Ottawa Tales - 27. Chapter 27

#Chapter Twenty-Seven

Home, the bombshell dropped and still hanging in the air between them. They were curled up together on the couch, the silence thick and heavy. Wil was absently playing with Jimmy’s red tie, twisting the silk between his fingers as music from the Much Music station hummed quietly in the background… yeah, remember when music channels actually played music? Before YouTube came along and smothered everything in ads and “Are you still listening?” demands?

Naturally, Wil had insisted they listen to Radiohead, in his opinion, the best band in history, and damnit, Jimmy was going to learn to appreciate it! The melancholy notes of "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" filled the room, a perfect soundtrack for the quiet tension.

He never did, not really his taste, but again, shh, Wil doesn’t need to know that. It was one of those small, harmless secrets you kept to keep the peace.

“Right,” Wil said as he got comfortable in Jimmy’s lap, and bopping Jimmy’s nose with the end of the tie. “One Andrew down, one to go…”

“Three to go,” Jimmy corrected.

Wil gave him an unimpressed look, his brow furrowing slightly. “Mister Boring doesn’t count as an Andrew, he barely counts as a person. And Romeo ranks somewhere lower than dirt in the grand order of things. So, thus, ONE Andrew. The quiet one, who you get a twinkle in your eye over… I know you by now… when you are trying to hide something important, you make less of a deal over it and hide it behind bigger details.”

“You want to know if this is the one you should feel jealous over?” Jimmy inquired, a gentle smile playing on his lips.

“I don’t get jealous,” Wil lied. The fact he was sitting the way he was, and fiddling with Jimmy’s tie told Jimmy that Wil was insecure. All things considered, Wil had nothing to fear, but Jimmy understood Wil by now. Behind all of his façade, Wil could be remarkably vulnerable at times. And the Edmonton bombshell had left him worried he’d really upset Jimmy.

“So to start with,” Jimmy leaned down and kissed Wil’s forehead, the touch warm and reassuring. “Andrew Four isn’t anything to worry about. We’ll call him Drew, no number, okay?”

Wil blinked up at him and half smiled, almost sadly. “I’m sorry, I’m feeling a bit off, I don’t mean to. Just… feeling it today.”

“You’d rather I stop, we can just talk about us if you want,” Jimmy offered, his voice soft with concern.

“There isn’t supposed to be an ‘us.’” Wil said, a puzzled look on his face. “When did ‘us’ happen? I can’t put my finger on it, it just… we just… were never just friends.”

“That means day one,” Jimmy nodded thoughtfully. “I don’t know how our meeting would have gone if I were sober…”

“Or if I weren’t looking for a fight,” Wil conceded. “Think we would have met anyway?”

“That’s a big what if?” Jimmy mused, his gaze distant for a moment. “Do you ever wish we hadn’t?”

“I don’t regret this,” Wil said firmly, his voice low and intense. “Don’t ever think that I do, because I don’t. My life, my world is better having you in it. Even if you do turn it upside down and shake it like a fucking snowglobe. Tell me about this Drew, then. Why do I have nothing to worry about?”

“Oh, nothing to worry about there, he was… unusual.”

~~*~~

Drew.

Drew was a country boy, soft in places, quiet, and a little uncertain in the big city. He was about six feet tall, close-cropped platinum blonde hair… natural if you’d believe it, the guy’s hair was almost white, and his eyes were soft and warm and inviting.

He was always there in the background and you were never certain he had been unless you were specifically looking. His girlfriend who we will nickname Pixie because that is the only name, I can associate with her. She was, in every definition of the word, utterly bonkers. A living, breathing whirlwind of chaotic energy.

Now what about Jimmy’s NO GIRLFRIEND RULE, you ask? Well this whole situation didn’t really work like that, not in the traditional sense. OK, so I am going to need room to explain this one. It isn’t complicated, but it is a bit … non-conformist.

So Jimmy had finished a gaming session at his house, and it had finished earlier. So Drew lived just down the road from Jimmy’s house and they were walking home. So all the other gamers had gone, leaving Drew, Pixie, and Jimmy behind in the house packing up. A quiet, late-afternoon lull had settled over the place. Jimmy was about to head downstairs into his basement office to get some writing done. (Falcon Banner at that time).

So Jimmy was saying good bye, and was sitting on the stairs in the hallway watching Pixie put on her boots and Drew getting his coat. There were the usual jokes about the other two Andrews, Andy and Romeo who were mid-stunt at this point. Remember all of these Andrews happened at the same time, so please don’t be too confused by the messy timelines.

So something was said, probably about Romeo who was his usual scum-bay self and trying to pretend he wasn’t trying to get Jimmy into bed, in that way of his that left no one in that group with any doubts that was what he was trying to do.

~~*~~

“Told you,” Wil screwed up his nose. “Romeo’s a dick, screw Romeo.”

“You want me to spoil the Romeo story?” Jimmy suggested. “Or can I finish the Drew story?”

“Just saying, Romeo’s a prick.” Wil grumbled, making his feelings known, yet again, about how much he detested Andrew 2.

“So Drew,” Jimmy pressed on, a story building in his eyes.

~~*~~

“Romeo’s gross,” Pixie was saying, her voice a sharp, cutting contrast to the easy-going atmosphere. “I don’t like guys who whore themselves out for a little attention. You’re better than that.”

Jimmy nodded lounging on the stairs up, “He’s just after something…”

“Yeah time with the top dog,” Pixie remarked, a sly glint in her eye. “Make himself look big because he’s hooked the best guy, you know… caveman shit. Gotta be Alpha Bitch by banging the Alpha monkey man!”

Jimmy blinked at her, a little taken aback. “Err… thank you?” he said, uncertain of that.

~~*~~

Wil burst out laughing, a genuine, joyful sound. “King of the Nerds!!!! You’re the fucking King of the Nerds!”

Jimmy took his tie from Wil, and playfully bopped his nose with it. “That makes you Alpha Bitch you know!”

Wil fell silent, his face turning a varying shade of pinkish red. His mouth dropped open. “You… bastard, you tricked me!”

Jimmy smirked. “You tricked yourself, again.”

Wil glowered, petulantly at his self-own. The moment of vulnerability passing, replaced by a stubborn pout.

~~*~~

So Pixie is looking at Jimmy and gets this look on her face, a predatory glint that makes the hair on the back of his neck stand up. “Betcha I can get you to not think about Romeo!”

Jimmy frowned. “How the hell are you going to pull off anything even remotely that skilled?” he asked skeptically.

She leans to her boyfriend and begins to whisper in his ear. And I swear, little country boy goes red as a tomato…

She leaned back and snapped her fingers, the sound sharp and commanding. “NOW!”

Jimmy wasn’t sure what was happening… even less so when Drew proceeded to take off his shirt. The silence in the hallway was suddenly thick with awkwardness.

~~*~~

Wil choked. “W-what?”

Jimmy nodded, “right there in front of me, she snapped her fingers and he obeyed. Total obedience like a puppy.”

Wil stared at Jimmy a moment, his eyes wide. “Over there…” he pointed to the hallway. “Right there in broad daylight?”

Jimmy nodded, “And she wasn’t done.”

~~*~~

Drew was red as a tomato, standing there shirtless, looking at her like he wanted desperately to go home. Jimmy sitting on the stairs in a bit of shock at what was happening, not quite believing it.

“Starting to think Romeo who yet?” She asked, her hands on her hips, the pose of a tiny tyrant. “He’s pretty isn’t he?” She snapped her fingers again demandingly.

Poor Drew’s eyes went wide as he frantically looked at her pleadingly. A simple incline of her head, and Drew’s face fell, as he reluctantly got out of his trousers and stood there in his plaid boxers, hands covering himself, head hanging in abject shame as he shifted from foot to foot.

Jimmy swallowed, what the actual…

He blinked at her and said, “I don’t think…” Remember Jimmy was pretty big on consent, and this felt all kinds of wrong to him. He simply didn’t know what to do, try to stop this? Was it his place to say something, object?

She just gave a smirk, “Yeah, he likes being on show. Don’t you Drew!” She commanded firmly.

Drew nodded his head, though his body language said the absolute opposite. And Jimmy stood up at this point. “Well thank you for the show, but I need to… work on something… and you two should probably go.”

“Turn around, Drew!” She said sharply. Making sure he complied, giving Jimmy a full view of the backside of her boyfriend. The poor kid must have been mortified, I mean Jimmy sure was. And yet there she was getting off on parading her boyfriend like a fucking show pony.

“Time to leave now,” Jimmy insisted. Having enough of this weirdness for one day and desperate for poor Drew to put his clothes back on. It was not how Jimmy liked things; it wasn’t right or fair in his opinion, and he drew a line under it. Turning his back on the poor boy’s shame.

~~*~~

“You kicked them out?” Wil murmured, his voice laced with shock. “I mean, I get kinks and all, but that’s a bit much isn’t it? She was getting off on dominating that poor kid, and humiliating you in the process as well… fuck. No wonder you have a no-girlfriend rule.”

Jimmy shrugged, “I don’t shame other people, that’s their business, but it isn’t for me. And I chose not to be a part of it. I mean, where the hell was it going? Her sitting at the end of my bed with a clipboard ordering the poor boy to service me? No I am not okay with that crap. HOWEVER… this was not the end of it.”

Wil looked at Jimmy. “Shit man, what next?”

“She sent him with instructions, back to my house.” Jimmy said shaking his head, the memory still rankling him.

~~*~~

There, on the doorstep, was a red-faced Drew, looking for all the world like he didn’t want to be there. The evening air was cool, but he was half undressed.

Jimmy, dressed for bed in his pajamas had opened the door, worked out it was Drew and hauled him inside where the neighbours couldn’t see. The poor kid was half undressed, wearing those same boxers, and utterly miserable. He was shivering, not from cold, but from humiliation.

Jimmy had taken him inside, and upstairs to wrap a blanket around him. Virtually vibrating with anger that someone would force another person to do that. I mean, there’s kinky, and then there is borderline abuse.

“What the hell?” Jimmy had demanded after he’d wrapped the underpants clad youth up in a blanket and given him back some kind of modesty. “What the hell are you doing walking down the street like that? All the fucking neighbours are going to start talking now…”

Drew just stared miserably at the floor. “She told me to.”

“You can’t say no?” Jimmy was incredulous. He was pacing too and fro in front of the boy and shaking his head. “What the hell is she trying to do? I can’t… won’t just… this isn’t the way… I won’t… ughh!” He was angry over it.

“I’m a present,” Drew murmured almost as if he were shell shocked.

“You’re a fucking human being!” Jimmy railed. “What the hell, Drew, why would you go along with this?”

“I’m not allowed to go home until tomorrow,” Drew said, his voice cracking. “She’s locked me out.”

“Fuck sakes,” Jimmy swore, as he knelt down and tried to look into the miserable boy’s eyes. He was all of about 19, shy as anything, the sweetest kid… and she ate him alive. Jimmy was approaching his own boiling point, and his anger was bubbling over into rage.

“You can just say no!” Jimmy insisted. “You can’t let other people force you to do things because they threaten you… with what exactly? I am sorry, what the hell does this <Insert colourful language I cannot repeat here in polite company > have over you?”

The poor kid sniffled and broke down at that point. And poor Jimmy, having the empathy of a sack of whole wheat flower left out in the rain, had no idea what to do.

So he sat and held the crying kid in his arms all night as he lay there wondering how in the name of all things unholy, he’d ended up in this situation.

~~*~~

Wil nudged him, a playful, knowing gesture. “you’re a big sap, and you know it.”

Jimmy grumbled, “Crying boys… why is it always fucking crying boys on my god damn doorstep! Why can’t it be f-ing Chad Allen in a tuxedo dangling the keys to a free Ferrari? I mean, I’d be all over that like a fat kid on a smarties!”

Wil snorted a laugh, “You wouldn’t know what to do with a Ferrari or Chad Allen in a Tuxedo… you are painfully vanilla! So did you sleep with our little Dominatrix owned sub-Slave boy?”

Jimmy nodded, “after he broke free of her clutches… but that’s the next half of the story. First I need a coffee, and for you to stand over there in your boxer shorts!”

Wil glanced at the spot in the hall and back at Jimmy. A mischievous grin spread across his face. “I see, you want me all submissive this morning?”

“The day you are EVER submissive…” Jimmy shook his head. “I just can’t see you ever being that much of a sub. You’re too much of a power bottom…”

Wil shot Jimmy a look, a playful spark in his eye. “What the hell is a power bottom? Is this gay code? Am I being insulted here? If I am, you’re going to be wearing that coffee, and trying to fish that coffee mug you love so much out of your backside!”

Jimmy grinned, “yes dear!”

Wil considered Jimmy a long moment, a moment of pure contentment. “Well? Make the damn coffee while I get undressed… man, you’re slow today!”

Jimmy scrambled up and darted for the kitchen, a wide, goofy smile on his face. “YES DEAR!”