"Ok, so we got the flashlights, the party horns, the Fun-Yuns....I'd say we're set."  Hunter whispers as we stand outside the door to Joanie's apartment.  He twists the key quietly in the lock...and then we're in.

I tiptoe into her room.  "She looks so peaceful.  It's almost a shame to disturb her...almost."  I walk up to her bed, and on the count of three me and Hunter both start blasting our horns.

Joanie jumps awake.  "Wha.....what are you two doing here????"

Excitedly, I jump onto the bed next to her.  "I thought you should be the first to know...."  I hold out my left hand.  "Me and Hunter are getting married!!!"

"You're doing WHAT???"  she yells, then finally looks at me.  "Nice Fun-Yun ring, Chris.  You two are soooooo funny."  she says dryly.  "Look, I'm sorry for setting you two up on a blind date, but it's not worth waking me up this early for."

"Actually, we came here to thank you."  Hunter says, shoving me over so he can sit next to Joanie.  "We had fun."

"See?  I TOLD you!"  Joanie gloats.  "I knew you two would just click.  You're just such a cute couple..."

"Uhm...yeah...Joanie, we gotta run, see you soon, ok?"  Hunter says abruptly, practically dragging me out of  the apartment.

"What's going on?"  I attempt to ask, but he ignores me and we drive back to my place in silence.  "Do you want to come in?"  I ask, but he shakes his head and drives off as soon as I step out of his car.

"Well FINE THEN!!!!!!"  I scream after him.  "I didn't want you here anyways!!!"  What an asshole!  He didn't even say good-bye....oh well, what did I expect from "the Game"?
 
***

"So you mean to tell me my ex is GAY???"  Stephanie shouts at me.

"Yup.  Total fruit.  More queer than a $3 bill."  Ordinarily, I'm much nicer, but I'm still really pissed at Hunter.  The nerve of him!

Stephanie's whining snap me out of it.  "I don't EVEN believe this!  I always knew he wanted someone more like him, guess I was more right than I thought."

I can't help but smile at her stupidity.  "Yeah, I noticed how he was always making eyes at X-Pac too.  Well, gotta run.  Bye trash bag ho!!!!"  I run very quickly down the hall away from her until I found Joanie.  "So I guess you informed little Steffie about Hunter's sexual orientation?"

"Yup, and it was the most fun I've had all week except for setting you and Hunter up.  Speaking of which, why was Hunter in such a hurry last night?"  She grins.  "Could he not wait to get a piece of your hot body?"

"I wish!"  I catch myself exclaiming.  Calming down, I continue.  "He didn't talk to me the whole way home and when he dropped me off, he sped away without saying good-bye."  I stick my lower lip out in a pout, hoping it'll make her take sympathy on me and go kick Hunter's ass or something.

It doesn't work.  "Maybe he was tired,"  she says.  "Look, there he is over there.  Why don't you go talk to him?"

She gives me a slight shove and I stumble over to where Hunter is standing.  "Uhm...hey Hunter."

He stares at me blankly.  "Yeah Chris?"

"I just wanted to say...."  I lose my politeness under his cold gaze.  "I just wanna tell you that you are a complete and utter jerk.  That's all.  Have a nice day."  I walk away smugly, although my pride takes a small blow when instead of comforting me after my experience with the date  from morning-after hell, she goes to talk to Hunter.  Oh well, doesn't matter....I don't need her.

I manage to get to my dressing room before the temper tantrum hits.  I start throwing things against the wall, trying to be as noisy and obnoxious as possible.  Someone knocks at the door, I toss one of my boots at it.  The person enters anyways, and Joanie manages to catch my other boot as it goes flying at her.  "Little trouble in here?"

"Leave me alone!!!"  I yell.

She ignores me and wades through my mess to come stand by me.  "Do you like Hunter?"

"No!"  She crosses her arms and frowns at me.  With a sigh, I sit down on the bench.  "Yes."

She sits down next to me.  "Why didn't you talk to him then?"

"Cuz he was mean!"  I protest.  "He didn't want to talk to me!"

"How do you know that Chris?  You didn't ask."

I scowl at her.  "I didn't need to.  He drove off on me last night and he was acting like he was mad at me now."

Joanie shakes her head.  "You're jumping to conclusions.  Come on, if you won't talk to him by yourself, then I'm gonna drag you over there and make you two talk."  Reluctantly, I follow her to Hunter's dressing room.  She knocks and gets no answer, so she tried the door.  It's locked.  "Hunter!  I know you're in there, let me in!"  He's obviously ignoring her (big surprise, seeing how he treated me) and after kicking at the door a few more times, she shouts "This is not over!  I'll talk to you later!"  and sighs at me.  "Ok, you're saved from the peace talks for now, but they WILL be resumed later."

***

Oh goody, now I'm home.  Big fun.  Not only am I home, but I'm home alone.  I'm slumped in a chair, listening to a lame radio station just to keep it from being silent.  I attempt to keep from thinking 'if Hunter were here, we could do something fun'  but, as always, my mind doesn't listen to me.  The phone rings.  "Hello?"

"Chris, I'm glad I caught you.  So, are you enjoying your little sulk?"

"Shut up Joanie."  I mutter.  "Did you just call to yell at me, or do you have some other purpose?"

"I just wanted to check on you....Chris, are you crying?"

"No."  I punctuate that with a sniffle.  Real convincing.  "Ok, maybe a little."

"You're more worked up over this then I thought," she says, her voice finally gentle.

Footsteps come from the porch, and through the glass door, I see Hunter approaching, but he sees me first.  He looks at me and then turns around and walks back to his car.  "Joanie!  He did it again!"  I wail.

"What?"  she asks.  "Hunter?"

"Yeah!  He came up to my door, but he saw me and he went away again!"  I'm crying full-force now and I don't know why.  "I hate him!!!"

"Dammit, I sent him over to talk to you!" she says, almost to herself.  "Chris, hon, calm down.  I'm sure there is a very logical explanation behind this."  I hear her laugh slightly.  "If you don't stop, I'm gonna send Eddie over there."

"Oh God, anything but that!"  Joanie's Latin friend is a very nice guy, but a little too cheerful for me...and most of the other guys in the back.  "I appreciate the offer, but...."

I can almost hear her smile from the other end.  "Ok, well, I'm gonna go track Hunter down.  You behave yourself and don't pitch a fit, all right?"

I promise her I'll be good and sit down to another night of solitude.

***

I go to bed early, but a knock on my door wakes me up.  I look at the clock.  "Midnight?  Who comes for a visit at midnight?"  I open the door.  "What do you....."  I trail off.

There's Hunter standing there, holding a basket.  "Uhm...can I come in?"  he asks.  I stand aside silently and he enters.  "You decorated this room really nice."

I crossed my arms.  "You think you might actually talk to me this time?"

"I'm talking to you now." he says sarcastically, but then sighs.  "Sorry, I didn't come here to be a jerk."

"Why are you here, Hunter?"

He pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket.  "Joanie wrote this down for me so I wouldn't forget anything."  He clears his throat.  "Chris, I am very sorry for driving off on you last night.  I am also sorry for being very rude to you this morning.  Most of all, I'm really really sorry for running away earlier tonight."

I'm starting to cave, but he still hasn't thoroughly convinced me.  "Why'd you do it though?"

Hunter bit his lower lip.  "Do I have to explain?"

"Yes."

He took a deep breath.  "I was scared.  Of....you know...that c- word."

"C- word?  What do you mean Hunter?  Cantaloupe?  Cloud?  Chris?  Hunter, are you afraid of me?"  Gosh, I'm starting to have fun here!

"No!  Co...couple.  There, you happy?  Everyone I've ever been involved with has ended up leaving me, so I was trying to stop this before it even started.  And...uhm...I went to apologize but you were....Chris, what did I do to make you cry?"

Oh great, now I have to explain my display on unmanliness.  "Well, I was a BIT miffed about you driving off on me, and then Joanie was yelling at me..."

"She made you cry too?"    I pause for a moment in disbelief.  "I'll take that as a yes.  Don't feel bad, she's a master.  Made me start bawling in front of DX one time.  Hard to live that kind of thing down."  I giggled against my will, causing him to smile.  "So if you've forgiven me, wanna go for a picnic?"

"You mean like...now?"

"No, next week...I got the basket with me, when else are we gonna do it?"  He holds out his hand and I take it.

We walk to the park and find a nice open spot to settle in.  He opens the basket and pulls out a fuzzy blanket with Elmo on it.  "Don't ask."  he mutters.  We sit down on either end and he pulls out paper plates, plastic cups, a bottle of ginger ale, and an apple pie which, according to the box, came from Farmer Jacks.  I raise an eyebrow quizzically and he blushes slightly.  "I was in a hurry.  I didn't know I was actually going to do this until about fifteen minutes before I showed up.

"It's nice actually,"  I say, opening the pie.  "I haven't had apple pie in a really really long time."

We cut the pie and pour the ginger ale, and for awhile we are silent with the task of eating.  I finish first and, still seeking a bit of revenge for his treatment of me, load one of the stray pieces of apple onto my fork and fling it at him.

It hits dead center on his forehead.  "Oh, you think that's real cute, don'tcha?"  I nod, smirking.  "Well take this!"  He smashes his half-eaten slice of pie onto my shirt.

I just sit there for a moment, gaping at him.  "I can't believe you did that to my shirt!"

He just laughs.  "Well I was looking at it, and there's your face with your mouth all open, I figured your shirt wanted some pie!"

"Oh yeah?  Well take THIS!!!!"  I pour my cup of ginger ale onto his head.  "Hey, your hair looked thirsty."

"You wanna play with The Game?"  I try to move away, but he grabs me and pours a good half of the bottle on my head.

I come up sputtering.  "DIE!!!!!"  I dive for him, knocking him down.  We roll around  in the grass for awhile, the stickiness from the ginger ale making blades of grass stick to us.

After a few minutes of this, he pins me to the ground.  "You give?"

"Never!!!!"  I attempt to flip him off of me, but he stays firm.

"How bout now?"  He kisses me, and I can tell he originally meant it to be passionate, but it turns out sweet and slow.

We eventually break apart and I whisper "Hey Hunter....will you be my prom date?  Cuz I think you're groovy."

"Shut up," he says back, laughing a little.

"Make me."  I taunt him, so he kisses me again, and now here's the passion.  It was the kind of kiss where our fingers would be entwined in each other's hair if we weren't both wet with ginger ale. We finally part for air and I grin at him.  He smiles back and lays down next to me, pulling me so I was resting my head on his shoulder.  "You move awful fast, don't you?"  I ask teasingly.

"You want me to stop?"  he asks.  I shake my head no and snuggle against him.  He kisses my forehead and then, underneath my head, I can feel his chest shake against me in laughter.

I look up at him.  "What?  Do you find me amusing or something?"

"Actually I do, but no, I have a song stuck in my head."  He starts laughing harder and starts singing in the worse voice I've ever heard.  "I go out walking after midnight out in the moonlight just like we used to do.  I'm always walking after midnight searching for you..."

"I go out walking after midnight, out in the moonlight,"  I chime in.  "Just hoping you might be somewhere a-walking after midnight searching for me."  Now we're both giggling.  "I like that song!"  I exclaim.

"Me too."  We lay there for a moment grinning stupidly at each other until he gently nudges me off of him and stands up.  "Well, I think we need to clean this stuff up now before we get arrested for loitering in the park."

"Hmmm....you have a point, much as I like you I don't think we're ready for some jailhouse romance yet."

We put everything back into the basket and walk back to my humble abode.  I turn to look at him.  "Let's try this again.  Would you like to come in?"

He smiles.  "Yes I would.  There, that wasn't too hard."

"Wouldn't have been too hard the first time either....HEY!!!"  I yell, as he hits me gently on the back of the head.  "I didn't deserve that!"  I pushed him and ran up the steps.  "Bet you can't catch me!!!!"  He laughs, chasing me up the stair, through the door, and into the kitchen where I collapse on the floor, out of breath and cracking up. "Ok, you got me!  Have mercy!"

He sits down next to me.  "Hmm....maybe just this once....since you look so cute panting over there."  I glare at him.  "Oh, come on, I mean it.  And yes Chris, I will be your prom date and I think you're far out and you can wear my letter jacket if you want."

"I knew you had a soft spot for me." I say, yawning involuntarily as I lean my head against him.

"Don't you fall asleep on me," he says....or at least I think, cuz everything's getting kinda fuzzy.

***

Next thing I know, I'm laying on my couch with a note lying on top of me.  I pick it up, and blinking sleep from my eyes, I read :

Chris,
You know, if you were really that tired, we coulda picnicked in your living room.  Last night was fun, we need to go walking after midnight more often.  See you tomorrow where again, I will kick your ass if you try for my belt.

Love,
Hunter

Well, isn't that sweet?  Except, of course, for the belt part....we'll just see about THAT!!!