Timmy took a towel hanging on the wall and wrapped it around his shoulders, so as not to get his clothes wet. The shower building gave off something strange when there was no one in it : usually it was full of children with their eyes wide shut, due to the pain of collective showers.
Jimmy turned on the water. Sitting on a wooden stool, he mindlessly ran his fingers through his best friend's hair. He had done it many times before, but this time it was... weird. He thought about Sarah again : what was she doing now ? Had she at least seen what happened in the Mess Hall ?
Jimmy had to face the facts : she would never be interested in him. Too bad, he'll find someone else. Someone else...
Timmy hummed quietly in the shower and Jimmy recognized the tune : it was an old Edison Lighthouse hit, "Love Grows".
The manager of the South Park vinyl store often played it in her boutique, and the duo sometimes hung out there on boring Saturdays, of course without Jimmy's parents knowing.
He began to recite the words as they came into his head.
-"He talks kinda lazy and people say he's c-crazy, and his life's a mystery ! Oh but love grows, where my Timothy goes, and nobody knows like m-me !"
He laughed before even finishing his sentence, and even more so when his colleague let go a protesting "Timmeh !".
Jimmy lowered his hands from his hair to his neck and started tickling him, causing the protests to stop and change into laughter too. The attacked dragged his executioner's head under the running water with him.
-"You dirty motherfucker !"
They now both had wet hair, and Jimmy quickly called his colleague to order, telling him that he still had work to do : he didn't wash his hair with soap yet.
As he got started, the boy realized something : it's crazy how Timmy looked like Sarah. It's true ! Their hair was the same strawberry blonde and they were both slightly taller than Jimmy. He saw quite a coincidence in this resemblance.
But there were many things that Sarah didn't have : she didn't have that cacophonous laughter, that liveliness of mind and intelligence, that way of exploding in emotion. No, Sarah wasn't like that.
She was nothing like a Timmy.
The shampoo bottle fell from the comedian's hand and the other hand stopped. Jimmy stared into space in front of him, unable to process what just happened inside his head. His friend noticed and turned around, a hand on his shoulder.
-"Jimmy ?"
He came back to his senses.
-"Ah ! Yeah, yeah, don't worry ! I j-j-just had a little absence."
It was clearly not a little absence, and Jimmy knew it : everything was racing through his mind, and the only thing he was sure about just collapsed in front of him. He decided to ignore that for a moment, and turned off the water.
-"I'll let you dry th-that, I'll wait for you outside, okay Tim-Tim ?"
He went to the door of the shower building and opened it, the sudden cold in the air brushing against his face and his soggy brown curls.
He sat down on the stairs and took his head into his hands. What the hell was that ? He could not ignore that !
Jimmy was sweating in his Hawaiian shirt, and felt like he was about to cry. He didn't expect that kind of feelings, not at all !
What was he going to do now ? Well, the same thing he did before : supress them and act exactly like it never happened. It shouldn't be that hard, he thought.
How did Timmy not notice anything ? Maybe he did ! Maybe he had been delving into his mind for a long time now and didn't tell him by fear of embarrassment !
Before Jimmy could figure out how to respond when Timmy will ask him about the little absence, he got out of the shower building.
-"Well, took you l-long enough !" the speedster said as he suddenly rose up from the staircase with rosy cheeks. "Okay, what do we do now ? Shall we go back to the p-party ?"
Timmy pointed towards the Mess Hall : the lights were out, and those in all of the other buildings as well. It looks like the counselors had forgotten them outside...
-"Aw, come on ! Everything must be locked, that means we can't go b-b-back to the c-cabin either..." Jimmy said, scratching his head in reflexion.
Timmy could very well open the cabin with his super cool psychic powers, but he was feeling a bit adventurous. He took Jimmy by the arm and pointed to the camp entrance arch, which was now rebuilt.
-"You want to l-leave camp ?" Jimmy asked, both excited and nervous. "O-Okay, but we have to get back by morning, or-r else !"
It seemed so damn dangerous and cool to leave camp in the middle of the night, and especially with his best friend ! But was he still his best friend, after all that happened ? Timmy had a very different status now, but Jimmy didn't want to admit it to himself.
He glanced behind him as they passed through the archway. The two boys had in their ears the little sounds of the forest at night around them, before arriving at the end of the dirt path.
Before them stood Loomis Gasoline, the gas station. It was empty and the lights were almost all out, a faint and flickering lamp above the front door saving the day. The place looked like it hadn't been visited in centuries : the windows were shattered and pierced by what seemed to be bullet impacts, some of the planks were falling off walls and the wooden bench next to the entrance looked like it might break at the slightest blow.
-"Timmy... (I have always been a bit scared of this place...)" Timmy admitted half heartedly. "Timmy. Timmy Timmy ! Timmy, Timmeh. (Imagine just if ghosts of crashed drivers lived there. Imagine if the old mechanic is a ghost himself ! I shall write his story, for it'll live eternally in the infinite book that is my mind, dear.)"
Jimmy showed a surprised face : indeed, his friend just turned into a strange mix of a damsel in distress and an English author.
Also, did he just call him "dear" ?
Timmy realized what he just let Jimmy understand. He discreetly looked away, awkward, as Jimmy went over to a vending
machine next to the entranceway.
The psychic wondered what possessed him to come here. It wasn't the potential ghosts that worried him, but rather the fact of finding himself alone with Jimmy. Did he suspect anything ? He was a little dumb for sure, but not completely. Besides, Timmy had taken him somewhere where they probably wouldn't see anyone for miles around. Very strange indeed.
He looked at his best friend : he was knocking on the vending machine. It was with a very well placed crutch kick that something fell out of it. Timmy rolled over to him and took the strange item in his hand.
It was a perfectly normal milk carton, although the packaging seemed a little dated.
-"Well well well... Brings bad memories, doesn't it ?" Jimmy said.
Timmy pinched the bridge of his nose. Bad memories.
-"Jimmeh. (Shut up, James "Jimmy" Ryan Valmer.)"
-"D-Do you think it's expired ?" he asked, ignoring him.
-"Judging only by the look of the cardboard, i think you could throw this carton in someone's face and cause severe damage to their brain cavity." Timmy telepathically concluded, psychic talk being more useful for analyzing.
The comedian watched his colleague manipulating the object with furrowed eyebrows : he found him rather cute when he was focused.
He wondered if him and Timmy reached the stage of "super best friends", like Stan and Kyle. But he very easily answered his own question, telling himself they were a better duo than them. This thought made him smile dumbly.
-"Wh-what are you looking f-for, Tim-Tim ?"
he said loudly, mostly to drown out his thoughts. "Sell by date ?"
Timmy realized he had gotten lost in his own mind, and returned to reality. He placed the carton of milk where he found it and Jimmy shrugged. Strange encounter.
The latter sat down on the wooden bench, which surprisingly didn't break, and his colleague joined him, leaving his wheelchair at the end of the bench next to him. They stayed like that for a while, the sounds of the wind in the trees and the flickering of the lamp being the only thing that could be heard. Then, Timmy broke the pleasant silence.
-"Timmy, Jimmy ? (Do you resent me ?)"
Jimmy turned his head, surprised by his question.
-"Friday."
-"Why would i ? It wasn't your f-f-fault."
-"Timmy, Timmeh. Timmeh, Timmy ! Timmy. (I wasn't strong enough to resist being mind-controlled. Whereas basically, it is me who mind controls people. That is ironic.)"
-"That's also the risk of the j-job !" Jimmy announced. "It's like a speedster who finds himself immobilized, or a brutalist bound hand and foot ! It can happen to any sup-perhero."
The psychic didn't want to mess with his friend and create an argument, so he listened to his wise words.
That's another thing Timmy loved about him, but also couldn't understand at all : how was he so nice with people who do him wrong ? Like Nathan ?
He remembered the time Jimmy told him he didn't have many friends back in New York, and that explained lots of stuff.
-"It's crazy how different we are." Jimmy continued. "In your p-place, i would have loved being a telep-path. It would have h-helped me, very much."
-"Timmeh ? (Helped you for what ?)" Timmy asked, intrigued.
Jimmy tapped his finger against Timmy's forehead.
-"To read in YOUR head for once. Know what y-you think."
So many stuff raced through Timmy's mind : is it now ? The moment in movies where the interested person confesses to the person they're interested in, and maybe they kiss afterwards ?
The psychic felt his face heat up. What an embarrassment ! He was sure Jimmy knew what was going on.
But the two boys were illuminated by the sudden headlights of a car, which pulled up to the gas station.
A woman in her thirties, well dressed, came out of the car and observed the duo with a puzzled face as she grabbed the gas pump.
-"What are you doing outside at this hour ? It's 1AM !"
Jimmy stared at her, eyes wide open and completely still.
-"Hello ? Do you... do you understand me ?"
She started to get scared, x-rayed by the one eye that was looking straight at her. Jimmy wrapped his arm around Timmy's shoulders, who was also staring at the stranger but a different, more piercing gaze. He smiled big also : this car had saved him.
-"You're seriously starting to scare me. I'm going to call the cops on you !"
Jimmy opened his mouth.
-"... You can see us ?"
Her stomach dropped.
-"What ?"
Timmy brought his hand to his temple. The light flashed faster and faster until it went out, and the car alarm came on, the shrill sound causing the woman to turn around.
She turned back, hand clenching her shirt, but the two boys were gone. All that was left of them was red writing on the window : "LEAVE THIS PLACE."
It was too much. The young woman screamed in terror and rushed into her car, driving as fast as her high heel on the pedal would allow. The two boys teleported back to the bench, bursting out laughing at their sucessful prank, unable to speak for a good two minutes.
Jimmy was first to get his voice back.
-"Oh my God ! Holy shit ! Did you see her reaction ? Thank you ! Th-thank you for your cooperation ! What a t-terrific audience !"
The laughter wouldn't stop anytime soon. Timmy grabbed his colleague and rubbed his back as fast as he could.
-"H-Hey, you're going to burn my shirt if you k-keep this up !"
He slowed down a bit, still laughing. When he finally stopped, he buried his head in Jimmy's neck. The boy was no longer surprised by such an action, and reciprocated. He sighed in happiness.
-"Thanks for everything, Tim-Tim."
He squeezed him a little tighter.
-"Truly."
Sorry ? It was the most truthful and sincere Timmy had heard him since he'd known him. It was pleasant, comforting. Jimmy always has been. Colors rose to the psychic's face and he only had one thing in his mind. Oh, it wasn't particularly strange, just a bit lovey-dovey, something he never had been. Better execute the plan now, because he felt his eyelids falling.
He closed his eyes tightly, placed his hands on his colleague's shoulders and kissed him hard on the cheek before drowning again in the crook of his neck, completely ashamed of himself.
Jimmy stopped in time. So many surprises this night !
-"Hm ? What was that for, Tim-Tim ? That's kind of g-gay, you know ?"
The two leaned back against the wall, and Timmy decided not to answer, but to fall asleep with his head on Jimmy's shoulder, his hand dangerously close to his.
-"You're going to leave me without an-n answer, my guy ? That's fine, i don't n-need it."
He hesitated a little, eyes wandering around, before leaning in for a little kiss on Timmy's forehead.
Then he did something he thought he would never do in his entire life, which was to grab his hand, shy and ashamed. Please don't let him be secretly awake...
-"Good night, Tim-Tim. Love you."
He closed his eyes too, a dumb grin on his face. That was clearly a strange night.
(August, Tuesday the 17th 2004)
The sunrays seeped into Timmy's eyes, waking him up. He opened them slowly, and realized he was still at the gas station. He turned his hand, and he saw Jimmy's hand. On his !
He stopped. Maybe it was just an unknown gesture he did in his sleep, but the psychic was boiling inside.
Jimmy was still sleeping against the wall, snoring lightly. The psychic thought back to last night and his spontaneous gesture. He didn't really regret it, and he knew Jimmy wouldn't resent him for it.
-"Hey ! What the hell are you doing there ?!"
Timmy stared at the old mechanic, and Jimmy woke up with a start.
-"Go back to your camp, i think they're looking for you."
Jimmy suddenly rose up from the bench.
-"Ah darn ! Did we fall asleep ?" he said, yawning. "Go back in your chair, Tim-Tim, we have to h-hurry ! We're gonna t-take one of those gusts !"
The duo left the station quickly under the watchful gaze of the old man.
-"God dang it. They sure went down the wrong road. And it for sure wasn't a straight road."
He chuckled to himself, proud of his joke. He didn't laugh very much lately.
The duo moved forward in silence.
Jimmy was certain now. Tim wasn't just a best friend to him. And last night was going to stay with him for a while.
For Timmy, he didn't believe himself. He wasn't good at love stuff, given the fact he never had a girlfriend before. His mind was going to be busy for the next few weeks...