Page 8 of Real Tree / Fake Boyfriend

Julien let himself into his apartment. The single ceiling light cast an orange hue over the room. His bed sat in the corner, pushed against one of the windows. It was unmade, with a pile of clothes resting on the mattress. He had dumped his clean hamper out this morning and hadn’t bothered folding the clothes. They’d end up back in the hamper when he went to bed. He would put them away one day, or so he told himself.

Unlike Tyler’s pristine, minimalist apartment, Julien’s looked like a dump. The tile peeled up in the kitchen, and the heavily trodden carpet didn’t come clean no matter how often he vacuumed.

He didn’t have enough storage, with a tiny closet he had to use as a pantry, and a dresser he found on the street for his clothes. He also found the sofa on the side of the road. The brown plaid fabric that covered the thin cushions was threadbare in most spots. He had spent an entire day disinfecting it because the last thing he needed was an infestation of fleas or bedbugs, but luckily, it was clean enough.

He went into his fridge and pulled out a beer. The light was out, but his kitchen was small, and the light from theliving space offered enough illumination to see the meager offerings inside.

The lone magnet on the front of the refrigerator reminded him of the stupid printout Tyler had given him. Julien pulled the pages from his pocket and stuck them up. He would probably look at them later. Or not.

The buzz at the front door nearly made Julien jump out of his skin, but he went over and pressed the button. “Yeah?”

“Hey,” came Tony’s static voice. “It’s Tone, let me in, will ya?”

Julien buzzed him in, knowing well enough that Tony could have let himself in if he had just pulled hard enough on the apartment’s front door. Julien wouldn’t ever tell him that. Between the flimsy door to his unit and Rossi’s unpredictable nature, he didn’t need to come home to Tony on his couch one day.

Julien lived on the second floor, and Rossi didn’t take long to arrive at his door with a resounding knock.

When Julien opened up, Rossi pushed inside without being invited. He was a few inches shorter than Julien,with dark hair always gelled back. He had heavy, expressive eyebrows and a square jaw. Julien thought he was attractive once until he realized how obnoxious this jerk was.

“I hear you got something for me?” Tony said. He made a circle around the apartment as if he owned the place. He stopped by the dresser, picking up a framed picture of Julien’s mother. She held a ten-year-old Julien’s hand in the photo, and the pair smiled in front of a messy gingerbread house.

Julien remembered the day clearly. She had taken him to some store where they provided all the supplies needed to make a gingerbread house, and he had eaten more candy than he stuck on the house. He ended up throwing up on the way home. His mother hadn’t even been mad and told him his house was the nicest one she had ever seen.

He liked to remember her that way, with her eyes bright and her cheeks flushed and pink where her smile made her dimple. There had been a time when he couldn’t look at pictures of his mother. A mixture of grief and resentment had overwhelmed him to the point of anger whenever he thought about her. Now, he liked being able to remember her during the good moments.

After a second, Tony put the picture down, went to the fridge, and pulled out a beer. The pages rustled as Tony took them off the fridge and flipped through them as if reading the morning paper. Once he had thoroughly snooped and set the papers back where they came from, Tony went to the living room. He flopped onto the couch, spread out with one booted foot on the far cushion and an arm draped across the back. He looked very relaxed and fucking at home.

Julien stood, tried not to clench his teeth too hard, and fished the cash out of his pocket. “Here. It’s half. I’ll have the other half by Christmas,” he told him, repeating the mantra he’d chanted in his head since he made a deal with Tyler.

Anthony peeked open the envelope and flicked through the money. “Good. This should keep the boss happy. But you better get the rest of it, Kid.” He clicked his tongue and narrowed his eyes at Jules.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. ‘Or else.’” Julien rolled his eyes. Tony got a kick out of calling him ‘Kid’ despite being the same age as Jules. “I’m going out of town for a few days,” Jules said. “Just wanted to let you know I’m not runningaway. It’s a family thing,” he added as an afterthought. Julien didn’t think he should have to tell the Rossi family his entire life story. Still, given how dangerous the Rossis could be, he didn’t want to take any risks, not when he was so close to being done with this life.

Anthony’s eyebrows raised. “I didn’t know you had a family.”

Julien didn’t, not really. His mom had died nine years ago, and his father had never been in the picture. He had a few casual friends, but the closest thing he had to a real family was, unfortunately, the Rossis.“Yeah. It was unexpected.”

Anthony pursed his lips and took a long sip of his beer. He set the can on the small coffee table next to the couch.

Julien couldn’t help but think about Tyler’s coasters neatly piled on his massive table. Julien’s coffee table had layers of peeling paint and many rings from cans and mugs. Maybe he could say it was a new interior decorating trend.

“You’ll be back in time for us to get the rest of this, right?” Tony waved the envelope like a fan in front of his face.

Julien nodded. “The day after Christmas. I’ll be back in the evening.”

“Alright then. I better get this back to the boss. I don’t want to keep him. He’s been waiting, what, ten years to get this back? Time is a-ticking.” Tony stood up and stretched.

“Thanks, Tone,” Julien said without a hint of friendliness in his words. He wanted this over and done with. Then, he could finally move on with his life. Time was ticking, as Tony said. Hopefully, the countdown would end with his freedom and not some messy consequence for the actions of his desperate, eighteen-year-old self.

“Have a good Christmas, yeah?” Tony added, clapping Julien’s bicep with too much force to be friendly.

“You too.” Julien walked him to the door and locked it once Rossi had left. He sighed and felt approximately half his weight lifted off his shoulders.

A few more weeks, that was it. All Julien had to do was not fuck things up with Tyler, and he would be able to put this behind him once and for all.

Chapter 5

Tyler

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