Infuriating Dilemma - 3

I was stressing out over our joint 20^th birthday party. My house-mate Tom and I had decided to share since our birthdays are both in March. We'd invited about fifty friends and with two days to go we weren't doing so well. I was on-edge and I couldn't stop scratching.

Tristan had dropped by for the evening and we were sitting around in the lounge talking and making plans for Saturday night. He kept looking at me with a frown on his face.

"Adam, you're scratching yourself all the time, are you all right?"

"I changed my washing powder a few weeks ago and I think I'm allergic to it" I replied.

"That's unusual, I wouldn't think you'd have that kind of reaction. Are you sure?"

I thought about it, "Well, it's the only thing that has changed. It started a few weeks ago after I washed my sheets."

Tristan scratched his head, "I wish you'd stop talking about it, you're making me all itchy now!"

We laughed and I noticed Tom was also scratching his scalp and rubbing his ankle with his foot.

"Did you wash all your clothes in it too?" Tristan asked.

"No, just my bed clothes. I've been sleeping in my sleeping bag since it started but it hasn't gone away."

"Hmm, did it start all over?" he asked.

"No, it seemed to start on my feet and work up."

He frowned some more, "And now it's all over?"

"Yes," I nodded.

"I don't think it's the washing powder". He looked me in the eye, "Have you been sleeping around?"

"No!" I exclaimed, instantly feeling angry at the suggestion.

"Well, I think you've got scabies -- you're scratching far too much for it to be the wash-powder."

"No way! I can't have, I've only been sleeping with Mike."

Tristan paused and then asked, "Has he been sleeping around?"

I stared at him then, and thought back. "Well, he has been acting a bit funny recently."

"When did the itching start?"

I thought some more. "About three weeks ago I think."

"And how were things with Mike around that time?"

My eyes opened wide as I remembered something. "He was acting a bit strange and offish with me. I asked him if there was someone else but he said it was just the stress of college."

"OK, well, however it happened I think that's what is wrong, and it will spread if you don't deal with it. You need to wash all your clothes and bedding thoroughly and treat yourself too."

Tom piped up, "We've shared clothes and slept in the same bed a couple of times since. Could I have it too?"

Tristan looked over at Tom, "Yes, very possibly. You'll need to do the same. In fact it's possible I've been infected too. I noticed a bit of an itch the other day on my legs, and I've been sat on Adam's bed quite a bit recently."

"We were going to use the sleeping bags for the long-distance guests because they arrive Saturday and are staying over," Tom said, looking worried.

I looked down at my feet, feeling a huge sense of shame. I couldn't believe it. Could I really have infected my two friends? I felt myself blushing as the embarrassment settled on me.

"I think you need some Derbac-M but I don't know where we'll get that this time of night. Why don't you look on the 'net for late-night pharmacies?"

I snook a peek at Tom and Tristan. They didn't seem mad at me but I couldn't look them in the eye. I nodded, and the three of us trooped off to my bedroom and my PC. "How can I find them?" I asked.

"Usually they're listed in the Evening Post so I guess they'll be on their web-site. Also, do a search for 'scabies' and check I've not got this wrong." Tristan told me.

I found the web-site and there was a link to late-night pharmacies on the front page. I opened a new tab and searched for 'scabies' and followed the 'netdoctor' entry. I read the description out and realised Tristan was right; they fitted my symptoms exactly.

They were standing at my back reading over my head so I returned to the pharmacies listing and asked if they knew where they were.

"It doesn't say what time they close," Tristan observed. "Wait up, I'll go get my PDA and we'll put all the addresses in the Sat-Nav and then we can go check."

I looked at the time. It was gone ten. "Do you think they'll still be open?"

"We'll not know unless we go check. Tell you what, while I fetch the PDA you try 'phoning them and ask". With that he headed off out to his car.

Tom and I looked at each other. "What are we going to do about the party? We can't have everyone sleeping over here if all my stuff, and possibly yours, is infected!"

Tom looked at me, "Well, we could cancel it but David and Daniel have already bought their train tickets".

That made me realise my best friend had done the same. I started swearing and hitting myself alongside the head, thinking of how I'd messed up our birthday.

Tristan came back and asked Tom what was going on. Tom told him. Tristan stepped over to the back of my chair and wrapped his arms around me, trapping my arms so I couldn't move. I started struggling and swearing at him, trying to get away.

"Shhhh, hey, shhhh. Adam, stop it!" he commanded and tightened his grip.

I struggled a bit more and then subsided into silence.

"That's better. Look, beating yourself up isn't going to solve the problem. Let's go get some lotion". He gave me a squeeze and then let me go. Tom was looking at us kind-of funny. "Did you get any answers? Tristan asked.

"None of them answered," Tom replied.

"That's what I was afraid of, I think we're going to be too late but let's try anyway," Tristan replied.

We spent forty-five minutes driving around but everywhere was closed. In desperation we even tried several twenty-four hour garage mini-markets but nowhere had it. I was feeling really depressed as we headed home. Tom made it worse by reminding me about the party in two days.

When we arrived home Tristan asked me, "You need to get everything washed, can you do that?"

Tom replied for me: "We can wash but we have no way to get anything dry."

Tristan looked contemplative for a few minutes and then said, "OK, how about this? Pack all your clothes and bedding up and put it in the car and then we'll go over to my place and wash and dry it all. I've got two washers and the dryer too. If we went now and worked through the night we can get most of it done."

Tom and I looked at each other. We talked about it a bit, thinking of how much we'd have to take, and how much work was involved.

Eventually Tristan stepped in. "Look, you can't go to classes tomorrow because you're going to need to treat yourself and get everything clean. So find some bin-liners and pack all your stuff into them". He grabbed my arm and dragged me up to my bedroom. We looked around. Clothes were strewn all over the floor. Tristan sighed and started picking things up. "Tom, have you got some bin-liners?" Tom nodded. "Well, go get them and let's get started!"

So we started collecting bedding and clothes and stuffing them into those black plastic bags. There was an embarrassing moment when Tristan held up a crumpled tee-shirt between thumb and finger and asked, "Is this what I think it is?"

I looked over and my mouth fell open. I blushed and said, "Um, no... I, errr, put it down, I'll..."

He laughed and said, "It's okay, a cum-rag is less icky right now than the itchy stuff!" and then stuffed it into a bag.

I felt my cheeks burning with the embarrassment again, and looked away, focusing on bundling a sleeping bag into a bin-liner.

It took us more than an hour but eventually everything was packed into the trunk and back-seat of Tristan's car. We headed off to Tristan's. It was 2am.

Once there he told us to start with a load of bedding first, and then sort clothes into priority piles, with the most urgent things first. Tristan and Tom were constantly scratching themselves and laughing at the psychosomatic reaction they were having. We were drinking wine and getting tired so after the second loads went in, and the first bedding was in the dryer, we headed to bed, but not before Tristan made us have a shower.

Whenever we stayed over at Tristan's all three of us would share his King-sized bed. It smelt nice and fresh, a nice change from my stinky bedding. I was usually too lazy to bother washing it.

I woke to find Tristan shaking me gently, "Come-on sleepy head, we've overslept. It's 10am. Tom and me have put another load in but we need to go get that lotion."

Half hour later we were back. We'd bought two large bottles and it was really expensive! Tristan had lent us some money so we could buy enough.

"You've got to leave it on for twenty-four hours and it's 11am now," Tristan said.

I looked at Tom and shook my head. "We can't, we've got to meet people off the train tomorrow afternoon." I felt tears welling up as I said, "We're going to have to cancel it. There's no way we can get everything washed and dried and ready in time."

Tristan came over and wrapped me in a hug from behind. Looking at Tom he said, "If we do it now, it's 11am, you can wash it off tomorrow and be ready in time to go meet them. We just need to make sure the clothes you need are ready."

"When are we going to go home?" I asked.

"Well, I think we should stay here again tonight so we can get as much done as possible and then I'll take you home tomorrow morning."

I nodded and sighed. "I'm really sorry about this, I don't know what we'd do without you helping".

Tristan hugged me tight. "OK, who's going first? Tom, you take one bottle and use the bathroom, and Adam can use my bedroom. I'll go check on the washing and then when you're done I'll treat me. Make sure to cover every square inch from top to bottom!"

I was stood naked in Tristan's bedroom still rubbing the pinkish cream on myself when the door opened and Tristan walked in.

"Oh, sorry," he said and threw a pile of clothes onto the bed. "Here you go, wear some of mine until yours are dry" he said, and then burst out laughing, calling out "Tom! Come look at this, we've got a snowman!"

I started swearing at him, "Fuck off, and shut the door. Fuck off!"

I heard him still laughing as they left me to finish off. I've never been comfortable being seen naked and the way he'd just walked in on me like that had really annoyed me. I pulled on Tristan's boxers, socks jeans and tee-shirt, thinking how lucky it is we are the same size. I rejoined the others in Tristan's den and saw Tom was also wearing one of Tristan's familiar tee-shirts.

"It's a good job we're all the same size," Tristan said, looking at Tom and me. "I've got the sleeping bags in now, and we have a set of bed-linen dry for both of you. Sort out what clothes you need to wear tomorrow and we'll wash them next. You can wear mine home and let me have them back once you've washed the lotion off."

So we spent all that afternoon and evening and into the night in a never-ending round of washing and drying. I never realised I had quite so much stuff! I'd never had to wash it all at once before, though. As we worked I kept on thinking about Mike, and whether I'd got scabies from him. I couldn't think of any other way I could have got it, though. I was feeling very angry and this on top of the way he'd been acting recently made my mind up.

"I'm going to dump Mike", I announced as we were sat messing on Tristan's PC waiting for yet another load. Tom and Tristan looked at me, waiting for something more.

"I know I haven't been with anyone else so there's no other way I could have got it. I'm sure it came from him."

Tom looked at me and then a flash if inspiration showed on his face. "Hang on a minute, I know that Paul and Mike are pretty tight. Let me see if Paul knows anything". He turned back to the PC he was using and there was a burst of typing as he exchanged instant messages.

"Hah! gotchya!" he exclaimed after a few minutes. Swivelling around to face me he said, "Paul says Mike told him two weeks ago he had been itching and confessed he'd probably caught something the previous week."

My heart felt wounded at the implication of Mike's cheating, but my anger kept me going as I thought about it. "The times he was making excuses for not being able to see me, that's the same week he's telling Paul he thinks he caught it. So it couldn't have been from me! The bastard!"

Tristan smiled and nodded. "Looks that way, are you going to dump him before your birthday party?"

That made me pause. If I did, I'd not have anyone to spend my birthday night with. Did I want to dump my boyfriend on my birthday? I considered some more, and then said "He's a cheating bastard, and he's given me something, I don't want him around me!"

"When are you going to tell him?" Tom asked.

"No time like the present, whilst you've got the anger on the boil!", Tristan said.

I looked at them both and then nodded. I pulled out my 'phone. "Can I use your bedroom?" I asked Tristan.

"Sure, go ahead, but let me get that bottle of lotion and I'll go apply it in the bathroom," he replied.

After shutting the bedroom door I dialled Mike's number. There was no reply and it diverted to voice-mail. I was sure he was avoiding me since he always picked up almost instantly. I tapped out a text "Call me. Now." and pressed 'Send'. I flicked through some of Tristan's CDs as I waited. After ten minutes with no reply I went back to join the others.

Tom looked up, "Did you talk to him?". I shook my head. Tom continued, "I think he knows already, Paul has said something to him about my questions -- he's on-line".

I looked at Tristan, "Can I use your notebook to get on MSN?"

He nodded. "Let me set up an account for you". After a couple of minutes he pushed the PC over to me.

I entered my details and logged in. Mike wasn't on-line. "Tom, ask Paul if Mike's still on-line".

Tom tapped away and then said, "Yes, he's talking to him now."

"He's got me blocked, the bastard," I said. "OK, if that's the way he wants it, tell Paul to tell Mike he's dumped."

Tom looked at me, "Are you sure!?"

I looked at Tristan and he grinned and nodded slightly in agreement. I turned to Tom, "Hell yes!" and smiled. I felt like a weight had lifted at that moment.

Tom tapped away and then said, "Paul says Mike went off-line as soon as he told him."

"Sounds like Mike has a guilty conscience." Tristan said.

I nodded.

"Are you OK?" Tristan asked, a look of concern on his face.

I nodded again, emphatically.

"Group hug!" Tristan said, and before I realised it the three of us were stood in the middle of the room hugging and squeezing each other.

Suffice to say after all that drama, the lack of sleep the previous night, and the constant loads of washing we were all tired and hungry. Tristan fetched pie and chips from the local take-away and we pigged out. I felt really lucky that these guys were my friends; neither of them had said anything nasty or humiliating about the scabies and Tristan especially was doing so much to ensure our birthday wasn't spoiled.

I watched him as he and Tom were in some animated conversation about computers. I'd always thought of Tom as a major nerd with his computers but Tristan is something else! He has so many gadgets and PCs, notebooks, web-cams and stuff, not to mention the camcorder that goes everywhere with us! I was fascinated by the way his face lit up in response to Tom and felt a pang of jealously. He wasn't just a geek, he could talk at length about subjects that I was interested in like economics, international relations, politics, law, and he seemed to have a permanent brain connection to Google because he always seemed to be knowledgeable on any topic.

We had even had some really intense and deep conversations that had scared me a bit. He seemed to know what I was thinking and feeling without me saying a word; he seemed to know things about my psyche that scared me -- things I didn't like admitting even to myself. And yet with all that he never was judgemental. He doesn't do drugs -- as far as I know he's never taken any -- and yet he never got annoyed with me for taking them. I knew he didn't approve when I went over the top, and Tom had told me Tristan was trying to persuade him not to join me smoking weed.

What fascinated me most was he was the most self-confident and self-assured person I'd ever met. I can be very domineering and bossy or if that fails, be so sickly-sweet I can wrap people around my little finger, but with Tristan it was like running into a brick wall. He'd set his course and calmly follow it no matter what.

He is also a big party animal. We'd often go out clubbing together and whilst I was sat around talking he'd spend most of the night on the dance floor, often on the stage. Thinking about it I realised I had probably spent more time out with him than I had with Mike!

I was musing on all this when I heard him say, "Are you with us Adam?"

I looked up and saw they were both looking at me expectantly. "Huh? what?"

"We were just saying it'd be a good idea to get an earlier night tonight since you guys have got to be back at yours in the morning. I suggest we put another load of clothes in and then go to bed. We'll put another load in to dry as soon as we wake up and then I can drive you home."

"Yeah, OK, that sounds a good plan, I am knackered!"

So that night we got to bed before 2am -- early for us! We all stank of the lotion and we couldn't have a shower. As we settled down I wondered how we'd have coped if Tristan wasn't helping us. I drifted off to sleep wondering what he was thinking, lying there besides me.

The next morning we were rushing around getting ready. We had a set of bedding each and both sleeping bags and a change of clothing for after we'd washed off that lotion. The drying hadn't been going as fast as we needed and the clothes we wanted to go out in were still wet.

Tristan looked from the piles to the clock. "Look, let's go now with what is ready so you can get your place tidied up before you have to go meet your friends at the station. I'll come back and finish off the drying. If we hang all this wet stuff out on the line now it'll be ready by lunchtime and I can iron it this afternoon and bring it with me tonight."

Tom and I looked at each other. "Are you sure?" I asked.

"That would be great!" Tom said.

"OK, lets get this lot hung out now and then get moving", Tristan said. So that's what we did. We were home by 10.30am and set to cleaning the house as Tristan headed home.

After cleaning our rooms Tom and I worked together on the lounge. We got to talking about how much Tristan was helping us and we decided we had to say thank-you somehow.

"Right, it's midday, time to wash this stuff off", Tom said. I nodded. "I'll go first", he said, and disappeared into the bathroom. I set-to in the kitchen, collecting and washing all the drinking glasses and arranging the alcohol for later.

"It's all yours," Tom said as he came out of the bathroom, still rubbing his hair with a towel. He'd got a white towel around his waist and I admired how his abs and olive-tanned skin were set off by it. He's not as hairy as me and I thought again about waxing, but the thought of the pain had always put me off.

It was a relief to wash the lotion off. I spent an extra five minutes just standing under the shower-head enjoying the clean feel and fresh smell of the shower gel. I shaved carefully and cleaned my teeth, wondering if I'd be kissing anyone tonight now I'd dumped Mike. I felt a pang of regret but buried it -- serves him right, after all.

In my bedroom I started on straightening my hair. Tom popped his head around the door a few times to check on me. Eventually he got impatient, "Come on Adam! We've got to be at the station in 30 minutes. David's text-ed me and they are on time."

"OK, OK, I'm almost done. Can't rush the hair, you should know that," I replied.

Ten minutes later we were in a taxi on the way to the station. We spent the time discussing how we could thank Tristan. At the station we found Tom's friends David and Danny waiting for us. Just then I got a text from my friend Julia, saying she'd be arriving in 20 minutes. We decided to hang around for her and then go into the city to buy some alcohol and snacks.

The plan for the night was to have a few bottles of wine and something to eat at home and then go out to the club about 10pm. We'd told people to start arriving about 7.30pm.

Julia arrived and we set off for the shops. An hour later we were laden down with bottles. We were chatting on the way home, discussing who we expected to turn up. The taxi dropped us off and we unpacked the alcohol and snacks. Tom and Julia made a few plates of sandwiches whilst the rest of us sat around chatting.

Just after 7pm I got a text from Tristan. "On my Way. See you in 30".

There was a knock on the door. I went to open it and found a group of three uni friends. We handed around plastic glasses and poured drinks for everyone. The buzz of conversation was filling the house now. A few minutes later a couple more arrived. I looked at the clock, wondering where Tristan had got to.

There was a knock at the door. I got up to answer it, but there was no-one there. I looked out into the street and saw Tristan walking away to his car. He turned around and saw me, and shouted, "Come on, I've got loads of your stuff here, I need some help."

I smiled and popped my head back into the house. "I need volunteers to help us unload the car." Three of my friends followed me out to Tristan's car. The back door was up and the side doors open. I saw his backside sticking out of one and admired the way his jeans fitted his ass so snugly. He backed out and looked at me smiling at him.

"Come on then, take some of these piles, and don't drop anything! It's all ironed. Your stuff is on the back seat, Tristan's is in the trunk and I've brought my air-beds and the compressor for those sleeping over."

I looked at him, amazed. What was with this guy? He thought of everything and seemed to do it so effortlessly. Shaking my head I organised my friends with loads and then took one myself and led the way back into the house. We headed upstairs and dropped Tristan's stuff on his bed, and then took mine into my bedroom.

"Thanks guys, lets go get some more drinks," I said, and we trooped downstairs just as Tristan was struggling in carrying two rolled-up air-beds and a small compressor.

He grinned at me, "Where do you want these?"

"In the lounge I think", I replied.

Tom looked puzzled until Tristan rolled one of the beds out on the floor and plugged the compressor into a wall socket. The hammering noise it made stopped all conversation and I chuckled at the mix of perplexed faces around the room looking at Tristan as he knelt over the pump, oblivious to the attention he was getting.

Once the first bed was inflated and the noisy pump stopped everyone realised what Tristan was doing.

"We've got Danny, David, and Julia sleeping over tonight. Tristan's brought his air-beds so they'll be comfortable", I explained. There were smiles from the three of them as they realised they wouldn't be sleeping on the carpet.

"OK, I'll leave it for ten minutes and then run the compressor again for the double", Tristan said as he got up and looked around.

"Do you want a drink?" I asked. He nodded so I poured him a glass of wine and handed it over.

With a big smile on his face he looked me in the eye, raised the glass, and said "Happy birthday, Adam, I hope you enjoy it!"

I smiled back, thinking how much he'd done for us. He turned around looking for Tom and then repeated the salutation to him, and everyone joined in with a loud "Happy Birthday!"

Tom and I grinned and looked at each other. I raised an eyebrow at him questioningly and he nodded. I coughed to get everyone's attention and when it quietened down, said "I know it's usually the case that the birthday boys get the cards, but Tom and I have a card to give too".

Except for Tom, everyone had puzzled looks on their faces.

I continued, "Tom and I have had a major crisis this week; we almost had to cancel the party. It seems I caught scabies from my bastard cheating and now ex-boyfriend". I felt a blush coming on, but continued. "Anyhow, because we share things we needed to wash all our clothes and bedding and we had no way to do that, but Tristan has almost single-handedly washed, dried and ironed everything for us since yesterday. So anyway, we just wanted to say a big thank-you to him for being such a good friend". I looked into Tristan's eyes, pleased to see the look of surprise there, "Without you we would have had to cancel our birthday party, so thank-you". I handed him the envelope and there was a round of clapping.

I watched as he opened and read the card. A big smile appeared on his face and he looked up at me. "Wow, I don't know what to say. I didn't expect anything, I just wanted you guys to enjoy your birthday. Thank-you!"

As the buzz of conversation picked up again he made his way over to me. He opened his arms wide, inviting me into them. As we hugged he whispered "thank-you" and then gave me a peck on the cheek. I smiled and felt myself flush.