These Days

A/N: I epically fail at computers i guess. I dunno how to put the warning back on the sum. So I'll add them here: Anal, M/M, Drama, Stupidity, Typos, Solo M, BJ
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“GET THE FUCK OUT!” Tye stood on the far side of the living room, his hands braced against the back of a chair as he screamed at his boyfriend, “I DON’T EVER WANNA SEE YOU’RE SORRY FACE AROUND AGAIN! GET OUT!”

Jacq clutched his shirt closed over his chest and stared wide-eyed at the boy across the room, “Ah, baby, please. I – ”

“DON’T SAY IT! JUST LEAVE ALREADY!”

“I’m sorry, Tye. I’m really sorry.”

Without another word Jacq grabbed the small duffle bag at his feet and walked out of the apartment.

Tye slumped over the chair when the click of the door shutting finally reached him. The room was depressingly clean. It didn’t look like anyone lived in the apartment. Tye bit down on his lip until hot blood flooded his mouth. The tearing in his chest failed to ease, however, so Tye moved into the kitchen. Jacq had cleaned it before Tye came home. Same with the bedroom and the living room. An attempt to pacify him, no doubt, or maybe he just didn’t want to leave behind any loose ends. Jacq had left before. Little flits with his students, men he met at bars, fellow professors. But those were always passion infused, short dalliances. He always came back, it was just a matter of waiting long enough. He had never cleaned before.

Tye pulled a glass from the cabinet. Even the cabinets were cleaned, glasses carefully organized in rows by size and amount used. Upon closer inspection, all the glasses were ones he had brought with him. In the fridge there were only the remnants of groceries; even the leftovers from their meal two nights before was nowhere in sight. The only thing that Tye did not buy that was still there was the coconut rum in the freezer.

Tye poured two fingers into his glass followed by a generous amount of cranberry juice. It was a college drink. He hated the taste and the after-affects, but to drink anything else could require he traveled down to the package store.

It burned his throat and sent a booze shudder through his stomach. Bracing one hand on the counter he tipped the glass back to suck the rest down in one swift gulp. It worked but tasted no better on his tongue. Deciding that if it was going to be disgusting to drink anyway he’d rather have it fast and hard, Tye took the bottle with him to the sink where he tossed back as much as eh could stand then coughed over the empty sink. Every shot made him feel nauseas, and consciously he knew he should stop, but the persistent ache remained so he continued to tip back the bottle until there was only a slim puddle in the bottle. Feeling fully disgusted with himself, with Jacq, with his life, Tye left the bottle in the sink and stumbled to the couch where he promptly curled around his twisting stomach. The booze on shi breath and the bit that had spilled onto his shirt made him ill, but he tried to ignore as best as possible until the alcohol diffused sufficiently to send him to sleep.

Tye woke grimy and disgusting. A gritty bitter taste rolled over his tongue and stuck to his teeth. Sweat and spilled liquor made his skin sticky and thick. The couch left little fibers in his cheek and arm and chaffed against his exposed skin. He grunted and shoved himself towards the bathroom where he completed the mundane morning tasks of relieving himself, showering, shaving the stubble growth from overnight, and massaging an oil into his face, neck, arms, and hands. Dressed in fine silk slacks and a button down shirt with a vest over it, Tye abandoned the empty liquor bottle and dirty laundry in his apartment to eat a relatively light breakfast at a small café on the corner.

“Tyler? What are you doing here so late? I though you would be at work by now?” The girl who spoke was a short brunette wearing a casual v-neck t-shirt and low-hanging leather pants.

“Charlie, I really did it this time.”

“Aw, babe. What happened? Hold on, I’ll grab a coffee and sit with you.”

Tye nodded and sipped his own tea morosely. The rich sweet flavor of it took away the last of the night’s binge from his stomach and fortified him for the dewy girl now rushing back to his table. Charlie’s ample breasts were pressed high on her chest and created a valley above the neckline. Tye focused on the rise and fall of those trapped mounds as he slowly spilled what had happened the previous day, unable to bring himself to look her in the eye as he spoke.

“We had dinner together a few night ago, and we were talking about planning a little getaway. Even the fact that we couldn’t settle on a place to go didn’t damper our mood. I sent in my request for some time off and I assumed Jacques did it too, but now I don’t know. Anyway, I had to work late the night before last, I think. I tried to call but no one answered and the voice-mail wouldn’t pick up for some reason. I didn’t think on it too much and finished my work. I couldn’t go straight home cause my boss made me go to a late dinner with him and a client. You know how he gets if we skip out on a dinner so I went for a while, I didn’t eat, after all Jacq probably had made something already. And finally At a quarter to twelve I was able to make it back home – ”

Tye paused, stirring his tea and clicking the nails of his left hand. “So what happened when you go back, babe?”

Tye shot a quick glance up before continuing, “Ah, well, I got in and I wasn’t really paying attention and maybe I should have noticed something before but I was never good at that. And I tried so hard to not mess up and I know I did but I really tried to stay on top of things. I just don’t know how, I can’t seem to get my head the right way around – ” Tye took a deep breath and sip of this sweet tea, “Jacq had this person, a guy with red hair tied in a bun and pretty slender features, bent over the kitchen table and…and…they were…just going at it…you know? And Jacq was bent over him double and making these noises, like I never heard from him before, and the other guy was practically mewling and all I could do was…watch. Then right there, in the middle of it, Jacq slowed down and…kissed him…” Now that it was coming out Tye found he couldn’t stop it so he related how he stayed in a hotel and went to work and then found Jacq already packed, the apartment cleaned, when he returned. They didn’t even talk about it. Tye didn’t even give him the chance. All of a sudden he was just so sick of it. The passion and drama that had made his young life exciting and new now just wore at him.

Charlie made cooing noises and offered nonsensical support for him but she knew, just as he had, that the split had been inevitable. Though she never ragged on Jacq she clearly displayed her dislike for them and so never came over for dinner and only occasionally joined them in going out. Though he let Charlie fuss over him and even accepted her invitation to dinner that night, Tye was more upset at himself for letting it happen. He had to have known Jacq wouldn't stay. Of course he knew it. He was past deluding himself. Now that the night's pain and alcohol had nearly worn off there was nothing but logic and truth. He knew who Jacq was and what he was bound to do. Maybe on some level he had been counting on it. He was numb and alone with Jacq gone but it was a temporary pain that would fade with time. Work was dull and he made hardly any progress before his boss sent him home for a sick day.

There was very little to distract him in his apartment. The kitchen was cleaned on short order, as was the living room and bathroom. He took out the trash to eliminate the smell of alcohol completely. He still had another two hours before he could leave to meet up with Charlie.

Pacing back and forth through the too-cleaned rooms he tried not to think about the torturous relationship of three years. His own well laid out life. The unaffected days ahead. But there was nothing else to think about. He had joined his advertising firm fresh from college and with steady steps had made for himself a respectable position in the design department. He still loved graphic design and his years at MICA had reaffirmed his passion. Then getting a job in the big city was like a dream come true. Somehow all of that fell into the background when Jacq had entered his life. A professor of French literature and poetry at the local community college, Jacq was fond of the night scene and Tye got to know him after running into each other on several occasions. Before they even began to date Jacq slept with two of Tye’s friends. But it didn’t affect Tye’s decision to let Jacq move in with him three months later, after they had become lovers, boyfriends of a sort. A month after that Jacq had his first affair. That had been the pattern since and Tye never put up a fight, always grateful for Jacq coming back at all. His work turned mundane and even though he only ever received simple, nearly beginner accounts, he didn’t notice. He didn’t care. For three years his entire focus lay with the blond headed beauty that couldn’t keep his dick locked up.

Tye cursed. Himself, Jacq, work, Charlie, this goddamned city! He didn’t want it anymore.


The first glass hit the wall before he knew he had thrown it. The next one left his hand with just as little of his own consciousness. Then a third and fourth, until the entire shelf was in a shattered heap on the floor across the room. A beep from his wristwatch alerted him that it was time to leave. He grabbed a coat and his wallet and left without a glance to the glass rubble.

Charlie and several of her friends took him out to dinner and then to a nightclub where they poured fruity drinks and stinging shots down his throat until the world swam around him at a sluggish pace. Tye let it happen and let the fine cloths and flashy people run through his senses until he had enough of them to last for several years more.