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Date Posted: 01:42:33 04/20/06 Thu
Author: Sunny
Subject: Love - Part 2
In reply to: Sunny 's message, "Love" on 22:39:07 04/15/06 Sat

I couldn’t believe this was really happening… as much as I loved him, I never expected it would actually become more than just that – me loving Keith… and I certainly hadn’t thought he felt the same way. Maybe I should have seen it. Looking into his eyes over the last few days, I’d seen something there that I’d never noticed before: love… I’d seen his love for his music, his love for his mum, his love for his fans all there in his eyes, but this was new, different, exciting – it was love for me. Maybe our closeness had shaded my view, prevented me from seeing it. Maybe my confidence that there wasn’t anything I didn’t know about him kept me from looking… kept me from suspecting there was anything new to see in those beautiful blue eyes of his. I wondered if he’d seen it in mine. I wondered if he’d known all along. I made a mental note to ask him someday.

I rearranged myself on the couch, positioning myself next to Keith, placing my head on his shoulder and putting an arm across his chest. He wrapped his arm around me and I sighed contentedly. We’d always been the kind of friends who would hug and cuddle on the couch, but this was different, and I liked it… loved it, in fact. I loved how his strong arms felt when he wrapped them around me and I loved the feel of the rise and fall of his toned chest as he breathed. I loved his warmth and the smell of his cologne. I loved how someone so strong could be so gentle. How someone who had been through as much as he had could be so loving and happy. He could be a real pain sometimes, I had to admit, and there were times that he was a real ass, but that was Keith… human in every way, as hard to believe as that may have been for some people.

He laughed, interrupting my thoughts, and I looked up at him as he smiled and pointed to the television. “Did you just see that?” He asked, still laughing.

“I really wasn’t paying attention, sorry,” was my answer. Apparently deciding that whatever it was he was laughing at was far too funny for me to miss, he got up from the couch and re-enacted the entire scene from Family Guy. I was in tears from laughing by the time he finished… whatever it was he had laughed at on the T.V. was probably not nearly as hysterical as what I’d just witnessed. He was a decent enough actor, but voices definitely weren’t his forte, and something about Stewie having an Australian accent was simply hilarious.

“I told you it was funny,” he announced, returning to his seat and hugging me before re-positioning himself to finish watching the show.

“It was indeed.” I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it was him I was laughing at, more than what he was saying.

It was so good to see him like this – with such a thirst and passion for life. There had been a time when he’d lost that, when he wasn’t the fresh-from-Australia Keith I had befriended or the man I knew now. I knew that this Keith had been there all along, he was simply suppressed, trapped by depression and unhealthy habits. I remembered how sad and weak he sounded when I got the phone call one night that had forever changed me and our friendship, but had been the ultimate cause of our closeness to each other. It was that phone call that had simultaneously broken my heart and made us the nearly inseparable friends we were.

“Hope?” Came the weak voice over the phone. I wouldn’t have recognized it, were it not for the accent.

“Hi Keith.” I didn’t like how he sounded.

“Hope?” He said again, this time with more urgency.

“Yeah Keith, I’m here. What’s wrong sweetheart?”

“Could you come over here? Please?”

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on first?”

“She left… I don’t want to be alone… please Hope?”

His voice had me worried, something was very wrong, something more than he was telling me. “I’ll be there as fast as I can. What are you doing right now?”
“Sitting on the couch.”

“Don’t move – stay put, I’ll be there in a few minutes. Promise me you won’t move.” He’d never broken a promise to me, I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I knew that if I could make him promise to stay put, he would.

“I promise.”

“Alright, I’ll be there as quick as I can. See you in a minute.”

“Thank you, Hope.”

“You don’t need to thank me. Bye hun.”

“Bye.”

I set down the phone and looked up at Holly who was sitting across the table from me, looking confused. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure, completely, but I’ve got to go to him.”

“Hope, I wish you wouldn’t. I know he’s your friend, but the boy is into some bad things… and he lives in a terrible part of town. It worries me.”

“I know, but I’ll be fine. We’re friends… he won’t let anything happen to me, no matter what issues he’s having.”

“Just be careful.”

“Always. I’ve got to go… lock up when you leave. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

I jumped into my car and sped across town, risking speeding tickets and goodness only knows what else. It could only have been an act of God that kept me from getting stopped by any traffic lights or pulled over by one of Nashville’s finest. Keith had never sounded like that before… as long as his addiction had been going on, he’d never sounded that bad and it scared me. I was too concerned for Keith to worry about his dodgy neighbors as I got out of my car and ran up to his door, letting myself in.

The sight I was met with when I opened his door was one that I wasn’t ready for. Keith was sitting on the couch, like he’d promised to be, but he didn’t look well. His clothes were wrinkled; his face was pale and tear-stained. His coffee table was covered with little wads of toilet paper, the rest of the roll resting in his lap. I was relieved at what I didn’t see... beer cans and worse, objects that had become an all too familiar part of visits to Keith. There were no signs of his girl, save a ring lying on the floor, just inside the door.

I went to him and sat down next to him, pulling him into my arms. I held him while he cried and I cried with him, letting him get it all out before I asked him any questions. I knew this was what he needed. Details could wait.

He cried for a long time. When his tears finally ran out, he pulled back slightly and sniffed, pulling some more toilet paper off of the roll. “I think I may have ruined your shirt.”

I looked down and I did in fact have a large wet spot in my shoulder area. “It’s alright, Keith, it’s just a shirt. Do you wanna tell me what happened?”

He drew a ragged breath and sighed. “She said she couldn’t ‘do this’ anymore. She said I was too much to handle…she said she didn’t love me anymore… she said I’m not the man she fell in love with. I want to stop all this… all the…the bad stuff. I lost her; I’m losing my friends… I don’t want to lose myself… I don’t want to be alone.” There were things he wasn’t saying, but he didn’t need to, I could see it in his eyes, read it on his face, and hear it in his voice.

“You’ll never lose me, and I won’t let you lose yourself… and you’re never alone. When did she leave?”

“Last night. I’ve spent the day thinking… and praying… Hope, I need help. I can’t do this alone.”

He looked at me, his blue eyes pleading with me. For the first time in a long time, they were clear. I saw Keith there – not the drugs, not the alcohol… it was him.

We packed up some of his clothes and a few necessities and went back to my apartment. This would be easier, he’d decided, if he wasn’t in the place the bad things had happened. I called into work sick for the following few days and stayed with him. It was hard to see my friend like that, but it had been worth it in the end.

He lived with me for almost 2 years. He was only going to stay until he “got back on his feet,” but it worked out best for us both for him to just stay. He left when I started seeing Derrick and he was touring a lot, playing any gig that came his way and living mostly from his bus, though he’d rented a small house not far from me.

“Hope?” The sound of his voice brought me out of my reverie and I smiled at him. “You’re doing an awful lot of that today.”

“An awful lot of what?”

“Letting your mind wander. Is there something you want to talk about?”

“No, just thinking.”

“About?”

“You.”

“Good things, I hope.”

“Always.”

He hugged me tightly and kissed me quickly, but bringing his lips back to mine moments later for a deeper and more passionate kiss. The need for oxygen forced us to break and he pressed his forehead to mine, putting his hands on my shoulders and running them down my arms to hold my hands, though only for a few seconds before moving them back up, tangling one in my hair as we kissed again, leaving the other free to roam. I felt him pull at the hem of my shirt and then slip his free hand underneath. I gasped at the feel of his hand on my bare skin and he stopped kissing me and removed his hand.

“Sorry.”

“Sorry? For what?”

“I know how you are… I know you prefer to wait a while…I…”

I cut him off. “Keith, that doesn’t apply to you. You’re different – this, this relationship is different.” He looked at me, his eyes unsure. “Please, don’t stop.”

We made love for the first time that night. It was better than I ever imagined it would be… and I had spent some time imagining. I cried after he fell asleep, my head on his chest, his arms tight around me. I was 34 years old and for the first time was finding out what true love really is. It moved me more deeply than words could describe.

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Replies:

[> [> FYI - I don't know how to do itallics here and forgot to put in astericks, so I'll just tell you: part of this is a memory - it starts with the phone call, where it ends is obvious... just wanted to let you know. -- Sunny, 01:46:25 04/20/06 Thu [1]


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[> [> [> It was pretty clear don't worry, I really like this keep going. -- Rodeo, 16:49:23 04/20/06 Thu [1]


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[> [> [> [> Love this story -- kujungle, 01:53:51 04/23/06 Sun [1]

I mostly lurk here, but I must tell you how much I love this story ! I can almost see the characters snuggled up on the couch ! You had me in tears with the phone call....More please ?!


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[> [> [> [> [> Haha -- Sunny, 03:19:41 04/23/06 Sun [1]

"Real-life" is keeping me REALLY busy right now, so I don't have much time to write. I've not decided exactly what's going to happen next, but with any luck it won't be a terribly long time before I have an idea for the next part of the story and have enough written to post some more.

I'm glad folks are enjoying the story. :)


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