Resolutions - Part 4 - April
Here's part 4 of 'Resolutions.' It's a shorter chapter but I also I hope everyone still likes it. It's 'ex'plosive (in more of an emotional sense).
Resolutions (Part 4)
April: Exes and Explanations
By Al Song
April 18th, 2015
The morning after I stayed over at Nathan's place I left the bed and took a shower. A part of me was worried about Nathan, since I didn't want him to regret sleeping in a bed with a gay guy and regretting it. Another part of me told myself that he was going to be alright since he wasn't drunk when he let me sleep in his bed and he was okay with it.
When I left the shower I heard the sounds of cooking from the kitchen and I walked towards the smell to see Nathan making pancakes. He asked if I wanted chocolate chips in mine and I told him that it'd be great and then he just whistled as he placed the batter in the frying pan.
We didn't talk about it at all afterwards and everything was still normal. After pancakes we took a bus downtown and went clothes shopping near Pike Place. He never brought it up and I wasn't sure if I should have said anything. I wanted to ask if he was okay and if he wanted to discuss everything but I didn't. I was scared that this would affect our friendship negatively in any way but during the following weeks things still felt normal, except I wanted to ask about that night and the unease was still in the back of my mind in a corner that I tried not to look at very much.
In the middle of April I was helping Arvin's sister, Linda with some Italian homework. She wanted someone to have a beginner conversation with and she needed someone to look over the exercises and her essay.
"Remember that 'fenire' is an 'ire' verb that uses the 'isc' ending, but besides that and the other corrections everything looks good," I said as I handed back her homework.
"Alright, thank you for helping," she said with a slight smile. "Grazie mille."
"Di niente," I replied. She was kind and more soft-spoken than her brother. She wore a heavy black pleather jacket with straps on the shoulders and a diagonal zipper and she also wore a long black skirt with a lacey flower design on the bottom. Linda had silver studs in her ears and a lip ring. She also had some heavy army boots that she took off when she got to the apartment.
I then heard a knock at the door and said, "Oh, it must be Nathan. He's here pretty early."
"Arvin says that you two have been hanging out a lot. You seem much happier now than back during the New Year's party," she said matter-of-factly.
"He's a really good distraction from... bad feelings," I said slowly.
"He's also pretty handsome, and that's coming from a girl who isn't into guys."
"Okay, it's true, but let me get to the door," I said quickly.
I walked through the doorway of my room and then down the hall towards the living room and the sight before me crushed my solar plexus and robbed me of the air in my lungs. My gait faltered and my sense of balance was distorted by the shock.
Arvin stood there nervously with a red fox in outside the apartment, who happened to be my ex.
"What are you doing here?" I asked demandingly.
"I wanted to talk and apologize," he said remorsefully.
"It's kind of late for that," I replied with my arms crossed.
"It's been a while, I know."
"Four months is definitely a while," I said quickly.
"Yeah..." he said and it seemed to shut him up a little.
"So, what do you want from me?" I asked.
"Nothing, I just said that I wanted to talk," he said desperately.
I relented and said, "Fine."
He walked over to the couch and I turned to see the two deer unsure about what to do and both were staring at me.
I then said, "It was nice seeing you Linda. Good luck with the test and I'll see you later."
She then stepped out of the apartment and Arvin said goodbye to her from the door and then he looked back at me.
"Wes, did you want me to leave?" the buck asked hesitantly.
"Please don't. I might need someone to keep me in check."
"Okay," he said.
I turned my attention back to the fox and asked, "What did you want to talk about?"
"I'm sorry for breaking up with you and barely giving you an answer and not talking to you before about it," he said looking me in the eye the whole time.
"To be honest, I don't forgive you," I said blandly.
"Okay, I expected that."
"Tyler, why did you have to break up with me right before finals?" I asked.
"Don't call me that. Call me 'Ty,'" he said pleadingly.
"You said that's what friends call you. The last time I checked, you weren't my boyfriend and I don't think I can say that we're friends anymore."
He went silent.
"So why did you break up with me during that time? Was it out of spite and malice or is it that you have the worst timing ever and you could never make it as stand-up comedian?" I asked and narrowed my eyes.
I then heard a stifled cough from Arvin and then I relaxed my gaze a bit.
"I guess the second one."
"Was it really just because I was too boring for you?" I asked.
"Partly, I really did feel like we weren't spending as much time with each other and it seemed like you didn't want to do any of the things I wanted to do."
"Okay and the other part?" I asked trying to speed things along.
"I wanted to date Bert, the arctic fox, so I broke up with you so I could be with him," he admitted.
I just stared at him and I wanted my gaze to break him.
"I know I'm a horrible person," he said and frowned harder. "So uh..."
"What?" I said as I felt my face getting hotter and my blood boiling.
"He broke up with me last week," he said quietly.
"To be honest I don't feel bad for bad for you," I said with my anger still high.
"So, do you think we could start our relationship again?" he asked and he looked so hopeful.
"What?" I asked. Tyler was making so sense to me at all. "It's like you're denser than lead and you hurt my health faster than it ever could. From this conversation how did you not get that I don't want to be with you or even see you ever again? You made my life so much harder than it needed to be and then one day you come out of the blue to make me more upset. You hurt my performance on my finals since I was crying so much over you and you wouldn't even explain anything to me." I then heard a knock at the door.
"I'm sorry," he said and looked at the ground.
"But that's not going to fix anything," I said and I felt tears start to pool in my eyes.
Arvin opened the door and I turned my head around to check who it was. I then saw a black wolf standing in the threshold and I was already starting to feel a little better.
"My friend's here and I've got plans, so if you'll excuse me," I said as I walked towards Nathan and then shut the door behind me.
"How's my favorite otter doing?" he asked with a wag in his tail and smile on his face.
"So much better now that you're here," I said and he hugged me as I buried my face in his chest and the desire to sob slowly faded away.
(To be continued...)