Fry and Laurie

Fry and Laurie

First

Fry hated the rain, always had, and probably always would for years to come. So, when he was greeted not with sunshine but with a horrendous downpour on his very first day out in Toronto, he was more than a little sore. Cursing madly, he found shelter in a sickly smelling McDonald’s. It wasn’t really his idea of a great haven, but it was the first place he had spotted and thus made a beeline for it.

               Taking a seat by the window, he stared out onto the streets that were now filled with wet pedestrians all searching for shelter. Some had been clever enough to check the weather report that morning and had come prepared with umbrellas, raincoats and the works. Others, like Fry, had been uninformed of the cloudburst that was to take place that particular day.

               Sighing grumpily, Fry pulled out a handkerchief from his back pocket. The handkerchief was a bit damp but he used it to wipe away the raindrops that had splattered on his glasses, all the while allowing vulgar language to escape his clenched teeth. More and more people started piling into the small McDonalds to take cover from the rain and before Fry knew it, the entire shop was filled with people. 

               Luckily no one had tried to claim the seat opposite

Fry, until the last of the rain dodgers walked in and seeing as how the vacant seat opposite Fry was the only vacant seat in the entire shop, took it, but, not before asking oh-so politely in a flawless voice that made Fry weak in the knees.

               Fry predicted an awkward silence to follow, but to his surprise, the girl stuck out her hand for a shake and said, “Hi, I’m Laurie.”

               Fry shook her hand and said, “Fry Grant.”

               “Nice to meet you Fry Grant,” Laurie chuckled. Fry’s heart fluttered. “That’s a funny name, ‘Fry.’”

               Fry’s mouth ran dry and his face took on a look of pure and utter embarrassment. Curse my parents! He though bitterly, Curse them and their horrific choice of names!

               “It’s after this bloke, Stephen Fry, who my mum is absolutely mad for,” he told her and felt blood rushing to his cheeks and ears. “My older brother, he lucked out, he got the Stephen part of the name. I got stuck with the Fry.”

               Laurie laughed at this, a pleasant, feminine laugh. Fry felt his heart leap at the sound of it.

               “That’s so strange!” she exclaimed, “My dad wanted to name me Wooster after Hugh Laurie’s character in Jeeves and Wooster. My mum said no so he settled on Laurie instead.”

               Fry’s eyes widened a little and his mouth hung open slightly and all the while his heart shouted at him “I love her! I love her! I love her!” He wanted to hug her, kiss her, make love to her ... he wanted to quote Marc Bolan at her: “Lady, like a like a lady like a like a I'm gonna dance in the rain for you.” Both of their parents were mad, they were both victims of horrendous British actor names and thus they were both just meant to be. So, Fry though, this is what love feels like.

Then

               A girl’s wedding day is supposed to be the happiest day of her life, right? That’s really only if the girl is madly and hopelessly in love. Laurie was madly and hopelessly in love, but it was not with her fiancé, Nate. At first she had thought it was, but then new feelings started popping up and these new amorous feelings (towards Fry of all people) had no plans of leaving anytime soon, thus trapping Laurie without an escape route.

               She considered just telling Fry, right out, that she was in love with him, but then she would always get cold feet especially when considering Fry’s reaction. In the seven years Laurie had known Fry, he had been in a total of two relationships and both these relationships lasted no more than about two weeks each. Sometimes Laurie stopped herself from blurting out her feelings for Fry because she thought that maybe he was gay (though he had never been with a man.) In which case it seemed absolutely hopeless to pour her heart out when clearly he would only return those feelings if Laurie had been born male. The times when she was almost a hundred percent sure Fry was gay, she would wish she had been born a male; just so she could be with Fry.

               Laurie wandered out of hogwash like that by reminding herself that Nate was a fantastic guy. A journalist, Nate was young, smart and ridiculously handsome. He and Laurie had been going out for four years and on their third year anniversary, Nate took her ice-skating at Harbourfront where he faked a terrible slip and while on the ground, pulled out a mountain sized rock and proposed. It took Laurie by surprise but she accepted because she loved him -- not because she knew she had no chance with Fry.

               When thinking about all this, Laurie decided that she was doing the right thing after all. Why, if she were to have children she’d want the father to be a well-educated specimen of a man rather than a penniless writer with an overbite. Nate had been offered a job at the Toronto Star almost immediately after. Fry was still living with his brother in a tiny two bedroom apartment writing stories upon stories, all of which were unbelievably astounding, but only a few of which were good enough to be published. 

               Even if Laurie did tell Fry she loved him and wanted to marry him and not Nate, and if by some strange miracle Fry felt the same way about her, her future and the future of their possible offspring wasn’t secure with Fry.

               A knock on the door followed by a “Are you decent in there?” snapped Laurie out of her thoughts and she looked towards the door. Fry, looking like a regular Prince Charming, stepped in, grinning widely from behind his thick rimmed glasses, his crazy overbite clear as crystal on his flawless, tanned face.

               “Look at you,” he mumbled, shutting the door and walking towards Laurie. He stopped in front of her and his smile broadened (if that was even possible.) Placing both hands on her shoulders, he said, “You look beautiful.”

               Laurie felt herself blush and looked down at the floor. Fry chuckled and enveloped her in a light hug so as not to disturb anything about her. Laurie hugged back, breathing in his scent and then exhaling deeply, never wanting to let him go. 

               He pulled away and said, “Everyone waiting for you.”

               She nodded and felt her eyes water a little bit as second thoughts ran through her head. She wanted to tell him. This was as good a time as any. She could just tell him and get it over with and then let the fate do with it what it wanted. But she firmly told herself, “No.”

               Fry held the door open for her and she walked out, not daring to look back at him.

               While watching Laurie walk out the door and towards her new life with Nate, Fry couldn’t help but feel a painful stabbing in his heart. His poor little heart which ached and cried everyday when he thought about how happy his Laurie was with that Nate fellow. He had contemplated telling her just how much she meant to him, just how much he wanted to hold her, touch her, kiss her, for ever and ever. How much he wanted him and her to be a They. 

               “Oh, light of love, won’t you shine on me? Won’t you shine on me, oh light of love?”           

               Sighing, Fry stepped out, shutting the door behind him, and followed after Laurie to the ceremony where he would force his feelings aside and remember how happy this day was for Laurie.

Finally

               Eighty-eight long years, Laurie thought, eighty-eight long years and Fry was finally closer to the Big Guy in the Sky than he ever was before. It saddened

Laurie, of course, but at the same time she was sort of glad the time was nearing. Fry was like a breadstick; the slightest touch could snap him in two. Laurie would just as soon snap herself in two than watch it happen to Fry.

               Making her weekly visit to Fry’s house, Laurie thought again to her wedding day. Specifically the moment she and Fry shared just before she headed out to her new life. The way he had held her was different than any other time they had embraced. It felt as if there was more than just platonic energy between the two. Laurie knew that was all balderdash, but still liked to entertain the idea that it maybe was not. And then she would think about Nate and the boys and feel a tidal wave of guilt wash over her. It frustrated her to no end and she wished that she would just get over this silly crush, or infatuation or whatever it was, and get on with her life.

               Walking up the stairs of Fry’s cozy little townhouse Laurie greeted Fry’s nurse, Georgia, who led her to Fry’s room like she did every week.

               Laurie thanked her as she exited shutting the door behind her, leaving Laurie alone with Fry. Fry, who was propped up in bed with his head buried in a book -- some biography about Marc Bolan of T-Rex. Laurie smiled a little and rolled her eyes. Fry may have grown older and grayer, and grumpier, but deep down inside he was still the same old Fry Grant she had met way back when in that smelly McDonald’s.

               “Hey Laur,” he greeted, his dentures pearly white and his wrinkles giving him a mature charm. “How’re you doing?”

               “Fine as usual,” Laurie smiled back, taking a seat beside the bed. “What’re you reading?”

               “Bolan’s biography.”

               “Another one?”

               “This one’s the best. Written by a close friend of Bolan’s. Goes real in deep. It’s like I’m talking to Bolan himself when reading it. It’s fantastic.”

               “Sounds like fun,” Laurie said, smiling still. Silence took over them as Fry marked his place in his book and set it on the bedside table. He then scooted down until he was lying down and stared at Laurie. Feeling a bit uncomfortable Laurie inhaled deeply and said “I got you something.”

               Fry’s eyes lit up at the thought of a present. He watched at Laurie reached into her purse and pulled out a little neatly wrapped package. She handed t to Fry who took it greedily and tore the wrapping away. Underneath it he found a copy of The Very Best of T-Rex -- a disc containing a number of T-Rex’s biggest hits. He had owned this CD, but had misplaced it for a good four years. 

               “This is great!” he said happily, then stuck out his arms for a hug, to which Laurie gladly obliged. The same feeling she had gotten on her wedding day when they hugged returned and forced her to pull away abruptly and stare at Fry. His droopy hazel eyes stared back at her, showing a few hints of confusion in them. Laurie bit her lip, while her heart raced and her mind screamed “Tell him! Just tell him!”

               “I need to tell you,” she whispered. Fry frowned at her.

               “Tell me what?” he asked.

               Laurie moved back and sat on the chair again, but pulled the chair closer to the bed. She took his hand into hers and sucked in a deep, nervous breath.

               “Fry,” she said, but then thought about what she was going to say to him and laughed slightly. It sounded so silly! But it had to be done. “Fry, I ... I ...” she muttered.

               Fry smiled and rested his head on his pillow and his eyes started drooping shut. Laurie noticed this and said in a panicked voice, “Fry? Fry!”

               “What?” Fry muttered, holding her hand a bit tighter and pulled it towards him. Laurie sighed a sigh of relief and heard the front door open. She heard Georgia greet Nate and soon she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. If she was going to do this, she had to hurry up.

               “Fry?” she asked again. Fry nodded groggily, his eyes half closed. “Fry, I think you should know, I don’t know exactly how to tell you, but I want you to know so badly.” Laurie felt tears starting to drip down her face. “I ... Fry, I love you... I love --” she stopped when she noticed that Fry’s chest had ceased to move. Her eyes spat out more and more tears and she screamed for Nate. She heard him thundering up the stairs.

               She leaned down towards Fry’s dead body and cried, whispering “Love you, love you, love you, love you,” over and over again. Nate stormed in with Georgia and both were shocked to find a bawling Laurie hunched over a lifeless Fry. Nate gulped and pried Laurie off of Fry and held her to him. She cried and cried, still muttering “Love you, love you, love you,” into Nate’s shoulder. Georgia shook her head sadly at Fry’s deceased form and covered him up with a white sheet.

               It was one of Fry’s better days. And the visit from Laurie had just made it even better. Then the new T-Rex CD had just topped it off perfectly. Now Laurie sat clutching his hand, her eyes tearing up and her bottom lip trembling.

               “Fry, I ... I,” she kept muttering. Her voice made Fry’s heart flutter suddenly. It was love. Laurie suddenly seemed frantic and started calling his name.

               “What?” Fry murmured grasping her hand tightly and pulling it towards his heart where a little ache was forming. It was love. He vaguely heard the front door open and close and footsteps around the house. Laurie called him again and he nodded sleepily.

               “Fry, I think you should know, I don’t know exactly how to tell you, but I want you to know so badly,” Laurie said to him. “I ...” she stuttered, and Fry’s almost knew exactly what was coming, the one thing he had wanted to hear from her from the day that he met her. Those three little words. “Fry, I love you ...” and then Fry was satisfied and he drifted off into a dreamless slumber, never to be woken again.