Always Forever

Caprice

A/N: sorry for not posting in a while, school n such. However, fear not; there are still more chapters yet to come.

The brisk opening of the door frightened Ralph if only a little bit. Simon peered up at his comrade in need of severe attention; and that of a romantic connotation.

"Hi.." Ralph breathed out. He didn't know how to begin professing his dilemma. What to do. How to feel. Or even where to go next. He walked to Simon's subconsciously so it must have meant something rather important to his subconscious mind. Possibly not, anything is to be suspected.
"Hullo" Simon meekly replied
"What're you doing out so late?" Many things flooded through Simon's brain.
Why was his crush at his door? Near midnight? This was crazy.

"I'm just....I have a lot on my mind.." Ralph sighed.
Simon looked behind him as if he had to keep look out.
"Come on in."
Ralph walked in and nervously rubbed the back of his neck.
"It's about..Cherry.." Ralph knew the nickname was ridiculous but there was no easier way to go about it. He just didn't feel like spouting to the world that he may or may not have a tiny possible interest in someone of the same sex. It wasn't possible. He only knew of so many people who experienced this odd phenomenon. Boys were just. Something else.. He could always laugh it off when he might be teased and called a queer in the locker room for looking at a.. curious body changing into not particularly sexy clothing.

By the time Ralph was brought back to the real world he noticed his frizzy haired friend was gone. So he looked around nervously until he saw an also nervous looking Simon making tea. Simon was always a considerate host to his peers. Including his crush. Yes, it would break his heart to hear that blonde beauty talking about some other guy in a rose-tinted dye. But he couldn't just leave his friend outside in the cold. But why, of all people. Was it a greaser who's done nothing but wreak havoc on his school and now his friends. His mind would fester on that thought later tonight. When the hot water in the teapot whistled a scream he poured it into two cups, he didn't really have a need for tea right now but he figured it would make Ralph less uncomfortable drinking tea by himself. Sleepy time tea would relax his friend and hopefully help him sleep.

He prepared the tea in a meticulous manner and carefully brought the hot cups of warm liquid to the coffee table. Ralph was already sitting down on the sofa, so Simon figured he'd sit on the other couch.
"So? Uh.. about...Cherry?" Simon coughed
"Oh uh, yeah. I'm..." Ralph exhaled roughly out his nose.
"I might. Uh, sort of.. kind of.." Ralph kept stuttering

"Like him more than I should." Ralph nearly shrieked. It was very rare for Ralph to lose his cool. So Simon was more than shocked. Nevertheless he kept quiet and let Ralph continue his tirade.
"Also we may have sort of kissed before and I freaked out so I don't know what to do!" Simon's eyes lost its glimmer. His glassy eyes peered up and became clear.
"I think you should confront him and tell him how you feel, if it's bothering you this much." Simon took a sip of the sweet calming tea. Ralph's eyes widened and his path became clearer than glass. He thanked Simon quickly and downed the tea, it's hotness scalding his throat.
"Thanks again, I owe you my life." He blurted before dashing out the door.

Simon caught a whiff of his fresh cologne in his speedy path. He went to get his cup and wash it.

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Ralph ran all the way home. His breath huffing and puffing into a white cloud of condensation in the cold nighttime air. He entered through the backyard and forced himself to finish work and sleep. But even after work was done he couldn't budge his eyelids to close. All he could hear was his pulse beating in his ears. How would he get Jack alone. Again Ralph was left to his thoughts, alone in his darkened bedroom. His room was neatly put together; Courtesy of his family maid.

He wasn't exactly sure when (or if) he fell asleep that night. He just remembered that it was dark, and his mind felt like it was full of fog that obscured clear thoughts, and it was still dark and he looked at the clock reading "12:52" and he looked over again 5 minutes later and it read "4:28" and it was still dark. Ralph decided that since sleep was merely a distant idea, rather than a possibility, he would just get an extra-extra-early start on his day. He didn't have to be awake for almost 3 hours, but maybe 3 hours would be enough for him to form some idea on what he would say to Jack that day.

Frankly, Simon's idea of telling Jack how he felt wasn't anything he hadn't thought of before. He had considered doing it before but never entirely thought of it as a rational idea until Simon suggested it. That was sort of the push he needed to carry through with it. But what would he even say? He could go the concise route, saying, "Hey Jack I like you and I hate it;" or the long route, giving a detailed description of every single emotion Jack had ever made Ralph feel with concrete details and historical citations to specific instances; or the truthful route, in which he would frantically declare, "Greetings, Jack Merridew!You're immensely gorgeous and while it would go against everything I stand for, I think I'd really like for you to propose to me here and now. At the same time, though, I want you to stay a world away from me at all time so I can continue putting off that fuzzy feeling I get when you breathe somewhere near my direction." No, no, goodness gracious, no.

After what felt like entirely too long, Ralph decided to confess in a not-too-concise, not-too-long, not-too-truthful way, along the lines of "Hey, man, my lips have been tingling ever since they touched yours and that's pretty awful because nothing really came out of that and I don't know where we stand right now but I like you a lot! I also need space though so keep that in mind." After replaying that in his head a few times, Ralph scrapped that idea too. He eventually thought, "whatever," and decided that he would cross the confession bridge when he got to it.

It wasn't long before he was asleep, but like a millisecond his pesky alarm clock screamed in his ear. He looked severely worn down. Time for school.