HSAU! Storytime Ch4
Disclaimer: None of it's real. Totally fictional.
David was so going to have a car accident at this rate. For the hundredth time in the last 20 minutes, he found his eyes treacherously straying from the road in front of him, over to the black-haired boy sitting at the other end of the bench seat, chatting away happily.
“So I really hope you like my mom’s cooking tonight,” Archie was saying, “I think she wants to give you a real Honduran cuisine experience, so she’s going all out over it, like I’m pretty sure she started marinading the beef for the Carneada the second I told her you were coming over, haha.”
He was smiling as blindingly as usual, and David only just managed to force his eyes back to the road in time to avoid running a red light.
“It sounds great Arch, and don’t worry, I eat pretty much anything.”
Archie laughed again, that soft, breathy laugh; David had never heard anyone else laugh like that.
“Yeah, I believe you because, oh gosh, if that story’s true - ”
“What story?”
“Well, um, Neal told me about a famous fried chilli cheese fries sandwich incident that happened when you guys were juniors. Oh my heck Cook, did you really eat two of them? That’s amazing, and um, pretty gross, but in an amazing way-”
David couldn’t help laughing.
“Well, no Arch, really it’s just gross, and gross is pretty much how I felt after eating that. Oh man, never again. I can’t believe Neal told you that story.”
Archie shrugged and smiled, looking pleased.
“Neal’s really nice, now that I’ve gotten to know him a bit, but gosh, I don’t mean he wasn’t nice or anything before, just that I didn’t know he was nice to begin with, but he is, and even though he totally looks scary and doesn’t talk that much, when he does talk, he’s funny and sometimes I run into him because his music class is straight after mine, in the same classroom, so we run into each other and he says hi which is really nice of him and he told me that story because um, I asked -”
Archie stopped, cutting himself off.
“What? What did you ask?” David asked after a short pause, glancing over at him. There was a light blush on Archie’s cheeks.
“Um, well, I just, I asked him what kind of food you liked and if you were ok with South American food, and he said you were like, a food maniac and then, then he told me that story, so, yeah.”
The soft, raspy voice trailed off, and in the ensuing silence, David desperately tried to fight down his ridiculous and embarrassing reaction at hearing that Archie had secretly! Talked. To. Neal. Just to find out what food he liked.
Good grief. Just because he had a crush on a 14 year old boy didn’t mean he should act like a 14 year old girl. David cleared his throat (in a really gruff, manly way).
“Yeah, I guess food maniac’s a good way to describe it. I can’t wait to try your mom’s cooking man, it sounds great. So, uh, is your whole family gonna be there for dinner?”
“No, Claudia’s working tonight until late, did I tell you she works at the video store on weekends? And my Dad had to take Daniel to a soccer match, the team usually plays on Friday nights, so it’ll just be Mom and Jazzy and Amber and you and me. That’s ok, right?”
Archie looked a little anxious; as if he were worried that David would be highly insulted that his whole family weren’t going to be there to roll out the red carpet for him. Which was just weird, because while one half of David’s brain was freaking out at the thought of meeting Archie’s mom (what if she took one look at his face and knew, just knew, that he was rapidly falling head over heels for her sweet, innocent son), the other half (the sane half) was looking at this dinner for what it was: friend having dinner at friend’s house.
No more, no less. What did Archie have to be anxious about?
“Oh, make a left here, then it’s the white house just up there, yeah, after the brown house,” Archie pointed up ahead, and in a few moments, they were pulling up in front of an ordinary white two-storey house with a medium-sized front yard and single lock-up garage on one side.
On entering the house, David’s senses were instantly assaulted by tantalizing aromas that set his stomach grumbling automatically.
“Dude, what is that smell, and how long is it until dinner, and can dinner be now, please?” he asked jokingly. Archie laughed, shutting the front door behind them, and led the way to the kitchen.
“Mom, we’re home!”
A small, athletic-looking woman with black hair looked up from the crowded stovetop, a welcoming smile on her face.
Wow, David thought. He didn’t know what Archie’s dad looked like, but now he knew who was responsible for Archie’s bone structure and dazzling smile. And the cute little squinty eyes. And the slight, compact build, and smooth, olive-toned complexion…Ok, whoa, enough comparisons, now he wasn’t even sure which of them he was checking out.
Luckily, neither of them seemed to have noticed, as Mrs. Archuleta gave her son a kiss on the cheek and held out her right hand to David. With her other hand she was dextrously stirring a saucepan of rice and beans that smelled faintly of coconut and something else, something sharp and tangy.
“Hi Mrs. Archuleta, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much for inviting me over,” David shook her outstretched hand. She beamed and squeezed his hand warmly.
“It’s so nice to finally meet you, Cook, do you mind if I call you Cook? It’s what David always calls you,” she darted a fond glance at her son, “And how’s your wrist? Have you been wearing the bracelet? Do you think it’s helped at all?”
David held up his wrist, showing her the band of dark magnetic beads, gleaming against his skin.
“I haven’t taken it off since Archie gave it to me, Mrs. Archuleta, and uh, honestly I’m not sure, but I think the swelling has maybe gone down a little.” Although icepacks and strapping tape probably had more to do with it than the power of magnets, he thought.
And after Archie had exclaimed so delightedly, “Oh cool, you are still wearing it!” when they had seen each other yesterday morning, he had no inclination to take it off, despite Neal and Andy’s amusement.
She smiled and shrugged good-naturedly. “Well, I’m glad you’re wearing it anyway, Cook, David was right, I think that kind of jewellery suits you. Now, I hate to chase you two out of the kitchen, but there’s only room for one in here, and I’m sure David has things he wants to show you. Don’t worry about helping me set the table, mijo, there’s only us and the little girls tonight.”
Almost on cue, two pretty little dark-haired girls came running into the kitchen, shouting, “Mom, I’m starving! Hi Davey!” only to screech to a halt at the sight of David. One of the little girls looked up at him and said, “Who are you? Are you David’s friend who runs races against him?”
David chuckled. “Uh, no, I don’t really run races-”
“Well, you don’t look scary, so you can’t be Neal, and you don’t have a funny accent, so you can’t be Michael,” her eyes went wide, “Oooh, are you the friend who-”
“Girls! Where are your manners?” Mrs. Archuleta interrupted, frowning at them reprovingly. “Be polite and introduce yourselves properly. And don’t be silly, you know perfectly well this is David’s friend, Cook.”
The girls, suitably chastened, introduced themselves as Jazzy (the taller one) and Amber (with curlier hair).
“Why are you called Cook?” asked Amber, “Is it because you’re good at cooking?”
“Amber, it’s his last name,” Archie groaned, “And I’m pretty sure I mentioned that too, gosh, don’t you girls have piano practice you could be doing or something?”
“Nuh-uh, not today, because it’s Friday, and we don’t have to do homework until tomorrow, so let’s watch a movie until dinner, Davey!” Jazzy grabbed one of Archie’s hands, and Amber took hold of the other, both of them dragging him (presumably) in the direction of the living room.
“You can come too and watch with us, Cook,” Amber said graciously over her shoulder, ignoring her older brother’s noises of resistance.
“Sure, I’d love to watch a movie with you guys,” David grinned, interrupting Archie’s helpless-sounding “Amber, Jazzy, Cook probably doesn’t want to watch ‘Finding Nemo’”.
The girls cheered and pulled Archie out of the room. David was about to follow them, when Mrs. Archuleta’s voice stopped him in his tracks.
“Cook, wait a moment.”
He looked at her, unsure of what to expect from the small, subdued smile on her face.
“I just wanted to let you know, Cook, how grateful I am and how good you’ve been for David,” David opened his mouth, to say what, he wasn’t sure, just that one sentence in and he was already uncomfortable about where this was heading, but Mrs. Archuleta was still talking, “He would never say much about it, but I could tell he wasn’t settling in at high school, and his father and I were getting, well, we were concerned. And then suddenly, he’s joining the track team and winning medals and making friends; even his grades have improved. I just can’t tell you how wonderful it’s been to see him so confident and happy.”
David’s mouth felt dry. Archie’s mom was thanking him almost as if he were some kind of mentor, or teacher or something.
Admittedly he had started off with a kind of a protective instinct, fuelled significantly by a crush the size of a continent, but things had changed. The more David had gotten to know Archie, the more he had come to appreciate everything about him, from his love for music and his delightfully unexpected sense of humour, to his unearthly smile and raspy voice. He had come to notice, in a kind of resigned, helpless way, how much he looked forward to seeing Archie every day at school, and how disappointed he was on the rare days they didn’t manage to run into each other.
It was a battle to keep away from Archie, to limit himself to greetings and short conversations at lockers or on the way to lunch. He had to struggle not to ask Archie to sing with him more; to have little private jam sessions after school, hang out together on weekends. It helped when he remembered how quickly graduation was approaching, and when Neal and Andy brought up things like university applications in conversation.
Bottom line: this was a situation where gratitude from Archie’s mother just felt, well, totally unnecessary.
“Mrs. Archuleta, Archie’s the one, I mean, David’s the one who’s done all this. He’s a smart, talented guy and I’m just grateful, uh, I’m glad I can call him a friend of mine.”
She subjected him to a searching gaze, and David felt his palms begin to sweat. He was about a second away from cracking and confessing everything - “I-only-want-to-kiss-your-gorgeous-son-a little-bit-please-don’t-have-me-arrested” - when she finally smiled, just that small, subdued smile again, that didn’t really reach her eyes.
“Well, I’m happy that David’s had your friendship at this time, Cook, I know from what he says that you’re-”
David was just about to interrupt and ask her what she meant by ‘at this time,’ when three voices called from the living room in perfect unison, “Cook! The movie’s on!
Mrs. Archuleta laughed, “You better get in there before you miss any of ‘Finding Nemo’. Did you know it’s one of David’s favourite movies?”
David grinned, remembering just a few weeks ago that he had caught Archie singing, “Keep swimming, keep swimming,” to himself as the two of them had been fighting their way to class against the current of students swarming in the corridors.
“I might have had an inkling.”
“Uh, Cook?” Archie was at the doorway, looking partly mortified and partly resigned, “The girls have started the movie, I’m sorry, oh gosh, they’re like, impossible to say no to, and I haven’t watched a movie with them in ages because of track team and homework and, stuff, so I kind of feel like I have to, but I’m so sorry, you’re never going to want to come here again, because we made you watch a kid’s movie, oh man,” he flailed a bit, kind of miserably, and David couldn’t stop himself from walking up and laying an innocently reassuring, totally platonic hand on his shoulder.
“Arch, I’m deeply insulted on behalf of Pixar, that you would label ‘Finding Nemo’ as just a kids’ movie,” a grin spread over Archie’s face, “That movie contains lessons for viewers of all age groups, now c’mon,” David began to sing, “Keep swimming, keep swimming.”
Archie was laughing as David steered them both out of the kitchen, his hand still resting comfortably on the younger boy’s shoulder.
He could handle this, he thought, as they sat down on the couch next to Jazzy and Amber. Just being with Archie like this, being his friend, hanging out at his house, as friends, it was enough.
Archie shifted, unconsciously moving a little closer, so that their shoulders were just barely touching. David’s grip on the arm of the couch tightened.
Shit.
It so wasn’t enough.
~end of chapter 4~
David was so going to have a car accident at this rate. For the hundredth time in the last 20 minutes, he found his eyes treacherously straying from the road in front of him, over to the black-haired boy sitting at the other end of the bench seat, chatting away happily.
“So I really hope you like my mom’s cooking tonight,” Archie was saying, “I think she wants to give you a real Honduran cuisine experience, so she’s going all out over it, like I’m pretty sure she started marinading the beef for the Carneada the second I told her you were coming over, haha.”
He was smiling as blindingly as usual, and David only just managed to force his eyes back to the road in time to avoid running a red light.
“It sounds great Arch, and don’t worry, I eat pretty much anything.”
Archie laughed again, that soft, breathy laugh; David had never heard anyone else laugh like that.
“Yeah, I believe you because, oh gosh, if that story’s true - ”
“What story?”
“Well, um, Neal told me about a famous fried chilli cheese fries sandwich incident that happened when you guys were juniors. Oh my heck Cook, did you really eat two of them? That’s amazing, and um, pretty gross, but in an amazing way-”
David couldn’t help laughing.
“Well, no Arch, really it’s just gross, and gross is pretty much how I felt after eating that. Oh man, never again. I can’t believe Neal told you that story.”
Archie shrugged and smiled, looking pleased.
“Neal’s really nice, now that I’ve gotten to know him a bit, but gosh, I don’t mean he wasn’t nice or anything before, just that I didn’t know he was nice to begin with, but he is, and even though he totally looks scary and doesn’t talk that much, when he does talk, he’s funny and sometimes I run into him because his music class is straight after mine, in the same classroom, so we run into each other and he says hi which is really nice of him and he told me that story because um, I asked -”
Archie stopped, cutting himself off.
“What? What did you ask?” David asked after a short pause, glancing over at him. There was a light blush on Archie’s cheeks.
“Um, well, I just, I asked him what kind of food you liked and if you were ok with South American food, and he said you were like, a food maniac and then, then he told me that story, so, yeah.”
The soft, raspy voice trailed off, and in the ensuing silence, David desperately tried to fight down his ridiculous and embarrassing reaction at hearing that Archie had secretly! Talked. To. Neal. Just to find out what food he liked.
Good grief. Just because he had a crush on a 14 year old boy didn’t mean he should act like a 14 year old girl. David cleared his throat (in a really gruff, manly way).
“Yeah, I guess food maniac’s a good way to describe it. I can’t wait to try your mom’s cooking man, it sounds great. So, uh, is your whole family gonna be there for dinner?”
“No, Claudia’s working tonight until late, did I tell you she works at the video store on weekends? And my Dad had to take Daniel to a soccer match, the team usually plays on Friday nights, so it’ll just be Mom and Jazzy and Amber and you and me. That’s ok, right?”
Archie looked a little anxious; as if he were worried that David would be highly insulted that his whole family weren’t going to be there to roll out the red carpet for him. Which was just weird, because while one half of David’s brain was freaking out at the thought of meeting Archie’s mom (what if she took one look at his face and knew, just knew, that he was rapidly falling head over heels for her sweet, innocent son), the other half (the sane half) was looking at this dinner for what it was: friend having dinner at friend’s house.
No more, no less. What did Archie have to be anxious about?
“Oh, make a left here, then it’s the white house just up there, yeah, after the brown house,” Archie pointed up ahead, and in a few moments, they were pulling up in front of an ordinary white two-storey house with a medium-sized front yard and single lock-up garage on one side.
On entering the house, David’s senses were instantly assaulted by tantalizing aromas that set his stomach grumbling automatically.
“Dude, what is that smell, and how long is it until dinner, and can dinner be now, please?” he asked jokingly. Archie laughed, shutting the front door behind them, and led the way to the kitchen.
“Mom, we’re home!”
A small, athletic-looking woman with black hair looked up from the crowded stovetop, a welcoming smile on her face.
Wow, David thought. He didn’t know what Archie’s dad looked like, but now he knew who was responsible for Archie’s bone structure and dazzling smile. And the cute little squinty eyes. And the slight, compact build, and smooth, olive-toned complexion…Ok, whoa, enough comparisons, now he wasn’t even sure which of them he was checking out.
Luckily, neither of them seemed to have noticed, as Mrs. Archuleta gave her son a kiss on the cheek and held out her right hand to David. With her other hand she was dextrously stirring a saucepan of rice and beans that smelled faintly of coconut and something else, something sharp and tangy.
“Hi Mrs. Archuleta, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much for inviting me over,” David shook her outstretched hand. She beamed and squeezed his hand warmly.
“It’s so nice to finally meet you, Cook, do you mind if I call you Cook? It’s what David always calls you,” she darted a fond glance at her son, “And how’s your wrist? Have you been wearing the bracelet? Do you think it’s helped at all?”
David held up his wrist, showing her the band of dark magnetic beads, gleaming against his skin.
“I haven’t taken it off since Archie gave it to me, Mrs. Archuleta, and uh, honestly I’m not sure, but I think the swelling has maybe gone down a little.” Although icepacks and strapping tape probably had more to do with it than the power of magnets, he thought.
And after Archie had exclaimed so delightedly, “Oh cool, you are still wearing it!” when they had seen each other yesterday morning, he had no inclination to take it off, despite Neal and Andy’s amusement.
She smiled and shrugged good-naturedly. “Well, I’m glad you’re wearing it anyway, Cook, David was right, I think that kind of jewellery suits you. Now, I hate to chase you two out of the kitchen, but there’s only room for one in here, and I’m sure David has things he wants to show you. Don’t worry about helping me set the table, mijo, there’s only us and the little girls tonight.”
Almost on cue, two pretty little dark-haired girls came running into the kitchen, shouting, “Mom, I’m starving! Hi Davey!” only to screech to a halt at the sight of David. One of the little girls looked up at him and said, “Who are you? Are you David’s friend who runs races against him?”
David chuckled. “Uh, no, I don’t really run races-”
“Well, you don’t look scary, so you can’t be Neal, and you don’t have a funny accent, so you can’t be Michael,” her eyes went wide, “Oooh, are you the friend who-”
“Girls! Where are your manners?” Mrs. Archuleta interrupted, frowning at them reprovingly. “Be polite and introduce yourselves properly. And don’t be silly, you know perfectly well this is David’s friend, Cook.”
The girls, suitably chastened, introduced themselves as Jazzy (the taller one) and Amber (with curlier hair).
“Why are you called Cook?” asked Amber, “Is it because you’re good at cooking?”
“Amber, it’s his last name,” Archie groaned, “And I’m pretty sure I mentioned that too, gosh, don’t you girls have piano practice you could be doing or something?”
“Nuh-uh, not today, because it’s Friday, and we don’t have to do homework until tomorrow, so let’s watch a movie until dinner, Davey!” Jazzy grabbed one of Archie’s hands, and Amber took hold of the other, both of them dragging him (presumably) in the direction of the living room.
“You can come too and watch with us, Cook,” Amber said graciously over her shoulder, ignoring her older brother’s noises of resistance.
“Sure, I’d love to watch a movie with you guys,” David grinned, interrupting Archie’s helpless-sounding “Amber, Jazzy, Cook probably doesn’t want to watch ‘Finding Nemo’”.
The girls cheered and pulled Archie out of the room. David was about to follow them, when Mrs. Archuleta’s voice stopped him in his tracks.
“Cook, wait a moment.”
He looked at her, unsure of what to expect from the small, subdued smile on her face.
“I just wanted to let you know, Cook, how grateful I am and how good you’ve been for David,” David opened his mouth, to say what, he wasn’t sure, just that one sentence in and he was already uncomfortable about where this was heading, but Mrs. Archuleta was still talking, “He would never say much about it, but I could tell he wasn’t settling in at high school, and his father and I were getting, well, we were concerned. And then suddenly, he’s joining the track team and winning medals and making friends; even his grades have improved. I just can’t tell you how wonderful it’s been to see him so confident and happy.”
David’s mouth felt dry. Archie’s mom was thanking him almost as if he were some kind of mentor, or teacher or something.
Admittedly he had started off with a kind of a protective instinct, fuelled significantly by a crush the size of a continent, but things had changed. The more David had gotten to know Archie, the more he had come to appreciate everything about him, from his love for music and his delightfully unexpected sense of humour, to his unearthly smile and raspy voice. He had come to notice, in a kind of resigned, helpless way, how much he looked forward to seeing Archie every day at school, and how disappointed he was on the rare days they didn’t manage to run into each other.
It was a battle to keep away from Archie, to limit himself to greetings and short conversations at lockers or on the way to lunch. He had to struggle not to ask Archie to sing with him more; to have little private jam sessions after school, hang out together on weekends. It helped when he remembered how quickly graduation was approaching, and when Neal and Andy brought up things like university applications in conversation.
Bottom line: this was a situation where gratitude from Archie’s mother just felt, well, totally unnecessary.
“Mrs. Archuleta, Archie’s the one, I mean, David’s the one who’s done all this. He’s a smart, talented guy and I’m just grateful, uh, I’m glad I can call him a friend of mine.”
She subjected him to a searching gaze, and David felt his palms begin to sweat. He was about a second away from cracking and confessing everything - “I-only-want-to-kiss-your-gorgeous-son-a little-bit-please-don’t-have-me-arrested” - when she finally smiled, just that small, subdued smile again, that didn’t really reach her eyes.
“Well, I’m happy that David’s had your friendship at this time, Cook, I know from what he says that you’re-”
David was just about to interrupt and ask her what she meant by ‘at this time,’ when three voices called from the living room in perfect unison, “Cook! The movie’s on!
Mrs. Archuleta laughed, “You better get in there before you miss any of ‘Finding Nemo’. Did you know it’s one of David’s favourite movies?”
David grinned, remembering just a few weeks ago that he had caught Archie singing, “Keep swimming, keep swimming,” to himself as the two of them had been fighting their way to class against the current of students swarming in the corridors.
“I might have had an inkling.”
“Uh, Cook?” Archie was at the doorway, looking partly mortified and partly resigned, “The girls have started the movie, I’m sorry, oh gosh, they’re like, impossible to say no to, and I haven’t watched a movie with them in ages because of track team and homework and, stuff, so I kind of feel like I have to, but I’m so sorry, you’re never going to want to come here again, because we made you watch a kid’s movie, oh man,” he flailed a bit, kind of miserably, and David couldn’t stop himself from walking up and laying an innocently reassuring, totally platonic hand on his shoulder.
“Arch, I’m deeply insulted on behalf of Pixar, that you would label ‘Finding Nemo’ as just a kids’ movie,” a grin spread over Archie’s face, “That movie contains lessons for viewers of all age groups, now c’mon,” David began to sing, “Keep swimming, keep swimming.”
Archie was laughing as David steered them both out of the kitchen, his hand still resting comfortably on the younger boy’s shoulder.
He could handle this, he thought, as they sat down on the couch next to Jazzy and Amber. Just being with Archie like this, being his friend, hanging out at his house, as friends, it was enough.
Archie shifted, unconsciously moving a little closer, so that their shoulders were just barely touching. David’s grip on the arm of the couch tightened.
Shit.
It so wasn’t enough.
~end of chapter 4~