Page 1 of Storm Bound
One
Charlie
“Ican’t believe you’re leaving me,” Benji cried in my arms.
He gave my shoulder blades an extra tug as if the pull would make me stay.
I looked at the people around us, everyone too busy checking the departure boards to pay us any mind, and hugged my friend back.
Imagining Benji on his own terrified me as much as it did him. But he was ready. It’d be a good test for him. And I had a job to do.
“Come on, Benji. I’m not leaving you. It’s only for six months,” I said.
He pushed me away so he could stare me down, round glasses making his green eyes bigger, ruffled brown bed hair as usual, and the sassy attitude he reserved only for me. I looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.
“I’ll only be a few hours away, and you can visit me anytime,” I said.
“Yeah, right, because I’ve got a few days to spend going back and forth to Virginia on a Greyhound.”
“It’s not my fault it’s stormy and all flights have been canceled. Okay? It’s usually much, much simpler getting to Cedarwood Beach,” I told him.
“Please don’t meet the love of your life while you’re there because I’ll walk all the way there and kill you both in your sleep,” he said, and I burst out laughing.
“Nice one. I spent twenty-one years in my hometown, and I didn’t lose my virginity until I moved here. I highly doubt I’ll find the one,” I said, barely able to contain my amusement, and I gave him a gentle pat on the head. “But I’ll try not to, my little one.”
Home was a lot of things, but a hub for gay men, it wasn’t.
Okay, fine, it did elect a gay mayor, and since my older brother Leo’s boyfriend instagrammed his coming out, there had been a lot more interest in our small town. But it was still a little coastal place on the edge of Virginia with a population just shy of three thousand.
“Are you sure you need to goooo?” Benji asked, practically begging me to stay with his tone.
I looked at the departure screen, and the bus to Cleveland, my first stop of this full-day journey, was leaving in five minutes.
“You know why I’m going, Gee. You know how stubborn Yaya is. And the only one she’ll let treat her is me. It’s stupid having her come all the way here in her condition. I’m just going for six months, keep an eye on her, work at the local practice, get some experience, and then maybe I can get a fucking promotion here when I’m back,” I said, even though he already knew all these things. He just needed reminding. “I gotta go, or I’ll miss the bus.”
I hugged my best friend, and with my suitcase in hand and my rucksack on my back, I walked away from Benji and toward my gate where there was already a line of people waiting to get on the bus.
As I reached it, the cold January breeze chilled me to the bone. I definitely wasn’t looking forward to this drive down the East Coast, but I couldn’t wait until flights were back up and running again. I had to be in Dr. Becker’s office first thing Monday morning and report for duty. And also get Yaya to her appointments before her heart exploded from all the sugar.
Dr. Becker had been our family doctor for as long as I could remember, and he was a good doctor, so at least I didn’t have to get used to working with somebody new.
If anything, working for him would be quite the change in pace from working the Emergency Room in Detroit’s General Hospital, and while I knew a fair few of my colleagues who would die for a slower pace, I was going to miss it. I was going to miss my life here where everything was within easy reach and where there was life for a guy like me.
At least my brother was still living at home, and I could hang out with him when he wasn’t teaching. And hopefully Melody wouldn’t be too busy with her bed and breakfast. I couldn’t imagine lots of tourists in the middle of January, but you never knew.
The line moved up to the bus entrance, and I handed my luggage to the driver, then got on, looking for an empty seat straight away.
The narrow corridor was made even narrower by the number of people trying to wedge all their bags in the overhead compartments.
I crossed half the bus like an obstacle course until I came to a halt in front of a big family taking up all the space, leaving very little room for anyone to pass through.
“Excuse me, can I…” I asked and attempted to squeeze past them.
“Apple, sit your butt down. Stanley, make your brother sit down,” the mother, or so I assumed, of the bunch screeched.
It didn’t seem as if she herself was in any rush to sit down, directing everyone else, although there was still pandemonium around her.
A guy stopped a foot short behind me as the whole line of passengers came to a standstill.
