i was all over him

4

Hi, sorry it's been a while. I ended up chopping this chapter into two, which is why it's kinda short, mostly because I wanted to get a chapter out to you guys and I wasn't finished with how much I wanted to be by this point. But this chapter is actually still really important, so I thought it'd be good to split it up too. Enjoy! Sorry I've been a little iffy on updates, I'm graduating and trying to look for a job and boy oh boy is it hell. Once I have a predictable schedule, I'm so excited to go back to writing more and working on DeathWish too I think! Enjoy this one! x Milo

Ultimately, I was banished to the kitchen until the greeting began, and while I faked frustration, I was relieved to have a few moments without Bill Dun glowering at me. The kitchen was pleasant, if a bit warm, tea cakes and other treats spotted the table, the seven glasses of lemonade were sweating and I watched as one drop spread through the spotted tablecloth and the oven buzzed happily, the smell of vanilla drifted through the air.

The kitchen was pleasant enough, but as always, my mind was a trap, and I was just the poor son of a bitch that had found the bait. Yes, Josh, the promise of speaking to him, the hope, was a trap. I was surrounded by strangers, the lot of them, and even Ashley, although she looked just the same, our friendship was eroded by time, and her bright demeanor was no comfort to me, it was blinding and uncomfortable.

I had to get out. Josh be damned. It had been 8 years. I had to let go and I had to get the hell out of this house, this neighborhood, this goddamn state. Back to my dark expensive cage, where I could sit in silence and not shudder at every approaching footstep.

It was the stranger who interrupted my quiet game of self-flagellation, with a cigarette before me that I took gingerly as the gentleman opened the window. Looking at him, he had a strange demeanor, an air of amusement and wit, as he observed me with a coy smile and creaked open the window. I relished in the cold there, for a moment, and then turned to him, a cigarette limp from his own mouth as he offered me a light. The moment was quiet and perfect, the muffled talk of Ashley and Ruby in the foyer, Bill Dun grunting along, as me and this stranger had our cigarettes.

"You know, I didn't know I had another brother-in-law." The man wriggled thin, blond eyebrows at me. "It seems my wife has been keeping things from me, as always. Andrew." He offered me his right hand, which I shook with only a little hesitation.

"Tyler."

He nodded, knowingly. "I must ask you, what was my wife like when you knew her so many years ago?"

"Well, I'd say Ashley is sort of like the sun, you know, warm, inviting, brilliant and overall, quite..."

"Overwhelming?" He smiled.

I do him the honor of not responding. He seems to understand.

"Yes, I feared so much. Sometimes I feel like I'm married to the goddamn sun, her wrath sure burns like hell and heaven combined, but I love her all the same, even when we go through testy waters, like right now." He was eyeing his cigarette, turning it over, examining it.

"What did she do?" I offered.

He shook his head. "No. Never her. I'm the one who mucks up," his laugh was light but bitter. "Always me. I can't remember it exactly now, booze makes me nostalgic and softens me a little too much. It was an argument of some sort, something trivial, it always is with Ashley, as you must know, my wife is particular. Often to the detriment of myself. I get tired, and she's still yapping away." He smushed the cigarette butt into the linoleum windowsill, and chucked it out the window without so much as a blink. "How long will you be staying?"

I was tempted to say I won't, I'm leaving now, and slipping out the front door, or maybe the back. I imagine Andrew nodding, calling me a cab, and waving me off as I disappear into the night. Maybe I'd linger in his mind for a day, but by Monday morning I'd be gone, I'd be "Tyler Who?"