Us and Our House

Planning The Trip

"C'mon, Chance!" Geoff encouraged as he walked eagerly beside her partner. "It'll be a lot of fun. There'll be skiing, ice fishing, snowboarding..." he rambled.

"Geoff!" Chance suddenly snapped with a piercing voice that echoed throughout the halls. Geoff was suddenly silent. He was 99.99% sure that he'd never been shut up so fast before in his life. The vein popping out of Chance's neck led Geoff to believe he might have been taking it too far. "My life is already busy as it is and someone has to take care of the paperwork!"

A shockingly timid Geoff just said quietly, "Oh, sorry, man... didn't ah... mean to upset you or anything and I mean I totally get it and all..."

Geoff rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly before he heard Chance give a heavy sigh. "Look, I'm sorry. But I've got a lot on my plate right now and... I'm not too good with new people anyway. You'd be better off without me."

"You kidding? I bet you're a kick-ass snowboarder. This would be a pretty great way to get your mind off of the stress for a while, y'know, chill and take it easy." Geoff reasoned.

"My focus is my job, Geoff. That should be my priority." Chance told him lowly with a serious tone way too depressing for his partner's taste.

"Just one weekend?"

"No. It's too much time away."

"Just five days?"

"Geoffrey."

"120 hours?"

"No is no."

"Five sun rises?"

"That's final."

"One weekend out of your entire existence!"

"FINE. For Heaven's sake OKAY!" Chance suddenly blurred in exasperation.

"I mean, if you insist." Geoff smirked before handing him the document he was holding with a cheeky grin. "I already got you the weekend off by the way."

With that, Geoff turned around and marched back down the hall with a look of triumph about him.

Chance only looked over the approval form for his vacation before glancing up to see Geoff confidently strolling down the hall. He simply shook his head.

"Geoff Castellucci."

~•~

"GEOFF CASTELLUCCI!" barked a a very angry Tony from the rec room. Geoff, who had stuffed his moth full of Earl's delicious brownies, just froze in his place with wide eyes.

"Hmmmmm?" hummed a guilty-as-charged Geoff as he tried to muster up the most innocent look he'd ever pulled off.

"WHAT THE HELL? WHY?" demanded the raging baritone as he stormed into the kitchen. Geoff innocently chewed his food and averted his eyes. He gave a shrug of his broad shoulders.

Geoff mumbled a few timid words through his stuffed cheeks, which no one could understand anyway.

Eli came into the room with a mug of coffee in his hand and a book in the other. He peered at Tony briefly over the rim of his glasses. "I mean, Rachel seemed happy to come." Eli pointed out. "I thought this whole feud thing was over."

"She is the devil in disguise." Tony hissed, his nose scrunching and eyebrows furrowing.

"Relax, man." Geoff assured after swallowing the huge lump of chocolate. "I'm sure she forgot all about prom already. Just don't bring it up and all will be fine. Maybe you guys can be friends."