Another longish chapter. But I didn't like it 'cos it made me sad.
Two years passed. Two glorious years of adventures, misadventures and the usual school-time anxieties. Life was bearable with Vince around and Howard found that he actually enjoyed going to school. Except that Vince seemed to be charming his teachers into giving him good grades. It was infuriating. Howard spent ages studying and reading and Vince just seemed to sail through, and whenever Howard asked him how he did it, he gave a different answer.
...
"How do you do it?"
"Do what, Howard?"
"Pass that science exam when you're thicker than a rhinoceros?"
"Aw, thanks, Howard."
"You know what I mean. So how'd you do it?"
"I'm a gifted child, Howard, there ain't nothing I can't do."
...
"How did you do it?"
"Do what, Howard?"
"Get a B on the English test."
"Charm, Howard. Sheer charm."
...
"How did you do it, Vince? It's not fair!"
"Mirrors. They do it with mirrors, you know, Howard."
"Who do it with mirrors!?"
"Ah now," Vince tapped the side of his nose conspiratorially. "That would be telling."
...
"Vince," Howard groaned as he dragged himself out of another maths class.
"What's the matter, small eyes?"
"How do you manage to get exactly 75% on every test?!"
"The trick is, Howard," Vince leaned in with whisper, "To make sure that you only answer 75% of the questions correctly and get the other 25% just a tiny bit wrong."
"But!" Howard ran after his friend's retreating back. "To do that you'd have to know the correct answers to every question on the test!"
"Yup."
"And then you'd need to calculate what percentage of the questions would get you 75!"
"Yup."
"But you'd need to be a genius!"
Vince just grinned in a way that no fourteen-year-old boy should have known how to do.
"You're not a genius, Vince! Are you?"
"Who me?" Vince opened his eyes wide and blinked slowly until Howard was thoroughly hypnotised. "Of course not, Howard. You're the brainy one. I'm just a bit lucky is all."
"Oh... yeah."
...
And that was how it continued.
...
Until, all too soon, they had reached their final year. Howard wasn't getting along with his mother or his step-father, who expected him to excel and bring home several A-levels and maybe a school award or two. Howard wasn't interested. He didn't know what he wanted to do instead but he knew that school qualifications weren't important. Not when you were destined to be a man of action like Howard TJ Moon. He just needed to discover what it was he was supposed to do with his life.
...
"Vince!"
"Wha-"
"Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince, Vince!"
Vince jumped up from his kitchen table and ran to greet Howard who was in the process of letting himself into Vince's apartment. One week after Vince's arrival back in Leeds two years ago he'd presented Howard with his own key to the apartment so he was able to let himself in and out as he pleased. He was already spending more time there than at his own home, and sometimes Vince worried that he should talk to his mate about his unhappy home life, but that was all too hard and the comfortable domesticity of Howard dropping by without having to knock brought Vince too much happiness to try and ruin it with a meaningful chat.
"What's the matter, Howard?"
He looked over his friend, who was struggling to release his key from the lock so that he could enter the apartment properly. Instead of replying Howard thrust a page from a national newspaper at his friend and continued to struggle with the key. Vince creased his brow and tried to find what had Howard so excited.
"Man swallows own foot: claims 'It tasted of chicken.' What?"
"Not that you muppet," Howard scoffed, pulling the key free and stumbling into the entry hall.
"Look at the advert at the bottom!"
Vince looked, and his eyes widened at what he saw. It was a job advert, for zoo keepers, in London.
"Are you young, strong and full of vinegar? Want a chance to prove yourself in the exciting field of animal keeping? Fancy sleeping on the floor and working every day of the year with glory as your reward? Apply in person to Bob Fossil and prepare yourself for the wild ride of a working life at the Zooniverse!"
He blinked up at Howard, who was practically bouncing around the room with excitement.
"Are you serious, Howard? The Zooniverse? And there are three exclamation marks at the end of it, that can't be a good sign, surely. Only crazy people use that many exclamation marks. You really want to be a zoo keeper? What about school?"
Howard's features darkened at his friend's words and he snatched the newspaper away, examining the ad with a dizzy smile.
"What would you know about it, you little idiot? I'm going to be a zoo keeper!"
"But Howard, what about school?"
"It's not really important, is it? Not in the real world. And it's not like we're really any good at school."
Vince's jaw dropped in surprise as he looked up at his best friend. He couldn't be serious.
"But, but, I got six GCSEs!"
"GCSEs aren't important, Vince. Everybody knows that."
Howard marched past him into the kitchen where Vince had been hard at work but he didn't seem to notice that the table was covered in cooking utensils and sachets of different food colourings.
"Are you sure, Howard?"
"Of course I am, Vince. You're just so naive that you don't realise these things. I'm the brainy one, remember? Stick with me and we'll be fine."
Vince looked down at his stripy sock covered feet. He wasn't sure. He was clever, he knew he was, but he'd spent so many years telling everyone that he was simple... Howard told him he was simple everyday... Maybe Howard was right. It wasn't like anyone would miss him if he went. None of his relatives would care if he dropped out of school. Well, maybe Jean Claude and Brian, but they wouldn't try to stop him either. Except...
"Howard, I know you're turning eighteen and all, but, well... I'm only fifteen, ain't I?"
Howard, who had been reading and rereading the Zooniverse ad looked up with a start. He'd forgotten that Vince wasn't really the same age as him. Everyone just thought of Vince as the short kid in the class, the boy who looked a bit like a girl, the weird kid who was cool and interesting but still too odd to actually be considered popular. It was hard to remember that he was actually only fifteen. Still, why should that matter?
"But no one knows you're fifteen, Vince. You've got new paperwork to say that you're seventeen, soon to be eighteen. You can come with me, it'll be great!"
Vince nodded and sat back down at the table, remembering as he did so, why he'd been sitting in there to begin with.
"Oh! Happy birthday, Howard! I made you a cake."
The cake was, even Vince had to admit, a work of art. He'd decorated it with as many colours as he could and written Howard's name out in piping in the centre. He hadn't bought a big present because the one thing he really wanted to give his friend wasn't something you could buy in shops, but he'd bought a few little things and he really hoped that Howard got the idea when he saw them. He really hoped he didn't have to explain to his best friend what he felt, what he wanted, what he'd come to realise over the last six months.
...
Vince was in love with Howard.
This wasn't such a shock. Vince had loved Howard since the first time he'd offered him a sandwich and had lived with the belief that no matter what happened in his life, he was destined to spend it with Howard.
The real shock had come over the Christmas holidays six months ago, when the dreams had started. Vince was well aware that despite his big personality and flair for dressing older and talking older than he was, he was small. He was even small for a fifteen-year-old, and puberty had been slow in rearing it's head. But when it did...
Vince had been prepared, in a way, for the dreams and the embarrassment and all the gross and inconvenient things that came along with hitting puberty, because Howard had been moaning about them for years, but he hadn't been prepared for the first time he dreamed of his best friend and woke up to a sticky mess.
He hadn't been ready for the reaction of his body (and mind) to seeing Howard getting undressed, or the feel of Howard's strong arms around him when he'd stumbled on an icy footpath. He'd assumed that when all this happened, it would be in reaction to girls. Or guys who looked like Bowie. Howard never really talked specifics, just general feelings, but Vince knew that feeling this way about your best mate wasn't exactly the norm.
What he did know was that he and Howard were closer than most friends, and that Howard liked to hold his hand when no one was watching, and would brush his hair and buy him sweets, and that, when he finally did tell Howard, he would understand.
Probably.
Hopefully.
Maybe.
Because what Vince wanted to give Howard for his eighteenth birthday, more than anything... was a kiss.
...
"Wow, Vince," Howard stared down at the cake. "It sure is... colourful. Did you make it yourself?"
"Yup."
"Well done, little man."
Vince grinned.
"Thanks Howard. I got a present too as well. Two actually."
He handed over the gifts and watched as Howard opened first the small pouch and then the larger package. He watched as Howard looked at the small, silver thimble in confusion. He watched as he made a face when he saw that the package contained a book and that that book was 'Peter Pan.' Vince felt his heart drop. He'd only discovered the book a few years ago, and had been enthralled by it. He'd assumed that Howard, with his relatively normal childhood, would have read the story, or had it read to him at some point. But it seemed that Vince had been mistaken in his assumptions.
He quickly put candles onto the cake and struck a match to light them, clearing his throat to get Howard's attention.
"How's about you make a wish? And then we can scoff the cake. And I got my hands on an actual six pack of ale. You've got to have drink on your eighteenth. What d'you reckon?"
He opened his eyes as wide as they would go, biting his lip and willing Howard to agree and forget about the failed gift. He'd try again next year, he decided. He'd think of something better to explain to Howard that he was head over heels in love with him. Howard smiled.
"Sure thing, little man. And, uh... thanks for the gifts. Is the silver thing... a lucky charm?"
"... Yup."
Vince nodded his head bobbling on his neck like a rag doll's.
"And the book's about this boy who doesn't want to grow up. Kinda reminded me of us is all. It's silly. You don't have to read it."
Howard smiled at his friend and Vince felt his stomach twist and his whole body flush.
"Wish time then?" Vince flicked off the kitchen light.
"Definitely," Howard replied, leaning over the candles and looking to Vince like some strange and frightening, but devastatingly handsome, demigod.
"And I know what my wish is too."
"You do?"
"I do. My wish, Vince, is that you'll come and work at the Zooniverse with me. I'd love that."
Vince blinked slowly. And swallowed. And licked his bottom lip. And nodded.
"Sure thing, Howard. Where you go, I go. I'll be your side-kick, yeah? Learn all about the animals from you, talk to the animals to help you out. We can find a place to share in London and all. It'll be genius."
Howard didn't notice the sadness in Vince's tone, or the way his voice wavered.
"You and me, Vince. Best mates forever." And with that he blew out the candles and plunged the room into darkness. Vince didn't mind. In the darkness Howard couldn't see the tear trickle down his cheek.
...
And that was how it continued.