Silence is Apparently a Bitch

[Garrett Speelers]

Garrett sat on the merri-go-round esque device in the playground, his feet reaching the ground easily instead of dangling over the edge like so many children's did. He lay with his back against the metal bottom and used his legs to slowly spin himself in a circle.

The weather was getting cooler as fall took hold and settled in nicely in the second half of October. He had dressed accordingly, wearing a black hoodie with the golden reddish tracings of spiral galaxies and gold clusters of elliptical galaxies across it, over a British flag -shirt underneath it and a pair of flair jeans. He put on his combat boots that morning, and in his right hand was a lit cigarette, that he brought to his lips as he spun.

He was waiting around to talk to Demsond, apparently he had something important to talk to him about. . .so here he was.

[Desmond Giuseppe]

Desmond was on his way to meet Garrett like they had planned. They had to do everything in secret these days, even personal conversations. He noticed Vinnie's mood had gone in a slump lately and Desmond knew exactly why; Vinnie's crush, Faye, was dating Garrett. Desmond knew Garrett didn't know about Vinnie's crush and even though Vinnie would never tell him, Desmond thought Garrett should know. They were all friends after all, and Desmond would hate a girl to get in between them. Vinnie, of course, had no idea what Desmond was up to; Vinnie, being the nice guy that he was, would rather suffer in silence than say anything that would compromised his relationship with Garrett or Garrett's relationship with Faye.

Desmond saw Garrett lying on he Merry-go-round wearing a hoodie that had colors on it that Desmond loved seeing in the fallen leaves or Halloween decorations, but never on clothes. ((I kinda fell the need to do this- )) Desmond was wearing a plain black zip up hoodie with a low drooping collar and a modest amount of buttons on it as well as his usual skinny jeans, today he wore them in dark blue. Finally he was wearing his favorite pair of black and bright pink checkered vans and his Dior sunglasses. He held back a cringe as he approached Garrett and took a seat next to him on the slowly spinning playground toy.

"Sooooo," Desmond began casually, "How's it going?"

[Garrett Speelers]

Garrett slowed down slightly so when the added weight of another nearly full grown boy was added, he wouldn't be taken off guard. He continued lazily spinning with Desmond now on the merri-go-round.

"It's going all right," he said blowing out a stream of smoke. He felt a boyish grin spread across his face as he thought about the events of the past couple days. "Well more than all right."

Garrett had so little to actually be happy about in his life, that when he found something like this, he couldn't stop smiling. Who knew how long it might last: he should enjoy it to the fullest while he could.

[Desmond Giuseppe]

"Well that's great!" said Desmond. He was truly happy for Garrett; the poor kid usually had so little to be happy about. Especially with all this extra shit going on with ACS and GSA. Garrett kind of just got thrown in the middle of all that and Desmond felt bad about it. It was nice to hear that, despite all that, Garrett had found something that made him happy. He supposed the cause of the lightened emotion was Faye. Wow, same source of mood change for Vinnie. . . heh.

"Hey, do you notice anything different about Vinnie lately?" said Desmond. He wanted to sort of ease them into the subject instead of just blurting out, 'Vinnie likes Faye'. It was a very awkward situation in Desmond's opinion. He didn't know what he expected out of Garrett after he heard the news. Desmond really didn't expect Garrett to take much action, he just thought he should know.

[Garrett Speelers]

Garrett took another slow drag form his cigarette before letting his mind change directions to Vinnie's behavior. He shrugged slightly.

"He's been brooding a bit more than usual, I guess," he said.

[Desmond Giuseppe]

"Yeeah, yes he is. . . glad to see you've noticed too. . ." said Desmond slowly. Aww, crap. He really didn't want to have to tell Garrett what was going on! But he could handle keeping the secret anymore! He was starting to eat away at him! It was horrible! HORRIBLE! "Vinnie likes Faye." Desmond blurted out quickly, almost making it sound like a cough. There. He had said it and now he felt worlds better!

[Garrett Speelers]

Garrett raised both his eyebrows at Desmond's little "cough". He stop spinning the merri-go-round and pulled the cigarette away from his mouth. Vinnie liked Faye? What the fuck?!? Why could nothing in his life ever just be simple? He was surprised his brain just hadn't exploded upon hearing the words. As if avoiding beatings at home,avoiding Blane and the bible thumpers when eh could at school, having Faye's parents hate him, pretending to be friends with the ACS who him to pretend to be friends with the GSA when really he was working for the GSA wasn't bad enough, now Vinnie was complicating his already complicated relationship with Faye. He sighed outwardly though.

"He likes Faye. . ." he repeated. "Sooo how long has this been an issue?"

[Desmond Giuseppe]

"Since ninth grade." Desmond said flatly. He could tell that this news wasn't going over well with Garrett. Aw, fuck! Desmond didn't mean to complicate things! "Look, I'm not telling you this so you'll dump Faye because Vinnie is your friend or anything like that. I'm just telling you because I think you need to know. Vinnie doesn't know I'm telling you this and he'll probably kill me for telling you, but I think it's better this way instead of you not getting why Vinnie has been so down lately."

[Garrett Speelers]

"Well, I wasn't going to dump Faye," Garrett said flatly. "I mean Vinnie's my friend but. . .he never said anything about it. . .not a word. Faye doesn't even know. . .or she would have said something. . I mean Vinnie's more her type than I am."

He took another puff from his cigarette, which seemed a lot smaller than her remembered it being. He couldn't believe this on some level, that Vinnie hadn't bothered telling anyone besides Desmond. But like he said, he had no intentions of dumping Faye over this. He felt bad, but it wasn't his fault that Vinnie had never said anything about it, right?

"Well thanks for telling me," he said, feeling his voice rumble in his chest.

[Desmond Giuseppe]

"Well, obviously you're her type because she picked you!" said Desmond, almost angrily. He hated when people were so down on themselves. It was the thing he had hated the most about Josh; he did it all the time saying who he was disgusting for having AIDS and everything else. It annoyed the shit out of Desmond. He knew everyone wasn't going to be as confident as him, but people still didn't have to verbally abuse themselves. . . Especially to him because he wasn't going to be nice about it.

Desmond couldn't tell if Garrett's thanks was sarcastic or not. Perhaps Garrett had been better off not knowing. . . The news seemed to have killed his good mood. Then again, being blissfully unaware wasn't always the best thing either. "You handle this how you want. . . just don't tell Vinnie I told you, he'd kill me."

[Garrett Speelers]

Garrett hadn't been implying that he might not, on some level, be Faye's type. He was merely stating that when comparing himself with Vinnie, Vinnie seemed the more likely of the two that she'd pick if she'd known about Vinnie's feelings. Of course, it was likely that with all his insecurities, he had actually feared that perhaps Faye would drop him if she knew about Vinnie. But he also knew she wasn't like that: despite all his faults and self doubt, he really believed Faye liked him.

"Well, obviously you're her type because she picked you!"

"I know. .. I was only saying," but he let his voice trail off, not really sure exactly what he was saying.

((PS, for the record, his thanks wasn't intended to be sarcastic. . . he was being sincere.))

"You handle this how you want. . . just don't tell Vinnie I told you, he'd kill me."

"Okay," he said mulling things over in his head. "I guess I'll have to talk to him about it sooner or later. . .I'll just sort of tell him I put two and two together. . ."

[Desmond Giuseppe]

"I've talked to him about it myself of course." said Desmond. "I told him not to be down and depressed about it. . . " Desmond felt a little hypocritical telling people to pep up when just a few weeks ago ha had been the poster child for the depressed teen. Desmond was positive that Vinnie wouldn't go as far as he had, Vinnie just wasn't like that. . . Then again people must have thought that Desmond wasn't like that. . . Naw, Vinnie just needed to find a chick. "It's not just the Faye thing though; he thinks he fucked up at the Home Coming Dance with the whole Brooke thing with Viola there. I think the fact that it's Senior year and he still never had a girl friend is starting to close in on him, you know?"

Desmond paused for a second to think and ended up getting distracted my the merry go round. It was such a delightful childhood ride that Desmond couldn't help but giggle a bit as he spun them a little faster with his feet. Then he realized he must have looked like a jackass and cleared his throat loudly.

"Anyway," he said seriously, "I still think that maybe you should talk to him. . . if not about Faye then maybe girls in general because you know that I don't no shit about that. . . I mean, I have nightmares about vaginas for Christ sake!" Desmond shuddered st the very thought. "This is defiantly something straight boys should be talking about."

[Garrett Speelers]

"Yes, I of all people should talk to Vinnie about girls," Garrett said with a chuckle.

Until Faye, he had been more girltarded than Vinnie was. At least girl's noticed Vinnie. . .although a couple had noticed him from time to time. . . they were just thrown of by his brooding nature and constant supply of bruises.

As Desmond had spun them faster, Garret lifted up his legs so as not to hinder his momentum. He chuckled slightly at the nostalgic feeling this seemed to bring up. Once the spinning stopped, though, he allowed thoughts of Vinnie return to the surface.

"Yeah, I'll find him sometime at school tomorrow. . .or something" he said.

[Desmond Giuseppe]

"Yes, I of all people should talk to Vinnie about girls,"

"Well, better you than me, dude!" said Desmond in slight outrage. If Garrett was talking to Vinnie at least the two had a common interest; chicks. "Besides. . . I'm not the one dating his crush. . . And we need Vinnie for the drag show! I don't want any gloomy drag queens on my stage!"

"Hey!" said Desmond, suddenly thinking of something, "Ok, so, here's the thing; for Halloween Vinnie said he was going to go as Sirius Black and so I thought I'd go as James Potter. Do you want to go as Lupin and complete the trio of the cool Marauders?!?!? It's be so cool!" Desmond gasped and gave Garrett a small push out of excitement. "You can ask Faye to go as Tonks! And I can have Audrey go as Lilly and Vinnie can-" he broke off and frowned. "I mean. . . never mind. . ." There was a moment of awkward silence. ". . . I should go before this gets anymore awkward. . ."

[Garrett Speelers]

Garrett had never gotten into the whole Harry Potter scene quite as much as the others, but he'd read all the books and seen the movies, so he knew what they were about. He also knew that Desmond thought he'd managed to make the situation awkward again.

"Sirius was gay for James anyway," he said with a shrug. "I mean I hadn't thought about Halloween or a costume, but that sounds easy enough."

[Desmond Giuseppe]

"Oh, I wish!" said Desmond seriously. "That would be hot. . . and, quite frankly, I wouldn't mind pretending Vinnie is my boyfriend." Desmond signed and got off the Merry Go Round. "I should probably go. I promised my mom I'd be home for dinner." Desmond explained, "She's making chicken alfredo and I'm not missing it! See ya!" He said before running off to get his dinner.

Desmond hoped what he told Garrett hadn't freaked him out or anything. . . he really was just trying to help. He'd hate for Vinnie to bottle up his emotions then suddenly explode on Garrett on of these days.

[Garrett Speelers]

"Yeah see ya," Garrett said, letting his feet thunk back down to the dirt.

He waved at Desmond's retreating form, and finished off his cigarette. What was he going to say tomorrow? Sorry we like the same girl Vinnie, but you never mentioned anything so tough shit. . . Yeah, that was perfect, he though sarcastically. No, he'd just talk to Vinnie rationally about it, and politely tell him that though he was sorry that he'd moved in, he really liked Faye and hoped Vinnie would understand.