Thank you all for continuing Neville's story with me. I appreciate your support and critiques. I'll correct an error I made with my last installment here. This series is a continuation of "Fresh Out". If you aren't familiar with the characters and you read this you'll have tons of questions that will all be answered if you read through the "Fresh Out" series. Thanks again for reading.
*****
It wasn't just him. There was a woman with him. Short, dark skin, round hips, and a funky purple afro. Her face looked familiar but try as I might, I couldn't put a name to it. She had tears in her eyes and I felt bad. They had to be for me and I didn't even know her name. They were holding hands. Holding each other up as they came closer. The contact between them made me uncomfortable. It must have been on my face because he laughed as he let her go and came to my bedside.
"I didn't know what to think when Chrissy wouldn't let me back in," he said as he kissed my forehead. His hand slipped behind my head and he ran his fingers along my neck. His other arm was in a cast and I reached to grab it but my hand fell short. I tried again, twice before I touched it and he pulled it away. "I caught one before it got you. Couple screws and a plate. No biggy..."
"Slow down Breeze," she said with a sniffling giggle as she took my hand. I almost pulled away but she kept talking. "Let him catch up a little. We don't even know...Just slow down."
I wanted to tell her to shut up and let him finish but I couldn't make the words. "Talk." It was the best I could do as I looked up into his eyes. Then I shift them back to her and managed to say, "Listen."
"Well excuse me for trying to look out for my little cousin," she said with a smirk then kissed my cheek. She took my hand in both hers and kissed my palm.
There was so much love in that touch. Too much for me not to remember her name. I stared at her long and hard, willing myself to remember. She held my gaze, almost like she knew. He knew it too, because he didn't say a word. But that didn't stop his fingers on the back of my neck. There was love in that touch too, but it was different. Distracting, and I shook my head away. I heard his chuckle but I didn't take my eyes off her. I reached up to touch her face, my heavy hand slapped her a little but she laughed and held it there. Still looking at me. Waiting.
"It's okay Magilla. It'll come back to you," she said and I sucked my teeth.
"Paris," I said, but it sounded more a curse, even on my ears.
"I told you not to call him that," he said with a smirk and rubbed his hand along my face. "So...uhhh...shot in the dark, you don't remember what happened. I'd say that's a good thing since I remember enough for both of us." His eyes welled up again and I tried to wipe his tears. That made him smile as he lean on the edge of my bed. The rails were still up, so he couldn't sit but he didn't seem that interested in letting me go, nor did Paris, which was good. After so much time alone, I needed the contact.
I'd taken him on a date, our first date. My first real date with someone whom I wanted to spend intimate time. As Breeze told of the night, the vague details he gave were quickly filled in from my memory. We'd had a great time, the best time we'd had together since we were kids, talking and laughing. Even the little hiccup of his ex-wife calling didn't put too much of a damper on the situation. He didn't allow it to, with my help of course, but that's what partners do. Sexual or not. The more he spoke, the more I remembered. I remembered taking him home, back to his place. I remembered teasing him about giving me some loving. I remembered what I planned to do to him, with him. I remembered everything.
I remembered Claude. That petty fuck. That slimy, little dicked, pervert. Gianni had filled me in on his story after our first meeting. Ugly, filthy rich, and more closeted than I had ever been. He had a taste for young men, not exactly minors but as close to them as he could get. The more damaged the better. Gianni had speculated that he himself may have been abused as a boy but that didn't excuse his disgusting perversions. Being a young runaway, Gianni had heard stories about Claude from other boys like him. It was by pure luck that Tyler found him first and took him in, else he may have turned to selling his most prized possession for survival as many of his friends had done. If not for Tyler, Gianni may have shared the fate of one those young friends of his who had found their way into Claude's grasp. If he couldn't buy a service, he'd use their drug of choice to soften their resolve. Eventually, he quit buying company and started picking up guys at bars. That's how Colin learned of him first hand but was too embarrassed to report his abuses to the authorities. Some good did come out of it though, he cleaned himself up and got a job with Tyler. He kept his secret for a couple years before a night of beer bonding at the Garrett house where he told Gianni and Tyler of how he had gone from a promising engineering student to a construction site grunt. The two matched their stories and figured Colin's Claude was the same guy responsible for the suicide of Gianni's runaway friend. Tyler tried to convince them to tell their stories, especially Colin, but neither would. Gianni had no proof and Colin was still too shaken so Claude was allowed to continue his predilections. Neither knew of his membership to He-Den until the night they saw him with Brion. Even if he wasn't my friend they would have tried to stop what they saw as inevitable.
"I was starting think I might need to change my number," Brion said, finally telling me something I didn't know. "But what would that have done. He knew where I live, where I work. It wasn't like he was threatening either. That night was the first time he even came to my place and I figured...how could I...I ain't think he'd come back like that..." The last came out in a sob and Paris got up to do what I couldn't. She held him, let him cry into her shoulder as she stroked his back. Then I remembered something else.
"You baby he...you baby he..."
"What the fuck bruh..."
"No," Paris said with a tearful giggle. "He's not talking about you. I think he's asking about Trey," she said with a questioning look at me and I nodded. Vigorously. Not trusting my words, I looked an apology to Brion and he smiled down at me. "He's with Artie but my tits is telling me he might be looking for me about now. I'm gonna tag out but I'm not leaving, I'll send the next one." She kissed me again before she said, "Hurry up and get out of this ICU so you can see how big he's getting." And again I nodded.
"I'm so sorry Nev," He said when she was gone and I shook my head so hard the oxygen tube came loose from my ears. Brion fixed it, kissed my nose. "It is. If I ain't hit him...maybe if I didn't...I didn't have to..." I stopped his stammering with my hand on his lips and I felt them spread beneath my fingertips.
"No you...he...him...not...Fuck!"
