Jan
1
2011

Chapter 15 - Price of Refuge, Part 3

Posted in By Aiden Cobb 0 comments


            Aiden flashed-back to that night, thirty minutes later after he left his apartment for Steven's place. He sat on the couch watching Steven, understandably crazy, pace back and forth. The guy had every right to be pissed.
            “The truth. I fuckin’ know now. Thank fuckin’ God.”
            Aiden could’ve saved himself the time and punishment but something inside convinced him that he owed it to Steven. God knows what it was.
            “It’s a fuckin’ relief. I mean, all this time I’m going miserable. I’m stressed-out as it is, she’s stressed-out and stressing me out and all the times that you two look at each other. I kept saying to myself, ‘I wish they would just FUCK and get it over with, y'know?’ FUCK.”
            There was a way he kept saying “fuck,” like each time he said it he was trying to fit “Why did this fucking happen to me?” into the sentence. And each time that exasperation in his voice.
            “You know what?” He closed his forefinger and thumb together. Aiden guessed it to be half-an-inch. “I have this much respect for you.”
            “That’s not why you called me over here.” Time for Aiden to stop this shit. Steven could play pity party on his own time.
            “Gawd! Dammit!” He paced for another moment. “I lost the key.”
            “To what?”
            “The disc. It’s in a deposit box because it’s worth something…”
            “More than you know, Steven.”
            “What do you mean?”
            Aiden laid it down: someone steals someone else’s thing, in this case a collectible movie, and puts it up on the Internet for auction. DVD nerd Steven bids for it and wins not knowing that a fucking ruthless gangster is on the lookout for it. Steven happens to be friends with Aiden who is wanted dead or alive by said gangster Thad. And wasn’t this all a fucking coincidence or what?
            And then he pushes Aiden. Slams him in the chest. Aiden's surprised.
            Aiden stands in place because he's sure Steven won't do anything incredibly stupid. Like pulling a gun on him. Which is something you don't want to do to Aiden.
            Steven stands there and waves the gun around. Aiden is sure that he doesn't know what he's doing; doesn't know how to use it. Pushing Aiden is one thing; pulling a gun is a whole other fucking deal. Two items checked off the list...
            Steven continued to grow confused and crazier by the moment torn between asking for help from the guy who was fucking his girlfriend and wanting to tear him to pieces. He wanted to kill him. Aiden tried controlling the situation but he did something unprofessional: he lost his cool. He thought about grabbing the gun and smashing Steven in the nose with it. Probably should have. Instead his senses went into that dark place. He drew his weapon, Steven screamed and fired, missed Aiden and everything went black.
            That’s all he remembered before standing on the beach outside the house staring at the moon. Rage is a weird creature best saved for those “temporary insanity” cases.