hoax woodvale | d1 fin

H O A X.

✧seven✧

Black gravel chips on the sole of Hoax's shoe as he glides forward on the playground swings. Every Thursday, he and his best friend, Toma, go there once their fathers on the way home from school. Autumn leaves fly with them as they challenge the gravity below with a helpful push from their parents.

He and Toma had been friends for a long time at that point, dating to preschool. The first time they interacted, he was holding onto her as she cried. Their teacher was skeptical of her father on the first day. During pickup, Toma tried to tell the teacher that it was her dad, but the teacher said his identification didn't match Toma's last name. Hers is Faunt, Toma Faunt, while his card read Reginald Theud. Hoax learned that day as their parents talked about the incident. Toma is– was– Reggie's stepdaughter. Related in spirit and technicality, not by blood. Toma's mother never married her father and never loved him, either. Everything about such a complex dynamic sailed over his head for years.

Birds sail over him as his father pushes him to new heights. He releases one of his hands from the chains, reaching out for the hovering blue jays. They never quite reach his grasp, but the prospect of being closer to them than everyone else in the room leaves his shiny teeth making up for the recklessness. "Hoax, hold on tight, please!"

The sweetness of their moment is contrasted with the swing to their left. Like pendulums, he and Toma tick back and forth, only meeting when their feet come inches from the earth's vertex. He catches a glimpse of her cries before ascending again in his own childish joy. "Stop that! Stop crying!" Her stepfather's tone condemns her emotion. "It's just a swing!" Hoax's father tries to interject and calm Reggie's frustrations, but it only makes matters worse. "Don't parent someone else's child, thank you."

Two fathers who once got along can't stand each other in an instant. It didn’t feel like a big deal. Still, to this day, the fear of heights being his friend’s detriment has perplexed him. Too young to understand quite why it's the case, Hoax asks Toma the following Friday why she wasn't at the park yesterday. "My dad said I can't be friends with you anymore." How simple of a statement for a seven-year-old boy to hear. And how crushing of one for a seventeen-year-old boy to realize what it really meant. Both of them hide their secret by moving away from each other at pickup time. Their time is constricted to thirty minutes of free time when they rush to the blue rug to play pirates on a quest to find gold and discover Atlantis. But the only things that shine are the corner of her eye and the bridge of her nose. How could no one see the signs behind the overextended bangs across her face? How could no one see the signs?

It's only a matter of time before the captain of their ship is mutinied, disappearing from school altogether. Not even their teacher knows where Toma went, maybe to another school is her best guess. Hoax keeps her old seat reserved for her throughout the winter and spring in hopes that she may show up and want to play again.

A phantasm in the seat to his left. A phantom trapped below deck in his ship as it rocks back and forth.

All this over a fear of heights. Toma is somewhere underground while Hoax has vowed to never be afraid of it.

H O A X.

✧august✧

Hoax's friendship with James grows through the semester. He knows his insecurities better by the day. James checks in every morning when he sits down for roll call. The stress is worse in the morning but gradually improves throughout the day. Does he notice the twinkle in Hoax's eye when he compliments his outfit, his hair, or his smile? Maybe he would if Elizbaeth's didn't catch him first.

He's not… jealous. Hoax is patient. Love starts as just a seed hidden six inches underground. Its roots take place in the dirt, pushing to try to find their way in. Only when the plant is confident that it can survive out in the air does it poke its head out. That's what he waits for. James feels right as Olive said, but the moment is not. They're friends for now, the way it has to be. The moment to strike will come, and Hoax will drop everything for it.

✧

April showers pound up his skull and tap on his silver watch, and May flowers peak through for all those who love them. He waits, listening intently to the Monday stories about James and Elizabeth's date from the weekend. James seems to be losing interest in the dates altogether.

"You know that feeling where love is all gushy and adorable?"

"Kinda."

"I'm sort of losing that with Betty and our dates. We keep going to the same restaurant, getting the same food, tipping the waiter the same amount. You'd think we were some old haggy couple."

"Haggy? I thought you two were Prom King and Queen material."

"We'll see next year, man. I dunno."

A leaf of hope watered by Hoax's morning tears pops up from the earth beneath him. Nothing about life has ever felt so certain as this moment now.

"So– um." He doubts nearly everything. But love? There can be no mistaking it. "My family spends every August out at our lakehouse estate. It's like a summer home by the forest. It's really nice. My sister and I are allowed one guest each."

"Hoax Woodvale. Are you inviting me on a…" Hoax's eyes widen as the word flies around it's long-awaited chamber, encrusted by rubies and icy crystals– red and grey, their favorite colors. "woodland adventure?' His eyebrows settle and the breakfast ascending up his throat falls back.

"Yeah! If you're up for it."

"Sure thing! Sounds like a nice vacation time. What do you guys do there?'

Hoax goes on about the activities: fishing, swimming, hiking. Personally, he prefers taking in the scenery more than anything else. With a passion for writing, Hoax takes most of his inspiration from the wilderness beyond, a place he can only reach in his fantasies.

"Sounds like a nice place. Looking forward to exploring every nook and cranny with you."

Hoax looks over to Elizabeth, who's not paying much attention. Perhaps that's for the best, as he's a summer away from swindling her man right from beneath her.

✧

"James! Get in the car!"

Sunroof down, Hoax drives to the summer house with James in the passenger seat. He offered to take James given he couldn't leave until the evening. Olive and his parents left early in the morning on August 1st.

It's the first moment in their entire friendship where it's just him and James. There's no crowd of kids in homeroom or in the hallways. Just the wind blowing against the leather seats and salt air as they approached the lakes. The Woodvales property is expansive, picked up in the aftermath of the Dark Days. Woodvales were private Capitol loyalists, spying on rebel forces in One and informing the Capitol of how best to infiltrate them. As a reward? A beautiful glimpse of the world beyond.

"If I were you, I’d quit school and singing and just live out here full time. Maybe become an author or something if you’re really strapped for cash… but with a place like this…" It's satisfying for Hoax to watch the amazement in James’s eyes flutter as they approach. The cabin is large and expansive, maybe from stripped wooden logs from the very forest or was built within.

"That’s the dream! Someday, anyway. I like to think of this place as completely separated from the world. Just me and my future living here, growing old but happy."

James is given the guest bedroom to stay in, but on most days he finds himself spending the night in Hoax's room. On the couch. They don't do anything at first, only talking about their lives more personally than they ever could at school. Hoax tells James about Toma and the second-guessing that has come with losing her. James talks about the pressure his father puts on him to be athletic to fit the "jock and quiet girl fall in love" trope that the Capitol has been consuming recently.

There are no boundaries in this room. Just honesty.

The topic of sexuality comes up one week in. From James, much to Hoax's surprise.

"Are you… like…"

"Gay? Yeah." It's never been a secret but also nothing he's ever had the time or need to share freely with James.

The creatures outside hum a tune, pretending not to bottleneck and listen in to the conversation.

"And you are…?' He's red in the cheeks. How embarrassing to live out a coming-of-age scene in real life.

"Bisexual."

The sigh that escapes Hoax's lips is unable to go unnoticed. If he was embarrassed then, Hoax is devastated now.

"Damn, is the b-word that much of a shrinker?"

"No! No. It's a good thing. That's a good thing." You're a good thing.

"Nice."

"Have you ever been with…"

James stretches against the couch. "No. Most of the guys I'm attracted to are too bashful to make a move. Or even realize I'm making a move on them."

Hoax turns his head to see James looking directly at his chest.

"That was an invitation if you want to take it."

With more confidence than he's had in years, Hoax speaks. "Gladly."

✧

"Are you sure?"

"Never have I ever before." I have you. I have you.

✧

Summer is high, but enough X's on the calendar to signal the end of it all. With one last look from the clifftops on August 30th, Hoax wonders if any summer could possibly top this one. No chance. His feet kick at the edge, liberated from an unending spiral. Perfect.

He has a boyfriend. A boyfriend. The thought still leaves him in disbelief.

✧

School starts on September 1st whenever it falls on a weekday. His stomach doesn't ache that morning and he skips breakfast to ensure it stays that way. Everyone's got the same homeroom throughout high school, meaning unless James switched schools within a day, he's still got a spot saved next to Hoax.

He waits.

Seats fill up just as they had last semester, with all but two filled: the one next to Ines and the one next to him. Hoax tapes a note under the top of their table. It's a thank you to James for making his summer.

And there he is: short and textured brown hair with eyes the color of jade and a sexy body.

Big, muscular arms. One carries his bookbag. The other is locked up with another.

Elizabeth.

"Gah… first day again! Sorry about that. Spent all day and all night catching up after a month away from my love."

Hoax tears the looseleaf paper out from the desk. James sits down next to him as if nothing happened. The same smile as at the end of spring.

It was never his.