Quarantine Bae

Quarantine Bae Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Tivonte’s POV

“Are you OK?” I ask Jared.

“I’m fine. How long do I have to be in here?”

“Just until we know that you don’t have it…”

He stays quiet. The longer he doesn’t respond the worse I feel about it. I hate just hearing my friend's low distant depressed tone in his voice.

After a few seconds I knock on the door again, “Jared? Jared can you hear me…”

“It’s fine. Just...leave me alone. I just want to be left alone…”

I feel guilty when he tells me that. I don’t know if he blames me and the scary thing is that I’m scared to ask. I just sit there at the door for a second and put my hand on the door wanting so much to open it and go in but I couldn’t.

Now that we had found him...he was under quarantine.

So I walk away going back in the living room where the others are gathered around in this weird complete silence as though they were waiting on me to come back into the room.

“Well?” Ken asks when I don’t say something immediately.

“Well what?”

“What did he say?”

I shrug, “Nothing. He just wants to be left alone. I think he’s upset.”

It’s Saint who nods and says, “Understandable. With what he just went through.”

What he went through. That was the thing. I had no idea what Jared had been through.  

“How’d you find him?” I ask him.

We are all in the living room. Soul, Ken, Saint, and me. Even Saint’s son Squeak was sitting quietly in the corner. Not Jared though. We’d found Jared (or should I say Saint found Jared) but Jared could have been sick for all we knew. He was trapped in the basement with a sick homeless guy.

“I just heard some stuff when I was on the staircase and remembered we had a basement, I went down there and Jared was locked in there…”

“How the fuck is that possible?”

It’s Ken who shakes his head, “Someone locked him in there….”

“Who?”

The more I think about the fact that Jared was attacked the more I get pissed off. Who the fuck would do that to Jared. Everyone in the house loved him. Even Squeak, who just so happened to be one of the meanest little boys I’d met in my life. The thing about Squeak is that we all knew that he and Jared had a connection and it was clear the kid was missing his best friend.  

Saint shrugs, “That’s the thing. No one knows…”

I feel like I’m in the twilight zone by how calm everyone is acting about this. Ken has his arms crossed like a kid who just had his lunch stolen. Saint didn’t have much better of a reaction. His face had this pale lost look. Neither of them had anything on Soul though. Soul was just looking out. He’d been rather silent for a while and today was no different. It had gone even further. He was barely present.

I am pacing back and forth, feeling this heaviness on my heart, “Someone pushed him in there…”

“That’s what Jared thinks,” Saint corrects me, “He could have been mistaken.”

“My friend wouldn’t mistake being assaulted,” I assure him, “Someone fucking pushed him in there!”

“Not if he was in his right mind,” Ken adds in out of nowhere, “But I heard the Dark Fever eats at your brain.”

“I heard the same thing,” Saint mods.

“He doesn’t have the fuckin Dark Fever,” I say.

Ken shrugs almost mockingly, “He was in a room with some sick bastard for God knows how long, bae. You don’t know that…”

I should have corrected myself from before. Everyone loves Jared but Ken. The way that he keeps even suggesting that Jared is sick kind of turns me off.

“Someone attacked him.”

“No one attacked your fuckin boyfriend!” Soul barks out of nowhere but then turns his head to Ken and retracts saying, “Oh my bad—-you are his boyfriend. I take that back.”

The awkwardness sets in thick. I give Soul this look. He avoids eye contact with me and that pisses me off even more. Who says something like that in front of a man who was in a relationship? My boyfriend already felt some type of way about Jared. If he felt some type of way before this then things had just been increased tenfold and the awkwardness had dug into each of us like a screw.  

I can feel a lot of the heat coming from Ken. It was as though Soul had thrown my entire relationship into a furnace with one single comment.

Ken has this ready look in his eyes.

“Wow…” Ken says.

All of a sudden I’m desperate. I don’t want Ken feeling this way and everything in me wishes that he could just fix this.

“Baby, I don’t know what the fuck that comment was about…”

“I do,” Ken argues, his face getting blurred up, “Everyone can see how you feel about your best friend. You are in love with Jared…”

Just at that moment in the distance I notice the door is open. Jared hasn’t stepped outside of the bedroom but he’s standing there. He’s heard everything that Soul and Jared have said. And the worst thing about all of this is that I can’t read his reaction. I have no idea what is going on in his head.

Staring at Jared I feel stuck. My eyes shoot from Jared to Ken and truthfully it feels like all the feelings that I had bottled up for almost a year have come bubbling to the surface.  

And what’s shocking is the only words that I can mutter are a soft, “Damn…”

“Are you not going to deny it?” Ken asks me, “We are all here, Tivonte. Go ahead and deny the fact that you are in love with your best friend. Deny the fact that you’ve been in love with him this entire fucking time…”

I turn. Jared is looking at me dead in my eyes. It would have been so easy to deny it but then I remember the conversation that I’d had with Saint on that rooftop. I remembered how confused I was about who to choose between Jared and Ken. I remembered how stuck I’d been that entire time. How could I just deny Jared again after all that?

So instead of denying Jared again I just drop my head to the ground.

“It’s complicated…”

Fuck. The heaviness of it all comes down in the room like a sledgehammer. This seems to tickle the fuck out of Soul for whatever reason. He begins this steady roll of laughter as though he stepped into a comedy room.

“We all chasing the same fuckin guy…” he says out of nowhere and truthfully his comment doesn’t even make sense.

I’m wondering exactly what Soul means by we all were chasing the same guy. It was a weird comment. But turning around I can see the confusion in Jared’s eyes.

“What’s happening?” Jared asks from a distance with his door open.

“You can have him,” Ken barks.

Ken storms to his roommate at that moment. My heart is racing realizing I might have just fucked up one of the first serious relationships I’d ever managed to maintain. Seeing him storm off to his room was like feeling someone take a knife to my back. The fact is I knew he was trying to pack up his stuff to leave.

I grab him trying to stop him, “Ken please...don’t leave. I don’t want you to leave…”

I want to say so much more. I want to tell him how much I love him or explain that the feelings I had for Jared existed even before he came into the picture or even explain for a moment that it’s too dangerous for him to be out there. None of that comes out though and my weak plea just causes him to jerk his arm away harshly while he storms to the bedroom.

I’m left there wondering how the fuck any of this happened and the only thing that comes to mind is one name and one name only.

Soul.

Before I know it I’m seeing red. Before I know it I’m in Soul’s face. We were both y’all but I was a little bit bulkier. He had this slim model shape to him and I wanted to break that thin look that he had straight in half.

“Why the fuck would you say that?” I ask Soul, turning to him aggressively.

He still had this fucking smirk on his face as though he was disengaged from the conversation and watching some comedy on Netflix or something.  

He shrugs, “Tivonte, you been going around acting like you fuckin Jared so I said what everyone else has been thinking.”

“You are staying with me, bitch. You going to disrespect me in my own apartment?”

“You just call me a bitch.”

“Yeah bitch. And if you don’t like it you can get the fuck out.”

As soon as I drop the bitch word I know that the relationship between me and Soul will never be the same. The truth is we were both hotheads. He was playing this whole emotionally complex guy who didn’t give a fuck about other people really well but he’d definitely met his match this time. I tried to dive in.

“Guys, let’s calm down….” Saint tries to ease the tension getting between his brother and me.  

At this point Ken has stuffed his duffel bag full of stuff and is heading towards the door. All I see is red wondering if Soul’s comment has just cost me my relationship.

“Your brother is a bitch. I’m not going to have this kind of disrespect in my apartment,” I state.

I meant it too. Soul had this nasty spirit about him ever since he killed that guy at the grocery store. It wasn’t the same guy I had met initially. He seemed somewhat more...angry. And I didn’t want to be around someone who would start some shit like he did tonight for no clear reason.

He’d known Ken was my boyfriend and not Jared. He did this to start shit.  

As though knowing what will get under my skin he smiles loosely, “Truth hurts. I guess. I’ll be glad to leave here...I’ll go stay upstairs.”

“I’ll go stay too,” Ken states crossing his arms, “If that’s OK with you guys.”

“It’s over 100 degrees up there…” Saint tries to argue with his brother.

“I think we’d rather stay there then in this hell hole with this piece of shit.”

Hearing Ken say the word he does is almost like a slap in the face. In a matter of seconds he and Soul leave the apartment slamming the door in my face. All of a sudden I realize just how ducking stupid I look in all of this. All of a sudden I realize just how fucked up of a circumstance I’ve found myself in.

I’d single-handed my destroyed our little group. Jared has closed his door again locking himself in his room. I’m still embarrassed about the forced confession and I have no idea what my best friend thinks of me right now.

And through all of this, Saint has this look on his face. This look that tells me that this isn’t the end of the bad news tonight.

“We need them…” he says out of nowhere.

“For what?”

“There’s something you don’t know. When we were outside looking for Jared we ran into Jay Boom. He knows where we live and I have reason to believe he and his gang will show up here any day now…”

All of a sudden shit went from bad to worse. Jay Boom could come back at any moment looking for revenge.

  The group was fractured during one of the worst times possible.  

~

Days go by and there is thankfully no sign of Jay Boom.  

“Hand me a hammer.”

“I got you bro…” Saint says, “Thanks for helping me prepare for this. God knows if Boom is going to come. Better to be prepared.”

Saint never went into detail about how Boom found out about our location but I trusted Saint. That was saying a lot too. With Soul and Ken upstairs and with Jared isolating, I’ve been spending a lot of time with Saint and his son Squeak and honestly I have been enjoying them both.  

And as much as I’ve been enjoying them the truth was that I missed my relationship. Ken wasn’t perfect. Not by a long shot but that was my person. He was the guy who was there for me and the truth is I wanted to find a way to make it work with him.

“Maybe he won’t show up,” I shrug..

We are boarding up the windows. It’s Saint’s idea for the most part. He is the careful, responsible one. He also comes up with the idea of crafting weapons that we have laid around the house. We gather a bunch of household materials that can be used as weapons all in the living room from broomsticks, to socks full of pennies to old dining room table legs. The truth was though it was scary wondering if any of this stuff would be enough. Jay Boom still has so many other people.

Saint shakes his head, “Soul killed his son. This man is going to show up…”

I sigh, “You got a point.”

I knew Jay Boom from jail. He wasn’t the kind of person to just leave things behind. Things had escalated past the point of no return and now all we could do is wait and see what the hell sorts of fury he would rain down on us.

The question is: we prepared to meet him when we were

“We need to have everyone here in case he does. You need to go make up with Ken...and my brother,” he offers.

Saint has really become like an older brother figure to the rest of us. It was to the point where Ken and Soul were communicating through him. Clearly they were uncomfortable in Saint's apartment but their pride wouldn’t let them deal with it.

“So how’s it feel to be surrounded by a bunch of gay guys and their drama?” I ask grabbing the hammer from Saint.

“I don’t look at it like that. We are all just people trying the best to get through this virus outbreak as best as we can…” Saint says.

“Honestly everyone’s has turned their backs on me. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know how I’d be getting through this.” I state.

“That’s not true. Jared has just been isolating. Soul is going through his own personal issues. And Ken…”

He pauses. The pause says it all.

“Ken hates me…”

It’s scary to even admit it out loud. For so long Ken has been the only consistent in my life and ever since this whole confession thing he hasn’t even been able to say two words to me.

Saint crosses his arms, “You’re a good guy Tivonte. I wouldn’t worry so much about Ken. Ken is…”

He pauses.

“What?” I ask.

Saint looks like he’s struggling with it at that moment. Whatever he wants to tell me just seems to be stuck in his mouth and unable to get out.

“Listen I hate getting involved in things like this…”

“You were saying something about Ken…right?”

“Yeah but…”

Saint stops talking. He turns around a full 360. He had this nervousness in his eye. He stares from me to the nails and back again. I wasn’t an idiot. I knew when someone knew more then they were letting on and Saint definitely looked like he had a story to tell. The only thing was that he definitely didn’t look like he willing to tell it.  

“We are homies right?” I ask him.

“Of course…”

“Then say what you got to say,” I stage but maybe, I don’t know, maybe you and Ken breaking up is a sign. Maybe you dodged a bullet.

I swallow my spit. There’s something on my mind that I’ve been trying to say.

“Maybe you dodged a bullet.”

“Why would you say something like that? I love that him...”

I’m defensive of him. My relationship wasn’t perfect with Ken. We both had insecurities in the relationship. We argued constantly. We sometimes were both pettier then we would have liked to admit. But the thing was that we had passion. The passion between Ken and I was something that was like a wildfire. It sparked everywhere we went. And I knew nothing would be able to replace that. Not even whatever feelings I had with Jared.  

“Ken has been cheating on you…”

I drop the hammer at that moment. It hits the ground in a loud thud. I’m shocked at first. It feels like a million bricks have just been pounded into my stomach with what happens with Saint. I just feel this fucking numbness in my body.

“Fuck…”

He is studying my face...hard. The way he looks at me just makes it very clear that this man isn’t lying.  

“You know this as a fact?” I ask him.

He doesn’t answer with words. He just nods. It’s the slowest saddest nod I’d ever experienced in my life. The way that he looks at me afterward is almost like I’m some injured animal that he’s hit with his car. I’m on the side of the fucking highway bleeding out. And there’s nothing I can do about it.

After the nod I just look away. Boarding up the windows has made the apartment darker then it’s ever been. A gloom has set up through the house that I couldn’t shake.

The Dark Fever has changed everything.

“I need a moment,” I state, stepping away.

“Are you OK?” He asks me.

I don’t respond. The truth was I wasn’t OK. The truth was after knowing that Ken was cheating on me I didn’t know if I could ever be OK again.  

~

“Saint wanted me to check up on you…”

I get to the other side of the door with Jared. Truthfully He’s been keeping to himself for the most part. Jared was always a loner who could lose himself in manga cartoons and fantasy more than anyone I knew. So when I go to check up on him I don’t expect him to really notice or care if anyone was checking up on him.

“Why didn’t he come himself?”

I shrug, “I don’t know. You guys cool?”

I’ve been feeling this weird tension between the two. It’s the kind of tension that comes around after an argument. But they hadn’t had an argument that I was aware of. Why would they argue? Saint and Jared were two of the nicest people I knew in my life. They got along so well.  

Still for some reason Saint wasn’t really checking in on Jared like I thought he would. They’d forced such a great friendship on their own terms that I expected some sort of interaction while Jared was quarantined but it was the opposite. Saint made sure to stay clear or Jared’s room at all cost.

And I had the feeling Jared was picking up on that as much as I did.

“We’re fine. I’m fine with everyone. I just need to take my mind off of things.”

I could only imagine. We’d been quarantined for weeks now and it was driving us all crazy. I couldn’t imagine how it would feel to be limited to a room instead of a house. It was like Jared was in his own prison and with everyone else gone and Saint ignoring him I really felt bad for him.

”We can help each other friend...” I hear myself saying.

I’m behind the door of Jared’s room. It’s the next day. Usually in the morning Soul and Ken would come downstairs asking for food. They’d usually go Saint who would help them carry some of the food upstairs for them. Today was no different. A part of me wanted to be angry. A part of me wanted to be petty and keep my food for myself but I was in so much pain that I couldn’t even think about being petty.

All I could think of the pain.

And there was only one person on this planet that could make me feel any better about any of it.

“I’m here for you,” Jared says on the other side of the door.

I couldn’t see him. We had the door separating us. Jared hasn’t shown any signs but because of his exposure to the homeless man we wanted to make sure that we were taking every precaution possible.

“Can’t you just come from around the other side of the door for a minute?” I ask him, “I just need to see you…”

I can hear the hesitation even before he responds, “You know I can’t…”

I shake my head, “Did you know too?”

“Know what?”

“Ken was cheating on me. Saint let me know out of that he was sure Ken was cheating.”

I can hear Ken sigh deeply as though hearing all the pain in my voice and taking it internally, “Saint told you that? Damn…”

“So you didn’t know?”

“No not for sure but…”

I’m confused, “But what…”

There is this long pregnant pause. It’s the kind of pause that makes you really uncomfortable when you are having a serious conversation. It’s the kind of pause that lets you know that it had crossed his mind.

“I’m not surprised. It’s just we both know then Ken LOVES sex. He had the sex drive of a married politician.”

I choke up a little bit, “Don't make me laugh.”

“Ken is a sign of your maturity. A sign of you wanting more out of life.

“A sign that fucks…” I add-in.

We laugh for a moment. Only someone who has walked in on me and Ken having sex as much as Jared had would understand the emphasis I was putting on our sex life. Ken's sex was something out of this fuckin world.

“Is that all that matters to you though?”

“No, you matter too…”

I say it out of nowhere. I know it’s going to be awkward. But for some reason I can’t help myself. It just slips out of my mouth. And I let the awkwardness simmer between us.  

After a few quiet moments he says, “Be serious Tivonte…”

“I am. I wasn’t joking when I said what I said. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if you and I gave it a shot…”

I know he isn’t expecting this. We’d been friends so long that it felt awkward. It felt awkward me even saying it but I don’t think I have a choice at this point. I have to let him know that I’ve thought about it. I had to let him know that I’ve at least considered it.

After a few awkward moments he turns away from me, “You don’t know what you’re talking about…”

That’s when I get desperate to show him exactly what I'm talking about.  

Together, two strangers in this large town, him and I were inseparable; having no friends but each other, we spent every hour of the day together. Maybe that’s why I take a step closer to the threshold of the door. Too close.

“You need to be careful,” he warns me, “I could have it. I could have the Dark Fever.”

“I’m willing to take that risk…”

Besides if he had the Dark Fever he would have shown symptoms by now, no doubt. Maybe it would have been the black swear or the heavy breathing. Jared didn’t show any of those signs. He was just as beautiful and handsome as he was all those years ago when I first met him.  

So I step over the threshold into his room.

“What’re you doing?”

This would be just one more way in which their bonds of friendship would be cemented. For Jared he still thought of it as friendship.

“Remember when we first met? Night after night, I had climbed into the large soft bed beside you and reveled in the companionship?”

“Yeah.”

Even back then my love for my friend filled every crevice of his heart. But when I had gotten with Ken a lot of that dynamic had gone away.  

I walk over to him and stroke the side of his face unconcerned about his quarantine. I knew the feelings were more than friendship. Jared had turned his own body to the tiles of his bedroom wall to hide his reaction.

The room was dark from the boarded windows. Jared had done them himself and he hadn’t don’t that good or a job. A bit of light leaked through.

“You don’t know what you’re doing?”

He retreats to his bed. He gets under the covers faking being sick. He was breathing hard now but I had the feeling it had nothing to do with him having the Dark Fever. He was frightened. And I had to admit it excited me that I could get this reaction from him.

Now, in the darkness, my hand reaches beneath the covers. He groaned a sigh of both pleasure and relief as he felt my warm fingers gingerly trace their way around his throbbing cock and then grasp it firmly.

It was hard. Like I imagined.

“I’m always hard when I’m alone,” he lies, half surprised by me grabbing him, half embarrassed.

I wriggled closer and slipped his free arm under Jared’s neck, cradling him. I pressed my lips to my friend’s ear.

“Well you’re not some anymore,” I whispered and began to stroke his hard dick slowly and rhythmically.

“What about Ken?” murmured Jared, turning on his side to face me in the darkness.

Pleasure seeing his mouth open as he tried not to enjoy us moving past this threshold forked like lightening up my spine. My voice was raw as he answered: “I’ve been thinking about that. And I figure it doesn’t apply to this situation. He lied to me. He was cheating on me. After talking to Saint I’m sure he was cheating on me. I want this. Unless there’s a reason that YOU don’t want to do this.

He could crush me in this moment if he wanted. He could tell me he just didn’t look at me in that way. It would possibly tear me apart.

Jared’s. hips started to move and I had to wait several seconds for my friend’s response. It came fractured with heaving breathing.

“I thought I had a reason but the more I think of it...I don’t…”. He pants.  

“Oh, well then we both don’t have a reason not too. But maybe I can give you a reason to do this,” I groan.

I planted a kiss on Jared’s bare chest and grazed his lips down the expanse of skin, shifting my body until he had no choice but to press his hard dick against my abdomen.  

Beneath the heavy panting, in the humid warmth of the bed, I pulled Jared’s hips toward my face and slid the now fully-erect cock between my lips. He felt a shudder rack my friend’s body and heard his gasp in delight. I held Jared’s hips steady as I sucked and lapped at the steadily engorging dick in my mouth. He gasped and twitched in response as I felt my own throbbing member eagerly enrobed in warm wet heaven. We lay like that, side by side, pleasuring each other like blind, hungry pups feeding on their mother.

Suddenly, Jared stopped and whispered jaggedly. “This will change everything?”

I pulled away a little to respond. “Maybe it should. Maybe we should let it change everything…”

He pauses, “I…”

“There is a reason. A reason you are resisting me..,”. I said urgently, breathlessly.

“It’s just…”

He tries to get it out but I don’t give him the chance. I dove back to the business of pleasure, holding the base of Jared shaft tight in his hand as I sucked noisily.

“Stop Tivonte please,” Jared attempted to resist me but and I slid an arm over my friend’s ass to pull him closer.

“Stop. Stop…”

His mouth was saying one thing but his body’s as saying another.  

Seconds later, Jared’s hips began to buck and I held on tight, riding out the final thrusts before feeling the first hot spurt of semen flood my mouth. My friend came hard, moaning so loud that I swear something has gone wrong. Sealing my lips tight around the pulsing cockhead, I sucked, swallowing the waves of thick, sticky fluid as they came.

The taste, the heat, and the force of it drove me to the edge of oblivion and it wasn’t more than a minute later that I felt my balls seize and force burning seed up into my own buried prick. I thrust and groaned, his body arching back as he emptied on Jared’s bed.  

This was the river of pleasure, I thought as I caught. breath wriggled around and enfolded Jared in my arms. This is the river with no origin and no delta, the river that never runs dry. I tasted Jared on my lips still as I turn to him,

I attempt to kiss him but he withdraws.

“I told you to stop…”

“Why? Why would I stop? You wanted it just as much as me. You’ve been single this whole time…”

“That doesn’t mean I’m emotionally available…”

I look in his eyes and I see this look of pure regret in them. It’s hard to understand why the hell he would regret it.

“You’re really mad. It’s not like you want someone else...or...or do you?”

His silence speaks volumes. Just at that moment all I can do is think about who it is. The person who has been wanting Jared this entire time was very clear. He had gone out of his way to seduce him.

The same motherfucker who possibly cheated with Ken.

Soul.

Jared shakes his head, “Maybe I’m interested in someone else. Regardless of whether I get with that person or not that isn’t the point. The point is I don’t want to be your rebound…”

I’m ready to argue with him. He wasn’t a rebound. He needed to know that. He needed to know that.

Before I get the chance to say something the door swings open. I’m shocked when it happens because I don’t think there’s anyone who is rude enough to do that. When the door swings open I’m shocked to see that it is Saint.

Saint just stands there. He looks shocked I believe when he stands there. I mean me and Jared were definitely in a compromising situation. If our dicks being out didn’t give it away then the smell of sex in the air definitely did.  

“Saint…” I hear Jared murmur his name softly in the darkness.

Saint just keeps staring at us in complete silence. It’s so weird and it’s making things a million times more awkward.

“Did you want something?” I finally ask.

“I need your help…” he says, “It’s my brother. He’s snapped…”

~

I’m unsure of what he means by his brother has snapped until we get to the rooftop. There we see Ken who is shaking by the stairwell. I’m confused about what is going on but as we get closer I see why they are all looking so upset.

Soul is standing there at the very top the staircase. He looks like any moment now he is going to jump.  

“He won’t talk to me,” Saint says, “He says that if I get close to him that he’s going to kill himself.”

That’s when it hits me that Soul was suicidal.  

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