Eau de Toilette (ManxBoy) | sequel to ChapStick | on mid-season break

Chapter 3 - Sean the Hunter becomes the hunted

Chapter 3 – Sean the Hunter becomes the hunted

Opening Song – Thieves and Kings - The Peach Kings

Sean and I had our first real fight as a couple when he decided to keep to himself who this Devon Hunter really was. I remembered how we used to have lighter arguments over trivial matters that thinned and disappeared over sloppy kisses and apologetic smiles. But that was before. This time was different. I wasn’t pleased that he kept the situation lidded and himself tight-lipped. Now was not the time to be reticent, especially when the people I cared about were getting shot left and right.

Like most heated arguments, ours was argumentative and throaty. It didn’t go well. We failed to get a resolution, but at least it ended in absolution, or at least what I thought was forgiveness. Harboring negative emotions never settled well in my stomach. So I ended up squaring my shoulders in acceptance of whatever it was he believed must be kept under wraps, until he could find a way to address the problem. I hoped that Sean would do whatever it was he needed to do in the most expeditious manner. Because the longer he stretched everybody’s patience —including mine— the harder it was for me to make excuses for him and mitigate people’s tempers.

Lulu, Bertha, and I were in the main server room to pull up the video recording from earlier this morning. And as my presence ripened in the company of one pissed off Lulu —who was nursing her gunshot wound on the shoulder— and one flabbergasted Bertha —who was watching intently the tapes from the state-of-the-art cameras— I couldn’t help but wonder and wander back to my argument with Sean. It still was fresh on my mind.

“We don't need to get into this now,” Sean argued without leaving any cracks on the surface.

“Get into what Sean!?” I was being difficult and he knew it. I just wanted him to include me in the process of figuring out a solution to the problem.

“Something you're not ready to hear.”

“Sean. I need to know what’s happening. I’d appreciate if you’d tell me the truth and trust me enough to share it with you. Please…”

“I just need to disappear for a while.”

I didn’t like how he excluded me but I was willing to weather my emotions till he was ready, “Okay. What do you want me to do?”

“V, I need you to play along till I find a beat on Devon. I need everybody convinced that I indeed was the one in the video. I know it’s dangerous. But just trust me. We don’t want Devon catching wind that I’m onto him. I know it’s a stupid plan, but its better this way. Just be on high alert. I know he’ll be coming for you. And when he does, which I know he will, just trust that I’m right behind him. I won’t let him harm you.”

“Sean. I have been nothing but tolerating. Just don’t allow the air to thin to the point that I can no longer breathe. Do you understand?” I rested my forehead onto his, feeling my words echo back to me, “Please be careful, Sean.”

“I will. I’m sorry. It’s hard to explain everything when there’s not enough time. I may already have a kill order as we speak. Just stay calm. Don’t come out looking for me. I’ll look for you,” Those were his words when we parted.

I broke from my recollection of the memory when Bertha paused the recorded video evidence, right when Devon shot Lulu with a sidearm, “Dayum girlfriend. Them sidearms are the shit I tell ya,” she gloated while sucking on her neon lollipop, which was just as neon as the tight color-blocked, leather jumpsuit she was wearing. She said she wanted to look like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, only fatter and more brown.