"Children Of Sunset" BoyxBoy

Children Of Sunset 18

"GFD: Children Of Sunset 18"

Walking back from all the ruckus in the middle of town, it didn't take long for Willie to start hammering me in the head with his anxious comments and such. I can't lie...that was starting to grind on me just as bad as everything else around here lately.

"You don't have a bit of sense when it comes to how blasted lucky you are, Deke! What did you go and chase Sarah off for?"

"There's bigger things going on right now that Sarah Cutler and her being fancy on me, Willie." I said.

"Nothing that you can do anything about. So why don't you just relax and think with your own heart every once in a while?"

"You seen how them riders from out of town bully the rest of the good folks around here. What happens if something goes South when my daddy's forced to step in and strap them back from doing anybody else any harm?"

Willie frowned up a touch, and he said, "Again...ain't nothin' you can do about it, Deke. It don't mean you can't follow your heart..."

"Sounds more to me like you're asking me to follow her's instead." I told him, grinding my teeth a little bit. "Maybe she ain't for me, Willie. Don't that count for nothing?"

"Well, if it ain't Sarah Cutler then who IS for you? I ain't never so much as seen try to snatch a kiss from none of the ladies in this town. Not a one. I wish I had the kinda face and favor that you got so I could run through a couple of these women, myself."

"Well...I wish I could give it to you." I picked up the pace in my step, hoping to part ways with Willie once he got tired.

"I wish you could too. I wouldn't be as stuck up about it as you are!"

"GOOD! Then maybe you might find it in you to leave me the hell alone once in a while!" I snarled.

He paused for a moment as we kept walking through town. But I came to a quick stop...quick enough to kick a few clouds of dust up...when I heard Willie mumble, "Sometimes...I don't know about the odd part of you, Deacon..."

Something about it just set me off. Maybe I was angry, or maybe I was just deeply hurt, but I reached out to put my hand on his chest and glared at him with all the evil I had in me at that moment. "What are you getting at?" The fire in my eyes stunned him, and he found himself unable to answer me at first. "If you've got something to say to me...then SAY it!"

I felt my fist balling up, and even I didn't know if I was willing to give my best friend a good shot for making the accusation that there was something 'odd' about me. Then again...it almost felt like I didn't have much of a choice if he decided to say the words out loud.

"I wasn't assuming nothin'..." He said, looking away from my piercing stare.

"Good." I told him. But after trying to put my inner conflicts back in the bottle and cork it up, I made sure to tell him, "Just 'cause I ain't like you...don't you ever make it your business to think that there's something odd about me. I'll knock you flat. You hear me?" He nodded, bewildered at my overreaction to such a claim. But I just turned around and kept walking on my way back home.

I noticed that Willie didn't follow me any further.

The sun was beating down on me, and I took off my hat to fan myself a few times as the sweat began to drip down...but all that wasn't really the main cause of my discomfort. Over and over again, I kept hearing Willie's voice in my head. 'The odd part of me', he said. Can he see me? Am I exposed? Can my daddy see it? Can Sarah see it? I couldn't make heads nor tails out of what I was feeling in that moment, but it cut6 my breath in half. Partially from fear of being on display like this where people can muster up awful thoughts about me without my permission...and partially because of the growing ache that I felt growing in my belly, along with the rising desire that I had to see Colby again. It nearly tore me in two.