Crazy As Normal(Izzal)

Chapter 2

"Do you know Sean?"

Axl went on as he saw Izzy shook his head. "He'd worked for Tower Video with me. I ran into a grocery store this afternoon, y'know, we had that passing shower, and he took cover there too. We had a nice chat for a while, but when I left there he followed after me and..." He flung his face in the pillow groaning something that didn't form words at all, both of his tight knuckles hitting the mattress heavily in a row, and shouted in the pillow at the end. "He tried to kiss me on a sidewalk. Fuck!"

"Then?"

"Then I punched him." He turned his face to Izzy's direction with great force. The fluffy pillow hid the left part of his face.

"So, you two didn't kiss."

"No. He was terrified when he saw I grabbed a road sign." With the deep sign Axl said that he failed to hit him since Sean ran away from him like a shot. "It was fucking disgusting. I almost puked."

Axl sounded not into being gay. Izzy felt that his sweat on his skin went dry mildly. The ease let him stand on his knees and sat on the edge of his own bed. "God, that's a fucking bummer. Is the dude a fag or what?"

"He'd been... uh...in love with me. Shit, he said that before he tried to kiss me."

Izzy still didn't figure out why Axl wanted to kiss him, but at least Axl had a right person for his enthusiasm. He sighed with relief. "Look. Find Sean something and kiss him." He spread his hands. "I'm totally okay with you liking guys and I'm still your friend." While he showed his warm understanding, he swallowed the rest of the line; as long as you don't seduce me.

With a tiny shriek Axl jumped up from the bed. "Never say the name of Sean like that in front of me, okay? Goosebumps are coming out on my arms again! Goddammit!" Axl scrubbed his arms hard as he looked down at Izzy.

"You won't find any differences in kissing me. See? Your body simply refuses gay behavior entirely."

Suddenly Axl stopped moving his palms, sat on the edge of his bed and leaned forward putting his forearms on his laps. "It's not argumentative but feelable. I've thought of kissing you for the rest of the day."

Izzy was dumbfounded at a moment by the ridiculously romantic response. The deep thoughtful baritone voice and the bright green eyes frightened him once again. "Hey, y--you don't like me, do you?" He was amazed that he could get the words out from being full of nervousness. In the nature of things, it was the very last thing Izzy wanted to know if a reply was affirmative. The shivering voice was so weak that he wasn't sure it reached Axl's ears.

"I swear I'm heterosexual. I rather say I'm pro-heterosexual." Axl protested Izzy in complete confidence straight away. The quick response didn't give Izzy time for bracing himself, but consequently it worked to his peace.

"Good, and we won't kiss." Izzy replied in a mood as if he was an actor in a boring sitcom.

Axl was by no means gay. Needless to say, Izzy wasn't too. Then two straight men were arguing whether they were going to have an osculation or not. What a horrible conversation. However, Axl seemed to have something more to say and Izzy might follow him anyway. Izzy had started this conversation by asking the reason for the kiss, so far he didn't get an appropriate answer to it.

"Sean told me I hate gay behaviour due to my inexperience. I protested him, y'know, this air conditioning repairment guy tried to rape me once."

Izzy leaned forward supporting his body with his forearms on his laps. Now friends faced each other in the same position.

Axl looked straight at the man in front of him. "But Sean said if the chemistry is right, I'm gonna start to like it. I just haven't seen a right person yet."

Izzy lifted his eyebrow at the hackneyed phrases with a wry smile. Sean would fail to hit anybody with his lame attitude even though he found what he called a right person. Izzy kept smiling wryly and said, "Did the 'not argumentative but feelable' comment come from him?"

"Yeah." Axl nodded shortly.

"I'm glad to hear it didn't come from you." Izzy insisted from his heart. Hearing a pick up line of his childhood friend was nothing but a nightmare.

"You had plenty of lovely conversation before you were almost kissed." Izzy gave him an ironic glare as strongly as he could. Unfortunately the effort came to nothing. Axl buried his face in the hands so he didn't look at Izzy. Maybe he didn't recognize that his friend turned cynically.

"'Cause he fucking cupped my face in his hands! My body froze while he was talking." After he protested Izzy, he threw himself down on his back and let his feet dangle on the edge of the bed. He looked at the white ceiling covered with stains as he crossed his arms on his chest. "But I think he was right in some aspects. Inexperience causes ignorance. I'm not personally fascinated by men, but gaining experience could never be in vain in your life. You're my closest friend, maybe things will be different."

"You think you're not gonna go gay after this, right? Then what the hell exactly do you want to know?"

"I just wanna have an experience." Axl kept his gaze on the ceiling.

Axl was considerably unpredictable that sometimes it went over Izzy's head in spite of their more than a decade friendship which was long enough for understanding your friends in general. Axl's daily life was always to go out of the frying pan and into the fire. Izzy didn't know what would go on in Axl's head when Axl was not around him, he rather tried to be away from imagining it. So he hadn't pondered in the least what led Axl to the wild idea, he was simply driven by a sense of responsibility for stopping his friend's optimistic, ridiculous and innocent curiosity.

The responsibility in his mind was a kind of paternity. Axl was abused by his stepfather back in Indiana. Troubles never come singly, his true mother looked on them at a distance and did anything during castigating. Nothing could be more miserable than this, could it be? Poor Axl didn't know what parents were but he desired paternity unconsciously. Well, Izzy didn't see any necessities of paternity in the insane 'a heterosexual dude is impatient to kiss the other heterosexual dude' case, though.

Izzy stood up and looked down at his friend lying in bed. He had one more thing to make sure of. "Who else did you ask?"

"Only you. I'm not considering other options." Axl fixed his eyes on him.

Whoa, other romantic sentences would fly out when outsiders heard them. "That's good." Quietly Izzy said it a second time tonight. "This seems wrong." He thought it was the exact point worth stressing.

Standing the upper body, Axl transmitted his option. "But if it were you, chemistry--"

"Don't be ridiculous." interrupted Izzy. He didn't need to listen to the rest of the line because he knew it. "Do you wanna be my fucking boyfriend?"

"Hell no."

"This is a perfect answer. I like it. And kissing me is the last thing you wanna try due to your fucking pro-heterosexuality."

As soon as Izzy closed his mouth, Axl pouted his lips. Obviously he didn't like the denial.

Izzy put his hands on his hips. He wasn't irritated but his function here was sort of like a father thus he needed to show his resolute fatherly attitude. "Axl, are we clear?"

Axl turned his back to Izzy, held the pillow in his chest and curled himself into the ball. He said "No. My theory still stands, you dick." to the wall.

Izzy pushed his inky black hair back and looked down at Axl for a while. Once he noticed Axl wouldn't say a word anymore, he walked to the window to close it.

He wiped his fingers with the hem of his lavender shirt. His hair was glossy as well as his skin throughout his body was sticky with sweat. He needed a hot shower.

"Good night." He turned a doorknob. He knew that Axl would not respond to him.