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Andrew is eating his traditional breakfast of Reese’s Puffs with chocolate milk and watching the Saturday morning cartoons with Bea, when Aaron bursts into the room with an evil grin on his face and bunch of papers in his hands. He starts reading and Andrew’s heart drops into his stomach.
“Your hair is red like fire
You are my heart’s desire
Your eyes are blue as ice...” Aaron recites while cackling.
He cuts off with a yelp as Andrew launches himself at his brother, paper flying through the air. The scrap for a bit, Andrew getting Aaron in a headlock and Aaron’s elbow in Andrew’s stomach, before Bea separate’s them with an exasperated “boys!”.
Andrew scowls at Aaron. “He went through my stuff!” he complains.
“You left it out on the desk! And it’s not my fault that you’re a loser that writes bad poetry about your crush.”
“Aaron”, Bea chides. “Even if Andrew left something on the side that doesn’t give you to right to embarrass him like that.” Andrew pokes his tongue out in victory.
“And Andrew, even if Aaron annoys you that doesn’t mean you can resort to violence.” Andrew mutters under his breath, making sure that his mother can’t hear him. He’s a rebel but he’s not stupid.
The settle back down to breakfast and cartoons and ignore each other until it’s time to head to exy practise. Andrew is still sulking, and Aaron is starting to look penitent.
“You know, you should just tell him how you feel”, he says and Andrew glares at him.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about”, he says. Sometimes denial is all a man has.
It then that Neil comes running up to them, exy racket and duffle bag of gear slung over his shoulder. Andrew’s heart does a complicated dance that he steadfastly ignores as he greets his best friend and neighbour of ten years.
“Sure”, Aaron remarks drily, thankfully not pointing out Andrew’s heart-eyes to Neil. They head on over to the gym where they play exy on Saturday afternoons. Andrew probably would have quit by now, having very little interest in it, if it weren’t for the fact it was one of the few things that him and his brother enjoyed doing together. Watching Neil get all hot and sweaty in tiny shorts didn’t hurt either. And the happy carefree smile he got when he scored...
Andrew shook himself just in time to stop a shot Kevin had made on goal. Focus Minyard, he told himself as he pulled himself together. Luckily Aaron was too busy with his mark to laugh at Andrew’s lapse in concentration. It really was getting out of hand.
The practise comes to an end and they all pile into Coach’s minivan for the ten minute drive to the diner that was their Saturday afternoon post-practice ritual. As usual Andrew sits wedged between Neil and Aaron – the only two people he can stand touching him – and orders a huge chocolate milkshake. Kevin makes a face but refrains from commenting. Allison had bet him he couldn’t go a month without criticising the team for anything, and Kevin was determined to win at least one bet with her.
Andrew stole Neil’s chips to dunk in his shake, and Neil stole the strawberries that always decorated it – no matter how much he asked Irma, the old waitress, to leave them off. Neil complimented Andrew’s save, Andrew mocked Neil’s obsession with the sport that bound them all together. Aaron pointedly rolled his eyes.
Afterwards Aaron goes to a classmates to work on some science project or other, and Andrew invites Neil back to his house. Neil accepts, he seems to prefer the absolute chaos of the Dobson household, to the bland soullessness of his own. Stuart was rarely there, but he treated his home like a museum and wasn’t fond of teenage mess destroying his carefully curated possessions. Bea might have OCD but she at least understood that her children were humans and let them behave as such.
They get back and Andrew follows his nose to the kitchen where Bea is just taking some cookies out of the oven. She greets Neil warmly and tells them that the cookies will be cool enough to eat in about ten minutes.
“Of course”, she laughs, “you’re always welcome to eat them now and burn your mouths on molten chocolate”. She knows her son all too well.
“We’ll come back and get them in ten, Ms B”, Neil says and Andrew herds him out of the kitchen.
“We’re just going to play X-Box in my room”, Andrew yells as they head up the stairs.
“Door open three inches Andrew!” comes the reply, and Andrew could kill his brother.
“Why three inches?” Neil asks, while Andrew is setting up. Andrew grunts and hopes Neil drops it. No such luck. “Andrew, why?”
“Aaron has a rule that if girls are in his room he has to leave the door open three inches. Bea has this wild theory that if it’s closed he’s going to spontaneously become irresistible to the opposite sex.”
Neil laughs. “OK, he’s attractive, but he’d definitely need a personality transplant before that happened.”
“You think my brother is attractive?” Andrew isn’t sure what to do with that statement.
Neil stops laughing and starts studying his shoes. “Well, I mean. He looks like you, so I guess?”
Andrew’s heart leaps into his throat. Is Neil implying...?
A knock on the door startles them both. Bea bustles in with a tray containing still warm cookies, and fresh lemonade. Neil leaps to his feet to help, and Bea pulls the door closed behind her when she finishes – leaving the appropriate three inches. Andrew wonders if he should ask Neil to clarify his earlier statement, but then Neil is grabbing the controller and the moment has passed.
They play for a few hours, until Neil gets a text that Stuart is home for dinner tonight and he’d like to see Neil. He disappears with a grin that does things to Andrew’s insides and he flops onto his bed, face in the pillows and screams in frustration. He’s interrupted from his gay panic by Aaron stumbling into his room.
“Andrew, code red! Emergency!”
Andrew bolts upright just as Aaron trips over his own feet and faceplants onto his brothers bed.
His hair is everywhere, his eyes are wild, and he’s blushing like a tomato.
“Katelyn kissed me!” he exclaims, in a whisper so their mom doesn’t hear.
Andrew’s mind conjures up the image of Katelyn. The girl Aaron was doing his science project with. Seems nice. Bit too perky for Andrew’s tastes. She’s nice, but Andrew hadn’t know Aaron was interested in her.
“Is that... a good thing?” he asks hesitantly. If it’s not Andrew is going to break her face.
Aaron pauses for a second, before shyly nodding and turning even redder. Andrew wonders if it’s possible to burst a blood vessel from blushing, because if so then Aaron is probably in danger.
“OK good. So is she your girlfriend now?” he asks.
Aaron groans. “I don’t know! She kissed me and it was really nice, but then I had to leave because it was dinner time. How do I ask her if she’s my girlfriend? Or if she wants to be? Andrew I don’t know what to do!”
“Why are you asking me?”, Andrew says bemused. “I don’t know anything about girls. And I’ve never even kissed a boy.”
“You’re right. We need some help! We’re both rubbish at this!” Aaron says, sitting bolt upright.
“Hey! Speak for yourself!”
Aaron rolls his yes. “Sorry, your plan of writing epic poetry about Neil’s face and never showing it to him is working so well” he says derisively.
“Actually...” Andrew trails off. He makes a decision and tells Aaron about the weird not-conversation he’d had with Neil earlier and if Aaron thought it meant anything.
“I know who we need to ask”, Aaron says, wicked gleam in his eyes.
“Aaron, no...”
“MOM!” he yells, over Andrews objections.
-
An hour later after a thoroughly embarrassing dinner with their mother, Andrew and Aaron are back in Andrew’s room brainstorming. Andrew is wracking his brain for everything he’s ever heard about Katelyn to help Aaron, and Aaron is reading Andrew’s poems to find the best one to show Neil.
They finally finish close to midnight and collapse into their respective beds. Andrew can’t wait until Monday morning when he sees Neil at school. Normally he’d spend Sunday with Neil, but he’s got some family event he’s being forced to attend. Andrew spends the day trying to decide what to wear instead, and how to style his hair. When nothing seems right he asks Bea for an advance on next weeks allowance so he can go shopping. For some reason she finds this funny and tells him she’ll take him shopping instead.
They go to the mall, and Aaron disappears into a sports store to look at the Vans. Katelyn has a thing for skateboarders apparently. Andrew beelines straight for Hot Topic. He looks at some Panic! T-shirts before vetoing them. No point in cock-blocking himself by having the far more attractive Gerard Way in Neil’s eyesight when Andrew made his move.
He finds a really cool Fall Out Boy T-shirt that Bea offers to buy for him, and he manages to convince her to get him some black skinny jeans too. With his Dr Marten boots he thinks he’ll stand a pretty good chance. Aaron wanders in and asks Bea to get him some jeans too, to which she readily agrees. He also asks for a new pair of Vans but she refuses on the grounds that he has a perfectly serviceable pair of sneakers back at home. Aaron scowls at this, but she buys him a long sleeve raglan top which cheers him up.
They have a mall lunch of Panda Express and Bea gives them another version of The Talk (TM). It’s mainly focused around consent so isn’t needed, but Andrew appreciates the reminder nonetheless.
“If Neil or Katelyn say no tomorrow, you leave it at that. It’s not your job to convince them to change their minds.”
It soon morphs into a pep talk, with Bea certain that neither boy is going to come home unsuccessful. Andrew hopes that this is Bea’s professional knowledge talking, and not just her doting motherly opinion. He thinks about it all night. Hopes that Neil will still want to be his friend even if he doesn’t want to be his boyfriend. Agonises over whether or not he’s doing the right thing by asking. Changes his mind about a million times before finally succumbing to sleep.
Despite the late night, he wakes up feeling refreshed and ready to take the bull by the horns. He rushes through breakfast with Aaron – who seems to be filled with a grim determination – and jumps in the shower. He uses the shower gel that smells like apples that Neil bought him from Lush, and wriggles into his new outfit. He spends thirty minutes trying to style his hair just so, and finally gets it how he wants it. He takes a step back and casts a critical eye over his reflection. Something is missing.
He knocks on Bea’s door, and waits for her to tell him to come in. She’s fully dressed and made up, just pulling on her jewellery. “What can I do for you Andrew?” she asks, and Andrew shuffles his feet, suddenly shy.
“Um”, he begins, “could you help me put some eyeliner on?”
One of the things Andrew loves about Bea is that she doesn’t bat an eyelash about anything that the twins do. As long as they’re healthy and happy, and not breaking any of the important laws, she’s pretty much willing to let them do whatever they like. A far cry from their biological mother and uncle. Andrew thanks his lucky stars that Bea had adopted Andrew before he was even aware of them, and that the court had awarded her custody of Aaron after the fiasco of Tilda overdosing.
Bea doesn’t hesitate for a second. “I’ll do it for you. It’ll take too long to teach you right now, and I’m under the impression that you and your brother have an important rendezvous to get to.” She sits him down and gets him first to look up, and then to close his eyes, one hand on his chin to steady him. When she’s done he looks in the mirror and he thinks he looks good. Hopefully Neil will too.
He grabs his schoolbag, poetry, and brother, and they head out the door to school where victory or humiliation await.
They’re barely in the gates when they’re accosted by two girls – one of which Andrew recognises as the girl that has captured his brothers heart. Katelyn is dragging a blonde girl behind her, and she runs up to them, kisses Aaron on the cheek and turns to her friend to say “Marissa this is my boyfriend Aaron”. Aaron beams and waves at Marissa.
Damn, Aaron has all the luck. Maybe Andrew will be lucky too for once and Neil will do something similar. Andrew spies the object of his affection heading towards him and smiles.
“Hey shithead!” Neil greets, and Andrew groans internally. No such luck.
“Hey fuckface” he replies, and splits away from Aaron, promising to meet him after school.
There’s no time to talk to Neil now, so they chat about the weekend, Neil complaining about Stuart the entire time. It’s not until lunch time that Andrew gets a chance. They’re up on the roof, Neil having picked the lock a few weeks prior. Andrew isn’t fond of the feeling he gets in his tummy when he looks out at the view, but he is fond of the feeling he gets when Neil looks out at the view.
He clears his throat. “Er, Neil. There’s something I want to tell you.”
Neil plops himself down at Andrew’s feet, expression open and honest. “OK. What is it?”
“I wrote it down. In a kind of, poem. If you don’t mind?”
Neil’s expression is inscrutable for a moment. “Sure” he says, and Andrew has the rare sensation of not knowing what Neil is thinking. He doesn’t like it. He takes the crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and begins.
“Breathless. Like when I’m in goal and the ball you throw comes hurtling towards me.
When I’m running down the road with you away from the neighbours.
How I feel when you smile at me.
My heart leaps when you touch me.
My stomach turns when you’re upset with me.
Your eyes, your hair, your lips are all I can think about.
I want to kiss you. And hold you. And take you on a date.
If you want that too.”
He finishes and doesn’t dare look up from the paper. Neil’s hand comes into view, and pushes it down, so Andrew looks up. Neil is trembling.
“Uh, just so I’m clear. This is, um. This isn’t just for a competition or English homework right? It’s about, er, someone. Right?”
The temptation to backpedal and pretend it was for class is strong, but he knows it’s now or never. Besides, Aaron would never let him live it down.
“Not homework. It’s about you. I want to kiss you Neil. And like, be your boyfriend. But only if you want that too. If you don’t we can just forget about this. We can still be friends.”
“I don’t want to be friends!” Neil shouts, and Andrew flinches away. He hadn’t expected Neil to be so complete and brutal in his rejection.
“Shit, no. I don’t mean. Ugh. This is hard.” Neil is babbling. He takes a breath and looks Andrew in the eye. “I don’t want to be just friends anymore. I want to be your boyfriend. And I’d like the kissing too. Very much.”
Andrew is stunned. Clearly the eyeliner had been a good move. He leans forward slowly, giving Neil plenty of time to change his mind. Neil clearly has no intentions of doing so, as he practically lunges towards Andrew and they meet in a messy clash of lips.
It takes them a few seconds to get lined up, and then it’s magic. Andrew is completely sure that this is the best first kiss in all of history. Romeo and Juliet who? Neil crawls into Andrew’s lap for a better angle, and then Andrew has a different set of problems. Namely that his jeans are very tight and the love of his life has just sat directly on his crotch. He prays to whatever gods are listening that nothing happens to scare Neil off.
They kiss all throughout their lunch break, only stopping when the bell for next period goes off and they head off to class, hand-in-hand. Andrew can’t wait to tell Aaron. Who said Andrew’s poetry was bad? It got him the boy didn’t it?