Drabbles: Doors That Stay Closed and Because He Can (Giles)

Doors That Stay Closed


He locks his front door here, though no one comes to it but the postman, or Mrs. Pulsifer from up the lane when her garden produces too many aubergines. The bedroom has a door, but he can wank off with it open if he likes. (See above: door, front, locked.) No one slams the icebox shut after looking for diet soda. No one bangs the cupboards or the glass fronts of the bookcases.

Mornings, he translates; he rereads Middlemarch in the afternoons. He cooks the aubergines into too-elaborate dishes and leaves his stereo off.

He sleeps uneasily in the silence.



Then glimmergirl asked "Why doesn't anyone ever write about a Giles who's glad to get away from the annoying teenagers?"


Because He Can


The first night he goes to the pub and meets a woman. He brings her home after closing, one hand on her ass while he fumbles with the lock. She pushes against him and they fall across the threshold and shag in the hall like two school-leavers, never minding that the door's ajar and his keys are still in it.

Next time it's a man, and they never make it to the door, but bugger each other in the stairwell.

When he spends the night with people who'll stay to breakfast, he still leaves the door unlocked. Because he can.

High School meme from glimmergirl

School and Year you graduated
local public high school, 1995

Number of people in your graduating class:
About 300

Nickname in high school?
Nothing consistent. E (greyhoundliz sometimes called me 'Doc' or 'Doctor' apropos of a complicated Star Trek joke, and I once went by 'Thurber' for an evening, but that's it.

Sport you were into?
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha *gasp* hahahahahaha

Had a circle of friends?
I moved in a social circle, especially in the first couple years, but my closest friends were a year ahead of me, so by senior year, not so much.

Best subject?
History, followed by English. I consistently got good grades in history; in English, it was much more variable.

Worst subject?
Math, though the one F I ever got on an assignment was in French.

A teacher you owe life lessons to?
From high school? Hum... Well, Mr. P, my ninth grade history teacher,. was the first person who came out to me. (He didn't come out just to me, but to the whole class - the whole school, I mean, but his classes first.)

Describe in one word...
Freshman (year 9): Relief
Sophmore (year 10): Angst
Junior (year 11): Okay!
Senior (year 12): Agony

Your best friend was?
E, aka greyhoundliz

Worst friend?
S.

Cafeteria food sucked?
I brought my lunch... can't remember buying any of the hot food.

Wore uniforms?
No.

How was the prom?
Not a clue. I was beyond disinterested.

Who were the prom king and queen?
Probably there wasn't one.

Any achievements?
Not really. I was on the honor roll a fair bit (A's and B's) though never the high honor roll (straight A's), and I got a $500 scholarship from Whole Foods when I graduated.

Were you popular?
kneejerk response: no. honest response: it doesn't, and didn't, especially matter. I had people to do things with, I had some good friends who I still have (R and greyhoundliz, and best of all, the people who'd been mean and snarky to me in junior high had grown up and stopped it.

Best song that reminds you of high school?
Gloucestershire Wassail. Either sang it or heard it sung at every Winter Concert for four years.