16

                                    

                                          
Will's point of veiw
        I was standing outside Terence's room in the hospital. Taylor had gotten a voicemail that said that Terence was going to die and that he wants to see Taylor. Taylor and I rushed to the hospital as fast as we could. 
        Taylor was in the room talking to Terence and Andy and I sat quietly. Neither one of us seemed willing to talk. The anxiety filled silence seemed to go on for hours at a time. Then the hall was filled with yells of pain and heartbreak.
        "TERENCE!" Taylor bellowed from inside the room. I quickly flung the door open and found Taylor sprawled across Terence's lifeless body. 
         "Terence wake up. Wake up Terence." He sobbed. 
         I walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder. He didn't seem to notice I was there and if he did, he most certainly didn't care.
        "You need to wake up Terence. Your kid needs you. Andy needs you. I need you. Please just wake up Terence." Taylor begged.
         "Taylor, I don't think he's going to wake up." I told Taylor softly as I lifted him off of Terence's body and held him close to me.
        I looked up at Andy. She was frozen where she stood, her face had a horror struck expression painted upon it. I told her to go get a nurse and she walked as fast as she could. 
        I rubbed Taylor's back gently and kissed the top of his head as he sobbed into my shirt.
         "We need to get out of here." I whispered.
          "I need to make sure he gets taken care of." Taylor whispered back. I nodded in understanding and sank down to the ground pulling Taylor down with me.
          Andy returned a moment later with a few nurses. They rushed to Terence's body. I stood up and lifted Taylor up with me.
         "They're here. They'll take care of him. We need to go. You can't stay here." I whispered. 
         Taylor nodded and I put my arm around his shoulder and we walked out of the hospital. We got into the Durango, I started it and we drove back to Taylor's house in silence.
         "What a terrible way to die." Taylor whispered. 
         "I know. It's not fair, but I'm sure that whatever he wanted to talk to you about gave him a source of comfort. Do you want tell me what your conversation was about?" I asked quietly. 
         "He said he wanted me to help take care of his kid, and that he wants me to be an important part in the kids life."
        "I think that's a great idea. Any kid would be lucky to have you as an uncle."
         "But Andy doesn't like me anymore. She doesn't want me to encourage the kid to be gay."
        "If Andy knew you at all, she would know that you wouldn't encourage the kids to be gay. You would let the kid do what it will and support it no matter what because you're not a judgmental chunk of peanut brittle like Andy is." I figured my poorly thought through insult might make Taylor smile slightly and on any other occasion he would have laughed, but given the situation I wasn't surprised to find the he didn't even notice that I had said anything. 
        We got to Taylor's house and I pulled up to the curb and turned the Durango off. Neither one of us moved.
        "What am I going to tell Annabelle?" Taylor asked.
        "I don't think you have any other choice other than to tell the truth." I replied. 
        "How? Do just walk up to her and go 'hey remember Terence? Well he's de-'" Taylor stopped. He looked through the windshield with a thoughtful look. Silent tears began to flow from his eyes.
        "She has to know something. You don't have to tell her how it happened, or what he looked like, but she needs to know."
         "Yeah." 
        Taylor and I both got out of the Durango and began to walk to the front door. I put my arm around his shoulders again. 
        We walked through the door, Manny looked up anxiously but Annabelle only glanced at us. They appeared to be playing dolls while watching tv. Manny looked at me as if she was trying to read my mind. I knew she was succeeding. 
        "Hey, Annabelle?" Taylor asked.
        "Yeah?" Annabelle asked in response. 
        "Can I talk to you for a moment?"
        "Yeah." Annabelle and Taylor walked back into her room they didn't shut the door, so I walked over to the room and stood in the doorway. 
        To my confusion and curiosity, I found Taylor shifting through the clothes that were hung in Annabelle's closet. 
        "What are you doing?" Annabelle asked joyfully. It broke me and it broke Taylor even worse. 
        "Seeing if you have a black dress." Taylor told her. I then understood his approach to the situation. 
        "Why?"
        "Because people wear black when they go to funerals. Out of respect for the dead."
        "The dead?" She didn't sound joyful anymore. 
        "Yeah. Something happened."
        "What happened?" Taylor turned to face her and knelt down on one knee. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked her square in the face.
        "Terence is..."
        "What?"
        "He, um..."
        "He what?" She was making him say it.
        "He - died." There was a sharp intake of breath from Taylor as he said the last word. Annabelle just stared at him for a little bit. 
        "Are you ok?" Taylor asked.
        "Yeah. Is he?" Annabelle replied. Taylor looked hurt and confused. 
        "Yeah. He's ok now. He won't ever have to be sad or hurt again. He'll be ok." Taylor tried a wimpy smile but failed horribly.
        "Will I ever see him again?" Taylor cried even more at Annabelle's question. 
        "One day you will. But not for a very long time."
         "What do we do until then?"
        "Same thing we always do. Just now we have to do it without Terence."
        "Ok." Taylor hugged Annabelle tight. He looked up at me over Annabelle's shoulder, then made the decision to pick her up, carry her over to me, and then he gave me a hug. I wrapped my arms around them both.
        Taylor let Annabelle go and she ran back to the floor and sat down with Manny. She didn't begin to play again though. She just kind of stared sadly into space. 
        Taylor and I just stood there and watched them. Taylor leaned his head on my chest and I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and rubbed his arm. 
        "She handled that a lot better than I did." Taylor whispered. 
        "She doesn't have that connection with him that you did, and she didn't watch him die." I told him.
        "Let's hope she stays this ok with it. She doesn't need to feel like this." Taylor turned his head into my chest and cried quietly. 
        We sat on the couch quietly. Manny and Annabelle more brushed the hair of their dolls instead of playing with them. Taylor had curled into a ball with his head in my lap and fell asleep. I was rubbing his hair with my hand. There were dried tear tracks down his cheeks.
         He stirred uneasily and groaned. Then he crunched his eyes even tighter shut than they already were. A tear fell from one of his eyes. I reached my hand over his head and wiped it off of his face with my thumb. Then I feel asleep a little while later.
                          
        I woke up to the sound of the front door opening. I stared awkwardly at the sight of a woman who looked remarkably like Taylor walked in. She had long black hair with electric blue eyes. She stared at me for a moment then shut the door tentatively behind her.
        "You must be Taylor's mother." I stated.
        "Yes. Who are you?" The woman asked.
        "I'm Will Oak."
        "Are you a friend of Taylor's?"
        "I'm his boyfriend ma'am."
        "Ah. What's going on here?" She gestured to Taylor sleeping in my lap and Manny and Annabelle passed out on the floor.
        "We've had a stressful day, as I'm sure you're aware of."
        "What do you mean?" My eyes widened in surprise. She didn't know about Terence. Andy hadn't told her. I shook Taylor to wake him up.
        "What?" Taylor asked as he sat up.
        "Your mom's here." I told him. He turned and looked at his mother.
         When he saw her, he quickly got up and pulled her into a hug. Regardless of Taylor being short, he was quite a bit taller than his mother.
        "Mom I can't begin to imagine how you feel right now." Taylor said.
        "What are you talking about?" She asked. Taylor pulled away from her and looked down at her confused. At this point, I was standing awkwardly nearby. 
        "You don't know?" Taylor asked.
        "Know what?" His mother asked in return. 
        "Mom, Terence, um, Terence died in the hospital today." 
        "What?" Her eyes were filling with the salty liquid that is tears.
        "Something happened to him. He wouldn't tell us what, but he died."
         "You talked to him earlier today?"
        "Yeah."
        "Did you just get called or something. Did Andy just let you know?"
        "No. I was there when it happened. He said he wanted to talk to me and he and I talked and then he died. Right in front of me."
         "And he didn't want to talk to me?"
        "Not that he said. Andy should have called you by now. I thought she told you."
        "Why didn't he want to talk to me? I'm his mother." She was angry now.
        "Don't you dare be mad at him. Don't you dare turn this into a pity party for you. You know why he didn't want to see you. You know what happened. Just be glad he forgave you before he died." Taylor was angry too. His face was drowned in both angry and sad tears.
        "Did he tell you that?"
        "No. He was busy making sure his kid had more than just it's mom taking care of it. He was being a good parent, something you weren't."
        "If he didn't tell you, then how do you know? For all we know I could be living the rest of my life knowing my kid never forgave me. Do you know how hard that's gonna be?"
        "I know because I understand my big brother. I've been telling you how he feels since I was 14. I know that he forgave you a long time ago. You know that too. You're just trying to get sympathy from me which I will not give you. You will not turn my brother's death into something good for you. You will remember that Andy now has to raise the kid by herself, and that the kid will now be fatherless."
        "This is hard for me. He was my son. I'll never have him back."
        "How do you think I feel. Terence is the one who took care of me when you busy with only god knows what. Terence is the only person who was there for me when we went to Dad's house. He was the only friend I had for most of my life and he was the only friend I could ever ask for. He was 7 and still did a better job at parenting me than you."
        "Don't you dare talk to me like that. I'm your mother, I have been paying the bills and buying groceries. If it wasn't for me, we wouldn't have this house."
        "If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be so angry right now. But if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go help Andy and I'm taking Annabelle with me." With that, Taylor picked up the sleeping Annabelle as I woke Manny.
        The four of us drove to Terence's house in ear pounding silence. Taylor stared out the passenger side window. Tears continued to poor from his face.
        We arrived at Terence's house to find that there was a police car out front.
        "Keep Annabelle in the car please." Taylor said as he got out of the car and began to walk towards the house.