The Cure for A Bad Day

Dust danced in the light of the mid-afternoon sun, shifting in the beam that breached the curtain. A lace pattern from the cloth barrier's edges passed in stripes across the back of the young man who sat across the small room, gazing into a large mirror in front of him with the intensity of a scryer.

"Gillie!" he cried at last, pouting as he looked at the array of colorful bits of fabric, elastic and beadwork on the vanity before him, holding two of them up next to one another and shaking his head. "Hey, Gillie!"

Across the room, a brunette head slowly raised itself from the world within a book, looking over at the one who called. "Yes?"

"Which one do you like better?" Genya said, brandishing the two barrettes. "The purple one or the green one?"

Gilles settled his bookmark in place, looking over at his friend, who was wearing a lavender Hello Kitty shirt and pink short shorts, with his waist length hair in two glitter-gelled ponytails. "With this outfit you wear…I think it is the purple one that is matching, no?"

"Well, green matches purple too," Genya said, walking over closer to him. "I like the purple too but they're little flowers, see? Tulips, and there's no tulips in the shirt or anything. I don't want it to be too busy."

"You are so much worrying," he said, almost crossly, shaking his head. "If you are liking to wear the tulip flowers, no one will be caring."

Genya pouted a little, quickly sliding the purple barrettes into his hair before sitting down abruptly over his lap, leaning the vast majority of his weight on the armrests of Gilles's wheelchair and smiling down at him with the naïve breeziness of a small child. "What's wrong, Gillie?"

"Nothing,"  Gilles said quickly, almost snappishly, before looking down and away. "I…I just don't feel good. My back hurts."

Genya frowned a little, leaning down to give him a supportive hug. "Let's go over your parents's house, then," he said. "Your mom can usually make you feel better."

"Can't," Gilles said shortly, stiffening his body involuntarily as he was hugged.

Genya quirked his brow. "Why not? Is something wrong?"

"They're in Vancouver, visiting my aunt and uncle," he explained. "They are gone two weeks."

"Awww, poor Gillie," Genya said, seemingly oblivious to Gilles's sigh at the repeated use of the nickname. "Well…no point in sitting around being sad, then, right? Won't make you feel better – but I bet ice cream will!"

Gilles frowned. "I don't feel like going out," he sighed. "You can bring me some if you want, I guess. I'm going to stay here."

Genya got up from his perch on the chair, moving to stand beside it. "You know, I have conducted deep scientific  studies, and have concluded that you will not, in fact, burst into flames in the sunlight," he said earnestly.

"I did not say I would," Gilles said moodily. "I just-"

"-Want to sit in the apartment and be a big mope, I know, I know," Genya said, walking around the wheelchair. "Not gonna let you, though. Time to go have a little outing."

Gilles whimpered, moving to protest as Genya began to push him toward the door, but then sagged a little. He knew that his friend wouldn't be dissuaded now, no matter what he said. "Can we at the least be taking books back to the library?" he asked. "If we must to go out in this way…."

Genya nodded quickly, going over to his friend's bedside and collecting a small pile of books from under the nightstand. "All set," he said.

"You don't know those are all the books," Gilles said, a little petulantly. "I could have more –"

"You are nothing if not organized, Gilliepants," Genya said with a soft giggle, tucking the bag of books into the pocket on the back of the wheelchair. "I know just where you keep them."

He sighed as he was pushed out of the apartment and towards the elevator, blinking in the bright light of the hallway. "I am not…so much predictable," he said, cheeks heating.

"It's cute," Genya assured him, backing into the elevator and pulling Gilles in, parking him in front of himself before looking down at him with a teasing smile. "Part of what I love about you."

Gilles's face reddened, and he looked down, wincing as the motion sent a shock of pain down his spine and made him gasp softly. "N-nice day out, it seems," he said, as the elevator doors opened and the view through the glass walls of the apartment building's lobby was revealed to them.

"That's why I had to get you away from those dusty curtains, and that stuffy apartment," he said, pushing him out of the front door and onto the sidewalk. "And anyway, with what we pay for rent, we have to take the advantages we can – and living 100 yards from a Baskin Robbins is one of those."

Gilles managed a laugh, the happy sound ending with a whimper as another spasm of pain and electric numbness wrenched through his back and down his legs. "Y-yes…"

"Gillie, are you okay?" Genya asked briefly, as he let go of the chair for a moment and propped open the door of the ice cream shop.

"Nothing…nothing different at least," he said with a frown. "Same stuff it always is."

"Do you feel well enough to push yourself inside?" he asked, looking around for something to stick in front of the door to hold it open.

"Yes, do not worry yourself so about this," Gilles grumbled, pushing himself through the opened door and, without thinking much about, positioning himself off to the side, out of anyone's way, though, as he looked up, he could see they were the only ones in the store.

The purple-haired young lady behind the counter looked up from swabbing the counter and grinned at the sight of Genya approaching. "Hey there!"

"Yay! It's Annie!"  he said, smiling back at her, bouncing on his heels.  "How's my favorite milkshake lady?"

"I'm good," she said, moving towards the strawberry ice cream. "Your usual?"

"Yep…strawberry for me, and chocolate for Gillie," he said, leaning on the grey counter near the cash register.

"Oh…oh, hey, Gilles, I didn't see you there," she said, as she scooped pink and red ice cream into the blender carafe.

"Hello," he said, smiling slightly as he watched Genya's unconscious bouncing and little-kid squirming. "Has it been so slow all this day? I am surprised, with this goodness of weather."

"It just cleared out, actually," she said, pouring milk into the carafe around the ice cream. "I'm all by myself here this afternoon – three people called out 'sick,' by which I mean they're at the beach," she said, rolling her eyes. "And it backed up really bad behind this one old guy, who paid for a single cone with pennies."

Genya sputtered, beginning to giggle. "Pennies? Like, all pennies?"

"149 of them, no fooling," she said, fitting the carafe back into the blender and starting it whirring.

"Well…I guess it's legal tender," Genya said with a shrug as the noise of the blender subsided. "Any room left in the register for any other change?"

"Barely," she said, pouring the strawberry shake and then preparing a clean carafe to blend up Gilles's shake. "So, how's school?"

"Great!" Genya exclaimed, his words spilling forth quickly, almost overexcitedly. "Making clothes, drawing and doing an internship shadowing thing. Almost don't want it to end but I do want to get started on being a fashion superstar, so I guess it has to."

Annie grinned. "You're so totally going to be," she said, finishing up the chocolate shake and putting them both into a corrugated  cardboard drink holder and then onto the counter by the register. "You rock, totally."

Genya dug in his wallet quickly, pulling out a five and a few ones. "And I even have something bigger than pennies."

"Good work," Annie said, handing him his change. "Enjoy! Come back soon, and you too, Gilles!"

"We will," Genya promised, placing the shakes in Gilles's lap before pushing him out of the shop and around the corner, a gentle, cooling breeze swirling around them both as he moved them through a narrow gate into a small playground area, parking his friend next to a bench and sitting down. "Ahh, strawberry glee," he said with delight, plucking his shake from the holder.

Gilles smiled slightly, almost secretly, picking up his shake and drinking a little. "Is it truly gleeful?"

"Gleeful and splendiferous," Genya said with a nod, his face lighting up as he looked at his friend. "Is that a smile I detect?"

Gilles looked away, his cheeks coloring pink. "No comment," he said, drinking more milkshake.

"Nope, you have to comment," he said, getting up from the bench and scrambling over to the other side of him, talking quickly and excitedly. "You're smiling and that means you're happy and that means the milkshake worked and that means I do rock, just like Annie said!"

"You rock in little amounts," he teased, looking up at him, feeling a bit more relaxed. "Only at a safe level. Not excessive, this rocking, no?"

"I can deal with safe rocking," Genya said, kneeling next to the chair and leaning his head on the armrest. "Next time, don't fight with me when I try to cheer you up, okay?"

"I will…be trying," he said, petting his friend's soft, glittery hair, finding that the blush that rose to his cheeks didn't seem so bad as another breeze slipped around them both, cooling the heat there as the taste of chocolate and cream passed his lips and eased his mind a little bit with each passing sip.