Under Control.

chapter thirty one.

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Albert bounded into the apartment with an armful of beer, and wide, surprised eyes.

'I thought you were spending the night with your lady?'

Julian wasn't supposed to be here. But, alas, he was. And more than just that, he appeared to be perilously melancholy, as well.

It's not like Julian being in a mood was a new development. Albert had known him for entirely too long at this point to be surprised by his roommate's sudden turns, anymore. But Jules' general demeanour had been verging on a new level of gloom as of late — ever since his theatrical performance a few weeks ago which had culminated in the gutter outside of Nora's new apartment. And usually, Al would have just left well enough alone. But tonight, he had plans. And he had plans, specifically, with Nora.

So, not only did Albert not have time for one of Julian's tantrums right now, but he'd also kind of been banking on the fact that he wasn't going to be home.

But as it turned out, getting rid of his new-old friend's ex-not-quite-boyfriend who also happened to be his roommate, bandmate, and friend-friend, was not going to be quite as easy as Albert might have hoped.

'We broke up.' Julian muttered, downed his drink, and then went right back to watching the crescendo of Colombo that was flashing over the tv screen.

'Fuck,' Albert quickly dumped his armful of beer in the fridge then made his way back to Julian, preparing to pencil in a few moments of brotherly commiseration before he attempted once more to get him to vacate the place so he could get on with re-ingratiating himself into Nora's good graces. 'What happened?'

Albert already knew what had happened, he was pretty sure. And she was about to walk through their front door.

And Julian knew that Albert knew where things stood and what had gone down, but he also didn't want to talk about it. Not when the other thing Julian was sure about, was that he himself was the reason that things had gotten messed up between Al and Nora in the first place. And, present melancholia aside, he didn't really want to find himself responsible for it happening again.

'I don't really wanna do this right now, if that's okay with you.' Julian deflected, downed his back-up beer, and then stood up, with every intention in the world of going on a search for malt liquor.

But, unfortunately for Julian, his doe-eyed roommate just could not help himself.

'Jules,'

'Albére,'

Albert huffed, and Julian sighed, and then he made a halfhearted attempt at consolation.

'I'm not gonna do anything, alright? But, it wasn't working. It wasn't gonna work out — it was never gonna work. So, it was the right thing. I'm just trying to do the right thing this time. Okay?'

In return for his spiel, Julian got a panicked look hidden behind a sympathetic frown. 'I'm glad to hear that, man. Or, I'm not. But, you know what I mean though, right?' They both nodded and shrugged and came to an easy truce. 'But, yeah — you gotta get the fuck outta here right now though, okay? Because Nora's about to show up any minute, and I'm too fucked up to be running interference right now.'

There was a beat, comical, and filled with wide eyes and half-steps taken in circles. And then there was a knock on the door, and the room descended into chaos.

'Why didn't you open with that?' Julian was hunched over and whispering, like if he could just make himself small enough the moment might slip right by him.

Albert reared back and smacked Julian square in the arm, bringing him back to standing and into the unavoidable problem at hand. 'You weren't supposed to be home!'