Symbiosis (Phan)

8: i am really tired

It was an odd thing indeed.

And mostly due to the fact that the thing between Chris Kendall and PJ Liguori could now perhaps be described as friendship.

Well, acquaintance/potential friendship perhaps more so, with a truthful emphasis upon acquaintance, which translated into Chris' mind as a certain emphasis on friendship; it couldn't hurt to be optimistic, at least, but Chris' optimism was perhaps borderline unnerving - as Dan had once found himself stating to himself at three in the morning as he contemplated his entire existence and reason for living... as you do.

The two had partnered in drama, and Chris had frequented the toilets before drama classes in order to compose himself to a certain degree, and of course, such a process required the presence of Dan for reasons unbeknownst to him, and therefore rendered him late to every art class he'd had over the course of the past two weeks (as Dan had art when Chris had drama).

Chris used being late to drama as a perfect excuse to get PJ to help him and 'explain' the task to him, as he took all his energy to ensure that he didn't look too obvious as he stared rather lustfully into PJ's eyes and ignored every single word he said... as you do.

Of course, PJ was beyond stupid and had indeed caught on after the second lesson, but in an odd way, he didn't seem to mind.

And indeed, in an even odder way, he didn't seem to mind Chris Kendall as he was - slightly creepy, and indeed weird, because he had this genuine honesty to him, and an incredibly 'adventurous', but indeed unique sense of humour.

PJ appreciated such a genuine personality, and the way he really wasn't just every other boy in that school. PJ was bored. PJ talked to far more people than he'd care to on a daily basis: that was so many conversations that followed much the same patterns, and Chris, evidently brought him some form of break from that, even if the conversations they shared resulted in making PJ feel a little uncomfortable at times, but he found himself embracing that.

At some point he'd been deemed popular - a result of who he'd made friends with back when he was eleven years old, and how they'd gotten on, and the general consensus was that he was fairly attractive, and therefore he felt as if far too many people seemed to be frozen: treading on glass as they spoke to him. It was not something PJ cared for.

In much the same way that Cat was, Chris was different. But the two were indeed vastly different people.

PJ didn't want another Cat. He wanted Chris- ... to be his friend.

Maybe.

Perhaps.

He hadn't quite gotten to a one hundred percent solid conclusion with that one yet.

But he was indeed intrigued by him as he leaned back in his chair, imitating smoking a pipe for no particular reason, and continuing to wink across the room at PJ as their teacher talked vaguely about their pieces and some other random bullshit that had much more to do with her holiday in Greece than the curriculum dictated necessary. In fact, PJ was pretty fucking sure that the GCSE drama curriculum had no mention of their teacher's vacation to Greece over the summer. Yet, still, here he was, finding himself with far more knowledge about a lovely waiter in a cafe in Athens than was entirely necessary.

Chris laughed, rolling his eyes at PJ across the room, before gesturing to their teacher and making a face that appeared as if he was falling asleep from boredom - it didn't look quite as good as Chris had perhaps anticipated, and he did indeed look vaguely as if he'd had a stroke or something equally as medically traumatic and concerning, but there was just something about that which PJ found appealing to him.

Or maybe it was just natural that, Chris, who looked like he was having a stroke, was the most interesting thing in a room full of silent students who he didn't particularly care for, and a middle aged woman going on about the fucking food in Greece. As to how she'd really gotten onto the subject in the first place, PJ honestly had no idea.