“Aye man, chill on the bro shit. Right now, we ain’t shit! I could kick your ass for exposing me to HIV!”
“I’m so sorry. I swear to God I’m sorry for that shit, man! If I would’ve known that dude was walking around with that package, I would’ve NEVER fucked around with his ass protection or no protection.”
“That’s a poor ass excuse of an apology. So, you fucked that nigga without protection?”
“Once… well, a few times, but normally we’d use protection.”
“You sound stupid as hell!”
“I feel stupid as hell to be honest.”
“As you should!”
“So, did you get tested?”
“You damn right I got tested.”
“And, did you get your results?”
“I did, and you better thank your lucky stars that they were negative. My doctor said that I need to come and get retested in three months because sometimes it can take some time to show up in your blood work, just to be sure. Given the fact that we didn’t always use protection and you were sleeping withsomeone that was positive, it’s like Russian roulette. Did you get tested and have you talked to Ava?” Tate asked. Although I hated that we had to have this hard conversation, I was happy that he was talking to me.
“I don’t know if Ava got tested or not. Knowing her, I’m sure she did. She isn’t talking to me, so I have no clue what is going on with her other than the fact that she has moved out, filed for a divorce, and moved in with some other dude.”
“Wow! Good for her!”
“Really, Tate!”
“Yes, really, Justin! You have been playing with that girl’s emotions for as long as y’all were together. She deserves to be happy, and obviously, you aren’t capable of giving her that.”
“I can let that slide because I deserved that! But I will say that I love Ava, and you know that. My life is just complicated.”
“Your life is complicated because you made it that way. The moment you stepped out on your marriage and started fucking your wife’s best friend, you made the shit complicated, period.”
“It was a mistake that I deeply regret. Now I have lost it all.”
“Welp, good luck with all of that. You can’t blame anyone but yourself.”
“You’re right. Look, I know this may be reaching, but can we meet up to talk further? I’m at The Boiler, not too far from your house. I was hoping that you would be up to coming up here so that we could talk about all of this.”
“Ion know, Justin. You put my life and my well-being at risk. I don’t think there’s nothing left for us to talk about.”
“Damn, I hate to hear that. Our friendship goes way back to our childhood. I just hate to end things like this.”
“You should have thought about all of that when you were out doing what you were doing. You never answered my question though,” Tate said, and I knew what he was talking about. I just didn’t want to have to confess to him my truth.
“How about you come meet me here at The Boiler and we can finish this conversation in person. After everything that we have gone through together as best friends and secret lovers, that’s the least you could do.”
“I really don’t feel like I owe you this, but fine! I’ll come to hear you out. We’ve been friends since the sandbox. Grab a table, and I’ll be there shortly. Give me about twenty minutes.”
“Thanks so much! I truly appreciate you for agreeing to meet up with me.”
Hanging up with Tate, I felt better knowing that if he was willing to come meet up with me, there was a big possibility that he’d be open to us working on repairing our friendship.
SHANE
When Justin went off, I’d never seen or heard him that upset before. At the same time, I was just as upset because he was just as wrong for the part he played in all of this. The fact that he was making it seem like everything was all on me was making me feel some type of way. Justin was built like a football player, so I knew I couldn’t kick his ass. But the way he was ranting and raving, I had to prepare to defend myself if it came down to it.
When he threw the whole HIV shit in my face, I couldn’t lie it stung like a bee. Hearing that he had contracted HIV really made me feel terrible because that meant that Ava had been exposed to it as well.
