“I know who they are.”
He hung his head. “He said he hadn’t told you. That you hadn’t figured it out.”
“He didn’t. But I know.”
“You can’t be mad at him for that.”
“I’m not. I… will he tell me? When it happens? You know, with his mom?”
Darren watched me for a moment before answering, as if trying to gauge my sincerity and trying to choose his words before speaking. “He trusts you,” he finally said. “I don’t know how it happened or why it happened so fast, but he does. I think he will. He’s not going to let you think it’ll hurt him, but it will. Maybe not destroy him, because there’s too much bad shit between them. But it’s still going to hurt. He’s going to need you, I think. He’ll need me too, but I think you’re going to be the one he leans on. If you let him.”
“Okay.” I hoped he was right.
“Hey, Paul? You’re okay, you know that?” He was looking at me with something that bordered on respect. Homo jocks were so confusing. They were supposed to be pounding beers and twinks, not talking to me.
But he was right, so I nodded. “I am pretty awesome.”
He laughed, glancing over at the bar to check on Vince. His eyes hardened quickly and the smile slid from his face. I followed his line of sight and saw Vince up against the bar, drinks in front of him, another guy bent over near him to speak in his ear. I bristled immediately when I saw it was hottie Bear Dude from last weekend, the one that had been grinding up against Vince on the dance floor. Bear Dude was trying to get pretty chummy with Vince again, crowding up against him, his hand on Vince’s bicep, squeezing it tightly so that I could see the dimples in Vince’s skin. It was a possessive grip, and the man’s stance screamed mine. I tensed, not able to stop the flood of doubt washing over me.
“Wait,” Darren breathed next to me. “Just wa
tch.”
I didn’t want to watch. I wanted to push my way through the bar and piss in a circle around Vince so that everyone else stayed the fuck away from him. My skin crawled a bit when Vince laughed at something Bear Dude said, and Bear Dude leaned back, smirking at him as if in victory. Bear Dude nodded his head toward the door, wanting Vince to leave with him. Vince shook his head and pointed back to where we stood and said something in return. This appeared to piss Bear Dude off because he frowned at Vince and tugged on his arm. Vince took a step back and shook his head again. Bear Dude turned and left.
Vince must have felt us watching him because he glanced over our way and saw us staring at him. His gaze immediately went to me, and he jerked his head in the direction Bear Dude had disappeared and rolled his eyes. Then he brought his hand up to the side of his head and made a pistol shape and committed fake suicide, blowing his imaginary brains out and collapsing on the top of the bar. Then he rose up and winked at me. He picked up our drinks and started moving out back to us. Through his little performance, not once had he looked guilty, like he’d been caught doing something wrong.
“He’s different,” Darren said near my ear. “He’s not like you or me, or anyone else for that matter.”
“His mime skills are obviously going to waste in the insurance industry,” I said, unable to think clearly.
Darren cuffed the back of my head as if he’d been doing it for years. “Don’t be a jerk,” he scolded me. “You know as well as I do that the thought of doing anything with that guy never even crossed his mind. He doesn’t think like that. Remember that, Paul. Remember that and he’ll give you everything.”
“Why haven’t you gone after him then, if he’s so great?” I asked, honestly curious.
Darren’s eyes went instantly dark. “That doesn’t matter,” he muttered and looked away.
But it did. In the end, it did.
Chapter 14
I Am So Fucking Screwed (Figuratively And Literally)
WE DIDN’T stay long at the bar. There was something odd building in the air around Vince and me, sort of like a strange static charge that caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end and the palms of my hands to feel itchy. Vince kept shooting these hot little glances over at me, catching my eyes for longer and longer while I tried to maintain a conversation with Darren. I tried not to flush under his gaze, but it became more and more impossible as he watched me for longer periods of time.
And then the touching began.
At first it was nothing major. Just his hand at the base of my spine, his thumb pressing slightly to let me know it was there. A bit of brief pressure, the scrape of a thumbnail through the shirt I wore, and then it was gone.
The second time it happened, he waited until I started to take a drink of the cocktail he’d gotten for me. Again he put his hand on my lower back, but this time, he pointed his fingers down toward my ass, the angle of his arm slightly awkward. I felt the tip of his middle finger lift the hem of my shirt and graze against the skin of my back. I choked on my drink, cranberry juice dripping down my chin. I mumbled an apology as I used my arm to wipe my face. Vince dropped his hand, and I refused to look at him. Darren didn’t seem to notice.
And on it went. There would be a grip on my arm as Vince tugged me to the back patio, biting his fingers into my skin, part of me relishing the pressure, another part wanting it to stop immediately before I sprouted wood right then.
He would slide his hand down my arm when it became impossible to walk side by side, slipping fingertips along my forearm, my wrist, my palm until his fingers would catch mine, pressing our hands together as he led me through the crowd.
We reached the patio outside, and conversations were happening all around us, voices running together until they were just a wall of noise that I couldn’t separate into single words. Vince kept glancing back at me as he pushed his way through the crowd, a little smile on his face, his eyes narrowed with something I couldn’t quite place. I didn’t know where Darren had gone, only that he was no longer with us, and I didn’t know where Helena was, only that her show was over and the people around us moved and swayed and danced and writhed.
Vince found a dark little corner, near a set of stacked chairs, away from the crowd, away from the noise. It only took him a moment before he had me pressed up against the wall, putting his hands on either side of my head, standing so close that I could feel his breath on my face, but no part of his body touching mine. I tried to control my breathing so it wouldn’t seem like I was panting, but that was exactly what I was doing.