Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2014 02:54:07 +0700
From: Robert Glass <robxglass@gmail.com>
Subject: The Virgin Joseph part 25

All right reserved. Any unauthorized use is prohibited. This is a
fiction. Any resemblance to people and/or events is coincidental. If
reading this deemed illegal to you, I implore you to stop. If it offends
you, please do not read on.

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PART 25


"Is it just me who finds this highly arousing?" Sam whispered.

"What? Him bossing us around?" Tom responded.

"Yeah. Also the fact that he assembled the table and the benches in under
20 minutes."

"It's not just you." Tom smirked.

"Tom! Can you please at least help me set the table? You're not doing
anything right now," Joe yelled. He was under such a massive pressure. "Or
you can leave. They'll be here any minute now."

"Alright boss!" Tom replied.

"Don't use that tone on me!" Joe snapped. "Sam..."

"It's a good 5 minutes before this is done," Sam interrupted.

"Just leave, I can watch over that."

Joe was arranging the plates either too carefully or too carelessly. His
legs could not be still, always moving about and moved him around. He can
feel his heart pumping blood faster and faster as he anticipated his
brother's arrival. Now he has these two meatheads in his kitchen that he
has to get rid of before it's too late. The meathead was himself, actually,
since he was the one who blurted that they should have lunch at his
place. Now he found himself cursing at himself and two other men.
Especially Sam.

"Sam, what are you still doing here? I said I can handle it." The bowls and
cutlery that he clutched into his chest shook as he yelled.

"Alright, alright," Sam said. "I'll leave."

Then nightmare. There was knocking on the door and Joe knew exactly who it
was. He was stunned to petrification, having ceramic and metal shits in his
hands, an ex-boyfriend cooking in the kitchen, and a hook up ready to
answer the door. Joe could not even find a voice to stop Sam from opening
the door. Though, should Joe had time to think about it, he had no time to
hide or kick Sam and Tom out of his apartment, so might as well.

"Who are you?" Said a man from outside the threshold, sounding perplexed.

"Ah, I'm sorry for the unexpected displeasure. I'm Sam, Joe's neighbour. My
friend and I are helping him setting up this lunch. We've all been
expecting you."

"Oh," the man said again. "Sorry for my rudeness."

"No, please, pardon my barbarity instead; I haven't welcomed you in."

That show of fraudulent hospitality was enough to snap Joe out of his
panic-induced trance and drop everything from his arms. He stomped his way
towards the door and pushed Sam off the door. Then, again, Joe was stunned
to petrification. It was a sight he chastised himself of for a year. It was
made of home and warmth. It was Joy and happiness.

There, beyond the doorway was his ever glowing brother and his de facto
sister-in-law who shines even brighter.

"Justin."

"Joseph."

A man who looked almost exactly like Joe; only taller, bigger, older, and
lighter; steps in with a woman who was gorgeousness itself; large bright
eyes, warmest of smiles, dark tresses, in a simple summer dress that
allowed her radiant skin which was so healthy it may weaken one's
knees. The man, however, rushed in much hastier then the other person. The
man was after his long lost little brother.

"I finally found you," Justin said as he lift Joseph off his feet and
wrapped him tightly. It wasn't hard to hear how his voice had started
cracking.

"I'm so sorry," the little one said, patting his brother's back mid-air. He
glanced at the woman and mouthed, "Hi, Norah!"

That silent chit chat with one of the most important women in Joe's life
was cut short when Justin started carrying Joseph away from the door to the
couch. Justin sat down, never letting his little brother go. Still with his
arm around Joe's back and his lap supporting Joe's weight, Justin started
to cry. All the worry and yearning has reached its edge and ended in that
meeting.

"I'm so sorry," Joe repeated, knowing how distraught his brother was
feeling. He felt guilty and he should be. He left without saying anything.

"Don't say you're sorry, you stupid asshole," Justin said, which caused
them to laugh.

"You can let me go now," Joe suggested.

"I'm not letting you go."


***


"You've changed," Justin said. He had listened to the tale of Joseph as
recited by three men.

"I... I guess I have." Joe cringed by the conclusion, a vey stark, honest,
and correct conclusion. He couldn't deny that he was ashamed that he
had. Joe has been the sad but good little boy in Justin's and Norah's
eyes. Now he's feeling like... well, after the tale stopped at him sleeping
with two men, he felt like a slut.

"I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I mean, two years ago you were a closed
off virgin and now you're sleeping with two fine-looking men. That's really
something. But that's not all. You seem happier now, like you're
experiencing some sort of..."

"Whorishness? Perversion?" Joe offered.

"Freedom."

"Freedom?"

"Yeah, freedom. When you were still living in Birmingham, you don't do all
this; and I don't mean just sex. You didn't go out, you didn't make
friends; you didn't even try to do anything."

"Birmingham caged me. Or, more accurately, being in close proximity to
mother and father. And Jason. And Jean."

"Their siblings," Norah interjected, explaining what was happening to Sam
and Tom, now the outsider.

"Wait," Sam said. "You guys' names are all started with 'J'?"

"J for Jesus," the brothers said in the same time. It cracked them up
instantly, along with Norah who knew the inside joke. Tom and Sam could
only stare at each other.

"Sorry, they're weird," Norah said.

"You're weird," Joe replied.

"We're all weird," Justin concluded. "Sorry, guys. We're weird."

"No doubt you are," Sam said bemused.

They talked and talked like they were a small, happy family. Of course Sam
had to be the wisecrack, saying how beautiful Norah was and that he had
been bisexual, he wouldn't be able to resist himself.  Then he went to
embarrass Tom by outing his bisexuality by making a remark that Tom was
just too proper to say that because he knew that she was spoken for. That
granted him a stomp on both feet courtesy of Tom and Joe.

Justin finally told Joe how he found him, a story both he and Norah had
held off until they met Joe in person. They had been searching high and low
through people and internet to track down Joe's whereabouts to no
avail. They interrogated Joe's former co-workers at his old office in
Birmingham, none of them knew where Joe went.

They turned to god himself: Google. Turned out that Google wasn't all that
omniscience. Joe's Facebook page was nowhere to be found, and when Justin
tried and succeeded to guess the password, he found out that it had been
deactivated. Twitter was the same. Justin even downloaded many dating apps
to his phone just to try his luck. There was no luck. Several solicitations
was not considered as luck.

They gave up trying after several weeks of hunting. Justin was down and out
at that point and Norah was no better. They moved on. That is until one day
Norah fooled around in Instagram and typed 'Joseph Becker' in the search
bar. As expected, there was no meaningful result under 'people'. In hashtag
category, however, she found a photo of Joseph, their Joseph, cuddling up
with a man who was kissing Joe's forehead. That man was Thomas Donnelly, as
one of the other hashtags suggested, the geotag said that it was taken in
Chicago, and it was posted by a person named Nicholas Garrison.

The search began again that day, but only by Norah since she didn't want to
give her boyfriend a false hope. She tried Facebook again, trying to find a
Nicholas Garrison in Chicago that matches the one she found in
Instagram. It was more difficult than she had expected since the Nicholas
person did not post pictures of himself at all. She patiently looked for
the profiles that posted the same photos, no result. She analysed the
Instagram account again and concluded that Nicholas is an architect.

After she narrowed down the search, she found this one Nicholas Garrison
which profile was mostly barren, who was in a relationship with Alicia
Sykes, who in turn had a lot of photos of herself together with Thomas
Donnelly. The three of them listed their jobs at the same office, Darwin
Dai Design. She called, Amy answered, and a week later there they are.

"That was... lengthy," Joe commented.

"Sure it was," Justin said.

"I'm sorry I caused you the trouble. I didn't mean to hurt you in any
way. I was just..." Joe did not find the courage to continue.

Tom reached out and took Joe's hand, hoping he could transfer the strength
through touch. Joe accepted the support he received from his best
friend. Tom was the only one who knew what Joe's motives were. When he
first heard it, he was convinced that Joe did the wrong thing leaving his
brother like that. It didn't matter now, the brothers have met.

"I was making you my crutch," Joe said. "I know you've always been
supportive and caring. You were never hard on me like everybody else. You
were... are my safety. But it was too safe, I guess. I got comfortable, and
I became lazy. Like you said, I didn't even try anymore. I know if I
started doing something back then, you would support it. But I didn't think
it was enough. I didn't think I would, you know, take off knowing that you
guys were there to help get back up if I fell."

"Are you saying that we're enabling you?" Justin asked.

"No, I'm not saying that. You weren't enabling me. You're also tough and
fair, remember?"

"Then what was the problem?"

"The problem is that it was easy to stay there. It was easy and to be
honest it would be the cowardly thing to do. I was like the guy who never
got out of his parents' house. I had to leave and live on my own."

"That was the point, Joseph. It was supposed to be easy for you. You have
been living a fucked up life and I don't want it to be difficult
anymore. Mom didn't put you in the best school while you were in Bali, or
in Jakarta. You were living alone with some distant relatives of ours since
you were a kid, never having a real connection with us. Then when you
managed to come back here, you were disowned by most of our family. You
deserved to have it easy this time."

"And where did it leave me? Moping around in my apartment, living frugal
despite having enough money, and never gained the courage and confidence to
go out and date someone. That was not easy for me, Justin. Living the way I
lived in Indonesia was easier because that's what I know how to do."

Justin clenched his eyes shut as it started to get wet again. The trial to
hold back was futile, his heart had set its mind and it decided that it was
broken by the answer Joe gave him.

"Sorry guys, I didn't think that it would become a big family fight,"
Justin said to Tom and Sam. "I mean this is our reunion, I thought the
tears would be only of joy."

"No problem," Tom said. "We can give you some privacy."

"No need," Justin replied.

He then stood up from his seat and walked around the new dining table to
where Joe sat. The little brother turned and face his big brother. The
little brother mirrors the big brother and stood up.  Arms were stretched
and bodies were pressing one another in a warm hug.

"You could've at least told me that you wanted to move out of Birmingham,"
Justin said in a loud whisper.

"You'll do everything to prevent me from going," Joe replied in the
quietest oration.

"True." Justin smiled on how well his brother knew him. "I didn't want you
to have it hard anymore. I don't want you to constantly be in survival
mode."

"I promise you I'm not."

"Oh yes you are. You're not even crying right now."

"I'm never sensitive anyway. I didn't cry when we watched Saving Private
Ryan together. You bawled on my shoulder."

"Hah! You fucking shithead." Justin smiled to his dear brother, the one he
loved the most.

"Although, I cried once when Tom said he loved me."

"You did?" Justin shrieked in a surprise. He then turned his face to Tom
before pausing. He noticed that everyone ware in different emotional
state. Norah was smiling, seemingly relieved. Sam was glassy eyed. Tom had
a track of tear in his cheek. He was Mr Family Values after all.

"I did, didn't I?" Joe asked Justin's question, completely disregarding of
Tom's empathetic blubbering.

"He did," Tom answered. "He cried. Mad hysterics."

"It was indeed mad hysterics," confirmed Joe.

"You did?" Justin asked again.

"Yes, I did."

"But you... you haven't cried since you were five."

"That's why it was mad hysterics. I forgot how to cry," Joe joked, one that
Justin didn't take very well.


***


"You should really see Amy perform," Joe said to Norah. "You might like
her."

"I might but my idiot boss may not," Norah replied. She knew too well how
her current boss works.  He had to like the artist too in order for him to
approve. It wouldn't be such a problem if the boss wasn't so narrow minded
and partial towards one type of artist: the young male modern country
singers.

"Good thing you're moving here, then. New city, new boss."

"I am going to be the boss," Norah boasted. "So yeah, it's a good thing."

"I really hope you're going to like Amy. She's sings soul, and she's
English. If she were to record music right now, I think she's going to sing
the next Bond theme. She loves Bond themes."

"That's my jam."

"Uh! Everything is your 'jam,'" Joe whined, still disliking the term he
used to hear from Norah.

It was true that Norah's taste covers everything. She was much, much more
inclusive than her current boss. It ranges from experimental electronic
that had yet gained its own genre to pure old- school punk. Before Joe left
Birmingham, Norah was still fighting for this bluegrass male artist who
touches jazz, blues, and rock-and-roll from time to time, and she was still
fighting for him a year later. This new job in Chicago can really give this
guy the opportunity he deserves.

"You plan this really fast," Joe veered off the topic.

"You know I've been wanting to get out of that company for a long, long
time now. It just so happens that you're here and Justin wanted to open a
new place and I got an offer. Things just fall into place at the right time
sometimes."

"They do."

"Things also fall into the wrong place sometimes. I still don't know where
we're going to have the wedding. We booked a place back home for next May
and our families are all there. It's going to be hard to manage a wedding
down there from up here."

"You can always marry at the city hall," Joe suggested.

"And shatter his dream of having a big wedding? I don't think so." At
Norah's joke, Joe laughed, knowing too well how his military brother
comically cared so much about the mushy things. "All I want is only to wear
a pretty white dress, walk down the aisle, and marry him. He's the one who
want every single thing to be perfect. I feel sorry for the caterer."

"I know, I know." Joe laughter died down as the memories of things he
didn't see rushed in. He reminisced on everything that has happened in the
past year, especially those that was not in his sight. Justin and Norah is
getting married, Norah is going to be a big boss in a big city, and Justin
is opening a new restaurant in Chicago. He's going to be close to his
family again; his real family, not the family he was stuck with.

"I don't know if I should thank you or scold you for leaving unannounced
like that," Norah said out of the blue.

"Thank me?"

"He proposed because you left. He said he's been wanting to ask me for
almost a year but he wasn't sure about committing. Then you left and he
realised that he didn't want to lose one more person that he loves. Three
months later he proposed."

"I see." Beyond those words, Joe had nothing to say.

"But then he was sad all the time. He was almost depressed. I had no idea
how to pull him out of that state because I was just as sad. You don't do
that, Joseph. You don't leave the people you love like that. If you wanted
to leave you should've told us. I know we would've tried to stop you, but
if you were reasonable enough, we would've listened."

"I'm sorry."

"If you do that again, I'm going to rip your balls and feed it to a
homeless cannibal. You hear me?"

"I hear you," Joe said laughing. "Wow, I've never seen you this crude
before."

"I love you but I love him more. Trust me, I'll rip your balls if you hurt
him again."

Joe laughed even louder now. Listening to his gentle and proper future
sister-in-law cuss like a redneck was so amusing. The southern belle had
lost not only her accent but also her coy mannerism. She really loved
Justin, Joe thought, which was great since Justin loved her as much.

"I mean it. I love you, okay? Justin loves you. Your parents and siblings
may be fucked up, but you got us to call family."

"I know," Joe said. "Thanks."

"Now let's get back out there."

Both Norah and Joe got out of his bedroom to the main room. The boys were
probably talking about how Justin had to adjust living as a Saints fan
among Bears or Cubs or whatever form of Ursidae he had to face in the
future; none of which Joe cared. Joe never cared about sports or
competitions or fanaticism, he only wanted to play soccer.

"What were you guys talking about?" Justin asked from across the room.

"You know, all the movies you've cried at, like The Iron Giant," Joe
cracked. People laughed.

"Oh we're playing that game." A wicked smile crept on Justin's face. "I
think you remember how a sixteen year old you wanted me to be your first
kiss. That's gross, Joe."

Laughter was louder for that.

"Hey! Don't go there!" Joe was horrified.

"You what?" Tom was equally as horrified. As a family man, he could not
imagine a person wanting to do that kind of thing to a family member.

"I think it's hot," came a flippant remark from Sam.

"No, Sam! You shut your mouth!" Joe shouted.

"What? You guys are hot. This is like the Hemsworth brothers doing it. I'd
watch that kind of threesome."

"Sam!"

Justin cut the petty argument short. "You were his first, right?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Joe answered for the man.

"Unfortunate for me, you wrecked my face after." Sam laughed to himself.

Justin approached Joe for a truce. It was a low blow, he had to admit, but
Joe started it. Ah, just brothers messing with each other. He hugged his
brother as a form of apology and he scratched the smaller man's head. He
felt like it was not enough though. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

"It's okay," Joe whispered back, half pouting for being slightly mad
still. "You were the only one who loved me back then, that's why I did
that. I thought I would never find anyone who would love me in anyway."

Justin pulled out of the hug a little. He needed to see Joe's face. He
needed to communicate how things have changed for the better for Joseph. He
needed to look into his brother's eyes when saying it. He held that
familiar face in his hands and try to invite those wandering eyes to stay
still. "You have people around you now, people that care about you. Tom and
Sam are good people, and I heard that your friends are also great. Don't
worry about it, okay. You are loved. But if in the end everyone else left,
I will still be here and love you."

"I know," Joe said with his voice breaking.

"I love you, okay?"

"Okay," Joe said. Part of him could not stand the excessive profession of
love that both Norah and Justin had been freely pouring over him. The other
part of him only wanted to be convinced that it was true.

"I mean it, I will still love you even if you mercilessly kill all the kids
in an orphanage. Just don't kill that lady over there, I'm gonna hate you
for that."

"Don't worry. I'll spare her life."

Justin laughed. "Oh little buddy, I love you so much." He then kissed
Joseph on the forehead.

"Boo! We want real kiss!" Sam decided to be a heckler.

"No we don't," Tom countered.

"Sam, please," Joe said. "That's gross. That's like... like..."

"Kissing your own brother?" Justin offered.

"Yeah," he laughed.

Justin laughed too and he did so while once again pulling Joseph into a
hug. "Oh, little buddy, I love you so much," he repeated.

"I love you too."

"And happy birthday,"

"My birthday is next week."

"I know, but you might run away again next week,"

"Hey!" Joe protested.


___
Yay, Justin and Norah!

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