- - Making Amends - -

Chapter Five, Patching Things Up

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When he reached out a hand to touch Roy's rigid shoulder, Roy angrily brushed him off. He stopped, and turned around, a mask of coldness upon his face.

"Mullet, don't. Not now."

He turned, and continued to power-walk his way back home. Mullet stood, stunned and rooted into his spot. If guilt had gotten to him minutes ago, then it was already licking the meat off of his bones that remained.

Roy never heard footfalls follow him after he told Mullet to bug off, so he felt a saddened kind of relief overtake him. One part of him was glad, huffing a 'Good riddance!', while, on another side, he was yelling out for Mullet Fingers to follow him, and correct his mistake, to apologize to Roy right then. Still, he bravely walked on.

After a while, he slowed his pace down a bit, and let the feelings of hurt, shame, and anger flood over him.

He took each wave as they came, and by the time he was at his front door, he had a few tears trickling down his face. He didn't whimper; he was deathly silent as he walked into the house, and made a beeline for his room, even though his stomach growled in outright disagreement. Food was the last thing on Roy's mind at the moment.

Roy was so drudged in his melancholy that he didn't see his mother as he trudged by. Mrs. Eberhardt, however, immediately felt her son's discomfit. Call it a motherly intuition, but she knew that her son needed some consoling, as well as someone to talk to.

She quietly entered her son's room: the door had been ajar since Roy knew his parents didn't like and locked doors in the house. Her heart nearly split cleanly in half at the sight her son made. He was facedown on his bed, his sob-wracked body twitching like someone with a mild seizure. She could see his fingers digging into his mattress, the skin turned paper-white. If she listened closely, she could hear the faint sounds of Roy's cries.

Of course she of all people knew Roy-she was his mother, for heaven's sake! Roy hardly ever gave in and cried; he was too proud to do so. It took a bulldozer of a problem to get his waterworks running.

Slowly, so she wouldn't startle him, she crept into the room. She sat down on the side of the bed, still going by unnoticed, and put a hesitant hand on Roy's back. She felt it tense up, so she rubbed soothing circles along his spine. He gave a shaky sigh, and turned his head to the side to gulp air into his deprived lungs.

"Roy, sweetheart, what's happened to you? You were all sunshine earlier, and now you're dimmer than a broken light bulb." She asked quietly, edging closer to her son.

"Mom…" Roy sighed; he sighed a troubled, weary sigh. Mrs. Eberhardt sensed a long story coming, so she made herself comfortable and attentively listened to her boy's every word.

"And then I came back here," Roy finished with a sigh. He was trying to control his breathing and stop crying simultaneously, but he decided to first quit bawling.

His mother was quiet for a moment, and then spoke up.

"So this boy… Mullet Fingers… you… like him?"

"Yes, ma… I like him like that."

"Oh-well… this is unexpected." She said in a forced calm, and continued to rub Roy's back.

"You're not… well, you're not offended or anything?"

"No, dear! I wouldn't ever care about what made you special; I always love you, and a change in your preferences makes no difference to your mother. I'm just a bit… surprised is all," She said supportively, smiling at him when he looked up at her. He grinned dimly as a thank-you, and flopped his head back down onto the pillow, giving another sigh. His breath was becoming more and more regulated, and he was starting to feel the feeling of hunger creep back up on him.

"If this Mullet Fingers is all that you sum him up to be, you should expect him 'round here soon enough." His mother said firmly, and Roy nodded.

"'Course, mom. I know that. I just know I'm not going to forgive him on the spot. That's what makes the whole situation tricky. He's stubborn, but he's also warmhearted. It makes you guess about his intentions." Roy gave a mirthless laugh.

"Well," His mother began, patting him on the back. "If you need anything-such as lunch-I'll be in the kitchen." She smiled kindly at her only offspring, and got up, stretching her cramped muscles before walking out of the room. He took a few minutes more, but he eventually came out, the idea of food giving his stomach more bright ideas to start fussing.

Mullet growled at himself in annoyance. Look at what he did! He was never the sentimental-type, or some Mr. Suave, but even he knew, deep down, that he liked Roy. He wasn't too sure, but he was sure Roy liked him too… well, before this mess happened. He huffed as he dropped himself down onto the grassy ground.

He slapped his forehead with his hand repeatedly, as punishment, he decided, and the abuse he poured out on himself seemed to be helping: the cogs in his brain were creaky, but slowly began to turn. It had been a while since he did some mischief, after all. But there wasn't any mischief planned in the near future, no. He had a gigantic I'm-sorry-plea to work on.

Saturday afternoon was desolate: outside, an unexpected thunderstorm was raging. Some palm fronds that were torn off of their trees were dancing and spinning around in the stormy gales. A bolt of lightning struck through the sky, and lit up the entirety of Roy's bedroom.

His parents had gone out to a friend's clam bake, saying that they wouldn't be returning until later on into the night, and the power had went out no more than ten minutes ago. Roy hadn't been scared or anything; he simply scattered a few lit candles around the house, and kept a battery-operated flashlight next to his side as he lay in bed.

Roy had seen not a hair of a specific Mullet in the past two days, and it was beginning to nag at him. Did he overreact… most likely, yeah. But still, Mullet Fingers was wrong to do that to him!

Then again, Roy might have been a bit too passionate about the whole ordeal, because of his little love for the blond.

He sighed listlessly, and stood, walking over to his window. Another spectacular streak of lightning lit up his features, and it also lit up something else…

Some creature was making its way into his yard, seeming to drag itself over to his bedroom window! Roy's eyes widened comically, and he tried to get a better look at the animal, but then, the lightning outdid its welcome and faded back into the darkness of the now-eerie storm.

Roy stepped back from the window, and nearly screamed himself silly when the lightning struck again: the thing was right in front of his window, and instead of seeing some kind of yeti-creature, there was Mullet Fingers, drenched and giving a shaky smile.

Despite his grudge toward the other boy, Roy couldn't let Mullet stay out there; it was dangerous! He'd catch a cold, heck; he could be struck by lightning!

So Roy quickly ran back to the window, and unlocked and pushed it open. Mullet clumsily climbed in through the opened window, and landed in a soaked heap on the carpeted floor. Mullet let out a groan of slight pain, but lifted his head up towards Roy. He peeked out through his dark, mangled tresses.

Mullet Fingers had thought up the ingenious plan of coming to Roy when it was raining; it worked up the fact that he was extremely sorry and it would hopefully make Roy pity him all the more. Of course, it would also show how important Roy's friendship meant to Mullet Fingers, since he risked his own health for Roy.

The thing was that he didn't plan for the storm to be so out of hand. He wasn't the weather dictator-god-person, after all. He still managed to get to Roy's, no matter how wet he was. He'd been slapped in the face by blowing debris: paper, leaves, and he'd barely sidestepped a falling coconut!

But all that mattered was that he was here now, lying in a mess at Roy's sock-clad feet, and now was the time to right everything again.

"Damnit, Mullet Fingers! What in the hell were you thinking… going out in the middle of a hard storm, you blunt-headed baboon!" Roy chastised, and ran out of the room only to return a split second later with a few dry, fluffy bathroom towels in hand. He leaned down next to Mullet and flung one of the dark blue towels over the heap of boy, and wrapped another around Mullet Finger's slightly shivering form. Mullet grunted in thanks, and sat up, using one of the towels to scrub his hair dry. Roy patted Mullet's frame down with a third towel, trying to remove most of the cold wetness from the clothes.

"You're going to have to change." Roy said with finality. He hoisted himself and Mullet up, and went to his drawers, pulling out a clean set of clothes. He pointed to the small bathroom adjacent to his bedroom, and when Mullet Fingers went to open his mouth in obvious protest, Roy firmly shook his head, his mouth set in a scowl. Mullet sighed, and quickly decided that the first step to getting Roy's forgiveness was to listen to him.

A few minutes later-Roy closed and relocked the window shut in this time, Mullet trudged out of the bathroom, garbed in the dry shirt-the royal purple one with the word Montana inscribed in white, with a set of mountains ironed on-and the long, black-and-white plaid pajama pants Roy gave him. Roy looked to him from his bed when the door creaked open, and ushered him into the spot next to him on his bed.

"So, what do you want?" Roy asked blandly, crossing his arms over his chest. Mullet huffed, uncomfortable.

"What do you think? I came to apologize to you, for bein' so… so…" Mullet racked his mind for the words.

"…heartless?" Roy offered quietly, trying to glare in hatred but failing. Mullet Fingers glanced up, a frown twisted his handsome features.

"Yeah, I guess. I never meant to make you upset with me or anything, it's just—"

Roy interrupted him, and looked the other way.

"It's not your fault. Well, some of it definitely is, but I definitely made a big deal over the whole thing. You're my friend, and I guess I should just trust whatever you were doing. It wasn't really hurting me anyway."

Lies, his mind screamed at him. Do you remember all of the pain and torment you went through these past few days?

Roy ignored the taunting, deep voice.

"And your business is your business, I shouldn't stick my nose into it so much." He added, rambling on to cover for his hurt.

Mullet gripped his upper arm and Roy's voice faded.

"No, don't you see? I was a right damned buffoon! I know that you're my friend, and as a friend, I shouldn't have abandoned you without saying a word of anything beforehand; I definitely shouldn't have been watching you in secret, but you have to understand, I didn't want you getting hurt."

"You're too late then," Roy blurted out, and then his eyes widened. He snapped his mouth shut, and shook his head.

"…Roy?"

"I'm—I mean, nothing. It's nothing." Roy stuttered out, outright avoiding meeting Mullet's eyes, in fear of what he would see.

"It's not nothin', Roy, I know you're lyin' to me. But you gotta tell me what this something is." He said quietly, and held onto Roy's hand with his free one.

"I want to fix it."

Dun, dun dun! Cliffhanger ending right there, I know. I'm sorry…. Lol, no I'm not. :D Why else would I write it?

I know, I think I got a bit over-the-top with the amount of angst in this chapter, but I couldn't help myself. I like souping my stories up with such drama. I think I butchered up Mullet Finger's speech a bit at the end, though. Forgive me!

Anywho, this is quickly drawing to a close, as you can tell. The next chapter will start up where this one left off, and the next chapter will most likely be the end of the story. Maybe I'll throw in another chapter, just for an epilogue's sake. I don't have anything permanently planned out yet, though.

Thanks a million to everyone for reading this story, and I hope you like my ending!

Sincerely,

Inkyish.