My Plushie (SeaChaos)

Part 9 - Roommate

~Chilled's POV~

More and more these past few days I've come to realize something: I have no idea whether this curse of mine is pernement or just a phase. If it was a phase it's a damn long one but in the back of my mind I can't help but hope it really is just a long temporary condition. Of course the lapses being a plushy has been lowering and lowering and nowadays it is possible to only switch once the entire day. While more often than not I turn around three times, the days it's only once I feel a wave of hope that it will continue on to be like that. With the increase of close friends nearby I suppose I'm beginning to yearn for what we call the curse to just go away one day. Gassy came back, with three other friends whom I'm becomign close to, especially Nanners. When my thoughts go to Nanners I pause, feeling a bit strange for thinking about him. What really is he? A friend, of course, I guess. I'm not really sure to be completely honest.

"Are you here Chilled?" a familiar voice snaps me out of my thoughts and I jerk my head up, prepared to make excuses to either of the Penningtons that I wasn't sleeping on the job but instead all I see is Nanners entering the shop. Speak of the devil. Literally.

"What's up Nanners?" I ask and freeze when I notice his actual expression. He looks like absolute shit. His eyes are obviously exhausted and tired while his skin even seems a bit more pale than usual. Somehow I never expected to see Nanners in such a state for as long as I live, partly because I thought he was a demon and can't get sick. Nanners approaches the counter and avoids my gaze, looking towards the counter or the shelves of plushies, just anywhere but my eyes. This is really off for Nanners.

"Where's Ze? Is he taking a break?" Nanners asks before standing up again and steps around the shop, seeming to be restless with the way he just paces around and looks at the most random things. I sigh, watching him, before leaning on my palm, my eyes seemingly stuck to him.

"Yeah, he's in the back sleeping," I explain and Nanners shows no sign that he even heard me or even cared but continues to look at some random pink bear on the shelf. I frown at his complete distractedness and begin to rise from my seat. "Hey, Nanners. Is something up man?" He suddenly looks back at me and smiles awkwardly, seeming a bit nervous.

"Well - yeah, something did come up. I - uh - I got kicked out." I stare at him for a long time, waiting fo rthe punchline or the usual "just kidding" he always throws out there with a laugh and other snide remarks. But it's not coming as much as I wish it would. Quickly, I stand up and approach him, grabbing a hold of his arm and force him to look down at me.

"Nanners...are you serious?" His silence gives me a hope that he really is joking and it's just an extremely delayed "just kidding" and yet his nod completely destroys the small hope I had. I let go of him and run my fingers through my hair, a million possibilities running through my head and not one very likable. To be kicked out of somewhere you have to do something intense. Even when a couple has a minor fight and break up they may not always just kick the other person out, well one of the reasons is because of money issues but otherwise you can't just kick someone out of their shelter.

"Don't ask," Nanners suddenly says and the one question I so much desired to ask is shot down immediately. What did he do? Gassy is a reasonable man, and so is Diction from what I've seen of him. I doubt Sparklez will just kick him out either so he must have actually done something that will have them hating him for a good few weeks. I stare at the man for a few seconds before sighing and returning to my post behind the cash register, at a loss for words if I can't ask him what went wrong. We both stay in silence, the only noises coming from us is our silent breathing. I wonder if it was a really serious fight, and if it was will they force me to choose sides? Of course I've known Gassy for a long time and I trust him wholeheartedly but since I've gotten to know Nanners he is also pretty high up on the list of people to trust.