Gutter Ball: Chapter 1
An Amazing Digital Circus Fanfic
“Felix! What the hell is this?”
Kaitlyn picked up her bowling ball before looking over her shoulder at David, who was shaking his paper cup in the younger man’s face.
“What makes you so sure I had something to do with it?” Felix smirked as he stretched his arms behind his head.
That.
That smug grin was exactly what had David so sure Felix had messed with his soda.
It had been months since Felix started showing up whenever their friend group got together, and David still couldn’t stand him. And every argument just spawned more pranks, which spawned more arguments, which spawned more pranks–
It was a vicious cycle.
It wasn’t just David, either. Felix seemed to enjoy making a menace of himself to everyone. Kaitlyn had spotted a barely restrained grimace on everyone’s face when he showed up.
She was pretty sure she was the only one who didn’t just tolerate him. In her defense, he was pretty funny and could always make her laugh no matter how bad her day had been.
She swung her arm, sending the bowling ball barreling down the lane, then spun on her heel to the sound of clattering pins.
Plus he seemed to be the only thing keeping her best friend sane. So there was that.
“What’d he do this time?” She didn’t bother to check her score as she walked back up to the long couch where Felix was lounging. He shrugged, though the look on his face was anything but innocent.
David held out his paper cup. “He filled my drink with–with I don’t even know. It’s like he mixed all the drinks together or something.”
Kaitlyn raised an eyebrow. “Suicide drink? Seriously? I haven’t seen anyone make that since we used to dare each other to drink it in middle school.”
“Wow, Kait. Sure sounds like you’re calling me childish.” Felix’s head tilts to the side so he can look back at David, smirk growing. “If I had anything to do with that. Which I didn’t.”
David rolls his eyes. “I saw you follow Christine when she went to get refills. You were the only other person gone, so it had to be you.”
“Well how do you know it wasn’t her?”
“Please. She doesn’t do stupid pranks like this.”
Kaitlyn only barely managed to stifle her snort. Felix’s eyes drifted back over to hers, and one side of his mouth twitched up, just enough to acknowledge he’d heard her.
She hadn’t been sure about him at first. He didn’t exactly match Christine’s usual type–in either friends or boyfriends–so she hadn’t known what to think when, after disappearing for six months, then falling into a depressive episode and refusing to go anywhere except work, Christine had suddenly started meeting up with people again, but only with Felix in tow.
She called him an “old friend” (which was obviously a lie since Kaitlyn knew all her old friends) and pretended not to notice how he turned all their other friends against him in five minutes or less. He was rude and blunt and complained every time she dragged him to anything.
But Kaitlyn had seen them come late to a party once, sitting outside for fifteen minutes while Felix tried to convince Christine to go inside and talk to people for a few minutes, only to backpedal and complain as soon as he realized anyone else could hear him. She’d noticed how after he moved in, the number of calls she got in the middle of the night when Christine couldn’t sleep took a sharp decline. She’d seen him make her laugh when she was starting to believe she would never hear Christine’s laugh again.
So yeah, he could be annoying and a jerk sometimes, but honestly? Her friend could do a lot worse.
“What’s going on?” Christine asked, sliding onto the arm of the couch beside Felix.
He waved a dismissive hand at David. “He’s accusing me of messing with his drink.”
She smirked and nudged him with her shoulder. “I told you they’d never believe it was me.”
He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, none of your friends know what a little gremlin you are. I’ve noticed. I just want to know how you’ve kept it hidden so long.”
She snickered, and David turned wide eyes on her, jaw falling open. “You made my drink?”
She smiled innocently. “Of course I did. You asked me to.”
“I asked you to refill my coke!”
“Oops?” She shrugged. “I couldn’t remember what you asked for, so I just gave you a little of everything.”
David gaped at her for a minute until Annie called him over for his turn. As he walked away, Christine flopped over, letting her head fall against the back of the couch.
“I can’t believe I missed it! I waited forever for him to take a sip so I could see his reaction, and then I walk away for one minute and miss it!"
“It was pretty great,” Felix said, and she elbowed him.
“Gee thanks.”
He reached up and grabbed her arm, tugging her off the arm of the couch.
“Woah, hey, what are you doing?” She half slid, half fell into his lap, and he dropped his chin on the top of her head.
“I need a headrest. Obviously.”
“Oh, obviously.” She rolled her eyes as she grabbed the strings of his hoodie, which dropped over both her shoulders and started fiddling with them.
And that was another thing. For as long as Kaitlyn had known her, Christine hated being touched. She reluctantly accepted hugs from her or her parents, but that was pretty much it.
Until Felix, who touched her almost obsessively. And instead of pushing him away or awkwardly waiting until she thought she could politely extricate herself like usual, she seemed to actually . . . like it.
Kaitlyn sat on the table in front of them. “Sooo . . .” she began slowly. She had been planning this conversation all evening, but that didn’t make it any easier. “Your parents texted me last night.”
Christine flinched. “Sorry.”
Kaitlyn pointed at her. “Hey, no. Don’t do that. I’m your best friend. This kind of falls under my job description.”
Felix snickered. “What, like a secretary? Screening calls?”
“Exactly.” She turned back to Christine, letting her teasing tone fall away. “They want to see you. I know you haven’t wanted to go home since last time they were so . . .” she trailed off, unsure what the right word was.
Overprotective and paranoid were the first things that came to mind, but they didn’t feel right considering something had happened to Christine. Having her back was, to be entirely honest, a miracle none of them had really expected, and Kaitlyn completely understood why her family was so worried about her. But there was a difference between worried and overbearing, and they had never been able to find that balance, even when she moved several states away after graduating college.
“I know last time you went to see them didn’t go well, but I thought maybe if you invited them to meet you halfway–you know, meet at a restaurant or something so you don’t feel like you have to stay long–then maybe things will go a little better. And I’d absolutely come with you if you want, and maybe giving them something else to talk about would help so you don’t get into another fight.”
Christine let out a slow breath. “Yeah, yeah, you’re right. That–that might be good. And . . . I’d appreciate having you with me.” She frowned. “But give them something else to talk about? Like what?”
Kaitlyn grinned, and Christine groaned, tipping her head back to lean against Felix’s chest. “Oh no.”
“I think introducing them to your new boyfriend would definitely do the trick.” Still grinning, Kaitlyn glanced up at Felix to see what he thought of this just in time to see his face go carefully blank.
He tilted his head down, chin still resting on Christine’s forehead, and looked down at her. “You have a boyfriend?”
Kaitlyn stared at him. Surely, surely he didn’t just say that.
“I–I wh–what?" Christine asked, almost clipping his face with her head as she shot up. “N–no!”
He snorted and rolled his eyes. “Sure, that’s convincing.”
“Felix, I–”
“Oh look! It’s my turn.” He started to slide out from under her.
“Felix!” She grabbed the sleeve of his hoodie, but he tugged her fingers off.
“Don’t want to hold everyone else up.” He threw a grin over his shoulder as he walked over to the bowling lane.
Kaitlyn stared after him, then looked back at Christine. “What was that?”
Christine sank down on the couch. “Felix and I . . . aren’t . . . exactly . . . dating.” The last word was said almost too quietly to hear.
“Um, no,” Kaitlyn said. “Chris, I’ve known you since elementary school. You cannot expect me to believe that.”
“I didn’t say I don’t want to, I just said we’re . . . not.”
Kaitlyn crossed her arms and settled back. “So you’re saying he’s an idiot?”
Christine huffed out a laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, he definitely is.”
“But you guys live together!”
“Yeah, cause he’s my friend and he needed a place to stay, so I offered to let him move in for a while.”
“So you’re both idiots.”
“Hey!” Christine complained.
“You’ve been living with your crush for months and still haven’t told him you like him. What else would you call it?”
Christine shrank back. “Well, telling him how I felt didn’t exactly go well last time,” she muttered.
Kaitlyn opened her mouth to ask what exactly that meant, when Christine looked past her and frowned. “Wait, he already took his turn. What’s he–” She shot to her feet. “Jax!”
Kaitlyn turned around to see what she was talking about right as Felix’s ball rolled into the gutter. She wasn’t sure what that last part meant, but Felix turned around, like she was talking to him. Was that some sort of nickname?
“You called?” he asked as he came back to the couch.
“Did you seriously just steal my turn?”
“Oh, was that your turn? My bad.”
“You rolled it straight into the gutter!”
He shrugged, slouching onto the couch. “It’s an easy mistake to make.”
“I cannot believe you, you–you rotten rabbit!'
“Do you hear this, Kait? Hear how she abuses me?”
Kaitlyn gave a saccharine smile. “I think you deserve it.”
“Wow.” He put his hand over his heart. “Attacked on all sides. How hurtful.”
Christine hopped up, taking her second try before he could steal it too.
“You really are an idiot,” Kaitlyn told him. And later, when Christine subtly gestured to the digital scorecard showing Felix’s turn coming up next, she kept him distracted long enough for Christine to throw a gutter ball.
Or two.