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 Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 9:44 pm
Paris kept a careful eye on him, though he didn't catch the lie about the video games. It wasn't a very important lie anyway. Besides, if it had been true, he wouldn't be surprised. The Gallos seemed to have the money to spend on things like PS3s and such whenever one of their kids so much as lost a baby tooth. It would have been disgusting if they'd been complete jackasses, but Mr. and Mrs. Gallo were so nice and welcoming it was hard to find anything they did anything but completely acceptable.
They were such decent people. He was shocked the money hadn't gone to their heads.
"Steady?" he asked, laughing lightly. "Who says they're 'going steady' with anyone anymore? But, yeah, we're going out. He asked me to be his girlfriend while we were at camp. We go on dates all the time," he openly shared, wondering how much it would take to gross Peter out. "He takes me out to nice restaurants, we go out on your parents' boat, we go to movies and make out in the theater, we go to his apartment and make out on the couch. It's great. I suppose I'll be coming to his birthday party. He didn't mention it, but I don't see why I wouldn't be invited."
A bit arrogant? Maybe. But at this point he'd be shocked if Chris didn't invite him to things like that. They saw one another at least four times a week, if not every day. He wondered if that was a bit too much for a friendship that was only reaching its fourth month and a relationship its second, but they had fun together, and it wasn't like they were professing undying love for one another and planning to get married, so he didn't see anything too terribly wrong with it.
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Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2011 10:36 pm
Decent people, huh? They tried to be, but they had their own share of problems.
Peter shrugged when Paris laughed at his terminology. At least he'd gotten it in the right context. He didn't like Paris's attitude, though. It was starting to make him feel like Paris thought he was better than him. No matter, he would have the upper hand soon enough.
"Oh... So you're his girlfriend? Did Chris agree to that?" he wondered, grinning slyly at his older brother's date. "That's funny. I noticed all through dinner he was referring to you as a girl. Is he in on this too, or is he really that stupid? Or are you just that, uh, clever?" he goaded, his eyebrows lifting and falling at the teasing suggestion of how clever Paris really was.
That's what happened when you got too arrogant. Things would start to slip out of control.
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 5:46 pm
Paris froze instantly, and though he knew any change in his demeanor would give Peter all the information he needed, he couldn't prevent the momentary widening of his eyes. What the hell...?
"I don't know what you mean," he said, rather calmly -- or so he thought -- considering he'd just been cornered. He forced a neutral expression, and actually managed a laugh, as if Peter had just told him a very funny joke. "Of course I'm his girlfriend. I just told you he asked me at camp. In a few weeks we'll have been dating for two whole months."
Inside, he was panicking. Peter didn't looked especially fooled, but Paris was sure that if Peter knew for certain, he would have just come out and said so instead of playing with him like this. What a conniving little brat.
"If this is another one of your little jokes, you can stop right now. I know Chris isn't dating his best friend, like you tried to tell me. I'm on to you, Peter. You just like a laugh, don't you? You should probably be careful with that. Pull a fast one on people too many times and they'll stop believing you."
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 5:54 pm
Oh, this was no joke, as much as Paris was wanting it to be one. Sorry, precious, but the gig was up.
Peter gave him an unimpressed look as he tried to cover his tracks, shaking his head and sticking his hands into his pants pockets in a casual stance. He knew he had Paris cornered... now he just had to decide what he wanted from him.
"Does Chris know you're a boy?" he asked, not bothering to whisper. After living almost his whole life in the house he knew where he could stand and speak normally and not have to worry about people overhearing. But Paris didn't and for all he knew, his voice would carry from one room to the next and Chris would be running out in a matter of seconds. Not that it really mattered how he reacted, of course. It was just habit.
"That's pretty clever, pretending you're a girl like that. How many people do you have convinced? That's why you were in that special cabin at camp, isn't it? You were supposed to be one of my counselors, but they changed you at the last minute."
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 6:14 pm
How the hell had this happened?! Discovered! By a ten year old!
He laughed again, though instead of sounding confident and amused, it came out sounding a bit awkward. He glanced around the room quickly, hoping Chris or his parents wouldn't enter the living room to investigate, but it seemed as if Mr. Gallo was still busy with his very important phone call, and neither Chris nor Mrs. Gallo came out from the kitchen.
But he couldn't be sure how much longer that would last.
He dropped his act, his expression falling and his smile turning into a frown. "Is that how you found out?" he asked, and he could only be thankful there hadn't been any other suspicious persons at camp. "You're a smart kid. It figures you'd figure it out before your brother."
Not that Chris was dumb, just deluded. Paris was beginning to feel bad for it.
"If you tell him, Peter, so help me-" he began, and quickly cut himself off. No, no, that wasn't the way to go about this. He couldn't threaten Peter -- one, because any threat he could possibly make would be empty; and two, because that was a sure way of sending Peter straight to Chris or his parents.
Thus, he smoothed his expression back out and asked, "What'll it take to keep you quiet?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 6:57 pm
Of course he was smart and of course that was how he found out! It didn't take a genius to realize that Paris wasn't all he pretended to be. Actually, he hadn't been one hundred percent sure, but now that Paris was panicking, he was glad he guessed right.
Peter sneered at Paris when he started with his threat and then cut himself off before changing to a different tactic. What would it take? Now, that was more like it.
"Hmm... Five hundred dollars," he said flatly, a wicked grin on his face. He supposed that would be enough to let this charade continue for a while longer. If Paris ever did something to make him angry then he could just go and tell Chris that he'd been fooled this entire time. Laugh in his face. The works.
What did he need with five hundred dollars? Nothing really. Just more to save for when he was finally old enough to travel the world on his own. He was starting early so by the time he was eighteen he'll have enough to cover however long he pleased.
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2011 9:37 pm
Wait, Peter was sneering at him?! Who did he think he was?!
"Five hundred dollars?!" he exclaimed rather loudly, hushing himself as quickly as he could and looking around again to make sure his raised voice hadn't sent anyone running. When the coast remained clear, he lowered his voice to repeat, "Five hundred dollars? What makes you think I have that kind of money??"
Chris had clearly not spoken with Peter about his living situation. Not that he thought it was any of his business. Or that Chris would talk to Peter about anything important at all...
He paused to consider the situation. The credit card he had through his mother was limited at five-hundred dollars, and he wasn't about to part with it so easily. Of course, there was the cash his mother sent him every month, in cards full of "How are you, baby? I hope you're behaving yourself. If you come to New York blah blah blah," but that was only a hundred dollars every thirty days.
"I... can give you a hundred a month," he offered, frowning deeply as he did so. Blackmailed again... by a ten year old. "Though I don't see what you plan on doing with that sort of money... and if you say a word to Chris or your parents, you won't see a dime..."
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 3:38 pm
Hey, he could sneer all he wanted when it was so obvious that he'd cornered Paris. And so easily, too.
Peter raised his eyebrows in response to Paris's fussing about why he thought he even had that much. It wasn't really his place for negotiation, was it? He could have said a thousand, or five thousand. But as amusing as it was to see Chris get dragged around by a guy he thought was a girl, he questioned how much Paris would think his brother was worth before saying 'no' and dropping the act. Then he wouldn't have gotten anything.
But it was good to know that stringing Chris along like what Paris was doing was worth at least five hundred dollars.
"Not a word from me," he said with a grin, holding out his hand. "I'll be needing the first installment, though. How much do you have with you? I can hold onto credit cards if that'll give you an incentive to pay me what you owe," he offered, thinking he was being nice and doing Paris a favor by offering him that choice.
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 3:48 pm
"I think Chris not finding out is incentive enough, thank you very much," Paris said, opening his purse to begin digging around in it for his wallet. He found it after a few moments, and opened it to take out what money he had.
"I only have a fifty, but my mom should be sending more this week and I can try to get a little more from my dad, so I should be able to give you another hundred and fifty by Chris's birthday," he said, handing the crisp bill over.
This was utterly humiliating. He wasn't even thinking about this as a testament to Chris's worth -- he couldn't really put a price on something like that. The price of silence, however, could never come too cheap. He knew he wouldn't be able to keep this going forever. There was no way it would work out. One day, Chris was either going to accidentally discover what he was or figure it out on his own, as Peter had. But Paris was becoming desperate to keep that from happening, pushing back the inevitable end just a little longer. He needed Chris, needed that connection with Valhalla, or he'd end up going right back to the way things were before.
"I swear, Peter," he said, lowering his voice. He could hear other voices now, drawing closer to the living room, and he didn't want to be heard. "I swear if you so much as hint at what you know, you can kiss all this money goodbye. And put that away, quick. I don't want anyone seeing it."
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 4:00 pm
Peter grinned and took the cash that was handed to him, quickly putting it into his pocket so he could take it up to his room in a bit. "You've got it, sister."
He could totally keep Paris's secret. At least until he got his five hundred dollars. And then it would be a matter of how he felt about the whole situation.
———————————————————————
"Hey, sorry about that taking so long," Chris said as he made his way out into the living room where Paris had been waiting, although he frowned at his brother who looked up at him with a grin, his hands buried into his pockets.
"What?" he frowned at the ten-year-old who responded with a shrug and made his way from the room. Chris watched him leave before turning back to Paris with a sympathetic frown. "Did he bother you? I can have my parents talk to him... I'm sorry about leaving you like that." Dishes had to be done and of course his mom went on and on about her stories of when she was dating.
Chris frowned a little more in concern as he approached Paris, reaching out to touch her arm. "But really... are you okay...? You look out of it a little..." He swore if that little brat had done anything to upset her, he was going to kick his butt.
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Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 7:14 pm
Paris forced a smile when Chris came back into the room, his eyes flicking over to Peter every once in a while to make sure he was leaving and not sticking around to get anything more to blackmail him with. He felt stupid for allowing a ten-year-old to get the best of him, but he didn't see what else he was supposed to do except come clean, and he didn't exactly like the idea of doing that at all, much less in Chris's house with his parents there as witnesses.
"I'm fine," he said, and he was happy when his voice came out sounding steady and calm. "Peter and I were just talking about his summer since camp. Well, I was talking and he was grumbling, but you know how he is better than I do, so..."
He lifted his arms to lay them over Chris's shoulders once he was close enough, keeping his expression open and cheerful. "Don't worry. I'm getting along with your family just fine. I think they like me," he commented, his smile growing a little wider. He was at least relieved that Chris's parents didn't seem to have a problem with him as the person they thought he was.
And, really, the only thing he wasn't being real about was the girl issue. Everything else was entirely him...
Leaning up, Paris pressed his lips to Chris's mouth, keeping the kiss chaste since Mr. and Mrs. Gallo could walk in at any moment, but wanting the closeness, the reassurance that Chris was there and wanted him and thought he was something special. He wasn't sure what he liked best about their boyfriend/girlfriend arrangement, but he didn't want to lose a single part of it.
His life was finally settling down. Everything was becoming a little more calm. He couldn't lose that. Not now.
Not yet.
It was worth five-hundred dollars -- it was worth more -- to keep things as they were now.
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