Lessons Learned

I sat up, slapping my face a few times and looking at my sleeping friends lying beside me in bed. I smiled at them, knowing that while they would eagerly get me drunk but not fuck me, they would indeed get me drunk enough to mess around and to make a point to Parker.

Who they believed didn’t care enough about me.

Sighing, I gingerly get out of the bed- no need to wake the twins- slip on a pair of pants and go looking for Parker. The remnants of last night's untouched dinner have all been put in the sink by some unknown hand. Going upstairs, figuring he might've taken to sleeping in one of the bedrooms, I find that neither of the beds have been so much as touched. Stopping on top of the stairs, I try to pick up the fragments of what happened when I saw him last.

It comes back in jagged pieces- Dallan saying something about my boy toy coming home; Sven pulling me closer and playing with my hair; the crash of something against the wall…

… Parker giving me a look so full of betrayal that had cut clean through the alcoholic stupor and brought me halfway to the present. Too bad it hadn't done the same to my body as the wine's effects had dragged me back down to a welcomed sleep.

And as bad as it sounds which is pretty bad I realize then no one in their right mind would stay home after that.

Shit!

Punching the wall with my fist, managing to create a good-sized hole that I'd have to plaster over later, I storm back to my bedroom. Flinging open the closet I grab a shirt- in the limited hallway light it's hard to tell if it's black or dark navy- and yank it on. Thundering down the stairs, I grab the first coat hanging on the coat rack in the entry way.

Shrugging on the leather jacket- that I'm pretty sure belongs to one of the twins- I grabbed my keys and decide to go in search for him. From the living room Sven, who's always been the lighter sleeper of the two, emerges with a surprisingly clear look in his eyes. Taking in my attire and the upset look on my face- I've never been a crier but I swear if I loose Parker because of some poorly thought out petty revenge I just might become one- he only asks, "You're going to look for him aren't you?"

Looking out the screen door I whisper, "I just hope he'll hear me out."

He walks over to me, wraps his arms around my neck and says softly, "Dallan really likes you Vias. More than a friend probably should. I can acknowledge that my own feelings for you are a jumbled mess. Somedays I love you like a brother and others I love you more or less. But, I know that if he only saw the way you look at Parker, and vice versa, I think he just might understand. I know now I do…"

Closing my eyes, resting my head against his, I thank him.

"Please try make him understand that if I could, I would willing give him my heart. But I can't give him something that no longer belongs to me."

Sven lets me go, and even I can hear he's not going to fight a losing battle anymore.

"Find the thief who stole it then. Make him understand the severity of his crime."

Smiling I tell him I will and rush out the door without a backward glance. As I'm pulling out of my driveway I know full well that Parker is indeed a child who'd run off in the middle of the night. Keeping that thought in mind I start driving in circles and spreading out. Stopped at a red light I see something move in the corner of my eye. Swiveling around I see a group of figures standing in an alleyway crowded around something. I don't know what they're doing but the twist in my gut and the uneasy feeling is something I don’t like.

Pulling into a parking spot on the other side of the street I step out of the car. From where I'm standing it's hard to tell if it might be him. And despite my gut feeling I ask softly, “Parker?”

I know that if he's over there the only way he'd hear me was if he had supersonic hearing. But the muffled cries that reach my ears are enough to make my blood grow cold and anger flare up in my eyes.

“No, Lance, don’t!"

Arching my back up a little to make myself seem taller I march across the street and reach the alley way's entrance right as a man with a crow bar raises it above his head as a few others watched on.

"Please don't… please-"

Audibly reassured that it is indeed Parker and that a mother fucking bastard is trying to hurt him- no doubt it's the same man who hurt him so badly the last time- I rush forward. Ripping the crowbars from the man's hand, with more than a slight struggle as he's larger and stronger but I'm hiked up on adrenaline, I jump between him and Parker who's cowering on the ground.

“Back off you son of a bitch,” I growled under by my breath, looking directly at this ‘Lance’.

“Make me.”

His friends are like hyenas, yipping and refusing to shut up.

"Trying to be a hero boy?"

"Don't know why you're getting involved. Doesn't involve you anyway."

"Teach him a lesson L! Beat him to a pulp!"

As poor in taste as it may be, the only thought in my mind is how this is like a scene from an amateur director's cut. The threats lack originality and the thugs are all brawn with little to no brains.

Oh the irony.

Lance stands in front of me, pumped up from his 'friends' support. But the fact that I have the crow bar and he does not is the only thing stopping him from making a move.

"I'm gonna make you regret inferring in something that has nothing to do with you."

Calmly I retort, "Everything that involves Parker involves me."

And from that statement alone the leader has a light bulb moment. As the realization dawns on him I can feel himself letting down his guard.

"He's a fag you guys! He and the whore's son are faggots!"

Gripping the crowbar so hard my knuckles are white I say loud enough to drown out the hyenas' laughter, "So what of it?"

Lance takes a step in my direction and says, "Cock sucker I'm going to make you regret being born. Then I'll fuck your little flamer right before your eyes."

My voice is cold and deadly.

"Just go ahead and try."

I didn't know how I was going to stop him. I was strong but I had never had to use my strength against someone before. But cementing my resolve to protect Parker this time, I knew I wasn’t going to let him get away with what he had done.

Running forward, I fake right then spin left and slam the crowbar against his upper leg. Hearing the sickening but satisfying crack and Lance's cry of pain makes me grateful for having played soccer and baseball when I was younger

Crouched, greatly favoring his left leg, Lance demands that his friends take me out but the sound of rushing sirens freezes everyone in their tracks. They look at each other and without a second though scatter as a cop's car pulls up blocking the alleyway's main entrance. Dropping the crow bar as two uniformed officers rush to the rescue I fall to my knees. All my energy gone and my hands shaking so badly as the realization of how blinded my actions were hits me.

But all that is pushed to the side when I feel a pair of arms slip around my waist and a head buried into the center of my back.

“Thank you so much…” Parker murmured and I turned around to hold him in my arms as the police came up to us to question us and ask questions about everything else. In a little bit Sven comes up from behind one of the cops and explains what happened.

“Man, Dallan woke up and the both of you were gone so he called the cops, afraid something had happened; I guess it’s a good thing he did.”

As he's talking Dallan walks up from behind him with a relieved smile on his face that the moans of pain were not coming from either Parker or I.

The medic team had set Lance's leg and the cops had then slapped some irons on the man’s wrists and promptly to the gurney. As I watch him being rolled away I can't help but smile with relief. He was screaming obscenities from the pain as they loaded him into the ambulance, but they didn’t seem to care after they heard Parker tell them everything that had happened.

He had tear stains on his face, a couple nasty bruises that would look worse in the morning, and I was still rather angry that he hadn't told me everything that had happened first. But after hearing; I realized just why he'd been so hesitant to tell me.

How could he trust another male in his life when another one had hurt him so badly?

After all of the questions were provided with whatever answers we could give and the evidence had been collected, I kissed Parker’s forehead and asked Sven and Dallan to take us home. They sat in the front while Parker rests his head on my lap in the back.

And somewhere between my our house and the alley, we drifted off into a much needed sleep.