Oscar made me pinky swear I wouldn't tell anyone about Paul, in exchange for going to see him. I gave him my pinky. It'd been broke so many times I could hardly link mine around his.
Oscar called Paul on his phone, asked if he could drop by. We drove real slow, while Oscar explained what “coming out of the closet” meant.
Thing is, when we showed up at Paul's apartment, Paul had a big smile stretched across his face, till he saw me. He slammed the door shut. Kept yelling at me to go away. Oscar had to yell at him that I pinky swore, and it was OK. Still took 10 minutes.
You look at them, never woulda guessed they were gay. Paul's place looked like a normal bachelor pad, except owned by a neat freak. Paul was a smaller guy, Average build, hair the color of fresh upturned dirt. Thick beard and glasses, jeans and a t-shirt. Kept looking at me like I was gonna eat his dinner. When they sat next to each other and held hands, if you ignored they were both guys, it was normal.
Oscar and Paul went out for pizza that night, to a movie at the Majestic, spent the night together. Since they were trying not to be noticed, it'd be kinda hard to find witnesses, but it was an alibi. Told him if we looked around, should be enough to save Oscar.
Paul let go of Oscar's hand, stood up. Perfectly normal. What really proved he was normal, he said he wasn't ready for his parents to find out, wouldn't come out the closet. It was a real slob thing to do, save yourself by throwing someone else under the bus.
I went full-on dame on him, told him Oscar was gonna spend a long time in prison to save Paul a weird talk with his parents. Told him they might not like it, but it wasn't like he killed anyone. Problem was, if he kept his mouth shut, it'd be like killing Oscar. What would his parents say then?
He sat for a while, chewing nothing. Finally, he asked if we could try to keep it from hitting the papers. There was a lot of dame stuff going on between them after that. They tried to hug me, but I just patted them on the shoulder.
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