Truth Behind the Lies

Review Responses:
Anon: He does have alot on his shoulders, doesnt he? But, you're never given more than you can handle in life.
Shelly: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate that.
bambi4real: Honey, you're preaching to the choir. I STILL live in a small town, and that's true, gossip can turn the nicest people into genuine buttholes. I'm up in the air about Corrine--whether I want her to be likeable or not-- but I'll see how it goes.
Anon: He is precious, isn't he?
madlodger: Thanks for your review. I don't think he'll go unbalanced, but he MAY have a few slip ups where he thinks he's going crazy. Just alittle foreshadowing. :)
Anon: That I honestly don't know yet. They may at the end, they may not, but I WILL tell you that their marriage will be on the rocks for a while.
Kelli: I'm glad you like it. Hope you like this chapter.
Sekre: Yep. A person's tongue is the biggest weapon you can have.

I guess I should put a disclaimer on this, cause I noticed I hadn't done it yet. Story is mine, characters are mine, of course any mention of namebrand products--i.e. sodas, foods--are not mine. And any resemblance to actual situations is totally coincidental.

Chapter three


One week later—Friday night


*ring, ring, ring*

“Hello?” the blonde said once he left his den and answered the phone in the kitchen.

“Hi. Is this Randy?”

“Yes. Shay?”

“Yeah. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“No. I was just up watching a little tv.” He lied. Moments before, he was sleeping on the couch. “So what’s up?”

“Well I um….wanted to call and thank you for helping out Jackie. He’s much better.”

“Yeah? I knew he’d be up and running soon.”

“’Running’ is the correct way of putting it. He hasn’t stopped running and playing all day. I had the worst time getting him to sleep.” Shay grabbed the phone cord and started looping it around his finger. “Listen, I was calling to see if the offer for pizza was still open? I mean, though I’m not in the dating field right now, doesn’t mean we can’t hang out as friends, right?”

“…it’s been said that Shay carries the same characteristics as his mother. He’s crazy too, Randy.” “Um, yeah sure. How about we meet tomorrow at Roman’s Pizza? Around five?”

“Okay. I’ll see you there then. G’night.”

“Goodnight.”


***


Saturday afternoon


As Randy watched Shay cut a large slice of cheese pizza in half for Jack to eat, his mind began to wander. “Now over ten years later, it’s been said that Shay carries the same characteristics as his mother…” Damn, is that true? Is he crazy? He doesn’t look like it. “…then believe me when I tell you about how promiscuous he is.” Was it for money? Did he do it for the extra cash or was it just for the hell of it? “Women and deeply religious men, despise him for his knack of bed hopping and laying up with other people’s husbands, taking their money, and pretty much wringing them of all they’re worth…” So it’s for the money? Shay’s a gold digger? I’ve only been living here for a couple days but I just don’t see Shay as being that type person. “Word has it, he’s so loose that no one knows who that baby’s father is…” That may be true. I always see Jack with him. Even if he and the father weren’t on good terms, I’m sure he’d atleast visit every so often, taking the boy out to town, if there was a father in the picture.

“Randy?” Randy jerked, snapping out his reverie. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, sure. Why?” he asked the wary brunette.

“It’s just that you’ve been kind of distant since we met up today. You haven’t said much either. Are you sure you’re alright?” Shay reached out a hand to touch the blonde’s hand comfortingly, but Randy pulled back nervously.

“He’s been stamped the town whore, Randy. Stay away from him.” “I’m fine.”

Shay frowned. What’s the matter with… Then it hit him. Shay knew what was going on. “What’s the new gossip about me now?”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“It’s obvious someone said something to you about me, cause yesterday you practically wouldn’t let me leave the clinic until I agreed to go out with you. Now today, you act like I have a virus or something.”

Randy shook his head. “What? No. No one has said anything about you. Why would you think…”

Shay held up a hand, stopping him. “Save the bullshit for a fool, Randy.” He chuckled lightly. “I knew this was a bad idea.” Shay stood up, grabbing Jack from his booster seat and started out the door of the pizzeria.

Jack looked back at his second piece of pizza still on the table then looked at his mother. “No pizi?”

“No, pookie. No more pizza. We’re going home.”

Randy still sat at the now empty table. He watched as Shay left out the building. He sighed. You are such an idiot, Randy.

***

Once coming home from a get-together gone bad, Shay removed their jackets and walked inside the house to start up dinner for the rest of the family. Seeing his father was stretched out on the couch in the den with a beer in his hand watching Family Feud, he walked straight by the room and down the hall to the kitchen, Jack pigeon-walking a few paces behind him. As soon as he washed his hands and pulled out the large bowl of chicken pieces he’d had soaked in warm salt water—he was cooking fried chicken—Jack looked down at his pants then spoke up.

“Uh oh.”

“Now?” Shay asked. The brunette was in the early stages of trying to potty train Jack. The boy was only at the point of letting Shay know he had already done something. He’d yet to get to the point of letting Shay know he was about to do something. “What’d you do?”

“Pee-pee.”

Putting the bowl of raw chicken on the counter, Shay took Jack upstairs to change him. After removing the used pull-up, he wiped him but looked and couldn’t find the baby powders. Then he remembered he’d left it in the bathroom. Walking into the hallway, Shay opened the bathroom door. “Mama!” Shay rushed inside. When Shay left at 4:30 to go meet Randy at 5, Bryant told him he was going to take himself a bath. Now, it was nearly two hours later and Bryant was still in the tub, water so cold he was shivering.

But Bryant was zoned out. He’d get like that at times—where he would be focused on what was going on one minute, then look out into the distance, staring at nothing, thinking about nothing the next. It started out being only for a slight minute or two, but had quickly progressed into half an hour then a full hour if Shay didn’t watch him. He just kept getting worse.

Shay touched his face. “Mama? Mama wake up.”

Bryant blinked slowly then gasped. “It’s so cold.” He wrapped his arms around himself.

Shay walked out into the hallway closet and grabbed a large towel. Going back in the bathroom, he helped his mother out the tub and dried him off. “You’ve been in the tub all this time?” he wrapped the towel around his slight waist.

Bryant nodded. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s happening to me.” He choked as he placed his hands over his face and cried.

Shay hugged his mother close to him and whispered, “It’s goin’ to be alright, Mama. You’re gonna be fine.”

When Bryant started to calm down, then Jack “Nosey” Gibson walked to the doorway of the bathroom, pantsless…..totally pantsless. “G’ma!” he raised his hands in the air. Shay and Bryant laughed at the child.

Bryant wiped his tears away then reached down and lifted the child so he could be face to face. “Suga’pie, where are your breeches?” Jack smiled with his two bottom teeth.

“I was changing him and was looking for the powders when I found you.” Shay replied.

“Shay! Get down here and fix this food boy! I gotta go to work in a few minutes!” Larry yelled angrily from downstairs.

Bryant gave him a comforting smile. “Go on. I’ll finish changing Jack.” Shay nodded and headed downstairs to the kitchen. Larry followed him in.

“You know I need my lunch before I go to work. For crying out loud, Shay, can’t you do that little bit? I mean, you’re not going off to school, you don’t have a job, and you’ve got no friends, I’d like to think you’d have enough free time to have dinner ready.” The older brunette scolded.

“I know.” Shay took the chicken, placed it in flour, then put it into a pan of hot grease.

“So what the hell was taking up so much of you damn time upstairs?”

“Mama. He—“

“He flipped out again, right?” Larry interrupted. He sighed. He was beyond done with all this; the nutty spouse, the shameful son, the bastard grandson. Larry nodded, thinking. I’ll fix this. he walked out the kitchen.

***

Same time, different place

Randy searched his phone’s CID and found Shay’s number. His lifted his thumb over the DIAL button for the tenth time that afternoon then put the phone back down for the eleventh time. He’s not going to want to talk to me. Could I blame him though? I’d proven myself to be no different than all the other gossip hounds in this town who have ostracized him. Hell, I don’t even know if all that Corrine said was true. Even SHE said the stories were rumored to be true.

Suddenly his phone lit up and rang. He looked on the CID and saw it was from James O’Donnell. “Hello?”

“Hey, Randy.”

“Hi, Richie. How are you?” he asked his cousin’s husband.

“I’m good thanks? You?”

“Great. How’s the kids? Katie should be starting kindergarten now, right?”

“Yeah. Their first day was a few weeks ago and she didn’t want to leave home.”

“She was scared of being out somewhere on her own, huh?”

“Yeah. You know Katie. She’s always that quiet one that would rather play in her room with her dolls than interact with a classroom of her peers. I just hope she grows out of that, you know? Gain some friends.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it, Rich. She’ll come out of her shell in her own time.”

“I hope so. I—“ Randy could hear his cousin griping in the background.

”Would you cut the chit-chat already and ask him? Geez!”

Richie sighed over the phone but Randy could hear the humor in it. Richie and James had a good relationship and the blonde admired that. “Look, James wanted me to call you and ask if you were still comin’ over tomorrow.”

“Of course I am. You still cooking?”

“James would kill me if I didn’t cook.”

“Damn right!”

“Good. Then I’ll be there wearing some elastic pants and a bib.”

Richie laughed. “You are so stupid, Randy. I’m glad you’ve decided to move here. Now James has someone to talk silly to.”

Randy smiled. “You know it.”

After hanging up with Richie, Randy decided to sit out on Roy and Corrine’s….no HIS deck in the backyard. He walked through the large kitchen towards the wood framed glass double doors. Grabbing the gold handles, he opened both and stepped out onto the large deck. Being too busy readying Roy’s Corner on time to open it up and starting his family clinic, he barely had any previous time to actually sit back and admire his inheritance. The lake house itself was built by Roy and a few friends. Vinyl siding, two stories, with a wrap around deck, and a lake only a few yards away, it was beautiful. The property was gorgeous as well—bright green grass, tall trees, so round you’d need three people to wrap your arms around one, and four or five ducks that would always fly in during the warm months and play around on or near the lake. Peaceful was the word to describe the Dodson lake house. But for Randy, the word was grilling. he sat down on one of the deck chairs, looking at the large stainless steel grill and thought of how whenever he’d spend summers in Virginia, Roy would open up the grill and fire up some hotdogs and burgers. There, would be where he stood and gave young Randy tips about life while Corrine would be inside, fixing the potato salad and sweet tea. Tips would be as random as talking about how to properly build a house, how to fix a transmission, how to get over on your spouse after you’ve made them mad, why you should get your education, and to how you should always ‘wrap it up’ before sex.

Randy looked around him. Silence—only the sound of birds chirping and the slight wind blowing. All was quiet. Even the lake was still. This is nice and all but I’m lonely as hell. Randy was 30 years old. It was time to settle down. At this point in his life, he should’ve had a few years of marriage under his belt and on his way to having his second child. He didn’t know what he was waiting for. And though he could weasel his way out of Corrine’s incessant prying into his love life, he was running out of excuses why he hadn’t settled down. He was done with schooling, he became a doctor, he had money, he had a home, he had a stable life. He was now capable of providing for a family. So why hadn’t he?

Cause he had no one who interested him. Wait, that was a lie. Shay interested him. Shay interested Randy a lot. He would be perfect to spend the rest of his life with. And Jack. Who wouldn’t want to father such a sweet kid? The biological father really missed out on helping to raise a truly beautiful child. But only two problems are hindering me from pursuing Shay: I fucked up big time with him at the pizzeria today and the rumors Corrine told me about him and his family. The only way to solve those problems would be to go to his house and just ask him what’s the truth…..if he’ll even talk to me.