Well… as long as the killer stays quiet.
TWENTY-ONE
Gabriel
“Disgustingly, Christmas is already here,” Liam announces.
Why it’s disgusting to him, I have no idea, but Liam is Liam. His body seems to reject the very idea of social gatherings.
“Man, I don’t know where this year went,” I say. “But I’m thrilled I get to spend another holiday with you. Even if you’re doing it reluctantly.”
“Very reluctantly,” he grumbles. “Why are we doing this again? Do we gain something by being miserable around other humans? Is it simply to feel better about ourselves when we compare ourselves to them?”
I nod as I park behind my mother’s car. We’re the first ones to arrive because I agreed to help her set up. “Yes, that’s exactly why we have Christmas with my family. To judge them. I promise, you don’t have to stay if you don’t want. Just help me set up and then go chill at home, and I’ll be home a little after lunch, okay?”
At my suggestion, Liam gives me a displeased look. Honestly, I thought he’d jump at the opportunity to run off. “You expect me to leave you here alone with these parasites?”
I raise an eyebrow, weirdly confused about who he’s referring to. “Parasites… as in my family?”
“What’s the name of the one who bullied you?” he asks. “Oh right…Tom. I’m afraid Tom might not make it today.”
“Why? Is he sick or…” I pause, realizing that it really wouldn’t be normal for Liam toknowif Tom was sick. “What the fuck did you do to Tom?”
“Me? I’d never do anything to Tom,” he says with a smile before leaning in to kiss me. “It was just the first of your many gifts.”
I grab his face before he can accomplish the kiss. “Oh, no, no, no. Your first order of business is to tell me what you did to Tom.”
“It was really strange. I ran into Tom the other day at the grocery store. The moment he saw me, he hurt my feelings when he strutted up to me.”
“Your feelings got hurt? I’m pretty sure no one has ever hurt your feelings,” I say as he tries to hide his grin.
“Gabriel, don’t pretend my feelings don’t exist. So I ran into him, and I was like, ‘Tom! It’s so wonderful to see you!’ And I gushed about how nice it was to bump into him. And in exchange, he called me someverycolorful words for my ‘stunt’ at Thanksgiving.”
“I wouldloveto see a video of you saying ‘nice’ things. Could you repeat one of these nice things you said?” I ask.
“Anything for you. I was like, ‘Tom, I just…adoreyour clothes. They look so chic. I would love to know where you got them.’” Liam is actually doing a fantastic job keeping a straight face, as though any of this happened.
“I’mpositivethe words ‘adore’ and ‘chic’ have never been willingly used by you.”
“I adore you.”
“Unless talking about me. So tell me, how did your gentle words to him go? How did he respond?”
“Oddly not well! Can you believe that? He then said something about how you shouldn’t be such a wuss about the whole assembly thing.”
“Assembly? Did he seriously bring that up?” I ask in disbelief. Then again, Tom never could handle being the one getting bullied, so I’m sure what Liam did at Thanksgiving has royally pissed him off.
“He did…”
I really don’t want to even bring this up, but I know sharing it with Liam won’t be the end of the world. “Fucking hell, that was just… that made my high school life a living hell. My family knew I was gay, but I didn’t leteveryoneat school know. Like only my closest friends. There was this big assembly featuring the football players who were the popular kids, of course. And there was one player who I had a crush on, but of course I was never going totellhim that. Yet somehow Tom fucking found out. He was on the football team, and he had them all hold up signs like the guy I was crushing on was asking me to prom. And it was so fuckingmocking. Like the one guy started acting like he was fucking another one and everyone was laughing and just… I refused to go to school for a week after that. Tom’s parents didn’t even ground him, even though the school suspended him for the week. My aunt and uncle actuallybitchedabout it, saying he was just ‘goofing around,’ and I shouldn’t have taken it so seriously.”
I don’t tell him the whole story. I feel like if I did, he’d go over and pound Tom’s face in. I feel like I can still hear all of the student body laughing and looking at me. And when I returnedto school, all of the jocks kept pretending to ask me to prom in mocking ways while the students laughed.
Liam slowly nods. “See… I just… I have this condition where I can’t handle anyone saying or doing anything shitty to you. And then I hear that Tom works as the face of his company. Supposedly he interacts with extremely important people inside the company, including their shareholders. But their biggest shareholder? A gay woman.”
I hesitate as what he’s saying sinks in. “Liam… what did you do?”
“Being the good future cousin-in-law I am, I happened to run into him as he was leaving a very important meeting with this woman. And I just said one simple sentence to him.”
