The Naked Truth [Ryden]

Twenty: Animal Crossing

They were gathered in Spencer's living room when he returned home, Gee, Bert and Bob, tired and aching, with blood on their hands and dirt under their nails. Even Gee, who was usually pristine, needed about a hundred showers to rid them of their sins.

Spencer saw them all and folded his arms, trying to look stern when in fact it just made him look kind of constipated. Though Bert didn't say that out loud. "Where are my parents? They were supposed to come pick me up."

Nobody else wanted to say it, so Gee thought they may as well. "Out back." They said, and Bert glared at them as if to say 'don't you feel guilty at all?!'. Bob yawned.

"Out...out back?" He looked between the three of them, and as Gee set their pistol on the coffee table, realisation set in, and his whole world fell apart. "You - you killed them?!"

"I had to, they were about to walk in on us burying a dead body."

"You killed my parents?!"

"Spencer, calm -"

"Don't - don't you fucking dare tell me to calm down, I swear to God Gee, I swear to fucking God, when we agreed to do something about Dallon I did not think you'd involve my parents!" Spencer was fuming, pacing the living room like a tense caged animal. "And you - you just - and you just buried them out back with Dallon like they meant nothing?!"

"It was the only thing we could do." Bert said.

"No, what you could've done was not make me murder someone in the first place!"

He stood, as Gee watched, their heart beating fast, and Bob simply picked at his nails. "I hate to break it to you, darling, but you were the one who started all this by wanting to humiliate Brendon in the first place. You're the one who had some crazy revenge scheme planned and you're the one who involved us all in it."

It all happened very quickly after that. The pistol ended up in Spencer's trembling hands, pointing straight at Bert's face, and the younger had gone from a confident, upfront, revenge-planning bitch to a scared boy who'd lost his mind and his way, all in about 2.3 seconds, but Bert didn't even flinch.

"You wouldn't even dare." He said coolly, the corner of his mouth already rising.

"Oh, wouldn't I?" Spencer thumbed back the safety, and Gee shot to their feet, holding out a cautionary arm.

"Whoa, Spence, don't -" they began, but were cut off by the gun-toting maniac turning the gun on them, and they gulped.

"Both of you - you both ruined my life, and -"

"May I just say," Bob interjected, most definitely high enough and way too blasé in Spencer's presence. "may I just say," he raised a hand in a drunken finger point. "Bert's a complete prick, but he does have a point. In a way, you killed your parents. But hey, at least it was Gee that pulled the trigger, that might help you sleep -"

If anyone was going to get a bullet in the arm that night, well, let's face it, it was going to be Bob.

~

Needless to say, Pete didn't expect Ryan to return so soon, least of all with Spencer sobbing at his side, but stranger things had happened, and he let them both in, ignoring the fact that they were both trembling so hard they may have fallen apart right then.

"Hey, Patty." Ryan murmured, acknowledging Pete's rather unfortunate childhood best friend as he sat curled up in an armchair, wearing pajamas (and a fedora) and holding some form of Nintendo DS. He waved in return, going straight back to his game as Ryan ushered Pete and Spencer down the hall, to Pete's room.