I excused myself to my room. I could hear my mom on the phone with my dad through my crack door, her voice trailed up the staircase, "Yeah." A pause, "It was Chris." Another pause. "He's feeling a little low." Pause, "I'm not sure." Again. "Well dinner will be ready when you get home, uh huh, love you too." She hung up, the phone clicked on the stand. I buried my head under my pillow and drifted.
My mom tugged me out of bed for dinner. There was no conversation for a while, until my dad started, "You know, I always knew that Chambers was a bad apple. Ever since you two were kids." My mom shot him a look, but he was too busy looking at his plate stabbing an innocent potato, "I'm just glad you didn't get seriously hurt, right Hun?" He looked at my mom. She didn't answer.
"You know, why couldn't you have friend's like Denny had?" Denny was brought up every time my grades weren't perfect, or if I got into trouble, or if I didn't have a 'nice girl' around in a while. My dad had a wound from my brother's death, and he just wouldn't let it heal. He scratched at it, bother it as much as he could, because he just couldn't let go. So mom and I weren't allowed for forget it either.
He said around a mouth full of food, "You'd think he'd be a little nicer since we fed him all those nights."
My mom dropped her fork loudly, his head snapped up. Her eyebrows were pulled into a scowl. "I started it."
They both looked at me, "What son?" He'd swallowed.
"I started it, I shoved him into the wall." I had my own battle scars, a busted lip, my jaw kept popping noisily, and my cheek was swollen.
"Well he's just a bad influence."
"Can I be excused?" I asked. My mom nodded, and I pushed away from the table. As I was climbing the stairs I heard, "You can't always let him run away."
I looked out my bedroom window, it was snowing, white covering the ground, and I slipped into sleep. I woke up in the middle of the night; the sound of my dad snoring was unbearably louder than usual. I pulled on my shoes, and my coat. Looked to my window, almost yanking it opened and going the way I usually did, but I refused to.
I went down the stairs without trying to be quiet and walked right out the front door, in the middle of the night. Wind cutting into me, it was so cold. I almost turned right around and marched back inside but I didn't.
The snow was to my calves, and I still wondered through it. I didn't have any intention on end up outside his window it just kind of happened, I wasn't thinking just walking just trying to keep the cold out.
I however, knocked, like an idiot. He opened the window and looked at me like I was crazy. "What the fuck, Gordie?"
"Hey you've woken me up plenty of damn times." I retorted, hands pressed further in my pockets. Chris' face was looking a little worse than it had back at school. "What the hell happened to your face?"
"You, asshole." He sneered leaning out the window more, "And my dad got me a good one, but not near as bad as it used to be." The wind blew a little harder, "It's freezing." He shivered slightly.
"Yeah."
"I'm not going to apologize." Chris said finally. I didn't expect him to. I looked down at the snow I was standing in awkwardly.
"I don't know why I came here, I just kind of wound up here." I shrugged. "I-I just wanted to know, I guess, what you were trying to explain in the bathroom." He didn't answer for a moment he looked a little sore.
"You don't understand, Gordie." He said pulling back into the window a bit.
"I promise I'll listen." I said catching his arm. I just wanted to know, I didn't want him to forgive me. I was stupid for being so touchy.
"She wanted me to help her with school, Gordo, you know I'm not that great. So then she makes me study with her, then we start messing around…"
I looked at feeling a small blow to my stomach, I looked him dead in the eye, and he continued.
"We didn't…have…sex." He said slowly, "But when we were fooling around I almost said your name…and I got scared."
"So you stopped talking to me?" I said a little bitter.
"Well, I stopped hanging out with you. I couldn't handle it. I didn't want anyone to find out, you know what would happen." He paused letting that image sink into my head. "Then she just talked to me so much, wanted to spend time with me, I didn't have any left."
I nodded, listened, "You didn't have to let that happen."
"You didn't have to punch me in the face." He reminded pointing at himself. I was forgetting the cold. "I told her you could tutor us. She said she didn't want to make you the third wheel."
"Whether I'm around or not I'm the third wheel." I muttered.
"But listen," He started again, and I let him go without interrupting, "I'm just trying to be normal, trying not to be weird."
"Chris, fuck, everyone's weird. We're not normal, we never have been and never will." I said, getting ready to turn and go back to the safety of my own house.
"I know that." Chris said quietly, "I just wanted to…"
"You're my best friend, my, my, I have no idea what, and no matter how many times you try to straighten that out with girls, with Marlene, it'll never change what happened. We're weird." I turned to leave getting a few steps away from the house, the streetlights casting an eerie lit over the Chamber's backyard.
"Gordie," Chris called, scooting out the window in bare feet, the guy was crazy. I didn't know what to say to him. I had nothing left to say, other then, "I'm sorry for the fight. I was just so pissed off."
"Marlene called after school, said she didn't want to have boyfriend who was a hood." I just looked at him, "I guess you don't have to be angry now," He grinned. I smiled a bit then it faded, "Get back in the house Chamber's before you get goddamn frost bite." And I left with out saying anything about our relationship, about if it was fixed. I just left, went home, peeled off my wet clothes and disappeared into sleep.
A/N: Has anyone else noticed Gordie's parents don't have first names in the movie? They are just Mr. and Mrs. Lachance. I thought it was interesting, seeing as I wanted to use their names during dialog. Looks like I'll stick to "Hun" and "Darling"