That tractor trailer must have actually killed me and this my version of heaven, or hell.
I sat there and looked at his face. He looked the same. Just mature, his hair was a mess. He looks like he's been awake for days. It was quiet. Very quiet.
Just watching him shift gears and focus on the road was enough to bring back the lust for him I buried deep in the pits of my heart.
"So..." he finally breaks the silence.
"What are the chances?" He asks almost nervously.
"Well, I don't even know what to say to you. It's been five years since I last saw you." I didn't look at him, I couldn't.
"Four years." He said very firmly.
"No, you graduated five years ago, Nick. I was there. I watched you graduate." I had a salty tone in my voice.
This cannot be happening. My head cried out.
"No, you graduated four years ago, Flynn. I was there. I watched you graduate." He said mockingly.
"What?" I spat.
He didn't say anything for a few seconds, my heart was racing. He put on the directional and got off the exit.
"I never forgot you, even after I left town." He said sheepishly
Now my blood is boiling.
"Your k-kidding right?" I stammer
"You left me hanging for the last eight fucking years and then tell me you never forgot me?" I'm almost yelling. I still can't believe this.
"Nick you motherfucker. I fell for you! You tell me "I'll never let you go Flynn" just to drop out of my life, leave me wondering what the fuck I did wrong for the last eight years. You-" he cuts me off.
"Flynn" He says, pulling the truck into a empty, snowy parking lot.
"I think we need to do this somewhere else. Let's get your truck dropped off, then we can go back to my shop and have a proper conversation." He is looking dead at me, but I can't look back.
"Fine. Great." I think the beer might be talking.
He give a half smile and shifts into gear.
The ride to the shop is long. Im still so pissed and half buzzed. Every emotion possible is what I'm feeling right now.
Nick fucking Nolan.
I can't help but keep thinking this is a joke.
———
We sit in silence, I think both processing emotions that had stayed hidden for the last eight years.
I wanted to rip his face off. I felt so much anger. I let him get to me for so long, and seeing him brought me to see red.
I bit my tongue and waited for our arrival to the shop.
It was snowing, and snowing hard when we pulled into Big Reds Recovery. It was hard to see what there was other than a big metal gate, a parking lot full of cars, and a garage building with 5 mechanics bays.
Nick stopped at the gate and grabbed a microphone from the radio mounted near the headliner.
"622 to base" he dropped the microphone to his lap, and rubbed his eyes.
A second later,
"Go ahead 622" a woman's voice answered
"I'm at the gate, with one going into bay 5"
The radio stayed silent as a small orange beacon light illuminated and the gate began to open, slowly.
"622 permission to clear for the evening?" He spoke
"Of course Nick, thanks for coming in to help us out" the radio crackled to life.
"Tough commute" he said sarcastically let out that half smile and hung the mic back on he hook.
He hit a button on the visor control and the last garage door opened.
He pulled he whole unit right inside and shut the engine down.
"Let's go" He said sheepishly.
I climbed out of the tow truck and the smell of a wood fire filled the mechanics bay.
We walked through a doorway with lead to a front counter area, he hung up his keys before going up a set of spiral stairs right behind the register. I followed.
We reached the second floor and he took his boots off before he entered.
I did the same.
We entered the apartment, it was newer, to my left was a small kitchen, straight ahead was a small bathroom, to my right was a small living room. It looked brand new, or at least newly remodeled. The carpet felt new.
"Yours?" I ask as I set down my cooler and bag.
"Yes" he replies quietly.
"Can I take a shower, then we'll sit down and talk?" He asks. I hear pain in his voice, good.
"Yeah I'll be on the couch" I say sitting down the couch. It's so nice. I hear the water turn on and he walks into a bedroom off the living room and gets clothes and enters the bathroom.
Before he walks out, I'm thinking of all the things I want to say and taking a mental list. I'm ready for this.
I hear the water turn off.
Let him have it Flynn
I didn't look up, but he came and sat down across the table across from me. He looked prepared.
"Flynn, I just want to say that I'm sorry, you meant so mu-"
"Fuck me blind!" I exclaim in anger! His face goes flush.
"Do you know many days went by that I was late to all my classes because I just wanted to see you walk by, even if you didn't notice me!?" I took a deep breath and continued
"Do you know for how many years I suffered wondering what the fuck I did wrong?!" I finally looked dead in his piercing green eyes, he had taken off his glasses.
"You don't think I didn't suffer?" He replies, his tone even.
"Apparently not, you-" I'm stopped by the sight of his bottom lip trembling. He gets up without a word and walks into the bedroom, I can hear him opening drawers and slamming them shut, I can hear his dramatic breathing as he tries to hold back.
Finally he comes power walking out of the bedroom, his face is now beat red. His voice cracks.
He hold up a picture and yells
"Do you know for how many years I cried myself to sleep because of you?" His voice hoarse and loud as the tears fell slowly down his face.
He shoved the picture toward me.
I'm in sure and utter shock.
It's a selfie we took on our camping trip. I turned the picture over, written in Nicks perfect manuscript are the words,
"What I Left Behind"
———
YOU ARE READING
What I Left Behind (boyxboy)
Teen Fiction[COMPLETED] Flynn, 22, leaves his home in the city and heads north; He finds the boy he left back in high school, the one who haunted him for years. Nick Nolan. Picking up where they left off all those years ago; things seem happy and life seem...
