The Ride

Chapter XVII

The morning sun was too bright and too hot against my face. I turned to the opposite direction, my face hit hard against something but I didn't bother opening my eyes. My head was throbbing and I just wanted to lay there with my eyes closed.
The party turned wild last night, with more people coming into Sip's small apartment, it seemed like an overcrowded night club. The bottles, glasses, food pieces, cigarette buds and who knows what else were littering the apartment now. I just wanted to sleep a little longer before facing the mess, before taking in the evidence of one of the craziest nights of my life.

"I just need to piss I'll be right out!" I here someone say and the door closes. The footsteps are getting closer and louder and the next thing I here is the sound of water against water and farting.

You sleeping on the bathroom floor you drunk!!

My eyes snapped open as soon as the thought crossed my mind. I was relieved to find I wasn't on the bathroom floor although I was still in the bathroom, at least I'm in the bath tub with the shower curtain concealing me from the bathroom visitors.
I waited patiently for the farting guy to finish and as soon as he left I jumped out and headed out, it was just too smelly to even check my reflection in the mirror.

"Oh look who popped up! Thought you left with that hunk you were flirting with."
Sip was loud and energetic as usual. I guess hangovers aren't his thing.
I couldn't find my voice so I just smiled and shook my head.

To my surprise the apartment was spotless. There were only four people now, six including me and Sip. I recognised one guy, Sip's boyfriend, the rest were cute strangers.

"Are you okay?" Sip saved me from staring awkwardly at the wall.
"Yeah, just a headache. Don't you have an extra toothbrush?"
"Follow me."

I followed Sip into his room, which was immaculately clean for a guy. But then again he's not really a guy.

"Here's a toothbrush, washcloth, towel, cosmetics are in there and I believe you know where the bathroom is. . ." he laughed ". . .since you spent some time in there."
I felt myself blush with embarrassment.

"You'll join us when you done."

Sip left me to gather my things and I went to the bathroom. I showered quicker than I would've liked, thinking maybe someone needed to use the bathroom. All Sip's stuff was feminine so no chance of me smelling like a man.
When I finally walked out I was met by a divine smell. I looked at the time and realised it wasn't morning it was noon.

"Feeling fresh? Grab a sit hun, I know you hungry."
Sip really is a wonderful person.

There were ribs, pizza, chips, burgers and wings on the table. And I knew it was ordered, there's no way he could do all that.

"I'm Jack." The guy with a bald head extended his hand to me.
"This is Tim, Thabo and Sphiwe."
He pointed out the others.

"Tammy." I said.
"We know." They sang out and each had an amused smile on their faces, which said "we know more than you know".
I turned to Sip for some clarification but he just shrugged.

"Has anyone seen my phone?" I asked when no one seemed to have anything to say.

"It's in my room along with your bag. You were pretty wasted so I took everything away from you." Sip told me and I didn't know whether to say thank you or sorry for being so much  trouble, so I just nodded.

"We going bowling, are you coming?" Jack asked.
"Uhm I should probably head home."
"Come on Tammy it will be fun and we won't have even numbers if you go." Tim chipped in.
"And we'd like to get to know the new member of the squad better." Thabo added.
"New member of the squad?" I asked.
"Yea, you begged and sold your soul for it last night." Sip answered and everyone laughed.
"So please come with us, please." Jack gave me the puppy look.
" Well I guess I'll go home later."

To be honest I didn't want to go home, not now at least. Being with these people made it easier to forget the fucked up situation I was in right now. And anything that eliminates my problems, even if it's just for a few hours, is welcome.

When nothing was left on the table and everyone too full to get up, it was time to head out. We decided to go to the Zone in Rosebank.  Sip was to ride with Sphiwe, his boyfriend, Tim with Thabo and Jack with me. The arrangement was fine with me, Jack didn't seem like the quiet type so it won't be a silent, awkward ride.

"So where did you meet Sipho? He inquired.
"At work. I'm an intern at Modise &co."
" You know sometimes I forget that Sipho is a junior accountant. Like what accountant is so wild?!"
We shared a laughter.
"I know what you mean. He's not the perfect image of an accountant. But he's boss at what he does, I'll tell you that."
"Yea he's boss at everything except dealing with personal trouble, he lets people push him around way too often." Jack's expression was now serious and annoyed.
"Like Kevin?"
I don't know what I expected to hear, Jack might not even know Kevin, but I asked anyway.

" You know about Kevin?" He turned to me surprised.
"Uhm not exactly. Let's just say I saw a couple of incidents, but I still don't know the full story." I kept my voice level, trying to hide the need to know.
"That jerk! To think he was once our best friend, he was like a brother to me."
He clenched his jaw as he thought of something.
"After Sip came out of the closet he started to act funny, I thought it was because he wasn't used to the fact that one of his friends was gay. But when he beat Sip into a pulp one night, we knew there was more to it. Sipho didn't want to say shit, claiming it was just a misunderstanding. But when he started threatening to kill Sip we knew there was more to it and we cornered him."
I couldn't hide my curiosity, finally I would know why Kevin was such an animal.
"Sip and Kevin were in a private relationship. Kevin didn't and still doesn't want anyone to know he's attracted to men, so Sip's disclosure threatened him. Kevin claims Sip is a devil sent, here to make him sin. He says he's straight and Sip lured him, apparently Sipho is the only guy he slept with. The fucker is just in denial." Jack punched the dashboard out of anger.

My mouth now hung open.

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