Episode 33: War With Words

Episode 33: War With Words

"You bastard."

Christopher arched his eyebrow at the nerve of Leslie's roommate. The guy had opened the door when he rang the bell attached to it on the second try. He braced himself to say the words of his heart he memorized before coming here. However, when he saw that it was him standing there, he was disappointed.

Ed looked at him from head to toe, shaking from the cold and slowly closed the door behind him after stepping out.

He didn't give him so much as a greeting—just those two words, 'you bastard', after seeing his face.

"Did I do something to offend you?" Christopher asked calmly, looking Ed in the eyes as they came face to face with each other.

The hallway in his and Leslie's apartment building was narrow and made them far too close for comfort.

Christopher shuffled to the side, already an avid hater of any form of skinship to begin with.

Ed ignored his awkwardness about that and scoffed. He got straight to the point about him having the nerve to show up here. "Are you kidding me? Do you really have to ask that? My best friend, Les, you've been fucking with her head for weeks now. Or do you forget the tricks that you play on the women around you?"

He would have liked to say it took a while for him to process his words but Christopher's brain just wasn't wired like that. He inputted data quickly into his brain, processed it and came up with a response at almost the same speed.

"Not that it's any of your business what happens between me and her," The man said unnervingly composed. Ed's fists clenched by his side. "But I will have to reject your assumptions about me. I do admit, however, that I didn't approach the situation with Leslie well. I should have been more of a man about what was going on. I can see why she's upset with me, but I don't understand what you mean by 'tricks'. Is that a way of you venting your misplaced anger at me?"

"Oh, don't act all innocent. I saw you with my own two eyes."

Christopher gave him a look that said 'care to elaborate?'.

"The redhead. I saw you earlier with her. In the parking lot."

Christopher stiffened.

He had seen him with Marley?

Ed got cocky seeing him unsettled for the first time since they have known each other.

"It was quite the lover's spat you two were having," he continued, obviously amused. "In public too. What a scene for the movies. Now I know where you get such great inspiration for your books."

He ignored his backhanded compliment.

Christopher had bigger concerns.

"Did you tell her about it?"

Ed's eyes hardened.

"Of course not," he snapped. "Do you think I'd want her to be more miserable than she already is?"

"She's miserable?" He asked with a tinge of hope seeping out.

It wasn't that Christopher was particularly happy that she was doing poorly, but no man in his right mind would want the woman they desired to be better off without them. He wasn't the 'I'll let you go to be happy without me' type.

No, Christopher was selfish when it came to love.

He was all-giving and all-receiving.

If it were the case that he could easily give up on someone for their so-called pursuit of happiness without him, why would he have loved them in the first place?

Ed's eyes screwed shut, realizing his slip of the tongue.

He had gone to the man's office in the midst of the night because he just couldn't stand the sight of Leslie moping around. He went to give him the business and to find out if he was serious about whatever they had going on or not.

It was one thing to be missing in action when a woman needed you, but it was another thing having her hold onto hope on top of all of that.

Ed just couldn't seem to shake the thought that this bastard was doing both at the same time.

Leslie didn't know it, but she was a victim to this dynamic they had going on.

And he couldn't stand to see her get hurt anymore.

He took a step towards Christopher, grabbing him by the collars and wanting to make a punching bag out of his face. "Look, you have no right to be asking about her condition. Especially not with that sick hopeful tone of knowing that you've done one on her. I know guys like you. I used to be surrounded by your kind. They give a girl hope, only to take it back, then come back around unsuspectingly to have them on a leash. That won't happen here. Leslie is far too good for someone like you and I won't allow you to have her feeling like she isn't."

"You love her."

Ed faltered.

"What?" He breathed out in disbelief.

Maybe he had heard him wrong.

He most definitely had heard him wrong. For a second there he thought he said—

"You love her," Christopher repeated. "That's why you're acting this way."

Ed forced a series of chuckles. He stared at Christopher and started talking with an accusatory tone.

"Of course I love her. The question here is if you do to be messing around with her like this, you asshole."

Christopher didn't blink at his insult.

He was on a mission. And if it was a war with words Ed wanted, it didn't take much for him to have him break and speak the truth from his own lying lips.

"I didn't mean it like that." He said seriously.

Christopher's cold, blue eyes saw so deep within him it gave him the chills. "I'm talking about something else."

Ed froze, looking at him.

He suddenly didn't know how to live again.

The man's grip on his collar loosened as his eyes became evasive.

Christopher didn't have to say it for him to understand what he meant.

Because he himself already knew the truth of the matter.

That he was in love with his best friend.

He was in love with Leslie.

That was why Christopher's presence bothered him so much. The reason why he couldn't stand to be a first class witness to her falling for someone and being so affected by them. It was because it wasn't him. He wasn't the one she had fallen for and ultimately that incited a feeling of jealousy he could only do so much to hide.

"I think you've misunderstood..." He started to cover up the hole he had dug himself into.

Christopher sighed, straightening the shirt that was crushed by the hands of the man-child before him. His reaction was unwarranted given the fact that they hardly knew each other. He didn't like the fact that someone like him who was so easily emotionally triggered was around Leslie twenty-four-seven.

The fact that he confirmed his feelings for her were real right before his eyes also made matters worse.

He tried not to be irrational and have his thoughts go too far. He was already quite imaginative. But they lived together for Christ's sake!

The probability of something happening between them was uncomfortably high, especially now that she was in a vulnerable place because of his cowardly actions.

But at the same time a composed side of him reminded himself that Ed had been here before he was. If Leslie wanted to be with, she would have. That meant she saw him as nothing more than a friend. Or worse, a brotherly figure.

His heart was eased at the thought of that.

It wasn't like he imposed himself between their relationship, if you could call it that.

Leslie had been attracted to him, sought after him and won him over.

She had.

Therefore, there was no doubt in his mind that this was all because she wanted it.

Now he had to make sure that was still the case.

And even if it wasn't, he was going to turn back the hands of time and make her fall for him again.

Realizing that he had blanked out for far too long, Christopher spared him a no-bullshit kind of look.

"No, I really don't think I have misunderstood. That would be quite an insult to my intelligence if I were to admit that, but if you want me to pretend like I don't know about it then I don't mind doing that. It's not my place to force someone to confess their feelings. They're not mine after all."

"You..." Ed was red in embarrassment as he gripped him by the collars again. "Who the hell do you think you are? I don't need your damn consideration."

He was growing tired of this back and forth act.

"I never said you did. It was only a suggestion."

He looked down at his hands.

"And can you let go of my shirt? At this rate you're going to tear it."

"I'm tempted to."

"Only if you can compensate."

Ed shook his head in disbelief, pushing him away.

Christopher hardly stumbled.

He brushed himself off while looking past his head like Ed didn't even exist in the space.

He was looking at the door.

Ed stared at him, marveling at that fact. Then he asked, "Do you always speak with such..." his cheeks puffed out in annoyance.

"Difficulty?"

"I was going to say a tone that begs to beat the shit out of you, but whatever floats your boat."

"I respect your opinion. Many people would beg to differ though." He finally looked over at him pointedly. "Leslie being one of them."

Ed started for him, but the door behind him swung open.

"What's with all the noise—"

Leslie stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of the man before her.

She saw him before anything else because of his towering height and demanding blue eyes.

"Christopher." The woman breathed, her eyes wide with shock and a silver lining of hope.

Christopher recognized that emotion right away.

It didn't matter if she concealed it after this. He had already seen it.

It confirmed the one thing he has been dying to know.

She had missed him too.