The Deep End

It took 28 hours from where Alan practically shoved Austin out of his window for them to be reunited once again.

Alan was on his monumental journey to school (in reality it was only a 15 minute walk) when Austin began waving manically from the other side of the street; before shouting and crossing the road with the intention of talking to Alan. As soon as Alan's eyes fell on his familiar, tattoed neighbour, his eyes bulged out of his head for a split second and his pace picked up significantly. His aim was to avoid interaction where possible, imagine what everyone would think? Some satanic looking weirdo moves into town and suddenly he is associating with the pastor's nephew. Fuck, Alan knew that half the elderly women in town spent their time peeking out of their windows, on a hunt for any sort of gossip before rapidly calling their friends to share their observations. He didn't have the desire to be the object of such talk.

"Hey! Alan? I know you can hear me! Alan, fuck, wait!" Came a call from about four metres behind him. Damn, he was caught. So he turned around, internally cringing so hard he thought his vision went blurry for a second. A hard smile graced his lips, in a very unconvincing, obviously painful way.

"Uh, hi, Austin." He just about managed to mumble. Just like that, Austin launched into a conversation, he was providing most of it and Alan stepped in a few times to justify that, he was in fact, listening. Normally he would have found Austin's enthusiasm charming; and his bright eyes endearing; and his words intriguing; however there were tiny voice whispering warnings in the back of his head. He didn't want to be thought of as a trouble maker or a satanist, nor did he want to be thought of as anything that his family, or his church, deemed as bad.

Well, he was already publically showing his willingness to converse with such a person, so just before they spoke their farewells, when Austin had his arms outstretrched in a 'want a hug?' sort of way, Alan accepted the affection. Hugs aren't that bad, are they?

A grin stayed immovable on their lips the rest of the morning, even though Alan was at school and Austin was at work in a indie clothing store in a neighbouring town.

When Alan came home, unlike he had predicted, everything was normal. There was no shouting, no police officers were at his house arresting his mother for brutually stabbing his neighbour, and his mother was not digging a machete out from the pile of junk in the basement. So all is well, for at least a little bit.

"How was your day, Alan honey?" His mother asked, peering up from her newspaper with fixation. Alan's mother had always wanted her son to be on the path of the good and the righteous. If that meant getting A*'s in his tests, attending church every week, and not hanging out with anyone he wasn't meant to, Alan was doing pretty well. Well, that last one he might have to adjust a bit, having a friendly conversation with his neighbour wasn't going to get him sent to hell was it?

Shit, he hoped not.