Chapter 4-2
730 Words
“I’m sorry, I don’t want to get in your f*****g business, but we’ve been driving for twenty minutes. We’re ages from Landmeadow, and soon we’re going to be the only car on the road. Where the hell are you taking me? Should I start worrying that my body is going to turn up in the ocean? Or never be found at all?”
“Oh, so you’re able to string more than two or three words together,” Thomas replied calmly.
Elias grunted and crossed his arms over his chest, looking out the window.
Thomas was aware Elias’s question was reasonable, but the answer wasn’t pleasant even if he only repeated it in his mind.
Because I don’t want people to see me with you.
How disgusting was such a thought? And yet he had been doing that for such a long time. Keeping the parts of his life completely separate. The professional part, the impeccable role of the respectable detective, a man still crying over his partner’s death, and the nighttime part when he looked for oblivion from his thoughts, and desire for the bodies of consenting men. So, it wasn’t really new to him, the need to hide the men he met at the pub. It was an ingrained habit.
And men, s**t. Not such young individuals.
Elias was good-looking. It would have been stupid to deny the obvious, just as it would have been useless to deny his erection both times Thomas had kissed him. Or that Elias’s lips were as juicy as ripe fruit.
But a fifteen-year difference in age was still fifteen years. What could Elias see in him? And Thomas, a man as straight as an arrow, what could he find in a kid like Elias?
It was true. Elias’s eyes spoke of experience and broken dreams, of fear and survival. Thomas wasn’t stupid, and thanks to his job, he had a certain level of experience. The man who had appeared at the door was the person prematurely aging the young man sitting next to him. And Elias’s bruised face, whether the direct action of that man or the consequences of something else, was like a neon sign saying that being with him, dating him somehow, wasn’t a good idea.
But he was here, and if he had to be honest with himself, he liked it. Elias was so strange and unexpected that he distracted Thomas from other problems, from his anxieties and his fears.
“So, do you want to tell me? You are starting to unnerve me. I’ve had enough unwelcome beatings lately, you know?”
Thomas suddenly turned to look at him. “So, I was right. Who hit you? Your brother?”
“No.”
“But somebody beat you up.”
“Listen, tell me where you’re taking me, or I’ll throw myself out of the car, okay?”
Elias’s voice was really shaking now. He wasn’t joking or exaggerating. He was scared.
Suddenly Thomas noticed his posture and how Thomas’s silence had made him shake.
Elias’s left hand gripped the door handle and his one good eye stared at Thomas, wide open. His breath was lightly stressed and his right hand was clenched in a fist.
“Hey, calm down. I know a pub near here. It’s nice, quiet.”
Elias swallowed and continued staring at Thomas.
“I want you to stop.”
Thomas frowned. “Trust me, we’re almost there.”
“I said I want you to stop.”
Thomas didn’t know what to think, but Elias’s agitation was so palpable it came off him in waves. He indicated and pulled over, then pointed to a place a little farther on, a house up on a hill. “It’s that one, do you see it?”
Elias nibbled at his lip and got out of the car, slammed the door behind him, then started to walk up the rise.
“What the hell?” Thomas got out of the car, locked it, and with a little run, reached Elias. “What the hell are you doing?”
“I want to walk there.”
Elias’s voice was now more controlled. His rough tone was back, and his hands were in his pockets. His behavior in general was more relaxed than a few seconds earlier.
Thomas rubbed a hand over his face and started walking at his side.
“You know it’s bullshit, right? To want to walk. We’re a minute away. What has gotten into you? What did you think…” Thomas’ eyes widened in surprise. “Did you really think I would hurt you?”
Elias shrugged.
“You’re kidding, right? I came to your house to…to take care of you, and you think I was taking you somewhere to hurt you? Elias, s**t, what would make you think that?”
The answer that came back made Thomas pull up short.
“There are people who offer you kindness just to take advantage of you when you least expect it.”
- Writer
