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*Enjoy****
Chapter 4: Push
*Firkle's POV****
It's dark in the room, and I'm frightened, but it isn't the darkness that scares me. I'm afraid of the light creeping through the crack in the door, and I'm terrified of the voices from the other side.
I curl up into a small ball, and hold the pillow over my ears, I hate what comes next.
Tonight, the crying is loud, so loud that it bleeds through my pillow. I shudder and try to ignore it.
"Don't come out at night, baby, be a good boy and stay in your bed."
When the screaming starts, I pull the pillow away from my ears, and I listen carefully. I'm used to the tears, but the screams come less often; she's afraid her screams will wake me, but I'm already awake.
"Stop, please, it hurts!"
I grab my Terri, and hold him to my chest. Terri is big, much bigger than I am, and he's soft and funny looking, but the thing I love best is his smile.
Placing my bare feet on the cold tile floor, I tiptoe towards the door.
Now I hear other sounds, sounds of shuffling, followed by soft pounding, and finally another scream, but it's muffled this time. I'm tempted to run back to my bed, but now she's choking, and I want to protect her. I hold Terri tighter and creep forward slowly. Terri protects me, he helps me whenever I'm afraid, so perhaps Terri can protect her as well.
I've made it to the door, and I peek into the brightly lit room. She's lying on the couch, her long black hair trailing down to puddle on the floor, and his hands are around her neck. Her eyes are looking right at me, but I don't think she can see me at all.
"MAMA!" I scream out.
Waking up I jump to my feet, and I run. I'm half way across the room before I stop.
"Firkle?"
A voice calls out to me, and I turn around, I feel disoriented, but I'm awake now. This is Token's house, Ike and I fell asleep on the chair. I had a bad dream, a really bad dream, but it's over now.
I stumble back to where Ike stands rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"Come here," Ike says with a sleepy smile, and opens his arms so I can walk into them. He hugs me tightly, and places a kiss on my forehead.
"Did you have a bad dream?"
I nod, and press my face into his chest, breathing in his warm safe scent.
Hearing the door open, I pull away from Ike, and we watch Butters stumble into the room, stagger across the floor, and fall face first into the chair that Ike and I just vacated.
"Butters, are you alright?" Ike calls out to him, and Butter lifts one hand in the air, waves it around, and lets it drop. A moment later he starts to snore loudly.
"What time is it?" Ike asks, and pulls his phone from his pocket to answer his own question. "Shit! It's past midnight, I missed my curfew and didn't call home. My mom's going to kill me!"
Ike walks towards the door, than remembers our bags, and heads back to the coffee table where we piled everything. He starts collecting them, so I walk over to help.
"I'm walking you home, and if your parents are awake I can apologize to them for bringing you home so late." He tells me, and I shake my head.
I look at him like he's crazy, for a whole lot of reasons. It seems he's forgotten a few things, like the fact that I'm not a girl for instance.
"I don't need you to walk me home, and I don't live with my parents." I remind him.
"Oh, right. Sorry." Ike apologizes, although he doesn't need to, it's not like I expect him to remember everything I say.
"Just worry about yourself, my aunt and uncle don't care what time I come home." I tell Ike honestly, because I doubt my aunt and uncle would even notice if I disappeared completely.
"Lucky you," Ike smiles, "I wish my family was cool like that. Come on, let's go."
I don't bother to tell Ike that it has nothing to do with luck, or my family being cool; they most certainly are not cool, they are actually pretty horrible. Instead I gather my things and follow him out of the room.
"Ike?" Token calls out sternly, as we pass him and Clyde on our way down the stairs. "Have you two been here the whole time?"
"We fell asleep," Ike explains, "Is Kyle still here?"
"Your brother and Stan left a while ago. Do you two need a ride home?"
"I'm good... I can walk... I live close by!" I answer, before Ike gets the chance, and Ike looks at me with a frown.
"I don't care what you say. It's too late for you to be walking alone." Ike insists, but I refuse.
"I'm not some helpless chick!" I remind him. "I can protect myself, I have this," I pull out my new switchblade, which I'm pretty proud of. Unlike my old blade this one wasn't cheap. I bought it online, with money I earned all by myself, by selling an old DVD that I found laying around in the back of my closet.
"Dude, put that thing away, you'll hurt someone." Token frowns at me, so I slide my blade back in my pocket, and bite back the comment that's on the tip of my tongue, since I don't totally hate Token, even if he is acting like a bit of a douche.
"Come on," Ike says, and as we start down the stairs Clyde calls out to us.
"Ike, if your mom doesn't ground you, you two should come back around this evening. We're going to have a few people over. It'll be fun."
"Sure, sounds good." Ike says, and I bite my tongue again, because another night surrounded by conformists doesn't really interest me, but it's still better than hanging out at home alone.
*Ike's POV******
"You really won't let me walk you?" I ask again, even though I know I'm on the verge of becoming annoying, and if I'm not careful I'll piss Firkle off again.
"I already said no. I'll be fine walking alone, I do it all the time."
I know Firkle can take care of himself, but I can't help myself. I want to be the one who looks after him, even if he doesn't think he needs looking after. I'm also dying to learn more about him. I know he doesn't come from a poor family, since he always carries plenty of cash with him, so I'm curious why he seems to be ashamed of where he lives.
"Can I at least walk you halfway?" I try, and he looks at me with a slight frown.
He mentioned that he lives close by... but how close? South Park has changed a lot over the past five years, but it's still a really small town. If he lives close by he either lives in the renovated town homes near Skeeter's old place, or he lives in one of the expensive houses on the other side of the park. Mom really wanted to move to that area a while back, but dad talked her down. The mayor and some of our city officials live over there, so it's rather upscale.
I live on the other side of town, and even that could be considered fairly close, since it's only a few blocks away, but I know he doesn't live on my block, and he also doesn't live further away on Craig's block, since I know everyone who lives over there.
While I'm thinking about all this, Firkle makes a decision, "I'll walk you home instead. I'm older, so I'll make sure you get home safely, and if your parents are awake I can apologize for bringing you home late." He's mocking me, which is kind of cute, but a bit of a let down, since that doesn't answer any of my questions.
Regardless, I know when I've lost, so I nod, and bend down to kiss his cheek, before tossing my arm over his shoulder, and leading him away.
"Will you really apologize to my parents for me?" I ask after we've been walking in silence for awhile.
This earns me a nervous chuckle, so I add, "Because my mom can be pretty scary sometimes, but I think you can take her."
After Firkle elbows me in the gut, I decide to remain silent for the rest of the walk home.
*Firkle's POV****
"You lucked out, it looks like my parents already went to bed." Ike teases me, as we head up the walkway in front of his house.
"I'm not afraid of your parents." I lie, because Sheila Broflovski is well known in town for being terrifying.
"So if you're not afraid, do you want to sneak up to my room and fool around with me until breakfast? I can introduce you when they wake up." Ike says a little too seriously, and I shake my head, with a frown.
"No? Too bad, I guess this will have to do for now." Wrapping his arms around my waist he pulls me in for a goodbye kiss, which quickly turns passionate when I feel his hand sliding up the back of my shirt. It feels really nice, so I allow it, but we're interrupted when a car pulls into the driveway next door, causing Ike to quickly pull away.
"Well goodnight, be careful on the walk home." He shoves my bags and backpack at me, and heads up his steps, before adding, "Call me when you get there, so I know you're safe."
I feel a little disappointed, because I wanted to kiss a little more, but his hand is already opening his front door, so I nod and start towards the sidewalk.
Ike's next door neighbor, Mr. Marsh, is the driver of the car that interrupted us. He grins at me and gives me a thumbs up. I wave back, and try not to roll my eyes at him, since Mr. Marsh is actually sort of cool for a grown up. At least he doesn't judge me like the rest of South Park.
"Hey... Firkle? It is Firkle right?" Mr. Marsh surprises me by calling out, and I notice that he sounds a little drunk. "Isn't it late for you to be out, do you need a ride home?"
"I'm fine, thank you Mr. Marsh." I spit out. He might be cool, but I still don't need him butting into my business.
I wasn't lying when I said that I live close to Token's. My house is just on the other side of the park, which also means I'm only a block and a half away from Ike's house. Our home is at the end of a cul-de-sac, within a small gated community. It wasn't always gated, but after the town riot a few years back, they added a security gate, which you need a keycard to pass through.
My aunt and uncle's home isn't as nice as Token's, but it is one of the better homes in South Park. I hate people knowing where I live, because it's fucking embarrassing for a number of reasons. The mayor is our next door neighbor, and the chief of police lives across the road, which kind of sucks to be perfectly honest.
To call my family a bunch of conformists would be an understatement. My uncle works in the Mayor's office and my aunt is the CEO for a non-profit that helps reform crack babies. Most people are under the misunderstanding that working for a non-profit is some noble sacrifice my aunt is making, but the truth is my aunt is in it for the money.
Instead of taking the main road back, I cut through a side path that leads directly to the park, which I quickly cross to get to my street. I let myself in through the security gate, and walk up the road to my house.
I enter our gate, but avoid the main entrance, and head around to the back. When I was nine my aunt and uncle got tired of dealing with me, so I was moved out of the main house. I grew up alone in the guest house, which makes it easier for them to pretend that I don't exist.
My door is never locked, so I push it open and step inside. I don't bother with locks, why make it harder on the housekeeper by forcing her to carry an additional key around. Lily works for my aunt and uncle, but she also cooks and cleans up after me. She is kinder than my aunt ever was, and I would have happily starved to death years ago, if not for the fact that she keeps my personal refrigerator stocked with pre-made food, so I always have something decent to eat.
On the floor, directly in front of my door, is a small white envelope. I bend down, and pick it up, but don't bother looking inside; I already know it contains my allowance, my uncle slips it under my door once a month. I carry it into my tiny kitchen, open a drawer and drop it on top of a bunch of other similar envelopes filled with cash.
I pull a pitcher of cold coffee out of the fridge and pour myself a glass, downing half of it immediately; it doesn't matter that I'm about to go to sleep, I have developed a tolerance for coffee, it doesn't keep me awake at night.
I don't have a separate bedroom, it's just a kitchen, a small bathroom, and one large living area that was full of ugly conformist furniture until I traded it in at the local thrift shop for much cooler stuff. Now it's better.
My king size bed is old and made out of worn black wood, I also have a black wooden rocking chair, and a small black wooden dresser, but none of it actually matches, because that would be lame. My antique kitchen table doubles as my desk, and I have a very full bookcase and a vintage record player. The only stuff that's new are the appliances that came with the kitchen, plus my mattress and bedding. This is all I really need. Most people simply own too much stuff.
Zipping open my backpack I remove the bouquet of tootsie roll pops that Ike gave me earlier today. I carry them over to my bed, and sit down on the floor. I push my comforter out of the way, and slide my hand under the bed, searching for a large round hat box and pulling it out.
I take off the top, and pick up the thick hand woven black scarf that used to belong to Henrietta. I bury my face in it for a moment remembering the first day that we met. It was right before my fifth birthday, and I was sitting alone in the graveyard during a snowstorm, begging for death to find me, but Henrietta found me instead. She saved me.
Suddenly recalling my dream, I reach under my bed again, but I can't find what I'm searching for at first, so I turn on my old bedside lamp for additional light.
Laying on my stomach, I peek beneath my bed. What I'm looking for is right there, I just need to reach back a little more and retrieve it, so I do. I pull the old worn body pillow out and hug it tightly.
"Terri," I mumble and smile down at the face of Terrance from the old Terrance and Phillip comedy show.
"He kind of looks like Ike," I realize for the first time, and hug the body pillow a little tighter.
Still hugging Terri in one arm, I return my attention to my special box, I use my free hand to root around, pushing aside my gun, and my old switchblade, until I find the small envelop on the bottom of the box. I pull it out, open it, and retrieve the single photo inside.
The woman in the picture has long black hair, and looks exactly like me, except for two differences. Her eyes are a lighter color than mine, and her hair is naturally black, whereas mine is actually the color of honey underneath all this dye.
As it always does, looking at my mother fills my heart with pain, but I never want to forget her, so I keep the picture and look at it regularly. The picture and the pillow, it's all that I have left of her, and the pillow was stolen from me once, forcing me to steal it back. Mother was taken from me too, but unlike the pillow, I cannot steal mother back, I can only visit her grave now.
As my eyes start to tear up, I think of Ike and remember the reason I brought out my treasure box. I slide the picture back into the envelop and place it back in the box. I wrap Ike's bouquet in Henrietta's scarf, and lay it carefully on top of everything else in the box, before replacing the top, and shoving it back under the bed.
My phone starts to buzz, so I retrieve it from the pocket of my shorts, and when I notice it's Ike calling, I answer immediately.
"I miss you," is the first thing out of his mouth, which makes me smile, since I also miss him.
I don't tell him that though.
"I thought I was supposed to be the one to call, you?"
"I couldn't wait, are you home yet?"
"Yeah, I just got in."
"So you live pretty close?"
"Yeah," I whisper sleepily. "Really close?"
I decide to keep Terri with me tonight, so I get up from the floor, and I crawl into bed with Terri at my side, and the phone to my ear.
"You sound sleepy," Ike says with a yawn.
"I am."
"Well, then I'll let you go, I just called to tell you that tomorrow we'll meet at the Skate Park, you know the one we went to last week. Oh, unless you want me to come to your house and pick you up." Ike says sneakily.
"No, that's fine, I'll meet you there, what time?"
"Sometime in the morning. I'll text you a time. It's going to be hot again, so wear shorts, and bring your swimtrunks too. We'll probably end up swimming."
"Okay,"
"Goodnight Firkle, sweet dreams," Ike says with a sigh.
"Goodnight," I respond, before hanging up.
I'm too tired to get up and wash my face, so brushing my teeth can wait until tomorrow. These are the teeth that Ike's tongue played across, and although I cannot taste him, I only taste coffee, I imagine I can still feel his lips upon mine. I close my eyes, and fall asleep remembering Ike's kiss.
*Ike's POV****************
"Ike, pass your brother the milk." My mother commands from across the breakfast table.
I roll my eyes, and slide the milk to Kyle, who could reach the milk himself if he was sitting in his normal seat, right next to mine, instead of at the other end of the table trying to avoid me.
Kyle glares at me pointedly, before picking up the carton and pouring it over his cereal. I briefly consider making a smart ass remark about hickeys and underpants, but decide against it when I remember that Kyle covered my ass last night, by not telling my parents that I was out past my curfew. I got lucky, because my parents went to bed early last night, so they have no idea that I made it home so late.
Feeling my phone vibrate in my pocket, I pull it out, keeping it hidden under the table as I read my incoming text, because my mom doesn't allow cell phones at the table.
'What Time?'
I snicker, because this is pretty much the extent of my text conversations from Firkle.
I covertly type out a reply.
'Good morning, Angel! I'll meet you outside the locker room in one hour. Don't forget your swimtrunks.'
After sending the message, I am about to put my phone back in my pocket when Kyle notices what I'm up to.
"MOM, Ike's texting at the table!" Kyle rats me out, asshole!
"Ike, we've talked about this!" My mom complains, and my father peeks over his newspaper to give me a chastising look. Why it's okay for him to read the paper, but not okay for me to text is something I often wonder about, but I would never dare to ask.
"Sorry, mom," I apologize, and shove a piece of toast in my face, wanting to hurry up and get finished with breakfast, and out of the house for the day.
*Firkle's POV*****
I did it again. Ike said an hour, so I rushed to make it here in one hour, but I've been waiting here, at the rec center for 20 minutes.
At least this time I remembered to bring a book to read. The book is called 'The Outsiders.' It isn't something that I would normally choose to read, but it was forced on me by my summer school teacher. That's right I said summer school!
I screwed up in my literature class, which is pretty embarrassing considering I love to read.
I would have easily passed the class if I had taken it seriously, but I chose to be a smart ass. The teacher gave us an assigned reading list, and we were told to pick two books from the list to write two reports on over the semester. The reading list was bad, a bunch of crap that was more suited for 6th graders, so instead of reading books from the lame assigned reading list, and doing my reports, I chose two classics that were not on the list, and did my reports on them instead.
In my defense, my teacher was kind of an asshole. Both reports were returned with an A grade, with a note that read: 'Not what was assigned, but still excellent work!'
In the end the bastard failed me, and when I confronted him, he told me that since I chose not to do the assigned work he couldn't pass me, so now I'm making up the class over the summer and reading from the assigned reading list. Pathetic!
It was Ike who picked two books from the list for me to read. The first one is of course 'The Outsiders', and for the other he chose 'The Little Prince' which pissed me off at first, since it is literally a child's book, and I thought he was teasing me, until he promised me that wasn't the case.
"Hey," I look up from my book when I hear Ike's voice. He walks towards me, wearing black board shorts and a clean light blue T-shirt. His stuffed backpack is hung over his shoulder, and he holds his skateboard in one hand. As always he looks calm and cool, he's not even sweaty from rushing over here in the Summer heat, and he doesn't seem to be worried that I might be upset about waiting, which I sort of am. I slide my book into the pocket of my backpack and stand up.
"Wow, you look great, Firkle, this look really suits you. Did you remember your swimtrunks for later?"
I nod and point to my backpack. I'm dressed in black cargo shorts, and a sleeveless white cotton T-shirt, one of the outfits that Ike picked out when we went shopping. I wanted to wear jeans, since my knee is covered in a big ugly bandage, but Ike told me to wear shorts, so I did that. In my backpack I have two pairs of swimtrunks and two more shirts, because I couldn't decide which to bring.
"Sorry for being late again," he says with a big grin, and grabs a hold of my hand to drag me into the locker room. The moment we're inside he sits his skateboard and backpack down, and looks around to confirm we're alone.
"I didn't notice." I lie, and place my backpack next to his, and than he grabs me by the shoulders and pushes me back against the side of the lockers, kissing me deeply.
My anger vanishes immediately as his warm tongue snakes between my lips, and I feel his thigh push between my legs to rub against me down below, making me feel both excited and uncomfortable. I like kissing Ike a lot, but I don't feel ready for this kind of stuff, especially in such a public place. So uncomfortable wins out over excited, and I place my hand on Ike's chest and gently push him away.
"Sorry, I got a little carried away, but I missed you so much," he sighs, and continues to stare at my face, until we realize that we're no longer alone.
Ike's friend, Filmore Anderson is standing there staring at us with an odd look on his face, and a second later Ryan Ellis walks in behind him.
"Hey Filmore, Ryan," Ike nods their way, and he seems uncomfortable, but he tries to hide it by bending down to unzip his backpack, and start pulling things out.
"Hey man," Filmore answers back, and Ryan nods.
Ryan used to be a vamp kid, and than he was a jock, and now he's into skateboarding. Filmore has pretty much always followed Ike around, and he was into whatever Ike was into. It's the first time, since Ike and I starting hanging out, that we've run into Filmore, and the awkwardness in the room feels pretty heavy.
Filmore opens a locker and pops his stuff inside, and Ryan does the same. Ike sits down on the bench, and continues to rummage though his backpack, but instead of fading the uncomfortable aura seems to grow.
"We'll see you on the course," Ryan calls out as he heads out of the locker room followed by Filmore who remains silent, but tosses Ike an odd sort of annoyed look, on his way out the door. Like he's really pissed off, but trying to hide it for some reason.
Ike looks up when they leave and gives me a smile, and I want to ask what that was all about, but I don't, because I suspect that I already know. Filmore caught Ike kissing the weird Goth kid, and he doesn't approve of his best friend dating me.
"So I packed this for you to sit on, since last time you fell asleep on the grass." Ike holds out a small blue picnic blanket, "but I won't skate very long this time, because I don't want you to get bored of hanging out with me."
"I brought a book to read this time." I pull out my book and show it to him, before sliding my backpack into a locker.
"You're reading this one after all. That makes me kind of happy." Ike zips up his backpack and shoves it in the locker with mine, and after I close the locker and pull out the key he picks up his skateboard, and we head out of the locker room.
Ike leads me to the vending machine, where we stock up on water and snacks, before heading outside, but I notice that he's quieter than normal, and I feel my insecurities starting to call out in my head. This time however I decide to ignore them, because I feel more confident in whatever this relationship is.
But now that I think about it, what exactly is this relationship? Ike hasn't exactly asked me to go steady...
The moment that I ask myself that question is the moment that I'm certain... I want to be Ike Broflovski's boyfriend, but how do I go about making that happen...?
*The end of Chapter 4************
Little note for you readers. Although this story has a very small FFN reader base (as per visitor hits) I really enjoy working on it, plus it seems to be doing better at A03. If you are a new reader to this story, or someone who has been reading but not responding, I would love to hear from you. Is this story working for you? Was the opening of this chapter too dark? Is Ike too aggressive?
See you in Chapter 5.