Yeah, it's been awhile. But college and work and real life…. It all bites and it's overrated! NEVER GROW UP!!!!! Haha, ok, moving on!
He arrived back at Tommy's house to find another car in the driveway. Just as ugly and beaten down as Tommy's but with a missing license plate and a cracked windshield. He parked Kimi's car on the street (she had a Benz, how she could afford it was beyond him) and locked it carefully, before heading inside. He hesitated at the door, not sure whether he should bother knocking and then decided to just walk in. He heard laughter and immediately recognized Phil's voice. Sure enough, Phil, Kimi and Tommy were sitting in the living room, two open pizza boxes and several beers opened on the coffee table.
"Hey Chuckie!!" Phil jumped up and ran over to give Chuckie the typical one armed, one-pat hug, "How's it hanging man??"
"Great, how bout you?" He asked, as they sat back down.
"A little to the left," Phil said laughing. Chuckie rolled his eyes and leaned forward to grab a beer.
"At least we know your sense of humor hasn't changed." He said dryly.
"Oh, hey, what you drinking the beer for?" Phil asked suddenly, "I brought you something special!" He reached under the table and pulled out a six-pack of the flavored Smirnoff drinks.
"Since we all know that you can't handle hard liquor or the taste of a good mans beer!" Phil said grinning and Tommy and Kimi both laughed as they remembered the many parties that they'd had and Chuckie's moderate sipping of the Smirnoff Ices and Mike's Hard Lemonades while everyone else slammed down shot after shot of whatever liquor anybody had thought to bring.
"I'll have you know, I've come to like the taste of beer and I can take a shot just as good as any of you." He said firmly, a daring glare sent to Phil, who still grinned though his eyebrows had risen.
"Is that a challenge, my dear… friend?" Phil asked quietly.
"Oh, indeed it is… buddy." Chuckie said as equally quiet, resisting the powerful urge to laugh.
"Well then, it's on… pal." Phil said, and then before anyone could speak, "Kimi's on my team!!!"
"Hey, we weren't talking teams here." Chuckie said panicked.
"What?? You afraid of going against a girl?" Phil goaded.
"GIRL? That's a machine! Reigning Champion of Shots for five years in a row! Hell nah! Besides she's my sister! We should be on the same team!"
"Oh both of you calm down. I'm not drinking tonight anyways! I've got some papers to send over to my boss tomorrow morning and I still haven't typed them up." Kimi interjected, "Have a slice of pizza and save your energy for Saturday night."
"Saturday night? What's Saturday night?" Chuckie asked.
"Tommy's having a party. You can have your little contest then, alright?"
"Alright, but we aren't doing teams." Chuckie said firmly, sitting back and taking a swig from the beer.
"Pansy." Phil huffed, somewhat playfully.
"Chill out." Tommy said and Chuckie turned to him, nearly having forgotten he was there. He was leaning back on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling and the thought traveled briefly through his mind that he looked somewhat plastered even though there were only 5 opened beers on the coffee table. And he figured he was just tired.
"We're just joking Tommy, it's alright." Chuckie said lightly, never would he have thought that he would need to tell Tommy they were just playing around. And everyone thought that he was the sensitive one. Tommy slid a glance over and then pulled himself up from the couch.
"I'm going to bed. I got to be at work in a few hours. Chuckie, you know where every thing is, and, you two know where the door is. See ya." He gave a forced smile and the waved before making his way down the hall to his bedroom. Chuckie looked at the others questioningly. Kimi merely shrugged and Phil took a swig from his beer.
"Has he been like that all day?" Chuckie asked quietly.
"He was kind of quiet on the drive back, but he wasn't all, moody like that." She said and then stood, "Alright, well I've got to start working on those reports anyways. I'll see you on Saturday at the latest." She gathered up her wallet and Chuckie handed her the keys.
"See ya." They gave each other another hug and she exited. Chuckie sat back down again and looked over at all Phil who was chugging the beer. He rolled his eyes and picked up the remote, kicking his legs up on the coffee table.
"What??? He killed my buzz." Phil said once the beer was empty.
"You want to stay and watch something?" He asked. Phil shook his head.
"I'm gonna take a page from Kimi's book, I got work tomorrow… and an AA meeting, hehe, part of my 'healing process.' Plus, I don't want Tommy to come back out barking again." Phil grinned and grabbed his keys from the table, standing. He waved and headed out the door.
Chuckie flipped absentmindedly through the channels and finally landed on Law and Order. He watched it for a few minutes and then, glancing at the mess on the table, stood. He gathered up all the beer bottles and the half empty pizza box and made his way to the kitchen where he slid the pizza into the fridge, always a good breakfast, and set the bottles next to the sink. He noticed all the dishes from the morning had been washed and put away. He looked around again, for what, he wasn't sure, but then made his way back to the sofa where he laid down to watch the rest of the show, but soon his eyes were closed and he was sleeping.
He woke to a shuffling in the kitchen, the TV had been shut off and the only light came from the stove. A blanket had been laid over him and he felt oddly warm at the idea that Tommy had performed the gesture. He turned tiredly over to look into the kitchen where Tommy was eating quietly, not having seen him wake. Chuckie watched him silent, eyes still bleary from sleep. He glanced over at the microwaves clock and saw it was 1am, his warehouse job than. Tommy set his fork down a bit heavily and put his head in his hands, with a visible sigh. There was a backpack next to the table and Tommy leaned down and dug in it for a bit, he pulled out brown paper sack and set it on the table where he dug in that too. He pulled out a bottle and opened it, dumping some pills into his hand, where he popped them into his mouth and took a big gulp from his orange juice.
Chuckie frowned and closed his eyes, discreetly trying to shift so Tommy couldn't see him. It must've been the antidepressants. It had to be. But then… what were the other things he heard rattling in the bag? What else did he have? No, he shouldn't jump to conclusions. Hell, everyone carried around painkillers and other over the counter medicines.
Tommy stood, the chair scraping against the tile and then the light went off on the stove and Chuckie heard footsteps head to the door, where they halted and he resisted the urge to open his eyes, even the slightest. Tommy walked back toward him and pulled the blanket back up to his shoulders and then cool fingertips brushed his forehead.
"Night, Chuck." Tommy murmured and then headed out the door, locking it with a firm click. He breathed a sigh and opened his eyes to stare up at the dark ceiling. He lay there thinking for the longest time and finally, sleep recaptured him.
AN: Finally! I know!! Anyways. Hope you enjoyed, the rest will be going into stuff I have written down… somewhere, so the next update shouldn't take as long, especially considering my hours have been chopped form 40 to 24 (GRRRRRR) and schools letting out for the term pretty quick.
Review, if you will.