"I'm sorry I could help you with the case." Phoenix said immediately after trial was over.

"Eh, don't worry about it." Larry sighed as he pulled out a pen and wrote out a 150 dollar check to Kaley. At least it beat the other option of community service in the form of gluing those monstrosities back together. Kaley thanked him, took the check, and ran off with her new boyfriend.

"You want a ride home?"

"You finally got your driver's license?"

Phoenix's face turned a little red as he held up his bus pass. "Not really."

Unlike every other time he was dumped, Larry wasn't going on and on about how he was going to bounce back because there were other fish in the sea and by the end of the week another girl would capture his heart and later dump him. But this was almost disturbing; Larry had hardly made a peep during the entire ride. Sure he'd gotten depressed before, but there was always that spark of passion underneath. This was more of a dull, emotionless quiet that Phoenix never thought his friend was capable of.

"Thanks." Larry arose from his seat, surprised to see his Phoenix raising up to join him. "I'll be fine; you don't have to come along."

"I insist." Larry simply shrugged his shoulders and allowed his friend to follow him. Phoenix couldn't help the painful churning in his stomach. He was a hundred percent sure that Larry wouldn't kill himself, but then again, he never seen him this down before. Other than the large cardboard box filled with ceramic kitty parts, his apartment was no different then the last time Phoenix was there; it did the lawyer's heart good (no obvious signs of mental breakdown or anything). That familiar paternal instinct started to kick in again when Larry slammed the door shut and plopped down on his couch.

"You sure seem upset." A memory of a seminar on communicating better with others that he took in college with his old girlfriend, Chinami, came back to him. As stupid as the whole repeating the person's feelings back to them method seemed at the time, maybe this was his mind's way of telling him how to handle the situation.

"No, I'm fucking ecstatic." Or maybe not. On the bright side, there was a least some emotion coming back into his voice. "What am I doing wrong? I never hit or insulted any of them, I'm a one-woman man, I pay for everything," He sighed. "Oh God, don't tell me I'm going to become one of those losers who won't shut-up about what "nice guys" they are when they're really just a bunch of obnoxious pricks."

"Of course not." Phoenix joined him on the couch. "Those guys are never getting laid. At least you have..." The ashamed look on Larry's face stopped him in his tracks. "Oh sorry."

"It's ok." For some reason Phoenix couldn't help feeling guilty for losing his to Chinami. Not like lying about it would do any good anyway no matter how much pain he hoped it would lift off his friend's shoulders. "Might as well get use to it, I guess. Just savor the one blowjob I got from Cindy and go on with life."

"Don't say that." He firmly clasped his hand on Larry's shoulder just in case he tried to leave. "Forget about them. Any girl would be lucky to you. I know I'd be." It was just like those moments on TV where the viewer could hear this loud, record scratch sound effect they used whenever one of the characters said something really stupid. "Uh, not that I'm gay or anything." Phoenix felt his face turn red, getting just as flustered as he did when a pretty girl flirted with him when he was a teenager. In a weird kind of way, Larry couldn't smiling at how cute his now normally collected friend was acting. "Forget I said that." Phoenix tried to regain his composure as if nothing happened.

"Gotcha." Larry suddenly went quiet, feeling almost a little disappointed.

Phoenix's stomach turned into knots. "This was going well." God, even Edgeworth's murder trial was less stressful than this. Why couldn't he do anything right, let along remember anything else from that communication seminar?

Sensing his friend's discomfort, Larry turned to him. "Listen, you don't have to stay, if you don't want to."

"Oh, uh. Thanks." Sure it was a coward's way out, but it was the only option he could see. "You're sure you'll be ok?"

"I've been through worse."

"If you say so." He gave Larry a quick hug and showed himself the door. The rapidly building nervousness inside him faded as he heard his friend lock the door behind him only to be replaced with complete and other guilt. "Stupid, stupid, stupid."

+++

It was one of those moments where you just wanted to fall asleep and forget everything happened. Luckily for Larry, he had the talent to fall asleep at the drop of a hat. It just happened that the "drop of a hat" part was taking a little longer than usual. His mind just wouldn't shut-up over that stupid "I know I would be" comment Phoenix made. Maybe it was just a slip of the mouth and Phoenix was just scared he would think he was gay and get all uptight about it.

Then again, Phoenix knew good and well that he had nothing against gays (especially the female kind). Love\sincerity perhaps? Yeah right, he couldn't even attract a girl who wouldn't take advantage of him, what made him think Phoenix would want him. He tried to laugh at audacity of it, but he had to wonder, would it be such a bad thing as he finally fell asleep.

"Larry." A familiar voice called out while it's own knocked on the door, woke him up from his sleep a few hours later. Larry shot up from bed like a child on Christmas day and ran to the door; not caring if there was an axe-wielding maniac was hiding behind it.

"Kaley?" Kaley threw herself into Larry's arms, giving him a massive bear hug that seemed impossible for such a skinny girl like her.

"Thank God you're up."

"I had to be to answer the door."

Kaley let go and busted up laughing. "Same old Larry."

"What are you doing here?" Was it just him or were all those Kleenex she stuffed in her bra to impress him that obvious?

"We're here to see you, silly."

"What do you mean, "we're?""

"Me and Larry Jr." She dug into her gym bag and took out a ceramic cat the size of a one gallon bucket and painted the same color as his hair, holding it out like a peace pipe. "Look, I'm really sorry for what I did. It wasn't cool." She gently placed Larry Jr. into his hands. "I thought we could bury the hatchet and at least be friends." He gave her a confused look. She seemed sincere enough, but then again, the memories of yesterday and the black eye hadn't completely gone away. "Please." She let her bottom lib quiver a bit, hoping it word work on him like it did with daddy and all her other boyfriends. "I'll let you have benefits."

"What about your boyfriend, what's-his-name?

"Michael. He's..."

"Kaley?" Michael's voice echoed through the apartment complex like church bells in the Grand Canyon.

"Oh God, it's him. Hide me." She ran into his apartment, nearly running Larry over.

"Kaley, wait." The whole place became silent like she wasn't even there. "Crap."

"Kaley!" Michael's voice boomed even louder. Although he never got really good look at Kaley's new boyfriend, Larry could feel his imagination running away from him with images of a Hulk Hogan-level brute of a man who could crush his skull like Larry did to those cats. Just as he got a horrible fantasy of Michael dangling him by his ankles from the nearest window, he felt a tapping of his shoulder that made him almost scream in terror. "Hey, relax. I'm just looking for Kaley."

Larry turned his head to see not the heavyweight bruiser of nightmares, but a normal man only slightly older than him that could probably compete for a cruiserweight title. There were no obscene tattoos, no scars, no crazy look in his eyes; so far, so good. Other than his jarhead haircut, there was nothing that really set him apart from any other guy than came and went in Larry's life.

"Kaley?" Even if Larry was sure he could at least get a few good hits in a fight with him, it didn't do a thing to ease his nervousness. "What makes you think she's here? You heard her; she doesn't want a thing to do with me."

"Yeah, but it didn't hurt to try. I just went into her PDA and found your address."

"I haven't seen her."

Michael's rugged face turned as sad as a child who didn't get anything for Christmas. "If you see her, tell her the wedding is still on."

"Wedding?"

"Yeah. You're invited if you want." Michael then walked off.

"Is he gone?" Kaley called from her hiding spot a few minutes after Michael left. Larry followed her voice to his bedroom which now had his dirty clothes thrown all over the place so Kaley could make room for herself in his clothes hamper.

"What about your wedding?" Larry said as he helped pull her out of the clothes hamper. God, she wouldn't even go to third base with him and now she's engaged to some guy she hardly knows.

Kaley rolled her eyes with an annoyed huff. "We're not engaged. I sleep with him for a second time and off he goes, calling his parents, telling them how their baby boy has found the woman of his dreams. Not that he's ugly or has a micro dick, but I can't handle that. I'm too young to get married."

"Yet you wouldn't even touch me."

"Larry, please." She sighed. "I didn't mean for it to happen this way. I thought I could do the whole chastity thing, but I can't. I just figured that I'd have one little fling to get it out of my system and go on with my life." She held up her hand, gesturing him to stop. "I know, I know. Why didn't I just fuck you instead? Well, you're different Larry. I wanted it to be special." She moved closer to him, stroking his face when they were only inches apart. "We can still make it special." She leaned in and kissed him with as much passion as she could muster. "Just think about it. I'll be on the couch if you need me."

"…." For once in his life, Larry was utterly speechless.