Black and White Ch. 02

This story is a figment of my imagination. It has been dancing in my mind for too long and I finally decided to write it down. Hope it serves as a good read.

*

Episode 2

"Steve." Aiden whispered to the sleeping form. "Hey buddy, get up."

Steve rolled towards one side and half opened his eyes to see who was disturbing him.

"Hey C'mon, let's play some tennis."

"What's the time?" Steve inquired groggily.

"It's 5:40."

"And it's Sunday morning right?"

"Yeah, so do you wanna play?"

Steve opened his eyes fully. Aiden was never one to get up early on Sundays. He shot up and sat vertical with a jerk.

"Ok, let's go!"

Aiden hurriedly got up and started to assemble his tennis gear. Yesterday he had returned back to the frat rooms after 1 O' clock and had hardly had four hours of sleep. Yet remembering Will and the kiss, he hardly felt tired. In fact he felt all pepped up and like a hot fudge sundae with nuts. The world seemed like an awesome place to live in. But Aiden reminded not to get his hopes up to high. "Will might never call me again, and it's not like I have any contact number of his." Aiden would have to try and keep his exuberance under control or severe disappointment could be heading his way.

Aiden looked towards Jason's side of the room. Jason was snoring slightly but his lips were shaped into a slight smile Seems like Jason had had a great time with Aditi too.

Three sets of tennis later an exhausted Steve called it a game and slumped down on the benches adjacent to the courts. Aiden was still prancing about not a bit debilitated. Steve had managed to beat him 2-1 but Aiden had almost beaten him in the last set losing 5-7. This was the farthest he had ever come in a tennis contest with Steve.

"So where did you suddenly get all this energy from?" Steve had a questioning look on his face.

"Don't know man." Aiden replied though he possessed some inkling where it all came from. It was the newness of discovering someone. The newness of being enamored by someone who was so out of league, but yet seemed very interested in you.

Aiden made his way towards where Steve had settled down, still swinging his racket and practicing his strokes till he too flopped down beside Steve.

"So how did it go yesterday night with Jason and that Indian chick and all?"

"Oh it went pretty well," Aiden replied still smiling at the events of the day before.

"Jason handled himself well with a girl around?"

"Yeah, although with a little help from me and Tinka, but I think he managed well on his own too."

Steve gazed at Aiden who knew that Steve already understood that there was more to tell about the previous day's events. Aiden cleared his throat.

"I sorta... um, met someone myself yesterday."

"Some guy?" Aiden was uncomfortable once more. What was it about Steve that could put him at unease so easily when it came to this topic. He was usually never unnerved about his sexuality when it came into light.

"Yeah, his name's Will Black. He's 27 years old." Aiden knew that this was all the information Steve would want from him. "And he's a social worker who runs a retirement home." Aiden quickly added the last bit as if it compensated for his apparently aberrant tastes in men.

"Cool." That was all Steve replied. Aiden surmised that since Steve knew he had slept in the frat the night before, he would reckon that this was something better off than a one night stand. Somehow Aiden felt like he had passed a test.

"I'll go get some water," Steve stated as he rose up and walked towards the filters. Aiden sort of wished that he could make Steve meet Will. He was sure that anyone would be impressed by his personable self and he would get to show him off a little or something like that. Will was such am awesome person. His face, his eyes, his body, his personality, his manner; his overall bearing. "I just hope I am not a charity case that he had decided to please for an evening or so," Aiden was trying to calm himself. He wished he could talk to Will again, but then stealing a glance at his watch he realized that Will most certainly would not be awake at 7:30 in the morning on a Sunday.

Just then his cell phone buzzed on the bench beside him. Aiden lifted the set not recognizing the number.

"Hello?"

"Yeah Hi," replied a voice from the other side. Aiden at once knew who it was.

"Will, is that you?"

"Yup, Will here."

"Shit! I was just thinking about you!"

"I know!" replied a cheeky voice from the other end.

"So you're awake so early on a Sunday morning?"

"Yeah, awake and thinking about you!" Aiden blushed thankful that Will would at least not be able to see his crimson face.

"Listen," Will stated, "Hey how about meeting up and going bowling or something?"

Aiden had hardly ever bowled in is life before. He knew he would probably find the sport interesting if someone would just push him a little into it.

"Bowling, er, yeah why not?"

"Cool, can I meet you at 8:30 at the same coffee shop then? We'll grab a bite to eat and then head towards the alleys. The bowling alley opens at 9 o' clock"

"Fine by me."

"Ok, meet you there then."

"Ok."

There was a pause on the other side before Will's voice stated, "I'm really looking forward to meeting you."

Aiden face was positively roseate by now, the smile on his face bigger wider had been in a long time.

"Bye." The phone clicked. Aiden kissed his phone and leaped up in the air with joy screaming "Yesssss!"

An amused Steve was staring at the bouncing form of Aiden. Aiden immediately stopped hopping when he saw Steve staring at him.

"Err, that was Will, the guy I told you about."

"I guessed as much." Steve replied grinning. "C'mon, let's get back to the room." Aiden followed Steve out of the courts.

"And stop grinning so much. You're beaming like a house on fire!"

~~~

Old wooden floor boards creaked as a large Doberman padded across the room and settled down for a nap. It knew its master would not be back for quite some time from now. It shut its eyes and slowly drifted off into doggie dreamland. Suddenly its ears twitched as something awakened it from its vigilant slumber. The large canine opened its eyes and suddenly shot up. It stared into the atmosphere before it and let out a guttural noise. The air ahead of it started to slowly deform and turned turbid. The turbidity got more and more intense until it exploded in white fumes. Another powerful perpetual had just entered the material plane.

White's unclothed human form emerged from the white vapors. White looked down at his nude form. He would need to have garments to mingle with the humans and find the alchemist. Then he looked around at his surroundings.

Had that much changed since he had last been here? The last time he was here, these coordinates comprised of a deserted location. Now he was apparently in someone's home as he looked down at his canine friend growling at him, its mouth showing pointed white teeth. Suddenly the animal balked and fled yelping.

White smiled and spread out both his arms in a crucifixion pose and spoke out. "Assorted Ability 4; Fabric Habiliment."

Rings of white and azure lights appeared around both his wrists. The rings moved towards each other, expanding and contracting in shape as they hovered above the muscles beneath them, leaving cloth in their wake. They reached till his biceps on either side and then suddenly frittered away. White stared at the cloth that covered his alms halfway up to the biceps. He had just entered the material plane and it would be some time before his abilities recovered. He firmly held his alms perpendicular to his body, concentrated within himself and repeated, "Assorted Ability 4; Fabric habiliment."

The rings of light appeared again and started their motion along his alms. They covered the muscles in his alms and moved towards the torso and neck, slowly floating over the ridges and contours on his abdomen and the taut and varied muscles on his back leaving a trail of cloth along. They moved across his nether regions and then to the doughty pillars that were his legs. Completing the entire path along his impressive frame, they reached his ankles, and then slowly dissipated, their task complete.

White now had to search for the alchemist. He brought his palms together in front of his chest, holding them about a quarter feet apart. "Ability of the Light 84; Quarry Seek." A narrow beam of laser-like white light emerged from his chest and pointed towards the South West, continuing through the walls of the house. This light would lead him to the Alchemist. White walked over to the door and exited the apartment. He wondered what he would say to the alchemist once he met him.

~~~

Aiden was happy. Happier than he had been in a long time. He sat grinning opposite Will who was grinning back at him. Aiden had gone bowling with Will, almost a first for Aiden; he had never formally bowled in his life before, just accompanied friends who bowled and Will had given him a time to remember. The two sat outside the bowling lanes, Aiden holding his arm which seemed to be burning now that he had given it so much strain; tennis in the morning and now this.

"What? Why are you smiling?" inquired Will.

"What me? And what about you? You're grinning too!"

"Well, let's just say I found your bowling abilities exceptional!" Will was referring to Aiden's bowling 'techniques', and in particular to the time when he had tried to get Aiden to improve his stance. Aiden, totally enraptured in the 'I-am-gonna-knock-all-those-pins-down-with-this-strike' mood had stepped forward and swung the bowling ball with force. The next moment Aiden slipped and crashed down to the floor beneath skidding to where the ball ought to have gone while the ball went flying two lanes to the left. Fortunately no one was hurt, except Aiden's pride that is. Will soon resolved his pride issues with a smile.

Aiden showed his tongue to Will and stated with a mock frown on his face, "If you're referring to the incident where I goofed up and slipped, it's not my fault that they tell you to take of your shoes outside and play only in your socks."

"They never told you to wear your socks and play! You should have taken them off too!" Will was guffawing by the time he finished. Aiden glared at him angrily.

"Yeah yeah, whatever!"

"Seriously! You should have seen yourself! I still don't understand how you ended up in the lane and not the ball!"

"Ok, ok, I get the idea."

Will continued laughing. Aiden was still staring at him thinking he looked so beautiful when he laughed. Then he decided the guy was so damn good-looking that he would look drop dead gorgeous even in a bloated fancy-dress frog rubber costume.

Will finally stopped laughing. "So, you wanna hit the video-game arcades?"

Aiden just looked at Will for a moment thinking wasn't this 27 year old dude a bit too old for video games?

"What, you think I'm too old for video games?" Black was reading Aiden's thoughts and had been doing it since morning when they met.

"No!" said Aiden forcefully surprising even himself. "Let' go to the arcades!"

At that moment Aiden's phone buzzed. He looked at the phone screen. It was Tinka. Aiden answered the call.

"Hey what's up?"

"Don't act all ignorant with me!" she yelled before he could get in one more word. "What happened with that Will dude yesterday night? I want all the minutest details."

"Hey, Tinks. Sorry, can't talk right now, will call you later." Aiden was eager to put down the phone. Tinka apparently had other plans.

"Can't talk? Omigod! You're still with him aren't you?"

"Not still," he stated looking at Will, thinking his cryptic way of talking would not allow Will to understand that he was being talked about. Little did he know otherwise.

"You met up with him again today?" an incredulous Tinka asked.

"Yes." Aiden answered, "Ok now bye, gotta go!"

"Wait you moron... did you or did you not sleep with him?"

"No!" Aiden replied haughtily. Will was still standing in front of him, patiently tapping his foot.

"Ok, go for now, but you better have time to tell me everything later!"

"Sure, bye!" Aiden clicked off the phone and looked apologetically at Will for keeping him waiting so long.

"It's the girl from yesterday, Tinka right?" Will enquired.

Aiden looked at him dumbfounded. "How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess!"

"Yeah it was her. She was asking about how things went between, err, with us yesterday." Aiden admitted sheepishly.

"And you never told her things were rocking?!" Will was looking at Aiden indignantly.

"Oops!"

"Well anyway, let's head to the arcade!"

Aiden followed Will wondering what the hell he had done to deserve such a person. He hoped it was real. That their friendship or relationship or whatever this was, was real. Then he tugged at his cargos to make himself comfortable. They were Steve's cargos. He had been exasperated in the morning after getting Will's call to meet up for bowling. "What the hell should I wear?" he had lamented. Bowling meant casuals and his favorite cargo's were in the wash. He had borrowed Steve's good pair but Steve was a size smaller than him. He was sure these cargos would leave marks and grooves along his waist.

Will on the other hand, Aiden observed, was dressed smartly in black denim cargos and a green turtleneck shirt. "He looks gorgeous" Aiden had thought many times. Even as Will had been bowling his turns and Aiden had wistfully admired his posterior. Apparently the girls in the neighboring lane had noticed him too, and were clapping and applauding whenever Will bowled. But they had all suddenly disappeared when Aiden had started finding them irritating and things were perfect after that.

50 minutes of frenzied video-gaming later, Will lead Aiden to a burger joint. The pair ordered their meals. Will haggled with Aiden for paying for his meal but Aiden declined it like always. The two settled down with their meals.

"So, what's the plan after this?" Will asked raising his eyebrows.

Aiden instantly thought about all the work he had lined up for the day. And he thought about how Will could just goof off like this when he must be having tonnes of work and all, but then he surmised that since it was a Sunday, he was probably relaxing and enjoying. Before Aiden could come up with an answer, Will interjected.

"I have some work to be done during the day, but I'm free in the evening. I would love for you to come and see the retirement home."

Aiden was pleased. He would have time for his academic duties as well. This guy was just too perfect.

"Ok, so what time should I come?"

"No, I'll pick you up around 6:30. That fine with you?"

"Won't that be a little too late in the evening or something?"

"No, no. It will be perfect. It's a retirement home; it's not like the people are in a hurry to go somewhere."

"Ok then, 6:30 is perfect."

"And we'll go someplace for dinner after that. And I will be paying for the both of us."

Aiden gestured at him helplessly but before he could say anything else Will interjected once again.

"We're just going for pizza cause I got free coupons!" Will held out a pair of coupons in his hand, rubbing them against one another.

"All right then." Aiden finally relented. "That means I have breakfast, lunch and dinner with you today!"

"Yup, and I am really sorry I can't spend any more time with you." Will smiled as he said this.

Inside, Black seethed at the amount of effort he had already put into this endeavor. He was surely fucking the alchemist tonight, and hopefully his mission would be complete.

~~~

Aiden looked at the address that Tinka had given him, The number on the building stated that it was the one she had asked him to go to, but where was the optician shop she had referred him to. All he saw was a shop with a small sign saying "Horoscopus. Fortune Telling." Aiden made a weird face thinking of the lack of taste with the jarring black and red colors used in the signboard and strained his eyes to read the finer print under the main title. 'Future predicted for lowest prices.'

Aiden looked around helplessly. This was certainly not the place to consult an optometrist. Was Tinka getting exacting revenge for the toothpaste biscuits prank by sending him to a bogus location? Just then he looked up. There it was; 'Optical Palace'. This was the place Tinka had asked him to visit. "Cheesy names around here," Aiden thought to himself.

Aiden had decided that he had had enough of his bespectacled look and would try wearing contact lenses for a while. "I can always revert back to my glasses if I don't find lenses any good," he had reasoned. Aiden climbed up the narrow spiral steps leading up to the shop and entered it. "Okay Aiden," he said to himself, "Time for a new you!"

8 feet below Aiden's feet, a petit Japanese lady was having great trouble entertaining a customer. The irate patron was annoyed as the fortune telling Japanese lady had been telling him to hold on for she was facing some psychic disturbances. After 10 minutes of petulant waiting, the customer stomped off cursing why he had ever come here in the first place. The Japanese lady was still trying to figure out what was wrong with the 12 sided dodecagon shape board she used to predict her patrons' fortunes. She knew she was not very good at fortune telling; she would never be as good as her mother had been at it. But right now something was wrong and she could hardly understand it. Suddenly she saw a vision in the crystal placed at the centre. A vision of a strapping young man who was the devil. And a vision of a boy who would be used to serve the devil's purposes.

Aiden's nearby presence had triggered this reaction though he and the Oriental lady would never know that. The fortune teller was witnessing the most vivid vision of her life. It worried her and made her sick to the stomach to look at the consequences of the devil's deed.

~~~

Aiden stole a glance at his watch as he reached the main entrance of his college. It was 6:26 PM. Will had said he would pick him up from the main gate. Aiden made his way towards the granite benched to settle down and wait.

Just then a black sleek car drove up and halted beside Aiden. Aiden raised his eye brows staring at the streamlined body of the car. Yup, it was a Lamborghini though Aiden had no idea which one. Who the hell was driving this beauty?

As if on cue, the door of the car disengaged from its position and rose up. Will sat in the driver's seat in a tight red T shirt that showed off his perfect body. He was wearing glares that made him look super hot to Aiden.

"So you wanna get in or not?" asked Will. Aiden's mouth was still agape.

Aiden finally composed himself. "You own this car?!"

"Yeah, I do, now just get your butt in here!"

Aiden stepped into the svelte vehicle and sat a little consciously into the leather seat. "Shit! Too much!" Aiden exclaimed, glancing all around at the design of the car. The dashboard, the seats, the glowing buttons. "I've never sat in anything like this before!"

Will took of his glares and winked at him. "Well now you have."

Aiden was still staring wide-eyed at everything. "Ok, buckle up buddy, and we'll head towards the Joe Black retirement home." Will changed the gears of the car and zoomed off.

Aiden was still thinking about telling all his friends about the car and what their reactions would be. Shit! this guy was probably loaded! Where the hell did he get all this money from?

"So you thinking, how a person like me who runs a retirement home, gets to own a car like this? Are you charging me of embezzlement of social funds in your mind?"

Aiden looked back at Will with a deer caught in the headlights expression.