That's All That Matters

A brown haired boy with equally as brown eyes grasped the red straps of his Spider man backpack as he skipped happily down the sidewalk. He whistled while hopping up the steps of his neighbor’s porch. A small hand knocked on the door and he shouted, “I’m coming in!”

The brunette pushed open the door, smiling when he heard an all too familiar voice shout, “Daley!”

In the entryway stood Ty Smith. Ty was a boy a little small for his age with a timid demeanor and curly dirty blonde hair. His eyes were bluer than the sky and his skin was naturally tan.

Ty smiled at his best friend, Dale. Dale grabbed the straps of his bag once more and asked, “Are you ready for school?”

Ty nodded after putting on his shoes. From the kitchen came Mrs. Smith, who smiled at the two boys in the entryway. She giggled at the way Dale caringly swiped the left over breakfast from her son’s cheek. Dale even grabbed Ty’s bag and helped him put it on.

“You two are so cute,” Mrs. Smith said. She leaned over to kiss both atop the head. “Time to go wait for the bus. Give me your hands.”

The young boys held out their hands and grasped hers. The three of them walked outside to the corner of the street and waited for the bus. Ty was happily telling his friend about how he has been practicing how to whistle. When Dale would do it, Ty would laugh happily and attempt also.

Minutes later the bus arrived. Mrs. Smith waved goodbye to her son and her, might as well be, second son. Dale grabbed Ty’s hand and intertwined their fingers as they walked through the aisle of the bus. Behind Dale, Ty giggled. He loved it when they held hands.

The two sat together, Dale allowed Ty into the seat first because he knew Ty loved sitting by the window. Dale didn’t really like sitting by the aisle but what made Ty happy made him happy.

“Daley, I drew a picture, look!” Ty eagerly held up the drawing after digging it out of his bag. On it was a red figure, meant to be Dale, and a blue one, meant to be Ty, standing side by side with their hands holding. Behind them were a bright yellow circle, supposed to be a sun, in the sky and the words best frends. He almost spelled ‘friends’ right.

Dale laughed and pointed at the mistake, “Friends is spelled with an I silly, but yeah we’re going to be together forever!”

“Really?” Ty looked at his picture and pouted at the lack of the ‘I’. He shrugged his shoulders, not caring about that but rather what Dale said afterwards. “Forever and ever?”

Dale nodded. “Yeah…like our mommy and daddy so…lets get married!”

“Married?” asked Ty with a tilt of his head. His blonde hair cutely falling into is face, which Dale pushes away from his eyes.

Smiling, Dale said, “Yeah, our mommy and daddy’s are married so they’ll be together forever cause they love each other.”

“Right!” Ty nodded eagerly with a giggle. The boys intertwined their fingers again and cutely rubbed their noses together. “Lets get married Daley.”

At school the boys spent their time together. They sat by one another, shared their toys and ate their lunches with each other. Ty was quiet and rarely spoke with the other kids, while Dale was more outgoing and loud. Dale always made sure though that the other kids never left Ty out just because he was shy.

A week passed by and the boys still believed they were going to get married. They held hands all the time, not that they didn’t do that before they ‘proposed’ to each other.

During recess time Ty and Dale were outside playing in the sandbox. Ty was running a car back and forth over a hill he had built while Dale was digging a tunnel in a separate hill he had made. The boys were so absorbed in what they were doing they didn’t notice a girl coming their way.

“We’re going to get married,” Five-year-old Penny Larson said with a smile. Her strawberry blonde hair was tied up in a red ribbon, which matched her red shorts and shoes. She swayed from side to side cutely, her teeth nibbling at her bottom lip as she stared dreamily at the boy she was speaking to.

Penny had always liked Dale. She brought him in cookies, drawings, and tried to spend time with him but he never left Ty’s side. The other day Dale told Penny he was going to get married so she thought it must be her!

Both boys stopped in what they were doing. Ty looked to Dale then Penny and back to Dale. Dale stared quizzically at his classmate. “Huh?”

“I think Daley is really nice so I wanna marry him,” Penny giggled, her cheeks turning a bright pink.

Giggling, Dale shook his head and said, “No way silly. You marry someone you love.”

“I love you,” said Penny and her smile grew. She leaned over to Dale, who leaned away as she got closer. “Lets get married!”

“I don’t love you,” Dale said with a shake of his head. What he said made Penny frown. She stomped her foot angrily.

“Why not?” She pouted and pointed at her hair. “Look! I put in a pretty red ribbon today. Isn’t it pretty? And red shorts too! Red’s your favorite color, right?”

Dale nodded.

“See! I remembered what you said and my mommy says I’m cute so why don’t you love me too?” Penny was now cutely leaning up onto her tiptoes and back down again. Her hands were in front of her, twisting at her shirt.

Dale looked to Penny then to his best friend.

Dale smiled at his friend, who smiled in return. His blue eyes sparkled because Ty already knew why Dale didn’t love Penny.

“I don’t want to marry you,” Dale said, still staring at Ty.

Ty giggled cutely then said, “Cause Dale and I are-are going to get married!”

Dale threw his arms around his friend, who leaned into him happily. Their hands intertwined in front of them and both smiled.

“Ew!” Penny screamed, pointing her finger at the two boys. Dale and Ty stared at her, wondering why she was looking at them in such a way. “That’s weird! Boys can’t get married. Mommy said that’s wrong!”

By now a few of the other kids have come over in curiosity. This, of course, brought the attention of their teacher, Mrs. Kay. Mrs. Kay ran over to the group of kids, concerned and asked, “What are you all doing? Why are you shouting Penny?”

Now, another kid, Henry, joined in and shouted too, “Dale and Ty said they’re gonna get married, but boys can’t get married! Daddy told me so…he said boys who love each other go to hell.”

The children all gasped at hearing ‘the H word.’ Ty began to shake in Dale’s arms so Dale tightened his grip. Dale sent Henry a sharp glare that only made the boy stick his tongue out at him.

Mrs. Kay grabbed Henry’s arm and said sternly, “Henry, don’t say that!”

“But they do!” The young boy said and glared back at Dale. “Daddy said they do and daddy’s always right. Besides, all of us have mommy’s and daddy’s so two daddy’s is weird!”

The other kids nodded and began murmuring amongst themselves. Ty buried his face in Dale’s shirt, his hands fisting themselves in the fabric.

Dale stood confused before his teacher. Pink lips formed an adorable pout and his brows furrowed together in curiosity. Small hands grasped the equally as small hands of his friend, Ty, who was also standing just as confused as Dale.

Ty though was already on the verge of tears. His nose was running, eyes glistening over and lips trembling sadly. Dale tightened his grip on Ty because of the boys trembling.

“Why not?” Dale asked, his voice sad. His eyes scanned over everyone who were now looking at Mrs. Kay for an answer. “Mommy said people who love each other get married.”

“Yes sweetie bu-“

“I love Ty so we’re gonna get married!” Dale yelled causing Mrs. Kay to bite her lip in worry. She didn’t know how to solve this problem. What was she supposed to say? She was going to have to tell the parents.

“Honey,” Mrs. Kay sighed and got to her knees. She placed one hand on Dale’s shoulder and the other on Ty’s. Ty looked over his shoulder at Mrs. Kay, but refused to tear himself away from his best friend. The two boys stared at her, Dale with determination and Ty with fear. “Only men and women can get married. It’s wrong for two men to be together.”

Her words caused Ty’s tears to finally fall. The boy shouted out as tears fell down his cheeks like a waterfall. Dale glared at his teacher then looked to his friend, who was now rubbing his eyes with his sleeves. Snot ran down the boys nose and Mrs. Kay went to wipe it away, but Dale did something unusual.

He slapped Mrs. Kay’s hand away. The teacher stared, shocked, at the normally very passive boy. Dale had never hit and rarely acted out so it was strange to see him glaring death at her.

“Don’t you touch him!” screamed the brunette. Dale looked down at Ty and used his thumbs to wipe away the boys tears.

Ty sniffled and began stuttering, “I-I d-don’t wanna g-go to hell!”

“You won’t!” Dale said, cupping Ty’s cheeks. Ty’s blue eyes were full of fear. Dale didn’t like it…so he leaned in and pressed a kiss to his lips.

Everyone gasped, some kids shouted out forms of ‘ew’ or ‘gross’. Mrs. Kay reached out to pull them apart but Dale backed away, pulling Ty with him. Dale glared at his teacher and fellow classmates once more. He took a step in front of Ty and held out his arms in a defensive stance.

With determination in his eyes and voice he said stubbornly, “You’re all wrong. There’s nothing wrong with loving someone! My parents told me love is the most important thing and I love Ty so we’re going to get married!”

At the end of the day Mrs. Kay was forced to tell the parents what happened during class today. Some were horrified, demanding both Dale and Ty to be removed from class, while others were supportive or genuinely didn’t care. In the end, the boys stayed since they hadn’t done anything worthy of expulsion. They were only children after all.

“I heard you caused a commotion at school today,” said Mr. Donner as he looked over the newspaper at his boy.

Dale nodded his head because he was not scared of his daddy yelling at him. If he was going to get yelled at for what he did he was ok with that. He stood up for himself and that’s what his parents taught him to do.

“They said I couldn’t marry Ty because he was a boy,” Dale said, earning him a curious look from his parents. “But…mommy, daddy you said people who love each other get married so…so Ty and I can get married, right?”

Dale was a little scared to hear what they had to say. What if they say what Mrs. Kay said? Dale thought. He didn’t want to marry Penny Larson. He wanted Ty, his pretty best friend. What was wrong with that?

Dale’s worries were relieved when his father set down his paper and said with a smile, “Of course you two can. You love each other, don’t you?”

“Yeah!” said Dale with a smile bright as day. “I love him lots!”

“That’s all that matters.”