A Friendly Experiment

The Hunt

DAVID:

It was Monday, July 29th.  Two weeks had passed since those crazy people had left my house and two weeks had passed since I (more or less Carthridge) sent out my article.  I found myself utterly bored without any of them in my house.  I missed their stupid drama, flirting, kissing, and fighting.  I missed them a lot.  Instead of inviting them to do something, I filled my time with constantly checking my email for a response to my article.  There was nothing yet and I badly needed a distraction.  As if on cue, there was a knock at my door.  I jogged down stairs and looked through the peephole; it was Teneson.  I opened the door and threw my arms up to block my face.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked.

"The past few times I've opened this door, I've been punched in the face." I explained, ushering him in and closing the door.

"Well your face looks healed." He shrugged, giving me no sympathy

"What do you need?" I asked him, noting that Teneson had never once come over to my house on his own.

"I needed to talk to someone and I figured you'd probably be the best person." He shrugged, sitting down on my couch.

"Why is that?" I asked, sitting on the chair next to him.

"Because your basically a psychologist, or whatever." He said. "And you're also my friend." 

This was the first time Teneson had ever called me his friend.  The first time that he'd ever even admitted to having a friend too.  Something was up.  He was acting very strange.  He wasn't as forceful as usual and was very restrained in his voice as well as his body movements.  He was also very tense, but he was usually tense.

"Okay, what's on your mind?" I asked, relaxing in the chair.

"Bellen." He said, staring at the ground and then looking up at me.  It was a very sad expression that made me realize what was wrong with Teneson: he was falling for a girl.

"I see.  You like her." I said. "So what do you want to do about that?"

"I don't know.  I was hoping you'd tell me what to do." I said.

"I can't tell you what to do.  If you like her, you should tell her." I recommended.

"I'm pretty sure she hates me." He told me.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because I wouldn't sleep with her." He said.

"And why wouldn't you?" I asked.

"Can we just drop it?" He demanded, getting angry.

"You came here for me to help you, and that's what I'm trying to do!" I said, matching his tone and volume.

"Just help me find her, so I can talk to her then!" He stood up.

"Find her?" I asked.

"I've looked all over town for her.  I've looked for a house under the name Frame in the phone book, but I only found two and they're not her family." He said.

"You've been looking hard for her." I stated.  He nodded and looked down again, signaling that he did not wish to talk about how much he cared for her. "Okay, we'll go find her then."

"Do you have her address?" He asked.

"No, but I know someone who might." I said, going to grab my shoes.

 PETRA:

"I forget that Boston really isn't that close." I said, starting to pick at my nail polish.