Wolf
"I can't believe I'm doing this," I repeat to myself for the second time before finally knocking. 'This is so lame' I can't help but think as the door swings open and I'm not ambushed by a overly smiling Mrs. Harrison, but instead I'm greeted by Gary who seems surprisingly annoyed at my presence as he leans against the doorframe.
"What are doing here?" He asks and I really wasn't expecting him to sound so...cold? Even as I try to describe this 'mood' as irritation it doesn't fit. Even after he moves back and lets me in the tension doesn't ease up.
"What crawled up your ass?" I ask before sitting on the plush sectional sofa that looks to have been occupied previously by Gary considering the piles of pillows and blankets. "You're usually more chirpier." Gary snatches his covers and a couple pillows before gracefully sitting further down away from me, his questioning glare not letting up.
"I'm just not feeling up to...company today." I groan internally at this. It took a lot of effort on my part to even carry my ass out of my comfy bed today to see him. He's usually the one who seeks me out or asks to meet up somewhere seeing as today is my only full day off since I've started my internship months ago.
"What's wrong?" I ask after a long tense moment passes by. Gary's frown deepens and he doesn't seem to want to answer me as he wraps himself further in his soft blankets.
"You don't care," He laughs humorlessly.
"You're right, I don't," I say and he gives out another fake laugh. "But you're," Sad. "Pissed about something. I want to know what."
"And I don't feel like telling you. How about that?" He's pissing me off and by the slight quirk of his lips, he knows. It's silent again and Gary doesn't even bother to turn on the the TV hanging above the white brick mantel, instead opting to lean his head back and close his eyes.
"What are you doing here Eric?" He asks and he sounds exhausted now.
"So, I'm not allowed here?"
"Kinda, yeah. I've made it clear that I don't want you here."
"Well, I'm not leaving. How about that?" He's not even acknowledging my presence at this point.
As another tense silence falls I take to looking around his house. It seems to be designed in all neutral tones and it's admittedly calming. It's also cold and I wonder why he hasn't made any effort to turn on the heat. My eyes flick over the many pictures that line the brick fireplace mantel and even a snow globe sitting on a white end table next to Gary's part of the sofa. It's broken and inside you can see what looks to be a small golden castle and fake grass decorated by little flakes of bright glitter.
I hate that it's so quiet like this because I've crazily enough become used to Gary's chatter and insistent need to make me react to his stupid antics. Admittedly...I need him to say something.
"You know," I start, "I think it's working." Gary doesn't say anything and I grit my teeth. If I wasn't so sure by his uneven breathing I would think he was asleep. "They seem to be on good terms. And if I know them they way I'm pretty sure I do I'd say they've made up."
It's true and obvious to anyone who's paying a modicum of attention to what's going on or maybe it's just me considering all that I know. There's no way in hell that things could ever be that smooth between the two if they hadn't talked things out. "Kyle would have never forgiven Stan if something hadn't happened."
"What are you trying to say?" Gary asks finally.
"They fucked," I say bluntly. "Or maybe they just talked, maybe it was that easy."
"Why are you so concerned? Why does it fucking matter that they're seeing each other? Why?!"
"Because that means I've done my job by leading them in the right direction," Gary stares at me albeit hatefully.
"With your help of course."
"I didn't help you do anything," Gary says sounding disgruntled.
"Yes, you did. You helped break up the Ben and Jen of Park County High, and you deserve credit for that." Gary gives me a less than impressed look, but he was the one to come with that great plan.
"To let Bebe borrow your car was ace," I muse thoughtfully.
"Her car wouldn't start. I was being nice."
"You were being conniving," I refuse to feel relieved at the small smirk curving Gary's lips. We're finally making progress.
"They didn't belong together anyway. I just saved them years of heartache."
"How caring," I reply with a smile as fake as Mrs. Steven's new boob job.
"Ooh, I know. I'm such a saint," Gary replies just as sarcastic.
"Far from it."
"Like you would know."
"I know a lot actually," I feel the need to remind.
"Get to the point," Gary finally faces me, "I don't even understand why this is so important to you! Is this some sort of game? Are we your pawns and you think can just fuck us over whenever you want? Is that it?!" Gary screams at me, his blue cobalt eyes ablaze as they infinite daggers at me. "What was so wrong with the way things were before? You can't always be there turning and twisting other people's lives to fit your needs."
"I was helping-"
"Helping? Is that what you're calling it," Gary throws up his hands helplessly. "Let's be honest," He stands, the covers falling to his feet in the process. "You're a selfish bastard and you don't have a nice bone in your body despite what you want to believe."
I stand as well making my way towards Gary. I've had enough of this little shit. Who is he to talk to me like this? To raise his voice like this and basically call me a piece of shit. "Watch your fucking tone. You have no idea what I'd do to you."
"What are you going to do? Fuck me up?" Gary's screaming doesn't let up and his words mock his reply to the first time I threatened to hurt him, "Do it, you never really liked me anyway, so what is stopping you from laying in on me?"
We're standing nose to nose at this point and I want nothing, but to slam my fucking fist into Gary's perfect face. "Fuck. You," I huff out slamming my fist against the wall mere inches beside Gary's head.
"I didn't do this for me. I did this because I was tired and fed up with watching Stan and Kyle rip each other apart and dividing everyone up. I was tired of having to pretend that it was okay and normal that those two hated each other because as much as I talk shit about their relationship I realized that they were the glue that held our group together.
I did it because I remember the look in Kyle's eyes when he cried to me, even months after, and how Stan went absolutely incognito emotionally wise and even Wendy couldn't get through to him. And because of all the secret longing looks they give each when they think no one is paying attention... I never seen those two so broken up and never have I felt the urge to truly fix something in my life when it didn't even directly concern me."
Yes, everything could have gone on the same, but even I'm not that much of a douche to let fifteen years of friendship go down the drain. If those idiots wouldn't make any moves to make amends then I would. I set up the fight, I convinced Garrison to pair them for an assignment and it wasn't hard seeing as how I'm not the only one who was sick of tip toeing around a frickin' mine field, I convinced Stan that Wendy cheated, and I played all my moves right by observing and moving quietly.
My breathing is labored after my rant as I glare at Gary, hoping I don't do something crazy to him. I'm no Craig when I'm angry, but my emotions tend to make me insane. And I admittedly don't want to hurt him. I'll admit that I have become used to his presence…
"I'm not trying to hurt you," I say slowly, trying to calm my rage. "I don't want to do that, but stop pushing me to do so. I'm not going to so just stop it."
I finally stop talking, the silence ringing in my ears. Gary continues to stare back, face hard and I almost throw my hands up at the fact that I'm not going to get through to him. "Just stop," His voice cracks, but I don't dare look away. "You're supposed to be mad at me. I want you to be mad at me."
"Why?" Gary doesn't answer and instead his stone exterior breaks into a waterfall of tears that begin to cascade down his red cheeks. And I don't know what to do to make him stop crying, but I just really need him to. He is always so happy and now that I've made him cry I honestly feel like shit.
Feeling like it's the only way he's ever gonna stop I hesitantly wrap my arms around him. He automatically grabs me back and cries even harder. Why isn't this working? It seemed to always work when I seen other people do it or when Wendy or my mom cried. I begin to doubt having come over in the first place as I listen to Gary cry.
"Don't cry, please stop crying," I say and after a couple moments his cries lessen as if he's listening to whatever I'm mumbling. I continue, hoping he will stop completely, "You're okay, it's going to okay. I don't hate you, who could hate you?" When Gary finally stops crying I'm relieved.
"I'm sorry I got your shirt wet," He apologizes and I sigh.
"I don't care about the shirt," I say despite the fact that I just bought this shirt Wednesday.
"I sorry I was mean to you, even though you kind of deserve it."
"Hey," I say slowly, offended, but he pretends to not care as he speaks.
"So, do you still want to hang out here?" He asks and I honestly need to do something else with my life, but as I nod Gary continues, "I have other things to do," I glare at the smirk that graces his lips.
"What is better than hanging out with me? I'm like insta-famous or whatever."
"Sex," He replies shamelessly causing me to roll my eyes.
"Really? Crying gets you off?"
"No-just leave. I'm insatiable and you're clearly not my type." Now he's just being dramatic.
"Then what is your type?" The words fleet from my mouth before I could stop them, but I refuse to make moves to retract them.
"Someone who can keep up with me."
"Please," I snort. Yeah, I get that he's rolling in the many girls and guys that like him, but he's no sex god. I purse my lips at him, the cockiness of his words does nothing to describe the arrogant expression on his face.
"It's true. I can prove it."
"How?" I taunt. He doesn't have the guts to pull this through. We stare at each other, trying to figure the other out and after a long and tense moment passes nothing occurs. I smile confident. I knew he was too bitch to do anything, he flirts with me and taunts me constantly and this is all-
My eyes widen in shock as Gary presses his mouth against mine. He kisses me slowly and I refuse to melt, but...as he prys my lips open with his pink tongue I make the firm decision….to let him do whatever he pleases.
His tongue rubs against mine begging me to play and I lick the roof of his mouth in answer. Eventually I feel Gary pushing me back in an unknown direction until I until I feel the cold metal doorknob digging into my back. What was once a simple kiss escalates to something much more sinful as he continues to pry more and more out of me, our tongues tangling in a furious battle for dominance.
Gripping Gary's blonde hair I finally pry our lips apart only for him to dive in once more leaving me pliant against him. When Gary pulls back he breaks out into small chuckles that feel like feathers against my lips.
He opens the front door of his house, and pushes against my chest gently until I'm standing on the welcome mat, "Don't ever tempt a wolf."