Love and War

Chapter Two: The Boy

Saturday Feburary 6th 2010

Holiday Joss Boulstridge

       My palms felt like they were flooding with sweat. Ryan Tramblay, the Ryan Tramblay had just waltzed into my workplace like destiny itself had shoved him in here. I felt happier than the time when I was a kid and my mother had brought me and my siblings the Space Jam VHS before anyone else had it. Happier than the time that Madame Delacour didn’t fail me in grade nine French and bumped my mark up from a 49 to a 50. Happier than the first time my current girlfriend Piper Geoff confessed she liked me as much as I did and kissed me with her soft, burgundy lipsticked mouth.
      Secretly I had been enamoured with Ryan for years. I remember the first time I ever saw him I was fourteen and he was eleven. I know I was well into grade nine and Ryan was in grade seven, but I thought he was just the cutest guy I had ever seen. He had worn his pale blond hair down to his shoulders and wore second-hand band t-shirts and dark jeans. Now his hair was cut shorter and closer to his head, but still flipped at the ends, and his style was much more punk inspired.
       I had always thought of him as the aesthetically ideal guy for me, and now after three years of almost never seeing him he was here again!! I had glimpsed his brother, but never him! God, I was so happy! I’d make him mine somehow.
     “What are you smiling about, Holiday?” Piper asked me strolling into the room. I could tell she had just reapplied her make up because her skin looked especially powder dusted. She smudged dark eyeshadow around her eyes and wore blood-red lipstick on her mouth.
       “Nothing important,” I said completely lying. I went over to Piper and encircled her Blessthefall t-shirt clad torso with my arms and pulled her into me. I could feel her 34 DD chest through my own shirt and hers and I felt my body tingle in a pleasurable way.
     Piper raised her naturally red eyebrows. They looked more burnt orange to me then red anyway. “You haven’t looked this happy since you and I got together! Something’s up,” she concluded.
      Piper and I had been going out since grade ten and now we were in grade twelve. Well Piper was in grade twelve and was set to graduate this spring. I was supposed to be graduating, but I could have bet my entire bank account that my graduation wouldn’t be smooth and easy. My grades sucked, I hated school and I failed so many classes that I got a sick feeling in my stomach thinking about it.
      “Nothing is up. I can’t be in a good mood?” I brushed a strand of Piper’s red hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ear. I kissed her once on her lips and then grinned. “What if I’m just happy we’re finally done exams and we can finally move onto second semester?”
       In a small way I felt a little bad for Piper. Piper was an absolute goddess and I should have been giving all of my attention to her and not to someone else. Especially not someone who I had barely exchanged words with once. I heard it was better to go with someone that loved you instead of someone who you loved. At least I knew that Piper genuinely liked me back.
      What if Ryan was straight!? God forbid! That would ruin everything!
      “All right, lovers! That’s enough!” cried Gerald “Gerry” Bracken, the owner of the tattoo parlour. He clapped his tattoo covered hands so loudly that me and Piper jumped apart. Gerry looked at me sternly and held out a finger to me. “There’s a whole gaggle of girls that need their belly buttons pierced and you’re not helping me at all, Boulstridge.”
       I’ve got a theory. Gerry didn’t bother chastising Piper because not only was she the only girl that currently worked at X-Inkz, but because she was incredibly hot and seventeen. What guy wouldn’t try and get with her?
       “Sorry!” I kissed Piper quickly on the lips once more and then saluted Gerry. “Duty calls!” Piper giggled at my gesture.
       "I hope you're just excited for the semester turnaround, Holiday. I know I am. We'll have World Issues together," Piper said softly. Her light brown eyes seemed to glow with a certain happiness that came only when she seemed to be talking to me.
     God, I was such a lucky boy, and here I was thinking about some other boy. I was deeply ashamed of myself for wanting Ryan like this, but I couldn't help it. I still wanted him. I wanted him and Piper both, but I knew well enough that I could have neither.
     So I spent the evening piercing girl's belly buttons and laughing to myself. How silly were they? They were spending crumpled handfuls of cash on a piercing just to be like all their other friends only to have them removed once their parents found out. That sucked for them, but it was good for us. They'd be back at X-Inkz as soon as they got the chance so that they could pierce themselves again.
      I took my fifteen minute break and hurried into the staffroom. Completely rushing I jammed my cold spinach pizza into my mouth and washed it down with a can of Sprite before going back to work. I spent the last half of my shift cleaning up two of the piercing rooms. I liked cleaning because it gave me time to think.
     I'd put my body on auto-pilot as I cleaned the windows and I would let my conscience thoughts wander. I thought about Piper and how excited she was that she was finally graduating. I thought about taking her to prom and imagining how beautiful she would look all finely made up and sheathed in a prom dress. Then I would think of Ryan. Young and bright. So impossibly gorgeous. If I could have him I would take him in a moment. I wondered if his lips were as soft as they looked. I wondered if he had ever let a guy touch that lithe body of his.
     Then I would stop cleaning, so that I could think my thoughts in all their entirety. I still wanted Ryan. Even worse than I had wanted it before. Or maybe I had always wanted him this much, I just hadn't realized it.
      I mopped the floor and wiped down the couch with antibacterial spray when Gerry stormed in and told me that my time was up. I went back into the staff-room and clocked out.
      As I was reaching around in the closet for my thick black parka, I realized Piper's stuff was gone. Her shift had ended and she hadn't even bothered to say goodbye? I signed and put on my winter gear. I wrapped my neck with a Slytherin scarf and put my Jack Skellington toque before grabbing my back pack and finally leaving. As I walked out into the cold I promised myself that I would settle the issue of Ryan and me. I would figure out if I could have him one way or another.