Along Came Ari (boyxboy; Open Novella Contest 2019)(Complete)✅

Chapter 5

From my bedroom window, I spotted Danny sitting on the curb in front of his house, wearing only his black and yellow winter hat and hoodie. On this February late afternoon, he sat outside in his bare feet.

What's he doing? I wondered.

Bringing his knees to his chest, he buried his face in them. I texted him, but he didn't text me back. As if sensing my eyes on him, he looked up, but didn't wave. A few seconds later, his mother appeared beside him and dropped a pair of shoes in front of him. She then returned inside. It was all so weird.

He put on his sneakers and got up. As he started to walk away from his house, I ran out of my room and down the stairs, eventually out of the house to go and talk to him and maybe go for a walk with him.

"Hey, where you going?" John asked, running into me as I headed across the street. Danny glanced over his shoulder, making eye contact with me as he walked.

"Uh..nowhere," I said. "You coming over?"

"Yeah, I'm bored," he said.

"Are you fighting with Danny again?" I asked.

"No," he replied. "Not today, anyway. Sometimes he just does weird things. Murray's having a party this weekend. You coming?"

Murray? Who's Murray? I was sure Murray was someone at school, one of John's friends, and I just couldn't remember him.

"Um...uh..." I stammered, remembering that Danny and I were going out on Saturday. "I have to work."

My shift actually ended at two, but John didn't have to know that. Danny and I were going out after work.

"Yeah, you always work," John said. "How 'bout after work?"

"Maybe," I said. "We'll see."

My phone vibrated in my jeans pocket, but I didn't check it right away, knowing it was most likely Danny responding to the text I sent him earlier.

Later, after John went home, I checked my phone. Danny was more patient than I was, though. He only texted me once. If I had texted him and he didn't respond, then I would have sent him at least five follow up texts, wondering why he didn't respond.

'Still wanna go with me on Saturday?' Danny texted.

'Yes!!!!' I texted back. I looked forward to going with him.

For the past twenty years or so, the one-screen movie house, the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge, hosted an annual "Bugs Bunny Festival" during the week of February vacation. The Brattle Theatre remains one of the few theatres that continue to use a rear-projection system, meaning the projector is located behind the screen rather than behind the audience.

Between the ages of five and thirteen, Danny's father had taken him and his brothers to this event; Caitlyn was never really into those types of cartoons. When Andy and John lost interest, so did their father. Danny never lost interest, though, but nobody seemed to care. He had been going alone for the past couple of years.

Danny was like the forgotten child. How could anyone forget someone like him? He called himself "the evil twin," but I didn't find him evil at all.

Far from it.

I parked my car at the Alewife T station in Cambridge. The T was Boston's version of the subway. Together, Danny and I took the T to Harvard Square, a place I had never been, much to Danny's amazement. He had been lots of times, he said.

On our way to the theatre, Danny and I walked down the street side by side, our hands brushing together. Danny finally took my hand in his and held it until we arrived at the theatre.