by Madi Le
"That's different," Major said. His teeth sounded like they were to grind each other down in the little tiny nubs. It looked like it hurt. Dane continued keeping quiet.
"So you’re telling me, you don't owe Dane a single thing?" Leo looked a little bit incredulous. "You don't even owe him the time of day? Not even a little bit time to talk?"
Dane resisted the urge to add ‘yeah!’ It could only cause more trouble.
"If he was so serious that my sister, why didn't he come to me before he decided to get his cock wet?"
"Look, Major, I'm sorry about that. But, do you really think it would've been so different if I had?"
There was a long moment where Major tried to figure out how to get out of his own logic. "It's not about that. It's about respect. Respect for my sister, respect for my family, and respect for me."
"That's what I'm trying to say, though," Dane pleaded. "I'm trying to handle this the right way. Don't you see that? It's not something I'm used to. I won't deny that. But I want to at least try."
Leo finally spoke up again. "Major, he's paid enough. You've said your peace, and he's taken it like a man. Now, if you want to deck him, it’s up to him whether or not he's going to try to sock you right back. But it's time to stop treating him like this. You need to lay off, okay? Besides… Wouldn't you rather that it's somebody you know is porking your sister? Rather than some random stranger?"
Now it was Dane's turn to be ready to punch Leo's lights out. Porking? Really? That didn't exactly make it sound like he was treating her like a proper lady, did it? Major looked hard at Leo, apparently thinking more or less the same thing. But after a long moment, Major finally decided that he wasn't going to belabor the point.
"Yeah, I guess." He didn't look very happy about it.
It was Dane who smelled it first. He should've seen it, but he was so busy watching Major for any signs of imminent attack that the rest of the room didn't even faze him. It wasn't until the smell reached his nostrils that he realized what was going on. And even once he smelled it, he wasn't sure how it had happened, so he thought he must've been imagining it. "Smells like smoke," he said.
Major looked at him. For a moment, all three of them were bewildered. Then, Leo added in "Oh, shit." He pointed over Dane's shoulder, at the door to the main floor of the gym.
Dane leaned back, and put his hand on the door. Smoke was coming up from underneath it, thick and dark and billowing. The thick wooden door was hot. Dane put his hand on the door pull, hoping to yank it open and see what the situation was.
The situation was, it turned out, that he burned his hand the second his skin touched the metal. It hurt so bad that by the time he pulled his hand away it didn't hurt anymore at all. Instead, all he left was a searing memory of where pain and feeling used to be in the middle of his palm. "Guys, we need to get out of here."
Major balked. "What, you expect me to go out there with my Johnson hanging out?"
"We don't exactly have a whole lot of time for making it out safely after you got dressed," Dane said. "I know it's going to be embarrassing, but the safety regs are pretty specific."
Major looked at him like you grown a second head, but in the end, he decided that he was going to listen. After all, Dane was the one who worked here, and he knew the safety procedures hell of a lot better than any guest of the gym might.
"How are we going to get out of the door though," Leo asked.
It was a good question, Dane thought. He hadn't really thought that far. It was that hot outside already, and there was no way they were going to get the door open. But, at the same time, the walls all around the changing room were cinderblocks. They weren’t just going to knock them out like they might with a window.
An idea came into his head. It wasn’t one that Dane was overly happy about. But they needed to get out, unless he wanted to die there in the gym, one that he didn't really even plan on working in for the rest of his life. So, with a great deal of frustration, he stripped off his shirt and his pants.
"I thought I didn't have time to get dressed," Major said, only half way teasing. "Now you're going to get naked, too? Show of solidarity?"
"It's not like I have much of a choice," Dane growled, heading to the washroom and soaking his clothes and as much water as he could get. The cold, which he’d hoped would be soothing, didn't feel very nice on his hand. If anything, it hurt. It sent waves of pain that radiated up his whole arm, but he ignored it. He had to. Otherwise, it was just gonna hurt a hell of a lot more.
With his clothes entirely soaked with water, Dane wrapped the ankles of his jeans around his hands, and looped the legs through the handle of the door and yanked. The door came open in spite of all of the safeties safety regulations that were supposed to be in place, they still allowed for the room to be almost completely inescapable. Somehow, an inferno had already started raging inside the main floor of the gym. There was no safe path through, but there wasn't much choice but to leave her he.
"Would have to run for it," Dane said. He hoped that he sounded confident. Instead, all he can think about was his hand. If that it happened in an instant, imagine what would happen in two whole minutes of running through the gym, trying to make his way past machines that formed a small maze through the middle of the room.
"Don't you think that can be a problem, though?"
"We have to make sure were not to get burned, though, yeah. So…"
Dane went through his whole idea, step-by-step, in as few words as possible. Then, he had to do something that he never expected. At least, not with two men. He climbed into a shower, turned on the cold water, and let it rain down on them full blast until he was soaked to his bones. The whole thing took perhaps 30 seconds. Even still, Dane wasn't exactly sure how long they had before the props that he had holding the locker room door open burned away.
The three of them made a break for it. The heat was so intense that it threatened to overwhelm gain senses in them in an instant. Every breath he took in was driving them further and further towards nausea.
But when they finally hit clean air, Dane finally felt a little bit better. Now, if only he could continue to feel little bit better. Because a large crowd gathered outside. Most of them were people who had been in the gym when the fire broke out. But one of them, front and center, looking right at his very naked dick, was Bardot.
Chapter Seven ♥
*
Dean straightened his back, tried to hide his humiliation, and cupped himself so that as few people as possible could see. Bardot, for her part, laughed. Dane tried to force an expression that made him look more confident than he felt.
"Oh my God, are you three okay?" Bardot managed – the whole question held only a hint of a snigger. "They said everyone was out."
"You just saw us go in, though," Dane said.
"Well," Bardot said, failing to hide her laughter little bit less. "I should get going. After all, I don't need to see too much more of any of you today."
She turned, buried her face in her hands, and let out a laugh that even her strongest efforts apparently couldn't contain. She disappeared in the crowd, and Dane was left with his two friends, trying to forget that he was standing in front of what must've been the whole town, with nothing on but a dream and his own shame.
It didn't take them long, though, before there were paramedics surrounding them, wrapping blankets around their shoulders. The three sat in the back of an ambulance, being inspected by doctors who were much more professional than Major’s sister had been. Dane's hand got wrapped up and bandaged, and the three of them were left there to shiver in the wind and the shock of having just narrowly escaped with their lives.
Major turn to Dane. Dane immediately went on the defensive, but as it turned out, he didn't need to.
"Leo's right.” He looked like it was a hard admission to make. "I've been treating you like shit, and I shouldn't. I know you better than that. If you're serious about my sister, that I won't stop you. Just know that, if you do an
ything to hurt her, I'm coming after you."
"I'll do my best," Dane said. "But… I'm not too sure she wants to see me at this point." Dane let out a long low breath. "I'm hoping it's just because she doesn't want to upset you."
"Bardot's a smart girl," Major said. "But, at the same time, just like any of us, she can be pretty dumb. If she wants to be stubborn, then she can get her head up her own but just like the rest of us."
Dane looked at Major with a serious expression. "So it's fine if I date her, then?"
"I can allow it," Major said.
"And… What about… If I wanted to marry her?"
Leo laughed, but Dane didn't. Neither did Major. The expression on Major’s face wasn't furious, but it said in no uncertain terms that while he’d given his forgiveness, he hadn’t yet forgotten his anger. "Don't push your luck."
Leo leaned into Dane, as if he was going to say something conspiratorial. But when he spoke, he wasn't being quiet enough to make sure Major didn't hear them, and Dane winced. "No go on, man, and make her your woman."
Bardot reached to pick up the phone. She had it in her hands. She had the number entered in. And all she had to do was to press the little green button, and Dane would be on the other end of it. She could tell him that she didn't care what her brother said. She could tell him that she was pregnant. He deserved to know, after all.
Instead, she pressed the power button got, and the screen turned off. She tossed the phone onto her bed. By the time that she managed to pace from the bed to the door and back, a little voice in the back of her head wreaked havoc on her mind, telling her that she needed to call Dane. It was only right. Instead, she just resisted some more. The urge not to call them was so strong that whatever other urges she might have had, that one overwhelmed it.
After several attempts, though, Bardot finally made up her mind. He deserved to know, she repeated. She wasn't going to get rid of the baby, and that meant that whether he was involved in child and not, Dane was going be a father. And he deserved to know that. She picked up the phone, punched Dane's name on her contact list, and punched the little green button.
She put the phone to her ear, listening. It rang once. Then, the butterflies in her stomach that had been bothering her all morning decided that they had enough. Bardot dropped the phone and ran to get kitchen, where the nearest bit of plumbing was, and buried her face in it.
She wasn't the sort of person who got sick very often. Apparently, getting pregnant changed things. By the time that she finished being sick in the kitchen sink, and cleaned her mouth out with a little bit of water, the phone call was all but forgotten. She trudged back to her room, only to look down at the phone, and see that she had a missed call. From Dane.
Below the notification was the notification that she had a voicemail. She tried to convince herself to listen to it, but the butterflies in her stomach decided that they weren’t finished yet. She barely made it back to the kitchen before she had an emergency. At least, she thought sourly, she hadn't lost it on the floor yet.
The sound of a beep outside of her door told Bardot that the mail had arrived. It took every part of her not to rush straight to the door; instead, she took her time. She didn’t want to lose it again, just because she was in a rush. When she finally did make the door, though, she flung the door open and found the mailbox full of letters.
Most of them were a waste of her time. An advertisement for a local hardware store she never even been to, a bunch of save a lot coupons, and the weekly coupons from the local mall. None of them she needed, but they delivered them anyways. There was a bill, reminding her what she had a balance for a surgery she got in last year when she broke her finger. The payments went through every month, but so did the bills.
The last letter, though, was the one that caught her attention. She pulled it open like it contained the first bite of food she’d seen in months, and yanked the piece of paper inside the envelope out. Her eyes scanned over the document. Bardot screamed! She rushed back to the kitchen, through the paper down on the Counter, barely able to contain her excitement. Fable heard all the noise, and leaned out of her room.
"What's all this craziness about?"
"Here," Bardot said. She held the paper out to Fable. "Read this." Fable’s eyes scanned quickly over the page, then she took a deep breath.
"Congratulations! We all know you could do it,"
"I mean, I thought I could, too, but… Seeing it in front of me, it's a little bit different." Bardot felt giddy. "I'm really going to Seattle."
"But… What about…"
"And did you see the salary at the end?" Bardot was practically shouting at this point, her excitement overwhelming her. "I have enough money to support myself, and my baby. I don't need to rely on anybody. I'm going to be okay. Everything's gonna be fine!"
The whole thing felt like it was overwhelming her. She felt dizzy! She started to lean over the sink again, knowing exactly where dizziness tended to lead.
"You need to tell Dane, though," Fable said, becoming serious. "He deserves to know. He's got every right to."
"But, I don't need him to give me any money or anything," Bardot said, trying to sound hopeful. "I won’t need to come after him for child support, or anything like that."
"And if he wanted to be there for you?"
"You know Dane better than that," Bardot said, her enthusiasm slipping. "This is the easiest way."
"You can't lie to him," Fable said, gently. "Not even if it's just a little one, and this one isn't. Not even if it's just by omission."
Bardot took a deep breath. She looked down at the paper again. Her excitement was fading fast. Fable was right. But when Bardot tried to think of what she was going to say to Dane, that turning in her stomach started again. I should have tried harder, Bardot thought. Her conscience tore at her for the decision, but the only thing that she could think of was that she couldn't tell him. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't tell him.
"Fable, please. You can't… You can't say anything to them."
"I very well can," Fable said. She set her jaw and looked Bardot deep in the eyes. "Dane has a right to know. And if you don't tell him, I'm going to. Because I would hate to imagine that that child go through his entire life and his father not even know he existed."
"Look… I'll tell him, okay? Just… You have to give me some time. I promise I'll tell him before the baby’s here, but… I got a lot of stuff to take care of right now, okay? So you have to… Just… Please, give me time."
"I'm serious," Fable said. "I will tell him if you don't. But if you need time, then take your time. You guys have a lot to work out anyways. So I'm not going to stick my nose into it too far. Not yet."
Bardot felt sick to her stomach. She spat in the sink. Any minute now, she knew, she was going to lose her lunch again. Just thinking about telling Dane made it all worse. Why couldn't her sister just kept her mouth shut? It would be so much easier if she could just…
Fable left. She went back into her room. And Bardot, left alone with her thoughts, try to figure out how she was going to tell Dane. Then, she realized the answer, and frowned. The right answer, was that she was going to leave. If she didn’t have to see him, then… Even if Fable told him, it would be fine… Right?
Chapter Eight ♥
*
It was one thing Major to tell Dane that he could go after Bardot. It was quite another to actually do it. Dane wondered if he was losing his confidence, or if he just was worried because this was the first time that he never tried to start a serious relationship.
There was a pile in the garbage of letters that he halfway written. But that was all old-fashioned, anyways. He really needed to just… Talk to her. But what was he supposed to say? After all, it had been his fault that they were in this mess in the first place. And she been avoiding him for almost a month now. So right off the bat, things were looking a little bit ugly.
That said, he didn't know what he was supposed to be doing except to
talk to her. He had to put it right. He had to make it sound like it meant something. To make it sound to Bardot like it felt in his chest. Nothing that he could think of made it anywhere close. It just made him feel like an idiot. That was how he always felt around Bardot, and only now was he starting to realize where that it always come from. At least, since she blossomed and the woman that she was.
Maybe he could try… Well, the best way to start, he supposed, was to start hello. From there, he could tell her that if they…
Everything felt so phony. It felt forced, fake, and none of it really got the heart of things. At the same time, he wasn't exactly a position where he could just come right out and say it. Could he? What would happen if he just told her right off the bat that he cared for her? Would I come back to bite them in the ass, or would she respond to it?
He let out a breath. His hand had started to regain feeling, and that only brought pain with it. His hand was an almost enjoyable distraction, though, compared to trying to understand how he was going to fix things with Bardot. If he could just figure out what to say to her, maybe it wouldn't have to be so unpleasant. But he couldn't.
This was the problem with the whole relationship, he thought sourly. If he was really being serious, was that he had to admit that there was no relationship between the two of them, and there never would be. She was smart, and she had places to go in life. He was just an idiot. And idiot, and a slut. He took a deep breath, put his face in his hands, and tried to start again. Negativity wasn't going to get him anywhere.
It took him almost 3 days, but he finally managed to put together a plan. It seemed perfect in his head:
First, he’d have to talk her into letting him spend any time with her at all. He needed time to work his way into a conversation that was serious, meaningful, and didn't feels too forced, without making it obvious from the outset.