Of Thieves And Do Gooders

The next day started abruptly. I was awake long before the sun had decided to make its appearance in the sky. There wasn’t anything magical or breathtaking about the sunrise though, it just became increasingly inconvenient when the light reached through my window and danced around in my eyes. I forced myself to sit up finally, and grumbled to myself as I waited for my grogginess to dissipate.

However, it didn’t have the chance. Instead it was shattered by the sound of my bedroom door slamming against the wall while someone bounded into the room. “Merry Christmas!” Hayden called at me, practically skipping into the room and landing on the foot of my bed.

I stared at him in shock. That he was capable of any sort of humiliating movements was hard to believe. And, believe me, watching him skip was indeed humiliating. “Oh my God,” I said slowly, drawing a hand to hover over my heart dramatically. “It’s one of Santa’s fairies, that’s so adorable.” My tone was condescending, but the smirk on my lips gave away my sarcasm. I was fully aware that Santa didn’t have “fairies” but calling him one of Santa’s helpers really wasn’t degrading enough. Although the image of him prancing around dressed like an elf in pointy shoes and a dorky green had did put a vague smile on my lips.

Hayden rolled his eyes. “Ha-ha, a gay joke. Good one,” he deadpanned, taking no real offence from the comment.

I eyed him speculatively. “So…you barged in here just for that?” I queried with a delicately raised eyebrow.

“What? I have to have to some ulterior motive aside from wishing you happy holidays?” Hayden replied, looking startlingly offended by the question. He was a good liar though, which probably made him a decent actor in certain situations.

“Don’t try and sell me that crap. You don’t strike me as the type of person that bounds into a room wishing seasons greetings to everyone in sight. So spill it. What do you want?” I stood up and stretched my arms behind me for something to do.

Hayden seemed to pause as if weighing his options and then he rolled his eyes. “Well, now that you mention it…I was wondering if you wanted to open presents…like…now?” His eyes practically got huge and shiny like some demented glass-eyed doll. That was his attempt at begging? Obviously he was out of practice, being a pampered little rich boy, he probably barely had to ask to get something.

I cocked my head to the side as I thought about how long I could make him suffer in suspense. On the other hand, I would have to go without my own gifts as long as he did. “Sure, let’s go then,” I said, heading toward the door leading out into the hall.

“Oh, nonono,” Hayden caught my arm before I even made it half a step forward. “I brought your gift to you,” he explained with a lopsided grin.

“How…considerate,” I stated, giving him a suspicious look. Anything that he did that was unnecessarily nice for me, was never a good thing. Hayden always had motive behind his actions. I decided to ignore this fact though, and sat on my bed again when he led me in that direction.

Hayden disappeared behind the side of my bed for a brief second and returned with a small package wrapped in a generic green and red Christmassy paper. He handed it to me and then backed off to hover around by the doorframe, apparently nervously awaiting my response.

I didn’t bother with a thank you as I tore away the wrapping paper on the small package. I couldn’t keep the dull smile from touching my lips as I examined what he had given me. I quirked my head to the side with a very slight disintegration of my smile. “What…?” I had begun to say but Hayden promptly interrupted me.

“Do you like it?” he asked with a hopeful sheen to his eyes.

“It…I mean it’s…The Fountain?” I inquired incredulously with a sarcastic laugh. I hated that particular movie, and he had decided it was a good Christmas present. Go figure.

Hayden seemed deflated at my response. “Oh…you don’t like it?” he inquired with a small quizzical frown.

“Uh. Not really…You do recall me saying that I didn’t like this movie right?” I asked with a sarcastically raised eyebrow.

“God damn it!” he groaned and covered his face with both of his hands in embarrassment. “This is almost as bad as if you had bought me a copy of Twilight!” Hayden exclaimed, throwing his hands dramatically in the air.

That caught my attention, ever so slightly. To bring up the book unprovoked was…interesting. I smirked absently as my brain churned at this new bit of information. “You little fucknut,” I insulted with no malice in my tone and then I laughed sarcastically.

He appeared startled at the sudden profanity. “Wha…?”

“You already opened your damn presents, you loser,” I deducted with another laugh.

Hayden blinked and then smiled conspiratorially at me. “Maybe. Either way though, that is your real present. Go ahead, open the case,” he prompted eagerly, although he didn’t come any closer to me.

Curiously, I popped open the case, now noticing that the movie didn’t have the pesky outer plastic. A smile cracked across my features as I saw the front of the DVD. A deranged looking little stick figure was drawn on it in permanent marker. One of his obscure hands was held up and flipping me off while a speech bubble signified him saying, “Fuck this movie.”

“I figured we could deface it more later…but that’s a start, right?” Hayden asked with a nervous chuckle.

I was still smiling as I stared down at the rude little cartoon while I remembered the exact moment Hayden was referring to. I had been giving him advice on how he should try and woo a woman, specifically Laura Harding. That he had remembered such an insignificant detail as me disliking The Fountain was a miracle on its own. That he remembered how I wanted to deface the hateful little object was…surprisingly sweet, in its own twisted way.

“Raven…?” Hayden inquired when I was silent for too long.

I noticed that my eyes had become a little too shiny and threatened to release what would possibly be a vat of tears. I couldn’t explain to myself why the stupid notion, but thoughtful gift was so touching. I kept my head turned downward, not wanting to alarm Hayden with my own sentimental stupidity. Quickly, I locked the sappy thoughts of his sweetness away and composed myself so that I could smile up at Hayden. “This is amazing,” I stated with a laugh, unable to wipe the goofy grin off of my face.

Hayden’s expression lit up ever-so-slightly and then asked, “Better than a Ninja right?”

I laughed and nodded with a roll of my eyes. “Way better than a Ninja,” I assured him. “Thank you,” I added with a note of sincerity that I seldom used.

He beamed at me for a moment longer and then looked down and kicked the floor softly, suddenly embarrassed by any eye contact we had decided to make. “Oh yeah, uh thanks too. For everything but the copy of Twilight,” he said accusingly. “The Rise Against CD was a nice surprise after the shitty fiction.”

“What?” I queried in mock-surprise. “You didn’t want a copy of it? I thought you’d want to know what hairstyles, vehicles and colored contacts you’d want to avoid so you don’t seem like a carbon copy of Edward Cullen,” I defended myself quickly. In reality, I just wanted to see the look of disgust on his face when he tore away the wrapping paper. Since I was denied this satisfaction, however, I would have to just mess with his head a little instead.

“Uh-huh,” he sighed the response, sounding unconvinced.

I dismissed his skepticism with a roll of my eyes. A thought assaulted my brain in the silence that momentarily stretched between us. Hayden’s presence had almost delighted me into forgetting about the previous day with Damion. I frowned suddenly and bit my lower lip in thought. I wouldn’t go and seek him out again. That would just be like beating a dead horse. I considered what I might say to him if in fact I did decide to try and find him. I imagined something along the lines of, “Sorry I broke your heart, how are you feeling today? Wanna act like everything is totally fine?” Assuming that I was feeling incredibly bitchy and cold hearted, of course.

“What’s up?” Hayden asked, breaking into my thoughts. He was looking at me with a worried crease in his brow, obviously my glum thoughts had leaked to the surface and became evident in my expression.

“Oh. Nothin’ just thought about something stupid,” I replied with a half-hearted chuckle.

Hayden looked unconvinced, but thankfully let the lie slide past him.

____________________________________________

Damion’s Point Of View

It felt like nothing I could possibly explain in words. It hurt, obviously, like someone kept jabbing at my heart with a fork. I had had people break up with me before, I had broken up with other people too, but it had never been as bad as it was with Raven. It wasn’t like we had actually been together, I guess. But we had kissed. I hadn’t even kissed her, she had pushed that car into motion and now she wanted to stop it. The excruciating pain in my chest must have been caused by the car being thrown into reverse.

What was worse than that was that I knew why she was chasing me off. She liked someone else. More specifically, she liked Hayden. I knew it, Lee probably knew it. A three year old could fucking see it. But Hayden had to be the stupidest guy on the planet, not seeing shit until someone waved it around in his face. I wasn’t going to be the one to tell him though, he would have to figure it out for himself for once.

Then there was Raven. I could say a lot of bad shit about her, point out her flaws and say how insufferable she was. But that wasn’t what I felt like doing. Even though she had rejected me, in almost the crudest way possible. I still liked her, although I felt like I should have hated her. In fact, I probably could have hated her, if I really wanted to. If I didn’t like her so goddamn much, maybe I could have done it.

I had chosen to crash on Hayden’s bed for the time being. He didn’t seem to mind, in fact, he seemed to be cooled off about the whole “I like Raven” deal. Why that was, I wasn’t really sure. Maybe he knew something that I didn’t. If that was the case I couldn’t be too surprised. Him and Raven seemed to share a ton of shit that was exclusive to them. However they felt about anything was completely off limits to Lee and me.

I lurched to my feet and stalked over to the stereo and pushed on the power button. Brooding was something that I did better with obnoxiously loud music blaring in the background. So, I cranked the volume dial to the right and collapsed on Hayden’s bed while the sound waves engulfed the room. Maybe I would actually get some sleep if I focused on lyrics instead of thinking.

I was getting really tired of thinking.

________________________________________

Hayden’s Point Of View

It was fucking ridiculous. I couldn’t even get into my own goddamn room because Dame was holed up in there with music turned up so loud he couldn’t hear me pounding on the stupid ass door. Or he was choosing to ignore me. We weren’t at each others throats anymore, but we weren’t exactly on good terms either. Either way, it looked like I wasn’t showering on that particular day. I’d just rub his pillowcase on my armpits later to exact my revenge.

In all honesty, I was getting sick of being pissed at him. On the other side of that thought, I wasn’t going to work up some sort of apology, that just wasn’t my thing. We had been friends since we got into Shadowstep Academy, and that wasn’t going to change, because I didn’t want it to. He was the same Dame that I knew and would very easily call my best friend, but he was acting like an ass hole. That was just his general attitude though, I guess.

I dumped his plethora of wrapped presents in front of the door and decided to let him open them at his leisure. In my family, we didn’t exactly gather around and open presents and then freak out and thank the corresponding gift-givers sporadically. We just opened’em, freaked out on our own, and then thanked people when we got around to it. Dame was around my family about as much as I was, so he was subject to our traditions.

With a contemplative sigh, I wondered what the hell I was going to do during Christmas. The whole real celebration had happened two days before, including the dinner and that wasn’t the greatest party I’d ever been to. Although it was more exciting than any other family gathering. In a twisted sort of way. Usually on Christmas my dad and I ended up doing separate things. We had our own schedules and we were close enough to not take it personally when we were distant.

Although I tried to stop my brain from pulling up an image of Raven in it’s downtime, it didn’t work. Unlike every other Christmas, Raven was there. I wasn’t sure if I was the kind of company she wanted, since she had decided to saunter off somewhere else on her own to do God knows what it is that Raven does for fun. However, I was bored, Dame was no sort of entertainment, and maybe Raven had some sarcastic remarks I could parry with my sharp wit.

_______________________________________

Raven’s Point Of View

Allow me to be the first to tell you, that Christmas with Hayden, his dad, and Damion, was just as good as any of my past Christmases by myself.

…Aside from the fact that I actually received presents this year. Which was pretty awesome, actually. Although I hadn’t gotten anything from Damion or Leon, I didn’t really mind since they hadn’t even known that I was hanging around.

I was in the middle of fiddling with the blinds on my window in my room, when there was a soft knock at the door. At that point I was growling and grunting like a farm animal as I jerked on the cursed string, attempting to get the blinds to fall and cover the window.

“Don’t make me pull harder you son of bitch…” I muttered at the draw-string of the blinds. What kind of freak-a-zoid had their blinds hiked up in the middle of Winter? It just let all the damn cold air seep through the glass and turn the room into a giant refrigerator.

The knock came again, this time a bit more hesitantly, but also louder.

“Come…in,” I grunted and decided to put all my weight against the string. Which, by the way, wasn’t such a great idea.

Just as the door opened, the string snapped, and I toppled over onto my butt. My cheeks heated up in embarrassed anger, and I flung the string away from me with a growl of resentment. In a last attempt to further my embarrassment, the blinds broke away from the wall and hit me in the head with a sharp thud. Worse than that sound was the ringing that it started in my ears and the lump I could practically feel swelling on the crown of my head. To make matters even more ironic, the surprise caused by the impact of the heavy blinds caused me to whip my head to the side and bang my cheek on the corner of a nearby dresser. “Mother fucker,” I swore through clenched teeth. Several more profanities escaped me, but listing that many “f-bombs” might become redundant.

There was a snort of laughter coming from the doorway. Of course. What was the point of being assaulted by inanimate objects if someone wasn’t there to laugh at you?

“Smooth,” Hayden praised, completely neglecting the act of asking me whether or not I was okay. He looked like he would burst into laughter if he tried to say anything other than that.

“Eat shit and die,” I spat at him, my teeth still firmly clenched against the throbbing pain in my skull. I pressed my tongue against the inside of my cheek, nursing the wound to some degree. Or so my mind had tricked me into believing.

“I think I’ll pass--and if you were still ‘Raymond’, it would have really sounded like you were jerking off in here. I hope you know that,” Hayden retorted, laughing as he approached me sitting on the ground.

I thought back at that and scowled. “Per-mmert,” I accused, the word coming out strange as my tongue remained against the inside of my cheek.

“I’m the perv? You’re the one telling the blinds that you’re gonna ‘pull harder’. I’m just pointing out facts,” Hayden defended, not bothering to offer me a hand up as he stood in front of me, glancing down with his arms crossed over his chest. Always such a gentleman. Laughing at my pain and leering down at me. I wanted to kick him in the nuts.

“Whatever…you fl-ucking per-mert,” I stated. I put a hand on the lump on the back of my head and tried not to think of the pain as I pushed myself up onto my knees. Much to my dismay, the pant leg on my jeans proceeded to get caught on the dresser, thwarting my attempt to stand. Frustrated with all my trouble with inanimate objects I promptly started to thrash around, and simply rip my pant leg free, ruining the garment, but also releasing my frustration.

“Hey! What the fuck…? Stop that!” Hayden protested, grabbing the hand that was on my head simply because it was the nearest thing for him to touch and get my attention.

“Shut up, I know mut ’m nooing,” I replied and smacked his hand away, while turning my head to look over my shoulder. Why wasn’t it just ripping? I hadn’t thought that I was that weak.

“Good God, calm down, this happens all the time!” Hayden said stubbornly and proceeded to try and get my attention by flicking the spot on my head that had recently been brutally assaulted.

“Ouch!” I shouted and turned my head briskly around to rip him a new asshole, when I realized that I was directly at eye level with his crotch. Which wasn’t too bad in itself if I had just pulled my head back and stood up. However, I looked past Hayden’s hip to see Amber, the annoying, psychotic little daughter of Hayden’s Aunt Stacy. Now, taking all of the elements into consideration, let’s try and assess what it was that the little girl saw. Hayden’s back to her…me on my knees in front of him…with a very suspicious speech impediment. Paralyzed by the fact that it seemed like I had just been caught giving Hayden a blow job, I simply stayed where I was, my eyes widening in shock at the ludicrous turn of events.

Seeming to notice my sudden stillness, Hayden turned to see Amber in the doorway. “Oh…hey Amber,” he said distractedly and turned back to me. That was when it clicked. Hayden leapt backwards, and back-peddled all the way to the door, staring at me in horror. “O-oh shit, um…yeah, I’m gonna go and…yeah, you know, do that…thing,” he stammered stupidly.

“Yeah.” I set my tongue back to its proper position in my mouth. “Go and do that…I’m just gonna…” I didn’t bother to finish my sentence as I scrambled to my feet and slammed the door, turning the lock.

If that wasn’t the most awkward moment I had ever had with Hayden, I wasn’t sure what could have possibly been worse. I should have just left the goddamn blinds alone and froze my toes off in my room.

Hopefully he would set things straight with Amber, because I sure as hell wasn’t about to explain anything to her. As long as he got her to sign a blood pact agreeing never to repeat what she saw, I didn’t give a shit what he told her. The blood pact was a long shot, but I could hope, right?

It wasn’t as if we were doing anything. But any way that that little girl explained it to someone, such as her mother, it would seem like we were doing something. So her complete and utter silence was imperative to the state of my own mental health. If no one else thought we did anything--because we didn’t--I would be completely and utterly fine and pretend like the situation had never even existed. Memory repressing was becoming a new hobby of mine.

Me being in blow job position in front of Hayden? Consider it repressed.

Merry Christmas to me.