“Like hell it doesn’t. I’m not going to stand for this. I’m telling him about us.”
“Derrick, please, don’t,” Chance asks.
I still. “You haven’t told him?” Chance doesn’t say anything. “You were always so good with the lies.”
“Don’t make this about us.”
“This isn’t because of jealousy, Chance, this is because I don’t think you are good enough for my brother. You are the last person I want him to be with. You will destroy that boy,” I yell at him.
“That’s not fair.”
“Not fair. You destroyed me, Chance. You have left so many scars on my fucking heart.” I curse at him, trying to hold back my emotions because he doesn’t deserve it. “I will not let you do the same to him.”
“I’m sorry,” Chance whispers.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m sorry, D. You’re right. I fucked up with you. So, fucking badly, and I wish like hell that I treated you better, but …” He sighs, running his hand through his hair. “I was messed up. If you hadn’t forced me to seek help, I don’t think I’d be here.”
I blink at him, unsure what to say.
“I have a long way to go, but since Hawaii and seeing you and Charlie so fricken happy, so much happier than you ever were with me, it made me want to change. You are a fucking great guy,D, and I treated you like shit because of my own insecurities and trauma. Everything you have said to me was true. I’m bisexual, I like both women and men, and now that I’ve finally settled into who I am, the anger and the need to self-medicate seems to have eased.”
“I’m glad you finally know who you are.”
“Thanks,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m sober, D. I’ve decided to try to start living cleanly.”
“But I saw you drinking beer.”
“It’s non-alcoholic beer. Looks the same, just didn’t want to advertise it to anyone.”
I’m so confused. Guess, good on him for trying to better himself.
“I was sober when I met Arran. He’s my first sober …”
“Relationship?” I add.
Chance shakes his head. “Situationship,” he corrects me.
“I can’t get behind this, you understand.”
Chance lets out a heavy sigh. “I’ll talk to him tonight. I’ll tell him everything.”
“That would be good.”
“But …” Chance says, his eyes narrowing, “if after everything I tell him, and I’m sure you’ll have something to say when you go over there …” Damn straight I will, “if after all that he still wants me, I don’t want you to get in our way.”
“I can’t promise that.”
“That’s not fair,” Chance argues.
“It’s not fair that you are leading that boy on.”
“He’s in the closet, too, he’s like me, bi. I don’t think I need to advertise my sexuality to the world, it’s none of their fucking business,” Chance argues with me.
He’s right. It’s no one’s business. “The public doesn’t deserve to know, but your friends do. I mean, they all knew about us.”
“Excuse me.”
