Author's Note: Well hello gals and guys. I bet you didn't think that you'd ever see this story on the first page again, am I right? I feel really bad about neglecting this story and the readers (I won't blame any of you if you don't come back), but I kind of needed a break for a little while to work on some other projects I have going on. The next few couple of days I plan on reading this whole story again to get down the characters again, and then I'm back!
A Boy Named Troy
Chapter Twenty-Two
"C'mon Gary! I can't wait any longer!"
"Well you're just out of luck then, aren't you?"
"Please." Petey was pathetic, mewling away at his boyfriend's feet.
"No."
"But I did what you wanted."
"I believe that was a mutual win."
"Gare…" the smaller boy begged, wishing nothing more than to be released from his building anticipation. The power Gary could hold over him was completely unfair.
"It will be better if you wait." Kowalski simply stuck out his lower lip and crossed his arms over his chest. Such a childish pose caused Gary to laugh and his younger friend followed in suit. "God you brat, it'll be the twenty-fifth before the end of the movie. Now come back up here." With sore, but strengthening, arms, Smith pulled Pete onto the couch where the head boy had been sitting before he decided to beg on his hands and knees.
"I just wanna open my present; is it really that big of a deal?"
An old superhero flick played in Gary's VCR, skipping every now and then. The young couple would exchange dorky smiles every time they were able to spot a cable that held up their caped champion. They grasped their hands tighter together whenever any villain unexpectedly popped up (though Gary only did this to lighten any shame Petey might feel). And when the hero and his reluctant girlfriend became held up in a passionate scene, Kowalski's heart skipped a beat, being so close to the person with whom he shared a bed. Gary just laughed at any of the kissing parts of the movie, sometimes jeering "breeders" at the screen.
Despite having to wait to for something special, Pete would have to say that this was the near perfect ending to a rare wondrous day. Gary, like the rest of his coworkers, received Christmas Eve and Day off from work. Kowalski arrived at the familiar mobile home door ten minutes before Smith even got home on the twenty-third.
Like nearly every other past and present student of Bullworth Academy, Gary Smith had never really had a normal family life. Early that morning, long before the sun could appear and add a shimmer to the ever-growing snow, he relayed this misfortune to his short friend stretched out on top of his bare chest. Neither one of them could remember having a normal, happy, figuratively warm winter holiday past the age of seven. "We could have one." Gary quietly, though with a certain determination, whispered into the dark room.
"Have one what?" Pete tiredly mumbled in response.
"A proper Christmas." The smaller one chuckled upon hearing those words fall out of his ex-maniac boyfriend's mouth. "What?"
"Nothing about you is normal or proper. You always spit on any kind of tradition."
"I'm not saying we do all the crap every year. It would just be interesting to see why all those pathetic people cling to the only time where their morals exist." Here Petey scoffed; he should have expected such a rationalization. "And it might be… fun."
`*~~~*`
So the odd couple spent the whole day fulfilling Gary's secret fantasy for normalcy, or, as he put it, investigating. They slept in until the afternoon so that the sun was already high by the time they awoke. As Gary showered (with Petey around, he had not found the time to the night before), Kowalski fumbled around in the small kitchen.
"Femme, what are you up to?" Smith asked as he entered the kitchen wearing only a towel around his thin waist.
"I'm making you breakfast!" Pete beamed. "Don't holidays usually start with a home cooked meal?" Gary grinned appreciatively, never complaining about how the bacon was burnt and the pancakes were soggy in the middle.
After the mediocre, but thoughtful, morning meal, the pair took a long walk. First, they just strolled around the smog filled neighborhood while holding each other's gloved hands. Eventually they migrated out past the boundaries of the trailer park. Outside of one of the many Yum Yum Markets, Petey spotted a sign advertising that one could buy Christmas presents there. "Hold on for a minute; I want to pick something up."
"Aww, Femme, waiting 'til the last minute to get me something?"
Petey smiled and shoved his boyfriend softly in the chest. "I bought your gift weeks ago." Gary parodied a touched expression. "I think I should get something for Jimmy, Troy, and Gord though."
Smith shrugged, "Okay. We can always walk over and drop it off. It'll be like visiting the mildly annoying in-laws."
Gary ended up paying for the presents that Petey picked out for their friends. At first he felt kind of guilty, but was reminded that Gary's job, although low paying, made him much more money than he spent. They spent a few hours over at the beach house, handing over the arrangement of flowers (the card was addressed to all three, but it was only intended to please the prep) and somewhat questionable magazine (for the boy of course).
By the time they started to walk back, the sky was already dimming. They stopped into a shabby restaurant for pizza, since there was really no food left at Gary's for dinner and their stomachs were both far too empty.
While Gary fumbled around in his pocket for his house key, he quietly admitted something to his smaller boyfriend. "I've always wanted to try something." He pushed snow off the wrought iron railing and into his hands.
As Kowalski replied "What," the frozen material collided with his face. "Gary!" he fumed as the brunette laughed noisily. "You went to Bullworth; you've had plenty of snowball fights! In fact, I remember you making Algernon wet himself once when you threw an iceball at him."
"Yes, but those were more for survival. I've never really just thrown snow around for fun."
Petey bit his lower lip. Somehow he couldn't imagine a snowball fight with the competitive Gary being much of a joy, but he swooped down to grab some of the fluffy white frozen water anyways.
The fight didn't turn out to be nearly as bad as Petey imagined it would be. His boyfriend allowed him ample time to scurry away and grab more ammo, which was something other boys at Bullworth did not do. Plus Gary even let him hit him a couple of times. The only downer was when Kowalski slipped onto his back from a hidden patch of ice. It didn't really hurt, but when he did not feel like sitting up immediately, Gary got a little worried and rushed over.
"Are you okay?"
"Yes."
"Do you need help getting up, Femme?"
"Nope." The smaller boy began spreading his legs open and close.
With a raised eyebrow, the older one asked, "What are you doing?"
"Making a snow angel. Aren't they part of the holiday fun too?"
"Geez, you're doing it wrong."
"I am?"
Gary crouched down, lowering his face closer than necessary. "You have to move your arms too." He grabbed Petey's wrists with each hand, making it so that he had to lean over his body. With his arms that seemed to grow stronger by the day, he began to push and pull Petey's arms with swift movements, creating wings. "Like this." Kowalski raised his head with a bit of a struggle and pushed his cold lips against his boyfriend's. "You're freezing. Let's go inside."
`*~~~*`
By the time twelve o'clock rolled around, Pete had let his mind drift off into sleep, while his body leaned into Gary. He was softly shook awake. "Present time, that is, if you still want yours." Instantly, Kowalski was reenergized.
"You mean it?"
"Why don't you go find it? I hid it in my closet." Gary could barely even finish his sentence before Peter rushed off. Just as Smith expected, a small yelp instantly sounded.
"Gary, please tell me this isn't it!" Petey whined with begging eyes as soon as Gary entered the bedroom. The younger one was holding up a familiar bunny costume that he had been forced to wear one Halloween.
Gary chuckled. "Even I'm not that cruel."
"Then why do you still have it?"
"Do you know how much that thing cost? I'm not made of money you know." Petey's cheeks were a little rosy. Before he could object any further, Smith ordered, "Keep looking."
Getting on his hands and knees, Petey eventually retrieved his real present. Before examining the oversized teddy bear in a pink shirt (much like his own) properly, he clutched it tightly to his body. Desperation would be what a stranger looking in from the outside would say it looked like, but he had no reason to be desperate. It was simply magnified appreciation. "So you like it then?"
"Yes!"
"Hmm." Kowalski remained on the floor, hugging the poor toy senseless. Had he taken a look in the front pocket, he would have noticed the note that read, "From Gary with love. Don't make me get anymore mushy than that- I'm not the femme." Gary coughed. "You know, if you like the gift so much, you could show me some of the gratitude."
"Oh that's right!" The smaller of the two jumped to his feet, making the other grin devilishly. The smirk quickly fell though, when Pete dashed past him to dig around his overnight bag. A few moments later, he rose with a neatly wrapped green package in his hands. It was about the size of an orange.
"What's that?"
"It's your present!" Femme-boy chimed, handing it over. A big heart had been drawn on the top with Gary's name painstakingly written in cursive in the middle of it. Pete wasn't expecting anything along the lines of 'you didn't have to get me anything' to be said. Gary usually stayed away from such 'pointless formalities.' The wrapping paper was calmly removed and tossed onto the floor. A plain navy box could now be seen. Popping open the top, Smith's usually stoic eyes widen, bringing immense joy to Kowalski. The older one carefully took out an expensive looking (it looked pricier than it was, though it wasn't exactly cheap) watch and slipped it back onto his wrist with a few smooth movements. Had he looked at the back, he would have noticed an inscription that read "love Pete." "Do you like it?"
A mix between a chuckle and a scoff came from Gary's mouth. "Get over here." They both shared the devilish grin now.
`*~~~*`
"It's amazing how much you've changed recently." Pete mused aloud post intimate bliss. A few marks on his chest were beginning to hurt, but he had been too caught up in the moment to remember to leave his shirt on.
"Mmm, whatever do you mean?" Gary purred a little more lion like than cat into Petey's neck. They were lying side by side on their backs on top of Gary's bed.
"You're letting things go more easily now. A few months ago, you would have never even considered being friends with Jimmy again, let alone going to see him on a day off. You would have been too obsessed with getting revenge against him." A twitch came from Smith followed by a guilty groan. "Gare?"
"I developed a plan."
"What?!" Kowalski didn't exactly feel crushed. Deflated maybe. Gary rolled away from his boyfriend, upsetting the smaller one even further until he moved back after retrieving his nightly dosage from the nightstand.
"Would you like me to explain it to you?" came a tired sigh after their fingers were once again intertwined. Petey nodded. "I need for Jimmy to know what it's like to lose something at least. Thanks to him I lost most of my life, and what happens to him? He gets himself a tidy little school family!" Gary paused as his words became more and more growl like. Kowalski gave his hand an encouraging little squeeze, even though he thought that Jimmy helped Gary gain more of a life than he had before.
"You have me."
"I know. I know that and trust me, I am entirely thankful, but that still doesn't make me feel completely better."
"What else do you need?"
"Troy." The short answer was mumbled weakly.
"What?"
"I want Jimmy to lose Troy! Between Gord and all of the other trivial school shit Hopkins has going on, he close-to-completely ignores the kid."
"Being such a little guy and new, Troy would have a hard time at school without Jim. Just what do you plan to do?"
"I'm kind of attached to the brat. I want him to look up to me."
"Huh?"
"Don't you see how happy he is when he's with us? Sometimes I feel like we're a real… family. A family of misfits that nobody else wants." That wasn't fair! Gary used the f-word. That tricky tricky word that Kowalski pined for, especially with the person he loved the most. "It's probably not going to work, but I just thought maybe if I showed him that he's welcomed here… I don't know. You aren't going to tattle to big bad Jim are you?"
Peter thought this over. It didn't really seem like Gary was doing anything wrong; his 'plan' was to be nice to a kid he liked. "Nope."
A family.