Two Types of Friends
[Memory, Freshman Year, Winter Break]
Lyn examined the steep slope without hiding his suspicion that it wouldn’t be a great an idea to sled down it like a maniac. He had heard enough about Brad’s extended family to imagine the chaos that would come with it, but nothing had truly prepared him for the reality. An assortment of cousins, aunts and uncles, even two pair of grandparents were assembled at Brad’s family’s home, so his arrival had gone almost unnoticed. Brad’s mom had kissed him on both cheeks, looking harried and hastily trying to get everyone settled in an orderly fashion, and thanked him for Brad’s good grades. Apparently, the Fosters considered Brad’s ability to achieve reasonable results on his exams was due to Lyn. Which was true, seeing the number of times he had helped his friend with papers, essays and whatnot.
A hard slap on his back made him flinch.
“Come on,” Brad said cheerfully, “show me how it’s done, city boy.”
Lyn scoffed and barely kept his balance, perched as he was on the bright-red sled that the Fosters most likely secretly supplied to undercover Santas. “If I’d known you wanted to me to break my neck, I would’ve thought twice about your invitation.”
“You sort of invited yourself,” Brad reminded him.
Lyn winced. It was so like Brad to make him feel miserable with an off-hand remark like that.
Brad didn’t notice his friend’s mood change and began pushing him from behind.
“Hey, wait,” Lyn shouted.
The sled was picking up speed, and the slope was so, so steep. Lyn closed his eyes, then panicked and opened them again.
“Lean back!” Brad shouted orders from behind. “Use your feet to steer!”
Lyn was pretty certain everything his pal said made absolutely no sense. He was gaining speed as he was going down the slope. At the foot of the hill, Brad’s many cousins were already engaged in a snowball fight.
His sled came to an abrupt halt as it hit something. Lyn registered only that he was flying through the air. His flight was short, though. He fell face-first into a snowbank.
Brad’s easy laugh reached him as he struggled to get back to his feet. The snow got in his hair, frosting his eyelids, and Lyn was pretty sure that some must have gotten past the collar of his coat and even under his sweater.
“See? That wasn’t so hard. You only need to work on your landing a little,” Brad said, parking his sled close to him with skilled ease.
He began patting Lyn clean and even brushed the snow from his hair. Lyn did his best not to stare at his friend as he was getting this strange full-body treatment. Maybe it had something to do with the many cousins Brad had. Even if Brad had no siblings, he always acted like someone who had lived his entire life in a full house.
“I think I need to get it out of here, too,” Lyn explained as he opened his coat. “Damn, it’s gotten everywhere.”
“Let me help.” Brad removed the glove from his right hand with his teeth and grabbed Lyn’s sweater, pulling it up.
He didn’t have time to react as Brad’s hand came in contact with his skin. Somehow, Brad had pulled the undershirt up along with it, as well, and now his cold fingers were on Lyn’s belly.
“Hey, stop wiggling,” Brad warned him as his hand slid upward, brushing the snow off Lyn’s chest. His moves were rough and brusque, but Lyn felt like he was about to die of shame and shock.
“There you go,” Brad said, satisfied with his work. “Do you think you can handle a snowball fight, princess? Or do you want to hurry back and help my aunt Frankie with the cookies?”
Brad thought nothing of the touchy-feely things he did. He had no reason to think his behavior was strange. Lyn was the one who made it so.
“I am so going to kick your ass,” he promised as he straightened his clothes. “Who do you think you’re calling ‘princess’?”
Brad guffawed and grabbed Lyn’s arm. “Get on. I’ll be right behind you.”
Right behind him indeed. For the second time today, Lyn thought his heart would stop. Brad pushed him down on the sled and climbed behind him, trapping him between his thighs. There were heavy coats between them and the firm idea that there was nothing strange about two friends doing this, but Lyn couldn’t stop his frantic mind from hoping for the impossible as they rode down the slope.
***
“I know it’s not much, but it wouldn’t be a real Christmas celebration without gifts, right?”
Brad scratched his head. “I didn’t get you anything, though.”
There were out on the porch, while the rest of the guests and Brad’s family were having fun inside playing board games. It was late and the air was clear. Lyn could feel his breath turning into frost on his lips. He took out the small package and pressed it against Brad’s chest.
“Don’t worry. You invited me to your house. I’m the one in your debt.”
“You’re so formal sometimes, I want to slap you right upside the head,” Brad said. He took out the leather bracelet and admired it in the porch light.
“It’s a friendship bracelet,” Lyn explained. Would it be all right for him to be the one who helped Brad put it on? Would it be all right to get closer?
Brad guffawed and shook his head. “Sometimes, Lyn, you act like a girl who’s still in sixth grade.”
“You don’t like it?” Lyn had no idea what to say. If Brad gave him his gift back, he wouldn’t know—
“I do.” Brad pushed his sleeve up and wrapped the leather band around his wrist, skillfully fastening it without needing any help. “See? It looks like I’m your friend.” He shook his wrist in front of Lyn. “Hey, did you get one for Alexander, too? If that prick finds out you only gave something like this to me, he’ll go into a serious funk. He’ll look at us like he wants to murder us in our sleep until college ends.”
“I did,” Lyn confirmed. At first, he had considered not doing so, but Alexander had invited him over, too, and as strange as their trio was, they were supposed to be friends. All three of them.
“Good.” Brad ruffled Lyn’s hair and brushed his knuckles against his frozen nose. “Let’s go back inside. You wouldn’t know it, but I’m the king of games in my family.”
Brad hurried back inside without checking to see if Lyn followed him.
Was this closeness what he truly wanted? Obviously, Brad was aloof, blind, as Alexander said, and Lyn worried that he had already given himself away too much.
It was better to have this than nothing at all, he decided as he started walking. Friendship was enough.
***
After the Fosters’ home, where chaos and goodwill reigned, Lyn had a hard time adjusting to the quiet that ruled Alexander’s house. It looked like Brad hadn’t been talking out of his ass, Lyn thought as he took in the high ceilings adorned with frescoes in muted colors. Although his mom’s special friends sometimes took him along on short trips to expensive locations, and yes, sometimes, even their homes, Lyn couldn’t say he had seen anything like this in his life to date.
To match the mood of the house, Lyn was mute before the grandiosity of the place. Old money was an understatement when it came to describing where Alexander lived.
His friend had given him the address and paid in advance for his taxi fare, so Lyn had come here alone. Even after their brief exchange of greetings, Alexander hadn’t said much, and now, witnessing the scene happening in front of him, he understood why.
Alexander was the third of his name in his family, and right now, he was engaged in a battle of wills of the most peculiar kind.
The old man in the wheelchair had to be the grandparent. Lyn hadn’t seen anyone else, except for a butler who moved around like a shadow, so Alexander’s parents could very well be travelling. Was it possible that Alexander had chosen to give up a trip to an expensive ski resort in favor of keeping Lyn company?
The moment he noticed Alexander quickening his steps to meet his grandfather, Lyn chose to hang back, lingering in the hallway, half-concealed by a heavy door.
“So, this is the stray you’ve taken in?” the older Montgomery gentleman asked, without sparing Lyn a glance.
Alexander didn’t appear to lose his cool. He was as impassive as ever, wearing the same half-smile he reserved for those times when he knew his arguments were unbeatable and his opponent would, most likely, experience the taste of defeat in the most humiliating – in an intellectual way – fashion.
“I believe hospitality is still one of our family’s greatest virtues,” he countered politely. His tone, however, was slightly amused, making Lyn worry that the old man would not hesitate to put his grandson in his place.
“Hospitality, yes,” Alexander’s grandfather agreed. “Charity, however, must be doled out with proper restraint.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t be a Montgomery otherwise.”
The old man turned his wheelchair and moved away, without acknowledging Lyn at all. To him, it seemed his grandson’s guest was as good as invisible.
Lyn took another step back. His chest was suddenly tight. How could Alexander be so cold and collected in front of someone who obviously reigned with a hand of steel over the house?
“Let’s get you to your room,” Alexander said, turning brusquely toward him.
There had to be something easy to read on his face, because Alexander’s eyebrows shot up in amusement.
“I so put him in his place. How cool was that, right?” he asked, the broad smile on his lips making him look like a goofball.
Lyn snorted, shaking off the spell under which he seemed to be throughout that strange exchange. “What exactly was so cool?” he asked smoothly. “That your grandfather sees me as a dog? Or that he believes I’m homeless?”
Alexander laughed, taking Lyn by surprise. It was a loud, unguarded laugh that didn’t match the large fireplace burning quietly, nor the heavy curtains preventing the world outside from touching this pristine and emotionally-starved environment.
Brad was right. Alexander could laugh. And Lyn just had an idea.
“Do you have money?” he asked Alexander out of the blue.
“What? Do I have to take you to the vault to convince you?” Alexander said, waving with a flourish, pointing around at the expensive… well, everything.
Lyn didn’t drop his luggage but took several large steps toward Alexander and grabbed his hand. “No, I mean, like on you. Let’s run away,” he proposed. “Let’s go somewhere fun.”
“Okay,” Alexander said slowly, but Lyn could tell by the glint in his eyes that his strange friend liked the idea. “Let me grab my wallet, since I must provide. And, of course, my coat. I wouldn’t want to freeze to death only because you feel a tad impulsive.”
Lyn grinned. He wouldn’t leave even a cold fish like Alexander to rot away in this bleak house over winter break.
***
There was no better smell in the world, Lyn thought, as they entered the antiquarian bookshop. Old leather, old paper, the glue from the bindings, all of that created the best scent Lyn had ever smelled in his life. Sure, he studied because he was ambitious and wanted to go far in life, but he loved studying. He loved knowing things.
The pleasant old lady behind the counter invited them to browse through her wares, looking completely unworried that they might try to steal something. The philosophy tomes on a nearby shelf were all he wanted to see. Alexander disappeared into a different section of the shop, most likely hunting old texts about how witchcraft and medicine stemmed from the same curiosity and desire to torture the human body and sometimes cure it.
He smirked as he read through the text in front of him. Alexander was just returning with an antique reprint of the actual Gray’s Anatomy in his hand.
“Listen here,” Lyn said, “this guy who lived like two centuries ago thought that precedent shouldn’t matter when establishing the outcome of a lawsuit. He advocated for moral principles to be used instead.”
“How wonderfully naïve,” Alexander commented while leafing through his Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical. “Humans can’t agree on morality. Courts of law everywhere would descend into chaos if we were to listen to your overly optimistic new friend. Would you like that?”
Lyn hugged his find to his chest. “There’s not one bit of poetry in you. I think the ideal is for humankind to strive to become better, kinder.”
“That hardly works when we deal with practical application. Humankind needs rules.” Alexander had the nerve to brush his knuckles against Lyn’s nose, as if their serious debate allowed for such playful foolishness.
***
Lyn left the store first, leaving Alexander behind to pay for his book. He couldn’t afford any of the wonderful things inside, but he could still feel joy while perusing them.
Alexander patted him on the back and pushed a nice package against his chest. The old lady in charge really knew how to pack a gift. “It’s your idealistic friend. You should have it.” Gray’s Anatomy, or at least a package containing it, was nowhere in sight.
Lyn shook his head. “No, I’m good,” he said, pushing his hands deeper into the pockets of his coat.
“It’s a gift, Lynton. You should learn to accept it.”
“No, I can’t.” He shook his head, while avoiding Alexander’s eyes. “It’s too expensive. You’ll think I dragged you here to get something out of you.”
“I don’t think that. Don’t be presumptuous. What I think is my own business. And I’m telling you to accept this gift from me.”
Lyn still hesitated, but now he felt ridiculous insisting on not taking it. A glance at Alexander told him that his friend felt hurt – in his particular detached way – to be told no like this.
“I got you something, too,” he blurted out.
Alexander’s face, all a frown until that moment, broke into a smile. “What is it?”
Lyn felt like an asshole. “It’s not much, definitely not on par with--”
Alexander came dangerously close. “What is it, Lynton? Hand it over and stop babbling.”
He had no choice but to obey. Alexander pushed the packaged book under his arm and waited impatiently. Lyn produced the twin gift of the bracelet he’d offered Brad. “Ta-da,” he said, forcing a grin. “It’s a friendship bracelet. I know, it’s silly, it’s--”
“Put it on me,” Alexander order imperiously, holding out his arm.
Lyn wrapped the leather band around Alexander’s wrist. Without realizing it, he felt the fine bones and admired his friend’s pale skin. His fingers lingered, searching for something he wouldn’t name, as he fastened the bracelet.
“Were you checking if I have a pulse?” Alexander joked.
Lyn looked up. The first snowflakes of the year on this side of the universe were getting in his eyes. “It couldn’t hurt to see for myself. Sometimes, I do wonder if you’re human. Can I treat you to some hot chocolate? Then we can return to that tomb you call home.”
“Certainly. Thank you, Lynton.”
“It’s just a cup of hot chocolate,” Lyn replied, trying to conceal his earlier embarrassment. “And a small gift, no biggie.”
“No, I wasn’t talking about that.”
“Then what were you talking about?”
“I’m not going to tell you. You’re too entertaining by being so dense to ruin it by telling it to you straight.”
“Fine, whatever,” Lyn grunted and grabbed Alexander’s arm, hurrying across the street.
Alexander laughed, following him closely. Lyn couldn’t help thinking that he’d remember this day even after many years had gone by.
TBC
Author's note: Thanks for reading!
@Derek - their relationship - the trio - is quite complex. They all care for each other, but this caring has various faces, not all identical. About This Strange World Needs a Kicking, I stopped publishing it here, as I felt it didn't meet the right audience (I suffer from the syndrome of feeling weird when there's no feedback, like singing in an empty room, as I might have mentioned before). The story is finished, but I don't want to link to another similar website here, so please just google my name and you'll find it :)
@DavidB - and to the next reveal and the next :D That's how this story is thought out.
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