Sunday, August 19, 2007

Chapter Seventeen: Malfunction

Malfunction
(17)

1 comment:

Christina said...

"CHRIST CHRIS! It's not like I cheated on you." Chloe said, whiping her nose on her sleave. She didn't care how unlady like it was. Chris had stopped sobbing, but he was crying quietly. That somehow disturbed Chloe more.
"Chris." She said, and sat down a few feet away from him.
"You crossed a fucking line." He said, looking up at her. He was always so sensitive. How could she hurt him like that. This was all going wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. She wasn't even attracted to Johnny, and that somehow seemed to make it worse.

"Never?" He asked, not looking up. Hehad never felt so empty in all his life. Or so betrayed.
"What?" He heard her whisper, sniffling.
"Never loved me?" He asked.
"I did, I swear!" She told him.
"Then why did we break up?" He asked.
"I wasn't in love with you anymore. What we had was beautiful, but you weren't my true love. Not the person I felt like I was suposed to be with forever." She sighed. Nothing she was saying was helping, but she knew the truth was the way to go here. She tried to choose her next words carefully.
"You will always have a special place in my heart." She told him. He just scoffed at her lies. "I mean it." He felt bad for making her so upset, and then felt angry at himself for feeling guilty.
"I wanted to experience other things, Chris. It wasn't fair to keep dating you if I wasn't fully in our relationship. You knew we'd both start seeing other people." She said.
"How would you feel if I had slept with Lisa?" He asked. He had stopped crying and was looking right at her. She could stand his gaze and looked away. She thought about it and suddenly understood full force what she had done. If Chris had slept with Adrian, she would have been a little jealous, but not cared too much. Lisa? If he had ever slept with Lisa she would be horrified.
"I'm so sorry." She said, almost breathlessly.

Chris saw how truly aweful she felt, but he was still so angry at her. So angry at Johnny. Johnny knew how much he still loved Chloe. He knew!

Lisa jumped when the door opened. Tucker came out and put an arm around her.
"What's going on? We heard shouting." He told her.
"Major malfunction." Lisa said, whiping her eyes.
"What happened?" Tucker asked.
"Well for one, I'm completely confused and a little hurt that I was so left out of that drama. I find out Johnny slept with Chloe, whom Chris is still in love with. That Johnny had apparently always been attracted to me, not Chloe. That everyone gives me shit for smoking, but my suposed best friend is a total closet pot head. And everything just blew up." She explained, and started crying.
"Hey, it's okay." Tucker said, and held her. He rested his chin on her head and breathed in the strawberry sent of her hair. He was really falling for this one, he thought. It pained him to see her so upset.
"I promise, it will be okay. You four are way too close to let this ruin everything." He told her.
"I know. But how long is it going ot take to repair? This is a serious malfunction in our plans here!" She sobbed. He could feel her shaking. It was a chilly night even though it was summertime. The monsoon nights had a tendancy to cool off though. It smelled like rain outside, and the city lights reflected off heavy nightime clouds.
"Lets get inside in case it rains." He told her. She just nodded, and he lead her inside. Adrian was sitting on the couch watching videos and documentarys of her favorite bands. She looked concerened when she saw Tucker walk in with Lisa, sobbing in his arms.
"What happened?" She mouthed sighlently to Tucker.
"Malfuntion." He whispered as he lead lisa to his room. She spent a lot of time in here over the past week or so.

Lisa sat down on his bed and shamefully whiped her eyes. She hated people seeing her cry. She was rebelous, but she was also very organized, and always had a plan. She took pride in not seeming frazled and never getting caught of guard. But this...this was just too much. She pushed down any jealous feelings she had about being left out, and especialy the jealous pains she got when she thought of Johnny with Chloe and not her. She new that was just her being week. The man she wanted was right here with her. His arms wrapped around her. She turned her head and kissed him.

Tucker was completly caught of guard. He had been trying for days to think of how to ask Lisa out. He was three years older then her, but felt like an awkward teenanger when he was around her. Ever since he first met her he wanted to be with her. He kissed her back, but only for a moment. She looked up at him, looking scared. Like she was afraid she had been too bold.
"I want you Lisa. But I want something important and meaningful with you. Right now you are upset. We aren't a couple." He told her. She smiled at his chivalry.
"Can we be a couple?" She asked him.
"I hope so." He said, and she smiled. Oh what a beautiful smile it was, he thought. It shone so much brighter than her tears. He whiped her eyes, and they layed down in his bed. Lisa slept soon after.

Drip. Drip. SMACK! "OW!" Johnny shouted. He had fallen asleep, and smacked his face at whatever was tickling him. He opened his eyes and realized he was outside and it was raining. He was still slightly drunk, but managed to make his way back home. He was a drunk, soaked, miserable man when he finaly made it. He hesitated before opening the apartment door. Sighing, he opened it. He had never felt so guilty for anything. If he could crawl into a dark whole and wait this thing out, he would. Especialy when he saw Chloe and Chris hunched against the wall a few feet from each other. Both exausted from crying, but still unable to make enough peace to go to sleep.
"I'm so sorry." Johnny said. Chris and Chloe both looked up at him. The looked confused like they hadn't heard him come in.
"I don't want to hear it man." Chris said. Suddenly he was angry all over again. He got up, walked out of the apartment and slammed the door.

Chloe looked up at Johnny and started crying. He helped her up, then lead her back to bed. He tucked her in, and she fell asleep a few minutes later. He sat by her for a little while. Why had he drawn that stupid picture?
Because, he answered himself, she was amazing, and beautiful, and the best work of art I ever created. He was sad when he remembered Chris taring up his drawing. He slowly got up and snuck out of Chloes room. He crossed the living room and scooped up the pieces of torn drawing paper.

"Shhhh." Adrian said, opening her front door.
Chris turned and looked at her. He had just slammed his own apartment door. She motioned for him to come over. He did, and she lead him inside and to the couch.
"So, explain this malfunction." She told him, sitting next to him. She wrapped a big afgan around them.
"Malfunction?" He asked.
"Yeah. This malfunction in your friendship." She told him. Then before he could stop himself he started babbling about Chloe. From the break up, to the trip, to that nights events. He was furious, sad, hearbroken, angry, and so hurt. Adrian seemed to understand completely. He fell alseep with her on the couch under the afgan. A Green Day video paused on the TV.

Johnny sat holding the scraps of his drawing in his hand. What the hell did he do? He thought. Still drunk and half stoned he fell asleep on the floor in his torn black and white image of Chloe.