"Who's that!?" James' whispers in my ear emphatically as we get near the cave. Everyone, except Granny, is waiting outside. He's pointing directly at Crash, smiling and excited. The look of loss in his eye has completely disappeared and been replaced by a flicker of fire and anticipation.
"That's Crash." I whisper back, grinning slightly at how he's not even trying to hide his secret from me. Why else would he single out Crash? It makes me almost giddy to know I'm not the only one in the group with a crush.
"Crash..." He says, his voice quiet with just a lick of energy. "I think I..." I stop him.
"Save it 'till no one else can hear." I say knowingly. Well, aren't you speaking from experience?
"Well James," Peaches says after we all exchange greetings, "this is our family. Guys, this is James."
Everyone says "hi" and introduces themselves. Crash and Eddie climb onto Peaches stealthily and scare me before I notice them.
"Haha! Hi, I'm Eddie." Eddie reaches out his hand and shakes James'. "And I'm Crash!" Crash grabs James' other hand, making him cross his arms to shake with both of them at the same time. James giggles and looks at Crash with perhaps a little too much 'I'm totally crushing on you right now' on his face. Maybe it's just because I already know, but I can tell from his ecstatic demeanor that James likes Crash, a lot.
"So, what's your story?" Eddie asks James.
"Oh, uh..." James looks genuinely terrified for a second, "My parents died when I was little, and I've been on my own ever since."
"Hey! Just like Wiener!" Crash says somewhat heartlessly, and I cringe. Peaches and Ellie both shoot Crash an angry look, which he ignores.
James giggles some more and the conversation appears to be over.
"I'm going to get breakfast." Manny says, "I don't know about you guys, but I'm starving. Anyone else coming along?" Everyone except James and me raises their hand or paw or trunk.
"I already ate." James clarifies. "I can wait here with Louis if that's fine with you guys."
"Sure," Peaches says, picking me up and placing me at the mouth of the cave. James scurries down and helps me stand. Peaches continues, "I'll bring you some food later."
"Thanks." I say, looking at Peaches with the most I-totally-adore-you on my face as possible.
They all hurry off to find something to fill their bellies. James helps me to walk into the cave and sit; he plants himself directly in front of me and gives me another one of those weird smiles.
He looks at me seriously and says, "So, I guess by now you've already figured out that I'm... I'm..."
"Gay?" I finish his sentence. He nods regretfully, which makes me sad. I'm fine with him liking whomever he wants; as long as he's happy, I couldn't care less about which gender he wants to be with. It's not like I'm one to talk, anyway. I am, after all, in love with someone of a completely different species.
"You can't tell anyone." He says precautiously.
"I don't think anyone would care, but I won't tell if you don't want me to." I respond.
"Promise?" He asks again.
"Of course, promise." I say reassuringly. A silence encircles us; we look at each other awkwardly, each waiting for the other to speak up. Finally, James breaks our breathe-holding contest.
"It's a good thing I met Crash back there..." He says.
"You must really like him." I surmise.
"Yeah," He says with something else clearly on his mind, "but that's not the only reason that I'm happy about it."
"And the other reason would be?"
"I, uh... was kind of... crushing on... you, up until that point." He blushes, hearing what he just said. I cringe at how hard he is on himself about this, but he misinterprets it to think that he'd offended me. He retracts, "I'm sorry I told you that. We can forget it if you want."
"No... no, it's fine." I put my hand on his shoulder, "Flattering even, but I like Peaches."
"I noticed... And now I like Crash." He says.
"That's great; Crash is actually pretty nice... if you can take a joke... which, obviously, I can't." I say. He looks at me funny, like he's questioning if this is actually happening. He reaches out and touches my ear. I ask, "How long have you been on your own again?"
He yanks his hand away awkwardly. His face flushes red, and he says, "Uh... since... about... about... Okay, you got me."
"Huh?" I ask, confused.
"I kind'a lied earlier. Well, not lied... I just didn't... tell the truth. Well, wait. I just didn't tell all of it." He stammers exasperatedly.
"Woah, woah." I stop him. "Go back to the beginning. What did you leave out?"
"It's uh... I thought... I thought it might happen again if I told you."
"What?"
He starts crying, so I don't bother to ask again. He leans into me and wraps his arms around my neck, sobbing with his head lightly perched on my shoulder. What happened to him?
We stay like that, silently, for a while. I don't know if he'll ever let go; I'm in a rather uncomfortable position, but I'm not going to pull away. I need to know that he's okay before I can do that.
After about a full minute of listening to each other breathe, James' of course strained and stuffy from crying, my stomach growls rowdily. Finally, ever so slightly, he loosens his grip. Then, all at once, he hops away, smiling as if he hadn't just wept for three minutes.
"Thank you." He says sincerely. "Thank you for that, thank you for stopping Diego, and thank you for putting up with me." I blush a little. It's not like any of that was planned. He looked like he needed help, so I helped him. he looked like he needed someone to sit next to and hug if need be, so I sat next to him and let him hug me when he needed to. I'm not trying to get a "thank you." I'm not trying to be a hero; I never have been... I'm too cowardly for that stuff. I just felt like it was the right thing to do, to help out someone who looked like he hadn't gotten any for a while.
"Okay, um... I'll tell you, but you have to promise, like really really really really really promise, that you won't ever tell anyone." I nod my head, confused.
"Promise, please." He says more pleadingly than I've ever heard anyone say.
"I promise." I say, hoping I won't regret this.
This chapter's song is "Someday" by Rob Thomas.