Scandal in the House of Titan

David’s POV

I can feel Jack’s heart pounding under my cheek. The rapid thumping is strangely soothing in both its tempo and its symbolizing how concerned Jack is and how this weekend meant more than just a sexual experiment between best friends. I just wish it didn’t take me getting the shit beaten out of me to show it.

My mind is racing. On the brighter side, Jack is here with me. He cares enough for me to abandon Stephen for the night after all this happened. That means a lot. On the darker side, I wish this wasn’t happening. We never should have kissed, we never should have fucked, and we never should have cheated. I’m overwrought with guilt despite the tiny flickering flame buried deep within me reminding me that Jack is perfect and that I am definitely in love with him. On top of all of that I am disgusted with Alex. Never in our three years together has he even raised his voice to me. I didn’t think he was capable of this. I can’t reasonably say that he deserved to be cheated on if this is the way he is going to deal with it, but the bloody lips and pounding headache are definitely easing my emotional pain. Honestly, I feel guiltier about breaking Stephen’s heart than Alex’s.

In this moment I am feeling emotionally conflicted and physically miserable. My body finally stops shaking after lying with Jack for a little while. He reaches up and gently rubs the back of my head. I groan in protest, not wanting anything else to come into contact with my skull. He whispers an apology and places a soft kiss on my hair.

“I’m worried you have a concussion,” he says quietly.

I nod in agreement, my eyelids growing heavy.

“That means you can’t fall asleep tonight. I will take you to the doctor in the morning.”

I tilt my head back and look up at him with the saddest puppy dog eyes I can muster. I am sure it looks particularly pathetic with the swollen black eye.

“Obviously I’m going to stay up with you,” he reminds me. My stomach tingles with warmth, which I assume is my replacement for a smile in this instance. “Go try to get yourself cleaned up. I will make a nest for us out here on the couch and we will stay up together until we can go to urgent care and get you looked at.”

I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. I’m not looking forward to the long night and curse the nearest urgent care for closing so early. I just remind myself that Jack is doing something incredibly sweet. I reluctantly peel myself from his chest, apologizing quietly for the flecks of blood I left on his light blue shirt. He assures me it isn’t a problem. I stagger into the bathroom and finally look at myself in the mirror.

My left eye is purple and puffy, dark red spots lining the socket like a morbid constellation. My lower lip is twice its normal size, blood dried in a line reaching all the way down to my chin. I run my hand under warm water and try to scrub the blood away, wincing with each movement. Two finger-shaped blue bruises have formed on my chest. Another round bruise on my side from where Alex kicked me. And several more on my back across my shoulder blades. I wipe the rest of my face with water and dab it dry with the hand towel. I hear Jack out in the hall putting the sheets I had shoved in the washer earlier into the dryer. I walk into my room to see him digging through the trunk at the foot of my bed, pulling out all the softest blankets and extra pillows. He stands up and smiles at me.

He reaches behind him and hands me my Haus of Titan sweatshirt, which, despite being a total joke amongst my drag family because it looks like one of those tacky family reunion T-shirts, is still my favourite article of clothing because it is both soft and really sentimental. I pull it on over my head and take two of the pillows from my bed. Jack goes back into the living room and very carefully sets up the perfect blanket nest, even pulling the armchair over to face the couch, creating a longer space for two people to sit in.

“Get settled in, sweetheart”.

I step into the nest and cover my legs up with one of the blankets, holding on tightly to the two other pillows. I bury my face in the one Jack slept on the night before, finding comfort in his scent.

Moments later, he returns from the kitchen with hot tea and a box of Cheez-Its. He sets the tea on the end table beside me and climbs onto the couch with the Cheez-Its, offering them to me as soon as he nestles in. I take a handful, slowly chewing them one-by-one. We spend the whole night cuddled beside each other playing season after season of Bob’s Burgers with the volume extra low. I hit a wall around 4AM. I desperately want to close my eyes and drift off, but Jack notices and lifts my head up with his fingertips. He leaves the most tender kiss on my sore lips. I grab his face, willing to tough out the pain to be closer to him.

“I’m so sorry this happened to you,” he whispers against my ear, cradling my head in his hands. His voice is gravelly, rumbling through his chest. “I wish I had been here with you to protect you—to tell him together. I love you so much, David .”

I squeeze his upper arms. I feel my heart rate rise, waking me up along with it. “I love you too, Jack,” my voice is hardly above a tiny whine, “thank you”. Our lips meet again, hardly straying until the sky beyond the thin curtains in the living room begins to lighten. We hadn’t even noticed the Are you there? box on the TV screen.

“Let’s get you to a doctor,” Jack mutters, patting my leg and climbing out of our blanket nest. “And then after that, I’m taking you to the police”.

I swing my legs over the side of the couch and look up at him quizzically. “Why?”

“Because you stole my heart”.

He bats his eyelashes and I just stare at him. “You’re gay”.

He laughs and goes to the bathroom. Eventually, we leave and go to the urgent care where I am the first patient of the day right at seven o’clock. The receptionist is more than a little appalled by all my bruises as she hands me my paperwork and runs my insurance. I get taken back in no time at all. Jack sits in one of the chairs along the wall of the exam room and I curl up onto the cot, letting a nurse take my vitals.

“Your pulse is a little fast,” she tells me, scribbling numbers onto my papers.

“I wonder why,” Jack mutters under his breath. I’m not sure if he is referring to me being scared or to our daybreak makeout session. Either way, I get a strange look from the nurse. She tells me she will have the doctor talk to me about that.

The doctor comes in just a minute later and introduces herself as Dr. McHale. She’s a bouncy, petite, middle-aged woman. She expresses immediate concern for my facial bruising much like the receptionist at the front and asks what happened.

I look to Jack because I’m having trouble forming words on my own. He laughs nervously.

“Um… well, I guess the short version is that his boyfriend, er, I guess ex-boyfriend now, beat him up after he found out he was cheating.”

“That David was cheating?” Dr. McHale clarifies, pointing to me. I nod shamefully. She then moves her finger between Jack and I. “So what’s your relation?”

“I’m his best friend and… the other man, I guess.” Jack turns bright red. Dr. McHale nods, processing everything.

“So did you see exactly what happened?”

“No, I wasn’t there. I walked in and he was curled up on the floor against the wall. So I assume his ex punched him and threw him into the wall?”

I confirm with another nod of the head, sniffling, trying not to replay everything in my mind. Dr. McHale asks if I can speak. I answer, “a little”. Jack jumps in to say I haven’t said much all night and that he kept me up to be cautious in case I have a concussion.

After being examined, Dr. McHale confirms that I do have a concussion, albeit fairly small and says that I should rest and can sleep later today. I am grateful for that. I get sent home and immediately curl back up on the couch. I look up at Jack and pat the cushion beside me. He checks his phone, “just a minute. I have two missed calls from Stephen. He was really worried about you. I’m gonna go call him back really quickly”.

I sigh and turn the TV back on. Jack goes out onto the porch to call Stephen. I can hear some of what he is saying. He sounds exhausted as he explains the night’s events. A little while later her comes back in and sits down with me. I pause the show I’m watching.

“Stephen said he’s glad you’re okay and wants to come over either tonight or tomorrow if that’s alright?” Jack begins, waiting for a response from me. I nod. I like Stephen a lot. It will be difficult to face him after all of this, but I certainly owe him some thanks and a serious apology.

“He also drove out here after me last night and went looking for Alex… He found him somewhere in the alley and told him off for hitting you and gave him an ultimatum that he had to come apologize to you in person or else he was just gonna dump him off on the sidewalk.”

I swallowed hard, not wanting to see Alex anytime in the near future. Jack’s face softens and he climbs into our couch nest with me. He pulls me into his chest and tugs one of the blankets up over my shoulders. Hardly a minute passes before we are both fast asleep.

I wake up to Jack wriggling out from under me. I groan and catch myself as I slip down to the bottom of the couch. Jack hops out over the armchair and groggily stumbles into the kitchen. I hear him fishing around the fridge.

“Are you hungry?” He asks over the island separating the kitchen and living room.

“A little,” I mumble back quietly.

“I’ll make some macaroni and cheese.”

I grunt and rub my eyes, looking at my phone. It’s early evening. My stomach growls loudly, causing Jack to chuckle quietly. When the macaroni is done, Jack returns with two bowls, presenting one of them to me and he climbs back onto the couch. We eat in silence until Jack’s phone lights up with a text from Stephen.

“Do you want him to come over tonight?” Jack asks, tapping his password without even looking. I shrug at first, but follow up with, “I guess he should.”

Jack nods in agreement, responding to the text. He takes a deep breathe when he puts his phone back down and exhales, “we fucked up, buddy.”

His voice waivers. I look up and see tears rolling down his cheeks. “This finally hit me,” he tries to laugh, wiping his face with the t-shirt still stained with my blood from the night before. “Is it bad that I feel less guilty about doing this with you instead of some random guy? Like, at least I actually care about you, right? Am I just trying to rationalize cheating on my husband? Is that what’s happening?”

He begins to cry harder. I push our empty bowls to the edge of the couch and pull Jack’s head into my chest. I rub the short, dark hairs on the back of his neck.

“I just love both of you so much,” he coughs, taking short choppy breaths to try to calm himself down. I squeeze his shoulders as tight as both of us can bear until there’s a knock at the door. Jack jumps, frantically wiping his face and running to the bathroom for tissues. My stomach plummets, doing somersaults around my lower bowel. Jack returns and goes to the door, taking a deep breath before turning the knob. Stephen steps in and gives Jack a small smile, then looks at me, the smile replaced by a look of horror. He quickly comes over and sits beside me, carefully taking my hand. I flop over into a haphazard embrace with him muttering “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” over and over again. I feel Stephen’s arms against my back. “It’s ok, David…” he whispers. “I mean, it’s not okay technically, but…uh…I’m sorry this happened to you.”

“It’s fine, I deserved it,” I sniffled, sitting back on the couch. Stephen straightened himself and looked me dead in the eyes. “No,” he said sternly. “You did not deserve to be beaten. You deserved to have a mature conversation. We all fuck up. I don’t know what got into Alex’s head that made him feel superior enough to hit you. Listen, he’s outside right now. I told him he needed to apologize, but I didn’t want to bring him in without your permission.”

“I don’t really want to see him right now… but I do owe you a massive apology and a massive thank you,” my voice is quiet, but I hold eye contact with Stephen through my swollen lids. “I am so sorry for what I did—for what we did. You are an incredible man, clearly. Thank you for taking care of Alex and looking out for me even though I betrayed you. I honestly can’t express my regret and my gratitude enough.”

Stephen squeezes my hands. “I accept your apology, David. But I have a question for you…if we remove the cheating aspect of this… do you regret acting on your feelings for Jack? Are you happy with him?”

Stephen looks over my head at Jack, who is leaning against the wall nearby, his hand pressed tightly over his mouth, catching tears.

“I am. I wish the situation was better, because I really love him,” I whisper, forcing myself to maintain eye contact despite how difficult it is quickly becoming. Stephen nods slowly. His face is stoic, unchanging. I take a deep breath and shakily exhale. The tension in the air is almost too much. I feel myself getting dizzy.

“I need you to know that I am incredibly heartbroken,” Stephen begins. More tears sting my eyes. I squeeze his hands. “But I want you two to figure out whatever it is that you want whether that’s just hooking up some more or dating long term or dating other people completely. I would rather let Jack go explore whatever he needs to explore than ban him from seeing you or something. And I need to tell you,” he looks up at Jack. “That I’m not going to wait around forever for you, ok? This is an official end to our relationship and I don’t owe you anything, alright?”

“Yes, yes, absolutely.” Jack replies, coming over to the couch. Stephen stands up and they embrace. Jack clings to him, his knuckles turning white around Stephen’s sides. When they finally step apart I take another deep breath and tell Stephen he can send Alex in.

Alex steps in sullen-faced, his eyes softening when he sees me and all my bruises. Stephen stays in the corner by the door.

“Fuck, I’m… I’m sorry, David. I’m sorry for hurting you,” he begins, shifting his weight and fiddling with his hands. “I know you don’t want to see me as much as I don’t want to see you, but I’m sorry for reacting the way I did. I hate that you cheated on me. You’re relationship with Jack kinda creeps me out a lot and I definitely don’t want to be with you anymore. I feel really hurt and betrayed and violated and I just want you to text me a time for me to come get my stuff when you’re not here and then I don’t really want to see or speak to you ever again…”

I can tell that Stephen told Alex what to say, but I appreciate the apology. I nod without saying anything or really even looking at him. He turns around and hurries out of the apartment. Stephen takes a step towards the door, gives a small wave, and follows Alex out. Jack lets out a groan and plops down onto the couch. He keeps his arms in front of him and I clasp my hands between my knees.

“Well…” Jack sighs. “Thus begins the awkward part of our relationship where it’s hard to be happy together because we just destroyed two people.”

“Dee’s gonna kill us.” I mutter, suddenly thinking about my drag grandmother.

“Dee isn’t going to find out.”

“It’s going to be kind of hard to hide it from her when she suddenly doesn’t see Stephen or Alex anymore, especially Stephen. He’s been a crew member since you joined the family.”

“Well… at least we aren’t cheating anymore?”

I huff and fall over onto Jack’s lap. “I feel like shit,” I say shortly.

“Me too, babe. Me too.”