Epilogue

 

                        I stood there pounding my fists on the door. Chad was taking the longest time in the bathroom, and that wasn’t an exaggeration. He was in there for an hour and a half. How long did it take someone to get ready?
            “Come on! We’re going to be late tonight!” I yelled through the thick wood to him. I knew he was out of the shower, there was no water running. Not from the shower head at least.

            “What’s the matter?” Jack asked, coming in from the apartment complex. He said he would get the mail, but we must not have gotten anything due to the emptiness of his hands.

            “He’s taking forever to get ready.”

            “What’s he doing in there?”

            “Probably doing his hair.” Jack seemed amused, and had held back a little laughter. My joke wasn’t that funny. “What?”

            “He’s out gayed you this time.” I laughed with him, since me being less gay than someone seemed to happen oh so very often.

            “Thanks Jack.” I still managed to say it with sarcasm, but to him I may not have from my stifled amusement.

            “No problem bro.” He lightheartedly punched me and then tousled my already tangled hair. “We’ve got mail by the way…”

            “We do?” I followed him to the kitchen and we had about twelve envelopes to both of us. Most likely more birthday cards to celebrate our day today.

            “Here, this one is from the folks.” He handed me a lavender envelope that was still yet to be open. It wasn’t hard to expect what would be in here, but we still read them anyways.

            I pulled the card out, and Jack looked over my shoulder when I did. It was a religious inspirational card. At the top of it the verse, Psalm 31:24 was placed in the center. It was, Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for Lord! Following that, a message about how we should stay strong through the good and the bad, and that we can preserver through the ages to come, not forgetting the Happy Birthday at the end of it. On the other side of that where it was blank, was a message to us.

            Brent and Jack,

                        We hope you’re not partying too hard tonight! Your father and I are doing well and we hope you are too. Let us know how it’s going and we’ll get to chatting some time. Happy Birthday you two.
          Love,

          Mom and Dad

 

It was signed by both names in her hand writing, but other than that it was a nice note from her.

            “Good old mom,” Jack said.

            “Yeah.” It was almost a ritual for us to get a card from her on our birthday and Christmas. She’d give us two hundred dollars on our birthday to help out, and we’d send a thank you card back. We would chat for about a week and not really hear anything else from them.

            It’d be the same way when we sent them cards for their birthdays too. Except we would still initiate most of the phone calls. Mom always managed to answer, always saying dad was doing some kind of work. It always made me wonder if Dad thought we blamed it all on him. If he ever would understand why we did and if he would get over the truth of who I am. We never spoke of Chad to either of them; we didn’t want to start another quarrel again. Yet, maybe they knew we were still together.

            “Come on sunshine! Open up the other cards.” I smiled to him again, fully meaning it. He always called me sunshine when I was down, something he picked up from his wife, Rachel.  It was nice that he had Rachel as a high school sweetheart as I had mine.

            Chad came in as we were on our fourth card. I looked up at him, completely taken away. He really did spend a while getting ready, but it was worth the sight. His hear was cleanly cut, and was more grown out than before. He styled the back of his head so the hair spike out in all directions, letting the rest on top wave to one side. He wore a long sleeve button up shirt, with blue jeans that tightened to his defined legs, just as his shirt did to his muscles. He wore the same type of classic converses he sued to wear, and his smile had remained the same as well.

            “What?” He asked me, wondering why I ended up staring at him. “Is it no good?”

            “No. It’s perfect.” He smiled and I reached out to embrace him. He gave me a peck on the lips as a sweet hello.

            “Wish you were the same,” he said jokingly. Jack walked past to go on into the living room. On the way I heard him receive a high five from Chad.

            “Well, maybe you shouldn’t waste all the time in the bathroom.” I said, wishing I wanted him to not have spent so much time, but he looked to good to deny the fact it was worth waiting. “I’m going to get ready, and hope that I don’t get lost in the fog of hairspray doom,” I make a smirk to him as I walked past. Jack began to laugh and Chad playfully gave a snarl to each of us.

            I did take a while to get ready as well, but not as long as he did. It was part of my celebration anyways, so I had more of a right to take all the time in the world. I entered my bedroom, and I could hear the news running as I was putting on my jeans.

            “Sarah Davis, a woman of twenty three years, was found dead in an alley near West 15^th Street, here in New York. Her neck was slit open, and the man who reported it was a friend of her and her boyfriend. Her boyfriend had witness the tragic incident. More news to come…”

            “That doesn’t sound too pleasant. That’s not too far from here is it?”   I walked into the living room still drying my hair off.

“No, it doesn’t sound so much as that. It might be close, but not too terribly near. I was just about to flip it to something else anyways. We don’t need any scares tonight.” Chad said, looking up to me. I wasn’t completely ready, but his face was one of the priceless jaw drop actions. “You look good.”

“I know I do,” I said cockily. Jack rolled his eyes to both of us and then pushed Chad’s head over, knocking him out of his daze.

“Just put a shirt on already so we can go and so Chad doesn’t pass out.” He took the remote and began flipping the channels himself. I followed his orders and we left our flat to head out to a steakhouse not too far away.

After we arrived, we quickly ordered. As we waited we talked about various things, and took pictures of us. Chad and I took the camera from Jack and make several poses until the food was brought to us. It didn’t take too long to arrive at our table and the drinks we asked for came with it.

“Ah. To celebrate the coming of age.” Jack lifted his glass and we did the same. The clinking of our glasses reverberated into the air and Jack and I took a good swig of our first legal alcoholic drink.

“Do you boys want another? How ‘bout you birthday boy? Want me to get you anything else?” She directed the last two questions to me, since I finished mine first. The last was little bit more pushing, and Chad gave her a glare in which I could hear him screaming at her to go away. He didn’t greatly appreciate her flirting with me, and when she looked to him, she stood in a fearful stance. She looked to me and then him again.

“Oh.” I think I heard it escape from her lips. She smiled politely at me getting the connection we had. “I’ll just get you another one, sir.”

I held his hand that was on the table and rubbed it to calm him down. Jack saw the whole thing, and when the waitress left he could hold back his laughter. Chad looked to him and then to me sheepishly. His dumbfounded smiled was one thing he never grew out of, and I was glad for it.

“Chad, I swear I thought you were going to get up and maul her!” As soon as Jack had the actual image in his head, he began to rattle on. “Oh, what if you did?! That’d be a sight to see!” He was grabbing his sides from the movie running through his head. I added in a chuckle, and looked to Chad.

“You know I love you, baby.” I told Chad to remind him I wouldn’t ditch him for some ditzy dame.

“I know. I love you too.” He didn’t need to tell me he couldn’t help it. He was pretty jealous at times, but not to an insane level. He just sometimes needed to make sure I was his. Of course I was, and always will be.

My drink appeared at the table and I looked up so I could say thank you. No one was there to receive it, and when I looked behind me she was far away in the other direction. Almost to the kitchen in fact. That was something I couldn’t help chucking at as I took a sip of my drink.

“Don’t drink too much now,” Jack told me. “We’ll party after the restaurant.”

“Party where?” I asked him, curious to what he meant.

“We’re going to the club, man.” He was really giddy about it, and I wasn’t sure what he was so happy about. I didn’t want to ask, in case something was coming tonight for us, but I still wanted to know. I had to play it as if I couldn’t tell for now. “I told Rachel to meet us there.”

“That’s cool.” At least she’ll get out of her family dinner early. The thought of sitting down with my own family was something that I couldn’t dream of being able to do. There was no way we’d all be at the table at the same time during the night we did. Rachel had a pretty nice and welcoming family, so it couldn’t be too bad come to think of it. Last time we had a dinner with a family was with hers and I wouldn’t mind visiting them again.

            “You ready to go now?” Chad asked, taking a look at our plates.

            “I’m up for it,” I said, feeling stuffed and ready to begin burning it off.

            “Let’s go.” Chad paid for us, rejecting our want to. Jack managed to negotiate to pay for the tip, and I added another few dollars for the effect Chad had on the waitress.

            We started walking to the club, enveloping ourselves in the warm night’s breeze. Jack led the way and Chad and I followed. I didn’t have a clue where we were headed to, and we were soon reaching Union Park. It must have been past there.

            “Let’s go…this way.” Jack decided for us. He made it seem like he was choosing out of a few choices and it made me unsure if he even knew where we were going.

            “Are you sure it’s this way?” I asked as we stepped on to the park’s grounds.

            “Oh yeah. It’s a shorter way; I just had to remember which direction it was in.”

            “Okay.” I guess I couldn’t argue with him. We followed him down the concrete path placed in the grass. We passed various sized bushes lined up to the walkway, with trees scattered around the grassy areas.

            We kept going through it, soon reaching a pond to go across. I raised my eyes up to the steps when we climbed them, but as soon as I looked to the bridge I saw a woman standing next to a bench. Not sitting, but just standing there. I found it strange, and it was impossible to see her face because of her jacket’s hood.

            The feeling of a sixth sense came into play. She gave off a feeling that I should be scared of, and it brought back the thought of the woman who was murdered. Seeing ghosts was impossible, I knew that. This mood must have been of her being dangerous, but Chad and Jack didn’t seem phased. I crossed over to the other side of Chad, and put my arm around his waist for comfort.

            “Hold on, it’s probably Rachel calling me.” He stopped in the middle of the bridge and pulled out his phone. When he opened it he pressed the button to answer it. I looked over to my left shoulder to see she was now facing us. A shudder came down my back, and I felt the hairs on my neck brush against the back of my collar. This time, she had her hood removed, but the light behind her face made her figure turned to blackness.

            “Okay Rachel. Right now.” Jack said in two pauses at the phone when I looked at him again. In an instant the sides of the bridge lit up, white Christmas were wrapped around the poles. Jack closed the phone smiling widely to me. I looked back quickly so I could see who the mysterious woman was.

            “Rachel?!” I turned to face her, noting the big black box she held in her hands. “You almost scared me!”

            “Sorry Brent,” she lightly apologized. She was chirpy as well and I couldn’t really tell what was happening. I guess we were celebrating our birthday here, and she had brought something for us to drink. She pushed her finger to the box, and had answered my question. A very familiar song began to play from the cd player.

            “Hello,” I said in surprise to Chad has he turned me around to face him. He held me there, his breathing going irregular. He looked past me and then nodded to me. I wanted to look behind me, but Chad’s eyes caught me to my spot. They were glimmering from the lights, and his smile was shining. They both disappeared as he rested his head against mine.

            He sang to me in my ear, and memories came flooding back. The first were from back in high school, where I had first heard that song. I always remembered that night where he was there for me when no one else seemed to be. How horrible it was when I almost lost him due to self negligence. All the moments of trouble we had came to mind, but the unforgettable ones had made them go away as soon as soon as the storm had come.

            At the first dance we had shared, the song was requested to the DJ, and they luckily played it. I could remember slowly moving to it, as everyone else did, and we pressed ourselves close together. We were whispering to each other during part of it, commenting how beautiful it was sung by the bad, and how they did it justice. We’ve only heard it a few times since then, and every time we did it seemed to get more and more stunning.

            “I love you, you know that right?”

            “Yes,” I said choking on the words. The memories had started causing me to cry, and they were fading away to bring back the one that was being created right now. “I love you, too.” He looked at me and wiped the edges of my eyes.

            “You’re already crying, babe? It’s not even the best part yet.” He told me, and I was still confused over what was going on. He led us, me going backwards, to the bench. It lighted up as soon as I sat on it. He kept standing, holding my hands in his. He kissed them and then got down on both knees. No, wait. Just one knee.

            “We’ve been through a bit together, and I know you know what I mean.” I nodded. I could see where it was going, but every new word he said made me surprised again. “And I know that we’ve always enjoyed it when the other was near. Whenever we’ve been separated it’s been hard to forget what was waiting there when we’d both meet again.”

            He reached his hand into his coat pocket and then took his hand out. He revealed a black box that contrasted against his white hands. He opened it, revealing band of silver with a swirling line decorating it. The whole thing glistened as there were miniature diamonds covering it all around.

            “Let’s not ever have to separate again. Brent, will you marry me?” He held it out for me to answer. His smile had been with him the entire time, and it became bigger as soon as he was able to personally pop the question.

            I wanted to say yes, but I couldn’t. My jaw seemed stuck as my mouth hanged openly like a loose hinge. The shock of what he said hit me again, this time adding all the increasing suspense into a heightened crash onto me.

            I looked to Jack who had the digital camera already out. The red light next to the tiny words that said ‘REC’ was flashing. Rachel was watching us through the screen and with her own eyes. Jack was doing the same until I had been stunned. He shook his head towards me and Chad.

            “Well say something!” He told me, with a chuckle. He knew what my answer would be, and I turned back to Chad who was still watching me. I was going to do what Jack said, and it helped to be pushed from my bewilderment.

            “Yes.” A cheer erupted from Rachel and Jack and I shook my head at them, cheerfully smiling to Chad’s actions and to the video camera. I held out my left hand, and Chad took it out of the box. He put my finger through the ring, slowly putting it on me.

            He stood me up, and locked me in another kiss. The first kiss we had as an engaged couple seemed to last several minutes as the rest around us turned into a blur of lights. The only detailed things were Chad and I standing there, holding onto each other, and the final chorus of I’m Yours.

            When we released the kiss, we put our foreheads against each other. His eyes were even closer to mine, and my breath was staggered like his had been. His own breath was moving more easy then before. We were smiling to each other, trying to ignore the “aww”s from Jack and Rachel. We talked under our breath, mentioning how silly they were. We were ignoring Jack’s aw, at least, since we could tell his was in a joking matter. Rachel’s were hard to tell the difference to, since a few were real and the others had a hint of sarcasm. It didn’t matter to us, though. We were too focused onto each other to care.

“I love you. Please, forever remember that.” He told me, telling me the same exact thing he did five years ago.

“Always be with me, and I promise to love you the same way.” I began recalling the memory again, forming it into our own special moment. He smiled to me, knowing this is what had happened before as we experienced our own déjà vu.

“That is something I can promise.” He lifted my chin, giving me another short, sweet kiss from his lips. “I will always love you.”

 

Reviews

[Akash]

The best for the last.
This book was so well crafted that I almost cried upon so many chapters.
A rollercoaster of emotions�and 2hours of my work still left to complete!!
Melancholic�pain�anguish�love�happiness�you whipped out pretty much the whole lot
and if left me with a wide smile.
The epilogue was surely the greatest of all�
I guess I feel great empathy for most of real and lively characters out there because once you've been through a similar ordeal�you automatically reflect the pain your characters felt�
This work led me to few flashbacks in my own life�and I'd wish to thank you for that!
A brilliant work