A Very Strange Attic

 Dale groaned in frustration.“Zephyr, where's my book?” he was bent over, looking under the couch finding only crumbs and crumpled up paper. “ The one about gardening and stuff? Why would I know where it is? ” Zephyr said and returned to watching his figure skating competition. Dale faced him “ Well it didn’t just grow legs. Is this your way of trying to mess with me?” “Look,” Zephyr stood up, “ I’m not just the scrawny kleptomaniac from New York that you met a few years ago anymore, don’t blame stuff on me.” 

 Zephyr started to walk away from him  but Dale grabbed him by the  arm “  I am not trying to blame anything on you, not everything is about you,”

 “Well, you’re the one that always blames me for stupid stuff!” Zephyr his voice quivering with frustration.

“You sound like a broken record.”

“ Yeah well, you’re the one who doesn’t listen to me.”

“ Oh really?”

“Duh”

“You never even consider what I say, so do everyone a favor and take accountability for once in your life,” 

“ I’m not the scrawny kleptomaniac anymore but you’re still an alcoholic with severe daddy issues,” Zephyr said, raising his voice.

 Dale walked away not wanting Zephyr to see his eyes twitching with anger. As we walked away he  Zephyr throw the tv remote at his back while he left. He walked to the opposite end of the apartment but it’s not like they were very far away. He hated the apartment and the mustard yellow walls and musty shag carpet seemed to be mocking him. “ Seattle has such a crappy housing market,” Dale muttered under his breath. As soon as he entered the bedroom he was caught off guard. Flowers. They were large and welcoming and the best flowers that Dale had ever seen.  However, they were growing out of the carpet and thriving. They filled the room with a scent that danced around the air and was strangely calming. 

 “Zephyr…” He said, still unable to take his eyes off of the sight. No answer. Of course. He was probably still mad at him. Dale approached the flowers and saw that there were more flowers behind those leading to the closet. He noticed that they got even more vivid and lively the closer he got to the closet. They looked like they were handcrafted by a god and were breathtaking. He was filled with wonder and also a hint of dread. How was he going to explain this to the landlord? 

 Dale entered the closet and cautiously, he inspected the place around him, pressing on the walls of the room expecting to find a hidden camera or something. This was surely Zephyr’s idea of playing a weird prank on him right? But he couldn’t imagine Zephyr wrestling with flowers for god knows how long. He looked around once more and noticed an innocent looking  latch on the ceiling that he hadn’t seen before. It almost looked like it led to an attic. This was particularly odd because they didn’t have an attic. He debated not exploring this weird situation. For all he knew one of his drinks could’ve been spiked and he was hallucinating. Zephyr would never let him live this down if he found him trying to get to an attic that doesn’t exist. But to heck with it And he pulled the latch down.

 A ladder was released, beckoning him. It seemed like an ordinary attic but he couldn’t quite see where it led to. He climbed up the ladder, feeling it wobble slightly under his weight. He pulled himself up and poked his head in getting a good look as to what could be inside. To his surprise, he came face to face with Zephyr. He  jumped back in surprise and said, “ Dale what the heck?” 

“ Zephyr I-”

“Dale, your head just popped out of the cabinet, I’ll give it to you, you beat me this time but how did you do it?”

 Dale just stared at him. He looked around and realized that his head was indeed poking out of a cabinet but this particular cabinet was in the living room. Dale looked at his legs, which were somehow still in the bedroom. How was he going to explain this? He didn’t even understand what just happened. “I don’t know,” He admitted.  Zephyr walked around the cabinet, probably trying to figure out how he could fit into such a small space. 

“Zephyr?” 

“Yea?”

Dale grabbed Zephyr’s hand and pulled him into the cabinet/Attic/whatever you want to call it. Zephyr struggled but he wasn’t very strong so it wasn’t much of a problem. Dale fell back onto the flowers and Zephyr fell onto him. Zephyr looked around and his jaw dropped“Woah…..” “I know,” Dale said, rubbing the back of his neck. Zephyr's mouth was still agape.

 “How….” 

“ I have no idea,” Dale said while pushing Zephyr off of him.  Zephyr got back up and started to climb into the weird attic/portal thing. “Zephyr wait-” He looked back at him with a childish gleam in his eye which combined with his freckles and short stature made him look like a young child who just found worms under a rock.

 “Well, are you coming?” Zephyr said. Dale stood up “ What's there to explore? It just leads to the cabinet.” Zephyr scrunched up his eyebrows, “ Well aren’t you just a ball of sunshine.” He extended his hand to Dale and reminded him of a pirate “C’mon,” he said. Dale sighed and took it. 

“Fine but I’m going up first,” he said shoving Zephyr out of the way.

Dale reached the top and gasped.  Zephyr wiggled his way out to see Dale of all the people, surprised. When he poked his head out his jaw fell to the floor.

 They were at the figure skating competition that Zephyr was watching earlier. But they weren’t just in the audience, they were actually in the area surrounding the ice rink that is usually reserved for the skaters and their coaches. The skater that was on the ice right now was wearing a black leotard and the way he moved his body was encapsulating, and beautiful.  Dale couldn’t understand what anyone was saying but he couldn’t hear anyone else. It didn’t even register to him how cold it was. It just felt like it was him and the skater. 

 Someone tapped Dale on his shoulder pulling him back to reality and said something in Japanese that he couldn’t understand. The guy he noticed, had icy blue eyes that had a strange friendliness to them. But regardless of who this was, friendly or not, he would most certainly notice that they didn’t belong here and he didn’t think that he could pull this other guy down and show him the weird attic thing without seriously concerning him. So, Dale grabbed Zephyr’s arm who was still encapsulated by the skater and yanked him towards the weird attic portal thing and they both fell back onto the flowers. Dale wondered what that guy must be thinking right now. 

 “Dude I was watching that,” Zephyr groaned while rubbing the back of his neck. “ I was too but then someone started to approach us and I wasn’t sure how to explain this,” Dale said motioning to the both of them. “Fair,” Zephyr said although he was still clearly not convinced. “I wonder where else this thing will take us.” He started to climb up the ladder again. “Woah Woah Woah,” Dale said while picking Zephyr up by the back of his shirt. “Oi put me down!” His limbs started flailing in the air frantically. “Going back up there is an incredibly bad idea, who knows where we could end up at?” Dale said, still holding Zephyr in the air by the back of his shirt.

 Zephyr's limbs stopped flailing and he said: “I know, but dude we literally have a magical portal in our closet, how cool is that?” 

“ And this magical portal could be dangerous. We have no idea how it works or what risks we’re taking. I mean, what if this gives us some strange illness or something?” Dale finally let go of Zephyr's shirt and he fell on the ground. “ Why would we get a weird illness? Can’t we just have something really cool that literally, no one else has?” “I-I just don’t want to get hurt, or worse, for you to get hurt,” Dale said, facing away from Zephyr. 

 Zephyr held him by the shoulders and turned Dale to face him. “You don’t need to protect me anymore,”

 “I know but-” 

 “ Look, maybe, I’m not the one who needs protecting,”

“I’m fine-”

“No, you’re not. You haven’t been fine in a long time. Look, just this once, let loose, let me take care of you. Please.”

Dale sighed. “Ok you win this one.” Zephyr grinned and went up the ladder again with Dale following him. 

 Dale felt an immense warmth on his face as soon as he stepped off the ladder and into this new place. There were trees everywhere and bird calls that sounded like a million beautiful chaotic symphonies. There was new and old growth everywhere and the air felt cleaner and fresher here. There was the strong scent of tree sap and it looked like a scene from a Disney movie. Dale half expected all the woodland animals to start singing a song and tap dancing or something.

 “Isn’t this great?” Zephyr asked while taking in the scenery himself. The sunlight made his blonde hair look as if it were glowing. “Yeah… I like it a lot,” Dale said while smiling. Zephyr looked at Dale and seriousness entered his eyes. Then he said “ race you to the boulder,” and pushed Dale to the ground. Dale got up and saw that he was already halfway there. He laughed to himself and chased him.