by Max Walker
“Because I loved you, Oliver. And I couldn’t have you. You want to know what happened when I even mentioned my feelings about you to my mom? She cut me off. One day to the next, she shut down my accounts. My dad didn’t help. I was alone. And then you found Derrick two days later, and I was plunged into nothingness. My parents hated me, you were bored of me, I had feelings for a man and I had no idea what do about it. I tried dealing with it, dealing with the pain, but I could never go to sleep. Never. Not even with the medication, I just couldn’t.” Will took a step closer. I wondered where the hell the police were and why weren’t they storming this place? Had the guard not called them?
“So, I was leaving your apartment one day when I crossed paths with Mario and Juan. I got to talking to Juan. I found out he had a sketchy past. I saw him again, and then another time. By the fourth time, I asked him for help with something. We plotted an attack, one that would leave the two of you scared out of your minds. I thought you’d run to me for help. I thought you’d stop dating guys, and I’d be happy with that. But Juan, he got carried away. I didn’t even know he had a knife on him.”
Oliver wiped some fresh blood off a cut on his chin. “Jesus, Will. Why not just talk to me? Why not just come out to me?”
“I couldn’t! I’m not gay; I didn’t need to come out. And when my parents cut me off, I thought you’d do the same.”
“What about the threats? Those were all you?”
Will nodded, the gun in his hand shaking slightly. I looked around the large container, but there were nothing except unlabeled boxes around us.
“I thought you’d be scared off the hunt. I didn’t want to kill anyone! I just knew you wouldn’t stop searching, and I didn’t want you to find me.”
“How did you get into the clinic? Into my apartment?”
“I grabbed Tyra’s keys when she wasn’t paying attention. I had them duplicated and then replaced them. She never figured out a thing. I used Find my Friend on my phone to track you. Make sure you were out of the house.”
I heard Oliver take in a sharp breath.
“And now, with Juan in jail, I knew it was only a matter of time before he gave me up. He just needed to recognize me and the game would be up. I thought the only way to quiet things was staging a suicide.”
My stomach rocked, but I had to keep my focus. I trained my gaze on the gun. If I ducked and ran toward him… but that would risk Oliver getting shot.
“I love you, Oliver. I just can’t keep seeing you love someone else.”
Will had fallen into a twisted love for Oliver. His own shadowy tendrils curled around the image of love he crafted in his head, distorting it, turning it into this creature that needed to be fed with blood.
“So why not take us out before the investigation picked up steam?” Oliver asked. “Why wait until now?”
“Because it’s hard, okay? Killing someone. Especially someone who I’ve known since we were kids. Fuck. I wasn’t the one holding the knife that night, and I… Jesus. I just wanted to scare you two. Break you two up. I wanted you to come back to spending time with me, being with me. Just hanging with me. I didn’t mean… but it happened. We can’t change that.”
“Let him go.” My throat was tight, like it was in a boa constrictor’s grip. “Let him go and we can change what happens to you. We can work out a deal. You don’t have to do this. There’s still a chance I can fix it.”
Will paused. He cocked his head, his gaze bouncing between Oliver and me. The wheels spun visibly in his chaos-filled head. He was weighing things out.
“Things can change,” I pressed. “You can find happiness, and so can Oliver. Just put the gun down. We can make things better.”
“No. Nothing’s ever going to be better.”
Things went from worse to worst in the blink of an eye. I had, for a split second, thought maybe Will was beginning to regret his decision. Instead of putting the gun down, though, he lifted it and aimed it directly at me. With one eye snapped shut, he didn’t wait a second longer.
William pulled the trigger.
What happened next was complete chaos. The deafening roar of a gun blast shredded through the space, amplified by the shipping container. A vicious buzz filled my ears. It was the only thing I could hear.
But the main point? I could hear.
I’m alive. I’m still standing. I’m not bleeding.
He had missed. The bullet whizzed by me, tearing into the shipping container behind me.
One that must have contained buckets of flammable fluids, because seconds later, a loud boom pounded against the ringing in my ears, followed by a singing heat that scorched the back of my neck and caused me to drop to my knees.
The bullet hit whatever was in those containers. And whatever was in those containers appeared to be highly flammable.
Fire spread at a blistering rate. Before I could even get back onto my feet, we had been surrounded. Oliver coughed into his hands. Will was lying motionless on the ground.
“Come on,” I said, grabbing onto Oliver’s wrists. I ran, pulling us toward the exit. The fire licked at us from all sides.
“Wait!” Oliver stopped, Will at his feet. I could feel the fresh air from the bay battling against the smoke plumes that were filling the container. Oliver bent down and grabbed onto Will, but he had been knocked out cold. Something must have exploded from the container and hit his head.
I coughed and knelt down next to Oliver. “We need to pull.”
And we did. We dragged him toward the exit, the heat causing blisters to form on my exposed skin.
He was dead weight, though, and the smoke made it even harder to carry him. I could barely see the way out.
And then the door started to slide down. Our only escape path was seconds from being cut off. We would cook in here.
“Oliver!” There was no time. I let go of Will and grabbed Oliver, yanking him hard, throwing us both on the ground. The momentum was exactly what I needed. I wrapped Oliver in my arms as I rolled, just barely making it under the door before it fell shut.
Dirt, ash, and tears filled my eyes. I got up, helping Oliver onto his feet. The flames were growing stronger and stronger.
I looked to Oliver, seeing a combination of grief and relief reflected back at me. “We need to get out of here. That could blow.”
“Will…”
“Are you okay? Anything hurt?”
“I can’t… no. I’m okay. I’m good. Hurry, let’s go.” Oliver’s voice cracked as he spoke. There was no time to waste. I wanted to get Oliver as far from here as possible.
We ran, hard and fast, running so that we could put as much distance between us and the fire as we could.
My car, still parked where I left it, was now surrounded by a fleet of police cars, a cloud of dust just settling into the air.
“Stop! Stop right there!”
The loud shout brought us both to a freeze.
“Hands up!”
I complied, lifting my hands in the air, understanding how this all looked without an explanation. Oliver listened, too, but his legs seemed to have called it quits. He dropped to his knees, crying. It tore my heart in half. I went down with him, the police fanning out around us. Seconds later, the loud blare of fire trucks echoed off the towers of cargo containers surrounding us.
I put an arm around Oliver and held him. He trembled against me. “It’s okay, it’s all right. I’ve got you, Olly.”
“It was so close to being over. I thought that was it… I thought we were done. Oh God.”
Oliver wailed into my shoulder. An officer was standing by, giving us space without taking her eyes off us.
“It is over, Olly. It is.” I kissed the top of his head, not caring about the ash that made my mouth bitter.
He cried, letting it all out. Releasing the six years of demons he had held inside him. Letting them go, drifting up with the clouds of dark smoke that were thinning and graying. The firefighters were able to contain the fire but couldn’t s
ave Will. Paramedics tested Oliver for any signs of a concussion or permanent head trauma but found nothing. The police, after an hour of interviewing us separately and then together, let us go, closing the case that had brought Oliver to my offices in the first place.
From the police station, we went and gathered Mason and Jar from under Oliver’s bed and headed to my place, the two cats purring louder than I’d ever heard them.
We got home as the sun crested the horizon. Birds chirped their morning songs.
Without saying much, the two of us shed all our clothes, showered quickly, and climbed into bed, letting the sun fill the room as we lay together, sleep slowly overcoming us both.
Epilogue
TWO MONTHS LATER
Oliver
The stretch limo drove us down Ocean Avenue. A tall row of palm trees surrounded us on either side of the tinted windows. The sun was setting, and the party crowd was coming out.
I reached over a dapper-looking Beckham and grabbed the open bottle of champagne sitting in a bucket of ice. I refilled both of our glasses and set the champagne bottle back. Beckham adjusted his bow tie and looked out the window, a smile on his handsome face. I leaned up and stole a kiss before I drank the champagne.
“I still don’t know where you’re taking me,” Beckham said, smiling. The blue-and-purple lights of the limo interior played with the green and gold of his eyes.
I stole another kiss from him. I couldn’t help it.
“You’ll see.” I leaned back in my seat. Music played through the speakers, a booty-popping rap song filling the car.
“Ohhh snap, okay. Okay!” I set the flute of champagne down into the cup hold and got up. Beckham laughed as I started to twerk as best I could in a moving limo, trying to make sure my shirt stayed tucked in.
But I managed. I shook and twerked and made it clap, using the seat on the side to hold me up while I put on a show for Beckham. He got into it. He slapped at my butt and cheered as I dropped it down onto the limo floor, slowly coming back up and rubbing my ass against Beckham’s bulge. His gray slacks left absolutely nothing to the imagination.
Instead of asking the driver if he could roll up the partition, I sat back in my seat. The limo made a turn onto a familiar road. Beckham looked out and seemed to realize where we were headed.
“Are we going to…”
“Shhh.” I placed a finger on his lips. He playfully nipped at me. I rubbed his lips, and he sucked my finger into his mouth. I giggled, feeling a shock of pleasure as his tongue swirled around me before I took my finger back.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, leaning in and taking a playful bite of Beckham’s lips. “You know, with the…” I shot a pointed glance down between Beckham’s legs.
“It’s interesting.”
“Interesting, huh?” My hand traveled down the front of his shirt, over the trail of buttons, down to his crotch. He gave a pulse into my grip.
“Very interesting,” Beckham said. He squeezed his legs together.
The limo pulled up to our destination. I drank the last of my champagne and waited for Beckham’s boner to subside before we stepped out of the limo.
Thankfully, it didn’t take long because the driver had kindly opened the door for us, and I hated making people wait, even for boners.
We stepped out of the limo. Ahead of us, the path leading up to Stonewall Investigations had been transformed. There were twinkling white lights that lit up the stone pathway toward the now silver door, a decal placed over the door creating a convincing illusion. Above the door was a banner with big rainbow letters that read “Stonewall’s 1st Prom - 2019.”
“You’re taking the piss,” Beckham said, looking from the sign to me to the limo and back to the sign.
“Come on, everyone should be inside by now.” I grabbed the goofy-looking Beckham by the hand and pulled him down the path, the lights guiding our way toward the silver door. Big colorful pools bounced against each other, tied down to the door handles.
“This is crazy.” Beckham laughed as I opened the door. The reception area had been transformed as well. Holly’s desk was covered with a silky black tablecloth, a sign pointing us to the courtyard. I could hear music playing from down the hall.
“Who else is—” Beckham’s question was answered when we opened the door and stepped out into the courtyard. I had texted everyone to get ready and yell surprise.
And they didn’t disappoint. “Surprise!” the gang yelled.
“I know it’s not your birthday or anything, but still, I like surprises,” I said, looking at a stunned Beckham. He laughed as I grabbed his face in his hands and planted a big kiss.
“It’s your first prom! And a new Stonewall tradition.”
The first to come and greet us were Jonah and Fox, both handing us ice-cool bottles of Corona.
“I can’t believe you planned this all, Olly,” Jonah said, looking around at the gathered crowd. The courtyard had been turned into a party zone, with a small dance floor and a DJ booth next to a bar stand. There were disco balls and smoke machines and even a photo station with all kinds of crazy props.
“I’m so happy you did plan this!” It was Andrew. He came up behind me and hugged me. “I missed out on prom, too, so now I can get really drunk, throw up into a red Solo cup, and dance the night away with the love of my life.” He turned to Declan and gave him a kiss. “Sound good?”
“A Solo cup?” Declan asked.
We all laughed, Beckham pulling me into his side, a wave of comfort washing over me. Ever since I’d faced death the night Derrick died, I’d stupidly assumed I’d been immune to that kind of fear again.
I wasn’t immune to it. The fear violently haunted me for weeks after our harrowing escape. I’d woken up almost every night, sweating and crying about the walls being on fire.
But Beckham would always be there to hold me. A comfort that I needed more than anything else. He anchored me and helped me pull myself out of the fear. He helped me, and in turn, I went and found help for myself. After many excellent therapy sessions, I was able to have a full night’s rest again.
Losing Will was also a savage blow. Not losing the Will who had done all those terrible things, but the Will who I had known as a little boy. The one who would always trade his best Pokemon with me just because he felt I needed them. The boy who’d save all his allowance so that he could buy a big shareable bag of Skittles, even though he hated them and would have preferred chocolate any day of the week. But he bought that bag because he knew I loved them, and then I’d surprise him with a box of Hershey’s and we’d stay up way past our bedtimes watching dumb TV and silly informercials.
That was the Will I so dearly missed. I had to reconcile with the fact that the Will I knew died many years ago.
Soon, I began feeling more and more like myself. By the time I had to take my certifications so I could graduate vet school, I felt like I was back at 100 percent.
Or at least as close to a hundred as I’d get. After everything I’d been through, I didn’t expect miracles.
“Rocky!” Andrew called.
Rocky Hudson pushed off the wall and walked over to us. He was the newest detective to join Stonewall. He was tall and chiseled, with dark hair and striking blue eyes, and his hair was always so perfectly styled.
Speaking of style, the guy had it in spades. He wore a designer sports jacket over a plain white shirt, the first few buttons left open. A silver-and-blue Rolex glinted on his wrist.
Honestly… I wasn’t a huge fan of the guy. I didn’t even think he’d show up. Beckham had told me that none of the other detectives were able to really get to know him, but that all of them couldn’t deny how good he was at his job.
He offered an unimpressed smile as he shook our hands. “Great party.”
It’s actually a full-on prom. An event. But yeah, okay, it’s a “party.”
“Thanks for coming,” I said, smiling as best I could even though my inner Petty Patty was screeching at the top
of her lungs to be heard.
“Of course.”
“Rocky was just telling me about a trip he took overseas. Where was it?” I could tell Andrew was trying hard to break the ice, but with Rocky, that wasn’t ice—that was permafrost.
“Europe.”
See? Permafrost.
“Alriggghty then.” Declan clapped his hands. “Andrew, let’s go get a drink. Anyone want anything?”
I lifted my beer, still untouched. Beckham did the same. Declan and Andrew left, and Rocky took no time at all to leave behind them, going back to his post against the wall.
“Thank you for this, Olly. Really.”
“It’s the least I can do, Beck.”
“The least? Then what’s the most?”
I winked at him. “You’ll get to see that later.”
He laughed, pulling me in for a kiss. It felt electric. My blood thrummed with Beckham’s name, my heart singing his song, my pulse dancing to his beat. He was my one, and I would do anything for him.
When we separated, I looked out to the crowd.
Everyone was there, and everyone looked sooo good. When I'd organized this, I’d half expected everyone to, well, to half-ass it. I thought an adult prom would be hard to sell. I thought maybe Andrew, Jonah would show up to support but that would be it.
Instead, the Stonewall courtyard was packed. All the detectives from the Miami branch were there, and they had brought dates. Andrew looked like a million bucks in a classy navy suit with a light-pink pocket square sticking out, matching the light-pink shirt Declan wore.
Jonah and Fox were both hanging out by the snack table, chatting and laughing about some inside joke. Holly and her partner, Triss, were hanging out with Shiro and his new boyfriend, while Penny and her wife played a game of Jenga with Maleek and his wife, Danica.
It filled my heart with an overwhelming sense of peace. This was all how things were supposed to unravel. As scary as life had gotten, there really had been a light at the end of the all the trauma.
The light shone bright every time I looked into Beckham’s eyes. “Let’s dance,” I said.