Another Lifetime - 5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The rest of the afternoon, Kyle just went through the motions. After telling Stanley about his encounter with Ethan, they decided to play it cool, and try to stay under the radar as much as possible. Neither of them were anything close to a match for Ethan physically, and even if they teamed up on him, Ethan would still kill them both before they’d been more than a minor annoyance to him. He really was just that damn big.

Kyle invited Stanley to come with him to the hospital, so they could maybe talk to Leo’s dad about it, until he remembered he was supposed to meet his mom’s friend Art this afternoon. They agreed to do it the next day instead.

Leo’s dad was only at the hospital for a few minutes after Kyle got there. Kyle had time to ask him if he would be able to talk to him and a friend tomorrow, to which he agreed, and then he was out the door. Said he had something he had to take care of at work, and Kyle thought nothing of it. After all, he’d been taking a lot of time off to visit Leo.

Kyle took his usual seat next to Leo’s bed, and gently took his hand. He squeezed Leo’s dainty fingers gently, not wanting to hurt him, but hoping for some kind of a response. He got none, as he’d expected, but that didn’t deter him from trying again. He spoke softly to Leo, telling him anything and everything.

He told Leo what had been going on in his life, about how he’d made a new friend who was going to help him to get the truth about Ethan. About the scary encounter he’d had with Leo’s former boyfriend at lunch. Even about how open and accepting his mom had been when he came out to her the day before.

Kyle let Leo in on some of his most personal thoughts and feelings, although he knew Leo wouldn’t remember it. Maybe that’s why he spoke so openly. He trusted Leo, but there were still things that he was nervous about saying to his face. Especially the big secret he’d kept from Leo all this time. It was much easier to tell Leo how much he loved him when Leo couldn’t respond.

Kyle knew how pathetic that made him, and he hated how much of a coward he was. Maybe if he’d told Kyle how he felt, and what he really thought of Ethan, none of this would have happened. The night of Leo’s attack, he’d come close to telling him, but he’d been afraid to hurt him. If only he’d known, he might have been able to spare him some pain.

Kyle had been kicking these thoughts around in his head, but had been afraid to speak them. He felt if he voiced his opinions on it, it would make it more real. His guilt at not taking action was enormous already, and he definitely didn’t need for it to become more real.

After all, the most real part of it all was lying unconscious in the bed a foot away from him.

Kyle tried to take his mind off of his guilt, and looked down at Leo. Wires were poking into the skin on his arm, leading to various machines that were monitoring his breathing, heartbeat, brain functions, and overall health. On the frame of the bed, there were controls to raise or lower the height of the bed, and one button with “Emergency” printed above it in big red letters. Kyle resisted the urge to press it just to see what it did.

Kyle looked lower, and saw that Leo’s foot, with toes as dainty as his fingers, had come uncovered sometime during the night. Kyle leaned over and felt the skin on his foot. It was slightly cold, so after playfully wiggling Leo’s toes to see if he’d get a reaction, he covered it back up.

Kyle noticed idly that Leo was beginning to look better. His color was beginning to return to normal, as opposed to the horrible, sickly pale he’d been for the extent of his stay. Seeing this filled Kyle with new hope, and he leaned down over Leo’s face, kissing him on the lips.

“We’ll make it through this, baby,” he said gently.

“You need to be careful who you do that in front of,” a man’s voice that Kyle had never heard before said.

Kyle jumped nearly out of his skin, and spun around so fast he lost his balance. If he hadn't grabbed the handle of the bedside chair, he would have fallen unceremoniously on his rear end.

“Wh-who are you?” Kyle asked, alarmed.

“Art Johnson,” the man said. Kyle relaxed slightly, realizing this was the man his mother had wanted him to meet.

Kyle looked over the man as inconspicuously as he could. In a word, the man was small. Not quite as small as Kyle was, but he was close. He was a few inches taller than Kyle, but then again, who wasn’t? He was healthy looking, despite the fact that he had an almost glowing pale skin. He wasn’t a strong man, Kyle could tell. He looked as if in is childhood, he’d been very skinny, but had filled out as he matured.

His hair was blonde, but Kyle could see the roots of his hair were dark brown, suggesting that he colored it occasionally. He wore glasses, thin wire frames that made him look intellectual, and through the lenses, Kyle couldn’t quite tell if his eyes were blue, green, or gray.

“Do I pass the inspection?” Art asked Kyle, and Kyle knew he hadn't been as inconspicuous as he hoped. Kyle blushed, his face shining as brightly as ever, and nodded to Art.

“I’m…I’m sorry,” Kyle said. “You just caught me off guard, is all.”

The older man laughed, a jolly sound, completely genuine. Little wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes, a sure sign that the man had found a lot of joy in his life. When he smiled, Kyle noticed he had very faint dimples, just deep enough so that you knew they were there.

“You must be Kyle,” Art said, arching his eyebrow in question. Kyle blushed yet again, feeling stupid that he’d forgotten his manners.

“Yeah…” he said sheepishly.

“Well, why don’t we skip ahead a bit, and get past the awkward parts,” he said. “I’m gay, and since your mom wouldn’t say if you were or weren’t, I’m going to assume you are.”

Kyle nodded again, and gave a faint smile. He liked Art’s style. Something about him just put Kyle at ease.

“Well, she said you were going through a rough time, and I imagine it has something to do with that young man over there?” Art asked.

Kyle motioned for Art to enter. Art walked up to Kyle’s side, and looked down at Leo’s unconscious form.

“This is Leo, My best friend,” Kyle said sadly. “He hasn’t shown any signs of improvement.”

Art looked down on Leo, frowning sadly. His eyes had a far off look, as if he were experiencing a particularly painful memory. Kyle looks at Art, watching his eyes as he looks over Leo. There’s a sadness in his eyes suggesting that although Art had indeed found a lot of joy in his life, it was undoubtedly tempered by a lot of pain.

Art reached his hand out, as if he were about to touch Leo’s forehead, but soon came to his senses. He looked up and found Kyle looking at him curiously. Art smiled, a bit forced, and cleared his throat.

“So…so he’s your best friend?” his voice caught slightly in his throat, and when he spoke it was thick with emotion. Kyle decided not to press the issue, seeing that they were essentially strangers. If Art decided to tell him about it, he would. Kyle wasn’t going to force him.

“Yeah, he’s…” Kyle began, but he cut himself off. Then he said something he completely didn’t expect to say.

“I love him,” Kyle said. “I love him so much it hurts, and he had no idea how I felt. I tried to tell him once, but that was the day he confessed his love for…Ethan Hartman.” Kyle said Ethan’s name with such venom that Art raised an eyebrow.

“That sounds like more than simple jealousy,” Art said simply.

“He did this,” Kyle said, motioning his hand in Kyle’s general direction.

Art’s eyes nearly doubled in size.

“Really?” he asked. “So he’s in jail?”

“No, there was no evidence,” Kyle said. He proceeded to tell Art the details of Leo’s attack.

“I’m afraid of what Ethan might do,” Kyle confessed to Art, his voice shaking slightly. “God, my best friend is in the hospital, I came out to my mom, and now I have to worry about what a psychopath might do to me if I don’t leave it all alone. What else is going to happen?”

Art put his arm around Kyle’s shoulder, and gave him a gentle squeeze.

“You need to be careful,” Art said reasonably. “I know you want justice for your friend, but you need to tell the police everything you know and let them handle it.”

“That’s the thing, I did tell the police what I know,” Kyle said, exasperated. “I told them that I dropped Leo off at Ethan’s place just a few hours before he was hurt. But Ethan’s girlfriend swore that he was with her, and his mother said he didn’t come home that night. The police just said there wasn’t enough evidence to prove I was telling the truth.”

“Still, you cant help much if you’re stuck in a hospital or worse,” Art admonished.

“I’ll try to be careful,” Kyle said. He and art continued to chat well into the afternoon and the beginning of the evening. They moved on from such heavy topics and onto lighter subjects. Art told Kyle about his first crush, a boy named Tad. He told Kyle about growing up gay in the seventies, and how the times were so different then. How much easier it is now to be openly gay than it was when he first came out.

After another hour or so, Art gave Kyle a ride home in his small imported German car. Kyle had to put his backpack in the backseat, because there was no room for it in the front with him. The car was cramped, but was good on gas mileage.

Kyle really didn’t know all that much about cars. He knew they were used to get from place to place, but that was about all. His father never let him take Driver’s Ed, so he’d never even been behind the wheel before. Kyle wondered idly why his mother never put up more of a fight on his behalf for such things, but decided he was just being stupid.

They pulled into Kyle’s driveway, and after saying their goodbyes and retrieving his backpack from the backseat, Kyle walked up to the front door and entered his dark house as quietly as possible.

“Where have you been?” his father’s voice asked in a calm, almost gentle voice. Kyle flinched slightly at the sound, not expecting his father to be waiting on him.

“I…um…went out with a friend from school,” Kyle stuttered nervously. He knew from experience that while his father appeared to be calm, he could in fact be in the middle of a violent rage. He was so good at hiding his emotions that Kyle never knew what mood he was really in at any time. This made him extremely nervous around his father.

“Ah, okay,” he said, still calm. “That’s what your mother said earlier. I forgot.”

Kyle wasn’t naive enough to believe that his father had really forgotten. He was just trying to catch one of them in a lie. His father had a tendency to become paranoid for no particular reason.

“Dinner’s in the fridge,” his father said. “After you eat, I want you to take out the garbage and do your homework before bed.” he then turned and walked to the living room, where there was a faint blue light coming from the TV.

Kyle breathed a sigh of relief, realizing his father wasn’t angry with him. He didn’t appear to be drinking tonight either, which was definitely a good thing. There was a much better chance for him to be angry and violent when he drank.

Kyle set his backpack down in the foyer, as it was getting heavy in his hands, and warmed up his dinner in the microwave. It was some type of leftover casserole, and he ate it in silence. He always tried to make as little noise as possible, hoping to blend into the background. It had been his experience that if he didn’t give someone a reason to remember he was there, they wouldn’t have a reason to be mean to him.

This also really put a damper on Kyle’s social life. Kyle always referred to Leo as his best friend, but in reality, before Stanley came along, Leo was his only friend. Kyle didn’t really have enemies, he had a few people who would automatically throw their elbows into him if he passed them in the hallways, but didn’t have anyone he had to avoid on a daily basis.

Except now, of course, for Ethan. Kyle still had no idea what he was going to do about him.

Kyle finished eating, and lugged the heavy cans of trash out to the curb. He grumbled to himself as he did, complaining about always having so many chores he had to do around the house while his brother had virtually none. He just accepted this as another part of his life and tried to move on.

He went upstairs to do his homework after washing the garbage smell off his hands. One of the bags had ripped open, spilling a disgustingly chunky liquid all over his hands, and he had gagged on the smell. He didn’t even want to speculate what it might have been.

He reached the door to his room, and could faintly hear music playing. He knew his brother was home tonight, and feeling ridiculous but fearing another attack, he knocked before gently pushing the door open.

He cautiously looked in, and found something in his room he never expected to ever see in his life.

His brother was lying down, sobbing nearly hysterically into his pillow.

Kyle stood in the doorway, dumbfounded. This was so unlike his brother, who very rarely showed any emotions aside from anger and the occasional happiness, usually from causing Kyle pain in some way.

“Justin?” Kyle asked, his voice sounding small, and wavering in pitch.

Justin didn’t hear Kyle. Indeed, he had no idea he was being watched. Kyle knew this and was afraid that Justin was going to become angry when he saw Kyle. He debated just leaving the room altogether, but decided against it. After all, Justin wouldn’t have left Kyle alone if he found him in this state. At least Kyle didn’t plan on mocking him.

“Justin,” Kyle tried again, louder and more clearly this time, and he got a reaction.

“What?” Justin yelled at him, looking up from his pillow. His eyes were bloodshot, and still wet with his tears. There was also a wild look in them, like an animal that has been forced into a corner.

Kyle flinched, and instinctively brought his hands up as if to protect himself.

“Nothing, just wondering if you’re alright,” Kyle mumbled.

“Do I fucking look alright?” Justin asked furiously, and climbed to his feet.

“Oh…please don’t hit me…” Kyle said, closing his eyes and cowering in fear. Kyle could feel that Justin had moved closer to him, even through his closed eyes. He was trembling, obviously very scared of what Justin was going to do. Then, when nothing happened, he cautiously opened one eye.

Justin was standing not three feet away from him, staring at him. There wasn’t even any anger in his eyes, he just looked on as if he was curious.

Justin looked Kyle in the eyes, and snapped out of it. He shook his head, and walked past Kyle, who flinched again, and continued out the door toward the bathroom.

Kyle really didn’t have any idea of what to make of his brother these days. He’d been acting strange the past few nights, and now he was crying his eyes out on his bed. Nothing seemed to make sense.

Kyle’s brain was already on overload with everything that was going on, he didn’t need Justin’s drama added on top of it. He shook himself off, and went to his desk to start on his homework.

He put his heavy backpack on his bed, and pulled out his history book. He got out his worksheet, and went over the questions on it. He didn’t actually look up the answers to the questions in the book, for that he used Google. He then checked his answers using the index in the back of the book. It was lazy, but it worked for Kyle. He just had to study harder when test time came.

A few minutes later, Justin returned from the bathroom. Kyle glanced up at him, and noticed a lot of the redness was gone from his eyes. It was still there, but it wasn’t nearly as noticeable. Kyle tensed up, expecting more verbal abuse.

If it were possible for Kyle to be more surprised by his brothers actions, it happened when Justin spoke to him.

“Goodnight, Kyle,” he said in a sincere voice, and then climbed into bed, shutting off his bedside lamp.

Kyle sat there, staring at Justin with his mouth hanging open for a full minute.

“Night, Justin,” he finally mumbled in reply.

As Kyle put away his finished homework and got ready for bed, he idly wondered exactly which planet he was going to wake up on when the sun came up tomorrow.