KISS: Road Trip

Ch 18: Paul? (Gene)

The sound of the doorbell echoed through the house as Shannon and I sat on the couch, watching a movie. I ignored it, too lazy to get up and unwilling to let go of her anyway, so I just pulled the blanket higher and pulled her a little closer. The doorbell rang again and was then immediately followed up by aggressive knocking and Shannon turned to look at me, raising an eyebrow. "Gene."

"Mhm?" I asked, still looking at the screen. "Go get the door." I heaved a sigh, rising to my feet. "Okay fine but pause the movie, would you?" She giggled, eating a handful of popcorn. "No, I like this part, I don't want to have to wait for you to get back." "Aw but I don't want to miss anything!" I protested, leaning over to give her a kiss. "Oh shut up and get the door. You're literally in this movie, you know what happens," she teased, throwing some popcorn at me.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I muttered, walking to the front door and yanking it open. My heart immediately dropped to my feet. "P-Paul?!" I stammered, staring at him in shock.

His smile started to waver as I just stared at him in confusion, unable to process the fact he was really there, he was really standing on my doorstep in California. "Gene! Gene it's...it's good to see you. It's been awhile," he said, excitement audibly fading from his voice.

I just stared blankly at him, stunned. He was way bigger than he was in high school, muscles standing out through his shirt as his smile finally slipped away completely and what looked like resentment set in. "Why are you here?" I blurted out after a pause.

"Why am I--because I haven't heard from you in years! Because you're my brother and I love you and I miss you and I was worried about you!" he cried, hurt expression spreading across his face. "How did you...how did you find me?" I asked after a pause, too shocked to be able to process how he was feeling. A frown darkened his face as he folded his arms across his chest with a huff.

"Well you definitely didn't make that easy. Bruce and Eric were talking about how they hadn't heard from you then they asked me if I had and I said no, because you haven't talked to me in five years for some reason which I don't get but anyway the five of us got together to take a road trip across the country to find you. We ended up at the last address you had given me at the end of senior year and but you weren't there so I had to call my mom then we found your mom and she sent me this address. Nice place."

My eyes widened as I stared at him. "The...the five of you? Like...like..." He nodded. "Yeah. Me, Eric, Bruce, Peter, and Ace." My heart skipped a beat and I grinned. "Are they in the car?" I asked, but he shook his head. "No, they're at the hotel we're staying at. I asked if they wanted to come with but they said they wanted to give me the chance to talk to you first. Since, you know, we had been brothers for our whole lives up until five years ago, apparently. "

I knew he was angry at me and he had every right to be, but I couldn't stop the slow smile from spreading across my face. "Unbelievable. Fucking unbelievable. Dammit Paul, I love you guys. I love you," I said, giving him a hug. He finally grinned, hugging me back. "Uh-huh. I know you do," he teased. It took every ounce of willpower not to cry as I stood on the doorstep and hugged him for the first time in five years.

"Gene! Who's at the door?" Shannon shouted. "It's so much colder without you next to me, hurry up and get your fine ass back here!"

My face turned red as Paul took a step back, raising an eyebrow. "Who's that? Your current girlfriend?" he asked, looking at me with eyes full of hurt. I ran a hand through my hair, letting out a weak laugh. "Uh...no that's...that's Shannon. My uh...my wife."

His jaw dropped as he stumbled backwards. "You-you-you...you got married?! And you didn't tell me?!" he cried. I gave him a sheepish grin, nodding, running a thumb along the silver wedding band on my finger. "Yeah. Uh...sorry about that."