FicWad

A week later...

”Gooooood moooooorning, Des Moines! This is Chuck Sounder from The Sounder Morning Show. It’s December thirtieth and currently 10:24 am and it’s looking pretty bad outside as the roads are getting tougher to drive on.” Craig sighs miserably at that message from the radio as he starts his car to go to work. Sometimes he wishes he were a kid again. If kids can stay out of school for a couple weeks, why can’t adults? He does wonder if the snow will clear out by New Years Eve. It’d be shitty if people couldn’t make it over to Lorraine and Charlie’s because of a damn blizzard. That indeed goes for most of the people of Des Moines. Christmas has indeed passed a couple days ago. Other than for the kids, the day wasn’t too exciting. People visited their families (some had a good time with them, others couldn’t wait to get the fuck out of the houses), spent it alone, or visited the homeless shelter—to help or to get fed. The days afterward were spent either carrying on the day out as normal—working and coming home to have time to themselves or with their significant others—or buying food and plastic silverware for parties. And drinks. Thankfully, no one in the group that has a job is working on New Years Eve, at least not after the afternoon. Shawn told Lorraine that he would not be joining them.

As stated before, it’s their first party for the New Year not at the Safari. Chantal was always there (she hates spending it without Shawn) while their kids were with a baby-sitter (but as the kids got older, the older ones were in charge with the younger ones). Now, Shawn and Chantal figure that they can enter 2011 with their children. Everyone else will just hang out at Lorraine’s, because she actually has a house, and it’s larger than any of their apartments.

Corey pretty much can’t wait, really. This month has been a terrible month and he just wants it (and the year really), to end. This year has been a pretty shitty one—especially after loosing their friend and brother. No one really expected that to happen. They all thought they were all going to grow old together. He misses the guy, and they all make it their duty to help out Brenna and the baby, and make them feel welcomed. He sighs, having just walked out of his bedroom, knowing that Craig is already gone. It’s been awhile since he’s had a morning job, to leave so early in the morning. Most of your friends are busy, so they can’t see you. And a little after some of them return from their work, it’s time for you to get ready for yours. That was when he worked on the radio. Now he’s just completely bored. He’s given up calling Jim. He figures that if Jim wants to talk to him, the guy has his number. Whatever. He has someone else keeping him company for right now, even attempting to hook him up at her job. He met Stephanie Ludy at a bar while hanging out with Charlie (...) and was a little drunk. She was there because of her brother, who’s bartender, and they talked and flirted for awhile before they went to her place. Corey, being what Sid called a “closet whore,” was at first going to just leave her place and consider that a one night stand, but somehow he ended up sticking around. They do have a lot of things in common, they make each other laugh, and she can put up with him just as well as Jim could. And she’s sexy and great in bed. But they both know from the beginning that this isn’t permanent. She told him that she’s still waiting for the right person to come. Corey told her that he wasn’t too interested in settling down with anybody.

He yawns and walks back into his room, sitting down on the bed and running through his messy short hair with his fingers. She’s beginning to wake up, covering her chest with the bedsheets despite wearing a bra, and she yawns as she sits up. She was going to go home, but the weather got bad last night and Corey insisted that she spend the night with him. He glances at her and smiles and he leans in and kisses a tattoo on her arm. “Mornin’,” he whispers. “I didn’t make anything for breakfast yet because I didn’t know if you were going to stick around.”

Stephanie smiles and ruffles his hair. “I wish I could stay,” she replies, “but I think I’m late for work.” Corey sighs and lies back down on the bed, wanting to sleep again and holding her.

“Ugh, and you’re working on New Year’s Eve,” he mumbles against the pillow, nuzzling it afterwards. She glances at his clock on the nightstand, and although she isn’t late, she knows she must head back to her apartment to get ready pretty soon.

“Well, sometimes people work on New Year’s Eve,” she replies, yawning as she sits closer to the edge of the bed, and she grabs her shirt from the floor. Corey sighs and as she sits back to put on her shirt, he moves and rests his head against her lap, which makes her sigh and grin. “You’re not gonna let me go, are you?”

Corey hums and, having closed his eyes, opens one. “Are you working late tomorrow?” he asks softly, I know I asked you that before but I really want you to be there with me at my friend’s house for the party.”

“Yeah, and I told you that I’d be there.” She then goes on to say, “I really would like to meet your friends,” brushing his hair back gently. “You’ve told me so much about most of them already, I kinda feel like I know them now.” Corey closes his eyes and smiles at the feeling, and he sits up.

“Awesome,” he replies before they give each other a soft kiss to the lips. “I told you about my friend’s girlfriend, right? She does bite, and sometimes I wonder if she really is a woman.” Stephanie chuckles and shakes her head at such a comment. Corey grins and moves away from her so she can properly get dressed. “I’ll pick you up whenever. You just call me, okay?” he whispers as Stephanie gets up out of the bed to put on her jeans.

“I’ll do that, Corey,” she replies. She kisses his forehead and ruffles his hair lovingly before getting her things together.

___

The next evening...

Charlie takes out a couple of CDs to put on soon. He’s kind of tired of his mother playing Santana. Unfortunately, he’s the only one that’s tired of it. Nothing like hearing “Black Magic Woman” while Mick and Chris are on the couch playing some shooting game from Charlie’s Xbox. Joey, Melissa and Lorraine are sitting with the guys and watching them. Craig and Sid left a moment ago to bring in the last of the snacks. Sid also made pizza and homemade cheese sauce. Everything else consists of various chips, pretzels, nachos, some beer (but they’re running out, so Corey’s out to get more alcoholic drinks. With their money.), and non-alcoholic beverages that everyone has brought. Jim’s bringing in fruit salad soon, not having the time to make anything else. Lorraine decided to make sauerkraut. She believes that those who eat some will have some good luck in the New Year. They all hope so. These last few months have been quite awful. Doesn’t help that their friend is no longer around to help set things straight. One of them asked what Paul would do. Somehow they had that the notion that the conflict with Geraldo would’ve ended by now. Chris is having difficulty concentration on his game. See, he still hasn’t had the courage to propose to Melissa. The fear of Melissa rejecting him has played with his mind so much that he put it off. He swears as Mick shoots him down in the game. Charlie sits down with the others and then snorts at the sight. Joey rolls his eyes and Mick sets his game console down.

He turns to the slightly shorter man and mutters, “If you can’t play the fucking game, why are you?”

Chris slowly glares at Mick and retorts, “I’m sorry, all right?! I’m trying to concentrate.” Melissa frowns and slowly rubs her boyfriend’s shoulders.

“Are you okay, Chris?” she asks softly. “I think you’ve been playing that game so much, and you’ve not eaten anything since we came here.” Chris slowly closes his eyes under Melissa’s massage, instantly feeling relaxed again, for a moment since it’s his potential fiancée doing this. “We got pizza, so let’s eat some of that.” He nods slowly and reluctantly gets up and follows her to the dining room table where all of the refreshments are. Mick rolls his eyes, as does Joey.

Craig and Sid enter the house from the side door that leads to the kitchen, bringing in a two-liter bottle of Sprite and dip. The latter grins and says as they enter the dining room, “All right, that’s it!” Chris grins and looks down at the food.

“That’s just fucking awesome,” he grins, grabbing a paper plate and a knife for a slice of pizza.

Craig leans against the wall and shrugs. “Not healthy stuff,” he comments.

“Well, Jim’s bringing in fruit salad, so that’ll be a change,” Sid grins at his boyfriend as he walks over to the living room. Melissa grins.

“Well, awesome! Brenna said she’s going to come as well, might even bring something,” she speaks, kind of surprised. She steps away from the table and continues, “I’m so happy she’s coming. She hasn’t been out since...” she sighs sadly, “you know, and now she’s here with us, you know what I mean?”

“I just wanna see October,” Chris says. “Maybe she’ll bring her here sometime.”

Craig sighs and sits at the table. “Not with these drinks.”

“I know that.”

Melissa smiles and leans up to kiss Chris’s cheek. “Well, I’ll ask her that.” At that, she goes back to the living room.

Back over to the living room, Charlie sorts through some of the CDs that he’s brought out and then he blinks as he spots The Cure’s Disintegration. “Oh here’s a good one,” he whispers to himself as he pulls that out. He then calls out, waving the CD to them, “Anyone wanna listen to The Cure?” Mick shakes his head, while Sid simply stares at him.

“Dude, first it’s the Beastie Boys, then it’s T-Pain, now The Cure?” Sid responds while Charlie glares at him. “You need to seriously, like, make up your mind.”

Mick raises an eyebrow. “...T-Pain? Really?”

“Least it’s not that Daddy Yankee or whatever that guy is anymore,” Lorraine speaks, before she turns to her son. “Sure, Charlie. We can listen to The Cure if it means you don’t have to listen to Santana.” She knows that he’s tired of listening to it.

While Charlie sighs and goes up to replace the CD, Joey sighs and slumps against the couch, feeling incredibly bored. This will be the first New Year’s Eve that he’s not getting any. He wishes that Shawn were around, at least. Mick glances at his roommate for a moment, and then he turns back to the television, trying to get through the night. Things have slowly, but surely improved between the two, and he realizes that he’s just going to have to accept the slow improvement. At least Joey isn’t telling him to fuck off anymore. And at least Joey is talking to him again. A little. But what he’s tried to do lately is offer to do things for the short man. He doesn’t know if it works or not, but he does feel good doing it. “I’m tired of playing games,” Mick mutters, and he groans as he gets up off the couch to set the television back to its channels, turning off the Xbox as well. Joey simply watches him, before he glances at the clock. It’s still only nine. Melissa sits down on another couch and watches Mick set the television back together.

“I do have some movies,” she says. “We can make the time go fast and watch one or two until thirty minutes before 2011.”

“Not sure we wanna watch Pretty Woman again.” He then sits back, feeling hungry right now. He glances at Joey for a moment before standing up. “I’m getting something to eat over there. You want anything?” he asks him.

Joey shakes his head no and replies softly, “No, I’m good.” After Mick walks over to the dining room, Joey sighs, unable to understand why his roommate is doing these things for him. It’s not like he’s a baby or over seventy-five. And besides, if this is Mick’s way of thing to make amends, it really isn’t working. He already told him that it would be awhile before he can completely be comfortable around him again. But for now he just accepts that the man’s doing this and thinks about more important things.

“Not sure if porn’s right for us, either,” Sid mutters under his breath. The doorbell rings, and he gets up and walks to open the door, hoping it’s either Corey with the beer or Jim with the fruit. Especially Corey. Parties are more fun when you’re drunk, after all. He opens the door and blinks at the sight of Brenna holding something. And then he blinks at the person with her. “Hey Brenna! And hey, what-ever-your-name-is.”

Brenna grins, along with another girl, only slightly older than her and with blond hair. “Hey, Sid.” She looks over at her friend before glancing back at Sid. “You don’t mind if I bring her here, do you?”

He grins. “Hell no! The more, the merrier,” he replies, stepping aside to let them in.

The blond girl looks around the house. “This house is just pretty,” she remarks quietly, and Brenna smiles, wanting to introduce her to everyone.

“It’s been awhile since I’ve been here,” she says. Basically, the girl was the one that accidentally hit her car a couple of days after that night at Flashing Lights and took her and October out for lunch. And they’ve gotten close already. It’s pretty weird, because they don’t have a lot of things in common, but somehow they grew pretty close. One time the girl visited Brenna for Christmas (because she has no family here), and October has gotten fond of her already. Then, when Brenna’s sister and mother insisted that she go to the New Year’s party while they take care of the baby (she really didn’t want to go), Brenna called her friend and asked if she was busy. As they take off their coats and make their way into the living room, the group became somewhat surprised at her presence, but greeted her happily. And then Lorraine almost screamed.

“Oh my god!” She squealed. “Is that you?” She stands up and walks over to hug her. “Oh child, it’s like you’ve disappeared from the face of the /Earth/!” She stands back and clasps her hand together. “And you got your figure back!”

Melissa grins and walks over to hug her friend. “Hey! I’m so glad you’re here.” She glances at the thing Brenna’s holding. “What’cha got there?”

“It’s something that we should use when the New Year arrives,” Brenna answers before she remembers her new friend.

Charlie has been glancing at her since she came in. “So who’s your friend?” he asks, smiling.

Brenna glances at her friend, and then she answers, “Um, this is Stella Katsoudas. We met because of the accident.”

The girl known as Stella grins and waves. “Hi,” she simply responds. “It’s nice to meet you guys.”

Melissa grins. “It’s nice to meet you, too!” She extends her hand to Stella, who returns the handshake. “I’m Melissa.”

“Lorraine,” the older woman speaks as she sits back down on the couch.

“I’m Sid Wilson,” Sid says, walking back down next to Joey.

“Joey,” the latter speaks, irritated that he has to do this again. He already had to introduce himself to Stephanie when she arrived with Corey earlier.

Charlie grins, and when Joey notices his expression, he can only roll his eyes, knowing that the guy’s going to try and hit on her. “I’m Charlie.”

Meanwhile in the dining room, Mick simply sighs as Chris wouldn’t let him or Craig go. “Look, why don’t you get your head out of your ass and just ask her? I need to eat.”

Chris sighs exasperatedly, honestly worried. “Because I don’t know how to ask her! I don’t know if I should do it over dinner, or at the privacy of our own apartment. Or now.”

Craig raises an eyebrow. “Why ask now? In front of everybody?”

“So we won’t have to here him gush about the good news later,” Mick mutters before he leaves and walks back into the living room. Craig simply shakes his head and turns back to Chris.

“Why are you pressuring yourself to ask her to marry you? Just do it when you’re ready,” he says.

Chris wonders if he should ask this, because it’s very personal for his friend. He clears his throat. “I don’t know if it’s a good way to ask this, but how did you propose to Eva?” Craig almost tenses at that name. Eva, his ex-wife who died a few years later after their divorce, was not something he wanted to talk about. He was slowly able to get through it when he got with Sid. Still, though...

“I just did it when I was ready,” he simply replies. “In the kitchen.”

The doorbell rings again and Melissa sighs as she goes over to answer the door. She blinks at the sight of the shivering Jim, and then she blinks even more at the sight of none other than Cristina, who waves. “Hey!” She grins. “I’m so glad you’re here!” She then turns to Cristina. “I’m so so so so happy you are here! It’s been awhile!”

Jim smiles sheepishly. “Brought a bowl of fruit salad,” he says, wanting to get inside.

Cristina can only smile at him. Melissa grins and steps back to let them in. They hung up their coats and walked into the living room. Sid grins at the sight of his roommate. “There you are!” he says, walking over to take the bowl from Jim’s hands. He then glances at Cristina and smiles. “Hey, Cristina.”

Cristina grins. “Hi, Sid.” Lorraine, Joey, and Mick look pretty confused, while Charlie grins at the sight of the woman.

“Well, hi there,” the older woman smiles as she walks up to her. “I’ve not seen you before.” She smirks at Jim. “What’s her name?”

Sid simply winks at her. “That’s his girlfriend.”

Cristina and Jim both frown at that (Jim moreseo) before the latter simply walks off, irritated and shaking his head. “We’re not dating,” he mumbles. Of course, Jim had warned her that people were going to assume that they are dating, as much as he’s tried to deny it. Cristina is just getting used to it.

She then sighs. “I’m Cristina,” she says with a smile, shaking Lorraine’s hand. Lorraine is amused by the accent that the woman’s carrying.

“Well, Cristina, I’m Lorraine, the host of this party, and you just make yourself at home, okay?” The younger woman grins and nods.

“Thank you so much for letting me stay, I will.”

Sid simply sits back down next to Joey, watching her follow Jim to the dining room for a moment to see what they have. Mick and Charlie’s eyes follow her there, with their focus on her ass. Joey notices this and rolls his eyes, while Sid simply grins. “That’s Cristina, the girl from Flashing Lights. Is she hot or what, men?” The shortest of the four can only shake his head. Sid rolls his eyes. “If she were a man, you’d think she were hot, Joey. You know what they say about Italian men.”

“I didn’t say that she wasn’t hot,” Joey retorts, eyeing the television. “I just don’t see it as a big of a deal.”

“How did someone like Jim get someone so gorgeous?” Charlie moans, slumping back down on the couch, happy at least that the song “Fascination Street” starts to play. Maybe they’re just surprised at the women in this party. Usually their gatherings are nothing more than sausage fests, because they usually don’t have women around save for Melissa, sometimes Lorraine, sometimes Brenna. Too bad most of them are taken. They all saw Brenna as a friend and nothing more. Melissa is taken. Cristina is presumably taken, Stephanie’s taken, and Lorraine is only for the guys who like older women. No, she’s not into that at all. So that leaves Stella.

“Because Jim doesn’t act so desperate,” Mick mutters before taking a bite of his pizza. He then glances at Stella, who is talking with Brenna. “What’s her name again?” he asks.

“That’s Stella,” Charlie replies, “Brenna’s friend. She’s gorgeous, dude. I really hope she isn’t taken. Or a lesbian.”

Mick glances at her for a moment, before he shrugs and turns his attention back to his food. “Yeah, she’s pretty,” he replies. He says nothing else for a moment, eating the rest of his slice. Then he speaks, “I just think she looks familiar.” Joey looks up from the television, and his roommate glances at him. “You think she looks familiar, too?” Joey looks up at Mick and shakes his head.

“I can’t tell,” he simply replies.

“I just think I saw her from somewhere...maybe the Flashing Lights. But I can’t fucking remember where...” he shakes his head. Joey can’t help but smile at this, feeling a bit hungry. He stands up and walks over to smooth Mick’s hair back with his fingers.

“Maybe you think too much,” he speaks before going over to the dining room. Mick can’t help but blink at Joey’s actions and his sudden shift in mood, watching him walk to the dining room. He shrugs it off, but then he sighs, unable to. He’s beginning to wonder why everything Joey says or does become so significant to him...or make him feel weird even.

Jim and Cristina return from the dining room and sit down next to Stella and Brenna. The first two, as well as Brenna, smile at each other. “Hi Jim, hey Cristina,” she greets.

“Hey, how is everything?” Jim asks, setting things down on the coffee table.

Brenna takes a deep breath and smiles. “You know, I’m just getting there. It’s the end of the year, you know? I just have to hope for a better one.” She turns to Stella and introduces her. “This is my friend Stella.” She then says, “Stella, this is Jim Root and his friend Cristina.” The latter grins and shakes the girl’s hand, who returns the handshakes while Jim greets her.

“It’s nice to meet you,” the older woman smiles. “I need to take the time to know everyone’s names,” she chuckles to herself.

Mick sighs and picks up the remote to turn the channel. “Shit, every dude and his mother’s got someone with them,” he mutters. “And when the hell is Corey coming back with his beer?” Joey returns then and sits next to his roommate this time.

“When did they leave?” he asks.

“Two hours ago,” Charlie replies.

Well, as soon as Jim hears Corey’s name, he closes his eyes and sighs, turning his attention to the television. He’s had to try very hard not to think about that man. It’s become ever so difficult. Ever since Sid told him about Stephanie a couple days ago, he ended up thinking about the man more and more. And then it started to depress him everytime he thought about him. Of course he knew Corey was going to end up with someone eventually (a woman), and of course he knew that maybe the man found him that repulsive, even though Corey never explicitly say anything near as bad as that. Part of him isn’t so sure that he really wants to be here anymore, since the guy will show up soon with this girl. His thoughts are broken by Mick’s irritated grunt. “He needs to hurry up soon,” he mutters. “I’m tired of drinking Sprite.” He pauses. “Maybe he needs to stop fucking his girlfriend and get here. It’s not that bad outside.” Jim gulps at such a statement. Because maybe Corey really is fucking the girl the way he wants to fuck him. He sighs shakily, hating himself for even thinking this way and Cristina notices.

“You okay?” she asks softly, putting her hand on his shoulder.

He nods. “Yeah, I’m great. Still cold,” he replies quietly, wondering what’s the use. This trying to ignore Corey and hang out with Cristina or keep himself busy bit is beginning to not work for him anymore.

“You’re pretty impatient,” Joey simply says to Mick, after he sits back down with his snacks.

Mick sighs and leans forward, finally finding a channel he’s comfortable with. “Maybe I am,” he whispers. Charlie chuckles and places his hand on the large man’s shoulder. Mick responds with, “Why is your hand on my shoulder?”

“Look, /shawty/,” he begins. “You need to relax. Corey’s coming in with the beer soon!” Joey, Mick and Sid simply stare at their friend’s unbelievable remark.

“....Did you seriously just call me /shorty/?” Mick asks in a low voice.

“No, /shawty/! You need some T-Pain in your life.”

Mick turns away from Charlie and mutters, “I swear to god, if you mention his fucking name...one more time...”

The doorbell interrupts him, and he sighs and slumps back against the couch. Melissa, beginning to see that she’s the doorwoman, sighs and goes up to open the door. She sighs when it’s none other than Corey, with Stephanie. She sighs and speaks, “Well it’s about time you guys get here.” She steps aside to let them in, while Corey rolls his eyes and wipes his boots on the rug. The snow has started accumulating out there. Melissa gently takes two cases of beer from Stephanie’s arms while the latter takes off her coat, and then she asks, “Is it getting bad out there?”

“Yeah, a little,” the other woman replies, gently thanking her has she takes the cases from Melissa again. “There was a lot of traffic out, too,” she says with a smile. “It’s just horrible out there.”

“I have to get more from the car,” Corey mutters, practically thrusting his cases at Melissa, who sighs exasperatedly before leaving back out.

She can only glance at Stephanie before they both walk inside the living room. As soon as the guys look up at the beer, they grin at the sight and Charlie even goes up to help the women. “Oh yes! Corey’s back! It’s about time.” Carrying the two cases from Stephanie, he says, “Mick’s getting all riled up about beer, and I just think he needs to, you know, relax?”

As Charlie and Melissa walk over to the kitchen, to put the alcoholic beverages in the trashcan full of ice, Jim looks up at the woman, and immediately his stomach twitches, feeling nervous. First of all, he can see why Corey decided to hook up with her, and secondly, that guy should be coming in a moment. He decides that he can’t really see him right now, and he tells Cristina that he’s going to go sit with the folks at the dining room, still Chris, Craig and now Lorraine. He figures he can get through the night talking with some people about whatever their problems are. Cristina sighs as he walks over there, and slowly slumps back on the couch. She knows that he’s been distant since Christmas, and he no longer shows any excitement or enthusiasm whenever they go somewhere. I mean, he was never the type to be enthusiastic anyway, but now he started to act as if he wasn’t..../there/, like he’s mentally somewhere else. She hopes that it’s just a phase. Maybe he’s worried about the hitmen coming back or something. She wishes he could talk to her about what was wrong.

Corey arrives (staggering in, actually) with a box of beer and liquor, trying not to drop them because it’s a heavy box. Irritated that he’s had to open the door with the box, he blinks at everyone sitting down and talking. “Jesus, you people are some fucking lazy asses! Can someone /help me here/?!” he shouts.

Mick walks up over to him and grabs the box. He looks at the beer and liquor, and he becomes even more irritated. “That’s it?!”

This angers Corey. “Yes, of course that’s it. If you all gave me more money I’d get some more.” He then mumbles, “Cheap ass.”

“Well, maybe if you hadn’t fucked your girlfriend, you probably would buy some more,” Mick mutters as he walks over to the kitchen with the box..

Corey just stares at him at the unbelievable comment the large man made. Because that really did not make sense at all. He spots Stephanie sitting down at a shorter couch, and he decides to sit next to her, smiling and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. She smiles back and snuggles against him, and Sid and Joey simply stare at that. In Joey’s case, it’s a look of disgust. Cristina spots Corey, quite happy to see him, and she decides to make some conversation. So, she stands up and makes her way to the other side of the room. Corey blinks and his heart stops at the sight of her. Yeah, she is gorgeous, but that’s not what’s making him feel awkward. What makes him feel awkward is that Jim is now here. Despite being content with having Stephanie by his side, he’s not sure he’s ready to face him at this point. She sits next to him and grins. “Hey there, Corey!” she beams. “I’ve not seen you in while. How have you been?”

Corey swallows, before he replies, “I’m doing pretty good, thanks.” He gives her a faint smile and then turns to Stephanie. “This is Cristina, Jim’s girl. Cristina, this is Stephanie.” Stephanie sits up and smiles.

“Hey, nice to meet you,” she says, shaking her hand. Cristina forces a smile and returns the handshake.

“I’m not exactly his girl,” she replies, “but it’s nice to meet you, too.” She grins then.

Corey stares at her, and turns his attention to the television. “Right,” he simply replies airily.

“Well, hey that means Jim’s here, right?” Stephanie asks, and Corey seriously hopes the he doesn’t have to introduce her to him. Well, his hopes are dashed when she indeed continues, “You need to introduce him to me.” Corey simply stares at her before he sighs and stands up.

“All right, let’s see him, if he’s around.”

“He’s at the dining room,” Cristina speaks, knowing that she’ll have to be alone again.
___

Back in the dining room, Chris with Melissa on his lap, Craig, Mick with a bottle of beer, Jim with another, Charlie and Lorraine are sitting or standing around the table, talking about everything and nothing. Of course, Chris had to force himself to stop talking about proposing to Melissa to Craig now, and Mick and Charlie suddenly started a conversation about porn, earning chuckles and raised eyebrows from the others. Lorraine seriously wonders why she’s listening to her son talk about porn actresses faking it. “So, I’m just saying,” Mick speaks, sipping on his beer. “Nothing wrong with humiliation fetish porn.”

Chris, rolling his eyes at the larger man, replies, “Right, I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with being told that you’re ugly and that your cock is small.” Melissa nods at that statement.

Craig shrugs. “Some people like that stuff. That’s why it’s called a fetish.”

Lorraine rolls her eyes. “Seriously I’m going to go and listen to innocent conversations,” she says, earning a giggle from Melissa as she leaves.

At that moment, Corey and Stephanie walks in, greeting the older woman as they pass. Jim has watched her go, but as soon as he sees Corey and Stephanie, he blinks and immediately turns his attention to his snacks again, letting out a deep breath. Corey then spots Jim and bites the inside of his lip, and he pretty much wants to get the fuck out of this house at this point. But, he pulls himself together and walks further to the table. He’s here to see his other friends and enter the New Year, happy and drunk, not let some old friend he’s had an encounter with ruin that just by being here and causing tension. “Hey ladies,” he speaks. And then, looking over at Melissa, he adds, “And gentleman.” She simply glares at him, but Chris rubs her arm, his way of telling her that Corey’s simply joking and that she’s not a man. Melissa calms down and decides to leave and walk back to the living room.

“Hey Corey!” Chris grins after he lets his girlfriend go. He sits back against his chair and his smile fades somewhat. “We were wondering what happened to you.”

Corey shrugs and puts his hands in his pockets. “Traffic,” he simply replies. “Kind of a bitch, you know?” Mick snorts, rolling his eyes at such a dumb comment, and Jim notices his expression. Sitting back against the chair and folding his arms, he can’t help but smile at the guy, trying to keep himself together. To be honest, he’s beginning to share the man’s disgust in Corey denying everyone alcohol because he wants to fuck his girlfriend. He shakes his head slightly and reaches for his beer, hoping that the night flies by very fast. Stephanie glances at Jim, and by the look at his legs, she concludes that this is the guy because Corey told him that he’s pretty tall. Plus, when they entered the house earlier, she thought Mick was Jim until Corey told her that Mick couldn’t be Jim because Jim has a job. Something like that. She clears her throat.

“Are you James?” she asks him. She looks at his shirt and smiles, “I love that shirt!”

Jim looks up at her at that question, and then looks down at his black shirt with the Harley Davison logo, raising an eyebrow. He looks back at her and forces a smile. “Thank you, and yeah, that’s me,” he answers as he extends his hand to her. “You must be Stephanie. It’s nice to meet you,” he speaks as she returns the handshake.

“It’s nice to meet you, too. Corey’s told me a lot about you.”

Jim hadn’t expected Corey to mention him at all, so he’s a bit surprised. “Oh really? He hasn’t told me much about you at all,” he replies, taking a quick look at the shorter man. Corey, resting his arms on the back of the chair, avoids the look, and instead he turns his attention to the food on the table, noticing the fruit salad. He immediately figures that his friend brought that. He wants to get out of the kitchen right now before he gets depressed. He’s supposed to be over this. He stands back up and groans, trying to put up a façade.

“Jesus Christ!” he exclaims. “Why the fuck are we listening to The Cure?”

Charlie glares. “Hey, that’s an awesome band!”

“Better than T-Pain,” Mick mutters.

“Stop bashing T-Pain.”

“No, I don’t mind The Cure, but this isn’t suited for a fucking New Year’s Eve party,” Corey points out. “Need some fucking Crue or something! Or Anthrax. I mean, come on, it’s the last day of the fucking year. We need to go out with a bang.”

Chris grins. “Fuck yes! Love Anthrax.” He turns to Charlie and asks, “You still have one of their CDs, do you?”

Charlie tries to remember before finally nodding. “Yeah, it’s over there.”

“Thank /god/!” Corey groans before he walks out of the living room, taking one last look at Jim. It’s a good excuse for him to get away from the guy. Can you blame Corey for feeling a bit resentful with how his supposedly best friend was treating him lately? Now that he thinks about it, he’s actually glad to introduce Stephanie to Jim. Maybe the man can see what he’s been doing and that he really doesn’t need him to make him happy. It makes Corey look almost like a bitter jerk to do that to Jim. But then again, Corey is a jerk at times. Well, Jim is also thanking God that Corey’s left, sighing a little shakily. He doesn’t know how much longer he can keep his cool at this point.

Stella walks into the dining room, feeling hungry and having not eaten anything since that afternoon. She does remind herself that maybe she should really introduce herself to Brenna’s friends and start a conversation. To be honest, she’s not a shy person at all. But she’s had a lot of things in her mind, having broken up with someone, wondering where she’s going to live and thanking God that a friend is letting her stay. Anyway, she stops between Mick and Charlie and looks at the bowl of fruit. She grins and speaks, “Excuse me,” before taking a paper plate and a spoon to take out some chopped cantaloupe and melon. Jim is kind of happy that someone’s eating his fruit salad. But, Charlie and Mick are pretty much looking at /her/. Charlie decides to make the first move, and he clears his throat.

“So, you like fruit, huh?” Well it’s the best thing he can do to start this off, really.

Stella blinks at that, and she smiles faintly. “I think everyone needs to eat fruit. Maybe we can tackle things like diabetes and childhood obesity if we ate more,” she replies. “Not that I’m a health nut or anything.”

“Oh good. Health nuts scare me sometimes,” Charlie grins.

Mick rests his chin against the palm of his hand and rolls his eyes at the man’s words. “This is the dude that eats a box of ho-hos everyday for breakfast.” Stella blinks at him and then at Charlie, before Mick continues, “And eats pork rinds for a midnight snack. You know, I’m surprised he doesn’t have diabetes.”

Charlie glares at the large man at that comment. “Hey, that’s because I’m not genetically predisposed for the disease. You can eat all the crap you want and you’d still be fine,” he states proudly. Mick and Stella simply stare at him at such a comment. Craig shakes his head.

“I’m gonna go,” he announces before he stands up and heads back to the living room, to Chris’s dismay.

Stella shrugs then. “I mean, yeah that’s true sometimes, but eventually your eating habits will mess you up,” she states, earning a grin from Mick. Of course, this was a cocky grin, directed at Charlie.

“That’s right,” he replies, sitting back. “Fucking need to eat your veggies, and your meat. If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding.” Stella giggles at that comment, and Charlie simply glares at Mick, slowly shaking his head at him.

“...You think you’re soooo smart, quoting Pink Floyd,” he mutters.

Mick smirks and sits back against his chair. He thinks about it for a moment before he shrugs and replies, “I am, actually.”
___

This goes on for awhile, Charlie and Mick taking a jab at each other in front of Stella (until Brenna found out what they’re doing anyway), Sid trying to convince Joey that what happened at a Pride parade back in the summer was not so bad (but being fondled by anyone was bad much less by a drag queen named Cocoa La Femme Noir), Cristina engaging in that conversation, and Melissa arguing that they all should watch some movies. But like Mick and Sid pointed out earlier, everyone likes different movies. A couple of the guys thought that maybe they just watch some movies and play a drinking game, but that was a bad idea, because most of them are drivers. So a game of “I Never,” was almost not played until Sid told them to just drink something—they still had soda. Boring as hell, and no one got piss-fucking drunk, but at least they all got to find out some really juicy information about others—including a couple receiving rim jobs one time or one guy having sex in an outhouse (guess who?). In a lot of cases, that was not a good thing either. Somehow, then, that led to a lot of confessions—their first time, and some of the guys’ coming out stories (where, thanks to Sid accidentally outing Jim, the latter got laughed at when he said that his mom caught him). Somehow, this all led to conversations about porn again (with Mick as the self-proclaimed connoisseur of that). And then, after calling and wishing Shawn a happy New Year, somehow they started talking about their deceased friend Paul Gray and the good and sometimes funny memories of him.

Sid grins and shakes his head, sitting back as good memories fill up his brain. “Does anyone remember that incident at his bachelor party?” he asks. It doesn’t take anyone long before Corey snickers.

“Oh yeah, I remember,” he replies. He turns to Brenna and says, “No, trust me. You’ll laugh at this one because I nearly died.”

“I forget. What happened?” Craig asks, sitting up. Jim looks between everyone, loving their stories about their friend and wishing he had known him.

“Okay, for those of you who weren’t around back then, I’m going to tell you this hilarious story.” He clears his throat. “So, remember when I called in a stripper for him?” Sid begins. “Her name was Cindi. With an /I/.” When Mick begins snickering, Sid tells him to shut up. “So, it was eight of us—we never met Charlie yet—and you know Paul, he’s just nervous and shit right?” That earns a giggle from some of the women. “And a lot of the guys were already drunk because we didn’t want to pay for the drinks at the strip club—”

“Get to the story!” Corey whines.

“I am! So, Cindi finally shows up. And...” he chuckles. “I guess I should’ve done a background check on her, because she was a drag queen!” That earns a laugh from everybody. Charlie can only raise an eyebrow.

“Wait, so what the hell did Paul do?” he asks.

“Cindi stripped in front of him.” Corey snickers at that answer. “And her clothes were pretty...dirty, right? So Paul had to like move away from him. And then she started lip syncing the corniest disco songs to him. Wearing only a dirty bra and her panties. And we could see the junk, too, so it wasn’t like we knew.” Brenna has laughed throughout Sid’s story, missing her husband more and more at the same time. Sid grins. “And he made us promise not to tell Brenna this.”

“He was so embarrassed!” Corey beams. “I would’ve told my wife that!”

“Really, Corey?” Mick inquires.

“I needed to know sooner or later,” Brenna chuckles. “Is there a moral to this story?”

“Yeah, don’t let Sid hire strippers,” Corey replies before drinking his beer.

Joey has been the only one who’s not really laughed much at this story. It was hilarious, but can you blame him? It would’ve been nice if his best friend was still alive to tell that himself. He sighs and sits back up, grabbing the ash tray closer to him, and he slowly pours a bit of beer into that ash tray, since he can’t do it on the carpet. “For our brother that isn’t here with us,” he speaks. This earns quizzical looks from the others, but then Mick realizes what Joey was doing, and although he doesn’t believe in an afterlife, he raises his bottle of beer.

“I hear that,” he speaks, and the others toast to their friend, letting out sighs and saying nothing else for awhile.

Then Corey shrugs. “Well, he’s avoiding drag queens strippers up there. We can laugh at that.” This earns a chuckle from the others.

“I wanna toast to our new friends!” Sid beams and ruffles Jim’s hair, and Jim in turn tries to move away from him. “And the insane amount of women friends we suddenly got.”

Melissa grins at this. “I agree! I mean, we don’t really know much about you guys, and we’ve only known you recently, but it’s like you’re all already part of our family, especially you Jim.”

“Tall ass motherfucker.” Charlie grins. “He’s our tallest member of the family. So Mick has to, like, step down the latter now.”

Mick slowly glares at Charlie. “Taking a stab at me again?”

“Yeah, basically.”

Jim looks down at his glass, and smiles. It’s pretty much true what Melissa has said. His involuntary stay Des Moines has gotten a lot more tolerable and less lonely with these people around, and he does feel like he’s a part of this surrogate family. He even feels like he owes them some help with the Geraldo situation, for an example. “Um, thanks,” he simply speaks with a smile, scratching the back of his head. Sid and Cristina giggle at that and hug the guy for his very humble response.

“See, I told you all he’s modest,” Sid speaks.

“To new friends this year,” Lorraine speaks, and they all toast to that.

Corey looks up at the clock and blinks when he realizes that it’s almost midnight, 11:48 to be specific. He’s kind of shocked at how fast time flew just by talking with people. He sits up and sips his beer again. “So, it’s almost about that time. Anyone else wanna say anything before we turn on the television?” Most of them shrug, not really feeling like saying much anymore. They all have talked their mouths off within the past couple of hours, and have said all that they’ve wanted to say (in public anyway). However, Chris gulps and sighs.

“Yeah, I have something to say,” he replies, and stands up. Craig knows exactly what Chris is going to say, and he can only look on in dismay. Chris gulps his beer and sets the bottle down, and then he rubs his palms against his jeans (they were becoming sweaty from him being nervous as well as their being wet from the cold bottle). He moves over and sits by Melissa, who can only blink at what her boyfriend’s trying to do. He sighs, and takes her hand, gnawing at the insides of his bottom lip. “Melissa,” he begins, “I’ve been trying to find a good time to do this, and I’ve waited for a long time, but I can’t anymore.” At this point, those like Corey and Mick realize what Chris is doing, and for Corey, this is the dumbest way to propose. “I’m doing this now, because I really want everyone to know how much I love you, and, well, how much my heart is yours, forever.” Melissa knows what this is now, and as tears form in her eyes, she tries not to hyperventilate. Chris continues with, “You’ve made my life whole again, and...and you’ve taught me that true love is possible and it exists, that eventually I’ll find it. You’re the love of my life as well as my friend.” As Melissa sniffles at this, Chris decides to cut to the chase, his heart beating rapidly as he’s been saying this. “I love you so much, Melissa, more than life itself. I really want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I want you to spend the rest of your life with me. So...” he reaches for his pocket and takes out a little black box, and Melissa’s heart does a cartwheel in her chest as he opens it. The ring is fairly simple, but the ring is really irrelevant compared to the message that it carried. “So, I...” he begins, allowing his voice to break for a moment before he pulls himself together. Whatever he was going to say has failed to come out, so he tries another way. “Be mine?” he whispers, “Please do me the honor of becoming my wife? Marry me?”

Now, the others pretty much stare at Chris and Melissa, shocked. All eyes were on Chris, and then the ring, and now they’re all staring at Melissa, waiting for her response. She lets out a sob and wipes away her tears, unable to find her voice. Finally she nods and whispers, “Yes...yes Chris!”

At that response, most of the others smile and even clap as Melissa hugs Chris. To be honest, he can hardly believe that he just proposed, and his heart swells at her response. Corey rolls his eyes and gets up to turn on the television. Because Stephanie has to go work tomorrow, the two were planning on leaving after midnight. He realizes that the only good thing about being unemployed was getting to sleep in. But then he remembers that his job as a radio deejay was a night, rather than the morning, so he got to sleep in a little anyway. Anyway, he sits back down as the television shows Dick Clark and Fergie. Charlie grins at the sight of the latter. “Oh /shit/. I’ve been wanting to see her.” Mick and Joey simply stare at him at that comment.

“She’s not bad,” Mick replies with a shrug. “I prefer women who don’t show their asses off in music videos.” Maybe he assumes that Stella isn’t the type of woman that does that.

Corey raises an eyebrow at that comment and shakes his head at the person who watches porn regularly. “I really don’t want to listen to you two talk about how fine Fergie’s ass is,” he mutters, and Steph laughs at such a comment.

“I don’t wanna listen to you guys talk about Fergie period,” Sid replies, eating some chips.

“Me either,” Joey replies before he get up to get more snacks.

Lorraine comes by with a box of New Year’s noisemakers and horns, and Mick raises an eyebrow. “Oh...I knew you were going to bring that.”

“Well, we can’t light up fireworks,” she replies as she hands Mick a horn. “There, now you can annoy everyone with this.” And that earns some chuckles from some of the others.

Jim shakes his head and grins at the guys all the same, and he sits back to watch the show. He sighs, thinking he could be at a friend’s house in Jacksonville, watching the show there. And it wouldn’t be snowing, so they’d be able to go out and stuff. Having not smoked in a couple hours, he looks at his coat in the closet, wanting to get his packet of cigarettes out. He’s not sure if Lorraine allows people to smoke inside the house. He wouldn’t mind smoking out in the blizzard at this point—as long as he gets his nicotine fix. As he sips his beer, loud laughter snaps Jim back to his surroundings. He sees Cristina looking at the television as well, not really interested in anything on the show but the upcoming countdown, and then he looks at Sid and Craig, who end up asking Chris why he decided to do this in front of everyone. Then again, in a way Jim can’t blame the guy that he would rather let everyone know now instead of later on. He is happy for him and Melissa. He always knew that they’d get married eventually, with a lot of children. Jim can’t help but look at Corey then. He’s rolling his eyes at a comment Mick has made, and then after Stephanie grins and shakes her head, he wraps an arm around her while she snuggles against him. Feeling the phantom pain in his chest at the sight, Jim sighs and turns away. He wants to leave the house. But he wants to smoke first. He stands up and tells Cristina that he’ll be back and he goes over to the closet to take out his packet of cigarettes and his lighter. He spots Lorraine shaking her head at a comment that her son has made, and he walks up to her. “Hey, Lorraine?” he begins. “Do you allow anyone smoking here? I mean, I can go outside if you want.”

Lorraine smiles. “It’s okay, sweetie. The kitchen is fine. It’s just that other people may not be as comfortable with you smoking around in the living,” she replies, giving the tall man a noisemaker.

Jim smiles and thanks her, before he begins walking over to the kitchen. Suddenly, however Dick Clark starts the countdown, and while Melissa excitedly turns up the volume, Jim decides to stand by the dining room to watch the countdown before smoking. He doesn’t see why people really feel the need to have such a seriously broadcasted countdown. Sometimes he feels that the New Year s just another day. He could be watching movies right now.

As Joey sits back down next to Mick, Charlie starts grinning, and reminiscing. “Were any of you guys scared eleven years ago because of the Y2K thing?”

Some of the other guys simply stare at him at what they perceive to be such a stupid comment. However, as the countdown reaches to the number fifteen, Corey admits, “Yeah.”

The countdown goes from fifteen to ten, and usually that’d be the time to count with people, but no one really feels like doing it this year. However, some cannot wait to use the noisemakers and shout those three words. It is also a sigh or relief, that they’ve made it through a rather difficult year, and that hopefully the next year will be better or not worse.

The crowd from the television shouts, “FIVE, FOUR, THREE, TWO, ONE!” And along with some of the people in the house, the crowd shouts, “HAPPY NEW YEEEEAR!” They use the opportunity to blow their horns and use the noisemakers, and some such Corey holler and hoot. He lets out a metal yell, just because he can, and after he sips his beer, he looks over at Steph and grins before giving her a kiss. The other couples in the house kiss as well. Cristina watches them, and then she looks up at Jim. Jim glances at her and then smiles, using his noisemaker, and Cristina returns the gesture by blowing the horn at his direction. Jim chuckles and shakes his head, and deciding that now is the time to have a smoke, he leaves and goes to the kitchen room. Charlie sighs, tired of Auld Lang Syne playing on the television, and he stands up to put on some music (the Anthrax album had stopped playing an hour ago).

He grins when he founds an album to put on, thinking that this place needs to party (more specifically, get crunked /up/), and fast. So, when “Shawty” starts playing, he hoots, but then most of the others can only stare at the guy. Mick mumbles some nasty words and shakes his head, and Joey sighs and lulls his head at his roommate. “Please do something,” he pleads quietly.

“Gladly,” Mick mutters in a low voice as he stands and walks over to the audio equipment.

___

Jim leans against the counter by the sink, and after taking a drag of his cigarette with his other arm crossed, he grins and shakes his head when he hears the song being stopped abruptly and some shouting from Charlie. Then he hears Chris saying something along the lines of, “The song sucks, but it’s his choice!” He then hears Mick saying that it doesn’t mean that they have to listen to it. Much laughter follows, Sid suggests dubstep, and pretty soon, Fascination Street starts playing again. Apparently, Charlie’s either going to play the same three records, or Lorraine’s putting Santana back on. Anyway, Jim takes another drag off his cigarette and blows the smoke towards the sink, feeling relieved now that the nicotine is relaxing him a little more. He feels ready to leave the party soon, but he doesn’t want to cut short Cristina’s fun. She really seems happy being around these people, so unless she wants to leave herself, he’s not going to bother. He taps his cigarette lightly on the ash tray and sighs, deciding whether he should make a New Year’s Resolution not to over-think so much.

He hears laughter coming closer to him, and one second later, he can only blink as the person who enters the kitchen turn out to be none other than Corey, who immediately frowns.

Both of them freeze at the sight of each other, and their hearts beat rapidly. Jim can only swallow, biting the inside of his lips as he stands up straight, away from the counter. Corey has come into the kitchen to get some drinks before he heads home, thinking that Jim went to the bathroom, so obviously he didn’t expect to run into him. Well, his first impulse was to simply leave, but then he realizes that he would make an even bigger fool out of himself at this point. Jim likewise was going to do the same, but stopped for the same reason. The fact that they’re both alone makes it so awkward for them. They could at least concentrate on the others when they were with them all, but there’s nothing to distract them now. Let’s not forget that they’ve not spoken in almost two weeks, ever since they last spoke in the mailroom the morning after that night; this adds to the awkwardness. What could they say to each other? Who’s going to speak first? Will either of them talk at all? They’re not even sure if it’s okay to ask how each other’s Christmas was. Jim’s heart beats even faster at the awkward silence, but then a roar of laughter calms him down for a moment. He wishes he were with them right now. Corey decides to make the first move, just to get this over with. He steps further into the kitchen, trying to compose himself as he walks over to the trashcan full of beverages and ice, taking out a bottle of Jack Daniels. He really needs it right now.

He clears his throat and begins with, “What’s up?”

Jim swallows again and sighs deeply. “I’m all right,” he replies quietly, looking down at his shoes. Craving nicotine, he picks up his cigarette from his ash-tray and takes another drag of it again. Corey, who’s been looking at him, swallows at the sight and looks down to get a six-pack of beer, thinking that will be enough. Then he freezes, unsure if he should say anything else to the person he used to talk to every waking moment, or drop the conversation and go.

Finally he decides to say, “Cool,” shrugging, and he stands around and waits for Jim to say something, figuring he’ll leave if the man says nothing soon.

Jim takes another drag, thinking about asking him about Christmas. If that night in the closet didn’t exist, he would be asking him about what kind of presents he gave his kids and everything. But maybe it’s not a good idea now. His thoughts drift to the present situation, and he sighs. Before he knows it, he’s already asked, “So how long have you known...what’s-her-face?” Corey not only hears this, surprised that Jim would give a damn at all, but he can hear a sense of dread in the tall man’s voice as he’s asked this. He cocks his head, a pinch of cockiness showing up in him, and he shrugs nonchalantly.

“Before Christmas,” he replies with a faint smile on his face. “She’s...pretty fun and all,” he continues, nodding a bit. He cautiously looks at Jim, wondering what the man will say after this. He becomes a bit irritable upon seeing that his facial expression has not changed at all. Jim looks as if he doesn’t really care. He certainly doesn’t look upset about it, that’s for sure.

“That’s not too long ago,” Jim responds with a seemingly bored tone to his voice as he closes his eyes, taking another drag. Seeing Jim smoke like that is beginning to irritate Corey. Jim really wants to point out that the guy is basically dating some girl, and that he’s been doing it after sleeping with her after only knowing the girl for what, an hour? That’s what Sid and Charlie said, anyway. Before Corey says anything, Jim sighs, unable to hide his jealousy any longer. “You know,” he begins, “it’s just that you always seem to do things that you think is wrong.” Corey blinks at this as the tall man continues, “I mean, you yell at Joey for picking up someone, and that’s exactly what you’re doing.” Neither of them realize that Cristina, who went to get some snacks, can hear them.

Anyway, Jim’s comment offends the shorter man. First of all, he doesn’t like being compared to Joey. “The hell are you talking about?” he demands. Secondly, he doesn’t think that’s true, because he’s sticking around with Stephanie, not dumping her. Jim sighs, unable to answer, so Corey continues with, “Look, I don’t go criticizing how you date your girlfriend, so don’t fucking do it to me.” Jim closes his eyes and swallows at the statement, expecting him to say something like that, actually. He knows he doesn’t like to be compared to Joey, for one thing. Corey then asks, “And anyway, isn’t that what you’re doing with Cristina?”

Jim almost groans, frustrated. “First of all, she’s not my girlfriend!” he snaps. “Secondly, even if she was, I wouldn’t be fucking her an hour after I first meet her, or days after.” He runs his fingers through his hair, breathing deeply for a moment to compose himself. But then he says, “I’m so fucking sick of you people claiming that she is m—”

“Why are you so fucking defensive about it?” Corey demands. However he’s pretty amused by the man’s reaction. He decides to point out, “If she weren’t your girlfriend, you wouldn’t give a shit about what people are saying about you and her, now would you?” Jim sighs and stops right there; usually that would be true. But Corey is wrong about one thing; Cristina is not his girlfriend. Corey almost smiles and continues, “Whatever. So you’re not dating.” He frowns then, letting his own jealousy creep in him, and he sets the six-pack down on the floor. He mutters, “I don’t know why. She’s fucking hot, and she’s a better looking friend.” When Jim looks up and tries to ask what Corey was talking about with the last bit, the latter continues, “I’d probably fuck her myself if I knew you weren’t interested.”

Well, Jim glares at the shorter man at that statement, and he turns away, shaking his head. “I’m done talking about this,” he mutters. Corey smirks at that, and he decides to walk closer to him, setting down his bottle. Jim feels a bit awkward having the man suddenly close to him.

“You’re jealous, aren’t you?” Corey speaks. Jim immediately turns around at such a statement, before the former continues, “I mean, I was able to get with some girl, and you’re mad because you’ve not had the guts to fuck Cristina.” He keeps grinning. “God, if that’s it, then something’s wrong with you.” Jim sighs, the conversation draining him, and he rolls his eyes and turns away from him. Corey becomes frustrated that the guy doesn’t seem to care. He sighs, deciding that maybe he should mock him a little. “I think you need to stop being so hesitant,” he says, looking down at the sink. He frowns, but still keeps the same confident voice he’s had. “I mean, women are really great in bed. Better than men, but then again what do I know? And...and clit does feel a lot nicer than having your dick inside some dude’s mouth.”

Jim blinks and turns to Corey at that. It really reaffirms the man’s fears that he really does repulse the short man for what happened. He slowly turns away, feeling injured despite the fact that he knew Corey felt this way to begin with. He slowly takes a drag of his cigarette, and Corey becomes angry that the guy isn’t saying anything.

“Well aren’t you going to say anything?” he demands.

Jim takes a deep breath and turns back to him. He keeps his cool and slowly responds in a low and firm voice, “I want you to leave me the hell alone. ” At that, he turns his back on him again, hoping that the guy will leave soon.

Corey swallows at such a statement, and he slowly picks up his bottle of Jack Daniels. He knows what he said has hurt Jim, but he really wants the guy to know how he’s felt. He decides to make it be known to the guy. “She keeps me company, you know,” he speaks softly. “That’s why I stick around with her.”

Jim turns to Corey and shrugs, and the only response he comes up with is, “Do I really look like I care?”

This really hurts the latter, his jaw and hands feeling funny, and he slowly lets the fact that he’s upset take over him. He turns around and picks up his six-pack, trying to compose himself. “At least she doesn’t avoid me or ignore my phone calls,” he retorts. At that he finally leaves, not noticing the fact that Cristina was sitting on the chair at the table listening on them.

Back in the kitchen, Jim has blinked at Corey’s statement, and he sets his cigarette on the ash-tray and leans against the counter. He let’s out a shaky sigh, almost seething with anger at both Corey and himself. He wants to go back to Jacksonville, to get away from the man and these problems. If Tom Merriman hadn’t fucked things up for everybody, he wouldn’t have been here. He wouldn’t have had to face his family, and most of all, he wouldn’t have had to see Corey’s face or deal with the guy. He was happy to have gotten to know the guy again, but no, this is just another fucking nightmare that was waiting to happen. He swears he’s going to strangle his former employer if he ever sees him again. It is then when Cristina quietly enters the kitchen, pretty unsure of what to really say. Jim turns around and sees her, and he sighs. She begins with, “Corey sounds like a jerk.”

Jim nods at this and shrugs, staring at his shoes again. “Yeah.” It takes the man awhile before he realizes something. He looks up at her and blinks. “Wait, you’ve been listening?” His thoughts travel back to the last time Cristina listened on him and someone. He sighs as Cristina nods.

“Well, I came here to get more fruit,” she replies, leaning against the refrigerator. “And then I heard you and Corey talking.” She shrugs. “I didn’t mean to, though, and I’m sorry.”

Jim shakes his head and puts out his cigarette butt in the ash-tray. “It’s all right,” he simply replies Cristina was a big part of his and Corey’s conversation, and he is sure that the woman was going to ask more about that. Looking down at his shoes then, he finds himself asking, “How much did you hear?”

Of course, Cristina sighs. She’s pretty much heard nearly everything, and she wonders why people seem to think that she and Jim are together when they’re not. Then again, he did kiss her at the mall. It really confuses her, and she really wonders what he wants now. He’s not spoken to her at all since they arrived at this house, and she knows now that it isn’t because of that mafia situation. So instead of answering his question, she asks him a question. “Why did you kiss me at the mall?” she inquires softly.

Jim swallows at this. To be perfectly honest, he’s not thought about that for a couple days. He knows exactly why he kissed her, and it really isn’t a good answer. He clears his throat, still looking down at his shoes. How can he really answer this without making it look so awful? He clears his throat with his hands in his pockets, and replies, “I, um, I wanted to see if I felt...anything for you.”

Cristina swallows at such an answer and inhales while she nods quickly at this. She gnaws on the insides of her bottom lip, not really wanting to ask the same question. At this point, she thinks she may already know the answer. “So...um,” she begins, “do you...do you feel anything for me now?”

That question brings a little pain to Jim’s chest. He knew a while ago that he really doesn’t feel anything for Cristina other than the fact that he sees her as a close friend. What he has basically done, to avoid Corey and get him out of his mind, was leading her and making her feel like he may want some type of relationship with her. Now, for a long time, he did think that a relationship with her was possible, but he really could’ve stopped when he realized that he doesn’t. She’s really going to hate him now, is he? The only thing Jim can respond to this is, as he looks up at her, “Are you angry with me, too?” He sighs exasperatedly, angry with himself more than anyone else at this point. He stands up straight and glances down at the sink. “I mean, yeah, I did kiss you because I thought I felt anything for you, and I didn’t, and I’m sorry.” Phantom pain shoots up in Cristina’s chest, more so at how almost blunt he was. He speaks quieter, “I feel like I’ve really lead you on, Cristina, and I know how angry you are at me right now.”

Cristina nods and shrugs with her arms up, letting them drop to her sides afterwards. Can you blame her for feeling this way? She really has wanted something more with this guy. But leading someone on is worse than simply telling someone that he’s not interested. “I am upset, Jim,” she admits. “I just...I just feel like I’m always going to be a simply distraction from you, or something to prove to others by parading me around.”

Jim blinks at that. “I’ve not paraded you around,” he responds, almost hurt by that comment. He sighs deeply, and he’s not really sure how to say this. “You’re a great friend,” he whispers. “I wanted to wait and see if something blossoms between us. And...and if you did feel something for me,” Cristina sighs, “then I’m sorry.” He sighs again and glances at her. “I...” he begins, his heart beating rapidly. “I hung out with you a lot to see if I felt anything for you, because I started having doubts about my feelings.”

Cristina clears her throat and asks softly, “Was it me?”

Jim blinks at that. “No, no it wasn’t you. It really had nothing to do with you. It was...” he sighs, not really wanting to say this, “it was Corey.” She blinks at him at this, then. She slowly walks closer to him and sits down on a stool, feeling somewhat sympathetic.

“Are you...are you in love with him?” she asks softly.

Jim looks up at her at such a question, and he shakes his head. “No,” he simply replies. He pauses for a moment, wanting another cigarette, and possibly a drink. The latter would increase his bravery, that’s for sure. “It’s sex,” he simply speaks, oh so ashamed of himself as he’s saying this to someone else, as he’s kept this inside him for a while. He shakes his head and shrugs. “It’s sex,” he repeats. “And...he’s my best friend, an old friend, you know?” He sighs almost miserably. “We were really drunk that one night at Flashing Lights, and...” he shrugs, not wanting to say more of that. “And ever since then, all I could think about was....I dunno.” He moves away from Cristina and walks to the other side, leaning by the stove as he lets everything out. “I fucking wanted him after that,” he confesses with some difficulty, those very words sounding like poison to his ears. He shakes his head and continues with, “I still do. I just couldn’t stop thinking about him in that way, you know, his body and...anything. And it’s just awful.” He swallows. “So, I tried not to think about it anymore. I needed distractions, I needed to keep myself busy, so I called you and hung out with you. I worked a little overtime.”

Cristina listens on to Jim, still somewhat upset that he’s not felt this way for her. But he is her friend; she wants him to know that she’s there for him if he wants to talk. She sighs; this isn’t about her anymore. It’s about him and Corey. “Why do you think these feelings you are having are bad, Jim? They’re not.”

He looks up at her with somewhat sad eyes. He shakes his head and shrugs. “Why think about wanting someone you can never have? Just, why think about that? I don’t like to think about sleeping with anyone, especially him, especially since I don’t feel anything more for him. Like I said, I’m not in love with him.” He glances at the clock closer up to the ceiling. It’s 12:37. He sighs. “And anyway, I repulse him.” Cristina blinks at that.

“Do you really think you repulse him?” she asks. “You heard him earlier—you’ve not returned his calls or anything. Maybe he’s not disgusted with you. Maybe he’s upset because you’ve been neglecting him. I doubt he’s concerned about what you two did that night.”

The thought does bitch-slap Jim in the face. God, how could he have screwed up so much? He’s driven a rift between him and Corey, and he’s upset Cristina as well. “I know,” he whispers, hating himself even more. And Corey’s not even doing well with things right now, especially with being unemployed. He should’ve been there for him. That feeling that maybe Corey’s disgusted with him does not go away, though.

Cristina offers him a faint but sympathetic smile. “I don’t think I’m the one you should be talking to about this. The only person that really needs to hear this is him.” Jim nods, dreading the fact.

“I know,” he whispers, wanting to save his friendship with Corey, if nothing else. “I pretty much pissed him off, though. And vice versa.”

Cristina smiles then and walks over to squeeze the tall man’s hands. “You don’t need to talk to him now. When you’re both ready.” Jim looks up at her, and then he smiles back at her. She then lets out a yawn. “I’m tired.”

Jim almost chuckles. “Me too.” He glances at the clock and sighs. “We should leave before one or both of us falls asleep.” He then looks down at her and says, “I’m sorry I’ve not talked to you at all here.”

She smiles a little, agreeing that they should split. “It’s okay. Your friends are pretty nice and funny.” She pauses as she begins to walk out of the kitchen. “And some are crazy.” Jim shakes his head and follows her.

“Some of them are, I know. They’re fun people, though,” he replies, wondering if the roads are still pretty bad out. He’s the one with the rented car.