Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 17:07:27 -0500 From: Karla Schulz Subject: Carrots and Celery Part Two chapter 20 Waiting in line at movie theatres has always been an interesting experience for Jonas and Kyle. What will it bring them this time??? --- Boxing Day is supposed to be all about like shopping or whatever, but since we're not really the shopping kind of gay people and we still want to do something, me, Celery, Jonas, and Kyle all take the Le Baron for a spin that eventually lands us in Kildonan Place, at the end of a ridiculously long line waiting to see Two Towers. This of course leads to me telling Cel about that other time I went to the movies with Jonas and Kyle, and then there's much laughing at their expense. They don't seem to mind though. Too busy holding hands and scoping out girls. Let's not even go into how weird that is. "Hot! That girl is HOT!" Kyle suddenly gasps. "Which one?" Jonas asks keenly. He follows Kyle's finger and drooling look in the direction of the allegedly hot girl. Jonas's face turns a million different shades of uncomfortable. He drops Kyle's hand. "What?" Kyle asks, alarmed. After all, it's something they do all the time. I have no idea why, but they like to check out girls together. It's totally weird, but, you know, that should come as no surprise. "Nothing," Jonas says quickly, clearly lying. "Dude, tell me," Kyle begs softly. Jonas bites his lip and shakes his head. "Don't worry about it." "I don't like, I mean, you know you're--" Jonas smiles. "I totally know. Really, don't worry about it." That's when I notice the girl is looking at us, and like squinting. By the time I turn to ask Jonas if he like knows the chick or whatever, she's started walking towards us. Noticing, Jonas looks like he wants to die. "Ben!" she gushes, waving. Celery, Kyle and I share a puzzled look. Ben? "Uh, hi Erica." "What are you doing here?" Jonas slash Ben question mark shrugs. "Going to see a movie," she rolls her eyes, with a small grin. "I meant the city, fool." There's no describing how uncomfortable Jonas looks. "I live here now." "You told everyone you were moving to Lethbridge." "Well, plans like change," I notice he's still keeping his distance from Kyle. "We've all wanted to call you or write or something, but when you never really sent anything back... I guess I finally understand why." She's starting to sound hurt and angry. "I'm sorry, I meant to like let you guys know, its just... I've been busy." She gives the three of us the evil eye. "With these people?" Okay. So it was possible for Jonas to look even more uncomfortable. Go figure. "Yeah, Erica, these are my droogs - Carrots, Celery, and Kyle." She sort of scrunches her eyebrows at our names. "Carrots and Celery?" We smile. "Yeah, it's weird, we know, but we're used to them," she shrugs. "It's um, strange and nice to meet you?" Now she's sounding a little more like someone I can understand Jonas hanging out with. "You too," Celery says. I'm pretty sure it's all with the strange and none of the nice as far as Kyle's concerned. "And you're Kyle?" He nods. "Yeah." "How'd you guys all meet Ben?" Again with that Ben crap. "He goes to our school but--" "Ben's my first name," Jonas explains quickly before I can even get that far. I nod. "Ah," Erica smiles, all confused. "What did you think his name was?" "Well, since it's what he TOLD us, we sorta thought it was Jonas." Very nice, Kyle. You too can be a major bitch to the females from your boyfriend's past. "You go by Jonas now?" she asks him. He shrugs. "Yeah." She straightens up a bit, "Look, can we talk for a minute? You know, privately?" She's looking nervous and hopeful, but Kyle's frown is basically gluing Jonas to the spot. "Uh, we're like, in line for the movie and everything, this really isn't a good time." "When would be a good time?" You have to admit, he walked right into that one. Jonas visibly winces. "Um... I don't really know, like I said, I'm really busy," she sighs. "Can I at least give you my phone number where I'm staying with my aunt?" His eyes dart nervously towards Kyle, but he's sort of turned to stone. Looking fairly miserable, Jonas nods. "Okay, sure, I guess." She writes it down quickly, using the paper and pen she whipped out from her purse. Then she lets out a like `well I guess that' s it then' sigh. I think she's finally picking up on the really not wanted vibe. "Look, it was really nice to see you again, um, Jonas." She takes his hand for a brief second, and looks soulfully into his eyes. "I missed you a lot this year. I've always been sorry for the way things ended between us and, there have been lots of things I've wished I could say. But I guess now's no better a time than it ever was. You'll call me though, right?" She doesn't wait for Jonas to react, already moving back. She takes another step away, turns, and then turns back, smiling sadly, "Merry Christmas." "You too," Jonas says weakly as she walks off. It takes him a few seconds to muster the courage to face Kyle. "I..." "Later." Kyle says shortly. "I'm going to need a few minutes," Jonas's face is extremely pained, but he gets it. "Okay." We see the movie, but not even me and Celery had much luck paying attention to it, and I'm thinking the chances of Jonas and Kyle retaining it any better are slim. It's all with the palpable tension the whole way home. Suddenly, just as we pull into the driveway, Jonas starts to cry. Big, gulping sobs that wrack his whole body. It doesn't even take Kyle a second to get a horrified, panicked look on his face, and he tries to hold the shaking body of Jonas in his arms. Not an especially comfortable thing to do in the front seat of a car. "Please stop crying, Jonas," he pleads. "You're breaking my heart here," shockingly, this only makes Jonas cry harder. Yes of course that was sarcasm! Really. "Jonas, goldie, please. I'm sorry. I really love you, Jonas, I'm sorry for being stupid," Kyle's pretty much crying himself. Despite Kyle's best attempts, there doesn't seem to be any calming Jonas down, so eventually we all get out of the car and like half carry, half drag him into the house with us. Everyone else is out somewhere doing the crazy Boxing Day thing. His crying stops after about five more minutes, but it takes another 10 before Jonas starts talking. "I'm sorry, Kyle," are the first words out of his mouth. "No! No, I was the one," Kyle protests quickly. "I should have told you about her, and I definitely should have told her about us," he sighs. "Kyle, Erica was like, I don't know, my first love, I guess you could call her. We were best friends in junior high, well, since before that, we met in grade six. She was such a cool girl to hang out with, more mature than the other guys my age, but not stupid like most of the other girls seemed to be. She didn't care about stuff like dolls and make-up. She liked the same stuff as me and we had like the same sense of humour. We didn't start dating technically until grade nine 'cause my parents wouldn't let me until then. We were SO young, but totally convinced we were in love. Maybe we were. Anyway, we shared everything. She," he closes his eyes, stopping for a minute. "She was like my first, you know? My first and only until you," he shakes his head. "Everything was always fine, but then near the end of grade 10 it all started going to fall apart. We fought about everything, and even when we were like, at our closest, nothing was the same. I guess we just like grew apart without knowing it or whatever. By the time I found out we were moving, we weren't even talking. I was drifting away from everybody, 'cause I felt like they were HER friends, not mine, so I guess I was happy about the move. School was kind of lame here too until I started lunching with you guys," he nods at me and Cel, but then goes back to looking at Kyle. "Maybe you didn't want to know all this, or you don't think I needed to tell you, but I did. I feel like I've been lying and I don't want to be like that anymore. Kyle, I love you completely, but I still get afraid, and this is sort of why. Me and Erica were close too, and I thought I loved her... I guess I'm just like, afraid we'll end up the same way." "There're no guarantees in life, Jonas," Kyle says sadly, with a shrug. Jonas eyes me and Celery. Kyle actually cracks a half smile. "But I love you too, and I don't expect to stop. I don't believe I ever will in fact. I get why you'd be worried, but maybe you can learn from your past and then escape the whole doomed to repeat it thing. I'm not that Erica chick. I plan to hold onto you freakishly tight, I'm never gonna let you go. Okay?" Jonas makes like what you could stretch into calling a nod, and Kyle pulls him close. "Who feels like a voyeur," I whisper to Celery. He smiles. "Let's go." They don't even notice. "That was weird," I pronounce once we're upstairs. Celery shrugs. "Yeah, I guess." "Whadda ya mean, you guess? Did you know something about this?" Celery gets a guilty look, causing my eyes to widen in my disbelief. "You DID! He told you?" Celery shakes his head. "Not exactly," he sits down on the bed. I'm weirded, but I still go to him and nestle myself under his arm. "Mostly I put some stuff together on my own and as it turns out, I was right." "What kind of stuff?" "Well, from the way he shied away from Sam even though it was clear he really liked her, I figured there had to be some relationship in his past that was making him wary. Also, he'd watch us sometimes, the way we are together, and he'd get this haunted look on his face. I never for a second believed that line he always gave us about never being in love before," I shake my head. "You're like, very scary sometimes, sweet one. And I do mean brilliant, but I definitely also mean scary," he grins slyly at the memory. "So you've told me." "Cel, if you just figured it out, what was with the guilty look before?" He shrugs with the shoulder not attached to the arm holding me. "I still should have told you," I roll my eyes. "You don't always have to fill me in on the details I'm too clueless to see for myself, besides you probably weren't sure you were right and didn't want to spread all this private stuff about Jonas either way." "You're really way too easy on me," he says with a smile. I lean back, indicating I want him to lie down, which he does. I turn a bit so I've got a nice pillow in the form of his chest, curled up along the side of him. "We're too easy on each other, but we're too far gone to start worrying about that seriously now. Just enjoy it," he sighs peacefully. "I am." We lie like that for maybe an hour or two. At one point, we hear Kyle and Jonas thundering up the stairs mad dash style, and then the slam of Kyle' s door. Celery chuckles. I raise an eyebrow. "What?" His smile grows. "Well, what do you think they're going to do in there?" I'm puzzled. Celery makes an `oh come on' face. I still don't know what he's talking about. "What?" I repeat. Celery clears his throat. "Think about it, baby. They just like, went through something, now they're into like, making up territory. What could they possibly be doing that they'd want the door shut and locked for?" OH! Oh gross! Gauh! "Yucky!" I sputter, face contorted by the horror of it all. Celery laughs. "Baby! Like, what's your problem? Surely it's occurred to you that Jonas and Kyle have sex," you never want to hear your brother's name and sex in the same sentence! Like, NEVER! I let Celery know it with my face alone. He just laughs more. "You're such a prune," I glare. "It's horrible and gross," he smiles. "Does that mean you're swearing to celibacy?" He finally gets a smile out of me. "No," I mutter through my reluctant smirk. He kisses me on the neck. "Well good, 'cause as we both know, I can't get enough of you," I run my fingers down his abdomen, resting at the top button of his jeans. "Hey," he protests. "I thought you were sore," I eye him mischievously. "Ready to try something new?" When he gets my point, Celery's eyes almost pop out. A second later, he's actually considering it. Finally, after about a minute, he grins shyly. "Go for it, baby" After (What's all the whining about? I thought we already established I'm not going to describe it to you?) Celery's total putty in my hands. For once, it's HIM curled up against me, being the submissive one. "Why didn't we do that months ago?" he murmurs dreamily into my chest. I smile, among a million other mostly indescribable emotions, extremely proud of myself. I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it as good for him as he always does for me. "I didn't think you'd let me," I admit. The putty thing stops abruptly. Wrong time for admissions, I guess. "You didn't think I would LET you?" he demands, tearing himself away from me, that lovely half angry, half ready to cry combo, eyes all grey. I hang my head. "Carrots?" I sigh. "Maybe let was the wrong word. I just didn't think you wanted it." Slowly the grey recedes slightly, but he doesn't exactly return docily onto my chest. "You thought I wouldn't let you?" "Cel," I sigh. "No," he says with a shake of his head. "That's what you really thought?" I sigh again. "Not just that. Lots of things. One of the most important being it was never really something I found myself wanting. I haven't exactly been unsatisfied, you know?" He gives up a grudging half smile. "The FEW times I thought about it, the combination of me not being sure you wanted it and me not being sure I wanted it always added up to me not thinking about it long." "So why did you suddenly bring it up now?" He's really just curious, not accusing or upset anymore. I've finally got him back lying close to me. We're facing each other now. I reach out and start playing with his hair. It's longer now, so thick and soft. Mine's longer too. It's as straight as ever, even if it is down to my chin in some parts. It's kind of like a round shaggy mop, almost beatle-ish, but longer than that. I think Celery likes it though. He's been playing with it a lot. "You asked me a question awhile ago, didn't you?" I ask lazily after a handful of minutes have passed. He smiles. "Yeah." "What was it?" "Um, why did you suddenly decide to give it a try now after always deciding against it before?" Oh right. Now I remember why I put that off. I blush. He grins. "What?" I smile sheepishly. "Well, basically it was because I was really horny and I knew I couldn't have you the one way, so I had to go about it another way." He laughs. "Not so much of a prune after all maybe," I kiss his cheek. "Not when it comes to you anyway." We have to leave the bed eventually to do the foraging for food thing, and we find Kyle and Jonas already in the kitchen doing the same. We all share sort of half-delirious smiles. "Everything okay?" I ask them. They race each other to see who can grin the biggest fastest. "Definitely," Kyle affirms, roping Jonas in close. "Good," I take my head back out of the fridge. "Isn't there anything to eat?" Celery rolls his eyes. I shrug. "What?" He sighs. "Baby, the house is like BURSTING with food." "Find me something then if you're so smart," I challenge poutily. It takes him like five seconds to shove a pre-prepared plate of Christmas leftovers into my hand. I guess I missed those. "Thanks," I mutter. He shakes his head in that exaggerated `why me' kind of way. Jonas and Kyle smirk and smile. Dude! That rhymes. Weird. "So Jonas, are you going to call Erica?" I ask. Jonas nods. "Yes," Kyle goes rigid, and since he's got his arms around Jonas, it's something he picks up on right away. "I have to, Kyle," he says, twisting to look at him. "I have to tell her the truth about me - about us. I have to tell her the things I was too proud, stubborn, angry and okay, chicken, to last time. I owe it to her and I definitely owe it to myself. Please let me do this," Kyle sighs. "If you really think you need to." "I do," Jonas states firmly. "Then I'll like support you or whatever," Kyle says, shrugging slightly. Jonas smiles. "Thank-you," Kyle kisses his shoulder. "You're welcome." "I've been waiting for this," Celery announces gleefully. Everyone turns to look at him in the very confused `huh' way. "What?" I ask. He grins. "Making fun of Jonas and Kyle for being all cheesy and in love they way they always did us," I feel the start of my own evil grin, and we turn on Jonas and Kyle together. "We surrender!" Kyle yields in advance. "Oh come on, we could take them!" Jonas scoffs. Kyle sighs. "So, it's open season then?" We all grin at him. Now the holiday truly has begun. It's all about getting gibes in whenever you can, catching every one of the other couple's moony looks, every spacing out while staring into each other's eyes, every sincere but totally cheesy line. It' s about cheesy puns and bad jokes. Basically, it's all about crazy lame fun. When family starts gradually retaking the house, they all turn on us and me, Cel, Jonas, and Kyle have to band together against the assault, but that just makes it all even more fun. It' s so cool to have a family so supportive they can be totally evil to you and you get that it's all a joke. I really am a lucky bastard. And humble! Come on. --- Edited by Ed