KISS: Road Trip

Ch 47: Oh! (Bruce)

I threw the ham on the bread, grabbing the block of cheese from the fridge. I was about to slice it and finish making my sandwich when I realized that someone had just taken a bite out of it. "You've gotta be kidding me. Eric!" I shouted. He stuck his head into the kitchen, giving me a sheepish grin. "You called?"

"Stop taking bites out of things you're not supposed to take bites of!" "But Bruce! I was hungry!" he protested. I raised an eyebrow. "It takes thirty seconds tops to slice a piece of cheese." "I couldn't find the knife and I was hungry and I didn't want to keep looking, I'm sorry!" "Eric, Eric, Eric. Stop being so damn lazy!"

He let out a dramatic sigh, rolling his eyes. "Stop reorganizing the kitchen and not telling me! You switch it up every two weeks and I can never find anything!" "That's not even true and you know it. Anyway, I'm going to go to the store and get myself some food that you're not allowed to take bites out of," I said, grabbing my sandwich and keys and heading for the door.

It was almost therapeutic to be able to shop without having to keep track of Eric and make sure he didn't blow $200 on stupid shit we didn't need like he always did.

"Oh my gosh, Bruce?!"

I jumped as my name was called, turning to find Shandi standing at the end of the aisle, giving me a huge smile, which I returned eagerly. "Shandi! How have you been?!" I cried, walking toward her. With a laugh, she ran the last few steps between us and gave me a quick hug. "I've been good! It's been good! How're you and all your friends though?"

"We've all been doing good! I'm sure you saw but Ace and Peter got married--" "Oh my gosh yes that was the cutest thing! I'm so happy for them, tell them I say congratulations!" she said excitedly. "Will do! I'm sure they'd say hi back! A little more surprising is the fact that Gene's married and has a kid and moved back to New York, which is just wild to me."

She took a step back, staring at me with wide eyes. "No! Gene?! Like Gene Simmons?!? Self-professed man whore Gene Simmons?! Like-like that Gene?! No offense to him I love Gene but I mean he did call himself that a few times." I nodded, running a hand through my hair. "I know, I know, it's insane! But yeah, he married a woman he met in college and they like just had a son a few months ago." "Whoa I can't believe he settled down. Married! Damn," she said, shaking her head in disbelief before giving me another smile. "How about the rest of you though?"

"Ah, Paul and Eric and I haven't really been up to much," I said with a sheepish grin. "Hey, you got yourself a girlfriend, that's something! About time too. I don't know why you've been single for so long, you're a great guy. And of course your Instagram account is so much fun to look at. It makes me happy to see you so happy with yourself," she said with a smile, giving my hand a friendly squeeze.

I gave her a warm smile back, running a hand through my hair. "Yeah. It's nice. Thanks for being supportive of me when I was dealing with all my issues back in high school and stuff. I might not have shown it then but I really do appreciate everything." "Bruce, you were my boyfriend then and you're my friend now and I care about you. I'm super proud of you, really I am! Although I do wish your abs had been as defined when we were dating," she teased, poking me in the stomach. "Hey! I was still working on it back then! But how've you been though?"

She shrugged, eyes shining. "Ah, I've been good! I'm dating this guy Tommy, I don't know if you know him. He used to go to school with you I think?" "Oh shit, Tommy Thayer?!" She nodded, face lighting up. "Yeah! Tommy Thayer! He's such a great guy, he's super sweet and funny and he's really good at guitar too! Guess I have a type," she said with a laugh.

"Hey, nice guys who play guitar is a pretty good type to have. Tell him I say hi!" "Of course! Anyway I gotta run, it was good to see you again! We'll have to catch up sometime or something, maybe get the whole squad back together! You and me and Eric and Carrie and all them," she said with a smile. "Oh my gosh we should do a triple date! You and Lisa and Eric and Carrie and me and Tommy!"

"Not a bad idea! But yeah, good to see you!" I said, waving as she walked down the aisle and vanished.

That was nice.

I still felt all happy inside by the time I made it back home, a mood that was dampened immediately as I walked in to find Eric frantically cleaning out the microwave. "What did you do?" I asked, setting down the groceries and crossing my arms over my chest.

His face turned red and he shrugged, covering the microwave from view. "Nothing, it's fine, it's all fine, go back to the store, nothing happened!" he said hastily. "Eric."

"You love me, right?" he asked, giving me a smile. "Just let me see what you did." Face burning, he stepped aside, showing me the carnage inside the microwave. I let out a sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. "Eric." "Okay look I thought it said fifty seconds but I guess I accidentally hit the zero again so it was five minutes and...yeah turns out if you do that with hot dogs they explode," he said sheepishly, grinning nervously.

"Eric why the hell would you put a hot dog in the microwave for five whole minutes?!" I cried. He shrugged helplessly. "It was an accident! Sorry?" "Geez Eric, clean it up and pray it's not broken," I said, shaking my head and starting to unpack the groceries. "Bruce I'm sorry!"

"Yeah, yeah. Oh hey, we got invited on a triple date at some undetermined date in the future." "With who?" he asked, looking up from his cleaning. "Turns out Shandi is dating your friend Tommy." Eric clapped a hand to his forehead. "I knew I was forgetting to tell you something! Yeah they started dating a few months ago, me and Tommy were talking about it. You run into him at the store or something?"

"Wow, way to tell me. Thanks. And no, I ran into Shandi, we talked for a bit. It was nice."

"Aw that's nice, it's been forever since I've seen either of them. A triple date would be fun! If you're down, that is."

I gave him a smile as he kept cleaning out the microwave. "Yeah, it would be fun."