Tears on a Sunday Afternoon - Michael Presley [72]
I drove to Brian’s apartment, being ever so obedient to the driving laws of our city. Brian was waiting for me at the door when I reached out to knock on it.
“You took care of your business?” he asked as he let me into his apartment.
“Yeah, I had to show the old man that I wasn’t going to be a punk anymore,” I said, handing Brian the bag with the gun.
“I feel you, my brother. Sometimes, when they don’t listen to the words, the sword has to be brandished.”
I laughed at Brian’s attempt at being poetic. “Brian, you’ve been reading the spoken word?”
“No, Man, these guys aren’t saying anything new. You want one?”
“No, I don’t feel like alcohol this evening. I want something much lighter. Do you have any orange juice or lemonade?”
Brian paused for a second. “Yeah, I have some orange juice. Foodtown had it on sale, two for five, so I picked up a couple. You don’t think the old man will bother you anymore?”
“No, Man, we came to an understanding today. He now realizes how much I love my son. I don’t think I’ll need to have another conversation with him. You heard from Julie?”
“Yeah, she surprised me and gave me a call today. I was totally shocked. Nothing has changed though. She told me that she’ll talk to me tomorrow.”
“I hope you’ve been taking care of yourself. Now is the time to dip into that black book.” I took the glass of orange juice from Brian.
“I tried, Man, but I couldn’t do it. I had this girl, Niki, over last night. You know, the emergency fuck, but I couldn’t go through with it. She’s cool though. She told me to call her whenever.” Brian sat down at the table, opposite me, with a Heiny in his hand.
“Well, a lot of things will be decided tomorrow. I think I’m going to go home and get some sleep.” I drank the rest of the orange juice.
“You nervous about tomorrow?” Brian asked.
“I thought I was going to be, but I’m not. I guess the shit I’ve been going through has created a certain resolve in my mind.”
“Don’t start acting like President Bush and go and start another war. I get very concerned when the word ‘resolve’ starts getting thrown around.”
“Brian, you’re an idiot,” I said, getting up from the table.
“We’ll talk tomorrow,” Brian said as I walked to the door. I had one more stop to make before I went home.
“You didn’t expect me?” I stepped into the house and closed the door.
Julie walked ahead of me into the living room. “I wanted to talk to you but I didn’t know if I should call.”
“I just left Brian’s apartment.” I took a seat on the couch.
“He told me that you had taken the gun. What did you do with the gun?”
“I had some cleaning to do,” I said.
“You’re not going to tell me what you did with the gun?”
“If I do, it might create trouble for you,” I said.
“What do you think could be worse for me, knowing or not knowing? You used to tell me when your shit came out black. Now it’s on a need-to-know basis. Just because you got between my legs, now I can’t be trusted.” Julie had begun to raise her voice.
“It’s not that, Julie. If anything happens to me, I don’t want you to take the fall with me. I want to protect you.”
“That’s a whole lot of bullshit, Donald. If trouble is going to come our way I need to know where it will be coming from. As you can see, I’m not as innocent as you seem to think. I can handle a lot more than you give me credit for. I handled your dick, didn’t I?”
I smiled as my loins began to stir. “Come over here!”
As Julie walked toward me, I was once more caught up in her rapture. I wanted to feel the warmth of her womanhood. I needed to be inside of her. She came to me and stuck her tongue into my mouth and I held onto it for dear life. I pulled her shorts down to find out that the strings that she was wearing to cover