Hey ya'll!
this chapter was written mainly by my friend RB.
Sadly, she is not on this site, but I assure you that I only wrote a tiny portion of this thing.
Well, got that out of the way, so... Read on, I guess!
Edilio was walking back to the White Houseboat after breaking up a fight in front of the marina when he heard his name being called. He stopped and looked around and was surprised to see Justin running towards him.
"Hey, what's up, little buddy?" Edilio asked when the younger reached him.
"Um... Uh..." Justin panted, trying to catch his breath. "Ow..." he grunted, and he held the stitch in his side.
"Ouch, got a cramp? C'mon, walk with me; that'll get rid of it." Justin nodded and limped along next to Edilio. When he caught his breath, he delivered his message.
"Roger is still sad because he misses you still," Justin said. Edilio's breath hitched in his throat and he tripped over his own feet, landing hard on his arm.
"Are you okay?" Justin exclaimed, reaching out a small hand to help him up.
"Yeah, yeah; I'm okay," Edilio said quickly, jumping back to his feet. "What were you saying, little dude? Rog—um, he misses me?"
"Yes. He said that he... well he wanted told me that he wanted you to be his best friend again but I thought I'd do it for him. He doesn't know I'm here, he's asleep. He's still sad, though, even though he said you guys are good." Edilio plastered a false smile on his face, which he turned down at Justin.
"Well thank you for telling me, bro. I've got some work to do right now, so you go back and tell Roger that I want to talk to him, but I...can't. Tell him I'm sorry, too, please, and that I know we talked a bit but we still really just need to work things out." Justin nodded and ran off.
Edilio sighed. He walked to the White Houseboat and collapsed into a folding lawn chair on the deck. The fight by the marina was between a twelve-year-old boy and his thirteen-year-old girlfriend. She was upset at him for never telling her he loved her, and slapped him right across his face. He had lost his temper and punched her in the stomach. Unfortunately for him, she had taken karate lessons for years, and she roundhouse kicked him in the groin.
That's where Edilio had jumped between them. He had scolded the girl for playing dirty, and lectured both of them for disturbing the peace.
He had said nothing about the unspoken words that had broken those two apart.
He was so confused. He had never had a girlfriend before, or ever even loved somebody. He had no idea what true love felt like, but whenever he saw Roger, his heart leaped and he felt like he was floating on Cloud 9; yet at the same time, he would become nervous and his palms would get slick. When Roger had tripped and ended up clasped to Edilio's chest, he had felt Roger's heartbeat pounding against his own chest, speeding up, a fast-paces rhythm of life. That was what had pushed him over the edge. Finding Roger watching the moon rise had made Edilio realize what a deep and thoughtful personality Roger had, but once Roger had pulled away from Edilio, he had wanted to pull him right back. He had never seen before that point how...sexy Roger was. He was thin and tall, but graceful. And whenever he flipped his light brown hair out of his eyes, it made Edilio's heart flutter.
He was lost in thought when Sam hopped aboard. It took Sam a couple tries to get his attention.
"Bro. Hey. Dude. Edilio."
"Ahuh? What? What's up, Sam?" Edilio said, snapping out of his funk.
"Your arm is bleeding everywhere, dude," Sam said with a concerned expression upon his face. Edilio held up the arm he had fallen on and examined it. Blood was running down his flesh and dripping off of his elbow; a large shard of glass sticking out of his forearm.
"Whoa..." he said dazedly, taken completely by surprise.
"Sit tight, bro. I'll get Roger," Sam told him. He jumped off the boat and hit the ground running towards Roger's tent.
"R-Roger?" Edilio mumbled, falling back into a trance that was only partially caused by his loss of blood.
He was laying in the warmth of the false sun when he sensed fingers probing his wound. His whole arm was numb, so he didn't feel anything...until someone pulled the chunk of glass out of him.
"GAAAAHHH!" he roared, lunging away from the stranger.
"Look man, I'm just doing my job," said the girl who was (basically) Roger's assistant nurse.
Roger.
Edilio pushed himself back towards consciousness and opened his eyes wide.
"Roger?" he murmured. He saw the taller boy and smiled wide. Roger's sad gray eyes locked onto Edilio's smiling brown ones, and he couldn't stop himself from grinning back.
"Hey, man! What did you do to your arm?" Roger asked, a concerned expression clouding over his bright smile.
"Oh, um; I was walking and talking to Justin and I tripped. I think I fell on some glass," Edilio slurred, barely concious from loss of blood.
"That sucks, bro. Hey, go find some food," Roger instructed his assistant. She sighed dramatically, tossed her hair, rolled her eyes, and swaggered away.
"Aye, Roger," Edilio whispered. Roger grabbed an alcohol wipe, and then knelt down by Edilio's side.
"Yeah, dude?" he said as he cleaned Edilio's arm.
"What does love feel like?"
Roger paused and looked over at Edilio's dirty, sun-baked face. After a beat, he let his eyes wander up to the sky, and began in a soft voice.
"Love feels like...like the sun is shining inside your heart, and the moon is glowing inside your brain. The stars are twinkling in your eyes and the wind is at your back, a warm wind, filled with the smell of freshly cut grass and new books. It feels like you're having a heart attack, but instead of dying you grow more alive. With every pump of blood, your chest constricts more and more until you think you might burst, only you don't.
"But if that special person hurts you in any way, it's a thousand times worse than if anyone else had done the sam thing. It... it's like someone went and stuck a knife in your gut, twisting the blade slowly so as to draw out your pain in the mist grueling way possible. Your would closes in, and you feel as if everyone is just staring as you limp along, bloody, not even bothering to help you out." He fixed his eyes on Edilio again, the slightest hint of a tear visible, shining in the sunlight."So if you want my honest opinion about love, don't bother with it."
Roger finished cleaning the wound and turned back to the table that his supplies lay on to hide the grimace of pain twisting his face. He took a shaky breath and let it out slowly, doing his best to calm himself down. He grabbed a sterile needle and thread, turning back to Edilio.
"This is going to hurt, buddy," he warned, "So I want you to take your other hand and put it on my shoulder. When it hurts, squeeze me. Actually, here." Roger pulled his shirt over his head, exposing his pale stomach (he typically spent his time in shady places with some rare pencils and paper). Edilio's eyes widened. He felt a twinge in his abdomen and silently thanked himself for putting on tight jeans that morning.
"Open your mouth," Roger instructed, stuffing his shirt into Edilio's mouth. "This way, you won't clench your teeth too hard or scare anyone by yelling." He explained, and Edilio nodded in understanding before hollering into the shirt as Roger dug the needle into the lip of his cut.
Edilio opened his eyes and stared up at the sky. Stars twinkled above him, and he sighed, feeling completely at peace. He heard a light snoring from somewhere near him, and he sluggishly turned his head to see Roger passed out with his head on his arm.
Edilio grit his teeth and scrunched his toes, pulling his arm out from underneath Roger's head with slow, jerky movements. Roger didn't even flinch when his head fell onto the metal arm of the deck chair with a sharp clang. Edilio rubbed his arm and absently watched his sleeping friend.
Roger had fallen asleep sitting in a chair facing the side of Edilio's chair; he was slumped forward with his forehead on Edilio's cold, metal armrest. One of his arms was dangling below him; the other was lying across Edilio's lap. Edilio reached over and took Roger's hand, rubbing the soft, pale skin of the back of Roger's hand with his rough, calloused fingers.
Roger awoke as his forehead connected with the very much solid metal of a deck chair armrest. He was blinded by the flash of pain, and found himself frozen for a moment.
In that moment, his hand was gently caressed in the rough palm of another, a calloused thumb tracing mindless patterns on his milky skin. There was nothing that could possibly trick him into thinking it was anybody but Edilio. He lay there for a moment, enjoying the feeling, before lifting his head.
Edilio dropped his hand as fast as Speed Gonzolas runs, blush pooling upon his cheeks even faster.
"Hey there," Roger mumbled tiredly.
"H-hey," Edilio stuttered in response.
"I'll just let you be now, I guess," Roger mumbled, standing and turning to leave.
"No! Uh..." Edilio snatched his hand back from where it had grabbed onto Roger's sleeve. "I mean, you don't have to leave it you don't want to. I need to talk to you anyways."
Roger plopped back down with a heavy sigh, staring up at the false moon.
After about five minutes, Roger turned to him.
"Dude, are you going to talk, or...?"
"I was collecting my thoughts, give me a moment," Edilio replied apologetically. With a deep breath, he began "So, earlier I had asked you what love was, and you told me something you could only have said if you had had experience. Now, I'm not going to ask you who this person was, because they obviously meant a lot and then they hurt you, but I can't shake the feeling that that was an accusation. I... I'm sorry about the way I've been treating you lately, Roger. I've been a shit friend, bad enough to have been confronted by Jason; twice. I guess I just want things to go back to how they were."
Roger sat still for a moment, staring down at his pale hands.
"Is."
"What?"
"Who that person is, not was." Roger looked straight at Edilio as he continued. "Unless you've suddenly died, Edilio, I'm pretty sure I'm still in love with a living person."
Roger stood up and fled, crying for no reason he could quite understand. Why had he just admitted that to Edilio, just as the Honduran was trying to FIX their friendship? God, he was such an idiot!
He wasn't sure where he was running, only that it was AWAY. He was a mess, tears and maybe even snot streaking his face, stumbling as he ran on blindly. Eventually, he collapsed in a heap on the ground, curling into a ball and hiding his face from the sun.
"God fucking dammit," he hiccuped. "Such an idiot. Such an idiot..."
He continued to mumble to himself in the broken speech of someone who just lost it all, curling up tighter, gripping his own hands until the crescents from his nails turned red with droplets of blood. Roger was falling apart, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.