It's Coming Around | Lawrusso

It's Coming Around Chapter 4/10

A week later everything changed.

Daniel couldn't help the sigh that escaped him when he heard the report on the radio while he was driving over to the apartment after work. He knew Johnny was already struggling, and this might just tip him over the edge.

"I told you it'd kill someone!" Johnny shouted, the second he arrived at home. "You said it was just a cold and nothing to worry about, but someone is dead, Daniel!"

"Jesus, Johnny, the guy was 92 and he was a mob boss back in the day," Daniel replied. "They said it was suspected that he'd killed people, including a guy who was shot in the chest, but they couldn't pin it on him. They're listing his cause of death as a heart attack, not the virus."

"A heart attack caused by the stress of the virus," Johnny countered.

"You don't know that," Daniel said, as he put his hands on Johnny's shoulders, trying to steady him. "And all you ever did was kick or punch me. It's not like you shot me with a shotgun, like that guy did."

Johnny let out a small huff of laughter and allowed Daniel to pull him into a warm embrace.

"You know, I heard the guy he shot was his best friend," Daniel said, as he rocked them both from side to side.

"What?" Johnny asked, pulling back slightly. "Why would he do that?"

"He was having an affair with the guy's wife and decided he wanted her for himself, so he killed him," Daniel replied.

"Wow," Johnny said. "That's messed up."

"See," Daniel said. "We're not so bad, are we?"

"I guess not," Johnny said with a chuckle.

*

"Hey, man," Johnny said, picking up his battered phone. "What's up?"

He was quiet for a moment, then he said, "OK," and held it out to Daniel.

"What's going on?" Daniel asked, as he took the phone and saw Bobby's name on the screen

"He wants to talk to you," Johnny said quietly.

Daniel raised the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"Hey, Daniel, it's Bobby Brown from High School."

"I know who you are, Bobby," Daniel said with a laugh. "Johnny talks about you all the time. How are you doing, man?"

"Yeah, er... not so good," Bobby said quietly. "I caught HAd-20."

"Oh, wow, you're the first person I know who's caught it," Daniel asked. "Is it true that it's basically just like hay fever?"

"Daniel, I got to experience what I did to you at the tournament, when I hurt your knee."

"Oh," Daniel said. "Well you know, I hadn't thought about that in a long time."

He was lying. His knee still hurt in the rain. He tried not to let it show because he could see the guilty look on Johnny's face every time he popped a pain pill, and Johnny hadn't even done most of the damage. It was Bobby who'd kicked him, who'd followed Kreese's orders to take him out of commission.

"I know I apologised to you at the tournament, but it wasn't enough," Bobby said.

"Come on, Bobby. You said you were sorry straight away, and I know it wasn't you, it was Kreese."

"Feeling what I did to you, Daniel. That brought all the guilt right back," Bobby said. "I just wanted you to know that I felt bad about what I did to you for a long time, and thinking back on it, that guilt was part of why I decided to join the church. I wanted to put some good out into the world and to help people to try to make up for what I did, but this reminded me that I needed to say sorry to YOU. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I wanted you to know I'm trying to do right by people these days."