Chapter 26
Eamonn
A little sprinkle turned into a steady rain that blackened the sky. It would’ve been pretty had Eamonn been in a mood to admire beauty. He dug his hands into his pockets and hunched down to block himself from thedownpour.
Rafe had done it. He had actually fucking done it. Eamonn should be ecstatic. His boyfriend was staying! He had aced the interview at his uncle’s company and was on the fast track to management! But all he felt was this sinkhole opening inside him. What was Rafe giving up to stay? Was Eamonn worth it? Rafe had all these ideas about who Eamonn could be, and as much as those ideas excited him, Eamonn doubted he could live up to them. He wasn’t some globe-trotting humanitarian. He had a family that depended onhim.
He wasn’t impressed with the butter selection at the corner store. It sat on a dirty shelf inside a cooler whose door was frosted over with ice. He left the store and walked to the fancy market in town. Rafe deserved the most quality ingredients for his Thanksgivingmeal.
Eamonn stopped at an alley a block before the market. Students at Stroude didn’t frequent the pubs in town. They were a bit too dodgy for them. They would rather drink in the clean, friendly confines of Apothecary and other campus pubs. In the alley was the entrance to one of the seedier pubs, one of those places that didn’t have a name, just signs for the type of beer they carried. It was an example of what this town used to be like before fancy markets began coming in. Eamonn had never stepped foot in this pub, but he heard a familiar yell wafting from thealley.
“Get your bloody hands off me! You fuckingcunts!”
Two men dragged Nathan out of the pub and threw him against the brick wall. By the looks of it, they’d already had some fun with him inside. His clothes were wrinkled, and his shirt collar wasripped.
“Go home and don’t ever come back!” One of the mensaid.
“Don’t tell me what to fucking do!” Nathan, like a rabid dog, leapt up and launched at him. The man socked him in the jaw. He and his friend were about to pummel him some more, when Eamonn jumped between them and pushed themback.
“Oy! Oy!” Eamonn yelled with his hands up. He could take both of these guys, but he wasn’t going to make the situation worse. “I gothim.”
“Keep him the fuck away fromhere.”
“Like I would ever come back to this hellhole,” Nathan said from theground.
Eamonn stared the men down, the three of them only communicating through animal instincts. The men kept glaring at him as they walked back into the pub, their breath swabbed in ashy smoke and stale beer. One of them spat atNathan.
He knelt down to get a good look at his ex-boyfriend. Dried blood caked his puffy face. Bruises and black-and-blues formed a patchwork over his skin. If someone had told Eamonn that Nathan had gotten run over, he wouldn’t have second-guessedit.
“Nathan,” he whispered out. “Y’alright?”
“Does it appear that way?” Nathan stared at the wall in front ofhim.
Eamonn took off his scarf and wiped away some of the blood. “Whathappened?”
“I got in a bit of a kerfluffle.” Nathan’s words slurred together. He leaned over and spat blood into thestreet.
“What the hell—was this because you’re gay?” Eamonn’s fingers locked intofists.
“No. We live in a progressive enough society where a few pricks could be all right with my homosexuality but take umbrage with me trying to punch them for claiming Arsenal is the best football team in theU.K.”
“I thought you were a Manchester Unitedfan.”
“I am, but I just wanted to see their reaction. I don’t know how it started. Sometime after my tenth pint, everything went into ablur.”
“Ten pints?”Jesus.Nathan seemed hollowed out, as if everything he was saying was rehearsed. “Let’s get you cleanedup.”
Eamonn picked Nathan up, but as soon as he let go, Nathan wobbled backwards and fell against a trash can. He slunk to the ground and had no intention ofmoving.
Eamonn held out his hand. Nathan swatted it away. “Are you planning to celebrate Christmas downthere?”
“What the fuck are you doing here,E?”
“I was making a grocery run, and I heard a familiarvoice.”
“Shopping at the bourgeois palace? My how the Yank has changedyou.”
Eamonn shot him alook.
