"Yeah, someone has to protect her, plus she's way too hot for you, Tris," I said, laughing at the strange look plastering Tristian's face. But a second later, I was the one wearing a weird expression.
"She wants me, bro, I'm tellin' ya." Puffing up his chest and raising his nose to the sky, Tristian spat back with a cocky grin.
"I can tell you 100 percent without a doubt she is not interested in you, Tris." Rolling my eyes, I countered with as much sass as I could muster, causing Tristian to frown at me, but the comment made Chase laugh.
"That's probably because you're not dating her either, Dean." Tristian continued, causing me to smirk before leaning over and punching Chase in the shoulder lightly; it wasn't me dating her, but someone else in the room for sure was.
"Doesn't want me, doesn't want you, sheesh see, this is why women are too difficult to deal with. Who knows, hehe, all I know is one of us is lucky, and the other two have shit on their face?" Tristian's voice came out mischievous and was soon followed by a loud CLANG as he launched his bedpan across the room at Chase and me.
In an instant, the room broke out in a chorus of laughter at my expense as I flailed my arms, falling out of the chair to dodge the used and dirty bedpan.
"DUDE, WHAT THE HELL, WHY DID YOU THROW YOUR PISS POT AT ME" I shouted disgustedly. This made Chase laugh even harder, so hard in fact that he fell out of his chair. Tristian and I started laughing with him when he hit the ground.
"We really aren't dating guys; Chase and I simply saw a movie together and had dinner, that's it. Plus, I wouldn't date Dean; he's too tall for me. I have a thing for shorter guys, isn't that right," Entering the room and silencing us all, Kris shot Chase a flirtatious wink, making him turn pink in embarrassment.
She had clearly heard everything but wasn't bothered at all by our boyish behavior.
Seeing the girl he liked in her form-fitting scrubs, Chase jumped back up and sat down in one movement.
"Jeeeezzeee," I groaned, noticing Chase's embarrassment and the hearts forming in Kris's eyes.
"Make me feel like a failure much, Kris," I said, looking at her, slightly annoyed that she was hitting on my best friend.
In response, She sashayed over and put her hand on my shoulder before putting on a sorrowful expression.
"It's not you, Dean. I promise it's…." sensing where this conversation was about to go, I quickly cut Kris off.
"I swear to god, if you finish that statement, I will never speak or even look at you again." That said, I angrily brushed her hand off my shoulder and got up, noticeably aggravated.
---
In the present day, Kris looked down as sadness crept across her face. She knew how the story ended, and it wasn't something I liked bringing up often. A lot had happened between us, and bringing up our memories affected her more than me, so I grabbed her hand under the table and squeezed it twice for comfort. This little interaction was enough as she promptly sat back up with all signs of sadness vanishing from her face.
Agitated, I stormed out of the room and walked around the hospital. I had gone on that date with Kris a couple of months ago, and we hadn't talked about it much since.
Things were awkward the entire time, especially when she ran into one of her friends from college. I instantly felt like a child compared to them; that's when I knew things wouldn't work between us.
With how sensitive Kris appeared to be when introducing me, someone younger, to her college friends, it was enough of a blemish for me to nearly lose all interest in her as a potential partner…nearly.
Then, about three weeks ago, Chase came to me and asked if he could ask her on a date. This was a sign of just how close we were as friends, the "Bro Code" was something we always stuck to back then, and he wasn't comfortable just up and asking her out since I had technically been first.
But after what happened on our date, I was ticked, so I quickly responded without thinking. At the time, I told him, "What the hell do I care? It's not like she's my girlfriend".
Well, not long after, he had asked her out, and a week later, he had been on several dates without signs of stopping. It was enough for me to tell there was something rapidly forming between them that I knew couldn't exist between her and me, and I was okay with that, but seeing the two of them together still pissed me off.
Between the flirty looks, comfortable PDA, and affectionate words said between them, they made it blatantly apparent that things were going great.
Stewing in my anger, I wandered around the hospital for a while and eventually swung past the room to tell the guys I was going home. And then, just like that, I left.
I called a Cab without another word to anyone and fled the hospital. But first, I wanted to get something to eat, so with a few silver-tongued words, I convinced the cabbie to swing by a fast food restaurant to get some food. Without knowing if my dad or brother would be home, I splurged and got enough for all 3 of us on the off chance everyone WAS home.
Once we got to my apartment, I paid the cabbie, said farewell, and stood in the entryway of my apartment. Looking around, I realized my dad wasn't home, but the lights were on in our living room and hall, a sign that meant my actual brother, Renton, was home.
My brother Renton is only a year and a half younger than I am, so we were a lot closer than Tristian and Chase were, but we all got along just fine, even though Renton was always left out cause he was by far the youngest of the group.
"Aye, Renton, I'm home!" I said loud enough to be heard in the apartment; he soon came running to the top of the stairs and slid down the banister, landing right in front of me.
"Swiggity Swag, what's in the bag? Is it grub for me?"
With a smirk, I tossed the bag of burgers at him and walked toward the living room.
"So I made it to level 87 in Medievalscape. That and I sold my Cronosblade for five mil gold." I jumped over the back of the couch and made myself comfortable as my younger brother approached me, blabbing about his game while stuffing his face with cheeseburgers.
"About damn time. I've been waiting for you to catch up for a week. You should stop messing around trying to sell crap all the time and level up, or else you'll forever be behind me," I said, turning on the TV and pulling my laptop out from my backpack.
For the Next 3 hours, we sat in silence, playing the game Renton had mentioned, Medievalscape, on our respective laptops. That's just the kind of relationship my brother, and I have. We don't have to talk; being in the same room is how we hang out.
By the time dad got home around 11 pm, we had both retreated to our bedrooms and were still playing Medievalscape.
I had put the burgers into the refrigerator and put a note on the freezer door saying there was food. As such, after changing out of his uniform, I heard him shuffling around downstairs in the kitchen, and eventually, he went to bed.
Feeling exhaustion take over my mind, I closed my laptop and began getting ready for bed, but just as my head hit the pillow, my Friendspace app dinged on my phone.
After searching for a good two minutes for my phone, I looked at the message from Renton. It was a link to a video on Friendspace's video site Friendeo.
The message from my brother said. "Dean, you need to watch this." I figured it would be another stupid Cat video, but it wasn't. The title of the Video was "Soon You Will See."
The Video started with a bunch of newsreels of war and people in sick masks. The words Soon You all will see appeared across the screen, and it cut to black for so long that I found myself tapping the screen to be sure the Video wasn't over and noticed there were still 5 minutes left, so I fast-forwarded 30 seconds, and a strange guy came onto the screen.
He had a voice muffler and was wearing all Camo clothing, and the man's face was covered with a ski mask with a crossed-out American flag dead center for all to see.
The man started describing how he was part of a group that would take out the American Scum. He kept using phrases like Destroy, Virus, and Emp.
Frowning, I couldn't help but think, Why had Renton sent this to me? This guy was talking about killing everyone in our country.