Chapter Fifteen

A secret is finally confessed to Kenny.

In the Rose Garden

      Sunday morning brought a partly cloudy cold day, so the gang wrapped up in jackets, sweat pants and scarves after breakfast and ventured out into the day. Malcolm had found a five mile trail along the coast the night before and went jogging with Junior while Jerry and Alice played in the rose garden. Shawn took a glass of scotch, went out in the garden and sat under the white gazebo in the hanging red cushioned seat. There was room enough for three so Kenny and Tonya joined him as he grunted. Her curly hair flowed down on her pink fuzzy jacket while Kenny had a turkey knitted scarf around his neck. Teddy had slept through breakfast from drinking too much the previous night and Madison chose to go back to sleep after the meal.

      The butterflies in the garden were different color and shape. They, along with honey bees, fluttered in and out of each colored rose; there was a field of red, pink and coral roses, a patch with yellow ones with red tips, a meadow of white and orange roses, a small fountain with rows of rose archways of lavender roses, the gazebo was surrounded by yellow roses and it all came together with a bush that burst with blue and pale peach ones. Even though the flowers were protected by a thin transparent barrier, a stone trail still led around each section. Jerry and his daughter were tumbling together in laughter in the lavender roses, in plain view of the gazebo.

      Shawn sipped on his drink while the other two gabbed about the mansion they were staying in. Kenny reminded her about the pool sized Jacuzzi on the second floor and Tonya daydreamed about the amazing dining room with plates that automatically made your food.

      “Of course it would be food with you.” Shawn interrupted.

      “Oh, shut up.” Tonya pulled out a napkin wrapped fries from her jacket pocket and began snacking.

      “This has been a nice getaway.” Kenny nudged Shawn, “Don’t you think so?”

      “It has been kind of cool. But I’m going home tomorrow.”

      They watched Jerry and Alice play hide and seek now and smiled to each other. As a breeze swept through the garden, it seemed to bring comfort to Kenny’s soul.

      “You know I had an uncle that died of AIDS.” Tonya said, chewing on a fry.

      “Jesus, Tonya, what a way to crash us back to reality!” Kenny yelled, angry that his guilt was suddenly back.

      “No, no I am saying that he lived during a time where medicine wasn’t around for regular people.”

      “It still isn’t.”

      “Look, I just want you to be around for a long time.”

      Shawn gulped his scotch and stood up.

      “This just got too gloomy and I don’t have enough booze.”

      When he vanished back into the outhouse, Kenny glared at Tonya and scooted over to the other side of the seat.

      “Don’t be mad at me. I just…I was hoping that it would inspire you to take care of yourself.”

      “Inspire me? Damn, Oprah must be trying to hiring you as a life coach.”

      “Let’s not do this in the rose garden.” Tonya heavily sighed, “I’ve been enjoying the time here with you guys.”

      “You’ve been complaining about being at home a lot.” Kenny inquisitively looked at his friend, “What’s really going on with you? Don’t make me use my mind reading powers.”

      Tonya gasped and covered her mouth.

      “You can do that?” She whispered but groaned when Kenny burst out laughing.

      “No I can’t do that! But for real, what’s going on?”

      She sighed, crumpled the empty napkin in her lap and played with a rose blankly.

      “I left Phoebe. Well, more accurately, I kicked her out when I found her cheating. Now it’s actually pretty lonely in that little shack in the hood.”

      “Can you afford it on your own?”

      Tonya cut her eyes.

      “Who do you think has been keeping the roof over our heads?”

      “I thought she worked.”

      “That b***h quit her job after just one day.” Tonya sat back and crossed her arms, tossing the napkin into the empty space on the seat. Kenny disgustingly pocketed the napkin but looked at his friend with compassion. Shawn walked back up with a larger cup of alcohol and rolled his eyes.

      “Why is there still sadness over here?”

      “Did you know Tonya and Phoebe broke up?”

      “What? How long were you together?”

      “Two years.”

      “Oh, then get over it.” Shawn sat and wrapped his arms around both of them.

      “I left her!”

      “So…you’re not going to get over it?”

      “You’re drunk.” Kenny pointed out.

      “Little bit.”

      Tonya and Kenny shook their heads as Shawn hugged them tight.

      “You sons of b*****s are awesome. I love you!”

      Before they could respond, Malcolm came walking back past the gazebo with Junior around his shoulders, who was hopping on one foot and locks disheveled. His brother wore a camouflage track suit and a solid green beanie while Junior had on dirty windbreaker pants and a torn muscle shirt.

      “What happened?” Tonya called out. Shawn was snickering under his breath.

      “We were jogging along the cliffs and then hiked through the mountains and Private Ross here…passed out when there was a ruffle in the bushes.”

      “Passed out?!” Kenny scoffed.

      “Yes! I passed out! I’m fine by the way!”

      Shawn’s snickering became to almost overwhelm him as he sipped on his drink again.

      “What was it?” Tonya asked Malcolm, glancing with a straight face to Junior.

      “A rabbit.”

      Laughter overtook Shawn and he buckled over in amusement, spilling this drink on the pebbled floor.

      “A RABBIT?! YOU FAINTED FROM A F*****G RABBIT?! YOU’RE SHITTING ME, RIGHT?!” Shawn snorted and buckled over again.

      “I thought it was a mountain lion.” Junior pleaded to Kenny and Tonya, who were apparently holding back laughter themselves. Tonya just nodded and kept her eyes closed as Kenny just rubbed his tear ducts.

      “THE SIZE OF A RABBIT?!” Shawn continued, and began patting Kenny’s back who had to chuckle.

      “Fainted, though?” Tonya blinked with a weird smile etched on her face.

      “Oh, screw you guys.”                                   

      “Come on, Private, let’s put that foot on ice.”

      “You hurt yourself, too?” Kenny sighed in humor.

      “AS I FELL!”

      All three friends laughed as Jerry had ran over to help Malcolm with Junior inside, as Alice frolicked behind with a handful of roses. After a few moments of laughter, Kenny stood up and zipped up his jacket and began walking through the flowers. The other too tagged behind with Shawn moving the slowest but they hiked over hills of rainbow roses until it faded to plush grass and foliage growing on large rocks.

      They began trotting downhill until the ground beneath tunneled and everything became rocky. As they climbed down a few rocks, listened to Shawn complain about his low drink, the around opened up to the sound of rushing waves and the rocky terrain became sandy. Once they rounded the rocky ledge, they came to the open shore of the Pacific Ocean, the morning sky sparkling on the blue waters.

      Only silhouettes of barges were seen on the clear horizon but as they walked further down the beach, they heard something other than their laughter and the waves. There were grunts and pings of metal hitting each other and as they walked around another cliff, they saw a large wooden log that pivoted from the edge of the cliff to the waves of the ocean, with Christian and Kayla training in combat clothes with three swords at the top. Kayla was blocking and flipping with her two swords as Christian spun and counteracted her attacks, even back flipping at one point to avoid a hit.

      “Badass.” Shawn muttered. Kenny smiled a little as he watched Christian block Kayla’s sword from behind him. They kept up the training, unknowing of their audience, all the way to the water before Kayla double flipped over Christian and roundhouse kicked him into the waters. Shawn and Tonya cheered, snapping Kayla’s attention toward the beach, tossing the swords in the ocean.

      “You guys must be the friends of Kenny’s” Kayla pleasantly greeted, “I’m Kayla, also a personal trainer.”

      She winked at Kenny and nodded down toward Tonya.

      “I love your hair.”

      Tonya blushed and twirled the ends of her hair. Kayla smiled as Christian trudged up groaning, plunging water out of his ears with his finger and clearing off the water droplets off his glasses.

      “Did you have to kick me in the water?! It is cold out here, you know!”

      “A Protector should always be fully aware at all times.” Kayla mocked, scoffing at Christian’s outraged yell and march off. Shawn began laughing again while Tonya pushed him in the sand and started talking to Kayla. Kenny broke away from the group and jogged after Christian, who was still seething when he caught up.

      “What do you want?”

      “Whoa! Don’t shoot me!”

      Christian sighed.

      “I’m sorry but I feel useless as your damn protector. I couldn’t even see a simple ambush in front of me. I always let me anger get the best of me.”

      “And I feel the safest when I am with you, Christian!”

      They stopped short of the rocky tunnel and he looked back at Kenny with a warm smile. He reached down and caressed the side of his face slowly and gently but sighed with frustration.

      “You have no idea how hard this is for me,” he muttered under his breath making Kenny questionably look up at his Protector, who immediately tore off into a jog.

      “Wait! Talk to me please!” Kenny followed behind Christian until they had stopped in the patch of red tipped yellow roses to catch their breath. Christian placed his hand over Kenny’s hunched over back.

      “I’m cursed, Kenny.”

      The confession made him straight up and blink with confusion.

      “That’s the reason for my secrecy. I was in a very difficult relationship with the wrong kind of person who cursed me from being with anyone other than him. So it isn’t because I don’t have feelings for you or just playing you on the side. I was cursed way before Percy recruited me for your Protector and I hate that I didn’t see your beautiful face prior because I would’ve waited till this day to finally kiss you.”

      Kenny felt his heart flutter wildly as Christian pressed his damp forehead against his and their noses brushing lightly against each other. He loved smelling his scent above anything else even with ocean water dripping from his sleeves. They both had their eyes closed as the winds gently blustered around their ankles and the Protector had Kenny in a lose hold around his waist.

      “But I can’t…” Christian inhaled and broke his hold, “And it sucks.”

      And before Kenny could respond, he rushed out of sight leaving him standing there in the flowers with butterflies in his stomach but migraine in his head.

 

      By Monday, everyone had returned home to a newly installed protective barrier around the contents of their property. Any human intruder will be zapped out the yard but any other type of intruder will trigger an electric current to obliterate the unwanted guest. Percy assured everyone that the barrier will never hurt anyone that lives at the residence or their guests. Shawn and Kenny’s house stood with abandoned Halloween decorations that they began taking down before walking into the house.

      Shawn flipped the bird toward Bonnie’s house and Kenny noticed her curtain shut as he looked over. Once they went inside and as Kenny was shutting the door, he got a waft of lilac and lavender that trailed outside the door. But as he looked back across the street, Shawn spun him around and shook him.

      “There is no booze in this house!!!!”

      “Calm down! Just go to the corner store and buy yourself the whole damn brewery!”

      His friend seemed to be shocked at how simple the solution was and pushed him out the way. Kenny exhaled and went to shut the door again but saw the house across the street was no longer abandoned anymore. It was back to having an occupant and movement could be seen from behind the lace curtains.

      A feeling of hope and despair whirled through him as he closed and latched the door shut.