Shooting Matt Ch. 24

Leon lowers his paper. Darren's face falls. Glenna turns and shakes her head. "Matt, honey, it's not your place to share that kind of information. That's up to Darren, not you."

Matt looks honestly confused. "But, I mean..." he stammers. He sees the look on Darren's face. He steps towards him and holds his hands out palm up. "Darren, dude, I didn't mean to embarrass you are anything. Leon and Glenna are major cool. I'm a fucking idiot sometimes. I really thought they could help you, that's all. I'm sorry."

Darren nods but doesn't look at him. Glenna walks to him and puts an arm around his shoulder. "Come on, sugar. Let me get you some soup. It should be warm enough. You'll feel better." She calls over her shoulder. "Lee, would you mind running down to the shop and getting Darren a tee shirt?" She pulls the back of his shirt out. "Medium. Thanks, honey pie."

"You don't have to do that Mrs..."

"Glenna, sugar, name's Glenna. Didn't I tell you? It must have slipped my mind. You're today's fourteenth customer. You win a free tee shirt. Now ain't this turning out to be your lucky day?"

She manages to pry a quarter of a smile out of him.

No one speaks while they eat. Matt keeps his eyes on his bowl. He only eats half his sandwich. Liam nudges him with his foot and nods towards his plate. "Eat," he mouths at him.

"Glenna, where you surprised when I told you," Leon calls from the end of the room. The paper is folded and lying beside the chair. He has his head back, eyes closed, hands folded over his lap.

"Yes and no. I knew you'd been working up to something. I was shocked, more than surprised and then I wondered why I was shocked. Everything fell into place." She has her hands around a mug of tea. "How long you been dating this young lady, Darren?"

He looks at her. She smiles, nods. "A couple of years," he replies. "Senior year and then this year at college."

"So, you're pretty serious, huh?"

He nods.

Glenna puts a hand on the back of one of his. It's warm from the tea and feels good on his. "Honey, my guess is she suspects something. She may not be able to put it in to words, or even into a coherent thought, but don't you think there's something?"

"I don't think so," he whispers.

"Well, that may be. You don't have to decide anything tonight but you'll have to say something to her sooner or later. I'd suggest sooner but I'm an old busybody." She pats his hand and stands up. "I fed you, the three of you can clean up." She walks over to the couch, picks a book up off the end table and makes herself comfortable.

"I got the dishes," Matt says. He gathers the dishes. He's quiet. They're all quiet. The only sounds are the clink and clank of the dishes and soft whisper of Glenna turning a page every so often.

***

"I really am sorry," Matt whispers.

The three of them are back in the bed. Liam convinced Darren that adding a backache to his list of worries by sleeping on the couch was just silly. They weren't going to fuck around. They were going to sleep and since they had already fucked around what was the point of sleeping on the lumpy fucking couch?

Darren ends up in the middle. He's on his back. Liam and Matt lie on their sides, facing him and each other. Their arms are draped across his body. Part of him wants to get up and run, pretend none of today happened and go back home, forget it and never, ever let something like it happen again. Another part, a larger part of him finds great comfort in simply lying in bed and feeling both welcome and protected.

He woke feeling, to his surprise, halfway decent. His side was sore. Sometime during the night he'd made up his mind. He did his best to not wake Matt or Liam, which was impossible given that he was between them. He told them he'd see them later.

He was down at the dock when Matt went down for his work-out with Leon. Liam sat down beside him. They didn't speak. They watched Matt do his laps. Leon gave them space.

"When you heading out?" It was Liam who broke the silence.

"Tomorrow."

"I hope everything works out for you, Darren. I really do. I'm sorry if what we did fucked you up."

"It's cool. It was going to happen. At least it wasn't with a total asshole." He glances sideways at Liam. "I was so jealous of you guys. All I could think about was getting one of you alone, or both of you. I know that makes me a dick. I knew you guys were a couple. It wasn't like I was hanging around with my tongue hanging out."

"Yeah, sure, but I still feel shitty about it. It's easy for me. I'm gay. End of story. I don't have to deal with the shit you're dealing with or that my dad had to deal with."

"Your dad is bi? Seriously?"

"Yeah," Liam laughs. "Want to hear something really fucked up?"

Darren shrugs.

"Matt was interested in my dad, at first, not me. How fucking whacked is that?"

"You mean, your dad and Matt...no fucking way! And now you and Matt are together? Fuck, man, you got your own shit to deal with." Darren shakes his head.

Liam leans back on his hands. The sun feels good on his face. "Naw, not really. It's all good. My dad was cool about it. He knew there was too big an age gap for things to work with him and Matt."

"Still, man, I mean, fuck." He chuckles. "That would be like some guy my age hooking up with my mom and then he and I end up together. Too weird, dude, way too fucking weird."

"What are you going to do, you know, about your girlfriend? Do you know yet?"

"I'm not going to tell her."

"You sure that's best?"

"Yeah. I'm going to treat this like a virus or something. I got it. I got a fever. And now it's out of my system. I'm done."

"Darren! Come on! We're gonna be late!"

They turn. A stout woman, dressed in capris and a shirt just a little too tight for her ample bosom, beckons.

"Comin', mom!" Darren hollers as he stands. Liam holds out his hand.

"If I don't see you before you take off tomorrow, good luck, Darren. I'm glad we met you. Be cool, okay?"

"Yeah, only way to be, right?" He turns to go and stops. "Tell, Matt bye for me, would ya?"

"Right on. Happy to. Hey, if you ever need anything, write Glenna or Leon, they'll know how to get a hold of me or Matt."

Darren starts to say something but closes his mouth as his mom bellows at him to hurry up. He gives Liam a wave and goes to meet his mom.

***

They don't see Darren that night or the next morning. Glenna confirms he and his mom had left early that morning. Leon puts Matt through his paces. They have lunch and sprawl out on the bed.

"Man, I feel, like, really low." Matt whispers to the ceiling. Liam rolls over and throws an arm across his chest.

"Me, too. Darren told me he's not going to say anything that he's done, whatever that means, so there's no need to say anything to his girlfriend."

"Maybe he's right," Matt replies. "Look at Leon. He's keep his vow to be faithful."

"Yeah, but Leon's fucking weird, dude. He's not like normal people. Plus, he told Glenna he was gay. He let her decide whether or not to risk a relationship with him."

"True, all true, brah, Liam." He rolls on his side, face to face.

They reach for each other at the same time. Their kisses are soft as snowflakes. Without discussing it, Liam rolls onto his back, pulling Matt with him. Matt kneels between his lover's legs. He takes Liam in his mouth. Liam's finger pluck at his hair. He wets Liam with his mouth, wets himself. When he's inside, he leans over Liam. Liam pulls him down and his legs wrap around him.

They make love, slowly, intensely, the only sound coming from their kisses and sighs.

When Matt tenses in his embrace, Liam tightens his hold, pulling him closer, deeper.

They whisper, "I love you", at the same time and smile.