Update 2023: Wow. It's been nearly a decade. I've returned to this over and over throughout the years, feeling like I failed my readers by not finishing a work I poured so much of myself into. More than that, I felt I'd failed myself. Well, it finally drew me back in. I don't know how long it'll take, but I hope this time I can get you the completed work that I dreamed of way back when. I may tweak some of the older chapters later, but for right now I'm going to move forward and publish new chapters, leaving the old ones as they are. My writing style likely has changed since 2014, but please bear with me. I hope I'll be able to deliver you a completed story.
Update 2014: If you are coming here for the first time, I should warn you that this story has not been published in its completed form. At a certain point I realized that I wouldn't be finishing this piece. Instead of abandoning it, I figured I owed it to my readers to let them know what would have happened if I had come at this project with the stamina my readers deserved from me. After the first 14 chapters or so, the rest is an extended post of my outline and the various scenes that would have been included. If any of this is a turn-off for you (as I know it would be for me), then I urge you to stop reading before you get started. No sense in the disappointment that awaits you at the end of that fourteenth chapter.
If you're willing to suffer through a raw, half-formed story outline, then tread with caution. I hope you can enjoy at least those pieces that are provided.
Got bored, so I decided to rewrite the author's note. No, you don't have to reread it. There's nothing worthwhile in it anyway. Go on, close out of this window. You know if you don't, you'll end up wasting two to five minutes of your life - depending on how slowly you read. Don't burn your minutes; they're too precious for that.
(Also, the rest of this authors note is from years ago, and probably largely unnecessary to read. Feel free to skip to the next chapter now for the actual story.)
All right, folks, after much agonizing over this story, we finally begin the reposting experience. For those of you who told me you rarely like rewrites better than the originals, I hope this one will be an exception. Mostly because if you liked the first version (and this is, of course, my own humble opinion), you have bad taste in writers. Although that's not to say your taste has improved, perhaps, if you're still reading - though I do like to think I've improved considerably since my start on this website. This will be my last story on fanfiction. All previous stories have already been deleted, and I'm considering removing this one a few months after its completion. That's still up in the air, though.
One note before I begin: Someone (if I could remember who, I'd share) told me he wished I would expound a bit on the relationship between Chris and his best friend Jason (renamed Dwight Ryder in the updated version). Actually, it's incredibly rude of me not to remember who said it because whoever did, I owe that person a lot. That is a key reason that I decided to rewrite this story. In the revamp, I'll be focused a lot more on relationships and people in general. And yes—Dwight now plays a larger role than originally intended. Be prepared to see quite a bit more development of all characters, not just Chris and Dwight. Siblings, cousins, teachers, friends, etc.
Thank you so much for your patience. Now, without further ado, I present to you Behind Locked Doors…