Staying Silent
Whyteroze28
Why is Hector Zeroni so quiet, and why does Pendanski seem to hate him so much? Zero/Stanley I hope you like the story, please R/R
I obviously don't own these guys, but I think they're so cute together
Chapter 12
And he did. When Stanley woke him up a few days later, he told him the truth about the shoes. He kept his voice low, and didn't look up, afraid to see the look of resentment he was sure the other boy had on his face. But then he heard him laugh. He looked up, and Stanley smiled. "It's destiny."
They sat there for a moment, and then Hector continued. He told Stanley about the vicious things he had endured from Pendanski, and the sick twisting feeling he had gotten from seeing the man, wondering when he would strike again.
Stanley's eyes blazed, as he looked at the smaller boy, and Hector felt a rush of pure joy when Stanley put his arm around him, hugging him tightly, and swearing that the man would never touch him again. They sat like that for a while, Stanley content to let Hector cry all over him, as he let out the pain he hadn't been able to express at camp.
Then, finally, the moment of truth.
"Stanley, I know why the other guys always picked on you at camp... you know, about me digging for you."
"Yeah," Stanley nodded. "They were jealous that they hadn't thought of the idea first. They weren't the ones getting finished early."
Hector shook his head, and told Stanley about overhearing Zig-Zag and X-Ray's conversation.
Stanley gaped at him. "They... what?"
Hector nodded. He kept his eyes glued to the bigger boy's face, watching for something that would tell him whether Stanley was just upset, or disgusted by the thought. "Yeah. They thought you were having sex with me."
The other boy just sat there for a moment, trying to wrap his mind around the words, and Hector glanced down, absent-mindedly picking up another onion. He stared at it, seeing the tall black man from his dreams picking them, and without a doubt he knew. These onions had been the cause of Kate Barlow's heartache. Not because of them, but because she (a white woman) had dared to fall in love with a black man who sold onions.
He was so lost in thought that he didn't hear Stanley call his name, so when the boy's hand gripped his chin, and forced it back up, he stared blankly at him for a minute. Then his eyes widened as Stanley's face came closer, and he felt the one thing he had wanted more than anything in the last few months. Stanley Yelnats the fourth was kissing him.
He moved quickly, dropping the onion, and reaching up to grab Stanley's hair, not completely sure what he was doing, but not planning on breaking this first kiss, of what he hoped would be many. But he overbalanced Stanley, and the other boy fell, landing slightly on top of him, and he gasped. He was certain of one thing. Stanley was right... this was destiny.
Later that night, they were staring up at the sky, basking in the glow of the wonderful feeling of just being together. Stanley had agreed not to push Hector, when the younger boy had admitted that he didn't feel comfortable even thinking about sex at the moment.
Then, out of the blue, Stanley had practically thanked him for stealing the shoes. Hector had been stunned, but the other boy had continued, mentioning something about a family curse. But then he went on. "I just have this weird feeling... everything's cool."
Hector smiled. "Yeah. Same here."
"You got the same feeling?" Stanley asked, grinning.
"Same feeling."
"It's a good one."
Hector nodded at a particularly bright group of stars in the sky. "You know, those stars look like a shovel to me."
"Exactly," Stanley sighed. Then he looked up. "Hector..."
"What's up?" Hector asked, even though he knew what was coming.
"I feel lucky."
He laughed, thinking of how he could twist that phrase. "The onions have gone to your head," Hector replied, smiling.
He knew the words were coming, even before they left Stanley's mouth, and he resigned himself to going back to camp. "What do you say we dig one more hole?"
They left early the next morning, and when they finally made it back to camp, Stanley showed him where the hole was where he'd found the tube. He quickly got to work, as Hector decided to go look for another shovel. As he ran into camp, he heard Mr. Sir, and Pendanski arguing over whose fault it was that the water truck was broken, and he couldn't help but smile as he heard Pendanski yell, "Don't you throw nothing at me!"
When he made it back to the hole, he stared. Stanley had really been working. He lowered himself into the hole, and they talked for a minute, deciding to widen the hole. As he heard Stanley's shovel thunk against something, his heart leapt. He still felt real lucky too.
Pulling that trunk out of the hole was exhilarating, and even though he knew they should keep their voices down, he still yelped. But then the lights hit him, and he stared up at the warden, and Mr. Sir, and his heart dropped to his toes. They were dead. Then he saw the lizards. Now they were really dead.
Then Pendanski came sauntering along. And told Stanley that his lawyer had come by, because he'd been proven innocent. Hector told him not to listen, but his own ears perked up as he heard Pendanski ask, "What about Zero?"
Then he saw the wild look in the warden's eyes. "Zero was never here. We've got lots of holes to choose from." She started in on some story about her family, but Hector's attention had been caught by something else. He noticed that there was writing on the trunk. He struggled to put Stanley's teaching to good use. S-T-A-N...
"Sa-tah-nuh." He saw Stanley look over at him, but he was too busy trying to decode the words.
He realized that it was morning, and they'd been there almost all night. The lizards hadn't done anything except use them to climb on, and he wondered if it was something about the onions they'd been eating... He remembered Mr. Sir complaining about the price of onions, and not buying any.
They heard the warden's shocked exclamation, and her telling Pendanski not to let the boys talk. And when the man left, they heard him fall into a hole, and Hector couldn't help it. He burst out laughing. To think, the man had scared him so badly, and now, he, Hector Zeroni, somehow had managed to survive tougher odds than anyone would have believed.
Then they clicked. He stared at the words, his mouth forming an 'O' of surprise. "Stanley, he whispered, stunned.
"Yeah?" the boy asked.
"Is your last name, your first name, spelled backwards?" he asked, hardly daring to breathe.