Chapter 16

Marc stepped into the school and stomped the snow off from his shoes. He got his visitors pass and stopped by Brendan’s class for a moment. He wasn’t as early as he usually was because he had hit traffic on his way over. “I’m still giving you a ride today,” Marc reminded him. He wasn’t letting Brendan walk home. It was still snowing and it was cold.

“Okay,” Brendan agreed without much protest. He probably didn’t want to face the snow either. “My bike is at your place, though,” he added on.

“We’ll figure it out on a day when it’s not snowing and you can actually ride it,” Marc said as the bell rang. “I’m going to go get Ariel, meet you at the car.”

Marc met Ariel outside of her class and made sure that she was properly bundled up. Her winter coat from the year before didn’t fit quite right anymore, so he knew they would be getting a new one soon. He didn’t understand why kids had to grow so much, but then a bunch of three feet tall people would be weird too.

He got Ariel into the car and started it so that the heat would kick in. There was a flurry of students and parents all meeting up and leaving, and it wasn’t until twenty minutes later that Brendan actually showed up. He half ran, half slid his way to the car with his arms tightly crossed over his chest. “Definitely regretting not having a better jacket,” he announced as he slammed the car door after him.

Marc chuckled and checked to make sure everyone was buckled in properly. “Blueberry is going to give me so much crap for not coming home last night,” Brendan muttered, rubbing his hands together.

Marc just nodded. Would Blueberry think something had actually happened? He gave Brendan a side-long glance, but tried to keep his eyes on the road for the most part. He pulled up to where he thought the curb was, buried under snow, in front of Brendan’s house. They all cringed as he ended up jumping the curb slightly anyways.

“Thanks for the ride,” Brendan said, ready to make a break from the car and too his house.

“Hold on, I’m coming,” Marc said, stepping out of the car as well. A foot went out from under him, but he caught himself on the car before he went down.

Brendan smirked at him from the other side and closed his side of the car. Marc did the same and joined Brendan up on the sidewalk for a moment. “So,” Marc began, staring at the house instead of Brendan.

“So?” Brendan echoed lightly.

“This Saturday, we should go out,” Marc put it out there, hesitating. Was that clear enough?

“Out like what?” Brendan asked. He was going to make Marc say it.

Marc huffed and finally met Brendan’s eyes. “You know like what. Or are teachers not allowed to do that with parents?” Marc realized quickly.

Brendan chuckled. “No, we can. It happens. But just to be clear, you’re talking like a date, right?”

Marc nodded stiffly, not quite able to face the excited smile that spread on Brendan’s face. Marc dipped his face down into his coat under the pretense of being cold. “Let’s talk about this another time when I’m not freezing my ass off, though,” Brendan said quickly. “But otherwise, yes. Just… either call me, or we’ll talk tomorrow.”

“Agreed.” Marc just wanted to get back in the car.

Brendan stepped in, pecking a chaste kiss onto Marc’s cheek. Marc was only able to gawk at him in surprise as Brendan grinned like the devil. “See ya,” Brendan said, taking off into a partial run, only for his feet to slip along the way. Marc took half a step to try and help, but nearly ended up in the splits. Brendan managed to stop himself from falling though, with his legs spread awkwardly.

Brendan looked over his shoulder. “Okay,” he said. “Uh, penguin walk,” he decided, pulling his legs together and doing a weird waddle partway up the sidewalk. “Text me when you two get home, though!” he called out as he got to the door.

Marc wasn’t sure what the logic behind the penguin walk was, but he tried to mimic it as he went back to the driver’s side. His face still felt hot despite having been outside.

“He kissed you!” Ariel shrieked from the backseat, pounding her hand excitedly on the back of Marc’s seat.

Oh, right. He swore under his breath. “You saw nothing.”

“I did too see that,” Ariel protested. “Are you and Mr. Brendan,” she paused trying to find the word. “kissing?” she decided on instead.

“No,” Marc grumbled. Not yet, anyways. “And you can’t tell anyone.”

“Why not?” Ariel pouted.

“Because… Mr. Brendan could get in trouble at school.” He still wasn’t sure on that, but he didn’t think Brendan was out at school either. He’d have to ask Brendan about that.

It was a painstaking drive home, and when they got there, Marc declared that they weren’t leaving the house for anything ever again. He had seen at least three people wipe out on the way, and he almost wondered how school or work was going to happen the next day. And now he was worried about Saturday, too. It better clear up by Saturday.

He banished Ariel upstairs and groaned to himself. He at least needed some sort of help on this. He called Alice, both relieved and afraid when she actually answered. “Hey, Marc, what’s up?” she greeted.

Marc stalled, biting his thumbnail. “I asked Brendan out.”

“Like, asked out?” Alice questioned carefully.

“Yeah,” Marc admitted quietly.

“I thought you weren’t into dating,” she brought up one of his excuses.

“Well that was…” That was what? “Brendan doesn’t count,” he decided.

He heard Alice laughing at him on the other end, so he frowned. “This isn’t funny,” Marc grumbled sourly at her, no matter how much like a child he sounded. “I haven’t been on a date in… forever.”

“If you like spending time with him, just keep doing exactly that,” Alice said. “And maybe you two hold hands, or something like that. But dating is getting to know each other more on an intimate level. So just go out and have fun.”

“I don’t even know what to do,” Marc groaned. “Dinner sounds… expected.”

“There have to be at least twenty art galleries downtown,” Alice pointed out. “And then there’s the art museums, or there are some comedy performances going on… I think any of those would be up Brendan’s alley, with dinner either coming before or after, because people have to eat, so don’t under estimate dinner.”

“He’s vegetarian,” Marc remembered with another groan. “And almost every place is going to have meat, isn’t it?”

“Then let Brendan pick the place for dinner. He’ll know where he can go and still get something worth eating. Planning a date can take two people, you know,” Alice instructed. “So find some time to talk it out with him.”

Marc didn’t want to seem too eager about it, so he waited until the next day to talk to Brendan about it. School had ended up canceled due to road conditions, which Marc was grateful and disappointed for at the same time. He wanted to actually see Brendan so that they could talk, but he realized settling on a phone call would have to do.

“I don’t know any places that are vegetarian friendly,” Marc admitted into the phone.

“Well how funny, I do,” Brendan laughed. “And I think it would be funny to take you there and see what you try and make of the menu… I mean, if you’re willing to go to a place that doesn’t have meat.”

“I wouldn’t mind trying it.” Of course Marc was still picturing eating squares of grass and tofu in his head, but he imagined some people were more creative than that.

“Okay. Well, what else did you have in mind?” Brendan asked.

“Art gallery or something,” Marc uselessly muttered one of Alice’s ideas.

“Well that sounds like something I would like, but do you actually know enough about it to actually like going yourself?” Brendan challenged him. “Let’s think of something we could both like.”

Marc fell silent from there. He couldn’t actually think of anything in common that they might both like.  To his disappointment, Brendan had to hang up and deal with Blueberry screaming in the background for some reason. Marc figured he would think on it more, and if anything, Brendan was creative enough so maybe he could come up with something.