Chapter 27: Tis The Season II
By Star and Victory Thru Tears
Notes: This chapter was supposed to be posted at the same time as Tis The Season I. Unfortunately, Star flaked out because she's 6 hours ahead of Victory. She did stay up until almost 1am for the love of this story though!
Taz's POVI see Portman striding towards me and quickly run in the opposite direction. I'm not going outside again! It's cold out there. The only reason I got back in was because Guy arrived, and when someone – Ross or Russ, maybe? – answered the door he didn't realise I was supposed to be outside.
I know I'm hyper. I can't help it, Christmas does this to me. Usually I'm at home and my Dad is used to me, but these poor people clearly aren't. Even Maya's losing patience.
I think Charlie's the only one who's not yet come close to beating me to a pulp. I bounded up to Maya earlier, and she just snapped "What?" at me. I was so shocked I just mumbled something about looking for Charlie and walked off.
I spot Adam and run to his side. "Will you come outside with me?" I ask.
He glares in response. "Why?"
"Because Portman's going to throw me out in a minute for being hyper and if you come outside with me people will let us back in." I explain.
"Why don't you ask Charlie to go outside with you?" He spits out in a venomous tone.
"What?" I ask in confusion. "I'm asking you. A simple 'no' would do if you don't want to."
"Fine. I don't want to."
"Why not?" I ask. "I know I'm annoying, but I need to calm down."
"Then go outside and calm down by yourself. And if you stay out there all night I don't think anyone would mind." He storms out, then pauses in the doorway. "Well, Charlie might."
Ok, that's the second Charlie reference in only a few minutes. Sugar-highed I might be, but stupid I'm not. I charge after him and grab his arm.
"What's your problem?" I demand.
"You." He says simply.
I feel a lump in my throat. I don't want to be disliked, not by anyone, especially not a member of the Queertet. "You think I want Charlie?" I ask.
He shrugs, nods, shakes his head. I feel like shaking him for an answer. "Well do you?" He says finally.
"No!" I explode. "I'm a lesbian!"
Note to self: Don't make a habit of shouting that when there are parents present.
"Then why do you spend all of your time with him?" He asks. "I see you with Charlie more than I do with Maya. I'd rather not see you at all."
"I love Maya." I say in a shaky voice. "You know I do. Yeah, sure, I like Charlie, he's great but I'm gay and he's gay so I think it's probably the most platonic friendship in the god damned world!"
That statement doesn't come out all powerful like I expected. It comes out petulant and I'm so close to tears.
"Yeah, right." He doesn't seem to have a good argument, so resorts to sarcasm.
The tears spill and I wipe them away angrily. I hate crying in front of people. "Fine, you know what Adam? You're not paranoid! I'm totally hot for your boyfriend. I just woke up one day and thought I'm going to pretend to be gay for a few years, get myself into a serious relationship and then convince a gay guy to date me!" I snap.
I hear someone clear their throat and whirl around. Fulton and Guy are standing in the doorway, both looking highly uncomfortable.
"Sorry." Fulton shakes his head. "Um, we're, um… maybe now's a bad time."
"No kidding." I'm a mess, tears are pouring down my face and I know my face is bright red, I always get red when I'm mad.
"Can we help or anything?" Fulton offers.
I can't be here. "Yeah, you can get out of my way." I push him out of the way as I storm out of the room.
I run into Charlie while trying to find a place to pull myself together.
"Taz? What's wrong?" He puts his hands on my shoulders.
All of a sudden I'm mad at him too. "Don't touch me!"
"What?"
"We don't want people getting the wrong idea!"
I push off his hands and walk towards the front door and let myself out.
If I'd have just let Portman throw me out things would be ok.
That thought would usually make me laugh, instead I take a seat on their porch and cry.
Adam's POVNo matter how angry I am, I don't like making people cry. And I usually don't. I'm usually very calm, quiet, and laid back. Something just snapped inside of me during that little 'chat' with Taz. I know she doesn't really want Charlie, I just can't help feeling incredibly jealous of how much fun they have together. Charlie never comes to me except for when he needs something, be it help with homework or someone to fulfil his lust for the moment.
Ok, that was a little mean. But pity me- I'm just a jealous boyfriend. I bet if I was straight you'd pity me.
Fulton and Guy shift uncomfortably in front of me. They're clearly shocked by the scene that they've just witnessed. I don't feel like talking to them, so I turn and follow Taz. I'm not really going after her, its just the only exit for the hallway we are standing in. I watch Charlie put his hands on her shoulders, trying to get her into a hug. She pushes him away, and goes outside. Charlie meets my eyes, and I glare at him. He sighs and rolls his eyes.
Lucky for me that my house is big. I can stay far away from both Taz and Charlie. Julie, Portman, Dwayne, Russ, and Ken are all in the main room, watching tapes of the Goodwill Games. Right now they're acting as if they hadn't even played them, oohing and ahhing over all of the great moves we make. Averman, Goldberg, Connie, and Luis are in the dining room. I don't know what they're doing, and really, I don't care.
I wonder where Maya is. I haven't seen her in awhile, not since we had our little conversation on how pissed off we were that our other halves were ditching us for each other. I walk into the kitchen, and am surprised to see her on the floor, drinking a soda.
"Your girlfriend is freezing her tail off outside." I say, taking a seat next to her.
She nods. "Your boyfriend was in here muttering a couple minutes ago. I don't think he saw me."
"Probably not. He's tall, you're short."
"Did you fight with Taz?"
"Yup. It was pretty bad. I made her cry."
"You made her cry?" Maya sets down her soda and hits me on the arm. "Adam!"
She makes an irritated noise and gets up, presumably to go outside. "You weren't supposed to make her cry!"
She leaves the kitchen, looking very annoyed. I see her stop as she exits the room, but can't see who she's talking to.
"He in there?" I don't have to guess to know the voice.
"Yeah." She sounds as mad as I feel.
Charlie enters, his hands behind his back. He gets on the floor next to me. I'm not meeting his eyes.
"Adam, one of the key reasons I enjoy being gay is because then I don't have to put up with the mood swings that girls have. But you are acting so girly right now."
I glare at him indignantly. I'm not acting girly, he's just being a jerk! He sighs, and holds his hand up above our heads.
Perfect. Mistletoe.
He lightly kisses me. I'm not giving in that easily.
"Banksie…" He groans. "Come on. I'm sorry."
"Keep going." I order calmly.
"Fine. I'm sorry that you're jealous of Taz. I'm gay, and I don't want to get in bed with her. She has a girlfriend, I have a boyfriend. That boyfriend is you. I love you. Was that good enough?"
I sigh. I'm won over far too easily. "Yeah, that's fine. Now where's that mistletoe?"
Charlie laughs, and kisses me again. We hear someone clear their throat above us, and look up to see my father and Coach Bombay looking down at us. Whoops. We grin charismatically, and they both give us identical stern looks.
"Want some?" Charlie holds out the mistletoe for them, and they start to laugh.
That's my Charlie.
Fulton's POV"Hey!" Portman catches my arm as I walk down the hall.
I stop and slide my arms around him. "I was just looking for you." I tell him. "You missed the one and only fight of the party."
"I think I'll live." He answers, then looks up. "You do realise there's mistletoe above almost every door in this house?"
I look around, he's right. We shuffle over to the nearest doorway with our arms still around each other.
"I love you." I say.
"Good." He grins. "I'd hate to be in love with someone who didn't feel the same."
He leans down to kiss me. We break apart only seconds later to the sound of a anguished yell.
I turn expecting so see Connie looking horrified. What I actually see is Maya, followed by Charlie carrying Taz. It appears that he turned to talk to Adam and knocked Taz's legs into a wall.
"Sorry." He mutters to the half-comatose girl in his arms.
"You know," Adam grumbles. "In an alternate universe, she's your wife."
"Let's be glad we live in this universe then." Charlie replies.
"Look, I would have asked someone else to carry her, but I don't really know anyone. And the Bash Brothers keep putting her outside." Maya tells them.
"That's horribly untrue." Portman objects, "I only put her outside once."
The strange procession continues and we're alone again.
I move towards him, and once again we're interrupted by a strangled gasp. I turn around and this time it is Connie.
"Sorry." She mutters and vanishes at the speed of light.
Portman and I look at each other. She's sorry?
There's a muffled thump and Kenny comes shooting into the hall, looks around and runs between us, muttering, "You never saw me." as he goes.
Only seconds later Russ appears asking which way Kenny went. We obligingly tell him that we haven't seen him.
Then Charlie and Adam come back teasing each other.
Portman rolls his eyes, takes my hand and leads me outside. I have to laugh, sometimes it feels like there are just too many Ducks around.
It's cold outside, and I wrap my arms around him for warmth. I sometimes can't believe it's only been a few months we've been together. It seems so much longer.
"I still can't believe you bought me a star." I murmur.
He pulls me closer and tells me I'm worth it. We say a few 'I love you's and finally get an uninterrupted kiss.
It's the second kiss that is broken my someone clearing his throat.
We turn around to see Coach Bombay standing in the doorway. I'm mortified. Ok, so he knows about Charlie and Adam, but he hadn't known about us. I see that Portman doesn't look even slightly bothered.
"Are you kids coming in?" Bombay asks. "Mr Banks wants to lock up and it's time for you to pick which side of the door you want to be on."
That's it? No comment on the two of us?
As we walk past him into the warm Bombay comments in a low voice to Portman, "I told you he missed you."
Guy's POVIt's pretty much quiet, besides the occasional thumping on the other side of the wall. Maya and Taz must be having another tiff. At least they aren't running around like they were a few hours ago…Connie was getting really pissed off. I think it's like her own personal hell having to room with Julie and the lesbians. I can only imagine how they're tormenting her up there.
I didn't think she would get over me that fast. But sure enough, she's already moved on to Mendoza. I'd seen them kissing right before she went upstairs to go to sleep.
I may be interested in another girl, but I wouldn't even dream of making my move yet. Connie and I dated for four years, and we only broke up two weeks ago. I'm sure there's some kind of ratio involved that would make me look even more right, but it's late, and my brains not keen on math right now.
I roll over. I'm sandwiched in between Adam and Russ. Usually we use two rooms to spread out the 11 guys. This year Luis, Averman, and Goldberg took one room, and the other six of us spread out on the floor of the other one. Fulton and Portman were taking up way too much space, so we let them have the bed.
I close my eyes, and can already feel myself falling asleep.
I've been Captain for two weeks. We've had two games under my leadership, and have won both of them. Our record is now 7 wins, 2 losses, and 1 tie. We've definitely made it into the JV playoffs; we just need to win our next two games to be absolutely certain. I think I can do that for us. Luis has also been suspended, and we're down to 11 players. That's barely enough for two lines. It's hard, but we've made it. We have a renewed spirit, and it kind of feels like we're the Mighty Ducks again.
Julie says I should keep being Captain until we make it to the playoffs. She thinks that getting that far as a team will make Charlie have Duck pride again. I'm not sure, but I'm going to do what she says. Julie's a very smart girl.
Pretty, too. Very very pretty. Long blondish hair, big beautiful green eyes…great body…
I roll over, my tired thoughts now on the new girl of my dreams. I feel warmth against me, and I gladly open my arms for Julie. She lays her head on my chest, breathing softly. I run my hands through her silky hair. It feels a little shorter than I had imagined, but who cares. I kiss her head lightly.
"Night Julie." I mumble against her hair.
"Night Charlie." She murmurs back.
Wait a minute. Charlie???
My eyes spring open, and I look down to see Adam laying in my arms, the same look of alarm on his face.
"Oh my god, I am really sorry." I stutter.
"Me too, me too!" He whispers. His unease slowly wears off, and he looks at me with an amused look on his face.
"Julie, huh?" He asks me, grinning.
I glance around to make sure that no one else is watching. They're all asleep. I reluctantly nod.
"She's not bad at all. If I was straight, I'd easily say that she's a fine catch." He admits.
It's my turn to grin. "She'd probably love to hear you say that- she had a crush on you for awhile. Big shock for her to hear about you and Charlie."
His mouth drops and he laughs. "Nice to know I'm wanted, I guess."
We sit in silence for a few moments, and then Adam speaks again.
"You know, I'm sure Connie would be fine with it. You dating Julie, I mean."
I sigh. "Yeah, of course she'd be fine with it. I know you saw her and Luis earlier. But the thing is, I'm kind of content on being single right now. Honestly, I'm not over her yet."
Adam nods. "I wasn't really over Charlie when we broke up either. Ok, I wasn't over him at all. But maybe it'll help to know that it would be fine with Connie."
I shrug. "A little. Julie broke up with Scooter a while ago too, but I don't know if she's interested in me."
"I don't know either. But I could find out, if you wanted. I'm sure she'd gladly talk to me."
"Sure. That'd be great." I get down in my sleeping bag again, preparing to actually fall asleep. Adam does the same.
"You know, Guy. I know we're not exactly good friends, but we have to have some kind of connection. After all, I am sleeping with your best friend."
Ok, that wasn't the best visual to give me, Adam…before I can tell him this, he laughs.
"Just kidding."
I smile, and close my eyes to let dreams filled with Cats take over my mind.