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It was a somewhat quiet evening at a Calgary apartment complex, a slight fall chill in the air. Said calm was interrupted by a rather fashionable young man’s car coming to a screeching halt into one of the nearby parking spaces. Beaumont ‘Bowie’ Jones quickly exited his vehicle and ran inside the building, making his way as quick as possible to the 9th floor. He tapped his foot as he ran inside the elevator, not being a fan of just how slow it moved, but eventually it opened on his floor. He sprinted to the door of Apartment 923, the shared abode of his boyfriend Raj and his ‘best bro’ Wayne.
“I came as soon as I got your text. What’s the emergency, are you and Wayne okay?” Bowie said as he burst through the front door.
“WAYNE HAS A DATE AND HE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT TO WEAR!” Raj screamed from Wayne’s room.
This made Bowie pause for just a moment, he wanted to scream but he took a small breath instead. Sometimes his boyfriend could be a bit overly dramatic, obsessing over it wouldn’t get anywhere, even if the behavior gave him a bit of a headache sometimes.
“One of these days, you and I are gonna have a long talk about what the term ‘emergency’ means.” Bowie said as he pinched the bridge of his nose and headed for the sound of voices. What Bowie came upon was Raj frantically tossing clothes out of a closet onto a giant pile on the floor.
“Jesus, did a tornado go through here or something? And where’s Wayne?” Bowie asked, only for an arm to suddenly burst out of the top of the pile, causing Bowie to let out an involuntary yelp.
“Hi Bowie!” Wayne’s muffled voice came from the pile as he waved in a direction he guessed was vaguely near the door.
“Hey yourself, Wayne.” Bowie said as he rolled his eyes but smiled at the same time. He grabbed Wayne’s hand and pulled him free of the pile.
“Bowie, thank god you’re here. I didn’t know who else to turn to.” Raj ran up to Bowie, giving him a kiss on the lips and a firm hug.
“Good thing I needed a break from lecture. And hello to you too, honey.” Bowie returned the hug and planted both boys on Wayne’s bed. “Now, what exactly is the ish? You mentioned a date Raj? Good for you Wayne, by the way. Who’s the lucky guy, or girl I guess? You know there’s no judgment if you tell us you’re straight, I promise we won’t be disappointed in you.”
Bowie chuckled to himself more than anything, a small little teasing joke.
“There’s this really cool girl, eh. We’ve been spending a lot of time together, since you know, you and Raj have been going out on date nights more often.” Wayne said, putting his fingers together. “We started as friends on the show back in the day, and after, but now I finally asked her on a date and I don’t want things to be awkward and…Aaaaaahhhh, this is more pressure than having to score the last goal in a shootout.”
“Don’t worry buddy, we’ve got your back.” Raj said, giving his best friend a rub on the shoulder for support.
“Wait wait wait, back up. You’re going out with someone from Total Drama?” Bowie asked, all the more curious. “Lemme see if I can guess. Let’s see, it can’t be Priya because she and Caleb are on a rock climbing retreat in Switzerland. Axel and Ripper haven’t been seen in a while since they went to live in the woods. Nichelle is currently filming a movie in Toronto, so it can’t be her. Is it Millie?”
“Nah, she’s not really my type.” Wayne shook his head.
“Is it Emma? Please tell me you’re not getting involved in another jealousy ploy between her and Chase, I hope for better than that for you.” Bowie asked.
“Nah, I can’t betray Chase like that. Bro cheered me on to my win, I can’t go after his ex.” Wayne said, crossing his arms.
“That was years ago, I think the statute of limitations ran out on bro-chivalry when he and the ex have been broken up for 2 years at this point. Is it…Scary Girl?” Bowie said, raising an eyebrow. If Wayne actually said yes to this he’d be downright shocked.
“Nah, me and Lauren are cool though even if she still scares the crap outta me. She’s awesome to hang out with when the horror movie festival is in town though.” Wayne said, smiling a little.
“But that only leaves…
gasp
you didn’t!? Tell me Julia didn’t get her hooks into you!” Bowie said before grabbing Raj by the shoulders and shaking him. “Raj, how could you let him?! You know she’s only going for his money!”
“
IiitsnnoootJulia!”
Raj called out as he kept getting shook, causing his boyfriend to let go and let out a sigh of relief.
“Besides, I can’t date my substitute bro. The bro code states that two bros can’t date if one bro is already in a relationship, and you can’t date a substitute bro if the bro that the substitute bro is a substitute bro for is in a relationship. Or if the substitute bro is in a relationship, unless the relationship is between the bro that the substitute bro is the substitute bro for and the original bro, then things get more complicated.” Wayne explained, causing an eyebrow raise from Bowie as he turned to Raj.
“Did you follow any of that?” Bowie asked Raj.
“Yeah, perfectly logical explanation. Why?” Raj asked, causing Bowie to have to hold back from either sighing or laughing, one of the two.
“Anyway, thank god you’re not going for Julia. Well that’s everybody I can think of,” Bowie leaned back.
“What about MK?” Raj raised a finger.
“What
about
MK?” Bowie replied simply.
Raj opened his mouth to answer, but after thinking about the sheer impossibility of the sarcastic and snarky girl and his best friend, he closed it again and simply nodded. “Fair enough.”
“Come on guys, she’ll be here in less than an hour and I still have no idea what to wear!” Wayne said, visibly looking freaked and biting his thumb.
“Alright alright, I guess we can continue teatime later. Tell me what your plans are and I’ll help you pick something out from…the pile, I guess.” Bowie said, gesturing at the mishmash.
“Well I was gonna invite her to watch the Oilers game at the bar across the street-” Wayne said at first, almost making Bowie let out a hiss. “But…I called my mom for advice and she said that wasn’t exactly ‘romantic’. So I thought we’d go skating at Olympic Plaza and then eat at that one Chinese place, Dragon Dynasty. She said that was a much better idea.”
“Remind me to get your mom a gift basket for helping her somewhat romantically inept boy.” Bowie said. “Alright, so first date. We want something casual but not too casual, no sweatpants, no hoodies, no graphic tees, no jerseys and no ties.”
“Don’t own any anyway, ties are complicated snakes anyway.” Wayne said.
“Moving on, the weather is crisp but not too cold. Not that it matters much to the men who are able to wear shorts no matter the weather whether it’s -8 or 94.” Bowie continued, looking a bit green eyed at Raj. “So…”
He dug in the pile, giving certain things sniff tests before tossing them away. “Geez Raj, did you toss things from his hamper in here too?” he said, before picking up a jock strap by accident which he quickly threw to the other side of the room.
“Alright I think I got it. Dark wash denim pants, button up shirt, plus this leather jacket. It’ll give you a good ‘laid-back but still put together’ kind of vibe.”
“Aw yeah! Can I still wear my hat?” Wayne asked.
“Is it clean?” Bowie asked.
“Yah, I washed it 3 days ago.” Wayne nodded.
“Fine, good enough I guess.” Bowie said, laying out the clothes for Wayne.
“Yeah, Wayner is gonna look so good for his date!” Raj said, as he and Wayne high fived and hooted to each other, old habits dying hard. “Thanks Bowie, I knew I could count on you.”
“Yeah, call me Fairy Godbitch I guess.” Bowie said sarcastically, even though he smiled at the two. “Now lets get a quick ironing on the shirt to make sure it doesn’t have any creases-”
The three were suddenly startled by the sound of the doorbell.
“Oh crap that’s her!” Wayne exclaimed.
“I thought you said she wasn’t going to be here for an hour!” Bowie exclaimed to him in turn.
“That’s what she said when she texted me!” Wayne responded.
“When did she text you?” Bowie asked.
“About 50 minutes ago.” Wayne explained, causing Bowie to smack his head into his hand.
“Just…I’ll keep her busy for a bit. Raj, help Wayne get dressed and make sure he combs his hair.” Bowie said.
“Got it, okay Wayne we can do this. Let’s get you ready for that date!” Raj said, hyping his friend up as Bowie left the room and shut the door behind him.
Bowie went towards the front door to go answer it. Admittedly he knew that leaving the two alone could lead to potential disaster but he had faith that Raj could handle it. Raj had cleaned up real well for their first date so Bowie knew that he at least had some skills in presentation. Besides, Bowie’s curiosity for Wayne’s choice in partner was still piqued. Finally arriving at the front door, he swore sometimes that the apartment was bigger than most. Benefits of having half a million dollars in a trust he supposed. It felt so long ago when Wayne first won the money, luckily his parents had helped him invest it so the winnings would last a lot longer. Even after buying the Snow Owls that bus he promised Wayne still had enough both in liquid and investments that he would more than likely never have to work a day in his life. Bowie couldn’t help but feel a little jealous of that, but no point in bringing up old feelings now. At least he could brag that his boyfriend’s best friend was still technically a millionaire.
His musings finally came to a halt as he opened the front door and saw a rather mousey looking freckled girl standing in the doorway.
“Oh, Bowie, I…didn’t expect to see you.” she said, “Sorry, is that too casual? I mean I know that we’ve never really interacted, I just um…”
“I’m sorry…do I know you?” Bowie asked, a bit confused.
“Oh don’t worry. Like I said we never really interacted on the show, I was an intern and all. Not exactly supposed to interact with the talent when the competition is going on and-”
“Oh yeah, you’re that intern girl. Hey, um…sorry for never learning your name.” Bowie rubbed his neck.
The girl chuckled. “It’s Pepper, nice to finally meet you outside the bounds of competition. Wayne talks about you a lot, not as much as Raj but still a fair bit.”
“Interesting, and nice to finally make your acquaintance too.” he said, giving her hand a shake.
“Is Wayne here, we were supposed to go skating today.” Pepper asked.
“He’s uh-”
“
AAAAA BODY SPRAY IN THE EYES! IT’S BURNING!
”
“Still getting ready. In the meantime, come in and wait I guess.”
“Oh…okay.” she shrugged and the two sat down in the ‘living room’ area.
“So…you and Wayne, huh?” Bowie broke the ice, leaning in.
“Yeah…” she said, shuffling her feet.
“And how exactly did that happen? Did you two get to some canoodling behind the scenes when the rest of us weren’t looking.” he asked, leaning in more.
“N-no! Nothing like that! I mean…well…it’s complicated. Just…during the off seasons I work as a pizza delivery driver.”
“Much less dangerous than working as an intern on Total Drama I’m guessing.” Bowie nodded for her to continue.
“Oh a ton! Worst thing I’ve encountered on a delivery was when a trailer park guy sicced his dog on me. Way better than testing challenges that land me in a medical tent while wearing a full body cast.” Pepper nodded. “So anyway one night I was called for a delivery to this apartment, when I brought it Wayne recognized me and the two of us got to talking for a while. He’d been feeling pretty lonely since you and Raj had been going out on more and more date nights and staying overnight at your place.”
“Oh…I didn’t know.” Bowie said, feeling a little guilty.
“No no, it’s not your fault or anything! In fact Wayne is really happy for you two, and he’s glad you two are getting to spend so much time together without him being a third wheel.” Pepper tried to assuage his feelings.
“It’s all good girl, now spill. Who asked who out first?” Bowie asked.
“Well at first we were just friends, sometimes he’d make it a point to make sure he was the last delivery of my shift so my friend could clock me off. We’d just sit and talk, occasionally have a movie night. Then we started hanging out during my off hours, I’d even go to some of his games with the Calgary Canucks and cheer him and Raj on. Then one night after a long shift he called me out to watch something silly. We watched…Moulin Rouge.”
“No…” Bowie said in mock shock.
“Yeah, we were singing along to some of the songs, copying some of the bombastic moves while surfing on the couch. We both tripped and…accidentally landed on each other lip first.”
“No you didn’t!” Bowie continued to say things in mock shock to give certain parts of her story more dramatic punch.
“Yeah. So um…we both realized it was nice and just kept at it all night. I mean…it wasn’t like I didn’t like Wayne. Him taking care of my spider bites during the hooks challenge back in the day was really sweet. Nobody besides Chef Hatchet seemed to really care when us interns got injured, so him taking the time that could have cost him the victory to spend on helping me was…” Pepper said, blushing a little.
“Bet it would have been better if he kissed those little boo boo's better huh?” Bowie teased her.
“I-It wasn’t like that at the time!” she blushed a little more.
“Well now your face matches your name.” Bowie continued to tease.
“Grrr.” she growled at him, causing him to hold his hands up.
“Okay okay sorry, that’s a really sweet story. So you two just sucked face all night and one of you finally went ‘hey this is nice, but what if we made it more official?’ huh?”
“Sort of, I guess. Neither of us really knew how to move forward so…we decided to do something casual, just see if there’s something more there, you know?” she said. “To be honest I’m a little nervous, I’ve…never really dated a lot of guys. Or…any guys to be honest.”
“Now I know that’s not true. I bet you were beating the chess club back with a stick back in high school.” Bowie said, trying to give the girl a boost.
“I wish I was that popular. Nobody really wanted to go for the girl with the frizzy hair and nearly flat chest.” Pepper said, looking a little dejected.
“Well look at you now, you got a popular jock’s attention. And don’t be so down on yourself, your makeup looks great and you’re pulling off that cardigan v-neck really well.” Bowie reassured.
“Really? Do you think so? I really appreciate that.” she nodded.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity Wayne and Raj finally exited Wayne’s room, panting all the while as Raj wiped some sweat from his brow.
“And what took you guys so long?” Bowie asked.
“Brush got stuck in Wayne’s hair, then I accidentally sprayed his face with too much Jetson, then he almost swallowed his toothbrush trying to scrub his tongue and…” Raj tried to explain the series of events, all the while Wayne simply stood there slightly slack-jawed.
“Uh, hi Pepper.” he finally said.
“Hey Wayne. Looking good.” Pepper awkwardly waved as she looked him over.
“Oh thanks, you look hot.” Wayne said before coughing. “I mean you look good too.”
She smiled at both compliments. “Thanks. Ready to head out, I’m excited to go skating.”
“Heck yeah, let’s hit that rink!” Wayne exclaimed as he looped an arm around hers and dragged her away.
“Have fun kids, have him back by midnight!” Bowie called out jokingly before he went to pat Raj on the back and get him a glass of water.
“Thanks for coming by the way, your skills really helped us get this off the ground.” Raj said as he downed the glass.
“I know, I’m amazing aren’t I?” Bowie said in mock confidence.
“You really are.” Raj said as he kissed Bowie on the cheek.
“Uh uh, you owe me way more than just that.” Bowie responded, giving his man a full kiss on the lips that lasted a long while. “Well, I’m not heading back to class for the rest of today. Do you want to do something?”
“We could curl up on the couch and watch a movie?” Raj suggested.
“Sounds good to me, just no Miracle on Ice.” Bowie said.
“Aw come on, it’s a classic.” Raj said, getting in on the mock outrage.
“A classic we’ve watched together at least 8 times for date nights.” Bowie responded.
“Fine, you pick, I’ll get some popcorn popping.” Raj said as Bowie got resituated on the couch and flipped through Netflix. Eventually Raj returned with a nice big bowl of popcorn as Bowie put on Crazy Rich Asians.
“So…Pepper huh?” Bowie said, leaving the question in the air.
“Yeah, I wasn’t really sure about her at first but she’s been pretty cool to hang out with.” Raj nodded.
“And how come you never mentioned her to me?” Bowie said, as he laid his head on Raj’s shoulder.
“You never asked.” Raj responded simply as he ate a mouthful of popcorn.
“Still…doesn’t she seem a little…meek compared to Wayne.” Bowie said.
“Well she’s certainly not meek when it comes to cheering at our games.” Raj said as he kept watching.
“I think you’re exaggerating a little.” Bowie said before Raj pulled out his phone and pulled up a recorded clip almost on cue. Sure enough Pepper was there in the stands, in full team color face paint, screaming her heart out for the Canucks.
“I stand corrected…and a little disturbed.” Bowie said as the clip reached a point where she was yelling at the ref for making a penalty call. There was expletives in there that Bowie was sure could make the paint peel off walls from the sheer vitriol.
“Yeah she can get really loud, but she’s great for team morale.” Raj said as he put his phone back down.
“Well…I’m glad he has someone in his corner like I am for you. I’m…sorry if I’ve been causing a rift in your friendship with all the time I insist you spend with me.” Bowie said, looking down at the floor.
“Hey hey, there’s no rift at all.Wayne knows it’s difficult with our training schedule and your classes so we have to take the time we can get to spend together. He isn’t mad about it at all, even if he gets a little lonely sometimes. But we’re still best friends, and he knows how much I love you.” Raj said as he wrapped an arm around Bowie’s waist. “You’re an important part of my life, when I spend time with you things just seem to slow down. Adult life can be hard but…if I have you at my side it’s bearable.”
Bowie had to wipe a small tear from his eye. “I feel the same way. I love you so much Raj Thakur.”
“I love you too, Beaumont Jones.” he responded, giving Bowie a kiss as they let the movie just fade into the background.