Operation Sal | Sally Face x Travis Phelps

13

    Travis wanted to kiss him.

   As much as he tried to bury his strangling feelings, he couldn't understand why loving a boy as a boy was sinful in the first place, especially when the boy in question was as sweet and warm and special as Sal Fisher.

   Travis didn't know what was so wrong about liking him, about liking him in the way that boys were meant to like girls.

   Hell, all he did understand was how badly he wanted to kiss any mouth Sal kept hidden under that prosthetic of his, no matter what it looked like, no matter what it felt like. He wanted to kiss him until all of his troubles faded away, until the two of them were all that was left.

   But he couldn't do that, not ever. He knew that he couldn't, no matter how badly he wanted to.

   Sal's sweet, heartfelt Valentine's day note only made it worse.

Travis sat cross-legged on his bed on Wednesday morning, reading over the words carefully, again and again, and again until his silent tears blocked his vision.

Dear Travis,

I actually put together your baggie days ago. Your note is a little different from everyone else's too. I hope you don't mind :)
I wanted to say this stuff to you, but I thought you'd probably be uncomfortable if I said it to your face. I'm really glad to have you around. I mean that. Sometimes, I think that you might think I don't, but I really do. I can tell you're still worried about all that stuff that happened in the past. I just want you to know that it doesn't define you. I know you're not evil, so don't get so stressed over trying to prove it, okay?
I promise that you can relax and be yourself around me, always, and that takes time, obviously, but it's important that you know that the version of you that you're ashamed of, the one you try to hide away is the best version of yourself, and I'm glad that I get to see more of it these days. I hope I can be someone you grow to trust.

Yours, Sally Face.

Travis was crying like a big baby and he couldn't even pin down a reason for it.

Sal really did like him a lot, and for reasons other than pity. He understood him better than Travis had anticipated.

He should have seen it coming. Sal was smart, really smart, even if he wasn't labeled the "group genius" or whatever. That title went to Todd.

Sal was really something else. It brought blubbering tears to Travis's dark eyes, and he cried and cried and cried with a hand clasped over his mouth for what must have been an hour before it was time to get ready for school.

But that wasn't the only great thing about Sal. No, there was so much more. He was brave and kind and caring and selfless and Travis could go on and on about it forever.

Sal liked the vulnerable part of Travis that he was desperate to cover up, the part of himself that Travis hated most.

He couldn't believe it.

Travis went to school desperately wanting to fix things with Larry, to show more of himself to Sal, to be himself because he knew it was good for him and that it would make that beautiful blue-haired boy happy.

The problem: Sal was nowhere to be found.

He had to walk to school that morning because his father was going to pick him up after his classes so he could make it to choir rehearsal on time.

Travis's newly warmed heart felt heavy when the bell rang to mark the beginning of Algebra class, and his crush wasn't seated beside him, smiling with his eyes, stabbing holes into erasers absentmindedly.