From the top! TedXHidgens

Part 7

Ted led Henry down the hallway of the apartment building.
"Here we are," Ted unlocked the door," Appartment 369!"
Henry chuckled to himself a little. That's right he just fucking laughed at 69. Jesus Christ he has a doctorate.
They walked into the apartment. It was way tidier than Henry was expecting it to be. It was also bigger than the exterior of the building led on. One of the first things that was apparent was the fucking bar just sitting in the middle of the living room. What kind of Sex in the City bullshit is this?
"Why is there a bar in your apartment?" Henry was perplexed, "if you have a bar in your house why would you suggest we got to a bar?"
"Well bars have other people. There's also of an atmosphere that a bar has that this place doesn't."
"What, an atmosphere of people drinking there problems away?" Henry chuckled. Ted smiled.
"The bar in your old place was pretty fucking cool. So I decided next place I would live in, if I survived would have a full bar." Ted patted the counter of the bar.
"This really is a full bar. You even have fucking maraschino cherries." Henry picked up a little Tupperware of cherries while inspecting the bar.
"Oh yeah those" Ted smiled, "just paying homage to Bill. I miss the lightweight sometimes."
"Ah yes Bill. Poor fellow. How exactly do cherries relate to Bill? I didn't really know him."
"Oh he just said that your bar wasn't a full bar because it didn't have cherries. The dork wanted to get waisted on Shirley Temples." Ted laughed a little.
Henry started getting to work on making two Shirley Temples. Ted seemed a little zoned out.
"Two Shirley Temples," Henry set down one of the drinks and held the other, "to the less lucky victims of the hatchetfeild 'incident'."
"Cheers" the two men tried to down it like it was a shot or something. That was maybe not the best way to drink that.
"Fucking PEIP calling it an incident. Like it wasn't a devastating catastrophe. Like it wasn't almost the end of humanity." Henry fiddled with a cherry stem.
"Fuck PEIP. I still fucking cant believe they almost had us change our names. Like what the fuck difference would that make!" Ted poured himself a shot. Henry did the same. There was a moment of silence as they downed the shots.
"I miss hatchetfeild." Ted sighed.
"Ditto. the moment PEIP lets people live there again, I'm moving back." Henry poured another shot for himself.
"I don't think I can go back" Ted stole Henry's shot, Henry poured himself a replacement, "I feel like I'd just spend every waking hour missing Charlotte, Bill, Melissa, and Mr. Davidson, That fucking psycho. You get what I'm saying?"
It's like how Henry could never set foot on that campus again. Not after what happened to them. It's just all the moments he spent with them are there. The football field, the diner, the old dorm building, the library. Their memory lives there now.
"That's logical," Henry was stared at the cherry stem.
"You good man?" Ted put his hand of Henry's shoulder. He was warm.
"Yes I'm perfectly fine."
Ted looked less than convinced.
"Why do you want to go back, anyway?"
"I miss my house." Henry realized that was probably not a great reason.
"It was a pretty baller house."
The two men downed another shot. There was a moment of stillness.
"How are you holding up." Henry patted Ted on the shoulder.
"Ehhh. Survivors guilt, you know how it is. Charlotte and Bill were much better people then me. They deserved to survive." Ted didn't look up from his drink.
"Ah yes survivors guilt, my dear old friend." Henry stared down at his drink.
"Old friend?" Ted looked a little concerned.
"Eh just something that happened in my college days." Henry, didn't really want to talk about what happened back then.
"College days." Ted looked quizzically, he's an accountant he can probably put two and two together. Henry just wanted the alcohol to kick in. Damn this cursed alcohol tolerance.
"So a date?" Henry took a swig of his drink. He hoped this would throw Ted off. It did not.
"Is that a problem for you?" Ted smirked and leaned towards Henry. This backfired very quickly.
Then as if dead god answered his prayers, the alcohol kicked in. Henry started giggling.
"Oh that's no problem." Henry smirked and leaned in as well. He could see Ted looking at his lips. Ted pulled away.
"You're drunk."
"So are you" Henry giggled.
"Do you need me to call you a cab."
"Boo I don't wanna go home. I could just stay here." Henry winked and giggled some more.
"You can stay here if you don't want to go out at this time of night." Ted started cleaning their glasses.
"I'll stay here." Henry inches closer to Ted.
"You can sleep in my room. I'll sleep on the couch."
"Aww what a gentleman."
"Jesus Christ your like a small child."
God he sounded like Stu, such a buzz kill. He's allowed to have his fun! Memories started to flood into his brain. Memories of the dorm room and the records and the library. Don't cry Henry. Don't fucking do it. God damnit.
"Holy shit are you ok I didn't mean it like that." Ted rushes over to Henry.
Henry was just blubbering. He could only manage short words in between sobs.
"They're... go-o-one..."
"Henry?"
"M-m-m-my ... fa-au-lt"
Ted pulled Henry into a hug. Henry just gripped onto Ted's shirt. Warm. So warm.
The rest of a night was kind of a blur to Henry.

~~~~
Did you catch my starship reference?
Of course you did, I'm just being dumb