The Big Boom [re-writing]

2:45 pm [updated]

update/edit: GOD, I still kinda really hate this new version of this chapter...but what am I to do? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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"Hey! Tell your stupid dog to quit buggin' my customers!"

Christopher gave a dry look at the owner before tugging at Chubby's collar. The owner, wearing a boat-shaped hat, white polo, and a red-and-white pinstriped apron, retracted the broomstick he'd whipped out and shot us a threatening glare.

"S-sorry," I said as he disappeared into his ice cream parlor.

"Don't apologize to him," said Christopher.

"Chubby peed all over the welcome mat though!"

"Then Chubby should be the one apologizing, shouldn't he?" He held him up in the air, Chubby's two hind legs dangling, and stared back into his doggy eyes. "Huh, shouldn't you, you little bitch?"

"Arf!"

I laughed, covering my mouth with my hand, as the dog licked Christopher's face and left a superfluous amount of drool behind. He released him onto the top of the outdoor table we were sitting at, and Chubby immediately tried climbing up the red-and-white striped umbrella blooming from the middle of it.

"I wonder if he knows," Christopher mused out of nowhere.

At first, I was going to say, 'About the welcome mat?', but second-guessed it to be about whether Chubby was aware of your funeral.

"I'm sure he knows," I said, scratching behind his ear. "He's just holding it all back like we are."

He sat back in his seat. "Reasonable."

I pulled my hand back to my lap, eyeing Christopher stare lifelessly at the ground. His thumb stroked over his bottom lip as he'd zoned out. The edges of his blonde hair whitened from the light of the sun behind him, disheveling all over and flaying by his ears. Under his hooded eyes were the circles that'd lifted, partially since we've left the house and partially since his skin appeared more tan from being outdoors. The bark from Chubby struck him back to life.

Exhaling, he reached over and ran his hand over the fur of his abdomen. "You know, every time I was over, Sarah would have these one-sided conversations with Chubby right before I opened the door. And then when I would try to jump scare her in the middle of her talking to him, she'd break off mid-sentence and pretend she was singing so she wouldn't be embarrassed. It was kind of cute."

I crossed my arms, smiling. "I actually still don't get your relationship with her. I know you guys were dating but you've made it seem like it was so much more...and so much less. I don't know."

"Yeah. It is confusing," He said, not adding more to it.

"But at the airport," I mentioned, "I remembered you talking about family not leaving anyone behind because of guilt or something. And maybe I'm overanalyzing it but then you said, 'Sarah shouldn't have left', like she was family to you. And then neither of you guys mentioned directly about loving the other. But you two have slept together even. I don't get it."

"Like Sarah's told me before," He said, his voice wiring still, "Sex isn't love."

"But what you've felt, it was love, wasn't it? What she felt, too, it was love. At some point, it had to be it."

He clicked his tongue. "Maybe when she pulls the right words out of their nonexistence would I be able to directly label our relationship," He said, almost accusingly. "Let's not talk about it anymore."