Michael pulls the white silk scarf from the box, feeling the expensive material slide luxuriously through his fingers. He plays with the scarf, wrapping it around his head, feeling it whisper across his bare torso, all the while steadily finishing the bottle of whiskey.
He even uses the scarf as an accessory when he gets up and dances, a little unsteadily on his feet, to the music echoing throughout his apartment.
~~~
"I didn't touch anything in your room!" Luke objects to Calum when he pulls him away by an elbow a little later on.
"That's not what I was going to say...I need you to do me a favour."
"What? Disappear?" Luke asks sarcastically.
"I gave up all hope of that happening a long time ago!" Calum reassures him, his words make Luke grin and listen. "I need you to take care of my Mum, make sure she doesn't work too hard. And help around the house, take out the rubbish..."
This conversation is harder than Calum thought it would be and it's not because of Luke looking at him in a concerned way, it's because now it's finally real. "And if you see that she's lonely, just sit with her and let her talk, even if you've heard it before. Because sometimes she just needs to know that someone's listening."
To Calum's relief Luke takes him seriously. "I promise," Luke assures him.
Sam looks over to the kitchen where the girls and Luke are laughing at something Jake is saying. He's only turned away for a few seconds when a pair of arms comes around him from the back, "I love your friends! They're like family!" Jake whispers in his ear.
"Not like. They are. Because we trust each other."
Sam pulls away from Jake's embrace, suddenly realising what Corey has been talking about all along. He and Jake can't go on like this, him never knowing where Jake is or what he's up to.
"Woah, you don't trust me?" Jake asks him, picking up on the tone as he turns Sam around to look at him.
"Do I have reason not to? I know you're using. Again. I found one of your little favours in the pocket of the suit I bought you." Sam watches Jake's face suddenly go white and his eyes change, going wary.
"Talk about trust!" Jake blusters.
"I wasn't looking for it!" Sam assures him. "It just fell out! You can believe me or not I don't care..." He adds when Jake shakes his head, clearly annoyed. "Since then I've been trying to pretend I didn't see it, only I can't. Not when I see you destroying your life..."
"I was afraid of disappointing you and failing again."
"Well yeah, you have. And I can't live with an addict. And I can't make love to an addict. And it sickens me to see what you're doing to a person that I love but who so obviously cares so little about himself. So I have no choice but to say goodbye."
"I don't want to be like this!" Jake tells him, angry with himself and breathless at being found out. Sam looks around the room to see who's watching. Luckily everyone, except for Corey, is occupied in their own conversations. Corey's been watching Sam from the other end of the room, looking out for his friend, but drops his gaze guiltily when Sam looks over.
"Then check yourself into rehab," Sam tells Jake in an urgent whisper.
~~~
Michael flicks the scarf up in the air, towards the roof of his loft, watching it fall time and again onto his face or chest. He tries again.
~~~
"It's harder than I thought, saying goodbye," Calum admits to Stephen in his old room, sitting slumped on his old bed, the one with the squeaky springs that used to keep Corey up in the middle of the night on the odd occasions Calum brought somebody back here. "It's a good thing we're leaving first thing in the morning!"
YOU ARE READING
Queer as Muke
Fanfiction"The thing you need to know is, it's all about sex. It's true. In fact they say men think about sex every twenty-eight seconds. Of course that's straight men. With gay men it's every nine." Twenty nine year old advertising executive Michael Cliffor...
