Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 17:01:43 -0600 From: Karla Schulz Subject: Carrots and Celery Interlude (chapter 2.5) Hello everyone. I see you've made it to chapter 2.5. Well done. Chapter 3 should be along shortly. I hope you're enjoying the story, and I thank you for reading it. As you may have discovered by now, it's a very happy tale. It's also relatively slow moving, but I hope you'll bear with me on that regard. It's going to end up being quite long, and there will of course be ups and downs, of varying degrees, but I'm a happy ending kind of girl (yes! I am a girl, for those of you who were wondering...) If you're hoping for a story with lots of sex and tragedy, this may not be the story for you. But for those of you who decide to stick around and keep reading I hope you do so because you like the characters, or the style, or that something about this little story has affected you in some way. Anyway, I still love e-mail, so please send me some (thanks again SO MUCH to everyone who has - you guys are the best!). Just before you get with the reading, I wish to send a extra special shoutout of thanks to Nick, who recently became my editor type guy extrodinare. Thanks dude, you're two cool (yes, that I did on purpose!) It's weird you know. I mean, hearing us talk, you'd think we didn't know each other at all. But we do. We're just both really good at hiding stuff from ourselves and not seeing what's right smack in front of our faces. It's one of the strange things we have in common. Among others are a passion (bordering on an obsession) for 80's movies, teen Sci Fi (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Roswell, Weird Science, My Secret Identity, Smallville, Dead Last) and loving each other. It's true we don't have many conventional things in common, but that's part of the reason we've stayed close all these years. There are other people Celery can play Volleyball and do Calculus with, but I'm the only one who will stay up all night watching a 'The Blob' Marathon with him on Space. I have other friends who will talk about world Politics with me or help me cause a little havoc and mayhem in the classroom to brighten everyone's day, but none of those friends traded me for their carrots when they were six years old and already in love with me. Anyway, to a lesser extent we do get involved in those aspects of each others separate lives. I go to his games, we'll shoot hoops together sometimes, we skate together, and Celery cares about the world, he has opinions and ideas. There's just less passion, except when we draw each other into our different worlds. It doesn't matter that we generally prefer to stay in the private one we share only with each other. --- Waking up, my first thought is how nice and warm I am, then I realise it's cause Celery's warm body is lying next to mine. The movements we made in our sleep have separated us, but he's still only inches away. He's still in bed with me, and I'm still allowed to touch him without pretence or under the guise of an extremely physical friendship. I laugh out loud, needing some sort of release for the joy building up inside me. I guess I was a little on the loud side because Celery rolls onto his side, smiling slightly, eyes open. I kiss his cheek. He lets out a massive sigh of relief. "Thank-god. It wasn't another dream." I kiss him again. "Nope." I'm quiet, enjoying just being able to look at him openly, but quickly realise I need to speak, seeing uncertainty flicker grey briefly in his eyes. "Didn't I promise I'd still respect you in the morning?" Out of relief as much as anything else, Celery laughs, snuggling close. "It wasn't just a one night stand after all?" We're being us again, letting ourselves be reassured by it. "I didn't say that -- I just said I'd still respect you," "I should get up and climb right back out from whence I came," "Is that why you never got undressed? Keeping yourself ready for a quick get away?" His eyes are merry enough, but I'm not sure Celery's heart's entirely into this. I push too far with the joking stuff sometimes. Being serious can be a problem for me and I'll often joke or be sarcastic instead of expressing how I really feel. I've been accused of being insensitive and not knowing when to drawn the line. I don't really care, except when it comes to Celery. "I also thought it would prevent you from ravishing me in the night," He says in high jest. "Celery?" "Yeah?" "I love you," "I know." He assures me softly. "Okay, cause I don't want you to be worried or anything. I was just kidding its not--" "Carrots, I know," with a smile. "Okay." "Lets make a pact eh?" Best friends always have pacts. We already have a couple. "What is it?" "We both swear to try to stop worrying so much." I grin. "That might be the first pact we both fail miserably at," He grins too. "I know, but let's at least try okay?" I kiss his nose. "Okay. Does this have to be a blood pact?" He laughs. "No Carrots, it does not have to be a blood pact," In his you-were-joking-but-I'm-going-to-pretend-to-take-you-seriously-voice. "I, Carrots Vasskez, do solemnly swear before all the best friend," "And boyfriend," "That's right, before all the best friend and boyfriend gods to try to stop worrying so much and relax, so I don't give myself an ulcer," He smiles, but you're not supposed to laugh during pact making. It's supposed to be solemn after all. "And I Celery Schnider, do solemnly swear before all the best friends and boyfriends gods that I will try to stop worrying so much so I don't act like a possessive loser or turn my best slash boyfriend into a dull dog," The new tradition of sealing pacts with kiss is formed. If Saturday's belong to Celery and myself alone, if it's the day where we are the most only each others, Sunday is the day Celery belongs to me the least. It's family time with a capital F. There's a Sunday brunch (I know, you seem to remember me saying something about being too cool for brunch, well you can just shut-up about it) and everyone in the family has to attend. Celery, as a long past accepted member of the inner family, is naturally welcome to chill with us and have a danish or two. Without further discussion we start getting dressed, we'd shower (hmmm, together?) except we kinda, sorta, slept in, so there really isn't time. Like always, once he's got everything else on Celery grabs his hat from where he dropped in on my desk and, gathering his hair back with his fingers, puts it on. I don't really know why he bothers doing that with the hair, it flips out just the same. It's cute to watch though, so you're not going to catch me saying anything about it. Celery leaves it until my hand is touching the doorknob before asking, "So do you think we should tell them about us?" I do a 180 and stare at him. I'm about to say, 'who are you, and what have you done with my shy and quiet best friend' when I observe that he's laughing at me. "That's real nice. I'm loving this special boyfriend treatment, you really know how to make a guy feel special," I grump. Still laughing quietly, he walks over and holds me firmly with those long, muscley arms. "We could though, couldn't we?" He ponders, trying to goad me further - I hope. "Give me a minute to catch my breath okay? Anyway, we might not have the option. Kyle might bust us the second he sees. I don't know about that guy. I'm starting to suspect he can read minds." Celery starts laughing again and I take the opportunity to escape his grasp. Nothing to do with objecting to being held, and having everything to do with the fact that we're late, I'm hungry, and I don't want my three brothers with three stomachs each to inhale all the food before we can get down there. When we arrive in the kitchen it turns out there was no need to worry. Kyle has yet to arrive and the twins are looking so tired I'm not even sure they're fully aware of where they are. Kara's an eleven-year-old girl. She eats half a bagel and she's full. It works great if you're going for the 'forest nymph' look, but it's not like she's anorexic or anything. She just eats tiny meals way more often. So what if it's strange, who said there was anything wrong with being strange? If you ask me, it's people who've deluded themselves into thinking they're 'normal' (as if there's really is such a thing anyway) who have problems. "Hello family," I say sitting down. Mom and dad cheerfully reply (this has been discussed, insanity remember? They're morning people) Kara smiles over her half eaten bagel and the twins look blearily at me for a second before returning to their previous activity of staring dully at their plates. "Can I safely assume asking them what their problem is would be a waste to time?" I ask my mother, waving at the twins. "Huh?" They say in unison. I nod. "That answers my question. Mom?" "I think they were up late having some video game contest or another," I shake my head. "Why is it that I've never been able to understand the attraction of those things?" Celery pats my shoulder. "It's because you suck," "Oh that's right! I remember now," We all eat quietly for awhile. "I didn't realise you slept over last night," My mom suddenly says to Celery, even though she's looking at me. It's not like I'm in trouble exactly, she just wants an explanation. I shrug. "Sleep wasn't working out at his house," I know she won't push for details. We've got our systems of silence and understanding worked out just fine. I've worked for years being a good little boy, and it's earned me the trust and respect of my parents. They know what it's like for Celery and are more than willing to let him sleep over whenever. If sometimes that happens without their knowing it, that's okay too so long as we briefly explain why in the morning. Breakfast goes fine except for Celery rubbing his knee against mine the entire time, which I found more than a little distracting. Once we've finished we get up, say thanks for the meal (yeah, we're polite, what of it?!) and start back to my room. We almost collide with Kyle halfway up the stairs. Celery and me cause we were too busy staring at each other and not paying attention, Kyle I think cause he didn't even have his eyes open. Getting about 10 hours of sleep in the space of two days will do that to you. "Hey little bros," He says sleepily. "Want an escort to the table dude?" Celery teases. Tired or not Kyle's present enough to roll his eyes and laugh sarcastically. "Thank you but no C2, that won't be necessary," I'm C1, Celery's C2. It's kind of a 'Bananas in Pyjamas' thing. If you're disturbed by the fact that my 18-year-old brother makes jokes about giant produce in bedware chasing bears of the teddy variety, well good, because you should be. Of all my family, I'm pretty sure Kyle's the least likely to know my real name. It's buried under way too many nicknames. He takes a few fake stumbles along the way down the hall, and then Kyle's out of sight. Celery holds my hand up the rest of the stairs and into my room. It's not just a romance thing, Celery's a really physical person. With no one more so than me, but he's like that with most people he cares about. I barely get the door shut before he kisses me. "Dude," I say laughing and taking a shaky step backwards. "What?" He says, grinning. I shrug. "I don't know. Nothing I guess. This is just taking me a little while to get used to. You on the other hand. Man, what happened to being shy?" He sits down on my bed, looking serious. I sit down beside him. "Think about it Care. I've never been shy around you, you have to have noticed that. I mean, I talked to you on the first day of school, right out of the blue when I didn't know you from a hole in the ground. I don't know what it is about you, but you've never made me feel shy. I've always been completely comfortable around you. Like I had something of value to offer, like we were equals. You never talked or looked down on me. All these years I've only held ONE thing back from you, and now that's over. I'm going to try not to rush you, but you're going to have to help me there I think. You know how I am," that I do. So do you if you've been paying attention. Whole hog once he's made up his mind or has the green light. Totally committed to it, he puts his entire heart into whatever he's doing. This is going to be even more incredible than I thought if he's saying our dating relationship has now garnered his full attention. "How do you see it?" "The order?" I nod. "Yeah," He smiles sweetly. "I see you first, every part of you. Okay? This is what I was talking about. I'm excited about being able to show you I love you, but I don't want that to get in the way of me showing you that you're my best friend. I'm kind of in making up for lost time here when it comes to the non-platonic stuff I guess. But we can chill," "Chilling sounds good, but don't put the freeze on me you know? We don't need to spend the day making out, but when or if the mood strikes you, and you suddenly get the urge to kiss me, or hug me or hold my hand or whatever, PLEASE don't restrain yourself. I'm certainly not going to. I just want us to be spontaneous, and comfortable, okay?" He kisses me. "Very okay." Hanging alone in my room, side by side on the bed talking, lasts for only like 25 minutes more before Kyle arrives unannounced. He takes a good look at us, startled by his arrival but still holding hands, declares, "It's about fucking time!" Grins, and then leaves. We look at each other. "So that was Kyle," I say, deadpan. Celery nods. "Yeah," "Nice of him to stop by," ultra deadpan. "Oh for sure." That night we have our first long drawn out, complete with kisses, goodbye. We exchange sappy banter such as 'I don't want to go' kiss 'I don't you to go either' kiss 'but I really have to' kiss 'I know you do, it's late' kiss and 'I love you' kiss 'I love you more' kiss 'dork, I love you more' kiss 'no I do' kiss. I know. And believe me, if I weren't me, I'd be beating me up right now. But you know, they tell you it happens and damn, it does. Love turns you into a complete and blithering idiot. I don't know what's worse: being around the person you're in love with or being alone. Cause when you're alone you're missing them, and when they're there it's like major blithering idiot love fest. I've gotten so good at keeping my love for Cel contained, it's crazy to be able to show it. That's part of my problem, I just need a little time for my heart and brain to catch up with reality. Then we'll see who needs the other one to chill down a smidgen.