Unforgivable - 7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Corey loved to run. It helped him organize his thoughts and clear his head. As his feet ate up the pavement, he allowed his mind to wander over the last couple of months. So much had happened since Drew’s wedding. One of the major changes was Jason. Now that he knew they lived in the same city, it seemed as though he saw the man everywhere. The big blonde would be leaving an aisle at the grocery store when Corey entered, or would be walking into his favourite coffee shop as Corey was walking out. They’d exchanged a few pleasantries, but other than the first day’s awkwardness outside his clinic, they hadn’t spoken more than a few words to one another… until yesterday. He got the impression the older man would like to have talked more, but was allowing Corey to decide.

Corey had even seen the muscular man in the gym once or twice while there with a client. Since he didn’t go farther than the reception desk, he was sure Jason didn’t see him. The brunette was reluctant to admit Jason looked really good. He was muscular without being overdone, and obviously took care of himself. Corey caught himself staring as Jason used the squat machine. With a mental slap he’d forced his attention back to his client and friend, Grant.

Zach was another person who seemed to pop up everywhere lately. Their first run in was awkward since the coach was with one of his roommates. Corey had wanted to apologize for hitting his ex-boyfriend, but unfortunately the man didn’t seem interested in hearing him out. Zach might have been an ass that night, but Corey didn’t believe it excused physical violence. After his third attempted apology, he couldn’t help but wonder if his ex didn’t want to acknowledge his smaller boyfriend had knocked him on his ass.

Seeing both men so often, Corey couldn’t help but to compare the two. During their friendship, Jason had always tried to find a way to make him smile, or cheer him up after a bad day, and was a protective big brother to both him and Drew. When he was sixteen, the older boy had even stepped in to have a ‘chat’ with one of his teammates who’d made a derogatory comment about Corey and Drew’s close friendship. At the time, the incident only strengthened the young boy’s crush.

Even now, although they were estranged, Jason had been nothing but polite whenever they saw each other, while Zach seemed cold and bitter. Corey didn’t really blame Zach… he did hit the man after all, but it made Jason’s courtesy even more pronounced. Corey hadn’t hidden his distrust of his best friend’s brother, but the man still managed to treat him respectfully. The fact Jason had also taken the initiative to apologize to Pierre, even after all of these years, impressed Corey as much as it confused him.

In contrast, he was embarrassed to remember what he’d put up with in his relationship with Zach. The man was thoughtless and self-centred, and had laughed off his friends’ derogatory comments about Corey being a ‘bitch’ because he ‘took it up the ass.’ Zach may not have actively participated in the teasing, but he’d done nothing to discourage the behaviour. Corey could, and did, defend himself, but it would have been nice if his boyfriend had said something to his roommates. Given the state of their relationship, even before the breakup, he wasn’t surprised to find he didn’t miss Zach as much as he missed having someone in his life. Working the hours he did, it was difficult to find time to date.

The most surprising turn of events was that he’d be voluntarily seeing Jason again in just under an hour. When he’d seen the big guy go down hard on the trail yesterday afternoon, Corey’s first instinct had been to help. As he guided Jason back to his car, he was surprised to realize how comfortable the other man’s company was, once he made an effort to set aside his old anger. They’d always gotten along really well, and it would be so easy to slip back into that familiar friendship. The question was; did he want to open that door again? True, Jason hadn’t cheated on him, but witnessing the betrayal and Pierre’s pain had been a blow to their friendship. Sighing, he slowed to a walk as he approached Jason’s car in the driveway. Why he’d insisted on driving Jason home, he had no idea. The offer was out of his mouth before he had a chance to think. It may have been an uncomfortable drive, but the big blonde could have managed on his own. Now, here he was with the man’s car, and about to pick him up. Shaking his head, he ran up his front steps and headed for the shower. Introspection could wait... he had appointments to get ready for.

Pulling up to Jason’s house, he wasn’t surprised to see the man already outside waiting for him. He’d always been a stickler for punctuality. It was actually one of Jason’s biggest pet peeves with his perpetually late brother. It said a lot about his feelings for Liz that Drew was on time for his own wedding.

“Good morning.” Jason flopped into the passenger seat, smiling at Corey. “Thanks again for doing this.”

Corey still felt odd being alone with Jason again, after the anger he felt towards the man for so long. “Good morning.” He returned the smile tentatively. “How is your ankle today? Any swelling?”

Jason sighed and leaned back in his seat as Corey pulled out of the driveway. “The swelling’s gone down some. It’s still a little tender, but it’s much better than yesterday.”

“I’ll take a look at it when we get to my office. You may want to see a doctor to schedule an x-ray, just to be safe.”

They spent the rest of the short drive talking about possible exercises Jason could do as he healed, and sports injuries that Corey had treated over the years. Jason grimaced when Corey told him about a hockey player whose knee had been blown out by a knee-on-knee hit.

“So I guess a squirrel attack is nothing compared to some of the things you’ve seen.” Jason laughed as Corey pulled into the lot.

“Any injury is potentially bad,” Corey said with a serious expression on his face. “But a stealthy squirrel does make for a good story.” He winked and got out of the car, hearing Jason laugh again as the door shut behind him.

Jason’s ankle, although still swollen, was less tender to the touch than the previous afternoon, validating Corey’s original diagnosis of a mild sprain.

“If it doesn’t start to feel better in a few days, I would recommend getting it looked at by a doctor.”

Jason nodded as he replaced his sock and grabbed the shoe he’d removed. While the blonde finished putting on his shoe, Corey went through the exercises he could do when the ankle started to feel better.

“Once the pain is more manageable and the swelling goes down, you should be able to start rehabbing it. I’d say about a week… maybe less. Don’t push it too soon, but it doesn’t seem to be too bad of a sprain.”

Jason smiled warmly at him as he stood up from the examination table. “Am I ok to drive, doc?”

Corey rolled his eyes. “Your range of motion is pretty good and the pain appears to be manageable, so you should be ok. If you have any problems though, I would recommend finding alternate transportation for at least a week.”

“Oh, are you going to chauffeur me?” Jason joked, winking at him.

Corey felt his unease rear up again. Was he encouraging Jason more than he should? Was he ready to have Jason back in his life as a friend again? He knew he’d been quiet for too long when Jason’s smile slipped.

“Hey, Mr. Smyth! How’s it going?” An exuberant voice called from the front desk, interrupting the rapidly building tension. Corey turned to see Jon wave as he put his name on the sign-in sheet. His assistant, Liam, wasn’t schedule to arrive for another half an hour and the list helped him keep track of the early morning billing.

“Good morning, Jon.” Corey smiled, relieved to have a distraction. “I’m almost done here. Get changed and head over to the exercise room.

“You got it.” The young man saluted him and made his way over to the change room.

“I should get to the office,” Jason said, his voice sounding tentative.

Corey feeling badly for making things uncomfortable, smiled at the other man. “Don’t forget to keep that ankle rested, and iced. You don’t want your therapist to scold you.”

Jason laughed and shook his head. “No, we wouldn’t want that.”

After watching the bigger man slowly make his way out the door, he turned to see his next patient standing at the door to the exercise room.

“New boyfriend?” the teenager asked, with a smirk on his face.

Corey blinked. “No,” he denied, scoffing.

Jon chuckled. “Protesting a little much there, Mr. S.?”

Corey huffed a breath. “Grab the band and get started on your stretches, smartass.”

Snickering, the teen grabbed the stretchy band off of the table and started his routine. “Didn’t mean to piss you off,” he said after finishing his exercises, his breathing a little laboured. Reworking the muscles in his leg and ankle was tough work.

“I know,” Corey said with a smile, showing he wasn’t angry with the boy.

“So who was that guy?” Jon asked, moving over to the treadmill.

Corey thought about his answer before speaking. “He’s the older brother of a very good friend of mine.”

“You’re not friends? You seemed like you knew each other?” the young man asked, sounding surprised.

Corey again thought carefully about his answer. “We used to be,” he said finally.

“What happened?”

“Now that…,” Corey said, increasing the speed of the treadmill. “… is none of your business.”

“Touchy subject. Got it.”

“Brat,” the brunette muttered with a smile. He was still surprised how accepting some teenagers today seemed to be, compared to when he was in school. Jon was almost certainly straight, but the boy didn’t have any qualms about teasing a gay man about a potential boyfriend, the same way he might tease a buddy about a girl.

After guiding the teen through his routine and sending him on his way, Corey busied himself with paperwork between clients. By the time he finished cleaning the clinic and locking the door, it was well past 6pm. Walking into his empty house that evening, he looked through his fridge for dinner ideas before finally settling on a simple bruschetta chicken. After doing his dishes and tidying the kitchen, he turned on the television, hoping to find something mindless to watch for the rest of the night.

He flicked past a movie before going back. “Evil Dead two,” he said, with a grin. It’d been years since he’d seen that movie. The last time had been with… Jason. They’d had an all night movie marathon, watching B horror movies… and a few action movies to appease Drew. Memories of that evening came back to him, as clear as if they happened yesterday, while familiar scenes played out on the screen.

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“Come on, Drew. Move your ass; the movie is starting,” Jason yelled as he flopped on the couch beside Corey, handing him a can of pop.

“Language, young man!” Mrs. Sedor scolded from the direction of the kitchen.

“Sorry, Mom,” Jason called out, sounding suitably contrite, although he did wink at Corey.

Andrew snorted as he headed for the comfortable loveseat. “Puh-lease, Jase. It’s just Evil Dead. I wasn’t going to miss anything.”

“JUST Evil Dead? This isn’t just Evil Dead… it’s Evil Dead part two.”

“What’s the difference?” The younger Sedor shrugged as though he didn’t care, but Corey could see the mischievous twinkle in the thirteen year old’s eye. Drew knew exactly what buttons to push with his older brother.

Corey snickered, listening to the brothers bicker. This wasn’t a new occurrence. The back and forth bantering went on until Jason threw popcorn at his younger sibling, who retaliated by pitching a handful of M&M’s in their direction. Corey ducked out of the line of fire, capturing a few stray chocolates that landed his way, and popping them in his mouth.

He munched happily, laughing at the movie and his friends, until what appeared to be a sock sailed through his line of vision. Suddenly Jason leapt over Corey to get to Drew, causing the boy to be caught between two teens intent on making the other submit. Somehow managing to wriggle off the couch and onto the floor, Corey snagged what was left of the bowl of popcorn, and the mostly empty bag of M&M’s.

“The little bastard stole the snacks,” Jason grumbled a few minutes later, and Corey had just enough time to set the bowl on the table before both Sedors jumped him. They landed in a laughing, tickling, and noogie-inflicting pile. It took two tries before they finished watching the entire movie that night.

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Corey sighed heavily before turning off the television and heading to bed. It wasn’t the same watching campy horror without someone to appreciate it with you. Maybe he missed his friend more than he thought?

A huge thank you to my editor, Gary.  Even though I got this chapter to him really late, he went above and beyond so I could post today.    Thank you, my friend. 
Thank you to all of you who read and support this story.