Page 12 of Butterfly

“Thank you,” Ollie exhaled. He dropped his forehead on Teddy’s shoulder.

Whenever Teddy let loose his anger, he got sent to the segregation unit for as long as ten days at a time. Ollie told him he missed him when he was gone, and Teddy confessed he missed Ollie too.

The noise picked up outside of the cell, maybe more restrained than before, but it slowly increased.

Ollie lifted his head and searched Teddy’s eyes. “It’s not true, is it? About Ryan?”

Teddy replied with a blank look.

“You didn’t force a pill into his mouth to get rid of him, and he didn’t kill himself because you were pressurising him into…into….” Ollie swallowed. “Into sex?”

Teddy hesitated, only for a moment, but Ollie thought he might faint.

Then Teddy shook his head, and Ollie collapsed onto the bed, sitting down with his head in his hands. He exhaled a long, slow breath.

“What happened that night?” He lifted his head to catch Teddy’s reply.

Teddy shrugged.

“What do you mean, you don’t know? There must’ve been some kind of sign he wasn’t okay.”

Teddy shook his head. He reached for the dictionary, then sat beside Ollie on the bottom bunk. Ollie waited patiently while Teddy flicked through, finding words to speak in full sentences. Time wasn’t an issue for them; they had plenty, and Ollie had learned to be patient.

He was ill.

“In what way?” Ollie asked.

Headaches, nausea…a nasty virus had been on wing. I had it, got better. A lot did. He went to bed early. In the morning, he was dead.

“He took something… Maybe he thought it would help?”

Teddy closed his eyes. He nodded.

“Who gave it to him?”

Still with his eyes closed, Teddy shrugged.

“Jonesy said Ryan…rejected your advances.”

Another flash of heat fizzled in Ollie’s stomach. He pushed it away.

Teddy nodded again.

“You loved him?”

Teddy’s eyebrows shot up. He shook his head, then nodded.

“Oh…” Ollie’s voice sounded distant to his own ears.

Teddy held up the dictionary, pointing out the wordFriend.

“You loved him as a friend?”

Yes. Teddy rubbed his chin.Urge.

“You had urges?”

Yes.

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