A/N: In which Gordie narrates a little differently. It's short, but I should update more often, and I've been writing this for a year. I'm proud about how they've grown up.
I felt nervous in the principal's office. He stared at us over thick lenses and wrinkled nose in disgust. We hadn't made a peep after her shouted at us both. We were too busy trying to explain ourselves, to come up with a story on the spot why I shoved him. "Now you." He pointed a stubby finger at Chris, "Tell me what happened." I took a deep breath of his office a mixture of cigar smoke and chalk dust; I nearly choked when I heard Chris' response.
"I shoved him because he said my girlfriend was a cow." He crossed his arms and scowled. Mr. Roth gave me a stern look. "Now is that true Mr. Lachance?"
"No!" I spurted, I glanced over to Chris, and he was looking straight a head. "I shoved him, he wouldn't give me my Geometry notes back."
"Liar!" Shot out of Chris' mouth, "You're the liar!" I fired back and then it was a string of back and forth before Mr. Roth cut it off again.
"Boys! Boys! Shut up!" He shouted stand up. His chair flying backwards and slamming into his filing cabinet, our eyes jerked towards the enraged man. He was red faced. "I don't care who started it." His eyes lingering over Chris more, after all he still had that last name that made him guilty regardless of whether or not it was his fault.
"I'm calling both your parents, both of you are suspended until the winter break, to give you both time to cool off." Winter break was two days away, easy time at least that's what I thought until my mother came in to snatch me home for the rest of the day. Mr. Roth had us sitting on opposite walls of the office. Chris had a bruise on his cheek and a black eye; I sat there feeling guilty.
"Gordon Lachance!" My mom screeched as she hurried into the office, her face was contracted into an angry mess. She grabbed me under the arm and yanked me out of the chair. Even if I towered over her she steered me to the desk, signed the paper work and apologized for my 'horrid' behavior.
A friend of hers had driven her to the school to pick me up, so she didn't lecture me until safely behind our front door.
"Gordie!" She pointed me to the kitchen, jerking a seat out for me to sit in, she began to chop things for dinner with more aggression than necessary, but I wasn't going to point that out. I couldn't get the image of Chris out of my head. "What has gotten into you lately?" She asked whipping around to face me. "I found some cigarettes in your jeans the other day, now this? Beating people up."
"It's not like I'm a bully, mo-" I tried to explain
"Did you see Chris? What do you thinks going to happen to him when he gets home?" I sat there and considered it all. I felt awful.
"I don't know what's wrong with you two lately, it seems like ever since this summer you either close, or at each other's throats." She turned back to her cooking. I turned to look out the window, it was snowing, summer seemed years ago.
"It's complicated." I said finally.
She was feeling sassy, my mom standing in her apron with her knife and high heels. To this day I will never forget the image of my mother standing there so frustrated. "Try me."
In that instance I almost revealed to my mom about the past few months of my life. It almost tumbled out of my mouth about how I loved Chris more than, more than she or my dad or anyone else wanted me to. About how we did things in the dark of her home, how we whispered through the night. I looked down biting my tongue to stop it all from exposing me, and our secret.
"He got a girlfriend, and I'm jealous." I didn't say how I was jealous, I didn't express that I had to stop myself from physically harming that girl every time she kissed him in front of my locker.
"Gordie, you'll find a nice girl that's no reason to fight." She chided, less angry. A calm settled over the kitchen. I felt sick.