Valentine's Day

Travis sunk into his old, beaten up couch, and began mindlessly flipping through TV channels only to find that there was nothing interesting on. To his luck, his dad had gone out to drink instead of staying home like he usually did, which meant Travis had the whole house to himself. It was nice to not have the pressure of his father constantly making him feel unwelcome in the home. Travis wished he could spend time with somebody on this day, as it was Valentine's Day, but he didn't even have a clue who he would ask over. No girls liked him, and the only boy who Travis would even consider spending time with as a friend was Sal, but he was probably busy. He sighed hopelessly, laying down on the couch to take a short nap.

Short was an understatement. Not even moments after Travis laid down, there was a knock on the door. Travis suddenly got extremely anxious, fearing that his father was back early and had lost his keys. After a moment of hesitation, he got up and made his way to the door, opening it just a crack. "Yeah?" He asked, not checking who it was.

"Hi Travis," Sal's familiar voice responded, making Travis' heart skip a beat. He wasn't gay or anything, just really excited to see his friend. "Happy Valentine's Day."

Travis smiled in return, opening the door the rest of the way and inviting Sal in. "My dad isn't home, come in," He smiled. "And uh, thanks for coming. I was getting bored out of my mind."

When Sal entered his home, Travis noticed the little red bag the other boy was holding. Oh God, he thought. Did Sal get him a gift? Were you supposed to give people gifts on Valentine's Day? Travis thought about it for a moment before shaking his head, leading Sal to his room.

When they got to the door, Sal handed Travis the little bag. "It's not much, but it's the least I could do." He spoke shyly, in a tone that Travis had never heard him talk in before. For some reason, that made him blush.

"Thank you," Travis smiled, opening his door. "I, uh.. I didn't get you anything. I didn't know you got me anything." He apologized sadly.

"Don't worry about it," Sal responded. "You really don't have to do anything for me, I just thought it would be cute." He laughed softly.

Travis was confused. He didn't understand why he felt the way he did towards Sal. It was stupid and unnatural. Part of him just wanted Sal to go home so Travis could stop thinking these things about him, but every other part of him wanted Sal to stay. He wished he wasn't so confused about everything, but he figured that that would come later on. Right now he would just live in the moment and be confused.

When Travis got out of his self loathing thoughts, he noticed that Sal was already sitting on his bed, so Travis quickly followed suit. He sat next to Sal, who was excitedly swinging his feet since they couldn't reach the floor from Travis' bed, which made Travis laugh a little. Short people.

"Are you gonna open the gift?" Sal asked excitedly, and Travis figured the boy was probably smiling from the look in his eyes.

Travis nodded, looking at the medium-sized red bag. He removed the tissue paper from inside to find a few things. The first was a mini box of chocolates, with some cheesy Valentine's quote written on the front that gave Travis a toothache. The second thing was a card, that said a few words about their friendship. Travis smiled softly, just now realising how grateful he was for the boy. He may have talked a lot of shit about Sal sometimes, but he really cared about him.

"There's something else in there!" Sal said, which caused Travis to immediately peer back into the bag, pulling out the last gift.

It was a little booklet full of 'favours' handwritten by Sal. There were stupid things such as 'One free get left alone, no questions asked.' or things about hanging out, but one in particular made Travis curious. There was one in the back of the booklet that said 'Ask any question. I'll answer it.' This may have seemed normal to anyone else, but to Travis, this was a big thing. Sal wasn't very open about his life, so something like this was surprising to him.