Disclaimer: The following story contains activity that would be considered of homosexual nature between consenting college students. While none of it crosses into a gratuitous nature, if such material is offensive to you or you are not of the legal age to read such material in your area, please do not. Other than that, please enjoy the story!
The Living Years 29
Chapter 29 "Memories in Small Doses"
This is what they knew so far. He was a 6'1, superbly built, delicately tanned, blonde haired, blue eyed specimen of perfection that everyone had to admit was a looker.
There was that and that he had no name.
With no identification on the guy that had literally wandered into their lives two days earlier, the most anything could say about the guy was that they wouldn't kick him out of bed.
Other than that they knew nothing other than that he'd been unconscious for nearly two days from something they'd heard the doctors describe to them as blunt force trauma.
Apparently, whatever had happened to him had been enough to cause him to be in the state he was in. Apart from that, though there wasn't a scratch on him.
"He's up!" Grace spoke, rushing out of his room.
Trey, Noah and Zoey stood up and walked into the room, each one a bit nervous.
"His vital signs are good, remarkably so actually for a guy that's been unconscious for two days," his doctor, Dr. Brooks spoke, looking over the guy's chart. "Now maybe you can tell us what happened to you."
The guy looked over everyone before trying to sit up.
"No, no don't try to move. Just stay where you are," Grace spoke.
"She's right," Dr. Brooks said. "As best as I can see you suffered some kind of fall or trip that amazingly enough didn't leave a scratch. Does that sound about right?"
The guy looked around at everyone.
"Uh...I...guess," he replied.
"Is that what happened then? You fell?" Dr. Brooks asked.
The guy looked around for a few moments before sighing, a bit frustrated.
"Who are you people? Where the hell am I?" he asked.
Everyone exchanged glances before Dr. Brooks spoke.
"I was hoping this wouldn't happen," he said.
"What?" Grace asked, concerned.
"Ordinarily I wouldn't tell you but since you did all bring him here and no one seems to know who he is, I guess it won't hurt anything," Dr. Brooks started. "It seems as though our John Doe here is experiencing what we call retrograde amnesia."
"Amnesia? For how long?" Grace asked.
"Could be a day or two. Could be a week or two. It's hard to say," Dr. Brooks replied. "But him having amnesia is going to make it significantly harder for the police to identify him and find his family."
"But they will right? I mean, find his family. They are gonna find him right?" Grace asked.
"Let's hope so," Dr. Brooks spoke before excusing himself from the room, shutting the door behind him.
Grace looked over at their John Doe, feeling concerned. She had no idea who the guy was yet felt like she was completely responsible for what had happened to him.
"Am I related to any of you?" the guy asked.
Grace sighed, feeling like she almost couldn't handle the situation so Zoey spoke up.
"No," she said. "Sorry. But you heard the doctor. I mean, the police are working on finding your family. You'll probably be home safely in no time."
"Yeah but what if they don't find them? Then what?" Grace spoke up.
"What?" Zoey asked.
"You heard the doctor. He has amnesia. He's not gonna be able to help anyone find his family any time soon. He could be in here forever," Grace finished
"Grace!" Zoey said.
"I don't wanna be in this place forever," the guy spoke. "Please, you have to help me."
Grace looked down at him.
"I wish I could but what can we do? I mean, we don't know who you are-"
"But you could help me figure it out," the guy argued. "Please, I don't wanna stay here like somebody's prisoner."
Grace looked over at everyone.
"Okay," she started, walking over to the chair that had the guy's now fully dry clothes on it.
"Grace, what are you doing?" Trey asked.
"You heard him and I agree. We can't leave him here to let the police take they time finding his family when we can do it faster ourselves," Grace replied.
"Grace, it's not up to us," Trey replied. "Guys, help me out here!"
Noah and Zoey said nothing for a moment before Zoey was the first one to do so.
"I actually agree with Grace," she said. "I mean, the doctor said when he woke up he'd be okay to leave. He's pretty much fine. You think someone that can leave anytime they want to is gonna get the same attention from the police as opposed to someone on deaths doorstep? He could be here months as long as he can't remember who he is."
Trey looked over at Noah.
"Noah!" he exclaimed.
The truth of the matter was that he'd been having a few problems with trey lately. Needless to say he could barely stand to even look at Trey at the moment and this John Doe was probably one of the most attractive guys he'd ever seen.
Apart from Trey he hadn't really felt this nervous to be around another guy. It was a weird feeling, one that he knew that he shouldn't have had, but had nonetheless.
If nothing else, John Doe was nice to look at.
"Sorry Trey," he spoke. "I'm with them."
Trey sighed as he watched Grace helping John Doe get dressed.
"This is crazy. This is goddamn fucking crazy!" he sighed.
John Doe stared at the tag on the shirt lying across his lap as Grace undid the buttons to the back of his hospital gown. It read "Chad Sports". He liked the way that sounded.
"Chad," he spoke aloud, which caused Grace to stop unbuttoning.
"Oh my god, boy! Is that your name?" she asked, hopefully.
He looked around at everyone a smile growing on his face.
"It is now," he replied.
Grace mulled it over in her head.
"I like it," she replied, as she continued to help him get dressed. "Now let's get you ready to break out of here."
"I never thought we'd be doing this again," Noah spoke, amused with the situation.
"Ya'll are crazy," Trey said. "And I'm crazy for helping you."
"Shut up boy and go keep watch," Grace spoke as she and Zoey helped Chad out of bed.
"Hi," Chad said aloud to himself. "I'm Chad. Chad Sports."
Jesse had finally pieced together what all had happened to him a few days earlier.
Happy to have his parents gone, he'd thrown what had amounted to a mini party, ladies only. One thing led to another and soon enough, his entire apartment had ended up looking like a tornado had swept through there and only there.
Apparently, as he was just discovering, Elsa had returned sometime during that night only to see what she had only described as `un nido del pecado y la suciedad', whatever that was supposed to mean. So she quit just like that. Thus the reason he had no food and had awoken to such an untidy place.
Which meant only one thing for him now: he now needed to find a new housekeeper, as there was no way he was going to consider buying his own food and cleaning his own place when he could pay someone to do it for him. And as such he'd been conducting interviews all day long, having interviewed nearly twenty people, most of whom were fellow students, who all seemed to want the job.
"So, tell me what you don't like about yourself," Jesse spoke, sitting back.
"What?" the guy sitting across from him asked.
"Sorry, my Tivo has been recording something going by the name of `Nip/Tuck' and I can't seem to bring myself to get rid of the trainwreck in disguise. Shall we move on?"
"Uh..."
"I see here it says your name is Chuck," Jesse spoke looking over the guys application. "Or Charles, rather, but you expect people to be fool enough to call you the silly little nickname you've somehow unfortunately deemed as being cute."
"I'm sorry...is...is that rhetorical?" Chuck asked.
Jesse simply eyed Charles over his application before returning his gaze to the application itself.
He felt like some kind of actor. He knew that he couldn't completely replace Elsa so he was treating the entire process like a game. He'd even gone so far as to buy a cheap pair of non prescription glasses from the local drugstore to look like he was taking the entire thing more seriously than he actually was.
"What would you say your greatest skill is?" Jesse asked, not caring in the least actually.
"Uh, well typically I like to get as much done as possible in as little time as it takes to do it," Chuck replied.
"So you like to rush things, then?" Jesse asked.
"I was kinda thinking more along the lines of me being time efficient," Chuck replied.
"Oh," Jesse replied, looking back over at Chuck. "Of course."
Jesse could see how nervous the guy was. And despite the fact that he was having a decent amount of fun getting under his skin like he'd been doing, the truth of the matter was that he was actually starting to get tired. Interviewing a bunch of perfectly normal people and turning them into insane nutcases by the end of it all really took a lot out of a person.
He felt like he was going to actually have to start looking for positive things in the people he was interviewing. The problem with that was that he almost didn't want to find something positive in anyone. He'd already seen what having a girl he trusted turn psycho on him could do for his life and the last time he let himself be stupid enough to trust someone of the male persuasion, the guy had kissed him, his brother captured the entire thing on video and proceeded to blackmail him for six weeks.
Needless to say, he had trust issues.
And besides, he was still having more than enough fun with the tormenting to console him.
"A male housekeeper? Ever heard of one?" Jesse asked.
"Um...are you being rhetorical again?" Chuck asked as Jesse rose from his seat and began circling him. "Because if you are, I can't...really....what are you doing?"
Jesse had placed himself directly behind Chuck and was now right over the side of his shoulders, so close to his head it looked like he might have been trying to smell his hair.
"I'm having some doubts as to what kind of real man you are, Chuck," Jesse spoke. "Shall we be frank?"
"Oh..okay..."
Jesse rushed over so that he was right in front of Chuck, not too far away from his face.
"I've never heard of a male maid slash housekeeper slash nanny before-"
"Nanny? You have a kid-"
"You want to shag me don't you? Admit it, that's the only reason you're here!"
"Er..."
"Just admit the truth. Or is it that you can't handle the truth? Is that is Charles? Can you not handle the truth about yourself?"
Chuck stared at Jesse before looking away briefly.
"Is being gay a requirement of the job?" he asked. "Because if it is, I think you probably have the wrong guy."
"Come again?" Jesse asked, feeling like his thunder had just been stolen from under him.
"And if you're gay, I hope you're not expecting me to like, fall in love with or something because that would just be unprofessional," Chuck continued.
"Huh?" Jesse asked, now thoroughly confused. He was `this' close to feeling like he should be ransacking his apartment for some hidden cameras to a gameshow he didn't know about. He really was not expecting to get the reaction he'd gotten, especially after the routine had worked so well on all the others.
Jesse stared at Chuck staring back at him. It was a weird, awkward moment that neither of them quite knew how to break. That was about when Jesse realized that he had somehow in the heat of everything jumped into Chuck's lap. He looked down and then back up at Chuck before jumping up and straightening up his shirt as if something had happened to it.
"Well, obviously that was something I don't usually do," he spoke, not really sure what the right thing to say was in that moment.
Chuck seemed to think about the words he'd say next before actually saying them.
"So.....?"
"So you're hired," Jesse spoke, liking the idea that someone was actually able to stump him in a way that he pretty much deserved granted how he'd been acting. "And I'm hungry. You do cook, yes Charles?"
"Can I touch him?" Jeremy asked, inches away from Chad's face as he stared him down.
Grace, Noah, Trey and Zoey had managed to successfully break Chad out of the hospital without anyone knowing before deciding to retreat to the boys' room to talk about the entire situation.
Noah removed his jacket as he walked past Jeremy.
"Yeah, just don't play with him. He bites," he said.
Jeremy looked back over at Chad who clinked his teeth together loudly causing Jeremy to blink and stumble back a little.
"Are you okay Chad? You need anything?" Grace asked, sitting on the edge of Noah's bed rubbing Chad's back.
So far all anyone knew about Chad was that he knew his name wasn't Chad. That and he was one supremely good looking guy. They figured he couldn't have been any older than 21 or 22 years old. Which meant that he could blend in with them perfectly and no one would ask any questions.
Other than that, they were pretty much up dry creek when it came to what to do otherwise.
"So to recap, random, bruised but unbloodied blonde Justin Timberlake light asks for help, collapses, you all take him to the hospital, proceed to break him out from said hospital pending likely uncomfortable criminal investigative questioning and bring him back here to...do...what, exactly?" Jeremy spoke in only two breaths.
Everyone looked around at each other.
"You're the one that never leaves the room right?" Chad asked, as Noah who'd previously been signaling to Chad to shut up, put his face in his hands and sighed.
Jeremy looked over at Noah before deciding to play it all off.
"Only if there's a power outage," he replied.
Chad looked around at everything in the room. He found it strange how his memory was working. It was like he knew what some things were and what some things did but then there were a lot of things that he was unsure about. He felt stupid. Like he was a child that needed constant hand holding otherwise he'd end up somehow hurting himself or worse.
He just couldn't figure out what he knew and what he didn't know, and that was the part that was frustrating him so much. But so far the people he'd run into had shown him nothing but the utmost patience so he was going to do his best not to get frustrated with any of them.
"I'm sorry but you guys are crazy," Jeremy spoke matter-of-factly. "Well except for you Zoey. I bet you had nothing to do with this."
"Please, her ass drove the getaway car," Grace spoke.
"At least somebody agrees with me," Trey said. "People saw us with him. How long do you think it's gonna be before the police are around here looking for Chad?"
"Try never," Zoey started. "We never signed anything with our names so they only have sight to go on and the hospital is miles from school. There's no way they'd look here for him."
"Unless he's a student here," Trey shot back.
Everyone looked over at Chad. While the home building site wasn't too far away from campus, the fact was no one knew for sure because of where they'd found him whether or not he was an actual student at school. He could have been from the neighborhood they were building the house. Or not; no one knew and that was the underlying issue.
"Well, I think we all can agree that until we figure this all out, Chad's gotta stay somewhere," Noah started.
Trey looked over at Noah. He couldn't believe how willingly his boyfriend was going along with inviting this unknown, albeit gorgeous, stranger into their lives, willing to risk potentially breaking the law for him, among other things.
"Well obviously this place is out," Jeremy started. "There's only one potential bed sharing space left and I have that reserved for a very special someone."
"You don't have like, a secret blowup doll somewhere in here do you?" a disgusted Zoey asked looking around upon noticing Jeremy's wink at her.
"What about Jesse?" Grace asked.
"Who's that?" Chad asked.
"He's the British asshole that kept suggesting we leave you on the side of the road so the police wouldn't think we tried to kill you," Noah replied.
"Oh," Chad replied, still not knowing who Jesse was but making up his mind that he was probably someone Noah didn't like very much.
"We could still ask," Grace spoke.
"Not tonight, though," Zoey spoke. "I think it'll be a good idea if we all just stay here tonight and work on sorting this all out tomorrow."
"Good idea," Grace said.
There was a short silence in the room, filled with gazing looks amongst everyone, the majority of the eyes in the small space plastered upon Chad's built frame before there was a series of odd knocks at the door.
No one immediately moved before Jeremy spoke up.
"Oh yeah, make the fat guy get up," he stated.
"I'll get it," Noah spoke, walking over and opening the door.
"I was looking for...oh, what is this? A party?" Sierra asked, looking around.
She had bag filled with things Noah couldn't quite see in her hands that she shifted from one shoulder to another before altogether throwing on the floor in the room and moving past Noah to let herself in.
"Isn't that Sexy Amnesia guy?" she asked, taking a seat directly on top of Chad's lap.
"Do we know her?" Chad asked, looking around at everyone.
"Sometimes," Zoey mumbled.
"Well I don't wanna know how he got from being babysat by police in the hospital to here, all I wanna know is who is he?"
Chad, who didn't particularly mind the delicate and sweet smelling Sierra sitting on his lap, shifted a bit as he laughed uncomfortably, a little nervous to look her in the eyes.
"You mean, you can't tell me?" he asked.
Sierra seemed to think about the statement for a moment before she pulled out her cell phone and took a quick picture of Chad.
"Not yet," she replied. "That's so going on MySpace, by the way."
"What's a my space?" Chad asked.
"Seriously? You've had him out of the hospital how long? We have to teach the poor guy!" Sierra spoke.
"Or you can just leave," Noah spoke. "You're the only one not taking this seriously."
Sierra, who seemed to be offended with the comment, stood up and marched over to Noah.
"Now you listen to me to you sad, sad little man," she started. "Just because I'm not crushing on the guy like some twelve year old school slut doesn't mean-"
"What are you talking about?" Noah asked.
Sierra stopped, looked back over at Chad, seeming to mull something over in her mind before changing her path of conversation entirely.
"So none of you know who he is or...how to even figure it out?" she asked.
No one spoke for a moment before Grace decided to take the liberty of doing so.
"We're gonna do our best," she said, hoping it was reassuring enough to Chad.
Sierra chuckled to herself for a moment, the wheels spinning around in her mind.
"Yeah, I know exactly what all of you guys' `best' is," she said. "I'll leave you to it then. Wouldn't want to slow you down or anything like that."
Everyone watched in mild confusion as Sierra gathered her bag and exited the room, no one quite sure why she'd even shown up in the first place but everyone sure she was probably up to something.
"I'm not entirely sure, but it kinda seemed like she was a little...crazy," Chad spoke.
"Yeah," Zoey spoke, standing up. "You definitely fit in with us."
Chad hoped that it was true as he was starting to really enjoy everyone. But he couldn't help but to wonder what he'd be doing in that moment had he not lost his memory.
Grace looked like she needed several more cups of coffee before she'd even be halfway functional. Zoey looked like someone had kicked her neck sideways and it was permanently stuck that way. Trey looked like he hadn't even heard of the word sleep, his eyes were so bloodshot. And Noah's hair was so unruly he looked he'd just rolled all the way down a large hill, fallen asleep for a decade and was cruelly awoken from his slumber.
The night hadn't been good to anyone, which wasn't surprising since six people had decided to cram themselves in a room that was just barely big enough for two.
Needless to say, it was now morning and the only person who seemed to be at full alert was Chad, who seemed to be taking in all the sights and smells around him as students buzzed about with trays full of bacon and eggs.
His head followed everyone that passed him. He seemed completely fascinated with everything. He knew what food was and what a kitchen was but he'd completely forgotten about breakfast and when anyone was supposed to eat breakfast.
Apparently, the most appropriate time was 7:30 in the morning.
"Are you guys okay?" Chad asked, concerned for his new friends.
Noah and Trey had given up the bottom bunk bed for Grace and Zoey who had graciously decided to let Chad sleep in it with them. Now both girls were realizing that three people sharing a single twin bed was the craziest thing they could have ever thought of.
"Yeah, yeah," Grace yawned, before pouring herself some more coffee. "You just gotta give us a minute. We'll be alright."
Not really remembering altogether how sarcasm worked but how time worked perfectly, Chad looked over at the clock on the wall, actually hoping that a minute would pass and everyone would be just as ready to explore and take on the day as he was.
As the five of them all sat around in complete silence just trying to wake themselves up, Shawn and Ben sat a few tables away. Ben was gulfing down on his second plate of food while Shawn had barely touched his. He was too busy checking out what was going on with Trey and the random guy they'd found.
"What is he doing with them?" Shawn asked.
Ben, whose back was to Trey and the others, turned around and looked over to where Shawn was looking before turning back around and attempting to speak with a mouth full of food.
"Ben, swallow first," Shawn spoke, waiting for Ben to do so to get his response.
"Why don't you go ask em why," was Ben's response before he picked up his glass of orange juice and swallowed down nearly the entire glass.
Shawn couldn't figure it out but he was really thinking about several possibilities, including the most hopeful one for him-that the guy was now Noah's boyfriend or something. The truth was the guy was one of the most gorgeous guys he'd ever seen and while he wasn't his type, he was happy that he was so good looking. He was hoping maybe it would cause turmoil for Noah and Trey somehow.
Then again, he knew that he was really, REALLY reaching in his thoughts.
Ben looked over at his best friend, who'd barely touched his food, had been almost completely silent the entire morning and had seemingly been staring down someone he claimed to be over.
"Come on," Ben sighed, standing up.
Shawn looked up at his rising friend.
"What?" he asked.
"We're going over there," Ben replied, not even waiting for Shawn's response.
"What? Ben, no....Ben...shit!" Shawn mumbled before getting up and rushing over to his friend who was already nearly at Trey's table.
Ben had reached the table and Shawn stood just a little behind him, a little nervous to be at their table.
"You guys look like shit," Ben, master of blunt, spoke. "You go clubbing last night?"
"Hi, I'm Chad," Chad spoke, being the only one to pay any attention to Ben. "I have amnesia. Do you know me?"
"Should I know you?" Ben asked.
"I guess not," Chad replied before realizing that a minute had since passed and no one looked any more ready to take on the day than they had before. "Wanna sit down?"
"Don't mind if I do," Ben replied looking back at Shawn before taking a set next to Noah, who's head was resting in his arms on top of the table. It looked almost like he was knocked out cold.
Shawn relented and took a seat next to Ben, almost across from Trey who seemed to notice that he was there but didn't give off anything in his facial expression that would indicate how he felt about it.
"You guys were eating breakfast too?" Chad asked.
"Were?" Ben asked before taking a piece of bacon from Noah's completely untouched plate of food. "I wasn't finished. Shawn here wanted to know why you were here instead of the hospital we took you to."
Apparently that statement had caused everyone to perk up some because just as Chad had taken it upon himself to respond did Noah sit up, Trey shift in his chair and both Zoey and Grace seemed to look a little tense.
"You know what boy? Mind ya business, nobody wanna get into all that shit this early in the morning," Grace said, looking a bit angry.
"Okay, okay, I'm set," Ben replied. "I don't think Shawn is though."
Trey looked over at Shawn who was looking back at him.
"It's okay, I don't mind telling them," Chad spoke, a smile on his face.
"Except that you can't go around telling every damn body about what happened and why you're here, boy," Grace replied. "You want people to tell the police so you have to go back to that hospital?"
"People would do that?" Chad asked, actually surprised.
Grace chuckled cynically.
"Boy, just wait to you remember how the world works," she replied.
Chad seemed to still be a little confused but he didn't want to annoy everyone by asking them questions every five seconds, even though he had a new question to ask every three seconds.
"Did you eat my bacon?" Noah asked, looking over at Ben.
"Sorry, did you want that?" Ben asked, chewing contently on Noah's hashbrown.
Shawn continued looking over at Trey. He felt like there was just a bunch of stuff that Trey wanted to tell him but that he couldn't because Noah was around. And that, as he was starting to realize, was his greatest problem at this point.
"Well, is it safe to say Chad here is sticking around for a bit?" Ben asked. "Cuz if that's the case, having a guy that no one knows anything about around is gonna work wonders with the ladies."
"Really?" Zoey asked, fully interested on how it was Ben thought he could use Chad's situation to his advantage.
"Yeah I mean can you picture having dozens of hot girls wanting to teach you the joys of sex because you forgot what it was?" Ben explained. "You did forget sex right?"
Chad didn't respond.
Zoey looked back over at Ben.
"How does that help you out, though?" she asked.
"Because I'll just tell people he's my brother," Ben replied. "Girls like that kind of stuff. Sorry bro."
Shawn just chuckled at Ben's thought process as Zoey rolled her eyes at Ben.
"I feel sorry for the girls you know," she said.
Chad continued to watch people passing him, now taking notice of the people who seemed to be exiting rather than entering the cafeteria.
"Where are those people going?" he found himself blurting out.
Everyone looked over at Chad for a few seconds before looking over to where he was looking.
"Shit, we gotta go," Grace spoke, standing up.
"Go where?" Chad asked, confused.
"Class," Grace replied. "We all have class."
"Who should he go with?" Zoey asked.
Chad couldn't quite grasp the idea of a class even1 though it sounded like something he'd be familiar with. As everyone started debating who he'd be going to class with and which classes they al had, Chad found himself getting frustrated. He was grateful to everyone for what they'd done so far but he was counting on being able to go out and explore things in order to get his memory back, or at the very least re-learn what things were so he wouldn't feel so ignorant.
Still, he knew that he was nowhere near ready to be out on his own yet, which was the thing that frustrated him the most. He wanted to get to that point and knew that until he did, he needed everyone to help him get there.
"For now I think it would be a good idea if he just came with me and Trey," Grace spoke.
The two of them shared the first class of the day together and it worried Trey that he'd be among the first to play babysitter to Chad. It still didn't sit right with him that he and everyone else had pretty much broken the guy out of hospital arrest only to parade him around school like there was no possible way they could be found out. He seemed to be the only one concerned which in itself concerned him.
And with no objections from anyone, it seemed like Grace's idea was going into effect, as much as it bothered Trey.
"Fine," he spoke. "Let's go then."
Everyone stood up, each one of them having classes that started within the next 15 minutes but no one particularly in any mood to go to them.
"So, what is the first class?" Chad asked as everyone started out of the cafeteria.
"Criminology," Trey mumbled, trying not to revel in the sheer irony of it.
"Aha! Oh wait, aw," Sierra spoke, tongue sticking just-so out the corner of her mouth as she clicked towards a new page.
Shawn looked over at her.
The two of them shared a Computer Skills class together that was more or less a throwaway class that counted for their computer credit. You pretty much got an `A' for showing up and not much more than that.
For being 8:30 in the morning, most people were barely awake so the entire room was pretty silent. So Sierra's outburst had been something completely unexpected and what's more, alarming, once Shawn got a good look at her face.
"What are you doing?" he asked, quietly so the attention focused on her could die down faster.
Sierra didn't even look over at Shawn.
"I think that gay lover of yours just sent you a message on Facebook," she replied. "Why don't you check it out?"
"What?" Shawn asked. "I don't have a gay lover."
"Well then look up Match.com, find one and stay out of my business," Sierra replied, a bit more harshly than she would have liked.
Shawn wasn't faltered by her brittle attitude. In fact he found it amusing. It seemed like out of everyone he knew, he was behaving the most normal at the moment. He decided to just ignore it and go back to doing what he'd been doing before, which had actually in fact been checking his Facebook page.
Meanwhile Sierra was hard at work once again. When she visited everyone the previous day only to learn that they'd broken Chad out of the hospital, something instantly went off in her mind. She knew that they weren't thinking deviously and that they had only broken him out of the hospital out of some kind of compassion they had for the guy.
That left her to do all the devious thinking. She realized that Grace and her friends were one group of people who already had enough problems of their own to even consider giving their full attention to someone who wanted their own life back. She figured she'd do the work that would normally take them weeks or months as fast as she could and reap the benefits for herself.
After all, Chad, or whatever his real name was, was a pretty good looking guy. Probably the most gorgeous, non celebrity she'd ever laid eyes on and she knew a lot of good looking guys.
But that wasn't the point. The point was that she wanted to be the one who knew who he was before he did. It made things more interesting that way. And of course if it turned out he was a total fake, she wanted to be the one to completely rip the guy to shreds and take all the credit.
So far she'd uploaded the pictures that she'd taken of him into the computer and had been doing what she could to try to match them with anything on a lot of the major sites she knew of to see if he was some D-List actor or escort service man whore. Or at the very least, something that would give her some kind of idea as to who he was before he went all John Doe on her and everyone else.
Unfortunately for her she didn't seem to be getting many hits, mostly because she wasn't quite sure where 3she should be looking. Without a name or any information whatsoever to go off about the guy, all she pretty much had was that face of his. And so far that hadn't been going so well over for her.
Just when she thought she'd been close, it would turn out to be nothing at all and it was starting to frustrate her. It was starting to frustrate her to the point of getting help for her little problem.
"What do you know about computers?" she asked, expecting Shawn to realize she'd been talking to him.
Shawn realized this but decided not to completely give in to her.
"Hello? I asked you a question," Sierra said, this time actually looking over at Shawn.
"I know," Shawn replied. "And considering the fact that I'm in a freshman level computer skills class, I'd say not much."
"So like if I wanted to find out who someone was..."
"And by someone would you happen to be talking about Grace's new pet amnesiac, Chad?" Shawn asked.
"I said `someone'. Now don't think too hard about this, I don't wanna put any strain on that brain of yours," Sierra replied.
Shawn pursed his lips together in a tight smile as he gently nodded his head.
"Right, well let me go back to doing what all us dumb people do when we don't wanna talk to someone," he said, before putting on iPod headphones in his ears and turning his attention back over to his computer.
Sierra stared at him aghast for a few moments before sighing, frustrated with her inability to do what she thought would be very easy to do.
She knew there had to be a sure fire way of figuring out who their new mystery guy was and she was going to do her best to figure out what that way was.
They may have been in class but neither Grace nor Trey were particularly invested in anything that had occurred. While Trey was too busy wondering what the repercussions would be of helping Chad escape the hospital, Grace had spent the majority of the class texting Zoey back and forward about, who else, Chad. It was almost like the Pink Panthers, Josh, her mom's new boyfriend and anything else she might have had going on in her life didn't exist anymore thanks to Chad and that was worrying Trey to no end. Grace was his best friend and he'd never seen her so wrapped up in something like this before.
Meanwhile he was having his own problems regarding Chad. Shawn had been the first guy he'd ever been attracted to in his entire life. Within hours he'd met the second guy he'd ever been attracted to and for months now, that had been it for him. He recognized when other guys were good looking but he'd never found himself so attracted to another person like Noah or Shawn that he found himself looking for ways to not have to be around him just so he could save himself from getting caught up in lust.
And as much as he didn't want to admit it, probably the main reason he was apprehensive about Chad being around was because he was attracted him. Full on, boner popping attracted to the guy. There was a way about him, an innocence that Trey hadn't experienced since Shawn and more recently Noah. And that, was what worried him even more.
The last thing he wanted was for his boyfriend to discover his attraction to another guy. A guy his best friend insisted on spending every waking minute with.
Currently, he and Grace were waiting with Chad near the library at the large water fountain he'd nearly drowned in months earlier. Chad seemed to be taking everything in while Grace was on the phone trying to figure out where everyone was so she could hand Chad over to the next babysitter of the hour. As it stood, she had about ten minutes to gather everyone before they both needed to get to their next classes.
"Do people take showers in this one like the ones at home?" Chad asked, looking over the water fountain like a kid in a candy store somewhere.
"What?" Trey asked, having heard the question but not really paying attention.
Chad hadn't waited for a response either. He simply began walking around the circumference of the fountain, worrying Trey.
"Chad, maybe you shouldn't do that," he said, worried Chad would fall in and hurt himself somehow.
"Why? I'm fine," Chad replied, obviously having fun.
Trey looked around at the various people watching Chad traverse around the fountain before looking back over at Chad like a mother watching her child ride a bike without training wheels for the first time. He was a wreck but for a lot of different reasons.
Grace was still preoccupied with her three way phone conversations and Trey was too busy worrying about Chad for either of them to notice Jesse approaching the both of them, a curious look of awe plastered on his face as he removed his sunglasses to get a better look at Chad walking the fountain.
"Well if that isn't just a nutter gone mad then," he spoke as he watched.
Trey, having caught sight of Jesse walked over and stood next to him.
"You remember Chad right?" he asked.
"I remember that loon there asking for our help and you lot rushing him to the hospital when he fell down face first," Jesse replied. "He seems to have recovered quite nicely then."
"Not exactly," Trey said. "He has amnesia. Can't remember a thing about himself or where he's from. He doesn't even know his name."
"I thought you said-"
"He called himself that," Trey replied.
Jesse and Trey watched Chad for a few more moments before noticing how well he seemed to be handling walking around the thin edges of the fountain before totally shocking them both when he flipped backwards and started walking around the fountain with the palms of his hands.
"Have you gone off and befriended a carnie I don't know about?" Jesse asked.
Trey was just as shocked as he was, not really sure what to say in that moment.
A few moments later the two of them were joined by both Noah and Zoey who just stood watching in awe as Chad continued to do his thing around the fountain. Grace, realizing the people she'd been talking to on the phone were now standing next to her hung up and looked over to where they were.
"Boy, get down from there!" she shouted.
"No wait, I want to see I can get him to catch a fish with his mouth first," Jesse spoke sarcastically.
Grace didn't even wait for Chad to fully extend himself upright before she pulled him over.
"Drawing attention to yourself is exactly the thing I told yo ass NOT to do!" she spoke.
Chad seemed like he was ready to apologize before he caught notice of Jesse. He stared at him for a few seconds before saying anything at all.
"Do I know you?" he asked.
"How should I bloody know if you know me? The more important question is whether I know you," Jesse replied.
"I've seen you before," Chad replied.
"Yes, boy, at the site when you-"
"No, no, no, that's not it," Chad responded.
On the one hand Jesse was borderline creeped out that some random guy that he'd only ever seen once in his life was claiming to know him in a way that would suggest it wasn't in a way he wanted to know about.
On the other, however, the one that was most prevalent on his mind, he was intrigued with the notion that a guy who didn't even know himself felt he knew him. It made him feel important to know this. It made him feel like Chad was someone he wanted to get to know to, at the very least, teach the proper ways of life before Noah and his band of gay mates got to him first.
"Maybe you know me, maybe you don't," Jesse replied. "But I can assure that if you don't, I am most definitely somebody that you WANT to know."
Grace sighed while shaking her head before checking the time on her cell phone.
"Alright ya'll, who gon take him next?" she asked.
"There's only 12 people in my next class," Zoey replied. "He'll stand out."
"Perfect then, he can go with me," Jesse spoke, sounding excited at the prospect.
"Uh, I don't think so boy. You don't know anything about Chad," Grace objected.
Jesse crossed his arms.
"I happen to know that his name is most certainly NOT Chad," Jesse replied. "Besides, according to him we know each other. Maybe we were old elementary school mates. Who knows?"
"Point is, no one trusts you to be alone with the guy so one of us needs to be with him," Noah replied.
"So go with him boy," Grace spoke. "I gotta get to class. We got group presentations again today and people who are late usually gotta go first."
Trey wanted to say something, wanted to object as everyone seemed to be fine with the arrangement. Already Grace and Zoey were making their way towards their respective classes while Noah, Chad and Jesse seemed ready to go wherever it is they were going. It was like no one even cared what he had to say regarding the matter.
He just sighed, standing where he was before deciding that today would be the first day in a long time that he'd actually be walking himself to class.
Sierra had to look at herself in the mirror one final time before entering the building. She'd forgone the rest of her classes just to travel downtown where she currently was to make it to one place in particular.
She had a whole act planned and was hoping it would work for her so she wouldn't have to deal with any further explanations as to what she was up to.
She took one final deep breath before bracing herself and entering the building. It seemed like such a busy place with all kinds of things going on around her and people buzzing around past her. She wasn't sure where to devote her attention at first before realizing that she needed to focus and headed straight to the front desk.
She'd rushed over in a way that made it seem she was in some kind of hurry and immediately added to the effect with a bit of breathlessness.
"This guy is following me," she started.
"I'm sorry?" asked the female receptionists who Sierra hoped didn't have the stick up her ass it looked like she had.
"At school. He's following me around, grabbing my ass, talking about fingering my you know what and ordinarily that wouldn't be so unusual, I mean look at me, I'm hot," Sierra continued before leaning over the counter assuredly. "It's just, I'm a role model for so many people at my school. I need to set an example that being a slut is not something you want to get yourself into."
"Miss-"
"Petigrew," Sierra lied. "I'm on my own, living for a day. I was afraid to come here but I made up my mind that I need someone to help me figure out who this guy is before I go nuts!"
Sierra watched the receptionist watching her and found herself having to look down a bit uncomfortably as the receptionist rose from her seat, as if trying to get a better look at Sierra.
"Miss, you are aware you've come to the Federal Bureau of Investigation building?"
"Oh, yeah totally. I thought why go to the police when I can take this to someone I know will get me the information I need."
The receptionist stared at Sierra for a few moments before sitting back in her chair and sighing as she obviously went about doing things she found to be more important.
"The FBI is too pressed for time to even consider handing something as trivial as the petty problems of a teenage schoolgirl," the receptionist spoke.
Sierra stared at how smug the receptionist looked before getting upset.
"Listen Brenda Beat Up Your Child," Sierra started, the fake sweet tone she'd used before completely replaced by one that meant business. "I'm not leaving here until I find out who the HELL Chad Sports really is!"
"Security!"
"Oh, so you're gonna call security on me? God forbid you do your job and sort shit out before is goes that far. But I guess you just can't be bothered to lift that fat ass of yours up again."
"Security-"
"No, no Terri, it's okay. I'll handle it," came the response of a well groomed and suited man standing directly to Sierra's right.
Catching sight of him, Sierra gathered her things and started walking back the way she came.
"I think I'll just leave it," she mumbled as she tried to get away fast.
"Wait, wait wait, honey-"
"Leave me alone dad," Sierra spoke continuing towards the exit.
"Will you stop acting like such a brat and give me just two minutes of your time? Please?"
Sierra stopped, sighed and turned around saying something she'd wanted to say to her father for a week now but hadn't had the chance.
"Why didn't you come to family weekend?" she asked.
Her father, a pretty high ranking FBI agent, seemed a bit taken aback before he looked around while placing his hands in his pockets.
"I'll answer that for you. For the same reason you didn't come home for my birthday. Or for Christmas, Thanksgiving or pretty much anything ever so you know what, I'm gonna go and pretend like I don't have a father who could help me get the information I need."
"Information? What information, Sierra?" her father asked.
She was hoping to do this all on her own, without her father but she was starting to realize that she could use her father's desperation to her advantage. And as much as she didn't even want to look at the man, she knew she needed him.
"You're gonna let me help you?" Sierra's father asked as she turned around.
"I'm gonna let you prove to me you have what it takes to actually be my father for once," she replied.
Both Jesse and Chad looked around as Noah, who seemed to know what he was doing, placed his bag down and immediately started his stretching off to the side.
Chad watched Noah for a moment as Jesse removed his sunglasses and looked around at everyone else stretching.
"Is this why you insisted we both get tennis racquets? To do a bit of stretching and not much else?" he asked.
Noah decided to ignore him as Chad took a seat next to Noah and began mimicking the types of stretches he was doing.
As Jesse stood watching the class full of people he didn't know stretching around him, a man who didn't look to be too much older than him passed by him with a cart full of tennis balls.
"You going to throw those at us as we attempt to hit them off?" Jesse asked.
The man, obviously the instructor looked over at Jesse.
"Who are you?" he asked, sounding a little confused.
"I go through this much more than I'd like to," Jesse sighed. "I'm Jesse Yorkshire, son of billionaire publishing mogul Thomas Yorkshire and if you've never heard of me, you just don't read enough."
The instructor eyed Jesse for a moment before chuckling and beginning to check things off on a list.
"Jesse! Get over here and sit down!" Noah called out behind him.
And only because he felt like having a seat for a moment did he actually listen to Noah.
"I believe I'd be getting more thrill out of solving a set of complex math equations right about now," Jesse mumbled.
"You like math?" Chad asked, still copying Noah's stretching.
"Oh I loathe math," Jesse replied. "Problem is, it seems to favor me."
The three of them continued as they were along with the rest of the class for a couple minutes more before their instructor spoke aloud.
"Alright listen up," he started, everyone ending their stretching in the process. "We're gonna start our drill lines. Half of you up here on this court, the other half on that court. I want you practicing your forehand first and then your backhand out of four balls."
Jesse watched as everyone gathered their racquets and began choosing sides, feeling a little like the entire thing was ridiculous.
"What is this, Basics of Tennis 101?" he asked.
The instructor walked over with clipboard in hand so that he was standing shoulder to shoulder with Jesse. He stood for a moment before looking out over the other students and then back over at Jesse.
"Yeah," he said. "It is."
Jesse looked over at him as he walked away before deciding to catch up to Noah and Chad.
"So, you, the big star athlete can't even manage to handle the basic principles that go into hitting a ball over a net?" Jesse asked.
Noah, who was first in a lineup of about 9 or 10 other people turned to Jesse with a grin on his face.
"Okay," he spoke, stepping aside. "You try then."
"Gladly," Jesse spoke, ready to prove that even only playing tennis a handful of times in his life he'd still be better than anyone in the class.
He shuddered a little when he realized the person that would be throwing the balls on their side of the court would be none other than the young looking instructor himself but shrugged it off as he got into a tennis-ready stance.
The first ball came rather quickly, Jesse felt, as he hadn't even realized that they were starting. Shaking it off, he got ready for the next one, which came virtually nowhere near him.
"You kinda have to run man!" the instructor called from the other side of the court.
"Or you could just fucking throw the ball correctly you bloody twatter," Jesse mumbled loud enough for the students behind him to laugh in agreement.
The third ball Jesse actually managed to hit across to the other side in what looked to be a perfectly acceptable hit.
"Wasn't in," the instructor called from the other side.
"Are you serious? What are you blind? Of course it was in!"
"Try again," the instructor called before tossing another ball.
This time the ball was most definitely in and everyone could attest to that as he heard a few nice' and good jobs' behind him.
"Has to be backhand. You were on forehand. Sorry, 0 for 4," the instructor spoke. "Next!"
"Listen here you bloody tosser, don't fucking shit with me! That was in and we all saw it!"
"Jesse!" Noah called behind him
Noah's fellow classmates were either laughing or cheering but all most definitely enamored with Jesse's bold ability to speak up for himself against an instructor who seemed to only show up for the paycheck and nothing more.
"He did seem like he was a little unfair," Chad spoke.
"Yeah but Jesse's going completely insane," Noah said as he watched Jesse throw his tennis racquet to the ground as he and his instructor met up at the net to continue their shouting match. "I've never seen him like that before."
"You think something's wrong with him?" Chad asked.
Noah wanted to say yes and knew the answer probably was yes but knowing Jesse, he knew there was no telling what the real story was.
"There's always something wrong with him," he replied simply as Jesse made his way back over to them.
"I don't fucking need this. That fucking waste of space isn't even a real instructor. I could teach a class better than he could," Jesse spoke fervently before tossing a handful of aspirin into his mouth.
"Whoa, what was that?" Noah asked, taking note of the action.
"Don't worry about it," Jesse spoke, swiping a water bottle from a nearby student. "You don't mind do you? I'm parched."
"Dude you were awesome," the guy spoke. "You think you could teach us if you really wanted to?"
Jesse looked around at everyone looking hopeful at the idea before placing his arms around two girls nearby him and walking towards the back of the line to continue the conversation.
Noah a little worried about Jesse watched him for a few seconds before turning his attention back over to Chad.
"Alright, you go," he spoke.
"Yeah?" Chad asked.
"Why not?"
Chad felt a little nervous. He wasn't even sure if he knew what tennis was. He knew what he'd seen so far but he was worried that he'd make himself look completely stupid at the entire thing.
"Don't worry, everybody here sucks," Noah spoke.
Feeling a bit reassured, Chad stepped up to the baseline, ready to hit the first ball. It came and went, landing perfectly in play on the opposite court as if he were involved in an actual game. The second and third balls both came and the same thing happened. The fourth ball came so that it was so close to the net Chad practically had to jump at it to get it over. But he did, the ball landing perfectly within play.
"That's...4 for 4. Good job," the instructor spoke, sounding almost disappointed to have someone that could actually play tennis in his class.
"Wow, Chad that was awesome," Noah spoke.
"Yeah I don't know what it was," Chad replied feeling good about himself.
"I guess it means you're an athlete in your real life," Noah replied.
"Yeah," Chad spoke feeling supremely confident in that moment. "I guess so."
While the morning had started off pretty roughly for everyone, by the time dinner had rolled around, everyone was in much better spirits. They were all starting to adjust to having someone in their lives that knew nothing about himself. And even though they wouldn't admit it, they were each more excited to groom Chad to be another version of themselves than they were in helping him find out who he actually was. Even though they were planning on helping him out with that too, much as they didn't want to.
"We should have gone to Statham," Noah spoke. "Somebody told me they were doing fajitas."
"We here now boy, quit complaining," Grace spoke as she looked over the mini menu that had been made.
No one was sure what the special occasion was, but each of the dorm halls that served food had turned eat in restaurant for the night, each one serving a different set of foods, each one having hired extra staff to be on hand as waiters and busboys. Everyone was excited and the place was crowded. Grace and Zoey had to stay near the cafeteria since the minute they had finished lunch just to make sure they'd get a table for all of them.
"Ooh they having onion peelers for appetizers," Grace spoke.
"Are you gonna do what you normally do and get full on the appetizer and NOT eat your real food?" Trey asked.
"Boy, I'm getting all the food I damn well want brought to me for free AND I don't have to leave a tip when I'm done? Yo ass better believe I'm eating my food tonight."
Chad looked everyone over. He was starting to get really attached to everyone because they all seemed to be so really attached to each other. It was seamless the way each of their relationships with each other worked. He felt like because they were so in sync he could be in sync with them. It made him care less and less about himself and more and more about wanting to be one of them.
But then there were the little things. The breakthroughs. The things like him being able to effortlessly defy people's expectations of gravity on the courtyard fountain. Or his ability to outpace a former tennis pro at his own game when he was supposed to be the instructor of the class. They were little things, but they were obviously things that belonged to him. The real him and not the him that he'd been telling himself and everyone else that he was.
And of course there was the fact that he still couldn't shake the feeling that he somehow knew Jesse. He wasn't sure how or from where or if he really did even know him. All he knew was that it was just one more thing on the small list of little things that were remaining glued to the back of his mind as thought about himself.
But he felt like he didn't want to think about it right now. All he wanted to do was enjoy his company and the food.
"Damn this place is packed," Grace spoke looking around.
Ordinarily no matter where they ate dinner, it was never really completely crowded. They never had to wait in a line longer than a few minutes and there were generally more than a handful of tables scattered around for them to sit at.
That wasn't the case tonight however. Tonight not only were all the available tables filled, but all the extra tables that had been brought in just for tonight were also filled as well.
"Good thing we waited around then," Zoey spoke, setting her menu down.
"We better not be waiting all damn night to eat neither," Grace spoke, munching on the bread that had been brought out to them earlier.
"You think they're serving margarita's tonight?" Noah asked, looking over one of the menus.
"I don't see it in the menus," Grace replied, looking it over. "Ooh, but I do see loaded baked potatoes. I want three. You think they putting a limit on how much food we eat?"
Chad just smiled as he looked over everyone before noticing that there were extra chairs at their table.
"Is someone joining us?" he asked.
Everyone looked over at him.
"What?" Noah asked, finally noticing the only empty chairs in the cafeteria were at their table. "Grace?"
"Well I just figured Shawn and them would wanna eat too," Grace spoke before getting into defense mode. "I know ya'll hating on him and everything right now but the boy gotta eat."
Noah wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of Shawn joining them for dinner but he decided that he didn't want anything to spoil his good mood. As a matter of fact, he felt like sharing with them all a piece of news that made him very happy.
Trey himself decided that he wasn't going to give anything away either way regarding the matter.
"So Jesse completely freaked out today," he started with a satisfied grin on his face. "He had himself convinced he could play tennis better than us when truth is he sucks just as much as I do."
"And boy don't you sound happy about it too," Zoey noted.
"Yeah well he was being an ass. You should have seen him. It was weird actually, I've never seen him that pissed off and angry. I think something might be wrong with him," Noah replied.
"He did take a lot of those white pills," Chad commented.
"Oh yeah, and this guy over here completely owned the court today," Noah replied, rubbing Chad's shoulders like a proud father bragging to his peers. "We figured out he's an athlete."
"Ooh, maybe you can join the football team with my boyfriend," Grace spoke excitedly.
"You mean the one you're not talking to right now because he lied to you?" Zoey asked.
Grace decided not to comment on the matter.
"Yeah, besides," Trey started happy to be the one to keep grounding his friends in reality. "Chad's technically not a student here. He can go to classes just fine but it's not like he's actually enrolled in any of them."
"He's right," Grace spoke. "We need to get you a school I.D. boy."
"We need to get 12,000 dollars tuition, Grace," Zoey spoke, seeing where Trey was coming from. "Trey's right. Chad's fine for now but sooner or later people are gonna realize he doesn't belong."
"So what? Let's just forget about that for tonight and celebrate figuring out one solid thing about the guy," Noah spoke happy, his happy turning to discomfort at the sight of seeing Shawn and Ben approaching their table as Grace waved them over.
"Go ahead man," Ben mumbled, nudging Shawn forward.
Shawn had made up his mind about something that he wanted to happen and had made up his mind that he was going to make it happen no matter what.
"Uh, can we talk Trey? Alone?" he asked, feeling a bit nervous to even ask.
"What?" Trey asked, briefly glancing over at Noah
"Shawn...boy, come on now," Grace spoke.
"No, you know what," Noah started, surprising everyone with how cordial he actually sounded. "Go ahead Trey. Let him get whatever he wants to get out of his system so we can be done with his constant bullshit."
Trey stalled for a moment then looked over at Shawn. He figured there was some things that needed to be said between them but he hadn't expected now to be the time for that. But he also figured there was never going to be a time better than the one in which Noah was actually giving him permission to be alone with the guy that had taken his virginity from him.
"Okay," Trey spoke, rising to his feet.
As the two of them started out of the cafeteria, Sierra entered, walking right past them and over to Chad's table sitting in the seat that Ben himself was starting to sit in.
"Uh, that was my seat-"
"Find another one," Sierra spoke without even looking back at Ben. "Hi all! What are we up to?"
"Wondering who invited you?" Zoey asked looking over at Grace.
"Don't look at me," Grace replied. "Do it look like it's some more chairs around here for her ass?"
"Oh come on, I come bearing good news," she started.
"Really?" Zoey asked, skeptically.
"Yeah. I think I know who Chad really is," Sierra replied shocking everyone.
"Really?" Chad asked.
Sierra looked over at him with a smile.
"Or at least, I'm trying to piece it together," she spoke while sincerely staring into his eyes. She touched his leg and moved in closer. "But don't worry. I'm working as fast as I can. I really want to help you."
"Well thank you, that's so nice of you," Chad replied a small part of him relived Sierra hadn't actually found his identity. He wasn't quite ready to leave the new friends he'd made, even if he was desperate to know more about himself.
"Oh please," Zoey sighed, rolling her eyes.
The truth was that Sierra knew exactly who `Chad Sports' was thanks to her father, and who he was, was so much better than she could have possibly imagined. Which was the very reason she was willing to leave him and everyone else in the dark for awhile while she got closer to Chad. Because when the truth came out, she wanted to be the one to be there for him when it did.
As everyone mulled over what they wanted to eat, Trey and Shawn finally managed to find a quiet place to talk in one of the stairwells near the elevators.
Trey placed his back against the wall at the top of the first set of stairs as Shawn leaned against the railing across from him.
He decided that he was going to let Shawn do all the talking because whenever he got involved, emotions came out that he didn't want to come out and he didn't want that. Not tonight and not anymore again.
However when Shawn refused to speak at all, Trey sighed and knew that he had to speak up.
"Well Shawn, I'm here," he spoke. "What is it?"
Shawn sighed and decided to just go for it.
"What are we, you and me?" he asked.
Trey was confused.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
Shawn pushed himself off of the railing and sat a few steps bellow Trey, looking up at him.
"I mean, we're not together, that's obvious and as much as I hate that fact it just seems like we aren't anything. We see each other, we're around each other all the time, but ever since the fire it's like we don't talk at all and when we do we get into shouting matches."
Trey sighed.
"What do you want me to say, Shawn?" Trey asked. "You and my boyfriend fought with each other about me for months and you both still start shit with each other now. You can't really expect me to act all buddy buddy with you when you can't even get along with my boyfriend."
"What about now? He didn't seem to mind too much letting us go off on our own to talk."
"Yeah well maybe he should have minded. Maybe he does mind, I don't know."
Trey stood up, back still against the wall. Shawn stood up as well, staying on the same step he was on.
"So nothing about that night when we...you don't remember what happened that night?"
Of course Trey remembered what happened that night. They were both upset for completely different reasons and they both gave into every little insecurity and every little pang of lust and wanting that they had locked up inside.
It didn't seem like such a mistake at the time but it definitely seemed like one now to bother of them. Not what happened but the way it happened. It was supposed to be something special but all that night of passion had amounted to was the two of them having sex rather than making love.
"I just wanna know if there's ever gonna be a time when the two of us could try to rebuild and get to a place where we can actually talk without having to worry about...I don't know, us. This. Whatever this whole deal is."
Trey wasn't sure how to respond. It was what he wanted, more than anything in the world to get reacquainted with Shawn. But the fact of the matter was that if he wanted to make his relationship work with Noah, he was going to have to find a way to deal with the biggest problem they had. And unfortunately for him, their biggest problem was Shawn.
And as long as Noah felt the way he did about Shawn and as long as Trey was with Noah, there was never going to be a chance for them to rebuild. And there wasn't anything that was ever going to change that.
"The truth is Shawn, we can't," Trey replied. "Not as long as I'm with Noah and not you. And I don't want to do anything to ruin that."
Shawn felt like he understood. He DID understand. He'd even braced himself for such a response just in case. It just wasn't what he was hoping the outcome would be.
It was something, at least. At least he knew why they couldn't be friends. Why they couldn't be as close as they once were. And why he was going to have to try harder to get over Trey.
"Can we go eat now?" Trey asked.
"Yeah, whatever," Shawn replied, doing his best to fight back the tears he felt like he wanted to let out.
Trey walked ahead of Shawn, not even waiting for him.
"Hey, babe! Somebody came to get drink orders while you were gone. I ordered for you," Noah spoke, as Trey moved behind him to take his seat next to him at the table.
Shawn joined them a few moments later, realizing there weren't any more chairs left.
"Dude, I offered to let her sit on my lap," Ben spoke noting the look on Shawn's face regarding the chair situation.
"And I offered to kick him in the nuts," Sierra replied. "He didn't take my deal so I didn't take his. Pull up a chair!"
"I know she better be coming back soon to take our orders," Grace said, sounding more impatient than ever. "You ain't supposed to be waiting to eat longer than it takes you to get your food."
"Grace, there's like 400 people in here," Noah spoke.
"I see food on they tables," Grace spoke, crossing her arms like a spoiled little girl who wasn't getting her way.
"Speaking of the devil," Ben spoke as the waitress returned.
"Are ya'll ready to order?" she asked.
"Hell yeah," Grace replied, sitting forward.
Even though one of them knew who he was while he didn't, Chad was hoping to stick around as long as possible. With girls as nice and good looking as Sierra willing to be a part of his life, he almost didn't care if he ever got his memory back.
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Copyright 2008