Truth Behind the Lies
folder
Original - Misc › -Slash - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
32
Views:
23,648
Reviews:
358
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Category:
Original - Misc › -Slash - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
32
Views:
23,648
Reviews:
358
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.
Chapter Twenty
Author's Note: I have no words that could excuse my lack of posting. All I can say is, 'I'm dealing with life'. I also don't have as much free time as I used to when I was at home, so that might have something to do with it too. Trust me, I understand where you're coming from cause not only am I a writer, I'm also an AFF reader and get frustrated when stories I like don't get updated for a long time. My apologies, I'm trying to do better.
This chapter finally settles the vote on baby names. It also takes you to another level of Bryant's illness. Yes, he's getting worse. However, I have a feeling you guys won't mind what action he takes in this chapter.
There have been a slew of reviews since my last update so instead of replying separately like I'd normally do, I'm going to list the names and shout out a big 'Thank You' to everyone:
JenJen1188
Coke
madlodger
Lychee
Lina
Seb
Anon
Bookworm51485
lili
myoregon
Kerrie
bambi4real
MikiyuSado
Kyo-nezumi
SweetestKisses
Child of the Darkened Moon
sadistickiss
k-girl
womo
sinheart
inumoon3
Amanda
annushka
Badarsila
~Queenie4666~
WCInsane
lavcea
sam
Thank you all!
recap: Richie came for a visit and talked with Shay about his and James' former relationship and breaks down in tears over how his life and marriage had fallen apart. Larry confronts Dennis about his ties with Buggy and some man named, Chris. Dennis in turn opens up Larry's eyes about his own life and how he's afraid to deal with his problems, thinking it's much easier to run away from them. Larry throws him out. While Randy rubs lotion on Shay's pregnant belly, Shay tells him that Richie had come over and he soon breaks down in tears about how he was the cause of their family's breakup. After telling Shay to rest, Randy offers to take along Jack when he drives Bryant back home to pick up a few things.
Chapter Twenty
Same late Saturday afternoon
The sky was turning an evening orange as the sun started to set among Plumsfield. Randy had to turn on his low-beam headlights as he drove Bryant and Jack back to the Gibson home.
“So what are you picking up?” Randy asked Bryant as he continued driving.
“Oh just a few things—some clothes, a few books, my notepad…”
“Notepad? You write?”
The older brunette shrugged his shoulders while watching the passing country-side scenery. “A little. Nothin’ worth talkin’ ‘bout. Just somethin’ to keep what little mind I have left, workin’.”
The blonde nodded. “You mind if I ask you something personal? I mean, if it’s none of my business, just tell me…”
Bryant looked at Randy with a smile that reminded him so much of Shay’s. “I don’t mind. Ask away.”
“Your…..episodes. I’ve never witnessed any but Shay’s told me about a few……What do you see? Or what are you feeling?” Bryant looked down at his hands and started to rub them. Randy presumed he made him nervous. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked I’ll—“
“No.” Bryant replied softly. “It’s alright.”
“I’m not making you uncomfortable, am I?”
The brunette shook his head ‘no’. “The psychiatrists at St. Augustines didn’t care to know what I saw, they just wanted to make me stop ‘acting out’ as they liked to call it, so I’d like to tell someone.” Randy nodded and Bryant continued. “I always had headaches as a child. Not constant but they were frequent, maybe once a day. It carried all the way up until Larry and I got married and we had Shay. But then they stopped and moved to somethin’ else. Shay was four years old when I had my first episode.”
“What happened?”
“I was fixin’ Shay breakfast one morning before I took him to school. I had just turned around to feed him when I saw this…….this figure…” Randy side glanced at Bryant and saw the older man’s brow frown together and his eyes almost glaze over. The blonde immediately began to wonder if he sent him into a spell or something. Soon his fears faded when Bryant started to speak again. “It was big. Really big. It stood behind my son, towerin’ over him, in a black cloak…….All I could see were bright red eyes. It made a move to grab him and I quickly snatched up Shay.”
“Do you think what you see is real?” The blonde asked as he made a right turn down a secluded road.
Bryant shrugged. “I don’t know. At the time, I did. Now, I believe what people say about me…..I’m crazy.”
Randy felt so bad for the man. To battle an illness in the midst of an unsympathetic town where everyone knows everyone’s business, was a heavy load to bear and couldn’t be beneficial to his treatment. “Bryant, don’t—“ He paused when the brunette suddenly touched his forearm then leaned forward to look out the front windshield of the car.
“Did Larry get a new car?” He asked about the black mustang that was sitting in the driveway.
Randy recognized the automobile right away. It was the same mustang that was there when Larry told Shay to move out. That was Dennis’ car. “Umm, no. He didn’t get a new car.” He replied as he pulled up to the Gibson house. “It’s um….it’s Dennis. Larry’s ‘friend’.”
Bryant nodded, making a ‘hm’ sound. Randy didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. He watched the brunette open the car door. “I’ll be right back.”
“Do you want me to go in with you?”
Bryant smiled. “No, I’m fine. Just stay here with Jack and I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Still unsure, the blonde reached for the older man’s hand. “Are you sure you want to go in there by yourself?”
“Randy, I’m fine. It’s not like I’ma kill the man or somethin’.” He got out the car and shut the door. Randy watched as Bryant walked up the steps and into the house, then turned and looked back at Jack who sat quietly in his car seat.
“What do you think, pal? Should I be a little worried?” Jack slowly plugged his ring and middle fingers in his mouth. “Oh great.”
Suddenly, Randy was startled by the large crashing sound of glass and someone screaming. “What the…” Jumping out the car, he quickly grabbed Jack and ran inside. He set the boy down at the door. “Stay right here, okay?” Jack nodded and Randy ran upstairs, where the source of the noise seemed to be coming from.
“Get away from me, you psycho! Help!”
Randy went into the master bedroom and found Dennis wedged in the corner, face bloody and sweaty, while Bryant pinned him by the front of his shirt with one hand and held a butcher knife to his neck with the other. “Help! He’s gonna kill me!” Dennis screamed.
Randy carefully walked behind Bryant. “Bryant? Bryant, put the knife down.”
He shook his head. “20 years. For 20 years I tried to keep that man happy. Everything he asked for, I gave it to him. And with one shake of your ass down that stripper pole, you took him away from me……” He pressed the knife closer to Dennis’ neck.
“You can have him! You can have him back!”
“Bryant, don’t do it. You could get in a lot of trouble for this. He’s not worth it.”
Dennis shook his head franticly. “He’s right! I’m not worth it! I’m not!”
Bryant wasn’t hearing anything they were saying. Too far gone into his zone, the anger he felt for Dennis made it hard for him to comprehend reason. “You’ve been my hidden burden for years. You shattered all chances I had to bring Larry and I back together. But I can finally fix that………with just one swipe of this knife…” Bryant’s pressure on the knife, finally pierced the red head’s skin. A slither of crimson blood began to run.
“Oh God!” Dennis screamed.
Seeing pure rage come across Bryant's face, the far gone look in his eyes, Randy knew the man had lost it. He was determined to kill Dennis. He had to say something that could possibly penetrate that mentally unstable wall Bryant had put up, so Randy yelled out the first thing that came to his mind. “Think about your son, Bryant!” Randy saw the man pause and when he knew he had finally reached him, he just kept talking. “Think about Shay. You know how much he suffered when you were taken away? You know how hard he fought to get you out of there? Shay loves you, Bryant, and if you kill Dennis you’ll be sent away forever and he’ll never see you again. Don’t do that him.” Randy saw tears well up in the brunette’s eyes. The knife began to shake in his hand. Slowly, he walked up to Bryant, placing a comforting hand on his back and extended the other with his palm upward. “Give me the knife. Please.” The grip Bryant had on the handle was so tight, his knuckles had turned white. He stood there shaking for what seemed like forever, before he finally loosened his death grip on both the knife and Dennis’ shirt. Randy took the weapon and set it on a nearby dresser, then grabbed his lover’s mother in his arms just as the tears finally began to fall.
***
That Saturday night
Shay smiled once he heard the front door open. He enjoyed the much needed rest but now that he was awake, he was ready for everybody to come back home. Given his growing weight, he slowly staggered to his feet after spending time in the family room watching tv and welcomed the family as they came in. His eyes immediately zeroed in on the tiny blonde with the brown eyes so similar to his own. “Hi, pookie-bear.” Jack smiled widely at his mother and ran towards him, arms wide open. Shay picked him up and gave him a long kiss on his chubby cheeks. “You have fun on your ride with Gran’ma and daddy?” The nodded. He continued to smile as the other two loves of his life walked inside……….but something was off. Shay’s perky smile faded when he noticed the mistiness in Bryant’s now red eyes and the all-around ‘off’ expression Randy carried on his face.
Shay set his son down. “What happened?” Bryant didn’t stop to speak. Feeling lower than low, he walked up the stairs to the guestroom—now his room—and quietly shut the door. Shay turned brown eyes back to the blonde. “Randy, what’s the matter?”
“There was an accident.”
“What do you mean ‘an accident’?”
“We arrived at the house, but Dennis was there…….”
“And?”
“And, your mother nearly killed him.”
Shay frowned. This sounded so ridiculous, he laughed. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. Very. Bryant went inside by himself. He assured me that even though Dennis was in there, he’d be fine enough to go in and get his things. I heard a crash sound and ran inside and there he was, pinning Dennis against a wall with a butcher knife at his throat…”
“What?”
“He’d beat the man bloody then stuck a knife at his throat like he was going to kill him. And he was until I talked him out of it.”
Too shocked to hear the rest, Shay walked up the stairs to his mother’s room. “Mama?” Opening the door, he spotted his mother lying on the bed on his side with his arms wrapped around himself. “Mama?” The pregnant brunette spoke softly as he walked towards the bed. He could hear his mother’s soft cries.
“Don’t.”
Shay stopped moving. “Are you okay?”
He sniffled. “No, I’m not.”
“Well do you need my help? What can I do to make you feel better?”
“Nothin’, Shay.”
“But mama, there’s obviously somethin’ wrong with you. Let me help you. We could talk about what happened tonight.”
“I really just wanna be left alone right now.”
“Mama—“
“Shay, let me be, I said!”
The younger brunette ducked his head slightly. “Okay. Goodnight.” As Bryant tightened his arms around himself, his son walked back out the door, shutting it closed behind him. Once entering the bedroom he shared with Randy, he found his blonde lover lying in bed, his strong arms folded behind his head. “You tired already? It’s only 9 o’clock.”
Randy shrugged. “Nothing else better to do.”
“And where’s Jack?”
“He was doing a lot of yawning and rubbing his eyes, so I put him to bed. Come here.” Shay sat down on the edge of the bed and Randy moved a hand to his lover’s thigh. “You’re not mad at me, are you?”
Shay frowned. “Mad at you? For what?”
“For what happened at your house. Bryant told me he was fine enough to go in the house by himself but my gut told me not to believe it. I should’ve went in anyway.”
“That’s nothin’ to have me mad at you for, baby. What happened tonight wasn’t your fault.”
“I feel guilty for it though.”
Shay leaned down and kissed him gently and reassuringly. “Don’t. It’s okay.”
Randy nodded and caressed a large hand on Shay’s cheek. “Did you and your mother talk?”
“No. He kicked me out. I can tell it’s bothering him but he refuses to talk to me about it.”
“He just needs some time to rest and get his mind off of what happened today. He’ll be alright.” Shay nodded. “You mind if I change the subject?”
“To what?”
Randy smiled. “Well,” Pulling Shay further on to the bed, he wrapped both his arms around him, focusing his hands on the swelling belly. “baby names?”
“We don’t have any baby names.”
“Exactly. The babies will be coming soon and we can’t call them Baby 1 and Baby 2. They might start thinking that’s their real names.”
The brunette laughed. “I definitely don’t want that to happen. You thought of any good names?”
“Actually, now that you mention it, I have. Grab that book in the nightstand drawer.” Shay reached in the drawer and pulled out a baby blue book that said Name Your Baby. He laughed.
“Randy, when did you get this?”
“I don’t know. I’ve had it for a while now. I highlighted a few names.”
“Yeah? Well lets see.” Shay flipped through a few pages and spotted one. “’Jeremy’. Not bad. I have a cousin named Jeremy though.”
Randy pointed to a name above it. “How about ‘Jason’?”
“Nah.”
“Oh, what about this one. ‘Jayden’.”
His lover smiled. “That’s cute. That’s really cute. I like that one. Jayden Dodson. Jayden……..Dodson? We’re still missin’ a middle name.”
“What name are you thinking of?”
“I have no idea. But I’d like for both their names to have meaning behind it. Not some random name. That’s what I did with Jack.”
“What’s his middle name?”
“He’s named after mama.”
“Oh, okay. Well, how about we name Jayden after your dad then?” Randy smirked at the death glare Shay gave him. “Perhaps not.”
“Damn right. How about we use yours?”
“Mine?”
“Yeah. Jayden Randy Dodson. What do you think?”
“I like it. So what about some girl names?” Shay flipped the pages to the back section and stopped at another highlighted name.
“’Kaylie’. I love this one.”
The blonde smiled. “Well that was quick. You gonna give her your name? ‘Shay’ is an androgynous name after all.”
Shay leaned deeper into Randy’s arms and sighed. “’Kaylie Shay Dodson’. That does have a nice ring to it.”
***
Middle of the night. Very early Sunday morning.
Bryant hadn’t moved from his earlier position. He lacked the drive to do anything more than wipe the tears that rolled down his face. Bryant knew the type of man he was. He was kind, gentle, always smiling, and never had an unkind word to say about anyone……..even though at times Shay wished otherwise. Sticking a butcher knife at someone’s throat? Beating them bloody? That wasn’t who Bryant was. The real Bryant would never do something like that. And that’s what the brunette noticed. His illness was getting worse and it scared him. His progression from seeing strange black cloaked beings to nearly killing people was startling. If he nearly killed Dennis today, what would stop him from actually doing it one day in the future? Perhaps to someone he loved? Sure, it sounded farfetched and ridiculous, but Bryant really didn’t know what he was capable of doing anymore. His worst fear since being diagnosed was now coming true—his illness was winning.
Making his first move in hours, Bryant sat up on the edge of the bed and looked at his reflection off the mirror on top of his dresser. “You’re not gonna win.”
More to come. That's a definite promise, cause Chapter 21 is already done!
This chapter finally settles the vote on baby names. It also takes you to another level of Bryant's illness. Yes, he's getting worse. However, I have a feeling you guys won't mind what action he takes in this chapter.
There have been a slew of reviews since my last update so instead of replying separately like I'd normally do, I'm going to list the names and shout out a big 'Thank You' to everyone:
JenJen1188
Coke
madlodger
Lychee
Lina
Seb
Anon
Bookworm51485
lili
myoregon
Kerrie
bambi4real
MikiyuSado
Kyo-nezumi
SweetestKisses
Child of the Darkened Moon
sadistickiss
k-girl
womo
sinheart
inumoon3
Amanda
annushka
Badarsila
~Queenie4666~
WCInsane
lavcea
sam
Thank you all!
recap: Richie came for a visit and talked with Shay about his and James' former relationship and breaks down in tears over how his life and marriage had fallen apart. Larry confronts Dennis about his ties with Buggy and some man named, Chris. Dennis in turn opens up Larry's eyes about his own life and how he's afraid to deal with his problems, thinking it's much easier to run away from them. Larry throws him out. While Randy rubs lotion on Shay's pregnant belly, Shay tells him that Richie had come over and he soon breaks down in tears about how he was the cause of their family's breakup. After telling Shay to rest, Randy offers to take along Jack when he drives Bryant back home to pick up a few things.
Chapter Twenty
Same late Saturday afternoon
The sky was turning an evening orange as the sun started to set among Plumsfield. Randy had to turn on his low-beam headlights as he drove Bryant and Jack back to the Gibson home.
“So what are you picking up?” Randy asked Bryant as he continued driving.
“Oh just a few things—some clothes, a few books, my notepad…”
“Notepad? You write?”
The older brunette shrugged his shoulders while watching the passing country-side scenery. “A little. Nothin’ worth talkin’ ‘bout. Just somethin’ to keep what little mind I have left, workin’.”
The blonde nodded. “You mind if I ask you something personal? I mean, if it’s none of my business, just tell me…”
Bryant looked at Randy with a smile that reminded him so much of Shay’s. “I don’t mind. Ask away.”
“Your…..episodes. I’ve never witnessed any but Shay’s told me about a few……What do you see? Or what are you feeling?” Bryant looked down at his hands and started to rub them. Randy presumed he made him nervous. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked I’ll—“
“No.” Bryant replied softly. “It’s alright.”
“I’m not making you uncomfortable, am I?”
The brunette shook his head ‘no’. “The psychiatrists at St. Augustines didn’t care to know what I saw, they just wanted to make me stop ‘acting out’ as they liked to call it, so I’d like to tell someone.” Randy nodded and Bryant continued. “I always had headaches as a child. Not constant but they were frequent, maybe once a day. It carried all the way up until Larry and I got married and we had Shay. But then they stopped and moved to somethin’ else. Shay was four years old when I had my first episode.”
“What happened?”
“I was fixin’ Shay breakfast one morning before I took him to school. I had just turned around to feed him when I saw this…….this figure…” Randy side glanced at Bryant and saw the older man’s brow frown together and his eyes almost glaze over. The blonde immediately began to wonder if he sent him into a spell or something. Soon his fears faded when Bryant started to speak again. “It was big. Really big. It stood behind my son, towerin’ over him, in a black cloak…….All I could see were bright red eyes. It made a move to grab him and I quickly snatched up Shay.”
“Do you think what you see is real?” The blonde asked as he made a right turn down a secluded road.
Bryant shrugged. “I don’t know. At the time, I did. Now, I believe what people say about me…..I’m crazy.”
Randy felt so bad for the man. To battle an illness in the midst of an unsympathetic town where everyone knows everyone’s business, was a heavy load to bear and couldn’t be beneficial to his treatment. “Bryant, don’t—“ He paused when the brunette suddenly touched his forearm then leaned forward to look out the front windshield of the car.
“Did Larry get a new car?” He asked about the black mustang that was sitting in the driveway.
Randy recognized the automobile right away. It was the same mustang that was there when Larry told Shay to move out. That was Dennis’ car. “Umm, no. He didn’t get a new car.” He replied as he pulled up to the Gibson house. “It’s um….it’s Dennis. Larry’s ‘friend’.”
Bryant nodded, making a ‘hm’ sound. Randy didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. He watched the brunette open the car door. “I’ll be right back.”
“Do you want me to go in with you?”
Bryant smiled. “No, I’m fine. Just stay here with Jack and I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Still unsure, the blonde reached for the older man’s hand. “Are you sure you want to go in there by yourself?”
“Randy, I’m fine. It’s not like I’ma kill the man or somethin’.” He got out the car and shut the door. Randy watched as Bryant walked up the steps and into the house, then turned and looked back at Jack who sat quietly in his car seat.
“What do you think, pal? Should I be a little worried?” Jack slowly plugged his ring and middle fingers in his mouth. “Oh great.”
Suddenly, Randy was startled by the large crashing sound of glass and someone screaming. “What the…” Jumping out the car, he quickly grabbed Jack and ran inside. He set the boy down at the door. “Stay right here, okay?” Jack nodded and Randy ran upstairs, where the source of the noise seemed to be coming from.
“Get away from me, you psycho! Help!”
Randy went into the master bedroom and found Dennis wedged in the corner, face bloody and sweaty, while Bryant pinned him by the front of his shirt with one hand and held a butcher knife to his neck with the other. “Help! He’s gonna kill me!” Dennis screamed.
Randy carefully walked behind Bryant. “Bryant? Bryant, put the knife down.”
He shook his head. “20 years. For 20 years I tried to keep that man happy. Everything he asked for, I gave it to him. And with one shake of your ass down that stripper pole, you took him away from me……” He pressed the knife closer to Dennis’ neck.
“You can have him! You can have him back!”
“Bryant, don’t do it. You could get in a lot of trouble for this. He’s not worth it.”
Dennis shook his head franticly. “He’s right! I’m not worth it! I’m not!”
Bryant wasn’t hearing anything they were saying. Too far gone into his zone, the anger he felt for Dennis made it hard for him to comprehend reason. “You’ve been my hidden burden for years. You shattered all chances I had to bring Larry and I back together. But I can finally fix that………with just one swipe of this knife…” Bryant’s pressure on the knife, finally pierced the red head’s skin. A slither of crimson blood began to run.
“Oh God!” Dennis screamed.
Seeing pure rage come across Bryant's face, the far gone look in his eyes, Randy knew the man had lost it. He was determined to kill Dennis. He had to say something that could possibly penetrate that mentally unstable wall Bryant had put up, so Randy yelled out the first thing that came to his mind. “Think about your son, Bryant!” Randy saw the man pause and when he knew he had finally reached him, he just kept talking. “Think about Shay. You know how much he suffered when you were taken away? You know how hard he fought to get you out of there? Shay loves you, Bryant, and if you kill Dennis you’ll be sent away forever and he’ll never see you again. Don’t do that him.” Randy saw tears well up in the brunette’s eyes. The knife began to shake in his hand. Slowly, he walked up to Bryant, placing a comforting hand on his back and extended the other with his palm upward. “Give me the knife. Please.” The grip Bryant had on the handle was so tight, his knuckles had turned white. He stood there shaking for what seemed like forever, before he finally loosened his death grip on both the knife and Dennis’ shirt. Randy took the weapon and set it on a nearby dresser, then grabbed his lover’s mother in his arms just as the tears finally began to fall.
***
That Saturday night
Shay smiled once he heard the front door open. He enjoyed the much needed rest but now that he was awake, he was ready for everybody to come back home. Given his growing weight, he slowly staggered to his feet after spending time in the family room watching tv and welcomed the family as they came in. His eyes immediately zeroed in on the tiny blonde with the brown eyes so similar to his own. “Hi, pookie-bear.” Jack smiled widely at his mother and ran towards him, arms wide open. Shay picked him up and gave him a long kiss on his chubby cheeks. “You have fun on your ride with Gran’ma and daddy?” The nodded. He continued to smile as the other two loves of his life walked inside……….but something was off. Shay’s perky smile faded when he noticed the mistiness in Bryant’s now red eyes and the all-around ‘off’ expression Randy carried on his face.
Shay set his son down. “What happened?” Bryant didn’t stop to speak. Feeling lower than low, he walked up the stairs to the guestroom—now his room—and quietly shut the door. Shay turned brown eyes back to the blonde. “Randy, what’s the matter?”
“There was an accident.”
“What do you mean ‘an accident’?”
“We arrived at the house, but Dennis was there…….”
“And?”
“And, your mother nearly killed him.”
Shay frowned. This sounded so ridiculous, he laughed. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. Very. Bryant went inside by himself. He assured me that even though Dennis was in there, he’d be fine enough to go in and get his things. I heard a crash sound and ran inside and there he was, pinning Dennis against a wall with a butcher knife at his throat…”
“What?”
“He’d beat the man bloody then stuck a knife at his throat like he was going to kill him. And he was until I talked him out of it.”
Too shocked to hear the rest, Shay walked up the stairs to his mother’s room. “Mama?” Opening the door, he spotted his mother lying on the bed on his side with his arms wrapped around himself. “Mama?” The pregnant brunette spoke softly as he walked towards the bed. He could hear his mother’s soft cries.
“Don’t.”
Shay stopped moving. “Are you okay?”
He sniffled. “No, I’m not.”
“Well do you need my help? What can I do to make you feel better?”
“Nothin’, Shay.”
“But mama, there’s obviously somethin’ wrong with you. Let me help you. We could talk about what happened tonight.”
“I really just wanna be left alone right now.”
“Mama—“
“Shay, let me be, I said!”
The younger brunette ducked his head slightly. “Okay. Goodnight.” As Bryant tightened his arms around himself, his son walked back out the door, shutting it closed behind him. Once entering the bedroom he shared with Randy, he found his blonde lover lying in bed, his strong arms folded behind his head. “You tired already? It’s only 9 o’clock.”
Randy shrugged. “Nothing else better to do.”
“And where’s Jack?”
“He was doing a lot of yawning and rubbing his eyes, so I put him to bed. Come here.” Shay sat down on the edge of the bed and Randy moved a hand to his lover’s thigh. “You’re not mad at me, are you?”
Shay frowned. “Mad at you? For what?”
“For what happened at your house. Bryant told me he was fine enough to go in the house by himself but my gut told me not to believe it. I should’ve went in anyway.”
“That’s nothin’ to have me mad at you for, baby. What happened tonight wasn’t your fault.”
“I feel guilty for it though.”
Shay leaned down and kissed him gently and reassuringly. “Don’t. It’s okay.”
Randy nodded and caressed a large hand on Shay’s cheek. “Did you and your mother talk?”
“No. He kicked me out. I can tell it’s bothering him but he refuses to talk to me about it.”
“He just needs some time to rest and get his mind off of what happened today. He’ll be alright.” Shay nodded. “You mind if I change the subject?”
“To what?”
Randy smiled. “Well,” Pulling Shay further on to the bed, he wrapped both his arms around him, focusing his hands on the swelling belly. “baby names?”
“We don’t have any baby names.”
“Exactly. The babies will be coming soon and we can’t call them Baby 1 and Baby 2. They might start thinking that’s their real names.”
The brunette laughed. “I definitely don’t want that to happen. You thought of any good names?”
“Actually, now that you mention it, I have. Grab that book in the nightstand drawer.” Shay reached in the drawer and pulled out a baby blue book that said Name Your Baby. He laughed.
“Randy, when did you get this?”
“I don’t know. I’ve had it for a while now. I highlighted a few names.”
“Yeah? Well lets see.” Shay flipped through a few pages and spotted one. “’Jeremy’. Not bad. I have a cousin named Jeremy though.”
Randy pointed to a name above it. “How about ‘Jason’?”
“Nah.”
“Oh, what about this one. ‘Jayden’.”
His lover smiled. “That’s cute. That’s really cute. I like that one. Jayden Dodson. Jayden……..Dodson? We’re still missin’ a middle name.”
“What name are you thinking of?”
“I have no idea. But I’d like for both their names to have meaning behind it. Not some random name. That’s what I did with Jack.”
“What’s his middle name?”
“He’s named after mama.”
“Oh, okay. Well, how about we name Jayden after your dad then?” Randy smirked at the death glare Shay gave him. “Perhaps not.”
“Damn right. How about we use yours?”
“Mine?”
“Yeah. Jayden Randy Dodson. What do you think?”
“I like it. So what about some girl names?” Shay flipped the pages to the back section and stopped at another highlighted name.
“’Kaylie’. I love this one.”
The blonde smiled. “Well that was quick. You gonna give her your name? ‘Shay’ is an androgynous name after all.”
Shay leaned deeper into Randy’s arms and sighed. “’Kaylie Shay Dodson’. That does have a nice ring to it.”
***
Middle of the night. Very early Sunday morning.
Bryant hadn’t moved from his earlier position. He lacked the drive to do anything more than wipe the tears that rolled down his face. Bryant knew the type of man he was. He was kind, gentle, always smiling, and never had an unkind word to say about anyone……..even though at times Shay wished otherwise. Sticking a butcher knife at someone’s throat? Beating them bloody? That wasn’t who Bryant was. The real Bryant would never do something like that. And that’s what the brunette noticed. His illness was getting worse and it scared him. His progression from seeing strange black cloaked beings to nearly killing people was startling. If he nearly killed Dennis today, what would stop him from actually doing it one day in the future? Perhaps to someone he loved? Sure, it sounded farfetched and ridiculous, but Bryant really didn’t know what he was capable of doing anymore. His worst fear since being diagnosed was now coming true—his illness was winning.
Making his first move in hours, Bryant sat up on the edge of the bed and looked at his reflection off the mirror on top of his dresser. “You’re not gonna win.”
More to come. That's a definite promise, cause Chapter 21 is already done!