Truth Behind the Lies

Hey, everyone. It's been a busy few days but during my free time, I'd been typing up this chapter and now that I've done it,I thought "Post this as soon as possible." I kinda got carried away with Larry and Bry, so this chapter is solely about them. The twins birth and more from the other characters will be in the next chapter, promise.

Review Responses:
bambi4real: Thanks, cause I wondered how I did with that part. Yeah, it does seem like Shay's been pregnant forever, doesn't it? Lol.

Bookworm51485: I've got something brewing for Richie in if not the next chapter then definitely the one after. Yes, the babies are coming! And yes, Corrine is a butthole for unloading such news to her nephew on what's supposed to be one of the happiest days of his life. Jack IS a darling and I love writing stuff on him. I'll tell you his character came from a mixture of my two little cousins. Though they look nothing like Jack--though very cute--their mannerisms are in in the same. Well, this chapter is Larry and Bry only. Didn't intend for it too but....Thanks for the heads up on the italics thing. I fixed it.

inumoon3: Thanks for your review. I agree, Corrine has turned into a major biotch. I got you down for the Our Humble Little Dwelling update list but I'm not sure when it'll happen. I've written maybe three or so pages but i'm stuck cause I don't know where I want that story to go. Cross your fingers that I'll think of something cause I love the characters too much to let it go off the wasteside.

womo: Absoultely loved your review. Thank you so much for reading!

Isorayau: Thanks so much for the kind words cause if my writing can make you feel like you're eating a slice of pie with whipped cream on top.....I know I'm doing something right. :-)

ScarletHyacinth: Thanks for your review and I promise after this story is over, you can slay James all you want to. We can even toss Corrine in there if you want. ;-)

violetstorm: Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Reike: Thanks for the kind words. That really means alot.

MikuyuSado: I totally understand how you felt about the 6mth jump. But you really didn't miss anything. I promise you didn't. Yeah, Corrine has become quite the ass. I DID intend for her to have a change of heart after her talk with Shay but then I thought, "Nah, that'd be too easy." and decided to go this route. You're absolutely right about Larry and Bryant. This chapter is totally about them and their 'relationship'.

Lina: Haha! James is DEFINITELY not anyone's favorite, huh? Lol.


Chapter Twenty Six

Same Tuesday afternoon


Larry sat patiently in his tan pickup, sweating like a pig. The heat in Tatter Hill that afternoon was horrendous and with the air conditioner low on Freon, the brunette had to settle with rolling the windows down to cool off……….sorta.

Unbuttoning a few more buttons to his black and white plaid shirt, he checked his watch. 3:50. He sighed, wondering why in the world he was doing this? Why sit in a hot ass truck on a hot ass day, literally baking like a Thanksgiving turkey, while waiting outside a doctor’s office? Because he knew he had a lot of proving and a lot of begging to do. Inside that office was Bryant somewhere talking with his therapist, Dr. William Chang. He hadn’t seen the smaller man since he was admitted to the hospital six months ago and he told him—in so many words—to ‘bugger off’. And Larry had done so. He backed off from trying to see his estranged husband but he’d kept the promise he’d made to Bryant before he left him.

“I’m gonna fight for you. I’ll show you I’m a changed man.”

Now Larry felt the time was right to prove it to him. The first step was getting the man alone.

Finding out who Bryant was seeing every Tuesday and Thursday at three o’clock was no easy task. But to find out, you could say he pulled a James Bond. He called Garden Haven, the mental rehab center Bryant was given one year with, acting as Buggy who just so happened to have ‘came in from another trip and wanted to surprise his cousin’.

”Hello, Garden Haven.”

“Hello, my name is Beau Moore. I was lookin’ for my cousin, Bryant Gibson. Is he a patient there?”

“Ummm, let me check.” Larry heard the sound of computer keys being pushed. “Yes, sir. Bryant has been admitted here.”

“Ok good. I found the right place then. You see, I drive trucks for a livin’ and I’ve just come back home after bein’ away for a few months and I was hopin’ I could maybe take him out for a bite to eat or somethin’. Is he there?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Moore, the status report here says he’s out seein’ his therapist.”

“He’s out seein’ his therapist? You don’t have therapists at Garden Haven?”

“We do, but Mr. Gibson adamantly refused to see ours after one session. He found his own therapist.”

“Who?”

“Ahhhh, I’m sorry, sir, I don’t think I can give you that information.”

“What’s your name, sweetheart?”

“Megan.”

“Well, Megan, here’s the situation. Bryant and me have known each other ever since were kids. We grew up together. He’s like a little brother to me. It would mean a lot to me and to him, I’m sure, if you could just tell me where he is.”

“Well we have visitin’ days on the weekends. Maybe you could—“

“I’m not gonna be here til the weekend. I’m leavin’ for another shipment tomorrow mornin’ at 6AM…”

“…………Oh.”

“Please, Miss Megan. I’m beggin’ you here.”

There was a short pause, then Larry heard the girl sigh. “Hold on a sec.” The phone was silent for a minute or two before he heard her voice back on the line. “Ok. Bryant Gibson is seein’ Dr. William Chang on 1530 Arnett Street in Tatter Hill. He sees him every Tuesday and Thursday at 3.”

Larry quickly shuffled the kitchen for a pen then snatched a paper towel off the roll and began to write. “Dr. William Chang….1530 Arnet Street…..Tatter Hill……Tuesday and Thursday........Three o’clock. Thanks, Megan, you’re a doll.”

The girl giggled. “You’re welcome, Mr. Moore. Have a great day.”

“Thanks, you too.” Hanging up the phone, Larry looked down at the address. “Too damn easy.”

Larry suddenly straightened himself from his sun-baked slouch when he saw Bryant walk out the red brick building, shutting the white-washed door behind him. He was a big improvement from what he saw six months ago in the hospital. No longer did he look sweaty, pale, and half dead, he looked tan, healthy, very much alive…..and only slightly sweaty. However, that was only physically, whether Bryant had changed any mentally was still up for grabs.

Bryant didn’t notice a tall man in shorts and a plaid shirt hopping out his tan truck and dangerously jaywalking as he crossed the street. Instead, soft brown eyes checked their watch as he made sure he wasn’t late for the 4:30 bus. He kept walking down the busy street still oblivious until he felt a tap on his shoulder. Turning, he was met with a smile and a “Hi, beautiful.”

Appalled, Bryant glared at the man and turned away, continuing to walk down the street. Determined, Larry chased after him. “Bry…….Bry, hold on a minute. I just want to talk to you.”

“Get away from me, Larry.” He shoved him away but the taller man was persistent. He caught Bryant as he found the bus stop and sat down on the bench. He quickly sat down next to him.

“Sweetheart—“

Bryant jerked his hand away. “Don’t call me ‘sweetheart’ cause I’m not your ‘sweetheart’. You’ve made that perfectly clear over the years.”

“I’m just tryin’ to make this right, Bry.”

“By what? What have you shown me? You tell me six months ago that you’re gonna prove to me that you’ve changed and you’ve done nothin’, Larry.”

“That’s what I’m tryin’ to do today. But I need you to come with me…..”

“I have a bus to catch.”

“Catchin’ a bus back to Garden Haven is more important than mendin’ things with you and me?”

Bryant checked his watch again. “Yes. It is.”

“Well, I need to show you somethin’ and I’m not leavin’ this spot until you come with me.”

Bryant stopped talking to the man. Larry felt like he was fighting a losing battle before it even started good. He knew the mistakes he’d made over the years. He knew what he’d done to his family. But how do you try to make it right if you can’t even get the healing process off the ground? He side-glanced at his estranged husband and the man was doing an excellent job at ignoring him…….A thought entered Larry’s mind. Perhaps I’m bein’ a fool. I mean really, WHAT am I doin? I’ve put scars on Bryant that are too deep to heal. The city bus finally pulled up and people surrounding them started to load themselves inside. Bryant still sat, obviously waiting for the line to thin down. It’s no use. We’ve been sittin’ here for 20 minutes and he hasn’t so much as glanced at me. Larry was about to get up and walk away when he heard the bus driver call out from his seat, “You ridin’?”

Bryant scooted his backside to the edge of the bench, his hands bracing himself like he was about to stand………but then he stopped. Sighing, he shook his head. “No. No, I’m not ridin’ today.” The driver nodded, shutting the door and putting the bus in drive. Folding his arms, he turned his head to face Larry. “You’re gonna make me late gettin’ back.”

Larry smiled. “It’ll be worth it, I promise.”

They both stood and started to walk to Larry’s truck. “That’s not comfortin’, Larry, cause you suck at promises.”

Larry laughed as he opened the door for Bryant. “Well I really mean it this time.”

***

It had been years since Bry had been down this road. Years since he’d seen the old, white washed houses with large wooden rocking chairs placed on wide porches and an assortment of apple and pear trees that seemed to be in everyone’s front yard. Miller Street was beautiful, inside and out. The quiet, wholesome, peaceful neighborhood was exactly what it seemed. You never heard of anything bad going on on Miller Street. Yeah, it had been a long time……….too long in Bry’s opinion.

Miller Street was a very long road and the house Larry was looking for was located at the end, hence why it was able to acquire the pond that was a few feet behind the house in the woods. The tan truck finally reached the two story home, and pulled the car into the gravel driveway.

Bryant had expected to see, total abandonment. Chipped white paint peeling off of decaying wood, filthy windows, a busted screen door that merely hung dejected from a rusted front door, grass grown as tall as his shoulders……but that’s not what he saw. Sitting up slowly to stare out the front window, his jaw dropped at what the sight before him. A strong two story house with white paint and dark blue shutters. Brand new windows had been placed in as well as an oak front door that had an oval frosted glass placed in it’s middle. A white wicker table was put on the front porch, surrounded by two matching rocking chairs. Potted red flowers hung from the porch, adding a slice of color to the large trimmed green shrubs that lined the front of the house. Granny Ella’s home was beautiful.

“Oh my God.” Unable to keep his eyes from the house, Bryant blindly reached for the door handle and got out the truck. Larry followed behind. The smaller man placed his hand on the white wooden railing that lined the front steps. “Did you do this?”

“Yeah. This is where I’ve been these passed six months. It was tough I’ll admit, because the house had become a wreck over the years, but I knew it would be time well spent if I did this.” He handed Bryant the key and watched as he unlocked the door and went inside.

The interior was empty, with only the walls painted a basic taupe color. The floors were peeled then buffered to their original hardwood beauty. Bryant was speechless. He didn’t even remember the house being this amazing when he was living here with Ella. Though Larry wasn’t on his favorite’s list at the moment, he had to give the man credit—he did an wonderful job restoring the house.

Larry followed Bry as he walked into the large kitchen which was also void of any tables, chairs, or appliances. He stood in front of a window, staring out into the backyard. “You see that tree out there?”

Larry peered out and found the large apple tree in the distance. “Yeah.”

“I used to climb that tree all the time when I was a kid. Pickin’ apples. For some odd reason, I had this theory that the sweetest ones weren’t at the bottom but somewhere in the middle………in the thickest part of the tree. In reality, they all tasted the same but as a nine or ten year old, to climb through a tree and pick an apple……it made it that much more sweeter than the others.” He smiled, his eyes almost in a haze like he could see the adolescent version of himself climbing the tree in cut-off jean shorts and bare feet. “Grandma used to get so mad with me. She used to call me a ‘foolish boy’ all the time. But I never listened. Not even after I fell and broke my leg.”

“You gave Ella hell, huh?”

“I did. I did a lot of foolish things growin’ up here, it’s just the apple tree thing was the least embarassin’. Although I’m sure Grandma would tell you everythin’ if she was here……..probably see it as payback……” Bryant sighed as he felt the tears begin to form. “With my parents gone, she was all I had…….Family is important to me, Larry. Because you’re not guaranteed you’ll always have it.” He turned to the taller brunette, a few tears escaping down his cheeks. “I’d learned that fact once. I hoped I’d never have to again, but I did.”

“I’m sorry, Bry. I really am.”

Bryant frowned. “Sorry? Sorry doesn’t make everythin’ alright, Larry. You’re about 13 years late if you think sorry is gonna fix anythin’.”

“I know and that’s another reason why I wanted to bring you here. I needed it to be just us so we can talk about what’s happened with our family and how to fix you and me.”

“There’s nothin’ to talk about. And we’re beyond tryin’ to patch things up. This is what we’re settled with.” Bry replied, angrily wiping his eyes.

“There’s plenty to talk about, Bry. You’re angry with me, I know you are. I can tell it in your eyes and in your voice—you’re not ok with any of this, so talk to me about it.”

“No.”

Larry stepped closer to his former lover. “First it was the touches, right? I stopped touchin’ you. I wouldn’t hold you anymore when you’d get headaches. Then, the kisses went and soon I stopped talkin’ to you all together…”

Bryant’s breathing suddenly picked up to mix with the tears and he whimpered. “Larry…”

“I refused to be seen with you…”

Bryant turned around to look back out the window, trying to focus his attention on nature outside rather than Larry’s painful recollections, but it wasn’t working. He still heard every word. “Shut up…”

“I never told you it will be okay and I’ll be by your side when you started seein’ things. I never held you when I’d hear you cry yourself to sleep at night…”

Bry squeezed his eyes tight and balled up his fists at his side. It seemed every word that came out Larry’s mouth was sending him back to that moment. It was overwhelming being confronted by those memories all at once—each one twisting his heart in an even tighter knot than it already was. “Stop it.” He whispered. Larry wasn’t listening.

“I sent you away to a mental institution from hell. I had heard how bad they treated you there but I refused to do anythin’ about it. And I only came to see you when I gave you divorce papers to sign…”

That was the pull that gave the knot in Bryant’s heart it’s final give. Snapping, his right fist connected with Larry’s left eye, knocking him to the floor. “I SAID SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!”

Leaving his estranged husband on the floor grabbing his eye, Bry stormed out the house, slamming the door closed. “Ow……….damn it.” Larry winced at the stinging pain pulsing from his eye. Covering it with his hand, he stood to his feet. He knew he’d finally hit a nerve with Bryant and he definitely couldn’t pull back now. Timing was everything and if he had any chance of saving an ounce of his marriage, he knew he couldn’t just let him walk out that door.

Stepping outside, Larry found Bryant sitting on the front steps, his arms folded across his knees and his head ducked down. When he sat down next to him, he could see he looked drained. Like this whole conversation was slowly sucking the life out of him. He turned and looked at Larry holding his eye. “I don’t apologize for hittin’ you, you know.”

“I wouldn’t want you to.”

He turned away and looked down at his hands. “I’ve had plenty of crushes growin’ up. I was too shy to ever approach anyone. Grandma used to always tell me not to worry about it. That I wouldn’t have to go lookin’ for the love of my life—they’d come lookin’ for me. Then you showed up and I fell hard and fast for you. In my eyes, you were the man I was meant to spend the rest of my life with. The man I was to marry and have a truckload of kids with…” Bryant’s head began to ache and he faintly started to shake—he could feel a fit coming on. With the emotional rollercoaster he’s been riding on, he wasn’t surprised. He rubbed his hands together to keep himself from rubbing his temples and whimpering. “I loved you with all my heart. You were everythin’ to me. There wasn’t anythin’ I wouldn’t do for you and I tried SO HARD to keep our marriage together. But I couldn’t. You hurt me, Larry. The ignorin’ and total lack of care for your family ruined me. To not be touched by the person you love……….To not have them even talk to you………Do you even know how that feels?” Bryant rubbed his hands harder and turned back to Larry, who’d kept his eyes—well, eye—on him the whole time. “To be totally disregarded like some toy you’d lost interest in……Do you know what that feels like? When this town ran our name into the ground, did you say anythin’? Did you care? No. No. I didn’t expect you to change the whole town from their gossipin’ ways but I thought you’d atleast stand up for your family. But you didn’t and I refused to leave the house for years.”

Larry nodded as he dropped his hand, revealing a purplish eye that he left squinted. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right. You, Shay, and Jack are my family and I did nothin’ to protect you. Which is what I promised to you all those years ago. I never turned out to be a good husband or a good father. Shay despises me and it’s nobody’s fault but my own. And what I’ve done to you should never be done to another person. You’re battlin’ with somethin’ and I should’ve been there for you. You didn’t ask for the illness, it came on you and instead of comfortin’ you and bein’ by your side like a spouse should do, I closed myself off. No, I don’t know how it feels to be hurt by someone you love, because I never loved the man that raised me. My father was a military man. He was very strict about the smallest of things and thrived on perfection. Everythin’ had to be perfect and if it wasn’t I was punished. I was sent to the basement in the dark for two days straight. That probably explains why I acted the way I did, but it doesn’t excuse it. It took the most unlikely person to get me to open my eyes and see what I was doin’…”


The red head glared angrily at the tall brunette. “Wait a minute! Don’t you get all ‘holier than thou’ on me Larry Gibson! You’re no saint either!” Larry stopped walking. “Our very relationship started when you began to cheat on Bryant, okay? Let’s not forget that.

Larry slowly turned around and faced Dennis, an irritated expression on his face. “You see, your problem is you run from troubles. Every ordeal in your life, you’ve ran from it. So don’t get all huffy when our relationship isn’t all it’s cracked up to be……you haven’t deserved the privilege of a good relationship, Larry, cause you ain’t shit.”

Dennis jumped when Larry rushed over to him and slammed his back against a wall, pinning him there. He wanted to yell, “Fuck you! You don’t know anythin’!” or “Oh yeah?! What do you know about it?!”…….had Dennis’ words not been true.

“I know you’d said it was too late for sorry but it’s the truth—I’m sorry, Bry. I’m sorry about everythin’ I’ve done. I wish there was a way that I could take it back to when we were just married and Shay was only a baby and do things different, but I can’t. All I can give you is my word—that if you take me back, I’ll be the man you fell in love with again. I swear on my life.”

Sighing, Bryant tried and failed to rid his now red eyes from the tears. His shakes grew worse and the pain in his head was banging at his skull. “I……..I can’t just……go back and pick up…….where we left off.”

“We won’t. That’s why I spent six months here, restorin’ this house. We can move in here and start over. Just us and a house full of only good memories.”

Bry could feel himself losing his bearings and he placed his fingers at his temples and rubbed, squeezing his eyes shut. Larry caught on to what was happening and like Bry, wasn’t surprised after all that had been going on. Grabbing Bryant by his upper arm, Larry pulled him to his chest, one hand holding him about the waist and the other cradling the back of his head. “It’s okay, just breathe.” He said over the whimpers and moans of pain.

It took a few minutes of waiting but Larry soon felt what seemed like Bryant’s fit passing. The shakes stopped and the only sound coming from the smaller man was slightly winded breathing. When Bry ‘came back’, he closed his eyes and sighed, missing the foreign yet still familiar feel of Larry’s strong arms around his frame. He whimpered again but this time not from pain but from a tranquil peace that came over him—something he hadn’t felt in a long, long, time.

Larry finally let go when Bryant backed away and stood to his feet. “I need to get back to Garden Haven. I’m getting tired.” He walked to the truck and Larry followed behind.

***

The tan truck pulled into the parking lot of the impressive Garden Haven facility and Bry hopped out and shut the door without one word to him. Larry wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Making sure, Bry was inside, he put the truck in REVERSE then DRIVE, when he heard, “Larry!” Slamming his brakes at the voice, he waited as Bryant ran to the passenger door and opened it.

“What’s the matter?”

Bryant hopped back inside then held up a Post It note. “We need to get to the hospital. Shay’s havin’ the twins.”

Larry frowned confused. His mouth gaped open. “He’s havin’ twins?”



A/N: For the record, though it may 'seem' Bry has gone 'forgive and forget' with Larry, he hasn't. Mind you, he never outwardly said he wants to start over. Just thought I'd throw that out there in case anyone was wondering or something.

Okay, more to come.