Chapter 37

Apparently 'lots to do' takes more than a month. Almost two months. Lots to do, here, too. Everyone was freaking out about preparations for finals, the warm weather and barbeques, and all those posters with classmate's faces pasted onto them, goading them for Prom King and Queen.

Wow. It was almost the end of the school year. Alfred blinked at the date on the white-board, the smudge mark next to the scrawls about buying tickets. Some of his friends had their heads together, whispering against the morning announcements, and he lost whatever anybody said.

"Wait, what?" Alfred asked. His buddies lifted their heads. "You're having a party?"

"Uh, yeah...my grandpa's usual BBQ that happens every year." His gal-pal tipped her head and batted her eyes. "I kind of figured you didn't seem really interested, so..."

"Why wouldn't I be interested?"

His friends glanced around one another, all surprised. "W-well, I mean, if you want to come, you're more than welcome to!"

"Yeah! We'd love for you to be there!"

"We missed you, man." Alfred smiled as one of his bro-friends patted his back, encouraging him closer to their cluster. "So, like, yeah, if anybody wants to bring any chips and stuff, please do, because Gramps only gets that kettle-cooked, salt-free crap, blech..."

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

"Alfie! Alfie!"

As soon as Alfred slipped out his first period class, one of the girls pulled him to the side. "Hey, what's up?"

She smiled up at him, "You all right?"

"Yeah! Why?"

"Oh. Well, um, I was thinking we all should do something tonight. There's a cheap showing at the theater next door. We could see what's playing. You're not doing anything later, are you?"

Besides get annoyed by Francis, who vowed to work from home, 'keeping an eye out' ever since that demon shenanigans went down? "I don't think so-"

"Great!" The girl giggled, bouncing on her toes and looked real cute. "We'll meet up out front when school's over!"

Alfred didn't have time to refuse even if he wanted to. "Cool, uh, see you later!"

He reminded himself that there were still good things in the world.

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

After his last class, he ambled down the hall with Matthew, bumping into his shoulder again and again until he snapped and shoved him back, almost into a pair of terrorized freshmen. "Hey, uh, Mattie, I'm going to check something real quick."

"What, the special-ed room again? He's not going to be there, Alfred."

"They might know something!"

"They didn't know anything yesterday..."

Alfred stuffed his hands in his jeans pockets and weaved in and out of the hoard of dismissing students, cutting across the main hall for that one door. He peeked the window, and took a few startled steps back as some kids from inside shoved open the door with ear-piercing squeals. "Hey, wait!"

Some of them ran down the hall without acknowledgement. Those that lingered tipped their heads.

"Is Arthur around?"

They still stared.

"Uh...did Mister K swing by yet?"

"Nope! Not yet!

"He's on vacation, dummy!"

The door opened again, and they took the distraction to sprint down the hall, yelling in delight at one another. "Hey!" The teacher hollered, "No running!"

They didn't listen. She turned to Alfred, face growing steely as she narrowed her eyes. "Afternoon, Bonnefoy. You know it's dismissal time, right?"

"H-hey. You haven't heard anything-"

"No, I haven't. Look. Alfred," she started slowly, "I know some students latch onto certain teachers, but this is the last few months of your senior year. Kirkland's been on family leave for two months now. It would be a hassle for everybody if he came back this late into the year. And you! You should be focusing on your finals."

With that, and a sassy flick of her pony tail, she threw open the door and slipped inside. Alfred snorted, "Family leave, my ass." How hard was it to send a text? Or even a freaking message through a bird or something?

"Alfie! Alfieeeeee!"

Alfred glanced around, getting shoulder checked by a rude-ass and impatient guy. One of the girls pushed by some slow-walkers and hopped right up to him with a big smile on her face. "Hey! I found you!"

"Hey!" Alfred tried to sound as delighted. "What's up?"

"So? Are we going to hang out or what?"

"Sure! I'm not doing anything." Alfred glanced around. "Where's everybody else?"

"They probably went home already. Come on!" She latched onto his hand. "It can just be the two of us!"

"Whoa!" Alfred exclaimed as the little lady drug him through the rest of the crowd. He didn't know if he was impressed or intimidated.

"Alfred?" Matthew was waiting outside the front doors. His eyes widened. "Where are you-"

"Want to hang out? We're going to catch a movie!"

Matthew glanced down at the girl, like he was scared by feminine presence. "Uh, no, that's okay. I was just going to go home."

Alfred shrugged. "Whatever man!"

As they went in opposite directions, the girl snickered, "Your brother's kind of a goof, isn't he?"

"Oh, yeah, you can say that again!"

Luckily she wasn't a smartass and didn't repeat herself.

~.~

~BOING~

~.~

The movie was awful. Like, pulling a piece of skin from a nail kind of awful. The acting, the special effects, ugh, they couldn't deal with it anymore, and slipped out of the theater together.

"Man! I was waiting months for that to come out! And just..." Alfred didn't have words. "Wow, they just ruined it. Everything the second one built up to...just gone!"

"Yeah, what were they thinking? If I was the lead-actress, I would totally walk off the set."

"Ha! Hey, check it out!" Alfred said, even though it was obvious and not really interesting, "It's dark outside."

At least his friend seemed to dig it, "Wow, hey! It is!" A spry grin sprung onto her face. "Hey, you know what? All the losers probably scrammed for the night. You want to sneak in the sports park and see if there are any baseballs lying around?"

"I don't know, it's after hours...and what if someone comes back tomorrow looking for their balls?"

The girl busted out in laughter. "Oh, come on, Alfie!" Her smile fell. "Seriously? Come on," she repeated. "You need to let loose, man! Let's go have some fun!"

Alfred, not wanting to be a lame cat and ruin the outing, which was already teetering from the chummy movie, relented, "Okay, but if the police come by and get us, we're going to have to throw our balls at them and run!" He smacked his forehead, making her laugh again. "Agh! That didn't come out right!"

A few cars passed by, but people were busy, hopefully too busy to catch two teenagers dart between trees and around the chain link fences encompassing a small baseball diamond. "See anything?"

"Nope. No balls lying around."

More giggling.

"Ha-ha, balls..."

"Let's go chill out at the park."

Something about clamoring over the rusty, metal bars of a jungle gym enthralled Alfred. Plus he got to flip over a couple of poles, showing off some moves to a buddy. The girl meandered around the monkey bars as Al stuck his legs between two bars and swung upside down. "Boo!"

She pretended to flinch, and laughed. "You're such a dummy, Alfie."

"Ha-ha, I've heard that one before." He flipped up, scrambling around some more as she just watched. He paused at the end of the metal bars, catching his breath and rubbing his sore palms together. "You know, I forgot how nice this is. Just to get away and hang out...but it's so stupid how some of these playgrounds have signs saying only twelve year olds can play on them. It's not like we're doing drugs!"

"Oh, we're doing worse! We're..." The girl gasped, "We're loitering!"

Alfred grinned and swung upside down again to poke her tummy and make her squeak. "Our first steps into the world of crime! Mwahaha!"

"I don't know, Alfie, you kind of look like a superhero, like that."

Alfred tugged his shirt back over his pants when it fell down. "You think so?"

"Yeah. Have you ever watched that one superhero movie, where that guy had to fight that other guy that climbed walls?"

"Pfft! Uh, yeah!" Alfred dramatically rolled his eyes as blood seeped to his head. "Everyone's seen that one!"

His lady-friend sniggled, taking a step closer. "Well, you remember that scene where he was dangling upside down and the heroine came over and kissed him?"

"Yeah, I think so! That was so random!"

"I thought it was nice." She shrugged, cupped Alfred's cheeks and kissed him on the mouth.

Alfred grabbed the metal bar he dangled off of, and hoisted himself to sit. "Whoa! Hey..."

"What?" The girl smiled and batted her eyes. "You never been kissed by a girl before?"

"I-I have!" Alfred squawked, resisting the sudden urge to touch the fluttery sensation on his lips. He jumped as his friend climbed on top of the play set, scooting against him before trying to smooch some more.

Alfred didn't pull away, but he didn't kiss her back either! Although...when she pulled away with a little grin, he found himself leaning in to feel that warmth against his face again. He jerked away with a loud, "No! I can't!"

His friend jumped, blinking in surprise. "Uh, what?"

"I really shouldn't!" Alfred pointedly turned his back on her, fidgeting to get down from the monkey bars.

"Alfie, wait!" She clamped a hand onto his shoulder. "What the Hell are you talking about?"

"Arthur and I are in this thing together-"

"Oh, Al! Arthur's not even around anymore! He's been gone for two months." Her tone dipped to be gentle again, "Come on, already. He's not coming back."

Alfred turned to her. "You don't know that."

She shrugged. She did that a lot. "You don't either." She put a warm hand on Alfred's. "When you said we could hang out today, I was so happy. You've been...out of it lately, and I think it's because you're too hung up on him. We missed you, Al. He's not here. I am. Right here. Right now. And later. Prom's coming up. We can run for King and Queen! We can make the yearbooks! Come back to us!"

Her eyes were wide and pleading, close. Alfred kind of wanted for her to kiss him again. But...he turned his head away, gnawing on the inside of his cheek. His chest was running a mile a second, and it felt wrong. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..." his voice came out tight. He pulled his hand away and hopped off the monkey bars. "I think I should go..."

She slouched her head to one side, obviously annoyed. "Alfred."

"I-it's not you! You're great, okay! I just got some things to think about!" Alfred spun around and ran away like his butt was aflame. Great, just what he needed. More Feelings. He slowed when he got to the shops and apartments, eyes distant on the sidewalk below his feet. "Oh, man," he bemoaned as the cool night air stirred some common sense back into his brain. "Oh, man, what'd I do?"

What should he do? Being the boss of Prom, the boss of all school dances, could be in his grasp with a human lady friend...a normal life all of a sudden. It resumed right under Alfred's nose after the entire time. It could keep going. Maybe after everything he could know...normal wasn't so bad anymore. What else would he do if Arthur actually never came back?

No, he had to. He couldn't just leave without saying anything more. He couldn't just leave Alfred hanging, knowing everything, his work, his touches...

Alfred threw his hands out and shook them at the night sky, getting some kind of grip on himself. He passed by Antonio's bookstore and looked up at a figure looming by the window. Lovino wiped the inside of the glass, and paused as they stared at one another. He glanced behind himself, before holding up his middle finger to Alfred.

Yeah, he probably deserved that. Alfred curled his nose at him before marching towards his house. Damn it, if only Arthur could come back, come back and stay, then everything would stop being confusing.

Alfred stopped, sneakers scratching on the concrete as he glanced in the direction of the bookshop. He ran back and smacked his hands to the glass, scaring a short yell from Lovino. "You asshole!" He said loud enough to hear from outside, "I just cleaned that side!"

"Is Antonio there?"

Lovino gave him the middle finger again. Alfred rolled his eyes before throwing open the door. "Hey, you little shit-"

"Lovino!" Antonio's voice came from the storage room. He emerged with an armful of books and a furious twitch of an eyebrow, "I told you again and again with that..."

Alfred coughed, "Uh, hey, Antonio."

Antonio's shadowy expression flipped to a cheery smile. It was kind of scary. "Ay, you! What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you. Please."

Antonio sighed, "Oh, no..." He set the box of books on the check-out counter and gestured down the aisles. "Come on." He pointed to Lovino, "Stay there, Lovi!"

"Oh, fuck off."

Alfred jumped when Antonio grabbed his bicep with cold fingers and towed him to the back lounge. "Here, sit!" He immediately obeyed, wondering what got on the angel's nerves. "I'll be back!"

"Dang," Alfred said as Toni nearly sprinted to the other side of the store. There was some low murmuring, and then Lovino's annoyed voice, and then Antonio raising his, before a choked out apology. Yeah, even Al was surprised.

"Now, what did you need?" Antonio asked when he came back, again, totally chill like he almost didn't turn Lovino's brain into mush. Lovino probably didn't even know what would hit him. "No books this time, I assume?"

Alfred gawked stupidly. "Uh, no." Glowing people were out of the blue, but nothing that fazed him anymore. This wasn't an angel-thing at this point. It was an Arthur-thing. "I kind of need a big favor of you. I mean, if you're not super busy..."

Antonio settled on the adjacent chair with a short sigh. "No, friend, I can spare a moment or two."

"Well, uh, I was wondering if you could call Arthur for me."

"Hm? Call Arthur? Do you have a phone?"

"Y-yeah, I do! But that's not what I mean. He's up...you know, and can't answer my texts or calls, and I really, really need to talk to him now."

Antonio scratched his cheek before rubbing his chin and tapping his foot, like there was all the time in the world. "Oh. Oh, I see."

Alfred sure felt stupid. "So..."

"That's a little different than what I was expecting."

"Can you do it for me? Please?"

Antonio chuckled, but it seemed fake. "I almost forgot some of you still have manners." He shook his head, "Heaven's a long way, Alfred. Is it an emergency?"

"Well, no, but...I really need..." Alfred trailed off underneath Antonio's steady stare.

"Last I heard, Eyebrows has a lot stacked on him right now. A distraction wouldn't do anybody good. How about I take a message the next time I go up?"

Alfred blinked really fast, trying to fight stress behind his eyes. "No, I don't think that could work. Thanks." He pushed to his feet.

Antonio sprung up as well, starting loudly, "Ah, maybe..." Alfred turned around, surprised. "After I close up shop tonight, I'll see what I can do."

"Really? You..." Alfred could just hug the guy right now, but he didn't. He decided to stand there stupidly instead, nodding and smiling. "Okay. Okay, thank you. Thanks."

Antonio lifted a hand and pressed Alfred's shoulder, filling his lungs with Good Feelings. "Do you need a tissue, friend?"

Alfred jerked away from the calming touch, and swiped wetness from his cheek. "No! I'm fine. I'm going to go now."

"Oh, you sure? If you say so...uh, goodnight!"

Alfred kept his head down as he passed Lovino scrubbing the outside of the window, where he plastered his hands earlier, but neither said anything. He went home in a rush to throw a blanket over his head and hide from what he had done.