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"Gene, buddy. Earth to Gene. You in there?" Phineas says warmly, knocking lightly on his best friend's forehead. Gene flinches away from the sudden contact.
"You could've just said something." Gene says crossly, getting up from his seat by the window. Finny laughs, unperturbed.
"Aw c'mon, don't be mad! I did you a favor." he nudges him. "We have to get ready for the Headmasters Tea, remember?"
"Damn. Is that today?" Gene muses, rubbing his forehead absentmindedly from where he hit him. Finny nods and opens his closet.
"Yep, it is. We have a whole afternoon of all this!" he laughs a little, and Gene rolls his eyes.
"Your enthusiasm is really inspiring." he scoffs slightly, and then he cuts himself off. Finny has just taken out his shirt for the afternoon. Yeah, they're both changing into nicer things. They'll be in front of teachers all afternoon; that's not the big deal. "Wait--Finny, you're not going to wear that, are you...?"
"Of course I am." Finny says happily, holding out the pink shirt. He eyes it appreciatively. "What else would I do with it? Why?"
"Well...it could give some people the...um, the wrong idea, that's all." Gene says quietly, and he looks away. He feels the back of his ears heat up; a classic sign of embarrassment for him.
"What sort of wrong idea?" Finny asks.
"Never mind. Just--forget I said anything, okay? Wear your pink shirt." Gene says quickly.
"No, Gene." Finny says, way too serious for this conversation topic, and way too serious in general. "Tell me what you meant by that. C'mon, I wanna know~"
Gene's pale face heats up. "I-I didn't mean anything!"
"Yes you did." he grins easily. "And now you're blushing. You have to tell me. What's the deal with my pink shirt?"
"It's just..." Gene glances at him. "It's just the fact that it's pink. People might... get the wrong idea... about you. You know?"
Finny's quiet. "Get the wrong idea... how?"
"Are we really talking about this?" Gene groans.
"Yes," Finny crosses his arms. "We are."
Gene opens his mouth--to do what, he doesn't know. To tell him what he means? To cuss him out? He doesn't get a chance, because the door opens.
"Afternoon," Brinker says warmly to his two friends, looking rather smug as usual. "Whoa, Phineas. That's quite a... shirt, I have to say."
"So Gene here keeps telling me." Finny says. He turns to him. "Brink, you know about things, right?"
"Oh god, Finny, no--" Gene shakes his head and sits down on his cot.
"Shut up, Gene, I'm talking." Finny retorts shortly.
The door opens again and their other friend Leper sticks his head in. "Hey guys," he says, smiling shyly.
"Hiya, Lep!" Finny says cheerfully, and Gene nods in his direction.
Brinker raises his eyebrows back at Finny. "I like to think so, yes."
"Good." Finny says happily. "Now say I wore this very nice salmon colored shirt to the afternoon tea. What sort of impression would it give?"
Leper starts coughing, from sheer surprise. Brinker pounds him on the back, giving Finny weird looks all the while. Finny looks on obliviously in mild concern.
"It'd give you the impression that you were a fucking faggot." Brinker says flatly, sneering slightly.
Silence. There's a tenseness in the air. Gene looks from Brink to Finny and then to Lep. Brink looks like he smells something bad, Finny's shoulders are stiff, and Leper's frowning. Gene clears his throat uncomfortably. They all look at him.
"No need for language, Brink," he says quietly. "We're just talking about a shirt."
"That you asked me a question about. I answered it." he says coldly.
"For gods sakes, I already knew that." Finny exclaims with an eye roll. He pointedly ignores Brink to turn to Gene. "That's what you were talking about, buddy?"
Gene blushes but he meets his eyes and nods. "Uh, yeah..."
"I already knew that." He repeats again. "I'm still going to wear it, too."
"Even if people might think you're weird?" Brink says incredulously.
"Especially if people think I'm weird!" he says enthusiastically. "Hell, I am weird! We all are."
"Not like that." Brinker scoffs.
Finny looks at him coolly but he doesn't say anything else. Instead he takes off his shirt to put the pink one on.
"I think it's brave." Leper says simply.
"...so do I." Gene puts in. "For what it's worth, I mean. After all, it's just a shirt."
"It's worth a lot." Finny says warmly, and he claps him on the back. "Hey, who knows. Maybe I'll write home and see if my mum can send me more for you lot! And yes," he looks at Brinker, a smirk twitching his lips. "Even you, Brink. We won't leave you out."
Brinker rolls his eyes but pointedly says nothing else offensive. That seems to please Finny.
"Is it time to go?"
"Yes," Leper pipes up, checking his watch. Finny claps him on the back too in appreciation.
"Good. Forward march, men!"
As they walk out, Finny falls in line with Gene. "Hey."
"Hey." he says back.
"You're not... ashamed I'm wearing this, are you?" Finny asks, uncharacteristically shy.
Gene looks at his best friend, fiddling with the cuffs of the shirt, in surprise. "What? No, of course not. It's a shirt." he pauses. "I meant that, back there. It's... brave." he blushes again. "Not that I'm calling you a poof or--!"
Finny laughs and wraps an arm around his shoulders. "Calm down, I know you're not, Forrester. And I meant what I said back there too. It means a lot to hear you say that."
Gene smiles a bit proudly and relaxes in the comfortable grip of his friend. He can't help but wonder though... I mean, it's terrible, but a guy can't wear pink without others wondering if he doesn't like women... he shakes those thoughts out of his head quickly. He did not want to turn into Brink, in any ways.
"I can't believe Brinker was that narrow-minded." he says instead. Finny snorts.
"I can. Brink's a nice guy. He's just..."
"Rude? Stubborn? Always so goddamn smug about something?"
Finny bursts out laughing and Gene can't help but grin too. "Well I was gonna say 'set in his beliefs' but god, all that is so true!"
"It is, isn't it." Gene says. "Someone should yank out that six foot pole up his ass."
"Mm hm." Finny muses.
"...I still can't believe you called that shirt salmon, you ass."
And Finny just laughs.