Something About Us

He Went to Florence, Part One

September 2012 (Four Months After Follies)

Enter: Holiday Joss Boulstridge

       There is a rule when it comes to dating someone younger then you; you take your age, divide it by two, add seven and you get the youngest age you’re allowed to date. If I did that for myself right now the calculation would look something like this; 19 / 2 = 9.5 + 7 = 16.5. I was cutting it pretty close with my sixteen year old lover.

        “So you’ve got news for me?” Ryan Tramblay asked me. He was the boy I had been enamoured with ever since I spotted him in 2007. It makes me sound pathetic, but who wouldn’t have been struck by a boy waltzing on the concrete with bare feet as though it was the most comfortable thing in the world.

       Ryan and I currently ate at a restaurant. Ryan’s eyes filled with wonder at the sight of the place, it was a classy joint. The sort of place you had to wear a blazer and dress shoes to get into. No riff raff of any sort was allowed in. The man in the lobby eyed my snakebites with apprehension but once I told him that I was Holiday Boulstridge, he recognized the last name (Being the son of a well-known Canadian artist had its perks) he let me in immediately and asked me about my father’s latest art endeavours.
 
      “I do,” I said to Ryan in the present. I offered Ryan a sip of my white wine and his eyes lit up in the way that a person’s could when they were relatively new to drinking. He took a sip and screwed his face at the heat of the alcohol. “It tastes really nicely in the beginning. It tastes so alcoholic.”

       I laughed. That was one thing I enjoyed about dating Ryan. It was like I was re-experiencing the world through him. Back when I was his age, freshly released into grade twelve I had been dating my last girlfriend Piper Geoff (who I liked well enough). I had been doing terribly in school and failing half of my classes. The only time I had felt genuinely happy was with Piper and when I was busy working at X-Inkz.

      Ryan had ordered a bowl of pasta, but had only finished half of it. Though he had ordered his own drink – iced tea – he kept sipping my wine. I had ordered a rare steak, enjoyed it and was itching to get another one. “Tell me what you’ve got to tell me.” He demanded.

       “Or else?” I asked with a grin.

      “I’ll walk out and stick you with the bill,” Ryan said grinning wickedly. He looked terribly handsome with such a grin. His blue-green eyes framed by those blonde lashes were filled with mischief and possibility. “Seriously, just tell me. You’re turning into TJ. He always tries to tease me into getting all worked up about his stories.”

      “How are those two anyhow?” I said, speaking of Ryan’s twin brother Taylor Jude and his boyfriend – who was my cousin – October Burgess. “Still rutting like dogs?”

       Ryan chuckled softly. “They honestly do care about each other. Sex is just the gravy on the side
of the excellent meal that is their relationship.”

      One thing that frustrated me to no end was how chaste Ryan was. All we ever did was kiss. He was a teenage boy, why on earth was his self-control so tightly reined? Didn’t he want me? Wasn’t I attractive enough? Maybe he found my scar off-putting.

       I remember that day when he finally allowed me to see a glimpse of what it could be like if we could be intimate that day when he had bared himself to me. We had touched each other back at my house. That never happened since, no matter how gently I encouraged him. That wasn’t all I wanted and I respected Ryan’s decision not to, but sometimes I just wanted a little more.

       “So we’re a good tasting meal with no gravy?”

       “Holiday, lay off it. A watched pot will never boil.”