Veggiefic: Behind The Curtains

Part 6-- An Unexpected Visit

Archibald rode his small scooter bike along the glistening roads, at least the ones that were properly salted. He rode up to an apartment complex, then carefully walked up a set of stairs. Archi would pass by each door until he arrived at apartment 206, soon knocking and waiting for its door to open.

Jimmy would answer the door, only to be baffled by who was standing before him. "Archi?? Heh, what are you doing here?" He asked before noticing how dark Mr. Achord's eyes were, his posture poor and his overall demeanor drained of any energy or stamina. "Oooh...you do not look good--maybe you might wanna step inside--"

Jimmy stepped aside as he let the man in. Archibald would rub one eye, looking over at the pungy man with the other, half lidded one. "Yes...it's been..well, a very long.. rough day today..."

"Huh...well uhh...you need to talk about it?" He asked, unsure why Archi came to him of all places until Archi replied with his excuse.

"Bob nor Larry is responding to neither my texts and phone calls..I assume they're..busy. Contacted a few others, but either couldn't get to their house because of the roads, or they just don't care enough," he lets out a tired yawn before continuing, "I came by in hopes of something to aid my headache..?" He said in a questioning tone, a sense of desperation lacing his voice.

Jimmy would comply soon after, going into a bathroom nearby before setting down a drawer full of different medicines, first-aid supplies and just general hygiene and well-being products. It was cluttered, but at least it wasn't a nasty mess. He allows Archi to rummage through it, flopping down into his sofa. "Help yourself Archi, but I do wanna know what happened--"

"Parents, that's what happened.." "Oooh...yowch." Jimmy grimaced slightly, before Archi continued speaking. "..I told him not to show up..." "Egh..uh..that Emanuel guy?" Jimmy asked, beginning to flip through some channels on the television. Why did he even have cable? It was unnecessarily expensive.

"Yes, he knows how they are...just wished he didn't come over when they did.." Archi said, before pulling out a bottle of Tylenol.

"Ehh then that's really on him, look if I was told not to do something, I'd atleast have the basic sense to think: 'hey, maybe it's because it's for an important reason, so I should just listen!', instead of well..not." Jimmy had a good point there, one which Archi was a little biased over, but could still get where he was coming from.

"..Goody powder..hm.." "Nah, don't try those, trust me they barely worked for Jerry, and it began to mess his stomach lining up. You're safer with the Tylenol."

Archi would hum an understanding tone, before the room grew silent. Only the background noise of the ongoing cable in the corner of the living room could be heard, before Jim finally spoke up again.

"..You wanna know what I saw Larry looking at while he and Bob were picking something up from the grocery store yesterday?" He asked, turning around to look at the brit as he choked down the medicine. "Could've fetched you a cup of water, Archibald-"

"It's fine..wh-what were you saying about Larry?" He screwed the cap back onto the bottle, going out of his way to take the basket back into their bathroom.

Jim watched, before turning down the TV for a second. "Well..uh..shit, what were they called? I dont know the magazine's name exactly but uhh...it seemed to have a lot of that LGBTQ stuff in its cover."

"And that's a bad thing?" Archi asked with a slight strictness to his voice. "Now now- didn't say he couldn't look at it, I honestly don't mind the stuff, hell took me a bit to realize I was asexual. But..just found it weird that Larry would be looking at that kind of stuff. Just kinda almost looked like he was considering picking it up.?"

"Maybe he's just curious, no harm in that." "Orrr...he could be..I dunnoooo..finding himself?" Archi looked over at him, and Jimmy just stared back.

Larry was... interesting for sure, and could be very open about a lot of things but when it came to his actual thoughts and feelings..it was always hard to tell whether he was being genuine or was just hiding what he didn't want you to see. Was be really trying to find himself or was he just browsing the magazine rack while he had to wait on Bob to pick up that turkey? Neither of them could confirm either or.

"..I dunno man, if he turns out to be gay, I want everyone to know that I called it first." Jimmy finally said with a slight chuckle. "Don't really..think we should make a game out of it. I don't think anyone in the studio would pay him any mind, besides..well.."

"..Bob..?"

"..Yeah."

"I mean...he is the most religious one out of everyone.. I wouldn't assume him being a homophobe though." "Neither would I, but even the nicest folks I've met have turnt nasty once they realized who I trusted my heart with."

Well now Jimmy was just uncomfortable. He didn't want to think about how Bob would take it, he don't want to think about Larry's poor broken heart if his best bud turnt on him over something as silly as homosexuality, or anything else of the likes.

His attention turnt back to Archibald as he began to head towards the front door. "I uh.. sorry for the weird convo, Archi."

"No, no. It's perfectly fine. I feel like this is an important issue that should be addressed.. I'm gonna go talk to Larry and see if everything is alright. Just..stay quiet about it until everything's sorted out, alright?" He looked back at the large man on the sofa, who would only just give him a nod.

"O-oh..and thanks for the medicine.." "Not a problem, buddy..!" He said, the two waving each other goodbye as Archi left the apartment room. Jimmy would stare at the TV. Quiet. Worried.

To be continued in part 7.