Painted On My Heart
“I’ll drive you. You shouldn’t have to do this alone.”
Kellus nodded and moved closer to him, coming to stand by his side.
“Will you be here when I get back?” Kellus asked his family.
“We’ll wait. We should be here for them,” Paul replied.
“You ready?” Arik asked.
“Not really, but this is something I need to do.” Kel’s face held so much emotion Arik wanted to gather his lover in his arms and make promises he wasn’t sure could be kept.
They walked in silence to the car and stayed that way until they got as far as the parking lot exit, when Arik said, “I don’t know where I’m going.”
“That way. We go through South Dallas. Follow the signs to Waxahachie,” Kellus instructed. Arik remained quiet as Kellus stared out the front window. He could sense a divide forming between them. Tension swamped the inside of the small car. He’d probably been the one to put it there. He had to take himself out of this and be there for Kellus, nothing else.
“How’d he look?”
“John was still in surgery, but the sheriff took me in a room and showed me a picture to help ID him. God, Arik, he’s bad. He’s unrecognizable. I could only tell from the tattoos on his arms. They said he had internal bleeding, and his ribs punctured his lungs. His head was bandaged, his face bruised and swollen. He was covered in blood. He must have gone through the windshield. He really looks bad.”
“I got a report on the van. It doesn’t sound good. There are conflicting reports, but they think he crossed the highway and flipped into oncoming traffic. I don’t know how he survived,” Arik added.
“After looking at those pictures, I don’t either.”
The compassion he’d felt toward Kellus was back in full force. He hated to see him so beat. Arik reached over, clasping Kellus’s hand.
“Your family seemed truly happy to see you.” Arik brushed his thumb slowly back and forth across Kellus’s knuckles.
“Yeah. They were surprised to find out about you. I could tell by the looks on their faces. I guess they had no idea about us.”
“I noticed that.” Arik glanced over at Kellus and gave a tentative smile.
“Did my dad say anything about the HIV?” Kellus asked.
“Yeah, and I told him it wasn’t for me to tell. He then asked if I was,” Arik replied, then squeezed Kel’s hand.
“I’m sorry he asked that,” Kellus apologized, now looking mortified.
“No, you don’t need to be. It’s okay. I told him no.”
“What’d he say to that?”
“He wanted to know how that worked.” Arik gave a slight chuckle at Kellus’s small gasp. “I guess I could have given him the sordid details, but I didn’t.”
“Arik, I’m sorry you were put in that position.”
“No apology needed. I’m sure he was curious, as most people would be considering our situation.”
“I’m embarrassed.” Kellus turned back to look out the front window and quickly threw a finger out. “Take 35 south all the way to Waxahachie.” Arik swerved to make the exit lane.
Chapter 23
The pressure was almost too much to bear as Kellus sat in the waiting room chair, staring at the small digital clock mounted on the wall. He could hardly believe how much time had passed; it was already ten thirty in the morning. They’d been dealing with this for the last seven hours, and he knew little more than when they’d started. John’s mother and father had only had one briefing in which Kellus picked up words like internal bleeding, damaged spleen, broken bones, and brain swelling.
“Here,” Arik said, pressing a cup of coffee in Kellus’s hand. He took the cup, looking over at the almost full one he’d set on the side table an hour ago.
“Thank you.”
“I know you want to be here, but we need to go check out your house and make arrangements to get the damage fixed. The studio’s open to the elements and they’re expecting heavy rain this afternoon.”
For some reason, that seemed more exhausting than the idea of sitting in this waiting room, under the intense worry all day. He took a long drink of the bitter coffee and nodded at Arik, then stood to talk to John’s father.
“Casey, I need to go close up my studio. I haven’t seen the damage yet, but I hear we have bad weather coming and I have to get some things taken care of.”
John’s father nodded. He was older, close to seventy, and looked every bit his age right then.
“I’ll call you when I’m on my way back here, see if you and Lisa need anything.”
“We’ll be fine, dear,” Lisa, John’s mother, said as she stood. She wasn’t a tall woman, so he had to bend to take her hug, but she held on tight. “You know this wasn’t your fault.”
The blows John’s parents had suffered this morning were substantial. They had no idea of the drug use or the HIV diagnosis as far as he knew. They also hadn’t known that he and John had broken up almost a year ago. Arik had come as an utter shock to the Nickersons.