Run Away Home Ch. 9/?
Run Away Home
Chapter: 9/?
Table/Prompts: Table 2/ Plead (prompt 029)
Rating: T
Word Count: approx 2500
Summary: Jeff talks to Dawn, Eduardo, and Byron. In that stupid order.
When Jeff got home from dinner with Jordan that night, he had every intention of calling Byron immediately. Maybe asking to meet him for drinks. Not at The Eagle’s Nest, obviously, probably closer to Stamford, but he never got a chance.
Dawn called. Jeff missed Dawn. They’d hung out regularly when he lived in Palo, but had barely talked to each other since he’d moved back east.
“Dawn, I can’t talk right now,” Jeff insisted.
“You have to go to work?” She asked. Then without waiting for an answer, she went on, “Mom had to tell me about your job, by the way. You couldn’t call? Text? Email? Telegram?”
“Sorry. It’s not, like, a career. It’s just a low-wage job.”
“A job’s a job.”
“Right. Listen. I have to go, I need to call a friend.”
“No way. I haven’t talked to you in weeks. Your friend can wait.”
“You know what?” Jeff said, with sudden realization. “He can wait.”
“Is this a very special friend?” Dawn asked.
“Not like that,” Jeff answered. “Just a good friend, nothing more.”
“Have you met anyone?”
“Have you?”
“Always. But don’t change the subject. Have you met anyone?”
“No. It’s too soon after Marcus.”
“Nah.”
“Dawn, I’m not you.”
“So what have you been doing?” Jeff didn’t answer for several long moments, and Dawn continued, sounding resigned, “Jeff, what did you do?”
“How’d you know?”
“You get silent when you’ve done something wrong, you have since we were kids. It’s the only time I hear you speechless. So spill it, tell me what you did.”
So Jeff did. Haltingly, he told her the whole story of meeting back up with Byron, and their poker games, and hanging out with Byron, and Byron’s ex, Jerry, and how Jeff had gone home with Jerry the night before.
“Way to screw the pooch on that one, Jeff.”
“That’s exactly what I said to Mary Anne this morning,” Jeff mused. “That I really screwed the pooch.”
“You told Mary Anne?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh.”
“Is that a problem?” Jeff asked, considering for the first time that Dawn could be jealous of his burgeoning friendship with their stepsister. “I mean, she came over and I was wicked hungover, and I just told her.”
“What’d she say?”
“That I need to tell Byron. And, “Jeff continued, “She doesn’t mind when I make dick-sucking jokes to her.”
“Ugh,” Dawn said. “I don’t care that you do it, I just don’t need to hear about it. And anyway. I think everyone’s wrong. I think you shouldn’t tell Byron.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, what’s there to gain? Call Jerry’s bluff - he probably won’t tell.”
"Why do you think he won't?"
"Because," Dawn answered as though it were obvious, "He doesn't exactly come off smelling like roses in this situation, does he? I mean one could argue that he got you drunk with the intention of taking you home. Not to mention how he's treating that Cory kid."
"I don't think Jerry cares so much that people think he's a dick."
"It seems like he cares a lot about what Byron thinks still. Otherwise he wouldn't give a shit if you told Byron anything."
Jeff was silent for a moment and Dawn asked, "Are you there?"
"Yeah. I'm just thinking about what you said."
"I'm right."
"Maybe."
"I am. Jeff, trust me."
"I do. I think you're right." Jeff assured her. But in his mind, he was more confused than ever.
Mary Anne and Jordan had both insisted he confess to Byron, and he assumed that was what was the right thing to do. But Dawn's take on it did make some sense. Why would Jerry care so much about whether Byron knew? And, if you could argue that he did care that deeply, it would mean that he wouldn't want to come off looking bad to Byron, so he wouldn't be likely to tell. It was a circuitous logic, and it didn't take into account that Jerry was just not a nice guy, but, for a while anyway, Jeff was willing to take it.
__
Jeff went to work on Saturday in the late afternoon. He had a closing shift at the store, working with Eduardo. Jeff had come to like Eduardo, not just as a boss, but as a really nice, earnest guy. He kind of reminded Jeff of Byron, but less quiet.
It was a slow night at the store, and Eduardo told Jeff that a girl named Ellisay had a crush on him. "Who's Ellisay?" Jeff asked.
"You know, Ellisay. She working at register four right now."
Jeff looked over. "I thought her name was pronounced Elise."
"No man. She's hispanic, it's pronounced Eh-lee-say."
"Huh."
"You should ask her out."
"No thanks."
"Why not?"
"She's not my type," Jeff said.
Eduardo looked slightly offended. "What, you got something against hispanics?"
"What? No!" Jeff said quickly, not wanting to be branded racist. "I don't have anything against any group at all. My last boyfriend was black," Jeff explained, hoping Eduardo would understand that Jeff was telling he was both not racist and not straight.
Eduardo looked at him strangely for just a moment, when a look of clarity rang across his face, "Ooooh," he said, drawing the syllable out. "I get it." He put his hands in his pocket and rocked a little, back and forth on the balls of his feet.
"All right. I just don't want to offend you by not asking Elise out. I want you to know it's not because she's Hispanic."
"It's because she's a woman," Eduardo clarified.
"Right." Jeff answered.
"OK," Eduardo looked like he didn't know what else to say.
Jeff genuinely did not like making Eduardo feel uncomfortable, and he didn't know if talking about it more would make Eduardo more uncomfortable, or if ignoring it and changing the subject would just make it worse. Finally, he just asked, "Are we cool?"
"Oh, yeah," Eduardo said. "It's fine. I'm just surprised, is all. I have a cousin who is, you know, gay, also. And you are just..." he drifted off, "nothing like him."
"Yeah?" Jeff asked, without really wanting Eduardo to go into detail, because he was pretty sure he knew where it was going, and he knew it would do nothing more than make him annoyed at Eduardo, and he didn't want to be annoyed with Eduardo. If Eduardo was going to say that his cousin loved Broadway, or Streisand, or, God forbid, was a drag queen, he wouldn't know what to say. Because Eduardo was his boss, and he couldn't very well be rude.
But all Eduardo said was, "Yeah," nodding his head. "If you want to be set up ever...?"
"Thanks, but no," Jeff said firmly. "I was with this last guy for five years and I'm not ready for anything else yet."
"OK. Let me know, though. Because my cousin, Nelson, he's a real good dude, and my family isn't so cool with him."
"You are?"
Eduardo shrugged, "I don't care. It's not my business. Mostly, you know, it's the older generation."
"Yeah, I hear that."
"You too?"
Jeff shrugged. "It's what you see. No one under the age of forty cares.”
At that moment, a customer came up carrying a laptop and looking desperate. Jeff was grateful for the excuse to leave the very uncomfortable conversation with Eduardo and help a customer.
__
After closing on Saturday, Jeff had to work on Sunday morning, but this day he was working on the road, meaning he had to drive the company car - a Smart Car which was gaudy with the Fixit Geeks symbol - to people's houses to fix their computers.
It was a long day filled with cleaning viruses off of people's computers, telling them they need to buy protection, and not telling them what he wanted to - which was that if you want to look at porn, you have to pay for it. Otherwise, you're just opening viruses.
By the time he got home, he was exhausted and crashed on the couch. His mom wasn't at home, she'd left a note saying she was at Mary Anne's for dinner and inviting him to come along. Jeff considered it, but thought he'd really like to have a few hours to himself. Though he did like spending time at Mary Anne's house, her sons commandeered his time and they were absolutely exhausting and full of energy.
So Jeff took a quick shower and began making himself a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich.
He'd just flipped the sandwich over when there was a knock on the door. He ran to get it, and was surprised to see Byron standing there.
He opened the door for Byron, "Come on in," he invited him. "I'm making a quick dinner," Jeff said turning to walk to the kitchen. When he was sure Byron was following he said, "Do you want anything?"
"No." Byron said. He sat at the table and watched Jeff slip the sandwich off the griddle and pour himself a glass of milk. "Look," Byron said. "I just came to tell you that I saw Jerry Haney this afternoon."
Jeff had just swallowed his first bite of sandwich and nearly choked on it. His stomach clenched uncomfortably around the food. "Byron," Jeff began slowly. "Look."
Byron stood up quickly. "No. You know. I just don't want to hear it."
"I was really really drunk," Jeff said.
"I don't care," Byron said vehemently. "I really don't. I just....God, Jeff. I thought we were friends. Jerry is my ex!"
"I know! I was using really bad judgment," Jeff was struggling to remember what Jordan told him to say, what the best way to get Byron to understand was.
While he was struggling, he was only able to half concentrate on what Byron was saying, "I told you he was an asshole. It’s like you don’t listen to, or don’t care, what I’m saying. You don’t care about my feelings at all, and Jeff are you even listening to me?”
“Huh?” Jeff said, right as he remembered Jordan talking about rebound fucks. “Yes. Of course I’m listening. Listen, this wasn’t, I don’t know. I’m not getting together with Jerry and I know he’s an asshole. I knew it when I followed him to his apartment. I’m just.... I don’t know. I think I’m still smarting from being dumped.”
“Oh, boo-hoo,” Byron said sarcastically. Jeff wasn’t sure he’d ever heard Byron use sarcasm. “Everyone gets dumped, but not everyone who gets dumped goes and sleeps with their friends’ ex.”
“I know. I’m sorry, God you have no idea how sorry I am.”
“Are you sorry you got caught, or actually sorry you did it?”
“I’m sorry I did it.” Jeff assured him quickly. “I woke up the next morning sorry and I’ve been sorry ever since.”
“So why didn’t you tell me?”
“I know, I should have told you. Jordan told me I should, and-“
Byron cut him off, “You told Jordan?”
“I....yeah. I thought maybe he clued you in?”
“No. Why the fuck would you tell my brother, but not me?”
“He came into Electronics Emporium on Friday night, right as I was getting off work. We went grabbed a bite at Rosebud, and I saw Jerry walking by on Market Street. It kind of worked its way into our conversation.”
“And he told you to tell me?”
“Yeah.”
“And you didn’t?”
“Well, then I got confused because I talked to Dawn and she said I shouldn’t tell you.”
Byron closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Why did she say to do that?”
“Because, she insisted Jerry was bluffing, which I can see now he wasn’t, but at the time, her logic seemed impeccable.”
“What do you mean Jerry was bluffing. Bluffing about what?”
“Wait, how much do you know?”
“I saw Jerry and he told me you two hooked up on Thursday night.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“OK, I was there, I mean I was at the bar and I was already drinking. But I wasn’t having a good time, and Jerry came over. And, God, you’re right about him. He’s such an asshole. He bought me all these drinks and was bragging about owning the bar and how he was banging his bartender, who’s this sad little guy from some super religious family. And I was piss drunk. I can’t emphasize enough how incredibly drunk I was. So he invited me to his apartment upstairs and I followed him, and we just...we went down on each other. And then I fell asleep. The next morning, I asked him not to say anything to you, and he told me that if I didn’t tell you, he would.”
“You didn’t want me to know?”
“I wanted to protect you, because I am never going to do something like that again.”
“So why did you think he wouldn’t tell me?”
“I don’t even remember why I thought that. Because Dawn said I should call his bluff.”
“No offense, Jeff. Your sister’s an idiot. Jerry Haney wants nothing more than to hurt me. He probably slept with you because he knew we were friends again and he explicitly wanted to hurt me.”
“I’m sorry.”
Byron stood up. “I just. I can’t deal with this right now. It’s hard enough putting an abusive asshole ex behind me without you making it so much worse.”
Jeff bit his lip. He thought Jordan had told him quite a lot about Byron and Jerry’s relationship. But hearing Byron describe it as abusive made him incredibly sad and beyond remorseful.
In the few months that Jeff had been back in town, Byron had quickly become his closest friend. And friendship was something that had been lacking in California. In California, he’d had Marcus, of course, and Dawn, who was a constant in his life, as well as his co-workers who he liked a lot though mostly as acquaintances. But there weren’t a lot of guys he could call friends.
And in the last few months, he was starting to see why Marcus thought he was too reliant on him. Because all of Marcus’ friends from before he’d met Jeff were still his friends. But Jeff’s had all fallen by the wayside, and he became friends with Marcus’ friends. And, of course, when their relationship ended, the friends remained firmly in Marcus’ corner.
Byron started to leave, and Jeff grabbed onto his arm, “By, wait,” he begged.
“No. I’m leaving,” Byron said, and walked out the door into the cool night air.
Jeff watched him go. He had to almost physically restrain himself from running after Byron, because he didn’t even know what he wanted more - to catch up to Byron so he could punch him.
Or so he could kiss him.
Chapter: 9/?
Table/Prompts: Table 2/ Plead (prompt 029)
Rating: T
Word Count: approx 2500
Summary: Jeff talks to Dawn, Eduardo, and Byron. In that stupid order.
When Jeff got home from dinner with Jordan that night, he had every intention of calling Byron immediately. Maybe asking to meet him for drinks. Not at The Eagle’s Nest, obviously, probably closer to Stamford, but he never got a chance.
Dawn called. Jeff missed Dawn. They’d hung out regularly when he lived in Palo, but had barely talked to each other since he’d moved back east.
“Dawn, I can’t talk right now,” Jeff insisted.
“You have to go to work?” She asked. Then without waiting for an answer, she went on, “Mom had to tell me about your job, by the way. You couldn’t call? Text? Email? Telegram?”
“Sorry. It’s not, like, a career. It’s just a low-wage job.”
“A job’s a job.”
“Right. Listen. I have to go, I need to call a friend.”
“No way. I haven’t talked to you in weeks. Your friend can wait.”
“You know what?” Jeff said, with sudden realization. “He can wait.”
“Is this a very special friend?” Dawn asked.
“Not like that,” Jeff answered. “Just a good friend, nothing more.”
“Have you met anyone?”
“Have you?”
“Always. But don’t change the subject. Have you met anyone?”
“No. It’s too soon after Marcus.”
“Nah.”
“Dawn, I’m not you.”
“So what have you been doing?” Jeff didn’t answer for several long moments, and Dawn continued, sounding resigned, “Jeff, what did you do?”
“How’d you know?”
“You get silent when you’ve done something wrong, you have since we were kids. It’s the only time I hear you speechless. So spill it, tell me what you did.”
So Jeff did. Haltingly, he told her the whole story of meeting back up with Byron, and their poker games, and hanging out with Byron, and Byron’s ex, Jerry, and how Jeff had gone home with Jerry the night before.
“Way to screw the pooch on that one, Jeff.”
“That’s exactly what I said to Mary Anne this morning,” Jeff mused. “That I really screwed the pooch.”
“You told Mary Anne?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh.”
“Is that a problem?” Jeff asked, considering for the first time that Dawn could be jealous of his burgeoning friendship with their stepsister. “I mean, she came over and I was wicked hungover, and I just told her.”
“What’d she say?”
“That I need to tell Byron. And, “Jeff continued, “She doesn’t mind when I make dick-sucking jokes to her.”
“Ugh,” Dawn said. “I don’t care that you do it, I just don’t need to hear about it. And anyway. I think everyone’s wrong. I think you shouldn’t tell Byron.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, what’s there to gain? Call Jerry’s bluff - he probably won’t tell.”
"Why do you think he won't?"
"Because," Dawn answered as though it were obvious, "He doesn't exactly come off smelling like roses in this situation, does he? I mean one could argue that he got you drunk with the intention of taking you home. Not to mention how he's treating that Cory kid."
"I don't think Jerry cares so much that people think he's a dick."
"It seems like he cares a lot about what Byron thinks still. Otherwise he wouldn't give a shit if you told Byron anything."
Jeff was silent for a moment and Dawn asked, "Are you there?"
"Yeah. I'm just thinking about what you said."
"I'm right."
"Maybe."
"I am. Jeff, trust me."
"I do. I think you're right." Jeff assured her. But in his mind, he was more confused than ever.
Mary Anne and Jordan had both insisted he confess to Byron, and he assumed that was what was the right thing to do. But Dawn's take on it did make some sense. Why would Jerry care so much about whether Byron knew? And, if you could argue that he did care that deeply, it would mean that he wouldn't want to come off looking bad to Byron, so he wouldn't be likely to tell. It was a circuitous logic, and it didn't take into account that Jerry was just not a nice guy, but, for a while anyway, Jeff was willing to take it.
__
Jeff went to work on Saturday in the late afternoon. He had a closing shift at the store, working with Eduardo. Jeff had come to like Eduardo, not just as a boss, but as a really nice, earnest guy. He kind of reminded Jeff of Byron, but less quiet.
It was a slow night at the store, and Eduardo told Jeff that a girl named Ellisay had a crush on him. "Who's Ellisay?" Jeff asked.
"You know, Ellisay. She working at register four right now."
Jeff looked over. "I thought her name was pronounced Elise."
"No man. She's hispanic, it's pronounced Eh-lee-say."
"Huh."
"You should ask her out."
"No thanks."
"Why not?"
"She's not my type," Jeff said.
Eduardo looked slightly offended. "What, you got something against hispanics?"
"What? No!" Jeff said quickly, not wanting to be branded racist. "I don't have anything against any group at all. My last boyfriend was black," Jeff explained, hoping Eduardo would understand that Jeff was telling he was both not racist and not straight.
Eduardo looked at him strangely for just a moment, when a look of clarity rang across his face, "Ooooh," he said, drawing the syllable out. "I get it." He put his hands in his pocket and rocked a little, back and forth on the balls of his feet.
"All right. I just don't want to offend you by not asking Elise out. I want you to know it's not because she's Hispanic."
"It's because she's a woman," Eduardo clarified.
"Right." Jeff answered.
"OK," Eduardo looked like he didn't know what else to say.
Jeff genuinely did not like making Eduardo feel uncomfortable, and he didn't know if talking about it more would make Eduardo more uncomfortable, or if ignoring it and changing the subject would just make it worse. Finally, he just asked, "Are we cool?"
"Oh, yeah," Eduardo said. "It's fine. I'm just surprised, is all. I have a cousin who is, you know, gay, also. And you are just..." he drifted off, "nothing like him."
"Yeah?" Jeff asked, without really wanting Eduardo to go into detail, because he was pretty sure he knew where it was going, and he knew it would do nothing more than make him annoyed at Eduardo, and he didn't want to be annoyed with Eduardo. If Eduardo was going to say that his cousin loved Broadway, or Streisand, or, God forbid, was a drag queen, he wouldn't know what to say. Because Eduardo was his boss, and he couldn't very well be rude.
But all Eduardo said was, "Yeah," nodding his head. "If you want to be set up ever...?"
"Thanks, but no," Jeff said firmly. "I was with this last guy for five years and I'm not ready for anything else yet."
"OK. Let me know, though. Because my cousin, Nelson, he's a real good dude, and my family isn't so cool with him."
"You are?"
Eduardo shrugged, "I don't care. It's not my business. Mostly, you know, it's the older generation."
"Yeah, I hear that."
"You too?"
Jeff shrugged. "It's what you see. No one under the age of forty cares.”
At that moment, a customer came up carrying a laptop and looking desperate. Jeff was grateful for the excuse to leave the very uncomfortable conversation with Eduardo and help a customer.
__
After closing on Saturday, Jeff had to work on Sunday morning, but this day he was working on the road, meaning he had to drive the company car - a Smart Car which was gaudy with the Fixit Geeks symbol - to people's houses to fix their computers.
It was a long day filled with cleaning viruses off of people's computers, telling them they need to buy protection, and not telling them what he wanted to - which was that if you want to look at porn, you have to pay for it. Otherwise, you're just opening viruses.
By the time he got home, he was exhausted and crashed on the couch. His mom wasn't at home, she'd left a note saying she was at Mary Anne's for dinner and inviting him to come along. Jeff considered it, but thought he'd really like to have a few hours to himself. Though he did like spending time at Mary Anne's house, her sons commandeered his time and they were absolutely exhausting and full of energy.
So Jeff took a quick shower and began making himself a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich.
He'd just flipped the sandwich over when there was a knock on the door. He ran to get it, and was surprised to see Byron standing there.
He opened the door for Byron, "Come on in," he invited him. "I'm making a quick dinner," Jeff said turning to walk to the kitchen. When he was sure Byron was following he said, "Do you want anything?"
"No." Byron said. He sat at the table and watched Jeff slip the sandwich off the griddle and pour himself a glass of milk. "Look," Byron said. "I just came to tell you that I saw Jerry Haney this afternoon."
Jeff had just swallowed his first bite of sandwich and nearly choked on it. His stomach clenched uncomfortably around the food. "Byron," Jeff began slowly. "Look."
Byron stood up quickly. "No. You know. I just don't want to hear it."
"I was really really drunk," Jeff said.
"I don't care," Byron said vehemently. "I really don't. I just....God, Jeff. I thought we were friends. Jerry is my ex!"
"I know! I was using really bad judgment," Jeff was struggling to remember what Jordan told him to say, what the best way to get Byron to understand was.
While he was struggling, he was only able to half concentrate on what Byron was saying, "I told you he was an asshole. It’s like you don’t listen to, or don’t care, what I’m saying. You don’t care about my feelings at all, and Jeff are you even listening to me?”
“Huh?” Jeff said, right as he remembered Jordan talking about rebound fucks. “Yes. Of course I’m listening. Listen, this wasn’t, I don’t know. I’m not getting together with Jerry and I know he’s an asshole. I knew it when I followed him to his apartment. I’m just.... I don’t know. I think I’m still smarting from being dumped.”
“Oh, boo-hoo,” Byron said sarcastically. Jeff wasn’t sure he’d ever heard Byron use sarcasm. “Everyone gets dumped, but not everyone who gets dumped goes and sleeps with their friends’ ex.”
“I know. I’m sorry, God you have no idea how sorry I am.”
“Are you sorry you got caught, or actually sorry you did it?”
“I’m sorry I did it.” Jeff assured him quickly. “I woke up the next morning sorry and I’ve been sorry ever since.”
“So why didn’t you tell me?”
“I know, I should have told you. Jordan told me I should, and-“
Byron cut him off, “You told Jordan?”
“I....yeah. I thought maybe he clued you in?”
“No. Why the fuck would you tell my brother, but not me?”
“He came into Electronics Emporium on Friday night, right as I was getting off work. We went grabbed a bite at Rosebud, and I saw Jerry walking by on Market Street. It kind of worked its way into our conversation.”
“And he told you to tell me?”
“Yeah.”
“And you didn’t?”
“Well, then I got confused because I talked to Dawn and she said I shouldn’t tell you.”
Byron closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Why did she say to do that?”
“Because, she insisted Jerry was bluffing, which I can see now he wasn’t, but at the time, her logic seemed impeccable.”
“What do you mean Jerry was bluffing. Bluffing about what?”
“Wait, how much do you know?”
“I saw Jerry and he told me you two hooked up on Thursday night.”
“That’s it?”
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“OK, I was there, I mean I was at the bar and I was already drinking. But I wasn’t having a good time, and Jerry came over. And, God, you’re right about him. He’s such an asshole. He bought me all these drinks and was bragging about owning the bar and how he was banging his bartender, who’s this sad little guy from some super religious family. And I was piss drunk. I can’t emphasize enough how incredibly drunk I was. So he invited me to his apartment upstairs and I followed him, and we just...we went down on each other. And then I fell asleep. The next morning, I asked him not to say anything to you, and he told me that if I didn’t tell you, he would.”
“You didn’t want me to know?”
“I wanted to protect you, because I am never going to do something like that again.”
“So why did you think he wouldn’t tell me?”
“I don’t even remember why I thought that. Because Dawn said I should call his bluff.”
“No offense, Jeff. Your sister’s an idiot. Jerry Haney wants nothing more than to hurt me. He probably slept with you because he knew we were friends again and he explicitly wanted to hurt me.”
“I’m sorry.”
Byron stood up. “I just. I can’t deal with this right now. It’s hard enough putting an abusive asshole ex behind me without you making it so much worse.”
Jeff bit his lip. He thought Jordan had told him quite a lot about Byron and Jerry’s relationship. But hearing Byron describe it as abusive made him incredibly sad and beyond remorseful.
In the few months that Jeff had been back in town, Byron had quickly become his closest friend. And friendship was something that had been lacking in California. In California, he’d had Marcus, of course, and Dawn, who was a constant in his life, as well as his co-workers who he liked a lot though mostly as acquaintances. But there weren’t a lot of guys he could call friends.
And in the last few months, he was starting to see why Marcus thought he was too reliant on him. Because all of Marcus’ friends from before he’d met Jeff were still his friends. But Jeff’s had all fallen by the wayside, and he became friends with Marcus’ friends. And, of course, when their relationship ended, the friends remained firmly in Marcus’ corner.
Byron started to leave, and Jeff grabbed onto his arm, “By, wait,” he begged.
“No. I’m leaving,” Byron said, and walked out the door into the cool night air.
Jeff watched him go. He had to almost physically restrain himself from running after Byron, because he didn’t even know what he wanted more - to catch up to Byron so he could punch him.
Or so he could kiss him.