The Tribuo - 21. Part III, chapter 3

- III -

As I thought, I slept until noon the next day. It felt great. I guess I would’ve slept even longer, but my beloved brother barged in as usual, and started shaking me awake.

“Go away,” I muttered and tried burying my head under the pillow.

“I am leaving,” he announced.

I peeled one of my eyes open.

“Forever?” I put as much hope in my voice as I possibly could.

“I’ll be back tomorrow night,” he acted as if he didn’t even hear me. “So please, try not to turn this place into something out of a porn magazine.”

“Wouldn’t know anything about those,” I sat up and ran my fingers through my hair. “You are the only one who reads them. Where are you going, by the way?”

“Mom called,” he sighed. “Dad is in the hospital. He broke his hip.”

“Ugh,” I grimaced. “Let me guess… He managed to fall off the roof again.”

“Yup,” Scott nodded melancholically.

“God,” I sighed. “He was getting all that Halloween crap up, wasn’t he?”

“Yup.”

I shook my head.

“It’s three weeks until the damn holiday… Plus, I could never understand why the hell did we always have to have Casper on our roof? That was just embarrassing…”

“Believe it or not,” Scott grinned. “But I am with you on this one. Anyway, according to mom, he is writhing in pain…”

“Whatever,” I snorted. “He probably has enough painkillers to last him until the end of days… Score some by the way, will you?”

He sighed.

“I guess I am obligated to ask if you want to come with me…”

“Nope,” I answered immediately. “It’s not like he is on his deathbed. By the way, if he is, call me. I’ll mail him a card or something.”

“You are something,” he grumbled, and I just shrugged.

He left, and I thought that I was just going to enjoy a couple of days of peace and quiet. Boy, was I wrong...

*****

That day was great and very uneventful until 9:30 in the evening or so. I took a shower, several naps, life was pretty great, and then, around 9:30, the phone rang. I figured it was Scott, making sure that his apartment was still doing okay. To my enormous surprise, it was Andy.

“Hey,” he said. “Is Scott home?”

“Nope,” I said. “He left to see our parents. Dad broke his hip.”

“Oh, man… That sucks!” he said with great feeling, and I realized that he was pretty drunk.

“What’s up?”

“Okay… Dude, can you do me a huge favor?” he was speaking carefully, trying not to slur the words too much.

“What do you need?” I asked, hoping that it wasn't going to involve anything with me picking him up somewhere.

“Can you pick me up?” he asked, and I just sighed. “Well, actually it’s me, Angie, and Mary…”

“Mary?” I frowned. “Who the hell is Mary?”

“Cole’s fiancée,” he sighed. “Three of us went out tonight and… Well, we are pretty wasted by now… And she doesn’t wanna call Cole 'cause… You know…”

“I don’t care,” I sighed. “Where are you?”

“At the Lizard,” he hiccupped.

“Jesus,” I sighed. “Andy, it’s not even ten in the evening yet!”

“I know,” he agreed. “We started kinda early though… At four, I think?”

“Fine,” I rolled my eyes. “I am not even going to ask why you didn’t think of calling a cab…”

“Well…”

“Just come out in thirty minutes or so,” I interrupted him. “I’ll be there.”

“Awesome,” he sounded very sincere. “Thanks, man!”

“Uh huh,” I said and hung up.

…I got to the club sooner than I expected, because to my surprise, the traffic was almost nonexistent. I parked in a handicapped spot and got out of the car. One of the security guards immediately marched up to me.

“Hey,” he said and I recognized him.

“Hey,” I smiled, and he relaxed a bit.

“Oh, it’s you,” he grumbled. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

His name was Brad, and I used to do a whole bunch of free computer upgrades for him. Nice guy, really.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “Look, I know it’s a handicapped spot and all, but I swear, I’ll be out of here in fifteen minutes tops. Need to pick someone up.”

“Fine,” he said with a small nod. “But if you won’t get that piece of junk out of here in an hour…”

“Believe me,” I interrupted him. “I will.”

He nodded again, and I walked inside the club.

The music was loud as usual, cigarette smoke was something that you could almost touch, and everyone in sight seemed to have really good time. I looked around, hoping to spot Andy. Suddenly, someone hung on my neck.

“Eric…”

I blinked and turned around. At first, I thought it was Angie, but then I realized that it was Mary, and dear God, she was wasted.

“Mary,” I said and carefully peeled her off myself. “Where is Andy?”

“Around,” she giggled. “Let’s dance…” and she was hanging on me again.

I am not a hypocrite or anything, but I was never into drunken girls. Right now Mary was nowhere near the sophisticated, upper-class gal that I’ve met the night before. Her face was pink, eyes glassy, and worst of all – apparently, she was horny as hell. Great.

“Mary,” I said patiently. “I need to find Andy, okay? Can you be a good girl and…”

“No,” she breathed. “I don’t wanna be a good girl… I wanna be bad… Really, really bad…”

I wondered just how much did she have to drink exactly.

“Did you know that you are really cute?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I know that. Now, let’s get you on that nice stool over there…”

I dragged her to the empty stool by the bar and tried to get her onto it. The minute I grabbed her waist, she decided to pull off my shirt.

“Mary,” I started to lose my patience. “Knock it off, will you?”

Instead of doing that, she just giggled again and tried pressing herself even harder against me. Goddammit, where the hell is Andy?!

“Come on,” she muttered. “I won’t tell anyone if you won’t… I just…”

And then several things happened at once. Andy showed up out of nowhere and tapped me on the shoulder; Angie was right next to him, and apparently, she was beyond happy to see me again, so she decided to give me a big, sloppy kiss; Mary finally pulled my shirt out of my pants, and was now trying to undo my belt buckle. For a drunk, she was surprisingly swift and coordinated.

So I turned around to Andy, tried to wave Angie away, and pulled Mary off my belt with my free hand. Well, since she had troubles standing upright, she immediately lost her balance, and yup, you guessed it -- she fell down on her butt. That wasn’t a problem though. The problem was that on her way down, she managed to smack her face on the bar stool pretty hard.

“Oh, shit!” Andy cried and lunged at her.

“Hey,” Angie seemed totally oblivious to everything that just happened. “So how are you?”

…Me and immediately sobered up Andy dragged Mary outside; Angie followed us on her own. I knew that she could hold her liquor pretty well. Hell, she was walking in a very nice straight line; she didn’t even sway her hips more than usual. Mary, on the other hand, was a mess.

Brad, the security guard, just winced when he saw her.

“Bar fight?” he asked.

“Bar stool,” I sighed and he hemmed.

We shoved Mary in the back seat, and she just sat there, clutching onto her face. Oh, man… She was going to have a hell of a bruise tomorrow. I wondered what she was going to tell Cole about it. Finally, I shrugged it off. Not my problem.

“Hey,” Andy slid into the seat next to me. “If you could just drop us all off at my place -- that would be awesome…”

He glanced back at Mary, who was eerily quiet now.

“Shit,” he muttered. “Cole is going to kill me…”

“Did you force her to drink or something?” I asked and turned on the car.

“No,” he sighed. “But I should’ve known better, and I should’ve kept an eye on her. She can’t drink, really. Lightweight.”

I started driving and looked at him briefly. Yeah, he looked pretty miserable right now.

“Why didn’t you take Cole with you?”

Andy sighed.

“He…” he hesitated for a second. “He’s been weird,” he finished finally.

“Weird,” I repeated.

“Yeah,” Andy sighed. “He’s been brooding all morning… They almost got into a fight. She called me, and I thought it would be a good idea for her to just hang out with Angie and me… And then we started drinking, and… Oy,” he sighed again. “Cole is going to kill me,” he finished.

I glanced at him again.

“Something tells me you’ll survive,” I said, and he sighed again.

…I pulled to the curb in front of his house and threw the gear in 'park.'

“Okay,” I said. “Go put some ice on her face.”

Andy looked at Mary and winced.

“Jesus,” he muttered. “I don’t think it’ll do much… But I will,” he nodded. “Hey, thanks for coming, Eric.”

“No problem,” I said lightly.

“Night, Eric,” Angie purred before getting out.

Mary hadn’t said a single word.

*****

When I got back to my apartment, it was after eleven, and I decided to head to bed. I kicked off my shoes and pulled off my shirt. I was checking my e-mail, when someone rang the doorbell. I looked at the clock. Huh, 11:50. Okay, if this is Andy trying to give me a special thank you, I’ll be mad…

I didn’t even bother asking 'Who’s there?' I had a pretty good idea. So, when I opened the door, I was dumbfounded.

“Huh,” was all I said, and then he hit me so hard, that I almost flew backwards.

Somehow, I managed to maintain my balance, and shook my head, trying to get rid of that annoying ringing in my ears. What the hell?

“I am going to kill you,” he said quietly and kicked the door closed.

Okay, the first hit got me by surprise, but the second one -- I saw it coming. So I ducked and his fist promptly hit the wall behind me. I guess it hurt, because he hissed in pain and swore with great imagination. I might not look like it, but I know how to take care of myself; so when he swung his arm again, I moved quickly and precisely. I managed to catch his wrist, twist it behind his back, and then I kicked his feet, throwing him on the floor. I was pretty pissed by now.

“What… The… Fuck…” I breathed, holding him down.

He growled.

“I am going to kill you, son of a bitch!!”

“Cole, what the hell?! Why?!”

“She told me!” he hissed and tried to throw me off. To no avail though. I pinned him down.

“Who told you what?!” I barked. Man, my head hurt. He could hit hard…

“Mary!!” he spat. “She told me! You, fuckhead…”

“What…” now I was plain confused. “Cole, I don’t know what you talking about…”

“You came on to her,” he hissed. “And after she said no, you hit her!”

I was so startled that he almost managed to hit me again.

“Did you talk to Andy?” I asked finally, after pinning him down yet again.

“Why would I need to talk to Andy?!” he demanded. “She called me, she was crying… She was waiting for me outside… And she told me!”

“You…” God, he was stronger than he looked. “You might… want to talk to… Andy!” I panted. “Look… I swear to you, I did nothing to her! I went there because… Dammit, hold still! I went there because Andy called me… They needed a ride…”

“You, lying son of a bitch…” he hissed.

“I am not… Not lying…” I grunted.

And then he almost pulled one arm free, and I was getting ready to punch him, when to my horror and astonishment, I realized that the whole thing was turning me on, and that wasn’t even the worst part. I also realized that I wasn’t the only one who was getting turned on. See, when you are sitting on another man’s hips, it is really easy to tell whether his body is responding to closeness of yours or not. Well, Cole’s body was definitely responding. Big time.

So I just froze and stared at him, my mouth open. That was when he headbutted me in the face so hard, that I saw stars. I was lying on the floor, gasping for air, thinking that I was very lucky if my nose didn’t break. Now it was his turn to pin me down. I could still see stars, so I couldn’t even move normally. Cole pinned both of my wrists to the floor above my head, and all I saw in his eyes was murder. I thought that the first thing on Monday morning for me to do, would be to make an appointment with the dentist. I was pretty sure that I was about to lose several teeth tonight.

“I am going to kill you,” he said very quietly.

I knew that he was going to hit me, so I closed my eyes. Well, he didn’t hit me. Instead of his fist, I felt his mouth on my lips. This was when my brain started screaming bloody murder. It was screaming at me to push him away, to say something, to get the hell away from him. It was also yelling that this was by far the dumbest thing I could ever do. That I was the most moronic idiot in the history of the planet… Stuff like that, you get the drift. Well, my body completely ignored everything that my brain was trying to say, and before I realized what the hell I was doing, I was kissing him back.

He was still holding both of my wrists down, except now he wasn’t squeezing them as hard. I have no idea how long we stayed down on the floor, but finally, Cole got up and pulled me along with him. I couldn’t even speak by that point, I just stared at him. We were the same height, so his eyes were right in front of mine.

And then we just started walking at the same time, and somehow ended up in my room, and Cole kicked the door closed. When he pushed me down on the bed, my brain made the last attempt at sanity.

“Okay,” it said tiredly. “Eric, this is a very good time to stop this lunacy right now… Before it gets too far… Tell him to knock it off, push him away, and whatever you do, don’t let him…”

I lifted my hips to help him pull off my jeans, and then my brain simply shut up. I watched him getting undressed, and I literally couldn’t speak. And then, when I could feel the entire length of his body on mine, I almost started to hyperventilate. Jesus, the feeling of his mouth on my collarbone sent electricity down my spine. I had never felt like this before.

He didn’t speak either. He just kept sliding his face down my chest, and when his mouth got all the way to my hips, I just grabbed the sheets until I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore.

He was inexperienced -- well, duh! -- and he nipped me a couple of times, but I couldn't care less. After ten minutes or so, his tongue started to move in some strange swirling motion that immediately drove my body crazy. Then after a while, he suddenly started doing the same thing, but in the opposite direction, and I realized that I was not going to last much longer. I was always somewhat proud of my self-control, but right now, it seemed like I had none whatsoever. I tried to remember how to speak.

“Jesus…” I muttered very weakly. “Stop… Oh, God… Cole, stop… Please… Cole, I’m gonna… Oh, Jesus…”

Instead of stopping or at least slowing down, that son of a bitch started to move faster, and of course, my hips just followed his rhythm. Suddenly, I forgot how to speak again, and nothing legible would come out of my mouth. Then another electric current shot down my spine, and all I could come up with was, “Oh, God, don’t stop… Don’t stop now… Oh, Jesus…”

He didn’t. Then, right before I almost blacked out, he replaced his mouth with his fingers, and swiftly moved his face back to mine. I kissed him like it was the last thing I would do in my entire life. Then he moaned and his back went rigid, and then I didn’t just come, I exploded. Seriously, for a few minutes I couldn’t remember my name. Him, convulsing on top of me, didn’t help.

After a little while, we just lay there silently, his face buried in my hair, my arms around him. I guess that if I could think, I’d be wondering what the hell just happened, and what the hell I was going to do now. But I couldn’t think, so that took care of that. Finally, I could breathe more evenly, and muttered, “Why didn’t you stop? I told you I was gonna come…”

“I wanted you to,” he said into my hair.

“You, shit…” was all I said, and he laughed quietly.

Then we stopped talking, and the last thought on my mind before I drifted off to sleep was, “He will probably hate me in the morning…” But then I passed out and nothing else mattered.

*****

I woke up at 9:30 in the morning, and even before I opened my eyes, I knew that he was gone. I opened my eyes and turned my head. Even though I knew he wasn’t there, seeing emptiness next to me, made me squeeze my eyes shut and swear in a loud, harsh whisper.