Page 62 of Marcus in Retrograde
“We’re normal healthy males with a pretty good sex drive,” Chase said. “And we don’t owe you our sexual history.”
Rider chugged the beer. “I’m not staying. Answer your fucking phone. I’m heading back to Illinois and you can either show up for your dying father or not. Either way, I am done with you.”
“I was done with you a long time ago.” Chase nodded.
Rider slammed the beer bottle on the table and headed for the door. Neither of us moved to see him out, and the door slammed a moment later.
In the next heartbeat, Chase had his face buried in my neck, and I could feel the sobs racking his body. I wrapped my arms around him, and just held him against me. It took him a good long few minutes to start to calm down.
“No time limit,” I whispered. “Just breathe for me.”
His breath was short, more gasps than breaths at first, but slowly, as I ran my hand up and down his back, his breathing started to normalize.
“Sorry,” he whispered.
“No,” I answered. “Absolutely not. Sorry is not allowed. You did nothing wrong. Your brother just barged into your life after…twelve years?, and there’s no reason to be sorry.”
“I cannot believe he showed up here!” Chase’s voice went from upset to indignant. “How dare he? Just invite himself back into my life after all this time! It doesn’t work that way! He doesn’t get to come back and treat me like shit and think that I’m going kowtow to him!”
I nodded. “You’re right. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
“I didn’t get a single call from him. I never got a voice mail. And I know they have the right number because my mother has called me on and off for the past twelve years. So he is a liar, and I don’t know what he thinks he’s trying to accomplish.”
“He seems like every other homophobe I’ve ever met,” I answered. “They think you are less than human and by deigning to come into your life again he has somehow made you better. Toxic hyper-masculinity.”
“Is he fucking crying?”
I whipped my head up to see Rider standing in the doorway of the kitchen. I pulled Chase behind me. “Who the fuck let you back in?”
“Door was open—”
“You just fucking walked out! In this part of the world, you always knock and ask permission. And right now, you do not have permission to be in here!”
He threw something on the table. “For the record, the only people in town who ever want to see your face again are Mom and Dad. Everyone else is perfectly happy having the town fag gone for good.”
“Get out!”
“Fuck you, cocksucker,” he snapped.
I stepped forward and drew up to my full height. “Would you like me to show you how good I am at that? Because, honey, I’ll have you screaming my name in a under a minute.”
He ran. I was surprised there wasn’t cartoon dust behind him as he fled.
I heard a sob-chuckle from behind me, and turned back to Chase leaning against the counter, a hand over his mouth. He was wiping tears from his eyes while he was trying not to laugh. “Honey?”
I chuckled too. “Sometimes, I play the gay card.”
“Well,honey, you can make me scream your name any time,” Chase said, grabbing the envelope on the table. “Lock the door?”
With a grunt, I hurried to the door before the shithead reappeared. Chase was standing next to the kitchen table holding the contents of the envelope in his hand.
Pictures, and a short note.
Chase,
I have no idea if your brother can convince you to come back, but I thought you might want these pictures before I throw them out. I don’t want to, but I don’t know what to do with them anymore.
Mom
