Love Hurts (boyxboy)

Chapter 41: Decoy

"We're not pawns in your sordid love triangle."
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His head was buried deep in between the cheeks of a beautiful behind when Simon heard a strange, unfamiliar sound.

He groans as the noise does not seem to let up, bringing him around to realise that his head was actually stuffed between his two pillows on his bed and not a beautiful backside, but that noise...where was it coming from?

Laying on his front, Simon pushes himself up. His eyes screwed up at the semi brightness in his room. "What the fuck is that sound?" He groans as he manages to hoist his weary body out of bed. The sound seemed to be coming from his jacket which was flung over a chair in the corner of the room. Simon reaches into the deep pocket to reveal an unfamiliar phone.

"Hello?" He says warily as he presses accept.

"Simon?"

"Who is this?" Simon asks, wondering who he had promised something to this time on one of his drunken nights out.

"Simon, it's Neil." Comes the reply.

"Neil?...Is this your phone?" Simon questions momentarily looking at the screen.

"No Simon. I'm talking to you on my phone, well Jen's phone. Is this your phone?" The question is returned.

"Are you joking? It's a Motorola!" Simon responds rather offended.

"Well who's phone is it? Are you with anyone?"

Simon looks around his room. "Hello?" He calls out, but the flat seems empty. "I'm alone, but this isn't my phone."

The line goes silent for a while before Neil again speaks.

"Simon, did you get with anyone last night?"

"Why do you want to know that?"

"Look, if it isn't your phone then it's obviously belongs to someone who you met last night."

"Probably….but why do you care and why do you have the number? Are you cheating on Josh?"

"No...look, whoever owns that phone is sending graphic images to Jen. They're interfering, meddling and I need to know who."

Simon momentarily pulls the phone away from his ear, his eyebrows raise as he checks out the rather explicit images. He returns the phone to his ear. "Well well, Mr Rose, are you making up for lost time?"

"That's old footage Simon so don't start." Neil cuts him off. "I need to know who you were with last night."

Simon blows heavily out of his mouth. "Well, there's a question."

***

"What's going on?" Neil looks up to see Josh enter the kitchen.

"Simon, Josh and I are coming over." Neil ends the call.

"My phone?" Jen says, holding out her hand.

Neil hands it back over, now looking at Josh. "Simon has the phone with the images on." He says.

"What images?….oh." Josh suddenly realises what Neil is talking about and also remembers that Jen had seen a photo of him in a compromising position with Neil. He now felt that urge to leave once again.

"Jen, I'm gonna sort this ok?." Neil says, giving her a weak smile which was not entirely received with grace.

"Neil, this is your mess, not mine, just keep me and the boys out of it. We're not pawns in your sordid love triangle."

"Love triangle? What's she talking about?" Josh now feels even more panicked.

"I'll explain on the way to Simon's." He then looks at Jen.  "Thanks for dinner, say bye to the boys for me."

She says nothing as Neil and Josh walk past her. The moment where a kind of amiability had been found, once again in danger of getting lost.

Jen looks out of the window once again at her children bouncing on the trampoline without a care in the world. Neil was her past. They were her only care now.

***

"Tell me what's going on Neil, why does Simon have this phone?" Josh looks across from the passenger seat, his hands grasping a little at the jeans on his upper legs.

"That's what I want to know Josh. I mean, it sounds like Simon has somehow acquired it, I don't believe he sent the images.

"Acquired?" Josh furrows his brow in confusion.

"Use your brain Joshua! Someone has planted the phone on him for some reason. A decoy maybe? Someone he obviously met last night. Someone who wants to stir up shit, now we need to work out who."

"Now you need to use your brain Neil. It's Pete, it has to be." Josh can feel his voice raise an octave.

Neil goes quiet. Pete would be the obvious culprit but somehow something still wasn't sitting right. "Josh, you obviously know Peter better than me, but even this seems a bit too clever for him. I mean the perpetrator has CCTV stills and everything."

"What do you mean CCTV stills? CCTV stills of what exactly?"

Neil begins to slow down the car. He pulls up along the roadside and turns to Josh. "You know I told you I had an awakening as to who I am. I played around Josh…  a lot and these images, well some of them were caught on CCTV and sent to Jen."  Neil tries to bring back Josh's gaze which had strayed from his. "Josh, I know I cheated on Jen. She knows I cheated on her, but I would never cheat on you. Please believe me."

Josh looks up and out of the window ahead of him. "You're right. This is beyond Pete."

Neil continues to look at Josh a little warily at the avoidance of the burning question. Was it that he trusted Neil, or that he refused to let himself think about it? "Josh…"

"I know you haven't cheated on me." He suddenly says, now meeting Neil's eyes. "You would be a fool to cheat. Look at what you have lost already. You're stuck with me now." He graces Neil with a smile.

Neil swallows down his relief again, turning his attention to the wheel. "Ok. Let's go see Simon."