Page 64 of Point of Contact

“Yeah, I am,” Trevor said, breaking into Jesse’s vengeful thoughts. “Actually, he came and picked up the rest of his stuff this morning.”

“Today?” Jesse clenched his fists all over again. “What the fuck?”

“I doubt it even occurred to him what today is, Jesse. It was convenient for him to come by, so he did.”

“Jesus. I’d love to throw that dude a fuckin’ blanket party, I really would.”

Trevor’s eyes widened. “What’s that?”

“A blanket party? Well, it’s just like it sounds. You throw a blanket over someone’s head and a bunch of people gather round to beat the shit out of him.”

Trevor choked. “Oh my God,” he wheezed. “Have you ever had that done to you?”

“Oh, yeah.” Jesse stood up, lacing his fingers behind his neck. “In boot camp. During a live fire exercise I had an AD, and I almost shot off a sergeant’s foot.”

“An... AD?” Trevor asked, his tone one of fascination.

“Accidental discharge. Of my firearm,” he clarified when Trevor’s mouth dropped open. “Basically, I didn’t have the safety on and my gun went off. Stitched the ground right next to this dude’s foot. Because of it the whole squad had to run an extra five miles before rack time, and everyone was fuckin’ pissed. So that night after I fell asleep, all of a sudden this thick woolen blanket was thrown over my head and held down.”

Jesse closed his eyes, and pantomimed flailing around. “Guys were hitting me with socks filled with bath soap. I couldn’t see for shit, couldn’t see where the blows were coming from, or who was doing it.”

“That’s barbaric,” Trevor said indignantly.

Jesse sat back down. “Nah. It’s discipline. The powers that be let us self-police with shit like that. Believe me, I never accidentally discharged my gun again.” He shuddered. “I could’ve killed that guy, or shot his legs up and ruined his career. The least I could do was take a few bruises for that.”

“Wow.” Trevor shook his head wonderingly. “Well, Carl doesn’t deserve a blanket party.”

Jesse gave a disgusted snort. “The hell he doesn’t.”

“He didn’t sign on for this, Jesse.”

“What, so I guess ‘for better or worse’ doesn’t apply to him, huh?” Jesse snapped, then subsided. “Shit, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. You’re entitled to your opinion.” Trevor leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “I think the night of the dinner party it finally hit him I wasn’t ever going to be the same guy he fell in love with, and one year wasn’t the magic number for me to ‘get over it.’ Our relationship became secondary to my grief, Jesse, and he deserves more than that.”

Jesse leaned forward, too, mirroring Trevor’s pose. “Well, I’d still like to rough him up just for showing up today of all days. You didn’t need that.”

Trevor was silent for a moment, his face pale in the light of the moon. He heaved a quiet sigh. “One year ago today. I—” He blinked rapidly, and Jesse scooted a little closer to him.

“It’s okay, Trevor. Whatever you need, I’m here.”

Trevor turned to stare at him, his eyes stark. “You were there for Riley, too, weren’t you? The day he died.”

Jesse’s mouth opened and closed as he struggled for the words. How do you talk to a grieving father about watching his son die? God help me.

Before he could say anything, Trevor shook his head. “No. I wanted tonight to be about his life, not his death.” He slipped his hand in his pocket to bring out a smooth stone.

“What’s that?” Jesse asked, his voice gentle.

Trevor rubbed the stone with his thumb. “I took Riley to California once over his summer break. We spent two weeks there, doing Disneyland, San Diego, everything.” He opened his palm, letting Jesse see the rock, which looked like an ordinary gray stone found on any beach. “He found this in one of the tide pools on Coronado Island, and insisted I keep it. I don’t know why, I think it’s because of how perfectly smooth it is.”

He held it out, and Jesse ran his fingertips over the satiny surface, feeling its residual warmth from being in Trevor’s hand.

“I stuck it in my jacket pocket and forgot about it, and then when we got home and I realized I still had it, I put it on a bookshelf in the living room and never thought of it again. Today when Carl came to get his stuff, I was checking over the bookshelf to make sure he hadn’t put anything there, and I saw it.” Trevor closed his hand around the stone. “I carried it around all day today, thinking of our trip, how much fun we had, how much I miss him.”

Trevor pulled away from Jesse and stood, picking his way to the edge of the cliff overlooking the city spread out below. Jesse got up and followed him, hovering close.

“I went into my office, searching for a place to put it so I could look at it always.” Trevor clenched his hand so tight his knuckles turned white. “Riley didn’t care about this rock, Jesse. It’s pretty, and smooth, and it caught his attention for like thirty seconds. I didn’t care about it. If I’d found it in my pocket before we got home from California, I would’ve tossed it out. Instead, I stuck it on a bookshelf and didn’t think about the stupid thing for years, and now here I was trying to turn it into some great memento.”