Up A Tree

Stan was beginning to severely regret some of his decisions. Specifically, the ones that had landed him in his current predicament.

He and Kyle had been fighting again. It was over something stupid as usual. At least, Stan thought it was stupid. So what if he'd fucked up the laundry again? It's not like he'd meant to! He couldn't really be expected to remember not to mix loads every time. Besides, that was a feminine job, and he was not feminine, so by that logic, he shouldn't have been doing the laundry in the first place.

But then Kyle went and got all pissed off at him after that. What the hell crawled up his ass? It wasn't like he said that Kyle was girly, he was just saying that he wasn't. But Kyle apparently did not see it that way and just would not shut the hell up, so that led to Bad Decision Number One: Stan said he was sick of fighting over something so ridiculous, got up, and walked away.

Not telling Kyle where he was going accounted for Bad Decision Number Two. Or maybe that was just a subset of the first one.

He'd walked around town for a while after that, just trying to dissipate his foul mood. He hadn't so much walked his frustration out as he did lose the energy to maintain his anger (maybe not eating breakfast should have been called Bad Decision Number One...), so he just plopped himself down by Stark's Pond, which had been where he'd ended up. But the ground was cold and kind of soggy, so he would have had to go home soon after to change his clothes. He wasn't ready to deal with Kyle again so soon, so he considered his alternatives. There were no benches, so it was either sitting on the ground, or...

Bad Decision Number Three (Four?): climbing a tree. Or, to be more accurate, climbing really fucking high into a tree and not thinking to stop when he kept accidentally snapping the branches he'd climbed up on.

Yep. Those were some pretty damn stupid decisions. Suddenly the argument with Kyle didn't seem quite so stupid anymore in comparison...

Damn, it was really cold up there. And he was still hungry. And tired. And he was starting to get pretty damn pissed off – at himself, at the tree, at the goddamned washing machine, but surprisingly not at Kyle. He should have been mad at Kyle. Shouldn't he? Kyle was mad at him. But it didn't really make all that much sense to be pissed at him for that. Getting mad in retaliation and walking out was what got him into trouble in the first place, after all.

But soon he wasn't so pissed off anymore. No, that had given way to worry, and eventually traces of panic. Was Kyle even looking for him; had he been gone long enough for him to worry? Or did Kyle figure he'd just come home when he was ready? Probably the latter...

Shit.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been sitting up there clinging to the trunk of the tree just to make sure he didn't lose his balance and fall off. How the hell was he supposed to get down from there? He'd have to get down eventually... but he didn't want to break any bones in the process. What if he broke his spine, or his neck? Fuck, fuck!

Oh, why the hell did he have to fuck up the laundry?! If only he could get down without killing himself, he'd make damn sure to learn how to do laundry right, even if it was a girly chore! At least then Kyle wouldn't get mad at him and he wouldn't end up getting stuck up a fucking tree!

"Stan, what the hell are you doing up there?"

His surprise almost knocked him from his perch. Kyle was there? Kyle! Oh thank god.

...But he had no fucking clue how to explain himself. Oh man. Awkward.

"Umm... I'm. Uh." Think Stan, think! "I'm just..." But he couldn't think of anything convincing. "Errr." Real eloquent there.

"You went and got yourself stuck up there, didn't you?" Stan wasn't sure he could make out Kyle rolling his eyes from his height, but he could quite clearly see Kyle pinching the bridge of his nose.

"...Um. Yeah."

He sighed – loudly, probably to make sure Stan could hear it. "I'm gonna go find a ladder. Don't fall and die before I get back."

Before Kyle could leave, Stan called out after him. "Kyle? Are you still mad at me?"

He considered this. "No. But I am annoyed that you ran off the way you did."

"Oh." Kyle turned to leave, but Stan called him again. "Uhm... hey, Kyle?"

"What, Stan?"

"I'm sorry about fucking up the laundry."

"I know you are. Just... don't do this again, okay?"

"Okay." He wasn't sure if Kyle meant the laundry thing or the tree thing, but he had no intention of revisiting either any time soon.