Tough Love

Part 17: Pissy

The next evening.

Brian's POV

"She's staying at your HOUSE?!"

"Just until she gets better. And don't yell at me!"

"But it's her! In your house!"

"And she's carrying my son!" I knew Sal wouldn't take kindly to the news, but I didn't expect him to blow up like this. Why can't he just understand that she's going to be a part of things for a while? I just don't get it. "And besides, I thought you were fine with her. You seemed to enjoy kissing her a while back." I don't know where that came from. Let's blame it on the heat of the moment, shall we?

"You guys made me do that, you dope!"

"But did you like it?!" Never mind, it's not the heat. It's...jealousy?

For a second the anger in his eyes dissipates only to be replaced by surprise and slight panic at the question. "I - no! Yes! Fuck of course I did! It's a fucking kiss, who wouldn't? That's not even what we're talking about here!"

"Is it?" I ask, suddenly calm. An eery calm. A dangerous calm.

"What do you mean?"

"Just tell me. Are you jealous because of me? Or jealous because of Faith." Should I... Should I be asking myself that question?

"Bri, I... I love you. You know I do. I just want you to myself."

I sigh and rub my face in a feeble attempt to smooth the stress lines. "Sal, you know you can't exactly have that. I'm going to be a dad. My son will depend on me, and at least until he is born Faith will too. I don't want this to come between us, because I love you too, and I would never want to be away from you. You know that if I had it my way, none of us would be in this mess."

When he doesn't respond, I get worried. He's just staring at me, but why? His face is more than blank. Those green eyes almost look... hollow, I guess you could say. There's no other way to explain it. Is there something going on with Sal that I don't know about? Something that I've been too blind, too ignorant, too busy to see? I take a moment to study him real close. There's the obvious differences; he's lost weight, his hair has grown out a bit, he's always very clean. And then there's the smaller, more important details that most people would overlook. He's still pretty large but his clothes are hanging loosely on him. His hair is disheveled and unkempt. He's clean but it's weird; he's too clean. Not a speck of dirt, not a fuzzy piece of lint can be found anywhere on his body, and he hasn't shaved in a couple of weeks. "What's wrong, Sal?" I all but whisper.

"Nothing," he finally says in a harsh tone. "I'll see you tomorrow when we leave." And at that he slams my door; causing the glass in my windows to rattle.

Fuck, I had almost forgotten about the tour. Faith isn't completely healed yet, and I'll be missing an ultrasound. I know I've been to all of them so far, so missing one doesn't seem that big of a deal. Hell, a few months ago, I wouldn't have cared at all. But that was then, and Faith wasn't pregnant then. Now that she is, now that I'm going to be a dad, I don't want to miss anything. Not a single thing.

"What was that about?" Thank God her voice has healed a bit.

I turn to her, seeing her in her night shirt and a pair of my raggedy basketball shorts, her short hair sticking up in several places as if she had just rolled out of bed. I try to smile, but I'm sure she saw right through it. "Sal's just having a hard time with everything."

"He's gets jealous easily, doesn't he?"

"Dude, you don't even know the half of it." I plop on the couch with a loud groan and rub my eyes. "I don't know what to do. He's upset and I'll have to deal with that throughout the entire tour."