Date: Sun, 02 Feb 2003 11:25:26 -0600 From: Karla Schulz Subject: Carrots and Celery Chapter Nine Yes it's that time again. Another chapter of C&C. Which you will now read, and possibly enjoy. After reading (and possibly enjoying) you may feel like sending me an e-mail. Which would be cool of you. Much gratitude and love as always to Nick "the mind" Whatever for being such a good editor and pal. Now read! Waking up the next morning, we smile at each other in what can be described in no other way but shyly. It's been a long time since I've felt shyness around Celery, if I ever have. Last night after the lust fest, we just curled up and went to sleep. Or you know, lay there, trying to fall asleep, willing ourselves to cool down. "Hi," He says, keeping up with the shy theme. "Hi back," "Are you, uh," "I'm fine. Great. Fantastic. Really," He smiles for real. "Good." "You?" "I'm the same." "Good." We kiss, almost carefully at first, but that doesn't last. During the span of our kiss any lingering shyness is put to rest and we go back to being normal with each other. That's normal for us, which I believe would be certifiable for the rest of you. "Let's go out today," Celery says over breakfast. "Huh? Out?" "Yeah, like and about?" "Uh, okay," "I had a killer session last night, and I'd really like to get out there and do some more skating, if you're cool with that, that is," "Sure I am," I'm not about to risk letting him go by himself again thank you very much. And another thing, as genuine as I'm sure his desire to skate is, I'm every bit as sure that's not the only reason Cel wants us out of the house. I'm thinking if we stayed in and watched movies and shit like normal, it'd end up being a succession of 'we should stops' and heavy breathing. "Cool," As it is, we end up sweaty and on the street kissing each other as opposed to comfortable and in the house kissing each other. It's fun though, and great to get outside on such an awesomely weathered day. Sunny, but not hot, perfect skating conditions. A little cool is good for skating cause you get way too hot otherwise. Celery will skate until snow falls, no matter how cold it gets. I'm less fanatical (and yeah, less talented) but my love is there. Slowly cruising back home around lunch (who knows the time, we're just hungry) Celery suggests we go see something in the theatre. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" "Why wouldn't it be?" Um, maybe because we don't want to end up making out in the theatre like the, well, hormone crazed teenagers we are. "I'll give you a minute to think about it, and then get back to me," I say, smiling a little. "Ah," He says eventually. "Gotcha." "Another time perhaps," He laughs. "Oh yeah, sure." We grab food and drinks from the kitchen and crash on the living room floor. "I'm so out of shape," I complain, feeling my legs starting to cramp up. Celery immediately begins massaging, but it's one of the least sexual experiences of the day. For one thing, I'm in pain, and for another, he knows it, and is only thinking of making me feel better. "I don't understand how you do it. Aren't you even the tiniest bit sore?" I demand. He smiles. "Well yeah, sure I am. Just, I'm more used to it and also," "Less of a baby?" "That's not what I was going to say," "No, but maybe it's what you should say." "You're NOT a baby, or a wimp, or whatever. You just don't skate as much as me," "I don't really do anything as much as you." "What about all the work you're putting into the yearbook? And the rest of the year it's the school paper, or student council, or something else. You get some of the best marks in our grade, you're an amazing brother and friend--" "Whoa! Don't go so rantastic. I'm not having a crisis, I was just joking around." "Joke about something else," I kiss him. "I have mentioned you're unbelievably sweet, haven't I?" "Yeah," he says, smiling. "Once or twice." "Never were truer words spoken." As we're lounging in the living room that evening after The Dark Corner, trying to keep up a conversation so we'll be talking and not necking, I take the opportunity to apologise for the crappiness of the second week of our relationship and the first week of our engagement. Then, master seguer that I am, I say, "and speaking of engagement..." He raises his eyebrows. "Yeah?" "What do you want to do about it?" "Do?" "Well yeah, I mean, do you want to have a ceremony and if so when and also if so who do you want to come and all that sort of thing," His brow goes all wrinkly, and his lips purse. "I never really thought about all that to be honest. I just sort of got as far as the asking part and then figured, well-" "That I'd decide the rest?" He ducks his head and smiles sheepishly. "Maybe." I sigh, but am smiling. "So okay, you didn't think about it. Think about it now, do you think you might want for us to have an actual ceremony, keeping in mind nothing would be legal," "Who cares about legal? I care about us, me and you. What we feel for each other, not what a bunch of old dudes have decided constitutes love." This is a definite WOW moment. "So is that a yes or a no to ceremony?" I ask, after giving him a 'you're amazing' kiss. "It's a..." "Do you want to have a ceremony?" I ask, going for the direct approach to hopefully eliminate rambling. He looks at me, and I know he does. It's all over his face, mostly in his eyes. Whether he'll admit it or not, Celery's got this planned in his mind. There is a ceremony, and cake and flowers, and I'm pretty sure, us walking down an aisle. "If you do," He says, shrugging unconvincingly. Don't you hate it when people say that? They just completely take themselves out of the realm of responsibility. Grrr. On the bright side, at least we escaped that whole, 'What do you think we should do?' 'I don't know, what do YOU think we should do?' quagmire. "I think it would be nice, as long as we keep it small," like VERY small, "and simple." Like VERY simple. He smiles. "Nothing complicated, just us declaring it to the world, the uh, small world." So that's it. He knows it's official for us, he just wants to make sure everybody else knows it too. I can understand that, I can even be right there with him wanting the same thing. "Okay, so ceremony check yes, when check...?" "Later, I mean, whenever it's the right time." "So we leave it as later for now?" "There's no rush," I smile. "We only have the rest of our lives, after all." Then, since we were really good and did the talking thing for such a long time, we indulge in some lip action. Sunday morning comes and goes, and I'm back into the throes of yearbook completion. Without having much time to process what's happening, my days turn almost completely Celeryless and it's work, work, eat, work, sleep. Thursday night at 10:30, and I'm still up to my neck in work. Everyone else has already quit for the day - even the crazily hardcore Jordyn, but she's studying for her piano exam. So that leaves this one here with 2 hours of work ahead before I can even think about going home myself. I'm leafing through piles of photos, hunched over one of the tables stacked with them, trying to find the best one out this assembly when the Lieutenant Governor visited the school, when I hear a cough and jerk my head up. I don't think it's ever happened before that Celery's walked into a room without my becoming instantly aware of it. (Unless of course he intended for me not to notice, but I don't think now is one of those times). "Hey," I say, realizing it's the first thing I've spoken to him outside a crowded classroom in 3 days. "Hey," He replies. We stare at each other for awhile before I finally notice what I failed to when he did the throat clearing thing. Celery's got a dab of something on his nose. It takes me awhile, but I understand. In the really early Buffy years, Willow was doing the unrequited with Xander and one time they were chilling outside, maybe enjoying some vampire slayage, and amidst some sort of adolescent goofing around Xander got ice cream on her nose. While he was leaning in to get it off, there was one of those almost kiss TV moments. Then stupid Buffy arrived and mucked everything up, but that's beside the point. Later that same show when Will was feeling the snub, she dipped her nose hoping he'd notice her again and do the same thing. It sort of sounds pathetic, but the way Willow did it, it was just really, really cute. Anyway, long story less than short, this is Celery wanting me to notice him. I'm sure it's not a guilt thing, he probably just couldn't stand being apart for so long. I'm not saying that because I have the biggest ego on the planet, I'm saying it because I know for myself that I've been miserable and insane missing him every time I have a few free seconds to think for myself and even sometimes when I don't. If it's this tough for me, being so busy, then it has to be even worse for Cel because he doesn't have something taking up all his time keeping his mind mostly occupied like I do. I look at him for a couple seconds longer before I walk over and lick what turns out to actually be ice cream off his nose. You've gotta respect his attention to detail. Then I kiss him and wrap him in my arms. "Miss me?" I ask, feeling him pushing himself into me. He starts kissing my neck instead of responding. Yearbook deadlines vanish from my mind and we have our wicked way with each other for almost 20 minutes before I have to pull away gasping. I have to walk home in these pants after all. We both have to lean up against the table while we catch our breath. "Do you still have a lot of work to do?" Celery asks once he has. I nod. "Can I help?" I smile. His presence will probably be more of a hindrance than a help for no other reason than that I'll have to restrain myself from jumping him every 5 seconds, but I want (NEED) him to stay anyway. "Sure," I grab a handful of envelopes filled with photos and give them to him. "Could you check these for red eye?" He nods. "Great. When you're done that you can help me out tons by reading over the captions for the junior high section, you know, looking for typos and stuff - also, feel free to keep an eye out for lameness, that's a big problem for captions." It's not work I've made up for him to do, just something I've done already once and was planning to skim through once more. It's actually very helpful of him to do it for me. Celery's help, balancing off with the time we end up taking off for 'breaks', gets me out of school at about the same time I expected, but the time went by a lot quicker and more pleasurably than it would have if I'd remained solo. We walk home together holding hands even though in my head I'm thinking, 'this just screams gay bashing'. Charmed life that I lead, we get home in one piece. When I say WE I mean as in I coaxed Celery into staying the night. He'd protested. All the regulars and that I needed my sleep, but I begged and begged the whole way home until he finally gave in. In addition to just wanting to shut me up, weakened by the length of our time apart and his desire not to get another taste of that any sooner than absolutely necessary. The rest of the yearbook cram period passes and we snag a few make-out minutes here and there, the occasional throaty I love you, but never really have enough time to get carried away. In an almost impossibly tragic turn of events, on Tuesday night we end up celebrating my freedom by taking Cherrie and Meghan out on a date. You look at sympathetically me and say 'that's rough' but you really have NO idea. It's the wrongness that really gets to me. What should we be doing? Talking, laughing, that other fun stuff we've been doing a lot of lately, but no! Instead, we get to take the supreme bitches of the world on a date. Feel the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful pain. Here's the goodness. One main goodness for you is that I'm not going to put you through the misery of experiencing the date in full, I'm just going to recap. So that's goodness one. Now here's the rest. They totally fell for it. The 'we don't want to be gay, save us hot girls!' ruse. Then, the date was a success, albeit a very painful one. Mostly, like we were ourselves and for a really long time they were their fake selves, but then they started getting really fed up. It was a thing of beauty. For just that part of the date, I really wish you coulda been there. There was the goodness, but there's also some further tragicness. They were frustrated, they were annoyed, they for sure added us to their Top 10 Least Favourite People Ever lists, but they didn't give up. They said because this was such a good CAUSE, they would be willing to go on one more date with us, but then we were on our own. Talk about being torn. 'On our own' equals dancing. 'One more date' equals weeping, and swearing, and wall punching. In the end, because it's more fun, we choose dancing. Well, not real dancing of course, more like grinning and mental dancing. Walking home arm in arm (safe distance away from Cherrie and Meghan) I say to Celery, "This has been a really trying time and you've been such a champ, let's stay close - have lunch." "I'd like that." We grin. This time, its Buffy. I'd love to explain it all to you, but just assume it's from something really hilarious, laugh, and leave it at that. Much further down our little trek, Celery says, "You know, it really wasn't so--" "It was awful." I state firmly before he has a chance to finish. He has to nod. "And we have to do it again," "I know, but we'll make it." "Another day at school too. I was really looking forward to kissing your neck while you got stuff out of your locker," I smile. "That's very sweet, but you're just going to have to wait another day. Then I'm sure the neck kissing will be able to recommence." "We are sure that after one more date they're not going to be mad when we just start being totally gay again right?" I squeeze his hand. "We're sure that after one more date they're not going to care about us one way or another. I predict we drop off their radar screens completely and by the time they're looking at our pictures in that amazing yearbook I just finished they won't even fully remember who we are." "Speaking of yearbook can we celebrate now?" We're at my house. I grin. "I think it's about time." --- The most beautiful thing happens on our second date with Cherrie and Meghan - they ditch us! Seriously. We're at the movies, less than half way through the date when they turn to us, say 'we can't help you' and then run off with some guys from the football team that they saw in line! This time, we dance for real, once we're on the street, in the dark, where nobody can see. But still, we dance. And then we kiss, and kiss, and eventually get home. Celery won't stay the night, but due to the earliness of their ditching, we have plenty of time to talk (for real this time) and really get on with making up for the various variety's of lost time. It's Thursday morning, and Celery's eating my breakfast. He just waltzed in a few minutes ago, sat down, and started eating my bagel. The nerve. Kyle (who for all his protests about our kissing still doesn't seem to be able to find any time to eat breakfast except the exact same time I always do) is too busy thinking it's hilarious to eat his own, so none of the Vasskez sons are getting any food in these parts. "Excited for your first day back in the love?" Kyle asks once he's done smirking at my expense. "Yeah," we both say at the same time in equally dreamy tones while staring at each other. I'd make fun of us. Kyle does. "Gotta go love," Celery says, tugging at my sleeve. "But I haven't eaten!" He smiles. "As if that was your first bagel," smart bastard. Basically admitting I've been bested I sigh and say, "Okay fine. Let's go." We leave to the sounds of Kyle laughing. All day we revel in each other and the return of our mutual freedom. Highlighted moments include when Mrs. Bartin tracks me down in the hall, NOT to drag me off to work, but to thank and praise me for all my hard work and commitment. Another day maker is when Cherrie and Meghan pass us in cafeteria without even looking our way. Jonas claps, and calls us his heroes. Brian and Alex also seem pleased. I even enjoy it when stupid Brendan (recently back from his fighting from suspension) tries to take both of us on on his own, which is a sure sign he's no longer a threat. At home that night, doing our homework, watching Buffy and going for a short skate session, pretty much getting back to our old routine, is like the best thing ever. I couldn't have been happier doing anything else. I honestly mean that. --- I have no decent or valid excuse as to why I haven't already done it, but I'm finally getting Celery a ring. I've had mine for ages now, and it's always been at the back of my mind that he needs one too, but there's been such a steady stream of stuff happening since our one week, I kept putting it off. Well, no more. So far I've just been cruising grocery stores and stuff, looking for something like what he got me, but no luck yet. I'm in the Forks at the moment. Gotta think. It doesn't necessarily have to be the same right, or even similar? Just as long as it's from the heart. So what would Celery want? Of all the things I could get him, what would he like best? Something that displays commitment and feeling for sure, but what? That, ladies and gentlemen, is the question. Maybe not a ring at all, a necklace or a token of some kind? But definitely something he can carry with him at all times. I've only known him practically my entire life, this really shouldn't be this difficult. Wait, I think I'm on to something. Yes! Success! This is perfect. Huh? Oh, right. What's perfect. Sorry. Well, it's this. A ring. Nothing really special about it, simple pattern that I think he'll like, metal that's maybe sterling silver, but it's what's etched on the inside. Must be the maker or something, but it's an entwined pair of C's. Absolutely perfect. I'm tempted to take him to dinner and mirror the whole thing, but end up going with the totally different. We're doing homework that Monday afternoon (I got the ring Sunday while he was skating, I pretended to be too tired to go along, sneaky guy that I am) and I ask him to reach something for me out of my backpack, where the ring and it's nice box are. He sweetly complies. "What's this?" He asks, holding up the box. I shrug. "I dunno." He rolls his eyes. "You could always open it and find out." He does, and immediately tears up. You know how they say real men don't cry? You should see Celery. Anyone who looks at him and doesn't think 'real man' is blind. But then, 'they' are usually wrong aren't they? Yeah. In my experience 'they' don't tend to know much. "Thank you." He whispers, putting it on. "You saw inside right?" I ask, nervous suddenly. He beams. "Yeah. Why do you think I'm crying?" I kiss him. "This means I get to keep you too right?" He laughs. "Yeah baby, that's what it means." "I love you." I say, shocking the world by switching right back into serious instead of joking around more. Sometimes, I do have the capacity to be serious. He kisses me tenderly. "And I'll always love you."