Jealousy

Jealousy

J
enna Galicki

Published by Beau to Beau Books

www.beautobeau.com

This book is also available in print.

Copyright 2013 Jenna Galicki

ISBN:
978-1-6184-5208-5

All Rights Reserved

Copyright and Disclaimer:

This book is not transferable.  It is for your own personal use.  If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work.  No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the author or publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY.  It contains material which may be considered offensive by some readers.

This is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations.  Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or yet to be born, is purely coincidental and entirely unintentional.

Published in the United States of America.

Introduction:

When Heather Cooper married Peter, she thought that she had finally found someone who could handle the inseparable bond she shares with her gay best friend, Justin Perrotta.  It’s only a matter of time, however, before jealousy rears its ugly head and Peter’s true feelings emerge.  He starts drinking and his erratic behavior threatens their marriage.

Burned by an ex-boyfriend, Justin refuses to open his heart to love again.  Wild relationships and one night stands leave him lonely and unfulfilled, even though he will not admit it.  He finds love when he least expects it, but his fear of commitment threatens to ruin the best thing that has ever happened to him.

In this modern day ‘Will and Grace’ meets ‘Sex and the City’, two best friends, a straight woman and a gay man, struggle to find someone to love as much as they love each other.

Prologue:

Justin Perrotta was about halfway home when he first heard them.  It was three of his classmates
snickering approximately twenty feet behind him.  These were the same boys who had bullied him all semester, but normally Heather was with him and her presence made them less antagonistic.  Today he was alone, so the boys were exceptionally brutal.  He tried to ignore their name calling, but the words cut into him.  Their taunting grew louder and he knew they were closer.  He wanted to check over his shoulder, but he was afraid, so he kept his head down and walked faster.  The boys started hurling things at him – acorns and sticks, anything they found on the sidewalk.  Justin cringed as each item pelted sharply off of his back.  He peeked back at them and a rock barely missed his eye.  He began to run, but the boys chased after him and surrounded him.  They formed a neat little circle around him and took turns shoving him.  Even though Justin wasn't much smaller than any of the boys, he was skinny and lanky and totally defenseless against them.  And he was scared.

They tightened their circle around him so he couldn't escape and continued to mock and push him.  Angry and frustrated, tears welled up in Justin's eyes, but he refused to cry.  “Leave me alone!” he shouted at them, but the boys just laughed at him.  At last he saw an opening and darted between two of the boys.  He ran directly to Heather Drakos
' house without looking back.

As Justin sat on Heather's bed and told her what happ
ened, he finally started to cry and wept softly into her pillow.  Heather lay down next to him, cradled him in her arms and cried with him.

The door opened suddenly and it startled Justin.  It was Mrs.
Drakos, Heather’s mom, and she didn’t look happy.

"
What's going on?" she demanded.  "Justin, get your hands off of Heather."

Embarrassed, he jumped off
of the bed and tried to bolt past her, but she caught him by the arm.

"
Sit down," Mrs. Drakos said.  "I want to talk to you.  Both of you."

Justin sat next to Heather on the bed and kept his head down and his eyes lowered.

"You can't let Justin touch you," Heather’s mom told her.  "You're just kids."

"It's not like that!  We weren't doing anything!" Heather yelled back.

"Don't lie to me.  I saw the two of you kissing on the bed."

"
We weren't kissing," Heather explained.  "We were crying."

"
Crying?" A look of concern passed over Mrs. Drakos' face.  "Why were you crying, honey?"

Heather wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. 
"Because some stupid boys were picking on Justin and I felt bad for him."

Justin wouldn't look up.  He stared at his hands in his lap without saying anything.  He didn’t need to. 
Heather always defended him.

"
Are you sure that’s all you were doing?" Mrs. Drakos asked.

"Yes, Mom.
"  Heather rolled her eyes.  "We don't like each other like that."

"You’re both going to be 13 next year, honey.  Justin’s going to start to feel differently about you and you're . . ."

"No!  You're wrong!"  Heather slapped her leg and kicked the back of her foot against the bed.  "He doesn't like girls!"

Her words hung in the air.

Justin never told Heather that he was gay.  He never told anyone.  But somehow, she already knew.  He didn’t care, but he was worried about Mrs. Drakos’ reaction.  He was too scared to look directly at Heather's mother, so he stole quick glances at her from the corner of his eye.

Mrs.
Drakos stood with her mouth open and stared off into the distance.  "What are you implying?" she asked, after a significant pause.

Heather huffed and rolled her eyes again.  "I'm just saying that we're never gonna be boyfriend and girlfriend.  W
e're like brother and sister."

That was the best way to describe their relationship and exactly how Justin felt.  He loved Heather like a sister.  His parents thought differently, though.  They assumed that one day
he and Heather would fall in love and get married.  Justin never understood why they thought that.  Neither of them ever displayed any kind of childhood crush on the other.  They acted more like close siblings.

Justin's thoughts were interrupted by Hea
ther’s impatient and frustrated squeal.  "Mom, he's my best friend, and he needs me!  Can we please finish talking?"

"All right, honey.  Go ahe
ad.  But the door stays open."

Mrs.
Drakos left them alone, but Justin was still embarrassed and self-conscious.  He hugged his knees to his chest and cried softly into the rough texture of his jeans.

Heather circled her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder. 
"Don't worry about what those boys say or do," she said.  "It doesn't mean anything.  I'm gonna make sure I wait for you after school from now on.  I won't let them bother you.  I won't let anybody hurt you.  Please don't cry, Justin."

He hugged her back and sniffled.  "You're my only friend.  I don't know what I’d do without you.  I love you, Heather."

"I love you, too."

Heather stroked his back and told him it was going to be OK.  She comforted him
, mothered him, and he found consolation in her words and in her embrace.

Mrs.
Drakos knocked gently on the open door and peeked in the room.  "Are you alright, Justin? Do you want to talk to me about what happened?"  She approached him and tenderly brushed his dark hair off of his face with her hand.

"No.  I just wanna talk to Heather," he said, in a shallow voice.

"Do you want me to make you a sandwich or a snack?"

"No
thank you, Mrs. Drakos."

"You can talk to me whenever you want, you know.  You can confide in me if there's something you don't feel comfortable talking to your parents about.  I promise I won't tell them anything you don't want me to."

Justin nodded.  "I'm OK talking to Heather . . . but thank you."  She was such a nice lady.  He knew she was trying to help him, but Heather was the only one he opened up to.  He never shared his feelings with anyone else, not even his parents.

"OK,
" Mrs. Drakos said.  "I’ll leave you two alone, but remember, the door stays open and no lying down on the bed together."

Justin resumed talking quietly to Heather, and soon he buried his tears in the pillow again.  Heather remembered what her mother said, and instead of lying
down on the bed, she sat next to him with her legs crossed underneath her, and rubbed his back until his tears dried up and he stopped feeling sorry for himself.

Chapter One:

The car swerved around the corner at an accelerated speed and narrowly missed hitting a parked vehicle.  Justin
Perrotta thought about pulling over to compose himself, but decided against it.  Heather Cooper’s house was only a few blocks away and he needed to see her.  He wiped his runny nose with the back of his hand and squinted through the blur of his tear-filled eyes.  He realized he passed a red light when a car horn screamed at him, and the driver shook his fist out the window.

Justin slammed on the brakes and pulled erratically into a bus stop, bouncing the right front tire off
of the curb.  The pedestrians waiting on the sidewalk jumped back and glared at him through the closed window.  His chest heaved as he took several deep breaths, and his hand shook as he punched Heather’s number into his phone.  He tried to steady his voice, but it waivered anyway.  "Are you home?  I need to talk to you."

"
Yeah," Heather answered.  "What’s wrong?"

He only sobbed one word into the phone. 
"David."

"
What happened to David?"

He could hear the panic in Heather
’s voice.

"
He . . . ," Justin paused and swallowed with an audible gulp.  "He’s in love with someone else."

#

When Justin pulled into the driveway, he could see Heather waiting for him.  She chewed her bottom lip and pressed her face into the mesh screen of the storm door.  She was about to run to him, but stopped as soon as she hit the door handle.

The corners of Justin
’s mouth twitched, and he hung his head low into his chest as he slinked up the walkway.  When he reached the stoop, Heather swung the door open for him.  In one swift motion, he buried his face in the crook of her neck and collapsed in her arms.  She hugged him and rested her head against his.  This was the one time that Heather’s touch didn’t bring him solace.  He wiped his eyes, took her by the hand and led her upstairs, without saying a word.  He threw himself face down on the bed and pressed his face into the pillow.  She sat next to him, with her legs folded underneath her and rubbed his back in a slow circular motion.  It reminded him of when they were 12 years old and her gentle touch still comforted him.

Justin rolled over, grabbed a pillow from the other side of the bed and hugged it to his chest.  He told Heather how
he came home and found David waiting for him, with his bags packed, and left after confessing to a three month long affair.  But that wasn’t the whole truth.  He would never tell Heather the full story.  He would never tell her that David said he was tired of competing with Heather for attention.  That’s why David strayed.  That’s why David looked for love outside their bedroom and unexpectedly fell in love with someone else.  Justin would never tell Heather that David was jealous of her.

For
three months, David carried on with someone else, while Justin was clueless.  They shared the same bed and the semblance of a loving relationship, while David secretly loved another.  It was the deceit that destroyed Justin. It was the lies and the empty "I love yous" that tore him apart. It ripped at his chest and pulverized his heart.

Heather listened intently
as Justin recounted every heart wrenching detail of his breakup with David, but he purposely edited out the part that involved Heather.

Silent tears streamed down her cheeks.
"I can’t believe it," she said softly.  "You had no idea he was cheating on you?"

Justin shook his head.  He always thought people were foolish when they said they had no idea their spouse or lover w
as having an affair.  How could he be so naïve . . . so stupid?  David said he still loved Justin, and that’s why it took so long to come clean about the affair, but Justin didn’t believe it.  He couldn’t trust anything David said, not after the betrayal - the lies - the deceit.

They were together for five years and Justin thought he would spend the rest of his life with David.  Justin
was done with the playboy lifestyle.  He had his fun with one-night stands and meaningless relationships.  He wanted someone to settle down with and that person was David.  Now, at 30 years old, his future was filled with loneliness and uncertainty.  Tears slipped out from the corners of his eyes and he buried his face into the pillow again.