Here are this week's prompts
"The whole thing was swept under the carpet." or have one character give another character the 'hairy eyeball' or use: display, note, local or "nothing to write home about." or use: First, morning, score
or "It's cold, but it's a dry cold!" or use a football term in the story or "He had all the manners of a surly bear" or use a hotel in your story or "peace be with you"
“Hey Tom, where are you?”
Ben balanced the cell phone against his ear while trying to navigate
through the holiday crowd at the mall.
He and Tom thought it was a good idea to wait until the Sunday after
Thanksgiving to venture out to shop. Boy,
were they ever wrong. While the
Lancaster Mall wasn’t as insane as on Black Friday, it was still wall to wall
people. They wisely decided to spend
their Friday snuggled together on the living room couch watching football and a
DVD afterward.
“I’m in front of JC Penney, right next to the Christmas
display.”
“Don’t mention that store’s name to me. I’m still pissed at
them for that stupid commercial.” Ben was referring to a commercial letting
people know they were open on Thanksgiving. It showed people gathered for Thanksgiving
singing that everyone should drop their dishes and grab their keys and go out
and shop, shop, shop right now. It
ticked Ben off to no end how greed had taken over the holidays so that basically
there were no holidays. At least Tom got
some holidays off. They were happy that
this year he had Thanksgiving off.
“I know, I’m sorry. Listen, just meet me in front of the
reindeer,” Tom told him. Ben had to laugh, what other time of the
year could you say that without it raising eyebrows. “We can have lunch at the food court.”
“Sure thing, but I’ll have to stop and tell Santa what a
naughty boy you’ve been this year.” Ben
was still juggling his phone and some shopping bags while traversing through
the throngs of people.
“Just this year?”
“Okay.” Ben laughed “Every year.”
“For some reason, I never get any lumps of coal, for being
naughty.”
“That’s ‘cause I tell Santa that you’re really a good boy
for everyone else and just naughty for me.”
Ben laughed.
Ben spotted the holiday display and waved at Tom, who was
standing next to a small corral where reindeer munchedon the bed of hay that
was scattered on the ground.
“I think I better hang up now. I spotted you.” Ben laughed when they stood side by side, cell
phones against their ears.
“Yeah, see ya, bye.”
Tom shut his IPhone off and Ben did the same. He was glad he got a good deal on both phones
from the service they’d chosen together.
“Let’s go find a place to sit down and eat.” They took off for the food court and had to
wait a few minutes for someone to get up.
They grabbed the first available table.
“Whew. Well, how was
your day dear?” Tom asked him after
they put their bags on the extra plastic chairs.
“Eh, nothing to write home about,” Ben admitted. “I think all this holiday shopping gets to me after a while. I’m glad tomorrow is Cyber Monday. I think I’ll finish the rest of my shopping there. All that’s left to put together are holiday cards.”
“What about the decorating?” Tom looked at Ben like a kid experiencing the
holidays for the first time.
“Well, we already have the Chanukah decorations up. It was so early this year.” Ben was amazed at the historic event—Thanksgiving
and Chanukah occurring at the same time.
“Yeah, happy Thanksgivukkah, Ben.”
“Oy,
yeah okay.” Ben rolled his eyes at the
unusual greeting, then leaned over and gave Tom kiss on the lips.
“Oh,” a woman exclaimed.
Tom
and Ben turned and noticed a mother and her two young children, two boys that were
maybe two and four years old. It looked like they were headed in the direction
of the rest rooms.
“Perverts,” she said loudly as she ushered her children
far away from the dining area.
Ben
sighed. “Will it ever change?” He felt sorry for those children. What happened
to goodwill and love that was supposed to be taught this time of year?
“It’s
already changed, Ben. How else would we
have all the rights we have now? Don’t
forget, husband, at one time we’d have been arrested for kissing like we just
did. Or the mall would have had security throw us out on our asses. Look around.
Do you see anyone else taking notice?”
Tom nodded toward the crowd. Ben
looked at all the faces and no one had even gave them a second look, or said a thing to the woman’s reaction.
“Let’s
decide what to eat. Do you want a pizza or some Chinese food?” Tom asked as they looked over their all the restaurants
they had to choose from.
“Chinese.
How about you get our food and I’ll think about dessert? I love Annie’s pretzels.” Ben loved their cinnamon sugar ones.
“Okay.”
They
enjoyed their meals, stopped at the Annie’s Pretzels kiosk on their way out,
and made their way home. That evening
they spent time decorating the tree they’d picked up at the local tree
farm. An eight foot spruce, Tom had
gotten the decorations out of the attic, and each man took turns putting on an
ornament.
Ben
suddenly took him in his arms and planted a kiss on him, a long and smoldering
one.
“What
was that one for?” Tom asked him.
“Thank
you. I wanted to make sure to thank you
for being in my life, for making me so happy.
I love you Tom Mathers.”
“I
love you too, Ben Meyers.” Tom wrapped
his arms around his man and they kissed.
“Look up,” Tom asked him.
Ben
did as asked. There, in Tom’s fingers,
was a plastic mistletoe.
Not
that they ever needed that as an excuse to kiss, but it was still a nice touch.
TBC
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