PAIGE“No, he’s still sick. Yeah, I don’t think he can come in today...Maybe next week if you still need help. I know it’s been three days already, but surely there can’t be that much demand for him right now. I know...I know... He’s just sick, it’s not anything serious. Maybe if you provided health insurance for your employees he could get better faster.” One-sided conversation with Jay’s boss, a fat sweaty man who runs a temp agency. After we gave up on being a band, Jay just went back to doing what he did best, temping. And that was all he did, he didn’t even try to get a job in a nightclub or work his way into the business himself. Well, he did have some money left over that he’d inherited from one of his relatives, but I had a feeling that he would rather live in the apartment that I shared with Bobby and Amir across the hall than alone. “I’ll tell him you said so. Yeah, thanks again. Bye.” Hung up the phone.
I went back in the bedroom. Jay was huddled in a corner of the bed and shivering. His back faced me and quivered underneath his layers of clothing. I knew that if I touched his forehead he’d still be hot as hell. He’d been sick for a few days, but the fever hadn’t begun until last night. I’d thought he was asleep when I left, I hadn’t thought he’d go out and try to get hurt. Maybe I should just move in here...but Amir didn’t make so much money at the pet store and Bobby was still apprenticing at the garage. I knew that they couldn’t get by on their own.
Sat down next to Jay and sighed. I should probably get back home and get ready to go off to work at the bowling alley. I remembered the days when we thought that we’d become really popular and my bass was one of the most important things in my life. Well...now my life consisted of handing out mismatched shoes to little kids and breaking up fights. So beautiful and peaceful.
I got up to leave. “Nnnh...Paige.” Jay whispered, rolling over, his eyes opening slightly.
“I’ve gotta go to work. I’ll send Bobby over to check on you later, okay?” I asked. He nodded slowly, sweat dribbling down his face.
“C..can you take me out to find him tomorrow?” he asked, pulling the blankets up higher. I wasn’t sure if that was the best thing to do when he had a fever that was threatening to boil his brain, but who was I to say anything?
“If you behave tonight.” I said, patting him gently on the shoulder. He raised his head weakly and smiled.
“He...he took me home and didn’t take anything...he’s nice Paige, really he is.” he rambled, smiling lazily.
“Just go to sleep, okay?” I said. I had no idea who had taken him home, and a large part of me didn’t want to know. All I knew was that Jay would keep on harping on it until he got his way. He hadn’t lost that part of his personality to the demons of fire creeping up his skin.
“How many fucking cats do we need Amir?!” I screamed as I came in the door. The newest addition to our ramshackle life mewed pitifully. About five other cats prowled around in the periphery. This was why Jay didn’t live with us. Amir fed just about every stray cat that showed up on the fire escape and adopted almost every single one of them. We were lucky that the super didn’t care. She had just about as many.“This one’s name is Mittens!” he said, holding up an older cat that had been around for a while that everyone had just been calling Cat. He made the cat wave at me. “Wave at Paigey Mittens! He helps me pay for your food!” It had been cute at first. Now it was just annoying.
“Where’s Bobby?” I made my way to the bedroom I shared with them, intending to get dressed for work as quickly as possible.
“Taking a nap...they needed him to pull an extra shift.”
“Shit...I need him to check on Jay later tonight.” Amir’s eyes widened in anticipation. “No! Leave him alone! He’s made it perfectly clear that he doesn’t like you!” I remembered the abortive attempt Amir had made at seducing Jay one night after he’d had way too much to drink. The blood stains I’d had to clean out of the carpet weren’t worth the trouble.
Bobby came out of the bedroom wiping at his eyes. “What do you need me to do?”
“Just check on Jay tonight, okay? And make sure that Amir doesn’t try to seduce him.”
Jay was still in bed when I checked on him the next day, but he had taken off some of the layers and put on shoes. His face lit up when he saw me and he jumped up and hugged me. I felt his forehead and sighed. It was still warm and his skin was flushed. “Jay, I don’t know about this...”He sniffed and sat back down. “I’ve gotta find him and thank him.”
“You’re sick. I’ll bet that if I checked your temperature you’d still have a fever!” I exclaimed. Another sniff. A fake tear dribbled down his cheek. Emotional theatrics were always his thing. “Fine. But if you start acting crazier than you already are, you’re going straight home.”
He giggled. Oh shit, what the hell had I gotten myself into? His breath didn’t smell like alcohol, so he must be really out of it. His hand scrabbled for his sunglasses and he pulled the hood of his sweatshirt up. I wondered why he had thought that red sunglasses were effective. Oh well, it wasn’t my eyes.
JAYI knew he was out there, he just had to be. I could hear his breath on the air, I could feel his hands on my flesh. Closed my eyes and inhaled, I believed that I could pick out his scent from the other odors. Paige tugged on me insistently, he was just humoring me. That was fine. Once he meets my savior he’ll realize how wrong he is. I just wish that the world wasn’t spinning so much.
“Jay, do you want to sit down for a bit? You’re all flushed.” he asked after a long pause.
“No...gotta find him.” I whimpered. His hand on my forehead again, if I pretended that it didn’t feel so cold would I be able to find that man again?
“Do you even know what he looks like?” Sat down on a park bench and stared at the man picking through the trash can. Paige was saying something else, but I couldn’t hear him. This was much more interesting.
The world was bathed in blood, everything seemed to be melting. Paige had said that these sunglasses sucked, why hadn’t I believed him at the time? It had seemed better to look cool than to protect my eyes. Some cans fell to the ground, about a dollar’s worth.
The man turned.
And I saw perfection.
He glowed in transcendent beauty, gold shot out from his eyes, his skin was the color of the sands of exotic beaches, his hair was spun from straw. Eyes captured the spinning seas of desire and took me on a one way trip to ecstasy. I almost thought that I could see angel wings spreading out from his back. My cock stirred automatically. My hand clenched on Paige’s.
“What is it?” he asked.
“That’s him!” I exclaimed.
PAIGEFuck, Jay is more delusional than I thought. The man rooting through the garbage can and digging out pop bottles was hardly anything special, but Jay was staring at him as if he was an Adonis.
I tried to figure out what might make him attractive to someone with a fever. Half of his head seemed to be shaved badly, a fading bleach job graced the emerging brown hair. He was wearing about five layers of clothing, even though it was fairly warm out. A small shopping cart that he had probably stolen held all his worldly goods. Still, something was oddly familiar about him.
Then he turned more and I saw his face.
“Ryan?!”