The Tribuo - 22. Part III, chapter 4

- IV -

COLE

I have no goddamn idea why it happened. No clue. I just remember going crazy when I ended up on top of Eric, his body under my weight, his eyes closing as if he was expecting me to hit him. Which I can see why. I was going to hit him, but then I ended up kissing him instead. Ugh, this whole thing wasn’t just weird -- it was something beyond that.

Then later, when I was lying on top of him, I couldn’t sleep at all. I watched him sleep, and when he rolled over without letting go of my hand, I had an insane desire to run my mouth over the tattoo on his right shoulder. I didn’t. I watched him sleep and listened to his breathing until seven in the morning. Then I slid out of bed, got dressed as quietly as I possibly could, and left.

I wasn’t confused. It was so much more than that. See, when you are confused, you at least have a slight idea of what’s going on. I had no clue. My mind was all but boiling. I drove to the coffee shop, drank seven or eight cups of coffee, and by nine in the morning, I couldn’t come up with a better idea than to drive to Andy’s place.

I rang his doorbell for probably ten minutes straight, and when he finally opened the door, he looked like someone who just crawled out of a very deep hole in the ground. He blinked when he saw me, and took a step back, waving his hand at me in a 'Get in already' gesture. Then he pointed to the kitchen and shuffled to the bathroom. I could understand his language of gestures perfectly by now. I knew that Andy was pretty much incapable of speaking until he had his coffee in the morning.

So I started working his coffeemaker, since it kept me busy. Andy came into the kitchen ten later, and just dropped on the chair. He sat there, squinting his eyes at me, and hadn’t said a single word until I put a mug full of coffee in front of him.

“What?” he said finally.

“What the hell happened last night?” I asked.

“Oh, that…” He looked somewhat guilty. “Look, man, I am sorry, okay?”

I frowned. He is sorry? For what? He looked up at me and frowned as well.

“You talking about Mary, right?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said slowly. “Why are you sorry though?”

“I should’ve watched her better,” he sighed. “I mean, I know that she is a lightweight, and she can’t drink, and…”

“Hold on…” It seemed like confusion was going to be my permanent state of mind for a while. “She got drunk?”

Andy finished his coffee and reached for his cigarettes.

“Okay,” he said after lighting one. “Tell me what you want to know, because right now I am confused.”

He is confused, right…

“Okay,” I nodded. “She called me last night, and I picked her up from your front porch…”

“Huh,” he said thoughtfully. “She never said anything about leaving… I figured she just went to sleep…”

“Well,” I continued after pulling one cigarette out for myself. “She looked like hell, and she had a horrendous bruise on her face… She wailed like a banshee, by the way…”

“Huh,” Andy said again.

“So after she could finally talk, she said that you guys went to the Lizard…”

“Right,” Andy nodded carefully.

“And that Eric showed up there…”

“Uh huh…”

“Oh, hey Cole!” I heard someone’s very cheerful voice.

I looked up.

“Hey, Angie.”

She wrapped her arms around Andy’s neck and planted a very long kiss on his mouth.

“Anyway…” I said finally, when she let him go and moved towards the coffeemaker. “Then she said that she couldn’t find you anywhere…”

“Right,” Andy muttered.

“And that Eric started to come on to her…”

Here I was interrupted by Angie’s loud laughter. I looked at her with puzzlement.

“What’s funny?”

She drank some coffee out of her pink mug.

“Well,” she said. “I think she got it wrong…”

Andy coughed.

“Cole,” he said. “Go easy on her, okay? I guess it’s my fault for letting her drink so damn much and…”

“Hold on! Both of you!” Oh, boy, my head was hurting now. “So Eric was there, right?”

“Yeah,” Andy said. “I called him after I realized that there was no way in hell I would be driving…”

“Yeah, and we didn’t have any money for a cab,” Angie laughed again.

“Uh huh,” I nodded. “And he was what… Flirting with her or something?”

“Umm,” now Andy was uncomfortable. “Not quite… Umm… She was kinda too drunk, so he was… He was trying to help her get onto the bar stool and…”

Angie snorted.

“And then she was trying to pull his pants off, and he moved her away,” she finished, and Andy shot her a warning look. She just shrugged. “Well, that’s what happened. Then she lost her balance and fell face first on that stool…”

“Ugh…” Andy sighed. “Look, man… I am sorry, okay?”

“Yeah,” I muttered. “Don’t worry about it… Wasn't your fault -- shit happens…”

Angie finished her coffee and put her mug into the dishwasher.

“I am going to take a shower,” she said and walked away.

Andy looked at me very intently.

“What the hell happened to you?” he asked finally.

“Oh, that…” I absent-mindedly touched my face. “Got into a fight.”

“Yeah,” he said softly. “I see that, I am not blind. That’s not what I meant. What happened to you? Besides the fight?”

I blinked at that. Right, I totally forgot that Andy was the perceptive one in our group. I sighed.

“Andy… I kinda… Well…”

“You had a one night stand, huh?” now he was grinning.

“You could say that,” I agreed carefully. No way in hell, am I telling who it was with. Not even to Andy.

“So what…” He got up and poured more coffee into his mug. “Now you are all tortured by it?”

“You could say that,” I said again.

“Pfft!” he said. “Big deal, you slept with someone… Is it someone you know?”

I closed my eyes.

“Andy… I don’t want to talk about it right now, okay?”

“That good, huh,” he said thoughtfully, and I opened my eyes. He looked at me and shrugged. “If you are thinking whether or not to tell Mary about it…”

“No,” I sighed. “I am not going to. It doesn’t matter anyway.”

“If you say so,” he shrugged again. “Hey, I’m gonna go take a shower now…”

“Angie is taking one,” I said automatically and he grinned.

“I know,” was all he said before walking away.

I sat in his kitchen for the next hour or so, and I had no clue about what to do next.

***** 

After I left Andy’s place, I went home, took a shower, and ate something. Finally, around 1:30, I couldn’t take it anymore, and decided to go back to Eric and just talk this whole thing out. I drove there and thought about what I was going to say. It’s going to be something like, “Listen, whatever happened last night was just a onetime thing, okay? It’s not going to happen again, I am sorry for behaving the way I did…” Yeah, something like that.

I parked on the side of the road, walked to Eric’s apartment building, and there he was, smoking on the front porch, his face solemn as ever. Dammit, why all of a sudden all I want to do is… Crap, never mind. Let’s just get this over with.

“Hey,” I said when I came up the steps.

“Hey,” he said calmly.

“Ummm…” I said, and this time he was silent. Okay, let’s try this again, shall we?

“Listen,” I said. “Ummm… Sorry about leaving this morning…” Okay, that was not what I was going to say.

“No big,” he shrugged indifferently. “No need to explain. What’s up?”

Okay, now I am going to tell him what I was planning on telling him. I looked into his eyes.

“Eric,” I took a deep breath. “Listen… I… I think I left my belt here last night,” I finished and closed my eyes. Belt?! What the hell is wrong with me…

“Oh yeah?” he asked with weak interest.

I opened my eyes and looked at him. He was looking at my belt. That was in my pants. That I was wearing.

“Errr…” I said. “It’s a different one…”

“Ah,” he nodded. “Okay. Let me go look.”

He stabbed his cigarette in the ashtray and went inside. I followed him as if I was tied to him or something. We went into his room and he started looking around.

“Huh,” he said after a couple of minutes. “Are you sure that…”

That was when I realized that not only did I have zero willpower and self-control, but also that this was so much more than just a one night stand, and that I was screwed now in so many ways. I took a step towards him, and before he said anything else, we were kissing like there was no tomorrow.