The Classix

(OLD) Chapter 15

    Eyes glued to the closet floor, I gave no response. After a few seconds of waiting, Gerald exhaled, dramatically leaning his body to try and meet my eyes.

    "Emeray," he said. "That's not fair. Will you look at me?"

    When I didn't budge, he strained.

    "Emeray. I get it, this is incredibly out of the ordinary. I was probably the last person you expected to come out there as your new member. Regardless of my explanations, I understand your shock, and even anger. If you'd just––"

    He stopped speaking the moment I drew him into an hug. At first he was a bit surprised by the impact, but it took all of five seconds for the muscles in his arms to relax against around me, and for my exhale to settle softly past his ear like a whisper. We stood this way for a few seconds longer, wordless, as I thought about all the lives I could feel passing through this embrace.

    People I lost––my mother, my brother, Foster.

    People I left––my sister and father, Marlon.

    And as odd as the circumstances are, Gerald was back. For the first time in a while, it occurred to me that it could be possible for people to return when they've stepped from your sight, and sometimes they return in the way you'd least expect.

    But as long as they return in the end, what does it matter how they're returning to you?

    "Don't think I'm angry at you," I told him. "I'm not angry."

    "Good," he whispered in reply.

    "I just thought you were gone forever. It was a real surprise downstairs when you walked in."

    "I know too well how you feel about being surprised." He stepped back to look at me, the sides of his eyes crinkled with his smile. In that moment, they were brown and green––olive. I made sure I fully, wholly notice them. "Did you really think Norax would get rid of me for good?"

    "Well yeah, actually," I admitted. "She was really cautious about the dating rumor when it came up. She got a replacement and made you leave."

    " . . . just so she could primp me up and send me right back into the ring as an official member," he finishes with a chuckle.

    "But why?" I asked.

    "Why not?"

    "It just doesn't make sense to me," I say. "Nobody has ever suspected a romance between Chapter and I like they have me and you, and yet she created contracts and boundaries to extinguish that. How could making you a Famoux member be a good idea here?"

    He shrugged. "She didn't do too good of a job explaining it when she approached me. If there's anything we've learned about Norax, though, it's that she takes the logical, expected outcome and completely capsizes it."

    I laughed. "I don't disagree."

    After that, we retreated back downstairs into the subdued chaos. He told me a few quick facts about him along the way. By the time we made it to the living room, I'd discovered that he's a year younger than Cartney Kirk, that it was Norax who requested his hair be blonder for his Famoux debut, and that the F stands for Francis.

    "Francis Gerald Hobby," I said aloud, marveling.

    "Quite the mouthful, huh?"

     The whole living room is getting this self-proclaimed mouthful from him now as I speak with Lex.