Without much of a turn-up, the first semester ended. Nobody seemed to know much of anything about him. Nothing about before he came to the school. Kyle was a mystery. The last day of finals, everyone was packing up to go home for a splendid, two-week break from campus life. Everyone, except Kyle.

“Dude, what’s up? Shouldn’t you be getting some stuff together? The last exam is in a few hours.” Kyle looked up at him from where he sat on his bed, his mp3 resting on his belly as he mouthed the words to whatever it was that he was listening to. He paused the music before propping himself up on his elbows. He gave Simon a stare. Direct, creepy eye contact. His green eyes were dilated from being closed and were scrambling to readjust subconsciously. He didn’t look away, and his look gave away none of his emotion. Then he smiled.

“I’m not going home.” It was simple. It was wrong. Kyle always had a story. He never had a simple answer. He explained things in full detail with exaggerated hand motions and plot-less, entertaining stories. That’s what he did. He was Kyle. Simon waited, but no story was forthcoming.

“Why not? It’s Christmas break!” Kyle shrugged before letting himself relax against the bed, hitting the ‘play’ button on his player.

“That’s like going into wolves’ den because it’s camping.” Kyle was in a bad mood today. Simon snorted and shook his head, hands on his hips.

“Fine then. Come to my house. It’s a rabbits’ den.” Kyle laughed. It was fake.

“I’m not in the mood for metaphorical quips.”

“Quit bullshitting me. Pack your stuff; you don’t have a choice. I live about an hour away and I have an extra bedroom in my house. My older sister got married.”

After quite a bit of arguing, Kyle finally realized that he really didn’t have a choice. He also realized that he had five minutes to get across campus to attend his final exam. He’d never run so fast.

The hour ride to Simon’s house, while it couldn’t be called awkward, was definitely an interesting experience. Simon found that they had an astoundingly similar taste in music, although it seemed that Kyle would almost listen to anything. He also found that Kyle could not keep from singing along to any song that he knew: no matter how much he hated it. It was entertaining to watch him sing along with some teeny bopper pop song, wincing and grousing until Simone finally got around to changing the channel on the radio.

Simon’s parents were surprisingly hospitable, considering the sudden, unexpected addition to the household. Especially considering the way Kyle had been introduced.

“Hey Mom, Dad, this is Kyle. I hope it’s okay that I brought him along, but he wasn’t going home and I didn’t want to leave him on campus by himself.”

“Oh, of course darling! Come on in and make yourselves comfortable!“ Kyle shook their hands with a genteel smile before speaking very calmly.

“Hello. I’m gay. I’m Simon’s roommate. Don’t worry about me corrupting him, though. I got him a girlfriend instead. He’s not my type. You can sleep easy.” Kyle was at the top of Simon’s parents’ “do not like” list. Simon just laughed.

“Gimme your laundry; I’ll go start a load.” And that was the end of that. Despite a rough start, Kyle grew on his parents as well. He even had a present under their Christmas tree.

Living with Kyle was, strange enough, different than living on campus with him. He was in a different room, so they didn’t see each other nearly as much as they used to because the not-quite-freak liked to be by himself, at his computer, typing away at this or that with his off-brand mp3 player. It didn’t matter to him if Simon was there or not. Even considering the amount of time they’d spend together as actual friends, it was odd for Simon to not be able to turn and say whatever was on his mind. It was a habit that he caught from the green-eyed boy.

Every day, Kyle would wake up early, or earlier than Simon, at least, and make the two of them breakfast. Not just cereal, though. He made real meals like bacon and eggs, pancakes, you name it. Simon’s mom had stopped doing that when he was younger, when she’d decided that she was bored with housework and wanted a job. It was nice to have hot food in the morning.

After breakfast, they hung out. Simon tried to show Kyle around his hometown, but he already seemed to know it. He wouldn’t say why. Simon didn’t press, but he didn’t forget it either. They went bowling; they went ice skating with Kimmy and Janice in the city; they shopped for Christmas; and they played video games. Simon had trouble remembering why he’d ever disliked Kyle.

“Because he’s a freak,” Kimmy explained, when Simon voiced his thoughts. She shrugged at the look he gave her.

“You can’t deny it,” Ash challenged, “He’s weird. It’s not bad; it’s different. People don’t like different, and they hate things they don’t understand. You didn’t know him, and he’s a freak, so you didn’t like him.” Janice laughed and pushed her shoulder.

“There’s your psychology talking.” They all giggled and changed the subject. Kyle was Kyle. Why try to decipher him? He was beyond logic, they thought. Just take it as it is because that’s all your going to get. They liked Kyle just the way he was. Simon didn’t like that. He needed to know more. Kimmy hadn’t investigated as deeply as Simon would have liked; she hadn’t taken him seriously? Or maybe she had and there just wasn’t anything she could do. That was likely. There really wasn’t anything Simon could do, but Kyle was his friend and, freak or not, he didn’t deserve to have to hide whatever it was that he was hiding behind his freakishness.

And so, an opportunity presented itself.

The next day, Kyle was not up early. Breakfast was not ready when Simon crawled out of bed at almost-noon. In fact, the kitchen and the house in general seemed empty. His parents were at work and he had no younger siblings. Searching high and low, Kyle was finally found. In bed. The blinds were shut, the curtains were drawn and the blankets were pulled high over the sleeper’s head. The room was dark and silent. Kyle slept with music playing, especially since he had his own room. Simon could faintly hear it through the wall they shared on any given night. Now the simple CD player that tripled as an alarm and a digital clock was silently displaying the late time within the eleventh hour in glowing red.

“You alive in there?” Simon called from the doorway to his sister’s old room. It was empty except for a bed and desk and the things that Kyle had brought. Baggage was strewn about the room, open and overflowing with clothes of all sorts of variations impossible to see in the dim lighting. He received no response. Slowly, he made his way into the room and sat down on the bed. He put a hand on the boy’s back, feeling for a shoulder before shaking him slightly. “Come on, man. If you sleep in past me, there’s something wrong. Get your lazy ass up.” A grunt was all he got before Kyle began to slowly stir.

“What…” a pause for a dry mouth and chapped lips, “What day is it?”

“Uh… I dunno. Thursday?” Kyle seemed to take that as an answer and nodded, sighing heavily.

“That’s what I thought… Then,” another pause as he turned over to look up at his roommate, “Then it’s today. Please, let me go back to sleep. I was having a really good dream. Let me go back to it.” It was almost pathetic the way he sounded. Not like Kyle at all.

“No, come on! You gotta get up. We’re meeting the girls today, remember? We have to leave soon.” Kyle grunted and rolled onto his side, facing away from Simon and towards the wall, cuddling against it and a pillow.

“I never said I was going. I plan on staying right here and finishing my dream. Leave me alone.” Simon frowned down at the blankets. What was wrong with him? It was worse today. Wait, today?

“Kyle. What’s today?” An exhale before a shaky answer.

“Thursday. You said so yourself, didn’t you?”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s Friday?”

“Kyle!” This was yelled with quite a level of irritation as Simon yanked Kyle into a sitting position. It was dark in the room, but his eyes were red and puffy and his face was wet. Kyle was crying. Grabbing the not-normal-enough-to-be-strange boy by both shoulders, Simon stared him in the eye, demanding silently an explanation. It was just as silent. Kyle’s lip quivered, he blinked and sniffled, but he didn’t say a word. “Kyle.”

“Would… would you take me somewhere?” He looked like a little kid. His bottom lip was puckered and his eyes were wide with painful innocence. He was completely helpless, or hopeless, or both, or neither, but Simon suddenly felt maybe he couldn’t handle knowing the truth. He’d been fighting for weeks to know what really made Kyle himself, but seeing a broken look like that hadn’t been what he’d expected. He was supposed to do this by himself? He didn’t know anything! What was he supposed to do?

His name was whispered. It started off as a whisper, a hiss that steadily rose before the rest was jumbled on at the end. “Simon? C-could you?” That look again. He could feel the other’s shoulders shivering as he tried to contain whatever it was that was wrong. Simon sighed heavily before nodding.

“Where do you want to go?” Kyle shook his head.

“Don’t. Don’t know.” It was a command. “You… you can’t say anything, either. Just… just… I can’t walk there, so please.”

The drive was long and silent. No music and no singing. Kyle sat with his head against the window and the hood of his coat over his eyes. Every once in awhile, he would give a direction. They were in the country somewhere. Kyle only vaguely recognized anything. They drove for fifteen minutes before the car climbed a hill and Simon stopped it. Kyle didn’t argue; he just climbed out and slammed the door. There were clumps of snow surviving the mid-thirty degree weather. They clutched to the landmarks that were splattered across the hilltop. The bundled-up Kyle ignored it all, continuing on a straight path to his own destination. Simon parked his car and followed at a distance. He stayed back a few steps, giving them their space.

“I’m sorry I don’t have flowers. It isn’t really the season for it. They’d be fake and I know how you feel about that.” It was quiet except for the heavy winter winds. Kyle shuddered and pulled his coat tighter around himself. He snickered, but it was painful, almost an evil sound. “I’m keeping my promise. I think. I’m trying anyway. That’s what really counts, right?” More silence. Simon watched with a frown, but kept his mouth shut. So did Allen Culven 1989-2006.

About that time, Kyle broke down. He had already been kneeling but now was on the ground sobbing and weeping and clutching at the tombstone and the dirt beneath it. He spoke, but it wasn’t really anything more than babbling. It was cold and windy. Simon could hardly breath as he watched the boy before him. He wasn’t fake now. He wasn’t a freak. He wasn’t Kyle. He just was. Simon felt pressure between his eyes and wetness on cheeks as his chest grew tight. He wondered what it was like to feel that deeply for someone. To feel pain so deeply and put on a smile afterwards.

Simon jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. A man, their age, stood beside him. He quickly wiped the tears from his face. The stranger smiled weakly at the act before taking a few extra steps toward Kyle and Allen. They embraced like old acquaintances. Kyle clutched at the black coat and blonde hair and sobbed and wept without cease as the stranger pat his uncombed hair and shushed and whispered.

“Come on, Kyle. Cheer up. You promised, remember? You knew it was coming someday.”

“No!” The first coherent word from his mouth in quite a few minutes, “Not today and not like that! I had more time and you know it!” The stranger chuckled without humor.

“He knew it was coming. Here, he made this for you. I would have given it to you as soon as I found it, but you weren’t at home.” Kyle sniffled instead of sobbing and sat back, drawing away from the man as he dug around in his pockets. He pulled out a disk in a hardback case. Kyle’s eyes went wide. He seemed to know what it was.

“We found it in his room. I haven’t watched it. It has your name on it, so I kept it until I found you again. Take it. You’ll see. He knew it was coming.”

“Annie!” Kyle took the DVD and hugged it to his chest. The waterworks started again. ‘Annie’ hugged him again before pulling him into a standing position.

“Come on, kid. Let’s get going, yeah? You’re friend is shivering and so are you. How long have you been here? You know you’ll make him sad if you have a nervous breakdown like that right in front of him.” Obviously, they were talking about Allen, not Simon, but they didn’t seem to mind him at all as Kyle was lead back to the two cars parked side-by-side. Annie followed their car back to Simon’s house without really asking. Simon was grateful because he didn’t know if he could handle a grieving Kyle by himself. They all settled down on the couch as Simon put the disk in the DVD player in his living room. They were the only ones in the house. The girls could wait. This was important. The only think on the disk was a neatly printed ‘For Kyle’ and nothing else but the brand. The menu screen was a picture of Kyle a few years younger than he was now. He had on plaid pants, boots, and a zipped up jacket that was obviously not his. It was a few sizes too big for his small frame. It was fall and his hair was dyed blue and hung low in his eyes. The only option was ‘play.’

“Why do we have to do this again?” Kyle’s voice came from the speakers. He was sitting on a big bed that was against a wall. The grey tint of the background and the dark bedding were the only things visible before the bluenette flopped down on the mattress. A voice chuckled close to the microphone and Kyle, the one sitting on the couch between Annie and Simon shivered and hugged himself.

“Because one of these days you’re going to look back and wish you could see and hear me again. I know how this stuff works. I’m not stupid. Neither are you. It’s better than writing some lame love letters, right?” A high school boy, movie-Kyle’s age, appeared beside the boy and gave him a kiss. He looked remarkably like Annie. They were brothers. The bluenette giggled and pulled Allen into a hug.

“Well then, I thank you in advance for being so thoughtful.” They kissed. “I love you.” Allen chuckled and nuzzled the boy’s hair.

“Ditto.” Happy laughter echoed through the otherwise silent room.

“You’ve been watching Ghost again, haven’t you?”

Simon looked beside him and saw Kyle crying. Not sobbing, just crying. He had a death-grip on a couch pillow and he didn’t make a sound. His eyes were glued to the television. Scene after scene, the two appeared on the bed, talking about everything or nothing or just cuddling. They spoke casually about Allen dying. It had been coming and they knew it. Why? What was wrong with him? He seemed fine.

The further they progressed, the more Simon understood. Allen got more gaunt. He coughed, and it grew more persistent. His lover would smile sadly and slowly rub his back until he recovered, or he left the camera’s view to get him a glass of water. Allen was sick.

“Kyle?”

“Yes, love?” A chuckle. Allen smoothed back the boy’s hair and held him tightly in his arms.

“Promise me something.”

“Anything.”

“Don’t be sad. When I die, don’t be sad.” The bluenette frowned, pulling away to get a better look at his blond sweetheart.

“How could I promise that? Of course I’m going to be sad!” Allen frowned.

“Please! We’ve had our time together. We have more time to come, but we both knew from the beginning that it’s going to happen. Love me, miss me, but don’t be sad!” Kyle huffed.

“How about… I get to be sad on… our anniversary and your birthday and the anniversary of your death and… Valentine’s day.” He had a decided tone in his voice. Allen laughed lightly and hugged him.

“The two anniversaries, then. That sounds more fair.” Kyle whined but leaned against the other teen.

“Fine! But I’m gonna be really sad those days to make up for it.” Allen chuckled and kissed his forehead.

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll manage.”

The scene faded to black before another one started up. Annie, who had been introduced through the teens on the screen as Anthony, wrapped his arms around Kyle’s shoulders as the boy shuddered his tears out. Simon was having trouble not being emotional, too, and he hadn’t even known the sickly boy on screen.

Finally, the screen turned black and stayed that way. Kyle’s tears had finally dried up not long after re-hearing his promise. He stared at the screen with a blank look. He seemed to be taking it all in, but once the last scene faded, he still had yet to move beyond blinking. He cheeks had dried up tracks from his eyes to his chin. He hadn’t even bothered to wipe at his face once he’d seen the late Allen again.

Anthony sighed heavily, roughing up Kyle’s hair as he stood and stretched. He had a frown on his face and he looked troubled, but he hadn’t seemed to cry at all. He stretched his arms up and grumbled as things in his back popped. He sighed again before turning to look at Simon and Kyle.

“Sorry for intruding. I was never allowed to sit in on these video journals and I always was curious.” He gave a sad smile, but Kyle didn’t react. He was staring down at the pillow, playing with a thread that had come loose from the sewing.

“Hey sweetpea.” The voice came from nowhere and made all three of them jump. Turning back to the screen, Allen was present on the bed. He was by himself and he had a troubled look on his face. He was sitting was his elbows on his knees and his hands knotted together. Kyle stared at the figure and started to cry again: quiet little sniffles and droplets that followed the path of their predecessors. Allen looked up at the camera, staring at the lense, staring at Kyle. “This is the last thing on the movie. Sorry if I format it weird later.” He chuckled at himself. He was obviously nervous. “Uhm. I just wanted to say that,” he paused to sigh and wring his hands together, “I love you. We say it all the time, people do, everyone. It means almost nothing these days, but I really do, I mean, more than that Hollywood bull. They don’t know anything. I’m so lucky to have met someone like you. I just…I just wish that I could have done more for you.” He blushed and bit his lip. “I wish I could have been with you more. Ah… You know what I mean. Anyway...” Allen sighed, his blush was still strong, and he ran his hands through his long hair. “Ach! I had so many suave things to say to make you remember as the kinda guy that was really cool, you know? But I can think of anything now. It all seems stupid. I love you so much that I hate that you love me. It’s going to hurt so much for you and I regret that. I cherish every day we spend together, but I can’t even imagine what each day together will mean in the future for you. It’s going to hurt.” He bit his lip and wiped his eyes and sighed a shaky sigh, but even then his voice was affected. He looked back at the camera was wet eyes. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry but I love you anyway.”

Kyle didn’t speak for the rest of the day. He never made eye contact with anyone and he clutched at Anthony until the man had to leave after dinner. He lived on the other side of town with his parents and Kyle should come visit him sometime, and bring Simon along. Once his comforter was gone, the understandably-weird-freak was back to his room until morning. He was up before Simon with a breakfast of omelets and sausage ready. He smiled sheepishly at his roommate and poured himself a glass of orange juice.

“We should go see the girls today. To apologize.” Simon smiled back weakly.

“You’re amazing.” Kyle blinked in confusion.

“What? Come on, Simon, you know you’re not my type.” He laughed. Simon shook his head and pat his back lightly.

“Whatever. You just wish you could be so lucky.” They laughed.

Kyle was a freak. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. He wasn’t any particular kind of freak. He didn’t work at a circus or have irregular amounts of body hair (he had hardly any, to be honest) or any extra appendages. He was just weird. If there was a crowd of people, he was the one with blue hair wearing neon green shoes with blue laces, brown cargo pants, a t-shirt with a cartoon on it and the same jacket that he wore every other day since his arrival on campus. Everyone knew who he was, but none of them really knew him. Not really. His roommate and a little disk entitled ‘For Kyle’ was proof of that. One day a year, none of his friends would see or hear from him because his two anniversaries were on the same day. But that’s another story. So maybe ‘freak’ is too harsh of a word, but, really, what other way is there to describe him? He’s just Kyle.

-Well, here's the end. I'm really excited! This is the very first time that I have ever finished a non-school-related thing. This is quite an achievement. I'd like to thank all one of you that reviewed. Which, despite how it sounds, isn't entirely being sarcastic. I've had that first part up for all of about a day and maybe a half. Thank you. I really appreciated it. I hope I get more feedback with this second half added on. I hope there aren't many grammatical errors, but I bet there are because it's 1.30 in the am and I'm really feeling it. Thank you for reading. I may write more on this group and Kyle because there's more to the Kyle/Allen thing that I didn't add because it didn't flow into it. It's more interesting and powerful if you read it in a story but if you want to know without having to wait for me to get my fingers moving again, here it is: Allen had AIDs... he died in a car accident. Bummer.