![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roxyPrevious parts are painting themsleves blue aww, cute, they're the bluebirds of happiness--they even pasted feathers on--erg! don't look!
eta:wow! sorry about that!
Clark stood over his bike at the end of Whitney’s driveway, shoulders shaking with sobs as he tried to pull himself together. He couldn’t walk up to the door all snotty and crying like a baby. Suddenly the screen door banged open and Whitney flew off the porch and down the drive towards him.
“I knew it,” he yelled when he got closer, “I knew something was wrong.” He grabbed Clark by the wrist and pulled him off his bike and back around the rear of the house.
“What’s the matter?” he asked after he pushed Clark into the tent they’d set up in the back yard. He shoved some of the junk littering the tent floor into a corner, sat back and waited for Clark to speak.
“Bruce and Lex…” he started.
Whitney gaped. He’d never seen tears just—*shoot * out of a person’s eyes before.
“Oh man, Clark—I told you, I warned you.”
Clark nodded, his hair falling over his eyes as he did so. “You did.” he sniffled and wiped his arm across his wet face. “But I was hoping…things had changed. He’s been really nice to me lately and I thought—but Bruce—Bruce is a huge creep—he’s a…a…dick!” Clark coughed and he seemed to deflate all over. “He was mean, he knew…”
Whitney sat back, stunned. “Bruce was mean to you? I mean, on purpose?” Whitney understood that desire and good intentions could collide and create painful chaos but he never imagined that Bruce would purposely cause Clark pain. Had he missed something?
“Yes! He knows and he still—he still. Did things. And Lex let him, he didn’t stop him. They had sex Whit!”
“In front of you!” Whitney was so appalled he nearly yelled.
“No! No…I…” Clark turned redder than Whitney had ever seen him blush before; Clark blushed so hard that sweat broke out on his cheeks. “I *listened*. And *looked*”
“Oh Clark. That was bad. You shouldn’t have.” The air seemed closer; Whit swore the heat of Clark’s horror and embarrassment was so intense it filled the little tent.
“Gosh, Whit, I *know* that! But once I could hear it was like a car wreck, you know, where you don’t want to look but you have to?”
Whitney nodded. Clark huddled in a miserable heap on the tent floor and Whitney’s heart went out to him. He rubbed his back. “I’m sorry Clark, I really am.” Damn, saw this coming. Lex isn’t going to do anything Clark wants. Poor guy. Both of them.
Clark rolled into a ball and shoved himself against Whitney’s legs, and with one huge sigh lay still. Whitney shrugged and figured he might as well get comfortable. He grabbed a comic from under what looked like one of Pete’s tee-shirts and read it one handed as he rubbed Clark’s side and patted his head.
“You know, Clark, if we had a fireplace and a pipe, this would be perfect. Especially if you’d play fetch too.”
Clark sighed again and said. “You need to stop reading those Jeeves books and be a little more sympathetic to me.” But his tone was lighter and Whit was relieved, he’d found the right balance between sympathy and teasing and he figured Clark was going to be okay.
Finally Clark unrolled a little, like a pillbug, Whitney snorted. “Come on, let’s go in the house and get some Popsicles, okay? And we can get the radio, and put it in the tent. Why don’t you stay over, Mom won’t mind. She likes when I’m busy.”
Clark nodded, okay. “I don’t want to go home now anyway.”
Whitney nodded. All those boys needed some space from each other.
******
That evening they were laughing over some of the lines in their favorite TV show, and Whitney mentioned that the girl on the show was very cute. Clark didn’t reply and Whitney asked curiously, “Who do you think looks good Clark, if not her?”
Clark thought for a moment, and said, “Lots of people, but if you mean who’s sexy, that’s different.”
Whitney was really curious now. He’d always known that Clark loved Lex. But that was like knowing Clark had black hair or green eyes or scarily sharp looking teeth…he’d never really thought, ‘Gee, Clark likes boys like he liked girls. It was weird in an interesting way.
Clark was still thinking so he asked him, “How about Robert Redford? Do you think he’s sexy?”
“Who? Red—no! He’s old! Gosh, what’s wrong with you?”
“Well, I don’t know—my mom likes him.”
Clark huffed and shook his head. “Your mom likes him…geez…”
“So tell me.” Whitney couldn’t let it go now, it became a matter of extreme interest and he really wanted to know. How could he look at one of the Angels and not think wow? Weird. He tried to imagine looking at some guy and thinking, ‘hot’, but it was…strange.
Bruce, all the girls thought Bruce was hot. He was pretty good looking, so was Lex in a way. In fact, Whitney could understand Lex a little better, he was kind of sleek, and elegant, but there was a lot of steel under that delicate look. Yeah, he got Lex.
Clark interrupted his thoughts with a little embarrassed laugh. “Okay. Remember when we went to see that American Graffiti movie, remember that?”
“Yeah, it was stupid.”
“Yeah but that one guy, the hot rodder--”
“Bob Falfa, I liked him, he was cool!”
“I, um, had a crush on him. Still kinda do. And James Dean, he was an old time actor, and Don Johnson, he’s got pretty lips, oh! And there’s this new singer with crazy red hair and incredible eyes…and…” He stopped and looked at Whitney who was looking a little dazed.
“Wow. So, you really look at guys. Hunh. What about school? Are there guys you like in school?”
“Gosh Whitney,” Clark said and sat up on his sleeping bag. “You’re kind of making me embarrassed here-- we never talked about this stuff before.”
Whitney sat up too and grabbed a box of crackers from the snowdrift of junk. He fished out a handful and tossed the box to Clark. “Before, you never came over here crying your eyes out about someone.” He crammed a few crackers into his mouth.
Clark slumped a little. “Yeah. Well, yeah. I hate Bruce. He’s a mean bastard.”
He reduced the cracker to powder unheeded and Whitney reached over and brushed the powder off Clark’s sleeping bag. He shook his head, chewed on another handful of crackers and then said, “Have you ever kissed a guy?”
“Whitney! Shut up! Geez, I can’t believe you.” Clark frowned at Whitney, and Whitney smiled back until Clark heaved an enormous sigh and said, “No. Who would I kiss anyway? Have you kissed Lana?”
Whitney grinned at Clark’s attempt to turn the tables on him. “Well, yeah. A lot.” There was a flashlight half under his sleeping bag and he pulled it out and shined it in Clark’s eyes. “Yeah, I kissed her,” and he flicked the light back and forth, in and out of Clark’s eyes.
“Stop!” Clark jumped up and pulled it out of Whitney’s hand a little too hard and Whitney leaned away from him.
“Oh! I’m sorry, I…”
“No, no, don’t worry Clark, I’m fine.” He managed not to rub his wrist, and tried to look reassuringly at Clark. ”It must be hard to have to watch yourself all the time, hunh?”
Clark dropped onto the bag next to him. “Yeah. Not as much now, I hardly ever make a mistake but sometimes…you know, I don’t know if I even can kiss someone, Whit. I mean, I know you’re supposed to kind of loose control when you’re with someone—it looks like it, anyway,” he said darkly.
Whitney shrugged. “I guess. It’s nice, really nice. I like the way it makes me feel but it’s not like I go nuts or anything.”
“What about Lana, does she like kissing?”
“She says she does, I think so. She always blushes when I kiss her.” He grinned and blushed a little himself.
Clark shook his head. “I don’t know. It might be different for me, my people. Maybe I’m supposed to like guys, maybe that’s all there are where I came from.”
Whitney snorted. “I’m pretty sure that’s not the case." He laughed and said,"You know, if it were, that would mean that you could get pregnant—you had to come from somewhere, right? All boys.” Whitney snorted again. “ You’re weird Clark.”
.
Clark said with a deeply serious expression, “Whitney. Have you not been paying attention? This is what I’ve been trying to tell you for how many years now.”
They laughed harder than the joke warranted, groaning and wheezing and holding their sides. They lay grinning up at the sagging ceiling of the old tent. Clark propped himself up on his elbow and turned one of his high wattage smiles on Whitney. He thought that if Clark cared at all, that smile would make panties come flying at him.
“How come you’re such a good friend to me, Whitney?’
Whitney crossed a leg over his propped up knee and bobbed his foot, playing with the flashlight again.
“Well, everyone needs a smarter buddy to help them through life—Watson had Holmes, The Lone Ranger had Tonto, Solo had Kuryakin, Captain America had…”
“What, are you saying Falcon is smarter than Cap, ‘cause no, no way. I’ll tell you who’s stupid, Tony Stark, geez--”
“Clark, if you want to practice kissing, you can practice on me.”
Clark was stunned into bewildered silence by the bizarreness of Whitney’s offer. “Wha—what?” he stammered “Are you okay?”
“I’m just saying that it would be okay.” Whit thought about what he’d just said, rolling it over in his mind. Yeah, he was pretty sure he meant it. How bad could it be? But Clark looked way less than enthusiastic about the idea. As far as Whitney was concerned it was just a kiss--but he really hadn’t thought how the offer might affect Clark. He might have offended him….
Clark rolled to his stomach and looked at Whitney “Ah…that’s really nice of you to offer—I guess—but you know, don’t you, that straight boys just don’t offer to kiss their best friends generally?”
Clark was still looking kind of bewildered but at least he was grinning and Whitney had to laugh. “I just—I don’t know-it’s just a kiss and I just kind of. Felt sorry for you. I’m sorry!” he said quickly when Clark growled. “But have you ever thought about it?”
“I never thought about kissing you. Ever. No offense.”
Whit laughed and asked him, “Well, what about Pete? Ever thought about him?” What the hell was *wrong* with him tonight? It was just one stupid thing after another falling out of his mouth, he even felt kind of giddy with the stupidity…lucky him Clark was a patient guy.
“Well, Pete does have that smooth quality going for him, that sex magnet thing.” Clark said in a mock serious tone. “If I could fight my way through the girls he’s always knee deep in…”
Whit laughed, “So he says.” His forehead furrowed. “Actually, he really does get lots and lots of dates…but that’s not important. I have my girl.” My girl. I love my girl. I guess I am the lucky one here.
Clark smiled a little. “Whit—you see everyone but yourself, don’t you? Tell me what you think is going to happen with Asshole and Lex.” he said, very kindly trying to change the subject
Whit exhaled slowly, kind of grateful to get off the Stupid Train. “Yeah, Clark…I told you before that Bruce and Lex were a possibility. But they’re a bad fit.” He frowned, eyes focused on some distant point as he tried to really *see* the possibilities. “It could be pretty good for the both of them…or terrible.”
Clark huffed impatiently. “Oh gee thanks, Whitney. That is just so informative, that is. ‘It could be good…” Clark paused dramatically and went on in a deep, dramatic voice, "or…*baaad*’. Madame Za-Za, your crystal ball is cloudy.”
Whitney waved him quiet. “Seriously terrible for everyone involved. It’s like there’s something after Bruce, he’s managed to avoid it so far, thanks to you guys—but it’s going to catch up with him, real soon.” Whitney stopped, and Clark said, “and then what?”
“Then everything changes." He shrugged.
“Bruce needs a keeper, or a couple of slaps with a heavy brick. Anyway, be patient Clark. You’re going to come out on top.” somehow, Clark’s going to walk away from this in one piece, more or less. And that’s the scary part. Whitney managed to suppress a shiver.
Clark looked a little awed and pleased, and Whitney huffed in annoyance. He’d explained to Clark over and over this thing he did wasn’t any kind of third eye or ESP crap. In fact those psychic fakers did the same thing he did--if you had enough information and you really looked carefully at what was happening, all you had to do was put two and two together and get four. No big deal. You just had to pay attention. And then you had to keep your mouth shut.
TBC—coming up soon!
*****
eta:wow! sorry about that!
Clark stood over his bike at the end of Whitney’s driveway, shoulders shaking with sobs as he tried to pull himself together. He couldn’t walk up to the door all snotty and crying like a baby. Suddenly the screen door banged open and Whitney flew off the porch and down the drive towards him.
“I knew it,” he yelled when he got closer, “I knew something was wrong.” He grabbed Clark by the wrist and pulled him off his bike and back around the rear of the house.
“What’s the matter?” he asked after he pushed Clark into the tent they’d set up in the back yard. He shoved some of the junk littering the tent floor into a corner, sat back and waited for Clark to speak.
“Bruce and Lex…” he started.
Whitney gaped. He’d never seen tears just—*shoot * out of a person’s eyes before.
“Oh man, Clark—I told you, I warned you.”
Clark nodded, his hair falling over his eyes as he did so. “You did.” he sniffled and wiped his arm across his wet face. “But I was hoping…things had changed. He’s been really nice to me lately and I thought—but Bruce—Bruce is a huge creep—he’s a…a…dick!” Clark coughed and he seemed to deflate all over. “He was mean, he knew…”
Whitney sat back, stunned. “Bruce was mean to you? I mean, on purpose?” Whitney understood that desire and good intentions could collide and create painful chaos but he never imagined that Bruce would purposely cause Clark pain. Had he missed something?
“Yes! He knows and he still—he still. Did things. And Lex let him, he didn’t stop him. They had sex Whit!”
“In front of you!” Whitney was so appalled he nearly yelled.
“No! No…I…” Clark turned redder than Whitney had ever seen him blush before; Clark blushed so hard that sweat broke out on his cheeks. “I *listened*. And *looked*”
“Oh Clark. That was bad. You shouldn’t have.” The air seemed closer; Whit swore the heat of Clark’s horror and embarrassment was so intense it filled the little tent.
“Gosh, Whit, I *know* that! But once I could hear it was like a car wreck, you know, where you don’t want to look but you have to?”
Whitney nodded. Clark huddled in a miserable heap on the tent floor and Whitney’s heart went out to him. He rubbed his back. “I’m sorry Clark, I really am.” Damn, saw this coming. Lex isn’t going to do anything Clark wants. Poor guy. Both of them.
Clark rolled into a ball and shoved himself against Whitney’s legs, and with one huge sigh lay still. Whitney shrugged and figured he might as well get comfortable. He grabbed a comic from under what looked like one of Pete’s tee-shirts and read it one handed as he rubbed Clark’s side and patted his head.
“You know, Clark, if we had a fireplace and a pipe, this would be perfect. Especially if you’d play fetch too.”
Clark sighed again and said. “You need to stop reading those Jeeves books and be a little more sympathetic to me.” But his tone was lighter and Whit was relieved, he’d found the right balance between sympathy and teasing and he figured Clark was going to be okay.
Finally Clark unrolled a little, like a pillbug, Whitney snorted. “Come on, let’s go in the house and get some Popsicles, okay? And we can get the radio, and put it in the tent. Why don’t you stay over, Mom won’t mind. She likes when I’m busy.”
Clark nodded, okay. “I don’t want to go home now anyway.”
Whitney nodded. All those boys needed some space from each other.
******
That evening they were laughing over some of the lines in their favorite TV show, and Whitney mentioned that the girl on the show was very cute. Clark didn’t reply and Whitney asked curiously, “Who do you think looks good Clark, if not her?”
Clark thought for a moment, and said, “Lots of people, but if you mean who’s sexy, that’s different.”
Whitney was really curious now. He’d always known that Clark loved Lex. But that was like knowing Clark had black hair or green eyes or scarily sharp looking teeth…he’d never really thought, ‘Gee, Clark likes boys like he liked girls. It was weird in an interesting way.
Clark was still thinking so he asked him, “How about Robert Redford? Do you think he’s sexy?”
“Who? Red—no! He’s old! Gosh, what’s wrong with you?”
“Well, I don’t know—my mom likes him.”
Clark huffed and shook his head. “Your mom likes him…geez…”
“So tell me.” Whitney couldn’t let it go now, it became a matter of extreme interest and he really wanted to know. How could he look at one of the Angels and not think wow? Weird. He tried to imagine looking at some guy and thinking, ‘hot’, but it was…strange.
Bruce, all the girls thought Bruce was hot. He was pretty good looking, so was Lex in a way. In fact, Whitney could understand Lex a little better, he was kind of sleek, and elegant, but there was a lot of steel under that delicate look. Yeah, he got Lex.
Clark interrupted his thoughts with a little embarrassed laugh. “Okay. Remember when we went to see that American Graffiti movie, remember that?”
“Yeah, it was stupid.”
“Yeah but that one guy, the hot rodder--”
“Bob Falfa, I liked him, he was cool!”
“I, um, had a crush on him. Still kinda do. And James Dean, he was an old time actor, and Don Johnson, he’s got pretty lips, oh! And there’s this new singer with crazy red hair and incredible eyes…and…” He stopped and looked at Whitney who was looking a little dazed.
“Wow. So, you really look at guys. Hunh. What about school? Are there guys you like in school?”
“Gosh Whitney,” Clark said and sat up on his sleeping bag. “You’re kind of making me embarrassed here-- we never talked about this stuff before.”
Whitney sat up too and grabbed a box of crackers from the snowdrift of junk. He fished out a handful and tossed the box to Clark. “Before, you never came over here crying your eyes out about someone.” He crammed a few crackers into his mouth.
Clark slumped a little. “Yeah. Well, yeah. I hate Bruce. He’s a mean bastard.”
He reduced the cracker to powder unheeded and Whitney reached over and brushed the powder off Clark’s sleeping bag. He shook his head, chewed on another handful of crackers and then said, “Have you ever kissed a guy?”
“Whitney! Shut up! Geez, I can’t believe you.” Clark frowned at Whitney, and Whitney smiled back until Clark heaved an enormous sigh and said, “No. Who would I kiss anyway? Have you kissed Lana?”
Whitney grinned at Clark’s attempt to turn the tables on him. “Well, yeah. A lot.” There was a flashlight half under his sleeping bag and he pulled it out and shined it in Clark’s eyes. “Yeah, I kissed her,” and he flicked the light back and forth, in and out of Clark’s eyes.
“Stop!” Clark jumped up and pulled it out of Whitney’s hand a little too hard and Whitney leaned away from him.
“Oh! I’m sorry, I…”
“No, no, don’t worry Clark, I’m fine.” He managed not to rub his wrist, and tried to look reassuringly at Clark. ”It must be hard to have to watch yourself all the time, hunh?”
Clark dropped onto the bag next to him. “Yeah. Not as much now, I hardly ever make a mistake but sometimes…you know, I don’t know if I even can kiss someone, Whit. I mean, I know you’re supposed to kind of loose control when you’re with someone—it looks like it, anyway,” he said darkly.
Whitney shrugged. “I guess. It’s nice, really nice. I like the way it makes me feel but it’s not like I go nuts or anything.”
“What about Lana, does she like kissing?”
“She says she does, I think so. She always blushes when I kiss her.” He grinned and blushed a little himself.
Clark shook his head. “I don’t know. It might be different for me, my people. Maybe I’m supposed to like guys, maybe that’s all there are where I came from.”
Whitney snorted. “I’m pretty sure that’s not the case." He laughed and said,"You know, if it were, that would mean that you could get pregnant—you had to come from somewhere, right? All boys.” Whitney snorted again. “ You’re weird Clark.”
.
Clark said with a deeply serious expression, “Whitney. Have you not been paying attention? This is what I’ve been trying to tell you for how many years now.”
They laughed harder than the joke warranted, groaning and wheezing and holding their sides. They lay grinning up at the sagging ceiling of the old tent. Clark propped himself up on his elbow and turned one of his high wattage smiles on Whitney. He thought that if Clark cared at all, that smile would make panties come flying at him.
“How come you’re such a good friend to me, Whitney?’
Whitney crossed a leg over his propped up knee and bobbed his foot, playing with the flashlight again.
“Well, everyone needs a smarter buddy to help them through life—Watson had Holmes, The Lone Ranger had Tonto, Solo had Kuryakin, Captain America had…”
“What, are you saying Falcon is smarter than Cap, ‘cause no, no way. I’ll tell you who’s stupid, Tony Stark, geez--”
“Clark, if you want to practice kissing, you can practice on me.”
Clark was stunned into bewildered silence by the bizarreness of Whitney’s offer. “Wha—what?” he stammered “Are you okay?”
“I’m just saying that it would be okay.” Whit thought about what he’d just said, rolling it over in his mind. Yeah, he was pretty sure he meant it. How bad could it be? But Clark looked way less than enthusiastic about the idea. As far as Whitney was concerned it was just a kiss--but he really hadn’t thought how the offer might affect Clark. He might have offended him….
Clark rolled to his stomach and looked at Whitney “Ah…that’s really nice of you to offer—I guess—but you know, don’t you, that straight boys just don’t offer to kiss their best friends generally?”
Clark was still looking kind of bewildered but at least he was grinning and Whitney had to laugh. “I just—I don’t know-it’s just a kiss and I just kind of. Felt sorry for you. I’m sorry!” he said quickly when Clark growled. “But have you ever thought about it?”
“I never thought about kissing you. Ever. No offense.”
Whit laughed and asked him, “Well, what about Pete? Ever thought about him?” What the hell was *wrong* with him tonight? It was just one stupid thing after another falling out of his mouth, he even felt kind of giddy with the stupidity…lucky him Clark was a patient guy.
“Well, Pete does have that smooth quality going for him, that sex magnet thing.” Clark said in a mock serious tone. “If I could fight my way through the girls he’s always knee deep in…”
Whit laughed, “So he says.” His forehead furrowed. “Actually, he really does get lots and lots of dates…but that’s not important. I have my girl.” My girl. I love my girl. I guess I am the lucky one here.
Clark smiled a little. “Whit—you see everyone but yourself, don’t you? Tell me what you think is going to happen with Asshole and Lex.” he said, very kindly trying to change the subject
Whit exhaled slowly, kind of grateful to get off the Stupid Train. “Yeah, Clark…I told you before that Bruce and Lex were a possibility. But they’re a bad fit.” He frowned, eyes focused on some distant point as he tried to really *see* the possibilities. “It could be pretty good for the both of them…or terrible.”
Clark huffed impatiently. “Oh gee thanks, Whitney. That is just so informative, that is. ‘It could be good…” Clark paused dramatically and went on in a deep, dramatic voice, "or…*baaad*’. Madame Za-Za, your crystal ball is cloudy.”
Whitney waved him quiet. “Seriously terrible for everyone involved. It’s like there’s something after Bruce, he’s managed to avoid it so far, thanks to you guys—but it’s going to catch up with him, real soon.” Whitney stopped, and Clark said, “and then what?”
“Then everything changes." He shrugged.
“Bruce needs a keeper, or a couple of slaps with a heavy brick. Anyway, be patient Clark. You’re going to come out on top.” somehow, Clark’s going to walk away from this in one piece, more or less. And that’s the scary part. Whitney managed to suppress a shiver.
Clark looked a little awed and pleased, and Whitney huffed in annoyance. He’d explained to Clark over and over this thing he did wasn’t any kind of third eye or ESP crap. In fact those psychic fakers did the same thing he did--if you had enough information and you really looked carefully at what was happening, all you had to do was put two and two together and get four. No big deal. You just had to pay attention. And then you had to keep your mouth shut.
TBC—coming up soon!
*****
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
8/29/06 01:37 am (UTC)Love that he offered to let Clark kiss him. And I hit myself for groaning as Clark doesn't want to, lol! I am SO bad. It's just that Tommy is SO pretty.
It makes me wonder just how hard his (Tommy's) life must have been, because of his looks. People would expect more of him, I bet. And it's no wonder he's such a private person. And of course, they'd want to always touch him. Poor guy. This morning, I woke up from a dream about him. We were seated at a plastic table (like the kind people get for decks and whatnot) and there was an umbrella. And we were looking at menus and talking about cooking skewers and shish-ka-bobs. It was the most surreal thing. And I kept thinking, as I was talking to this angelic being, "Where's Mikey? He's gotta be around here!"
LOL.
Aaaanyway. Whit makes me happy too. So does the keeping of the Lana far, far, far, away. ;)
(no subject)
8/29/06 03:44 am (UTC)I love your dream!