Page 88 of The Ghost of Ellwood
“Z?” I dried my hands on a paper towel, facing him with complete skepticism. “That doesn’t sound too reassuring, Carter, if the guy can’t even give you his real name.”
“I don’t know! Maybe he’s, like, a spy or something.” Carter ruffled his strawberry blond hair. “Like he works for the government and he can’t disclose his full name.”
“So, a super-secret spy who works for the government and dresses like the vampire Lestat?”
“Stop calling him a vampire,” Carter said, though he couldn’t suppress a laugh. “The spy idea might be farfetched, okay. But it doesn’t really matter. Maybe helikesto be called Z.”
“Okay, no judging.” I put my hands up and sat across from him. “Have you talked to Z since then?”
“No.” His face fell. “I hate admitting it, but you’re probably right. He gave me a bullshit name because he had no intention of seeing me again. I was just a fun time for the night. But whatever. That’s all he was to me too.”
The hurt in his eyes said differently.
Carter seemed to have a habit of getting attached to people easily. First with me, and now with this Z guy. And Wayne mentioned Carter hanging around his son too. I wasn’t judging him by any means, but it would make a lot of sense as to why he reacted the way he did when I told him I just wanted to be friends.
“What are you thinking?” he asked. “Your forehead is all scrunched and shit.”
“Wayne Henderson stopped by the other day,” I responded. “I caught him sneaking around my property. He asked a lot of questions.”
Carter shook his head. “Freaking old man.”
“Did you know he was such a homophobe?”
He stilled before averting his gaze to the window. “Yeah. Took a bit for me to see those colors, but once I did, I didn’t come back around. All the work I did for him just for him to call me a gothic queer.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m not even a goth.”
“He said something about you…and his son…”
“Rob and I hung out, yeah.” With a sigh, he pushed back from the table and stood. “Okay, more than hung out. We were screwing. Rob’s closeted, like majorly, or I guess hewas. He knew Wayne’s stance and was afraid. But I opened my big mouth and told him to take charge of his own life. We had just fucked and I was in that sappy, hazy spell that comes after blowing your load, and I wasn’t thinking clearly. Coming out should happen when you’re ready.”
“What happened?”
He anxiously combed his fingers through his hair. “The dude went to Wayne’s house and came out to him. I heard it was ugly.Realugly. Rob is in the church, ya know? A preacher. He’s not one of those hypocrites, either. He says God loves all of us. Well, after news spread, Rob lost his position and he got mad at me for convincing him to come out. Just a big mess.”
“Sorry you had to deal with that,” I said, an anchor dropping into my stomach. “He can’t blame you for it, though. You didn’t force him to come out. It wasn’t like you gave him ultimatums.”
“I know. I think he just wanted someone to blame and I was the easy choice. It was more than sex with us.” Carter’s voice cracked. “He’s the exI told you about when you moved here.”
“Where’s he at now?”
“I don’t know.” Carter shrugged and a tear fell down his cheek. “I heard he moved to a new town. That happened like months before you got here. I just hope that wherever he is, he’s happy.”
If Rob was closeted at his new place, I knew he wasn’t happy. But I didn’t say that. No sense in rubbing salt into Carter’s open wound.
Not wanting to leave Carter on such a sad note, I stayed for a while longer. We cracked open more beers and watched a show calledParanormal Survivorwhere people shared their stories of living in haunted places.
“Your house should be on there,” Carter said, smirking. “But Theo isn’t a bad spirit.”
“Oh yeah?” I arched a brow. “Is that your way of saying you like him now?”
“Dude, I don’t even know him.” Carter kicked his legs up on the coffee table and crossed his arms. His lips twitched. “Okay, maybe he’s not so bad. And he makes you happy. It’s only been like a week since we’ve hung out like this, and you already seem like a new person, Ben. As weird as it is, you and Theo are good for each other.”
“Good to know,” I said, smiling.
I didn’t realize until then how much I needed Carter’s approval. Anyone else’s opinion meant nothing, but having my friend’s support felt like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
Theo was in his chair when I returned home hours later. I poked my head in and saw him engrossed in a book, his brow drawn tight and his mouth parted. His new laptop was beside him on the table with the lamp.
It had taken him a bit to learn how to use the computer. He still struggled, but he was getting better. He liked researching places like Greece and Scotland, and he had downloaded theNetflixapp to watch documentaries and movies while I slept.
