I should probably explain to you about the interlude I wrote. I meant to do it on the interlude itself, but I realized I boo-booed after I had already sent the story off and I didn't really feel like sending off a reedit. Every once in awhile, sometimes before an intense event in a plot, or to get a fresh view of a situation, or to explain further parts of the story that I felt didn't bear on the current plot I will write one of these interludes. In this case I just wanted to get a fresh view of a situation, and it so happened that that little stud Kevin wanted his say and just wouldn't leave me be until I gave it to him. You probably noticed that it was labeled `1', that of course means that there will be others and there will be, as a matter of fact I have written another one already, I haven't put it out yet because I don't feel it's the right time for it. For future reference the interludes will have no bearing on the current plot at the time they are put out. So if you see one and you don't wanna read it then don't. I promise you won't miss a beat in the storyline, but it could add a cool little dimension to it.
With that said onto the story! ________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 3 -- Troubled Waters.
Thursday night my sister had told me that Gabriel, Sebastian's brother, had graduated from military school and had come back home,permanently. I didn't see him that Thursday night or all of Friday for that matter, but I would today. In exactly three hours they would be arriving, with Gabriel. A good Saturday ruined, not that I had anything to do that is. We were having a cookout for someone who tried to choke me to death about two years ago. Police told me that he couldn't have actually done it; they said it takes a lot of strength to do it and him being a kid he would've never been able to. That still doesn't give me comfort though.
The doctors told me that he had a problem with expressing his feelings, he didn't know how. Because he couldn't express them right he just got angry and he would continue to get angry until it just exploded and it did, right on me. The doctors stated that it was nothing against me, if someone else had been standing there in my place it would've happened to them instead, still no real comfort. Damn, that was about two years ago too, one month before dad died. He's been in military school for two years now, Sebastian told me he's like a completely different person. Seeing is believing.
I remember the day it happened, it was a Sunday and it had been calm all morning and it was looking to be a relaxing, lazy Sunday. Then HE came over, the demon spawn Gabriel. He just wouldn't leave me alone. He said he wanted to wrestle and I said no, I didn't feel like it, I told him to go fuck off. Now I admit, I was an asshole to him, but I didn't deserve what came next. He should've understood that no' means no'. The expression on his was what I remembered the most, an unusual calm came over him, and then he snapped like a twig. He jumped on me, thereby knocking over the chair I was in, and we fell to the ground where he proceeded to try and choke the living shit out of me. I couldn't actually scream for help, he was squeezing my neck so tight that not much came out. One could ask why didn't I just push him off of me, well, it wasn't that easy. When we go to the movies and watch a horror flick, we laugh at the stupid bitch that was too scared to move or do anything. We all thought that there is no way something like that would happen to us. It is possible to be scared into stillness and I am proof. First, he took me by surprise, I never expected him to do that; two, as mean as he was I never actually thought he would be capable of it!
My sister must of heard the chair fall and came in to check on us, she screamed bloody murder, which drew Sebastian in from the across the yard. She couldn't get Gabriel off of me! Sebastian ran in, grabbed Gabriel's shoulders and tried to pull him off; when that didn't work he gave a hard punch to his brother's kidneys. Gabriel released his death grip on me then and fell to floor clutching his sides. It was then that my guts emptied out onto the dining room floor and I took a deep breath. My sister grabbed me and proceeded to get me to the car in order to take me to the emergency room.
Someone, a neighbor, I still don't know who, must of called the police when they heard the screaming. They managed to get there just as I was being put into the car, Deandre explained the situation very quickly and I saw the police run into our home. I was treated at the emergency room for minor bruising and a sore throat. They took Gabriel to the police station and two days later he was off to military school, which was the last time I saw him,until today that is. I don't want to deal with this right now; I don't want to deal with him. So, where were my parents during all of this? Well, my dad was helping a friend at the office and my mom snuck off to the bar to have a drink.
I informed my sis that I would be making a pot of gumbo for the cookout and volunteered myself to babysit it until it was done. My plan was to keep myself in the kitchen as much as possible while they were here, the less I had to deal with Gabriel the better. So I wasted some of the morning perfecting my rue and then watching it cook.
When eleven a.m. rolled around I heard them come through the back porch and greetings of happiness and small talk abounded. I felt like a stranger, an outsider in my own home. My proper southern upbringing informed me that I should go outside to greet our guests, but I couldn't do it. The Damn gumbo was about thirty minutes away from being done anyways, I would have to go outside to serve it. Well I went ahead and checked the gumbo to see if it needed any more seasoning. Damn, why can't I put enough salt in it! I was engrossed with tinkering with the seasonings when I heard footsteps come into the kitchen. I knew who it was, I didn't even have to look and I didn't. To say I was scared was an understatement. This was it, the moment of truth.
"Hey." said the voice. It was his voice, just a bit more mature and it did sound different, I just couldn't figure out how. Maybe he had changed.
"Hey." I said weakly. That's good Ren, sound confident. I am such a dork sometimes.
"Can we talk?" he asked.
"I guess," I had begun. When I turned around I stopped in midsentence, and I couldn't believe it! My minds eye told me was that who have should've been standing in front of me was a pasty-white, angry fat boy. That isn't what stood in front of me. Instead I got a tall, had to be as tall as Chad, and tanned young man with a fade for a hairdo where there should have been long, scraggly hair. If it hadn't been for those extremely bright blue eyes I would never have recognized him at all. Then he smiled, I recalled at that moment that up until the time he had went to military school I had never seen him smile before. Odd experience I can tell you.
"Is it too late to say I'm sorry?" Gabriel asked me.
I began to say yes, then I really thought about it and I realized that I didn't feel anything at all. I do know that if he had gotten out a year earlier and asked me that same question I would've punched him, but things have changed drastically since then. I didn't know what to say to him now. Shit, I don't even know who I am anymore.
"I guess I could take that as a good sign?" Gabriel paused and looked like he was reaching for thoughts, "I do need to say something to you. After THE incident happened and I got sent to the military school I had the hardest time for the first few months. They were about to throw me out when one of the teachers suggested I go see the shrink. I didn't think that it would help, but I did it anyways just so I could get away from the drill instructors for awhile. I think on it now and I believe she saved my life. She instructed me in so many words that if I didn't make it here I would most likely end up in a juvenile detention center and that would be worse. She hit a nerve; I could go to a kids' jail, that's basically what she was saying. I broke down and said I didn't now how I was going to get through this at all.
The doc said that I needed to remember something from my old life, something that I loved. Once I had it she asked what it was and I told her who it was that I cared about. She said at this moment you are three people, your old self, who you are now, and what will be your new self. Your old self is trying to hold on, you need to forget about him and give your new self a way of developing, a way of coming out. She asked me about that someone who I loved, she asked if they liked me that way and I said no.
It was the next few words that changed my life forever; I swear the ground shook after she said them, `If they didn't like you then, why the hell were you fighting to hold onto it?'"
Gabriel stepped closer, his eyes were glassy, he continued, "At that moment that tubby little bastard in me died. We spent the rest of the evening and well into the morning talking. Do you know who I said I loved, the one person I thought about that got me through those two years?"
By this time I was already crying, I couldn't help it. I was speechless I couldn't say anything. I shook my head no even though I knew what he was going to say. I needed to hear him say it.
"I told her it was you."
That broke the dam, he grabbed me tightly and began to kiss me, I was so turned on I just gave up and began to kiss him back. He had gotten a lot taller, it was difficult to reach his lips, realizing this Gabriel's hands slipped into my pants he cupped my ass and lifted me onto the counter, neither one of us cared at that moment. His body was hot and his lips were soft and inviting. God we were squeezing each other so tight it was like we were trying to merge into one person. We were both hard as a rock and I wanted him so badly; I wanted him in me more than anything else in the world. I made for his pants and began to unbuckle his belt. I didn't care I was virgin, I wanted him to fuck me, he was going to take me right there! I was so excited and turned on I couldn't even undo his belt, it became an obstacle course, for fucks sake just come undone!
"Hey guys, is the gumbo-"
I froze in mid grope and looked at the kitchen door.
Shit, it was Kevin.
Hmm, interesting situation. I wonder what Kevin is thinking? You know this is not how I intended this to end, Kevin walking in was completely spontaneous, and after I wrote it I knew I couldn't change it back. It's true what they say, sometimes these things write themselves. Please tell me what you thought? Do you think I went overboard? Was it kinda sappy?
jcharrington@cox-internet.com or jeff_harrrington1974@yahoo.com
Renni's Life and all characters copyright Jeff Harrington2004