The Painter & The Pianist

xi.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Monserrat admired the aluminum pole on his counter. Amadeus was throwing away the paper plates and forks. "I call being head of house!" Amadeus turned to Monserrat and gave a sly smile.

"No way!" With a face filled with absolute resilience, Monserrat made Amadeus agree to let him be the head of the house.

"Feat of Strength!" Amadeus jumped at Monserrat cried, "Woah! We're are supposed to air all of our grievances firs-" Monserrat was tackled to the ground.

"Gotcha!" Amadeus had a wide smile, as he leaned forward and kissed Monserrat. "You better not do this every Festivus, or I'll have some real grievances to air." Monserrat gave a small chuckle as he kissed Amadeus back. They were both so overwhelmed with happiness.

*

The snow was whirling and winding and seemed confused about the direction it was going, the same way the emotions had been in both boys after the kiss. It didn't help that they were both trapped in the apartment during the duration of the snow storm.

"Hey, little guy," Monserrat said as he took the top off the screen enclosure and picked up Lennon. The chameleon started slowly crawling around his petite arm. Amadeus wandered in, and he peered into the cage, "His cage looks a little dry."

He picked up the water bottle and sprayed the water all over the plants inside the lizard's habitat. "There, Daddy fixed it for you," Amadeus said in a childish manner as he sunk his head to Lennon's level. The Chameleon's tongue touched the curly boy's nose, in an agreeance.

Amadeus lifted his face back up and avoided eye contact with Monserrat. "I'll...um, b-be in the living room." Amadeus turned red at hearing his own stutter. He turned and looked into Monserrat's face, he opened his mouth right before he closed it and briskly walk out the room.

"As you can see, your other Daddy's a little confused right now," Monserrat said as he saw the lack of interest in the little lizard. Monserrat looked out the window, getting lost in his own thoughts as he stared into the storm.

Some time had passed before he was broken out of his trance because he heard a loud thud from the living room. He put down Lennon in his cage before going towards the noise.

"What the he-...Amadeus!" Monserrat clasped his hands over his mouth as he witnessed the pillow fort in the middle of his living room. "Pretty cool, huh?" Amadeus peeked out his head, a hand rubbing against the back of it. "I need a drink. I kinda hit my head when I tried to lay down."

Monserrat felt a lecture bubbling up like boiling water from the pit of his stomach into the middle of his throat, but he stopped it. He remembered the bathtub. How Amadeus had gone along with his strange way of coping, and plus Amadeus wasn't using anything too expensive.

"Is there room for another?" Monserrat forced a smile on his face. "Only if that 'other' brings me a drink." Amadeus smiled back, before he added, "But it can't be any of that damn apple juice that's taken over the fridge!"

"Alright." Monserrat agreed. Then he poured apple juice into a shot glass that read 'WH' for a joke about the periodic table and whiskey. "Here you go." Monserrat handed the fake poison to him as he climbed into the surprisingly roomy fort.

As he took the shot, Amadeus' face contorted, "This is not whiskey!" Monserrat smiled and said, "Never said it was." Both boys looked at one another absorbing the moment that was passing between them.

"This blizzard reminds me of our first Festivus." Monserrat looked down and gave a small laugh. "Do you remember how we woke up the next morning? Everything was freezing in the apartment except what was under the blankets in our bed." His face turned a deep red as he laughed in a sad way.