The Modern Love Waltz - 6. Chapter 6

6: Angels' Confrontation

"I don't want to give into this!" Beau said to me. In a matter of hours I had become his complete confidant. Being new to this whole experience as well, I found it hard to provide any substantial advice. Instead I felt that listening to him vent was the best medicine.

This venting was interrupted by the sound of a car door slam. I must admit, my first reaction was to pretend that I wasn't home. I didn't want to see anybody. And I figured that Beau's would be a similar reaction. I figured he wouldn't want anyone to see him at the "fag's" house.

Quite the contrary. Like a guard dog, Beau immediately inspected who it was and instantly his disapproval was noticeable. I almost thought I could hear him growl.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"It's Zach," Beau sneered. "What could he want?"

I thought about defending Zach, but before I could I began to think about he essentially left me last night. He may not have actually done anything, but his neutrality was criminal. And thus my anger began to boil inside of me.

"I'll be right back, stay in here," I said as I stood and walked out the front door.

The day had turned to a foggy overcast. Zach had bags under his eyes, and his features were sunken. Even after everything that had happened I still felt my heart flutter when I saw him. I wondered if that would ever go away. Somehow I fell in love with Zach during a thirty second kiss.

"What do you want?" I was surprised at my ability to hide the affection for him.

Zach's already sad face drooped more. He was in bad shape. "What happened?"

"You want to know what happened? You want to know what fucking happened?!" I began, anger boiling again. I lifted my shirt and carefully removed one of the bandages over the stab wound. "This is what fucking happened!"

Zach stared horrified at the wound. "Oh my God! What..." He was speechless.

"Wes, Billy, and Chris," I replied assuming the rest of his question.

"I... I..." Zach's eyes began to water.

"Come inside," I whispered. "I don't want any neighbors getting suspicious. You wouldn't want anyone here to think that YOU were a fag." I didn't think it was possible, but Zach's features sunk even more on his face. I was afraid at any moment his face would just slip off.

When we stepped inside, Zach halted when he saw Beau. "What's he doing here?"

It was at this moment that I realized I already had two guys jealous over me. Things were happening faster than I thought possible. I noticed that Zach and Beau looked as though at any moment they might just attack each other. I had to figure something out in order to not incriminate Beau's homosexuality, "he was just leaving. He picked me up after I got these." I placed my hand on the bandaged wound I had shown Zach.

Beau looked at me his eyes transitioning from angry to sad. "Thank you for your help. I need some privacy with Zach."

Without a word Beau stormed out and drove off.

I watched Beau drive off before turning to confront Zach. His features had returned to the sunken depressed state from before. "I... I thought I heard Billy say something. I didn't believe it," Zach sniffed his face buried in his hand. "I'm so sorry!"

Anger boiled even more. "You should be!" My exclamation came with a price. I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen. I almost buckled. Instead I steadied myself on the living room television.

"Are you okay?" Zach asked, worried.

"Don't fucking worry about me," I muttered.

Zach ignored my statement and hurried to my side. Placing his hand carefully on my hips he led me to the couch. Carefully sitting me down he asked, "Can I get you anything?"

"No," I cringed as my cold manner kept bashing Zach. My voice softened as I continued, "Zach?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry. I'm just in a lot of pain. I don't blame you."

Zach stared into my eyes, the silence deafening. He leaned forward and this time much more passion was present in the kiss and it lasted longer than thirty seconds.

This was getting to be too much. It was like constantly juggling between hot and cold. One moment I'm kissing Zach, the next Beau, and then Zach again. Oddly enough I couldn't decide who I'd rather be with.

Our kiss broke and I looked into his eyes. "Zack," I pause to think before I continued. "You're making a mistake." Zack's shocked looked matched my own feelings. I guess I hadn't thought that I would say that, but deep down, that's what I felt.

"What?" Zack's voice quivered.

"You had a perfectly fine life before this. You have a great job, a wonderful town of loving locals, and even your own house. Doing this with me will just fuck it all up."

Zack's expression of shock shifted to anger. Backing away he said, "don't make excuses for yourself. Don't legitimize the fact that you have a fucking hardon for Beau!"

"Oh my God! That's what you think this is about? You honestly can't believe that I am truly worried about your well-being?" This was already turning into a shouting match.

"Truthfully? No, I don't! And I don't think I'm out of line to be pissed that you would fucking trick me just to get some kicks while you're visiting good ole' Heathsville!"

"VISITING!? You have got to be FUCKING kidding me! Yeah you know, I'd love to just drive on down to this good-for-nothing town and bury my grandmother, and then stick around for some ‘kicks'!"

"Don't you dare use her death to defend your ulterior motives!"

"Ulterior motives? Listen to you! Quite a vocabulary for you!" I realized that I was now just plain ruthless.

Zach's pained expression from out in front of the house returned. "You can be as heartless as you want to be. But I trusted you. I told you something I had NEVER told anyone before!"

"Told me?!" My poor choices continued to flow. "You hardly TOLD me anything. You simply acted on some repressed urge. Hardly a feat worthy of defining your sexuality. I don't know what's going on in that fucking head of yours, but you'd better get yourself straighten out!"

"Straighten out? You're the fag!"

"What does that make you? The guy who kissed the fag... TWICE!"

"I can't believe I trusted you like this! I can't believe, that after all this time of knowing you, I thought I truly knew you. Apparently I was real fucking wrong!"

"Well whose mistake is that?"

Zach's frustration peaked. Without another word from either of us, he turned and left the room. I sat there, stunned in silence, listening to his truck start up and drive away.

I needed to escape. Instantly I thought of my grandfather. I picked up the phone in the rental house and called his home. He seemed happy to hear from me. We decided that I would join him for an early dinner.

*~*~*

Once I arrived, he was already hard at work reheating the multitudes of homemade dinner items that the residents of Heathsville had prepared for him. Every night someone brought him enough food for eight people.

"Sam," he said as I walked in through the side, kitchen door. His voice was gruff but soothing. It seemed calm and rested with that twinge of sadness that had appeared after my grandmother's death.

"Hey pops," I sighed. A knock at the door shocked us both. We both laughed at our jumpiness.

"I'll get it," Pops responded as he placed his spatula down and walked out of the kitchen.

I finished preparing the food that had been heated and grabbed utensils and napkins.

From the dining room I heard Pops say, "would you join me for dinner?"

"Sure. Why not?" The familiar voice responded.

I walked out with the dinner. As I set the food down in the dining room. I looked up and saw a look of sheer horror. He stood there now trembling holding a rectangular dish of casserole. Chris swallowed nervously.

"Chris, you know my grandson Sam, right?" Pops asked not noticing the awkward exchange.

"Yeah," I interrupted. "We know each other very well."

"H-h-hey Sam," Chris said.

I smirked. I couldn't help but relish in his terror. The tables had already turned, and in such a deliciously awkward fashion.

"Chris, why don't you stick the casserole in the kitchen," Pops said. Once Chris had disappeared into the kitchen, Pops turned to me, "don't mention Chris's stutter. He's always seemed to be ashamed by it. He somehow never has it around those other two friends of his, though."

"Wes and Billy? Yeah," I replied.

Chris reappeared, still definitely nervous. The dinner was awkward though Pops didn't seem to notice. As we finished up our food Chris seemed happy that he would soon be escaping this terrible situation. I, being vengeful, managed to torture him a little more, "Chris, it's been a while. We need to get caught up sometime!"

Chris looked at me with a look of scared, trepidation, "s-s-sure."

"How about after dinner you should take a walk with me so we can get caught up!" I laughed at myself. A walk? That sounded stupid.

But Pops got excited, "That's a great idea!"

Chris, obviously not wanting to let Pops down answered, "okay."