Adam Vasic (adam_vasic) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-02-24 20:22:00 |
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The last week had been the longest of Will’s life. Never again did he want to live through that. Living through it the first time had been hell on earth. This was just… Will had run out of words to describe how horrid it had been. And his behavior during the incident had not been stellar. Will was ashamed and didn’t know how to remotely make it up to Jem and Tessa. So instead of facing his own idiocy, Will decided to drink it away. Which was why he was in a bar with a glass of whiskey in front of him. His face was drawn and tired and a frown graced his features. “By the Angel, this place can really suck,” Will commented out loud, talking to no one and everyone all at once. *** Adam was still reeling from everything that happened the past week. The idea of him and Pamela being married and all respectable like a 50s sitcom couple was utterly horrifying. Yes, he cared about her and they had fun together. And maybe he could even see them having a real relationship some day. But not some twisted old-fashioned relationship where he wore suits and she stayed home and played the dutiful housewife. That just wasn’t either of them. The most frightening part of all of it was having Star call them Mom and Dad. He most definitely was not ready to be anyone’s father. She was a great kid and he was glad that he took her in and was able to help her, but the idea of adopting her was a little out there. Mostly he’d been dealing by repressing and spending as little time as possible at home. Spring was right around the corner, so he was helping with the clean up and maintenance of the jetboats to get them ready for the new season. When he wasn’t doing that, he was hiking or at the gym or just wandering around town. Tonight, he’d decided to have a few beers and when he heard the guy a few stools down complaining about how much this town sucked, he raised his glass in solidarity. “You’re telling me, man.” *** “What happened to you?” Will asked looking at the other guy. “It can’t have been good. Even all these people in these happy relationships…” He stopped and shook his head. “It isn’t natural. None of that.” Will tossed back a good portion of his whiskey before holding out his hand to Adam. “I’m Will by the way. And I think we should have some kind of support club for the shit this place pulls. Or maybe just free drinks to anyone who’s been royally screwed by it.” *** “Adam,” he said, shaking the other man’s hand. “And, yeah, it was bad. Real bad.” He supposed it could have been worse, he could have actually ended up married, instead of just thinking he was. But it was still pretty bad. “My housemate and I thought we were married,” he said. “And we were like the freaking Cleavers. Which is really not like either of us. At all.” Just the thought of it made him shudder again and he drained his glance, signaling the bartender for another round for both of them. “What happened to you?” *** That sounded better than what Will had gone through. “I went back in time to when I wasn’t married, had majorly fucked up my relationship with the person I was in love with.” Will took a another long drink, looked at the empty glass and gestured at the bartender to refill it. “And she went and secretly got engaged to my best friend.” Will groaned and rubbed his hand across his face. “It doesn’t seem so bad, but I got pissed at both of them and went out and flirted with every person I could find. I’m fucking married - I can’t even make that up to the people I’m now married to.” He stopped and shook his head, taking the refilled glass and drinking a good portion. *** “Oh, man, I’m sorry,” Adam said. That sounded pretty brutal. Their situations were pretty much reversed and it seemed like a lot of people had been at different stages of their relationships. It was funny now thinking about his conversation with Nick. No wonder they were both so confused. He also didn’t miss the reference to being married to people. As in plural. That was also interesting. “Have you talked to them?” he asked. “I mean, it wasn’t really you, so they shouldn’t hold it against you.” *** “They’re fine,” Will commented. “Both of them understood since it was … well, reminiscent of what had actually happened when we had gone through everything in the past, but I…” Will looked at the alcohol in the glass, considering the color of the liquid for several long moments. “Forgiving myself may take longer.” He looked at Adam. “It might be easier if they hated me for it.” Maybe Will would feel less guilty. He hadn’t done anything other than flirt, but still seemed to be so disrespectful to the love the three of them shared. Will probably needed to get over himself, but that took time. “So you ended up married to your housemate?” Will queried. “You in a relationship now?” *** That made sense. It was always harder to forgive yourself in Adam’s experience. “Uh, no, not at all,” he said. “I mean, we’re friends with occasional benefits, but that’s about it.” And they were both pretty content with that. Adam honestly wasn’t sure if he could ever see himself getting married. “So it was really awkward.” He had no idea what happened in that universe to make them into some twisted 1950s ideal. “Especially since the teenager we took in recently was calling us Mom and Dad.” *** “That just sounds… how does shit like that come to be?” Will asked, more rhetorically than anything else. “This place is messed up sometimes. Of course, I don’t understand why it would force us to relive the past either. I’ve moved on - we’ve reached a place in our relationship where we are content and …” Will shook his head. “I suppose if we actually understood this place, we wouldn’t want to be here.” Will grinned at Adam. “What did your housemate think of what happened?” *** “Oh, she was just as horrified as I was, if not more,” Adam said. He was pretty sure that he and Pamela would not be indulging in the benefits part of their friendship anymore after that. Even though they’d ostensibly been happy in that weird future, neither of them really wanted to end up there. He shrugged. “I guess it doesn’t matter if we understand this place since we can’t change being here.” *** “Why would it do that to you if neither of you were interested in a long term relationship?” Will asked, completely puzzled. “It would be one thing if there was some sort of secret desire to be together in such a way… but otherwise - it just seems pointless.” Will finished the rest of his whiskey. “If this was done by someone, I would say that they had a rather sardonic sense of humor or is really into torture of others.” He shook his head. “So how are you going to get your relationship back on track?” he asked, wondering how others recovered from this kind of shit. *** That was a great question. A year ago, Adam had been thinking about settling down. With Savannah. And since the dome took her away, he hadn’t given it any further thought, choosing to revert to his playboy ways and having fun. Did he want a commitment? Maybe. But he knew that Pamela wasn’t the commitment type. “We’re pretty much avoiding each other at the moment,” he admitted. “We figured some space was a good idea.” *** “Avoidance, an age old tactic for dealing with relationships that have taken an unexpected turn,” WIll commented. “Second only to alcohol as a way to wash everything away.” Will held up his empty glass, gesturing at the bartender to refill it. He wasn’t drunk enough yet to head home. Soon he’d have to consider it. He knew he couldn’t run forever. Besides, the likelihood of Jem or Tessa tracking him down and dragging him home compounded with every moment that he spent drinking away his own guilt. His refilled drink appeared and Will wondered out loud, “Could we just get that time erased from our memories? Pretend it never happened?” *** “Oh, someone here probably has the ability to make you forget,” Adam said. There had to be spells for that kind of thing, plus he was pretty sure some people here had psychic type abilities. “But don’t you think it’s good to remember? So that you can really appreciate what you have?” As much as it horrified him to think about the life he and Pamela lived in some weird future, he was glad that he had a glimpse of that and knew without a doubt that he didn’t want that. *** Did Will want to forget? He wanted to forget. He wanted to forget that he had nearly hurt Tessa and Jem. Forget that he had been left out of their relationship. And worse - he hadn’t fought for the relationship. He’d simply run away. But it wasn’t reality - in reality when the events had occurred, Will had done just that. It was a pattern he recognized in himself. He’d thought he had outgrown, but maybe not. “I guess it is about how we use the lesson we’ve learned,” Will commented slowly. “Do we allow it to warp us into something less than desireable or do we use it to strive to become even better, to achieve precisely what we want?” It was a rhetorical question, but important to Will. *** It was a really good question and one Adam felt like he was far too sober to contemplate at the moment. He signaled the bartender to bring them another round. “I think we need a lot more alcohol to figure that out,” he said. *** “An excellent plan,” Will said, raising his glass to that. It was at least something he could get behind. *** |