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~~1~~
“Dude,” Larry asks, leaning towards Ash as they walk towards the elevator, glancing back at the doors they just walked into, “Didn’t that guy look like Travis?”
“Phelps?” Ash clarifies, looking back as well to see a blonde man push the front doors open and slip out. He’s wearing a light-coloured shirt and pale ripped jeans, and he keeps glancing around. She turns back to her friend, “It sure looks like it. But why would he be in the apartments?”
Larry shrugs, “I don’t know. I sure fucking hope that it wasn’t him.”
“Hopefully not.” Ash hums, “Let’s just hope that it’s someone that looks vaguely like him moving in.”
“If it is, I’m praying for them.”
Ash laughs, “You’re not religious.”
“This place is about to make me religious.” Larry groans. They hop in the elevator and head to Todd’s apartment. Janis lets them in with a kiss to both of their cheeks. They head inside the apartment and walk to Todd’s door. Ash knocks before Larry has the chance to barge in, which he still does but at least there’s a bit of a warning.
Todd is sitting at his desk working on whatever it is he’s working on and Neil is laying back on his bed when they walk in. Sal is nowhere to be seen, which is odd because he should be there first--he was the only other person in the apartment building, Larry had been out to pick up Ash.
“Where’s Sal?” Ash asks, looking around the room as if the shorter boy is going to appear out of thin air.
Todd hums and shrugs, “I don’t know. Should we run up to his apartment and see?”
“I can.” Larry hums, “Mom had something she wanted to give to Sal’s dad so I’ll run down and grab that first, but I can check on him.” The group agrees and Larry heads out of the room and the apartment as is. He grabs whatever his mom needed ran to Henry then heads up to Sal’s apartment.
When he gets in, Sal is nowhere to be seen. When Larry calls out, Henry answers him so he drops off the bag from his mom and walks over to Sal’s room after Henry tells him that his son is, in fact, in the apartment. This time, he knocks--he doesn’t want to walk in on Sal before he’s ready and has his mask on.
“Come in!” Sal shouts and Larry walks into the room. The boy is sitting on his bed with his hair down and he’s just buckling the bottom strap of his mask, “What’s up Larry face?”
Larry hums, “We’re meeting in Todd’s room but you weren’t there when Ash and I got there?”
“Oh shit,” The shorter say, his arms falling to his sides and he looks up at Larry, “Sorry, I was taking a nap and slept through my alarm. I guess I didn’t realize how late I slept.” As he’s talking, he stands up and jerks his chin in the direction of the door, “Let’s go then?” Larry accepts the answer easily--Sal reminds him of a cat, he can just curl up and sleep through anything and everything no matter where he is--and he nods, gesturing for Sal to lead the way.
When they get back down to Todd’s apartment, no one thinks twice about the whole thing.
~~2~~
“Todd?” Ash says as he walks out of the apartment building and approaches her, “You alright?”
Todd furrows his brows, “Yeah… how long ago did you get here?”
“Just a minute or two ago, I haven’t been waiting long.”
“No, no. That’s not what I was talking about.” Todd shakes his head, “I… I’m pretty sure that Travis was getting in the elevator when I was walking out of it.”
“Like Travis Phelps?” The girl asks and Todd nods, “That’s weird… Larry is pretty sure that he saw Travis walking out of the apartments the other day.”
“Maybe someone that looks like Travis just moved in.” Todd shrugs, “I don’t know why he would be here.”
“Why who would be here?” Larry asks, walking up to them.
Todd turns to look at him, “Travis. I thought I just saw him walking into the elevator. Like we passed each other.”
Larry’s nose crinkles, “God I hope he’s not here. This is our one safe place from him.” He tucks his hands into his pockets, “Let’s just stop thinking about him and leave.” The other two agree and they start walking to Ash’s house. At one point Ash asks why Sal isn’t with them, to which Larry explains that he had something with his dad or something.
~~3~~~
Due to some family situations, Neil has been spending a lot of time with Todd at the apartments. Several times a week, he’s staying in Todd’s room either just for the rest of the day or overnight. Which means he’s gotten quite familiar with most of the people that are in and out of the apartments or the type of people that would walk around.
Which is why it’s weird when Neil pulls up to the apartments and is waiting outside--Todd was doing his tutoring with Ash so he’s not home yet and Neil, despite being able to get into the apartments and being more than welcomed by the Morrisons, feels awkward being in Todd’s apartment without his boyfriend there--he sees a lanky figure illuminated by the streetlights.
At first, he just assumes that it’s someone around the neighborhood, but when he looks up and really looks at the person--he’s a people-watcher, sue him--the person looks a lot more familiar. Lanky and practically swallowed by a pale coloured sweater and with dyed blonde hair, he looks remarkably like Travis Phelps.
Now, Neil is aware of both Larry and Todd seeing someone that looked like him around the apartment building. He’s also aware that they’re hoping that it’s just a new neighbor that moved in that happens to look like the Phelps boy. However, he doesn’t dare get closer to see if this kid is actually Travis or just his weird possible look alike that’s been wandering through the building.
The boy is sitting on a bench illuminated by the yellowed and flickering street lamp, shoulders tensed and hands pressed between his knees. He’s looking around an awful lot.
Finally, after a couple minutes of watching him, the bus pulls up and the boy stands up, rushing up the stairs and disappearing from Neil’s view. The bus leaves after about a minute and Neil is left alone in the night.
Todd shows up a couple minutes later and they head up into his apartment and Neil decides to keep the whole thing he saw quiet for the time being, he doesn't want to stress his boyfriend out.
~~4~~
“Thank you for helping me out.” Ash says, pushing the door open for both her and Todd, “I normally can handle these kids but apparently their cousins are with them and I don’t think I can take five rowdy kids.”
“Of course,” Todd smiles, “I can’t promise I’ll be the most helpful but I’ll try. I’m not great at taking care of kids.”
“As long as you have two working hands and an ounce of competence,” The girl smiles, “It’ll be fine. The kids themselves are sweet but things get wild when you’re hanging out with your favourite cousins.”
Todd laughs, “I know how it is.” It’s a nice day outside so they figured that they’d walk to the house Ash babysits at and, just as they're walking past the apartment building, Todd sees something blue out the corner of his eye.
When he looks over properly, it’s clearly Sal that he saw--not that there was much question about that--but before he can call out to say hello to his friend, he notices that Sal is leaning against the wall and gesturing like he’s… talking to someone?
Todd grabs Ash’s attention, gesturing to where their friend is. She turns in that direction, her brows furrowed. After a couple seconds, her eyes widen and her mouth falls open a bit. She leans towards Todd, “Is he…” Whoever he’s talking to is obscured by a nearby tree.
“It looks like he’s talking to someone.” Todd corroborates.
Ash hums, “Do you think it’s Larry?”
“No,” Todd shakes his head, “Larry’s helping out his mom today. I don’t think Lisa would let him just mess around and talk to Sal. Also, the positioning looks intentional.” Sal reaches out to grab at the person behind the tree, presumably their arm, and his laugh echoes into Todd and Ash’s ears.
“Sal’s been sneaking around a bit.” Ash hums after a couple seconds of watching their friend, “Do you think he’s seeing someone and he hasn’t told us about it? And he’s talking to his partner right now?”
Todd takes a minute to consider, before he shrugs, “Maybe. Either way, if he is dating someone, he’ll tell us eventually. We should go before we’re late.” Ash agrees and the two of them take off once again, the thought of their friend’s possible partner hanging in the back of their minds.
~~5~~
“Sally Face!” Larry calls, walking into Sal’s apartment. He knocks on the door to his friend’s room quickly before walking inside at Sal’s beckoning call. Sal is sitting at his desk, writing away with his mask sitting on the desk next to him.
“What’s up Larry Face?” Sal asks, glancing up from his paper. His undamaged side of his face is the one facing Larry so he likely doesn’t think much about it.
Larry walks over to the bed in the room, throwing himself onto it, “Can’t I just want to hang out with my friend?”
“I mean sure, but I’m not sure I’m going to be all that interesting today.” Sal informs him, “I’ve got a lot of homework to do, and I’m doing it today since we’re doing the thing this weekend.”
“Boring!” The taller shouts, sitting up. He watches Sal’s hunched figure for a couple seconds before looking around his room. There are a couple more posters and a bit more clutter than before, he’s had the posters for a while but didn’t have the time or motivation to actually put them up until recently.
Then he notices it.
It is a pale coloured sweatshirt sitting near the foot of Sal’s bed, half hanging onto the sheets and half dangling onto the floor.
And it’s clearly not Sal Fisher’s sweatshirt. Not only is it bigger than his usual shirts--Larry is fully aware that Sal likes his oversized clothing, this is larger than that--but it’s also a pale, pale purple. And Sal doesn’t wear light colours, hell he barely wears anything that isn’t red, black, gray, or occasionally blue.
And there’s an opportunity there, because Sal has clearly taken someone’s sweatshirt, and Larry is nothing if not a taker of opportunities. He leans over and grabs the shirt, dangling it by the sleeve, “Oh? What’s this Sal?”
Sal hums, writes one more thing, then sets his pencil down to turn around, hand going to rest on his damaged cheek for even a semblance of coverage. He lets his eyes fall on the sweatshirt in Larry’s hand and his eyes widen.
When he doesn’t say anything, Larry grins, “What is it? Or more… who’s is it?”
Sal’s face reddens, “It’s… I spilled my drink on my shirt today in my math class and… someone lent me their spare shirt since I didn’t have one. I’m going to wash it and bring it back to them on Monday.”
“Mhm…” Larry hums, sliding off the bed, still holding the sweatshirt, “And instead of throwing it in your laundry basket, you just keep it on your bed? I know you, Sal, you’re not the type of person to just throw dirty clothes all over the place.”
“I’m… I’m going to handwash it so my clothes don’t bleed onto it. I don’t have enough light clothes to wash it with.”
Larry levels him with a look, “And can I ask if this ‘someone’ is the person that Ash and Todd caught you talking to the other day. A crush of yours, maybe even a partner?”
Since he’s close enough, Sal reaches out with his freehand and snatches the sweatshirt from the taller’s hands, “No, it’s just a kid in my class.”
Larry laughs as the bluenette bundles up the shirt and sets it in his lap, putting his hands up offensively, “I’m just teasing you, dude!”
~~+1~~
Realistically, all evidence points to the fact that Sal is dating someone and, for whatever reason, hasn’t told any of his friends. And it’s not like he’s spending all that much more time with someone at school so the crew doesn’t even know where to begin with finding out who this person is. So eventually, they all drop the topic for now.
Until they’re heading up to Sal’s apartment. He had told them all to meet in his apartment so they could talk about something that Megan told him the other day while he was visiting her. Knowing that Henry isn’t home but Sal is, Larry just lets himself in with Todd and Ash following shortly behind him. However Ash runs directly into Larry’s back when he stops short without warning.
“What’s up, Larry?” Ash asks after correcting herself. Larry doesn’t say anything, just points. Ash and Todd, both a bit confused at their friend’s sudden silence, follow where he’s pointing only for…
What the fuck.
Sitting on the couch in the living room is Travis fucking Phelps. He’s in the motion of sitting up, shoulders tense and hands tucked between his knees, looking at the group like a deer in headlights.
The blonde searches their faces for a second before turning his head and calling out, “Sal!”
“What’s up Trav?” Sal’s voice comes from his room.
“Your… uhm. Your friends are here.” Travis calls back, turning to once again look at the others.
“Oh shit.” Is Sal’s response. After about a minute, Sal is walking out of his bedroom and into the living room. He looks between his friends and Travis for a couple seconds before he swallows, “You guys are early. Uhm… I can explain.”
“Do you…” Travis starts, his focus now entirely on Sal, “Do you want me to leave? Would that make it easier?”
“Do you want to leave?” Sal asks, “Either way it’s going to be… interesting. It’s more whether or not you want to be here for it.”
Travis hums and thinks for a second before he stands up, “I’m just going to stay in your room for a while.”
“Alright, I’ll let you know when you can come out.” Sal says, his tone giving away his smile, “You can borrow my headphones if you want to.” Travis nods and disappears into the shorter’s room without another word. Immediately Sal is turning to his friends, telling them to sit down.
They comply and Larry is the first to speak up, “I’m sorry, the guy that you’ve been sneaking around is fucking Travis?” He hisses the name, leaning into his friend almost conspiratorially.
“I mean, it makes sense.” Ash says, “As much as I don’t like it.”
Todd nods, though he’s glaring at Sal, “We’ve been seeing someone that looked like him for weeks and Neil swears that he saw Travis waiting for the bus outside while he was waiting for me. Then there’s the shirt that you found in Sal’s room, Larry.”
“Why are you acting okay with this, Todd?” Larry sneers, “Sal is… doing something with the guy that has made high school for you a literal shitshow and you’re just… neutral about it!?” He whirls to Sal, “He’s broken your mask, he’s shouted slurs at you, he makes fun of you all the fucking time and you’re what? Dating him?”
“Larry,” Ash says, pressing her hand to the boy’s shoulder, “Calm down. Take a couple deep breaths.”
“Not you too.”
The girl shakes her head, “I’m not saying that I’m okay with Sal and Travis, but I would like to give Sal the chance to explain. That’s not going to happen if you freak out.”
Larry takes a couple breaths, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. Eventually, he opens his eyes and gestures for Sal to speak. Said boy takes a deep breath, though he looks down at his lap and doesn’t seem willing to look up for any reason, “I… I know that you guys don’t like Travis and I know that he’s done and said some horrible things but… I don’t know. A couple things happened in school a couple months back and we started talking and I started getting him help. He- he had a crush on me and told me about it after a while and I… I’ve actually… liked him for a long time but never really had the intention to do anything about it.”
“But now you do have that intention?” Ash pushes gently, seeming to be the one taking this the best.
“Even after he confessed to me, I waited a while for him to fully come to terms with his sexuality and sort out his… internalized homophobia-” he glares at Larry’s mutter of ‘and externalized’ but otherwise ignores him, “before I told him that I reciprocate his feelings. We’ve been trying it out for a while and…” Sal hums, suddenly bashful and at a loss for words, “It’s really nice. I was going to tell you eventually, but I- I wanted us to be a bit more figured out before I really talked to you guys about it.”
“I just don’t get how you can forgive him.” Todd sighs after he’s sure that Sal is done, “He’s a horrible person who has done horrible things to me. And you.”
“Because I’ve seen the way that he’s changed.” Is Sal’s answer, “He came to me for help and I’ve been helping him. Nothing is linear and he’s fallen back but we’re working through it. He’s apologized to me more times than I can count and I’ve forgiven him a long time ago. I know you guys won’t believe it but… he’s really sweet.”
“So why hasn’t he come and apologized to us?” Larry pushes, “Or Todd or Neil?”
Sal starts scratching at his nails, “Like I said, things aren’t linear. He’s recently had his entire worldview flipped on its head and he’s growing and changing but… you don’t go from a homophobic dick to a perfectly accepting and likable person immediately, sometimes you never fully make that change.” The boy sighs, “I know this is going to sound bad, but there are some days where the concept of our relationship is overwhelming enough to him. He’s working on it, and with it, he’s working on an apology.”
“Well it should come soon if you’re going to be dating him.” Todd snaps, “You shouldn’t have to hide your boyfriend from your friends because of who he is. Or because of what he’s done to them.”
“I know. We’re working it out. Had this been under better circumstances, he would’ve come up to you naturally as soon as he was ready, which is getting sooner and sooner, but…” Once again the boy sighs, “I’m not expecting you to forgive him, neither of us are, but please… try to come to terms with the fact that we’re dating.”
“If you’re actually happy and he’s not hurting you.” Ash says, her voice gentle, “Then I’m willing to try and be okay with it. But it’s going to be hard, for all of us. Especially Todd.”
“I know. And we’re not expecting you guys to want to hang out with him, he’s fine with just being with me in private. But I’m not breaking up with him or anything.” Sal shakes his head, finally looking up and gazing at all of his friends. Larry and Todd both have their own sour faces on--Larry looks furious and Todd just looks more disappointed and a little nervous--but Ash is giving him a small smile.
Sal watches as the girl’s brows furrow, and she tilts her head, “But, wait. Does that mean he’s seen your face? I’m assuming that the time you were late because you ‘slept through your alarm’ the other day was actually you with Travis since Larry and I saw him walking out. Lar said that you were putting your prosthetic on.”
“I- yeah…” Sal says, laughing lightly, “We got food on one of our dates so I took off my prosthetic. He doesn’t mind my face… actually he says that he likes it so, I’ve just started taking it off in front of him.”
“Makes it easier to kiss him.” Ash smiles. Sal nods and stands up, figuring that the conversation is done with, and he walks into his room.
Travis is sitting on his bed when he walks in, Sal’s headphones on his head. Sal walks over to him and grabs his boyfriend’s hands, making the blonde look up at him and pull the headphones off. Sal smiles, “We’re done talking. They’re… not super happy but they seem willing to try and get over the fact that I’m dating you. Todd wants an apology but he’s not demanding it immediately.”
Travis nods after a couple seconds. He swallows, “Sorry that I was here…”
“No,” Sal shakes his head, “They got here earlier than we were expecting. Either way, I’d rather them know sooner than later, I told you about how they figured out I was dating someone. Do you want to head home or do you want to hang out in here for longer? We’re going to be starting our ghost stuff soon and I know you don’t like that.”
“I’ll…” The blonde trails off, looking at the clock in Sal’s room, “My father isn’t expecting me home for another hour. If you don’t mind, I'll just stay here. Start working on my homework.” Sal nods. He pulls his prosthetic from his lips and leans to kiss his boyfriend before he slots the prosthetic back in place and he slips out of the room with a quick goodbye.
His friends are talking between themselves when he walks out, probably about Travis if Sal is being realistic. They all turn to him when the door shuts behind him and Larry glares at the door, “Is Travis not leaving? Our paranormal conversations are private.”
Sal resists the urge to roll his eyes, “He’s going to be hanging out in my room but he’s not paying attention to our conversation. He doesn’t like the whole ghost hunting thing that we do.”
“So you’ve told him about it?”
“Yeah, I mean of course I’ve mentioned it. I’ve got ghosts in my apartment and I got to visit Megan all the time, he knows some of the stuff we get up to.”
“Have you told him about…” Ash trails off, “The whole thing with… lunch meats.”
Sal hums, looking away, “I have but… that’s an issue for another day.”
“Is that why he hasn’t been in the lunch room for a while?”
“Possibly. Anyway, moving on. Megan was saying some stuff to me and I think it might be important to talk about.”