Chapter 19 Damon Reid vs. Tristan Thomas: An explosive encounter…Bombshell!

***

They sat eating pizza that they had ordered in, watching an episode of ‘Two and a Half Men’.

“God, Alan is hilarious,” Tristan said laughing uncontrollably.

“Tell me about it. Snooping in other people’s wallets, looking for ‘lose cash’. Imagine.”

“The guy’s a douchebag.”

“Talking of snooping.” Damon got up and went over to a similar monitor to the one in his bedroom. He picked it up and came to sit beside Tristan.

“Dude I said I wasn’t snooping. And I have apologized.” Tristan said quietly.

“Oh, I know Tristan. Just wanted to teach you how to operate this gadget very well. You see it has some interesting stuff on it which I know you’ll love to see.”

Damon pressed a button which brought out a lot of video clips as though they were on you-tube.

“Wow.” Tristan breathed. “Are all these on there?”

“Yep. Let’s check some out.” Damon clicked on one. It was a video clip of Damon and his mum laughing at something in his kitchen. Tristan smiled.

“You are a mummy’s boy.”

“Look who’s talking.” Damon retorted.

“Fuck off.” Tristan laughed.

They went through a number of clips till they got to one where Damon was sitting on a bed…not his bedroom…with a beautiful blonde. She had her head on Damon’s chest and he had his arms around her with his lips buried in her hair. Though they were fully clothed and were not moving at all, it was a very intimate posture. Tristan could feel his chest tightening.

“Who is that?” Tristan’s voice was barely above a whisper.

“That’s Maya,” Damon said in a casual voice.

“Okay. And who’s she?” Tristan’s asked already dreading the answer.

“That’s my fiancée. You…I thought you knew Tris.” Damon turned to look at Tristan.

“Knew what?” Tristan whispered, his face draining of all colour.

“Well we were supposed to get married about three months ago but she had to travel to Brazil for a stint. She’s a medical doctor. She’s due back next month. Then there’s going to be a wedding. I’m really not looking forward to it. Wish we could elope or something but our mothers will have none of that.”

Damon had said all this whilst looking on the monitor. He felt Tristan stand. Damon almost died when he looked up into Tristan’s face. Raw anguish shimmered in those lovely green eyes. Tristan looked lost. Shit!

“I’ve got to go,” Tristan said in a hoarse voice.

“Tris don’t tell me you didn’t know about Maya,” Damon said looking all serious.

“It doesn’t matter Damon. I know now don’t I? Thanks for telling me. See you around.” Tristan said heading towards the door.”

“Hey come on! I thought we were just having fun like two adults T.T. You’re going to just walk out the door because I have a fiancée?”

“Screw you, Damon.” Tristan shouted, anger taking over his emotions. So now he was T.T.? He used to hate Damon calling him Tristan but had come to love the fact that, he was the only person who actually did. “So you decided to screw around simply because your fiancée left town? Is that how you play with people’s emotions? My emotions? You call this fun?”

“Ow come on don’t tell me you didn’t enjoy all this Tristan. I have on record that you did.”

“You recorded us?” Tristan’s felt dizzy all of a sudden and had to sit down. He sat on a stool near the door. Damon was instantly on his knees beside him.

“Are you okay Baby?”

“I’m not your Baby. And get the hell away from me.” Tristan knew he needed to get out of there. But he didn’t want to stand and fall flat on his face in front of Damon. That would be the ultimate humiliation.

“Tris, this changes nothing. We can still have fun on the side.”

Before Tristan knew what he was doing, he pulled back his arm and let fly, catching Damon's jaw with a neat right.

"Fuck," Damon swore when Tristan's fist connected with his jaw.

“I can’t share you with anyone. Can’t you get that into your stupid head? Now stay the fuck away from me. From today onwards, all we are to each other are business partners. Nothing more.”

With that, Tristan stood up, grabbed his jacket from the stand, and left. Damon knew it was dangerous for Tristan to ride in his current mood. But also knew he wouldn’t accept a ride from him. He quickly grabbed the keys to his Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon, all the while rubbing his bruising jaw. What the fuck had he done?

Damon got into his car just as Tristan tore out of the parking shed. Damon sped after him. He only turned back when he saw Tristan enter the gate of his house. He didn’t want to linger and risk being spotted by the Thomases. Damon wanted to go in there after Tristan but knew he couldn’t. But he could feel. And it felt like his heart was being ripped out of his chest.

***

Sniffling into his pillow, Tristan waited for the hole in his heart to stop stabbing him with pain. He waited to not feel like his life was over. That’s all he felt though…that everything was over. What they had, obviously hadn’t meant anything to Damon. To him, it had just been meaningless sex. If anyone knew what sex for the sake of sex meant, it was Tristan. He knew all about meaningless sex, but he thought the two of them had connected on an emotional level. Apparently, he couldn’t have been more wrong. He’d never meant anything romantic to Damon. Nothing.

Tristan was no longer hurt, just kind of numb. He tried to ignore how dead he felt inside over the next few days. Nothing was vivid to him beyond the pain that throbbed through him like a constant dull ache. He lost weight and slept a lot without feeling rested. His mother was very worried and demanded to know what was going on but he couldn’t bring himself to tell her anything.

What scared Tristan, even more, was the day he woke up to find Adriana, his sister in bed with him. She said she had heard him crying and had come in to check up on him, only to find out that he had been crying in his sleep. She did the only thing she could…hold him through the night.

When morning came, Adriana wanted some answers. Nobody wanted to see their kid brother hurting so much.

“T.T.? What’s wrong?” She was all seriousness.

“Nothing Addie.” Tristan had replied in a croaky voice. Shit! He had actually been crying in his sleep? That was so fucked up.

Adriana was silent for a moment.

“T.T. this is me you’re talking to. What is it? Please tell me.” Her voice was soft and comforting, and that was Tristan’s undoing. Uninvited, his tears began to flow. He had cried so often in the last few days.

“Please T.T.” she pleaded, and the anguish in her voice reflected his.

“I’ll be fine.” He sobbed, holding on tightly to Adriana. Tristan knew he was a blubbering mess but couldn’t help it. Adriana held him till he quieted down.

Tristan felt drained, empty and dead inside.

Damn Damon Reid!