One-night stands are interesting concepts and one that - despite my recent change in luck with them - still confused me a little. For example, Amanda, I had fucked her six ways from Sunday the night before and then again another few more times that morning; there was so much of my cum inside her, it was a minor miracle that she wasn't leaving a trail of it behind her as she walked - with something of a hobble - down the hallway and the stairs on her much acclaimed and thoroughly earned walk of shame. Did it really count as a one-night stand if it had been repeated the following day?
The question died on my lips, though, as no sooner had Amanda's blonde hair disappeared down the stairs than Jimmy's dark hair appeared coming up them. His eyes locked onto mine, a brief look of surprise flashing over his face before his eyes lit up in delight. "Pete! You're home!" He rushed forward and wrapped his arms around me in the tightest bear hug he could manage. "Dude, I've missed you! How are things going?"
I had to admit, I smiled, possibly my first genuine, heartfelt smile in months. Jimmy was my best friend, a man closer to me than family; he was - out of everyone - the only person whose mind I couldn't bring myself to block. I needed that connection; I needed something to fight for, something to keep me connected. It was never going to be my family, nor could it be now that they were dead; the same went for Becky and - to a lesser extent - Philippa as well. Charlotte was an Evo and not a connection to what I considered the real world. Evie hung between both existences in a way that none of us really understood yet. Olivia had potential, but she was too new; she wasn't a connection, just the possibility of one. Jimmy was it; he was the last grasp I had on my ever-slipping humanity; he was the link between my new life and who I had been before it; he knew me as the me I had to aspire to. For all my failings and faults as a human, I had been a good man, a man who would have been horrified at some of the things I had been forced to do.
I didn't want to lose sight of that. I couldn't. Even though he had no idea how deep the sentiment actually went, Jimmy was all I had left, all that was stopping me from falling into the maelstrom of endless, vengeful war.
I hoped he would never know how much he had done for me.
With his arms around me and the happy smile on his face - and more importantly, sensing nothing in the way of external influences over him - I felt myself relax a little, losing myself in the moment of normalcy. "Dude, what happened? Where have you been? I've been freaking the fuck out!"
I sighed heavily and stepped back out of the bear hug. "I... um... I kinda lost it a bit," I said, stepping back into my apartment and letting him follow in beside me, placing a bottle of milk on my counter before he joined me on the sofa.
"Yeah, I heard about Becky, man. I know you liked her, I'm sorry. I... Jesus, what can you say to that?"
I smiled weakly and nodded. It was time to start getting creative. "Thanks, but it's worse than that. My asshole parents went and got themselves murdered, too."
"
What?!?"
Jimmy spluttered around his tongue. Part of me felt bad talking about them like that, not after they had sacrificed themselves for me, but Jimmy knew my feelings about them, and there was no way to tell him what happened without explaining how I knew.
"Home invasion gone wrong," I shook my head, "Or at least that's the working theory."
"Fuuuuck! Now I really don't know what to say." Jimmy slumped further into his seat. "When did that happen?"
"Just before Christmas," I sighed. "But you know what they were like. They weren't found for a few weeks; nobody raised the alarm until they missed a few of their Rotary Club meetings."
"Didn't you say your cousin was killed before that, too?"
That was the excuse I had used to talk about the death of Faye. I just nodded.
"I'm... sorry?" He said, his eyes filled with sympathy. "I mean, you know I wasn't the greatest fan of your parents; they were pretty shitty people, but... wow."
"Yeah," I huffed out a breath. "No explanation, no closure, just... It knocked me for six a bit." I was surprised with how honest that answer was. People in my position would usually either take the condolences without comment or launch into a tirade about how it wasn't needed. My parents had been the worst sort of people right until the very end, but
at
the very end, they had both stood their ground to protect a child whom they had spent a lifetime torturing. There was no other way to put it; I had no idea how I was supposed to feel about that. It went nowhere near far enough to absolve them of their actions for the entirety of my life before that; it raised more questions than it answered, and yet, they had given their lives for me, seemingly without a moment's hesitation. It was totally at odds with everything I knew about them. And it really had completely thrown me through a loop.
"I... I don't know what to say, buddy," he sighed and flopped back onto his own end of the sofa. He looked around and sniffed. "You've been fucking."
"Needed to blow off some steam."
"With..." he tossed his thumb over his shoulder, "...The blonde on the stairs."
I just smiled and nodded.
"Damn, dude, you get her number for round two?" I shook my head, causing him to snort out laughing. "I've created a monster."
"How's Lori?" I asked, an intentional and highly unsubtle attempt at changing the subject.
The smile that lit up Jimmy's face answered my question better than his words ever could. Then it suddenly dropped. "Oh shit, she sent me to the store, she's waiting for me, be right back!" He hopped up and ran out of the apartment.
I blinked at the door as it closed behind him, then snorted out a laugh—same old Jimmy. I got up and headed to the kitchen area, pulling a glass out of one of the higher cupboards and filling it up with water from the sink. After having lived months on nothing other than water, it felt strange to have other options and not even consider them before still opting for that. It was automatic. For someone who very rarely, if ever, drank plain water in my life before my foray into a warzone, it was something of an unexpected change. I shrugged it off and took a large gulp from the glass before leaning on the counter.
A few seconds later, there was a knock on the door. I still wasn't quite over my paranoia despite having taken a decent amount of it out on Amanda the night before... and that morning... and I let my senses wash out to the couple on the other side of the door. A smile pulled at my lips. Jimmy could barely contain his excitement at having his friend back, and Lori wasn't far behind him, but more than that, she was happy to see her boyfriend so happy. I walked over and pulled the door open, letting them both in. Lori stopped and gave me a tight, tender hug before stepping all the way in. It was nice. To be welcomed home, to have people happy to see me just for being me, it warmed a part of me that had been left to wither in the cold for months. To make matters even better, there was no sign of corruption or influence in Lori either. "I'm sorry about your folks, Hun," She whispered to me before she pulled away.
"Thanks, Lori," I smiled back. It was nice to just... be. It was what I had hoped for with Charlotte the day before, but the incident with Marco's spy in her head, coupled with her knowing everything there was to know about my exploits in Ukraine, had thrown that out quite dramatically. Things had gone much better at the memorial - as much as things
could
go well at a memorial - at least between her and I, the contact with The Judge notwithstanding, and could almost seem to be back to normal by the time she'd dropped me home. But that 'normal' was not the same as this one.
There was always an edge between Charlotte and me, not necessarily in a bad way; it was just that everything about our relationship was founded on the fact that we were both Evos. That influenced everything, some ways for good, others for bad, and often it was very subtle, but it was always there. In fact, if you discounted every subject linked to our Evo nature and every conversation we'd had about something to do with it, We had barely spoken. I supposed it was a bit of a redundancy for us, though, I knew everything about her without a word about ever being spoken aloud. My friendship with Charlotte - assuming it could go back to the free and easy way it had been before the way - was as close as it was with Jimmy; I knew even more about her than anyone else in my life, but it stopped us from having... this.
In those longest nights, in the darkest hours, in the deepest pits of my rage, loneliness, and sadness, both in Ukraine and before it, this is what I had missed the most. Just being in a room with my friend and shooting the shit about any inane thought that popped into our heads. It was damned near perfect. Even more so when Jimmy jumped up after a few minutes of idle conversation and went to grab a few beers from the fridge that I hadn't even realized were there. We were halfway through April now; I doubted I had spent more than a few hours in this room before the previous evening since early December.
Well, four-month chilled beer was as good as any other, and I groaned loudly as I took my first pull from the condensation-soaked bottle.
"So," Jimmy chirped up after a swig of his own, lifting his feet onto the coffee table before Lori promptly batted them off again. "Are you back to see the king?"
