The very next morning, Jim dropped the girls off at daycare and then returned home. Jim normally thought it was rude to bother somebody when they were trying to sleep, but that didn't matter at all at that particular moment, as Jim had lost all patience with Chris long ago. Besides, Jim would've waited until late afternoon if he had decided to wait for Chris to wake up himself.
Jim shook Chris several times, but this did not wake him up. He then shook him harder, which only made Chris snort and roll over. Jim became frustrated and walked over to the kitchen.
Jim then returned to the living room with a glass full of ice water and dumped it all over Chris' head. Chris wasn't at all amused as he finally woke up.
"What the hell, man?!"
"Get up," Jim said, very sternly. "Now."
"Dude, what's your problem?"
Jim stared at Chris angrily for a brief moment. Chris let out another snort.
"I've had it, Chris," Jim said. "Had it. I'm done. I'm tired of it. All of this crap has gone on for way too long. I want my life back and I want it now."
"You're tired? Guess what? I'm tired. Didn't get home till' late, like always. Why don't you bother me late-"
At that moment, Jim grabbed Chris by the front of his ugly and filthy muscle shirt and pinned him against the wall. Chris was so shocked that he became wide-eyed and speechless.
"I'm not kidding, Chris!" Jim said loudly to Chris' face. "I am sick and tired of all this crap that you've stirred up in my home. If you want to screw up your life, that's fine! But I'm not going to let you screw up mine any more than you already have! This is all going to end today! Today!"
Chris said nothing. He was still shocked by Jim's attitude and tone. It was obvious that he had never seen him this way before and didn't think he would ever act this way.
"I want you out of my house today, Chris," Jim continued "If you're happy being the way you are, then go ahead. I'm not going to stop you from being who you are. But I'm not going to tolerate your behavior at my home and around my family anymore! Until you change your ways, I don't ever want to see you here, again! You got that?!"
"Bu-bu..." Chris stammered
"No, Chris. I cannot 'accept you for who you are.' And I never will. And you know what? I don't feel the least bit close-minded for saying that. I've been 'accepting you for who you are' for three freaking years and look what it has lead to! I live in a trash heap and I'm working at a freaking convenient store! I'm done with it, Chris! Done with it!"
"Wh-wha..."
Jim finally let go of Chris' shirt. Chris still had a shocked expression on his face.
"I want you out by the end of the day. Don't make me get the police involved."
Jim reached into his pocket and grabbed his wallet. He pulled out a twenty dollar bill and handed it to Chris.
"Here's some money for the road. You're going to need it."
Jim turned and walked to the kitchen to make himself some coffee. At that moment, Chris finally spoke in a complete sentence.
"Jim, are we still friends?"
Jim stopped walking and turned back to Chris. He stared at him for a moment before speaking.
"Chris, our friendship was in jeopardy the moment you began to throw your life away. The moment you begin drinking all that alcohol. The moment you begin smoking those cigarettes. The moment you decided that becoming a neurosurgeon was no longer your passion and you would rather rely on odd jobs to get by. I don't know what caused you to mess up your life in the first place, but it still happened. I've already said it before. You are not the same man I was friends with in high school. If you really think we've maintained that same friendship for the past three years, then you're even more out of your mind than I thought. Chris, there's no way we can be friends in the same way until you change your ways. But like I said, I'm not going to make you. I'm sorry, Chris. As of right now, we are not friends. A real friend doesn't trash a person's home, never bothers to clean up after themselves, never bothers to pay a person back for letting them live at their home, and gets angry if criticized about it. I'm really sorry, Chris. Just because we were friends in the past, it doesn't permit you to act the way you've been acting in the these past few years."
"But...but I came all this way..."
"And maybe you should have reconsidered."
Chris, once again, looked shocked.
"All your friends back in Houston may have been comfortable with your ways, but that's just because they have the same issues as you do. You just automatically assumed that I would accept all the problems you had because we were friends at one point. The world doesn't work that way, Chris. It just doesn't."
"But...Julia..."
"Julia only looked past your issues because she has feelings for you that she is pathetically trying to hide. Where did those feelings come from? I have no freaking idea. But it doesn't matter. I have no control over how Julia feels. Most people aren't going to have hidden feelings for you Chris. And most people aren't going to automatically accept you for these issues you have."
"Jim..."
"Chris, it's one thing to accept you for having a certain personality, such as being a jokester or being overly serious. But very few people are going to accept you for being a heavy alcoholic and having poor bathing habits. At most, if you're a nice person they'll enjoy talking to you every once in a while, but don't expect a lot of people to be comfortable letting you hang around inside your house for more than a few hours. Does letting a person like that stay at your house guarantee that problems are going to happen? Of course not. But, boy are there risks. I took those risks and look what's happened to me."
Chris said nothing.
"Chris it's great that you care about your old friends. And it would be great if we could spend time together just the way we used to all those years ago. But until you act like the Chris I used to know all those years ago, you will just remain a friend that came and went."
Chris said nothing.
"You might as well leave as soon as possible, Chris. Julia hasn't woken up yet, and it's best that you're gone before she does."
Chris suddenly got an awkward look on his face. Jim had never seen Chris look so hurt before. It was obvious that his friend purposely kicking him out of his home gave him a much different feeling than simply being convinced to go attend rehabilitation as soon as possible. Part of Jim wanted to feel bad for Chris, but a much larger part wanted to feel happy about finally getting rid of a major problem in his life.
"I...I guess I'll see you later, Jim," Chris then turned and walked to the front door.
Jim then began to think about Julia. If Chris really was leaving right now, Jim could at least make up the excuse that he had left without warning. She would be overly upset no matter what, but at least she would have no reason to be angry at Jim. However, that wouldn't change the fact that Julia more than likely didn't love him anymore...
One problem at a time, Jim thought. One problem at a time.
Right as Chris made it to the front door, he stopped and turned back to Jim. After a brief silence, he spoke.
"I'll get help."
Jim raised his eyebrows.
"What?" He asked.
"I'll go to rehab. I'll go right now."
"Wha-really?!"
"I was just letting you know. Later."
After that, Chris was gone.
Jim wasn't even sure how to feel at that moment. He didn't know whether to be relieved that Chris was finally gone or be excited that Chris was finally going to get help and finally be cured of all his issues. Was he actually being serious? Chris wasn't drunk at the moment, so it wasn't likely he was just saying nonsense without thinking. Was he just going to try rehabilitation out? If so, would he quit within the first week or actually pull through it?
Jim pushed out any feelings of excitement. Until he actually saw results, he had no reason to feel excited. Until Chris actually finished rehab, he would be the exact same man that had been sleeping on Jim's couch moments earlier. At that moment, Jim decided he would just focus on how satisfied he was about the fact that he was one giant step closer to regaining his life.
Jim turned around to finally go enjoy some coffee when a sound of footsteps coming from upstairs made him stop in his tracks. He heart nearly skipped a beat.
Here it comes, Jim thought, cringing.
Julia walked into the living room and looked around. She didn't even seem to notice that Jim was there until she realized that Chris wasn't. After looking around for about three minutes, she finally looked at Jim and spoke to him.
"Where's Chris?"
Jim's heart skipped another beat.
"Umm...he...ummm...he...he...went...he...he went to...rehab," Jim stammered. "Umm...yeah! Chris decided to go to rehab!"
Julia got a surprised look on her face.
"Really?" She asked.
"Yeah, he just randomly woke up and said he was going to rehab. Then he was gone. Yeah, it really came out of nowhere."
Julia said nothing for a moment. Jim closed his eyes and braced himself for the giant fit that Julia was about to throw. After a few seconds, Jim finally heard Julia's voice. However, it did not at all sound like what he expected.
"That's strange."
Jim opened his eyes in complete surprise.
"What?" He asked.
"I wasn't really expecting him to want to go to rehab. I mean, he's said before that he never would go to rehab since he was happy being who he was. I just find it kind of strange that he's changing his mind all of a sudden."
"So you're not upset that he's gone?"
"Upset? Why would I be upset? Chris is only going to rehab. He's not leaving for good. He wouldn't do that. He was having way to much fun being here with his friends."
Jim would've normally made a snide comment in his head that sounded similar to "Don't you mean having way to much fun with you?" However, at that moment, he was much to full of relief to even think about anything like that.
"If Chris wants to go to rehab, then fine. That's his choice. But I know he'll be back. Believe me, I know Chris really well. I mean, we both do since he's our friend. He wouldn't just randomly one day leave without warning. So yeah, I'm fine."
Jim breathed the biggest sigh of relief he had made in the entire day.
"I need a smoke," Julia said. She grabbed a pack of cigarettes off of the table in the living room and walked outside.
Jim smiled widely and walked to the kitchen. Now he really could enjoy his coffee.
After Chris was gone, things slowly began to get better at the house. Jim could now finally get rid of the smell of the living room and not have it return the very next day. Julia still smoked and drank in the house, so Jim couldn't get rid of the stench completely. But it was still nowhere near as bad as before. Jim also was able to clean the house significantly as Chris was no longer there to leave piles of trash lying around. Julia still would leave trash on the ground from time to time, but she wasn't nearly as messy as Chris had been.
Because Chris wasn't around, Julia had no reason to be away from the house for most of the time. She still would sometimes step out of the house for a few hours to got to the bar or liquor store, but she was now at the house much more often than before. While she did spend most of her time in the living room smoking and watching television, she at least now would pay attention to the girls. Cassie and Meagan would often sit next to her as she was watching the television (she would still smoke while she was with them, which Jim still heavily disagreed with). She would often happily talk to them as she was with them. For instance, she would ask Cassie about what she did at daycare and if she had any drawings to show her. Jim could never help but smile whenever Cassie excitingly ran over to her bedroom to grab her drawing. There would also be times where Julia would watch all of Cassie and Meagan's favorite cartoons with them and sing and dance with them as the show was going on. Jim would always happily join in as they did this. He couldn't even think of any instance in the past that the family had actually spent some quality time together.
Best of all, Jim and Julia would also sometimes talk to each other while the girls were off at daycare. It had been so long that they had regular conversations that Jim wouldn't even know how to speak to her half the time. Sometimes Jim would talk to her about his job, sometimes Julia would tell her about what she had been watching on television, or sometimes they would talk about the girls (Jim's favorite topic). Julia would still mention Chris quite a few times when they talked, but Jim didn't care. At least he was now finally getting to spend time with his wife. He still had a strong feeling that Julia loved Chris more than him and was only spending time with him because Chris wasn't there, but at least she was even bothering to try and spend time with him. There were signs that Julia at least still cared for Jim in some way. At least she was still bothering to stay with him.
As Jim told Anthony over the phone that things were getting better, Anthony once again tried to convince him to leave Julia. Once again, Jim rejected this idea. As much as Jim hated being in a relationship with somebody who loved another man more than him, he loved his daughters much more than he hated being in that relationship. Jim had had nightmares of Cassie and Meagan going through divorce drama, and he couldn't even imagine these nightmares becoming a reality.
After a month had passed since Chris left, Jim finally felt he was ready to back to school again. He had gotten rid of so much stress since Chris' departure and felt like he finally had the energy to go back to writing essays and studying for exams. He could hardly wait to finally be rid of his agonizing job at the convenient store.
The very next day, Jim decided he would pay a visit to A&M and reapply right after dropping the girls off at daycare. As he was preparing the girls' lunches and snacks, he began to imagine finally being back in the classrooms and finally regaining the education he needed to achieve his goal of becoming a professor. He just couldn't wait.
Right as Jim finished getting the girls dressed, he heard the doorbell ring. He answered the door and couldn't believe his eyes.
Chris stood in the doorway. He was wearing brand new clothes that looked fresh and clean, his hair was combed, and he smelled like he had just taken a very long shower. Jim stared at Chris for a few seconds in utter disbelief. Chris then smiled widely.
"I'm back, Jim," Chris said. "I'm back."
Jim stared for a few more seconds and then a smile even larger than Chris' developed on his face. He threw his arms around Chris as tears developed in his eyes. Every word that Chris had spoken sounded genuine. Jim could feel it in his heart. This Chris that was with him right now was the same Chris he had known in high school.
"I'm back," Chris repeated, hugging Jim back.
There was not a scent of alcohol or cigarettes on Chris' breath. He clearly had not touched them in a very long time. It was official. The Chris that had been living at Jim's house for three years was long gone.
Jim and Chris hugged for a few seconds and then let go. Cassie and Meagan walked towards the door and looked at Chris.
"Hi," Chris said waving at the girls.
"Say hi, girls," Jim said.
Cassie waved at Chris, though she didn't seem comfortable being around the man that her mother had once given more attention to than her. Meagan waved her hand crazily at Chris for a few seconds and then toddled away. Being only about a year and a half old, Meagan didn't even seem to remember that Chris had been staying at their house a month earlier.
"So, how do you feel?" Jim asked.
"Dude, I don't think I've ever felt better," Chris said. "It's like I've just pulled out a thorn that I've had in my foot for the last decade."
"I couldn't even believe that you were even considering going to rehab, let alone actually going and completing it."
"I know, right?"
"I guess I just underestimated you. Either that, or I was just not looking at things positively enough."
"Honestly, it doesn't matter what you were expecting of me. All that matters is I'm back. And that's the way it's going to stay."
Jim suddenly heard a small whimpering sound. He looked down and saw Meagan reaching her arms up to him and hopping up and down.
"Come here, Sweetie," Jim said, smiling and lifting up Meagan. She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. Jim straightened out Meagan's tiny purple skirt and kissed her on the cheek.
"Looks like somebody wanted to be held," Chris said.
"She always wants to be held," Jim said. "Not that I'm complaining. Who wouldn't want to always be holding this little cutie?"
Chris laughed. "I don't think I've ever told you before, but your girls are both so beautiful."
"Thank you so much, man. My life has never felt the same since they've been born. Each day, I feel blessed. Even as hard as things were getting in the past few years, seeing my daughters' beautiful faces always brightened up my day. I just can't imagine life without my girls."
"That's so wonderful. I really hope I can have children myself in the future."
"And I hope you do too. Becoming a parent was the greatest thing that's ever happened to me and I think is the greatest thing that can happen to anybody. You'll love it so much."
Chris smiled widely.
"Jim, there's another I wanted to tell you. I really am sorry about these past three years. Your life was going so well. And I came by and just messed it all up. I feel like such a jerk."
"Chris, my life isn't messed up. I'll be going back to school hopefully pretty soon and everything will be right back on track. Nonetheless, thanks for your apology, man. All is forgiven."
"What about Julia?"
Jim sighed and frowned.
"Well, like I've said before, there's nothing I can do about how Julia feels. Honestly, I don't even blame you for that. It's not like your alcoholism is what caused her to be attracted to you in the first place."
"True, true."
"Only time will tell what becomes of Julia. I'm really hoping she soon puts her random attraction for you behind her and remembers why she accepted my proposal to begin with. Maybe she will realize that leaving behind that attraction is what's best for our girls. Cassie and Meagan are the reason that I'm even still with her. Hopefully she begins to think the same way."
"Great that you're seeing things positively."
Jim smiled and kissed Meagan on the cheek again.
"In the end, all that matters is that I still have Cassie and Meagan. They will always love me no matter what. That thought always makes me smile even when I'm having my worst days."
"That's awesome."
Jim suddenly felt his left arm shaking. He looked down and saw Cassie staring up at him deeply.
"Do you want to be held, too?"
Cassie nodded.
Jim laughed and picked up Cassie. Like Meagan, Cassie wrapped her arms around Jim and laid her head on his shoulder. Jim patted his girls' backs and gave them both a kiss.
"You're such a lucky guy," Chris said. "Having two women that love you so much."
Jim chuckled. "What are you going to do right now?"
"I'm going to head over to A&M and try applying. You know, just like I had planned over a decade ago. Hopefully I'll get in despite all the problems I've had all these years. Then again, I've only gotten arrested twice so maybe that won't be too big an issue."
"Only twice?"
"Yeah once for a DUI and once for disturbing the peace. Yeah, I only got caught for drinking and driving once even though I did it like a thousand times. Man, was I such an idiot."
"Well, the past is the past."
"True. Well, if A&M doesn't work out, then maybe I'll try a community college or something. Hopefully I'll be able to start somewhere soon. I'm sure not all neurosurgeons started at large universities."
"I'm sure you can make it in to A&M. You're one of the smartest guys I know."
Chris gave Jim a confused look.
"Really? Me? Are you sure about that?"
"Yes, Chris. After all, the Chris I know graduated ninth in his class. And that same Chris is standing right in front of me."
Chris smiled.
"Wish me luck, my friend."
"Always."
Chris held out his hand. "I'd give you a hug, but it seems you got your arms full there. So how bout' a shake?"
Jim laughed and shook Chris' hand.
"One more thing," Chris said. "You won't have to worry about me staying here anymore. My parents recently lent me a butt load of money and I bought an apartment not far from your house. That way, we can still see each other as much as we want. I also recently got a part-time job at Chick-fil-A, so paying bills shouldn't be too much of a problem. Yep, my life officially begins here."
"That's what I like to hear."
Chris chuckled. "I'll see you around."
Chris then walked back to his black Convertible (despite fixing all the issues he had, it was obvious that Chris hadn't yet tended to his car, which he obviously didn't really take care of before going to rehab) and drove off. Jim smiled and carried his daughters to his car, reflecting on all that had just happened.
As happy as Jim was that all the issues with Chris were officially over, Jim knew he wasn't completely out of the woods yet. In addition to the more than likely chance that Julia was still in love with Chris, she also still had almost all the same issues that Chris had once had. Perhaps when Julia saw how Chris had changed, it would encourage her to decide to change as well and she would attend rehab. Perhaps when she overcame her alcohol and smoking problems, it would cause her to revert to original personality and she would be in love with him again. Perhaps when that happened, everything would return to being the way it was before Chris arrived three years earlier.
What Jim knew for sure was that all the issues with Chris were long gone and a great deal of stress that had overcome him was long gone as well. At this point, he could just focus on finishing his education and at the same time spend as much time with Cassie and Meagan as he wanted. Jim could hardly wait to enjoy all the wonderful times he would have with his daughters in the years that followed.
As Jim pulled up to a stop sign, he briefly turned to the backseat and looked at Cassie and Meagan, who had both fallen asleep. Jim could still not believe how gorgeous his girls were. Being their father was indeed a blessing for him and he could not imagine any other gift that would've made him feel happier. Jim was sure that he would continue to face challenges, but he also knew that one look at these little angels would be enough of a reminder that everything would be alright in the end. With Cassie and Meagan, Jim wasn't even sure how he could ever feel sad.
"Have a great day today, girls," Jim whispered. "Daddy loves you so much."
Nearly shedding a tear, Jim turned back around and continued driving. As excited as he was to return to the A&M campus in a few moments, he was much more looking forward to picking the girls up later. Jim could hardly wait to see Cassie's happy little face as she excitingly told him about what she had done at daycare that day and Meagan's happy little face as she begged to be held by him again. These happy little faces are what Jim looked forward to seeing each day.
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