Prompt 2

 May 2nd

            Write a story based on a song: The song that I picked was "Say You Love Me" by Steve Grand. This is a song that I have absolutely adored ever since I first heard it years ago. It was a lot of fun expanding upon the story in the song and just using it as a break-off point. 

I'm actually quite interested in continuing with this piece. Either after the events of what happens at the end of the story or from the beginning of Eddie and Mason's story. Maybe from Eddie's perspective this time around. I might actually continue it in a future post depending on how the ideas flow. I'd love to work through an outline of the ideas that I'm coming up with for the piece. We'll see where the month goes. Didn't think I'd latch onto an idea this quickly in the month. 

    The wind whipped through my hair as I ran through the house away from him and his blue eyes. I felt like an utter fool for saying those words to him. But I guess you could say that I was never in the right form of mind when it came to Eddie. We met in our freshman year of high school and became best friends in our senior year. He was the one person who was willing to look past what the rest of the school thought about me after learning my truth. Everyone in our school knew I was gay after I was outed by my boyfriend at the time Jim. Most of the people in school didn't seem to care too much, well at least the people that mattered in my life. You'll always find the homophobic asshat that loves to make jokes.  And thank goodness Eddie was never like that with me. 

    I looked back once as I continued out the front door of Eddie's house into the street and saw him taking multiple steps at a time. In the distance, I could hear his shout "Mason, please just stop." But I couldn't stop because I knew what mistake I had made with the look that came on Eddie's face after I told him those four words. After I told him, "Say You Love Me". The sound of the door slamming made me run quicker than before, as I tried to figure out where the best place to go would be. A place that Eddie wouldn't find me in. I knew I couldn't go to my house, that would be the most obvious place for me to hide.  

    Eddie had come over about a week before and told me about this girl he had met. "I met this girl out in Palm Springs, Mason. You'd love her dude and I know you would be so happy for me. I think she might be the one." Eddie had gone to Palm Springs with a couple of friends from college. My mind was whirling when I heard the news. I knew that my best friend was straight and that I didn't have a chance in the slightest but that didn't stop the hope in my mind. I stood there staring back at his news as my mind played this dream. What if I could get him to say that he loved me? Could I have made it true?  In my mind, I could just see him standing there telling me that he loved me and that he didn't have a girl. But when I snapped back into reality there he was standing there waiting for my answer. 

    "That's great Eddie. What's her name?" I want to say that I was being honest with my friend and that I wanted him to be happy with the girl. That didn't make it true. I never did hear what he said her name was. We went out that night for drinks to celebrate with some of the guys. I stuck to cokes because I knew what would happen if I started drinking anything more. That was the last thing that I needed. And Eddie never drank for many reasons, but still enjoyed spending time with the guys. 

    That night he drove me home and I couldn't stand the thought of saying goodbye. It had been one of those nights when I let myself get lost in those blue eyes for too long. Where I let myself believe in the fantasy that maybe I could be the one that he wanted to hold. The one that he wanted to come home to at night. Not this girl that I didn't even know the name of. Rain was pelting down on the car as he pulled into my driveway. He put the car in park and looked over at me smiling at me. I would have given anything to be walking through the door of the house with him by my side. "See you on Friday, Mason." 

    I opened the door to the car and looked back at him with what I hoped to be a smile. My luck it looked more like a grimace. "See ya, Eddie. Have a good night." I ran to my front door and opened it stepping into the foyer. Only then did I look back at Eddie in the car. He had waited for me to get into my door and was starting to pull away. It took everything in me not to run out there in the pouring down rain and tell him to come in my door. 

    Flash forward to me on Friday night running throughout my hometown, trying like hell not to start sobbing when I thought back to the look on his face. I got to the little cafe on 2nd street and thank the gods they closed by eleven. As I stood there, I tried to catch my breath. While I also started to almost hyperventilate from my overactive imagination. I could just hear Eddie if he ever got up to me and I just didn't want to deal with that at the moment. My fool self told him that I have loved him for the last five years and told him to say that he loved me too. I told him to give up on that girl and to love me instead. 

    I sat down around the back of the cafe behind the dumpster. It was hard to not throw up with the mixture of anxiety and the smell of the coffee wafting out of the dumpster from my side. Any minute I knew he'd probably find where I was hiding, and I just couldn't face that. I didn't want to know what he was going to say to me. It had played through my head for so long. I may have been delusional enough to have the thought go through my head that he could possibly love me back and that we could live happily ever after. But I also knew that was all a fantasy helped along with all those romances I had read over the years. Nothing of the reality I have faced in my time since coming out. All those novels where the "straight" best friend actually turns out to be gay the entire time and falls for his gay best friend. And then they ride off into the sunset together. It was all bullshit. He wanted that girl from Palm Springs with whatever name.

    From my side, I could hear his voice as he shouted out for me. Thank the gods, he hadn't found me yet but I wasn't quite sure if it would be the smart move for me to come out from behind the dumpster just yet. My luck he'd turn around and see me. 

    "Damnit, Mason. Please let me... just let me talk to you," I heard him say softly to himself as he looked up and down the street to see if he could see any trace of me. At that moment I wanted to come out and go to him. Give him a hug and get him to not sound so hurt. But then, I would have to face what I had just told him in his house, and I could not do that. "Damn you, Mason Nelson. You don't go and tell someone that you love them and then run out before they can even get a word in." At those words, I stood up and looked out from behind the dumpster. Mason was standing there in the middle of the road. I could see how pissed off he was. He had this habit of running his hands through his hair when he got angry and made it stick up on end. His hair was a mess from it, by this point. It almost made me come out. He started to walk on in the direction of my childhood home, with his head slumped down. 

    When he was about five yards away, I started to follow him. I was hoping that he wouldn't notice. Also if I'm going to be honest, I kind of hoped that he would turn around and see me behind him. We continued that way for the longest time. That was until he got to the door and saw the thing that I had conveniently never told him over the years since I had moved out of my parents' house. That they did not live there anymore. Little did he know, I didn't even actually know where my parents lived anymore, and I really did not care. The house was now owned by the McCarfys. I had met them once myself when I came back to the house after I had forgotten one of my favorite sweatshirts there. What a shock to find out that not only did your parents move away but they didn't even have the nerve to let you know yourself. 

    "Yeah, they moved away probably about three months after I left for college. Quite the shock really. Haven't seen or heard from either of them since. I don't know whether they are alive or dead. All because I left and went to a college that they had no interest in me going to," I said as I walked up to stand by Eddie. He turned to look at me. 

    "Why did you never tell me?" Eddie asked wrapping an arm around my shoulders as we stood there just looking at what was the McCarfy's house now. I'm sure they would really be happy if they woke up in the middle of the night and saw two grown young men standing outside their front door. Then we would probably get the cops called on us too. Would be a great end to the night. 

    "Maybe, we can have this conversation somewhere other than the steps in front of the McCarfy's," I said as I began to walk back in the direction of his house. He followed silently beside me for a couple of minutes. "I never told you because I didn't know how to process it at the time. I knew that they were angry at me Eddie, but I didn't know that it would be that bad you know? And then, I just never found the right time to tell you."

    "Yeah, like you never found the time to tell me that you loved me all these years. You told me that you loved me for five years, Mason. Why did you never tell me any of that in the last five years?" I turned when he asked that question. He didn't sound disgusted at all. It sounded more like he was upset than anything else and that surprised me. "I thought we told each other everything." 

    "You can't go and tell your straight best friend that you love them. It doesn't make anything easier. If I'm being honest, it probably makes everything ten times harder." I started to tear up at that statement as I ran to his house. I couldn't let him see me start to sob over all of it. He would not see how much this broke my heart. I wouldn't let him. 

    He chased after me swearing loudly behind me, as we ran throughout the rest of the streets on the way to his house. “Damn it, Mason stop and at least hear me out.” I didn't know what to do as he continued to chase me. His house came into view, and I kept on going towards one of the busier highways in town even at such a late hour. Most of the town was dead at a time like this, but not this part of town by the only bar in town. In just enough time I saw a car coming toward us and dove out of the way. But Eddie didn't see it in enough time. I turned around shocked and jumped in front of him, trying to push him out of the way. The last thing I heard before it all went black was Eddie swearing to himself and saying, "I love you too, Mason."