DIFFERENT

26 -- .... Before I Walk Away

Warning  --  description of rape, mild violence.

Oh, lovely subjects of Prince Larry and Laurent !

What ...... How ....... Why ?  Prince Larry has to endure such pain and sorrow, and now, not just his own.  How will he and Prince Laurent deal with such news ........is his mother to be believed ? ......... should he just "Walk Away ?".....   

"Pull the other one, it's got bells on !"  Larry huffed at his mother.  Could he really believe this, her story ?  What ?........ did she hope that rape would get her out of this ?  That her "reason" would be good enough to negate everything she had ever done to him ?  Of course it wouldn't.  But why would she lie ?  It would certainly explain a lot of things ..... 

Deborah moved to rise from her seat, but this time, Larry didn't move, he did not back away from her.  He wasn't scared of her anymore.  There was nothing to be scared of, he realised.  She approached him, and stood directly in front of him, square shouldered, unblinking in the face of his glare.  He had never seen her like this before.  This Deborah was new to him.

"I don't blame you for not believing me, Larry, I don't.  What a convenient excuse, right ?  To try to explain the way I was, why I did what I did to you, to everyone.  There was a reason, but never an excuse."  Was this as close to an apology as he was going to get ?  Probably.  But he didn't want an apology.  She was never going to change.  He just didn't want her in his life, in their lives, anymore.  Not the drama, not the memories, not the dull ache that was forever in his heart and soul.  And she was a constant reminder of all of that.

But she still needed to tell him her "reason".  Not that it would hold water.  No "reason" would ever be reason enough.  Would he let her tell her story ?  she asked.  Larry looked back at Laurent for his opinion, a confirmation he was doing the right thing.  Laurent nodded a small yes, his elbows on his thighs, his chin on his palms.  

"Go on"  Larry told her.

"It'll hurt.  You sure ?"  As we're here.  Get it all out in the open, all the dirty laundry hung out for the whole neighbourhood to see.  Not like she could inflict more pain, any worse pain.  The damage had already been done.  

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---   Flashback   ---    

They were the three musketeers.  They were always together.  Deborah and Tony were a couple, sure.  But Tom was always with them.  He and Tony were friends, had been since grade school.  Brother-friends, brothers from another mother.  Deborah had to pry them apart just to get some time alone with her man.  They'd go to the movies, out to eat, to the game, together, all three of them.  Tony and Deborah had set him up on blind dates, not so blind dates, double dates.  He was a nice guy, he needed a nice girl of his own.  Then he might leave Deborah and Tony to their own devices a little more often.

But Tom didn't want "a nice girl"  He didn't want just any girl.  He wanted Deborah.  He loved Tony, yes, as his best friend, his brother.  But he loved Deborah more.  And he had convinced himself, that if he only spent more time with them, if only she would see him, for the person he really was, that the longer he spent with them, the sooner she would see it.  Every time Tony and Deborah would have an argument, even a slight falling out, she would go running to Tom, a shoulder to cry on, a kindred spirit to vent at.  And one day she would see.  She would see him.  But he thought wrongly, as it turned out.   But things weren't progressing, not going at all the way Tom had planned.  Tony and Deborah were getting closer.  There was talk of marriage.