Part 6
Paul walked out of the bathroom and pulled on a pair of jeans. He sat down on the edge of the bed just staring at the floor, a million thoughts still racing through his head. Should he go and talk to Tim? Or would it just start another argument? Would Tim even want to see him? And could he bring himself to tell Tim about what had happened with Lauren?
He sat there for a few minutes, drying his hair with a towel, trying to draw some sort of conclusion. Hearing a knock at the front door, he stood up, throwing the towel back into the bathroom before going out to answer it.
"What do you want?"
Rich pushed past Paul and walked into the apartment. He turned around and looked Paul up and down and his only reaction was to shake his head once more. He sighed.
"Is Lauren still here?"
"No she left about 20 minutes ago."
"Paul.. God I don't even know what to say to you.."
"Then don't say anything. Look Rich, you know better than anyone does how complicated the relationship between Tim and I is. I've lost count of the number of arguments we've had, the number of times we've broken up and gone and slept with other people. He really hurt me today Rich, I don't know if you can really understand that, but he did. Being with Tim is just too fucking painful, and I've had enough of the hurt and the anger. It's over, I'm sorry.. I've made up my mind."
"Paul you're not thinking straight."
"No Rich, I'm thinking straight for the first time in a long time. Being with Tim was all about lust, not love. We're not right for each other, we're just not."
Paul blinked away the tears that welled in his eyes as he spoke. He wasn't even sure what the hell he was saying, but the words just flowed from his mouth. In his heart he knew that the words he was speaking weren't the truth, but he couldn't help the way he was feeling at that moment. He forced himself to look at Rich, and just by looking into his eyes he could see that Rich knew the truth as well. Rich sighed.
"Well I came here to see if you wanted a lift over to Tim's place. But I guess not."
Paul was about to reply when the phone interrupted them. Turning his back on Rich, Paul went and answered it.
"Hello. Yes it is. What? Okay I'll be right there."
Paul hung up the phone. He turned back to Rich. One look at Paul's face and Rich immediately began to panic.
"Paul? What's wrong?"
Paul's face had gone deathly white and his hands were shaking. Tears began to roll down his cheeks and he fell to the ground. Rich was immediately by his side. Paul looked up at Rich with tear-stained eyes and he was only able to say one word.
"Tim."
part 7