Only The Good Die Young

"Sweet," Mike says, smiling an admittedly charming smile. "What time do you get off work? I'll pick you up then."

"Four," Tony says shyly. Then another question crossed his mind. Was Tony even gay? Tony had never really thought much into his own sexuality, mostly because he never really dated anyone. So this was probably going to be quite the learning experience, Tony was okay with learning though.

"See you then," Mike winks and strolls out of the library. That had to be argueable the weirdest thing that Tony had ever been through. But weird was okay, he guesses . . .

"Dude, you just got asked out!" A girl who could barely see over the counter announces, looking at Tony with wide green eyes. Tony recognizes her as one of the upcoming freshmen, and the only kid in school who ever made a point of talking to him, Maybelle Kemp.

"Mhmm," Tony says, still looking at his book.

"Well aren't you excited?" She easily hops up so she's sitting on the counter.

Tony shrugs, only glancing up at her momentarily, which she takes as 'get off of the counter'.
"I didn't know you were gay. I didn't know Mikey was gay either, but, yeah . . ." She trails off.

"I didn't either," Tony says quietly, grabbing a piece of paper off the counter to use as a bookmark. "What do you need help with Maybelle?" He asks as he stretches.

"I can't reach the book I want, and I don't want to get in trouble for climbing on the shelves." Maybelle says sheepishly.

"Which book is that?" Tony asks.

"Rumblefish."

Tony nods and easily finds it with the rest of the S.E. Hinton books. He takes it back to the counter and checks it out for Maybelle. Sometimes she could be annoying, but she at least came to the library to check out books, he liked her for that reason. He hands the book to Maybelle and says goodbye and she heads out the door, probably going to the bar to wait around for her deadbeat brother and his girlfriend. Tony always felt kind of bad for her, she was a nice kid surrounded by people who didn't want her. Tony picks up the book again and continues to read, he had it finished by the end of the day.

Just before four Mike returned, the same charming smile on his face. "Heya Tone," he says, leaning against the counter. "You ready to go?"

"It's three fifty," Tony tells Mike simply.

"Go ahead and go Tony," Anne says, suddenly coming out of the back room. "You deserve to go be a kid while you still can."

"You heard the lady," Mike says, smirking softly.

"O-kay. Thank Anne." Tony is blushing a little, but he follows after Mike, waving a goodbye to Anne.

"So," Mike says, starting off in a random direction. "What do you do for fun Tony?"
Tony shrugs, attempting to look cool even though his nerves were very evident. "Read, sometimes I play my guitar . . ."

"Lame," Mike snorts. "You don’t party or anything?"

Tony shakes his head. He had always been told school first, and that’s always what had come first, even with his aunt who was considerably more easy going than his parents.
"Then how the fuck do you relax?" Tony thinks that was a rhetorical question, so he stays quiet. "Are you serious?" Mike seemed so surprised that he was dealing with some who didn’t party. "Have you ever even been to a party?"

Tony shakes his head.

"I was gonna take you out for a nice date, like pizza, or maybe swimming at the resevoir. But, holy shit, wow. Do you wanna come to Bear's party with me? We can still go get pizza before hand, but I can't leave you a party virgin."

Tony rakes his mind for anything on a person named 'Bear', then he remembers Leo Standing Bear, or "Bear". A kid that was in his class last year who Tony knew had dropped out. He seemed like bad news to Tony, but his mouth reacts before his mind. "Sure."

Fuck, what was he doing? This wasn't Tony. Tony was the good kid who stayed home and studied because he wanted to get into a good college. Not a kid who went out on dates with someone he could tell was a bad egg. And definitely not a kid who went to parties.

"Sweet, so pizza now? Then we can stop at your house s you can grab a jacket or whatever you need, then we head out to S'tma Ridge?"

"Uh, a-all right," Tony sutters shyly. What the fuck was he getting himself in to?

Notes

S'tma is Salish for Cow.

That is all.

xoxo
Dewey