Almost

There was no use of Martin trying to come up with a loophole. As difficult as it was, it was only a matter of time before he signed the contract that lay before him. The impatient looks of the businessmen in the room burned a whole through the hand Martin held the pen with. Signing the contract would mean he is officially an employee of Papercut Marketing. It would mean he got the fancy job by using his business partner and roommate Kevin’s design. 

Martin closes his eyes tightly and desperately, as if they could teleport him to any other moment in time. Somehow, they did. He opens them to Halloween night a few weeks ago. The orange blur of lights and the piss-like taste of beer on his lips. The beer that reminded him of his first kiss behind the neighborhood grocery store. His pirate outfit, and the flash of cameras from pictures he took by the intoxicated girls around him. 

He knows this moment. He wanders around the crowded room, consistently misplacing his steps. His eyes, whenever they managed to look up from the ground as his head bobbled, were looking for Kevin. The mask over the intention to find him was to tell him there was a girl dressed as Velma from Scooby Doo. The reality was that his true intention, whispering underneath a sea of alcohol in his guts, was looking for Kevin to see his face light up. Martin knew Velma was Kevin’s favorite Scooby Doo character, and he wanted to see his reaction when he saw her. This would perhaps be a memory Martin would store in the back of his mind and think of before he goes to sleep. 

Martin didn’t know at the time that’s why he was looking for Kevin, though. It was a subconscious routine at this point— a dance he performed with himself to see just how long he could bury the sound of his heart beating louder every time Kevin was around. A silent fight his mind played with his eyes; the eye won’t stop staring, and the mind would tell it to stop. Stop landing your gazes on the stupid gameboy tattoo on his arm. The veins on that arm. The stubble on his cheek. 

Martin didn’t know at the time, but he knew now, looking back. He knew as he watched himself in that memory; falling in every way but physically in Kevin’s direction. The gravitation and natural instinct to edge himself closer. He knew now there was something there. He knew now it was probably the reason he was in this position in the first place. He saw himself tripping, leaning toward a deep and dark future of disappointing family looks and name-calling. He knew he had to stop it somehow. 

But was this the way? To completely throw Kevin out of the picture? Martin returned from his trip down memory lane, his hand shaking over the signature line. The businessmen now tapping their fingers on the table and looking at him as if they want to take the offer back. 

“I don’t know if I can do this,” Martin confesses. 

Suddenly, a hand reaches out to pinch his shoulder. Autumn, Martin’s girlfriend who is sitting besides him, urges him with her eyes while sporting a repressed smile. Martin looks down, unassured. The businessmen in the room grow more irritated. The only one sitting, facing Martin, stands up and slams his fists on the desk. With a heavy southern accent, his loud voice inquires,

“Well, why the hell not?” 

As soon as he lifts his head to answer, Martin sees Kevin through the glass windows outside, rushing into the office. His stomach drops. Kevin’s face is colored with at least 3 different emotions, overpowered with hurt. Their eye contact never breaks until Kevin finds a place to stand. Martin stands, too. Autumn naturally follows, as she watches ignorantly. 

“That’s why,” Martin finally utters. 

“Are you serious?” Kevin asks. “Autumn told me you were here. She told me what you were doing.” 

Martin looks at Autumn who looks down, while the businessmen watch in confusion. 

“Now what in the hell is goin’ on?” asks the southern businessman. 

“What’s going on is, he is not the one that came up with that design. I am.” Kevin says. 

“Is this true, son?”

Martin looks down. A beat. 

“It’s true.” 

Everyone in the room sighs. Autumn stomps out. Kevin looks at Martin for a moment, walking closer toward him. Martin is scared and takes a step back, quickly glancing at the professionals to make sure they don’t get the wrong idea. 

“So you gonna try to kiss me two weeks ago and run off with my work today? And then what? What did you think was gonna happen? We live together.” 

Martin coughs and responds in a deep voice, “Not anymore.” 

Kevin scoffs. He looks around, uncrosses his arms, and takes a deep breath. He takes another step toward Martin, his walls down. He says calmly,

  “You’re gay. There’s nothing wrong with that. I accept you. Matter of fact, I love you.”

This takes Martin by total surprise, and he looks at Kevin in total disbelief. Suddenly, whoever in the room does not matter anymore. 

“W-what do you mean, you love me? Like, you’re cool with it and you’ll still be my bro, you love me? Or you love, love me?” 

The businessmen look away, uncomfortable. Only one continues to watch, blushing and yearning. 

“Well, it depends. And it depends a great deal on whether or not you were just trying to screw me over.” 

“I was… I can’t lie to you, I was trying to screw you over. I knew if it was up to me I wouldn’t actually have the guts to remove you from my life or remove myself from yours. I didn’t have the courage to do it myself, so I had to do something that would get you to hate me so bad, you’d be the one to never speak to me again. And if you never spoke to me again, then, it would mean, that maybe… Maybe I wasn’t gay anymore.” 

A beat. Martin continues,

“I’m sorry. I really am.”

“I forgive you.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, I forgive you. You’re my best friend.”

Upon hearing those words, Martin quickly throws himself on Kevin and plants a big passionate kiss on him. A secretary gasps in the back. The businessman who was watching is now wiping his tears and clapping for the happy couple. 

The end.