H.B. and Gypsy

"Landon..." I whisper, feeling his forehead. I was slowly coaxing him awake, watching his breathing becoming more surfaced as he recognized my voice."Babe..."

He then, very weakly, opened his eyes and peered out at me and Mrs.Lee standing in front of his bed.

"Im sorry to wake you, but you need to take some more medicine, 'kay?" I explain to him. He nods his head, sighs, and reached out for me. I smile and sit next to him, handing him some tylenol. He washes them down with the glass of water on his nightstand, and then rests his head in my lap.

"How are you feeling, honey?" His mom asks.

"G-groggy..." His raspy voice answers. "You're l-lucky my boyfriend i-is such a good n-nurse..." He weakly smiles.

She turned to me with a grin. "Is that so?"

"He gave m-me and bath a-and everything..." He beamed at her.

"Well, that was nice of you, Ever. Thank you." She patted my back.

"No problem." I gave her a shy smile. I always get so nervous whenever Landon talks about me like that...he makes me sound like I'm actually worth something.

"Oh, I forgot!" Jane randomly says and gets up from landon's bed, and goes into his bathroom, only to return with something in her hand. She walks back over to us and sits down at his feet. "Open." She says and held a thermometer up to him. Landon obeys and opens his mouth as she slips it under his tongue. "Now close." He shuts his mouth and waits, resting his head back down in my lap.

"You hungry?" I ask him. He nods with a "Y-yeth." I let out a laugh at how cute he sounded with the lisp the thermometer was giving him.

"Thats good. He must be getting better if his appetite is back." His mom comments and I nod with her. We sat there for another minute, and then Mrs.Lee reaches out and asks Landon to open his mouth, to which she took the thermometer out of his mouth and looked at it. "Well, if you had a fever, its gone now. Ill be downstairs, okay? Ill make you guys something to eat." She smiles and stands up, heading for the door. "Ever, make sure he stays in bed tonight and tomorrow, ok? I dont want him whipping himself into another plague again."

"Will do." I grin and she closes the door. Landon sighs and attempts to sit up, wincing in the process, and ending up laying down on his pillow, pulling me down next to him. "That w-was so w-weird, e..."

"What was?"

"How quickly I-I got sick and h-how quickly I g-got over it..." He whispered into his pillow.

"Well, thats what'll happen if you dont eat right, babe...your body just freaked out for a second." I run my finger down his face.

"Y-yeah..." He yawned. "So, w-what did y-you do while I-I was asleep?"

"I ran home real quick and got some stuff, so I could sleep over." I looked down at him."I also told my mom I would be here."

"G-good." He smiled.

"And I made myself something to eat." I finished. "Other then that, I was by your side till your mom showed up." I softly smiled at him.

"Aw, E." He smiled. "I w-wanna kiss y-you..." He blushed.

"Whats stopping you?" I laughed.

"I-it hurts to s-sit up..." He whimpered.

"Oh, babe." I sigh, "You could have just said that..." I tell him and lean down to him.

"I j-just did, E." He giggles and I just grin, closing the gap between us and give his smiling lips a kiss.

"Mm." He hums happily against my lips, pulling away and kissing me one more time. "Oh, I f-forgot to t-tell you..." He whispered an inch away from my face.

"Hm?" I catch my breath.

"The g-gallery is l-looking for a new a-artist to feature...and they a-asked me if I w-would be interested..." He blushes, looking up at me.

My eyes go huge. "Doll! Im so proud of you!" I grab his hand and kiss it. "You're going to do it, right?" I add, a wide grin stretching across my face. He giggles at my enthusiasm.

"I w-want to, but Im n-nervous...wh-what if it isnt wh-what they want? What if th-they dont like i-it?" He worries.

"Are you kidding? You're art is gorgeous, love...of course they will like it." I reassure him.

"Im g-gonna do it, b-but..I dont know, I-I just hope I dont d-disappoint..." He looks down.

"You wont..." I sigh, "I promise." I look at him in the eyes.

"Thanks, E-e." He bashfully grins. "I have t-to finish thirteen p-pieces by April..."

"What of? Anything specific?" I ask him.

"Um...I k-kind of wanted t-to ask you a-about that..." He says quietly.

"Elaborate?" I laugh.

"I-I wanted to d-do a series of h-human figures..." He begins. I start running my hand through his hair.

"...and?" I ask him quietly.

"...I w-want you t-to be my m-model, Ever." He looks up at me hopefully. "I f-figured I am already f-familiar with your body...a-and I think i-its beautiful...so..." He nervously rambles.

I just sat there staring at him, contemplating this. I know that I already promised him a full figure drawing...but a whole series of just my body? In a gallery? Thats just terrifying. I licked my lips and rested my hand on his hip.

"Babe, I'm flattered, really, but...Um..." I worry out loud. His eyebrows furrow slightly and he looks down.

"You d-dont have t-to, E...Its ok..." He whispers to me, disappointment hanging on his small words. "I c-can just...you kn-know, draw something e-else..." He shrugs his shoulders.

I can't stand seeing him like this. I can see that this is important to him, and for once, I need to let go of my insecurities so he can do something that makes him happy. Because I love him.

I shake my head and lift his chin up with my finger. "No."

"I kn-know...I already s-said you dont have t-to..." He looks at me, confused.

"No, I mean you dont have to draw something else....Ill do it."

He blinked. "A-are...are you s-sure? I wouldnt w-want you to f-feel uncomfortable, E..." He looks at me wide glassy eyes.

"I'm sure Ill be fine." I smile at him. He looks at me for a second, observing me. He often does this when he thinks I might be lying. He squints his eyes and then he sports a shy smile.

"Ok..." He says, still weary, "Thank y-you, E. I owe y-you. I owe you f-for today as w-well." He smiled at me.

"About that..." I laughed.

"Oh m-man..." He groans, knowing its probably something he wont like.

"Well, my sweet love..." I laugh. He blushes and hides his face in my shoulder. "You don't owe me anything just for taking care of you...thats my responsibility as your boyfriend." I kiss his cheek. "But I do have an Idea. You know how halloween is only four days away..."

"Y-yes..." He mumbled into the skin of my neck.

"I was thinking...I get to decide what you dress up as." I hear him groan into my shoulder and mumble a "F-fine."

"Yes!" I laugh and hug him tighter. "You're going to be so cute..."

"W-wait, you already h-have something in m-mind?" He asks me, pulling his face out of my shoulder.

"You c-could say th-that..." I grin.

"What i-is it?" He asks eagerly.

"Well...." I smile.

"W-well?!" He urges.

"You, babe, are going to be my adorable, little..." I trail off.

"Ever B-brenin, tell me." He crosses his arms. I laughed and kissed his cheek.

"Kitten." I grin.

"A c-cat?!" He raises his eyebrows. "Only g-girls do that!" He protests.

"But, sugar...Imagine how unbearably cute you would be as one..." I chuckle. He rolls his eyes. "Oh, and while you were sleeping, Harper called."

"What d-did she say?" He asked.

"She invited us to this halloween party across town. Its on Halloween night." I told him. He looked weary." Do you think you would be up for it?" I ask, looking at his now, very shy, face.

"...H-how many p-people?" He stutters.

"Not sure. She mentioned how it was her friends party from high school..."

"H-highschool..." Landon whimpers. "I d-dont know, E...." He cuddles closer to my neck and takes a shaky breath.

"Its nothing to get nervous about, babe..." I begin softly to him, playing with his fingers. "I won't let anything happen to you, you know that."

"I kn-know..."

"And we could leave whenever you wanted..." I offered. "I was just thinking how it would be good for us to get out and make some friends...you know? Live a little." I whispered to his curled up little body.

"Y-yeah..." He whimpered. "It just m-makes me so n-nervous, Ever..."

"I know." I sighed and slipped my hand around his waist. "But I'll be with you. Who knows, maybe it'll be the best time we've had in a while..."

"You're r-right..." He decides, still sounding a little anxious. "We should g-go."

"Really?" I raise my eyebrows.

"M-mhm." He nods. "But, E, if y-you leave my s-side for even a m-minute..." He worries.

"I wont, babe. I swear." I smile.

He lets out a stressed sigh and curls his fingers with mine. "So how do you plan on dressing me like a cat?"

____________________________________________________________________

I enjoy taking care of Landon. The past couple days have just been me popping in and out of Landons house every now and again to see how he's doing and to watch him when Mrs.Lee is gone. She didnt want him to work himself up into another flu again. He seemed to be doing really well. I would say he's even completely healed from the incident. He would randomly get a headache every one and a while, but other than that, he was back to his cheerful sweet self.

Although he wasnt very cheerful at the moment.

"Come on. You can do it." I encourage him.

"N-no..." I hear him mumble from outside of the door. "You w-will not see m-me like this."

"But babe!" I whine. I hear him sigh. "You promised me you would do it."

"I l-look stupid!" He huffs. I hear him moving things around and opening the cabinets.

"Im sure you don't. Just let me see you." I tried to reason with him.

Just ten minutes ago, I handed Landon his outfit for the Halloween party and he went in the bathroom to change. Since then, he refuses to come out and show me. That boy...

"P-people will l-laugh..." He whines.

"Bullshit." I tell him. I hear him breathing on the other side of the door and finally he speaks up.

"Im coming o-out...and y-you better not l-laugh." He winces and I hear the doorknob start to twist. I back away and wait. The door slowly creaks open, and I see landon standing there, looking like he wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.

"Landon Autemn...."A smile quickly creeped onto my face and I hurried over to him, hugging his little waist close to me. "This is even cuter than I imagined it." I laugh. He sighs and lightly pushes me away.

I look at him. He was wearing tight black jeans, with a white t-shirt and black suspenders. He had a little nose painted on top of his and cat ears on top of his head. I also gave him some black and white gloves to wear to look like paws. He was a sight.

"I feel s-so f-foolish..." He winces. I grab his hands and pull him to me.

"Why, love?"

"Once I w-walk through that d-door, they will j-just know Im gay. Its l-like I'm a-asking to get m-my ass kicked."

"Number one, Nobody will touch you with me there, number two, you look like a boy with cat ears on. When I first saw you, I thought 'wow this boy is beautiful'. Not 'wow,this boy is gay.' "

"But E, i-if I'm going t-to this party, I-I would like t-to feel confident...and I d-don't."

I sigh and look at his solemn face. I just walk away. He looks up, worried, and begins to explain. "I d-didnt want t-to make you mad, E-e...Im s-sorry."

Snap

Landon reels back slightly and rubs his eyes, recovering from the flash. I hold my camera in my hands with a smile. "Im not mad, babe. I just wanted to capture you on film before you change."

"B-before I change?" He tilts his head to the side. I walk up to him.

"The last thing I want you to feel is uncomfortable." I tuck some hair behind his ear. "If you feel that bothered my it, love, then go change. I won't mind." I kiss his cheek and walk back over to my bag, putting my camera back in its case.

"B-but...I feel b-bad..." He tells me. "You like i-it..."

"But you dont, and thats what matters. Go change." I grin and walk back over to him. He gives my lips a soft kiss.

"Thank y-you." He sighs. "I'll tell y-you what...I'll keep th-the nose on, o-ok?"

"Really?" I smile.

"Mhm." He nods and slips the ears off and slips his suspenders off his shoulders, letting them hang loosely at his sides. He slipped his white t-shirt off and walked over to his closet, looking through his shirts. I had to take this opportunity to get my camera out again and capture the perfection that is in front of me.

"Doll." I say and he turns around. I click a picture and he gasps, covering himself up.

"I dont h-have a sh-shirt on!" He giggles.

"All the more reason to take pictures." I laugh and snap another one of him laughing at me. Who wouldn't snap a quick picture of Landon with a painted cat nose, no shirt, black jeans, and loose-hanging suspenders on? A fucking idiot, thats who.

He ended up choosing a navy blue, long sleeved, thermal t-shirt and his jean jacket. "Very nice." I comment and snap one more picture before putting it back into my bag.

"R-ready." He smiles.

"Lets get it going." I smile and take his hand, leading us out if his room.

___________________________________________________________________

I can't remember the last time I was in a room with so many people. Or with such loud music. At first, it was insanely intimidating...but then it almost became comforting. The fact that there was so many people, and such loud music, it was easy to hide in it all and not be noticed in a large crowd. Landon, on the other hand, was squeezing my hand so tight, I think it might be cutting off the blood flow to my brain.

We have been walking around, searching for Harper for the past ten minutes, when finally I see a head of red hair running towards us. "My boys!" She smiles, hugging us both. "So glad you came. Especially you, my sweet thing." She pinches landons cheek. "My goodness, you look adorable!" She told him. He blushed and hid into my side.

"Th-thanks H-harp." He giggles.

"And Ever, congrats on convincing him to come!" She laughs.

"Thanks." I laugh. "Im a little surprised, myself."

She nods and hugs us once more. "Guys, I gotta go mingle, but I'll catch up with you later, okay?"

"Sure, seen you then." I smile and wave her off as she disappears into the crowd. I turn to Landon and run my finger down his cheek.

"What now?"

"I-I'm thirsty." He clicks his tongue.

"The food table, it is." I hold his hand tighter and we walk over to the cooler that was sitting on the ground next to a couple pints of soda. I reached in and grabbed a bottle water for him, handing it to him.

"Th-thanks." He quickly opens it and nearly chugs down most of the bottle.

"Woah..." My eyes go big and he sets the bottle down on the table.

"I guess a-all the n-nerves dried m-me out..." He giggles.

"I can see that." I laugh with him.

We walked back into the livingroom and found an empty spot, thank god, on the couch. I went and sat down, while landon curls up in my lap. "Th-this isnt too b-bad..." Landon mumbles with a shy grin.

"Not at all." I grin and give him a quick kiss. Landon and I sat on the couch for about an hour just watching people. From time to time, we would even start creating fake dialogue between people we saw talking across the room. We would laugh our asses off and act as if we were the funniest shit since Jim Carrey. Eventually, I was getting antsy and wanted to walk around again. Landon reluctantly got off my lap and I led him towards the outside patio. I opened the door and was welcomed by the cold evening air against my face. Landon shivered and stayed close to me. I wrapped my arm around his waist and started walking towards these chairs next to the lawn. I was about to sit down, but my thoughts were snapped out of rhythm when I heard something.

"Ever?" The voice said. I quickly turned my head and looked at where the sound was coming from. "Ever Brenin?" It repeated itself.

I blinked my eyes again, and saw a guy standing in front of me. He had Chocolate brown hair, shorter than mine, but not too short, with really dark blue eyes. Almost black blue. He had a welcoming smile on his face and a cup in his hand.

"Yes?" I raised my eyebrow at him.

How did he know who I was?

"Remember me?" He grinned. I thought about it, hard, but came up with nothing. "Connor." He helps me remember. "Connor verona?"

"Connor?" I slap my forehead with the realization. "Oh Yeah..." I smile and shake his hand awkwardly, "You were in my English class right? Sat next to Hannah bower?"

"Yeah!" He laughs. "That girl was a trip...always wore the same head band and never showered, I swear..." He remembers. I laugh with him.

Yes, I remembered Connor. This was a nice kid. He was insanely smart and was always involved with the music department. Or at least he was before I left. He played piano and cello. Talented guy.

"So, how have you been, man?" He grins.

"Good, good..." I smile awkwardly, "Just, you know, working on my writing and stuff like that."

Right as I finished talking I felt something nudging my side and I look down to see landon standing there with a blush on his face. Shit, I completely forgot to introduce him.

"Oh, Connor, this is my-" I cut myself off, "This is Landon." I smile and Connor shakes landons hand. Landon looked slightly disappointed. I didn't know if Landon wanted me to tell him that we were together because I know his fear of being made fun of for being gay...

"Nice to meet you, buddy." Connor smiles, "You're a cat? I like." He adds.

Landon bashfully smiles and holds my hand.

"So, what have you been up to?" I break the silence.

"I'm actually the manager of this record store, it's pretty rad." He says proudly.

"Oh, cool." I grin. "I would love to work at a record store....being a music lover and all."

"Really?" He raises his eyebrows. " Because Im actually looking to hire someone to work a couple days a week. The dude I had just up and left about two weeks ago." He told me, "Do you think you would be interested?"

"Are you serious?" I laugh. "Of course I would be. Thank you." I grin widely.

"Awesome. Sounds like a plan." He pats my shoulder. "Welcome to Sugar Shock records."

"That was too easy..." I shake my head. "Really?"

"Yes." He laughs. "Usually, I would go through the whole interview process, but since we're desperate and I already know you, it sounds like a done deal."

"Thanks, again, Connor." I shook his hand.

"Thank you man." He nodded. We stood there for the next ten minutes small talking and remembering things from our shitty high school. We talked about our teachers, our favorites and our least favorites, how much the cafeteria food sucked, and that one time when people released mice into the science lab right before christmas break. It was so refreshing getting to talk to somebody about that kind of stuff...I never really got to do that.

We were laughing about something probably involving our math teacher, when he finally takes a breather and breaks it off. "Well, its been good catching up." He grins. "But my boyfriend is probably about to kick my ass if I don't meet him at the punch bowl in two minutes."

"Boyfriend?" I raise my eyebrows. I would have never guessed.

"Don't tell me you're a homophobe..." He says, weary.

I laugh. "No, no...." He tilts his head in confusion. "Me and Landon are together, Connor."

"Oh!" He smiles, clutching his chest, "You scared me there for a second."

"I would have told you, but poor thing over here is afraid of being picked on because of it." I told him. "I would have never guessed you were...you know." I laughed.

He chuckled. "Well, if it makes any more sense, Im bi." He explains. "And,no worries. I understand. Jamey is the same way." He grins. I nod.

"I see. Well, go to him before something bad happens." I laugh.

"Oh wait!" He runs back over to me. "Heres my number." He hands takes out a pen from his back pocket and writes it in my hand. "Call me and we'll figure out when to set up all the paperwork for Sugar Shock."

I almost forgot. "Sounds good." I grin."See you later."

"Alright. Nice meeting you, Landon." He waves and walks away.

We watch him walk back into the house and the turn to each other. "Well, that was awesome." I grin. Landon nodded and hugged my waist tightly. I hug him back and kiss his head. "Whats this for, babe?"

"I just w-want to h-hug you..." He whimpers and hides his face in my chest.

I lightly laugh and run my hand up and down his back. He sighed and kissed my clothed chest. "So, what did you think of Conner?" I chime in.

"H-he's...nice." Landon softly told me. "Thats c-cool of him to g-give you a job like th-that." He grinned, looking up at me. I gave him a slow kiss and smiled.

"Yes, it was really cool of him." I nod. "Want to go back inside?"

He nods, shivering, and I take us back into the crowded house. I feel Landon immediately hold my arm tighter and look down as we made our way into the kitchen. Sure enough, Harper was in there, pouring herself some Cherry coke. "How do you like it so far?" She smiles, walking over to us.

"Not too bad." I smile.

"Good." She mirrors my expression. "And how bout you, kitten?" She smiles at Landon.

"N-not too bad." He laughs.

"You guys are too much." She laughs. "Do you think you're gonna head out anytime soon?"

I looked at Landon. He was tired. His cheeks were rosy and his eyes were now a dark gold."Yeah. We'll probably leave in a couple minutes. Sound good, love?" I look at him. He nods merrily.

"Alrighty. It was good seeing you two! Landon, Ill see you at the Gallery on Monday, yes?" She asks.

"Y-yep." He nods.

"Great. See you later, guys!" She smiles and walks off.

I turn to Landon and he yawns, scrunching up his face and resting his head on my chest. I run my hand through his hair and laugh. He really did look like a kitten when he did that. "Lets get you home." I grab his hand and we walk though the hallway, into the livingroom, and out the front door. As we walked to my car, something caught my eye.

A 1994 Honda to be exact. Parked along the street right across from my car.

Cals car.

Its a miracle we didn't run into him.

I stop in my tracks and reach in my pocket. Revenge is oh so sweet.

Landon looks at me, confused and asks "What a-are you doing?" I just take out my keys and begin to walk towards cals car. "Stay here." I tell him and leave him on the curb. "E-e!" Landon calls as I walk onto the other side of the street. I just keep walking until I approach his car. I grin and raise my hand, getting ready to do something incredibly stupid...but so awesome.

Landon seemed to realize what I was about to do and he yelled again. "Ever, wh-what are you th-thinking?! Stop!"

My breathing accelerates and I lower my arm down, digging my key into the midnight blue paint of his door, dragging it all the way to the back of his trunk. I grin, feeling accomplished and look at it. I hear Landon yelling at me from across the street and I take one final look at his car and walk away. I soon approach Landon and he looks bewildered. He then slapped my arm harder than he ever has.

"W-what the fuck, E-ever! You could g-get in a lot o-of trouble for th-that!" He hisses at me.

"Do you know who's car that was?" I raise my eyebrows. He looks lost.

"N-no. Do y-you?" He still sounds so mad.

"Yes. It just so happens to be your secret admirers car. Cal."

"...O-oh." He sighs and his face relaxes. "S-still, ever..thats d-dangerous. Dont ever d-do that again." He orders me.

"Fine. Although, this time I felt it was appropriate."

"F-fair enough." He takes a deep breath and holds my hand.

"N-now lets get o-out of here b-before you g-get arrested."