MARSHALL APARTMENT
"How ya doin'?" Jason asks as Alex
lets him into the apartment.
"Good. Better than I thought I'd
be," Alex says. He shuts the door and locks it without thinking twice about
it.
"Yeah, that must be weird." It looks
to Alex as though Jason is studying him, like he's trying to determine
how Alex is really dealing with the events of last night.
"I'm sorry," Jay says suddenly.
"Sorry? For what?"
"For letting the cat out of the bag.
Or ..." The familiar twinkle of amusement flashes in Jason's face and Alex
feels relieved. "... out of the closet, as the case may be."
Alex laughs a laugh full of not only
amusement, but relief. His friend is still here, and he's not acting strangely.
He's not letting what has happened between them change the way he acts
or speaks.
"Don't be," Alex says firmly. "You
have no need to be sorry. It needed to happen. I was going to tell Lauren
-- I had to. That was why I brought her upstairs."
"That made me worry, dude. I was
wondering what the hell you were up to." Jason strolls over to the couch,
leaning up against its back.
"I was about to go down that road
all over again. When she kissed me ... It was like I fell back into it,
like I wanted to make it work so I wouldn't have to deal with any of this.
Except that there was this other part of me -- this part that was never
there before -- that was telling me I didn't need to do that anymore."
"Good! I'm really happy you got to
this point. It's no small feat."
"Yeah ..." With a heavy sigh, Alex
turns around, hands stuffed deep into his pockets. "I guess."
Jason is quiet for a moment while
he tries to read what is going on. "What's wrong?"
From the back, he watches Alex's
shoulders shrug. "I don't know. It's just ... weird -- being at this point.
That I actually did it, you know?"
"Yeah, I bet." Jason comes off the
couch and stands up. He is tempted to cross the patch of carpet standing
between himself and Alex and offer a comforting hand on the shoulder or
something, but somehow it doesn't seem appropriate.
"Can I ask you a question?"
Alex's inquiry -- a request for permission,
really -- cuts into the silence swiftly and suddenly.
"Uh, yeah. Of course," Jason says.
"Okay. Well ..." Alex balls his fists
together and begins cracking his knuckles. "Now that we're getting everything
out on the table, there's something I need to know."
Jason swallows hard. "Yeah ... ?"
"Yeah." Deep breath. "Why are you
doing this -- being so good to me, I mean? Why haven't you freaked out
and bailed yet?"
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