Love is a Broken Window | Cricky [C]

88 | Endgame

| Chris' POV |

It must've been 3AM by the time I got home. I stayed a few hours at the hospital with Shiloh and Devin. Dev stayed the night there. It was getting too late for me to be out anyways.

When I opened up Ricky's apartment, I felt a chill rush over me. There was a cold draft in the entire room. I realized the window was left open, though I don't remember it being open wide when I left this morning. It wouldn't have been! Why would I leave an window open when we're having safety concerns?

This didn't sit well with me. I stayed extremely quiet as I carefully walked through the apartment. I had a very good hunch... I wasn't alone. The lights weren't on, making the only source of light, the moon and street lamps pooling in from outside.

Then, as I came around the corner to the bedroom, I heard a devilish laugh. "Well, I'm a little disappointed." Jani's voice scoffed at a low, raspy tone. He sat at the end of the bed, with a cocky smirk plastered on his pale face.

I felt my muscles tighten. I'll admit, there was a sinking feeling in my stomach. I was nervous to face a reality I knew was going to come. In the back of my mind, I always knew it would come down to this; Me versus Jani.

"What were you expecting?" I responded, matching his melancholy tone.

"I wasn't expecting much out of you, Chris." He snit. "But, I was hoping to see Ricky."

"I'm not sorry to disappoint you, to tell you the truth. You'll be waiting a long, long time." I responded.

He laughed. "I wouldn't count on your word, even if it meant my life." Jani stood up and met his eyes close to mine. "Ricky is mine. He will always be, and I will have him back. You're nothing but a thief Cerulli."

I grit my teeth. "He's not a piece of property. You're a fucking bastard, and if it was my choice, you'd be on death row."

"If it was your choice? Hm, you've grown soft. Following authority, I never thought I'd see the day." He chuckled, then tried to push past me. "I'll be back to collect what's rightfully mine."

I began to let him go, but something in me that was boiling, and it finally just boiled over to the point of no return. I turned around and grabbed him by the back of his hair. Jani slightly yelped, but he soon became enraged. He turned around swinging and decked me, causing me to let go of his hair.

He managed to strike my chin, but barely did any damage. It was a sloppy shot. It still threw me back a few steps. I recovered quickly, straightening my back and going right for Jani's neck. I wrapped my hands around his throat and threw him into a wall. Jani tried to pry my fingers away, failing.

"Give me a reason to press a little hard." I sneered. "Give me a fucking reason!"

"There's the Chris Cerulli I know." He snickered.

"You're such a son of a bitch."

Jani smirked. "Correction: Son of the Devil."

He raised his knee, striking me right between the legs. Oh that was a cheap shot! It forced my hands to loosen enough that he could push them off. Then he kicked me in the stomach, forcing me to fall on the hardwoods. My ass his the floor hard. Fuck, that hurt!

Jani, being the true coward he was, started to run to the kitchen for, I assume, a knife. I quickly rolled on my side and grabbed him by his ankle, pulling him off his feet. He fell face first into the floor, groaning in pain.

I regained the air he managed to knock out of me. Then I climbed on top of him after he had pushed himself on his back. I grabbed hold of his obnoxiously bright hair and slammed his skull against the hardwoods.

"Why do you do this? You fuck!" I yelled through my short breaths.

He was breathing heavily as well, and through his breaths, he muttered, "A dying man has nothing left to lose." What exactly did he mean by that? I ignored it, though the comment stuck me as strange.

"We're all dying." I replied. "That doesn't give you an excuse to hurt human life."

"Fine. Cut me open." Jani responded and rested his head on the floor. "I was diagnosed with HIV well before I met Ricky. It already made me bitter, but I still tried to love him. When I was told it progressed into full blown AIDS, I gave up. I only had a few years left and I decided I was going to live my life the way I wanted to. I was going to fucking control it, as much as I could."

"I don't care what kind of pity story you tell me. Now, Ricky has five years of his life that he can't forget. Five years, that will haunt him forever. He wasn't in control of that!"

"And I'm not in control of my own destiny!" Jani shouted. "Do you have any idea what it's like? To be stamped with an expression date that like?!"

"Obviously, you became spoiled a long time ago. After all you did, you deserve to die. Ricky, he never deserved any of this." I replied.

"I'm not dying alone, Chris. Even you should have enough compassion for that. Now can you please get the fuck off of me?"

I got off of him and sat up next to him. My back fell against the side of the counter. "Please tell me you didn't give it to Ricky?"

Jani sat up himself, leaning against the wall across from me. "He never knew I had it, but I always had him get tested every six months. I do love him."

"You wouldn't know it. Jani, you really wouldn't. I don't care who you are or what you're going through. You have no excuse to treat someone so terribly."

"I know I don't, and I would take back all I did to him now, but it's too late. Looking back, I should have spent my last few years just loving him. It just... I couldn't control myself when I'd see him look at you with so much love in his eyes. He's mine, not yours. You stole him and I just want him back."

I sighed. "How long do you have left?"

"Four months, roughly. It depends how I live. The doctors tell me I'm to the point, every cigarette I smoke or every shot I take, takes away one more day. I honestly just want to die at this point, but I'm not leaving without spending one more night with Ricky."

"Hurting him is not the way." I replied.

Jani hung his head. I actually somewhat felt bad for him. I can't forget all the terrible things he's done. Dying is not an excuse to be an asshole. How do I even know he's telling the truth either? Jani has done some pretty underhanded things, but lying about having AIDS just to get his way? Even he isn't that low.

Thinking back, it would explain why he made an effort to be with Ricky as much as humanly possible. I just thought it was being overprotective and possessive. Maybe, it was for a good reason... Why wouldn't he tell anyone though? None of this is an excuse, but if it is the truth, even he deserves a dying wish...