First let me start by apologizing for taking so long to get this final chapter posted. I have received several requests to finish the series and my life just kept being too busy to sit down and type it up. Here it is, I hope it was worth the wait.
It had been months since Stephen had walked out on me. Is walked out the right term when you cheat on your boyfriend with two other guys in one night before coming home and realizing what you've wanted had been there in front of you all along?! Regardless, it had been months. I had spent the first little bit curled up on my sofa or going to work. Nothing much took my attention away from the fact that I had completely destroyed my entire relationship before realizing I had one.
I had always taken for granted what I had. In denial about who I was. I always told myself I wasn't gay, that this was just sex with guys, random guys. But I had settled into a groove with Stephen and looking back it was so obvious. We lived together, slept together, laughed together, binged Netflix together. And now... now this empty void where he used to be.
One day, while putting away laundry, I was struggling with my drawer. It was jammed and I was in the wrong mood to deal with it. I yanked at it, growling under my breath. I gave it one yank too many and the whole drawer came tumbling out, "FUCK!" I growled as the contents spilled out onto the floor.
I got down on my knees and began the process of cleaning up the pants. As I was refolding them into the drawer I moved a pair aside and there, in front of me like a whisper from the past, were those damn shorts. The ones that started this all. Years ago when I went jogging on the trail and met Marc. I had spent a lot of time thinking over the years about what happened that day. Things had worked out in the end but at the core, what he had done to me had been wrong. It always left me with conflicting feelings. The force, the aggression, the tears and sick to my stomach fear on that first encounter. But the pleasure, the realization of a bit of who I was, the adventure he took me on and then eventually...Stephen. It all started with these cursed shorts.
I picked them up, thumbed the elastic waistband for a minute before I was overcome with anger. Anger at what he had done to me that day, anger that things had become so great and anger that I had ruined it chasing the wrong man. I threw the shorts with a holler at the wall. I stood up and kicked my dresser like a child before stomping out of the room. Threw myself on the sofa and glared at the wall.
Well, this wasn't productive. As I stared at the wall accomplishing nothing I realized I was going to have to pull myself together eventually. I slowly got up, checked my foot from where I had kicked the dresser and marched back into my room with a purpose this time.
* * * * *
Here I was, back where it all started, on the trail. NOT wearing my cursed shorts this time. I couldn't bring myself to throw them out but I also wanted nothing to do with them either. I started a light jog on the trail. Had to start somewhere.
* * * * *
Two more months passed and I was back into a healthier routine. Jogging almost every day now, always on the same trail, head up and pushing all negative thoughts to the back of my mind. That was, until the day I jogged past Marc. I saw him in the distance and couldn't believe my eyes. He didn't see me yet and as he got closer I could feel my rage building up inside me. It wasn't HIS fault Stephen left me but still it all came back to him every way I twisted the story.
As he was passing me he looked over, we made eye contact and his eyes went wide just as his face went white. I almost completely passed him before I lunged, "YOU!"
Marc dodged me for a moment and then he bolted. I turned fast and chased after him. He had always been a fit man, I would be gaining on him and then he would increase his speed. I knew I had to catch him. I had to have it out. Months of anger and depression sat between us and I wouldn't move on until I had this closure.
I don't know how long I chased him for, time didn't seem to exist. It could have been a few seconds or a few minutes. But I became aware of my surroundings when I saw it. That adjacent trail. The one that veered off course. My blood boiled, he wouldn't! He couldn't! As if calling my bluff, he did! Marc turned onto the side trail, did a quick shoulder check to see if I was still chasing him and then he picked up pace. The side trail was never a long one, I don't even know if you could call it a trail, it headed straight into the woods and though clearly often trecked on it didn't seem to be am official part of the running trail provided by the government. But as short as this side trail was, it was long enough for my anger to build.
Up ahead I could see the boulder where he first had his way with me. He was heading straight for it. That son of a bitch! As he rounded toward the boulder I saw a few guys scatter away. One of them was clearly still trying to pull his pants back up. Marc, changed direction and headed into the woods and as he did that two more guys stumbled out of the woods holding hands looking disheveled.
Where they had stumbled out, Marc stopped. He put his hands on his knees, bent forward and catching his breath. I slowed, fists clenched at my side. "I didn't think I'd see you up here again after what happened last time. But if you want my ass so bad I guess I'm up for it." Marc started to untie his shorts.
As he looked up his face met my right hook. Marc stumbled back from my hit, "WHAT THE FUCK?! You're the one who followed ME in here you ass hole!"
"I followed you to give you a piece of my mind!"
"Well you could have waited at the end of the trail for that then! Jesus man," he rubbed his cheek where I'd hit him, "if I had known you just wanted to talk I wouldn't have run all the way up here."
I gave him a shove, "What the fuck is wrong with you? You think it's okay to just go around fucking whoever the hell you want while your wife sits at home waiting for you?"
"Keep it down!" he growled nervously but clearly annoyed, "I don't need everyone knowing my business. You never had a problem with our arrangement before. What's your problem now?!"
"My problem is rapists like YOU shoving your dick where it doesn't belong and ruining lives."
Marc stumbled, his eyes wide and he choked a little as he sputtered, "Rapists?! Rapists like me?! What are you talking about?!"
I snarled, "Rapists like you, that's what I'm talking about. Guys who think it's their right to just fuck a pretty piece of ass he finds on a trail because he can. I may have eventually liked our arrangment but I never asked to be raped!"
