How Green Becomes Wood

"We wouldn't have to if society didn't expect everyone to be exclusively straight and fully and entirely allosexual," Sloan pointed out mildly, "If we just let everybody date or not date the way that felt comfortable to them, we wouldn't need terms to describe it, but we do, which makes it really confusing for people who aren't that way." Then, following another pause, said, "Thank you."

Sloan's little blue car was not the only one parked on the street at the party, and there were a few students milling about, but between the early morning and Xander's call the night before, there weren't many people about. While watching some of the few people milling about, a new concern popped into her head, "Do you think they're going to think we had a one night stand?"
 
Have to? Who was saying anyone "had" to label anything? He didn't even know where these labels came from or the expectations Sloan was describing. There were always people in every single direction who always had something to say. You weren't straight enough. You were too straight. You were too gay. You weren't gay enough. You weren't good enough. You weren't bad enough. You weren't mechanically minded enough. You weren't artistic enough. There was always something. As far as he was concerned, you might as well do what you wanted and f*** so-called society, but maybe that was his own privilege talking. And none of this was at all helpful.

Sloan's statement snapped him out of his whirlwind of thoughts. He actually laughed at the idea, a brief little bleat of laughter, but it was funny. "Maybe. Least we had the decency to do it somewhere other than in the middle of a party or the car." He pulled up as close to her car as he could. "Guess if they do think that, maybe the guys will leave you alone."
 
"You did show up at the party, take me home, and now I'm showing up the day after wearing boy's clothes," She pointed out, allowing herself to laugh at the situation, although there was a voice in her head pointing out that if that rumor did get started, it'd be way harder on her than it would be on him--but it was funny to joke about, and she hadn't laughed since before everything fell apart the night before. Still, she mentioned, "Or they'll think they have a chance and bother me more. But if they all stayed here overnight, they're probably too hungover to even notice either of us."

Unbuckling her seatbelt, Sloan took off the jacket and sweatshirt, then got out of the car as she unlocked hers, "I'm glad so many of our classmates left our cars here. It means they weren't driving last night."
 
"If they do, just let me know," Xander said simply. "I doubt anyone's going to care. If asked, you can always say I drove you because I live across the street from you." He glanced around at the cars. "Good point. Fewer dead teens to hit the news. Anyway, I'll take the long way home so you have a good head start. Drive safe, yeah?"
 
"If they do, don't punch them." Sloan told him, seriously, "Don't get suspended again. At some point they'll expel you." She put her bag in the passenger side, "You could probably go the normal way, I still need to change back into yesterday's clothes. My mom hates this shirt." Before she went into her driver's seat, she looked at him directly, and repeated for probably the thousandth time, "Thank you for helping me."
 
Xander looked at her, taking it seriously. "You're welcome. Thanks... for trusting me." He looked away, unable to hold her gaze. "It's not something I'm used to. Trusting or being trusted." He played with the steering wheel, not sure what else to say. He wanted to tell her how much she was worth helping, but he didn't know how to say it without sounding sappy or insincere. He meant it, but didn't know how to express it.
 
"Well." She said, "You told me you'd be my call. I was just doing what you had asked, right?" She hesitated, then as she got into her car said, "I'll see you on Sunday. Tell Alec and your parents I said thank you. And that breakfast was really nice."
 
Xander lifted his hand in farewell. "I'll do that."

He waited until Sloan drove away despite her earlier reasoning. He wanted to make certain she got off okay and wasn't harrassed by any of the few wandering teens still around. Once she drove away, he put the car in gear and took the long way home. It was nice being able to drive Dark's car. He was looking forward to driving his own. It wouldn't be anywhere near as nice as this one, but it would be his own. That was a cool thought.

When he arrived back home, he checked to make sure Sloan's car was in the drive before pulling in and parking Dark's car. Then he went inside where Alec had been watching at the window ever since he left.
 
"She made it home safe," Dark told him as Xander stepped outside, "and we have not received any calls from her mother, so I think it is alright." While Xander was gone, he had been trying to act like he wasn't watching, but he had lived in the neighborhood for so long he had practically watched Sloan grow up from a distance. And even if he hadn't... She was a child who had been brought to his house while in crisis. He was going to keep an eye on how the situation resolved.
 
"Cool," Xander stated. He took off his shoes and touched salt. That's as far as he got before Alec was hugging him.

"You're a hero!" Alec stated. "You managed to save Sloan from a bad situation, and you didn't even have to punch anyone to do it, too! I'm so proud of you!" He hugged his brother tighter, trapping his arms by his side.

"Er, thank you, that's kind of exaggerating, but... yay me?" Xander said, awkwardly tapping Alec's back since his arms were stuck at his sides.
 
Dark watched their little interaction with mild amusement. He was proud of Xander for making mostly the right calls during the situation, but he could express that to him later and not overwhelm him. Xander had done a good thing, and so had Sloan in reaching out, and now it was settled. Instead he just said, "It is good she had someone willing to help her." and allowed them both space to decompress.

Meanwhile, Daizi was just coming downstairs after putting Ivy down for her first nap of the day, "With you both up as early as you were," she said, "It feels like it should be the afternoon already, but it's not even 10. How are you even going to occupy yourselves with all this extra time?"
 
"Go back to bed," Xander groaned as Alec let him go. "Sleep until like noon tomorrow or whenever it is that we're supposed to show up at the gymnastics thing."

"Ooo, that's right! That is tomorrow," Alec said, backing up so Xander could come in fully. "And speaking of going places, when are you doing the museum?"

Xander hesitated. "I forgot," he admitted. Turning to Daizi, he asked, "Can I ask a museum favor?"
 
"If they hired me for anything other than janitorial work, I'd be concerned," Xander said dryly. "No, my friend, Milo? He's, uh, he's leaving at the end of the month, and he likes museums. I was wondering if we could do some kind of special museum thing for him before he goes."

Alec frowned at Xander. "You didn't tell me he was leaving."

"He didn't want you to get too upset," Xander explained.

Alec nodded, accepting that answer. He wandered away to sit on the couch and let Xander talk to Daizi about the museum.
 
"I'm sorry your friend is moving," Daizi replied firstly, before engaging with Xander's request, "That is difficult. Of course I can set something special up for him, I would be glad to. Do you know what day he is leaving? I don't know if, with short notice, if we could set up something on a specific date we choose, so it would be helpful if I could say it needs to be before then. I can just say the end of the month, but I would hate for him to move the day before it is scheduled."
 
"He just said the end of the month," Xander admitted. "I'm not sure if he knows anything more exact than that. Sorry. If it's too much trouble, I think just going through the museum will be enough for him. I don't want to put you out."

Alec didn't want to think about Milo leaving. So, instead, he went upstairs to fetch something he and Xander had been hiding and saving for the right time. He brought it down and went to find Dark.
 
"If I thought you were putting me out, I wouldn't have agreed to it," Daizi told him, and started walking back up the stairs to her office, suggesting they talk there so they weren't just standing around, "It's okay if we don't have an exact date. If we say either next weekend or the weekend after that, it should be fine, unless you want something particularly extravagant. Is there anything specific you had in mind?"
 
Xander followed her to her office. "No, not specific. Not too extravagant, either. I don't think he'd like that. I just want him to have a good time. That's the extent of my planning. He does like photography, so maybe a couple of photo opportunities? Is that a thing?"

"Ba," Alec called to Dark, "Xander and I had an idea."
 
"That makes it easier to plan," Daizi said, sitting of the small, plush couches, "I can probably set up a behind-the-scenes tour in addition to passes to the public areas. Just try to figure out what sort of exhibits he'd like to see so I can figure out where in the backrooms he should get to visit. And photography shouldn't be an issue, most things you're allowed to photograph unless it has flash, I think--but honestly, I never really remember what can and cannot be photographed by the public because photographs don't really... take up a lot of space in my mind. All I really remember is we encourage patrons not to photograph human remains."

"Oh?" Dark asked, "What sort of idea?"
 
"That makes sense," Xander agreed, still standing mostly because he felt like it. "I'll talk to him and see if I can get like a lost of things he likes. Not expecting us to see the whole lost, of course, but then we got options."

Alec held up a small package and presented it to Dark. "We got this as a prank for Daizi." It was a baby's outfit, intended for those crawling, and it was designed to look like a mop on one side. The package had a tag line saying how baby could get exercise and clean, too. "If you put it on her without Daizi knowing, the weird, fuzzy texture wl really confuse her! And before you ask, no, I don't approve of turning babies into cleaning tools."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top