Angelbaby’s Shane makes another appearance! I love that guy! *huggles him*
“What
Goes Around”
Nosedive barreled
down the stairs, jumping the last four steps and landing with a thud. He
snatched his teal, motorcycle jacket off the hanger, then
grabbed his helmet. He placed his hands on the sides of the doorway and leaned
inside the living room.
"I'm
going out. Be back later," he spurted before hurrying toward the door. He
grabbed his keys off the bureau with a jingle and mouthed a silent
"Score!" of triumph when his hand closed on the doorknob.
"Nosedive, shut that door, drop those keys, and get back
in here!" A teasing, warm voice called from the living room.
So
close, yet so far...With a strained whine, Nosedive tossed the keys to the
bureau and slumped back toward the living room. He leaned his left shoulder
against the entryway. "Yeah, big bro?"
The
E.W.R. immediately flickered off, and on the couch, Wildwing
and Canard turned to look at him. Shane drew his feet off the coffee table and
sat up straight in his chair. Subsequently and collectively, their beaks fell.
Under
his motorcycle jacket, Nosedive wore a simple dress shirt, open at the buttons,
while underneath was a teal tee shirt. The shirt hung loosely over his jeans.
His usual sneakers were replaced by black, shiny shoes.
Blinking,
Wildwing suppressed a laugh and put up one finger.
Nosedive
rolled his eyes and sighed, his breath blowing up his bangs. "Mall."
Two fingers.
"Twelve."
Wildwing furled a skeptical eyebrow.
"Eleven,"
Nosedive amended with a scowl.
Three fingers.
"With a friend! Bye!" He fled the room again.
"Nosedive!"
Halting
three feet from the door, Nosedive growled loudly. Sending the ceiling a why-me look, he groaned, "Yeah, Wing?"
"Get
back here. Now."
The
words weren't said with vigor or anger, yet Nosedive heard the edge of
seriousness that conveyed their meaning. Wildwing
wanted the whole story.
Darn
it.
Beak
forming a smirk, Nosedive decided to downplay it. He walked back into the
living room. "She's just a friend, Wildwing.
Nothing more, okay?"
Shane
leaned forward in his chair. "And have we met this...friend?"
Nosedive's
eyes narrowed. The Bronzeplume Brothers' Radar was
once more catching everything that he said, and yet, everything he wasn't. And
what was even more annoying was what Wildwing didn't
hear, Canard and/or Shane always did.
Like now.
Damn
it.
“Guys,
I’m nineteen.” Nosedive spread his arms wide in a diplomatic motion. “I’d be an
adult on Earth already.”
"And
Earth would right now be drafting you into wars. Sure you want to use that
as your arguing point?” Canard laughed.
Nosedive
averted his eyes and slumped against the wall.
“You know the rules, kiddo," Wildwing stated as a matter-of-fact. "One of us needs
to meet the person before you can go out with him/her."
"Do
you find joy in not just ruining my social life, but completely and totally
annihilating it?”
"Wait
a minute...." Shane paused, staring at Nosedive pensively. "She's a girl?"
Returning
a mock-thoughtful glare, Nosedive nodded slowly. "Yeah...uh, she's a girl. 'She' normally implies female."
"I
know that, but...you're going out with a friend...that's a...girl?"
"Yeah. So?"
"As
in...girlfriend?"
Nosedive
crossed his arms. "Why is it when I go out with a girl, it's automatically
assumed that she's my girlfriend? Maybe I just have a friend who’s a girl who
happens to want to see the recent Gruesome Goalie flick."
"Defensive,"
Canard commented, "and now look at that body language. Closing himself off."
Hands
dropping his sides with a slap, Nosedive rolled his eyes. "You guys are so
impossible!"
"Well,
are we wrong?" Wildwing asked with a broad
smile, leaning his elbow on the spine of the couch.
A
bitter, dark scowl contorted Nosedive's usual jovial face. "Fine!
I’ll call her. Maybe she hasn’t left yet." He stormed from the room.
Canard
and Shane exchanged a quick, amused smirk. "Girlfriend."
Wildwing shook his head as he heard his brother’s voice in
the hallway. He turned to his two brothers, a cringe upon his face.
“You
okay, little bro?” Shane asked, concerned.
“You
don’t think…I mean, he’s only...”
“Wing,
just spit it out,” Canard demanded.
Wildwing hesitated for a moment. “You don’t think
he’s…active…do you?”
Canard
shrugged. "In dating? Obviously."
“No,
not like that..."
“Active,
how?” inquired Shane as he situated himself on the edge of his seat.
Wildwing’s cheeks reddened. “…Sexually,” he
whispered.
“Oh,
come on! He’s just a…” Shane’s words trailed to nothing, and he grabbed the
soda can off the coffee table. He took a long swig.
“I
mean, I don’t know how much Harper talked to him about this sort of stuff,” Wildwing ranted and spread his wings. “And Nosedive could
have…done it already, and then this could all be moot.”
“On
Earth he wasn’t very shy with Mallory,” Canard recalled with a small, lopsided
smile.
Shane put down his
empty soda can and took a deep, resigned breath. “Well, even if he has, Wing,
we really should…you know, refresh his…thinking. A kid his age shouldn’t be
doing that sort of thing. He’s not ready.”
“How do we know
that?” Wildwing countered. “Who’s to say he’s ready
or not?”
Shane
glowered at his brother. “Okay, then. Consider this: He’s your
responsibility. Unless he all of a sudden ages two years, graduates school
early, and gets a job the second he snatches that diploma, who you do think is
going to be paying for that hatchling?”
“NOSEDIVE! GET IN HERE!” Wildwing’s
voice shrilled through the house.
“Gotta go….yeah, five minutes…bye.”
A beep sounded, and the cordless phone clunked back into its holder. Footsteps
stamped in the hallway, and Nosedive appeared in the doorway a moment later.
“She’s on her way, Wing. All right? What’s the problemo ahora?”
“Ah,
Nosedive…” The white mallard cleared the coffee table with a sweep of his hand, not even acknowledging Shane’s can when it clamored
onto the floor, and beckoned the teen over. “Why don’t you take a seat?”
“Wing,
she’s gonna be here any moment. Can’t it wait until—”
“You
either sit, Nosedive, or you don’t go. Simple as that.”
“Fine,”
the teen growled through clenched teeth and trotted grudgingly around the couch
to sit on the table. “What’s with you tonight, anyway? Why are you so ridged?”
Wildwing sighed loudly and met Nosedive’s eyes gravely.
Yet, a twinkle of affection and nervousness was still evident. Nosedive
squirmed a little under the glare, gripping the sides of the table next to his
knees.
“Wing…you
okay?”
“Dive,”
Wildwing began shakily, “uh…what’s her name?”
“…
“
Nosedive
eyed his brother suspiciously. “Madison Verobeakay.”
Wildwing nodded before swallowing nervously and
spluttering, “Have you and Madison…or you and any other girl for that
matter…you know…”
"Do
you even know?" Nosedive asked with a furled eyebrow.
Canard
shook his head and spouted uncouthly, “Let’s not hit the puck around. Kid, are
you a virgin or not?”
Nosedive’s
face paled ten shades. “W—W—W—What?”
“Look,
sorry to be blunt, but we need to know.”
Nosedive
rubbed his face suddenly, then looked up at the three older drakes “H—How the
hell is that any of your business?”
“Well,
as your legal guardian, Wildwing—”
“First
off, whether I am or not doesn’t have to do with legal guardianship, and
secondly, even if Wildwing had a stake in…in…this,
how did it become a group discussion? My life and my…stuff is
off-limits—”
“Kiddo,
we all care about you, okay?” Shane reached over to place a hand on Nosedive’s
shoulder, but the teen flinched away. “We just want to make sure that you’re
safe, and—”
"Don't
have sex. Message received." He shot to his feet.
"It's
not that easy, Nosedive!"
"Oh,
yes it is! I can take care of myself, thanks! I don’t need to be told what to
do in that...way.”
As
he took a step forward, Canard stood, blocking off his path. “Kid, hold on a
second. We just want to talk.”
"Talk? You want to talk about this?"
Nosedive retorted bitterly. He sent Canard a sardonic smile. "Okay,
Canard. Let's talk. When was the last time you had sex, huh?"
Canard
opened his beak...and froze. Rubbing the back of his neck, the older mallard
sunk to the couch. "He's all yours, Wildwing."
Nosedive
hurried around the back of the couch, only for the back of his jacket to be
snatched and tugged hard, hampering his escape. This was not his night.
"Nosedive,
wait."
"What
do you want from me, Wildwing?" the blonde teen
whined.
"Seriously?"
the older brother asked when Nosedive looked back at him exasperatingly.
"You really want to know what I want? If I
had my druthers, you'd be locked in your room with a sign on the door that
reads, 'No Girls Allowed.' "
By
the expression on Wildwing's face, Nosedive knew
retorting to that harshly honest statement would probably dig his social grave
even deeper.
"However,"
Wildwing continued, shaking his head, "I know
that's unrealistic. You're right. You are becoming an adult,
and dating or whatever it is you've done is the beginning of that."
“And
what do you think I've done?" Nosedive blurted. He tore his jacket from Wildwing's grip. "You think—"
"I
think you’re a kid who has experienced a lot in life and might have been
exposed to certain activities that a hatchling shouldn't ever be."
"I'm
not a wild hatchling, Wing!"
"I
didn't say that." Wildwing sighed, coming around
the couch and laying a hand upon the teen's shoulder. He offered Nosedive a
weary smile. “Look, I know that this is uncomfortable and talking about your
past is at times...difficult. But I also know that this is important, Nosedive.
All I’m asking is that you wait until you’re in love—"
A
cocky smirk appeared on Nosedive's face. "So, if I'm in love with Madison,
then we—"
"—AND," Wildwing admonished with a slightly raised voice,
"you're in a position where you can care for a hatchling emotionally,
physically, spiritually, and, of course, monetarily.” He smiled down at his
brother affectionately. "Okay?"
Nosedive tapped the
toe of his shoe on the floor and grumbled, "Okay." He looked up at
his brother with a wicked grin that Wildwing didn't
like very much. Nosedive swept the other two older drakes into the conversation
with one question. “So...have you guys ever had sex?”
Wildwing’s eyes widened, and his calm, loving smile shifted to one of
horror. A clamor of nervous chatter filled the room.
“Where does that
“So,
Gruesome Goalie, huh? Taking the
girl to see a movie where she’ll cling to you all night?”
"Going
somewhere to eat? Have you picked a place yet?"
The doorbell rang,
and Shane leapt from his seat swifter than usual. "Let's meet this chick,
huh?"
Nosedive noticed
with a self-atoning nod. "Just what I thought."
As Canard and Shane
headed out into the hallway, Nosedive allowed Wildwing
to drape an arm around his shoulders and lead him toward the door. Gripping Wildwing's shirt, Nosedive stopped him just before the
hallway.
"Look, uh,
there's something you should know."
Instantaneously, a
look of worry washed over Wildwing's features.
"What?"
Nosedive took a deep
breath, letting it out reservedly. "Dad, uh, gave me this talk when I went
out with my first girlfriend five years ago."
"What!" screeched
Wildwing.
"Then why didn't you just—"
A snort sounded from
Nosedive's beak as he grabbed his helmet off the ground. "To be honest
with you, I wanted to see the look on your face when I asked you about
sex." He smiled to himself at the expression on Wildwing's
face. "Yeah, it's kinda like that, though more
frightened, but I have to be honest with you. Canard's was the best!" His
voice carried as he walked into the hallway. "Seriously, it was a riot! I
didn't think I was going to be able to hold it in."
Canard crossed his
arms and eyed the teen warily. “My what was the
best?"
Nosedive just
clasped him on the shoulder as he passed. “
"Nosedive, you
have nothing to worry about," Shane promised as he opened the front door.
"We were all teenagers....once."
The three older
drakes froze.
On the porch stood a
teenage girl, relatively Nosedive's age, with long, red hair that curled about
her face and laid gently on her shoulders. Dark blue
eyes sparkled at the four drakes like the night sky. Her peasant-girl shirt cut
just before her chest and just above her naval hole, while the miniskirt she
wore started just below the naval hole and accented her long legs by stopping
at mid-thigh. She sent Nosedive a tentative smile.
Nosedive rolled his
eyes and walked past the stunned drakes and toward the girl. "Hey,
Madi. Don't mind them. I think you've given
these old geezers heart attacks—"
"No!" Wildwing shouted just as Nosedive reached her, and the
older brother lurched, grabbing Nosedive by the collar of his jacket. He
wrenched the teen back inside the house and pushed him toward the stairs.
"Go home and
find the other half of your dress!" Shane screamed at the girl before
slamming shut the door. He huffed twice, nodding toward Canard. "Stars. Did that girl's parents even look at her before
she left?"
Canard
ripped open the door and yelled madly,
"And while you're at it, find the other half of that shirt, too!" He
shut the door. "You know, I don't think so."
Nosedive looked at
the shocked and bewildered expressions of his roommates and shrugged. "So,
I guess it's pizza, huh? Or do you guys want to see Gruesome
Goalie?" He pulled off his jacket and hung it and his helmet up.
Wildwing blinked as his younger brother ascended the stairs.
"Aren't you mad?"
"Mad?" Nosedive
questioned innocently and turned. "Why would I be mad?"
"Because
we just ruined your date."
"Ah, I should
have seen it coming, Wild. What goes around comes around, y' know?" He
shrugged again and tugged off his dress shirt.
Wildwing was still confused and said so.
Nosedive
smirked. "I'm normally the one getting the door slammed in my face."
THE END