Sweet Revenge

Chapter 21

Monday morning, anxious Mew couldn't concrentrate. He went out for an early lunch and headed to Gulf's university. He looked around watching the signs directing him to where he thought was the canteen. He saw Atid in the canteen and recognized him. He asked him if he had seen Gulf.

"I saw him from afar. He is avoiding us." Atid answered trying to figure out what to eat.

"He wasn't with you guys in the last three days?"

"What do you mean?" Atid looked at Mew wondering why he was here. He was only a coworker.

"A lot happened last week and I thought he came to you guys."

"What happened?" Atid asked worried.

"Stuff from the past came out and he found out the reason why his mother died."

"Why did his mother die?" Chet who had just come in asked coming to stand next to Atid, surprised that his coworker knew about such personal stuff.

"He'll tell you when he's ready." Mew protected Gulf's privacy.

"Have you talked to him?" Atid asked Chet.

"I saw him. Went to talk to him but he dismissed me. He looks so pale though and he was limping. Did something happen at work?"

"I don't know. He didn't come to work on Friday or Saturday. When last did you talk to him?" They we're taking turns asking questions.

"Wednesday night last week. He came to us late and found us having sex." Chet received a light punch on his shoulder from Atid for being too blunt.

"Wait what?" Mew could feel his heart break for some reason. It was too much for Gulf. He dealt with so much in a day.

"Yeah, I don't think he'll be talking to us anytime soon." Chet was dreading it.

"So where was he all weekend? He was not home." Mew thought out loud.

"Excuse me but how do you know that?" Chet asked feeling bothered for some reason.

"I'm his friend too." Mew simply explained.

"Oh, I see. We'll keep on trying to approach him but you know how he is like." Atid concluded the conversation so he could eat on time.

"I do know." Mew looked at the time. He had to go back to work. "Thanks guys."

"See you around." Chet waved him goodbye.

Mew waited and Gulf came to work. He was looking tired. His moves were slowed down. Every minute he was sighing and he was zoning out.

When he sat down after seeing the supervisor, he didn't look up at Mew.

Mew took some files that were meant for Gulf and went around the desks to the other side of Gulf's desk.

"Hey I got these documents that needs 2 copies. The original for the supervisor and the other one for filing."

Gulf nodded receiving the files without looking up.

"Nong,"

Gulf stood up right away and he miscalculated the space between the desk and the chair. In a bid to run away from Mew he got up quickly and his fresh wound scratched against the edges of the desk.

He groaned in pain.

"What's wrong? Are you feeling ok?" Mew asked holding Gulf's shoulder.

Gulf shrugged the hand off and slowly approached the printer, limping.

Mew felt guilty. Had he ruptured something when they had sex? His worries continued.

Gulf hadn't uttered a word to Mew ever since they had sex. He continued to go about his business getting his work done. The stares from Mew making him feel self conscious.

What was Mew thinking? Was he laughing internally at Gulf for having sex with him when he had called them out for being homosexuals?

Was he thinking about them in bed? About how they got tangled in sheets and kissed and nibbles each other's skin?

Gulf abruptly stood up from his chair startling a few individuals in the room. He took his backpack and left the office to the bathroom. He went in a stall and thank goodness the toilets at the office were always clean. He put the toilet seat down and sat on it with his pants down.

He took off the bandages wrapped around his thigh. He came face to face with the angry bruised letters, swollen and inflamed. He didn't care.

He took his blade and right on top of the already bruised letters, he started cutting again, opening the already fresh wound. Pus and blood came out but he didn't care.

He stared at his penis hanging loosely between his legs and he imagined it going in Mew's mouth. The grip on the blade became firmer as he dug deeper on his flesh. The pain was too much and the blood distracted him from thinking about Mew's mouth on his junk.

He wiped the blood and wrapped his thighs with fresh bandages. He cleaned up putting the dirty bandages in his back pack. He left the room feeling fresh pain. He didn't even look at Mew when he came back. The pain kept him occupied.

Mew noticed the difference. The frowns and the twitches Gulf made when he moved the wrong way, Mew noticed them all. With every  minute, Gulf's face was getting pale and Mew noticed. When his time was up he was worried but he left since Gulf didn't want to talk to him.

After Gulf was done, he went home, oblivious to someone following him. There was a notice for power cut on the entrance. Something about some wires being fixed and how it was going to take a few hours.

That meant the elevators were not working and that meant Gulf was taking the stairs to his apartment.

He lived on the second floor and he was definitely not going two flight of stairs. Not with the pain on his thighs. 

He was already feeling lightheaded.

The door to the stairs was kept open and people were going in and out. He went on the stairs and just sat on the bottom of it. People went up and down complaining how inconveniencing it was. They saw Gulf seated at the bottom of the stairs and passed by him. Occasionally people would sit down and take a breather from the stairs so no one paid attention to him.

Mew had followed Gulf from work and had seen him go for the stairs.  He paused when he saw Gulf sitting down right at the bottom. He peeked in every minute to check if he had gone up but Gulf only leaned his head against the wall.

When next he peeked in, Gulf's head was falling and he panicked. He went to Gulf and tried shaking him but he was out of it. He touched his forehead, another fever.

"Thank you." Gulf said his eyes fluttering shut.

"What's your apartment number?" Mew whispered the question in his ear.

"205." He mumbled.

"Keys?" Mew asked

"Backpack." He replied.

Mew carried Gulf up the stairs. He gently placed him down so he could get the keys. As soon as he opened the bag he saw bloody bandages. He saw a razor blade coated with blood. He looked at Gulf shocked.

As soon as they went in the house, Mew placed Gulf on the sofa. He took Gulf's shirt off and couldn't find anything suspicious. It was when he took off his baggy jeans that he came face to face with his bandaged upper thighs. He was sweating and trembling when he took them off.

He froze when he saw the angry inflamed letters engraved on his skin.

His heart sank.

He knew what this was about.

He knew why Gulf had engraved these four letters on his skin.

He knew why Gulf had cut his mother's name TIDA on his skin.