Survival Of The Fittest

Kimberly Nguyen was on her way to her boyfriend's house, without a clue in the world as to what they were going to do when she got there. She'd been dating Kaine for a short while now, and things seemed to be going pretty well. He was cool, interesting to talk to and hang out with, and he always knew where to score interesting substances to sample.

Kimberly hoped she was dressed up nicely enough for the day. She hadn't gone all out like she normally did; she was actually wearing fairly normal pants and a black, bulky t-shirt, instead of her more typical costume-like attire. Still, she had her fedora, and her boots, so it wasn't like she was completely under dressed.

As she neared the house, she started to worry a little.

I hope he's here. I hope his parents don't answer the door or something horrible like that.

Kimberly wasn't even sure if Kaine's parents knew they were dating. She couldn't remember ever seeing them, but then again, she hadn't really spent much time anywhere where she'd have run into them. She certainly hadn't mentioned Kaine to her grandparents. They probably wouldn't have cared, but there was no use sharing information with them. It wasn't like they cared what she did. Besides, she didn't want to answer awkward questions about her romantic life. Things had been bad enough when they tried to comfort her after her first breakup. They hadn't listened when she'd explained that she had initiated the breakup, and was better off without the jerk anyways.

She walked up to the door, hesitating before knocking. There was no reason to be nervous at all, but she still was, just a little. Part of her liked that, that feeling that things could go any way that came with newer relationships. If they lasted a couple months, it would probably wear off, and she might get bored and move on, but that was part of life, especially in high school.

There was no point worrying about the future now. Kimberly reached up and knocked on the door.

Kaine sat up from his couch in surprise when he heard the knocking. He had fallen asleep for about a minute-- he hadn't even noticed that he'd closed his eyes. However, the nap was long enough for Kaine to have another one of his dreams.

Though, for the life of him, he couldn't remember what it was about...

Approaching the door, Kaine looked out of the peephole and was surprised to see Kimberly waiting on the other side. Had he invited her over? He was still a little hungover from whatever it was he had taken last night. If Kaine had invited her he most-likely wasn't very clear-headed when he did it.

Kaine cleared his mind just enough to remember who was home-- his parents, both doctors, were at work. Kaine hadn't introduced Kimberly to them yet, but knowing how up-tight they were, they wouldn't approve.

Then there was Patrick. Of course, he was still home-- Kaine pitied his brother for not having anywhere to go. Pat was probably in his room, absorbed in one of his drawings.

Okay. I guess I'm in the green.

Quickly, Kaine straightened his white tank-top and fixed his hair as best he could. He did his best to look like a person who wasn't as hungover as an AA member in Vegas. With a small smile, Kaine opened the door.

"Hey." He grinned pleasantly. "How's it going?"

The door swung open, and there was Kaine. He looked a tiny bit out of it, but overall not bad. Kimberly had no clue how he did it. He somehow seemed to never be badly affected by any of the myriad substances he took. That was alright, though. She preferred him being at least mobile.

"Everything's good!" she replied happily, adding "Mind if I come in?" Not waiting for a response, she slipped past Kaine into the house.

"How's stuff going with you?" she asked, smiling.

She took a look around. Nothing seemed to foretell imminent parental doom, so she assumed they had the house pretty much to themselves. Patrick, Kaine's brother, might be there, but if he was he would probably leave them alone, which was how Kimberly preferred it. Kaine and Patrick were twins, but Kimberly couldn't help thinking of Patrick as Kaine's younger brother. He just seemed... less mature somehow. Maybe it was that he didn't seem to be much of a partier, or into drugs.

"So," she said, looking back to Kaine, "what's the plan for today?"

Kaine chuckled as he closed the door behind Kimberly. His hangover almost got in the way of his thoughts, but Kaine knew how to handle things like this.

"How's stuff going with you?"

Turning to his girlfriend, Kaine rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Meh. Okay." If having a headache the size of Canada is okay, that is. "I didn't get much sleep last night so I took something."

What Kaine didn't mention was why he hadn't slept last night. He had woken up from one of his dreams and took some acid to calm down. Despite the fact that he couldn't remember his dreams, Kaine always woke up in a cold sweat; panting with fear and yet somehow aroused by whatever had just happened.

Kaine wasn't sure if he wanted to know what the dreams were about or if it was better off left alone.

But Kaine didn't let his worry show-- he smiled as best he could, a trick he'd learned could get him what he wanted from people.

When Kimberly asked the question, though, Kaine didn't know how to answer. Crap. Plans? Did we make plans? No problem, though-- he could work around this.

"You tell me," He said playfully.

Kaine seemed a little off, but the sleeping problems explained that. Kimberly was fortunate enough to sleep well nearly all the time, but when she did have trouble sleeping, it wrecked her entire next day. With whatever he had taken thrown into the mix, Kimberly was very impressed that Kaine was doing as well as he was.

He turned her question about the day's plans around on her, which was one of the things she liked about Kaine so much. He always kept her on her toes. She never knew quite what to expect, and that kept things exciting and fun. She hadn't really expected him to have anything specific set out, but now that she had to decide... well, it would get interesting. Kimberly liked having a bit of control, but getting it this way meant that the situation was out of her control entirely. It was delightful.

Stall for time...

"Well," she said, taking a step towards him, "How about a hug from my boyfriend to start things off?"

That would give her a little time to think of something. In the meantime, though, she wanted to keep the conversation moving, keep things from dragging into awkwardness.

"You said you took some stuff? Anything good I should know about?"

That was good. She always had the fall back option of suggesting they get high. Kaine probably had something they could take, and if not, well, Kimberly had tossed a couple joints in her purse before leaving her house. She made a mental note to remember to remove them if she didn't end up smoking them before she got home; Kimberly was willing to break the law and do drugs, but she did not want to bring them to school by mistake. Her grandparents gave her free reign to do pretty much whatever she want, and she didn't want to jeopardize that by getting suspended or arrested or something of the sort.

Smiling, Kaine hugged Kimberly warmly. This was good; a hug meant Kaine was on her good side, and she was easier to sway that way. Of course, he didn't know he was thinking this-- Kaine's manipulations were so subtle that not even he noticed them. Ending the hug, he thought about Kimberly's question for a second.

"It's just some weak stuff that that college kid gave me," he answered with a casual shrug. "It didn't last long, but I've got one bitch of a hangover." Kaine grinned like a madman-- a friendly one, though, like a homeless person outside of a school.

Anyway, Kaine sat back down on the couch and leaned back, relaxing. "Thing is, though, I don't feel like taking anything with this headache; got any other plans?"

The hug was good. Real good. Kimberly could feel her boyfriend pressed against her, warm and real. She didn't mind being single when she was, but when she was in a relationship nothing beat the feeling of someone else against her, someone who cared about her.

Of course, all that could change in a hurry. If she got annoyed, Kimberly tended to pull back, to avoid physical contact. She'd had some trouble with that with her last boyfriend; actually, it was part of why she'd dumped him. She'd gotten mad when he'd refused to listen to her, and she'd pulled away, and he'd pulled her into a hug, which was, in her mind, just one step short of sexual assault. Kimberly was not the sort to sit around and take things she didn't like. If she became uncomfortable or upset, she would simply leave, often leaving her confused friends in her wake. She had a reputation for having something of a temper, but that wasn't true at all. She just didn't like it when she wasn't in control of her own situation.

Fortunately, Kaine didn't make her feel that way. He had this way about him, where everything he said seemed so reasonable to her. Hell, often she didn't know who came up with their ideas, which was alright with her. She didn't feel pushed around, which was what really mattered.

Kaine walked to the couch, and sat down, and Kimberly followed him. It felt perfectly natural. He explained that he was hung over, grinning pleasantly while doing so, and that he didn't want to do any drugs right now. That was quite alright with Kimberly.

She sat down on the couch next to him, and leaned on his shoulder as he asked if she had any other ideas.

Other plans? Hmm...

She didn't have anything specific, but right now Kaine looked awfully good. She smiled mischievously, and leaned in for a kiss, not answering him.

---

Of course, kissing was all well and good, but it wasn't enough to sustain a relationship. Neither were drugs, especially for someone as mercurial as Kimberly. Within a month, she'd grown sick of pot, had lost all interest in Kaine's addiction. She'd pretty much lost interest in him. Being a secret was fun, having a secret was fun, but only until it became onerous. Soon, sneaking around just to hug someone and tell them that it was fine, it was cool, it was amazing that they were still mobile after last night's debauchery, well, that got pretty fucking boring. Soon, Kimberly realized that she wasn't all that suited to being the chemically responsible member of a relationship.

And so, a few months after they started dating, she blew up over something inconsequential. Maybe he was high when she wanted to talk. Maybe he got a little too smug in his ways, thought she was a little more pliable than she felt at the moment. Maybe he kissed her when she wasn't really in the mood.

It didn't matter. Whether he even wronged her or not, Kimberly got pissed, and she was not a very forgiving person. She dumped him, and she never looked back. While Kaine spun his wheels, while he popped his pills and dreamed his dreams, Kimberly moved on. She ditched everything too extreme, figured most drugs sucked because losing control of herself absolutely blew. She put more effort into school again, and she started drinking when she could get away with it, and going to larger parties. She didn't bother waving in the halls, didn't bother tracking Patrick down to ask if his brother was keeping out of trouble. She didn't really care. A completed relationship was a completed relationship. It wasn't like she was expecting to find somebody to marry. High school was all about goofing around, about picking bad boyfriends because they were exciting for a while. She'd been through more than her share, and few left any impression.

So soon she'd almost forgotten about Kaine. Soon he'd blurred with her other burned bridges and severed ties. The only thing that kept him in her consciousness at all was that he was in her grade. That was unusual for her; Kimberly usually dated older people. She'd sometimes see him in class, but she always sat at least a few desks away. They never got group work.

But at the end of the year, when the trip came around, when they were all loaded into buses and sent off to their fates, it didn't take her all that long to realize Kaine wasn't there. He and his brother had somehow managed to dodge the bullet. Perhaps Kaine had binged in anticipation of a week sober. Perhaps Patrick had stayed behind to nurse him back to health. It didn't matter. They didn't end up on that island, didn't end up killing and dying and bleeding.

It wasn't conscious, wasn't something she ever really openly acknowledged, but Kimberly was pleased about that. In the first couple days, it made her smile now and then, just a little, but, soon enough, even that was forgotten.

[+] Author Notes

10/16/11 - So, yeah, I just came back to fix/finish this. I hate loose ends, and with Kimberly currently slated for the finals, it felt very odd to me that her first chronological thread would terminate randomly where it did. I added everything after the section break, to bring a little closure to something that's been niggling for nearly two years now, but left the rest of this thread untouched, because fixing past writing choices, even crummy ones, feels like cheating to me. I hope nobody minds. If 42 Zombies ever returns, I hope he'll be chill with what I did here. If not, well, that's what the edit button is for. Sadly, I doubt we'll be seeing him again, since his last post on the site was his last post above. He logged in once or twice afterwards, but hasn't been seen in nearly a year. 42, if you ever stop by, hit me up with a PM, okay? I'd like to chat again.

Anyways, yeah, this thread is finally done. Not sure how I feel about that. I'm only really including notes here to explain why a two-years-dead thread suddenly has a prescient ending.