle and a thread?" he tried.

Julius clapped his hands. "See? That's me to a T! There are no lies about who I am, and if the world doesn't like it, then it's not my problem! There would be no sense in pretending to be someone I'm not, just like you would still be a man of class if you wore a t-shirt instead of a dress shirt, the only difference being that you wouldn't be comfortable in your clothes. That's why I wear what I do – this expresses who I am as an individual, and that's all that matters," he finished.

Gill blinked. Wow. Julius had a good point. Underneath all his foppishness, he was really quite intelligent. He was almost ashamed now that he had judged Julius as something of a simpleton based on his clothes alone. Maybe he was a bit too hasty to simplify others because of what they wore. Thinking back, Gill realized that in his life, he had dismissed a lot of people because they didn't conform to his standards. Perhaps he had some thinking to do.

It was then that Maya came out of the kitchen with their cake, which she set before them along with the bill before leaving. "I'll cover my half," Gill stated, but when he reached for the bill, Julius swatted his hand away.

"Nonsense, I insist," he said, taking it, glancing at it, then laying it face down beside his napkin. "It's my treat. Happy birthday, Gill."

After they finished the cake, the mayor's son's gaze happened to stray to the wall clock. He leapt up with a start. "One in the afternoon?! We've been here for two and a half hours!" he exclaimed.

Julius scratched the back of his head. "Really? The time went by so fast. I'm sorry I pulled you away from work for so long, but thank you for coming, I had lots of fun. I'll pay the bill, you go on back to your job," he said with a wave. Gill still wanted to linger a bit longer, but he knew that Elli would be wondering what happened to him, so he gave a quick bow before running off to the Town Hall.

As he had expected, Elli wore an expression of immense confusion on her face when the young man returned, panting from the run. "What happened? I was beginning to think that he'd hired hookers for the both of you and that when I saw you next, you'd be a man." She paused. "Are you a man now?"

Gill stuck his nose in the air. "What do you take me for, a common hick? Of course not, I have more self-respect than that," he retorted.

"Then what DID you do?" she asked.

"We ate lunch," he answered while returning to his desk.

"For two hours???"

"There was cake involved. Honestly, Elli, I've worked with you for a year and he moved here yesterday, but he still remembered my birthday better than you did."

"Actually, Mr. Sarcasmo, I have your present right here," she replied, sending it sliding down the long desk until it skidded to a halt in front of Gill. "Don't open it until you get off work, though, we just got a bunch of paperwork today and you're going to have to write Dale a formal letter explaining why he can't buy Praline Woods."

Gill picked it up. It was a relatively small gift wrapped in pink. In fact, it was a rather dark pink, one that he recognized from somewhere. He pulled out part of his tie and held the present up to it. They were the exact same colour. Sometimes Gill thought that Elli's powers of observation had crossed over from considerate and into psychopathic.

The young baker was right; there were a lot of forms that needed filling out. Once five o' clock rolled around, however, both of them abandoned the piles on their desks and left, Elli to return to Yolanda's, and Gill to return to his father's.

As he approached the end of the Town Square, he saw a familiar redhead sitting on the steps. If she had pounded on him and he hadn't fought back, then he might have been scared when he saw her, but since he had, he felt a sort of casual kinship with her instead. At the sound of his footsteps, Selena turned around and stood up.

"Hey. I figured that since I kicked your butt so hard yesterday, the least I could do was give you a birthday present. Here you go, you skinny punk," she said, handing him a gift.

Gill stared down at it uncomprehendingly. So many people were being nice to him today. Last year, no one but his father had given him anything, and now three separate people had noticed. He wasn't sure how to feel. "Th-thank you," he sputtered.

Selena grinned. "Summer 10, rich boy, don't forget it," she said with a wave as she started off down to the beach. Gill watched her for a moment, then put her present under his arm with Elli's and his diary and began home again.

When he entered his house, the sweet smell of pecan cake drifted through the air. "Happy twenty-first, son!" Hamilton said, coming out of the kitchen with the dessert in question.

Gill put his hand behind his head and smiled. "Thank you, father," he replied.

"Do I spy presents? It looks like someone else remembered! Who was it?" the mayor asked, putting the cake on the table while Gill went to get cutlery.

"Elli and Selena got me presents and Julius got me lunch," he said while setting the dishes in place.

"Well, that's a first! I'm proud of you. My little boy's all grown up now, friends and everything," Hamilton gushed. "Here's my present to you. Thank you for twenty-one years of fatherhood, and I hope for at least twenty-one more." Gill smiled.

After supper was done, he brought the gifts he'd received up to his bedroom and opened them. First, he unwrapped the one from Elli. It was expensive cologne from Mineral Town. He sprayed it on one of his wrists and sniffed it. Very nice. He didn't know when he'd use it, but if he got the chance, he certainly would. He placed it with his other toiletries on his dresser, then opened Selena's gift.

Inside it was some silver. "Heard you liked expensive things," the note enclosed with it said. Gill grinned. There were a million and one things that he could do with silver. Right now, he was envisioning new cufflinks. Maybe he could even go to Toucan Island one of these days and look for black pearls to set into them.

Last, but not least, he picked up his father's present and unwrapped it. Within were two things: a Goddess pendant and a new journal. Both of these items surprised Gill. Usually, his father got him a journal for Thanksgiving, and the necklace was as far out there as if he'd gotten his son an ostrich and dyed it pink. Briefly, the young adult considered whether or not his dad might be suffering from early-onset dementia, but then he decided against this conclusion and stood up to go ask him about them.

He found his father by the fireplace, his easel set up. He was painting a picture of the recent Harvest Festival. Anissa and Kathy were in the foreground, Anissa holding a pail of beet pulp and Kathy with her hand on a red roan horse. Gill paused for a moment to admire the canvas. No matter how good at drawing he got, he didn't think he'd ever compare to the current mayor.

"Father?" he began.

"Yes?"

"May I ask why you gave me a new journal early this year, and why you chose a pendant for the second gift?"

The corners of Hamilton's mouth lifted. "You used to talk about writing a book about the stories of the island. Now that people are starting to move back, I thought you might like to do that, knowing that you'd have an audience," he said.

Gill liked this idea. "And why the pendant?" he inquired.

The greying man winked. "All the members of our family have worn them. You'll know what it's for when the time comes," he replied. His son nodded, then went back upstairs.

The explanation had been cryptic, but Gill liked the idea of carrying on a family tradition, so when he got back to his bedroom, he put the necklace on. After looking at it in the mirror for a second, he slipped it beneath his shirt. He didn't want to look any more effeminate than his pink tie already made him.

After Gill wrote in his diary about what he'd done that day, he began to prepare for bed and let his mind wander. Inevitably, it settled on his lunch with Julius. To his surprise, he'd really enjoyed it. The feeling of being wanted was alien to him. He remembered how the lavender-haired teen had hung on his every word and watched him with those huge red eyes. Just thinking of them made him blush. Now that he was removed from the situation, he felt embarrassed that he had talked about his mother so much. What was he thinking? He was never that open with other people. Even with his co-worker, he kept himself at a distance. But something about Julius had been different, had made Gill feel like he could trust him. And for some reason, as much as he tried to convince himself that he didn't approve of the youth's eccentric dress, he found himself liking it. He was full of surprises, something he couldn't say for the rest of the townsfolk. As he turned off his light and snuggled down beneath his sheets, he thought about the other boy, and about his smile. For some reason, those crimson lips stood out in his mind the most, and they were the last thing he thought of before he drifted off to sleep.

Candace's house was ten steps in front of her.

Selena sat on the ground behind the iron fence, the sounds of the ocean behind her, salt and grass dancing in the air around her. But she wasn't concentrating on that at all. What she was focused on was that there were ten steps between her and the person she had been pining after.

It was a funny thing, attraction was. Many men had courted her in the past, but she had shunned them all. Boys had never had any appeal to her, and now she knew why. Even now, as she imagined Candace sitting alone in her bedroom, the feelings she was so inexperienced with came back. Oh goddess, it was true. Selena was a lesbian.

And right now, she was a very lonely one, sitting barely hidden from the woman she was heartsick for.

'Why Candace?' she had originally asked herself when she was only beginning to come to terms with her feelings. The answer had immediately come from within. How could it be anyone but? Candace, whose skin was as ivory-white as her name suggested, Candace, whose name meant Queen and who had claimed Selena's heart as her territory. She was so kind, mysterious and sweet. She had all the qualities that the redhead herself didn't have – patience, humility, docility – and she was attracted to that. Whenever her own amethyst optics met Candace's lapis lazuli eyes, she felt a tingling in her heart that spread through her until it reached her toes.

Of course, if Shelly called law enforcement on her for lingering around her house, then telling the police that wouldn't make her sentence any shorter.

Selena scuffed the dirt at her feet morosely. What was the use denying? She was in deep trouble now. As much as she wanted to confess, she knew that the chances of being shot down and maybe even forced off the island were even higher than any good coming of it – 90% higher, to be exact. It felt like she just couldn't hold the feelings inside, which was most of the problem. She knew that one day, she wouldn't be able to contain them any longer, and whatever was destined to happen would. She accepted that. Maybe she could save some face by taking matters into her own hands rather than bottling the emotions up until she did something even more stupid than punching the mayor's son. She just didn't know how to go about tackling this kind of situation. She'd never know if she never tried, but even more than she was foolhardy, Selena was scared.