At Odd's Ends (Bruce Kulick x Eric Carr)

Ch 18: Feelings

"Okay okay so I know that things aren't really going so well right now and we've hit a wall but! But hear me out!" I cried, slamming the newspaper onto the table. "This person has an ad in the classifieds saying that they can make love spells and so I called them right and asked if they could do one that could make two people fall out of love and they said yeah so I dunno I mean it's kind of expensive but still!" I said in a rush.

Gene bit back a smile, slowly raising an eyebrow. "Eric...no," he said after a long pause. "Well I mean we're running out of ideas!" I protested. He burst into laughter, walking over and putting his hands on my shoulders. "No!" he laughed, shaking me. "Eric no! That's ridiculous! We're not going to pay money for a magic spell to make them fall out of love. Besides, it'll be fine. We don't need to do any more," he said mysteriously, giving me a smile. "What's that supposed to mean?! What do you know that I don't?!" I cried. He just grinned. "Oh, you'll see." "You suck," I muttered. "Just tell me!" I whined. 

"Mm, no. You'll find out soon enough," he teased, rising to my feet and walking toward the door. "No don't leave yet! Tell me what the hell is going on!" I protested. "Bye Eric, I'll see you at practice!" he called over his shoulder, shutting the door behind him. "Bastard," I grumbled, looking at the clock. Just an hour until practice and whatever was going to happen. 

To my surprise, when I made it to the place where we were practicing, the room was empty except for Bruce, who gave me a smile. "Hey Eric. We need to talk," he said. I froze, immediately terrified he had found out I loved him and didn't love me. "We...do?" I squeaked. Nodding, he walked over, standing in front of me. 

Bruce lifted my face toward his, giving me a soft smile before leaning down and kissing me. I melted into the kiss, pressing my lips against his. At last we broke apart. "I love you," he murmured. I grinned, so excited I was shaking. "I love you too! I-I've loved you for a long time, for ages! That's why Gene and I made the whole plan so that all of us could be happy," I babbled. He squinted at me. "Plan? What plan?" "Oh just like getting you and Paul apart so Paul and Gene could date and then me and you could date!" I said, too excited to realize how colossally stupid I was being.

There was a moment of silence as he stared at me. "You...you tried to break us up? This was...all the fighting between me and him, it was all because of you?" he asked slowly, giving me an almost disgusted look. "W-well I mean technically it was me and Gene, yeah," I stammered, running a hand through my hair. "How could you?" he asked after a long pause. "You're my best friend, I-I trusted you! Why would you do this to me? Why would you try to hurt me?"

"No it's not like that! Don't you see? It's because I love you! I want to be with you! We've been best friends for years, I want to be more than that! I love you, and-and you love me too!" I pleaded, taking his hand. Shaking his head slowly, he pulled his hand away. "How could you?" he asked again. "Bruce I wasn't trying to hurt you! We're best friends, we're gonna be so happy together!"

"You spent weeks trying to break up me and my boyfriend. All the pain and the hurt and the anger and the fighting, it was all because of you!" he cried, starting to go from shocked to angry. "I wasn't trying to hurt you! I-I promise I wasn't trying to hurt you! It's okay in the end, because you love me the way I love you!"

"No! I don't love you that way! I don't love you at all anymore!" he shouted. "W-what?" I asked, taking a step back. "I mean we're not even friends anymore! Why on earth would you do this?! In what world would I date you after finding out everything you did to me? Why the fuck would I even keep being your friend?" "I-I just...I just thought that...I thought I could make you see you loved me more than you love Paul! And I mean y-you do!" I said, slowly starting to realize just how badly I had messed up. "No! Maybe if you hadn't deliberately made my life miserable, maybe if you hadn't deliberately tried to split apart my boyfriend and I! But not now. Not ever. How could you do this to me?"

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry, I didn't think about how much it'd hurt you!" I cried. He shook his head, giving me a hurt look. "How could you?" he asked again, turning and walking out of the room. "B-Bruce wait! Wait please come back! I'm sorry!" I wailed. The door slammed shut behind him and I sank to the ground, bursting into tears. "Oh n-no, oh no it wasn't supposed to happen like this! I-I'm sorry Bruce!" I cried, but he wasn't around to hear me.

The door to the room burst open and I lifted my head, hoping it was Bruce. But it was just Gene, who stared at me in confusion, triumphant smile slowly slipping away. "Wait what happened?! What's wrong?! He likes you!" "He hates m-me! And why wouldn't he?! I made his life miserable! He was happy and I tried to make his life miserable! J-just so he'd get with me! I was so selfish and-and I hurt him so badly!" I wailed.

"Oh. I'm really sorry," Gene said, kneeling next to me on the floor. "I-I don't get it, isn't Paul m-mad at you?" Gene's face went beet red. "Uh...no. He was...he was gonna break up with Bruce already actually, they both called it off, because he uh...had fallen in love with me," he said quietly. I stared at him in horror, lip quivering. "Then...then if we had just waited...it would've all been fine?" I choked. Gene nodded, and I started to sob even harder. "Dammit!"

I had to admit, Bruce was a really good actor.

Any time we were on stage playing a show or on camera in an interview or even just out in public with the band, everything was fine between us and we were as close as always. But the instant the cameras were off and we were back out of the public eye, he went right back to hating me, just like he had every right to do. It didn't help that Paul and Bruce had already broken up before Bruce told me he loved me and figured out exactly why he should hate me, meaning Bruce didn't even have his boyfriend to support him, let alone his best friend. 

And it was all my fault.