“You’re certainly entitled to your opinion, even if it does stink just as much as the excrement that toilet paper is used to clean up,” I shot back at him. “But I didn’t come here to trade witty barbs with you. I came for one reason. I want to know what it is you think I’ve done to endanger my son. Because unless you give me a damn good example, you can consider this your warning. If you continue trying to imply I’m doing wrong by him, I will file a harassment complaint. If you choose to spread lies around town in an attempt to bully me into doing what you’d like, there will be retribution. I’m not a puppet for you to master.”
“Oh, now you’re going to threaten me?” Thomas crossed his arms over his chest, which he’d puffed out in a feeble attempt to scare me. “You can do whatever you want with your life. Hell, I don’t care if you drink yourself to death the way you’ve tried more than once. But you will not, I repeat,will not, expose my grandson to your perverted lifestyle.
“At first, I thought you simply had questionable judgment in asking a stranger you obviously know nothing about to watch Jagger while you avoided getting a real job by slinging drinks at that bar,” he continued. When my fist clenched, I felt Justin poke me in the back to remind me to stay cool. “Honestly, he was practically molesting Jagger right there in front of the entire school.”
Before I could lunge at him, Justin managed to insert himself between us. This time, I was the one trying to hold him back. He poked Thomas in the chest, hard, as he corrected him. “Listen here, you arrogant, self-absorbed sack of shit,” he yelled. I glanced around to see if anyone was peering out their windows at the scene. There was no one watching from what I could see. “Dax was comforting Jagger. And yeah, I’ll be one of the first to admit that Michael’s fucked up by not letting Jagger get to know you, but when you do shit like this, is it any wonder why he tries to protect him?”
“You willnotspeak to me in such a manner, unless you’d like to be carted out of here in handcuffs,” Thomas warned him. “Do I make myself clear? God, you’re even more pathetic than your father.”
It took all of my strength to keep Justin from attacking Thomas. Part of me wanted to let him go, but I knew that wouldn’t help the situation.
“Thomas, I appreciate your concern formyson’s welfare,” I told him once I got Justin calmed down. “However, what you saw was Jagger talking to a good friend he enjoys spending time with.” It felt like I was denying Dax, but he’d told me he’d understand whatever I needed to do. “And from what I’ve heard, he was simply carrying Jagger and gave him an innocent kiss on the side of his head. Does that sound like what you saw?”
“Yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s highly inappropriate for a teacher to behave in such a manner with one of his students,” Thomas argued.
“And if it’d happened during the school day, I might agree with you,” I countered. “But it didn’t. It happened during halftime of a football game Jagger was attending with my parents. Even if you don’t trust my judgment, have enough decency to believe they wouldn’t endanger him.”
“I always thought so, but with the way your father jumped to your defense last night, I’m wondering if they understand the true nature of your relationship with him.”
Justin’s phone rang and he silenced it, only to have the ringing begin again immediately. He hit the ignore button and it rang again. “Go ahead and answer it,” I instructed him. “I’m sure we’ll be able to get to the bottom of this misunderstanding.”
“Hello…” I watched him walk toward the car and turned my attention back to Thomas.
“Now, as for your last ridiculous statement,” I continued. “Unlike you, my parents know exactly about the nature of my relationship with Dax. They also know how much he cares about Jagger and how he’d do anything for him. They love him as if he were their own son, just as they accepted Erica.”
I still wasn’t prepared to come out to my dead wife’s father, but if he thought he knew the truth, I figured it was for the best if any information came directly from me.
Thomas was gearing up for the next round when Justin grabbed my shoulder. “Michael, we’ve gotta go.”
I shrugged him off. This was the only time I was going to talk about this with Thomas, so I wasn’t going to rush it. “I’m sorry if you were caught off guard, but it’s none of your concern who I share my life with.”
“It most certainly is if you’re going to subject my grandson to anything immoral,” he argued.
“Man, look, we’ve really gotta get out of here,” Justin repeated, pulling on my arm. When I turned to tell him to chill the hell out, his face was ghostly white. “Please, let’s go.”
It was the please that killed me. There was something he wasn’t saying, which got me into motion.
“We’ll finish this later,” I called out over my shoulder. I’d said most of what needed to be said. The only point left to argue was who was more immoral, but Thomas didn’t realize how much Erica had told me about the late nights he spent at the office. He liked to play the role of the perfect husband and father, but he was far from it. He had a penchant for making sure his young, female interns were trained ineveryaspect of the job. I’d never considered revealing that fact to anyone, but I would if he decided he wanted to push the issue.
“What in the hell is going on?” I asked as we got into the car. Justin barely waited until my door was closed before he peeled away from the curb.
His face grim, he twisted his hands over the steering wheel before speaking. “There’s been an accident.”
No matter how I tried, I couldn’t suck in a breath. My heart threatened to burst out of my chest. I’d have asked Justin to pull over so I could puke, but there wasn’t time, so I simply had to hope I could hold it until we got to where we were going.
“Breathe, Michael,” Justin instructed me as he rubbed my back. I wanted to scream at him to pay attention to the road instead of me, but I couldn’t. “Come on, buddy. It’s going to be okay, but we have to get there. And it’ll take longer if you pass out on me.”
I nodded weakly. The town went by in a blur. All I could do was wonder what in the hell I’d done in a former life that was so awful it’d earned me so much pain in this one.
