Calming A Racing Heart

Chapter TwentyFour

  Trigger Warning.    This chapter contains homophobic  slurs and insults.  Sorry but this is necessary for the story.  

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          Desalle jumped out of his seat, backing away from the pair. If Larcin had told him he had some incurable, contagious disease, Desalle couldn't have moved faster.  Backing away from the pair he spat on the floor between them as a show of his loathing.

           "My best friend turns out to be a Jagidica?" Desalle used the word he knew had the most vile connotation. "How could you be one of those? People like that are an abomination, a crime against the natural order of life. I can't believe you'd turn out to be one of them." Larcin was socked speechless hearing those words coming out of his friend's mouth. Desalle's voice got louder and more offensive as he continued.

           "Two men together? That is so wrong! It's obscene and destructive to our whole society. You carry a corrupted soul that never should have been born to walk any world. It's disgusting. You disgust me."

          Desalle was screaming at the two of them, attracting the attention of everyone in the bar. Socked faces surrounded them. Many of them wore the same look of disgust that Desalle's did.

          "Please lower your voice, Desalle. Let's talk about this in private." Larcin tried to quite him down but that only provoked him further.

          "See! If you weren't ashamed of what you are doing you wouldn't be trying to hide it," Desalle proclaimed at the top of his voice. Many of the crowd were muttering agreement with him.

          "If assholes like you didn't exist we wouldn't have to hide." Hands balled into fist Joshua stood up from his chair, threatening Desalle. Larcin grabbed his arm and pulled him back into his seat.

          "He was going to attack me?" Desalle took another step back. "How far does your perversion go? He's willing to risk my other's life to defend your twisted distortion of an honest relationship. Just goes to show the low level of his upbringing."

          "Don't you dare talk about my parent,"  Joshua growled.  He started to get up again but Larcin pulled him back into his seat.  

          "He didn't mean it, Desalle." Larcin told him, keeping a tight grip on Joshua's arm. He was stuck in the middle between Joshua's rising temper and Desalle's loathing .  "Desalle please sit down. Things are getting out of hand. Can't we talk about this calmly?  We've been best friends all our lives."

           "Best friends? If I had knew what depravity corrupted your soul I'd never would have befriended you.  You made a fool of me all those years.  Knowing you were like this all that time makes me feel dirty. "

           The vehemence of Desalle's words hurt Larcin to the heart. Commander Klun had warned him this could happen, friends turning their backs but he never expected this from Desalle. They had shared everything growing up, good and bad. He was like another brother. Hearing the hate and disgust spilling from his mouth tore him up inside. He was also frightened by the heated murmurs of agreement he heard circling around the bar. Larcin reached out to Desalle, a pleading gesture.

          "Don't touch me!" Desalle words were vitriol. He turned and stared daggers at Joshua. "I know where that hand has been. I've heard about all the perverted things you do to each other when you are alone."

          "Probably nothing you haven't asked your female other to do for you, you hypocrite,"  Joshua retorted.  Desalle's face turned white with fury.