Quarantine Bae

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Soul POV

Shit gets serious when the lights go off. Sweat is draining down my chest to the point that I just take off my shirt. It's been three days since we've lost power. And because of the quarantine, it was beginning to feel like we were on a planet of our own. Shit gets serious when the air stops in the middle of July. All of a sudden it feels like you're in the unedited cuts of the Hunger Games wearing gray rags and putting two fingers up for the niggas you lost in the struggle. Shit gets serious when your nephew is hungry but all the food that you stocked up on has spoiled. That's when shot gets serious.

It's the middle of July. The heat waves wake me up to see my brother at the door. He's talking to someone. I don't think Saint sees me as I walk over from his extra bedroom.

"You could have told me..." the voice says.

"I wanted to. I just didn't know how..."

As I get closer I'm confused when I see Tivonte's boyfriend. I believe the guy's name was Ken. He was this perfect looking guy. The kind of guy that you had to dress up for when you took him out. He seemed high maintenance.

But what the hell was he doing at my Saints door first thing in the morning when the rest of the world was still asleep?

"So is it serious?"

Just then I stomp my toe on the cabinet doors. As soon as I do it my brother turns around. They whisper something lower between the two of them but before I can get anywhere closer Ken is fucking gone. He's out of there as fast as he can.

Saint turns back to me and gives me this weird smile, "Hey didn't see you standing there."

My brother Saint Cooper was perfect. Just ask my parents. I'd gotten out of jail not too long ago. It was a petty charge but I was in there for 4 months. You would think you would get used to the isolation but you don't. I went from one type of isolation to another. After I got out of jail, right before the pandemic hit, they sat down to have a 'Come to Jesus' with me. The talk was a talk about how I should become more like Saint Cooper. How I should have gone to school and become this successful nurse as he had become or how I should stop hoping from city to city. Or how I should reconsider my lifestyle. I knew what they meant by lifestyle. They hadn't wanted me to be gay anymore. Being gay was a flaw to my parents. And the fucked up thing about all this is that I had agreed. I was so desperate to be what my parents wanted me to be that I moved out here to stay with Saint for a while. I wanted to just pick up more of his habits. I just wanted to be more responsible...like Saint.

Perfect Saint flashes me his perfect smile, standing at the door shirtless with his perfect six-pack and perfect pecs. He didn't have tattoos everywhere like me. He was way too perfect for that.

But underneath all that perfection there seemed to be a little bit of a dent. Something small but I can pick it up.

"What the hell was Ken from downstairs doing up here?"

"He just had to talk about something."

"Shit sounded kind of serious. What the hell were you talking bout?"

"Who the fuck are you? Maury? You keep asking me all these damn questions...."

He looks flustered. The thing about Saint was that he never got flustered. He always had it together. It was one thing that I had resented about him growing up. He always seemed to have all the answers to everything. The world could be going to shit and Saint never broke a sweat. Me on the other hand...you could tell I'd gone through this fucking life kicking and screaming.

Saint breaks a little bit of a sweat. His breathing changes a little bit.

I find myself laughing, "Why so defensive? Do you need a tampon or something? Damn. I was just going to ask you if you could ask him if we can crash at their spot for a bit."