The Halloween Incident

by Dawn Sister

  “Tristan!” Danny gasped, surprised, hurt and angry at his friend’s words, “That’s not true and you know it.” Tristan shoved past him though, unable to listen to Danny’s words or any apology that might be coming.

  He pulled off his pyjama pants and pulled on some jeans that were hanging on the towel rail, then he walked back into the bedroom completely ignoring the stunned looks that everyone was giving him. He was pulling on his trainers as Danny came out of the bathroom, his face pale, with anger and with distress. He reached out and grabbed Tristan’s arm,

  “Tris, what are you doing?” he asked, ignoring the other’s in the room who were watching in shock the show unfolding before them. Tristan stood up straight, pulling himself to his full height which was at least three inches taller than Danny. He pulled his arm from Danny’s grip, giving him a dangerous look, his blue eyes flashing with anger,

  “I’m goin’ out, Danny.” He said, “And don’t try an’ stop me, I don’t need you to protect me or fight my battles for me.” He turned and reached the door before Danny stopped him again,

  “Tris, you’re not going to find Troy are you?” Tristan gave him a direct, rebellious look, “Shit, Tris, at least let me come with you. I’m sorry that you think I believed what they were saying, I don’t I promise you, and I didn’t say what you wanted to hear. I meant everything I said to you last night and today.” He was still holding Tristan’s arm and he tried to convey his feelings through that hold, aware that everyone was listening intently. Tristan looked down at the hand gripping him and slowly gripped Danny’s fingers throwing the hand away from him,

  “Just leave me alone Danny,” he turned to leave and Danny made one last ditch attempt to persuade his friend to stay. He reached out again to grab Tristan’s arm,

  “Tris.” He pleaded but whatever else he was going to say was cut short as Tristan turned and his fist connected with Danny’s face. Danny reeled backwards with the force of the blow. Tristan disappeared through the door letting it slam shut behind him.

  The punch had elicited astounded and astonished gasps from their friends sitting around the room. Danny turned to face them all, his eyes wide and his hand cradling his reddening cheek. He didn’t care that they had heard everything and now must know that he and Tristan had slept together. He didn’t care that they would have a ton of questions to ask him about the argument they had just witnessed. What he did care about was that he had hurt Tristan’s feelings badly, and Tristan had hit him for practically calling him a slut to his face.

  He rushed over to his bed and fumbled for some jeans and trainers. He quickly changed in the bathroom and rushed to the door. He was aware that everyone was still watching him in stunned silence. He turned to face them,

  “You guys are going to have to let yourselves out. I’ll explain everything later, I promise, but right now I’m going after Tris because if he catches up with Troy I think he’ll kill him.” Danny wanted to kill him too, but he also knew that Troy had threatened to kill Tristan and that was what worried him most: what Troy was capable of. He couldn’t let anything happen to Tristan, not now, not ever.

  Chapter 9: Unconsidered decisions

  Tristan ran down the corridor, taking the stairs two at a time and didn’t stop until he was well out into the open and half way across the College campus. He had no idea exactly where he was going. He couldn’t go back to his dorm. He had no wish to face anyone sitting in there right now, especially Danny. After that punch he knew he had lost his friendship and his love. Danny wouldn’t want to have anything to do with him now. He’d said some hurtful things, true but Tristan had no call to hit him so hard. Danny would never forgive him and for Tristan that meant the end of his world.

  As he walked through the Campus tears streamed down his face. He had messed things up. His reputation had caught up with him and had quite literally blown up in his face. The one thing that meant something to him was suddenly out of reach and he knew the cause. He wanted to find Troy and rip his throat out but he didn’t know where to start.

  He found himself in the parking lot and made his way to his car. He had grabbed his keys and his phone as he had left the room. As he reached his car he glanced at his phone for the first time since the night before. There were forty three missed calls. Four of them were from Reuben within the last five minutes. He dismissed the ones from Roo, not wanting to get the twenty question treatment. There were notably none from Danny. He must be really mad. The rest were from friends and acquaintances, probably asking about last night. He didn’t want to speak to anyone about it, he dismissed them too. There were fifteen from an unknown number. Fifteen, from someone who had his number but he didn’t have theirs.

  He deleted his voicemails until he came to a one from the mystery number. Several were simply blank, with someone obviously on the other end but not able to think of what to say. The ninth or tenth one, Tristan lost count, was when the caller finally found their voice,

  “Tristan, I need to speak to you about last night. Please call me. I need to apologise.”

  Tristan stared at his phone hardly able to believe what he had just heard. It had been unmistakably Troy Parker. That was just too perfect, he wanted to find the bastard and here he was trying to find him too. No matter that he wanted to apologise; that he sounded beyond distressed in the message; Tristan was filled with anger right now over everything that had happened and Troy was the cause. Tristan hesitated before he called the guy back. He remembered Danny’s distress when he thought he was going to seek Troy out but he shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t going to put himself in the same situation as he had been in last night. He wasn’t drunk for one thing and he sure as hell wasn’t going to let Troy kiss him again. He called up Troy’s number and pressed call,

  “Tristan?” Troy’s voice sounded a mixture of surprise and relief,

  “Troy how the hell did you get my number you bastard?”

  “Does it matter? I need to speak to you, Tristan, there are some ugly rumours going around about last night, please can we meet?”

  Tristan leaned against his car and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his free hand. Troy sounded genuinely upset, perhaps the rumours were just that, and he hadn’t started them at all. He understood why he would be upset about any kind of rumour, since it had been him that made the first move and he definitely did not want anyone to know that he had kissed Tristan Gillman. Tristan however was intrigued by Troy’s behaviour. The memory of the kiss came back to him, how it had felt. Then he thought about Danny and everything that had happened between them since that kiss. He dismissed it all, Danny thought he was a slut; his friends thought he was a slut. So maybe he should live up to his reputation,

  “Okay, Troy, I’ll meet you. I’m in the parking lot right now. You know my car.” Of course he knew Tristan’s car; everyone knew Tristan’s bright red VW Beetle,

  “I can’t meet you here on Campus.” Troy’s voice hissed as if trying to keep someone from overhearing, “Do you know the bar on Seventy Ninth and West?” Tristan said that he did, “Meet me there in thirty minutes.”

  Tristan agreed then hit disconnect and got into his car. His phone buzzed as a call came through. He looked at the caller ID: Reuben again, damn him. And damn Danny, why wasn’t he calling? There could only be one reason for that: he didn’t want to speak to him, and Tristan sure as hell wasn’t going to call him.

  He started the engine, threw the car into gear and drove off.

  He drove out of the parking lot just as Danny reached it. He hadn’t been able to call because he had left his phone in his haste to catch Tristan. He had been running around the campus, asking people if they had seen Tristan, asking which way he had gone and finally finding out he was headed for the parking lot. Danny tried desperately to catch Tristan’s car but he was too far ahead and he watched in despair as the bright red beetle disappeared out of sight.

  He sat down on the nearest wall and buried his face in his hands, fighting back tears. He only hoped
Tristan was driving to calm down and not driving to meet Troy. He returned, miserably, to the dorm buildings. He met Reuben and the others on their way down from his room.

  Reuben wordlessly handed Danny his phone,

  “I tried to call him but I just got voicemail.” He said gently, “Do you want to tell us what the hell is going on?”

  Danny looked at him, wide eyed. He looked at all of them in turn; they all had the same questioning look on their faces. They had heard everything that he and Tristan had shouted at each other. He knew there was no point in trying to call Tristan when he was driving so he shrugged his shoulders and nodded,

  “Okay, guys, let’s go get something to eat and I’ll tell you what’s going on. But I need everyone to keep trying to get in touch with Tristan because I’m really scared he’ll do something stupid.”

  “You don’t think he’ll hurt himself do you?” Carly asked, concern etched on her pretty little face,

  “No, nothing like that,” Danny assured her, “I’m afraid he might be off looking for Troy.”

  “Troy isn’t on the Campus because there have been a lot of people looking for him this morning.” Reuben told Danny, his tone indicating that he was one of them. Jason and Scott had equally dark expressions on their faces,

  “Yeah well we all knew he was a damn coward. I’m scared for Tristan after what Troy did last night though. Tristan doesn’t often let people get the better of him.”

  They reached the Cafeteria and sat at a table. Danny didn’t feel much like eating but he ordered some dinner with the rest of the group and when they had all sat down he told them why he was so worried about Tristan catching up with Troy and what had really happened in the bathroom the night before.

  Chapter 10: Meeting Troy

  When Tristan pulled into the parking lot attached to the bar Troy was waiting for him outside, leaning against his truck. Tristan got out of his car and both men eyed each other up and down warily. Tristan was trying to determine whether Troy was going to start a fight there and then, in the parking lot, but he figured he would have picked a less public place than a busy mid town bar if he just wanted to beat him up again so he relaxed a little.

  Troy indicated with a jerk of his head that they should go inside. He pushed himself away from his truck and Tristan followed him with a shrug.

  Inside the bar Troy bought them both a beer and they sat in a booth, opposite each other, each with the determination not to be the first one to speak. They just glared at each other. The fact that neither of them had called the other a derogatory name yet made it perhaps the best meeting they had ever had.

  Troy was the first to cave in. He looked down at the table, shuffling his feet and looking decidedly uncomfortable under Tristan’s continued glare,

  “I’m sorry I hit you, Tristan.” He muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. Tristan was too stunned to even think of a clever retort, so unexpected was the apology. Troy had said it on the phone but he never expected one face to face. He just sat and stared at Troy wide eyed,

  “What the hell is goin’ on here Troy?” he asked, softly, “I thought you hated me and everything I am, but now you’re apologisin’ fer hittin’ me when it’s been your soul reason fer getting’ up in the mornin’ fer the last year ‘n a bit?”

  Troy looked away, a look of embarrassment and shame on his face. He muttered something else that Tristan didn’t quite catch above the soft duke box music playing over head,

  “Say again, Troy.”

  “I said, I don’t hate you.” He almost shouted causing several heads to turn towards them but then turn away because no one gave a damn. Tristan knew, from experience that that would be the case, but Troy blushed furiously, “I don’t hate you, Tristan.” He continued in a more careful and hushed tone, not looking Tristan in the eye, “I hate the way you make me feel, and I hate how confused that makes me almost all the time, but I don’t hate you.”

  Tristan sat back in his seat, his eyes wide with shock,

  “Goddam.” He exclaimed. He leaned forward again, his elbows resting on the table between them, “Are you coming out to me, Troy?” he asked incredulous, “Are you tellin’ me that you’re actually Gay?”

  Troy still could not look Tristan in the eye. He examined his beer bottle, pulling at the label nervously,

  “I don’t know, Tristan, I don’t know. But I know I can’t go on the way I have been. I need to talk to someone about it and the only person I know that might be able to give me any kind of advice is you.”

  “You want advice from me about being Gay?” Tristan asked, his eyes twinkling with amusement. This conversation was completely surreal. Troy’s expression was completely serious though and Tristan, who rarely took anything seriously, was suddenly unable to find anything funny to say. He remembered his own coming out and, though it hadn’t been all that traumatic it had still been stressful, worrying about how his friends and family would react. Mostly they had been supportive, especially his parents,

  “I know it sounds a bit screwy since we never got on from the very beginning, but I know that was partly my fault and my own problem, not yours. People respect you, Tristan, you’re so open and honest about what you are and you don’t give a damn what other people think.”

  “It ain’t like that all the time, Troy, I have my moments. Goin’ through most of High School as a gay guy was no picnic I c’n tell ya.”

  “But at least you had the freedom to do that. Your parents support you right?”

  “Yeah they do.”

  “If my dad knew I was even talking to you and not beating you up he’d fucking kill me, man, because to him if I’m not beatin’ on Fags then I must be one and the only way to cure that is to beat it out of me.”

  “Shit.” Tristan had friends whose parents had not been as supportive as his had been when they had come out but none of them had been beaten up by their family because of it. He suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for Troy who had obviously grown up in a very different environment. He could understand why Troy had said the things he had during their encounter at Halloween. That didn’t change the fact that Troy had beaten him up though, even if he had apologised for it, it still made him dangerous,

  “Thing is, Tristan,” Troy continued, looking if possible more uncomfortable, “I’ve never had a chance to act on the feelings I have because at home my dad would have killed me and here, I just got off on the wrong foot with anyone who I might have had a chance with. Sometimes I let my mouth act before my brain is in gear.”

  “Sometimes?” Tristan asked, smirking and Troy smiled for the first time, possibly since Tristan had met him,

  “Last night was the first time I had even come close to, well, getting close to you.” Tristan regarded him with shock,

  “So what are you sayin’ Troy, exactly?” Tristan was beginning to feel a little antsy about this whole meeting up thing. Troy looked directly at Tristan, his dark eyes were suddenly smouldering and Tristan’s blue ones widened,

  “I’m saying that I’m attracted to you Tristan. I have been since I first saw you. Last night, when we kissed, it was amazing. I wanted more but I was scared, that’s why I hit you, and I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Troy buried his face in his hands but Tristan didn’t have any urge to comfort him because there was something not quite right about this “performance”.

  There were other ways to come on to people other than beating them up in a public bathroom. Troy had had plenty of opportunities to speak to him over the year they had known each other. Tristan suddenly felt very vulnerable being here with him in this bar in a strange part of town. Surreptitiously he took his phone out of his back pocket. Troy noticed and a flicker of annoyance flashed across his face, then just as instantly disappeared. Tristan saw it though and felt his heart beat quicken, his fears confirmed, that this was all a performance on Troy’s part. He had no idea what Troy was up to and he really had no wish to be part of it any more. He knew he shouldn’t have come in the first place. He wished
he had listened to Danny.

  He stood up slowly, gauging Troy’s reaction,

  “Where are you going?” Troy asked, smiling, though it did not touch his eyes,