Page 31 of Bazooka

A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed

Luz

When I heard the doorbell ring, I ran out of my room, staring at the front door in breathless anticipation.

I did the same thing every single day, whether it was the postman, the food delivery guy, or someone else from the LD.

I would run into the hall like a puppy, hoping it was the one person who it never was.

Long story short, I played the truth card, and I lost. Worse than that, I have been played.

I have been deceived. I have been fucking betrayed by the one person I thought was incapable of deceit.

My father, the ultimate puppet master, hooked his claws into the only person I cared about.

It was inconceivable. I didn’t know how it happened, but the result was just the same. I was devastated.

Jordan tried to help. In the one week I spent with him, he tried to console me, talk to me, listen to me, and he encouraged me to see a shrink.

Then he tried to get me drunk and make me visit the nearest gay bar.

It ended with me vomiting all over his shoes and then crying myself to sleep.

Nothing worked, nothing helped, nothing mattered.

So today, when the doorbell rang, I ran into the hall with the same hope.

When Jordan opened the door, I saw Detective Tye “The Viking” Thorsen and Detective Dominic “The Trigger” Carter standing in the doorway.

The man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and the man clad in black.

The blond-haired one and the dark-haired one.

The funnier one and the prettier one. They were polar opposites, but they fucking worked.

“Thank God you’re here.” I heard Jordan murmur. “I don’t know what to do with him anymore.”

When I saw them, I snapped, because I didn’t need the double human-shaped-suicide-hotline Jordan apparently called for.

“You,” I said, stomping towards them and pointing my finger at Carter.

“What the hell are you doing here? And you…” I looked at Tye, clenching my fists.

“It’s all your fault! You introduced me to him.

You let him into my life. And now…” Tears spilled down my face until I couldn’t see anything anymore.

“And now I can’t liiiiveee wiiiithooouuuuut hiiiim. ”

“Jesus,” Tye murmured, as I buried my face in his chest, sobbing. “It’s worse than I thought.”

“You have to do something,” Jordan said. “He’s been crying his eyes out all week.”

Once in my room, I sat down on the bed as Carter spoke in a soothing voice.

“Tell us what happened, Luz. Maybe we can help.”

“It-t’s Baz-zoka,” I stammered, bawling. “He bet-trayed me. He to-told me to leave. And my father is to bl-lame. And now I’m hee-ere. And my heart is breaking.”

I had another crying fit as Tye sat down beside me and patted my back.

“Tell us what happened. Start from the beginning.”

So, I did. I told them every goddamn thing.

How Bazooka saved me and took me in, and everything that followed.

It included the curtains and the statue of a naked god with a huge but now broken phallus.

Then, I told them about the best blowjob in the world that I gave to the person who deserved it the least, because fuck him!

Why should I keep it a secret? I finished by telling them how he’d betrayed me.

“Luz, your eyes are puffy,” Jordan said with a weary sigh. “Please stop crying and put this on your eyelids.”

I took the jar filled with ice and cucumber slices that he gave me, sniffling.

“Thanks, Jordie.”

I lay down on my back and put two slices of cucumber on my eyelids.

“They help with the swelling,” I explained to my visitors. “It’s just in case Baz decides to drop by or something.”

Tye Thorsen’s sigh told me I wasn’t going to like what he had to say.

“Luz, what did I tell you? Find someone who isn’t straight and disinterested in your ass. Moreover…”

He paused, as if he were crossing a boundary of some kind.

“Bazooka is the worst person to crush on. He just… he doesn’t let people into his life, Luz. It’s a fact, and all of us who know him know that. Honestly, no one is trying anymore.”

“But we lived together,” I protested. “Everything was going so well.”

“He’s a good man,” Tye explained. “He has a kind heart under that cool act of his, but he’s bad at commitment.

He lost his parents when he was six years old.

Then he spent his childhood in and out of foster homes, sometimes moving from one to the other every month.

He had to deal with some truly awful people.

When he joined the police academy, his life turned around, but the damage was done.

I have known him for a decade, Luz, but I still don’t know his middle name. ”

“Alisson,” I mumbled, sniffling.

“What?” Tye said, sounding confused.

“Alisson is his middle name. Sister Mary told me. Do you know her?”

Tye shook his head.

“This thing with your father,” Carter said. “Do you know the details? How did they meet?”

“I don’t know,” I replied, mulling it over.

I was so angry and hurt when I found that card that I didn’t remember to ask Bazooka how he’d met my father.

“Maybe it was done with the best of intentions,” Carter offered.

I snorted. “Nothing my father does is with the best of intentions.”

“Bazooka, though,” he mused. “I don’t know him well, but he seems like a good person to me.”

“The best,” I admitted. “He’s the best person in the whole wide world.”

Another crying fit stopped me from elaborating further.

“Don’t you think you two should give each other a chance to explain?” Tye asked me. “It seems to me that a lot was left unsaid between you. How about we talk to Bazooka and see what he has to say?”

I swiftly straightened up, and the cucumber slices fell from my eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“We can visit him. Hear his side of the story.”

“Really?” I muttered, wiping away my tears. “Will you tell me what he said?”

Tye shook his head. “I won’t betray his trust, Luz, but I’ll do all I can to help.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that works. Jordie…”

“What do you need?”

“Where’s my face powder?” I asked him, trying to think of everything. “And a concealer. These dark circles under my eyes need to disappear. If Bazooka drops by, I don’t want to look like a ghost from a Japanese horror schlock. Also, did I bring my butt plug with me?”

Jordan groaned and headed to the kitchen to get himself a beer or a dozen. Tye and Carter laughed, kissed, and fucked off. And I remained where I was, with my hope hanging by a thread, but it was the only thing that kept my heart beating.

Bazooka

Some kind of infernal noise woke me up. I raised my head, groaning when the sharp pain made me feel as if my head had been sliced in half.

Then the noise repeated itself, making my head hurt more, but now at least I recognized the noise as my doorbell.

I lowered my feet to the floor, knocking down a dozen beer bottles.

I stepped on one of them and almost tripped over a rug.

When the doorbell rang for the third time, I cursed under my breath.

“I’m coming!” I bellowed. “Stop ringing, asshole!”

I opened the door, only to see Tye and Carter standing in the doorway.

“What the hell are you two doing here?” I grumbled. “Haven’t you heard of the thing called announcing your visit?”

“It was a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing,” Tye said dryly. “Can we come in?”

“Do I have a choice?” I said, stepping to the side to let them pass.

Once I closed the door behind them, I headed to the kitchen and took a bottle of tequila out of the fridge.

“It stinks in here,” Tye said. “You should let some air in.”

“Hence the announced visit,” I countered, filling my glass to the brim.

A glance around the room told me I wasn’t exactly ready to entertain guests.

The floor was littered with bags of chips and other shit that I ate.

Bottles and beer cans lay scattered all around the place.

The stench coming from the bathroom told me I’d vomited once or twice in the not-so-distant past.

I raised the bottle in an unspoken question, but they both shook their heads. It made me realize they looked good. Happy. It was one sight I couldn’t stand lately. Happy people.

“Why are you drinking?” Tye asked me, raising the shutters and opening the window.

When a ray of sunlight almost blinded me, I groaned in pain. I headed to the darkest corner of the room and sat down on the floor, placing a bottle of tequila between my legs.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, gentlemen?” I said, drinking up and ignoring his question.

“We wanted to check up on you and see how you’re doing,” Carter replied, sitting down on the sofa.

“If we knew you’re drinking yourself into oblivion and wallowing in self-pity, we would have come sooner,” Tye added.

“Oh, fuck off,” I snapped. “I have a day off. I can do whatever the fuck I want.”

“We saw Luz earlier today,” Carter said.

I threw my head back, hitting the wall behind me—on purpose. For a moment, I wanted to ignore his comment, but then my mouth moved on its own.

“How is he?” I blurted out, cursing myself for asking that question.

“Crying his heart out,” Tye replied matter-of-factly.

I whined internally because I didn’t want to know, but now that I knew, it was fucking with me.

“How the hell did this thing with his father come about?” Carter said.

I told them everything. How his father approached me when I’d already decided to let Luz stay with me. About the death threats. All of it.

“You two are idiots,” Tye said when I finished talking. “This thing between you could have been settled with an honest conversation.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s not just that. He’s… well, you know Luz. He’s tenacious. I tried to keep him at arm’s length, but he just wouldn’t stop. He was everywhere. Here. At my place of work. In my fucking shower. In my bed.”

The last part made my cheeks warm, so I lowered my gaze.

“You don’t strike me as a person who doesn’t know how to tell someone to back off,” Carter said.

“Yeah, but that’s just it,” I growled. “I told him that repeatedly, but he wouldn’t listen. I had no other choice but to make him leave.”

“Why?”

“Because he…” I shook my head in frustration before continuing. “Because he caught feelings for me.”

“Bazooka, Luz caught feelings for you on the day he met you,” Tye reminded me. “We all saw it. We were there, remember?”

“Yeah, but not like this,” I mumbled. “Also, he kept crossing the lines that I’d established. And he got me so confused that after a while, I couldn’t even remember why I established them.”

“You said he caught feelings,” Tye said, sitting down next to Carter. “What about you?”

I blinked in confusion.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“How do you feel about him?”

I shrugged. “He’s fine, I guess. Not as annoying as I first thought. An acceptable roomie. Good friend material, I suppose. He kinda… kinda gets under your skin after a while, like some fucking drug. That’s it. I have been drugged. There’s no other explanation.”

Carter and Tye exchanged looks.

“I think you two should talk, pal,” Carter said, looking solemn.

“Clear the air. Luz deserves an explanation, and you deserve to be forgiven for keeping that secret from him. After that, you can both go your separate ways. Or, who knows? Maybe you will become friends. From what Luz told us you two were getting along pretty well.”

Tye cocked his eyebrows. “Maybe too well?”

I flipped him off, feeling hot in the face.

“I won’t pry and ask how that part played out between you two, but perhaps you should give it more thought,” Carter added. “I mean, if you haven’t hated it, maybe you liked it. And if you liked it, maybe there’s something there. I’m telling you this from my own experience.”

I rolled my eyes. “There’s nothing there.”

“All I’m saying is, you two have options,” Carter continued.

“Friendship. Companionship. Partnership. Business deal. Casual fun. Something more. Something less. Or nothing at all. In any case, you need to figure it out, Bazooka. Just don’t string him along.

You’ll hurt him if you do that. Be sure of your own feelings first. Again, from my own experience. ”

I shook my head in frustration. My problem was that I knew exactly what I wanted.

I didn’t hate the physical part. I fucking liked the physical part.

Too much, probably, but that thing Luz had said, the L word, scared the crap out of me.

It made me want to flee to New Mesa without looking back, which brought me to my point.

I knew what I wanted, and it was me ready to leave in sixty seconds flat with a duffel bag on my shoulder.

Tye and Carter stood up and headed to the front door, while I remained where I was, feeling numb.

“Get some fresh air, Bazooka,” Tye said on his way out. “Take a shower and eat something healthy. Get a good night’s rest and start from there.