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CHAPTER 53 - RECRIMINATIONS


SAM


“Daughter? You have a daughter?!” Lindsay hisses at me. “Why didn't you tell me?”


“It was a surprise to me too! I was getting used to the idea. And now that you know, I’ll tell you more later. But why, Michael, are you at our table and not with your date?”


“Because said fucking date is married! And brought his husband with him!” He spits before turning to signal for a waiter for another drink.


“How didn't you know that? I thought...ouch!” I glare at her as she kicks me in the shin and mouths no at me, shaking her head almost imperceptibly. I clear my throat and decide to change the subject. Lord knows I could do without a moment of his incessant whining. I’ll never know how she puts up with him. Anyway... “Did you manage to get to ordering food?” I ask, rubbing my leg with my other foot. She will pay for that later!  


“No! You know what, I’m going to let that fucker know exactly what I think of him!” I don’t think I have seen Lindsay get a sweat on so fast. It is not attractive when she’s doing that because she’s fucked up as opposed to being fucked!


“No Michael, don't…” But it is too late. He’s heading to the table, but at the last second heads to the bathroom instead. Coward! I was looking forward to the fireworks while I drink. I’m also sorry that his sudden act of what...conscious?... lets her off the hook, even if it’s only for a few moments as she almost slides under the table in relief.


“Wouldn't relax if I were you.” Yeah, can’t help but pour salt in her wound a little. “He’s got to pass them to come back here. And he seems a little more than determined to have his say.” I drawl, narrowing my eyes at her. “You think they won't throw you under the bus?” She swallows hard. “And if they do, how are you going to continue to manipulate Michael? Not that it’s all that hard to begin with, but trust is going to be an issue from now on since you clearly have had a big hand in his humiliation. Hope you’re feeling very proud of yourself, kid.”


She stares at me for a few seconds, but for the love of Van Gogh, she still must try to play the ingenue. “I had nothing to do with that.” Her hand flaps in the direction of their table but I can see her frantically trying to think of a way to cover her ass. It’s funny to me that all of her various faces are showing at the same time. It’s so fascinating and inspiring that I may actually do a portrait for the first time many years. I think I’ll call it: ‘When Secrets, Lies and Dignity Dies!’ It will probably be my highest sold painting yet!


“He’s back.” I sing-song at her, in a perfect imitation of Heather O’Rourke, God rest her soul, from Poltergeist II. He definitely looks like a man possessed! “And yep he’s going to say his piece.”


BEN


I still can’t quite get my head around what I’ve just been told. Brian got Michael’s ex married and has been friends with him for 3 years after they aired and cleared their differences!


“So why did you do this?!” Michael’s whine cuts across my thoughts.


“Because...” David starts to respond.


“Michael!” Lindsay comes over and grips him hard. “Let’s go home! You achieve nothing by this!”


He shakes off her hand. “No! I want to know why you’d hurt me like this?”


“Who are you asking?” I ask and enjoy the flicker of panic that crosses Lindsay’s face.


“Not you!” Michael snipes; I can hear the slur and know he’s been gulping some liquid courage, and by the way he's swaying he's not eaten much either.


“Well, how’d it feel to be on the receiving end?” I ask him and the table goes quiet.


“Receiving end?” Michael teeters.


“Yeah. To have your romantic hopes dashed…”


“This is…”


“Every fucking day. Every fucking day I’d wake up and hope against hope that you would remember that it’s me that you’re married to; me that you promised to love until death us do part. Every day I hoped that you would look at me the same way you looked at Brian whenever you thought nobody was watching. But you never did! Oh you said the words as was expected and even tried to prove them with actions in the beginning, but you never meant them. Like you said, you only married me to piss your mother off and to see what Brian would do. And what did he do, Michael? He let you get on with it. He let you grow up or so he believed! He let you have the the life he thought you wanted! And do you know why? So that he could have his...with JUSTIN!”


“Wow and here I thought I was the only one railroaded by the Brian Obsession Train driven by Michael ‘Perpetual Pubescent Pussyboy’ Novotny!’ For the record Ben, that’s the same reason he dated me. It took me years to finally see and understand that Michael’s inability to grow up wasn’t my fault...nor was it Brian’s. It was solely his own dysfunction.” David interrupts, nodding. “I thought moving to Portland would cure the obsession, but no. It just made it worse, especially when I refused to be his bail-out-guy like Brian was.”


“Have you two been comparing notes?!” Lindsay snarls.


My laugh is hollow. “Just notating the similarities of being involved with an overgrown child, Lindsay. Perhaps Mel should join in since she also knows the trial of living with an eternally-stuck-in-the past whining shrew like you. Debs, Nancy, are you both sure you didn’t give birth to Siamese twins, who were separated at birth in some medieval experiment? I mean, the fact that Lindsay and Michael seem to share one defective brain cell between them has to have a reason, right?”


“Brian never bailed me out! I am my own person! I managed to…” Michael whines but I stop another influx of his lies and her innuendoes.


“BULLSHIT!” I explode. “Brian always came to your rescue!” Now the dining room is quiet. “I remember that godforsaken dinner we had when we moved and how you were rude and dismissive to and about Brian. I should’ve stood up for him then and I didn’t and…”


“Neither did I.” Justin admits. “I had a moment of inappropriate WASPishness. You can punish me for that later.” He waggles his eyebrows and Brian says something in his ear, he goes bright pink and just stares. “Brian!” Then he gets that look on his face “Is that even possible?!” He gasps when Brian nods and licks his lips.


“Oooh dish!” Emmy grins.


“Ems...focus!” Ted laughs.


“Oh yes, sorry ladies and gentlemen. We now rejoin the Lambastation... is that a word?... of Michael, and the Scalding of the Shrew already in progress. Ben, take it away!” He nods at me over his drink.


“When it comes to you and Lindsay, we all just took the words you said about and to Brian at face value because you’re his best friends. Well, we all know different now!”


“What does any of this have to do with my fucking ruined evening?!” Michael bellows. “What did I do to deserve that kind of treatment from you, David?”


“Apart from exist?” Justin mutters quietly and gets a kiss from Brian.


“Why did you agree to go on a date with him?” I demand refocusing my ire. “You’ve not seen him in years; had to have known that his life moved on and has only gotten better without you in it. But I have your answer…  The plain and simple truth is that somewhere in your tiny mind, you are still living those long ago halcyon days when he was the Stud and you were his sentinel. But, as far as you were concerned, he hates David, so you were trying to button push...again! And that succubus you consider your replacement best friend knows your feeble mindset so she feeds off you like some needful child at her mother’s breast. And by the way, why are you dressed up like an over the hill yuppie?”


“I am not an over the hill yuppie! These are investment pieces and…”


“I notice you didn’t answer Ben’s question! For crying out loud, you just don’t know when to stop, do you?!” We all look across the room at an incandescent Eli! “Stop and think for once in your life!”


“Eli! What the hell does…” Michael snarls, wobbling.


“You are without doubt the most pathetic individual I have ever had the misfortune to meet, and not only that but you are stupid. So very stupid! You want Brian’s attention so badly that you can’t see the wood for the trees. Ever heard of the phrase keep your friends close but your enemies closer? Well your enemy is a lot closer than you think, but you’re too blinded by pretty words and soft soaping to see them!”


“I know exactly who my friends are, thank you!”


“No, no you don’t!” Eli snaps back. “Does he Miss Fangs? I hear Satan might be looking for a new wife to replace centuries-old Lilith and Lindsay here just might fit the bill, don’t you girl?” His eyes are cold and narrowed as he regards her..


“Leave Lindsay alone! You don’t know her!”


“Thank fuck for that! I’ve seen vampires with less bloodlust!” Eli gives her a scathing look. “I suggest you take your drunken ass out of here and stop ruining everybody else’s evening. And for the love of God use some of that money you drop on those tawdry tatrags and buy a clue! Maybe, in the cold light of day after you think carefully about how this came to be, things will finally fall into place?”


“Michael, can we please just go?!” Lindsay demands with tears in her eyes....not upset for Michael, of course, but of panic that he will see her for what she really is!


“Yes. Michael please go with Lilith’s earthly rival for the top spot in hell...before you catch on and realise what Eli says is true!” Hunter mimics.


“Sam, can you please come and help me?!” Lindsay cries over her shoulder.


“Yes please! Before there is detachment from the hive and he becomes capable of independent thought!” Blake cackles and I can’t help the chuckle.


“Enough!” Lindsay explodes. “I have had fucking enough of you…”


“And I have had enough of you!” We all get whiplash turning to face Sam! “I have never in my life seen a manipulative, cold hearted, calculating bitch as you! You go around floating on this cloud of niceness, but in reality it’s a herd of devils on horseback in disguise! My daughter is 14 years old and at an impressionable age. The last person she will be around is you. Normally, I don’t regret anything but I truly regret ever meeting you. Sure you’re a good fuck, well most of the time, but that is all you’re good for. Mel, I am truly sorry that I hurt you the way I did...but pussy is pussy.”


“My goodness Lindsay, you are losing your edge.” Mel laughs joining the fray. “The only thing you had going for you was the honey pot between your legs, and even that’s rancid. Whoever said that honey never goes off, clearly has never met you.”


“Sam…” Lindsay croaks.


“Get him home yourself. Try and fix this fuck up before he sobers up and you end up in the gutter literally; you’re already there figuratively. Why tempt fate? We’re done!” Sam gives her one more look of disgust and stalks to the door before pausing and coming back. “Any attempt from you to contact me in any way, shape or form will be a bad idea. I am the enfant terrible of the art world so I can get away with a lot of shit and still be thought of as adorable...unlike you. And I have talent to back that up. Whatcha got? Bye Kid, it’s been real!”


He gives us all a mock salute, bows and after blowing her a kiss, stalks out of Heavenly and out of her life.


“Lindsay!” Michael whimpers, going pale.


“What is it?!” She barks.


“I don’t feel well!” He moans and then barfs on her shoes!

 

Chapter End Notes:

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