Alan stopped and turned around heading in the other direction grumbling to himself. Fine. Last time he tried to be nice. He turned a corner and knocked on the the first door six times.<br/><br/>"Yo! Alec! Lemme in!"  The door opened to reveal the disheveled boy, shirtless and rather annoyed.<br/>"Alan? What the hell man? I was trying to get some sleep!" Alec bitched but ended up letting him in away. Alan breezed past the boy and dropped onto the chair. Alec was one of the few guys he liked here, he was real, didn't take shit. Normally the two were together but today Alec had been complaining about loss of sleep and had wanted to take to today to catch up. However, fate had conspired against him.<br/><br/>Alec stepped back into the room and shut the door. His disheveled black hair stood up at odd ends and ran his fingers though it hoping to smooth it some. The attempt failed. His eyes fell on Alan where he sat in a chair breathing somewhat strangely. Alec knew almost instantly what had happened to his friend.<br/>"Alan what the hell did you do?" Alec asked slight panic in his voice, he knew what Alan's family would do if he had gotten into a fight. His friend wouldn't live long enough to watch the school disappear in the rear-view window of their shitty car. He dropped down next to Alan. "You dumbass! Tell me you didn't fight Kraven again." Alan shook his head at the clear panic on Alec's face and leaned his head back against the chair.<br/><br/>"No. I let the asshole beat on me until I had the opportunity to get the hell of there. I never swung at him, my new roommate seemed to have fun beating him though." Alan said closing his eyes as he listened to Alec sputter for a moment. "I told you remember? New roommate today. Seems interesting to say the least. By the way if anyone asks, I've been here all day." Alec muttered something and stepped close to Alan, and Alan opened one eye to stare up at him. "Yeah?"<br/><br/>"Considering you're talking I'm assuming your jaw is fine. Take off the shirt...I know the bastard got body shots on you. That's his favorite move." Alec's voice was stern, but that didn't mean Alan wasn't going to listen to him.<br/><br/>"I'm fine Alec. Sit down before you give yourself a panic attack. " Alan said still staring at him with one eye.<br/><br/>"No you could be really hurt and just ignoring it, as usual." Alec said and Alan opened his other eye. Alec was his best friend and as annoying as it was Alan knew that someone gave a shit if he dropped dead. Alan looked at Alec annoyance written across his features.<br/><br/>"Lets go to my room then....Danny could walk in here at any moment and get freaked. My new roommate wouldn't care, don't think he cares about much really." Alan rose and the two of them walked back to Alan's room where Alan sat on the edge of his bed. He yanked his shirt off over his head exposing his deeply muscled and tanned chest he spent any spare moment he had doing something physical. He had to keep in shape if he wanted to survive at school or at home. Alec looked at him for a moment before kneeling in front of him and started probing his ribs with practiced hands. Alec worked at a hospital near his house during breaks from school and wanted to become a doctor one day, during their years in high school Alan had certainly given him a lot of practice.<br/><br/>Alan bit his lower lip as pain flooded his body, he didn't move or flinch he sat there and let Alec figure out what was wrong with him. When he had to pay attention though, that made the pain worse.<br/><br/>"Where does it hurt the most?" Alec asked his fingers prodding gently at the entire sensitive area.<br/>"Slightly to the left." Alan muttered feeling Alec's fingers move and push gently. "Yeah....there."<br/>"Excellent, you've cracked a rib." Alec groaned and sat back on his heels. "But, there's nothing I can do about it. All I can do is wrap them, and you have to stay away from sports for the next two weeks or so." Alec's tone had become doctor-ish and Alan knew better then to argue with him at this point, it would be best just to listen to Alec.<br/><br/>Alec wrapped his ribs and took on of the chairs in the room where he sat facing Alan. Alan reached under his bed and grabbed some of the beer stored there, he tossed one to Alec and cracked his own open.<br/>"You know, you really shouldn't drink this crap. And you know I don't." Alec said throwing the bottle back under the bed. Alan stared drolly at his friend.<br/>"You know, you really shouldn't preach. I don't get drunk. I just drink one or two in order to keep from murdering everyone that comes across my path." Alan muttered knowing Alec was right and not caring at the moment.<br/><br/>Dispite the fact that he hated it here the room he was in did have an Xbox and PS3 that he'd bought. He started up the Xbox and passed one of the controllers to Alec as Left For Dead appeared on the screen.<br/>"Lets kill some zombies." He said leaning against the wall, closing his eyes against the pain that assailed the ribs that now had his attention.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Pain is a message. Ignore the message, ignore the pain.</span>To bad that only worked for so long till pain made him pay attention to it.