Coming Home (BoyxBoy)

Death & Pie

I sat at the oak dining room table I hadn't seen in 10 years. A bottle of whiskey I had found, it was far older than I, sat on top of the table in front of me.

I wanted the tears to stop for just one second. Even when they weren't falling they clung to the brink, threatening to escape. I looked raw with my disheveled black hair and 5 o'clock shadow. My eyes were red and I stunk of liquor and sadness, but I had gotten too used to the stench to smell it.

It's funny how you could be running your whole life, from a town, from the people, from your family but death had the power to pull you right back in. I never wanted to come back to Addington and I'd been lucky to avoid it... until now.

My mother was the only one left here and I couldn't imagine me outliving her. My mind began to spin down a drain of memories, each one getting harder and harder to bear.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Drunkenly, I looked around for the phone. I sifted through cards and old bills. I got up and scanned the tables in the livingroom, then I found it. The phone was hanging on the wall. It didn't used to be there.

"Hello?"

"An inmate from Hanely County Jail...." an automated message began. The womans robotic voice chilled me straight to my bones. I became sober instantly.

"...this call may be monitored."

"H-hello?" I asked shakily.

"They're letting me out tomorrow. I wouldn't call if I had anyone else Martha, especially on account of your health," a gruff voice came through the other end and I instantly knew who it was.

"I'm sorry but.. Martha died a week ago," I said hoarsely.

"Fuck! Wait... Noah? Noah Greenland?"

"Yeah," I whispered and then silence hung between us for a while. In that silence I was sure he was absorbing my mother's death, and maybe thinking about the 10 years that had past since the last time I was here.

"If you could come get me tomorrow around 10am, I'd owe you," he said quietly.

"Sure, I'm sure ma would have wanted me to. Hanely County Jail, 10am."

"Thanks. Noah I'm sorry about Martha."

"Bye Nate." I had no idea what would happen when I returned, but now I knew it wasn't going to be normal funeral shit.
~

The ride to the county jail was nerve racking. I got my shit together that morning pretty fast. I cut my hair so it was buzzed but I kept the scruff. I couldn't do anything about the bags under my eyes but they looked better than the day before. I guess the most important thing I did, was wash myself for the first time since the funeral.

As I was driving my red truck down the mountain my mother's house sat on, I was reminded of my rides to school. Felt like an entirely different time.

When I reached outside the jail, Nate was sitting on the side of the road. I checked my watch and it was exactly 10am but he looked like he had been there a while.

He got off the curb to stand at what must have been 6'6. Nick was much bigger than he was in my memories. Those sharp green eyes still hadn't changed though because they still cut through to my soul.

His large beard took over the rest of his face. Nate's hands ran through his long blonde hair as he sheepishly grinned at me. Nothing had really changed but at the same time, everything had. He walked to the truck, opened the door, and plopped his large frame into the truck.

"You're huge," I looked away and resisted the urge to smack myself for saying something so obvious.

"Relax Noah, I think that would be the first thing I'd say too if I saw me. I'm no longer that twink pinning for ya," I looked back at Nate and nodded, that was an understatement.