The Tribuo - 25. Part III, chapter 7

- VII -

It’s been almost two hours since Cole left, and I just stayed in bed that whole time. When my phone rang, I knew it was him.

“Hello,” I said after I flipped it open.

“Hey, it’s me,” he said and yup, he sounded really uncomfortable.

I knew exactly what he was going to say. 'Listen' is going to come first…

“Listen,” he said.

Yup. Now he’d say, 'We talked and it took longer than I expected…'

“Umm… We talked,” he said. “And it took way longer than I thought it would…”

Uh huh. 'Look, I am sorry, but we decided to try and work things out…'

“Look…” he sighed. “Okay… This is weird… Can you do me a favor?”

Favor? Did he leave something here and he wanted me to mail it to him?

“Can you come and get me?” he said, and I just stared into the wall. Huh?

“And…” he coughed. “If you could get some change of clothes, that would be great,” he finished.

“Where are you?” I asked finally.

“Bean Stalk,” he sighed.

“Yeah,” I said numbly. “I’ll be right there…”

I shut my phone off and just looked at it in great confusion. What just happened? Finally, I shook my head, got out of bed, and started to get dressed.

*****

When I entered the Bean Stalk, Cole was nowhere in sight. The barista came up to me and thoughtfully narrowed her eyes.

“Are you Eric?” she asked finally.

“Yeah,” I said carefully.

“He is in the back,” she said, and I swear to God, she was doing everything in her power to keep herself from howling with mad laughter.

“Okay…” I said.

“Go ahead,” she breathed and her lips trembled. “Nobody’s here, it doesn’t matter…”

Okay, what the hell? I walked behind the counter into the back room that was more of a storage, really, and there he was. And I could understand now why the barista was acting the way she did. Cole looked at me gloomily when I started cracking up.

“Laugh it up, Chuckles,” he said darkly.

“Oh, Chuckles is laughing…” I breathed. “What happened?”

His clothes were drenched in something dark and sticky that suspiciously looked like high-quality maple syrup. His hair was beyond messed up, and it seemed like he was trying to give himself a haircut and it went terribly wrong. He had some white stuff all over his hair and shirt, and he also had a hefty scratch right above his ear.

“What do you think happened?” he grumbled. “You brought the clothes?”

“Uh huh…”

I gave him the bag.

“She didn’t take it well,” he said, after he pulled off his ruined shirt and tried wiping his hair with it.

I just stared at him. He actually went through with it? Well, that would certainly explain why he looked the way he did, but… Seriously?!

“She ummm…” he sighed. “Well, after I told her, she got kind of… Crazy,” he finished. “She didn’t scream or anything like that… She just threw salt in my eyes… Which stung like a bitch, by the way…” he finally gave up on trying to clean his hair. “Then she stuck me with a butter knife, threw a syrup jar at me…”

Yup, I was right. Maple syrup.

“...and while I was trying to get the damn salt out of my eyes, she lit a napkin and threw it in my hair,” he finished, and I was speechless.

“Oh,” was all I could come up with.

“Yeah,” he grimaced and pulled off his pants. “I guess, if not for Liz, I wouldn’t have any hair left, since I didn’t even realize that she tried setting me on fire…”

“Who is Liz?” I asked weakly.

“The barista,” he sighed and pulled on a clean pair of jeans. “She saw the whole thing, and when Mary threw that napkin at me, she just grabbed a thermos of half-and-half and…”

“Oh, God…” I leaned on the wall and tried to stop laughing. I couldn’t. “What did Mary do?”

“No clue,” he said darkly. “She took off as soon as she threw that napkin at me. And since I parked a couple of blocks away, I really didn’t want to walk outside looking like this, you know…”

I slid to the floor. Cole just sighed when I kept shaking with almost hysterical laughter. I mean, this whole thing wasn't exactly hilarious -- in fact, if anything, it was quite the opposite -- but I was so relieved that I was seriously lightheaded right now. I was sure that he would go back to her, and I would never see him again; and sitting here right now, and realizing that he wasn’t lying when he said he loved me… I was growing concerned about my inability to stop being hysterical, when he asked:

“You started packing, right?”

Oh, okay. That did it. I finally stopped laughing, and looked at him guiltily.

“No,” I said finally. “Look… I am sorry, but…”

“Ugh,” he rolled his eyes. “Are you going to start all that nonsense about not moving in with me again?”

“No,” I shook my head. “I just… I was sure that you would just go back to her…”

He sat next to me and twirled his ruined shirt in his hands.

“You didn’t believe me when I said I was going to do it?” he asked quietly.

“I am sorry,” I muttered. “I…”

He sighed and threw the shirt into the trashcan.

“Idiot,” he grumbled, and I looked at him when he hugged me.

“Mmm…” I said after a couple of minutes.

“What?”

“This syrup is actually quite good…” I licked his neck and he laughed.

COLE

When we got to Eric’s apartment, all I wanted to do was to wash this damn syrup and half-and-half off me. He solemnly promised that he would start packing as soon as he got into his room. When we got inside, there was Scott, and he looked like he was trying his best not to see or hear us. I sighed. I guess the shower would have to wait.

“I gotta talk to him,” I muttered, and Eric glanced at his brother.

“Sure,” he shrugged. “Just don’t ask me to do the same, okay?”

“Okay,” I said.

Yeah, I knew that I shouldn’t really provoke Scott right now, but at the same time, I couldn't care less. So right before Eric headed to his room, I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards me. It wasn’t because I wanted to demonstrate something to Scott, or to validate something -- no. I just wanted to kiss him, that’s all.

After a minute or so, Eric pulled away and shook his head.

“Okay… Either you want me to start packing or you don’t,” he breathed.

“I really do,” I said and let go of him.

He walked away and I almost ran my fingers through my hair. Then I remembered about the syrup and stopped.

“Scott,” I said and he glanced at me.

“Oh,” he said. “I am sorry… I thought you were still making out with my brother, my bad!”

I sighed. Yeah, I didn’t expect it to be easy.

“Can we talk?” I asked, and for a second, he looked like he was about to make another remark that would probably sound like, 'Oh, sure, we can talk now that you don’t have my brother’s tongue in your mouth,' but he didn’t.

“What do you want?” he asked in an unexpectedly tired voice. “If you are going to ask me whether I am a homophobe or some shit like that, then save your breath. I am not. In fact, I couldn't care less. But the idea that you, my best friend, who is about to get freaking married, is screwing around with my sick fuck of a brother…”

“Scott, don’t,” I said quietly and he stopped talking. “Look, I am sorry I haven’t told you but…” I shrugged. “It just happened, okay? I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s the truth.”

“When?” He asked dully.

“When what?” I frowned and he looked at me.

“When did it happen?”

“Saturday night,” I said, and he let out a mildly-amused laughter and shook his head.

“Is that right…? So you waited until I get the hell out and…”

“No,” I interrupted him. “Look, it’s not like that, okay?”

He sat down on the chair and looked at me with mock eagerness.

“Enlighten me, Cole,” he said. “How is it then?”

“Shit…” I managed to forget about the syrup and ended up getting my fingers stuck in my hair. “I came over that night to…” I walked to the kitchen sink and washed my hand. “To beat the shit out of Eric,” I finished. “Long story,” I added when he blinked at me with confusion. “Ask Andy, he knows about it…”

“Andy knows, huh,” Scott hemmed.

“Yeah,” I sighed. “He does. Anyway… Then we were beating the crap out of each other and…”

“Oh, so you did hit him,” Scott said thoughtfully.

“Yeah… Well, then something happened… I have no idea what it was, but suddenly it was like…” I shrugged. “I don’t know. Like it clicked or something…”

“So, you were trying to kill him, but ended up screwing him?” Scott almost laughed. “Jesus…”

“Scott… Listen…”

“Cole,” he sighed. “I don’t care, okay? I am kicking him out because I seriously don’t want to see him anymore. I am fed up with this bullshit… I have no idea how and why you…” he took a deep breath. “I don’t want to know, so don’t bother. And no, I guess I will never understand. So if that makes me a narrow-minded asshole, then so be it… But what I do want to understand, is how you going to try and explain all of this to your future wife. So please, do tell!”

“Yeah,” I said slowly. “About that… Scott…”

“Oh, hold on!” he chuckled. “Let me guess, you don’t want me in the wedding anymore, do you?”

“That’s not it,” I rolled my eyes. “It’s the fact that…”

“Oh, sure”, he snorted. “I hurt the feelings of your…”

“Will you shut the hell up already and let me freaking talk?!” I exploded. “Jesus Christ! Scott, this is not about you, okay?! No, you will not be the best man in the goddamn wedding, and you wanna know why? Because there will be no goddamn wedding, that’s why!”

Now he was completely mute. He stared at me with horror.

“That’s right,” I said in a somewhat calmer voice. “I broke up with Mary today. I am not getting married. I am in love with Eric. If you can’t deal, tough! Now if you excuse me, I need to go and take a shower, because if I don’t wash this crap out of my hair soon, I will murder someone!”

“You broke up with Mary…” he said quietly. “...because of my brother?”

“Yes,” I said patiently.

“Cole, are you insane?”

“Yes,” I agreed.

“Hold on… When he asked you about packing… Oh, Jesus… Is he moving in with you?!”

“Yes.”

He stared at me without blinking, and I just walked away. I was serious about a shower.

*****

ERIC

Two weeks later

Well, to my utter amusement, the whole moving-in-together thing wasn’t nearly as disastrous as I thought it would be. First of all, Cole and I only saw each other in the evenings, since we were both working double shifts now. I did it because I wanted to make a hell of a lot of money, so I could go back to school next year and actually stick with it until I finally graduated. Cole did it because he wanted to pay for everything that Mary ended up losing: wedding dress, cancellation of the restaurant and the hotel, all those invitations, and other stuff like that. She told him plain and clear what he could do with all that money, and that she didn’t want a single penny from him.

He paid for it anyway, since it made him feel somewhat better about the whole situation. He never got a chance to tell her who he left her for, because she wouldn’t talk to him ever since that day at the Bean Stalk. I guess it was a good thing. I mean, if I were her, I don’t know how I'd react if my fiancé told me that he was breaking up with me two-and-a-half weeks before the wedding, because he was madly in love with a guy. Not just a guy. His best man’s brother. The same brother I was trying to jump when I was beyond drunk.

So yeah, us, working like crazy, was one of the reasons that our moving in together wasn’t as scary as it seemed at first. The second reason, I suppose, was the fact that when we finally got to spend time together, it was like a gift from God. So life was pretty great despite the fact that Scott wouldn’t even use my name anymore when he talked to Andy, who, by the way, was the only person he would talk to lately. He would go to great lengths to avoid Cole, and he would all but spit in my direction if he happened to see me in the street.

Andy was incredibly cool about the whole thing. He and Angie were still together, which puzzled the hell out of me sometimes, but then I figured that if Cole ended up falling head over heels for me, then I didn't see why Andy couldn’t get serious about Angie. Plus, according to my brother, it made a hell of a lot more sense.

I almost believed that everything would turn out just fine, but then, three weeks after Halloween, I was proven wrong. Big time.