home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
- #############################################################################
-
- Getting What You Really Want
- Part Eleven
- Nick Tails
-
- #############################################################################
-
-
-
- "You're what?" I asked him.
- "I can't stay any more," Tim explained. I couldn't believe it. I
- had just walked in the door, and he sat me down at started telling me he's
- leaving.
- "Why?"
- "Because I don't feel the same that I do a while back. I've just
- changed."
- "Changed, how?"
- He sat down on the other end of the couch in our living room, and
- continued. "I'm not Gay anymore, Nick. I decided that I wasn't happy with
- myself, and I'm changing a few things in my life."
- "Tim, you don't just suddenly decide you're not Gay. You can't do
- that."
- "It's been a long time coming. I've thought about this for months,
- before I was really involved with you, or really knew you."
- I fell back against the back. I didn't want to hear this. I had
- just spent all this time planning what we could do. Now it was over. I was
- shocked, but more than that, I felt cheated. I felt like he had just taken
- away something from me.
- "Nick," he started, "I just want to tell you that I still love you, I
- just don't love you as Gay."
- I looked straight at him. "Get the fuck out." That's all I said. He
- first looked hurt, then surprised, then finally depleted. He briefly packed,
- taking only a few things, and walked into the living room. He turned.
- "Maybe you'll understand." I didn't look at him. I heard him walk
- out, and close the door. In a few moments, a car engine drifted into the
- distance.
-
-
- ###############
- Two Weeks Later
- ###############
-
-
- I was suicidal. I walked around the house, looking at all the things
- that had meant so much. Now they were just artifacts in an empty house.
- Throwing myself into my job helped a little, but still, only 8 hours a day,
- maybe overtime sometimes, just worked during the day. I came home to the
- house that was once a home. I was so lonely. I just sat down on our
- cou...on my couch and started to cry. I cried myself asleep. I probably
- woke up about 9 that next morning, Saturday. The doorbell woke me up.
- "You haven't answered the phone in a week. What's wrong?"
- Aron was at the door. He was alone.
- "What?" I said still half asleep. "Oh, the phone. I haven't been
- home...come on in."
- I walked away from the door, he came in and shut it. "Nick you look
- like you haven't eaten in 2 weeks."
- "I haven't really...just something here and there..."
- He followed me into the kitchen. "How much weight have you lost?"
- I wandered around the kitchen floor. "30 or 35 pounds I guess..."
- Aron quickly looked around him. "Where's Tim?"
- "Gone," I said, grabbing the last cup of coffee in the house.
- "What do you mean 'gone'? Where is he?"
- "I don't know. He said he didn't love me, and he left."
- "No...that isn't Tim," Aron returned. "What happened between you and
- him?"
- "He said he wasn't Gay. So he left."
- Aron kept looking at me with a look you couldn't mistake for
- anything. He was confused. "Tim left?"
- "Bottom line, buddy."
- He sat down on a bar stool in the kitchen.
- "I'm surprised he didn't tell you," I said.
- "No, not a word..." He looked at me. "Get dressed, we're going out
- for breakfast."
-
- "Are you going to get back into dating?" he asked me. I was staring
- down at the slimy eggs on my plate.
- "I don't know. After you've been involved with a relationship, it's
- kind of hard to do that, you know?"
- "I guess it would be," he told me. I realized that he had been with
- Justin nearly all his life since high school, so he probably didn't
- understand as much as I thought he would.
- "What would be my first move?" I asked him.
- "What did you do before you met Tim?"
- "I met all of you in the college course, remember? Before that,
- nothing. We were all screwing around at those parties, then we settled down.
- Those didn't go on for very long. None of us were up to it."
- He thought about it. "You wouldn't want to go back to college, would
- you?" he asked, half laughing. I smiled.
- "Don't think I could handle it again."
-
- That evening, Aron and Justin were over. We had been discussing the
- situation, but no one really had much to say. I went into the kitchen.
- "Anyone want more coffee?" I hollered. Both of them came back with
- their cups. Aron set his down.
- "Fill me up, I'll be right back." He walked out of the room.
- Justin spoke. "That's funny. Aron never has a second cup of coffee
- at home."
- "I don't want to hear it," I told him.
- "You know, I've got a friend who you might like to meet...that is, if
- you're interested."
- "Sure, " I said. I wasn't very enthusiastic with my answer, and I
- got the feeling Justin didn't think I was serious, so I continued. "What's
- his name?"
- "Hmmm?" Justin looked up. "Oh, Trevor Basinger. He's Canadian,
- about your age."
- "Is this a fix up?"
- "Does it sound that way?"
- "Honestly? Yeah," I told him.
- "Do you want to meet him?"
- I sighed, and paused. "I have to do something to get back in my
- life."
- "I'll call him and let you know."
- I thought about it for a moment. "No. If I'm going to get back into
- life, I want to do it on my own."
- "You sure?"
- "Thanks, but...I want to do my own thing...If that's ok"
- "No problem, I'm not offended. I'm proud of you."
- I smiled at him.
-
- That next evening, I went out to "Denver Knights", one of the more
- popular Gay bars in the area. Going to a Gay bar instead of meeting a friend
- of Justin's might sound like the wrong move, but this was more like a
- restraunt than anything. This place was anything but a pick-up bar. The
- images of crowds around the bar, guys going along and sprouting lines to
- other guys in hopes of a one night stand just didn't exist here.
- It was more like a Gay restraunt, where a male//male couple could go
- and enjoy themselves, without having to worry about what the people around
- them thought. All the people by themselves were seated at a huge table in
- the middle of the dining room, where I was seated. I ordered something to
- eat, and received my drink.
- "Have you ever had their shrimp?" It was the man seated next to me.
- I jumped a little.
- "No, I don't believe so."
- "It's pretty good." I slightly smiled, and turned away. He
- continued talking.
- "That's just about the only thing that I have...It's probably the
- best thing on the menu..." He noticed I was a little uneasy. "I'm sorry, I
- guess I should tell you who I am. I tend to just talk to people and they
- freak."
- I laughed a little at his last statement, and turned to him.
- "I'm John," he told me. I introduced myself as Roger. Why I lied
- about my name I don't know, but it seemed like a good idea when dealing with
- a stranger.
- "So, Roger, how come your alone. You don't look like you're the type
- of person who likes to be alone."
- "Lost my lover a couple of weeks ago."
-
- "I know the feeling. My companion left me about two months ago.
- Still haven't quite gotten over it."
- "What happened?" I asked him.
- "I think he found someone else that he liked better. I don't know,
- maybe he was just tired of me. For some reason, I seem to bore people or
- something like that."
- "Why would you say that?"
- "I just seem to have that effect on people. I've had 6 lovers in the
- last 5 months. It's like I'm some kind of disease."
- "I know that feeling. You just feel like people are uncomfortable
- with you."
- "Yeah," he continued. "They want to escape, and keep giving you the
- attitude that they feel they can do better."
- "That's it," I said. My dinner was set in front of me. We continued
- to talk through the course of my meal. I discovered that we had a lot more
- in common than I originally discovered. Not necessarily about physical
- things, but a lot of the same opinions and feelings about different topics.
- It was kind of nice to meet someone that you felt like you could say anything
- to, and trust them. Even if you hadn't known them for that long.
- As the meal came to a close, I was very much interested in this
- person.
- "I do have to tell you one thing though," I told him.
- "What is it?"
- "My name's not Roger. I'm Nick Tails."
- "You're like me, you use a alias. My name's Trevor Basinger."
- I practically died laughing.
- "What is it?"
- "You're Justin Parker's friend, aren't you?"
- "That's right."
- "He was supposed to fix a meeting up for me with you. Kind of
- ironic. I told him that I was going to go and find a friend on my own. This
- is weird."
- "No, this is fate."
- I nodded. "Something like that. Mind if I talk to you sometime
- again?"
- "I'd love to," he told me. He gave me his phone number, and I did
- the same. We walked out into the parking lot, and then parted. It was kind
- of strange feeling close to someone you hardly know. You always hear it
- happening, but this was the first time that I had actually felt this way. I
- knew I'd see him again. If I lost the number or something, getting it from
- Justin wouldn't be a problem. I was all set to go and tell Justin about it,
- but I decided that the next time he was around, I'd just let him see us
- together. It would make more of an impact that way.
- I got in my car and started it up. I just sat for a moment, feeling
- content. Actually, relaxed is more of an appropriate word. I didn't feel as
- alone as I did. It certainly wasn't the "Tim. Who needs him." type
- attitude, I could never do that, but the wound was beginning to heal.
-
- I called Aron back that evening.
- "Hello?" It was Aron.
- "Hey Aron, what's going on?"
- "Very little."
- "Maybe you were right. Getting back into life was what I needed."
- "I will assume that you have met somebody."
- "That I did. Just do me a favor and don't let on to Justin. I'll
- explain why later."
- "Sure, buddy. I'm happy for you."
- "Why have you been letting your feelings flow lately. Are you in a
- particularly good mood? Is this going to last?"
- "I don't get what you mean," he told me.
- "I mean, you've been saying things like 'I'm happy' and 'proud of
- you'. Just things that you haven't said before."
- "Just changing I guess."
- "I know what you mean," I told him. "I'll let you go. See if you
- can't come on over within a few days. Just call first."
- "OK, Nick. Talk to you later."
- "Bye," I said, then hung up the phone.
-
- What's really weird about life is the fact that you can't really get
- completely depressed. Life itself has kind of a back-up system. If
- absolutely everything goes wrong, then for some strange reason you laugh. So
- if you ever get depressed, and feel you can't go on, and aren't laughing,
- then there's got to be something that is still worth sticking around for. My
- friends are what I was left with. People you can depend on. Though it may
- not seem like they care, they really do inside. That's what makes it nice.
- And thoughout all that I go through, they're there for me. It's comforting.
-
- #############################################################################
- Nick Tails
-