Rust and Frost

Six

Given the zeal with which they were kissing and the sporadic beating of his heart, Brandon thought he might just drop dead. That, he believed, would be a fair sacrifice. A decent tradeoff. He was having fun. And given all the fear and shame that'd preceded, what a pleasant surprise it was that this whole thing was fun. With his eyes closed, all Brandon could see was the color orange. What a brilliant and marvelous color it was.

Ronnie was feeling pretty self-satisfied. He'd gotten the boy, best part, and it hadn't come at the expense of his friendships. Not committing social suicide was always a plus. He took great pride in knowing, well, thinking, that he'd gone sly and unnoticed. If he knew Mark and Dave had him all figured out, his ego would've been knocked down a couple of notches. But that wouldn't be so bad. It'd be humbling. Maybe he even deserved that. He'd gotten what he wanted, who he wanted, and the rest could be damned. This aspect of his life was going right.

His mom walked through the hallway bearing a laundry basket. She'd gotten home from work, unannounced, and now had a uniform, among other things, that needed to be washed. She ran into a bit of an obstacle. In the laundry room, she discovered that Ronnie had left his clothes in the washer. If she'd known Ronnie had a friend over, she wouldn't have bothered him about it just then. But she didn't know.

When she got up to the door, she could only see a sliver into the room. As if someone had gotten careless when going to shut it, Ronnie's bedroom door was a crack away from being closed. Ronnie's mom saw this as 'open'. She didn't think anything of it. It took a moment for what she saw to click. What she did see was her son making out with someone, on the bed. She couldn't tell exactly who it was and thought it was none of her business, but the boy looked familiar. Whether Ronnie had a boyfriend and never cared to tell her or this was just what friends platonically got up to these days, she figured she should mention it later.

But not now. There was laundry to be done, plants to be watered, and shows to tune in to on television. She gently pulled the doorknob back towards herself. There was a time and place for everything. This was the time for privacy.

Ronnie's friend, who his mother recognized as Brandon, now a regular at the Vannucci household, left a while later. Ronnie and his mom were now sitting at the kitchen table. Ronnie was thumbing through a comic book. He couldn't focus on the words, but he'd promised to give it back to Mark as soon as possible. A bit ironic since Mark actually slipped it from Dave. His mom was peeling potatoes.

"Did you have a nice day?" she asked.

Ronnie fought the inclination to smile as he recalled the hours previous. "Yeah. Brandon and I played cards for a while and I don't have a lot of homework. And hey, winter break's pretty soon. It's been a good day."

He had to mull it over before he spoke but his straight face was eerily good.

His mom thought back to a time in her teen years. She told her dad she'd been playing Go Fish with her friends, and he asked if that was code for strip poker. He was joking, but she didn't find it funny. Not one bit. Interesting years those had been.

"You know what you want for Christmas yet?" The underlying point there was that she'd be getting a better bonus than years previous.

Ronnie realized he hadn't drummed at the restaurant in weeks. This meant no tips, which meant no cash, which also meant no funds to get his mom and friends gifts. On the subject of what he wanted, he thought he was getting a bit old for wishlists.

"I can't think of anything, actually," he replied.

In part, this was a lie. He thought about how old his bike was and how he needed a thicker coat. But if it wasn't broken, it didn't need fixing. He was happy with what he had. Nothing to do with material objects. Although the paint on his bike was starting to rust.