Memory Slip

FORGET something?

It's a slash fic!

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“Chris, stop jumping.”

“I can't, I'm too excited!”

“Stop jumping.” The force in Will's voice persuaded Chris to calm down, though he was still brimming with enthusiasm.

“Sorry.”

Will rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Just go get ready.”

Chris nodded, then skipped out of the room, humming some tune he just made up along the way.

“Where are you guys going, anyway?” Jonny asked as he looked up from the magazine he was reading. Will sat down beside him and rested his hands on his own knees.

“We're going to see Shutter Island. You wanna come with?”

“Nah. Is Guy going?”

“Yeah.” Will looked at Jonny and after a bit of time asked again, “Sure you don't wanna go?”

Jonny shook his head and went back to his magazine, “I'm good, thanks. Saw the previews, and... I don't know. Just not appealing to me.”

“OK, suit yourself,” Will shrugged. He leaned over a bit to see what magazine Jonny was looking at. “What are you reading?”

“Oh,” Jonny began, briefly looking at the cover, “It's just a football thing. I can give it to you when I'm finished.”

“OK, sounds good. Anything else you've been reading lately?”

“Well, I started to read this book called Everything is Illuminated. It's pretty cool, it's about this guy who's trying to find out about his grandfather, who was alive during World War II and all that.”

“Oh, cool.” The men were silent for a while, then Will started, “I actually just read this one book not too long ago... uh, Paper Towns. It was pretty good.”

“I read that once. It was good,” Jonny agreed. “I also read Looking for Alaska, which is by the same guy who wrote Paper Towns. Also good.”

“Are there any books that aren't good?” Will asked, basically rhetorically. But after only a few moments, both men looked at each other and answered, “Twilight.”

“Ugh, that crap?” came a new voice as Guy's well-built body entered the room. “I read the first page and it made me want to vomit. In fact, I might have... but I think I also might have had the flu at that time.”

“Well, it made me want to vomit, and I was perfectly healthy,” Will replied. “There are just some things in this world that should not be made.”

“Yeah, like pineapple pizza,” Guy remarked.

“Hey,” Jonny said, “don't knock it 'til you've tried it.”

“And why would I try it? It looks like... grossness on a perfectly delicious pizza!”

“Guy does have a point,” Will reasoned, “pineapple pizza does look pretty unappetizing.”

“Yeah, says the man who would eat anchovies on pizza,” Jonny retorted.

“I would not!” Will exclaimed. “When have I ever done that? Or said that I would?”

“I don't know, you just seem like the kind of person who would.”

“I seem like the kind of person that would??” Will repeated, completely outraged. “Jonny, how long have we been friends?”

“About-”

“Yeah, a long time!! You don't already know that I think anchovies are the most disgusting thing on earth?”

“Besides pineapple!” Guy chimed in. “And Twilight.”

“Yeah, but you can't eat Twilight,” Will replied. “Although I'm sure if you could, it would taste like... well, vomit.”

“Ugh, that would be so nasty.”

“No, brilliant, it would be delicious,” Will sarcastically said. Guy said nothing at first, and just gave Will an unamused look, folding his arms across his chest and even exhaling loudly through his nose. During that time, Jonny went back to reading, and after about a minute, Guy returned back to his normal stance.

“Hey, man, are you ready to go?”

Will nodded and stood up, “Yeah, let's go.” They began to leave, and Jonny was only mildly aware of their departure.

“Guys!” he called, but by that time they were almost completely gone, and neither of them heard Jonny. “All right, bye.” Jonny brushed it off and returned to his reading.

But he quickly grew tired of reading about football, and he decided that he wanted to make a sandwich. So, he got up and walked into the small kitchen, grabbed some bread from the cabinet, and went to open the fridge. There wasn't much in there, but Jonny decided to have himself a nice peanut butter and banana sandwich. Of course, the peanut butter wasn't in the fridge, but Jonny did snatch a banana out of the fruit drawer. Then he opened the cabinet again, where the peanut butter actually was located.

The small butter knife plus the fact that the peanut butter jar was almost completely empty made it rather difficult for Jonny to make the peanut butter part of the sandwich. In the end, it worked out well, though the side of his hand was covered in peanut butter. He licked it off, then set off making the rest of the sandwich. Once it was done, it was a pretty delectable-looking piece of nutritious goodness.

Jonny sat back down on the couch with the plate in one hand and a glass of milk in the other. The milk was really only to help wash down the peanut butter, since Jonny didn't really care for milk all that much, but knew that nothing else would help him.

He ate the sandwich, determining it to be rather delicious overall, and looked around for something else to do. He could play video games, but most of the ones they had were two or more players. At least, they weren't really fun unless you had two or more players.

The board games in the corner were the same way. Then there were all the books on the bookshelves. Jonny didn't feel like rereading any of them again, since he had already read every single book at least three or four times. Then he noticed the magazine laying on the couch beside him, and he picked it up again. He forgot where he had left off before, and he figured that he wouldn't have anything to do for a while, so he just read from the beginning again.

The room was very peaceful, which Jonny enjoyed greatly when trying to read. He found that his concentration could be broken by even the slightest noise. As long as the noise was in the same room, of course, because he could never really hear anything from other rooms. It was a problem he'd always had, and sometimes it caused quite a bit of damage. Generally, it caused him trouble when he was younger, and his parents would yell to him while he was up in his room. He couldn't hear them, and then after a while they would get very angry at him and ground him. They never believed that he had a hearing problem, and even though in his adult years he got it checked out and proved that he had a problem, they still didn't believe it.

So Jonny read, thinking that he would not be disturbed. But he suddenly got this weird feeling, and he thought he heard something.

Chris came bouncing into the room, singing about Shutter Island. He skipped right on past Jonny and reached out to open the door. He was stopped as soon as his hand touched the door and Jonny, looking up from the article he was reading, plainly said, “Chris.” Chris slowly turned around.

“They left without me, didn't they?” Chris asked with shattered eyes. Jonny sadly nodded in response, then returned to reading. He felt the shift in the couch as Chris sat down beside him. A fair amount of silence passed between them, until there was an abrupt gasp from Chris.

Jonny looked up to see what the problem was, only to find Chris drenched in tears. “Jonny, don't look at me,” he commanded, instantly and self-consciously covering his face with his hand. But Jonny couldn't help looking at Chris, especially after Chris's plead.

“Aw, Chris, don't cry. It's OK, those other guys aren't worth it anyway. And I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you,” Jonny said. At least, that's what he wanted to say.

In reality, Jonny just stared helplessly at his best friend.

“Jonny, that's not not looking at me,” Chris mumbled through his hands. He tried to dry his cheeks and looked over to Jonny. “I'm such a girl, aren't I?”

“No,” Jonny replied, “of course not.”

“Yes, I am. Look at me, I'm crying!” Chris exclaimed. “Manly men don't cry. I mean, it's not like...” Chris paused for a while, then lowered his voice, “I mean, they only forgot about me...”

“It's understandable,” Jonny began. Then, upon receiving a slightly confused look from Chris, and feeling bad about having realized that he too forget Chris was there, he went on to clarify, “Not them forgetting you, I mean, it's understandable that you're upset about it. I would be, too.”

“Yeah, but, Jonny, no one could ever forget you. You're... unforgettable.” Chris sighed and tried to smile, but instead another tear made its way down his face.

Then Jonny did the bravest thing he'd ever done. Without even thinking, he reached forward and gently wiped the tear away from Chris's cheek. “You're pretty unforgettable, too,” he said in an unintentionally husky voice. He was fairly surprised that he was doing or saying any of this; in fact, he was rather convinced that he was either dreaming, or someone else had taken over his body.

“Then tell me why Will and Guy left without me.” Chris's eyes were full of disbelief, and the look in them said that he knew Jonny wouldn't be able to come up with an answer.

“Wouldn't you much rather be here with me?” Jonny hopefully asked. Much to Jonny's relief, Chris's eyes softened, and he gave a small nod. He stared blankly for a few seconds, then laid his head on Jonny's shoulder. Jonny felt Chris's arm slide against his own and their hands interlocked. Jonny tried not to think to much, for fear that his brain and heart might burst if he did, and simply smiled against Chris's hair as he rested his cheek on Chris's head.

“Jonny, I'm actually kinda glad they left without me,” Chris quietly said. He tightened his grip on Jonny's hand a little and smiled. “This was always where we were gonna end up, wasn't it?”

“Yeah,” Jonny definitively answered. “I think it was.”

“Well, it's about time,” Chris laughed, “I thought about this since... well, since we first met.”

“Really?”

“Actually, before we even formally met.” Chris slowly raised his head to look up at Jonny. “There were so many times when I would see you in class, or just walking down the hall, and I would think... That's the person I'd like to spend the rest of my life with... And when we became friends, I figured that'd be close enough. I never did specify that we had to be together, just that I wanted to spend my life with you. If I spent my life with you as my best friend, then I guess that's pretty wonderful.”

“But we could be together.” Chris nodded, and they both were silent for a while. Then Chris turned his eyes to Jonny and smiled a little.

“Jonny, can I kiss you?”

“Do you even need to ask?” Jonny replied in a low voice.

So Chris leaned in to press his lips against Jonny's. There was a sound at the door, but both men ignored it and continued down the path they were on as the door opened and Will and Guy walked in.

“Chris-” Will desperately started before he fully entered the room and saw the other two men. “Oh.”

“Oh, what?” Guy asked blindly. Then he too saw Chris and Jonny, sitting on the couch with their mouths pressed together. “Ohhh.”

“Think we should just leave them?” Will asked Guy. “I mean, they look pretty busy.”

“Yeah, maybe we should just get out of here... before they get any busier,” Guy added as he tried to pull his eyes away from Chris and Jonny. He pointlessly gestured to the door, and both he and Will exited within a minute.

“Jonny,” Chris said nearly five seconds later, “did you hear something?”

“I think they came back for you,” Jonny replied. Chris looked taken aback for a moment, shocked at the fact that he could miss the sound of people talking to him, then simply shrugged it off.

“Oh, well. I think this beats seeing a movie any day,” Chris smiled. Then he reached his hand out to cup Jonny's cheek and pulled him in for another kiss.