The Gay Man's Matchmaker

Chapter 15

I was still laughing at something Joey said as we bounded up to my apartment door. We were just coming from a hilarious movie and my mood was pretty good. Actually, it had been since I started dating Joey. I guess Tommy had been right. All I needed was someone in my life. But damned if I’d be the one to admit to the bastard! Yes, he’s still a bastard for putting me through all that shit before Joey found me again. At least he’d started easing up on bugging my boyfriend every chance he got. It was a small but welcome reprieve. What I didn’t know was that it was also the calm before the storm. I should have known he wouldn’t leave well enough alone. He never was smart enough to know when to quit.

That night, I turned the lock in my apartment door to let myself and my boyfriend in for a relaxing after-movie cuddling session. What? You don’t believe me? I really only wanted to cuddle! Okay, I wouldn’t have been adverse to … something more. But I was happy to just cuddle and chat with my man. Haven’t you ever just felt like doing that? No? Figures. Pervert!

Anyway, we go inside and I was confused. The lights were on. But Tommy told me he and Lauren had plans that night and that he’d be staying over her place because it would be a late-nighter. (Hint, hint. Wink, wink. Yeah, he’s a lot like you!) But not only were the lights on, he was home. And not alone. And not with Lauren. She was nowhere to be seen.

The guy who took up space on our couch was just your average Joe. (YOUR average Joe, mind you. Mine was a golden blondie who loved me, thank you very much. But I digress.) He had dark brown hair, cut short, but not too short, with dark brown eyes. He was of average weight, I guess, and would probably be close to six feet tall, but not quite, if he stood up. As it was he slumped down into the couch balancing a beer bottle on his fairly flat stomach. When we walked in he looked up at us then smirked. I hate strangers who walk into my house and smirk at me. Actually, I’m not too fond of strangers even in the nest of circumstances. But this one definitely rubbed me wrong. He looked a bit familiar, but then I see a lot of people in my daily routines, so he could be anyone.

At that moment Tommy came out of the kitchen with a bowl of chips. He caught sight of me and Joey and froze for a second … just a second. Then he smirked, too. Oh, fuck no, asshole! You’re not playing me tonight! But he was about to. And the son of a bitch knew it! You know what the problem is with best friends? Curiously enough, it’s also the biggest advantage. They know you best and they can draw blood quicker than anyone else based on what they know.

“Hey, Kee,” the big blonde idiot greeted me in a voice that dripped with false camaraderie. “You remember Chris from school, right?”

Chris? Joey’s ex-friend Chris? At least that was what I was hoping.

“Kee,” the stranger dipped his head in a nod at me. “Joey, my man! You were supposed to call me last night … remember?”

F-U-C-K-!-!-!-!

I whirled around in horror to look at Joey’s reaction. And I saw guilt reflected back at me … guilt in the look in his eyes, in the red tinge of his cheeks, in the downward cast of his lips. He was still very much in touch with Chris, with whom he’d had a certain bet way back when. The same Chris who had dared him to tie me to the swings. The same Chris who had a bet with him to see if they could out me in high school. The same Chris who my supposed own best friend had saved me from, along with saving me from Joey. The same best friend who was exposing me to them both right now. I didn’t know who the hell to confront first. So, for the moment, I stuck with Joey.

“He’s … you?” I found myself speechless at a time when I needed my cynicism the most.

“It’s not what it looks like,” he said softly.

“It isn’t?” Tommy taunted. “Are you sure, Joe? ‘Cause Chris and I have been having an enlightening conversation.”

I couldn’t even turn around and look at him. Every word he spoke was driving the knife deeper into my back as far as I was concerned. How could he blindside me like this? After everything he said he’d done for me, how could he do this to me? I was trembling and just concentrated on not crying as I stared at my boyfriend, who was so in love with me according to him, in disbelief.

“It isn’t,” Joey said again.

“Imagine my surprise when Tommy here told me you were dating the fag,” Chris taunted.

“Watch it!” Tommy hissed.

He had no right to try to defend me now, I thought bitterly. Not after he brought this situation on.

“No offense,” Chris said casually. “I mean, I didn’t even think we still had that bet going. Does Heather know?”

Heather? My blood chilled to ice-cold temperatures.

“Heather and I aren’t together anymore,” Joey hissed, glaring at Chris over my shoulder.

“Since when?”

“Since ages ago! Why the fuck are you here?”

Joey moved forward to touch me but I flinched away, feeling so cold and alone inside.

“That’s right, don’t touch him!” Tommy said, coming over to me.

The trembling turned into outright shaking, bordering on convulsions, as I glared at him for all I was worth. That fucking bastard! He’d ruined everything! I knew enough about him to be sure he’d sought Chris out himself. This was no coincidence.

“Kee? Remember your blood pressure?” he warned.

“That delicate, is he?” Chris chuckled.

“Shut the fuck up, Chris!” Joey yelled at him.

“Kee?” Tommy’s smug look had evaporated into fear. “Say something.”

“I … HATE … you!”

Suddenly, my happy-go-lucky former best friend looked like he didn’t know what to do with me. And I never meant a statement more in my entire life. I did hate him for this. I loathed him for this. Even if it turned out that he was right and Joey had been using me … well, I’d end up hating Joey just as much as I hated Tommy. He was no longer my trusted best friend after this stunt. He’d purposely betrayed me and had ended up helping Chris and Joey humiliate me … just as he’d claimed he’d been working to avoid happening all those years ago. I hated him with a ferocity the likes of which not even Adrianna has ever seen.

“Kee, I was only trying to save you.”

“How?!” I shouted at the top of my lungs (remember, I told you I have quite the capacity since I don’t smoke anymore), making him flinch. “You said you protected me from something like this, and now you’ve actually orchestrated it!”

“I only wanted you to hear it from Chris.”

“In front of Joey, too ... so that now, if you’re right, they can go laughing on their way!”

Tommy looked between the two other guys in the room in shock.

“I didn’t use him,” Joey insisted. “I love him!”

“Hey, you don’t have to play that part anymore,” Chris laughed. “I’ll pay you the twenty bucks!”

“Twenty bucks?” I whirled back around to face Joey. “That’s all I’m worth to you then?”

“I swear to you,” he said frantically. “I wasn’t trying to collect on a bet.”

“And yet, you showed up out of nowhere after almost a decade to suddenly plop yourself in my life and become my boyfriend!” I exploded. “My first, real, serious boyfriend!”

“Oh, that’s too sweet,” Chris laughed.

Joey turned and punched him hard in the jaw, laying him flat out on his back. As satisfying as it was to witness it, I was still quaking with rage over the whole situation. Joey turned back to me with pleading eyes.

“I swear it.”

“And who … the fucking hell is this Heather?” I demanded.

“His … ugh … fiancée,” Chris rasped out as he sat up and cradled his chin between his palms. “They were due to get married in a few months. I’m going to be his best man … I think I still am, anyway.”

“I broke the engagement months ago,” Joey rushed to add. “Before I found you.”

“Your … friend there doesn’t seem to know this.”

“I hadn’t told him yet,” Joey sighed. “And can you blame me? Look at the ass!”

I did, and he was an ass. Chris’ mouth trickled blood out of the side of it. But he still managed to smirk at me from the floor. I wanted to kick him … or something. I wanted to kick something so fucking bad. I felt like such a stupid idiot!

“Kee,” Tommy tried again reaching out to touch my shoulder.

“What part of I hate you don’t you get, motherfucker!?” I screamed at him, the tears pouring down my cheeks now … I didn’t give a damn.

“I was only … trying …”

“Fuck you!” I yelled as I stamped out the door. “Fuck you all!”

I made sure I slammed the damn thing near off its hinges as I left, not letting the sobs come full force until I was in the elevator, on the way out of there. I slid down the wall and cried my head off as it descended to the lobby.