Who's Your Daddy?

Chapter 24

Michael lay on his bed with his face pressed on the pillow. He hoped that if he pushed his head deep enough into the pillow, he could force himself to sleep. He just wanted the day to end.

For the past few weeks, it seemed like there were too many hours in each day. He was finding it nearly impossible to fill them. He doubted that Bruce would ever speak to him again, and he really couldn't blame him. Ziggy, who had been such a big part of his life, was now removed from it. And Sidney was preoccupied with his new boyfriend. Michael was happy for Sidney. After all, Sidney hadn't had a real boyfriend in all the years that Michael had known him. Nevertheless, whenever he thought about Sidney's relationship, he couldn't help thinking about his lack of one.

Here he was, getting closer to 40 with every minute, yet he had no boyfriend and no prospects. He knew he'd done the right thing by breaking things off with Bruce. But that didn't mean he wanted to be alone forever.

Truth be told, there was only one person who Michael ever thought he could be with over the long haul. That was Chase. A part of him just felt that they would eventually be together. But with each day that possibility seemed more and more like a dream.

Michael rubbed his eyes a few times and stepped out of bed. He glanced at the clock on the DVR. He couldn't believe it was only 11:35 p.m. He walked into the bathroom, opened his medicine drawer, and got out an Ambien. It was the closest thing to a time eraser that he knew of. He was about to pop it in his mouth, when he heard his phone go off in the other room. It played a snippet from the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Warning." He hadn't heard that sound in a while. It was Ziggy's ringtone.

Michael arrived at the Rhode Island Hospital's emergency room with his heart thumping like a nightclub speaker. He'd felt like this ever since getting the call from Ziggy's phone. Ziggy wasn't on the line. It was one of Ziggy's friends telling him that there had been an accident at the Mirror Ball and Ziggy was in the hospital.

"I'll be right there," Michael said.

Michael parked his car and ran to the Emergency Room entrance. Standing outside the doors, under a silver awning, was a short guy with dark curly hair and glasses.

"Are you the, um, Ziggy's dad?" the guy asked.

The question startled Michael for a moment.

"Yeah. Yeah, I am," Michael said. "How is he?"

"They just took him down for one of those brain scan things. You know, where they slide you into a metal tube like on TV."

"An MRI?"

"Yeah, they're doing one of those."

"What the hell happened?" Michael asked.

"Not 100% sure. For some reason, he jumped up on the 2nd floor railing at Mirror Ball. And I guess he lost his balance and fell. He looked pretty busted up."

Michael was quiet, processing the story.

"I'm Arthur, by the way," said the guy, who offered his hand to Michael. Michael shook it firmly.

"You're a friend of Ziggy's?" Michael asked.

"Well, kinda sorta. We just officially met tonight. I go to RISD too and, you know, we have a lot of common Facebook friends. I mean, he's been coming up as a "Person You Might Know" on my homepage forever. But anyway, I'd been talking to him at the club tonight. And then when I saw him fall, I went over and kinda sat with him. One of his friends, some girl that he came with, couldn't stay because she was really drunk and had to hurl. Anyway, I was holding his hand, you know, the one that didn't look broken, and when the paramedics came, I guess they thought we were together. They asked if I wanted to ride with him to the hospital. I looked at Ziggy and was like, 'Do you want me to?' And he nodded yes. So here I am."