love on the horizon

Lunging with Intent to Posses

Every single day is good with Ernie. Every. Single. One. He's like a god that shone down on Bert's life; everything before these few weeks are dreary and bleak, and he can never go back to that. Ernie seems happier, too. Realistically, Bert is aware that the first few weeks of being together are always the best, but he never thought that life itself could be this good. They decide not to tell anyone for a couple reasons: there's no one they're really close with, they don't want to deal with homophobia, and they're not even used to this change themselves. They're still figuring it out; how are they supposed to explain what they have to anyone else? But, they're not going to lie and hide about it either. If someone asks, they'll tell the truth. 

Well, there's one person Bert wants to tell. Oscar, the dirty man by the dumpster who forced him to realize he was gay a couple months ago, was the one person he wanted to brag to. Bert and Oscar were by no means friends. They had only spoken that one time. But, Bert did remember Oscar saying that he would always be in that alley if Bert wanted to come back. And, well... Bert wanted to go back. After telling Ernie the story about Oscar one night, Ernie told Bert that he should take another morning walk and "rub it in Oscar's face". 

So, Bert makes his way back to the alley, searching for the door that was next to the dumpster with a giant pride flag on it. He finds it, right where he remembers, but Oscar isn't there. This immediately makes Bert feel like an idiot. Oscar was a person who no doubt had things to do, and of course he wasn't going to be in that stupid alleyway all day every day. But the door next to the dumpster was open, and Bert peers into it, only to find the grimy man absolutely eating the face off of some other kid. They were so into it that neither of them noticed Bert, so Bert quickly looks away and begins to walk back to the apartment. He feels dissatisfied with the outcome of this trip, seeing as he got so close to being able to communicate with Oscar. So dissatisfied, in fact, that he decides to sit in front of the dumpster on a crate and wait for them to pull apart. Twenty five minutes later, Oscar comes out of the door and into the alleyway, and lights up a cigarette. The cigarette almost falls out of his mouth when he sees Bert. 

"You! How long have you been waiting here?"

"Almost half an hour."

"Why?"

"I was giving you privacy."

"...Why?"

"Because that's the decent thing to do when others are having an intimate moment? What, did you want me to stare at you until you noticed?"

"Um, no, but you could have like knocked on the door or cleared your throat or something."

"Oh. Yeah."

"You still haven't explained why you've been sitting by my dumpster for 30 minutes."

"Oh. I wanted to talk to you."

"Kid, you really need to work on being forthcoming. I feel like I'm interrogating you. Please just make this situation make sense so that we can have a productive conversation."

"Remember how you said I looked like I was gay?"

"I do not. Our single conversation is but a blur in my mind. I'm happy it resonated with you, at least."

"Well, you did. You told me I looked like a twink--"

"Ha, yeah you do."

"-- and I told you I wasn't. Well, you were right, I guess. On the way back from our talk I realized I had a crush on my roommate. And now we're dating."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I don't know. I just really wanted to."

"I'm touched. Good for you. Good for you. As you clearly saw, I also am happily in a relationship with my crush."