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This time it was about what colour the tablecloths should be.
“It’ll look prettier with lilac.” Marvin suggested, Trina ignoring him. “Maroon will fit better with the flowers!” she insisted. He tried to chime in. “Sure , but what if-”
Trina interrupted him. “No! I’m not hearing it! You have awful taste! It’s horrible to look at your-”
The arguing stopped from what Jason could only assume was Mendel stepping in to pull Trina out of the living room and into the kitchen.
Then there were hushed voices, and his father stepped out of the living room, dragging a hand down his face.
Jason groaned and rolled his eyes for nobody to hear or see.
The yelling, the arguing, the fighting, every time his parents so much as looked at each other now.
Thankfully it wasn’t actually malicious like it used to be.
‘So, who was that man, huh? What, he was nobody? Sure. Sure. It’s always nobody, Marvin!’
‘That’s because he is- he is nobody, he isn’t anyone I care about. He could disappear and I wouldn’t care!’
His parents were not genuinely angry at each other now. So that was good. But Jason missed the blissful period where they would talk and laugh and smile, and not bicker about colours.
They would talk about things like Trina’s new stew or Marvin’s search for a new psychiatrist. Not anymore. Plus, arguing about the bar mitzvah was immature, in Jason’s humble opinion.
And they didn’t even ask Jason what he wanted. For his bar mitzvah.
As irritating as the arguments were, Jason was happy to have these irrelevant ones over the God-awful situation that was their family two years ago. That breakup had changed Marvin a lot.
Lots of self-reflection changed him a lot. Whizzer changed him. Whizzer also changed Jason quite a bit.
That’s why Jason quietly jogged upstairs and got dressed, shoving some spare change in his pocket. He didn’t need to bring pyjamas or a toothbrush with him.
He ruffled his hair so that it wasn’t sticking to his forehead – it was almost June, it wasn’t his fault, he wasn’t a sweaty teenager yet – and went downstairs.
He could hear talking, slightly louder than regular conversation, but not yelling. Clearly Mendel had taken the debate into his own hands.
Jason listened in for a while, out of sight. He waited until tensions began to rise once more, and then stepped into the living room, just as Marvin was about to quip something back at Mendel.
“Mom? Dad?”
The three adults in the room turned to look at him. Their expressions all changed slightly, turning less harsh.
“Hey kid.” Marvin said, sounding exhausted, relaxing his stance. Trina was sitting with Mendel on the couch, his arm around her back.
Mendel began. “Don’t worry Jason your parents were just-”
“Being immature again, yeah I know.” he interrupted, rolling his eyes.
“Did you need something kiddo?” Trina asked, sounding exasperated too.
“Could I go stay over at Dalia’s house? Just for today, and I’ll come back here tomorrow after school!”
Dalia was his friend from school. She was in his year. Extroverted, fun, and most importantly, incredibly loyal. He wasn’t exactly planning to stay at hers though.
Marvin and Trina exchanged a glance. Marvin shrugged his shoulders, as if to say, ‘Why not?’. Trina thought about it but was unsure. He’d stayed at this girl’s house time and time again. Surely her parents were getting sick of him?
Jason was lovely, he was great, but he could get… well, a bit much. And he’d stopped packing pyjamas or a toothbrush, did they have some for him there?
Trina was sceptical. “I’m not sure, sweetie. It’s a little late-”
“It’s only six! And it’s bright outside!” Jason insisted.
“But you’ve stayed at Dalia’s house a lot, I mean, are you sure her parents will be okay with-”
“Yeah! They like me, really! You can call them if you want!”
Jason always played that card when his mother wasn’t sure about letting him sleep over. Dalia was always the one who picked up the telephone. She was chatty, and her parents were major introverts.
She always vouched for Jason, and confirmed that yes, yes, he’d been there a lot but they were happy to have him over any time.
That was of course a lie – that he’d been there a lot. He’d had sleepovers with her before, three or four times. But he was using her house as a fakeout.
The first time he went over to ‘Dalias’ alone, his mother called unexpectedly. Dalia didn’t think twice. Just lied and said yes, he’s at her house and they were playing chess.
“Alright fine.” Trina said, giving in. Jason nodded excitedly. “Do you want to go by bus?”
“No, no, I’ll drop him.” Marvin gave a slightly strained smile, just wanting out of the argument for today. He ruffled Jason’s hair, and both walked out into the hallway to put shoes on.
“You remember where Dalia’s house is, right dad?”
“’Course I do. The neighbourhood with all the birch trees?” Marvin asked, standing up straight and making sure his keys were in his pocket.
“Yep. Bye mom! See you tomorrow!” Jason shouted as he walked out the door with his father out to the car, getting in.
The drive to the neighbourhood was quiet, since Marvin had just been shouting for twenty minutes, the radio humming away instead. He was a good driver, so they reached the neighbourhood quickly.
Unlike Mendel, Marvin didn’t know specifically what house Dalia’s was, and dropped Jason off near a line of birch trees.
“Alright, you have fun now. You’ll catch the bus to school?”
Jason gave a thumbs up, opening the car door and climbing out. Marvin reached out to the side, through the open window, ruffling his hair, before saying goodbye.
Jason waved and started walking into the neighbourhood. He looked back at the car, and once it faded out of view he turned around and started walking back towards the nearest bus stop.
He was counting the coins in his pocket when he saw headlights approaching. He ran to the stop, just in time to put his hand out and flag it down.
He got on, gave the change for one trip, (realising he didn’t in fact have money for the bus tomorrow, which was not good), and sat down.
★•★•★
Whizzer was cooking, whisking up a sauce in his pot in the kitchen, listening to ‘The Twist’ (the 60s had incredible hits, tell him they didn’t).
After a few minutes, around six-thirty, Whizzer received a knock on his door. He paused his stereo and waltzed over to answer.
When he opened it, there stood Jason. Whizzer wasn’t at all surprised by his random showing up.
“Hey Jason! Your parents being noisy again?” he said with a smirk.
Jason nodded. “You know it. Can I stay over tonight?” Whizzer nodded, stepping aside to let Jason in.
He went inside, taking off his shoes and hanging up his jacket, then following Whizzer to the living room. “I was just cooking. You wanna watch TV? Sesame Street is on right now.”
Jason nodded, happily flopping down on the couch, bringing his feet up to sit with his legs in a basket.
Whizzed flicked to the channel, setting the remote down, and going back to the kitchen to finish dinner.
This had become almost routine for them. Initially, of course, Jason didn’t even reach out to Whizzer, since his and his father’s breakup was still fresh.
At one point he’d gotten home from school early. Mendel was still at work and Trina was out with some friends, the key under the doormat.
Jason was bored, and decided, screw it, he was going to call Whizzer. It had been about four and a half months. His father seemed to be over it.
Well, he wasn’t constantly moping and upset. It was still a touchy subject. The one time Jason brought it up to Marvin, he was rapidly and bluntly shut down.
‘Dad?'
‘Yeah?’
‘Do you… do you miss Whizzer?’
‘Jason, I don’t wanna talk about him- about, about that. How was your presentation in computer class?’
Jason took the phone, dialled the number and waited. When Whizzer picked up and heard Jason’s voice, he was surprised, but also worried, knowing Jason’s parents wouldn’t be happy about him calling.
Jason reassured him and they started talking. Whizzer seemed chipper on the phone, so Jason carefully pried about him and his father.
Surprisingly, Whizzer was a little more open to talk about it than Marvin was. But not much.
Jason asked about why they broke up, did Whizzer enjoy it at all, what quality about Marvin made him pick him, etc.
Whizzer very briefly explained but didn’t get specific. Though he made it clear that Marvin wasn’t the sole reason the relationship failed, and that Whizzer had also been self-reflecting for a few months.
Jason had been quite interested – especially after knowing the reason for the breakup – in whether or not they would date each other again.
He wasn’t sure why. Maybe because the question made them confront their feelings and dig a little deeper than just, ‘I like his hair.’
He tried to bring it up to Whizzer during the phone call but was once again shut down.
‘Do you think that you would ever date him again?’
‘Oh! Uh… I’m not- well, probably not.’
Whizzer had responded, not so subtly then steering the conversation away from Marvin.
Jason was determined to find out whether or not they would date again. Especially because he actually liked Whizzer.
The conversation lasted a lot longer than either of them intended. After talking about the elephant in the room, they moved on to personal hobbies, recommending books to each other, Whizzer’s photography and Jason’s science experiments.
They talked and talked, until Trina came home, and Jason reluctantly hung up, the question still lingering in his head.
Trina noticed he’d been talking on the phone, and got extremely excited, because he was socialising. Thus came the Dalia lie.
Trina had met Dalia and liked her, so when she asked who he’d spoken to on the phone, the answer was obvious.
Then it turned to Jason calling once a week or so whenever neither Mendel nor Trina were home. They agreed that Whizzer would never call first, of course, in case someone other than Jason picked up.
Once Jason tried to call at Marvin’s house – only once. He’d gotten first place at his school’s science competition and was so excited to tell Whizzer about it – but got caught. Sort of.
It’d been just over seven months since the breakup. Jason had been rambling on and on about how the competition went and didn’t notice that Marvin had finished up his shower.
Two hands covered his eyes, and he literally squealed in fear. ‘Woah, you okay there?’ Whizzer laughed, and Marvin’s expression flipped in an instant. ‘What’s wrong? Hello?’ Whizzer continued, now more concerned.
Before Jason could do anything, the phone was pulled out of his hands. Marvin had held it up to listen. “Hello? Hel- was that… is anyone there? Who is this?”
Jason was worried, but Whizzer caught on, and stayed silent. After a few seconds Marvin hung up the phone.
Marvin asked Jason about who it was before Jason could ask why he was so quick to take the phone from him.
Jason wasn’t dumb; clearly some feelings were still there. So perhaps they would date again.
Jason lied and said it was a friend from school. The lie was obvious. Jason was okay-ish at lying, but awful when put on the spot. Marvin pried, but Jason refused to tell him who it was.
He wasn’t thinking about his own consequences, but rather Whizzer’s. He didn’t want him to be in trouble.
The calls continued, and one day, Trina was extremely angry at Jason. He’d forgotten to do his chores, and had broken one of her vases.
…And tripped Mendel over by accident and caused him a big bruise on the knee.
He was reprimanded, and had some of his stuff taken away, and was grounded. He understood. Not much of it was of value to him, and he was quite apathetic to Trina’s sternness.
Then they also took away his science equipment. Another reason for that was because he had caused a stain on the carpet that wouldn’t come out (Trina put a plant over it).
And he was really annoyed, because it was a one-time occurrence. He knew they were just annoyed he didn’t care about his punishment.
Safe to say Trina was stressed that week.
Because when he rolled his eyes and talked back to her about the science incident, his chess board was taken away.
The last straw.
So, he packed his backpack and hopped a bus to Whizzer’s house.
He knew that Mendel would reassure Trina that this was just childish tantrums, and he was becoming a preteen, and that it was nothing to worry about.
He lied and told them he was going to Dalia’s house for a sleepover, and that he’d come back alone, and not to come get him. It was just so that they didn’t freak out when he didn’t come back home.
Whizzer was shocked and concerned when Jason turned up on his doorstep, but he could tell he was pissed, and let him in.
Jason ranted on and on about his mom and Mendel and Whizzer listened and let him cool off. He let Jason ramble about an experiment to him and ordered his favourite takeaway.
And then the bar mitzvah arguments started, and so, staying over at Whizzer’s became a regular occurrence.
Eventually it became so common, Whizzer bought Jason a small mattress to sleep on. He had an extra toothbrush for him, a blanket and pillow, pyjamas, etcetera.
Jason was the one who asked if he could keep some things there. Whizzer of course said yes. And so, the fourth parent was brought back.
Throughout staying at Whizzer’s, Jason slowly broke down his protective layers. Asking him more personal questions over time and when he saw fit.
Once Jason managed to get Whizzer to comfortably answer, ‘What were your favourite things about my dad?’ without him giving a basic response or rejecting the question entirely. He decided he would try and ask the question that had been on his mind for months.
He would have forgotten about it, honestly, but neither Whizzer nor Marvin let him (unintentionally).
Two or three times, when Jason went to Marvin’s for the weekend, Marvin had completely forgotten that Jason was coming over.
Once, he had called some guy to come over, but when Jason arrived, Marvin panicked. The ‘date’ hadn’t turned up at that point, thankfully.
When he did, Marvin made up an excuse and shooed him away, but Jason did notice that the man had very similar features to Whizzer, as well as similar dress sense.
There were a few times when Jason would appear at Whizzer’s doorstep in the morning, and Whizzer would have a guy over, and Jason saw him before he left.
Similar features to his dad. Unmistakable.
“Hello-o?” Whizzer drew out, rotating a steaming bowl in front of Jason’s face mesmerizingly. “You spaced out! Welcome back to earth. Dinner is ready!”
Jason’s grinned and stood up, following Whizzer to the dining table. He sat down, and took his bowl from Whizzer, saying thank you.
It was pesto pasta, with sliced cherry tomatoes and grilled chicken.
Jason took his cutlery and started eating, telling Whizzer about school and, of course, complaining about his bickering parents.
Whizzer was clearly in a good mood. He was extremely chirpy, and very eager to hear about Jason’s stories – not that he normally wasn’t, but significantly more than usual.
They finished dinner and decided to play a board game. Jason had been stewing with the question for long enough.
“Whizz?”
“Mhm?” Whizzer hummed, placing his marker on a spot Jason was on, kicking him off the area and making him return home.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Jason only phrased something like that if it was a taboo thing, and Whizzer was scanning through what he could ask, preparing himself a bit.
“Sure.”
“About my dad?”
Whizzer nodded. He made sure to sound as indifferent as possible. As if Jason was simply asking his favourite ice cream flavour. “Mhm?”
Jason moved four spaces. “Would you ever date my dad again?”
Marvin was God awful at lying. Whizzer on the other hand, was good at lying. That was a known thing. He knew how to lie well, and so Jason carefully watched him.
He looked unphased, absolutely unbothered by what Jason had to say. He moved his marker and cocked his head, to insinuate that he was thinking.
“I’m not sure. Maybe, I guess?” he ‘answered’. It wasn’t a real answer. He didn’t say a definite opinion, he used every ‘so-so’ term.
He wasn’t being honest.
But Jason knew that.
Because the tops of his ears were pink. It was subtle, very faint, but Jason could see.
That wasn’t one of Whizzer’s tells, no. But it meant he was blushing. Or at least, would, if Jason kept prying.
“Okay.” Jason said, knocking over one of Whizzer’s markers and causing him to lose the space. The game resumed as if nothing happened.
After a few more games, a quick walk around the neighbourhood, a small trip to the ice cream parlor down the road, and the two were getting ready for bed.
At least, Jason was. Whizzer was going to stay up longer, of course. It was only 10 o’clock. They brushed their teeth together, Whizzer stopping Jason and making sure he brushed for two minutes.
Whilst Jason changed, Whizzer pulled out the mattress, placing it next to his own bed. He pulled on the duvet and placed the spare pillow atop it.
Jason came out of the bathroom, got under the very thin blanket Whizzer had left him (in case he needed it, but it was late May, and still quite hot).
They exchanged goodnights as Whizzer turned off the lights and went into the living room. He busied himself with chores, like washing the dishes and wiping down the kitchen counter.
He peeked back into Jason’s room after half an hour, who was fast asleep. Jason slept relatively deeply, not at all like Marvin. Perhaps he inherited it from Trina.
He then went into the living room, switching his stereo on, the song was Star by Bowie. Keeping it very low, he took his book out and started reading.
He must have been reading for forty-five-ish minutes before the phone rang in the hallway. He leapt to answer it, not wanting Jason to have woken up from it.
On the way to the phone, he peeked into the bedroom. Still asleep. Good. He yawned as he walked up to the phone. Who on earth was calling at quarter past eleven at night? And on a weekday?
He took it in his hand and held it up to his ear. “Hello?” the voice on the other end spoke before Whizzer could.
He didn’t recognise it immediately. “Who is this?”
The person on the other end chuckled before answering. “It was nice talking to you at the park.”
Ah. That’s who it was. “I hate to say it, but it was nice talking to you too.” Whizzer said with a smile, leaning against the wall. Marvin huffed a laugh, and Whizzer could practically hear him roll his eyes.
“I’m surprised you pulled me into the park. I thought you would have stopped coming to the bar when you saw I was there.”
Whizzer scoffed. “Please, I wouldn’t stop going to one of my favourite bars just because my ex is there.”
Marvin laughed again, and his arm got goosebumps. “You were eyeing me so hard it was obvious. Figured I’d put you out of your misery.” Whizzer added.
“Did… did you enjoy talking to me?” Marvin asked, sounding a little bit vulnerable.
Whizzer sighed, twirling the phone cord in between his fingers like in movies. “Well…”
“Boring, old, 9 to 5 job, single dad, me?”
“You’re not boring, you make a good income, and being a single dad is fine. And we’re only like 20 months apart in age.”
“And so, we’re both old.” Marvin replied, making Whizzer gasp quietly in fake shock. The two laughed softly, Whizzer trying not to wake Jason.
“Um,” Marvin began, “Would… would you want to, maybe… um…” Marvin spoke slowly and hesitantly. Whizzer could tell from the way he spoke he was blushing.
“Do I want to…?” Whizzer almost whispered in a low, velvety voice, wanting to make Marvin more nervous.
“Maybe… get a- or… go on- go on a date?” he mustered.
Whizzer didn’t have to think twice. “Sure! Why don’t you come over here? There’s a nice ice cream parlour close by and a café we could go to?”
“That sounds nice. How can I say no? What day and what time?”
Whizzer thought about it. “Saturday to Sunday?”
“No, that… well, actually… no, sorry, I get Jason on weekends, remember? So, I wouldn’t be able to.”
Oh yeah. Whizzer had forgotten about that accidentally. He pretended not to know that already. “Oh yes, sorry.”
“Yeah. How about Friday evening to Saturday?”
Whizzer smiled. “That works. Just park here, there’s rarely ever space down the street, and my neighbours don’t drive.”
Marvin smiled. “Okay! See you then?”
“See you, Marv.”
Whizzer hung up the phone, grinning like an idiot. Why was he so giddy? Was that normal? Of course it was. It was fine. He checked the clock. Almost eleven thirty.
He walked through the hall and put the stuff in the living room away, smiling widely every time he thought about Marvin.
He carefully made his way back into the bedroom, – leaving the door ajar was smart – and just as he was lying down and pulling the blanket over himself, a voice spoke up.
“I knew it.” Jason said, standing up beside the bed, looking down at the other.
Whizzer practically jumped out of his skin. “Jesus fucking Christ-” he sighed and placed a hand on his chest. “Jason- what- why are you awake?”
Jason chuckled as Whizzer recovered from the scare, sitting on the bed, looking at him with delight.
“I woke up from the phone ringing.” he said. “But pretended to be asleep when you walked in.”
Whizzer clicked his tongue, seemingly missing the second part of Jason’s sentence. “Sorry buddy. I didn’t know he w- they would call.” Whizzer tried to keep down his redness as best as he could, hoping the darkness of the room could help him somewhat.
“But I knew it! You are going to date my dad again!” Jason said, grinning. He was right, and had been right for months.
Whizzer tried his best to look confused. “That wasn’t- why do you say that?”
“You were talking about dates, and that it was nice talking to someone, and they were a single dad, like my dad.”
Whizzer nodded. “Right, but your dad isn’t the only single dad to ever exist. There are other single dads out there.”
Whizzer spoke calmly, thinking he’d won the debate, that Jason would give up, shrug, and go back to sleep.
Instead, Jason made a telephone shape with his hands and brought it up to his ear. ‘See you Marv.’
He brought his hand down and stared at Whizzer, who was becoming pinker by the second. Jason could see, since he’d had a while to adjust to the dark.
Whizzer covered his face with his hands and started laughing. “Goddamnit. You caught me. I spoke to him the other day… he seems a lot better. Gonna go on a date this Friday.”
Jason smiled with delight. “So does that mean you’ll be boyfriends again?”
Whizzer scoffed with a smirk, taken aback. “I- that’s- well, I mean… maybe.” he took a second. “Hopefully.” he muttered.
“That’s good, because my dad is definitely not over you. And he really needs a boyfriend, because he’s really lonely.”
Whizzer laughed. He was absolutely going to tease Marvin with that. “Never got over me? Really?”
“Yeah! I think he had a date over once and he looked pretty similar to you. And he also still-” Jason stopped suddenly, seemingly withholding information.
“Still what?” Whizzer asked, intrigued.
“…Well… I don’t think I should tell you.” Jason responded slowly.
“Tell me.” Whizzer said, holding out his pinkie finger. “I won’t tell him, I swear.”
Jason sighed and hooked his pinkie around Whizzer’s. “Remember that brown leather jacket you had?”
Whizzer nodded. “Yeah. I lost it though.” he said sounding sad.
“Well… he… stole it…?”
Whizzer gasped. “He what!?”
“He didn’t- it’s not-” Jason jumped to defend his father. “He didn’t steal it exactly, I mean that- well, when you packed your stuff, you- you left that jacket at our house, and he didn’t… return it…”
Jason sounded just as guilty as if he was the one that stole the jacket. “Are you going to tell him that I told you? He’s going to kill me if you do.”
Whizzer sighed. “I won’t tell him. I swore on it. But I’ll pretend that I found it in his place at some point- if we ever make it there.”
Jason made a face. “So that means you two will move in together?”
Whizzer rolled his eyes and laid back down. “Go to sleep Jason.”
Jason clambered off Whizzer’s bed and laid back down on his mattress. “But will you?”
“Go to slee-eep.” Whizzer groaned, but Jason could hear his smile.
“Fine.” Jason grumbled, laying down and pulling the blanket over himself.
Just as Jason was drifting off to sleep, looking at the bottom of the curtains where the moonlight drifted in, Whizzer sighed and spoke up.
“We would probably move in together- if we date again.” he admitted. “But nothings for certain, so don’t get your hopes up.”
Jason hummed in acknowledgment. He shut his eyes and let himself fall back to sleep, thinking about playing chess with both Whizzer and Marvin.
One of them cooking in the kitchen whilst the other plays against Jason, swapping every few turns to try and beat him.
He smiled at the prospect.