The boyfriend

Max looked up from his book with a frown, an engine roaring in the drive, wheels squealing to a stop. Within moments, someone began pounding on the front door. That was faster than expected, the young man thought, marking his place, closing the book and setting it aside on the end table, and rose to his feet.

“Open up! Fucking cunts!” Bam! Bam! Bam! “Get Meadow out here!” Bam! Bam! “Now! You fucking can’t keep her from me! She’s mine!”

Fucking asshole, Max scowled, crossing to the front door and lifting a pen cap from his back pocket. Ignoring the screaming and the pounding on the door, the young man took a moment to breathe deeply, inside glad that no one else had come running to deal with the bastard on the other side. Reaching for the door knob, he opened up the portal and looked into Tom’s handsome, furious face and quickly held out the pen cap. “I’ll give you this for you to converse with me in a reasonable tone.”

“Fine,” Riddle growled, lowering his voice, snapping up the pen cap from Max’s hand. “Whatever. Now get out of my way.”

“No.”

“No?” his eyes widened. “What the hell? You think you can stop me from seeing my girl?”

“She’s not your girl,” Max said flatly. “You don’t own her. If she wants to end whatever it is you have, it’s over. Dead.”

“No way in hell,” Tom glared at the young man. “I say when it’s over. No girl has ever dumped me and never will. You can’t do shit about it, dickless.”

“Really,” his brown eyes blinked. “That’s a quite of bit of an understatement. I can do plenty. Here, take this pen and listen to what’s going to happen.”

“And what’s that?”

“You will not bother anyone in this family again. Ever. Nor any other woman. You will walk away today a proud homosexual. And the best homosexual sex you will have will be taking it in the backside while receiving a reach around. Hell, it’ll be the best sex you’ll ever have, getting off on being used and abused by another man. Not as good, but you’ll like blowing another guy more than being blown. You’ll be the bitch, the sextoy in every future relationship.

“However, I’ll leave it up to you when you come out. Hopefully sooner than later, but we’ll see. No skin off my nose, but you’ll never have another beard again. If you ever run into Meadow and she actually wants to talk, you will admit to her that you’re gay, even if you haven’t told anyone else, and that you were using her to cover for your true orientation. If the two of you have had sex – and I hope not – you will tell her you were able to do so by thinking about a man you were interested in. And not me,” Max glared at Riddle. “You will never be attracted to me or any other men in my family if they’re out there. Understand?”

Tom stared at him. “Are you nuts? Why in the hell do you think I’d do anything like that?”

“Because,” the young man grabbed another pen cap, “I’ll give you this to as I said.”

Riddle’s jaw fell, his hand trembling as he accepted the pen cap. “I – I – shit, Max, I – I don’t know what to say. How you knew all that about me…” He shook his head. “I – I’m sorry. I – I just covering…” Tom lowered his gaze. “Can you – can you forgive for how I treated Meadow? And – could you ask her to forgive me, too? I can’t see her like this. I don’t – I don’t want to hurt her any further.”

“I’ll ask,” Max nodded. Maybe. His eyes flickered to the 1978 Pontiac Trans Am parked in the drive, the engine still idling. “For my forgiveness…” He reached back for his wallet and removed a greenback. “I’ll pay you a dollar for your car.”

Tom looked up at him in shock. “A dollar? Really?” His hand reached for the proffered bill. “Still… I guess… Okay. Sure. Keys are in the ignition. I’ll – I’ll sign the title and then I’ll – I’ll be off.”

“Good,” the young man said firmly. “Also, here, take this pen and give me all the cash you have on hand as well two hundred cash within two weeks.”

“No problem,” his sister’s now-ex-boyfriend agreed, accepting the pen. “Just a moment, ‘kay?”

Max waited as Tom walked back to the Pontiac. Within a few minutes, he had turned over the title and was walking away. The young man watched the asshole – former asshole? Did I have that much of an affect on him? – stride down the walk carrying himself differently, a more thoughtful look to his face. The high school senior shrugged. Maybe I’ll look into that later. For now, I should check up on everyone inside. At least now I have the cash to buy the lotto tickets with a hundred forty-three in my wallet. Didn’t think he’d have that much money in him.