Hours later
Harley
"Seriously I don't know how William could pass you up for this promotion it has your name all over the research paper notes yet Smith gets the credit" Alex says pouring Harley another drink, he'd lost count of how many at this point.
Lying and calling this a nightmare would've been favourable for Harley but in all honestly this was just a light night bleak retelling that he enjoyed torturing himself with.
"Look I don even carreee Smith got the promotion but what about the principle!" Harley shouted the end of my words slurring as my vision blurred, Harley was lying even drunk.
"I gave them the best years of my life as a student and then as a assistant lecturer but they passed me over for some 20 something."
Harley had gotten home 3 hours ago and thought a nap would be enough to will up the courage to explain to Derek why he will be rejecting the only job offer he has received, so then he would continue to bum around the house until their family would be evicted.
Fun.
Harley laid in the bed they'd gotten 5 years ago, one side - Derek's side was now indented and there was a not so slight dip that when Harley moved too close would jolt him awake. The only natural reaction would then to be to kick his husband as punishment in the middle of the night.
Staring at the ceiling he realised that the dust was collecting enough to leave a light layer, Harley fidgeted staring at the dust. When he could no longer ignore he got a ladder and dusted the entire ceiling, then vacuumed the floor and dusted the sheets.
Finally laying down again.
Lamenting on the sad fact of hi extended unemployment he grabbed my phone from his joggers and the first thing he saw made him more miserable than he already was,
Derek - You got this love! Their not going to know what hit them!
Mum - Derek called said you have an interview, finally. Time to step up.
'Great, just great now even my mother was going to get an update on my failure of a day, how great.'
Harley ignored both messages and logged onto seek to continue is seemingly endless job search.
Hovering over the search bar he was stumped on what to put in,
'What did I want to do.'
Harley knew he didn't want to teach anymore but that was about it when it came to the ideas department.
"arghhhhhhhh, whatever", closing his phone and he crawled deeper into bed and tried to forget his existence.
When Harley finally woke up drenched in sweat and panting he thought
'now that was a nightmare.'
It was always the same dream that had Derek panicking and asking him to book an appointment to see a psychologist.
But he never did, yes it scared him shitless but for some reason it was comforting. He'd never shared the contents with anyone and it was always the same person chasing him the nightmares since they had started in high school,
He used to runaway but now, he didn't have the energy
The rustle of keys jolted Harley out of his trance and had him checking the time on his phone,
'8:00pm shit.'
Not only had he forgotten to pick up Summer, but the dinner that should've existed did not. Harley tried to soothe down his hair as he went downstairs to try and salvage the situation or at least take the beating head first.
"Hey."
'Fuck why do I sound pissed',
"You know Summer had to get a ride home by one of her teachers after calling me crying and I get a hey " Derek's jacket and shirt were already off and only a white tank top and his navy blue jeans remained.
'His boots were still on, inside, on the carpet, I'd have to clean.'
"Can you take off your shoes"
"That's all you have to say for yourself?", Harley walked past him and collected the clothes he'd left on the dining room table and went to Summers room, connected to it.
Derek stayed standing there, gobsmacked, Harley didn't look back.
Harley knocked softly on Summer's door, a quiet murmur came from the room signally him to open the door cautiously.
"Hey Sum I'm sorry"
He stalked into the room slowly trying to miss the arrangements of books and knick-knacks littered everywhere and ignore the ghastly posters of rock bands with decapitated bodies on the cover.
Summer was perched on her desk to the left of her window ,in front of her bed, knees to her chest. Drawing something similar to a gargoyle onto a sketchpad. Harley didn't hate the black walls but he'd wished she'd chosen something closer to her name but when her and Derek teamed up he didn't stand a chance.
"Did you get home okay?"
'shitty question to ask.'
"I'm fine" she was too kind to be angry at her dad but her puffy face and swollen eyes gave her away.
"I'm so sorry Dad had a bad day and needed a nap." Harley tried to explain wrapping her in a tight hug.
"Everyday lately has been a bad day." That had Harley loosening his grip,
'surely I wasn't that bad lately.'
"I know I'm sorry look I'll make your favourite tonight, anything you want?" Harley pleaded putting on his best and warmest smile.
"Can we have spagetthiO's?" Summer turning her head and leaving his grasp looking up at him with blue puffy eyes.
"You want pasta from a can?"
'fuck my life.'
Fixing his face back to a smile he replied, "Sure baby we probably have some somewhere I'll go whip some up for you and Daddy okay?" her smile brightened, she was still so young even at 10.
"Yes please.".
Collecting Derek's clothes' Harley headed past the dining which I had now been vacated and to the laundry room to dup them into the hamper.
Upstairs the sound of the shower running could be heard, and Harley beelined to the kitchen cupboards hoping that those tins of horror were absent,
they were not.
Sighing he emptied three cans into a stainless steel pot.
Placing them on the stove with high heat leaning on the kitchen island settling into a memoir he'd been reading on the kindle app.
"How'd it go?" Derek came in hair wet, still putting on a grey shirt.
'Great.'
"How'd what go?" Harley turned his head casually taking in the beautiful scent of lavender and peony steaming off of Derek.
Harley lamented on the fact that he didn't get to enjoy the scent for much longer before he opened his mouth,
"The interview how'd it go, well the first round?"
"I may of embellished a tad it wasn't an interview per say but a job search agency interview... anyway that's not important they had nothing for me so that's that.".
God Harley hated when he made that face, full of disappointment and distrust, he wasn't lying it was purely omitting some details, it was Derek's mind that did the rest.
"Your kidding, look I - we were all so excited; wait whatever, they had nothing?" then Harley remembered and he really wish he hadn't because Derek didn't deserve this at all.
"Yes, you were ALL looking forward to this? Is that why my mother had to know?" Harley had intended to sound more venomous but the feelings of hurt and betrayal prevailed.
"Harley they've been helping us - ",
"So that means they get free rein into my personal life, and just to be clear YOU asked them for help." Harley remembered the situation they'd found themselves in two months ago where there was no way out and at the time Derek lied to him, but of course his parents were the type that liked to do victory laps after their "I told you so's"
"We were drowning Harley." The soft whisper of defeat Derek let out stripped Harley of any anger or will he had to fight.
"stop... just stop. I know. Sorry."
'I'm exhausted when did everything get so tiring.'
"Well okay... but what are you planning to do now that they don't even have anything?". Silence, Harley couldn't bring myself to lie or omit this time.
"Omitting again I see?" this time he looked up to see Derek's cheesy grin, god did he wish he could bottle up that brightness.
"Your married to a future sanitation officer, your gonna be fighting off the ladies to keep me from now on." Harley said, small chuckle escaping my lips as he moved closer to be met with a tight embrace.
'When did I start crying?'
"I know it's not what you envisioned but it's honest work and - and I'm proud of you for getting back out there."
"I'm thirty five working a minimum wage job so we don't loose our house, I've failed you both with my selfishness." he whispered a reply voice cut out with tears following one by one.
Derek didn't respond, what could he say? Instead he wiped Harley's tears and held him.
Eventually parting Harley headed to the bathroom to freshen up as Derek plated the food and got Summer.
'I might've as well be a parasite at this point.'
'No purpose but to drain it's host organism, my loved ones.'
Harley's phone pinged after dinner as he snuggled with Derek on the couch and Summer had headed off to bed.
Isabelle - I'm bored let's head out bitches!
Tylor- I'm 36 let me sleep.
Alex - I second that comment.
Harley - It might be fun.
Isabelle - He's alive!
Harley - very funny.
Alex - well since his majesty will be joining us lets go girls!
Harley decided to wait until Derek passed out to sneak out,
'look I'm a grown man I don't need to sneak out but it still felt shitty to sit around all day while he was at work and then go out drinking as a reward for abandoning our daughter and at this point trying to stay unemployed.'
Deciding on nothing too fancy just black slacks and a black dress shirt tucked in with some dress shoes he headed into a Uber. Knowing Alex she'd choose some up scale bar to try and bag yet another high profile doctor or lawyer.
He was right.
Harley met Tylor outside The Closet a new bar/club that had just opened a 20 minute Uber drive from his house closer to the city centre. Red neon lights illuminated from the front the clubs name glowing as a long line of people wrapped around it's corner towards the entrance.
"Hey mopey what's the occasion? Did someone die and now you miss us?" Tylor said in a playful tone with his a smirk slapped on there just for good measure.
"No I'm bored and want to be drunk, sue me." Harley walked past Tylor as he spoke, Tylor slinging an arm on his shoulders as he pasted using the momentum to keep up as they made their way to the front of the line.
There they saw their beautiful Isabelle basically humping the bouncer,
"Heyyyyyyy! Your here guys, FINALLY, me and Bruce were about to ditch you guys." Isabelle was a fascinating creature seeing as she could flirt with a dead fish and somehow get it to give her its spine while they both giggled.
Poking the large mans chests they continued to grope each other.
"Sorry you know Harley takes forever to do his makeup - " Harley wanted to hit Tylor. Hard this time, he thought that his skin is already looking dead enough he didn't want people thinking he aspired to look this tired.
"Sorry I'm late. Traffic." Harley respond hugging her briefly yet fondly.
"Okay okay okay, I'll forgive you just this once let's head inside!". With that Isabelle gave Bruce a final kiss and a yank of his junk and they were let inside for free and no wait.
Harley could practically feel the afterburn from the stares they got walking in.
"Isabelle! Alex just texted, apparently she's on the second floor." They were all shouting at each other 'Hellos' and 'how are yous' over the bass and laughing voices. The floors were sticky and Harley risked loosing his red bottom loafers and the tinnitus was slowly settling in for them all.
Regardless he had missed this, being out nothing to worry about, no responsibilities just ready to be drunk and make out with someone you'd regret in the morning. The rush of being alive following you every night in your twenties.
Eventually they made it to the second floor, the music was considerably quieter and the patrons wore more sophisticated clothes - aka they covered their asses.
Alex was at the bar looking stunning as usual. Where Isabelle was a bubble gum pink blonde with a wild streak that dominated men, Alex was a dark horse with long legs and a sultry voice.
But if you asked Harley she was a venomous snake but hey at least she was a pretty one, and he loved her for it.
You could only see half of her head as a man in a medical coat, yes a medical coat in the bar stood in front of her apparently devoting himself to his part time gig as a comedian.
"Alex who is this guy, I had to put Jacob and Jessie in bed myself tonight." Tylor somehow teleported behind Alex and his large frame was giving Mr. Doctor the fright of his life.
"Oh um um I didn't know she was married, woman ey? Look I'll get going. Sorry man." With that Tylor had successfully chased off Alex's future bank account and royally pissed her off.
"The first time I see you guys in months and this is the hello I get? Tylor just so you know your getting cockblocked this entire evening." They all settle into seats in front of the bar laughing as Alex continues to berate Tylor, ordering their respective drinks.
Isabelle a cosmopolitan, Alex a martini, Tylor a rum and coke and Harley well of course you can never go wrong with straight vodka.
"Harley, are you unwell? What the fuck is up with your drink?" Alex quipped taking a long draw of her martini pulling her dark hair to one side.
"What? I like vodka, you know this." he replied.
"There's liking vodka then theirs abusing your stomach lining." she continued.
"Have you eaten baby?" Isabelle had the neat habit of referring to any of her friends as baby, took a while to get used to.
"How could I? The old ball and chain and Summer wanted to eat pasta from a can" Harley explained downing the drink.
"First that sounds disgusting and second that ball of chain is my brother remember." Alex said turning back to the bar to order him a drink she considered reasonable.
I replied putting up my hands, "right cause you two are so similar I forget.".
"Honestly though, why does one look like a Oompa Loompa and the other like the wicked witch of the west, no consistency."
Tylor could not avoid the head smack coming his way from that comment and it would make all of them burst into laughter that was unbecoming of thirty somethings.
The night was meant to continue going smoothly, well that was before Harley saw him.