Date: Fri, 5 Jun 2020 18:32:50 -0400
From: Edem Stories <edemstories@gmail.com>
Subject: Green eyed boy Part 15

Green Eyed Boy Part 15

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This story contains male on male sexual content both implied and explicit.
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			~~~~Patrick~~~~

	Neil had burst in with tickets and it was just what we needed. It
did not take long for the five of us to pile into Logans truck. Neil, Pete,
and I crammed in the back when we discovered Gabe's legs were just too long
for the space, so he had to call shotgun. At the theatre we were being
typical guys cutting up and teasing one another. Logan always seemed in his
element around other people where I knew I could sit quietly and watch
comfortably for hours. He was teasing Neil about the movie when we heard
the yell.

"It is them! Hey dog boys!"

	The voice was familiar enough I turned to look and felt the furrow
in my brow when I tried to remember where I had seen this short lady
before. Logan however was on the ball of course and whooped.

"Miss Mache! You ladies here to see the heroes too?"

	There was a shy woman just behind Sheila. Pale blond, nearly
platinum white hair and wearing some sort of odd shirt I certainly did not
recognize. Neil however perked up.

"Hey! That's Elizabeth from Frost zone, right?"

	Sheila's sister nodded and next thing we knew the pair were off to
one side raving about some video game. Sheila just shook her head and
laughed.

"That's Cathy, my sister hates seeing movies alone, so I offered to go with
her. I hope you two are keeping out of trouble?"

"Yes ma'am"

	I had to smile; Sheila was likable even if I hated being called
`dog boy' across the theatre. Gabe and Pete just looked at us in confusion.

"Dog boy? Do I want to know?"

"Miss Sheila Mache is a park ranger, we got harassed a week or so ago by
some brats and... well, scared them off and they called her on us."

	I felt my cheeks go red admitting it. It really had been a stupid,
spur of the moment, idea. I was honestly shocked it worked. More so that
Sheila remembered Logan and I. Sheila had a contagious laugh that had Pete
and Gabe cracking up with her response.

"Just Sheila, I'm off duty. And just a ranger not a officer anyhow despite
what some of my contemporaries think they are... and You, you drove them
off by playing a video of guard dogs on your phone and making those boys
think they were getting chased. How the hell that worked I have no idea."

"Neither do I but I am really glad it did."

	Logan beamed as if it were his idea and he was the proudest man
ever for coming up with it. The ladies joined us for the movie and none of
us were terribly surprised when Neil chose to sit beside Cathy, we all left
the movie in high spirits, even if our wallets were far lighter than
before. Neil pausing a moment and Cathy shyly squeaked.

"Is... Is it alright if we take Neil back to campus later? There's a sci-fi
convention this weekend..."

"Hey, he's a grown ass man. As long as he's home in time ... Oh wait, this
week is fall break! As long as he's back in time for classes by the twelfth
we're good!"

	Pete threw that in, and Neil just smiled. The three of them headed
off after Neil promised to text us if he was running too late. I was rather
glad of it; I knew he did not have to, but we had sort of become our own
little family and I did worry about him. I hoped Cathy was not just a
rebound as well, having a feeling that Sheila was not one to be crossed if
someone hurt her sister. Gabe and Pete just looked at each other than to me
and Logan.

"What now guys?"

	Logan got a thoughtful look and I glanced at my phone which was
still booting up from being turned off during the movie. A text from mom
had come through.

"Logan? Guys? Mind if we go see mom? I want to check on her while we're in
town. I'm worried she's drinking again now that Harris went back to
Kinston."

	Harris had to return as he did live next to us... not us, next to
Daniel. I could not really bring myself to call him dad anymore. He had not
really been one to start with after all. Pete however had a dawning look of
confusion.

"Hey? When your mom showed up the other night with that guy? How did she
know where you were? Which dorm room I mean?"

	I had not thought of that and Gabriel's expression said he had not
either. Logan started to look tensed up.

"If someone at the campus told them... that's a major violation right
there. You are not a minor and they are not paying your
bills. Pat. Something stinks there. I didn't even think about that. Yea, if
you want, Gabe, Pete, we'll take you back to the dorm and go see Miss
Aberg."

	Gabe just grumbled.

"If it weren't fall break I would be having a word with the front office. I
may just see if anyone's on anyhow. Someone broke protocol. Yea let's head
back to the dorms. Charles is supposed to be calling me today about those
coins of yours anyhow."

	I was grateful Gabe had remembered them and fished out the key, I
had replaced the lockbox with a working one, handing the key to it to
Gabe. I did trust him as much as I did Logan. It did not take long for us
to drop Pete and Gabe back off.
	Torrand was a college town and not a very big one. It had once been
a tourist town until roadwork had nearly choked it off. These days most of
the buildings were worn and tired. Their past lives hidden under fading
paint and sun bleached or rusting signs. We easily passed the theatre
again, which had once been a playhouse modified for film use, then old
tobacco barns and a shutdown elementary school with its boarded over
windows. There was another school in Weaverville down the road that the
local kids went to instead these days.
	 Torrand had its own grocers though and of course the golden arches
among a smattering of other popular stores that just looked tired. I
watched the landscape go by from the passenger seat now and wondered if
this was what happened to all small towns? They either faded away or boomed
like Asheville and Charlotte. Logans hand brushing my knee drew my
attention back and I just smiled at him.

"Copping a feel when you're supposed to be driving a stick Loggey?"

"You are never going to let that go are you? But no, what's on your mind
Pat? You seem lost?"

"Just thinking about mom, about Torrand... about after college. I only have
two more years of a four-year degree left. I know you just started, and I
don't want to go too far from you Logan. I'm scared for mom too. She drinks
so much, and she's never been alone."

	Logan was quiet a long moment. It made me worry and my attention
was not so much on the landscape anymore as on my thoughts about it
all. What if Daniel came up? What if whoever had told mom where my dorm
room was, would tell him where my friends and I were too? What if he found
out which one of Harris's rentals mom was staying at and hurt her? Or went
after Abs?
	It was all rolling in my head as Logan pulled off into a small
shopping center parking lot and turned off the truck. He took my shoulder
and turned me to face him, cupping my chin and rubbing the stubble I had
neglected the last few days to shave.

"Patrick. Get your ass out of there. That's a dark path Pat. It's full of
what if's that have not happened yet. You're panicking over things that
haven't happened. I know some might... and best we can do is protect
ourselves against those `might's', but I don't want to live behind a locked
door peering out windows the rest of our lives. We're going to see your
mom. Then we're going to talk to her about a restraining order on Daniel
and making sure everything's in yours and her names on Monday."

"Restraining orders are just pieces of paper Logan... and you are scary
when you read my mind."

	I glowered at him a little, but it did not last. I knew damned well
he was just worried about me. Hell, I was worried about me. I was so use to
second guessing everything and being ready to be screamed at or threatened
over the smallest thing that I knew full and well I was jumping at
shadows. Logan shrugged and cranked the truck back up.

"Restraining orders are a paper trail, he who says something first tends to
be believed first. I just hope he hasn't tried to do something already in
that regard."

"Yea, he may get mom in trouble, turns out she used his credit card to fly
from Asheville Regional to Kinston jetport the night Harris and she moved
them up here."

"Oh, yea, she may have to pay that back in good faith through a divorce
attorney or something. I know, sounds bullshit but I could be wrong. Really
only things I know about divorces come from a friend of mine in high school
who went through one."

	Logan glanced sidelong at me while driving and I just gave him a
smile before realizing mom did not know we were on the way. I pulled out my
cell and gave her a quick ring.

"Meredith speaking?"

"Hey mom, Logan and I are in the area. Are you home? We wanted to swing by
and see how you are?"

"Oh Patrick, I'm glad to hear from you today. Sure sweetie. Abbigail is
here with Garrick. It's perfect timing!"  "we'll be there in ten then mom,
tell them to wait for us. Bye."

"I'll see you soon Patrick. I do love you; you know."

"I... I know mom."

	I had to hang up. It was still hard to hear that. Knowing she had
been absent mentally the last ten plus years of my life. It had not felt
like love when she stood silently in a corner while dad... Daniel, had
screamed at ten-year-old me two inches from my face, calling me faggot,
whores son, worthless... all because I had eaten the last slice of my own
birthday cake, he had taken every gift I had received and returned all of
them to the stores and those he could not had been thrown in the fireplace
and burned.
	It had not felt like love when she turned her back and staggered
drunkenly out of the house when I was thirteen and laying on the floor from
a sucker punch to the gut for coming home two minutes past my seven pm
curfews. One of the few times Daniel had ever actually hit me. His prime
method of torture was threats, screaming and manipulation. Anytime I had a
friend I soon lost them because of him, and mother never stopped him... at
least that I knew of.

	I knew I was getting angry and felt the white-hot tears building
again. I hated how easily I cried. Men were not supposed to cry, we're
supposed to be the strong ones. Maybe I should have stood up to him more,
or obeyed him better, maybe he was hurting mom more than I knew. After all
things were bad enough Ab's had run away from home before she was
nineteen. Something he nor mom had ever reported.  She had come back with
Garrick, who always looked like he was three bowls to the wind on something
but somehow had enough money to put the down payment on Conch's shop and
was willing to pay for Abs to attend community college and learn to handle
her dream job, fixing motorcycles and antique cars. High or not he seemed a
decent guy.
	It took me a moment to realize that Logan was turning into a
driveway. The house was a small one-story building that had seen better
days like most of torrand. Fading paint, bare trees. The front porch had
bowed planks and one pillar had a metal cage around it to help support the
load. It was a nice cottage in its day I suppose.

	Even had mom not told me Abs was here the pair of motorcycles out
front would have. A sweet silver trimmed blue Harley shovelhead sat
alongside a battered red tanked cycle of no name. Abs had built the Monster
herself out of various junkyard parts and supposedly that was what had
impressed old man Conch and Garrick as well. I could believe it considering
she had gifted me with my own home-made bike though hers looked like it had
been ridden through hell and back again. Logan had cut the ignition at this
point and was waiting on me patiently. I knew we could not just sit in his
truck in front of the house all day and finally started to get out. Logans
voice breaking my silence.

"You'll be okay Patrick, If I have anything to say about it, so will
she. Abs? I've talked to her; I'm not worried about her. Damn woman's
scary."

	That made me crack a smile and I shot him a bit of a look for it.

"Thanks Logan. Come on. Let's see what the latest news is."

	I had hardly knocked on the door when it flew open and Mom grabbed
me, yanking me and Logan both into the house by our shoulders and hugging
the both of us until I had to push her to get a breath.

"Mom! What's going on? Are you alright?"

"Nice to see you too Mrs. Aberg."

	Logan backstepped once freed but just gave a surprised smile. The
inside of the house was not surprisingly meticulous. The walls were white,
no pictures hung on them. The couch was brown leather without a single sign
of wear to it though I recognized it as one from our old home. The carpet
had a criss cross pattern to it from multiple vacuum runs and the kitchen,
that was open to the living room, had glistening marble counter tops. The
outside of the house had been lived in, inviting and warm... the inside was
sterile, and the smell of bleach and cleaners made my head swim.
	It reminded me too much of childhood and the laminate floor
bleached and scrubbed of its printed pattern. Abs stepped in off the back
porch and saved me from bolting out the door. Grubby t-shirt of a donkey
being pulled by a stick figure rat proclaiming `I'm a" above it. Her jeans
had oil smudges and work boots reminded me of Logans riding boots. Of all
things though she had a little black and white cat perched on her shoulder
nuzzling up against her.

"Mom, I got Pepper out from under the porch for ya. Hey twerp! Logan! Good
to see you, I'd say welcome to the family but ya know the wolf."

	Abs was not some supermodel skinny thing. She was five feet nine
and made of muscle from lugging engine parts around and with a stocky waist
to show it and arms like steel bands. Arms that damn near broke my ribs as
she hugged me.

"Ouch, Hey sis. Please don't chase Logan off. Glad to see you too, where's
Garrick?"

"She's not going to chase me off. At least not until the chiefs done. Which
one of those beauties out there is yours Ab?"

	Logan offered his hand, but she smacked it away and hugged
him. When the hell did my family get so touchy? I had to wonder if I had
just walked into the twilight zone or something. Abs laughed at mine and
Logans expressions while thumbing at the hall beside the kitchen.

"He went to the head. His allergies are killing him. I keep telling him we
should move but he loves the mountains even if they always make him look
like hes going to keel over. Mom tell you yet?"

"We literally just walked in the door. Tell us what?"

	I did wonder a moment if I had judged Garrick too hastily if
allergies were what made him look so bloodshot every time I saw
him. Garrick's deep voice came from the back hallway as he emerged. At six
feet nine he was scrawny and lanky. Like a teenager who never really filled
out. Had I not known he worked the shop alongside her, I would never
believe he could handle heavy machines like Abs could.

"Tell you me an Ab are getting married. We're heading to the justice of the
peace Monday morning. Just street clothes, signed and done. Then we'll both
be Conchs. We want the three of you to join us as witnesses. Trying to talk
Miss Meredith into taking the name too, dump Aberg permanent like."

	He drawled a bit and I could understand both sides. On one hand it
was a lot of paperwork and there was a lot of history in our name... on the
other hand it would make it harder for Daniel to find mom and be a real
sign that she wasn't going to go back.

"I can see why you should Mom, but it is your choice. Have you heard from
Harry lately? I know you said he drove back to Kinston."

	Mom just went quiet and shook her head. Pepper hopped up onto the
kitchen counter and mom grabbed her, holding the kitten like a baby and
stroking its head as the purr filled the small house.

"No, I haven't yet. I am worried about Harry but I'm sure he can take care
of himself. I filed... I filed a restraining order and separation order
Friday. Would you believe they said I have to be separated a full year in
order to file a divorce? How does that make any sense?"

	She drifted to the couch and sat down rather hard. I swear she
looked as if she had grown ten years older since I had last seen her. I
wanted to console her, but we had never been the touching, hugging types in
my family. Even Abs just stood off in a corner slightly, shifting her
weight from foot to foot and giving me a look under her coal black
bangs. She did not know what to do either as mom whispered.

"I'm scared. I've never been alone. I've never lived on my own before. I've
always been told what to do, where to go, what to wear..."

Thank god for Logan, he gave us a pointed look and then to the couch,
leaning in to whisper to me.

"Go."

	My feet were led as I headed to her and sat on her right side, Abs
on her left and we both leaned in and hugged her. Idly playing with Peppers
fuzzy ears, the most tolerant kitten in the world just purring and batting
at moms tear dampened nose. I felt the couch move as Logan sat beside me
and Garrick quietly went to the other side of Abigail. I managed to find my
voice, repeating what Logans told me so many times now.

"I won't let him hurt you anymore mom. Just stay here with us. He won't
hurt you again."

"Not if I have something to say about it he won't."

	Abs whispered but her tone dripped with venom. I felt there was
more I did not know going on behind that statement and Garrick rubbed Abs
back. Logan broke the tension easily.

"You can wear whatever you want now, Paint the walls whatever colors you
want, hang pictures of your kids, your cats, have thirty cats if you want
to. Wait this is a rental right? Have pictures of thirty cats then. Get
Harry to take you to Biltmore all dolled up for Christmas too. Speaking of,
all of you are invited to the farm for Christmas. I won't take no for an
answer, unless, you have plans with Garrick's family of course Abs?"

	Garrick laughed suddenly and looked at his soon to be wife, my
sister, in a way that I had only ever seen Logan look at me. He smiled as
he spoke.

"No, my grandad raised me and hes been gone six years. Ab's the only one
I've got."

"Bullshit, you have us too."

I had to add that. Moms head snapping up.

"Patrick Damian Aberg! You are not too big for me to wash your mouth out
with soap."

	Logan stared a moment and burst out laughing.

"She's going to be just fine!"


			~~~~Logan~~~~


	It was later while Meredith, Abs and Pat tried... keyword there, to
cook a late lunch. I slipped out the side door and headed for my
truck. Garrick stepping out behind me and lighting a cigarette.

"Running off?"

"Nah, I've got my toolbox in the truck. That board next to your foot is
going to get someone hurt."

	Harris had enough on his plate without a lawsuit from some
solicitor taking a tumble. I did not have any scrap wood, or I would just
replace the bent section entirely. Garrick puffed a thick cloud of noxious
smoke and eyed the porch.

"I saw an old shed out back, had some lumber next to it. While they're
catching up, we can shoot the breeze. Don't worry, I won't give you any
grief. Abs told me about you and her brother. Thanks man. To hear her tell,
you've saved him."

	I had to laugh at that, setting the hammer and box of nails on the
porch though he finally seemed to catch my disgusted look at the cigarette
and put it out.

"I saved him? She did tell you that he found me laying in a ditch, right?
Not the other way around. I don't want to save him... I want to protect
him, but he doesn't need saving. It's hard to explain. And thanks for
putting that out. My mom passed of the big C a few years ago and those
things make me queasy."

"Shit, yea they are a bad habit. I've been trying to quite since I was
thirteen. Buying the damned things off the neighbors back then. As for you
and Pat. I don't get it... But if it makes you two happy, not my place. You
seem like a good kid."

	Garrick had to be at least seven or more years older than I was,
but I was not a kid, I refrained from saying as much however as we headed
around to the backyard where a small shed was leaning badly to one side. A
stack of old lumber piled on the other. It took us a bit to find the right
board and then another hour just working. I had a handsaw in the toolbox
and soon both of us were hot, sweaty and had sawed a hole in the porch and
nailed down the new one. It did not match completely but it was flat and
solid, from joist to joist. We stopped at the doorway of the house as we
realized we were both covered in sawdust and had mud on our shoes.

"Hey Abs, need a towel or something out here superwoman?"

	Garrick yelled and I just raised a brow at his `superwoman'
comment. Pat and Abs both came to the door but surprisingly Meredith just
waved us in.

"Just get in here boys. Thank you so much for that. Harrys been meaning to
fix it but with everything going on he hasn't had time. Lunch is
ready... and you know what? You are right Logan. I can do what I want in
this house and if I want my boys to track in a bit of wood and dirt that's
just fine."

	She was rather vehement about it and I could only smile. We all
filed into the hallway, there were two very small bedrooms in this house,
but one had been converted to a dining room at some point, the table nearly
filled the entire room. Abs opened the window and poked Garrick in the
chest.

"No kisses for you tonight. You smoked again."

"Aww babe..."

"Nope. That's the deal. Speaking of deals. Your pop came and got your bike
yesterday Logan. Meant to say something earlier."

"Sweet!"

	I may have whooped a little and Pat stared at me before a grin
broke out on his face. I wanted to kiss him but against my better
judgement, in front of his mom and brother in law, sister, I opted not to.

"Come spring Pat and I will have to go riding together. I've already had
one spill this fall. I don't care for another on ice. Still can't believe
my grans is next door to you. I don't see her often these days."

"She's great, some of the old folks come over time to time and watch us
work on the bikes. I love listening to their stories though sometimes I
have to chase them back to the retirement community so we can work. "

	It was not much of a retirement community really. More like an old
apartment building that only housed able bodied folks fifty-five and
up. Soon as you needed help and could not live alone though you had to move
out. Dad and I were lucky, his mom was still very active.

"We'll have to go visit her soon."

	Patrick volunteered that and surprised me. I felt my heart jump
hearing him say that. The fact he had so much utter shit happen to him and
still found room to love not just me, but my family too, was a wonder.