Chapter Sixteen
The Nerve
It all happened so fast.Adrian popped Derek square in the nose. The crunch of the impact was audible.
He hit the ground and didn’t stir. Adrian was shaking mad. Without another word or look to any of us he walked out of the room calmly and left, slamming the front door so hard our rather large house rattled.
Everyone was too stunned to move for a moment. Finally, Ethan moved forward and lifted Derek off the ground with a grunt.
“Jesus, some help here?” He asked. Mark leapt to action and got him sitting up on the couch. Derek groaned but his eyes remained closed and his head flopped to the side.
Cleo left the room and returned with a damp cloth from the kitchen. She sat next to him and began wiping the blood off his face. After a few minutes he came to. Looking around, he was visibly confused and then his memory returned. He shot up and just like his former best friend, left the house; slamming the door behind him.
The rest of us sat there in silence. Did we go after them? Chase cleared his throat and stood up.
“I’m going to go find Adrian. Make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble. Can you guys watch the baby?” I nodded and he left, a little quieter than the others.
The four of us were the only ones left. We looked at each other uncomfortably.
“Did anyone know? About Derek and-” Mark stopped short. I shook my head. There was no way I could have guessed. Derek was surprisingly good at secret keeping apparently. Ethan said that he also had no idea, and then our eyes fell on his wife. She looked down guiltily. My eyes widened with memory. The day she had been served. She told Derek that if he told Ethan, she’d tell his secret.
“How’d you find out?” I asked. She chewed on her lip and swallowed.
“At the hospital. When him and Chase had the accident. I stopped over one night alone, and she was there. It was obvious how close they were. She left and I made him tell me the truth.” She shook her head and laughed coldly. “That’s why he refuses to stay over at Adrian’s apartment.”
We stayed up until Chase returned for Rocky. He said that he had found Adrian but couldn’t find Derek.
“I don’t know where he went. Maybe he went to Dita’s place?”
We didn’t hear from him for a full month. No calls, no pictures of him surfaced from some tabloid. He didn’t show up to rehearsals. Eventually they stopped all together. His bandmates were all too stressed out to practice without him.
Adrian was pissed. For about a full week you couldn’t even bring Derek up without his jaw clenching and him growing deathly silent. However, once the second week came and no word from him, even Adrian started worrying. They tried Dita’s phone and work, but her coworkers said she took a leave of absence. She had disappeared as well.
Then, one day Adrian got a phone call. We all happened to be together when it came. It was Derek’s mother’s number. He answered it quickly, putting it on speaker. His three bandmates hurried across the room to hear the call.
“Hello? Derek? Have you heard from Derek Mrs. Turtle?” They all shouted questions at the phone. There was a pause and then Derek’s voice came across from the other side.
“124 Middle St.” Then there was another long pause before he hung up the phone. His friends looked up at each other, communicating without speaking. Adrian reached for the phone, shoving it deep into his pocket and sighing. He looked over at his husband.
“I’m leaving for home. Back to Michigan. You want to drive me to the airport?”
He took the first flight out and we waited. At first, we heard nothing for almost three days. Then on the fourth night Chase called Mark. We looked at each other before he answered. When he answered I could hear Chase laughing on the other end of the line. Mark put the phone on speaker so I could hear better.
“Adrian, Derek, and Dita will all be home by Friday. They have to wait for Derek to be released.”
“From Jail? Shit. What happened?” Mark groaned. I rolled my eyes, not surprised. I can only imagine the fight those two had once Adrian showed up.
“No, not jail. I was actually sworn to secrecy. You’ll see when they get here. Do you guys want to meet them at the airport?”
“Yeah, sure. So, are Dita and Adrian okay then? I’m confused,” Mark shook his head. There was a deep pause on the other side.
“He made it sound like they were alright. Obviously he’s not happy about how long they hid it. I guess him and Derek had a long talk and he’s pretty serious with Dita. I was given a lecture about how if he can be okay with it then I have to be too.” Chase didn’t sound too eager about it but chuckled again.
“I think Derek is paying for it. Anyways, I’ll see you guys when they come in. I just wanted to check in and let you know everyone is okay.”
We thanked him and hung up, soaking in the information. If he wasn’t in jail, where was he?
Our questions were answered when we met them at the airport. Adrian came out first, a wide smile on his face. He hurried over to his husband and son and embraced them. Next, Dita followed. She smiled and waved, but her face was red with embarrassment.
