Beyond The Walls
Chapter 54: Unexpected Part 1
May was laughing when Gary entered her bedroom and lay down on his stomach on the blue couch near the windows. She barely glanced over at him as she leaned against her dresser, talking on her phone to someone whom he presumed to be one of her friends based on her giggling.
"He's actually in my room right now… Yeah, he's skulking… Yep… No, not Andrew, surprisingly… Anna – who else?" Curious, Gary sat up and rested his arms on the back of the couch; she was probably talking to Alex, he figured. May glanced over at him and smiled as she spoke again. "No, he didn't; I'm proud of him. Grandpa was really happy… Well, I've been telling Alex that but… Exactly. I'm sure he'll be happy to hear about it either way." Gary frowned and tilted his head to the side. If she wasn't talking to Alex than who was on the other line? Perhaps Monica; she was the only other person he could think of.
She caught his eye suddenly and giggled. "No, I'm not laughing at you! I'm laughing at my brother… He's trying to figure out who I'm talking to, it's pretty cute, actually."
Gary snorted and shook his head. "Not exactly what I was going for," he informed his sister who stuck her tongue out at him.
"That was modest for him, wasn't it?" she asked whoever she was talking to, a small smirk curving her lips as her eyes glittered mirthfully in Gary's direction. "Aw, but… Okay, I'll talk to you soon… Oh, hey – you want to talk to Chris?" Gary frowned again; why would Monica want to talk to Chris? "Well, he is your best friend."
"Are you talking to Damien?"
May moved the phone away from her mouth and shot him a glare. "Shut up – not you! Gary! He finally figured it out… Yeah, I know, he isn't the brightest –"
"Hey!"
"Ok, I'll tell him… Bye!" She hung up the phone and tossed it on to her desk while humming quietly.
Gary's frown deepened as he watched his sister continue humming while she peered into the mirror over her vanity and fixed her hair with a sweet smile on her face. He hadn't expected her to be talking to one of his friends, though Damien wasn't exactly the most surprising person for her to talk to. The two siblings had actually known him for many years before Gary moved to Pastoria because of Alex and Monica's relationship, it wasn't until Gary had stayed in Pastoria for school that the boys became friends and it wasn't until recently that May had become friends with him. "What were you doing talking to Damien?" he asked curiously. He scowled when she didn't respond. "May? Hey – earth to May!"
May finally turned to face him with her lips pursed slightly as she often did whenever he annoyed her. "I'm allowed to be social, Gary," she replied crisply.
"I wasn't implying otherwise; I was just wondering." Gary lay back down on the couch with a small groan when she once more didn't respond. "You two have been talking a lot lately," he observed calmly as he crossed his arms behind his head.
May smiled in his general direction and crossed the room to sit on the window seat facing him. "Damien told me to tell you that you're a pain in the ass." Gary laughed quietly and rolled his eyes at the comment, not at all surprised to hear that. "Does it bother you that I'm talking to one of your friends, you little brat?"
Gary shook his head. "Why would it bother me? You and Damien have always gotten along; it's just kind of weird to see you two suddenly become best friends."
"Best friends?" May echoed with a short laugh. "I wouldn't go quite that far, Gary. We're just good friends." She shrugged and laughed again, flashing a grin at her brother.
"I think my head might explode. Why don't you just sleep with him and get it over with?"
May's smile was quickly replaced with a strange expression as though she were contemplating what Gary had just said. "He's like an older brother to you, Gary; wouldn't that bother you?"
"Chris is the older brother; Damien's more like the really cool best friend of the older brother. And I was joking about sleeping with him."
Her thoughtful expression faltered and was replaced with a cross between a frown and a tiny scowl. She had hoped for a moment that her brother was being serious and actually wouldn't care if a relationship with one of his friends went somewhat beyond that of innocent but that didn't seem to be the case. She had, as Gary had pointed out, always gotten along well with Damien and, after talking with Anna a few months prior, her interest in the boy had spiked. Sure, they had spoken and hung out a lot when everyone had come for Gary's birthday, and they had certainly flirted a bit then. They had flirted even more during the time she spent in Pastoria after Christmas and had started talking regularly after that, but it wasn't until Anna had boldly suggested something less chaste than flirtation that she really thought about him in a way other than friendly.
Since she had gotten to know Damien better, she had realized that he bore similarities to the males closest to her; Gary, Alex, and even her grandfather. He was a bit sarcastic, though not to the extent of her brother; he, like Alex, played some guitar as well as drums like Chris, but didn't make music one of his priorities like Gary, despite a natural talent. He was somewhat successful at a young age as Alex and her grandfather had both been, having graduated high school a year early and quickly making his way through college to earn a degree in sociology while obtaining a well-paying job at a radio station that he enjoyed greatly. May couldn't help but appreciate the fact that he didn't work in the sciences like any of the other three and was even happier about the fact that his degree was in a science that didn't involve a laboratory of any sort. As much as she enjoyed working in the lab and helping her grandfather, she tended to grow bored rather quickly with hearing so many large words and dealing with so many fragile pieces of equipment – and that wasn't even including the work with the animals! She knew she would eventually get sick of bandaging injured paws, stitching up wounds, and drawing blood; not to mention dodging stings, bites, scratches, and even the occasional Flamethrower or Water Gun. How wonderful would it be to have a man in her life that found those things to be dull and uninteresting! Granted, he did like pouring over books way more than Gary, Alex, or even Professor Oak did; but she could deal with that, especially since Damien seemed to have a vast interest in anthropology, which was a subject she found to be somewhat interesting.
He was nicer than her brother, less scatter-brained and eccentric than her grandfather, and more uninvolved than Alex could ever manage to be. And he was one of her brother's few friends with short hair, even if it was dyed in a way that was reminiscent of a style Anna had sported a year or so ago. She, unlike Bella and Anna, wasn't partial to long hair on boys; although she had to admit that the long locks looked good on her brother with his high cheekbones and bright eyes, and it looked downright sexy on Chris with the way it fell in disarrayed waves, and, over her lifetime, she had grown used to it on Alex and couldn't picture him without it.
She certainly hoped Gary wouldn't be stubborn with this issue but she wasn't about to bring it up anymore with the ways his nerves were likely to be severely frayed after fighting with his girlfriend. Monica had slyly suggested that they become closer but Alex and the professor both seemed clueless to this developing crush that May harbored.
"You're spacing out again," Gary's voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She raised her eyes to his and held his gaze for a moment, trying to think of a way to get off of a subject that had the potential to be dangerous.
"Where have you been for the past hour or so?" she asked finally.
His shoulders seemed to droop a bit, even laying down, when question passed his sister's lips. "Anna's."
"I take it you guys didn't make up?"
"We kind of did… then she got pissed at me again."
At the sad tone of his voice, May stood and walked over to the couch to sit down next to him. "What happened?" she asked softly, resting a hand on his back as she did so.
With a small sigh, Gary told her everything that had happened while he was gone – the conversation with Anna in her bedroom, Rachael's strange behavior, and then the final encounter with Anna in the kitchen. He felt almost a sense of despair as he told May everything that had happened with Anna and May could definitely sense how much the situation was tearing her brother up. The confidence he had been showing in the recent months was waning as he spoke and the evident happiness he had been feeling recently was fading as well, leaving him strained and even a bit vulnerable. May couldn't help but feel sympathy towards her brother, having dealt with the twin girls' inability to get along nearly as much as he had in the fast several years, even more so than he had while he lived in Pastoria and she remained in Pallet.
She smiled understandingly when he finally stopped talking and hugged him sweetly. "I don't know what to tell you; you're just going to have to decide for yourself whether or not it's worth worrying over Rachael. I see where you're coming from, but let's face it, your relationship with Anna is more important to you than Rachael is. It doesn't matter how you look at it, that's just how it is."
"That's not making this any easier."
I'm sorry, Gary, but this is something you have to figure out on your own."
"Yeah," he agreed, slowly standing up to leave the room for the comfort of his own bed. "But it doesn't mean I have to like it at all. Night, May."
--- --- ---
Andrew sighed as he lay back down on the dark carpet in his friend's bedroom, playing one of Gary's guitars absentmindedly. A few days had passed since Gary and Anna's argument and they had yet to make up still; Anna was still staying at her mother's house while Gary seemed to grow more anxious and antsy by the day. This particular day was going pretty lousy – it was cold out and thunderstorms had been rolling across Johto and into Kanto all day. They were unable to train because of the weather and there was little to do in the lab since the puppies were now about two months old and Chris was apprehensive about milking the venomous snake pokemon with the way the weather was upsetting the animals. On top of that, Tracey and Chelsey had driven to New Bark Town in the Johto region to pick up something from Professor Elm's lab. He was certainly not thrilled with the idea of his boyfriend driving through this weather.
The hours were passing slowly despite the way weeks seemed to fly by at top speed. The repetitive melody coming from the direction of the piano was not helping time go by any faster no matter how much he kept sitting up to glare at Gary from across the room. Andrew finally set the guitar down and sat up with a groan.
"Gary! What the hell? You've been playing Bed of Razors and Ever Dream for the past half hour!"
Gary's hands paused over the keys briefly before he turned to his annoyed friend. "Have I?"
"Yes! Why are you so obsessed with those two songs today?"
"I'm not obsessed… I've just been thinking…"
Andrew groaned again and raked a hand through his hair in an irritated fashion. "I thought you said you were going to tone that down a bit?"
Gary nodded slowly. He could understand Andrew's mild irritation at this, after all it was a bit of a return to his tendency to over-think things; though he had to think that this situation was not one of his moments of over-thinking. "I did; I'm just kind of worried."
"Anna's sister still?" Andrew asked as he reached for the guitar once more. Gary nodded once more. "If it's bothering you so much then maybe you should talk to her."
"I did. It didn't work out so well," Gary reminded him. He had told him the day after it had happened when Andrew came to his room and nearly dragged him out of bed because he slept so much later than he was supposed to on a day when they were working in the lab. That had been on Monday, it was now Wednesday.
"Then try again," Andrew replied simply with a small shrug.
"I don't think Anna would like that very much."
Andrew frowned as his fingers slid over the fret board. There was a slight tone to Gary's voice that he couldn't quite understand and, as much as he liked Anna, he couldn't see why Gary was allowing his fear of Anna's reaction to override his concern for the other girl who had apparently been a close friend for many years. "Maybe. It all comes down to you, man. If you're that worried, then talk to her – she is Anna's sister, I'm sure Anna cares enough to oversee you talking to her."
Gary turned back to the keyboard, gazing down at the black and white keys for a moment before glancing up to see the music book that was incidentally open to a Vivaldi song he vividly recalled playing with Rachael sometime in August. Though the book was open to the exact middle of the piece, he could tell exactly which one it was – Winter, the second movement; the largo, the slower portion of the song after the key had switched from F to C minor. His eyes moved across the page, following the way the melody swept through the key, moving up and down throughout the scale, going through marked crescendos and successive decrescendos as the piece went on. He eyes the added natural notes canceling out the flat notes of the key, leading to miniature and short-lived key changes that he could almost hear in his mind.
Closing his eyes, he could mentally hear the way Rachael's violin had played the high staccato notes later in the song so many months ago. He remembered the way she had smiled and laughed quietly when he played the same part on one of his guitars; he had impressed her that day by swiftly transposing the notes to fit his instrument without even looking at the book for reference. At the time, he had passed it off with a shrug and a smirk but, secretly, he himself had been pretty surprised as well.
With his eyes still closed, his fingers fell to the keys once more, carefully running over them to feel out specific pitches. Subconsciously driven by the key signature he had seen on the music staves in the book before him, his hands traced out a familiar melody in the same key.
Andrew rolled and slumped against the bed behind him. "For the love of Odin, Gary! Stop!" While Gary ignored the frustrated growl, one of the three dozing puppies on the bed perked up before realizing that the blonde boy hadn't been referring to him. The door opened suddenly and Andrew looked up at their newest arrival in surprise while Gary stayed focused on the piano in front of him.
"Hey, boys; so much for training, huh? God, Gary, don't you ever play anything other than Nightwish these days?"
Gary turned suddenly from the piano to see Alex leaning against the wall next to the door with a small smile playing across his lips.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Gary asked, at a loss for something better to say.
"Hey, Alex," Andrew greeted cheerfully, having finally gotten over his shock enough to respond. "I feel bad for you having to drive in this weather."
Alex crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed next to the pups. "Thanks, Andrew, it definitely wasn't a fun drive; I'll tell you that much. As far as you go, Gary – what type of greeting is that?"
"A surprised one," Gary shot back.
"Well, at least you're honest," Alex muttered. "I told you back in December that I would be around. The semester's already more than half-done; I have to help Chris out for him to graduate on time." He paused and glanced between the two teenagers, Andrew still sitting on the floor with the guitar now perched on his lap and a slightly-curious look to him, Gary barely paying attention as his eyes focused on the sheet music atop the piano. Something seemed off; there was a sort of palpable tension to the air that wasn't lost on him. "What's going on with you two?" he asked casually.
Andrew glanced over at Gary when he didn't respond and frowned before turning to look up at Alex. "Gary's worried."
A strange expression crossed over Alex's face for a moment and he closed his eyes briefly before responding. "And what exactly is the worrisome issue this time, Gary?"
"Rachael," both boys answered flatly. Gary didn't so much as glance up while Andrew went back to absentmindedly fingering the strings of the instrument in his lap.
"Rachael?" Alex echoed, thoroughly confused now. "Did she and Anna get in another fight?" He frowned when Gary shook his head. "Then what is it?"
Once again, Gary didn't answer though he did raise his eyes from the book in front of him only to gaze out the window next to the piano. Andrew sighed and stopped playing, answering for his obviously distracted friend. "Gary's afraid she's going to do something drastic… Like try to kill herself."
"I never said that," Gary finally spoke up.
Alex scoffed quietly. "Kill herself? She wouldn't risk wrinkling her clothes." He and Andrew exchanged a slightly-worried glance when Gary looked down at his hands that were resting in his lap. They both knew that it was unusual for him to be so quiet as of late. It just went to show how worried he was. "You're probably just over-thinking it, Gary," Alex said after a moment.
Gary frowned and clenched his fists, suddenly annoyed by the way everyone kept putting off his concern for a habit he had mostly given up two months prior. Could no one understand why he was worried? He couldn't see why Andrew of all people passed it off as the result of his overactive mind – didn't he understand firsthand the severity of this? And then there was Alex; hadn't he already seen the danger in overlooking warning signs? Didn't he learn anything from learning of Gary's own attempt on his life so many months ago?
Not only was he being met with skepticism but he was quite torn. Rachael had been a close friend for years. She was Anna's twin sister for heaven's sake! But that was the catch; she was Anna's sister. The girl who had been cruel enough to turn the strong and independent woman that Anna usually was into a sobbing wreck who couldn't even begin to calm down until Gary had arrived. The girl who had manipulated and used one of his closest friends from childhood, one of the sweetest people he had ever met in his life. Talking to her would be betraying Anna and Kate… Hadn't he already betrayed Kate enough in the past? And he wasn't about to risk Anna's ire yet again.
But wouldn't ignoring this be the ultimate betrayal to the friend that Rachael had been? His head was starting to spin with questions of betrayal…
He sighed and stood up from the piano, unable to sit there with that sheet music in front of him like that. He felt almost lost… When Alex had appeared suddenly, Gary had hoped briefly that maybe he could help him decide what to do but the chance of that happening appeared to be going out the window.
--- --- ---
May was unusually bored for a Wednesday afternoon – she was usually busy around the lab but today's weather left her with nothing to do. Her grandfather had told her that she could do whatever she wanted for the rest of the day and she had resorted to lying down in her room since Bella, Michelle, and Kate were all at work while Anna was still avoiding the house and Gary. She hated rainy days for this exact reason; they always seemed to occur on days when her friends were too busy to hang out with her. On top of that, her brother was in a strange mood, Tracey and Chelsey were out, Chris and Shawn were busy in the lab, Ash was out doing something with his pokemon, and Andrew was, of course, being his usual self and spending every minute hanging around Gary. She was bored, lonely, and… well, bored.
That was what had led her to where she was, lounging on the couch in the living room with her nose buried in an outdated copy of Cosmopolitan while occasionally glancing up to admire the muscular actors on the television as Troy played in the background. Her growlithe puppy, Freya, was curled up next to her, cowering at the bursts of thunder sounding outside the windows. With the television on, she couldn't hear the door leading to the lab open and close, nor could she hear footsteps enter the room and approach the couch she was lying on. The cushions on the back of the couch shifted suddenly as someone rested their arms on the back of the couch and peered down at her.
"Hey, pretty girl."
May looked up in surprise and sat up quickly, flattening her hair in an attempt to make it look more presentable. "What are you doing here?" She couldn't keep the excitement out of her voice as she jumped up and rushed around to the back of the couch to greet the guest.
"Alex was coming down to check up on Chris' work so I figured I would come along too," Damien replied, returning the friendly hug that May gave him.
"But what are you doing about work?" May sat back down next to the puppy as a particularly brilliant streak of lightning lit up the sky as was followed by perhaps the loudest bit of thunder she had heard all day.
Damien sat down next to her and smiled in mild amusement as Freya crawled into her lap. "Liana's covering for me, she needs the extra hours to pay for her bridesmaid's dress for Charlotte's wedding in May," he explained. "This must be Freya," he observed as he reached over to scratch her behind the ears.
"Yep, she's scared of her own shadow." May laughed softly as the growlithe began licking Damien's hand.
"She's pretty cute; it's fitting that she's yours."
May blushed slightly and glanced up from the puppy to meet his dark green eyes. "Of course; there's no way she could've been my brother's."
Damien gave a small laugh and shook his head. "That's because Gary's a whiney brat."
"Don't let him hear you say that, he'll beat you up!"
He laughed again and flexed his muscles. "I'd love to see him try," he teased as May giggled again. "How is the runt; he and Anna make up yet?"
May stopped laughing and sobered quickly as she looked down at Freya and absentmindedly pet her head. "He's okay, I guess. She's been avoiding him so he's kind of stressing out over it."
Damien leaned back against the cushions with his arm across the back of the couch, only a few inches away from where her shoulder was as she sat facing him. An impulsive part of her wanted to lean against the cushions as well, if only to feel his hand against her skin. It had been a long time since she had felt the touch of any male other than the friends or family and it was making her feel a bit reckless; she mentally warned herself to stay far away from any alcoholic drinks while Damien was around on this particular visit of Alex's.
"It sounds like you're pretty stressed over it as well."
If May had wanted to feel his hand on her a moment before than that feeling was greatly intensified by the comment that was spoken thoughtfully and quietly. And was it just her, or did his voice sound lower than it had a moment ago? She shook her head and forced the thoughts away. She figured she must have been spending too much time with her brother and his best friend; they must have been wearing off on her, to make her this … desperate for someone's touch. She hated to even think that the term "desperate" applied to her.
"I guess I am," she admitted a bit grudgingly. "But he's my baby brother; I need to look after him."
Damien shook his head slightly at her words. "He's eighteen; I don't think he really needs another person looking after him –"
"But you know how he is!"
"I do, but he's old enough to look after himself. Maybe you need to look after yourself instead."
"Maybe I'm waiting for someone else to do that for me," May shot back with a sly smile.
"Well, if that's the case… Then you're pretty damn clever to do that; you know men can't resist a damsel in distress."
A grin spread across May's face at that. "I guess I must be a quadruple threat then because this damsel in distress is smart, funny, and a good cook," she teased with a playful wink.
Damien opened his mouth to respond but closed it as loud footsteps echoed down the stairs along with Andrew's voice talking loudly to someone else. The two twenty-year-olds exchanged smiles and quickly moved further away from each other as Andrew and Alex appeared in the doorway with Gary following them quietly.
--- --- ---
::Author's Notes::
Wow, I had to drag out my old notes from my music class almost two years ago for that part about the Vivaldi piece. Vivaldi's Winter is one of my favorite pieces of classical music, second perhaps to Bach's Invention 13 or Mozart's Requiem. Trans-Siberian Orchestra's combination of Mozart's Requiem and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony is pretty freaking sweet too… Who says metalheads can't like classical? : )
The two songs that Andrew complained about Gary playing were Nightwish's Ever Dream from their Century Child album and Children of Bodom's Bed of Razors from their Hatebreeder album. The song that Alex walks in on (the one that annoys Andrew) after Gary looks at the Vivaldi piece is Nightwish's She Is My Sin from their amazing Wishmaster album.
Ok, ok, and I admit I was drooling over Orlando Bloom in Troy when I wrote the beginning of that scene with May and Damien…
I apologize in advance if the next chapter is a bit late, I've been having a hard time getting inspiration for this story, especially while I've been working on Secrets Told.
