Edited
Edwin was sitting in the dining room, playing with his food and watching Dr. Edward interact with a patient on the table across the room. A sudden noise made him jump as someone sat next to him and basically threw their food tray on the table. Bringing his hand to his heart due to the shock unconsciously, he looked to the side to see who the sudden visitor was. It was none other than Hector; the source of his misery. All of their misery, actually.
With the appearance of Hector, so many things had changed. At first, the six of them would gather repeatedly, always in one of their houses but after the first month, when nothing any of the doctors did or said changed anything or made Hector give them the info they needed to know, they all kind of… gave up.
They would all message Edwin daily to know if there had been any progress, but they hadn’t visited in maybe two weeks, or more. They all kind of drowned themselves in their works, wanting to avoid the fact that their friend wasn’t with them anymore.
Edwin couldn’t blame them for not being there, though. He himself wanted to just run to a faraway place or strangle Hector enough to make him leave. Preferably the latter. The only ones that had visited every second day were Max and Joe. Max hated Hector even more than Edwin, and Edwin had been the one who had to witness all the filth Hector did! Joe, on the other hand, had become quite friendly with the stranger. Hector would sit with him, even joke around with him and listen to him talk about the song he had composed or the dramas that were going on in the company. At those times, Hector would sit and listen to him for hours like a kid who had been thirsty for his father’s attention and was finally getting it, euphoric and with heart-shaped eyes, nodding to every word and laughing loud at every joke Joe managed to come up with.
Edwin couldn’t do it. He didn’t know why, but he just couldn’t get close to Hector. It was like the guy had built this wall that pushed him away every time he wanted to get just a bit close to him. If Edwin would sit next to him in the yard, Hector would reply to his greeting with a smile and a nod, and the next second he would stand up and walk away. Edwin felt helpless. Utterly, completely helpless.
Surprisingly, Ian had been the one to call him on a daily basis and ask him about how he was doing. The CEO had been on a business trip for over two weeks now, traveling from country to country to a chain of conferences, promoting their new software that was getting quite a lot of attention. Ian was sweet. He was the epitome of sweetness, but there had always been this distance between them, the one the ex and the new partner would always have, and Edwin had always felt that space was there because he himself had put it there. But now, it seemed like he couldn’t feel more comfortable with anyone other than Ian. Not even Brad and not even Kurt, who he had wanted to call a countless amount of times, but didn’t.
Finn had been mostly MIA. After the day they got Hector to the hospital, that is. Ian had mocked him about what Hector said, having two crushes from both genders, wanting to brighten the mood, but Finn had frowned and left without a word. He hadn’t talked much in their group chat, nor had he paid a visit. Only asking Edwin if Aiden was back in their private conversation. Edwin’s answer had always been short: no.
To say that he missed Aiden was an understatement. He missed him with every cell, no, every atom of his body.
You’d think just because the looks were the same, one would get the same vibe, but no, Hector and Aiden were different in every little detail. Even the sound of their chuckles, the way they walked, or the way they held the spoon was different.
Aiden would open his mouth as wide as he could and raised his eyebrows if he was shocked or surprised. Hector only listened until the end of the sentence in silence and tilts his head, instead. Aiden would run to the person who needed help or would react fast if he saw someone falling, whereas Hector only stood still and watched others handle the situation. The only exception had been Joshua. He would only react properly when it came to the long-haired boy. Which was why Edwin was shocked when he saw him sitting next to him, instead of the younger boy who was sitting at another table, alone.
“He’s very handsome, isn’t he?” Hector said with a nasty grin on his face as he fixed his chair and took a bite of his sandwich.
Edwin’s eyes were still wide and his heartbeat was fast due to the sudden ‘bang’ the tray had made.
“Who?” He asked almost automatically while staring at the other.
“Edward.” Hector pointed at the doctor with his sandwich after looking at the guy for a second before lowering his head to take another bite.
Edwin let his hand fall on the table as he took the spoon in his right hand, resuming the playing with his food and not eating again.
“He’s fine.” He shrugged.
“He’s married. So you better not be developing weird feelings toward a straight married man.” Hector said while munching and staring at him with his tilted head.
Edwin stopped his hand’s movement and looked back at him in shock with his mouth slightly open.
“What the fuck are you even talking about?!”
“Oh shut up! You were staring at his ass for 10 minutes straight!” Hector chuckled after saying that and took a huge bite which resulted in him coughing to death, trying to down it with something, but the water was out of his reach and he was kind of in the middle of dying.
Edwin considered watching him suffer for a bit longer, but rolled his eyes and gave the glass of water to him instead, patting his back to help him with the coughing. “I was spacing out, you idiot. I didn’t even realize who I was looking at. I’m in love with Aiden and besides, I’m a bottom, so even if I had stared at his ass consciously, that wouldn’t mean anything.” Wow, that must have been the longest sentence he had ever said to the still-coughing man, who now had tears at the corners of his eyes.
Hector didn’t say anything while taking a tissue and cleaning the mess he had caused thoroughly. Edwin noticed Joshua from the corner of his eye. The young man had worry written all over his face at the near choking-to-death incident. He had jumped up when it happened, but had sat back down again and had only been looking at Hector instead. It seemed as if he had been told not to come to them.
“Why are you here and not with Joshua, Hector?”
The other threw the tissues in the small trash can next to the table and smiled at him. A smile that didn’t look teasing for the first time. One that almost reminded Edwin of the way Aiden smiled.
“That was the first time you said my name like that!”
“‘like that’?” He was confused. What did ‘like that’ mean?!
“Yeah! Like you didn’t wanna kill me.” He smiled again and looked to his back at Joshua, who lowered his head the moment he saw Hector turning around.
The guy didn’t answer his question. He only stared at the younger boy for a couple of seconds before turning around again and resuming his meal.
Edwin sighed and did the same, taking the first spoon full of soup into his mouth. Aiden would have killed him if he was here, seeing the way he hadn’t eaten anything nearly enough for days now.
‘If you wait until you’re hungry, you’ll end up dead cos you never feel hunger.’
He had heard it many times. The memory made a smile appear on his face that seemed to catch Hector’s attention.
“Do you miss him?”
“To death.” He didn’t even hesitate to reply. Edwin felt the tears that started gathering in his eyes as he bit down on his lip hard enough to push it back. They fell into silence for minutes. It felt like ages with how stretched the sound of the big clock ticking filled the now mostly empty dining room.
“Where is he now?… Aiden… is he like, aware of the things that are happening?” He finally managed to put the question he had for the past two months into words. He was scared of the answer, but he had to know. Now that they were sitting next to each other, actually conversing, would be the best opportunity to ask.
“No. He’s not aware.” Hector answered and paused. For the first time, Edwin saw a sign of desperation on the guy. Hector’s eyes became extremely sad as he tried to hide his face by turning his head to the other side where Edwin couldn’t see. “He’s kind of… asleep. Unconscious. He won’t remember any of it when he’s back.”
“Will he?”
Hector turned around to face him again at his question. “Hm?” His face was rather emotionless. No sign of mischievousness present.
“Will he be back?” He felt his bottom lip trembling as he desperately hoped for the answer to be positive.
A very sad smile appeared on the other man’s face as he stared right into his soul. “As much as I want to believe I’m real and that I deserve to live freely, I’m not. It’s really cruel, but I have dealt with it after the many times it had been reminded to me. I can’t stick around forever, Edwin. I’m only… temporary.”
Edwin couldn’t find any words. The other man left after saying that and he had been sitting there for the past 20 minutes, recalling every word in his head. He had ignored the pain Hector must have been through. After all, it wasn’t easy to know you’re a replacement. It wasn’t easy to bear all the hatred that Hector received from them, either. Maybe, just maybe, beyond all of that aggressive shell, there was a soft heart. Edwin decided to find out. Maybe they could really become friends, like Chad had requested.
Comment