Vance and Victor, backdated to Saturday.
Mar. 9th, 2013 01:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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om_mainVance enlists Victor's help in shopping for his mom's birthday to help keep the green boy out of his own head for a while. They shop and chat before bumping into a few less than welcome faces.
Vance was probably gawking like a tourist or something, but he couldn't exactly help it. It was his first time in town! He was just getting the lay of things.
He glanced over at Victor. He wasn't entirely sure the other boy was that thrilled to be out here, but he'd gamely volunteered to help Vance get a present for his mom's birthday all the same.
"So...where should we start?"
"Um, well, uh. What does your mom like?" Victor asked, trying his best to focus. It was hard though when this was the first time in about 2 months that he was coming into town without Tommy. It felt weird and wrong but Vance had been so desperate for help, so how could he say no?
He fiddled with the strap of his image inducer as he looked around, waiting for an answer so that he could point them into a direction.
Vance frowned in thought. "I dunno. She likes judaica stuff. And history stuff. And flowers, like in botanical gardens.
Ok, now Victor just felt like an idiot for not knowing what 'judaica' meant. "What do you mean by stuff? Like books?" Because he knew where a bookshop was easy, anything else and he was going to struggle. Botanical gardens? Where did you buy thing for botanical gardens? And how were they different from normal gardens anyway?"
Vance nodded. "Jewish books...art...all kindsa stuff."
"Well, we could try this way then." Victor indicated to the next right turning "There's a book shop and stuff down that way. Won't hurt to look." Buying for his own mom was hard, helping to buy for someone else’s was impossible and they weren't even in the shop yet.
"Great idea." He followed along in the direction Vic had indicated. "What else is around here? I haven't explored yet."
"Uh, this way there's a few coffee shop type places, antique stores, a pet store. Couple of craft and sewing type places." he'd been meaning to mention those to Ellie actually since Pietro wanted her to be Wardrobe Mistress for the Dorian Gray costumes. "Random little places basically. Further down the way we were going in before is the cinema, pizza place and arcade. Those are the places I know best."
"Makes sense. Those sound like the more fun places," Vance agreed. And...then he thought about how that must've sounded.
"I mean, not that those other things probably aren't cool."
"Why do you always do that? Assume that I've taken whatever you've said as some insult or put down or whatever?" Victor asked curiously "You know you don't need to backtrack and explain yourself to me. I know you're not being mean or whatever."
Vance flushed. "Sorry."
"No, I mean, you don't have to be sorry. I just don't get why you do it, is all." The usually green boy said hurriedly, worried he'd upset or embarrassedVance.
Vance gave the other boy a quick reassuring smile. His gaze dropped to the ground then, as he thought. Why did he apologize? It was just...not a question he'd ever been asked.
"I guess," he said slowly, "I just don't like upsetting people. Even by accident."
"But I'm not upset, you've never upset me." Victor reasoned almost gently. "I'm just saying there's no need to apologise or clarify, especially when you haven't left time for me to react. You don't have to pre-emptively apologise all the time with me, k?"
So basically, Vance figured, this meant he’d crossed that line into apologizing too much. Which was just as bad as not apologizing enough. Offensive, overly-sensitive...he didn’t know anyone well enough yet to know where their lines were, and it meant he was usually guessing. Some people he could guess with better than others, just naturally, but still. Not apologizing was a risk. Apologizing was, too.
“Okay,” he agreed. “I’ll stop.”
"Ok, good. Now we've sorted that out, you wanna head inside?" Because they head indeed stopped outside the bookshop that Victor had been talking about. It was the kind that had it's own little café too. He loved the smell of books and coffee.
"Sure!" Vance tugged the door open, and gestured for Vic to go inside. "Man, I love bookstores."
"Me too and this place has a great sections for plays and scripts, that's so hard to find." Victor told him enthusiastically as he looked around "Ok, pretty sure history and that is over this way." He started leading the way, resisting the temptation to check out his favourite sections. Vance mission first, everything else could wait.
Vance followed along, glancing around as he did. The comics and graphic novels section was calling to him, but he managed to resist the lure. Better to get his mom's stuff first. He wanted to get her a great present, and that probably wouldn't happen if he spent all day wandering around looking at comics.
Once in the history section, Victor claimed the comfy armchair to allowed Vance to browse. He'd probably be more use that way since Vance knew best what sort of book she might like.
Sat down he did his best to keep his smile going, he didn't like to worry any of his friends or annoy them by being too mopey after all.
Vance began searching the shelves, occasionally glancing back over at Victor. It was kinda weird, actually; he was so used to seeing the other boy as himself. Green and scales and everything. Seeing him with the illusion kinda made Vance double-take.
A book title caught his eye, and he pulled it out. 'Jews in Places You Never Heard Of.' He couldn't help it as he started to smile - it was just like that song his mom had sung to him when he was little - and he put it aside to think about. Glancing over at Victor, he noticed the other boy's smile kinda flickering. "You okay?"
Victor's head snapped up and he shoved his hologramy-fake normal hands into his pockets "Yeah, course I am." He flash a fake smile quickly "What'd you find?"
Vance held the book up. "It's just like this song we sang when I was a kid. One of those, y'know, totally typical Hebrew school songs, right? And it sounds interesting. Thought maybe she'd like it."
Victor nodded in agreement though he of course had no familiarity with Hebrew school or it's songs. "Well, if you've found something already I think that makes it officially the quickest shopping trip for a mom ever."
He chuckled, and tucked the book under his arm. "Maybe. I mean, I'm gonna get her flowers or something, too. And write her a birthday letter - I write her one every year - and..." He flushed slightly as he trailed off. "Guess I sound like a momma's boy, huh?"
"If you're a momma's boy then I'm guilty as charged too." Victor admitted as he stood back up. He'd been expecting to be there for the long haul. "I write my mom letters too and not just birthday ones." Ok so he didn't call as much as he should but it didn't mean that he did still love her.
Vance smiled. "Yeah? What's your mom like?"
"We used to be really close. She loved coming to see me in the drama clubs plays and playing soccer at school and stuff. She's a typical Mom who bakes cookies and helps with school reports, you know? Helps run a bakery in town." Victor told him as they made their way back through the shop to pay.
"She sounds real nice," Vance said, completely sincerely. He slowed as they passed the comics/graphic novels section again. "Hey, uh...would it be okay if I, if we, just checked some of these out for a second?
"Course." Victor agreed immediately not minding a detour at all. He was only there because Vance had wanted him there anyway. As he changed course, he asked "So what's your Mom like?"
"She's the best." And she really was, to Vance's mind anyway. "She just...I mean, she's always so nice. To me, to everyone, really. Always came to my school stuff, helped me with homework, told me I could be whoever I wanted even though my dad wanted me to be a butcher."
He smiled slightly. "I don't miss home much, but I kinda miss her."
"She sounds awesome." Victor smiled back as they came to a halt in the comic book section. Now thus was a spot he knew they could both lose hours in.
Vance grinned as he looked up the shelves of comics. This was awesome. Definitely the best part of any bookstore, aside from maybe the smell of it. "You read comics?"
"Is the pope catholic?" Victor smirked back. What self-respecting 14 year old boy didn't, after all?
Vance laughed and plucked a paperback from the shelf. "Probably not a great tester for the Jewish kid. What titles do you read?"
"True, but I ain't catholic either so," Victor shrugged as he started looking over the titles. "Gotta admit it, I love Superman. Total sucker for any of his titles. Pietro showed me a photo of your Superboy-Prime costume, totally awesome by the way."
Vance grinned even as his cheeks turned pink. "Thanks. Felt kinda like a dork, but Pietro was cool about it and Lorna didn't make too much fun of me, so..." He shrugged. "Besides, Superboy-Prime was a great villain."
"Totally and when you're a badass like Prime, no way are you looking dorky." Victor told him, moving to kneel down to check out the lower shelves. "You and Lorna hang out a lot?" That was a duo he har a hard time imagining, considering how sweet Vance was and how tell-it-like-it-is Lorna seemed to be. Plus she talked about sex a lot, he couldn't see Vance surviving a conversation like that.
"Prime's pretty hardcore, but I'm just me," Vance pointed out, but he was still grinning with a tad of pride. He shrugged. "And I dunno if I hang out with her a lot. But, I mean, we're friends. Hang out and play video games or watch movies and stuff. She's got solid taste."
He plucked out Infinite Crisis in hardback - he'd read it before, but didn't own it - and flipped it over to check out the price. Oooh, maybe he could afford to get it for himself! "You read this one?"
"Not yet actually, I mean I've seen bits online and stuff but I was saving up for it when my thing happened." He motioned to his face by way of referring to his change. "So that put a stopper in that plan."
Well, that decision was made then. Vance tucked the book under his arm, along with the one for his mom. "I'm still not used to seeing you like that." He admitted.
"It's weird for me that you guys are so used to the other face when this is how I was born, you know?" This was how he was meant to look by all rights. "I just, if I still looked like this then life would be so much easier." He was speaking in a hushed whisper that meant he had to lean in a little to be heard.
Vance scooted slightly closer, since Vic was whispering. He didn't want anyone to hear them either, and besides, it wasn't anyone else's business, really.
"I guess. But I wouldn't have met you then, and that'd kinda suck."
"Well, yeah. Totally but..." But how could he explain to Vance that as much as he liked his friends here and truly valued them but right now he absolutely hated everything else about being a mutant? "Sorry, I'm being kinda sucky company today, aren't I?"
He shook his head. "You're being you, and sometimes it's not easy, from what I can tell. Don't worry about it, man. I wanted your company. Don't hafta be some kinda entertainment act."
"Thanks Vance." Victor nodded appreciatively as he sighed. "I'll keep the whining to a minimum though."
Vance shrugged. "If you can't whine to your friends, who can you whine to?"
He glanced around the shelves some more. Owned, owned, read and hadn't liked, manga, misplaced SciFi...he grabbed one of those super-expensive anthology-kinda books to look at it a little. "I mean, I probably won't understand all the way. Wasn't the same for me. But I still wanna hear, if you want to talk to someone about it."
"It's just...things have gotten really screwed up. Coz of this thing." Victor pointed to his image inducer. "That's all." he pulled out a copy of Supergirl curiously, he'd never read any of her titles before.
Vance thought about that for a moment. Could be about the Tommy thing. Could be about whatever'd happened with his other friends. But he had to say something and didn't wanna make it worse.
"Well, I like you with or without it."
"Thank Vance." Victor nodded with a sort of smile. "So, um, you ever read any Supergirl?" It was the first subject change that jump to mind.
He shook his head. "Nah, my dad wouldn't let me."
"That sucks, well I'll pass it on to you if it's any good." Victor decided, realising that it was one of the few times Vance had mentioned his dad. It was with a very different tone than when he spoke about his mom. Not something to ask about right now for sure, but it was something that Victor would file away for later.
"Oh, sweet. Thanks!"
It was too bad this book was so expensive, otherwise Vance would've totally bought it.
"No problem." Wasn't like he was saving his money up for dates or anything anymore so he could afford to buy comic books, right?
"What other stuff do you read?"
"Like with comic books or any books?" Victor asked as he pulled himself back up to standing.
"Any books." Could learn a lot about a guy by what he read, by Vance's reckoning.
"Well, I was reading some of Oscar Wilde even before I got cast as Dorian." He wasn't sure if Vance knew about that yet since rehearsals hadn't started or anything. "Lately, I've been rereading the first Harry Potter, um I'm really liking Neil Gaiman, oh I read the Hobbit at Christmas but I'm not so sure if I'll read Lord of the Rings coz it's so long and I'm not sure I have time with school work and stuff. Curtis lent me a book too but I haven't started reading that yet. It's called 'Noughts and Crosses'?"
Vance shook his head. "Never heard of it."
"It's an alternate world where white people are the persecuted minority and black people have the power. It was written by a black author called Malorie Blackman, Curtis said it was really good. I'm gonna read it after Dorian I think though. Learning lines is gonna take up a lot of my time." Victor explained. He was nervous at the idea of playing Dorian, in fact he was pretty terrified, but it was a welcome distraction from life that was sure.
"Huh. That actually sounds pretty cool," Vance said. "Excited for the play?"
"Excited and scared in equal measures really." Vic admitted with a nod.
“You’ll do great. I’ve got faith.”
"Thanks." The younger boy smiled almost tentatively "It's just there's a lot of lines involved and he's such a complex character to play. I've never been the lead in anything before. Plus I don't exactly match the part looks wise."
"Why not? Beauty's not, like, a single definition," Vance pointed out. "But is there anything I can do to help?"
Victor's eyebrow should up at that, he knew Vance thought the scales were cool but 'beautiful' was going a bit fair wasn't it?
"In the book he's a blonde for starters." He explained before adding "Not sure, I guess we'll find out after a few rehearsals"
"Oh, I meant like runnin' lines or something," he explained. Vance shrugged, admitting, "Of course, I'd have no idea what I was doing."
"I'm sure I'll take you up in that at some point." Victor nodded as they started making their slow way towards the cash register again.
"Wanna grab a shake or something?" Vance asked as they moved on. "I mean, my treat, since you came with me and all."
"Uh, yeah sure. Sounds great." Victor nodded still doing his best to keep a sort of smile in place.
Vance set his purchases up on the counter and considered the other boy while the cashier rang him out. His smile still looked anemic, or something, and Vance was pretty sure it wasn't his fault and that he hadn't done anything to upset Victor. Mostly. Except he'd brought Vic here, so...maybe?
Or maybe he was just reading too much into things.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, just, you know. Yeah, as ok as I have been lately." Victor nodded very aware of the presence of the cashier. Beside he really didn't want to go on about himself. "tI's just weird being in town since lately I've only been coming in to see him, you know? Not that your company isn't great." He added hastily, not wanting to insult his friend.
The cashier-lady smiled at him as she told him the price, and Vance automatically grinned back as he handed her some crumpled bills and accepted his bag. "Thanks, ma'am."
Hey! She'd given him a free chocolate! Awesome.
He stepped aside to let Victor pay, and turned his attention what he'd said. "Hey, don't worry about it. I'm sorry, I didn't realize...I've never done that kinda thing, so it just didn't occur to me."
"Hey it's cool, I needed to stop being all mopey and get out. Besides, couldn't let you come into town blind. You could've ended up anyway." Victor assured him as cheerfully as he could managed, thanking the server politely as they exchanged money for book and he received a bag and a smile back.
"I'll be fine, really."
"Okay." Hey, if Victor didn't wanna dwell on it, Vance wasn't going to make him. After all, it's not like he knew anything about the topic, really, since he was pretty sure middle-school dates and camp girlfriends probably didn't count the same way.
He thanked the cashier and gave her a bright smile before heading towards the doors. If Victor was gonna put himself out to come out here with him, being good company was the least Vance could do. "So...where can we find some milkshakes?"
"The pizza place down by the arcade is really good for shakes." Falling into the roll into tour-guide again suited Victor for the moment so started to guide them back over to the Main Street.
"Awesome." Vance followed, swinging his bag a little with every step. He'd gotten his mom a book, he'd gotten a new comic - aside from making Victor uncomfortable, it was a pretty good day, all things considered. The town they were walking through was kind of reminiscent of home. A little slow, kind of pokey maybe (though definitely much richer than he was used to), but had some charm to it.
"This place anything like where you're from, or way different?"
"Little bit, yeah." Vic nodded as he pushed his hands into his pockets. "It a bit bigger though I think, more variety in the shops, and got a cooler place for the kids to hang out but pretty much the same. You?" He knew Vance was from New York but not right like the New York that was on TV, he didn't think.
"Yeah. Little fancier than Saugerties, but kinda the same. Small-ish, but big enough there's some kinda downtown. Lot cleaner here, though. But maybe that's because it's fancy."
"Yeah, it's a nice kid of place isn't it?" Nice as in a bit posh rather than nice as in pleasant, though Victor knew it was that too. Tommy's house had been way bigger than the Borkowski's back in Illinois.
"Ok, if we follow Main Street you'll see it in a minute." He added as they walked together.
"Awesome. And yeah, definitely a nice place. I always feel kinda underdressed," Vance admitted.
"Yeah, I'm gonna feel way worse next weekend though. Jean-Paul's invited some of us to a celebratory dinner coz he did so well in his competitions. Thing is, Jean-Paul is pretty posh. He says we can be casual but I don't think I have anything good enough for smart-casual, you know?"
"I mean...most of my stuff is, like, JC Penney's nice, but you can borrow some, if you want," Vance offered. After all, he'd had enough clothes to get him through the b'nei mitzvah circuit and High Holidays and stuff. "Or we can go shopping or something."
"Thanks, I have a sort of smart button down but all my jeans pretty much have holes in or they're getting a bit short. I know I'm still tiny compared to everyone else but believe it or not I've had a growth spurt since I got here." Victor even managed to smile quite genuinely at Vance as his attentions were temporarily diverted.
Vance looked from himself to Victor and back again. "We're kinda the same height, I think. I've got, like, khakis and stuff. Otherwise, I mean, we're already here. You shopped with me; I can return the favor."
"I didn't bring out that much with me." Victor admitted, having expected to spend most of the day in mom type shops that he wouldn't need to spend in. "But we could always come in again if we can't sort out anything else. Maybe?"
"Sure! Whatever you need, man."
As they'd chatted they'd been walking and had finally made it to the pizza place. With shops, the arcade and the cinema in such close proximity it meant it was a hang out for a lot of the local teens and was pretty busy as they headed inside. He and Vance were still able to grab a booth table though, just barely.
Vance glanced over the menu card for a minute, before looking back up at Vic. "What's good here?"
"Huh what?" Victor had been looking around the parlour in case of familiar faces but forced himself back to focus on Vance. "The meat feast is really good, they do a spicy version too. Either way the stuffed crust is awesome, they do like three kinds. And the sides are really good here too, best buffalo wings ever."
"Hmmm...." Vance followed Victor's jumping gaze, but decided not to ask. If the other boy wanted to talk about it, he probably would. Instead, he grinned. "Hey, I'm from the Empire State. Gotta be picky about my pizza and wings. Wanna split something? Shakes too, obviously."
"Hey, capital of my state's Chicago you think I don't know my pizza?" Victor shot back, teasing. "Gotta be deep pan, stuffed crust all the way. But yeah we could share. Wanna get one big one between us? Or we could get two smaller and mix it up a bit?" He suggested as he grabbed the shake menu, the variety of shakes was almost as long as the pizza menu.
Vance snorted and shook his head. "Deep dish? You guys out west are barbarians. But sure! Let's get a couple of them and switch it up. At least one's gotta be real pizza though," he teased.
"Yeah one will be real pizza and one can be whatever weird shit you New Yorker pass off as pizza." Victor shoot back, grinning widely as he pushed away the shake menu momentarily so they could share the pizza listings. "What takes your fancy?"
"Spicy version of the Meat Feast sounds pretty awesome," Vance said, looking over the long list. "I dunno. What do you want?"
"Hmm, well the tex-mex one looks pretty cool? Haven't tried that one." Vic suggested as they browsed.
"I'm down. And now," Vance grinned, "the important part. Milk shakes."
"Well, the chocolate ones are good but they do some more unusual ones there are really great too. They do ones where they blend different candies with milk and ice cream, some sound really weird but at pretty awesome." Victor explained as he looked over the list. "Last time I had the reese's cup one, that was pretty awesome." More truthfully he'd split one but he wasn't going to think about that. Nope, not at all.
"Reese's are my favorite candy," Vance said. "So...that's freaking awesome."
He shook his head a little, still smiling. "Man, if my parents could see what I was eating, they'd have little heart attacks. But this is going to be the best."
Victor nodded "My mom too but it's not like we're doing it everyday, right? No harm done."
"Definitely no harm done. Besides, I had an apple at breakfast. And there's tomatoes in pizza sauce. We're covered."
"There's a few onions and peppers too, so we're more than covered." Victor nodded though he was starting to get that uncomfortable feeling like people were staring. Looking down he could see normal, flesh coloured arms. Ok, so inducer was still working. Wasn't that.
Vance blinked as Victor glanced over his own body. "You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah sure I'm fine. Just checking." He assured his friend as he glance to his left and froze. Fuck.
There was staring from a table across the diner, a table full of Tommy's friends and by the looks on their faces they'd heard all about the ugly break up. In detail.
Ok, this so looked bad. Fuck, it looked seriously bad and poor Vance had no idea. "Um, I don't think I uh, told you everything about the break up with Tommy, did I?" He said edgily, cutting off when the young waitress stopped at their table.
Vance glanced over to see what Vic'd stopped, and quickly ordered (though he smiled at the waitress to take away any hint of sting). As she headed off to help them induce coma by food, he shook his head.
"No, not really. Do you want to?"
"Uh, well, not really but I kinda have to because it might be affecting you any minute now and I'm really sorry about that." Victor admitted regretfully. "Um, well you know I said he wanted to get serious and I knew I had to end it? Well, it got ugly. He didn't understand what was happening or why and was trying to persuade me round and I could feel him winning me over." His voice cracked a little with suppress emotion.
God, remembering how Tommy had been looking at him. The sweet things he said and the way he'd reach out for him,wanted to hold him and tried to understand why Victor was freaking out so bad. Fuck, Tommy had been the perfect guy. "And I knew I couldn't let him because it was hurting so bad already. I started saying all kinds of crap to, to turn him against me. So he wouldn't fight for me anymore. I said all kinds of stuff that hurt him but he still wouldn't give up, wouldn't believe I actually meant any of it. Probably coz I didn't, I guess. I ended up saying there was someone else. So he would stop fighting." His voice was starting to shake a little at the memory, it had been the worst night ever.
Vance's eyes got wider and wider as he listened, and before he could even really think about it, he reached over to sympathetically pat Vic's arm. "Jeez, man. That's awful. I'm so sorry."
Victor pulled away violently for Vance's sake. "Vance, his friends are here. Here where I used to go on dates with Tommy. And they think I totally shattered his heart for some mystery boy. And I've brought you here." He explained, expression completely apologetic. "Look, I don't know if they'll say anything but I'm sorry if they do, ok? I deserve it but you don't."
When Victor pulled back so quickly, Vance put his hands up automatically in self-defense. But he put them down the second the other boy explained.
"Uh, okay. But, look...you don't deserve anything bad either, alright? It was a bad situation, there wasn't a good way to handle it."
Victor just sighed as he slumped in his seat a little. "Sorry I'm ruining things again."
"You're not ruining anything," Vance said, shaking his head. "You don't need to apologize for stuff outside your control. Besides, they haven't even done anything."
"Yeah, um, anyway. Uh, what were we talking about before?" To say their presence had shaken him would be an understatement.
"The fact that we're eating what my dad would call 'crap,'" Vance supplied.
"Ah right, well I bet your dad can give a pass just this once. Sometimes the greasy, cheesy unhealthy option is just needed. Right?" The smile was weak and distracted but he did his best.
He wanted to try and distract himself? Well, okay. Vance would try and keep it up. "Oh, definitely. Actually, I think he'd be more pissed if I was ordering water and salad than about this."
"Really? How come?"
"Oh, he, uh," Vance took a second to figure out how to phrase it best.
"Well, he doesn't like me doing stuff that he considers 'too girly.'" He explained, fingers up in air quotes.
"Ah right." Victor nodded, suddenly understanding what few hints and comments Vance had made about his father. "So, uh, I guess he wouldn't be too pleased about you having lunch with a gay boy, huh?"
"I'm not actually sure." Vance admitted, looking thoughtful. "I don't think he cares if other people are gay or anything. I think he just really doesn't want me to be."
Victor nodded, smiling a little as he spotted the waitress making her way over to them with their drinks. "So he's not one of those who seems to think it's catching or I can brainwash you. Either way I'd be more worried about what he thought if we lived at home but, hey, we're at boarding school and you can hang with however you want, right?"
"Exactly," Vance agreed. "I can hang out with whoever I want. And I like hanging out with you."
He smiled up at their waitress, thanking her as she handed over his Reese's shake. "Wow. This looks awesome."
"Enjoy." Victor said before sipping his own hersheys cookies 'n' cream milkshake. They were so gonna feel sick later but it would be worth it.
Vance paused in his slurping to swallow and grin at Vic. "Believe me, I am."
Victor managed to returning the grin before out of the corner of his eye he noticed the boys were moving from their table and heading straight for them. "Look, don't worry. I'll tell them you're straight. Don't know if they'll believe me but don't worry, I won't let them think you're my date or anything." He hurriedly told Vance.
He shrugged in response. "I'm not afraid of them."
And Vance wasn't. Sure, there were a few of them, but they had nothing on his dad's size. Only people that didn't know how to take a hit were that afraid of them. Not that Victor couldn't say that stuff, he could - it was true, after all - at least mostly. Vance was...kinda sure? This definitely wasn't some kind of date; he and Victor were friends. Still, Vic didn't have to put himself out. Vance could handle himself.
Victor was bracing himself, he didn't really think they'd actually start a fight since there were so many witnesses but still, this wasn't going to be pretty.
In no time at all the three boys were at their table. The one in the lead was Tommy's best friend and, boy, did he look pissed.
"Hello Sam." Victor said as politely as he could.
"You've got some nerve coming back in here after what you've done." Sam all but snarled back.
Vance's eyes narrowed on the new guy - Sam, he guessed - but he kept his mouth shut. For now. He wasn't real sure Victor would appreciate him leaping in at the moment. (Or maybe ever, but even Vance had some limits.)
"Nerve to what? Have lunch with a friend because that's all I'm doing. Nothing more. I've got no issues with you and I don't want any. Just leave it alone, man." Which was the complete and honest truth. Victor hated fighting, ok so most people hated fights but he particularly did. All the negativity and nastiness stressed him out more than most people. He just liked it when everyone could get along, unfortunately that wasn't always possible. Especially when he'd just stomped on a poor human boy's heart.
Sam leant forward a little, hands on the table in a way that was clearly supposed to be intimidating. "You think I'm that stupid? You been seeing this fuck all along then?" He suddenly turned his head towards Vance, looking him over with contempt before warning "Careful or he'll chew you up and spit you out too next."
Picking on him was one thing, picking on his friends was an entirely different kettle of fish. Victor was on his feet before he'd even realised he'd decided to move.
"Leave him alone Sam. He's straight and this isn't a date, I already told you that."
"Hey." Vance stood up so he could get Victor's attention. "Don't worry about it, Vic. Calm down. You don't need to waste your energy on this."
He turned to the other kid, Sam, and added, "and he's right, this isn't a date. Victor's got better taste. He's a good guy, and you should leave it alone."
The taste comment made Victor frown for a split second before he decided Vance was just saying it to try to diffuse the situation. So he added
"I'm not looking for a fight, ok, just wanted some lunch. I'll keep out of your way, you keep out of mine. Yeah?" And, really, with the waiting staff starting to noticed the tension around the situation, what other choice did Sam have? If he got banned from here, there would be nowhere for him to hang out and Vic knew that Sam knew that.
There was a tense moment where they all just stared at each other before they slowly moved off, each of the boys making sure to sound off about the fact that Victor was scum of the earth before they left.
Very slowly, Victor sat down again.
"Sorry about that." He said quietly.
"Don't worry about it," Vance said, plopping back into his seat. "Not your fault."
"Kinda is."
Vance's look was skeptical. "You didn't, like, invite them over here. And you didn't tell them to be jerks."
"They were just defending a friend. A friend I've probably completely screwed up." He'd known it would kill him in the end going into it but he'd never thought how much it would hurt Tommy. Now he felt like the biggest jerk in the world all over again.
"You weren't trying to to hurt him. I may not have known you that long, Victor, but you're a good guy. Don't let their misunderstanding confuse what you know is true," Vance told the other boy, completely serious.
Victor nodded though he didn't quite believe. How could he when he knew now how messed up Tommy must be if a nice guy like Sam had felt the need to do that?
He was saved from having to speak by the arrival of their pizzas.
Vance grabbed one piece of each and slid them on to a plate. "Anyway," he said, changing the subject and not, "thanks for standing up for me. You didn't really have to."
Vic started helping himself too. "Of course I did, you're my friend. It's what friends do." Especially when they've caused the whole mess
"They weren't really saying anything bad about me. And definitely nothing I couldn't take." He looked at Vic evenly. "Maybe coulda stood up for yourself, though."
The younger boy shrugged again, he hadn't defended himself because what could he say in defence of his actions anyway? Vance was the innocent party here not him.
They sat in awkward silence for a moment, and Vance took a bite of the spicy meat lovers. And it was real good, but he wasn't sure how well Vic'd be able to enjoy it, looking that way.
"Look," Vance said after a moment. "I'll drop it. I mean, you know more of what happened than I do. But just...I can tell you're upset about what happened, and I probably would be too, if it was me. But don't let it haunt you forever, man. Tommy will be okay. And you will be, too. That's just...that's all."
"I just hate hurting people. Especially people I...you know." Victor said before starting on his pizza. "But, ok, I'll stop. I did promise no more moping and whining."
Vance sighed and set his food down. "I'm not saying you can't talk about it. If you want to, you should. I just don't wanna, you know...be nosy and keep dragging stuff up you don't wanna talk about."
"I don't wanna over step the mark and keep going on about my problems though. That's not fair." He pulled a pepperoni off of his slice and ate it. "But thanks for the offer."
The older boy shrugged. "We're friends. Friends listen."
"And that goes both ways, just so you know." Victor told him as he finally started eating his pizza properly.
Vance smiled. "Thanks. I guess I just don't have much to say."
"OK, but bear it in mind, k?" Was smiled back before Victor decided he needed to make an effort to break the mood that was descending. "And for the record? If this was a date it wouldn't bad a sign of bad taste at all."
Vance laughed. "It totally would. What kind of guy takes someone out for their first date on a shopping trip for their mother? And that's just for starters!"
"Ok, that would be weird but Sam and those guys didn't know that detail, did they?" Victor chuckled as he dipped his cheese crust in a little garlic mayo. "Other than that, I see nothing wrong. |Certainly nothing bad."
"Time out from why you'd be outta my league for a sec," Vance said, looking at Vic's food with mild, but teasing horror. "Are you dipping pizza in mayonnaise?"
"Not the actual pizza, just some left over crust. Works well with the melted cheese." The younger boy told him with a snicker at the mock-disgust on the other boy's face. It used to gross out his mom too which was mostly why he did it in the first place. "And in what kinda of fucked up bizzaro world would you ever be out of my league?" He was a lizard boy for crying out loud, he wasn't anything like Jean-Paul or Blaine. They were real catches.
"In the real world," Vance said, still eyeing the other boy's plate skeptically. "And that just sounds nasty, man. Mayo on pizza." He made an over-exaggerated 'ew' face that he ruined by laughing again.
"Just the crust. I'm not an animal." Victor insisted, grinning as he dipped a piece of cheese crust in the garlic and made a show of eating it. Once swallowed he added "Yeah, I'm sure all the nice Jewish boys dream of bringing 'Anole' home to their moms!"
Vance snorted. "Pretty sure my mom would be happy with me bringing anyone home," not that she didn't understand why he wouldn't, "let alone you. You're awesome. Nice and funny and..."
Well, he was cute too, Vance supposed. Not that he'd ever really thought about it before. He wasn't gonna say that, though. Thinking it was weird enough. Besides, they were friends and it'd mess that up. Same as it would if he said it to Lorna.
"Well, yeah. Whole package." He finished, hoping the heat in his ears was imaginary. He put on his best yiddish accent to cover up the tension, "a boy should be so lucky."
Victor caught the hesitation and knew what it meant. 'Nice' and 'funny' were all ok qualities but anyone could be nice and funny. Besides that, what was he? And overgrown lizard, there was nothing nice to say about that! He appreciated Vance's attempt to cover up the pause but he knew it for what it was.
However, what had been intended as a silly distraction was in danger of turning into 'very serious depressing subject' area so he moved quickly on. "If you say so, dude." He grabbed another two slices, one of each, and plonked them on his plate. "So, where do wanna hit next?"
"I dunno." Vance inhaled a piece of pizza. Swallowing,and grabbing another, he asked, "what else is cool here?"
"Uh besides the arcade and cinema, I haven't been many other places." Victor admitted. "And we don't have time for the cinema anyway." And Victor didn't have the cash either once the pizza was paid for. "We could explore the shops a bit more, I guess?"
Vance shrugged. "Alright."
He grabbed his shake and swallowed it down. This was so freaking good. "We've gotta come back here, man. This place is awesome."
"Totally. The desserts look great too but I've never had room for one." Victor told him, grinning again and it was only a little bit forced. "Maybe we could get a group together?"
"Sure! I mean, I only know a few people, so you'd probably have to do the inviting, but that'd be pretty sweet."
"Well that's even more reason then, you've gotta 'meet the family' properly, right? The crazy bunch of misfits we call our own."
Vance grinned. "Lookin' forward to it, then. Everyone's been great so far, so I can't wait to meet everyone else."
"Awesome, I'll see what I can sort out." Victor promised. He really did like this place, he'd just have to be more careful about when he chose to hang out here to try to minimalize the chance of run-ins with Tommy or his friends.
"Deal." Vance started on another piece of pizza. He probably seemed like a pig, but Victor was another teenage guy, he'd probably understand.
Victor wasn't noticing at all, in fact he was only a little behind Vance food-wise and hadn't thought twice about it. The food here was just too good to care.
Vance reached over to the other pizza. "Okay, heathen. Let me try this abomination."
"Hey now! You're about to experience true pizza, have some respect!" Was teased back. "And prepare to be converted."
"Please." Vance smirked. "I grew up in the chosen city of Pizza God."
"I didn't know you grew up in Chicago!" Victor gasped dramatically for effect.
Vance snorted. "With this accent?" He intentionally dropped harder into it, as he said, "This is alright, but it's got nothin' on real New York pizza."
"It's not real Chicago pizza either, now if I took you there I'd convert you. Easy." Victor promised, laughing happily. Maybe he was being deliberately distracted by a completely nothing topic but Vance seemed happy enough going with it and it did feel good to be laughing again.
"Tell you what. You let me take you to some hole in the wall in the city for true pizza, and if you get the chance, I'll let you make me eat real Chicago-style whatever this is." Vance offered, tearing through the 'offending' pizza in a way that indicated he had no real complaint.
"If it's possible then yeah, don't forget I work on a time line." Victor told him, not self pitying but more in a practical way.
Vance looked thoughtful for a moment. "Could you, like, fly home? I mean, Chicago isn't that far away, and you just have to be able to make it to your house, right?"
"I don't know." Was the honest answer. He hasn't really tried either, he didn't want to upset his parents anymore than he already had.
The smile Vic got in return was apologetic. "Sorry. None of my business, right?'
"Actually you're the only person who's ever cared to ask so far as I remember. To be honest even if I could I'm not sure I would try to go home."
"You can tell me to shut the heck up," Vance hedged before asking, "but...do you not want to go home?"
"Will you judge me if I say no?" Vic shot back.
"Not really. I don't really want to," he admitted.
"I know it's wrong but it's easier for my parents to be happy and live in denial about what their son is if they don't see me. They haven't exactly asked me to come home anyway." Victor admitted and it did feel good to tell someone.
"I'm sorry, man. That sucks," Vance said. He finished his slice of pizza, and added, "but, really, it's their loss."
"They're trying to deal. It was a shock for them." Victor defended his parents with a shrug. "For now I'm just dealing and letting them do the same thing."
For once, Vance felt like he actually understood. At least sort of. He smiled sympathetically. "Yeah, I think I get it. But no, no judgement. I mean, aside from your pizza choices."
"You will learn to love them. Mark my words."
Vance grinned, and in his best Commodore Norrington voice said, "Consider them marked."
He glanced over at Victor. He wasn't entirely sure the other boy was that thrilled to be out here, but he'd gamely volunteered to help Vance get a present for his mom's birthday all the same.
"So...where should we start?"
"Um, well, uh. What does your mom like?" Victor asked, trying his best to focus. It was hard though when this was the first time in about 2 months that he was coming into town without Tommy. It felt weird and wrong but Vance had been so desperate for help, so how could he say no?
He fiddled with the strap of his image inducer as he looked around, waiting for an answer so that he could point them into a direction.
Vance frowned in thought. "I dunno. She likes judaica stuff. And history stuff. And flowers, like in botanical gardens.
Ok, now Victor just felt like an idiot for not knowing what 'judaica' meant. "What do you mean by stuff? Like books?" Because he knew where a bookshop was easy, anything else and he was going to struggle. Botanical gardens? Where did you buy thing for botanical gardens? And how were they different from normal gardens anyway?"
Vance nodded. "Jewish books...art...all kindsa stuff."
"Well, we could try this way then." Victor indicated to the next right turning "There's a book shop and stuff down that way. Won't hurt to look." Buying for his own mom was hard, helping to buy for someone else’s was impossible and they weren't even in the shop yet.
"Great idea." He followed along in the direction Vic had indicated. "What else is around here? I haven't explored yet."
"Uh, this way there's a few coffee shop type places, antique stores, a pet store. Couple of craft and sewing type places." he'd been meaning to mention those to Ellie actually since Pietro wanted her to be Wardrobe Mistress for the Dorian Gray costumes. "Random little places basically. Further down the way we were going in before is the cinema, pizza place and arcade. Those are the places I know best."
"Makes sense. Those sound like the more fun places," Vance agreed. And...then he thought about how that must've sounded.
"I mean, not that those other things probably aren't cool."
"Why do you always do that? Assume that I've taken whatever you've said as some insult or put down or whatever?" Victor asked curiously "You know you don't need to backtrack and explain yourself to me. I know you're not being mean or whatever."
Vance flushed. "Sorry."
"No, I mean, you don't have to be sorry. I just don't get why you do it, is all." The usually green boy said hurriedly, worried he'd upset or embarrassedVance.
Vance gave the other boy a quick reassuring smile. His gaze dropped to the ground then, as he thought. Why did he apologize? It was just...not a question he'd ever been asked.
"I guess," he said slowly, "I just don't like upsetting people. Even by accident."
"But I'm not upset, you've never upset me." Victor reasoned almost gently. "I'm just saying there's no need to apologise or clarify, especially when you haven't left time for me to react. You don't have to pre-emptively apologise all the time with me, k?"
So basically, Vance figured, this meant he’d crossed that line into apologizing too much. Which was just as bad as not apologizing enough. Offensive, overly-sensitive...he didn’t know anyone well enough yet to know where their lines were, and it meant he was usually guessing. Some people he could guess with better than others, just naturally, but still. Not apologizing was a risk. Apologizing was, too.
“Okay,” he agreed. “I’ll stop.”
"Ok, good. Now we've sorted that out, you wanna head inside?" Because they head indeed stopped outside the bookshop that Victor had been talking about. It was the kind that had it's own little café too. He loved the smell of books and coffee.
"Sure!" Vance tugged the door open, and gestured for Vic to go inside. "Man, I love bookstores."
"Me too and this place has a great sections for plays and scripts, that's so hard to find." Victor told him enthusiastically as he looked around "Ok, pretty sure history and that is over this way." He started leading the way, resisting the temptation to check out his favourite sections. Vance mission first, everything else could wait.
Vance followed along, glancing around as he did. The comics and graphic novels section was calling to him, but he managed to resist the lure. Better to get his mom's stuff first. He wanted to get her a great present, and that probably wouldn't happen if he spent all day wandering around looking at comics.
Once in the history section, Victor claimed the comfy armchair to allowed Vance to browse. He'd probably be more use that way since Vance knew best what sort of book she might like.
Sat down he did his best to keep his smile going, he didn't like to worry any of his friends or annoy them by being too mopey after all.
Vance began searching the shelves, occasionally glancing back over at Victor. It was kinda weird, actually; he was so used to seeing the other boy as himself. Green and scales and everything. Seeing him with the illusion kinda made Vance double-take.
A book title caught his eye, and he pulled it out. 'Jews in Places You Never Heard Of.' He couldn't help it as he started to smile - it was just like that song his mom had sung to him when he was little - and he put it aside to think about. Glancing over at Victor, he noticed the other boy's smile kinda flickering. "You okay?"
Victor's head snapped up and he shoved his hologramy-fake normal hands into his pockets "Yeah, course I am." He flash a fake smile quickly "What'd you find?"
Vance held the book up. "It's just like this song we sang when I was a kid. One of those, y'know, totally typical Hebrew school songs, right? And it sounds interesting. Thought maybe she'd like it."
Victor nodded in agreement though he of course had no familiarity with Hebrew school or it's songs. "Well, if you've found something already I think that makes it officially the quickest shopping trip for a mom ever."
He chuckled, and tucked the book under his arm. "Maybe. I mean, I'm gonna get her flowers or something, too. And write her a birthday letter - I write her one every year - and..." He flushed slightly as he trailed off. "Guess I sound like a momma's boy, huh?"
"If you're a momma's boy then I'm guilty as charged too." Victor admitted as he stood back up. He'd been expecting to be there for the long haul. "I write my mom letters too and not just birthday ones." Ok so he didn't call as much as he should but it didn't mean that he did still love her.
Vance smiled. "Yeah? What's your mom like?"
"We used to be really close. She loved coming to see me in the drama clubs plays and playing soccer at school and stuff. She's a typical Mom who bakes cookies and helps with school reports, you know? Helps run a bakery in town." Victor told him as they made their way back through the shop to pay.
"She sounds real nice," Vance said, completely sincerely. He slowed as they passed the comics/graphic novels section again. "Hey, uh...would it be okay if I, if we, just checked some of these out for a second?
"Course." Victor agreed immediately not minding a detour at all. He was only there because Vance had wanted him there anyway. As he changed course, he asked "So what's your Mom like?"
"She's the best." And she really was, to Vance's mind anyway. "She just...I mean, she's always so nice. To me, to everyone, really. Always came to my school stuff, helped me with homework, told me I could be whoever I wanted even though my dad wanted me to be a butcher."
He smiled slightly. "I don't miss home much, but I kinda miss her."
"She sounds awesome." Victor smiled back as they came to a halt in the comic book section. Now thus was a spot he knew they could both lose hours in.
Vance grinned as he looked up the shelves of comics. This was awesome. Definitely the best part of any bookstore, aside from maybe the smell of it. "You read comics?"
"Is the pope catholic?" Victor smirked back. What self-respecting 14 year old boy didn't, after all?
Vance laughed and plucked a paperback from the shelf. "Probably not a great tester for the Jewish kid. What titles do you read?"
"True, but I ain't catholic either so," Victor shrugged as he started looking over the titles. "Gotta admit it, I love Superman. Total sucker for any of his titles. Pietro showed me a photo of your Superboy-Prime costume, totally awesome by the way."
Vance grinned even as his cheeks turned pink. "Thanks. Felt kinda like a dork, but Pietro was cool about it and Lorna didn't make too much fun of me, so..." He shrugged. "Besides, Superboy-Prime was a great villain."
"Totally and when you're a badass like Prime, no way are you looking dorky." Victor told him, moving to kneel down to check out the lower shelves. "You and Lorna hang out a lot?" That was a duo he har a hard time imagining, considering how sweet Vance was and how tell-it-like-it-is Lorna seemed to be. Plus she talked about sex a lot, he couldn't see Vance surviving a conversation like that.
"Prime's pretty hardcore, but I'm just me," Vance pointed out, but he was still grinning with a tad of pride. He shrugged. "And I dunno if I hang out with her a lot. But, I mean, we're friends. Hang out and play video games or watch movies and stuff. She's got solid taste."
He plucked out Infinite Crisis in hardback - he'd read it before, but didn't own it - and flipped it over to check out the price. Oooh, maybe he could afford to get it for himself! "You read this one?"
"Not yet actually, I mean I've seen bits online and stuff but I was saving up for it when my thing happened." He motioned to his face by way of referring to his change. "So that put a stopper in that plan."
Well, that decision was made then. Vance tucked the book under his arm, along with the one for his mom. "I'm still not used to seeing you like that." He admitted.
"It's weird for me that you guys are so used to the other face when this is how I was born, you know?" This was how he was meant to look by all rights. "I just, if I still looked like this then life would be so much easier." He was speaking in a hushed whisper that meant he had to lean in a little to be heard.
Vance scooted slightly closer, since Vic was whispering. He didn't want anyone to hear them either, and besides, it wasn't anyone else's business, really.
"I guess. But I wouldn't have met you then, and that'd kinda suck."
"Well, yeah. Totally but..." But how could he explain to Vance that as much as he liked his friends here and truly valued them but right now he absolutely hated everything else about being a mutant? "Sorry, I'm being kinda sucky company today, aren't I?"
He shook his head. "You're being you, and sometimes it's not easy, from what I can tell. Don't worry about it, man. I wanted your company. Don't hafta be some kinda entertainment act."
"Thanks Vance." Victor nodded appreciatively as he sighed. "I'll keep the whining to a minimum though."
Vance shrugged. "If you can't whine to your friends, who can you whine to?"
He glanced around the shelves some more. Owned, owned, read and hadn't liked, manga, misplaced SciFi...he grabbed one of those super-expensive anthology-kinda books to look at it a little. "I mean, I probably won't understand all the way. Wasn't the same for me. But I still wanna hear, if you want to talk to someone about it."
"It's just...things have gotten really screwed up. Coz of this thing." Victor pointed to his image inducer. "That's all." he pulled out a copy of Supergirl curiously, he'd never read any of her titles before.
Vance thought about that for a moment. Could be about the Tommy thing. Could be about whatever'd happened with his other friends. But he had to say something and didn't wanna make it worse.
"Well, I like you with or without it."
"Thank Vance." Victor nodded with a sort of smile. "So, um, you ever read any Supergirl?" It was the first subject change that jump to mind.
He shook his head. "Nah, my dad wouldn't let me."
"That sucks, well I'll pass it on to you if it's any good." Victor decided, realising that it was one of the few times Vance had mentioned his dad. It was with a very different tone than when he spoke about his mom. Not something to ask about right now for sure, but it was something that Victor would file away for later.
"Oh, sweet. Thanks!"
It was too bad this book was so expensive, otherwise Vance would've totally bought it.
"No problem." Wasn't like he was saving his money up for dates or anything anymore so he could afford to buy comic books, right?
"What other stuff do you read?"
"Like with comic books or any books?" Victor asked as he pulled himself back up to standing.
"Any books." Could learn a lot about a guy by what he read, by Vance's reckoning.
"Well, I was reading some of Oscar Wilde even before I got cast as Dorian." He wasn't sure if Vance knew about that yet since rehearsals hadn't started or anything. "Lately, I've been rereading the first Harry Potter, um I'm really liking Neil Gaiman, oh I read the Hobbit at Christmas but I'm not so sure if I'll read Lord of the Rings coz it's so long and I'm not sure I have time with school work and stuff. Curtis lent me a book too but I haven't started reading that yet. It's called 'Noughts and Crosses'?"
Vance shook his head. "Never heard of it."
"It's an alternate world where white people are the persecuted minority and black people have the power. It was written by a black author called Malorie Blackman, Curtis said it was really good. I'm gonna read it after Dorian I think though. Learning lines is gonna take up a lot of my time." Victor explained. He was nervous at the idea of playing Dorian, in fact he was pretty terrified, but it was a welcome distraction from life that was sure.
"Huh. That actually sounds pretty cool," Vance said. "Excited for the play?"
"Excited and scared in equal measures really." Vic admitted with a nod.
“You’ll do great. I’ve got faith.”
"Thanks." The younger boy smiled almost tentatively "It's just there's a lot of lines involved and he's such a complex character to play. I've never been the lead in anything before. Plus I don't exactly match the part looks wise."
"Why not? Beauty's not, like, a single definition," Vance pointed out. "But is there anything I can do to help?"
Victor's eyebrow should up at that, he knew Vance thought the scales were cool but 'beautiful' was going a bit fair wasn't it?
"In the book he's a blonde for starters." He explained before adding "Not sure, I guess we'll find out after a few rehearsals"
"Oh, I meant like runnin' lines or something," he explained. Vance shrugged, admitting, "Of course, I'd have no idea what I was doing."
"I'm sure I'll take you up in that at some point." Victor nodded as they started making their slow way towards the cash register again.
"Wanna grab a shake or something?" Vance asked as they moved on. "I mean, my treat, since you came with me and all."
"Uh, yeah sure. Sounds great." Victor nodded still doing his best to keep a sort of smile in place.
Vance set his purchases up on the counter and considered the other boy while the cashier rang him out. His smile still looked anemic, or something, and Vance was pretty sure it wasn't his fault and that he hadn't done anything to upset Victor. Mostly. Except he'd brought Vic here, so...maybe?
Or maybe he was just reading too much into things.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, just, you know. Yeah, as ok as I have been lately." Victor nodded very aware of the presence of the cashier. Beside he really didn't want to go on about himself. "tI's just weird being in town since lately I've only been coming in to see him, you know? Not that your company isn't great." He added hastily, not wanting to insult his friend.
The cashier-lady smiled at him as she told him the price, and Vance automatically grinned back as he handed her some crumpled bills and accepted his bag. "Thanks, ma'am."
Hey! She'd given him a free chocolate! Awesome.
He stepped aside to let Victor pay, and turned his attention what he'd said. "Hey, don't worry about it. I'm sorry, I didn't realize...I've never done that kinda thing, so it just didn't occur to me."
"Hey it's cool, I needed to stop being all mopey and get out. Besides, couldn't let you come into town blind. You could've ended up anyway." Victor assured him as cheerfully as he could managed, thanking the server politely as they exchanged money for book and he received a bag and a smile back.
"I'll be fine, really."
"Okay." Hey, if Victor didn't wanna dwell on it, Vance wasn't going to make him. After all, it's not like he knew anything about the topic, really, since he was pretty sure middle-school dates and camp girlfriends probably didn't count the same way.
He thanked the cashier and gave her a bright smile before heading towards the doors. If Victor was gonna put himself out to come out here with him, being good company was the least Vance could do. "So...where can we find some milkshakes?"
"The pizza place down by the arcade is really good for shakes." Falling into the roll into tour-guide again suited Victor for the moment so started to guide them back over to the Main Street.
"Awesome." Vance followed, swinging his bag a little with every step. He'd gotten his mom a book, he'd gotten a new comic - aside from making Victor uncomfortable, it was a pretty good day, all things considered. The town they were walking through was kind of reminiscent of home. A little slow, kind of pokey maybe (though definitely much richer than he was used to), but had some charm to it.
"This place anything like where you're from, or way different?"
"Little bit, yeah." Vic nodded as he pushed his hands into his pockets. "It a bit bigger though I think, more variety in the shops, and got a cooler place for the kids to hang out but pretty much the same. You?" He knew Vance was from New York but not right like the New York that was on TV, he didn't think.
"Yeah. Little fancier than Saugerties, but kinda the same. Small-ish, but big enough there's some kinda downtown. Lot cleaner here, though. But maybe that's because it's fancy."
"Yeah, it's a nice kid of place isn't it?" Nice as in a bit posh rather than nice as in pleasant, though Victor knew it was that too. Tommy's house had been way bigger than the Borkowski's back in Illinois.
"Ok, if we follow Main Street you'll see it in a minute." He added as they walked together.
"Awesome. And yeah, definitely a nice place. I always feel kinda underdressed," Vance admitted.
"Yeah, I'm gonna feel way worse next weekend though. Jean-Paul's invited some of us to a celebratory dinner coz he did so well in his competitions. Thing is, Jean-Paul is pretty posh. He says we can be casual but I don't think I have anything good enough for smart-casual, you know?"
"I mean...most of my stuff is, like, JC Penney's nice, but you can borrow some, if you want," Vance offered. After all, he'd had enough clothes to get him through the b'nei mitzvah circuit and High Holidays and stuff. "Or we can go shopping or something."
"Thanks, I have a sort of smart button down but all my jeans pretty much have holes in or they're getting a bit short. I know I'm still tiny compared to everyone else but believe it or not I've had a growth spurt since I got here." Victor even managed to smile quite genuinely at Vance as his attentions were temporarily diverted.
Vance looked from himself to Victor and back again. "We're kinda the same height, I think. I've got, like, khakis and stuff. Otherwise, I mean, we're already here. You shopped with me; I can return the favor."
"I didn't bring out that much with me." Victor admitted, having expected to spend most of the day in mom type shops that he wouldn't need to spend in. "But we could always come in again if we can't sort out anything else. Maybe?"
"Sure! Whatever you need, man."
As they'd chatted they'd been walking and had finally made it to the pizza place. With shops, the arcade and the cinema in such close proximity it meant it was a hang out for a lot of the local teens and was pretty busy as they headed inside. He and Vance were still able to grab a booth table though, just barely.
Vance glanced over the menu card for a minute, before looking back up at Vic. "What's good here?"
"Huh what?" Victor had been looking around the parlour in case of familiar faces but forced himself back to focus on Vance. "The meat feast is really good, they do a spicy version too. Either way the stuffed crust is awesome, they do like three kinds. And the sides are really good here too, best buffalo wings ever."
"Hmmm...." Vance followed Victor's jumping gaze, but decided not to ask. If the other boy wanted to talk about it, he probably would. Instead, he grinned. "Hey, I'm from the Empire State. Gotta be picky about my pizza and wings. Wanna split something? Shakes too, obviously."
"Hey, capital of my state's Chicago you think I don't know my pizza?" Victor shot back, teasing. "Gotta be deep pan, stuffed crust all the way. But yeah we could share. Wanna get one big one between us? Or we could get two smaller and mix it up a bit?" He suggested as he grabbed the shake menu, the variety of shakes was almost as long as the pizza menu.
Vance snorted and shook his head. "Deep dish? You guys out west are barbarians. But sure! Let's get a couple of them and switch it up. At least one's gotta be real pizza though," he teased.
"Yeah one will be real pizza and one can be whatever weird shit you New Yorker pass off as pizza." Victor shoot back, grinning widely as he pushed away the shake menu momentarily so they could share the pizza listings. "What takes your fancy?"
"Spicy version of the Meat Feast sounds pretty awesome," Vance said, looking over the long list. "I dunno. What do you want?"
"Hmm, well the tex-mex one looks pretty cool? Haven't tried that one." Vic suggested as they browsed.
"I'm down. And now," Vance grinned, "the important part. Milk shakes."
"Well, the chocolate ones are good but they do some more unusual ones there are really great too. They do ones where they blend different candies with milk and ice cream, some sound really weird but at pretty awesome." Victor explained as he looked over the list. "Last time I had the reese's cup one, that was pretty awesome." More truthfully he'd split one but he wasn't going to think about that. Nope, not at all.
"Reese's are my favorite candy," Vance said. "So...that's freaking awesome."
He shook his head a little, still smiling. "Man, if my parents could see what I was eating, they'd have little heart attacks. But this is going to be the best."
Victor nodded "My mom too but it's not like we're doing it everyday, right? No harm done."
"Definitely no harm done. Besides, I had an apple at breakfast. And there's tomatoes in pizza sauce. We're covered."
"There's a few onions and peppers too, so we're more than covered." Victor nodded though he was starting to get that uncomfortable feeling like people were staring. Looking down he could see normal, flesh coloured arms. Ok, so inducer was still working. Wasn't that.
Vance blinked as Victor glanced over his own body. "You okay?"
"Yeah, yeah sure I'm fine. Just checking." He assured his friend as he glance to his left and froze. Fuck.
There was staring from a table across the diner, a table full of Tommy's friends and by the looks on their faces they'd heard all about the ugly break up. In detail.
Ok, this so looked bad. Fuck, it looked seriously bad and poor Vance had no idea. "Um, I don't think I uh, told you everything about the break up with Tommy, did I?" He said edgily, cutting off when the young waitress stopped at their table.
Vance glanced over to see what Vic'd stopped, and quickly ordered (though he smiled at the waitress to take away any hint of sting). As she headed off to help them induce coma by food, he shook his head.
"No, not really. Do you want to?"
"Uh, well, not really but I kinda have to because it might be affecting you any minute now and I'm really sorry about that." Victor admitted regretfully. "Um, well you know I said he wanted to get serious and I knew I had to end it? Well, it got ugly. He didn't understand what was happening or why and was trying to persuade me round and I could feel him winning me over." His voice cracked a little with suppress emotion.
God, remembering how Tommy had been looking at him. The sweet things he said and the way he'd reach out for him,wanted to hold him and tried to understand why Victor was freaking out so bad. Fuck, Tommy had been the perfect guy. "And I knew I couldn't let him because it was hurting so bad already. I started saying all kinds of crap to, to turn him against me. So he wouldn't fight for me anymore. I said all kinds of stuff that hurt him but he still wouldn't give up, wouldn't believe I actually meant any of it. Probably coz I didn't, I guess. I ended up saying there was someone else. So he would stop fighting." His voice was starting to shake a little at the memory, it had been the worst night ever.
Vance's eyes got wider and wider as he listened, and before he could even really think about it, he reached over to sympathetically pat Vic's arm. "Jeez, man. That's awful. I'm so sorry."
Victor pulled away violently for Vance's sake. "Vance, his friends are here. Here where I used to go on dates with Tommy. And they think I totally shattered his heart for some mystery boy. And I've brought you here." He explained, expression completely apologetic. "Look, I don't know if they'll say anything but I'm sorry if they do, ok? I deserve it but you don't."
When Victor pulled back so quickly, Vance put his hands up automatically in self-defense. But he put them down the second the other boy explained.
"Uh, okay. But, look...you don't deserve anything bad either, alright? It was a bad situation, there wasn't a good way to handle it."
Victor just sighed as he slumped in his seat a little. "Sorry I'm ruining things again."
"You're not ruining anything," Vance said, shaking his head. "You don't need to apologize for stuff outside your control. Besides, they haven't even done anything."
"Yeah, um, anyway. Uh, what were we talking about before?" To say their presence had shaken him would be an understatement.
"The fact that we're eating what my dad would call 'crap,'" Vance supplied.
"Ah right, well I bet your dad can give a pass just this once. Sometimes the greasy, cheesy unhealthy option is just needed. Right?" The smile was weak and distracted but he did his best.
He wanted to try and distract himself? Well, okay. Vance would try and keep it up. "Oh, definitely. Actually, I think he'd be more pissed if I was ordering water and salad than about this."
"Really? How come?"
"Oh, he, uh," Vance took a second to figure out how to phrase it best.
"Well, he doesn't like me doing stuff that he considers 'too girly.'" He explained, fingers up in air quotes.
"Ah right." Victor nodded, suddenly understanding what few hints and comments Vance had made about his father. "So, uh, I guess he wouldn't be too pleased about you having lunch with a gay boy, huh?"
"I'm not actually sure." Vance admitted, looking thoughtful. "I don't think he cares if other people are gay or anything. I think he just really doesn't want me to be."
Victor nodded, smiling a little as he spotted the waitress making her way over to them with their drinks. "So he's not one of those who seems to think it's catching or I can brainwash you. Either way I'd be more worried about what he thought if we lived at home but, hey, we're at boarding school and you can hang with however you want, right?"
"Exactly," Vance agreed. "I can hang out with whoever I want. And I like hanging out with you."
He smiled up at their waitress, thanking her as she handed over his Reese's shake. "Wow. This looks awesome."
"Enjoy." Victor said before sipping his own hersheys cookies 'n' cream milkshake. They were so gonna feel sick later but it would be worth it.
Vance paused in his slurping to swallow and grin at Vic. "Believe me, I am."
Victor managed to returning the grin before out of the corner of his eye he noticed the boys were moving from their table and heading straight for them. "Look, don't worry. I'll tell them you're straight. Don't know if they'll believe me but don't worry, I won't let them think you're my date or anything." He hurriedly told Vance.
He shrugged in response. "I'm not afraid of them."
And Vance wasn't. Sure, there were a few of them, but they had nothing on his dad's size. Only people that didn't know how to take a hit were that afraid of them. Not that Victor couldn't say that stuff, he could - it was true, after all - at least mostly. Vance was...kinda sure? This definitely wasn't some kind of date; he and Victor were friends. Still, Vic didn't have to put himself out. Vance could handle himself.
Victor was bracing himself, he didn't really think they'd actually start a fight since there were so many witnesses but still, this wasn't going to be pretty.
In no time at all the three boys were at their table. The one in the lead was Tommy's best friend and, boy, did he look pissed.
"Hello Sam." Victor said as politely as he could.
"You've got some nerve coming back in here after what you've done." Sam all but snarled back.
Vance's eyes narrowed on the new guy - Sam, he guessed - but he kept his mouth shut. For now. He wasn't real sure Victor would appreciate him leaping in at the moment. (Or maybe ever, but even Vance had some limits.)
"Nerve to what? Have lunch with a friend because that's all I'm doing. Nothing more. I've got no issues with you and I don't want any. Just leave it alone, man." Which was the complete and honest truth. Victor hated fighting, ok so most people hated fights but he particularly did. All the negativity and nastiness stressed him out more than most people. He just liked it when everyone could get along, unfortunately that wasn't always possible. Especially when he'd just stomped on a poor human boy's heart.
Sam leant forward a little, hands on the table in a way that was clearly supposed to be intimidating. "You think I'm that stupid? You been seeing this fuck all along then?" He suddenly turned his head towards Vance, looking him over with contempt before warning "Careful or he'll chew you up and spit you out too next."
Picking on him was one thing, picking on his friends was an entirely different kettle of fish. Victor was on his feet before he'd even realised he'd decided to move.
"Leave him alone Sam. He's straight and this isn't a date, I already told you that."
"Hey." Vance stood up so he could get Victor's attention. "Don't worry about it, Vic. Calm down. You don't need to waste your energy on this."
He turned to the other kid, Sam, and added, "and he's right, this isn't a date. Victor's got better taste. He's a good guy, and you should leave it alone."
The taste comment made Victor frown for a split second before he decided Vance was just saying it to try to diffuse the situation. So he added
"I'm not looking for a fight, ok, just wanted some lunch. I'll keep out of your way, you keep out of mine. Yeah?" And, really, with the waiting staff starting to noticed the tension around the situation, what other choice did Sam have? If he got banned from here, there would be nowhere for him to hang out and Vic knew that Sam knew that.
There was a tense moment where they all just stared at each other before they slowly moved off, each of the boys making sure to sound off about the fact that Victor was scum of the earth before they left.
Very slowly, Victor sat down again.
"Sorry about that." He said quietly.
"Don't worry about it," Vance said, plopping back into his seat. "Not your fault."
"Kinda is."
Vance's look was skeptical. "You didn't, like, invite them over here. And you didn't tell them to be jerks."
"They were just defending a friend. A friend I've probably completely screwed up." He'd known it would kill him in the end going into it but he'd never thought how much it would hurt Tommy. Now he felt like the biggest jerk in the world all over again.
"You weren't trying to to hurt him. I may not have known you that long, Victor, but you're a good guy. Don't let their misunderstanding confuse what you know is true," Vance told the other boy, completely serious.
Victor nodded though he didn't quite believe. How could he when he knew now how messed up Tommy must be if a nice guy like Sam had felt the need to do that?
He was saved from having to speak by the arrival of their pizzas.
Vance grabbed one piece of each and slid them on to a plate. "Anyway," he said, changing the subject and not, "thanks for standing up for me. You didn't really have to."
Vic started helping himself too. "Of course I did, you're my friend. It's what friends do." Especially when they've caused the whole mess
"They weren't really saying anything bad about me. And definitely nothing I couldn't take." He looked at Vic evenly. "Maybe coulda stood up for yourself, though."
The younger boy shrugged again, he hadn't defended himself because what could he say in defence of his actions anyway? Vance was the innocent party here not him.
They sat in awkward silence for a moment, and Vance took a bite of the spicy meat lovers. And it was real good, but he wasn't sure how well Vic'd be able to enjoy it, looking that way.
"Look," Vance said after a moment. "I'll drop it. I mean, you know more of what happened than I do. But just...I can tell you're upset about what happened, and I probably would be too, if it was me. But don't let it haunt you forever, man. Tommy will be okay. And you will be, too. That's just...that's all."
"I just hate hurting people. Especially people I...you know." Victor said before starting on his pizza. "But, ok, I'll stop. I did promise no more moping and whining."
Vance sighed and set his food down. "I'm not saying you can't talk about it. If you want to, you should. I just don't wanna, you know...be nosy and keep dragging stuff up you don't wanna talk about."
"I don't wanna over step the mark and keep going on about my problems though. That's not fair." He pulled a pepperoni off of his slice and ate it. "But thanks for the offer."
The older boy shrugged. "We're friends. Friends listen."
"And that goes both ways, just so you know." Victor told him as he finally started eating his pizza properly.
Vance smiled. "Thanks. I guess I just don't have much to say."
"OK, but bear it in mind, k?" Was smiled back before Victor decided he needed to make an effort to break the mood that was descending. "And for the record? If this was a date it wouldn't bad a sign of bad taste at all."
Vance laughed. "It totally would. What kind of guy takes someone out for their first date on a shopping trip for their mother? And that's just for starters!"
"Ok, that would be weird but Sam and those guys didn't know that detail, did they?" Victor chuckled as he dipped his cheese crust in a little garlic mayo. "Other than that, I see nothing wrong. |Certainly nothing bad."
"Time out from why you'd be outta my league for a sec," Vance said, looking at Vic's food with mild, but teasing horror. "Are you dipping pizza in mayonnaise?"
"Not the actual pizza, just some left over crust. Works well with the melted cheese." The younger boy told him with a snicker at the mock-disgust on the other boy's face. It used to gross out his mom too which was mostly why he did it in the first place. "And in what kinda of fucked up bizzaro world would you ever be out of my league?" He was a lizard boy for crying out loud, he wasn't anything like Jean-Paul or Blaine. They were real catches.
"In the real world," Vance said, still eyeing the other boy's plate skeptically. "And that just sounds nasty, man. Mayo on pizza." He made an over-exaggerated 'ew' face that he ruined by laughing again.
"Just the crust. I'm not an animal." Victor insisted, grinning as he dipped a piece of cheese crust in the garlic and made a show of eating it. Once swallowed he added "Yeah, I'm sure all the nice Jewish boys dream of bringing 'Anole' home to their moms!"
Vance snorted. "Pretty sure my mom would be happy with me bringing anyone home," not that she didn't understand why he wouldn't, "let alone you. You're awesome. Nice and funny and..."
Well, he was cute too, Vance supposed. Not that he'd ever really thought about it before. He wasn't gonna say that, though. Thinking it was weird enough. Besides, they were friends and it'd mess that up. Same as it would if he said it to Lorna.
"Well, yeah. Whole package." He finished, hoping the heat in his ears was imaginary. He put on his best yiddish accent to cover up the tension, "a boy should be so lucky."
Victor caught the hesitation and knew what it meant. 'Nice' and 'funny' were all ok qualities but anyone could be nice and funny. Besides that, what was he? And overgrown lizard, there was nothing nice to say about that! He appreciated Vance's attempt to cover up the pause but he knew it for what it was.
However, what had been intended as a silly distraction was in danger of turning into 'very serious depressing subject' area so he moved quickly on. "If you say so, dude." He grabbed another two slices, one of each, and plonked them on his plate. "So, where do wanna hit next?"
"I dunno." Vance inhaled a piece of pizza. Swallowing,and grabbing another, he asked, "what else is cool here?"
"Uh besides the arcade and cinema, I haven't been many other places." Victor admitted. "And we don't have time for the cinema anyway." And Victor didn't have the cash either once the pizza was paid for. "We could explore the shops a bit more, I guess?"
Vance shrugged. "Alright."
He grabbed his shake and swallowed it down. This was so freaking good. "We've gotta come back here, man. This place is awesome."
"Totally. The desserts look great too but I've never had room for one." Victor told him, grinning again and it was only a little bit forced. "Maybe we could get a group together?"
"Sure! I mean, I only know a few people, so you'd probably have to do the inviting, but that'd be pretty sweet."
"Well that's even more reason then, you've gotta 'meet the family' properly, right? The crazy bunch of misfits we call our own."
Vance grinned. "Lookin' forward to it, then. Everyone's been great so far, so I can't wait to meet everyone else."
"Awesome, I'll see what I can sort out." Victor promised. He really did like this place, he'd just have to be more careful about when he chose to hang out here to try to minimalize the chance of run-ins with Tommy or his friends.
"Deal." Vance started on another piece of pizza. He probably seemed like a pig, but Victor was another teenage guy, he'd probably understand.
Victor wasn't noticing at all, in fact he was only a little behind Vance food-wise and hadn't thought twice about it. The food here was just too good to care.
Vance reached over to the other pizza. "Okay, heathen. Let me try this abomination."
"Hey now! You're about to experience true pizza, have some respect!" Was teased back. "And prepare to be converted."
"Please." Vance smirked. "I grew up in the chosen city of Pizza God."
"I didn't know you grew up in Chicago!" Victor gasped dramatically for effect.
Vance snorted. "With this accent?" He intentionally dropped harder into it, as he said, "This is alright, but it's got nothin' on real New York pizza."
"It's not real Chicago pizza either, now if I took you there I'd convert you. Easy." Victor promised, laughing happily. Maybe he was being deliberately distracted by a completely nothing topic but Vance seemed happy enough going with it and it did feel good to be laughing again.
"Tell you what. You let me take you to some hole in the wall in the city for true pizza, and if you get the chance, I'll let you make me eat real Chicago-style whatever this is." Vance offered, tearing through the 'offending' pizza in a way that indicated he had no real complaint.
"If it's possible then yeah, don't forget I work on a time line." Victor told him, not self pitying but more in a practical way.
Vance looked thoughtful for a moment. "Could you, like, fly home? I mean, Chicago isn't that far away, and you just have to be able to make it to your house, right?"
"I don't know." Was the honest answer. He hasn't really tried either, he didn't want to upset his parents anymore than he already had.
The smile Vic got in return was apologetic. "Sorry. None of my business, right?'
"Actually you're the only person who's ever cared to ask so far as I remember. To be honest even if I could I'm not sure I would try to go home."
"You can tell me to shut the heck up," Vance hedged before asking, "but...do you not want to go home?"
"Will you judge me if I say no?" Vic shot back.
"Not really. I don't really want to," he admitted.
"I know it's wrong but it's easier for my parents to be happy and live in denial about what their son is if they don't see me. They haven't exactly asked me to come home anyway." Victor admitted and it did feel good to tell someone.
"I'm sorry, man. That sucks," Vance said. He finished his slice of pizza, and added, "but, really, it's their loss."
"They're trying to deal. It was a shock for them." Victor defended his parents with a shrug. "For now I'm just dealing and letting them do the same thing."
For once, Vance felt like he actually understood. At least sort of. He smiled sympathetically. "Yeah, I think I get it. But no, no judgement. I mean, aside from your pizza choices."
"You will learn to love them. Mark my words."
Vance grinned, and in his best Commodore Norrington voice said, "Consider them marked."
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Date: 2013-03-15 12:52 am (UTC)>.>
No really SO FUCKING CUTE OMFG.