Down the Road
PG-13
A/N: Thanks DC, you've been kind to me. :P:).
Chapter 9
"KURT!"
"WHAT?"
Chris rushed into the place, not being able to take it. It had been three days after what he found out, and he couldn't keep it from Kurt any longer. Once Kurt recovered from absolute shock caused by Chris' mad interruption, he settled on his recliner. "So tell me how it went with Victoria."
"She was nice. She was... great. I think I like her alot."
"Good," Kurt said. "You didn't do anything did you?"
"She kissed me, and that's about it. We talked. Kurt, there's something else I want to tell you."
"That can wait. Now tell me---"
"Kurt! I'm going mad! Kurt! I have to tell it to you!"
"What?" he asked, a bit annoyed. Chris was panting, and he could suffer a heart attack if he wasn't careful.
"You know the guy whose business I wreaked havoc on?"
"The one about the Big Mac?" Chris nodded in response. "What about it?"
"That guy's Steph's boyfriend."
"So?"
"KURT! I LOVE HER! I CANNOT POSSIBLY TOLERATE HER BEING WITH SOME---"
"CALM DOWN!" Kurt shouted, equaling his volume. "You have to be happy for her."
"How exactly can I be happy for her? Do you know how much this Chris hates her for making him feeling this way? D'you know? And so you fix me up with some nice girl like Victoria and think that its going to work? What's wrong with you?"
Kurt had a strong reaction in store for Chris, a side he'd never seen before. He couldn't take whatever Chris had to blame him for. "There's nothing wrong with me, Chris. I'm only doing my job as a friend, and I'm pretty sick of taking the blame. Your decisions are yours to make, and I've left them for you to deal with."
"You never---"
"I HAVE!" He blew up. His face was red, and his heart was pumping twice as fast. "What do you want me to do? Crawl on my knees and beg for forgiveness? They're your mistakes, and it goes as far as that. Not mine."
"You don't give a damn about me. Its like entertainment to you, isn't it? Some mad, funny shit for you to watch. I'm not stupid. I don't even understand why you've got your nose so far up my business. Or why you even care."
"I happen to be your best friend, and I'm the only one who's going to support you. If you don't feel that way at all, I guess you won't have this best friend anymore. I've got so much more to handle than you."
"What are you talking about?" Chris said, looking at him. "More than me?"
"Don't think that you're always the first thing I think about every morning, like what you do with Steph all the time. You'll never understand what I feel about some things and ---"
Chris interrupted and the huge quarrel came up from nowhere, voices risen so loud they could be capable of being charged with disturbing the peace at this time of hour. Swears and curses were plentiful and they seemed so close to resorting to a fist fight. Chris continued his long winded speech and Kurt was doing the same at the same time.
"---you don't care because you're too busy with your own problems? What kind of a best friend are you---" Chris continued.
"---what frick of a right do you own to demand me into causing all your problems and I'm probably the best that you'll find---"
"---Then tell me what those problems are since they're so damn important---"
"---You want to know?" Kurt said, so angry at Chris for being an asshole. "You want to know?"
"Yeah I want to know," Chris replied before he finished. "Tell me what's so fucking troubling your mind."
"I'M STILL IN LOVE WITH STEPHANIE TOO DAMMIT!" He yelled, then cooled off a little with hard clenches to his fists.
Whoa. Hold up. HOLD UP. Chris' brain stopped. Rewind. Stop. Play. Kurt said that he was still in love with Stephanie... Great. Now Chris felt bad, like he was in the wrong. In frustration, he ran his fingers through his hair and let a few locks fall here and there. He plopped down on the chair and covered his red hot face with his hands, running them down. He felt like crying now. No, not now.
"Don't you DARE tell me that I don't give a damn about you!" Kurt shouted, his finger shoving down on the air above Chris. "I have been there twenty-four seven, all day, everyday, for you. Don't tell me that I haven't been a good friend, because I know that I have tried my very best to be there to support you." Kurt allowed himself to breathe. "Just take a good look at yourself. You can't cope with anything. So my job is to help you out with that. If you can't see it, then fine. Because I don't want to waste my time with someone who throws my help back at me." Finally, he simmered down and returned to his calm self again.
Kurt was so right for blowing up on him. It gave Chris the biggest slap across his senses of his entire life, and he was glad. He was just being selfish, venting his anger on his truest, bluest, best friend.
There was a stony silence that dominated the moment of five to six minutes, then Chris managed an apology. "I'm sorry," he said, tapping his fingers nervously on the dark leather, "I was just being stupid."
"You bet you were," Kurt shot back. "But I'm glad we had this conflict."
"...I'm still in shock man, I mean... That Princess is one lucky girl," Chris said. "I do believe that she's very much for me though."
"That's right, be selfish," Kurt retorted quickly. "It's hard to get over, but I'm still trying to. I don't believe that you're helpless in this case."
Chris smiled. "Thanks alot man." He looked around the place. "You know, I'm feeling a little hungry. Care for some pizza?"
Kurt pasted a disgusted look on his face. "No thankyou. I've had enough experiences with that. I don't think I'll be touching any of it until very late in my life."
"I'm ordering it anyway.... Ten bucks says you speak to the pizza guy in a german accent and make him understand you." Kurt immediately went for the phone.
***
Stephanie called Chris and wanted him to get better aquainted with the boyfriend of hers, then rush off to meet Victoria again. Not to sound bad, but he wished he could cancel Victoria to have more chances to mess up the fool. He made his way to another restaurant, in which GREG picked. Chris bet it was cheesy. Of course, no matter how cheesy the place was, Steph would like it because he was her boyfriend. Said like a spoilt 5 year old kid.
He took a right turn and walked across the road, passing by cars that emitted smoke in his face. His hands were in his pockets, feeling cold and nervous all of a sudden. He was going to meet the record store manager who was Stephanie's boyfriend, whom he was going to hate when he met him. He stepped into the crowded place, looking around for her...
"Chris," Stephanie called from behind him. He turned around and she was looking quite... better than usual. She was looking like herself, but she had a glow. How peculiar. A yellow three-quarter sleeved turtle-necked top, accompanied by just some normal black slacks. She had a white hairband on her head and hardly any makeup at all. Stephanie looked like Stephanie, but just after she came from a day spa. She just looked... nicer.
"Take a seat?" she asked, her voice snapping him out of a daze. "Chris?"
"Yeah?" he responded with a faraway look in his eyes. "Steph, I think... I think you look nice today."
She smiled warmly and extended a hand as a gesture for him to sit, which he did obediently. Of course when he said anything, he didn't notice her boyfriend standing directly behind her. This began to make Greg rather weary of Chris, even if Stephanie had told him that the blonde was her best friend. The both of them followed suit and took their places next to each other.
"I do believe that you're pretty good in filling your duties as a best friend," the manager began.
"Better than you'll ever be," Chris muttered under cold breath.
"Sorry?" Greg replied.
"Oh, I said, 'the best one that you'll ever meet'," he replied quickly. "Anyway, I suppose you picked Stephanie for a reason."
Greg smiled to himself and put an arm around Stephanie. Chris felt a little jealous at that. He was supposed to be the one doing that, not this poofy man. Stephanie looked up at her boyfriend with a smile of her own, her hand reaching up unknowingly to stroke his. Ugh, that sort of twisted Chris' gut. "Well, you see, we bumped into each other in the grocery store, and there was this big upset about the things we dropped..." The rest of his yap went into one ear and out the other for about the end of ten excruciating minutes, but when Stephanie spoke, she shortened the story drastically. He went from nodding his head robotically, to becoming intent.
"We just met by accident and from then onwards, I think he's very much suited for me."
Suited for HIM? *What about me?* Chris thought, his brain on panic mode, and like a knife was stabbed in his midsection. *What about this poor man whose heart plays jump rope everytime for you?* He felt that knife turn in his gut at her words, but on the outside, he just sighed.
"You're a very lucky man, you know," he heard himself say.
"I know that," the man opposite smiled. "Tell me about yourself then."
So he began, and told him how HE met Stephanie, then talked about everything else.
"Kurt?" Greg asked. "The name sounds rather familiar."
"That person's his very best friend," Stephanie said.
"But I thought he was your best friend," Greg nodded to Chris.
"Its complicated," she said, trying to let Chris have the chance to explain who Kurt really was.
"...You know the guy who climbed to the top of the roof of a house and did a really good King Kong imitation? Yeah, that was Kurt."
"You're friends with a madman?" Greg said incredulously.
"It's not that. We just have frequent betting games and we dare each other to do stuff. Its fun."
Greg gave Chris one look he couldn't interpret. Stephanie came to the rescue and added, "Its just a game they play... I happen to play it too sometimes."
"I see," he said, nodding in understanding. "Well, nothing too outrageous I hope."
"Oh, you don't know the time when I stood in front of the---" Steph gestured for him to cut it off.
"Chris, don't you think you should tell something else?"
"No, I really want to hear it," Greg insisted, leaning forward a bit.
"I mooned a cathedral," he said, lowering his volume.
"A what?!" Greg frowned. This was going truely well until the mention of bets. "That's just absolutely... That's totally... Psychopathic, a word that can only describe you!"
"Calm down Greg!" Steph said, playing peacemaker here. "Don't have grudges against people just like that."
"I am NOT a psychopath, I only like to have a little fun with my friends! Is there anything wrong with that?"
"There's definitely somthing wrong with---"
"STOP IT!" Stephanie yelled, throwing Greg's arm off her shoulder. "Why can't the two of you grow up?"
Chris stared in her eyes and relayed her a message that she could receive, then looked back down on a seated Greg. "I think I've done a little too much growing up already," he said, then got up and left the place angrily.
***
PG-13
A/N: Thanks DC, you've been kind to me. :P:).
Chapter 9
"KURT!"
"WHAT?"
Chris rushed into the place, not being able to take it. It had been three days after what he found out, and he couldn't keep it from Kurt any longer. Once Kurt recovered from absolute shock caused by Chris' mad interruption, he settled on his recliner. "So tell me how it went with Victoria."
"She was nice. She was... great. I think I like her alot."
"Good," Kurt said. "You didn't do anything did you?"
"She kissed me, and that's about it. We talked. Kurt, there's something else I want to tell you."
"That can wait. Now tell me---"
"Kurt! I'm going mad! Kurt! I have to tell it to you!"
"What?" he asked, a bit annoyed. Chris was panting, and he could suffer a heart attack if he wasn't careful.
"You know the guy whose business I wreaked havoc on?"
"The one about the Big Mac?" Chris nodded in response. "What about it?"
"That guy's Steph's boyfriend."
"So?"
"KURT! I LOVE HER! I CANNOT POSSIBLY TOLERATE HER BEING WITH SOME---"
"CALM DOWN!" Kurt shouted, equaling his volume. "You have to be happy for her."
"How exactly can I be happy for her? Do you know how much this Chris hates her for making him feeling this way? D'you know? And so you fix me up with some nice girl like Victoria and think that its going to work? What's wrong with you?"
Kurt had a strong reaction in store for Chris, a side he'd never seen before. He couldn't take whatever Chris had to blame him for. "There's nothing wrong with me, Chris. I'm only doing my job as a friend, and I'm pretty sick of taking the blame. Your decisions are yours to make, and I've left them for you to deal with."
"You never---"
"I HAVE!" He blew up. His face was red, and his heart was pumping twice as fast. "What do you want me to do? Crawl on my knees and beg for forgiveness? They're your mistakes, and it goes as far as that. Not mine."
"You don't give a damn about me. Its like entertainment to you, isn't it? Some mad, funny shit for you to watch. I'm not stupid. I don't even understand why you've got your nose so far up my business. Or why you even care."
"I happen to be your best friend, and I'm the only one who's going to support you. If you don't feel that way at all, I guess you won't have this best friend anymore. I've got so much more to handle than you."
"What are you talking about?" Chris said, looking at him. "More than me?"
"Don't think that you're always the first thing I think about every morning, like what you do with Steph all the time. You'll never understand what I feel about some things and ---"
Chris interrupted and the huge quarrel came up from nowhere, voices risen so loud they could be capable of being charged with disturbing the peace at this time of hour. Swears and curses were plentiful and they seemed so close to resorting to a fist fight. Chris continued his long winded speech and Kurt was doing the same at the same time.
"---you don't care because you're too busy with your own problems? What kind of a best friend are you---" Chris continued.
"---what frick of a right do you own to demand me into causing all your problems and I'm probably the best that you'll find---"
"---Then tell me what those problems are since they're so damn important---"
"---You want to know?" Kurt said, so angry at Chris for being an asshole. "You want to know?"
"Yeah I want to know," Chris replied before he finished. "Tell me what's so fucking troubling your mind."
"I'M STILL IN LOVE WITH STEPHANIE TOO DAMMIT!" He yelled, then cooled off a little with hard clenches to his fists.
Whoa. Hold up. HOLD UP. Chris' brain stopped. Rewind. Stop. Play. Kurt said that he was still in love with Stephanie... Great. Now Chris felt bad, like he was in the wrong. In frustration, he ran his fingers through his hair and let a few locks fall here and there. He plopped down on the chair and covered his red hot face with his hands, running them down. He felt like crying now. No, not now.
"Don't you DARE tell me that I don't give a damn about you!" Kurt shouted, his finger shoving down on the air above Chris. "I have been there twenty-four seven, all day, everyday, for you. Don't tell me that I haven't been a good friend, because I know that I have tried my very best to be there to support you." Kurt allowed himself to breathe. "Just take a good look at yourself. You can't cope with anything. So my job is to help you out with that. If you can't see it, then fine. Because I don't want to waste my time with someone who throws my help back at me." Finally, he simmered down and returned to his calm self again.
Kurt was so right for blowing up on him. It gave Chris the biggest slap across his senses of his entire life, and he was glad. He was just being selfish, venting his anger on his truest, bluest, best friend.
There was a stony silence that dominated the moment of five to six minutes, then Chris managed an apology. "I'm sorry," he said, tapping his fingers nervously on the dark leather, "I was just being stupid."
"You bet you were," Kurt shot back. "But I'm glad we had this conflict."
"...I'm still in shock man, I mean... That Princess is one lucky girl," Chris said. "I do believe that she's very much for me though."
"That's right, be selfish," Kurt retorted quickly. "It's hard to get over, but I'm still trying to. I don't believe that you're helpless in this case."
Chris smiled. "Thanks alot man." He looked around the place. "You know, I'm feeling a little hungry. Care for some pizza?"
Kurt pasted a disgusted look on his face. "No thankyou. I've had enough experiences with that. I don't think I'll be touching any of it until very late in my life."
"I'm ordering it anyway.... Ten bucks says you speak to the pizza guy in a german accent and make him understand you." Kurt immediately went for the phone.
***
Stephanie called Chris and wanted him to get better aquainted with the boyfriend of hers, then rush off to meet Victoria again. Not to sound bad, but he wished he could cancel Victoria to have more chances to mess up the fool. He made his way to another restaurant, in which GREG picked. Chris bet it was cheesy. Of course, no matter how cheesy the place was, Steph would like it because he was her boyfriend. Said like a spoilt 5 year old kid.
He took a right turn and walked across the road, passing by cars that emitted smoke in his face. His hands were in his pockets, feeling cold and nervous all of a sudden. He was going to meet the record store manager who was Stephanie's boyfriend, whom he was going to hate when he met him. He stepped into the crowded place, looking around for her...
"Chris," Stephanie called from behind him. He turned around and she was looking quite... better than usual. She was looking like herself, but she had a glow. How peculiar. A yellow three-quarter sleeved turtle-necked top, accompanied by just some normal black slacks. She had a white hairband on her head and hardly any makeup at all. Stephanie looked like Stephanie, but just after she came from a day spa. She just looked... nicer.
"Take a seat?" she asked, her voice snapping him out of a daze. "Chris?"
"Yeah?" he responded with a faraway look in his eyes. "Steph, I think... I think you look nice today."
She smiled warmly and extended a hand as a gesture for him to sit, which he did obediently. Of course when he said anything, he didn't notice her boyfriend standing directly behind her. This began to make Greg rather weary of Chris, even if Stephanie had told him that the blonde was her best friend. The both of them followed suit and took their places next to each other.
"I do believe that you're pretty good in filling your duties as a best friend," the manager began.
"Better than you'll ever be," Chris muttered under cold breath.
"Sorry?" Greg replied.
"Oh, I said, 'the best one that you'll ever meet'," he replied quickly. "Anyway, I suppose you picked Stephanie for a reason."
Greg smiled to himself and put an arm around Stephanie. Chris felt a little jealous at that. He was supposed to be the one doing that, not this poofy man. Stephanie looked up at her boyfriend with a smile of her own, her hand reaching up unknowingly to stroke his. Ugh, that sort of twisted Chris' gut. "Well, you see, we bumped into each other in the grocery store, and there was this big upset about the things we dropped..." The rest of his yap went into one ear and out the other for about the end of ten excruciating minutes, but when Stephanie spoke, she shortened the story drastically. He went from nodding his head robotically, to becoming intent.
"We just met by accident and from then onwards, I think he's very much suited for me."
Suited for HIM? *What about me?* Chris thought, his brain on panic mode, and like a knife was stabbed in his midsection. *What about this poor man whose heart plays jump rope everytime for you?* He felt that knife turn in his gut at her words, but on the outside, he just sighed.
"You're a very lucky man, you know," he heard himself say.
"I know that," the man opposite smiled. "Tell me about yourself then."
So he began, and told him how HE met Stephanie, then talked about everything else.
"Kurt?" Greg asked. "The name sounds rather familiar."
"That person's his very best friend," Stephanie said.
"But I thought he was your best friend," Greg nodded to Chris.
"Its complicated," she said, trying to let Chris have the chance to explain who Kurt really was.
"...You know the guy who climbed to the top of the roof of a house and did a really good King Kong imitation? Yeah, that was Kurt."
"You're friends with a madman?" Greg said incredulously.
"It's not that. We just have frequent betting games and we dare each other to do stuff. Its fun."
Greg gave Chris one look he couldn't interpret. Stephanie came to the rescue and added, "Its just a game they play... I happen to play it too sometimes."
"I see," he said, nodding in understanding. "Well, nothing too outrageous I hope."
"Oh, you don't know the time when I stood in front of the---" Steph gestured for him to cut it off.
"Chris, don't you think you should tell something else?"
"No, I really want to hear it," Greg insisted, leaning forward a bit.
"I mooned a cathedral," he said, lowering his volume.
"A what?!" Greg frowned. This was going truely well until the mention of bets. "That's just absolutely... That's totally... Psychopathic, a word that can only describe you!"
"Calm down Greg!" Steph said, playing peacemaker here. "Don't have grudges against people just like that."
"I am NOT a psychopath, I only like to have a little fun with my friends! Is there anything wrong with that?"
"There's definitely somthing wrong with---"
"STOP IT!" Stephanie yelled, throwing Greg's arm off her shoulder. "Why can't the two of you grow up?"
Chris stared in her eyes and relayed her a message that she could receive, then looked back down on a seated Greg. "I think I've done a little too much growing up already," he said, then got up and left the place angrily.
***