First Victory ~Chapter 7 Heart of a Lion~
Andrew laid on the couch, sulking. He didn't know what to do, he hadn't known what to do for weeks. Nearly four weeks ago he'd found out he had herpes, and that he'd gotten Dominique pregnant. Andrew's mind had been conquered by panic since that day. He had been so panicked that after Dominique told him, he had hung up and hadn't answered his phone since. It felt like he was waiting for the world to just go away. Unlike almost every other day, Andrew wasn't drunk. In fact he hadn't touched booze, or women or even porn since that day. His mind had been blank, his thoughts snuffed out by a cloud of panic. Finally, as he lay there, a thought occured to him. A thought, which, created a spark of hope.
If Dominique doesn't have herpes...I didn't pass it to her... Suddenly Andrew's brain was back on and moving a million miles an hour. But if I had it, there would have been no way I wouldn't have passed it to her, I wasn't wearing a condom!! I DON'T HAVE HERPES!!!!! Finally Andrew's brain had reached the conclusion it should have weeks ago. There was no way he had herpes and Dominique didn't. He still hadn't shown any symptoms, there had to have been a mix-up at the lab. With Andrew's brain running at this speed, he suddenly hit a brick wall as he realized that he had abandoned the future mother of his child. Andrew raced to the phone to call her, then thought better of it. Andrew grabbed his car keys and took off down the road, not swerving for the first time in years.
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James nudged Danny.
"Wake up! Someone's here to see you Danny!" James yelled. Danny had been staying with James since Devon had moved out. James shook Danny.
"What?" Danny asked sleepily.
"Andrew's here, he says he needs to talk, that it's important."
"How'd he get here? The bus, taxi, friend?"
"He drove." Danny sat up. Andrew rarely drove, the last time he had was when he brought Danny over to James' a few weeks back, and that was the first time he'd driven in nearly a year. Danny got up, put on a shirt and walked out to the kitchen.
"Danny!" Andrew exclaimed. "We need to talk."
"Hey Andrew, what is it?"
"I don't have herpes." Danny was confused at first by this, Andrew had never told Danny that he did have herpes, so Danny didn't understand. "Neither does Dominique." Danny now understood. "But..."
"What?" Danny was worried, thinking it was another STD.
"She's pregnant." Danny was shocked, he knew they had not used protection, but Dom had been on birth control.
"Whoa, that sucks."
"Sucks!? No it's the best thing that's ever happened to me!!!!" Andrew screamed. Danny was confused.
"What? You got my sister pregnant, how is that the best thing that's ever happened to you?" Andrew then explained that he had had a crush on Dominique since before he and Danny were friends, and that over the past year he'd fallen in love with her. "That's great Andrew!"
"That's not all...how fast do you think your parents can put a wedding together?" Andrew explained that he was going to use this as an opportunity to propose to Dominique.
"That's great Andrew! You have to go over there, I'll come with you!" Danny yelled, grabbing his coat. As he walked towards the door, Andrew stopped him.
"I've been in a drunken haze for the past few years." Andrew started, Danny had never seen the bear so serious. "Over the past few hours, things have been coming back to me." Andrew paused. Danny looked into his eyes, Danny wouldn't be coming with Andrew. "Whenever I needed a ride home from somewhere...I'd call Tyler." Andrew finished.
"You know how to get ahold of Tyler?" Danny asked. James and Danny wanted to talk with Tyler, sort stuff out about him and Devon. Andrew looked ashamed.
"Yeah." He pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket and handed it to James. "This is his new address, I stopped getting rides from him about a month ago. I know what you're looking for. You're looking for an answer to why he did what he did to Devon. You won't find that in him anymore. He's more broken than I was." With that, Andrew stepped out of James' apartment, and closed the door. No words were exchanged between James and Danny, they both just knew to get ready and get in James' car.
The ride to Tyler's place was silent. Neither James nor Danny wanted to talk, they both wanted to think about what they were going to say to Tyler. Danny was preparing for what Andrew had said, Andrew was a drunk for a couple years, and apparently Tyler was worse off...that couldn't mean anything good.
James' brakes squeaked as he stopped in front of a rundown apartment building. The outside of it looked like the outside of Danny's old place. The inside looked how one would expect it to. The floor was bare wood, the walls were drywall with patches and bits of paint scattered throughout, there were only stairs, which were missing some steps. Danny and James walked upstairs to room 235.
As James knocked on the door, it creaked open. A voice from within called out.
"Come in." It was Tyler's voice, but something was different in it, there was no personality behind it.
James and Danny walked inside. Inside Tyler's apartment, there was no furniture. There were cushions and a mattress lying on the floor. There were filthy blankets and sheets scattered throughout the room. Sitting on a hole-filled mattress in the middle of the room was a dobie.
The dobie's eyes were deep, dark and sunken into his skull, they were followed by deep bags. There were patches of missing fur all over, especially on his face, all skin that showed was cut up and sickly looking. His nails had grown out, and were sharp jagged and dirty. He sat on the mattress shivering even though it was sweltering hot inside. Lying nearby was a syringe and a belt. This dobie was a heroine addict.
"Oh my god...Tyler?" Danny breathed. The dobie was in fact Tyler. As Danny rushed to his old friend's side, James continued to inspect the room. The scent of booze filled the air alongside the smell of rotting takeout food. James noticed plenty of beer bottles lying around, lying near the large beer bottles were much smaller unmarked bottles, which probably originally held some drug.
"Tyler, it's me Danny." Tyler looked up at him, Tyler's eyes looked as though they were staring straight through Danny.
"Danny...Devon's a homo." Tyler sputtered, his terrible breath fouling the air. Danny looked down at Tyler. He realized this was hardly Tyler at all, this was just a shell of the former Tyler. Danny's eyes teared up. "So am I..." Tyler sputtered. Tyler fell down on the mattress and lay there. James came back into the main room.
"Tyler, why did you leave Devon?" Danny asked putting a hint of sweetness in it.
"I...I'm gay...I'm not..." Tyler babbled. James figured out what happened, Tyler couldn't handle with being gay, and had used drugs and booze to shut out the world, and to shut off his brain.
"Danny, if we want anything out of him we need to at least sober him up. We'll take him back to my place, we need to keep him away from all this...stuff." James said as he motioned towards all the empty bottles and paraphenalia. James grabbed Tyler's right arm, and Danny grabbed his left and they pulled him onto his feet.
"NO! P-put me down!!! I want to stay here where the gay can't get me!!" Tyler screamed. Tyler started flailing about, trying to get out of their grasp. Although Tyler was now an addict, and didn't do anything all day, it hadn't been very long since he was muscled, and quickly escaped. In his flailing, he kicked Danny's feet out from under him. Still flailing, Tyler hit Danny several times.
Danny shielded himself the best he could, his arms taking most of the punishment. Suddenly Tyler fell down, unconscious. Danny looked up to see James standing over him. James had kicked Tyler right in the head, and had thrown him off of Danny. James helped Danny to his feet. James ripped up a sheet lying nearby, and tied Tyler's hands and feet together. Together, James and Danny carried Tyler downstairs and put him in James' backseat. As James closed the door, he turned to face Danny. Danny's arms flung around James' neck. Before James could react, Danny had pulled James down far enough for Danny to kiss him. Danny was surprised to find that James returned the kiss. Quickly James pushed Danny away from him.
James got in the car and turned it on. Danny, embarrassed, got in as well.
"I'm sorry." Danny apologized. "It's just...the moment overcame me." James didn't reply. "To be fair, you kissed back." James' expression didn't change. "Are you gay?"
"Yes." James replied. "Don't tell Devon." James looked at Danny quickly, there was a look of fear in his eyes. James looked back at the road. The rest of the car ride was silent. When they arrived at James' place, Danny and James brought Tyler upstairs, and tied him to the guest bed. James turned to Danny.
"Danny, I'm putting you in charge of taking care of Tyler. You can sleep in my room. I'll sleep on the couch. Right now though, I'm going over to Oscar's to talk to Devon." As James turned back to the door, the phone rang.
"Hello?" James asked.
"Is this 'James M. Pearce'?" A female otter's voice asked.
"This is he, yes."
"Hi, I'm Dr. Patricia Ovarstein at O'Malley Memorial Hospital. We've got a patient down here whose emergency contact was you." James' heart was in his throat.
"Who?"
"Devon R. Manneth."