The Tribuo - 24. Part III, chapter 6

- VI -

ERIC

Cole was acting weird ever since Andy and he came back with the drinks. I tried figuring out why. Andy looked as indifferent and carefree as he did before they went inside the Bean Stalk. He kept telling jokes, and making out with Angie every chance he got. After an hour or so, he said that they were going to go see a movie.

“Wanna come with us?” he asked.

“No,” Cole and I said at the same time.

“Cool,” he said. Huh, he didn’t even flinch. Interesting. Either he is completely clueless or…

After they left, I said that I needed to get back home, and Cole just nodded silently. We walked back to the apartment, and I winced when I saw Scott’s car parked in its usual spot.

“Scott’s home,” I said quietly.

“I’m gonna go say hi,” Cole muttered and we went inside.

Scott was flipping through TV channels when we got in.

“Hey,” he said when he looked up. “Cole! What are you doing here?”

“We went out for drinks with Andy,” I said and Scott nodded. “How’s dad?”

“He’s fine,” he sighed. “And yeah, he has crapload of painkillers.”

“Good for him,” I said absent-mindedly.

“Hey, Cole,” Scott turned off the TV and looked up. “So I was thinking… Are you going to get a Limo for the wedding or something else?”

“I don’t know,” Cole said numbly.

“I’m going to bed,” I said. “Night, all.”

Scott narrowed his eyes at me.

“What’s up with you?” he asked.

“I have a bitch of a headache,” I said through my clenched teeth.

“Night,” he shrugged.

He was saying something else, but I tuned him out, went into my bedroom, and slammed the door shut. I felt like shit. I couldn’t believe myself. Oh, sure, I could totally understand falling for someone so freaking hard after a month or so… Hell, even after a week! But after two days?! Jesus Christ! I opened my window, sat on the windowsill, and pressed my forehead against the cold glass. I was such a mess right now that it wasn't even funny… I sat there for maybe half an hour when I heard knocking on my door. Good God, my brother knocks? Be still my heart! I got off the windowsill.

“Open,” I called. “Since when do you knock?” I asked when the door opened, and then I closed my mouth. It wasn’t Scott. It was Cole.

“Hey,” he said, and I just looked at him. “Umm… How’s your headache?”

“Gone,” I said indifferently.

“Good,” he nodded. “I… Ummm… I guess I came to say good night…”

“Night,” I said and he closed his eyes.

He looked like someone who just accepted the fact that he would be executed tomorrow. I was completely silent and so was he. Finally, he opened his eyes and walked really close to me.

“Cole…” I said. “Go home, okay? Or go to Mary, that’s even better… And let’s just forget this whole thing. It was great, it was fun, but that’s about it. So just go to your fiancée, kiss her bruise, make it feel better, and…”

He growled something and slammed both of his hands against the wall, successfully trapping me between his arms. The smell of his skin made me want to howl at the moon.

“Cole,” I muttered. “Stop this, will you? Stop torturing me… And stop torturing yourself. Just go…”

He ignored every single word that I just said, and brushed his lips against mine.

“No,” he said finally.

“Jesus Christ… Cole, you are getting married in less than three weeks…!”

“No, I am not,” he said, and I couldn’t breathe for several seconds.

“What?” I asked finally.

“I realized that I never loved her the way I love you,” he muttered. “And I know that it sounds crazy… I know that we only been together for what? A day and a half? I know that, and I don’t care…”

“Cole, this is insane…” Oh dear God, why don’t I have any strength or willpower right now?

“Yes,” he agreed. “It is. But I also know that I can’t marry her if I am feeling this way… It won’t be fair to her and… Well, I just can’t…”

“Cole…You can’t just…”

“Listen,” he interrupted me, his mouth against mine, his words flowing right into me. “I am not doing what I am going to do just because I want you to feel obligated or something, okay? If you don’t feel… It’s fine… I just can’t… You don’t have to… If you decide to break this off, it’s fine… I am still going to… But if you don’t….”

“Oh dear God,” I muttered. “You are really bad with words, did you know that?”

“Yeah,” he muttered. “I did.”

I stroked his face with my fingertips.

“Stop embarrassing yourself,” I said quietly when he tried saying something else. “Stop talking… And yeah, I love you too…”

Well, that stopped his talking attempts in a flash. He started running his tongue over my lips, and I wrapped my arms around his neck and closed my eyes.

“What the fuck?!”

Yeah, if you want to make someone freeze and maybe get a heart attack, you go ahead and do what my brother just did. I glanced at him above Cole’s shoulder. He looked like someone who just witnessed an extremely gruesome murder.

“What are you doing?!” he asked incredulously; and no, he wasn’t asking Cole -- he was asking me. Of course.

“Get out,” I said.

“Are you kidding me?!” he exploded. “Jesus, Eric! I know that you are a sick fucking puppy, but this?! Are you completely out of your mind? What the hell…”

Cole let me go and turned around.

“Scott,” he said. “Stop it. I guess I should’ve told you, but…”

“Told me?!” now my brother looked downright murderous. “You mean, this is not the first time?! Oh, my freaking God! Eric, you are…”

“Scott,” Cole said again. “Shut up.”

He said it really quietly, but for some reason, Scott stopped yelling.

“Eric is not the one who made the first move,” Cole said as calmly as before. “I am.”

Scott looked at me, and there was so much hatred in his eyes, that it made me almost queasy.

“You have two and a half weeks,” he said unemotionally. “I want you out by Halloween, you understand me? And I don’t want to see you or talk to you ever again.”

He turned around without saying anything else, walked out, and slammed the door shut.

“Well, that went well,” I said thoughtfully, and Cole sighed.

“I’d say…”

“I guess I'd better start packing,” I said, and he turned around and looked at me. “What?” I asked when he suddenly had a very strange look in his eyes.

“Move in with me,” he said, and I just stared at him. “I am serious.”

I started to laugh. I couldn’t help it. Cole waited patiently.

“Are you out of your mind?” I asked finally. “Cole, the whole wedding thing is bad enough… I mean…”

“I am serious,” he repeated, and I stopped talking. Oh dear God, he was serious. And I thought I was the crazy one.

“I don’t think so,” I said finally, and he started running his fingers through my hair again. “Okay, that’s not going to persuade me, you know… Cole… I am an awful roommate, just ask my brother… I never do the dishes…”

“I have an awesome dishwasher,” he murmured, his face really close to mine right now.

“I… I hate cooking…”

“I don’t mind cooking once in a while…”

“I never turn the lights off…”

“Neither do I,” he grinned. “That’s why I got those timed lights… They go off on their own.”

“Seriously?”

“Uh huh…”

“That’s neat…! Wait… Cole, I smoke inside all the time…”

“So do I,” he agreed. “That’s why I disabled every single smoke alarm in the house.”

I slightly pulled away and frowned at him.

“So, if the house catches on fire in the middle of the night, we are screwed?”

He smiled when I said 'we.'

“Pretty much,” he nodded.

“God, Cole… This is…”

And then I shut up for a while.

*****

When I woke up in the morning, I knew there was no way in hell I’d go to work today. So I called in, took a personal day off, and kept marveling at what a weak idiot I was. I mean, I knew that Cole would never break off his engagement. That was impossible. I mean, you don’t just dump someone like Mary, someone you knew for almost ten years, someone who is sophisticated, pretty, and -- let’s admit it -- rich, for some random guy you decided to sleep with a couple of nights ago. Sure, I could totally see something like this happening in a movie, but in real life? Please! Not gonna happen in a million years.

“Hey,” he muttered sleepily.

“Hey,” I smiled at him.

He sat up and kissed my shoulder.

“Okay,” he said. “Here is the plan for today…”

He wrapped his arms around me, and I just closed my eyes. I knew what he was going to say. Maybe not right now, but he’d say it before this day was over.

“I am going to call in and take a day off,” he said. “Then I am going to call Mary… I need to meet her, can’t just blurt shit like this over the phone…”

“Right,” I muttered.

“While I am doing this, start packing, will you?”

“Right,” I said again.

He ran his mouth on the back of my neck and I bit my lip. Then he was reaching for his phone and calling his work. After five minutes or so, he took a deep breath.

“Here we go,” he muttered and dialed a number. “Hey, Mar,” he said in a couple of seconds. “No, I am fine… Yeah, I know, sorry about that. Listen… I need to talk to you… Uh huh, you could say that… No, it’s not going to take long… Well, at least I don’t think it will. Oh God, please don’t bring her or anyone else with you! Look, Mar, I just need to see you alone, okay? No, not on the phone, believe me…”

He got out of the bed and started pulling on his jeans.

“Listen, I know that you are busy, but please! Just meet me at the Bean Stalk in half an hour, okay? Yes, alone! Thank you. Okay, see you soon.”

He clicked his phone shut, zipped up his pants, and looked at me.

“Well, this will be interesting,” he said, and I grinned at him. “I’ll call you when I am done, okay?”

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“Start packing,” he said, leaning towards me.

“I will,” I smiled, and closed my eyes when he kissed me.

I tried not to kiss him too hungrily, but at the same time, I knew that we were pretty much saying goodbye, so I couldn’t help myself. Finally, he pulled away, breathless.

“I’ll call you soon, okay?” he muttered and I nodded.

He left and I just sat in bed with my head buried in my hands. I knew that I would probably never see him again. Talk on the phone? Oh, yeah, he’d call me pretty soon, I was sure of that. He’d say something like, “Listen, Mary and I talked, and we decided to give it another try…”

I moaned and buried my fingers in my hair. God damn… I knew that it would turn out badly. I just didn’t realize how much it would hurt.