Chapter Ten
A Bonding Experience
The next few weeks were weird. The bullying was still there.
The jeering and shoulder-checking and stupid shit scribbled on their desks, but Hilary was pretty sure they’d both stopped noticing.
Trenton didn’t bring up leaving school again.
The boy hadn’t forgotten, nor changed his mind about any of it, but he was trying things Hilary’s way, having learned from the birthday incident that just because it wasn’t something he understood or valued didn’t mean it wasn’t important to others.
It was an incredible show of sensitivity from the self-proclaimed rudest boy alive, and it had Hilary feeling like he ought to respond by meeting him halfway, though he wasn’t sure how to.
You either dropped out of school or you didn’t.
It was Albert who gave him the idea. Because when they came down one morning after the usual Trenton-wake-up-special, Albert was downstairs having a leisurely coffee, still in his slippers and bathrobe—an impossibility for someone with an hour-long commute.
“I’m taking a personal day,” the man announced, like it was the most important thing in the world. “I get three a year.”
“Congratulations,” Trenton said with his usual solemnity and got a couple of spine-cracking backslaps for his trouble.
Hilary hadn’t realized just how much the idea had sunk into his psyche until he opened his eyes the next morning and said, “Let’s have a personal day.”
Trenton squatted, not wanting to sit on the bed in his outside clothes and not wanting to tower over him either. “Are you feeling sick?” His hand went to Hilary’s neck to check.
“If I were sick, it would be a sick day. Let’s go to the zoo.”
“The zoo?” Trenton had begun to smile. Once one knew the boy did most of his smiling with his eyes, it became obvious he did it quite often.
“Or ice skating. That might be better. The animals at the zoo always hide when it’s cold.”
Trenton’s hand had left off checking for fever and had switched to “brushing” Hilary’s hair for him, which was when he carded his fingers through it until it was a floofy mess.
“I’ve never been ice skating,” Trenton said. “Do they have a rescue team for when you fall and go straight through the ice?”
“No, but I can hold your hand.”
“Then we’ll both go through the ice.”
“A bonding experience.”
Trenton liked the idea. The smile was spreading to his mouth. “What will your mom say?”
“She might invite herself along.”
“Three people through the ice.”
“A record, probably.”
Annette did not invite herself along, but she was fine with the idea. Maybe she was also trying to find a way to compromise. Or maybe it was just that Trenton had turned her into a pile of mush.
“I guess it’s true that parents are a lot less strict with their second child,” Hilary mused once they were in the car.
Trenton tucked the corners of the blanket in. He was growing more overprotective with each passing day. “Don’t be silly. She just likes me more.”
“You homewrecker.”
“You handsome devil.”
“You’re supposed to hit me back with an insult there. That’s how you banter.”
“Why would I insult the man of my dreams?”
The boy was hopeless. “Because it’s fun.”
“Your eyes look very nice today.”
“You’re still going in the wrong direction.”
They did both the zoo AND the ice skating, deciding to each pay for one of the things, a compromise Hilary was quite happy with until he realized Trenton had tricked him, since it turned out that Wednesday was the zoo’s free entrance day. “I need to pay for something,” he insisted.
“Not my fault you picked the zoo.”
It was in the gift shop that Hilary found them—small clip-on plushies meant to put on your bag.
He chose the penguins because they were cutest, but of course Trenton, being an ogre, had to go reading into it too much.
He took hold of his little penguin with great solemnity. “Because they mate for life?”
Hilary flushed, practically an admission of guilt even though it hadn’t been.
Trenton put it right onto his bag, the little creature looking right at home beneath the emblazoned pink FAG. “It’s true. We’ll always be together. Thank you, Hil. I love it.”
That might have KO’d Hilary, yet another crime to add to Trenton’s list, though he recovered a little when the boy added, “though you shouldn’t buy things from gift shops. There’s a five hundred percent markup.”
“You got something against making memories?”
Trenton took his hand. Annette had recently bought them matching gloves. “Not with you, I don’t.”
Hilary was excited to go ice skating, and he didn’t hide that most of the excitement had to do with the sight of Trenton finally being worse at something than he was.
“But you’re better than me at lots of things,” Trenton countered.
“Name one.”
“Ballet.”
Hilary didn’t know why that made him blush. Of course, he was better at ballet. He’d been doing it since he was three. “That doesn’t count.”
“You’re really good at Pictionary.”
“Is that even a skill?”
“And you eat way faster.”
“Okay, now you’re just being mean.”
Trenton kissed him, catching him on the corner of the mouth. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Nothing else even comes close.”
Trenton didn’t suck at the skating for nearly as long as he should have. Sure, he was wobbly at first, going down to a knee a few times, but he stabilized insultingly quickly.
“What happened to going through the ice?”
“I need to be careful. A fall from this height could kill me.”
Hilary pushed the boy. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
Trenton, being the stupid gentleman he was, made sure to turn as he fell so that his body provided cushioning to his traitorous friend.
“Idiot! Don’t protect your abuser.”
“I thought you just wanted a hug.”
Trenton’s arms were indeed around him.
In the end, Hilary thought he’d managed to be very sneaky about his plan, but of course Trenton wouldn’t be the ogre he was without his mind-reading powers. When they got back in the car, the boy turned to him.
“I’m sorry you feel you’ve got to tiptoe around me because of the bullying. I do value our time in school together, and I know dropping out would mean potentially missing out on memories we could never have otherwise. I want to treasure it. I do treasure it. But when I see them hurting you—"
“They’re not.”
“You don’t have to be stoic.”
“I wouldn’t know how to be stoic if I tried. Trent, it’s hardly a sacrifice. Did you have fun today?”
Trenton always grew very still when he was feeling emotional, and he hadn’t moved since entering the car. Well, except to put the heat on. Trenton was the only one who could make the heat work anymore. “Yes.”
“More than usual?”
“More than I’ve ever had in one day.”
Hilary leaned against him, taking hold of his arm.
He hadn’t realized he was a cuddler until Trenton.
Or maybe it was Trenton who had turned him into a cuddler.
It was hard not to be when the boy was so comfortable to lean on.
Like his own personal couch. “Then let’s do it again next week.
And every week until they kick us out. I always hated Wednesdays.
It’ll be nice to have a reason to start liking them. ”
“Kiss me,” Trenton said. A first.
Hilary could have cried. He didn’t know what else to do. He put his hand to the back of Trenton’s head, pulled his face down, and kissed him.