Journal Entry 1:
I am Steve… and I’m currently writing in this journal to help me understand my feelings. As I’ve spent more time with Garrett over the past couple of months I've felt something I've only felt for Dennis, except deeper.
I know to feel like this is a sin, and that if I ever said anything I would be shunned. Every time I look in his eyes while we sing I see a twinkle like no other and, astonishingly, he is yet to be taken.
Yet I don’t know what to do. Things have been winding down, and I’m finally getting used to a world that’s less blocky than I was used to. I spent 15 years in the overworld, and I left it for a man I only now realize I love.
I hope I can get over this crush.
End of Journal Entry 1.
It had been a relatively warm and sunny day, or at least as close as you can be when it’s enclosed in winter. It’s much different than the overworld, that’s for sure.
I walked into the store we all owned, Natalie and Henry were already sitting down, Henry was working on his inventions as always and Natalie was on something for her work with the Potato Factory.
That’s when my blue eyes landed back on the man I’d been yearning for, Garrett. God, he was handsome, from his face to his muscles he was built by the heavens themself, and he was standing on a pedestal above us mortals.
Or at least that’s what it looked like, in all truth he was standing on a step still changing a light that had gone out but it was all the same.
“What’re you doing Gar-Gar?”
I questioned with my usual charm, and he then responded, “I’m fixing a light so the lighting is better for us when we go on stage tonight! I was thinking we could sing ‘Don’t Mine At Night’ it’s a song I composed for us!”
Garrett spoke back with a sense of jollity that I could only marvel at, but as he finished screwing in the light it occurred to me that the stool he was on was unstable, so I broke into an awkward shuffle.
“Ah- Garrett the stool is off balance!”
I sputtered out quickly, hoping to warn him before he moved around too much and could hurt himself, but he just shrugged me off.
“Just hold me on the hips to keep me steady Steve, you’re strong.”
Gar-Gar speaks nonchalantly, but to me, it was earth-shattering. In his wave of compliments, I had to put my hands on his hips, and albeit reluctantly I did.
I put my hands on his hips to keep him steady as he worked and blushed through every second of it. Enough to the point where Henry had noticed.
“Steve, are you sick? You’re red.”
Henry just had to point out, that he was creatively gifted but his need to speak would kill me. Due to his statement Natalie chimed in, “Yeah Steve you’re red are you alright?”
They both looked at me in concern and all I could do was shake my head a fervently deny it.
“It’s just my complexion, truly, plus it’s hot out there I probably am just a bit sunburnt!”
I could tell they were suspicious due to the fact it had been getting colder recently and the sun coming out once shouldn’t get a person burnt to such a noticeable degree, but as I thought I was finally going to be let go I felt the man himself move off of the stool.
He stood before me strong and taller, I looked up at him my eyes tracing his scarred eyebrow before he spoke in a gruff tone.
“Hey Steve, let me have a look I can’t have my partner getting sick. We have a set later after all!”
He says with a goofy grin on his face as he puts his hands on my face and uses it to inspect my face for any signs of sickness.
Though I noticed he was rambling on about questions for me and if I had been feeling ill all I could do was hum in response to most of his questions as I tried to keep a steady head on my shoulders.
He then tapped me again to snap me out of my head, “Are you listening to me?”
He looked angry, oh no he looked angry, I quickly backtracked and confirmed.
“Mhm I was, you were just asking me if I was pale or felt fatigued recently that’s all!”
I said hurriedly and held my hands up as if to defend myself, but before he could say anything else a familiar dog ran through the door to knock me over and start licking my face.
“Dennis!”
I yelled happily from the floor where I had landed, though it was on the floor it was further away from the object of my desire and helped keep down the blush.
“I thought you and Dawn were at a showing for your animals in the next town over?”
I say in shock and surprise but this goes tenfold when I see Dawn herself run through the door at a hurried pace.
“I was until I saw this girl talking about how she knew you and all that!”
I look at Dawn confused, as does everyone else. I had finally stood up and everyone had the same wave of confusion on their faces. Before I or anyone else could ask more questions the bell on the door rang again to signal a person's arrival.
In a blurb of that same green tunic she had worn since she was a kid, and a blur of fire-red hair she runs towards me.
“Steve!”
She helps excitedly as she runs over to hug me, to which I oblige happily.
“Alex!”
“Alex?”
Natalie sputters from beside me, looking at the girl in question. We quickly separated as I turned towards everyone’s confused looks, even Dawn, you’d think she’d ask more questions before letting a person in her car and driving them to one of her friends.
I can’t help but see Gar-Gar’s knitted eyebrows as he looks at Alex suspiciously.
“Guys, this is Alex! My oldest and only friend, before you all came along!”
I say with a bright smile as Alex stands there self-assured. Everyone looked at her in awe staring hard, especially Natalie as she raised an eyebrow.
“You’re a lot younger than Steve here.”
She says In a matter-of-fact tone.
Damn, I know I don’t look the youngest but that was quite the biting statement. Before I could respond to Natalie’s scathing comment Alex responded for me, and walked forward while extending a hand to her.
“As said earlier my name is Alex, and I’m younger than Steve here. He’s 50 and I’m just 38”
She says with a pause before adding, “I was friends with him before he got sucked into the mine, to be more clear I was friends with his younger brother Brian, and so when Steve here went missing we were concerned. Your friend over here filled me in on the why of the situation.”
Everyone watches her explain wide-eyed and curious. Natalie retracts her hand from the redheads as she finishes speaking.
“This is amazing Alex! Now that you’re here we can catch up on everything!”
I say with a bright and toothy smile as I watch her face fall slightly, why? She walks back over to me and pats me on the back before speaking once more, “Do I get an introduction to your friends Steve or do I get to make up names myself? Cause sunglasses over there doesn’t look too happy about it.”
She says as she points at Garrett while saying that.
I realize his anger is building and so I swiftly move to be in front of him and talk.
“This is Natalie,” I say while pointing to her, “her brother Henry,” Henry waves slightly, “and last but not least Gar-Gar!”
I say with clear excitement as Garrett sizes her up.
“It’s Garrett to you, Alex.”
He says firmly while staring down Alex. There is a clear tension in the room but nobody can quite decipher why but to help alleviate it some speak up.
“Alex I would love for you to come to this store here tonight! Me and Garrett are singing together for the kids who come by, there will be food and everything!”
I look at Alex hopefully but the next words she says drive a stake through my heart, “I need to find a place to stay tonight, I can’t just have fun around here without a real place to live. I also have to speak with you privately Steve.”
I look at her a bit concerned but attempt to take care of her first issue.
“Hey, Natalie!”
In response to this she looks at me with her arms crossed, confused at my outburst.
“You have a house with three bedrooms, don’t you? Could you please let Alex stay with you? It’ll just be for a bit until we catch up.”
I look at her pleadingly, and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to work until Henry speaks up.
“Natalie I think we should, you’ve been telling me I need more friends but so do you. Plus we have a lot of space in our house.”
Henry is the final nail in the coffin and Natalie finally concedes, “Fine, but Alex we will be going over house rules later.”
Alex smirks to herself but nods, “Of course!”
As this all transpired Dawn had left, probably needing to do something with her slightly illegal zoo that has more business than ever. Since she was gone Alex now needed a new ride to get around, and since Natalie was leaving soon anyway it wasn’t long before Henry, Natalie, and Alex were off to their house.
This just left me and Garrett: more specifically a grumpy Garrett.
He was moping around for multiple minutes whilst we practiced for our later singing and so I finally asked him.
“Hey Gar-Gar, what’s got you down?”
Garrett stiffened at this but sighed, he used to never speak to me about what he was feeling but after being together for the past months that much has changed.
“Did you and Alex ever date?”
He asks in a very blunt way. Date? Of course, we hadn’t, why would he care about that? … unless he wanted to get with Alex and he didn’t want to be rude and get with someone I've possibly dated because of how good of a person he is.
Despite my feelings, I quickly objected.
“No-no! Ew! She is just a close friend from when I was younger we’ve never done any of that. If you want her she's all yours.”
I say with a faked laugh at the end, but when I met eye contact with him he wasn’t smiling or anything. He looked relieved but at the same time a bit confused, but before he could say anything that would truly crush my soul I started singing even louder.
“We need to continue practice to 100% so we can be ready tonight!”
I yell with a fake enthusiasm but this seems to persuade him enough to lock back in to what we were doing.
Hours later it was time for the party, kids were there with and without their respective parents along with a few adults who enjoyed the performance.
We sang throughout the night and I had the privilege of being beside Gar the entire time, but as all things do it came to an end and as we were picking up Alex came up to me and asked to speak privately so we did.
We moved to the storage room and I locked the door.
“What’s up?”
Alex looked nervous and ran her hand through the top half of her hair, the rest of it in a loose braid.
“I’m tired Steve, I didn’t just find you because I realized you were in town, I-“
Alex looked like she was struggling to get her words out and wiped her hands down her face as she continued.
“Your brother, Brian, is gone.”
I looked at her in surprise.
“Gone? What the hell do you mean by that?!”
She looked at me nervously.
“He went inside a portal, and based on what Dawn told me earlier it was a portal to the same world you went to.”
I looked at her with confusion lacing every inch of my being, if she thought it was the same place why would she be worried? We took out the major threat there.
“Why are you worried?”
She looked up at me with widened eyes.
“H-he was different in the days leading up to his disappearance. He was always angry about you going missing because he always thought you left on purpose. He always said he had a connection to you and it was, for lack of a better word.. strange.”
My eyes are wide. It wasn’t on purpose was it for me? Well, I left at first but it wasn’t my fault I was held captive, it was a choice. She paused for a moment more, but I urged her to continue.
“He was angry and was pulled into the portal by these purple vines, it was scary and he screamed like a banshee as they pulled him in every way possible, until his eyes glowed a white color, and then he was gone. The portal had dissolved and I want him back.”
She looks at me determined.
“I want your brother back… he’s my best friend and you haven’t been there for him much throughout his life but I need you to be there now. Help me save him.”
I am blown away at this revelation and I feel sickly, my insides are almost churning and I quickly reach for the doorknob to run out and get fresh air but as I run out of the storage room I run into someone who had their ear to the door.
I ran into someone firm. Garrett?
“Why were you listening in on us Garrett?”
Alex asks angrily from behind me while I’m silent.
“I’m coming with you.”
Garrett says firmly.
“No! No. You are not coming, you’ll sacrifice yourself again if anything goes bad and I- I can’t lose you.”
I say as I have a firm hold on his arm, he looks down at me and holds eye contact before Alex clears her throat.
“Steve is right. Not for the reason he’s saying but because you don’t know Brian. He’s close to us and you of all people don’t get to come into a family matter.”
My mouth opens to refute this but Garett beats me to it and pushes past me, I stumble away from him as he and Alex are almost face to face.
“I don’t know who you think you’re talking to Alex but I’m best friends with Steve. I’m going to help him.”
I then watch as he crosses his arms to make himself appear bigger, but despite Alex’s small stature compared to him, she's also just as strong.
“No. You aren’t coming.”
They lock eyes and stare at one another, he stands in the door of the storage room while she stands in it. But before anything can be resolved in a cruel twist of fate my pickaxe falls off of the shelf and implants itself perfectly into Alex’s leg.
“Damn it!”
She yells in agony. Garrett drops the tough guy act and quickly moves to help her. Luckily I had just seen it from the wrong angle and it turned out it just hit her hard but didn’t pierce the skin.
After a quick trip to the hospital, it’s determined that she has broken a bone in her leg and has to stay off of it. In Natalie’s frustration, she ended up being the one to have to take care of Alex in her injury.
Me and Garett had briefed everyone on why we were going back and despite Henry’s protests, we told him we couldn’t take him with us.
It was the day before we were going to the overworld and me and Garrett were talking to one another.
“Garrett, why did you get so defensive earlier?”
I ask in a soft voice, we were inside watching TV together since we shared a house.
“I’m just looking out for you man.”
He responds curtly before focusing back on the TV, trying not to look back at me.
“But I mean, why do you have such an issue with her? I mean you looked ready to fight her and earlier you had asked me if I had ever been with her.”
I pause before speaking up, taking my eyes off the side of his face and towards the TV.
“I mean I wouldn’t treat a girl I liked rudely, I mean that’s a way to get her to never talk to you again-“
Before I could finish he broke his silence and turned to face me, frustration evident in both his voice and face.
“I don’t like her Steve! Drop it, I just was sticking up for you because I know what it’s like to have a rough time with family!”
We shared eye contact, neither of us moving but I could see anger and sadness in his eyes, but I couldn’t help but think more. I was curious, if not just out of my care for him. Although I was scared I decided to ask anyway, I wanted to be there for him.
I shut my eyes and breath out of my nose as I extend an arm to his back, I then open them.
“Gar-Gar, what happened with your family?”
I could feel his strong muscles tense beneath my touch but I kept my hand there firmly as I waited for a response. In turn, he glanced at me and decided to speak softly, softer than I had ever heard before.
“When I was 24, not too long after I become Garret “The Garbage Man” Garrison, I was caught by my dad in my room making out with someone…”
He trails off after that and I look at him confused, confused by his silence and the lump he had in his throat.
“Who was she?”
As I said that he turned his entire body towards me, putting his hand on my thigh.
“It was a he, and that was the issue. I was forced to come out as gay and became the social pariah of everyone… it was terrible. My dad wasn’t supportive and my mom wasn’t really even in the picture- and if I hadn’t had the few friends I had back then to support me I would’ve completely fallen apart. Which I came so- so close to doing…”
It was a lot to process at once so all I could do was stare at him with my aquamarine eyes. He was gay? Wait, being gay is legal now? I’m gay and he’s gay does that mean I have a chance?
But as these thoughts came to me I realized he had tears in his eyes, and as he did for me at the portal I put my hands on his face and wiped the tears from his eyes.
“Gar-Gar… I- I understand you now. I’m sorry for acting so rashly it’s just- I’ve never been in my brother's life much especially since I was away for so long in the nether. No chicken jockey will keep me away from him this time, I need to save him.”
He took his hand from earlier, that was previously on my thigh, and put it on one of my hands that was on his face. He simply looked at me with glossy eyes and I spoke up once more.
“Thank you. For caring and I also have a confession to make- I- I’m gay too.”
I looked away from him slightly as I said this, ashamed slightly, but as he used his strong arms to wrap me in a hug I had never felt safer.
“Steve, thank you for confiding in me. And I love you so much and will always be there for you!”
I pull out of his hug to face him surprised.
“You love me too? Gar-Gar, I didn’t realize you liked me like that too!”
I said in a tone of relief and joy but at his expression, I saw he didn’t mean it like that. So as I shrunk away in fear and quickly tried to get up he grabbed me by my hand dragged me back down, and kissed me.
I was surprised at first but leaned into the kiss more, his lips were undeniably soft and I melted into his embrace. We finally came up to air and he spoke words I never thought he would.
“Steve I feel the same way, I didn’t mean my earlier words like that but I love you. In more depth than just a partner who likes to build!”
He grins at me and through our glossy eyes, his from earlier and mine from happiness just now we kissed once more.
We sat in each other's embrace for about an hour before we headed back to our shared room.
“Do you want to put our beds together?”
I asked in a hopeful tone. Thankfully he happily agreed and all that could be heard that night was, “Water bucket release!”
The end.