AS THE WORLD TURNS

"Luke & Kevin" - Part 21

Kevin Davis entered the guest room of his cousin's apartment clad in only a towel. He had just gotten out of the shower and felt clearer than he had in a long while. His mind, his soul, his heart felt clean. No matter how clean he felt, however, he knew that he still had some things to get through. This night, for example, was not going to be as fun and as easy as he wished it could have been. He was sure that Luke planned some type of romantic evening for the two of them, but he wasn't going to enjoy it. Not like we wanted to, at least.

Kevin was the type of person who let things get in the way of his happiness. Some people had the strange ability to, while in the midst of drama, enjoy the things that would normally make them happy, but Kevin was definitely not one of those people. Any time something in his life was not going the way he wanted it to, he'd think about it all the time, never letting it go. He failed countless tests because of the feuds between his parents. He could count on fingers and toes the number of times he could remember leaving Stacey in the middle of a date simply because he couldn't deal. Would that happen tonight? he wondered to himself before he pulled up his underwear, followed by a pair of thin summer blue jeans.

No! No way. He wasn't going to let it happen. To hell with his mother and her needs and wants. To hell with everything! He was going to let his inhibitions go and enjoy himself. More importantly, he was going to remind Luke Snyder just how much he loved him. It felt like forever since the last time they saw each other, and it ended so bad, so this night...this night had to be something magical between the two of them. Kevin put on his belt, and, from that moment on, he was only going to think good, happy thoughts.

As he put on his favorite shirt - navy and sky blue stripes, horizontal - he lingered to the window of the room. Gently pushing the curtain aside, he could see a group of some of the other tenants enjoying the pool in the glow of the evening's sunset. What carefree lives they must lead, he thought. He had met most of them since moving in with Nora. There was a single mother, Lorraine, and her three-year-old daughter Sindy. They frolicked together on the shallow side of the pool. The twins, college fratboys Jess and Kenny, were in the middle of one of their "small gatherings." Nora had once said something about how the twins asked her at the beginning of the summer if it would be a problem if they had a "small gathering" every so often. Nora said that she didn't mind, but since then, it had been an endless summer of fratboy antics. Kevin would have liked the idea of having wild fraternity men next door if they weren't so damn childish.

A couple sat at one end of the pool, his arms around her, both with their feet dangling in the water. The lucky bastard! Kevin wanted nothing more than what that man had at the very moment: someone to put his arm around and to sit in the pool with. This was a perfectly acceptable thing, between a man and a woman. What difference did it make if this simple act of love and understanding occurred between two men or two women? Why did it matter? Why did it piss so many people off?

Why was Kevin even thinking about this? It was just a testament of how easily he could stray from a good mood to a depressing one. He petulantly closed the curtain and sprayed on some of his best cologne. Just to be safe, and because he thought it felt cool, he picked up his wallet to make sure there were condoms in it. He put a chain around his neck and smoothed himself out before standing in front of a full-length mirror. Hotness.

He finally worked up the courage to leave his room and go back into the living room, where he was sure his mother was still perched, probably waiting to give him the third degree. Of course she was, he thought. Kevin theorized in his mind that somehow Sheryl felt threatened by Luke for some reason. There was no real reason for him to go to Chicago with her. All that "wait and see" business was pure crap and Kevin couldn't believe he felt for it that morning. He felt comfortable back in the position of not caring what she did or said. She spent the last five years not giving a damn about him, so he figured his five years of reciprocation had only just begun.

He quietly exited his room, letting the door fall close behind him. When he walked into the living room, he was surprised. His mother was not there. Instead, Nora was sprawled out on the sofa, wine in hand, watching some random game show. "Where is she?" Kevin asked, even though he didn't want to. It was the question that existed in his mind so greatly that it forced itself out of his mouth.

Nora looked up at him with a depressing disposition. "She's sleeping in my room."

"Of course," Kevin immediately shot out. "I'm sure all those lies and guilt are eating her alive. The only thing she can do not to think about it is sleep it off." He waited for Nora to agree, but she didn't. She simply stared.

"Kevin, I've been thinking," she began to say. She sat up on the sofa and put her glass on the coffee table. "I think you need a vacation."

"A...vacation?" Kevin asked, his spirits rapidly decreasing. He could instantly tell where this was going and the very thought of it disgusted him.

"Yeah. I mean, don't you just want to get away, go off to some foreign place that's brand new to you? If I had the chance, I now I would," she continued, trying to sound chipper and alive.

"But I have the chance?" he asked, his voice shaking. What the hell!? Kevin thought. Nora couldn't possibly be suggesting that he...no, she just couldn't do that! She wouldn't do that to him!

Nora wasted no more time trying to sound normal. She knew that he could sense what she was trying to say. "Only for a few months. I mean, think about - "

"You're on her side now! You want me to leave!"

"No! Now th-that is not tr-true," Nora studdered. "I don't want you to leave. I mean, look around at what you've done to this place over the last couple of weeks. I'd be crazy to let you go, kid. But...come on...she's your mom."

"She was not my mom when she left me with that bastard for five years! I needed her then, so don't you even try to tell me that she needs me now."

"Your mother wasn't stable back then. She was not in the position to raise a kid. You know that!" Nora stood. "She wanted to take you, but she couldn't."

"Well, she's showed already that she hasn't made much progress in the stability department, or the raising a kid department either, for that matter. The first step, I'm sure, is not trying to screw up your seventeen-year-old son's life by relocating him. She is five years too late to try to get me to go with her, and you know what else? I am sick and tired of saying this words and hearing them too! I'm going to say it for the very last time. I will not go with her to Chicago! I will not move away with her! I don't care what reasons she makes up! I'm not going!"

He was so out of breath now that it wasn't even funny. So much for an enjoyable evening with Luke. So fricken much for that, he thought. "All I wanted for a good night with Luke! Just that! But no, I couldn't get that. You had to come at me with something like this," he suddenly found himself saying to Nora. "Well, you know what? Forget you. Forget you and her. The both of the you can go to hell."

He didn't even wait for a response. Nothing she had to say meant anything to him now. He yanked his keys off the ring above the kitchen counter and started for the door, but not before Nora could get in one more thing.

She put her hands on her hips and a deepness in her voice as she spoke to his back. "Kevin, before you walk out that door, I am going to assure you that I am going to forget that you said what you just said, for the sake of somebody in this house not being pissed off at somebody else. I'm not trying to hurt you, and your mother is not trying to hurt you. Just please...just think about the right thing to do. Put...put your pride aside for just once second and remember that she is your mother. And that sometimes the answers to the biggest problems are simply the secrets we share."

The words pierced Kevin's soul and spoke directly to his heart. Secrets, he echoed to himself. Secrets.

~~~~~~~~~

"Hey, where are you going in such a hurry?" Holden asked Luke, who skipped the bottom stair and went for the front door of the Snyder home.

"Nowhere special," Luke said. He twisted the knob, but stopped and turned to face his father. "Do you really want to know?"

"Um...sure," Holden answered.

Luke walked past Holden and lead him into the living room before coming to a hault behind the sofa. "I'm planning something nice at Grandma Lucinda's for me and Kevin."

"Something nice? Like..."

"Well, I was thinking about getting some of those really good love songs CDs, you know with the standards and stuff. And like, a really good movie, and I just called Grandma and she was able to pull some strings to have a dinner for two catered to the guest house."

Holden grinned. He recognized those types of plans. They only meant one thing. Somebody did somebody wrong and there was only way to make it right. "Sounds like you have a secret agenda."

Luke's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Don't worry about," Holden replied, not wanting to make uke uncomfortable. "What time will you be back home?" He asked this question, but if his thoughts were right, Luke would tell him that he wasn't going to come home tonight. Would Luke be bold enough to say it?

"I...I don't know," Luke said. Close enough, Holden thought.

"Well, does your mother know about these plans?"

"Ha...well, I plan on telling her that I'll be spending the night at Grandma Lucinda's. I don't think she'd be ready to know who I'll be spending the whole night with."

Jackpot! "The whole night? You just said that you didn't know when you'd be getting home," Holden cut in.

Luke felt like he was backed into corner. "Um...well..."

"Listen, I trust you and your judgement," Holden said. "I know that you won't do anything stupid. I think you've learned your lesson as far as alcohol is concerned."

"Yeah, I think the whole kidney transplant thing kinda taught me very well."

"Good, then," Holden said. "Have a good time, son."

Holden playfully jabbed him in his shoulder and went into the kitchen. A weight was lifted off of Luke. It felt good to know that his father approved of him. Now, the only thing left was making sure Lily didn't find out.

~~~~~~~~~

Lucinda and Lily entered the living room at La Walsh's home, where coffee was on the table. They sat down. "Now, tell me, what exactly is this thing you keep going on about?"

"Mother, can you please not say it like that?"

"Like what, dear? You do indeed keep going on about it, so what else should I say?"

"You know what I mean. I saw Kevin cheating on my son and you're acting as if I'm the one in the wrong."

"You were spying, weren't you?"

"I was not spying!"

"And when we spy, we often miss a lotta details, don't we?" Lucinda continued, ignoring everything Lily said.

"I was not spying! I happened to be in Major's and I looked to my left and there they were, Kevin and his little...his little chica with their little ice cream and their little cell phone numbers. They hugged, Mother, and then they kissed. What else was I supposed to think? And besides, when did you all of sudden become the voice of reason? As much as you've meddled around in my life..."

"Oh, dear, you're right. I meddled in your life and we sure as hell don't want Luke to turn out like you did, now do we?"

"Of course not," Lily subconsciously agreed. "Wait a minute! What is that supposed to mean?"

"Darling, I was joking, but the more I think about it, the more it is true. I'll be the first to admit that our relationship has been a little more than strained, and I'll even be the first to admit that most of it was my fault. Do you really want your son to feel towards you the way you once felt towards me?"

Lily thought for a moment. "But it's not the same," she said in an assertive, yet still passive, voice. "I'm just trying to help him. I don't want him to devote so much time and energy to his kid who is just destined to break his heart."

"I thought I was helping you by keeping your true parentage a secret. But you know how that turned out."

Lily frowned as she got up and wandered around the room. "You know, when I saw what I saw at the mall, I was so happy. I thought 'This is it, finally I can get Kevin out of Luke's life.' But then I thought to myself on the way here...is it really good for a mother to want to see their child unhappy?"

Lucinda rose and stood behind Lily. "You don't want to see him unhappy. You just have your instincts...and they're telling you something that can or cannot be true."

"What should I do?" Lily asked, turning to her mother.

Lucinda smirked. "You're asking the wrong person, sweetheart!" She became serious. "All I know is that the truth always finds a way to come out on its own. You can try as hard you want to keep it a secret, but the truth never loses."

"Wow...I never thought of it that way. I...I guess - "

"You guess I'm right. I get told that quite often nowadays, it seems."

"Well, if it's true, it's true," Lily said, hugging her mom. "Thanks, really. Now I guess I just wait...just wait for Kevin to trip himself up. But, you know, I don't understand something. You just told me not too long ago to start handling problems like this in a more direct way. Why are you telling me to keep this quiet?"

Lucinda stepped back. "There's a difference between Luke experiencing the joys and sorrows of love and Luke experiencing a hate crime, which is exactly what that was, by the way! Honey, there are times when you have to step in and handle it for him, but this is not one of those times. I guarantee, if you try to fix this for him, he'll only shoot the messenger. Let him find out for himself if Kevin is dilly-dallying with someone else."

Lily hugged her again. "I honestly do not know what I would do without you."

"Of course you don't. Now get out of here, I have some work to finish before I turn in for the night."

"Oh, I see, your work is more important than helping your daughter with her latest crisis."

"Precisely, dear, precisely," Lucinda playfully agreed as she showed Lily the door. "Tata."

"Good-bye," Lily said.

With Lily gone now, Lucinda could finally get to the bottom of this problem herself, but she did not how. What in the hell was Kevin's cell phone number? She started to try to remind herself, but then she realized that she never actually knew it in the first place. How could she figure it out?

And, like a light at the end of the tunnel, Luke's cell phone appeared to her as it sat on the coffee table. He must have been here in the living room earlier, before he came to her office. Somehow he had to have dropped it. Lucinda immediately picked up the phone, but then she thought. Would this be considered...snooping? She was only going to get Kevin's number out of it, mind you. It was not as if she planned to read his text messages or listen to his voicemails. All she was going to do was get that phone number, and there was nothing wrong with that.

"Okay, what lovey-dovey preteen-inspired nickname would he have it under?" she asked herself as she clicked through the address book in the phone. "Let's see here. 'The Farm'....must be Emma Snyder. 'Not-so-Lil Lily'...I wish I could have thought of that one. 'Juicy'....would that be Kevin?"

Lucinda quickly pushed the buttons to see what the number for "Juicy" was. To her horror, she recognized it as her own cell phone number. "Oh, hardy har har, grandson." She continued to search until she came to an entry labeled "Sex (Kevin)."

"Could he be any more frank?" she asked herself as she memorized the corresponding number.

Lucinda went to the brass-and-ivory phone sitting on the coffee table and started to dial the number. "Hello, yes, can I speak to Kevin Davis?" she asked confidently when there was an answer on the other end.

"This...is he," Kevin answered. He was in his car at a red light. "Who is this...and how can I help you?"

"Yes, yes, Kevin, this is Lucinda Walsh. We spoke earlier this morning."

"Oh! Luke's grandmother. I should have recognized your voice."

"Oh, well, you don't have to flatter me that way. But I would like you to answer a question for me. You don't have to go into any details regarding your answer, just a yes or no will do."

Kevin was puzzled, but he decided to go ahead with this anyway. "Okay..."

"My grandson is the one and only person in your love life right now, correct?"

"Um...yes..."

"What do you mean, 'um...?' I told you, just yes or no," Lucinda urged.

"Well, I did say yes. Why...did you ask me that anyway?"

"Don't worry, dear. If you answered truthfully, you have nothing to worry about. And you did answer truthfully, did you not?"

"Um...I mean, yes, yes I did."

"Good. Have yourself a splendid little evening, Mr. Davis," Lucinda said. Before Kevin could return the sentiment, she hung her phone and beamed into blank space, proud of herself. "You still got it, old girl. You still got it."

TO BE CONTINUED...