12

Jude didn’t like crying people. He just didn’t know how to handle them. They sat there with tears streaming down their face pouring their heart out and he stood up next to them awkwardly patting their shoulder, feeling terribly uneasy.

 

As soon as he opened the front door to see Alex suppurating on the step, he was immediately plunged into a world of emotional ineptness. It was times like this that he questioned whether he was really gay.

 

“Oh bloody hell.” He took Alex by the shoulder and led him inside. Quickly past the stain on the step.

 

He sat the crying man down on the sofa and stood in front of him, touching his shoulder. Then he felt terribly, terribly uncomfortable and sat down next to Alex.

 

Alex stopped weeping for a minute, raised his head from his hands, looked at Jude with eyes redder than Rik Waller on a fun run and then burst into fits of tears again, collapsing onto Jude in the process.

 

Not knowing quite what to do, Jude put his arm around Alex and got a sudden attack of emotion. His boyfriend was completely and utterly distraught. His sister would be feeling ten times worse and she was alone. He was sitting awkwardly next to the man he loved doing nothing.

 

His eyes began to prickle and then a solitary tear found its way down his cheek. Soon it was joined on his chin by another. And another. And another. Before long Jude’s tears were in full flow yet he wasn’t completely sure why.

 

Shedding his own tears left Jude unable to comfort Alex so the two of them sat there huddling together. They cried themselves quiet until the only noise heard was the occasional whimper of two awfully upset, fully-grown men.