Standing By

What I Do?

(Avi)

I stared at Adam as he made his way silently to his room, then down the hall at Austin as he just flipped his hair over his shoulder, as if he hadn't just about knocked Kirstie over. What the hell had that been about? She looked a little hurt that he wouldn't even apologize or say excuse me or anything. She glanced over her shoulder at him as she let herself in her room.

I shook my head, feeling bad for her. She'd just had the shock of her life, finding her best friends making love. Hurt that they wouldn't even tell her they liked each other the way. Then of course, I had had to go and yell at her. I shouldn't have done that. I really shouldn't have lost my temper like that. I usually don't—that was probably a good portion of the reason she'd been crying earlier. I actually felt really sorry and bad about it. I'd just let my indignation of her suggesting Scott would try to kill Mitch take over and control my words and mouth. I'd had to step away and splash my face with cold water to pull myself back together. I'd been doing all right until Austin had started acting like a butt towards her.

I limped back into my room and stuck a hand down into my toiletries bag, fishing for the Tylenol I kept in there. I pulled the bottle out and took two, washing them down with a drink of water. What the hell was Home Free's issue? Were they mad that we would talk without them? If that was the case, they'd just need to get over it. We'd only really known them for less than forty-eight hours. Naturally, there was going to be things we weren't just going to openly talk about with them just yet. They did seem like great guys and I could see myself being friends with them. But yeah, I didn't feel the need to divulge my best friends' sex lives with them just yet. I wasn't even sure they'd really want to know. Who knows what their views on homosexuality may be? Some things are best left unsaid. Sex, religion, and politics—the three no-no's. And this covered them all.

I groaned as I laid down on the bed. Ugh. My entire left side of my body was screaming at me. It had throbbed at me all day and I'd been as unobtrusively as possible practically snacking on Tylenol to keep the pain at bay. I refused to go to the hospital or anything with it. We'd already practically become residents there, what with Austin's concussion, Tim's panic attacks, and Mitch's arm. No. Last think I wanted—or they needed—was me on the injured reserve. I'd just keep self-medicating.

I sat up, thinking about the fury I'd seen in Tim's eyes as he'd told me 'dunno' earlier. What had I done? Other than yelling at Kirstie, which they hadn't seen or heard. I'd been fairly even keel all day. Oh hell. Had they heard me through the door? How loud had I been? Had my shouts carried through he door? They had been right outside the door, so for all I knew, they had heard me yelling at her. That could explain why they'd all been mad at me. But why Kirstie? I didn't understand that and my mind couldn't reason it out.

"I can't take this," I muttered, standing up and trying to shake my leg into cooperating with me. A quick glance in the mirror to make sure I didn't look like an alien, which I have the tendency to do when I'm really tired or sloppy. I paused and combed my fingers through my hair before tidying up my ponytail. There, that was better.

Back to looking more like an earthling, I stepped out into the abandoned hallway. Well, it was past midnight. I knocked lightly on Tim's door, hoping he hadn't already gone to bed. No answer. I knocked again.

"What?" I heard him call from the other side.

It didn't sound like he'd been asleep. "Can—Can I come in? Please?"

Footsteps towards the door. "Who's that?"

"It's just me, Avi," I said, hoping he'd let me in.

Tim opened the door a crack. "Whaddaya want?"

"To—talk," I said, taken aback at the tone in his voice. I had no clue what I'd done to deserve it.